Category: Covid-19

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COVID-19 vaccine research builds on US successes – US Embassy in Georgia

September 22, 2020

Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed the first polio vaccine, administers an injection at an elementary school in Pittsburgh on February 23, 1954. ( AP Images)

U.S. leadership in vaccine development and infectious disease treatment is vital to ongoing efforts to combat COVID-19 worldwide.

U.S. research is responsible for vaccines that protect the worlds citizens from deadly infectious diseases like yellow fever, measles and polio. In addition, the U.S. continues to invest billions worldwide to combat HIV/AIDS.

Lessons learned from these U.S. scientific breakthroughs are aiding efforts to rapidly develop a safe and effective vaccine to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, some research has focused on developinga potential COVID-19 vaccine based on an existing measles vaccine.

In addition, U.S. investments in global health programs, including through the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Health Security Agenda, have built international partnerships that are now supporting the global response against COVID-19.

There is no nation that has been or will be as deeply committed to delivering vaccines all around the world as the United States of America, Secretary of State MichaelPompeo said on September 2, regarding U.S. efforts to discover a safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine.

The U.S. government has allocated $20.5 billion to the global fight against the disease, including billions for vaccine research.

Those efforts build on the historic achievements of scientists working in the United States on the global fight against infectious diseases.

Yellow fever afflicted people for centuries, yet no one knew its cause or how to stop it. Millions suffered from its symptoms, including bleeding, organ failure and sometimes death.

In 1900, U.S. Army surgeonWalter Reedled a commission that discovered that mosquitoes transmit the virus that causes yellow fever. The breakthrough allowed scientists to study the virus. In 1937,Max Theiler, a South African working at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, developed a yellow fever vaccine using chicken embryos.

The vaccine is still in use today and has inoculated hundreds of millions of people.

Polio paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children annually before Jonas Salk, an American physician, medical researcher and virologist, developed a vaccine in the 1950s.

The Roosevelt Foundation tested the effectiveness of Salks vaccine in observed control trials across the United States, in which more than 1 million schoolchildren participated. Based on the positive results of those trials, the vaccine was licensed for use in the United States on April 12, 1955.

In 1988, the United States helped launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. And since the 1990s, the U.S. Congress has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to fight polio worldwide, contributing to a more than 99 percent drop in cases worldwide between 1988 and 2013. In 2020, Africa announced that it was free of wild polio.

John Enders, an American biomedical scientist, developed a vaccine for measles in 1963. The disease had killed an estimated 2.6 million people worldwide each year.

Five years later, in 1968, Maurice Hilleman improved the measles vaccine, developing a version still used today. By 2018, annual measles deaths globally had dropped to 142,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hilleman went on todevelop more than 40 vaccines,including for mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningitis, pneumonia and rubella.

The U.S. launched PEPFAR in 2003,the single largest commitment by any countryto tackle a single disease in history. Through PEPFAR, the U.S. has invested more than $85 billion in the global response to HIV infections. This effort has saved at least 18 million lives, prevented millions of infections and accelerated progress toward controlling the epidemic in more than 50 countries.

Dr. Nelson Michael, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, helped launched PEPFAR and has helped in the development of vaccines for Ebola and Zika. He is now working on vaccines to protect against HIV and the COVID-19 virus.

We made a big impact, Michael said of PEPFAR. People are alive today. And theyre thriving.

By U.S. Embassy Tbilisi | 21 September, 2020 | Topics: Health Issues, News, Science & Tech | Tags: Coronavirus, Disease prevention and control, Health Programs, HIV/AIDS, science

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COVID-19 vaccine research builds on US successes - US Embassy in Georgia

COVID-19: Spike of 31 cases in the Quad Counties linked to one household, official says – Reno Gazette-Journal

September 22, 2020

Student/athletes, parents and coaches hold a rally in front of the Nevada State Capital Building in Carson City to encourage Governor Sisolak to allow high school sports to be played on Sept. 19, 2020.(Photo: JASON BEAN)

This is a breaking news story and will be updated throughout the day Monday,Sept. 21. This story is part of the Reno Gazette Journals essential COVID-19 coverage and is being provided for free.Please consider subscribing to the RGJ to support our work.

Monday, 3:30 p.m.

The spike in cases seen in the Quad Counties last week is linked to a household case that had previously been reported to be COVID-19 positive, said Jessica Rapp, a spokeswoman for Carson City Health and Human Services.

Our disease investigation team and our epidemiologists are working to determine the source of the exposures for the cases and if there is an association to anything, Rapp said in an email.

The Quad counties including Carson City, Douglas County, Lyon County and Storey Countyreported the highest one day spike in cases on Sept. 15 with 31 cases.

According to data released on Sunday, the counties collectively reported 122 active cases and a total of 1,240 cases since tracking began. There have been 16 total deaths across the four counties.

Monday, 11:30a.m.

The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services is reporting no new deaths and 232 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday. That's the lowest number of new cases reported in one day since Sept. 15.

The state also reported 3,352 new tests on Monday. Over 8,000 tests were reported on each of the previous three days.

There were 22 new hospitalizations of patients confirmed to have COVID-19, bringing the total to 355. Three less patients were reported in the Intensive Care Unit, down to 130. Eighty-one patients either confirmed or suspected to have COVID-19 are currently on ventilators, down by three since data reported yesterday.

The daily positivity rate is down slightly, at 6.1 percent. Nevadas cumulative positivity rate continues to hover at 10 percent.

Update: Sunday, 3:55 p.m.

Washoe County officials reported 92 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, along with one death.

The county's active case count fell by 70 to 1,348, one day after setting a record high.

Sunday's death was reported as a man in his 50s with no underlying health conditions.

Since tracking of the virus began, Washoe has reported 8,677 total cases and154 deaths. A total of 7,175 persons are considered to have recovered.

In all, the county has administered 129,852 coronavirus tests.

A total of 51 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19 issues, down one from Saturday.

Sunday, 9:55a.m.

Nevada's Department of Health and Human Services reported 385 new COVID-19 cases in the state Sunday morning.An additional three deaths were also reported.

Figures reported by the state reflect numbers from the previous day.

In all, 75,804 cases and 1,531 deaths have been reported across the state since COVID-19 tracking efforts were put in place.

Area high school football players protest outside the Washoe County School District board of directors meeting on Tuesday at Sparks High.(Photo: Jim Krajewski/RGJ)

Clark County remains the area with the highest number of cases in the state, at 64,160. Washoe County is second at8,585 cases.

Nevada's cumulative positivity rate was 10 percent.

Saturday

Washoe County reported 92 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, according to the county's Regional Information Center. No additional deaths were reported.

The county's active-case count reached 1,418, the highest total recorded since tracking of the virus began.

In all, the county has documented 8,585 total cases and 153 deaths since the outbreak began.

There were 24 recoveries since the previous report, pushing the cumulative recoveries past 7,000. In all, Washoe lists 7,014 individuals as having recovered.

Currently, 52 persons are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 issues, a drop of two from the day before.

News:When COVID-19 testing was scarce, CDC director pulled strings to get Adam Laxalt tested

After trending downwards since Aug. 24, Nevadas daily positivity rate rose,to 8.2 percent. For comparison, the goal set by WHO suggests a positivity rate of 5 percent.

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COVID-19: Spike of 31 cases in the Quad Counties linked to one household, official says - Reno Gazette-Journal

Austin COVID-19 pandemic aid applications need to be in by 7 p.m. Monday – KXAN.com

September 22, 2020

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Austin COVID-19 pandemic aid applications need to be in by 7 p.m. Monday - KXAN.com

After Criticism, C.D.C. Reverses Covid-19 Guidelines on Testing People Who Were Exposed – The New York Times

September 22, 2020

The C.D.C. reverses its guidance on testing for people who were exposed to the virus and arent showing symptoms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday reversed a recommendation that people who have had close contact with someone infected with the coronavirus did not need to get tested unless they had symptoms.

The change came after widespread criticism of the earlier guideline, as well as reporting from The New York Times that the recommendation had come from political appointees in the Trump administration and skipped the agencys usual, rigorous scientific review.

The Times reported Thursday that the guideline was posted on the C.D.C. website despite strenuous objections from the agencys scientists.

The previous phrasing, which said asymptomatic people who have had close contact with an infected individual do not necessarily need a test, now clearly instructs them: You need a test.

Public health experts welcomed the change as consistent with research showing that people without symptoms can spread the virus. Some research has suggested that they are actually most likely to transmit to others starting around a day before the onset of symptoms, when the viral load can be the highest.

Its good to see science and evidence taking a front seat for a change, said Scott Becker, chief executive of the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

Emails by a former top Trump health official and his science adviser show efforts to silence the C.D.C.

Emails obtained by The Times illustrate how a top Trump health official and his science adviser tried to browbeat career officials at C.D.C. at the height of the pandemic, challenging the science behind their public statements and trying to silence agency staff members.

The Times reported last week on pressures on the C.D.C. to change its weekly disease reports exerted by Michael R. Caputo, a former Trump campaign official installed by the White House in April as the top spokesman for the Health and Human Services Department, and his science adviser, Dr. Paul Alexander, a part-time assistant professor of health research methods. Mr. Caputo went on medical leave this week.

The emails, obtained by Noah Weiland of The Times, conform with what current and former C.D.C. officials called a five-month campaign of bullying.

One of the emails was written after Dr. Anne Schuchat, a 32-year veteran of the C.D.C., appealed to Americans to wear masks and warned, We have way too much virus across the country.

She is duplicitous, Dr. Alexander wrote to Mr. Caputo. He asked Mr. Caputo to remind Dr. Schuchat that during the H1N1 swine flu outbreak in 2009, thousands of Americans had died under her work.

Of Dr. Schuchats assessment of Covid-19s dangers, Dr. Alexander fumed, wrongly, The risk of death in children 0-19 years of age is basically 0 (zero) PERIOD she has lied.

Mr. Caputo forwarded that assessment to Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the C.D.C. director. When a member of the health departments White House liaison office called the agency to ask questions about Dr. Schuchats biography, C.D.C. officials were left with the impression that some in Washington could have been searching for ways to fire her.

Far from hiding what they knew about the viruss danger, as Bob Woodwards new book contends President Trump was doing, the emails seem to indicate that aides in Washington were convinced of their own rosy prognostications, even as coronavirus cases were shooting skyward.

Trump acknowledged that distribution of an authorized vaccine for every American may not be until next year.

Mr. Trump sought on Friday to recalibrate his assurances on vaccine availability, acknowledging that authorized doses might not be widely available in the United States until next spring even if distribution starts earlier.

Speaking at the White House, Mr. Trump said that once a vaccine is authorized, distribution will begin within 24 hours after notice. He added: We will have manufactured at least 100 million vaccine doses before the end of the year. And likely much more than that. Hundreds of millions of doses will be available every month, and we expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April.

The president had said earlier that a vaccine would be available to the general public immediately once it is authorized, and although he held firm on that pledge, he acknowledged that it would take perhaps months from that point to distribute vaccines to hundreds of millions of Americans.

Because of fears that Mr. Trump would interfere in the process to improve his election chances and pressure the Food and Drug Administration to approve a vaccine before it was proved safe, the chief executives of all the leading pharmaceutical companies signed a pledge two weeks ago saying they would not release any vaccines until they were sure they were safe.

Opinion polls have shown that many Americans are already hesitant about taking a vaccine that is seen to have been rushed to market by the federal government for political reasons.

Mr. Trumps estimates of how many vaccine doses would be available this year conflicted with projections by the chief science adviser for his administrations Operation Warp Speed effort, Moncef M. Slaoui, a former chairman of global vaccines for GlaxoSmithKline and a widely respected figure in the vaccine field. He and other leaders of Warp Speed were present at Fridays news conference but not asked to comment.

In interviews with CNN and National Public Radio, Dr. Slaoui has said he expected only enough vaccine to immunize 20 million to 25 million people by years end. Enough to vaccinate all Americans would be ready by about the middle of next year, he said.

Dr. Slaoui has publicly said he would resign if there was political interference in the process of delivering a safe, effective vaccine.

Iran is a virus red zone, a health minister says.

Iranian health officials warned for weeks that the country would see another wave of the virus if schools reopened and religious ceremonies proceeded. But the government ignored their advice, instead allowing crowds to gather for the Shiite ceremony of Ashura, universities to resume classes and a million students to sit for an indoor college entrance exam.

We consider the entire country in the state of alarm and a red zone, said Irans deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, in an interview on state television Friday. (Iran has defined a red zone as a place with an alarming increase in the number of deaths, new cases and hospitalizations.)

In February, during the earliest weeks of the pandemic, Iran emerged as a global hot spot, but the countrys health ministers initially denied the severity of the outbreak. Officials have repeatedly resisted the harsh shutdowns and quarantines enacted by other countries to curb the spread of the virus.

President Hassan Rouhani has said that Iranians must find a way to coexist with the virus and that shutting down businesses, schools and religious ceremonies was not feasible. And from the start, power struggles between the president and the military have hampered the countrys response.

On Friday, the health ministry said 144 people had died and 3,049 had tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.

An infectious-disease doctor at the main coronavirus hospital in Tehran posted a video on Instagram saying his hospitals Covid-19 emergency triage team had seen over 200 patients a day in the past week, many of them students and teachers. He warned that at this pace, the country would soon face a crisis as hospital and medical staff members become overstretched and beds unavailable for new patients.

Global roundup

Roughly 10 million people in England face new virus restrictions amid a spike in new cases. The countrys once-vaunted testing system is on the verge of collapse. And Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain is contemplating closing restaurants and pubs to corral a second surge in Europes worst-affected country.

Mr. Johnson is also facing rising anger over his contradictory edicts. Over the summer, he offered people a government-subsidized discount at restaurants and pubs but spoke bluntly on Friday about the virus advancing across Britain.

Theres no question, as Ive said for several weeks now, that we could expect and we are now seeing a second wave coming in, Mr. Johnson said in a television interview. I dont think anybody wants to go into a second lockdown, but clearly when you look at what is happening, youve got to wonder whether we need to go further than the new law forbidding gatherings of more than six.

It does seem ironic, said Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, after encouraging mass attendance at pubs, cafes and restaurants, that restrictions on those activities were being considered.

The R number, a measure of how many people on average a single patient will infect, rose to between 1.1 and 1.4, the government said on Friday. Any number over 1 is a worrisome indication that the epidemic is growing.

In the week ending Sept. 10, there were roughly 6,000 new daily cases outside hospitals and nursing homes in England, the governments official statistics authority estimated, nearly a doubling from the week before.

In other news from around the world:

More than 30 million cases have been reported worldwide as of Friday morning, according to a New York Times database. India, in particular, has recently contributed significantly to the count, having added more than 93,000 new cases a day on average over the last week.

President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala said Friday that he had tested positive for the virus, becoming at least the fourth Latin American leader to be infected during the pandemic. In a video address, the president said he was in stable condition and continuing to work. More than 3,000 people have died from the virus in Guatemala. The countrys pandemic response has been hindered by widespread poverty, proximity to hard-hit Mexico and the Trump administrations decision to continue deporting Guatemalan migrants, despite the high positivity rates among the returnees.

Thousands of Hasidic pilgrims who set out to celebrate the Jewish New Year at the grave in Ukraine of a revered rabbi started heading home on Friday, after being prevented from entering from Belarus due to virus travel restrictions.

New Zealand recorded no new cases of the virus on Friday for the first time in more than a month, after an outbreak in Auckland in August threatened the progress against the virus. The country now has just 70 active cases. Of those, 37 are from community transmission and the rest are from overseas arrivals.

Sciences Po, one of Frances most prestigious universities, is closing its Paris campus for 14 days after a significant number of students tested positive for the virus. Classes will be held online. And Nice, the countrys fifth-largest city, banned social gatherings of more than 10 people in parks, gardens and beaches to try to slow the spread of the virus. Cases have surpassed 50 per 100,000 people in Nice, where a third of the residents are considered elderly. The sale and consumption of alcohol is also forbidden after 8 p.m. and bars will have to close at 12:30 a.m. Bordeaux and Marseille are facing similar rules.

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has extended a national state of emergency until September 2021. Last month, the Philippine Congress extended Mr. Dutertes emergency powers to address the pandemic, and it passed legislation allocating support for low-income households and people who lost their jobs because of the crisis.

A repeatedly extended ban on nonessential travel between the United States and Canada and the United States and Mexico that was set to expire Sept. 21 has been extended again, to Oct. 21, according to the Department of Homeland Security. However, Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters in Washington on Friday, said he was working to open the border with Canada pretty soon.

Chinas CanSino Biologics and a military-backed research institute are preparing to start clinical trials of a two-dose vaccine regimen after scientists raised concerns that their current one-dose treatment failed to produce a strong enough immune response. The vaccine was promoted by Chinese state media as a front-runner in the vaccine race but struggled to get Phase 3 trials started in Canada.

Early voting began in earnest Friday in four states: Virginia, South Dakota, Wyoming and Minnesota, a key Midwestern battleground that both candidates visited.

With the pandemic limiting indoor gatherings, elections administrators have urged voters to cast ballots either by mail or in person before Election Day. States have already seen record numbers of absentee ballot requests, and officials expect exceptional levels of voter participation before Nov. 3.

At a municipal voting center in northeast Minneapolis, voters waited 30 to 40 minutes in a line that snaked through an office park near Interstate 35W. The familiar I Voted stickers were replaced with a more precise I Voted Early model.

Darcy Berglund of Minneapolis said she had voted the first day that polls were open because she often travels back and forth to Iowa to care for her ailing mother.

If she really takes a turn Nov. 2, I wont be coming up here, said Ms. Berglund, 60. Even if I were in town, Im so worried about this election. I just wanted to make sure I got my vote in.

In most places in states that allow in-person early voting, it means going to a City Hall or a local board of elections, though some larger jurisdictions will arrange for regional early vote centers. The pandemic has brought even larger early-vote locations, with some major league sports franchises opening their vacant arenas and stadiums.

As millions of American students have returned to school across the country in recent weeks, cases have forced quarantines and shutdowns, and a few states, including Texas and Ohio, have rolled out online dashboards to track cases in schools.

Determining the impact of school openings on the broader trajectory of the pandemic has been difficult as reporting from states and districts has been spotty and inconsistent, with officials in some places refusing to reveal case numbers.

The number of cases reported by schools will almost certainly be an undercount, experts say, because children in particular are likely to be asymptomatic when carrying the virus, and are unlikely to be tested in the absence of symptoms.

In other education news:

A high school student in Attleboro, Mass., went to the first day of in-person classes on Monday despite testing positive days earlier. Roughly 30 people at Attleboro High School who came into contact with the student are now in quarantine. Attleboros mayor said that the students parents knew he had tested positive when they sent him to school.

Police in Mitchell, S.D., removed a man from a school board meeting for refusing to put on a mask in violation of district policy. Several speakers later criticized the mask mandate and asked why parents had not been surveyed about whether they supported it. A survey wouldnt change my mind, one member of the school board said.

Because of virus-related precautions, Baylor University has postponed its football season opener scheduled for Saturday against the University of Houston. The matchup was hastily arranged last week to fill a void after each teams original season-opening opponent had to cancel because of unmet standards for playing during the pandemic. More than a dozen football games at the elite F.B.S. level have been canceled or postponed in the first three weeks of the season.

Northeastern University in Boston has agreed to refund most of the fall semester tuition of 11 first-year students who were dismissed earlier this month for violating the schools virus rules by gathering in a room without masks or social distancing.

More than 1,000 students and employees at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., have been instructed to quarantine, according to the schools virus dashboard.

New York City will soon let restaurants add a temporary charge of up to 10 percent as help in the pandemic, (though not for takeout or delivery), as long as it is clearly noted on menus.

The charge, which comes before tax, will be allowed until 90 days after the date, yet to be determined, when indoor dining is fully restored. (Indoor dining resumes on Sept. 30 at only 25 percent capacity.)

But in interviews, many restaurant owners said they werent ready to add the new surcharge, especially at the full 10 percent.

A growing group of restaurateurs and activists urging the City Council to add some restrictions to the surcharge that will improve conditions for workers, such as limiting it to restaurants that pay their entire staff, including servers, at least the full city minimum wage or above, as he does.

A lockdown in Israel transforms celebrations for the Jewish high holidays.

As Israelis prepare to celebrate the holiest days on the Jewish calendar under a new lockdown, organizing prayer services is proving to be more of a mathematical brainteaser than a spiritual exercise.

Rabbis must arrange worshipers into clusters of 20 to 50, separated by dividers, determining the size of the groups based on complex calculations involving local infection rates, and how many entrances and square feet their synagogues have. Masks will be required, and many seats will have to remain empty.

With the virus rampaging again, Israel became one of the few places in the world to go into a second lockdown. The rules took effect on Friday, on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.

The government has issued a list of restrictions along with a plethora of exemptions that many criticize as a formula for confusion and noncompliance.

The atmosphere in the run-up to the holidays was more despairing than joyous.

These are not the holidays we were hoping for, said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the president of Ohr Torah Stone, an Israel-based Jewish education group with emissaries around the world. The fragility of life is upon us, but I see people rising to the occasion.

The three-week national lockdown was timed to coincide with the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur holy days and the festival of Sukkot, in the hope of causing less economic damage because business slows down in any case around the holidays. It was also aimed at preventing large family meals that could become petri dishes for the virus.

Israel successfully limited the spread of the virus in the spring, but the number of cases, when adjusted for population, has risen to among the highest in the world. The country has had more than 300 confirmed new cases per 100,000 people over the last week more than double the rate in Spain, the hardest-hit European country, and quadruple that of the United States.

Reporting was contributed by Livia Albeck-Ripka, Peter Baker, Alexander Burns, Sarah Cahalan, Julia Carmel, Shaila Dewan, Sydney Ember, Nicholas Fandos, Farnaz Fassihi, Antonella Francini, David Gelles, Denise Grady, Ruth Graham, Katie Glueck, Christina Goldbaum, Jason Gutierrez, Rebecca Halleck, Anatoly Kurmanaev, Mike Ives, Andrea Kannapell, Isabel Kershner, Apoorva Mandavilli, Donald G. McNeil Jr., Constant Mheut, Zachary Montague, Benjamin Mueller, Kevin Roose, Anna Schaverien, David Segal, Michael D. Shear, Mitch Smith, Megan Specia, Liam Stack, Matt Stevens, Katie Thomas, Glenn Thrush, Maria Varenikova, Amber Wang, Sui-Lee Wee, Noah Weiland and Rachel Wharton.

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After Criticism, C.D.C. Reverses Covid-19 Guidelines on Testing People Who Were Exposed - The New York Times

Hornell will allow Trick or Treating this Halloween despite COVID-19 – WETM – MyTwinTiers.com

September 22, 2020

HORNELL, N.Y. (WETM) The City of Hornell does not plan to restrict trick-or-treating this Halloween due to COVID-19, according to Mayor John Buckley.

First reported by our media partner The Leader, Buckley announced the decision during a recent Board of Public Works meeting.

Ultimately trick or treating is a parents decision, Buckley said. Do you want to allow your children to go door to door? Thats up to the parents. On the other side as a homeowner, do you want to participate? Its always been voluntary. The city has always set trick or treat hours, but its not a city-sponsored event, its not a mandatory event for children or homeowners. Some people do it and some people dont.

Buckleys announcement comes after Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would not ban trick or treating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Guidelines regarding trick or treating are expected to be released by the Governors office.

I would not ban trick or treaters going door to door. I dont think thats appropriate. You have neighbors, if you want to go knock on your neighbors door, God bless you. Im not going to tell you not to. If you want to go for a walk with your child through the neighborhood, Im not going to tell you you cant take your child through the neighborhood, Im not going to do that. I will give you my advice and guidance and then you will make the decision about what you do that night.

Chemung County Executive Christopher Moss tells 18 News that the county will follow the Governors guidelines on trick or treating.

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Hornell will allow Trick or Treating this Halloween despite COVID-19 - WETM - MyTwinTiers.com

New poll: California youth carefully following COVID-19 health guidelines, motivated to vote because of pandemic and protests against racial injustice…

September 22, 2020

More than 80 percent of California youth say they are strictly adhering to social distancing guidelines and 2 out of 3 are concerned about lifting public health restrictions too quickly, according to a new poll the University of California released today (Sept. 21). This new survey of Californians ages 18 to 24 highlights a sharp contrast to the popular image of indifferent young people flouting public health guidelines. The eye-opening results reveal that more than two-thirds of those surveyed expressed concern about contracting COVID-19, and nearly as many reported always wearing a mask.

With the November general election just weeks away, the survey also found that California youth are more motivated to vote this year due to the pandemic (42 percent) and protests against racial injustice (45 percent). Additionally, as the status of the next U.S. Supreme Court justice remains unclear, one third of respondents said that the president's ability to nominate new members to the Court made them more likely to vote. While belonging to a group that historically turns out in low numbers to vote, 3 out of 4 also stated they were registered to vote, and a majority shared strong support for vote-by-mail options.

This survey confirms that California youth are paying attention to the issues of the day, and that they are motivated to shape the future of our country through action, said UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D. The University of California has always been committed to educating young people about the importance of voting. I am encouraged to see California youth are ready to exercise their civic duty this November.

"California's youth are active, engaged, and ready to cast a ballot in 2020," said California Secretary of State Alex Padilla. "Not only are students rightfully concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic and racial injustice in the nation, this translates into motivation to participate in our elections. It is encouraging that survey results show students are already creating an action plan to vote this fall."

The survey, conducted by YouGov on behalf of UC, expands upon the findings from a spring poll of California young adults. The findings provide new insights about California youth, on how COVID-19 has directly impacted them and their education, on their reactions to issues of racial justice, and on how the pandemic has influenced their plans to vote.

Key survey findings among California young adults:

California youth surveyed identified racism and racial justice as the most important issue facing the country today. In fact, this issue outranked the COVID-19 pandemic response, jobs and the economy, and health care by 8 or more percentage points in terms of areas of concern among those surveyed.

Data from the biennial UC Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES), released earlier this month, reinforces many of the findings from the new UC/YouGov poll, particularly around the impact of the pandemic on young people. The UCUES data reveals that UC students, like California youth at large, are concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on their lives and their learning. However, almost 80 percent of UC students who responded to the survey agreed that the University is committed to their health and well-being during the pandemic, and 96 percent said they know how to protect themselves from COVID-19.

As universities across the country continue to grapple with how to safely operate during the fall, the YouGov poll shows California youth are split over the best approach to campus reopening, with more than 60 percent of them supporting schools opening exclusively online or mostly online this fall, and only 12 percent saying they should exclusively operate in person. A majority of respondents also disapproved of the resumption of collegiate sports, with 52 percent saying they did not think it was safe to resume playing.

The YouGov poll was conducted as part of the University of Californias 2020 civic engagement and get-out-the-vote campaign. Launched in January, the nonpartisan campaign aims to boost youth voter registration and turnout, as well as participation in the U.S. census process, and will continue through the November election.

For complete poll questions and findings, view or download the UC/YouGov survey toplinesand tabulations.

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New poll: California youth carefully following COVID-19 health guidelines, motivated to vote because of pandemic and protests against racial injustice...

More positive COVID-19 cases at QPS, some traced to large gathering – WGEM

September 22, 2020

QUINCY (WGEM) -- Quincy Public Schools Superintendent Roy Webb reported Monday that the school district was tracking 15 active cases of COVID-19, some of those, he said, were traced to a large gathering.

Of the new cases, Webb stated that six are at the Senior High, five are at the Junior High, two are at Baldwin Intermediate, and two are at Rooney Elementary.

Webb reported that 15 is the highest level they have tracked so far.

Webb also encouraged people to follow state guidelines while in school and out of school.

"We know there was a large indoor non-school event several days ago where we had four positive tests contact traced back to that event," Webb stated.

He added that probability shows that students who contract COVID-19 will be fine, but the impact on family members and school district staff can be more severe.

"Please do your best to avoid large crowds and events, Webb stated. "Social distance at all times. Wear a mask indoors and when you cannot social distance. Stay home when you are not feeling well. Wash hands and do your best to avoid the spread."

Webb also reported that a few individuals who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 have been cleared by their doctors and returned to school.

Last week, Webb had reported that the district had quarantined a classroom because an individual had tested positive and had interacted with everyone in the class.

To keep track of Quincy Public School's COVID-19 active case count, clickhere.

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More positive COVID-19 cases at QPS, some traced to large gathering - WGEM

NIH to fund 7 digital health projects aimed at COVID-19 – FierceBiotech

September 22, 2020

The National Institutes of Health has picked seven companies and academic centers to help develop digital health solutions aimed at the COVID-19 pandemicincluding smartphone apps, wearables and big data programs to mitigate the personal and public health impacts of the novel coronavirus.

Each one-year contract includes two phases: an initial award for feasibility testing, followed by an option for additional development funding. If all seven progress to the second phase, the total value of awards would reach $22.8 million.

The selected projects include an effort by IBM to provide sophisticated digital contact tracing, alongside verifiable methods for reporting a persons health status following exposure and testing.

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Meanwhile, Evidation Health has proposed an artificial intelligence-powered early warning system for COVID-19, which would take in a wide range of patient data from questionnaires and wearable devices and potentially differentiate cases from the flu.

The tools these organizations plan to develop could allow us to use containment efforts, like COVID-19 testing, social distancing and quarantine, precisely when and where theyre needed, said Ned Sharpless, director of the NIHs National Cancer Institute, which helped select the seven winners from nearly 200 submissions. That might let more people return to less restricted living and reduce the risk of devastating local outbreaks.

RELATED: The quest for a COVID-19 digital warning system taps smartwatches, rings and more

iCrypto was chosen for its smartphone-based platform for proving a persons test results and vaccination status. Meanwhile, Vibrent Health aims to use mobile apps for identifying COVID-19 cases and using WiFi to perform contract tracing.

physIQ is planning an AI-based monitoring platform tied to wearable devices that would track an individuals health changes in the days following a positive test resultwhile Shee Atik Enterprises plans to integrate Bluetooth-equipped thermometers and pulse oximeters into a system designed for low-resource settings and underserved populations.

Finally, the University of California, San Francisco, is developing a GPS-based contact tracing tool for alerting users about potential exposures, and identifying businesses that were visited by someone who later tested positive for COVID-19. The system would then connect those businesses with public health departments for implementing strategies to reduce the spread of the virus.

RELATED: BARDA taps Evidation Health to digitally monitor healthcare workers for early COVID-19 symptoms

Digital health technologies built around smartphones and wearable devices will play an essential role in guiding us through the COVID-19 pandemic, said Bruce Tromberg, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

These platforms can acquire large amounts of data from many different sources spanning from testing technologies to sensors, Tromberg said. When this information is analyzed using cutting-edge computational and machine learning methods, everyone will have access to powerful new tools for reducing the risk of infection and returning to normal activities.

In a separate effort, the NIBIB awarded a contract to CareEvolution for SAFER-COVID, a digital health solution that uses self-reported symptoms, wearable-generated data, electronic health records and test results to determine when users should return to work and normal social activities.

All of the proposed digital health tools will be developed using multiple data sources, and each participating organization will share data and other assets through an NIH-supported central data hub, in ways that protect individuals privacy. In addition, researchers developing further projects will have access to data stored in the hub, the NIH said.

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‘It does affect more than your lungs’: Why COVID-19 survivors may need to get screened for heart damage – USA TODAY

September 22, 2020

Efforts are gearing up to enlist trusted voices in hard-hit communities of color to help ensure potential COVID-19 vaccines are tested in the minority populations most ravaged by the virus. (Sept. 18) AP Domestic

PHOENIX While COVID-19 is known as a respiratory infection, there's emerging evidence linking it to heart damage, too.

Cardiologists are seeing patients with signs of inflammation and scar formation in their hearts even after recovery from COVID-19, experts say.

For that reason, anyone who plans on participating in vigorous exercise and was sick with COVID-19 for three or more days should get a cardiac screening before working out or participating in their sport, said Dr. Steven Erickson, medical director for Banner University Sports Medicine and Concussion Specialists in Phoenix.

"You don't get sick with COVID-19 and stay home from school for a week and the next day goback and play two hours of soccer," Erickson said.

"You're taking a risk, and that is not what the medical community is recommending right now."

Having assessed seriously ill COVID-19 inpatients since March, Arizona cardiologist Dr. Dawn Pedrotty said she has seen evidence linking the disease with cardiac damage.

What's not clear is what that damage will mean for patients in the long term, butresearchers and physicians are closely following the link, she said.

"There is a connection to heart disease. It's not just a respiratory disease," Pedrotty said. "It's an important public health message that it does affect more than your lungs."

People who have been sick with COVID-19 for three days or more should get a blood test and an EKG, also known as an electrocardiogram, before returning to strenuous exercise, Erickson said.

An electrocardiogram measures the heart's electrical signal. The blood test Erickson recommends measures troponin proteins, which are normally found in the heart musclebut released into the bloodstream when the heart is injured.

All athletes should be symptom-free for at least 14 days before resuming sports and should resume activities gradually while being monitored for cardiac symptoms, he added.

If patients are competitive athletes who will be training or participating in an upcoming sports season and had COVID-19, Erickson recommends they seek an evaluation with their primary care physician or sports medicine specialist to see if they need additional evaluation by a cardiologist.

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Recent studies about heart damage and COVID-19 in athletes gained attention in recent weeks as college sports leaders debated returning to play.

An Ohio State University study published in a Sept. 11 research letter in JAMA, a prominent medical journal, found four of 26 competitive male and female college athletes who had tested positive for COVID-19 showed signs of myocarditis, a disease of the heart muscle that can cause heart failure and sudden cardiac death.

Having 15% of athletes show signs of myocarditis raised concern among some who read the study. But the study sample was so small that some critics have said the alarm has been overstated.

"It is believed that there are many different organs in the body that are affected by the virus. After infection, the virus goes to different organs and tissues and after entering them it causes an inflammatory response," said Chris Glembotski, a professor of internal medicine and director of the Translational Cardiovascular Research Center at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix.

"This inflammatory response seems to be an over-response, almost like too much inflammation. Usually, a little inflammation is good if you get an infection because it helps you fight off the infection. But this seems to be a hyper response, which directly or indirectly affects numerous organs in the body."

The respiratory system and the heart are focal points of the response, Glembotski said. There's also evidence that theSARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 can directly infect the heart and cause arrhythmias and, in some cases, contributeto symptoms that mimic a myocardial infarction, or heart attack, Glembotski said.

"There have been cases of some brain problems, a few cases of stroke and brain fog where people report that they have a general feeling that their thinking is not as good as it was before COVID-19. Among the things that are so worrisome about SARS-CoV-2 is that it has such widespread effects in the body, and the spectrum of its effects are so different from one person to the next," he said.

"Most of what we are learning about COVID-19 is from research emerging currently, so not a lot is known. There's more to be found out."

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Erickson said the aim of his recommendation for athletes is to prevent sudden cardiac deathand to prevent long-term damage from COVID-19. The evidence may not be conclusive, but when the risk is death, it's better to do more than less, he said.

His advice comes from emerging research such asthe Ohio study that is not definitive yet suggests an association between COVID-19 and cardiac problems, chiefly myocarditis.

Myocarditis may cause shortness of breath and symptoms of congestive heart failure.It can cause arrhythmia, which is an irregular heartbeat that reduces the heart's ability to pump blood and cause someone to collapse and even die.

Erickson is the first to say the research to date is not conclusive, but he doesn't want to take chances. Myocarditis is of particular concern in athletes because it is associated with a higher-than-average rate of sudden cardiac death.

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It's doubtful that athletes have more of a tendency for myocarditis than the regular population, but the stress of constant exercise means the myocarditis can manifest more severely in them.

"Somebody that is not participating in vigorous cardiovascular exercise doesn't need to be screened," Erickson said.

"But anyone, including your middle-aged marathon runner, absolutely we think they need to be screened after they recover from COVID before they go back to vigorous exercise because we don't want them to damage their heart or have sudden cardiac death."

Pedrotty agrees with Erickson's recommendation to do routine cardiac screening on high-functioning athletes of all ages who have been sick with COVID-19 for three days or more.

She might add testing for c-reactive protein in addition to looking for troponin in a blood test, she said, because c-reactive protein is a measure of inflammation.

Heart damage is unlikely in someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 yet had no symptoms, nor is it likely in anyone who was sick with the virus for fewer than three days, Erickson said.

Those individuals do not need cardiac screenings, he said.

Myocarditis as a result of viral infections like HIV and Coxsackie B virus, while rare, haslong been a concern for cardiologists. The risk of myocarditis is one of the reasons the general recommendation for sports medicine is that no one with a fever of 101.5 or more should exercise, Erickson said.

"The risk of playing is that the virus could spread to the heart and you could have myocarditis," he said

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the concern over myocarditis because the viral disease is so new and its long-term effects remain uncertain.

"We don't see a lot of myocarditis in general. But the reason it's particularly important in athletes and exercise is that it's one of the more common causes of sudden death in young athletes," said Dr. R. Todd Hurst, a cardiologist with the Banner University Medicine Heart Institute.

"Maybe up to 20% of sudden death in a young athlete is subsequently diagnosed as myocarditis. When we have a patient that has been diagnosed with myocarditis, the recommendation is that they not participate in strenuous exercise for three to six months."

Various early studies of COVID-19 patients have shown evidence of myocardial damage in anywhere from 5% to 25% of the patients who were hospitalized, which Hurst said is enough to indicate there is something "concerning" about the new coronavirus and the heart.

"Even after the infection is resolved, there are anecdotal reports of people that are still battling fatigue and other symptoms, and whether that warrants a heart evaluation, I don't know the answer," Hurst said.

"But if I saw a patient like that, that had those ongoing symptoms they were short of breath, they were fatigued, they didn't have the energy I certainly think a cardiac screening evaluation for them would at least make sense."

Christopher Ruggles, a 49-year-old dog walker who lives in Arizona, said he's been living with COVID-19 symptoms since mid-March. He wasn't able to get a test during the early weeks of his illness and has since tested negative three times. An antibody test came up negative, too.

But Ruggles can't think of any other cause for his lingering fatigue, cough and muscle weakness that has left him unable to work. While he normally was walking 10 to 12 miles a day, he can now barely do 30 minutes of yoga, he said.

Ruggles just connected with a third doctor. The first two did not take his symptoms seriously, but he persisted. He's part of a COVID "long-haulers" group for people with residual problems from the virus and he is hoping to get a cardiac MRI. An EKG did not show any heart damage, but Ruggles remains concerned.

"I worry about my heart," he said.

Any COVID-19 survivor who has lingering symptoms like heart palpitations that could indicate heart trouble should follow up with a cardiologist, said Dr. Pallavi Bellamkonda, a cardiologist with the Heart and Vascular Institute at Dignity Health St. Josephs Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.

Similarly, Pedrotty said she has a patient who had COVID-19 and recovered at home but is now experiencing chest tightness. A stress test was negative and Pedrotty is now looking for "residual inflammation."

"For those patients, we do recommend a cardiac MRI," she said. "Obviously the [medical]societies have not all put out guidelines. It's a bit premature, but I think a lot of us suspect that if we do have COVID patients that have subsequently recovered and now have symptoms, an MRI is appropriate.

Bellamkonda said other symptoms COVID-19 survivors should watch for that could signal heart trouble include persistent chest pains, shortness of breath and once they are fully recovered a "decrease in exercise tolerance" not being able to do something like run a mile that a person could easily do prior to getting sick, for example.

'You are not your disease': COVID-19 long haulers find hope in recovery program

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Pedrotty said COVID-19 is not just a cardiac disease:It's cardiovascular, too, which means it could involve the body's blood vessels.

"There have been a lot of studies published about patients having clots and pulmonary embolisms and all of these types of things that have happened, especially in the severely ill," she said.

"We're just starting trials to understand the hematologic aspects of this. We know there's some endothelial damage, and that's what lines all your blood vessels."

Not everyone who has had COVID-19 needs a cardiac screening, but the illness can cause extreme reactions in the body, she added.

"That is partly why we suspect we're seeing some of the damage," she said."It's a much more extreme response from your body than we see with the flu. With your flu you get sick, you can have systemic illness, especially with the elderly and immune-compromised. But it's not to the level of what we're seeing with COVID."

Follow Stephanie Innes on Twitter @stephanieinnes.

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