Category: Covid-19

For the first time, Michigan has published a count of 240 probable coronavirus deaths the number ofpeople who never tested positive for COVID-19 but were suspected to have died from the virus.

The figure, when combined with the 5,597 confirmed COVID deaths through Thursday, bumped the state's death toll from the novel coronavirus 4% higher than previously thought to 5,837 total when including the presumptive deaths.

Public health experts have said the combined total, provided by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, is a truer representation of the virus's toll.

Beaumont medical technologist Michael Diskin runs a COVID-19 test specimen. Royal Oak-based Beaumont Health has started processing a limited number of COVID-19 tests in its own laboratory. On-site processing allows doctors to have results in hours instead of days.(Photo: Beaumont Health System)

That is in part because virus testing has been limited, and the official tally had so far only counted deaths where the individual had tested positive for COVID-19.

The state Friday also released for the first time a count of 4,928 probable cases of COVID-19.Those presumptive cases increased the state's total known cases by nearly 9%to 63,169 when added to the 58,241 cases confirmed by diagnostic testing.

We are continuing to improve the information we are providing as our goal is to share timely and accurate data during this pandemic, said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive, said in a statement.

Probable deaths include individuals without a COVID-positive test who were presumed to be infected due to their symptoms and an epidemiological link, according to the state health department.The definition alsocovers those whosedeath certificate listedCOVID-19 disease as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death.

Examples includesudden deaths at home attributed to COVID,deaths at the hospital before the individual could testpositive, and patients whofalsely tested negative but who were clinically considered a COVID case, experts said.

Michigans local health departments have been reporting both confirmed and probable COVID deaths to the state for weeks. Each local health departmentreceived guidance, along with recommendations to evaluate cases based on the council's standard, state health department spokeswoman Lynn Sutfin has said.

Additional information is necessary to define a probable death, requiring a report and then a public health investigation, so establishingthis class of deaths takes longer, she said. Most would be found during contact monitoring of people potentially exposed to infection, Sutfinadded.

Probable cases"provides a more complete picture about how COVID-19 has impacted the state," shesaid recently.

mburke@detroitnews.com

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Michigan's coronavirus death toll jumps to over 5,800 with revised count - The Detroit News

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) While COVID-19 likely fueled an unusually high number of overall deaths during April in Rhode Island, public health officials say they dont yet know how much the disease contributed to the trend.

A Target 12 analysis of total weekly deaths dating back to 2016 shows 1,168 people died this year from March 29 to May 2, which is more than the same five-week periods in each of the last five years.

The elevated number of deaths compared with normal trend sometimes called excess deaths is 114, or 10%, more than the average number of people who died during that period between 2016 and 2019, the analysis shows.

Public health officials have not yet studied the public health crisis to determine correlation between COVID-19 and the elevated deaths in Rhode Island, making it tough to tell exactly whats behind the trend. But the R.I. Department of Health nonetheless suspects the disease is playing a role.

It is a little early for us to make any final determinations about causes and trends, but when we do a deep analysis on our 2020 death numbers, we expect the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to be evident, Health Department spokesperson Joseph Wendelken wrote in an email.

The 114 excess deaths reported this year, however, is far below the 359 deaths associated with COVID-19 that the Health Department reported during that same time period, raising questions about how much of a difference the disease is making.

People who die with COVID-19 are often fighting at least one or two other illnesses, but the deaths are still counted as COVID-19 associated even if the primary cause is something else, such as pneumonia, diabetes or cancer. A similar accounting method is used to measure flu-related deaths.

There is very often more than one health condition involved in someones death, Wendelken explained last month, noting that the states accounting method is in accordance with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But health officials are not discounting the possibility that other factors are also fueling the higher number of deaths recorded during April. Fatal overdoses is one metric they are watching closely.

The COVID-19 public health crisis struck at the same time the state and much of the country was already grappling with an opioid crisis thats claimed the lives of hundreds of Rhode Islanders in recent years. An average of 302 Rhode Islanders died of drug overdoses annually from 2014 to 2019.

And theres at least some evidence to suggest 2020 could be worse than usual, as the Health Department reports overdose deaths were relatively high through the first two months of the year compared to the last five years. (More recent data are not yet completed.)

There are signs that we may have seen an increase, but it is too early to say definitively, Wendelken said. Toxicology tests are pending on many cases. We should have a little more clarity in the near future.

Rhode Islands excess deaths experience mirrors whats been seen in several other states and the United States overall, according to data provided by the CDC. But the number pales in comparison to New York City, where the pandemic has hit hardest.

About 32,000 New York City residents died between March 11 and May 2, far exceeding the normal amount of roughly 8,000, meaning excess deaths totaled about 24,000, according to a recent study by the citys Department of Health.

As in Rhode Island, however, New York City health officials are not yet sure exactly how to explain some of those elevated numbers, saying only about 18,000 of the 24,000 excess deaths are likely attributable to COVID-19.

The remaining 5,000 or so deaths may still be related to the pandemic in one way or another, according to the citys health officials, but that is currently unknown and requires further investigation.

In Rhode Island, the recent spike in excess deaths coincides with when the state started reporting COVID-19 deaths, supporting the likelihood that the two are related. And the increase marks a sharp divergence from the prior 12-week period, when weekly deaths remained relatively consistent with prior years.

Unlike other states, Rhode Island did not see an unusual spike in deaths during the first three months of the year, according to a Target 12 analysis last month. Deaths are cyclical, with more typically happening in the earlier months of the year.

As more data becomes available, the overall picture could start to look clearer in Rhode Island. The number of deaths associated with COVID-19 has roughly doubled to 756 since the states most recent available weekly data ended May 2.

Eli Sherman(esherman@wpri.com) is a Target 12 investigative reporter for WPRI 12. Follow himon Twitter andon Facebook.

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RI deaths spiked in early spring, but role of COVID-19 is still unclear - WPRI.com

In the first tech IPO since the coronavirus shut down much of the U.S. economy, ZoomInfo soared more than 60% in its Nasdaq debut Thursday, underscoring investors' ongoing appetite for high-growth subscription software companies.

ZoomInfo, not to be confused with video chat provider Zoom Video, priced its IPO at $21 on Wednesday after previously raising the expected range to $19 to $20. The stock closed up 62% at $34, valuing the company at about $13.4 billion. The offering reeled in more than $900 million.

ZoomInfo's technology helps corporate sales and marketing teams with customer outreach, integrating with sales software tools from Salesforce, Oracle, Microsoft and others. The company says it has more than 15,000 customers across all industries and estimates that it's going after a $24 billion market opportunity.

Even with businesses across the country closed, unemployment skyrocketing and gross domestic product expected to plunge by more than 40% in the second quarter, cloud software companies have largely weathered the storm and, in many cases, even benefited. Twilio, ServiceNow, Okta and Coupa have all bounced back dramatically from the initial Covid-19 plunge and are now trading near record levels.

While ZoomInfo's revenue rose by over 40% in the first quarter, the company said in its prospectus that it faces headwinds from the coronavirus in the form of "slowed growth or decline in new customer demand for our platform and lower demand from our existing customers for upgrades within our platform." The company said it closed all of its offices because of Covid-19 and plans to keep employees working from home in the second quarter and possibly beyond.

ZoomInfo, in its current form, was created in 2019 when DiscoverOrg acquired Zoom Information and was rebranded as ZoomInfo. Henry Schuck co-founded DiscoverOrg in 2007, and became CEO of the combined entity after the transaction closed.TA Associates and Carlyle Group, which were principal investors in DiscoverOrg, are the largest shareholders in ZoomInfo.

Revenue for the combined entities increased 39% last year to $336 million and 42% in the first quarter to $103.6 million. The company recorded a first-quarter net loss of $5.9 million.

Zoom Video has been perhaps the biggest tech winner since employees left the office for the home. The stock has more than tripled this year, and the company said this week that customer growth surged by more than 350% in the fiscal first quarter from a year earlier.

ZoomInfo is a very different kind of company, but it did highlight the other Zoom as a customer in its prospectus.

"ZoomInfo has become an essential tool for Zoom Video's sales representatives to penetrate new and international markets, and today 90% of the Zoom Video sales team uses the ZoomInfo platform," the filing said.

WATCH:Zoom revenues could approach $3 billion by 2022

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ZoomInfo rockets over 60% in first tech IPO of Covid-19 era - CNBC

Mining sites in Canada, the US and around the world have become hotspots for the spread of coronavirus, and approximately 4,000 mine workers in 18 countries have tested positive, according to a report by an international coalition of non-profit groups.

The report links mining sites to virus outbreaks in several Indigenous and remote communities.

In a separate statement, more than 330 organizations around the world called mining one of the most polluting, deadly, and destructive industries and accused the industry of ignoring the threats of pandemic and using it to weaken regulations. We reject the central claim that mining represents an essential service, it reads.

The mining industry pushed governments to declare them essential and many continue to operate throughout the pandemic in the US and Canada,said Kirsten Francescone of MiningWatch Canada, one of the non-profit groups that authored the report. Mine workers and members of nearby Indigenous and remote rural communities are at grave risk.

At least 45 infected workers from a fly-in, fly-out work camp housing thousands at Exxons Imperial Oil Kearl Lake oil sands mine project in northern Alberta flew home in mid-April unknowingly spreading the virus in five Canadian provinces. This triggered an outbreak in a remote northern Saskatchewan Dene village, killing two elders, and in a long-term care home in British Columbia. The Kearl Lake outbreak has expanded to 107 cases as the mine continues to operate.

In mid-May another Alberta oilsands operation reported an outbreak but Alberta government officials insist these operations must remain open to protect the economy, said Francescone. These outbreaks are hardly surprising with mine workers living together in camps.

According to the report at least 25 workers were infected and one worker has died at the Lac des Iles palladium mine operated by Impala Canada in northern Ontario. The nearby Indigenous community, Gull Bay First Nation, reported at least eight people infected in connection with the mine outbreak in a community of only 300. Palladium is a precious metal used in vehicle pollution-control devices.

The report used field and media reports and company statements to document at least 69 mining sites around the world with serious outbreaks.One-third of the companies operating those sites are headquartered in Canada.

Many of the allegations and comments in the report grossly misrepresent the facts, said Pierre Gratton, president and chief executive officer of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC). Within our membership in Canada, mines are operating Covid free, Gratton said in an email. MAC does not represent all mining companies operating in Canada.

Gratton said mining supports manufacturing, including a number of healthcare products and that this is why governments have deemed the industry essential.

Mining is also treated as an essential service in the US, andseveral outbreaks have occurred. New Mexicos Chino copper mine was forced to close indefinitely after a mid-April outbreak when a number of its workers tested positive.

At the same time, the US Environmental Protection Agency has waived many enforcement and compliance obligations during the pandemic, said Benjamin Hitchcock Auciello of Earthworks, a US non-profit that co-authored the report. New projects are conductingenvironmental-impact assessmentsdespite thenear-impossibilityof performing legally required public consultations, Auciello said.

Many environmental regulations have also been waived for Albertas oil sands industry, one of the worlds largest energy projects, with over C$243bn (US$180bn) invested. To reduce infection risks non-essential activities have been postponed to significantly reduce the number of people working on-site, including those involved in low-risk environmental compliance checks, said Tim McMillan, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. These temporary measures allow companies to focus on critical areas of operations, McMillan said in a statement.

The Alberta governments energy regulator has suspended monitoring altogether. The provinces energy minister declared that the pandemic was a great time to be building a pipeline.

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Mines are hotspots for spread of Covid-19, study finds - The Guardian

RICHMOND The Virginia Department of Health reported Friday that the statewide total for COVID-19 cases is 48,532 an increase of 676 from the47,856reported Thursday.

While total cases continue to increase, data from theVDH coronavirus dashboardshow the seven-day average for confirmed and probable cases dropped in late May.

Also, the percentage of positive results from COVID-19 testing is down. The seven-day average for percent of positive test results was at 10.1% as of Tuesday, which is the most recent figure provided by VDH. That's down from a peak of 22.2% on April 19.

Across the region covered by the Thomas Jefferson Health District, there have been 10,689 PCR testing encounters performed. The current seven-day positivity rate for the PCR tests has dropped slightly from yesterday, at 5.9%.

The48,532 cases reported Friday include 46,281 confirmed cases and 2,251 probable cases. Also, there are 1,453 COVID-19 deaths in Virginia 1,350 confirmed and 103 probable. That's an increase of 8 from the1,445 reported Thursday.

The VDH defines probable COVID-19 cases as people who are symptomatic with a known exposure to COVID-19, but whose cases have not been confirmed with a positive test.

Today, the TJHD reported six new cases for a total of 579 cases in the region covered by the health district.

VDH data shows most cases (79.9%) are occurring in adults between the ages of 20 and 69. The majority of deaths (76.7%) are among Virginians over the age of 70.

73.7% of the region's deaths have been in people 80 and older, while 19.7% of the region's cases have been diagnosed in people between the ages of 30 and 39.

Fairfax County, the state's most populous locality with more than 1.1 million people, has the most cases with 11,904 and 410 deaths.

VDH said there are 389 outbreaks in the state, 222 in long-term care facilities. These facilities also account for 821 of the state's deaths attributed to the virus.

Ten of the state's outbreaks are in the TJHD, with 157 outbreak-associated cases. 46 cases have been diagnosed in healthcare workers in the region.

There are four outbreaks in long-term care facilities, three in congregate settings, two in correctional facilities and one in an educational setting.

State health officials have said theres a lag in the reporting of statewide numbers on the VDH website. Figures on the website might not include cases or deaths reported by localities or local health districts.

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Indicators show downward trends in Virginia COVID-19 cases and percentage of positive tests - The Daily Progress

This week, the NCAA allowed schools to welcome athletes back on campus for the first time since March.

Sports Illustrated, citing unnamed sources, reported at least five players tested positive for Covid-19. AL.com reported that at least one of those players took part in a player-led workout session involving multiple players. AL.com says that player was asymptomatic at the time.

When asked about the positive tests and the Sports Illustrated and AL.com reports, a school spokesperson referred CNN to a university statement released on Thursday, which states, "The health and safety of our student-athletes is a top priority. Resources and protocols are in place to ensure they receive the best medical care when returning to campus. Due to privacy laws we cannot share information specific to the health of our student-athletes."

The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) does not disclose information related to investigations of notifiable diseases. ADPH investigates each Covid-19 case in Alabama and carries out contact tracing.

Alabama currently has at least 19,072 coronavirus cases, and at least 653 people have died in the state from coronavirus, according to a tally of cases by John Hopkins University.

CNN's Alta Spells contributed to this report.

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Several University of Alabama football players test positive for Covid-19, reports say - CNN

1Lymphoid Malignancies Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD; 2Fungal Pathogenesis Section Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD; 3Willamette Valley Cancer Institute and Research Center, US Oncology, Eugene, OR; 4Hematology-Oncology Department, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD; 5John Theurer Cancer Center, Hackensack Meridian and School of Medicine at Seton Hall, NJ; 6Rocky Mountain Cancer Center, US Oncology, Colorado Springs, CO; 7Department of Emergency Medicine, Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, Colorado Springs, CO; US Acute Care Solutions, Canton, OH; 8Department of Medicine, St. Peters Hospital and US Oncology, Albany, NY; 9Department of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD; 10Acerta Pharma, South San Francisco, CA; 11Biometric Research Branch, Division of Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA 12AstraZeneca, One MedImmune Way, Gaithersburg, MD

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Inhibition of Bruton tyrosine kinase in patients with severe COVID-19 - Science

A failure to tackle the disproportionate number of deaths of black, Asian and minority ethnic people from coronavirus risks fuelling simmering tensions over racial injustice in Britain, BAME MPs have warned.

They say the absence of practical measures to protect BAME people or any discussion of structural racism from the government-commissioned report this week on Covid-19 disparities makes a mockery of Matt Hancocks statement in the Commons that black lives matter.

The Guardian attempted to contact more than 40 BAME MPs and peers, including every BAME Conservative MP. None of the Tories agreed to speak about the Public Health England (PHE) review. The 13 Labour MPs who responded expressed concern that its lack of an action plan added to BAME peoples frustrations at a time of protests against racism, prompted by the US police killing of George Floyd.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the MP for Streatham, said: With George Floyd, because of the protests, initially, there were actually attempts to explain that the knee on his neck wasnt necessarily the cause of death, it was his underlying health conditions, and we see with Covid now in this review that theyre attempting to say: Oh, its all of these comorbidities like obesity and diabetes, so its [as if its] not really that black people are facing a particular issue [of structural racism].

Itjust sends a message that we dont matter, and thats why people are protesting. And I think that the strength of the protests has been even more than it might usually be because of whats happening with Covid-19, because theres a lot of pain in the community.

Concerns about BAME people being disproportionately affected by Covid-19 surfaced in early April. The terms of reference for the PHE report included to suggest recommendations for further action that should be taken to reduce disparities in risk and outcomes. Instead, the final version was limited to stating the existence of disparities, which had already been established by numerous studies, prompting allegations that that the government had censored the report.

Yasmin Qureshi, the MP for Bolton South East and shadow equalities minister, said thelack of recommendations was a massivefailure, adding: I think if the government does not look properly at the causes and say what theyre going to do, then I think theyll have missed a golden opportunity to put things right [at a time when] BME communities already feel under the cosh.

MPs also raised concerns that the PHE review did not address the high toll on BAME healthcare workers and concerns that they are placed in riskier environments and feel less able to speak out. And they highlighted the disproportionate use of lockdown powers against black people, who have been more likely to be fined.

Against that background, many felt that Hancock, the health secretary, saying black lives matter when launching the PHE review in parliament left a bitter taste.

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the MP for Slough, who has lost three relatives to coronavirus, said: Its all very well saying black lives matter, but if youre not going to be taking any action to make sure that, yes, those lives do matter, then those are just hollow words.

People have been talking about these injustices for so long, and if the government doesnt take action, I think that that anger and exasperation will only increase, and that doesnt benefit anybody.

Chi Onwurah, MP for Newcastle Central, said: To use the phrase black lives matter, then to go on to not do anything about the clear outstanding case of black people dying disproportionately, reeks of hypocrisy and will undermine faith in the governments desire or intention to take action.

MPs also raised concerns about the risks to themselves, their families and the largely black support staff posed by the Commons reopening. Tulip Siddiq, the MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, said: I really noticed it when I went in the other day because everyone was talking about the impact on black communities, so all the people who served me, from the tearoom to everywhere, everyones black. All the cleaners I bumped into were black.

Among the practical measures MPs said the government could recommend were wider provision of personal protective equipment, workplace safety audits and advice to multi-generational families living under the same roof, or offering to put some up in a hotel while they shield. In the longer term, many support demands for a race equality audit across Whitehall.

Mark Hendrick, the MP for Preston, said: Racism has bedevilled our societies through the generations; but the economic, social and health inequalities highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic have exposed racism in a way humanity has never seen before. Long after this crisis is over, we will be judged on how we sought to eradicate the virus of individual and structural racism by dealing with the conditions that have created it.

The government referred the Guardian to comments by the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, in which she said: Much more needs to be done tounderstand the key drivers of the disparities identifiedand the relationships between the different risk factors.

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Lack of response to BAME Covid-19 toll risks fuelling tensions, say MPs - The Guardian

Michigans death toll from the coronavirus is expected to grow substantially when the state health department publishes itscount of probable deaths the number ofpeople suspected to have died from the virus without testing positive.

Public health experts say the governments official death tally of 5,595 in Michigan is likely an undercountand that adding thepresumptive deaths would be a more accurate representation of the toll of the virus.

This is in part because testing for the disease COVID-19 has been limited, and the official count in Michigan hasso far only included deaths where the individual tested positive for the virus. At least a dozen other states are already disclosing probable coronavirus deaths and cases.

"Reporting these probable deaths is very important, and it will improve that data quality," said Nilanjan Chatterjee, a professor at Johns Hopkins University'sDepartment of Biostatistics. "It's a step in the right direction."

The count of probable deaths "provides a more complete picture about how COVID-19 has impacted the state," said Lynn Sutfin, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

A timeline for the release of dataremains unclear, butSutfin reaffirmed Wednesday the department's plan to release counts of both probable deaths and cases "soon."

An employee for C.W. Morris Funeral Homes in Highland Park rolls out a body from Sinai-Grace on Thursday. The worker said it was a COVID-19 patient, but the funeral home denied it.(Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr., The Detroit News)

Michigan is overdue to start reporting presumptive COVID deaths, as well as probable cases of the virus, said Dr. Teena Chopra, an infectious disease specialist in Detroit.

She noted the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded its reporting to include the "probable"classifications almost a month ago on May 6.

"There is a huge number of patients who are clinically clear-cut COVID cases, but havent been reported," said Chopra, a professor at Wayne State University.

"Theres no reason why they should not be counted with the total deaths. Becausewhen we are seeing these patients, clinically there isclearly no alternative explanation for them dying or even being admitted to the ICU," she added.

"Why would the state not want to report the probable cases? I don't understand that."

Dr. Teena Chopra is a professor of infectious diseases at Wayne State University.(Photo: Wayne State University)

At least 12 states are already reporting probable COVID deaths and cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including hardest-hit New York, which began reporting presumptive cases in April. New York City had nearly 17,000confirmed deaths and another 4,760 probable deaths, through Thursday.

Probable deaths include individuals without a COVID-positive test who were presumed to be infected due to their symptoms and an epidemiological link, Sutfin said. The definition alsocovers those whosedeath certificate listedCOVID-19 disease as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death, she said.

An example would be a symptomatic household member of a COVID-positive person where the household member ended up dying, said Brian Hartl, an epidemiologist in the Kent County Health Department.

"That person never got tested, but we'd call that a probable death," Hartl said.

Other examples would be sudden deaths at home attributed to COVID,deaths at the hospital before the individual could testpositive, and patients whofalsely tested negative but who were "clearly" a COVID case, Chopra said.

"This test, as you know, has a 30% false-negative rate," she said.

The state's definition of "probable" death due to COVID-19is based on a national standard established by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists on April 6.

Michigans local health departments have been reporting both confirmed and probable COVID deaths to the state for weeks. Each local health departmentreceived guidance, along with recommendations to evaluate cases based on the council's standard, Sutfin said.

Additional information is necessary to define a probable death, requiring a report and then a public health investigation, so establishingthis class of deaths takes longer, she said. Most would be found during contact monitoring of people potentially exposed to infection, Sutfinadded.

Kent County hasnot gotten many reports of probable COVID deaths, Hartl said.

"The majority of reports we've had have had a positive test," he said. "I don't know if it might be because ofa lack of awareness in the community to report those (probable deaths)."

Counting the probable cases is critical to understanding the "true burden" of the new coronavirus,Chopra said, including the impact it could have on patients' long-term health.

"When we talk about reopening, we need to know how close we are to herd immunity," Chopra said. "If we are not counting the (probable) cases, we are under-reporting so we are also under-counting our herd immunity."

It is possible that a small fraction of the probable deaths are not from COVID-19, but an influenza-like illness instead, Johns Hopkins' Chatterjee said.

Adding probable deaths to the state's official COVID toll is still likely to be an undercount, hesaid.

A more reliable estimate of the total deaths due to the coronaviruswould be to examine the so-called "excess"deaths statewide those above and beyondthe deaths that would typically have been expected in Michigan during the same season in an ordinary year, the biostatisticiansaid.

"That will give us an idea of how many deaths we still have missed, even after adding the probable deaths,"Chatterjee said.

Provisional data on deaths from COVID-19 and other causes,updated weekly by the Michigan Vital Records Office, showthat more people died from cancer, heart disease, COPD (chronicobstructive pulmonary disease), pneumonia and flu during March and April than during the same months last year.

The numbers aren't yet complete due to lags in the reporting of death certificates by funeral directors across the state, saidJeff Duncan, Michigan's registrar of vital records.

"There have been increases in other causes of death, particularly early in the crisis when testing wasnt widespread," Duncan told The Detroit News.

"A lot of that may have been COVID-related, but it wasnt recognized by the doctors who completed the death certificate."

March deaths attributed topneumonia and flu were more than 50% higher year over year, with 197 reported last March, compared with 299 this spring. For April, pneumonia andflu deaths jumped about 36% from 203 in 2019to276 this spring.

April heart disease deaths were up 20% over last year, from 1,984 in 2019, to 2,379 this year.Stroke deaths were up about 19% for April, from 421 that month last yearto 499 this spring.

And septicemia, a serious blood infection, was blamed for 124 deaths thisMarch compared with 88 such deaths during March last year, an increase of 41%.

"It may be that those deaths were from COVID, but it may indicate a strain on the health care system," Duncan said.

"Maybe its people not seeking care, not going to the emergency room because they had symptoms of the heart attack (and) because they were afraid.

"Ive also read speculation that response times are up for emergencies because they have to put on all the PPE (personal protective equipment) and they have to decontaminate their vehicles after every call," he said.

"We have to have a lot more data and a lot of real analysis to come to any conclusions."

CDC data shows a sharp jump in excess deathssince early this year. The CDC predictedanestimated 5,922 to 7,208 excess deaths in Michigansince Feb. 1, when compared withhistorical averages for the state.

The CDC says the excess deaths could represent misclassifiedCOVID and other deaths that could be indirectly related to the virus that is, deaths attributed to other causes but that would not have occurred without health care shortages or overburdened health care systems caused by the pandemic.

The excess deaths in Michigan this year that are not directly attributed to COVID-19 could also be because ofthe virus, but it's unclear, said Samiran Ghosh, an associate professor of biostatistics at Wayne State University.

"Why is this going up? Because theres no other big epidemic going on. Is it related to COVID? Thats the big question," Ghosh said. "The answer is it could be the case, but we dont know."

mburke@detroitnews.com

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Michigan's coronavirus death toll much higher than reported as state readies release of new data - The Detroit News

Scientists have discovered the pandemic-causingcoronavirus is unique in short-circuiting the safest way our immune system kills off a virus, which could have implications for treating COVID-19 with interferon.

Interferon describes a family of proteins produced by the body's immune system in response to an invading viral infection. As the name implies, interferon interferes with the virus's ability to copy itself.

Interferon drugs are made in the lab and were used for years to treat hepatitis, a liver infection, as well as other diseases that involve the immune system, such as multiple sclerosis and some cancers.

In May, researchers in Hong Kong published the results of their Phase 2 trial on fewer than 150 people who were admitted to hospital with mild or moderate COVID-19. Participants were randomly assigned to a combination of potential antivirals, including interferon, or placebo injections for two weeks.

The findings lent support to the idea of continuing research efforts, including in Canada, to investigate interferon in larger, blinded trials designed to find more definitive answers.

Dr. Jordan Feld, a liver specialist at Toronto General Hospital and senior scientist at U of T, previously used interferon to treat people infected with hepatitis. He's now leading a Phase 2 clinical trial to test a targeted form of the drug, called peginterferon lambda, in injections compared with saline placebo injections.

"It's kind of like a stealth virus," Feld said of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Normally, when interferon in the body's white blood cells responds to a viral invader, the interferon sends out a flare signal so nearby cells will work to stop the virus from copying itself or replicating if they, too, should be invaded.

In ferrets infected in the lab (a common animal model for studying respiratory viruses), healthy human lung cells, and in people with COVID-19, doctors and scientists say it seems like the natural interferon "flies under the radar" of the immune system and isn't activated the way it should be.

Feld said the idea behind giving interferon medications is toprovidethe body withwhat it should be making to fend off the infection.

The potential therapeutic approach gained scientific backing last month when a study published in the journal Cell showed a "striking" feature ofSARS-CoV-2 infection.

Ben tenOever is a Canadian-born professor of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York who led the Cell studyand has been flooded with e-mail requests from researchers the world over to test experimental drug compounds against the virus.

TenOever said every cell that gets infected has two major jobs:

Most viruses block both of those roles.

What makes SARS-Cov-2 unique is it blocks the call-to-arms functionfrom interferon only.

"Treatment with interferon or drugs that induce interferon, the main character in the call to arms, is probably beneficial," tenOever said.

"The secret is to do it early,"he said, when people have a mild cough and test positive for the virus and haven't developed respiratory distress.

But there could also be mild side-effects.

When we're fighting off a flu virus, blame interferon for feeling so crummy, feverish and achy as your immune system kicks into high gear.

Likewise, interferon drugs, could also lead to flu-like symptoms for a day or two.

Individuals enrolling in COVID-19 clinical trials of interferon based in Toronto, Hamilton, Ont., Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., Stanford in California, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and elsewhere will need to weigh whether that (potential) shortfall is worth the (potential) payoff of protection from the deadly damage and delivers key answers that only their participation can offer.

TenOever said what the enormous scientific interest in the publication shows is an incredible demand for biosafetyLevel 3 labs like his during the pandemic. Without that lab capacity, the fear is that medical researchers won't be able to run all the experiments they need to do to guide vaccine efforts.

Matthew Miller is an associate professor of infectious disease and immunology at McMaster University who isn't involved in the clinical trials or studies.

Miller said interferon is what cells use to try to kill off the virus by themselves.

"Its sort of the preferred route," Miller said, adding interferon is also the safest way for the body to get rid of a virus.

Miller called tenOever's paper "an important first step in understanding how our body is responding to this particular new virus."

Dr. Sarah Shalhoub, a transplant infectious disease physician at Western University's medical school, studied the use of interferon to treat another coronavirus infection called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS.

While interferon hasn't yet panned out to fight MERS, Shalhoub is optimistic for COVID-19.

"Patients that received interferon beta clear their viruses faster and the duration for hospital admission was also significantly lower," Shalhoub said of the Hong Kong findings last month.

"It was encouraging in that sense that there might be an effective therapy that's available on the market that can be repurposed."

Shalhoub was quick to add a caution. Since no one in either the drug or placebo group died, the mild infections and response to them are difficult to interpret without more research.

See more here:

Unmasking the stealth virus behind COVID-19 - CBC.ca