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Dear Reader:
Worldometer(October 13): Over 8 million cases and over 220 thousand deaths in the U.S., 45,701 new cases and 316 new deaths yesterday, down from 723 new deaths three days ago and 909 new deaths four days ago.
In Florida, there were 1,533 new cases and 48 new deaths yesterday, down from 115 new deaths four days ago, and 158 new deaths five days ago.
In Indiana, there were 1,574 new cases and 6 new deaths yesterday. In North Carolina there were 1,276 new cases and 3 new deaths yesterday, down from 29 new deaths five days ago.
Yesterday, in the U.K., there were 13,970 new cases and 50 new deaths. There were 13,582 new cases and 125 new deaths in Russia. There were 9,286 new cases and 65 new deaths in Spain.
Yesterday, there were zero new cases and zero new deaths in China (it’s been so since April 18); zero new cases and zero new deaths in New Zealand; 1 new case and zero new deaths in Vietnam; 2 new cases and zero new deaths in Taiwan; 4 new cases and 1 new death in Singapore; 5 new cases and zero new deaths in Thailand; 11 new cases and zero new deaths in Hong Kong; 97 new cases and 1 new death in South Korea.
CNN: Covid-19 surge is here(Oct 13): “Just as predicted, the US is now grappling with a new Covid-19 surge — one that could overwhelm hospitals, kill thousands of Americans a day by January, and leave even young survivors with long-term complications.
“‘We went down to the lowest point lately in early September, around 30,000-35,000 new cases a day. Now we’re back up to (about) 50,000 new cases a day. And it’s going to continue to rise,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
“‘This is the fall/winter surge that everyone was worried about. And now it’s happening. And it’s happening especially in the northern Midwest, and the Northern states are getting hit very hard — Wisconsin, Montana, the Dakotas. But it’s going to be nationally soon enough.'”
“Across the country, 33 states have reported more Covid-19 cases this past week compared to the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University…. ‘This winter — this November, December, January, February — could be the worst time in our epidemic,’ Hotez said. ‘Get ready to hunker down.’ As we’ve seen throughout this pandemic, surges in new Covid-19 cases lead to increased hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks. At least 10 states have reported record-high Covid-19 hospitalizations since Friday, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.”
CNN: The US and Europe face rising Covid-19 case numbers as they squander lessons from Asia Pacific(Oct 13): “While the Asia-Pacific region treads water until a coronavirus vaccine is found, the West’s biggest economies are drowning as a second wave firmly establishes itself in Europe…
“There are now more patients in hospital with Covid-19 in England than there were in March, when a nationwide lockdown was imposed, according to Johnson and health officials. France and the Netherlands broke their own records over the weekend, reporting the highest numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. In the United States, there were more new positive cases in the White House on October 2 than in the whole of Taiwan….
“Seven months after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic, life is closer to normal in the Asia-Pacific region thanks to the basic lessons of epidemiology: clear communication, quarantines, border controls, aggressive testing and contact tracing, Kenji Shibuya, the Director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College London, told CNN.
“Nightclubs remain open in Taiwan, which also held its first full capacity arena show in August. Thousands were pictured visiting the Great Wall of China last week, months after an estimated 20,000 packed into a New Zealand stadium for a rugby match. European countries with successful pandemic responses, like Germany, have taken this approach.
“But experts say Spain, the US and the UK are seeing cases skyrocket, and cracks appear in the political and public consensus, after they opted to prematurely re-open their economies without heeding those rules. Spain’s government declared a state of emergency on Friday in the country’s worst-hit Madrid region, in order to override regional leaders’ objections to the restrictions. In the UK, Johnson’s muddled messaging and a lack of transparency in decision-making have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum…
“Resurgences of Covid-19 in the Asia-Pacific region look a lot different to what is happening in the West. New Zealand pretty much eradicated community transmission within its borders after a minor outbreak in August, during which the virus’ spread never rose beyond 19 new infections a day…Â Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand have largely kept their borders closed to visitors, with returning citizens and work permit holders being quarantined at home or at designated facilities.
“The same is true in Vietnam, which remains closed to most international travelers and, like many countries in the region, has encouraged citizens to holiday within its borders. The lower-middle income country has taken a proactive approach to the outbreak, bringing infections down to the single digits in October, little more than two months after authorities evacuated 80,000 local tourists from the resort city of Da Nang after three residents tested positive for the virus. By contrast, the European Union resumed inter-regional tourism in June, even though many European countries were slow to require visitors to undergo routine testing on arrival…
“Taiwan and South Korea, which had the world’s second highest number of cases in February, kept a handle on outbreaks without blunt instruments like lockdowns thanks to their gold standard test and tracing systems, and a transparent communication strategy that has kept the public on side. The UK deploys conventional contact-tracing methods, which identify cases and track down the people they met after they became infectious, says McKee. Meanwhile, Asian countries like South Korea have relied on what is known as backwards tracing, which attempts to identify the event, place or source of an infection…
“Asia-Pacific’s response has been shaped by the 2003 SARS outbreak. Trauma from that period meant many Asian countries were better prepared and better resourced to act decisively at start of the pandemic with public approval… Heidi Tworek, an associate professor of international history and public policy at the University of British Columbia.. authored a report on democratic communications during the pandemic.
“The report analyzed three democratic jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region — Taiwan, New Zealand, and South Korea — and found that cohesive messages from those governments were useful in forestalling ‘compliance fatigue’ and laid the foundation for vaccine uptake. ‘They also matter for cultivating trust among citizens and their governments — trust that is critical for the future stability of democratic institutions,’ the report stated.
“That trust can easily be lost. A study in The Lancet found that when Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, broke lockdown rules but faced no consequences, it undermined the public’s faith in the government’s ability to handle the pandemic. The opposite happened in New Zealand, where David Clark, its Health Minister, was demoted in April 2020 after twice breaking the country’s Covid-19 regulations. He resigned in July and goodwill for the government has remained.
“New Zealand and South Korea adopted a “division-of-labour approach to communicating political and scientific information,” the report noted. Public health officials would first deliver the science. The message would be humanized and reinforced with meaning by politicians like New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern or South Korea’s President Moon Jae-on in televised addresses or Facebook lives, Tworek said.
“Misinformation and conspiracies were tackled in South Korea and Taiwan via high quality information being pushed out on multiple channels, Tworek added. To engage the public, the Taiwanese government worked with local comedians to create memes for their “humor over rumor” strategy. It included the use of a cartoon “spokesdog,” a Shiba Inu called Zongchai, to help communicate its policies. One meme showed that the 1.5 meter indoor social distancing policy equated to the length of three Shiba Inu, while the outdoor social distancing policy was two Shiba Inu.
“Masks were distributed to Taiwanese households at the start of the pandemic — many of them in a shade of pink. After hearing that male students were being bullied for wearing pink masks at schools, officials wore pink face coverings at their daily briefing. “It is fantastic because it’s not just about countering disinformation, it is about countering stigma and prejudice,” Tworek said. “This is not rocket science. These are basic tenets of health and risk communications [in order to] establish trust.”
anita
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This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by .
Dear Reader:
Worldometer, Oct 29: Yesterday there were 1,030 new deaths in the U.S., and an all pandemic high of more than 81,581 new cases.
The Hill, Fauci expresses support for national mask mandate, Oct 29: “The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, expressed support for a national mask mandate in an interview late Wednesday with CNBC. Fauci explained that the U.S. rate of new coronavirus infections is trending in the wrong direction, adding that mask mandates are likely the only option to slow the spread… ‘This is going to get worse because we’re going more into a colder season, as we get through the fall and into the winter with the holiday season going, we’ve got to do something different. We can’t just let this happen,’ Fauci continued…
“President Trump has resisted the idea of national mandates and criticized Fauci personally in recent weeks, telling supporters that his opponent, Democratic nominee Joe Biden, would follow the doctor’s advice. ‘He wants to listen to Dr. Fauci,’ Trump said at a rally this month. ‘He’ll listen to the scientists. If I listened totally to the scientists we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression.'”
The New York Times, Death rates have dropped for seriously ill Covid patients (Oct 29): “The coronavirus struck the United States earlier this year with devastating force. In April, it killed more than 10,000 people in New York City. By early May, nearly 50,000 nursing home residents and their caregivers across the country had died. But as the virus continued its rampage over the summer and fall, infecting nearly 8.5 million Americans, survival rates, even of seriously ill patients, appeared to be improving. At one New York hospital system where 30 percent of coronavirus patients died in March, the death rate had dropped to 3 percent by the end of June.
“Doctors in England observed a similar trend. ‘In late March, four in 10 people in intensive care were dying. By the end of June, survival was over 80 percent,’ said John M. Dennis, a University of Exeter Medical School researcher who is first author of a paper about improved survival rates in Britain, accepted for publication in the journal Critical Care Medicine. ‘It was really quite dramatic.’
“Though the virus has been changing slowly as it spreads, and some have speculated that it has become more easily transmissible, most scientists say there is no solid evidence that it has become either less virulent, or more virulent. As elderly people sheltered inside and took precautions to avoid infection, however, more of the hospitalized patients were younger adults, who were generally healthier and more resilient. By the end of August, the average patient was under 40. Were the lower death rates simply a function of the demographic changes, or a reflection of real progress and medical advances in treatment that blunted the impact of the new pathogen?
“Researchers at NYU Langone Health who zeroed in on this question, analyzing the outcomes of more than 5,000 patients hospitalized at the system’s three hospitals from March through August, concluded the improvement was real, not just a function of changing demographics. Even when they controlled for differences in the patientsâ age, sex, race, underlying health problems and severity of Covid symptoms â like blood oxygen levels at admission â they found that death rates had dropped significantly, to 7.6 percent in August, down from 25.6 percent in March.
“‘This is still a high death rate, much higher than we see for flu or other respiratory diseases,’ said Dr. Leora Horwitz, director of NYU Langoneâs Center for Healthcare Innovation & Delivery Science and senior author of the paper in Journal of Hospital Medicine. ‘I donât want to pretend this is benign. But it definitely is something that has given me hope.’ Other doctors agreed. âThe mortality rates are way lower now,â said Dr. Robert A. Phillips, author of a research letter in JAMA that compared the first and second surges of Covid-19 patients in Houston. But he emphasized that the disease remains ‘not only deadly â 10 times more deadly probably than a bad influenza â but it also has long-term complications. You donât have that from the flu.’
“While the studies evaluated the death rate, they did not assess the burden of what Dr. Phillips called ‘post-Covid syndrome,’ which leaves many patients with lasting respiratory and neurologic problems, cardiac complications, and other lingering issues. ‘Itâs relatively easy to measure death, but that doesnât capture all the other health issues,’ said Dr. Preeti Malani, an infectious disease expert at the University of Michigan. Many hospital patients face grueling and protracted recoveries and may require long-term care, while even those who had mild bouts of disease are often left with continuing health problems, like headaches, chronic fatigue or cognitive problems. ‘It will take a long time to understand the full clinical spectrum of this disease.’…
“A combination of factors contributed to the improved outcomes of hospital patients, the authors of the two studies and other experts said. As clinicians learned how to treat the disease, incorporating the use of steroid drugs and non-drug interventions, they were better able to manage it. The researchers also credited heightened community awareness, and patients seeking care earlier in the course of their illness. Outcomes may also have improved as the load on hospitals lightened and there was less pressure on the medical staff, both of which had been overwhelmed by a surge of patients in the spring. ‘We donât have a magic bullet cure, but we have a lot, a lot of little things, that add up,’ Dr. Horwitz said. ‘We understand better when people need to be on ventilators and when they donât, and what complications to watch for, like blood clots and kidney failure. We understand how to watch for oxygen levels even before patients are in the hospital, so we can bring them in earlier. And of course, we understand that steroids are helpful, and possibly some other medications.’..
“Early on, physicians were placing patients on mechanical ventilators to assist with their breathing; over time they learned to position patients on their stomachs and provide them with supplemental oxygen through less invasive means, and postpone ventilation or avoid it altogether if possible.
“By mid-June, clinical trials in England had proven that treatment with a cheap steroid drug, dexamethasone, reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and death in patients getting supplemental oxygen by one-fifth. But the early recommendations from China and Italy were ‘to absolutely not use steroids, even though a lot of us thought it made sense to use them,’ said Dr. Gita Lisker, a critical care physician at Northwell Health. ‘I think itâs making a big difference. But when we started with this in March, the data and recommendations from China and Italy were saying, âDo not use them, steroids are bad.ââ
“Doctors also werenât aware at first that the Covid-19 illness caused by the new virus caused life-threatening blood clots. Now patients are put on blood thinners early on in treatment when necessary.
“But the other problem in the spring was that hospitals in hard-hit areas like New York City were overwhelmed. Doctors who hadnât worked in critical care for many years were being drafted to care for seriously ill patients, nurses were short-staffed, and equipment was in short supply. ‘There was a sheer overwhelming tidal wave that overtook the health care system,’ Dr. Lisker said. ‘You had critical care units run by doctors who hadnât done critical care in 10 years, or even ever.’ She added, ‘There is no question that whether you lived or died in April, some of it had to do with what unit you landed in.’
“Indeed, she said, ‘The whole idea of flattening the curve was to avoid overwhelming the health care system.’
“Medical experts are worrying that the surges in cases around the country could reverse or roll back those gains. The number of hospitalized Covid patients has increased by 40 percent over the last month, and more than 41,000 patients are now hospitalized in the United States. Hospital administrators in Idaho, Utah and Kansas City, Mo., have warned they are already close to capacity…
“‘If you compare the number of people who are dying from every 100 cases diagnosed in the U.S., itâs obviously substantially lower than it was in the summertime, and a lot lower than it was in the springtime,’ said Tom Inglesby, the director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University. But, he added that the lessening death rate was not assured to remain steady, given the resurgence in higher caseloads. ‘If hospitals that arenât prepared for large numbers of people have to deal with a large influx of Covid patients, or small hospitals get pulled into it, we should expect that mortality could change unfortunately,’ he said. ‘Thatâs a warning.’
“Though some have speculated that the virus is less virulent than it once was, experts say there is no evidence that is the case. The improvements in survival are ‘a testament to modern medical care,’ said Dr. Howard Markel, a physician and medical historian at the University of Michigan. ‘The virus is still just as stealthy and dangerous as it was,’ Dr. Markel said. ‘Weâre just getting better at managing it.'”
anita
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This reply was modified 4 years ago by .
Dear Reader:
Worldometer, Oct 31: yesterday, there were 101,461 new cases in the U.S-Â an all-time pandemic record high; there were 988 new deaths yesterday, in the U.S.
France had 49,215 new cases yesterday and 545 new deaths; Italy had 31,802 new cases yesterday- its all-time pandemic record high, and 199 new deaths; Spain had 25,955 new cases yesterday- its all-time pandemic record high, and 239 new deaths; The UK had 24,405 new cases yesterday and 274 new deaths; Belgium had 23,921 new cases yesterday- its all-time pandemic record high and 138 new deaths; Germany had 19,367 new cases yesterday- its all-time pandemic record high and 88 new deaths, Iran’s all-time pandemic record high of 8,293 new cases occurred the day before yesterday (8,011 new cases and 365 new deaths yesterday).
Politico: U.S. surpasses 9 M Covid cases (Oct 30): “The U.S. coronavirus case count passed 9 million on Friday with the disease surging across the northern tier of the country and public health officials urging tough new steps to promote use of masks and social distancing… White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx told governors on a call Friday that a third of the country, or 1,200 counties, meets the definition of a ‘hot spot’
“Cold weather is forcing people indoors where the virus can spread easier. Birx told the governors that reaching a plateau will take âevery single person in your states moving forward withâ masking, hygiene, distancing and reducing the size of gatherings in public, according to notes of the call.
“The pandemic is rebounding in Europe as well, with countries including Germany and France imposing new restrictions. Global cases are nearing 45 million, with India and Brazil following the United States. The U.S. continues to outpace all other countries in Covid-19 deaths.
“Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and members of his administration continue to downplay the virus threat. Donald Trump Jr., the presidentâs eldest son, falsely claimed n Thursday that the number of Americans dying from the coronavirus amounts to ‘almost nothing.'”
Business Insider, Lockdown looms in the UK as Europe braces for a significant spike in coronavirus infections in the run-up to Christmas (Oct 31): “UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce national lockdown restrictions next week. Johnson has succumbed to the advice of his science experts, hoping that the national measures could ‘save Christmas from the coronavirus.’ European countries including Germany, France, and Belgium all reported record numbers of new daily infections this week. Most European countries have either reimposed partial or full lockdowns again, with France going back to measures that were imposed during the first lockdown in March.”
Reuters, Iran imposes new restrictions to stem coronavirus spread (Oct 31): “Weddings, wakes and conferences will be banned in the Iranian capital until further notice as the Middle Eastâs hardest-hit nation battles a third wave of COVID-19, police said on Saturday… Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi said in a televised press briefing that the new restrictions from next week in the 25 provinces and 89 counties will include include the closure of institutions such as schools, universities, libraries and mosques. Rouhani said in televised remarks that strict health protocols should be observed when holding weddings and funerals in those provinces and counties. Iranian authorities have blamed a sharp increase in cases on people failing to follow restrictions, and Rouhani said an operations headquarters will be set up to ensure compliance with the health protocols.”
anita
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This reply was modified 4 years ago by .
Dear Reader:
Worldometer (Nov 5): Getting closer to 10 million Covid-19 cases in the U.S., and closer to a quarter million Covid-19 deaths, in the U.S. An all-time pandemic record high of more than 118 thousand new cases were recorded yesterday. 1,127 new deaths were recorded yesterday in the U.S.
Yesterday- more than 47 thousand new cases were recorded in India, more than 19 thousands in Russia, an all-time pandemic high record of over 58 thousands in France, an all-time pandemic high record of over 34 thousand new cases in Italy (428 new deaths yesterday, a second-wave record high), an all-time pandemic high of over 27 thousand new cases in Poland, more than 22 thousand new cases in the UK, an all-time pandemic record high of almost 22 thousands in Spain, an all-time pandemic high record of over 21 thousand new cases in Germany (and 162 new deaths, a second wave record high).
CNN: Europe Covid-19: Italian regions lock down and Paris tightens rules as Europe smashes virus records, Nov 5: “Italy is under a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. nationwide curfew, with bars and restaurants closing at 6 p.m., while certain areas face harsher restrictions. Residents in “red zone” regions — Lombardy, Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta and Calabria — may only leave home for necessities, health or work… In neighboring France, Paris also announced stricter measures as the country reported a record 58,046 new cases Thursday, according to the French health agency. The country has Europe’s highest case number, at 1.6 million infections… ‘The second wave is already upon us, and it is brutal,’ French health minister Olivier VĂ©ran told a news conference Thursday. If the virus keeps spreading at this rate, he said ‘the second wave could be worse and longer’ than the first, and could take ‘until mid-December’ to stabilize… Greece will enter a three-week national lockdown from Saturday… Denmark also announced new restrictions…
“Earlier this week Sweden announced it will tighten restrictions in three additional regions, including limiting gatherings in bars and restaurants to eight people. Austria and Poland also both reported record case rises Thursday as Austria entered its second national lockdown this week, which includes an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and the closure of leisure facilities. Norway, which has one of Europe’s lowest infection rates, has seen a “sharp rise” in cases, according to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.”
CNN: Boris Johnson accused of ‘giving in to scientific advisers’ as England heads for lockdown, Nov 2: “Boris Johnson was accused of ‘giving in to scientific advisers’ by a former leader of his Conservative Party after the UK Prime Minister announced a lockdown for England following weeks of warnings from the experts. His Saturday announcement of a strict national lockdown against the spread of coronavirus came after UK cases passed one million and its death toll reached 46,555.
“The infection rate in the country has been rising steeply for weeks. The Office for National Statistics now estimates that 1 in 100 people in England have Covid-19, compared with 1 in 2,300 in July and 1 in 200 at the start of October. Johnson’s cabinet was advised that if no action was taken, the National Health Service’s bed capacity would be surpassed by the first week of December…
“The new lockdown, which will come into place in England on Thursday morning following a Wednesday vote in Parliament, will see all bars and restaurants closed except for takeout and delivery, as well as the closure of all non-essential businesses including gyms and hair salons. Schools, universities and childcare facilities will remain open. Residents will only be allowed to leave their homes for specific purposes including education, work (if they cannot work from home), exercise, medical issues, or to buy food and essential items.”
anita
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This reply was modified 4 years ago by .
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This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by
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