Category: Covid-19

With a little luck and a lot of science, the world might in the not-too-distant future get vaccines against Covid-19. But those vaccines wont necessarily prevent all or even most infections.

In the public imagination, vaccines are often seen effectively as cure-alls, like inoculations against measles.

Rather than those vaccines, however, the Covid-19 vaccines in development may be more like those that protect against influenza reducing the risk of contracting the disease, and of experiencing severe symptoms should infection occur, a number of experts told STAT.

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We all recognize that flu vaccine, in a year when its efficacious, you have what, 50% protection? And in a year when its poor you have 30% or less than that and still we use that, said Marie-Paule Kieny, who is chairing a committee advising the French government on vaccines to prevent Covid-19.

Ideally, vaccines would prevent infection entirely, inducing whats known as sterilizing immunity. But early work on some of the vaccine candidates suggests they may not stop infection in the upper respiratory tract and they may not stop an infected person from spreading virus by coughing or speaking.

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A recently released study in which macaques were vaccinated with one vaccine candidate this one being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca showed the primates were protected from Covid-induced pneumonia. But the macaques still had high levels of virus replicating in their upper airways. (The paper was a pre-print, meaning it hasnt yet been peer-reviewed and published in a journal.)

Vincent Munster, who leads the team that conducted that study, said a vaccine that could mitigate the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic would still be a significant contribution in a world struggling to co-exist with a dangerous new virus.

If we push the disease from pneumonia to a common cold, then I think thats a huge step forward, said Munster, chief of the virus ecology unit at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Mont.

The rush to develop vaccines means that ideal solutions may be out of reach in the immediate term; Munster said he anticipates seeing second-generation vaccines that could be more protective. Other scientists, though, are cautious about how much the world can expect from vaccines against this pathogen.

Michael Mina, an infectious diseases epidemiologist at Harvards T.H. Chan School of Public Health, thinks achieving sterilizing immunity with a vaccine will not be possible for Covid-19. Experience with human coronaviruses and with multiple pathogens that cause colds shows immunity that develops after infection with respiratory tract infections is not lifelong. In some cases, the duration is measured in months, not years.

If [infection with] natural coronaviruses doesnt do it, I dont think that we should necessarily expect or have the anticipation that well be able to get there with the vaccine, said Mina, who is also associate medical director of clinical microbiology at Bostons Brigham and Womens Hospital.

Munster agreed trying to develop vaccines that confer sterilizing immunity would be a heavy lift with this coronavirus. I think we really need to focus on what are the fastest achievable true public health goals of the vaccine, which is protecting the vulnerable people against pneumonia and protecting health care workers as well, he said.

Earlier this week Moderna, the Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech, said eight people in a Phase 1 trial of its Covid-19 vaccine developed neutralizing antibodies to the virus.

Neutralizing antibodies should protect against severe Covid-19 disease, Kanta Subbarao, a vaccine expert who is director of the World Health Organizations influenza collaborating center in Melbourne, Australia, recently wrote ina commentary in the journal Cell Host and Microbe.

But Subbarao told STAT she wouldnt be surprised if neutralizing antibodies dont protect against infection in the upper airways. Like Munster, she doesnt think thats reason not to pursue these vaccines.

Converting this infection to a upper respiratory illness would be, I think, quite a lot better than where we are today, said Subbarao, who worked on vaccines for SARS, a closely related coronavirus that caused an international outbreak in 2003.

Subbarao said setting public expectations of what these vaccines will be able to achieve is critical.

It would not be helpful if the type of perception that exists about flu vaccines that they dont work very well sets in with Covid-19 vaccines. People dont credit flu vaccines for what they prevent; they deride flu shots for not protecting them on the occasions when they contract influenza, even though they have been vaccinated.

We cant leave all that messaging until we know how good the vaccines are, Subbarao said. I think that will be the messaging, that were not going to prevent all infection. Were going to prevent disease.

The fact that the macaques that Munsters group vaccinated and then infected had virus in their upper airways was viewed withdismay by some. But Munster noted the animals were infected with large doses of virus; whether the same will be true in people remains to be seen.

Some experts hope that even if the vaccines dont prevent infection in the upper airways, they may reduce the amount of virus a vaccinated person generates and emits.

Hopefully it would diminish although we dont know this the levels of replication on the mucosal surfaces, said Mark Feinberg, CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, which is working to develop an orally administered Covid-19 vaccine. That route of administration may improve the vaccines capacity to protect the mucus membranes of the upper airways.

Mina sees a potential upside to Covid-19 vaccines that dont stop infection and transmission, saying low-level circulation of the virus could act as a natural booster to keep peoples immunity levels high.

Then you dont necessarily have to keep going and getting a vaccine every year, for example. You could rely on some level of natural exposure as long as all the people who are at particular risk have been given the opportunity to be vaccinated as well, he said.

But theres the rub, warned Sarah Fortune, chair of the department of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvards School of Public Health.

Its a little bit sobering to see that, while we may get protection against disease [and] protect people from getting sick, we may not get nearly as effective protection against transmission, Fortune said during a briefing Thursday for reporters. Which means that to protect the population, were going to have to be vaccinating many, many more people, because we cant rely on getting to a lot of people and having the epidemic die out through herd effects.

Andrew Joseph contributed reporting.

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The world may also be overestimating the power of Covid-19 vaccines - STAT

Cole Hurley, Special to The News-Press Published 6:01 a.m. ET May 22, 2020

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Before I get into the meat and beans of this whole topic, I think it is only fair to give you a little back story on what makes me tick.

I love a good laugh, I truly believe having a good sense of humor will get you through the hardest parts of your life. This sense of humor needed in your toolbox of life must include a large range of humor, including irony.

I bring up the topic of irony because that is truly the only way to describe the situation we are in right now as a senior class. We have spent every single day for the past 12 years wishing school would be over. Twelve years of early mornings and late nights can make any scholar wish for school to come to a close. After all this time our dreams have finally come true.

Cole Hurley(Photo: Special to The News-Press)

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Here is where the irony comes in:now that it is a reality, all we want is to go back.I can confidently say I speak for easily 75% of our country's seniors when I say we would do anything to go back. Luckily we have a full toolbox, so when irony punches us in the face we are able to roll with it and be grateful for the years we did have.

Now to the main course as promised, I think saying the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped my senior year is an understatement. This event has not reshaped but completely blown up my senior year. It is unfortunate to think that when I and my thousand upon thousand ofsenior peers around the world think back to their big senior year, they will not think of graduation, prom, or a senior trip. Rather they will think of a time of world wide fear and uncertainty.

We have grown up watching movies, reading books, and listening to our parents' stories of graduation and the big senior year.It is hard to look at this situation any other way than an absolute robbery. I mean that's what this is.We have been promised certain things (prom and graduation) our entire lives and at the very last second they were taken away. As humans we often look to assign the blame for our heartache to someone,but with the pandemic being at fault there is not a person we can point a finger at. With everything being taken away and no one to blame this is one of the most frustrating times in our lives. With that being said, I have complete confidence that we will make it through. That is due to the newest addition to our toolbox.

At the start of 2020 a large fear among my friends and classmates was the fear of World War III. Obviously, nothing divides countries and populations like a World War. So a couple of months ago our world was divided to a point that hasn't been seen in generations. Now just a few months later, war is the last thing on anyone's mind. This pandemic has not made me think about my place in the world but it has made me think about the world and its problems. If war was put on hold it means it's not essential. With that being said, maybe we use this time to decide what's important for our planet. To continue to be divided or to put our differences aside and change our children's future.

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Cole Hurley: Saying the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped my senior year is an understatement - News-Press

In a resolution adopted on Thursday, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) declared profound solidarity with the countries and people affected by the disease and resolved to pursue coordinated and decisive actions, to contain, mitigate and defeat the pandemic through reinforced regional and global cooperation.

[The Commission] reiterates the importance of multilateralism and international cooperation, and encourages action by all members to promote measures that may reinforce global solidarity in responding to the outbreak of COVID-19, read the resolution, which was tabled by the Chair and co-sponsored by several of the Commission member States.

International and regional cooperation was also highlighted as a means to strengthen the resilience of the regions countries, with regard to the socioeconomic effects of pandemics and other related crises.

Recovering from COVID-19 provides an opportunity to build back better in the region, added the text, including by building more equal, inclusive and sustainable institutions, economies and societies that respect human rights and are more resilient in the face of any future pandemic, and other related crises faced by the region, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The importance of the 2030 Agenda to realize a better future was also underscored by the UN Secretary-General at the opening of the Commissions seventy-sixth session.

I am strongly convinced that we have an opportunity to build back better on the foundations of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development said Secretary-General Antnio Guterres in a video message.

That means forging common solutions to the climate crisis, economic and social inequalities, new forms of violence, and rapid changes in technology and demography. We can rescue our planet and build a better world for all. Let us work together to do just that.

The hope of a better future was echoed by leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region.

Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Prime Minister of Thailand; Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh; Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, the Prime Minister of Fiji; and Kausea Natano, the Prime Minister of Tuvalu delivered video messages from their capitals.

In their messages the leaders cautioned about the complexities and growing threats of COVID-19 on sustainable development. They, however, also expressed their optimism that recovery will provide the opportunity to strengthen resilience and build a more equal, inclusive and sustainable Asia-Pacific region.

ESCAP/Suwat Chancharoensuk

Executive Secretary Armida Alisjahbana addresses the 76th session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok.

As a result of the pandemic, countries have witnessed dramatic falls in economic growth and jobs, only to be followed by low demand, constrained trade and reduced mobility.

Against this background, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, the Executive Secretary of ESCAP, highlighted three key areas to help balance pandemic containment measures against those for socio-economic recovery: protecting and investing in people and enhancing resilience; supporting sustainable and inclusive economic recovery; and restoring supply chains and supporting small and medium enterprises.

These challenging times calls upon us, as citizens of the region, to extend our hands to the most vulnerable. Upholding our collective strengths, rekindling our values and reinvigorating the spirit of compassion unite us as we chart new pathways, she said.

ESCAP/Suwat Chancharoensuk

Staff of the control desk monitor proceedings at the 76th session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok.

In its more than seven decade history, this was the first time the Commissions membership convened virtually, via video-conference, with only the ESCAPs incoming Chair, Md. Nazmul Quaunine, the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh; the Executive Secretary of ESCAP; and a handful of secretariat officials in the bodys primary chamber - ESCAP Hall - at the UN Conference Centre in Bangkok.

The outgoing Chair, Damdin Tsogtbaatar the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, opened the session remotely from Ulaanbaatar, and all participants, numbering about 260 from 54 of the Commissions 62 members and associate members, connected remotely.

For its annual session, the Commission usually meets over five days, hosting several special and side events as well as exhibitions, drawing over a thousand participants, including civil society organizations representatives and university students.

Established in 1947, ESCAP is the largest of the UNs five regional commissions both in terms of geographic coverage and population served its membership spanning from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati in the east, to Turkey in the west, and Russia in the north, to New Zealand in the south.

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Asia-Pacific nations commit the whole region to 'defeat' COVID-19 - UN News

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Employees at Frontier Health & Rehab speak about COVID-19 outbreak | 'We didn't know it was already here' - KMOV.com

Oahu this month became one of many communities across the world testing wastewater for the new coronavirus.

Scientists are finding that the amount of the virus detected in a communitys sewage could predict the rise and fall of infections, raising hopes for a cheap and reliable early warning tool. The virus that causes COVID-19 can be detected in a persons fecal matter within three days of infection, much earlier than the 14 days it can take to develop symptoms.

Sewage provides a statistical sample of the population, said Rick Bennett, a microbiologist with a specialty in infectious diseases on the Big Island. To get the same data with nasal swabs, you would need just an army of public health workers.

Employees with the Honolulu Department of Environmental Services, who already regularly test wastewater, are taking nine samples a week, one from every public wastewater treatment plant on Oahu.

The samples are then sent to BioBot Analytics, a laboratory partnering with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Brigham and Womens Hospital. Before the pandemic, BioBot tested sewage to determine the levels of opioid use in a community.

As we attempt to go back to normal it will be a very slow process largely because we will have to overcome peoples fear. Rick Bennett, microbiologist

Wastewater from 170 facilities in the country are being sent to the COVID-19 testing program.

In an optimal world, they said we would have the results in three to four days, said Josh Stanbro, Honolulus chief resilience officer and executive director of the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency. But with so many other cities signing up, were seeing it more like nine days, maybe even more.

Even if results take longer than a week, officials say wastewater testing provides more robust information about outbreaks since asymptomatic carriers, who are unlikely to receive a nasal swab test, are included.

The first samples were taken and frozen on May 1, before the deal with BioBot was even finalized. Stanbro wanted to have a snapshot of Oahus viral load during the strictest shelter-in-place order.

The first stage of reopening was on April 30 so we needed the data of what the virus levels were before opening so we have a baseline to compare as we open back up, he said.

The results will be compared week-by-week and used in conjunction with results from nasal swabbing and antibody tests to paint a clearer picture of the viruss spread on Oahu.

The Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant is one of nine facilities sending samples to Massachusetts.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

We were looking at this as more tools in the toolbox, said Department of Environmental Services deputy director Ross Tanimoto.

As we attempt to go back to normal, it will be a very slow process largely because we will have to overcome peoples fear, Bennett said. If we can point to several weeks of sewage data and say Hey theres no detectible virus that would be pretty good.

Funding for the $25,000 two-month pilot program came from a federal emergency aid package, and officials will decide whether to continue testing once they get a few weeks of results back.

Stanbro said the city is looking into opportunities with a local laboratory to speed up results and help the economy.

We think it would be better, given the economic situation, to be creating lab jobs here rather than elsewhere, he said.

There are no plans to collect more than nine samples a week or release the wastewater results by sub-region.

But Bennett hopes that as wastewater testing improves, officials will test sewage from every pipe entering the treatment plant to hone in on specific communities.

For example if a small community, like Wahiawa, had a high amount, the public health officials could focus their nasal swabbing there and see why theres more contagion going on there, he said.

While most of Oahu is served by sewers, a similar program on other islands like Maui and the Big Island would be constrained by the higher proportion of cesspools and septic tanks.

Stanbro said officials on Kauai are considering it but so far no other counties have announced specific plans.

In 2011, sewage testing in Honolulu identified a salmonella outbreak. Similar testing around the world has zeroed in on outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, measles and polio.

But the tool isnt only for emergencies. Japan regularly tests wastewater for all kinds of diseases, said Bennett.

Its been especially successful for norovirus, also known as cruise ship disease, in that country and its something that this island could implement for the health of people here, he said.

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Honolulu Is Testing Sewage To Watch For The Spread Of COVID-19 - Honolulu Civil Beat

(CNN) As the world slowly eases its way out of the Covid-19 lockdown, we're on the verge of a new era in air travel.

We could soon encounter armies of robotic cleaners patrolling airport concourses, disinfecting check-in counters and ticket kiosks. We might see passengers wafting through security and baggage checkpoints without touching anything.

And we might be boarding aircraft where hand gestures and eye movements open overhead stowage bins and navigate our inflight entertainment screens.

Everything could become touch-free. Out go the tailored uniforms, in come astronaut-style anti-Covid-19 flight attendant suits.

Most of these concepts are trials but could soon morph into realities that become as ubiquitous as the biometric gates and body scanners to which we've already become accustomed at airport terminals.

From the cloud to the clouds

As we shift from the virtual world of Zoom meetings and Houseparty chats back into the skies, what will the touchpoints along that journey look like -- and when might things get going?

"I'm making an assumption, and I think many of our clients are making an assumption, that at some point in 2021, this will be largely behind us," Alex Dichter, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, tells CNN Travel.

Dichter points to stringent measures implemented in China requiring validation that travelers are Covid 19-free, using a system whereby passengers travel with a QR code that is either green, yellow or red. Green means they've been tested and are free of the virus, and authorities know exactly where passengers have been.

"You need to scan in and scan out of every location, your temperature is checked multiple times, you're signing forms. It's hard to imagine those kinds of processes implemented in the West."

But data and tracking are key to our return to the skies.

Dichter suspects some countries are going to focus on these. Therefore protocols need to be established so that if a passenger tests Covid 19-positive after being on a flight, the airline can contact every other passenger that was on the plane.

"Airlines will take this opportunity to accelerate self-service. That's a trend that's been in place for some time, but airlines were probably slower at scaling these technologies out than many customers would like," he says.

Until these new technologies fully materialize, passengers returning to the air may have to make do with what's already out there.

Therefore, Dichter says, "there may be a bit more focus on premium products, providing people with the ability to be alone" -- already a long-time aspiration of the weary business traveler.

Longer term, the financial shock airlines are facing combined with customers' sensitivity to price may bring us back to a world where airlines are taking things away and becoming leaner to reduce prices.

"If we look at the state of the industry in 2022, 2023 and 2024, the big question about what air travel looks like is going to have more to do with the economic fallout than it does to do with the virus," says Dichter.

Passport, boarding pass, mask

Qatar Airways has introduced PPE suits for its crew.

Courtesy Qatar Airways

In the new era of flight, we can expect personal protective equipment (PPE) to be integral to the passenger experience as airlines are beginning to demand -- rather than request -- their use.

European airlines Lufthansa, Air France and KLM have made mask-wearing compulsory for passengers and crew. In the United States, Delta, United, American Airlines and JetBlue have introduced similar measures. Air Canada has mandated their use since April 20.

In Asia, Singapore Airlines, Air Asia and Cathay Pacific have also made masks mandatory.

Qatar Airways, in the Middle East, is one of several airlines to introduce PPE suits for its cabin crew in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

"At least for the whole of 2020, passengers are going to be wearing masks," says Federico Heitz, CEO of Kaelis, a manufacturer of airline on-board supplies that is providing more than 20 airlines with PPE for crew and passengers.

Heitz tells CNN Travel there's high demand for its Self-Protective Pocket Pouch (SP.3), a package that includes a mask, gloves, hand sanitizer, alcohol wipes and an info leaflet with tips on how to prevent the virus spreading. The pouch can be customized to align with the airline's branding.

"These are going to be like the new amenity kits for quite a long time I expect," says Heitz.

"What's going to happen five years from now depends on whether they find a vaccine and on how the virus evolves. For now, we definitely need protection." But who bears the cost?

"This is public health. My view is that it should be provided to all for free," says Heitz. "Wearing a mask is not only about protecting yourself; it's about how to protect the other passengers."

A clean bill of health

While airport terminals remain mostly desolate, initiatives are underway to verify passenger health preflight and assure that airports are scrupulously clean.

Various technologies are in trial phases now.

That includes a contactless voice-activated kiosk for monitoring passengers' temperature, heart and respiratory rates before check-in. It's being developed in partnership between Etihad Airways and Australian company Elenium Automation, and it's undergoing tests at Abu Dhabi Airport.

Etihad's Joerg Oppermann says the technology is an early warning indicator that will help identify symptoms that can be assessed by medical experts to help prevent further contagion.

The system automatically suspends the self-service check-in or bag-drop process if a passenger's vital signs indicate potential symptoms of illness.

"We believe it will not only help in the current Covid-19 outbreak but also into the future with assessing a passenger's suitability to travel and thus minimizing disruptions," says Oppermann.

In it, passengers and airport staff undergo a temperature check before entering an enclosed channel for a 40-second sanitizing procedure, using "photocatalyst" and "nano needles" technologies.

In another initiative at HKIA, invisible antimicrobial coatings that destroy germs, bacteria and viruses are being applied to high-touch surfaces in the terminal such as kiosks, counters and trolleys.

Hong Kong's airport is also testing autonomous Intelligent Sterilization Robots equipped with ultraviolet light sterilizers that roam the airport, disinfecting passenger facilities.

Terminal velocity

"Experimentation at a number of airports with UV lights, cleaning robots and other technologies is part of an attempt to minimize the distancing that's needed if you want to maintain throughput of passengers at airports," says Cristiano Ceccato, director of Zaha Hadid Architects, designers of the recently opened Daxing Beijing Airport.

"Otherwise," he tells CNN Travel, "you're going to need a bigger airport to space people further apart."

For the very long-term future, Ceccato ponders a possible scenario where passengers have some kind of chip injected in their arms that continuously monitors their health, "Star Trek" style. It would start beeping if it detects they've been infected with something.

"We're not there yet. And then, of course, there are ethical questions about people's privacy and the invasion of civil liberties. We used to joke that the airport today is basically an airport mixed with a shopping mall. Now the airport could be mixed with a hospital."

Nearer term, Ceccato anticipates that airports could have some form of high-tech arch that passengers walk through that scans for metals, liquids and gels, and also checks the passenger's health.

"That stuff is on the way, but we don't know exactly when it will happen. A lot of ideas for these kinds of technologies are tied to the profiling of people," he says.

Another motivation behind the adoption of security and health tech at airports is to accelerate the flow of passengers through the terminal checkpoints by reducing human-to-human contact, or contact between passengers and conveyor belts and trays at security.

"Eventually at airports, you won't have to grapple with getting your laptop and washbag out of your hand luggage, and you won't have to deal with the security guy fumbling through your stuff," says Ceccato.

While architects figure out how to adapt the airports to accommodate all the extra new health screening and sanitation technologies, Ceccato says that on the upside, "it might be reassuring for passengers to know, having passed all these preflight checks, that their health is in good shape."

Up in the air

The main focal point for air travel is the aircraft interior, and this is where traditionally there has been prolonged interaction between the passenger and the cabin surfaces -- seating, inflight entertainment systems, toilets and other furnishings.

"There's probably a future for a stowage bin that will be gesture-based, where passengers don't have to touch the handle, just wave their hand to raise or lower the door," says Devin Liddell, principal futurist of Teague, the Seattle-based design consultants that created the Dreamliner cabin and the interior of every Boeing airliner since the 1940s.

The other area where Liddell believes airlines will be focusing to reinstate passenger confidence will be the application of antimicrobial surfaces.

"That will be a big one," says Liddell. "I think airlines actually just heralding the cleanliness of their aircraft and the processes that they use to clean the aircraft will be something that we see both near term and far term, as well as the touting of advanced systems that strip viruses out of the air."

As touching things becomes poor etiquette in the cabin, designers of inflight entertainment systems will need to come up with new approaches.

"Eventually, we'll see eye movement tracking-based user interfaces when it comes to the inflight entertainment system, so not having to touch the IFE system at all," says Liddell.

Longer-term opportunities to improve the on-board experience are with rethinking the layout of the passenger cabin.

"Airlines will need to be smarter in the post Covid-19 world with zoning the cabin, and various airlines have tinkered with child-free zones and so forth," says Liddell.

But one of the biggest challenges in the cabin will be inflight catering. In the early days of the virus, carriers stopped serving food to minimize crew having to walk up and down the aisles. Liddell sees opportunities for robotics and automation inside the cabin to take on many of the catering tasks.

"The galley cart in particular is such a strange piece of tech in the sense that it blocks the aisle, and makes part of the aircraft inaccessible during meal service."

"There's an opportunity for aisle-based robots that would bring food to you, maybe when you want it, versus when the airline decides it's going to give it to you," he says.

The people have spoken

Ultimately, whether passengers will feel confident enough to take to the skies depends on consumer confidence and the sense amongst passengers of whether airlines are adequately addressing their concerns regarding Covid-19 and its bearing on air travel.

To gauge this, the Airline Passenger Experience Association and the International Flight Services Association commissioned data consultants Fethr, the aviation wing of Black Swan Data, to assess passenger sentiment.

Using data analysis and predictive analytics, Fethr analyzed more than 900 million naturally occurring conversations on Twitter, news, blogs and reviews related to Covid-19 and air travel.

"Over a third of the conversations at the moment related to safety and sanitation on board the aircraft are very negatively charged," Will Cooper, insights director at Fethr, tells CNN Travel.

"Passengers are expressing their concerns and frustration around not knowing whether it's safe to travel or how they protect themselves and are unclear about what airlines are doing."

Perhaps one of the longest journeys facing airlines today is restoring passenger confidence.

Paul Sillers is an aviation journalist specializing in passenger experience and future air travel tech. Follow him at @paulsillers

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Here's how Covid-19 could change the way we fly - CNN

Stats show Ohio's median age of death is 80, and 92% of deaths are patients over 60. No child has died during outbreak

The parallel is causing some to question why Gov. Mike DeWine opted to end the mandated closure of thousands of businesses, but case numbers alone are not the primary data on which to focus.

New cases offer a snapshot of a day, and with testing becoming more common and available, rising case numbers are expected.

Fears of rampant caseloads is why Ohio opted its "Flatten the Curve" mantra. The plan was not to eradicate the virus. Rather, the lockdown was meant to spread out cases over a longer period of time in order to preserve our medical system and supplies.

Ohioans succeeded in flattening the curve, and its become time, DeWine has said, to reopen businesses in a safe and steady fashion.

Still, some see the new cases as reason for concern. However, other data show Ohio has seen critical numbers, like deaths and hospital stays, dropping for several weeks.

Deaths in Ohio started in March and peaked in late April when 327 deaths were reported in a 7-day span, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Death reporting, however, lags in time due to reporting constraints and gathering techniques, so the peak was likely closer to mid April.

Regardless, deaths in the past three weeks have slowly but steadily lessened from 288 deaths April 30-May 5 to 258 on May 6-12 and 237 from May 13-19.

Ohios total deaths are now at 1,836.

And while cases continue to stay steady, hospitalizations have trended downward by almost 8 percent in the past 21 days, going from 1,064 on May 6 to 981 on May 17.

Intensive Care Units have seen an 11 percent drop in that same time frame, going from 408 patients to 364.

Ventilator use saw a 10 percent drop, from 278 patients to 250.

It is true that COVID-19 continues to kill. But the virus is especially deadly to one group: those over 60 years of age. They account for 92 percent of all Ohio deaths.

The median age for death is 80, and nearly 70 percent of all deaths are nursing home patients, i.e. those who are not only older but also suffering from other medical issues.

Those under 60 years of age have fared much better. For example, only five people under age 30 have died, less than 1 percent of all deaths. Children have been spared the most, as Ohio has not had anyone under age 19 die from the virus.

Demographically, men (53%) die more often than women.

In addition, black residents, while impacted most by hospitalizations (31% of all hospital COVID-19 patients and 27% of all cases), account for 17% of deaths. Blacks comprise about 14 percent of Ohios population.

More here:

3News Investigates: The numbers behind COVID-19 - WKYC.com

Combining a test that is designed to detect current infection with a test that detects infection at some point in the past is just really confusing and muddies the water, Hanage told us.

Read: Why the coronavirus is so confusing

The CDC stopped publishing anything resembling a complete database of daily test results on February 29. When it resumed publishing test data last week, a page of its website explaining its new COVID Data Tracker said that only viral tests were included in its figures. These data represent only viral tests. Antibody tests are not currently captured in these data, the page said as recently as May 18.

Yesterday, that language was changed. All reference to disaggregating the two different types of tests disappeared. These data are compiled from a number of sources, the new version read. The text strongly implied that both types of tests were included in the count, but did not explicitly say so.

The CDCs data have also become more favorable over the past several days. On Monday, a page on the agencys website reported that 10.2 million viral tests had been conducted nationwide since the pandemic began, with 15 percent of themor about 1.5 millioncoming back positive. But yesterday, after the CDC changed its terms, it said on the same page that 10.8 million tests of any type had been conducted nationwide. Yet its positive rate had dropped by a percent. On the same day it expanded its terms, the CDC added 630,205 new tests, but it added only 52,429 positive results.

This is what concerns Jha. Because antibody tests are meant to be used on the general population, not just symptomatic people, they will, in most cases, have a lower percent-positive rate than viral tests. So blending viral and antibody tests will drive down your positive rate in a very dramatic way, he said.

The absence of clear national guidelines has led to widespread confusion about how testing data should be reported. Pennsylvania reports negative viral and antibody tests in the same metric, a state spokesperson confirmed to us on Wednesday. The state has one of the countrys worst outbreaks, with more than 67,000 positive cases. But it has also slowly improved its testing performance, testing about 8,000 people in a day. Yet right now it is impossible to know how to interpret any of its accumulated results.

Read: Should you get an antibody test?

Texas, where the rate of new COVID-19 infections has stubbornly refused to fall, is one of the most worrying states (along with Georgia). The Texas Observer first reported last week that the state was lumping its viral and antibody results together. On Tuesday, Governor Greg Abbott denied that the state was blending the results, but the Dallas Observer reports that it is still doing so.

While the number of tests per day has increased in Texas, climbing to more than 20,000, the combined results mean that the testing data are essentially uninterpretable. It is impossible to know the true percentage of positive viral tests in Texas. It is impossible to know how many of the 718,000 negative results were not meant to diagnose a sick person. The state did not return a request for comment, nor has it produced data describing its antibody or viral results separately. (Some states, following guidelines from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, report antibody-test positives as probable COVID-19 cases without including them in their confirmed totals.)

Georgia is in a similar situation. It has also seen its COVID-19 infections plateau amid a surge in testing. Like Texas, it reported more than 20,000 new results on Wednesday, the majority of them negative. But because, according to The Macon Telegraph, it is also blending its viral and antibody results together, its true percent-positive rate is impossible to know. (The governors office did not return a request for comment.)

Read more:

How Could the CDC Make That Mistake? - The Atlantic

A potentially game-changing spit test for coronavirus is set to be trialled by the government on 5,000 police and army staff amid growing concern about the accuracy of invasive nasal swabs.

The two-minute test requires someone to spit in a tube, and is thought to be as accurate, if not more so, than the throat and nose swab that detects if someone has Covid-19.

Prof Paul Elliott, the Imperial College London scientist who is leading a major government programme on home testing, told the Guardian saliva tests would be trialled on 5,000 key workers in the next fortnight.

He said he was very, very interested in the potential of the tests because they are much easier to use. A swab must penetrate deep into the mucous membrane behind the nose and in the mouth, often triggering the gag reflex.

Elliott said that clinical experiences suggested that as many as 30% of nasal swab tests result in a false negative, where people are wrongly told they do not have the virus.

The government trial will initially examine saliva antibody tests which detect if someone has previously had Covid-19 before being expanded to antigen tests showing current infections if it proves successful.

The Guardian has also learned that the government is in advanced discussions with one of the biggest saliva test companies in the US about getting approval for its product to be used in the UK.

The California-based firm, Curative, which is run by an award-winning UK scientist, has told officials it can provide 100,000 tests a week immediately, with the potential for capacity to be massively expanded if it gets the go-ahead. The company is providing tests for the US air force and said it had carried out more than 300,000 tests in five states including Texas and California.

Early studies in the US, including one by Yale University, have found the saliva test to be as or more accurate than the nasal swab test.

Philip Beales, a professor at the University College London Institute of Child Health, who has been helping to coordinate the efforts of UK testing firms, described saliva tests as a game-changer and said they could really could get us out of this epidemiological nightmare.

Beales said his team had found that saliva samples were superior to nasopharyngeal swabs for detecting Covid-19 because they remove almost all possibility of operator failure.

The government has refused to publish its research into the false negative rate of the nasopharyngeal test, despite tens of thousands people a day carrying out the difficult procedure.

A number of the governments regional drive-through testing facilities, which are run by private contractors, require people to carry out the swab on themselves with the aid of a nine-page, 20-step instruction manual.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, told the Commons this week that the efficacy of self-administered tests was not significantly different from tests administered by specially trained NHS staff.

His claim has been met with scepticism by some in the scientific community, while health bosses in Greater Manchester have asked to see the research. Weve no idea how many [tests there are], are they statistically significant? Id love to see those data, said Beales, director of the Centre for Translational Genomics.

The fallibility of the nasal swabs has led some GPs to advise patients to disregard negative results if they still have symptoms.

Dr Richard Vautrey, the chair of the British Medical Associations general practitioners committee, said he had seen patients with coronavirus symptoms but repeated negative tests.

No test is perfect, particularly when tests are self-administered and this is a particularly difficult test to do [so] there will be some false negatives, he said. Going on the symptoms is as good a guide as any as to what condition a patient has.

Martin Hibberd, professor of emerging infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said false negatives could be devastating if a patient was returned to a care home and passed the disease on.

Dr Philippa Whitford, the SNPs health spokeswoman and a former breast surgeon, called for the government to publish its research. A false-negative rate of a quarter or up to 30% is massive. Theres a danger that key staff are being told to go through the drive-through system [and self-testing] and so you could be sending positive staff who are virus carriers back into hospitals and care homes.

Read the original:

UK Covid-19 saliva test to be trialled on 5,000 key workers - The Guardian

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.

Yesterday, we concluded a very productive World Health Assembly.

We saw unprecedented solidarity with Heads of Government from around the world beaming into the World Health Assembly to discuss lessons, challenges and collective next steps to tackle the pandemic.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank Heads of Government who participated.

I thank President Sommaruga, President Ramaphosa, President Xi, President Moon, President Macron, President Duque, President Benitez, Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister Mottley, Prime Minister Tshering, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Prime Minister Conte, Prime Minister Natano, Prime Minister Nguyn Xun Phc, President von der Leyen, Secretary-General Guterres and all Member State representatives and minsters for joining the Assembly and signing up to a historic consensus resolution on COVID-19 and the way ahead.

The resolution sets out a clear roadmap of the critical activities and actions that must be taken to sustain and accelerate the response at the national and international levels.

It assigns responsibilities for both the WHO and its member states, and captures the comprehensive whole of government and whole of society approach we have been calling for since the beginning of the outbreak.

If implemented, this would ensure a more coherent, coordinated and fairer response that saves both lives and livelihoods.

The landmark resolution underlines WHOs key role in promoting access to safe, effective health technologies to fight the pandemic.

I welcome Member States commitment to lift all barriers to universal access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.

This includes four critical points from the resolution:

First: that there is a global priority to ensure the fair distribution of all quality essential health technologies required to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Second: that relevant international treaties should be harnessed where needed, including the provisions of the TRIPS agreement.

Third: that COVID-19 vaccines should be classified as a global public good for health in order to bring the pandemic to an end.

And fourth: that collaboration to promote both private sector and government-funded research and development should be encouraged. This includes open innovation across all relevant domains and the sharing of all relevant information with WHO.

An important collaborative response to this resolution will be the COVID-19 technology platform proposed by Costa Rica, which we will launch on the 29th of May, which aims to lift access barriers to effective vaccines, medicines and other health products. We call on all countries to join this initiative.

Im glad we are making progress on the research and development agenda, which was mapped out in February at the research and development meeting convened by WHO.

That roadmap has now given rise to the solidarity trials, which now include 3,000 patients in 320 hospitals across 17 countries and to the Access to COVID-19 ToolsAccelerator.

===

We still have a long way to go in this pandemic.

In the last 24 hours, there have been 106,000 cases reported to WHO the most in a single day since the outbreak began. Almost two thirds of these cases were reported in just four countries.

But, in good news, it has been particularly impressive to see how countries like the Republic of Korea have built on their experience of MERS to quickly implement a comprehensive strategy to find, isolate, test and care for every case, and trace every contact.

This was critical to the Republic of Korea curtailing the first wave and now quickly identifying and containing new outbreaks.

However, were very concerned about the rising numbers of cases in low- and middle-income countries.

Governments in the Assembly outlined their primary goal of supressing transmission, saving lives and restoring livelihoods.

And WHO is supporting Member States to ensure supply chains remain open and medical supplies reach health workers and patients.

As we battle COVID-19, ensuring health systems continue to function is an equally high priority as we recognize the risk to life from any suspension of essential services, like child immunisation.

===

COVID-19 is not the only challenge the world is facing.

The climate crisis is causing increasingly strong storms, abnormal weather patterns and catastrophic shocks.

Super cyclone Amphan is one of the biggest in years and is currently bearing down on Bangladesh and India.

Our thoughts are with those affected and we recognize that like with COVID-19 there is a serious threat to life, particularly the poorest and most marginalized communities.

WHO continues to offer support to Bangladesh and India to tackle both COVID-19 and the effects of the super cyclone.

===

I want to end by emphasizing that there is continued hope.

The last person who was being treated for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo recovered and was discharged on May 14.

On that day, the DRC Ministry of Health announced the beginning of the 42-day countdown to the end of the outbreak.

We now have 36 days to go but new cases could still emerge, as we have seen before.

The pandemic has taught and informed many lessons:

Health is not a cost; its an investment.

To live in a secure world, guaranteeing quality health for all is not just the right choice; its the smart choice.

I thank you.

Read more:

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 20 May 2020 - World Health Organization