The news from China is bad. The lifting of strict COVID-19 regulations in early December -regulations that had been sternly enforced for almost three years, under the country’s so-called “Zero-COVID” policy- has been followed by a great surge of infections. The existence of such a surge was suspected for weeks but denied by Chinese officialdom, who withheld data. Then, on January 14, a spokeswoman from the National Health Commission admitted that the country had suffered almost 60,000 Covid-related deaths since December 8. The virus is belatedly tormenting China the way it tormented northern Italy, New York City, and parts of Brazil back in spring of 2020.

The China surge hit first in urban areas, including Beijing and Shanghai, but also far-flung cities such as Dongguan in the South and Yulin in the North. Hospitals were overwhelmed, medicines (including simple fever reducers such as ibuprofen) became scarce, and many healthcare professionals continued to work despite being infected themselves. Since early January, the disease has begun piling up victims in rural areas well. Small clinics and community health centers are filling with patients to whom they can offer only basic care. The Chinese population remains especially vulnerable because immunity from past infections is very low and full vaccination of elderly people is low also. The three years of “Zero-COVID” were evidently wasted by Chinese authorities, who might have used that delay period to prepare better for the inevitable. But they did not.

So the pandemic is not over. The Covid coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, is not gone. It’s as busy as ever, replicating, mutating, evolving. It will almost certainly remain in the human population forever. And there is no guarantee (despite what some people believe they have heard) that it will evolve into a less harmless form, such as the viruses that cause common colds. That misunderstanding is sometimes supported by an ill-informed adage that passes for wisdom: “A successful parasite does not kill its host.” Wrong. The correct statement would be: “A successful parasite does not kill its host until it has had time to infect another host.” If the coronavirus infects person A, transmits to person B and person C, and from person C onward to others, then it has achieved evolutionary success, whether or not person A dies. Darwinian natural selection, the main mechanism of evolution, does not “see” and does not “care” what happens to infected individuals after they have transmitted a virus.

Amid the continuing turmoil, we need to appreciate that SARS-CoV-2 may remain not just present but deadly, and that we may need to continue vaccinating against it, and fighting it in other ways, for decades.

Where did this virus come from? How did it get into humans? Those questions are also important, because the answers will help guide our efforts to prevent similar viral pandemics in the future. The mystery of the origins of SARS-CoV-2 has been hotly discussed, with mostly scientific experts on one side of the matter and mostly amateur sleuths plus a few journalists on the other. That discussion has been muddled by misinformation, speculation, and accusation, all offered to suggest that the virus somehow leaked from a laboratory. A lab leak is theoretically possible, but there is no positive evidence that it happened. There is much empirical evidence and expert analysis by molecular evolutionary virologists and epidemiologists, on the other hand, suggesting that the virus probably reached humans by natural spillover from a wild animal. That seems to have occurred in or around a certain “wet market” in the city of Wuhan. The animal carrying the virus may have been a raccoon dog or a palm civet or a bamboo rat or one of the other wild creatures, captured live and transported to Wuhan, that were on sale for food in the market. Some evidence even suggests that two distinct chains of human infection began in the market, which might reflect viral transmission from two different animals. The carrier animal (or animals) likely acquired the virus, either in the wild or during transport, from a horseshoe bat. Viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in horseshoe bats in southern China, and also in Thailand and Laos, just across the southern Chinese border.

More evidence is needed, but the process of gathering such evidence and sharing it among scientists has been severely constrained by two factors: the pandemic itself and mutual distrust between the Chinese government and its critics in the West, much exacerbated by this origins controversy.

One more thing is important for everyone to remember: that the trafficking of wild animals for food-bats or raccoon dogs in China, bats or pangolins in Africa, other creatures elsewhere- is not the only disruptive activity that exposes humans to wildlife viruses. The extraction of timber and fossil fuels from richly diverse tropical ecosystems is another. The mining of strategic minerals such as coltan—a material essential for the manufacture of high-tech electronic devices—is still another. Therefore, anyone who owns a smart phone or a laptop computer or a fancy camera, or even a new car, also owns a share of responsibility for the continuing threat of viral spillover.

Eight billion humans presently inhabit this planet, all of us hungry, all of us thirsty, all of us consuming energy and wood and other material resources, in various quantities, as our appetites dictate and our levels of affluence allow. At the other end of the spectrum of sentience lie viruses, these relatively simple creatures, of which Earth harbors many millions of different forms. Among the millions, maybe one or two million kinds of virus reside in nonhuman mammals and birds. I highlight mammals and birds because they are generally the sources of the new viruses that infect people—not just SARS-CoV-2 and the original SARS virus of 2003, but also Ebola virus and Marburg and Lassa and Hendra and Nipah and HIV and many others.

With our voracious consumption, our disruption of diverse ecosystems, our devastation of natural landscapes all over the globe, we humans continue driving the most vulnerable of our fellow creatures toward extinction: the western chimpanzee, the eastern lowland gorilla, the tiger, the slender-billed curlew, the sociable lapwing, Hill’s horseshoe bat, and too many others to name, each serving as host to its own viruses. Many of those viruses are malleable opportunists. Evolution allows them to change, rather quickly, and compels them to survive. As the planet gets smaller and emptier, their best remaining opportunity will be to infect us.

That’s a grim and ironic sort of justice, and we should do all possible not to earn it.

L'articolo Ecological disruption and pandemic threats proviene da InsideOver.

We think of pandemics as something out of the ordinary, a dangerous disruption to everyday life; but the reality is that they are a recurrent, even normal, feature of human history, viewed across the millennia. The process of industrialisation during the nineteenth century brought repeated waves of cholera, typhus and typhoid, all of which spread easily in the crowded and insanitary conditions of rapidly expanding cities that were attracting a constant flow of immigrants, many of whom lived close to the poverty line. Even so, the impact of cholera was not entirely negative. It was soon realised that the solution to its spread lay in better sanitation; the consequence in London was the construction of massive sewers that still serve the city.

Pandemics within modern cities have many antecedents, and not simply within urban societies. Thus we would probably want to include within the category of pandemics the diseases, including smallpox and measles, that wiped out maybe nine-tenths of the native population in the areas of the Americas conquered by Spain and other colonial powers in the aftermath of Columbus’s discovery of the route across the Atlantic. Sometimes this is cast as a European crime against native peoples, and there is no doubt that the heavy physical demands Columbus placed on the native people of his major acquisition, Hispaniola (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) weakened still further what little resistance people had to the European diseases that arrived with the conquerors. But this, along with the devastating effects of the conquest of Mexico and Peru, was not an intended consequence of these invasions: the Spaniards wanted to make use of the manpower of the native population, but as that population died out they had recourse to the importation of black slaves, the beginning of the infamous Atlantic slave trade. One could therefore argue that the trade in black slaves across the Atlantic had its roots in the great American pandemics of the early sixteenth century. 

Europe had experienced its own devastating pandemic a century and a half earlier, with the arrival of bubonic plague in 1347. There is some evidence of small-scale outbreaks of bubonic plague, endemic among small rodents, along the famous Silk Roads that linked the area of modern Ukraine with the vast expanses of Eurasia, as fast east as China. The major Genoese trading centre in the Black Sea, Caffa in Crimea, was under siege by a Tatar army that used the bodies of plague victims as cannon fodder, catapulting them into the city and infecting its inhabitants; from there the disease spread on Genoese ships along the trade routes that led into the Mediterranean, arriving before long in Messina. Setting aside the multiple pandemics in the Americas, just mentioned, the Black Death is thought to have wiped out up to half of the population of Europe and the Mediterranean within about five years. In its pneumonic form it was most lethal – its mortality rate approached 100%. 

Recovery was severely hampered by its return again and again in the fourteenth century, and spasmodically thereafter. Its economic effects were drastic and we can talk literally of economic and social dislocation: large areas of the countryside were depopulated, and survivors often migrated to the towns where demand for workers was strong, significantly changing the balance between the rural and urban population. However, it is important to distinguish the short and long-term effects of the Black Death. Those who inherited wealth from deceased relatives often found themselves better off, with the result that demand for bettr food and for high and medium quality goods, such as cloths, expanded. A new and confident urban middle class emerged. Outside the cities, empty areas were given over to sheep and pastoral activity boomed in areas such as Spain and southern Italy. The Black Death effected an economic revolution. 

People learned to live with plague. Great cities such as Milan might lock themselves down. Quarantine was taken seriously. Plague increasingly became endemic, that is, confined to particular areas, with severe outbreaks in Milan in 1630 (memorably described by Manzoni), in London in 1665 and as late 1720 in Marseille. Europeans had no defence against this disease because it had been absent from the region for many centuries. Although the plague reported by the Greek historian and general Thucydides which took hold of Athens in 430-26 BC appears to have been typhoid rather than bubonic plague, the pandemic that hit the Byzantine Empire in AD 541-9 is now known to have been bubonic plague, and appears to have had similar effects to the Black Death: very heavy mortality, major economic consequences in the countryside as a result of population loss, and the shrinking of towns in parts of the eastern Mediterranean. 

In its pneumonic form this disease was spread by droplets in people’s breath, and many of the worst pandemics have been transmitted in this way, even when the bacillus or virus is totally different. The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-20 is thought to have killed as many as 500,000,000 people worldwide, and its spread was facilitated by the movement of armies at the end of the First World War – it was not in fact Spanish, and Spain had kept out of the war. But wartime deprivation had probably weakened resistance in many of the countries it reached. Mutations in the influenza virus have been watched carefully, bearing in mind events such as the Asian flu of 1957 and the Hong Kong flu of 1968. 

But such diseases can also lose some of their potency, to judge, perhaps prematurely, from Covid-19. A lesson from the history of the Black Death is that a bacterium or virus that wants to survive cannot risk exceptionally heavy mortality for a long period. In such cases it kills not just people but ultimately itself as well, since the presence of many fewer people mean that it loses the opportunity to spread.

L'articolo Pandemics and the course of history proviene da InsideOver.

South Korea was a country that seemingly had the coronavirus under control and was widely praised for its effective response to COVID-19. Now hospital beds are now running short.

South Korea Struggles Under Third Wave

The country is currently going through its worst crisis since the outbreak of the pandemic. Given the rapidly increasing number of COVID-19 infections, there are hardly any beds available for seriously ill coronavirus patients.

Doctors in South Korea are under pressure to decide who the beds will be assigned to whom. Over five hundred COVID patients are reportedly currently waiting to be admitted to the hospitals, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said in Seoul on Friday.

South Korea’s Minister of Health, Park Neung-hoo, even spoke of Seoul being a “COVID-19 warzone.”

In spring, the country was unanimously praised for its handling of the virus. With coronavirus mass tests and meticulous tracking of infection chains, Seoul was able to locate infection clusters quickly and successfully contain them across the country. It minimized the burden on the hospitals, and doctors and nurses could concentrate on seriously ill patients.

COVID-19 is Getting Out of Control in South Korea

The results were positive. The country has only had about 50,000 infections and 659 deaths. However, the comparatively low mortality rate is likely to rise rapidly from now on in view of the health system’s overloaded status. Over 1,000 new COVID infections were registered for the fourth day in a row on Saturday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

Moreover, the current wave is also making it difficult to treat other serious illnesses, likely resulting in more deaths.

The Ministry of Health instructed all large hospitals and university clinics on Friday to move some of their beds from other wards and make them available to seriously ill COVID patients.

What About Contact Tracing?

South Korea’s contact tracing was seen as a role model around the world at the start of the pandemic. It was also so successful because the government relied on smartphone and location data without any great inhibitions or privacy concerns from citizens. Credit card statements were also used to track people’s movements. Given the tremendous success of the measures, the Korean public backed the invasion of privacy.

However, given the rise in infections, the routes are no longer traceable and have become too jumbled together.

One reason for the increase in cases is likely the cold weather. Sub-zero temperatures mean that people across the country spend a lot of time in poorly-ventilated indoor spaces, which increases the risk of infection. However, Seoul’s coronavirus policy could also have played a role. In October, for example, Korea’s provisions for social distancing were lowered to the lowest level for economic reasons.

Seoul’s Return to Work May be to Blame

The South Korean return to work boosted industrial production significantly. In the first ten days of December alone, Korean manufacturers exported 52 percent and 60 percent more semiconductors and mobile phones than in the same period of the previous year, according to Asia’s fourth-largest economy’s customs authorities.

However, the revitalization of economic life appears to have brought the virus to the fore once again. After it became clear in November that the opening had pushed the numbers up, the government made a U-turn. Schools in Seoul were closed, and traditional celebrations and end-of-year gatherings were banned. Nonetheless, the authorities are still having a hard time calling out the third and highest coronavirus alert level for the first time.

At level three, everyone except essential shops would have to close, meetings of more than ten people would be prohibited. According to the authorities, the first declaration of a real lockdown for South Korea would result in the closure of 1.2 million smaller businesses, which would drive many entrepreneurs to the brink of ruin.

In the face of worrying developments, South Korea is now “with its back to the wall,” as President Moon Jae-in said last week.

L'articolo South Korea Hit By Third COVID-19 Wave proviene da InsideOver.

Despite all justified criticism of the US government’s leadership under President Donald Trump during the crisis, Operation Warp Speed ​​is a testimony that almost anything is possible if resources are used correctly.

Quick US Progress on COVID Vaccines

The second vaccine against the coronavirus was released in the United States earlier this week. Manufacturer Moderna plans to deliver up to 20 million doses by the end of December. The US health authority FDA had already approved the vaccine on Friday.

Previously, 128,000 Americans had received their COVID vaccination approved by the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech.

Never before has a vaccine against a new virus been developed in such a short amount of time. This is an historic success. It is also a desperately needed one, as the number of COVID infections continues to rise rapidly.

The High Death Toll of COVID-19

Seventy-seven million people have been recorded as infected with COVID-19 worldwide and 1.7 million have died from the virus to date. The US alone now has over 319,000 COVID-19 related deaths. Every day an average of 2,000 Americans die from the effects of the virus, as many as on 9/11.

The vaccinations offer a bright spot in an otherwise brutally mismanaged crisis under the Trump administration. After all, his government launched Operation Warp Speed.

Operation Warp Speed

The project ensured that the authorities, scientists, and companies’ efforts led together to achieve the goal more smoothly than ever. Most importantly, the government allocated $14 billion into its fight for a vaccine.

For example, Moderna has received over $ 4 billion in direct research aid. Moreover, Operation Warp Speed ​​helped Pfizer and its German partner, with the US government pledging $ 2 billion in doses when the new vaccine was not yet proven effective.

Trump has never been shy about questioning scientific findings and arguably exacerbated the pandemic’s impact by downplaying the virus as merely the flu, not urging Americans to wear masks for months and holding super spreader events – most famously in the Rose Garden. However it was also Trump who ensured that a process that generally takes up to ten years and more was completed in record time.

Even Biden is Giving the Trump Administration Credit

Even President-elect Joe Biden has credited the Trump administration, saying it deserved “some credit for getting us off the ground with Operation Warp Speed.”

The fact that the pandemic broke out during his now lost battle for re-election certainly played an important role. Trump was hoping for the medical breakthrough to outshine his other failures in crisis management.

Accordingly, he reacted angrily when Pfizer published the excellent results of clinical studies only after the election date on November 3. However, selfish motivation doesn’t take away from Trump’s triumph.

A Glimmer of Hope

For the politically and socially-torn US, the pioneering act is a glimmer of hope and not only because of COVID-19. Operation Warp Speed ​​shows that Washington is still capable of great things when it matters. The allies of the superpower still trust this.

China and Russia have also developed vaccinations and started administering them earlier. However, Western industrialized nations continue to put their faith in the largely US-supported initiative. Biden can build on this basis.

Last but not least, the nation owes its success to the government employees who Trump himself so often reviled. The state apparatus that he and his supporters wanted so much to slander, and which, indeed, often appears utterly paralyzed, has provided the president with his only real success in fighting the pandemic – despite the fact that he currently negates federal employees by clinging on to his claim of an allegedly stolen election.

L'articolo Operation Warp Speed: Trump’s COVID Success proviene da InsideOver.

Europe is currently experiencing the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. With infections spiking out of control once again, the search for a vaccine has reemerged as a global health priority. Several nations are currently working on vaccines and glory as much as monetary rewards are inevitable for the race’s winner. A vaccine will eventually exist; however, another issue remains. What is the current status of a forthcoming vaccine?

US CDC: Vaccine Not Likely Until Summer of 2021

President Trump says there will be a vaccine at the “end of the year,” possibly “before that.” In the news of a successfully tested vaccine, he saw a glimmer of hope ahead of the presidential election on November 3, given the sharp rise in the number of cases and his miserable poll results. However, the head of the US Disease Protection Agency CDC, Robert Redfield, referred to the summer of 2021 as the date for a public, widely available vaccination – a schedule Trump has contradicted.

The US’s political public has long been discussing how to deal with a possible untested vaccine, especially since many people have lost confidence in the CDC.

The Challenge of Getting Everyone the Vaccine

Distributing the vaccine to 330 million Americans, one in ten without health insurance and tens of millions more inadequately insured could take months, a challenge that CDC Director Redfield acknowledges. Seven hundred million doses of vaccine will likely be available at the end of March and beginning of April. However, it will take April, May, June, and possibly July to vaccinate the American population fully.

In China, the second wave appears to be almost over. There are still occasional local outbreaks, but the authorities have now set up a gigantic test apparatus that can test several million residents within a few days.

The fact that the number of infections is down to practically zero is good news for the Chinese. However, it is detrimental for vaccine development. It is almost impossible to find out whether a vaccine protects against infection. Therefore, the Chinese developers test their vaccines in more than a dozen other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. In return, Beijing promises them preferential access to a vaccine.

Chinese Vaccine Candidates

There are currently four Chinese vaccine candidates going through phase three, meaning they are already clinically tested. One each comes from Sinovac and CanSino and two from Sinopharm. None has approval yet, but vaccination is already taking place on a large scale in China. With reference to emergency rules, the country has already administered vaccines to hundreds of thousands of people, mostly soldiers and employees in state-run companies.

In Russia, three state-owned companies are developing a coronavirus vaccine. So far, the Moscow Gamaleja Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology has led the race. Its vaccine Sputnik-5 is in test phase 3 and reportedly sampled on 40,000 volunteers.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin presented the second vaccine, EpiVacCorona, from the vector laboratory at a government meeting last week. The official registration of EpiVacCorona with the health supervisory authority was “good news,” according to Russian officials. The third vaccine, developed by the Chumakov Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is soon to come. In November, the second test phase concludes. According to Academy President Alexander Sergejew, there should be no adverse side effects.

Russia and India’s Vaccine Efforts

There are also doubts about Russia’s ambitious plans to deliver the vaccine to the world. After all, the country is arguably already struggling to meet the needs of its own population. Previously, the state fund for direct investment, which finances the development of Sputnik-V, said that 30 million doses of the vaccine would be produced locally by the end of 2020, and up to 170 million abroad.

India, with its population of 1.3 billion, is currently recording 45,000 new infections every day. With almost 7.6 million cases and around 154,000 deaths, India is one of the countries most severely affected by Covid-19 worldwide. The first human test phase for two vaccine candidates began in July.

Bharat Biotech develops one called Covaxin and has already created successful vaccines against the H1N1 virus, Japanese encephalitis, and the rotavirus. The country produces 60 percent of all global vaccines.

When it comes to production, the leading player is the Serum Institute, the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world in terms of vaccine doses. The Serum Institute cooperates with the US companies Novavax and Codagenix and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

Its CEO Adar Poonawalla said in the summer that if AZD1222 were approved, the Serum Institute would distribute half of the targeted one billion vaccine doses to India and the other half to the “rest of the world, especially developing countries.”

Poonawalla expects a vaccine to be ready for the market by the end of 2020. However, he also emphasizes that pharmaceutical companies and governments are not creating enough production capacities. A worldwide double vaccination would require 15 billion vaccine doses. “As things stand today, it will take four to five years for the whole world to be vaccinated,” he told the Financial Times.

The Bottom Line

The most advanced vaccine to date in the UK is developed by AstraZeneca, which the company is jointly developing with Oxford University. At the beginning of October, the European Medicines Agency Ema initiated an accelerated approval process for the active ingredient called AZD1222. However, Ema warned that it could take months to test it on humans.

The other two active ingredients, which the government is hoping for early success, are being developed at Imperial College London and by the Novavax company. Johnson pre-ordered 90 million vaccine doses months ago. This week, the government announced funding for a study that will inject 90 young males with the virus and begin in January. This method potentially allows researchers to develop a vaccine more quickly.

While vaccine development goes on, problems remain that have by no means has been resolved until now. The distribution of vaccinations to the population is the more accessible part. However, vaccination itself already has its pitfalls. Not because of the vaccination products, but because there will be many people who do not want to be vaccinated. In Russia, for example, nearly half of Russia (45.6 percent) do not want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, neither with a domestic nor with a foreign vaccine. The US faces similar issues since 20 percent refuse vaccination, while only half of Americans are inclined to take a vaccine (49 percent).

The development and distribution of a vaccine is only part of the solution. The other will be to convince the respective populations to get the inoculation.

L'articolo How Close Are We to a Reliable COVID-19 Vaccine? proviene da InsideOver.

As the coronavirus continues to consume politicians’ time across the globe, both the UK and Italy are witnessing an increasing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. On October 11, Italy recorded 5,456 new cases, and the UK recorded 12,872 extra cases. The rising number of cases has been used as a pretext by politicians in both countries to justify a raft of new lockdown measures, ostensibly to prevent the virus’s further spread.

The logic behind these new restrictions remains questionable as the number of deaths in both nations is very small. The UK recorded 65 new COVID-19-related deaths on Sunday – all but one of the victims had an underlying health condition – while Italy recorded 26.

The UK is Developing a Localized Approach

One of the biggest new changes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday night is that of the “three-tier” lockdown system. The new system will see parts of the country where the virus is most prevalent put back into a more severe lockdown – closer to the situation experienced by the nation in March and April during the beginning of the pandemic.

The first tier will result in minimum restrictions such as a 10 p.m. curfew for bars and pubs, and a ban on gatherings of more than six people.

If the number of cases reaches more than 100 cases per 100,000 of the population, households will be banned from mixing indoors.

Tier three will be triggered if the first two tiers of measures have failed to contain the spread of the virus. This will result in the closure of social venues.

Italy Introduces Strict Nationwide Measures

Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced new restrictions such as banning private parties, involving both children and adults, and he will also target hours for bars and restaurants to reduce people’s contagion risks.

Unlike the British Government, Italian politicians are not implementing local lockdowns yet. Nonetheless, Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza did not rule out that targeted local lockdowns could be imposed in the future, if critical situations arise.

Italy’s measure of targeted hours for bars and restaurants is very similar to the 10 p.m. curfew that has been introduced in the UK.

However, Italy’s policy of banning private parties goes one step further than Britain’s social distancing guidelines. UK citizens can technically still hold private parties in certain parts of the country, but only if they adhere to social distancing guidelines and stick to the rule of six, and this is despite the fact that Italy has fewer cases than the UK.

Italy’s Measures are Much Harsher than the UK’s

Regarding face masks, both the British and Italian governments have been equally harsh toward their citizens. Last Wednesday, Rome made it mandatory to wear face masks outdoors nationwide, which means that they introduced compulsory face coverings far later than their British counterparts did.

It is also equally clear that both governments are keen to avoid a national lockdown. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons last week that the UK Government wants more “consistent approaches to levels of local action, working with our colleagues in local government.”

Earlier on Sunday, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio ruled out another national lockdown, claiming that the Italian economy could not afford it.

On balance, it appears that Italy has introduced a stricter set of lockdown measures than the UK. While the British Government is aiming for a localized approach, Italy has brought in harsh national measures such as banning private parties.

Despite this, there are some similarities between the British and Italian governments’ policies, which includes compulsory outdoor face masks and targeted hours for pubs and restaurants. What is clear is that both governments are determined to avoid imposing national lockdowns upon their own citizens, but a bigger question remains: how long do both governments intend to retain these draconian measures before they realize how counterproductive lockdown policies are?

L'articolo Britain vs Italy: Who’s Implementing the Strictest Lockdown Measures? proviene da InsideOver.

South America has seen a sharp rise in the number of new COVID-19 cases for the past few weeks, even while countries in Europe and Asia have begun to relax their lockdown measures.

On Sunday June 28, Latin America and the Caribbean recorded 2,432,245 infections (1,319,274 of which are in Brazil) with 110,6821 deaths and 1,373,504 cases in recovery.

The surge in the COVID-19 figures is due to the loose lockdown, non-synchronized responses from governments and worsened by massive economic inequality.

Brazil Has the Second-Highest Number of COVID-19 Cases in the World

Brazil — the largest country in the region — has recorded the world’s second-highest numbers of COVID-19 infections behind the U.S. As of Monday, June 29, Brazil had 1,345,254 cases, with 733,848 cases in recovery and 57,658 deaths.

The alarming amount of COVID-19 cases in the country are at least partly due to the mishandling by President Jair Bolsonaro, who underestimated the virus from the beginning, claiming it was a “little flu”. COVID-19 has symptoms similar to common flu such as cough and sore throat but is potentially much more serious.

The former army captain also ignored health protocols by not wearing a face mask and shunning physical distancing while attending a mass rally. He opposes lockdown measures for the sake of sustaining economic activity. Bolsonaro’s responses to the pandemic led to the resignation of the country’s health minister, Nelson Teich, who served for just one month.

‘We’re Fighting Against the Coronavirus and Against the Bolsonaro Virus’

Teich replaced Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was fired by the president after calling on all citizens to stay at home to prevent the further spread of the virus. Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic also triggered a stand-off with Brazil’s state governors, with one of them calling the president’s approach the “Bolsonaro virus”.

“We’re fighting against the coronavirus and against the Bolsonaro virus,” said Joao Doria, governor of Brazil’s densely-populated state Sao Paolo, adding that Bolsonaro’s has taken “incorrect, irresponsible positions,” in dealing with the pandemic.

Brazil’s states and cities have adopted their quarantine measures, different from the president’s policy. Also, there is a rising concern over the spread of the virus in slum areas, indigenous communities, and areas with a lack of testing capacity.

Research from The University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated the death toll over COVID-19 in Brazil could exceed 125,000 in August.

Chile’s Health Minister Resigned Over COVID-19 Data Discrepancy

On Sunday, June 28, Chile’s total COVID-19 cases reached 271,982, with 232,210 cases in recovery and 5,509 deaths, according to official data.

Chile is one of the countries in the region that took early anticipatory measures to slow down the outbreak, such as the closure of borders and extensive testings. However, the quarantine policy did not help to control the number of new cases as the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases surged in May.

In the middle of June, Chile’s then-health minister Jaime Manalich resigned amid the controversy over the numbers of COVID-19-related deaths.

Previously, Chile’s Sebastian Pinera government informed the public that the COVID-19 had taken over 3,000 lives since the first case emerged for the first time on March 3.

However, a report from an investigative journalism organization (CIPER) exposed that the government informed the World Health Organization (WHO) that the COVID-19-related death toll had exceeded 5,000. The organization got a copy of the country’s health ministry document handed over to the United Nations (U.N) health body, CNA reported.

Chileans took to the streets demanding food aid during the lockdown measures, which led to chaos. President Pinera promised to deliver support to the most vulnerable groups of people.

Peru Scrapped Lockdown Despite Rising Infection Numbers

As of Monday, June 29, Peru has 279,419 COVID-19 cases, with 9,317 deaths and 167,998 cases in recovery.

“Although the number of cases in the country is still high, there has been a decrease in infections in recent weeks,” the country’s health minister Victor Zamora said, cited in Menafn.

After imposing social restrictions for about three months, Peru decided to end the policy on June 30 despite the rising numbers of new COVID-19 cases. The Andean nation has gradually reopened its economy. The pandemic has worsened the economy as at the end of this year, Peru is estimated to lose 4.2 million of jobs.

Other Countries in South America are Performing Relatively Well

Uruguay, the tiny nation in the region, has successfully dealt with the pandemic as the country had only 847 COVID-19 cases, with 23 deaths as of June 14.

The country’s president Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou, never issued a lockdown measure, but Uruguay quickly imposed a social distancing policy and conducted a massive testing program, as BBC reported. Uruguay’s long history of less income inequality and trust in political institutions has been one of the most important keys to its successful tackling of the pandemic.

Uruguay’s larger neighbor Argentina slapped a quarantine on March 20, and citizens complied with the social restrictions. The Alberto Fernandez government provided financial aid to low-wage workers to help them survive the crisis, as Reuters reported. Even though the policy could trigger inflation and will increase the government’s debt, at least Argentina prioritizes its people during the health crisis.

Shining Star: Cuba

Cuba has been the leading example of how a country should deal with the pandemic. The communist state is widely known for its excellent healthcare and qualified medical workers, who have done extensive work to visit residents and interview them to discover and document new COVID-19 cases.

The country even sent its doctors to some of the hardest-hit nations around the world, such as Italy. Cuba guarantees that every citizen has access to healthcare. Despite people in the country making a monthly wage of around only $20 USD, the government works to ensure their wellbeing. 

The ratio is one doctor for ever 150 Cubans, which is an outstanding figure compared to other developed nations. The United States, for example, with its private healthcare system has only 0.4 doctors per 150 people. Therefore, Cuba’s success story during this pandemic — while richer nations are still struggling deeply — should come as no surprise.

L'articolo Latin America Sees Alarming Rise in COVID-19 Cases proviene da InsideOver.

Reportage / Society 01.07.2020

The German Void

Covid-19 can insidiously hide anywhere. Even in a saltshaker. And by so doing even the simplest of gestures, such as passing a colleague the salt at the canteen, can act as a dangerous vehicle of infection. This is how on…

Alessandra Benignetti

Andrea Indini

L'articolo The German Void proviene da InsideOver.

As some countries are relaxing their lockdown–the restriction measure aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19—the fear of the pandemic’s second wave is resurging, given the rise in the number of new cases numerous places.

What is a Second Wave?

Dicky Budiman, an Indonesian epidemiologist at Griffith University, Australia, described the second wave as what happens once the curve declines after reaching its peak of COVID-19 infection, then the numbers of new infections rise again.

The peak is counted with the infection rate at three to ten percent of the population, referring to the data in Wuhan, the city in China where the outbreak emerged for the first time.

“The second wave usually hits up to 90 percent of those who were not exposed to the virus,” the expert told Indonesia’s daily Kompas last April.

However, there is no confirmed definition of the second wave. We can tell one wave is over when the infection can be controlled, and the number of cases falls significantly.

“I think it’s really important that to wrap around, that there really isn’t a national epidemic that this is playing out locally across the U.S. and it’s hard to give single labels like first wave or second wave to the nation at large,” Eli Rosenberg Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics – University at Albany, said in an expert panel held by Newswise on Thursday, June 25.

“I think to have a second wave means you’ve successfully fought a first wave. I think that’s the really important piece to – that’s my starting definition. And I think in some places like Seattle, like here in New York State, we are to a large extent on the other side of the mountain as it were — not fully there, I would say, but we’re really — we’ve made it very far on the other side of that mountain, and that was due to massive public health efforts. And so now if we saw a resurgence after being all the way on that other side of the mountain, you might say. Yeah, we’ll call that a second wave. And it probably happened some time from now. It would have to happen sometime from now,” Rosenberg added.

South Korea is Facing a Second Wave

On June 22, South Korea announced that it was in the middle of the pandemic’s second wave, citing that most of the new infections came from Seoul.

As cited in Reuters, the country’s Center for Disease Prevention Control (KCDC) reported 79 new COVID-19 cases on May 28, the highest since April 5, when the country recorded 81 new cases in a single day.

Jeong Eun-kyeong, chief of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), cited the May’s holiday as the culprit behind the rise in the new COVID-19 infections, adding that the authority once predicted the second wave would fall in fall or winter.

“Our forecast turned out to be wrong. As long as people having close contact with others, we believe that infections will continue,” Jeong stated.

Due to its massive testing and contact tracing, South Korea’s effort to flatten the infection’s curve has drawn international praise.

The surge in the new cases — after reaching its peak in late February (900 a day) — made the government consider imposing a stricter social restriction if the infection rates stand at 30 cases a day for three respective days and hospitals’ rooms occupancy rate stands at 70 percent.

Starting next month, the country’s health authority will adopt a reservation system to limit the number of visitors to nursing homes and other facilities as the elderly population is prone to the virus’ infection.

As of Friday, June 26, South Korea has recorded 12,602 COVID-19 cases, with 282 deaths and 11,172 cases in recovery, Worldometer data showed.

China’s COVID-19 Case Count Rising Once Again

China has reported a surge in the new COVID-19 figures following the easing of its confinement measures. On June 14, the mainland reported 57 new numbers of COVID-19, the highest daily cases since April 13, the official data reported.

China’s capital Beijing had seen 227 new infections of COVID-19 in the last ten days as of June 23, ending its 56-day streak without new coronavirus cases.

The fresh outbreak was linked with imported salmon fish sold at a food market. However, experts said there was no evidence that food products can spread the virus.

“There is no evidence of infection via the digestive system through food consumption, including seafood products,” Feng Luzhao, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told a press briefing cited in Bloomberg.

Beijing has closed 40 high-risk neighborhoods, canceled thousands of flights, and conducted tests on more than two million people a week since the new outbreak hit on June 11.

China has recorded 83,462 COVID-19 cases, with 78,439 cases in recovery and 4,634 deaths.

What About Other Countries?

On June 16, New Zealand ended its 24-day streak of no new COVID-19 by reporting two new coronavirus figures; both were imported cases from the UK.

As of Friday, June 16, New Zealand has reported 14 new COVID-19 figures, all have been isolated, and no community transmission has been reported so far, the country’s health minister said.

Japan is also likely to enter the pandemic’s second wave following the new 119 cases in the city of Kitakyushu in Fukuoka in the last ten days, breaking a nearly one month-streak of no coronavirus cases, the Straits Times reported.

On June 3, the Japanese authority discovered 34 new coronavirus cases in the capital Tokyo, the first time since May 14 when the new figures of COVID-19 reached more than 30.

Europe is preparing to deal with the second wave following the reopening of its economic activity and mass protests against the excesses of a police force that killed an unarmed African-American George Floyd in the U.S. state of Minneapolis on May 25.

European nations have begun to give medical workers a crash course on how to treat COVID-19 patients and are planning to retrain medics to avoid a lack of human resources in case of the second wave.

“We need a healthcare army,” said Maurizio Cecconi, president-elect of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM).

Italy, Spain, and France are among European countries that saw the highest numbers of COVID-19 infections in March and April. On June 24, two schools inf France’s capital Paris had been closed due to precautionary measures following the discovery of coronavirus illnesses.

L'articolo Fear of a COVID-19 Second Wave Increases as Countries Ease Restrictions proviene da InsideOver.

American President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma last week should have marked a new chapter, namely the post-pandemic chapter. The successful defeat of the “invisible enemy”, “the plague” or – of more recent vintage – “Kung Flu,” as the president has called the virus.

Infection Rates are Rising Again

However, while the president sought to declare the victory over a battle that was never won in the first place, the numbers of infections had reach worrisome highs again already. The virus has now returned with a vengeance, raging more violently than in the early weeks of the pandemic as the number of newly infected people reaches almost 40,000 a day.

What figures in previous weeks have been indicating across half of the 50 states, has now become a fact: the COVID-19 crisis is worsening again — dramatically. According to the Washington Post and the New York Times, Wednesday marked the highest number of daily new infections since the pandemic began. The Washington Post reported 38,173 new infections on Wednesday. The previous record of 34,203 cases was reported on April 25. The New York Times reported 36,975 cases on the same day, exceeding the April 24 peak of 36,739 cases.

South Hit Particularly Hard This Time Around

However, unlike during the first wave, the increase in infections is particularly noticeable in the south of the country. The states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, therefore, ordered travelers from several states in the south to be quarantined. The situation in metropolitan New York City and neighboring areas, meanwhile, has been brought under control in recent months with strict measures such as exit restrictions and business closures.

The steps in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut show how the coronavirus crisis in the United States has shifted regionally: For a long time, the state of New York and The Big Apple itself had been the epicenter of the pandemic. More than 30,000 people died. Now, it is primarily the states of Texas, Florida and California, for example, which are currently experiencing their highest infection rates since the outbreak of the virus. What has been feared from many sides, namely that all the relaxation of the corona restrictions could come back like a boomerang, has thus now occurred.

Testing is Increasing

Nonetheless, a second factor is responsible for the increase, which is the increase in tests being conducted across the nation. However, it’s worth assessing the testing details. Although the states are testing much more than at the beginning of the pandemic, there are still few tests compared to the extent of the outbreak in the country, despite the president’s claims. Other nations, such as Canada, for example, continue to perform about as many tests per one million people as the US. However, Canada has about ten times fewer infected people per million than its southern neighbor. Even more worrisome: Out of 100 test conducted in the US, five are positive. In comparison, out of 100 tests conducted in Germany, 0.7 are positive.

Critics continue to condemn Trump for the devastating effects of the crisis. He initially continue to negate the impact and the threat the virus posed while pressing for a quick return to normal for months, simply as a more prolonged shutdown further decreases his chances of reelection. It is an open secret that Trump has dropped the ball on the topic, and it is hard to imagine that he can overcome the tragedy of over 130,000 dead Americans.

Trump Glosses Over Virus, Returns to Economy

Accordingly — and this makes the president’s failures even more worrisome — the topic no longer seems to play a role for the president. Instead, he has been talking about the fact that the economy is strengthening again for weeks and that the people who succumbed to the virus did thus not die “in vain” – which is a surreal remark, even for Donald Trump.

The White House has given up the fight against the virus. Instead of saving lives, the administration is interested in saving Trump’s campaign. Instead of addressing the issue and taking responsibility for the disastrous crisis management, the president focuses on his political opponents, his “law and order” image, and dog-whistle politics — all to the detriment of the nation.

L'articolo The Second Wave is Here proviene da InsideOver.