Coronavirus vaccines face trust gap in Black and Latino communities, study finds

‘If offered a coronavirus vaccine free of charge, fewer than half of Black people and 66 percent of Latino people said they would definitely or probably take it, according to a survey-based study that underscores the challenge of getting vaccines to communities hit hard by the pandemic... Perhaps its most sobering findings: 14 percent of Black people trust that a vaccine will be safe, and 18 percent trust that it will be effective in shielding them from the coronavirus. Among Latinos, 34 percent trust its safety, and 40 percent trust its effectiveness.’

Read here (Washington Post, Nov 23, 2020)

Doctors say CDC should warn people the side effects from Covid vaccine shots won’t be ‘a walk in the park’

‘The CDC must be transparent about the side effects people may experience after getting their first shot of a coronavirus vaccine, doctors urged during a meeting Monday with CDC advisors. Dr. Sandra Fryhofer said that both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines require two doses and she worries whether her patients will come back for a second dose because of potentially unpleasant side effects after the first shot. Both companies acknowledged that their vaccines could induce side effects that are similar to symptoms associated with mild Covid-19, such as muscle pain, chills and headache.’

Read here (CNBC, Nov 23, 2020)

When will the Covid-19 pandemic end? Could be 2022 or beyond, says McKinsey & Co

‘Our estimate is based on the widest possible reading of the current scientific literature and our discussions with public-health experts in the United States and around the world. It’s possible that unforeseen developments such as significantly more infections than expected this winter could lead to earlier herd immunity. And real downside risk remains, especially with respect to duration of immunity and long-term vaccine safety (given the limited data available so far). Herd immunity might not be reached until 2022 or beyond.’

Read here (McKinsey & Co, Nov 23, 2020)

WHO head has singled out one developing country for its success in managing the coronavirus pandemic

‘Thailand’s numbers “speak for themselves,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in closing remarks to the World Health Assembly, which took place this week. Thailand was the first country outside China to report a case of COVID-19, but to date it has counted fewer than 4,000 cases and just 60 fatalities, despite having a population of 70 million and one of the world’s biggest and most tightly packed cities in Bangkok. By comparison, the U.K., with a population of about 68 million, has had 1.3 million cases and 51,396 fatalities, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.’

Read here (Market Watch, Nov 23, 2020)

Puzzling, often debilitating after-effects plaguing COVID-19 "long-haulers"

‘It's not unusual for viruses to cause aftereffects, but as you'll hear tonight, doctors tell us they've never seen anything like this. While researchers around the world are scrambling to figure out what's happening, Mount Sinai Hospital here in New York opened one of the first centers to study and treat people with what they're calling "Post-acute COVID Syndrome." The patients we met have a less clinical term - they call themselves "long-haulers." Anderson Cooper interviews some of them.

Read/view here (CBS News, Nov 22, 2020)

Xi says China ready to boost global Covid-19 vaccine cooperation and travel

‘President Xi Jinping said on Saturday (Nov 21) that China is ready to step up global Covid-19 vaccine cooperation, and called for better international coordination on policies to facilitate movement of people.

‘Pharmaceutical companies and research centres around the world are working on potential Covid-19 vaccines, with large global trials of several of the candidates involving tens of thousands of participants underway. China has five home-grown candidates undergoing Phase III trials. With that [global movement] in mind, Mr Xi said China would propose the creation of a mechanism by which travellers' coronavirus test results were recognised internationally through digital health codes.’

Read here (Straits Times, Nov 20, 2020)

After coronavirus: Our relationship with meat and the next pandemic

‘All pandemics in recorded human history have come via the animal kingdom. With mutations abounding and our interaction with wildlife widening, when are we finally going to address the sick animal in the room?...

‘To be precise, three out of four of those "new diseases" come from animals, and the frequency with which they have emerged has been accelerating for over 40 years... [Delia] Randolph was the lead author of a joint International Livestock Research Institute and UNEP report published in July looking into the reasons for this acceleration. Research from dozens of scientists spanning the globe came to one conclusion: human behaviour, i.e., the way we interact with and consume animals, is the main driver increasing the prevalence of zoonotic disease. 

‘The report lists seven "human-mediated factors" behind the emergence, with numbers one through three as follows: 1) increasing human demand for animal protein, 2) unsustainable agricultural intensification, 3) increased use and exploitation of wildlife.’

Read here (DW, Nov 20, 2020)

Inside Britain's test-and-trace: How the ‘world beater’ went wrong

‘The name NHS Test and Trace sounds like it is one whole service that is part of the NHS. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a complex web of different programmes, led by the civil service, that have been bolted together rapidly. Private firms play a key role in terms of both testing and tracing, which has meant some of the local expertise available in the NHS, universities and councils has been bypassed.’

Read here (BBC, Nov 20, 2020)

What Covid-19 reveals about twenty-first century capitalism: Adversity and opportunity

‘Twenty-first century capitalism features financialization and monopoly power. A structural perspective of contemporary political economy illuminates how these aspects shape the COVID-19 response. COVID-19 has exposed failures across health care systems, working conditions, supply chains, the depth of inequality, systemic racism, and features of globalization that exacerbate negative outcomes for the many. Examining access to medicines, personal protective equipment and vaccines, inequality and working conditions highlights just some of what is broken and what needs to be fixed. The unsparing challenge and immiseration of COVID-19 offer an opportunity to re-think basic structures of contemporary capitalism and re-imagine a more compassionate future.’

Read here (Springer, Nov 20, 2020)

What the data say about asymptomatic Covid infections

‘Research early in the pandemic suggested that the rate of asymptomatic infections could be as high as 81%. But a meta-analysis published last month1, which included 13 studies involving 21,708 people, calculated the rate of asymptomatic presentation to be 17%...Byambasuren’s review also found that asymptomatic individuals were 42% less likely to transmit the virus than symptomatic people.’

Read here (Nature, Nov 20, 2020)

AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine candidate shows promise among elderly in trials

‘A potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University produced a strong immune response in older adults, giving hope it may protect some of those most vulnerable to the disease, data from mid-stage trials showed. The data, reported in part last month but published in full in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday (Nov 19), suggest that those aged over 70 - who are at higher risk of serious illness and death from Covid-19 - could build robust immunity to the disease, researchers said.

"The robust antibody and T-cell responses seen in older people in our study are encouraging," said Dr Maheshi Ramasamy, a consultant and a co-lead investigator at the Oxford Vaccine Group.’

Read here (Straits Times, Nov 20, 2020)

Almost a million people inoculated with Chinese Covid-19 vaccine: Sinopharm

‘Nearly a million people have taken an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese company Sinopharm, the firm said, although it has not yet provided any clear clinical evidence of efficacy. China has been giving experimental Covid-19 vaccines to people including state employees, international students and essential workers heading abroad since July. 

‘Sinopharm's chairman told media this week that nearly a million people have now received their vaccine for emergency use, though he did not provide a specific figure. "We have not received a single report of severe adverse reaction, and only a few had some mild symptoms," Mr Liu Jingzhen said in an interview re-published by the state-owned firm on Wednesday (Nov 18).’

Read here (Straits Times, Nov 20, 2020)

WHO advises against remdesivir for COVID-19 treatment

‘The anti-viral drug remdesivir should not be used to treat COVID-19 patients no matter how severe their illness as it has "no important effect" on survival chances, the World Health Organization said on Friday (Nov 20).

‘Scratching one of the few treatments that had shown some initial promise in severe patients, a WHO Guideline Development Group (GDG) of international experts said there was "no evidence based on currently available data that it does improve patient-important outcomes".’

Read here (Channel News Asia, Nov 20, 2020) 

Evaluating Covid risk on planes, trains and automobiles

‘Many transit companies have established frequent cleaning routines, but evidence suggests that airborne transmission of the novel coronavirus poses a greater danger than surfaces. The virus is thought to be spread primarily by small droplets, called aerosols, that hang in the air and larger droplets that fall to the ground within six feet or so. Although no mode of public transportation is completely safe, there are some concrete ways to reduce risk, whether on an airplane, train or bus—or even in a shared car.’

Read here (Scientific American, Nov 19, 2020)

Three Australian kids baffle doctors after developing Covid antibodies without ever testing positive: Study published in Nature Communications

‘The kids – aged six, seven and nine – took the COVID-19 test and the results were negative. “It was jaw-droppingly amazing because they'd spent a week and a half with us while we were COVID-positive,” added the mother. While two kids had mild symptoms, one daughter remained completely asymptomatic. They were tested again, just to get negative results. This continued for several weeks, until everyone in the family tested negative.

‘What surprised the doctors was when the results came negative despite the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests of the kids showing antibodies of Sars-CoV-2. This definitely caused curiosity as the kids never tested positive for the virus. While the researchers are keen to do a further study on the immune response of the kids, paediatrician Shidan Tosif from the University of Melbourne said, “The fact these children were able to shut down the virus and without even showing a positive test result suggests they have some level of their immune system which is able to respond and deal effectively with the virus, without them ever becoming very unwell.”

Read here (Yahoo News, Nov 19, 2020)  

The end of the pandemic is now in sight

‘Both vaccines, from Moderna and from Pfizer’s collaboration with the smaller German company BioNTech, package slightly modified spike-protein mRNA inside a tiny protective bubble of fat. Human cells take up this bubble and simply follow the directions to make spike protein. The cells then display these spike proteins, presenting them as strange baubles to the immune system. Recognizing these viral proteins as foreign, the immune system begins building an arsenal to prepare for the moment a virus bearing this spike protein appears... This overall process mimics the steps of infection better than some traditional vaccines, which suggests that mRNA vaccines may provoke a better immune response for certain diseases...

‘All of this is how mRNA vaccines should work in theory. But no one on Earth, until last week, knew whether mRNA vaccines actually do work in humans for COVID-19. Although scientists had prototyped other mRNA vaccines before the pandemic, the technology was still new. None had been put through the paces of a large clinical trial. And the human immune system is notoriously complicated and unpredictable. Immunology is, as my colleague Ed Yong has written, where intuition goes to die. Vaccines can even make diseases more severe, rather than less. The data from these large clinical trials from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are the first, real-world proof that mRNA vaccines protect against disease as expected. The hope, in the many years when mRNA vaccine research flew under the radar, was that the technology would deliver results quickly in a pandemic. And now it has.’

Read here (The Atlantic, Nov 19, 2020)

Sinopharm JVCo to sponsor 10,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine for Malaysian frontliners

‘China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), through GI Healthcare Resources Sdn Bhd — a joint-venture company (JVCo) with local investors — has agreed to sponsor 10,000 doses of the former's Covid-19 vaccine for Malaysian frontliners.

‘The sponsorship was agreed upon yesterday via a meeting between Malaysian officials, led by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin and Health Minister Datuk Dr Adham Baba, and Sinopharm's chairman Liu Jingzhen via video conferencing.’

Read here (The Edge, Nov 19, 2020)

US states that imposed few restrictions now have the worst outbreaks

‘Coronavirus cases are rising in almost every U.S. state. But the surge is worst now in places where leaders neglected to keep up forceful virus containment efforts or failed to implement basic measures like mask mandates in the first place, according to a New York Times analysis of data from the University of Oxford. Using an index that tracks policy responses to the pandemic, these charts show the number of new virus cases and hospitalizations in each state relative to the state’s recent containment measures.’

Read here (New York Times, Nov 18, 2020)

The Delinquent Dozen of pandemic profiteers -- A report on billionaire wealth versus community health

‘There are few stories more sordid than the surging wealth gains of the world’s billionaire class during a pandemic when so many have lost their lives, health, and livelihoods. A handful of billionaires and corporations have seen their wealth surge to record levels, in part as a result of their monopoly status and opportunism during the pandemic...

‘Meanwhile, private equity firms have bought up essential businesses in the health care, grocery, and pet care industries, only to aggressively cut costs, skimp on worker safety, and load companies up with debt to boost their own profits. Hundreds of thousands of essential workers employed by these companies have remained vulnerable and exposed. These frontline workers risk their lives every day to do the work that increases already obscene corporate wealth.

‘This report focuses on a list of 12 emblematic bad actors. We call them the Delinquent Dozen — corporations that should do significantly more to protect their workers as their owners and executives continue to reap billions.’

Read here (Inequality.org, Nov 18, 2020)

China insists coronavirus can be imported through food, the world disagrees

‘There have been sporadic outbreaks across China, mostly linked to workers dealing with cold-chain imported food. The country said last week that it would ban food imports from countries with coronavirus outbreaks in their production facilities, or whose products were found to contain traces of the virus. Trade partners have bristled at the restrictions targeted at preventing imports of the virus, but China's severe measures should not be hastily written off: its travel bans and mandatory mask-wearing efforts earlier this year have proven prescient.’

Read here (Straits Times, Nov 18, 2020)

What history can teach us about the post-Covid economy (Morningstar, Nov 17, 2020)

‘To investigate the means through which these shifts could happen—and the likelihood that they will—we identified three main ways the coronavirus could shape the economy long after the pandemic has subsided:

• Habits could evolve, causing lasting change in consumer behavior. As an example of the impact of habits, consider the rise of recycling in the United States over the past several decades. This shift was due in part to the advent of Earth Day in 1970 and the nationwide campaign encouraging Americans to "reduce, reuse, recycle." The Environmental Protection Agency reported that 34.7% of municipal solid waste was recycled in 2015, as compared with 6.6% in 1970.
• Fear can make consumers reluctant to engage in certain activities—in this case, fear of the next pandemic (including a COVID-19 resurgence). An instance where fear led to consumer shifts is when research in the 1960s demonstrated the health risks of smoking cigarettes. This led to a permanent reduction in cigarette sales—approximately 42% of U.S. adults smoked in 1964, compared with approximately 19% in 2011.
• Sunk costs, or costs that have already been incurred and cannot be recouped, could change the long-term plans of consumers and firms. A classic example of sunk costs is the Concorde. British and French manufacturers poured such exorbitant sums into developing the aircraft in the 1950s and 1960s that the jet never became profitable over the decades it was commercially available. (This was such a notorious incident that the sunk-cost fallacy is sometimes also referred to as the Concorde fallacy.)

Read here (Morningstar, Nov 17, 2020)

FDA authorises first at-home coronavirus test

‘The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the first prescription at-home coronavirus test, in a long-awaited milestone. The test, developed by Lucira Health, can be used by people who are at least 14 years old when their health provider suspects they have Covid-19, the FDA said late Tuesday. The test can be used on younger people, but in that case a health care provider must collect the sample.

‘The test involves swabbing the inside of the nose, placing the swab in a vial and swirling it before putting the vial in a "test unit." The process gives results in 30 minutes or less. FDA medical device director Jeff Shuren said the test, which can be fully run outside a lab or health care settings, represents a significant step forward.’

Read here (Politico, Nov 17, 2020)

Vaccine rollout could cause US dollar to fall 20% in 2021: Citi

‘The widespread distribution of vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing monetary easing could cause the U.S. dollar to weaken as much as 20% next year, Citibank said on Monday. “When viable, widely distributed vaccines hit the market, we believe that this will catalyze the next leg lower in the structural USD downtrend we expect,” the U.S. bank said in a research note.’

Read here (Reuters, Nov 17, 2020)

Is the new Covid vaccine our way back to normality? - Video explainer by The Guardian

‘The news this week that the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine was effective on more than 90% of trial recipients is of huge importance. The efficacy is significantly higher than hoped for and so far there appear to be no safety concerns.

‘The Guardian's health editor, Sarah Boseley, explains that, while this is a major breakthrough, there are still several hurdles to overcome, and restrictions, such as wearing masks, social distancing and remote working, must remain in place for the time being.’

View here (The Guardian, Nov 13, 2020)

Hopes of Covid vaccine for more than 1bn people by end of 2021

‘More than 1 billion people could be immunised against coronavirus by the end of next year with shots from the first two companies to reveal positive results, after the latest vaccine was shown to be nearly 95% effective in trials. The inclusion of high-risk and elderly people in the Moderna trial suggested the vaccine would protect those most vulnerable to the disease, said Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, who described the results as “tremendously exciting”.

‘Though it is more expensive, Moderna’s vaccine could potentially provide a major advantage over Pfizer’s, which requires ultracold freezing between -70C (-94F) and -80C from production facility to patient. Moderna said it had improved the shelf life and stability, meaning its vaccine can be stored for six months at -20C for shipping and long-term storage, and at standard refrigeration temperatures of 2C to 8C for 30 days.’

Read here (The Guardian, Nov 16, 2020)

Covid-19 was present in Italy as early as SEPTEMBER 2019, study of lung cancer screenings shows

‘The Covid-19 virus had been active in Italy months before it was first officially detected, new research has found, raising further questions about the true origins, extent and actual duration of the ongoing pandemic. The new groundbreaking study, conducted by scientists with Milan Institute of Cancer and the University of Siena, was published this week by the Tumori Journal. The research is based on the analysis of blood samples from 959 people, collected during lung cancer screening tests conducted between September 2019 and March 2020.

‘More than 11 percent of the tested – 111 people – turned out to have had coronavirus-specific antibodies. All the tested people were asymptomatic and were not showing any signs of the disease. Some 23 of the positive results date back to September 2019, suggesting that the virus was actually present in the country as early as during last summer – some six months before the pandemic ‘began’ and ‘reached’ Italy.

‘The new research is poking new holes in the already well-battered belief that the novel coronavirus emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan around December 2019 and that it turned into pandemic in January 2020. The data from Italian researchers is particularly valuable, as it’s based on actual blood samples, as compared to the earlier, less conclusive findings that also suggested that the established pandemic timeline could be wrong.’

Read here (RT, Nov 15, 2020)

Movement control orders are not the way to defeat Covid-19: Academy of Professors Malaysia (APM)

Here are their suggestions in seven parts:

1. Red Zones with more than 40 new daily cases should continue to be under EMCO, but the rest of the country should return to RMCO. Perhaps these acronyms could best be replaced with number codes in order to avoid the misconceptions.
2. The continued detection of localised outbreaks (clusters) should continue. However, since the Covid-19 infection survival rate is 99.9 per cent for healthy people under 70, to achieve an optimal balance between health, social wellbeing, and the economy, the emphasis should be on "focused protection" and "targeted approach" for those at risk while allowing the less vulnerable to work and go to school. (a) Young and healthy adults and children above the age of 12 should be allowed to go back to school and work. (b) People with co-morbidities regardless of age and the elderly should stay at home. (c) People who go to work and school should be taught how to clean themselves and how to approach vulnerable family members when they return home. These measures should be taught on media, at the workplace and at school.
3. As advocated earlier, people should be taught and continually reminded about carrying out the responsibility of protecting themselves against Covid-19 by practicing the 3W and 3C as the daily norms. The public should also be educated on the level of risk of getting an infection from activities so as to avoid the activities that are high risk, for example avoiding bars, indoor close contact, meetings and parties, eating in crowded indoor restaurants, etc. Activities outside, with physical distancing, is generally low risk and since we need the sun to produce Vitamin D, exercising outside should be encouraged.
4. That the SOPs need to be well defined, complete and accurate to avoid confusion. For instance, the misunderstanding on the usage of masks during fuelling at petrol stations, and the restriction of travelling together and eating at a table in restaurants, while the group may be from the same household, hence sharing the same living environment and air. Such restrictions may further increase the risk of depression, lethargy, and family discord of being cooped up for too long.
5. That nutritional education on the right food would assist the development of a stronger immune system. Get nutritionists and dieticians on board in the media to tell people what to eat, how to prepare and cook and when to eat is as important as showing people how to exercise in the mornings.
6. The creation of platforms for people with mental health issues to reach out to either at the university, healthcare, organisational or even individual level and if possible make it free so that anyone can get help when needed.
7. That the message of keeping the vulnerable and high risk groups safe should be constantly reaffirmed and resonated to the public via media and to communities. It is important to make sure that people above 70 and anyone who has chronic diseases do not get infected.

Read here (New Straits Times, Nov 14, 2020)

Modelling suggests Covid-19 cases to rise steadily unless more is done

‘The number of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia is expected to rise steadily over the next four weeks unless stronger interventions are introduced to curtail its spread, according to projections by Imperial College London’s MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis.

‘Its model estimated that the number of Covid-19 infections in Malaysia is projected to increase steadily to about 7,467 infections per day by Dec 8 if no new measures are introduced to curb its spread. It also projected there would be about 16 Covid-19 deaths per day.

‘This is an increase from the model’s estimate of 4,413 infections per day as of Nov 10. The figure is vastly different from the official tally of 869 confirmed cases that day due to the model’s particular approach to account for underreporting of Covid-19 cases.’

Read here (Malaysiakini, Nov 14, 2020)

The Chinese model against Covid-19: A total war of the people, for the people, by the people

‘Wang Hui, an intellectual leader of the so-called New Left movement, offers an interesting alternative explanation [on China's Covid response]... Wang, by the way, is quite well-known among China specialists in the West. Harvard University Press is scheduled to publish an English edition of his multivolume The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought.

‘...he argued that Beijing utilised the old Maoist-Leninist models of the people’s war and total war, to mobilise the entire nation – horizontally across the medical and scientific professions, and up and down the ranks from the top Chinese leadership to humblest local neighbourhood units. Everything was put on hold, even the all-important economy, while the nation’s resources were devoted to a single task.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, Nov 13, 2020) 

World's top intensive care body advises against remdesivir for sickest Covid patients

‘Antiviral remdesivir should not be used as a routine treatment for COVID-19 patients in critical care wards, the head of one of the world's top bodies representing intensive care doctors said, in a blow to the drug developed by U.S. firm Gilead GILD.O.

‘Remdesivir, also known as Veklury, and steroid dexamethasone are the only drugs authorised to treat COVID-19 patients across the world. But the largest study on remdesivir’s efficacy, run by the World Health Organization (WHO), showed on Oct. 15 it had little or no impact, contradicting previous trials.

‘In light of the new interim data from the WHO’s Solidarity trial “remdesivir is now classified as a drug you should not use routinely in COVID-19 patients,” the President of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), Jozef Kesecioglu, said in an interview with Reuters.’

Read here (Reuters, Nov 13, 2020) 

WHO-backed probes move forward to try to shed light on early days of coronavirus

‘Among the work laid out is further investigation into wild animals traded at Wuhan’s Huanan market, where a number of the first known patients worked and shopped. The virus is believed to have originated in bats before passing to humans, likely through an intermediary animal, but it remains unclear whether this crossover happened at the market or outside it, according to the WHO. So far that market has proved a dead-end for animal clues: of the 336 samples from “frozen animal carcasses” that were tested in the market, none were positive for the virus, according to the November 5 report, which updated known figures on animal sampling.

‘Other research will involve looking back before December 2019 to review hospital records, death registers and disease surveillance data, and test stored blood samples to find any cases that appeared before those that are already known. Unpublished government records obtained by the South China Morning Post indicated that Covid-19 cases were identified in Hubei province as early as November 17.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, Nov 13, 2020) 

Covid-19: Politicisation, “corruption,” and suppression of science

‘When good science is suppressed by the medical-political complex, people die

‘Politicians and governments are suppressing science. They do so in the public interest, they say, to accelerate availability of diagnostics and treatments. They do so to support innovation, to bring products to market at unprecedented speed. Both of these reasons are partly plausible; the greatest deceptions are founded in a grain of truth. But the underlying behaviour is troubling.

‘Science is being suppressed for political and financial gain. Covid-19 has unleashed state corruption on a grand scale, and it is harmful to public health. Politicians and industry are responsible for this opportunistic embezzlement. So too are scientists and health experts. The pandemic has revealed how the medical-political complex can be manipulated in an emergency—a time when it is even more important to safeguard science.’

Read here (BMJ, Nov 13, 2020)

‘No one is listening to us’

‘More people than ever are hospitalised with COVID-19. Health-care workers can’t go on like this...

‘For many health-care workers, the toll of the pandemic goes beyond physical exhaustion. COVID-19 has eaten away at the emotional core of their work. “To be a nurse, you really have to care about people,” Neville said. But when an ICU is packed with COVID-19 patients, most of whom are likely to die, “to protect yourself, you just shut down. You get to the point when you realise that you’ve become a machine. There’s only so many bags you can zip.”...

‘As hard as the work fatigue is, the “societal fatigue” is harder, said Hatton, the Utah pulmonary specialist. He is tired of walking out of an ICU where COVID-19 has killed another patient, and walking into a grocery store where he hears people saying it doesn’t exist. Health-care workers and public-health officials have received threats and abusive messages accusing them of fearmongering. They’ve watched as friends have adopted Donald Trump’s lies about doctors juking the hospitalization numbers to get more money. They’ve pleaded with family members to wear masks and physically distance, lest they end up competing for ICU beds that no longer exist. “Nurses have been the most trusted profession for 18 years in a row, which is now bullshit because no one is listening to us,” Neville said.’

Read here (The Atlantic, Nov 13, 2020)

‘Lean into loneliness like it is holding you’ – A poetic reflection on life in lockdown

‘The audiovisual poem How to Be Alone (2010) was a viral hit for the Canadian musician and poet Tanya Davis and the Canadian filmmaker Andrea Dorfman. Their sequel How to Be at Home updates the original for our age of COVID-19 lockdown, pairing Dorfman’s charming animations – a distinctive melding of stop-motion and illustration – with Davis’s lyrical musings on the isolation that she and much of the rest of the world has endured over the past eight months. The resulting short is an artful – and, depending on your current degree of solitude, perhaps cathartic – meditation on the many conflicting emotions inspired by being forced to spend time at home during a crisis.’

View here (Aeon, Nov 12, 2020)

Early and systematic tracking of high-risk contacts helped Uttar Pradesh step up the fight against Covid-19

‘The state of Uttar Pradesh continues to be one of the high-burden states and reported 474 054 cases and 6940 fatalities as of 27 October 2020. Being the most populous state of India, with a population of more than 199 812 341 (as per 2011 census), its fight against COVID-19 has been particularly challenging. When the cases surged post lifting of restrictions, as part of its surveillance response activities with support from WHO, the state government put in place a mechanism to evaluate the status and quality of contact tracing to guide policy level decision making for an informed public health response.

‘The World Health Organization (WHO)- National Public Health Surveillance Project (NPSP) team of medical officers along with 800 field monitors undertook a massive exercise to assess the status and quality of contact tracing amongst the 58 000 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 75 districts across the state during two weeks from 01-14 August 2020...

‘This massive effort led to identification of several cases that would not have been otherwise detected and helped in containing the further spread of the disease. Quality assessment exercise also enabled improved data collection and allowed authorities to make evidence-based decisions on containment measures. The government also deployed more teams to strengthen surveillance activities in districts with high-case load.

‘Acknowledging the key role of contact tracing as an essential public health tool for controlling disease outbreaks, Dr Roderico Ofrin, WHO Country Representative to India shares that systematic tracking of contacts through a proper mechanism is key, along with a well-trained health workforce to implement the surveillance activities.

“The UP government’s strategic response to COVID-19 by stepping up contact tracing efforts is exemplary and can serve as a good example for other states”, he adds.’

Read here (WHO, Nov 12, 2020)

Even with a vaccine, Covid-19 will last for years in the US, expert says

‘I think, even if the vaccine or several vaccines are invented in the next few months, which is likely, we still have challenges in manufacturing, distributing and persuading the public to accept the vaccine. And those challenges will take about a year. And, meanwhile, the virus is still spreading, and it will continue to spread until we reach a threshold of about 40 to 50 percent of Americans who are infected. Right now, we're only at about 10 percent. That threshold is known as the herd immunity threshold.

‘So, that will take us into 2022. So, from my perspective, the first period during which we're confronting the biological and epidemiological impact of the virus, and we're living in a changed world, wearing masks, physical distancing, school closures, and so on, will last until sometime in 2022. And then we're going to begin a second period, when we are recovering from the psychological, social and economic shock of the virus. And this has been seen for thousands of years with other epidemics. And that will take a couple of years for us to rebuild our economy and recover.

‘And so, sometime in 2024, I think, life will slowly begin to return to normal, with some persistent changes.’

Read here (PBS News Hour, Nov 12, 2020)

One in 5 Covid-19 survivors will develop mental illness, a new study found—So we asked an expert why

‘Covid-19 is an infectious disease that causes respiratory illness, but its effects can go way beyond that. A large study from Oxford University in the UK found that survivors are at a higher risk of developing mental illness, such as anxiety and depression. They are also more likely to develop dementia, according to the research, which was published in The Lancet Psychiatry on November 9.

‘The researchers analyzed electronic health records of 69 million people in the US, including more than 62,000 people who had COVID-19. They found that 20% of those infected with the coronavirus were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within 90 days—about twice as likely as for other groups of patients with other illnesses in the same time frame.’

Read here (Health, Nov 11, 2020)

Stanford study suggests indoor dining presents huge Covid-19 infection risk

‘According to the New York Times, the study followed the movement of 98 million people to and from indoor public spaces, then calculated traffic to each spot visited as well as how long people stay and each venue’s square footage. Using the area’s infection rate, they then used “standard infectious disease assumptions” to determine how the illness spread across cities.

‘Stanford computer scientist Jure Leskovec, the senior author of the report, tells the Times that “restaurants were by far the riskiest places” for new infections, “about four times riskier than gyms and coffee shops, followed by hotels,” he says. It’s news that jibes with another recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which said in September that a study of adults across 11 U.S. cities who tested positive for the novel coronavirus were twice as likely to have dined out within the last two weeks than those who tested negative.’

Read here (Eater San Francisco, Nov 11, 2020)

Breaking down Moderna’s Covid-19 patent pledge: Why did they do it?

‘Last month, Moderna Therapeutics, one of the global leaders in the race to produce a COVID-19 vaccine using mRNA, made the following statement regarding enforcement of its patents: “We feel a special obligation under the current circumstances to use our resources to bring this pandemic to an end as quickly as possible. Accordingly, while the pandemic continues, Moderna will not enforce our COVID-19 related patents against those making vaccines intended to combat the pandemic. Further, to eliminate any perceived IP barriers to vaccine development during the pandemic period, upon request we are also willing to license our intellectual property for COVID-19 vaccines to others for the post pandemic period.”

‘This post examines why Moderna made this patent pledge by examining its mRNA technology, go-to-market status, patent landscape, and market position.’

Read here (IP Watchdog, Nov 11, 2020)

Covid outbreak data on US carrier shows a plethora of initial symptoms among the symptomatic, only 5.3% fever : NEJM

‘Among the crew members who had symptomatic Covid-19 (confirmed or suspected), headache was the most common symptom reported at any point during illness (occurring in 68.0%), followed by cough (59.5%), nasal or sinus congestion (43.8%), and altered sense of taste or smell (42.3%) (Figure 3). The predominant symptoms reported at the onset of illness were cough (32.8%), headache (31.0%), and altered sense of taste or smell (24.1%). Shortness of breath at any point during illness was reported by 20.3% of the crew members with symptomatic cases, and 7.0% noted shortness of breath as an initial presenting symptom. In addition, 26.2% of the crew members with symptomatic Covid-19 reported chest pain or chest pressure at some point during their illness. Fever was reported as an initial presenting symptom by 5.3% of the crew members with symptomatic Covid-19, and fever at any point during illness was reported by 13.2%. Measured temperature readings showed that 2.8% of the crew members who had Covid-19 had a recorded temperature of 100.0°F or above, as compared with 0.3% of the crew members who did not have Covid-19. Among the crew members with Covid-19 for whom pulse oximetry data were available, approximately 0.5% had readings below 95% while breathing ambient air, with 0.08% below 94% and none below 90%.’

Read here (New England Journal of Medicine, Nov 11, 2020) 

How Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine could be cold comfort for some Asian nations

‘With tropical heat, remote island communities and a dearth of ultra-cold freezers, many Asian countries aren't betting on Pfizer's experimental vaccine solving their COVID-19 crisis any time soon. The world cheered on Monday (Nov 9) when Pfizer announced its shot, jointly developed with BioNTech SE, was more than 90 per cent effective based on initial trial results. Yet health experts cautioned that the vaccine, should it be approved, was no silver bullet - not least because the genetic material it's made from needs to be stored at temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius or below.’

Read here (Channel News Asia, Nov 10, 2020) 

Who are the candidates in the Covid-19 vaccine race?

‘Almost 200 Covid-19 vaccine candidates are being studied by scientists around the world. Of these, 44 are already in clinical trials, which means they are being tested on humans. The Straits Times highlights some of the prominent candidates in the Covid-19 vaccine race.’

Read here (Straits Times, Nov 10, 2020)

How Trump sold failure to 70 million people

‘The president convinced many voters that his response to the pandemic was not a disaster. The psychology of medical fraud is simple, timeless, and tragic... The narratives and tactics Trump used to persuade people to trust him as a sole beacon of truth—amid a sea of corrupt, lying scientists and doctors—draw on those of cult leaders, self-proclaimed healers, and wellness charlatans as much as those of authoritarian demagogues. They have proved effective over centuries...

“Reason is not involved in the process.” The draw is the personality of the healer, and “subsequent success is ensured by mass suggestion.”... If the nation’s public-health and scientific communities assume that the appeal of a quack was some transient aberration—something that will end when Trump is out of office, and that can be remedied with yet more facts—then the Biden administration will fail to reach millions of Americans, no matter how soundly it recites statistics. Its warnings and mandates will go unheeded and become fodder for charismatic outsiders who tell people what they want to hear...

‘There are ways to serve as a confident, optimistic leader without making up nonsensical promises. Hope can be conferred with promises to take care of people, and to be there for them. Reassurance can be offered by guaranteeing that no one will go into debt because they had to go to the hospital, and that people will have paid sick leave and job security so they can stay at home when necessary. If the public-health community does not do more to give people hope and reassurance in the face of this disaster, it will see people defect to those who will—even when they know the promises are too good to be true.’

Read here (The Atlantic, Nov 10, 2020)

Independent UN experts decry Covid vaccine hoarding: ‘No one is secure until all of us are secure’

‘The only way to fight the COVID-19 crisis is to make affordable vaccines available to everyone, independent UN human rights experts said on Monday, underscoring that in an interconnected and interdependent world, “no one is secure until all of us are secure”...  “This pandemic, with its global scale and enormous human cost, with no clear end in sight, requires a concerted, human-rights based and courageous response from all States”, four UN experts together with members of a human rights working group said in a statement on universal access to vaccines.’

Read here (UN News, Nov 9, 2020)

First ‘milestone’ vaccine offers 90% protection

‘The first effective coronavirus vaccine can prevent more than 90% of people from getting Covid-19, a preliminary analysis shows. The developers - Pfizer and BioNTech - described it as a "great day for science and humanity". Their vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries and no safety concerns have been raised. The companies plan to apply for emergency approval to use the vaccine by the end of the month.’

Read here (BBC, Nov 9, 2020) 

Could a cheap iodine mouthwash really help to beat Covid?

‘We all probably have a sense-memory of iodine: the blood-like drop to purify a camping can of stream-water or the inky dab with which your grandmother stained your grazed knee. It feels like an old-fashioned, primitive home remedy, yet could it also be an intriguing new weapon against our most modern threat: coronavirus?

‘One of the world’s leading authorities on infection in the mouth and nose believes the answer is yes. Stephen Challacombe is a professor of oral medicine at King’s College London, with a specialism in the immunology of the mucous membranes. His decades of experience meant that when the pandemic hit, his mind went immediately to one — literal — solution. Iodine mouthwash. “Yes. I have no doubt that this should be used,” Challacombe says, “and had it been, it would have saved lives.”

‘Bottles of this form of iodine, called povidone-iodine, also known by the most common brand Betadine, used to be on sale in British chemists, before the public began to favour fluoride rinses. It is still popular as a sore-throat gargle in many European countries, America, Australia and Far East countries such as Japan. When the pandemic struck, Challacombe and his colleagues wrote to the British Dental Journal reminding the scientific world of its potential.’

Read here (King's College Journal, Nov 9, 2020)

How Biden plans to change the US pandemic response

‘President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris say they will move the US Covid-19 pandemic response in a dramatically different direction... Here are five ways Biden says the US coronavirus response will change when he's President. (1) Increased testing and contact tracing. (2) Additional investment in vaccines and treatments. (3) Mandatory masks and more PPE. (4) A push for 'clear, consistent, evidence-based guidance'. (5) Rejoining WHO and searching for future threats.

‘There were dauntingly high new case numbers last week, and by the time Biden takes office January 20, the influential University of Washington Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation model projects there will be more than 372,000 Covid-19 deaths -- that's 135,000 more than the current total...’

Read here (CNN, Nov 9, 2020)

‘Mutant coronavirus’ seen before on mink farms, say scientists

‘The coronavirus mutation causing concern in Denmark has arisen before in mink, scientists have revealed. The mutated virus has been detected retrospectively in mink at a farm in the Netherlands, but it did not spread to humans, said a leading Dutch expert...

‘The genetic data from Denmark was released on an international database a few days ago, with some scientists questioning why it had not been released sooner. "I think that it is most disappointing that the data have only just reached the light of day," said Prof James Wood, head of the department of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge, UK...

‘Six countries have reported coronavirus outbreaks at mink farms: the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Italy and the US.’

Read here (BBC, Nov 9, 2020)

Coronavirus: The Swiss Cheese Strategy -- Tomas Pueyo

‘There are the four layers to stop the spread of the virus: Fences, Bubbles, Contrafection, and Test-Trace-Isolate. None of them is perfect. All have holes that let infections pass. But together they form an impenetrable defence.

‘An infection might be able to pass one layer, or even two. But if there are several, the odds that the infection goes through every layer undetected becomes minuscule. Imagine, for example, that a country has a Fence that catches 80% of infections, no Social Bubbles, Reduced Contagiousness that eliminates 95% of infections, and a test-trace-isolate that neutralizes 50% of infections. Together, these layers catch 99.5% of cases. If the transmission rate R is 3 (the number of people infected by a source), it will be reduced to 0.015! Every infected person only infects an additional 0.015 people, killing the epidemic within a few weeks.’

Also...

• How the US and the EU failed to control the virus, and how comparable countries succeeded.
• How you can make sense of all the necessary measures with one simple idea.
• Why the West’s testing and contact tracing is largely useless — and what they can do about it.
• The questions that journalists and the People must ask politicians to keep them accountable.
• How you can stop the virus in your own community, without the need of your government.

Read here (Medium, Nov 9, 2020) 

Memo for President Biden: Five steps to getting more from science

‘The list of needed actions is long, but here we highlight five that the Biden administration should take swiftly. We call not for a return to business as usual but for fundamental, sometimes counter-intuitive changes that will strengthen the use of science in US policy and by the research community more broadly... (1) Let an oft-overlooked White House office [Office of Science and Technology Policy] lead the pandemic response. (2) Make advisory processes more independent. (3) Expedite scientific-integrity legislation.  (4) Give public universities tough love and lots of support. (5) Refocus science funding.

Read here (Nature, Nov 8, 2020)

Counties with worst virus surges overwhelmingly voted Trump

‘US voters went to the polls starkly divided on how they see President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. But in places where the virus is most rampant now, Trump enjoyed enormous support. An Associated Press analysis reveals that in 376 counties with the highest number of new cases per capita, the overwhelming majority — 93% of those counties — went for Trump, a rate above other less severely hit areas.

‘The US broke another record in the 7-day rolling average for daily new cases, hitting nearly 90,000. The tally for new cases Thursday was on track for another day above 100,000, with massive numbers reported all around the country, including a combined nearly 25,000 in Texas, Illinois and Florida. Iowa and Indiana each reported more than 4,000 cases as well.

‘Thirty-six percent of Trump voters described the pandemic as completely or mostly under control, and another 47% said it was somewhat under control, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 110,000 voters conducted for the AP by NORC at the University of Chicago. Meanwhile, 82% of Biden voters said the pandemic is not at all under control.

‘The pandemic was considered at least somewhat under control by slim majorities of voters in many red states, including Alabama (60%), Missouri (54%), Mississippi (58%), Kentucky (55%), Texas (55%), Tennessee (56%) and South Carolina (56%).’

Read here (AP, Nov 6, 2020) 

India tops global survey on Covid-19 vaccination intent; rising hesitancy in many other countries

‘Indians are the keenest on getting vaccinated whenever a Covid-19 vaccine is available, even as people in 10 out of 15 countries showed a growing reluctance about getting vaccinated, according to a global survey. 

‘In the World Economic Forum/Ipsos survey of 18,526 adults from 15 countries, 73 per cent said they would get a Covid-19 vaccine if available, down from 77 per cent in August. While vaccination intent has remained unchanged at 87 per cent in India since August, it has declined in 10 of the 15 countries surveyed, most of all in China, Australia, Spain, and Brazil.

‘Globally, the two main reasons for not wanting to get a Covid-19 vaccine are concerns about side effects (cited by 34 per cent) and concerns about clinical trials moving too fast (cited by another 33 per cent). In India also, 34 per cent respondents.’

Read here (Deccan Herald, Nov 6, 2020)

Covid-19 a ‘perfect storm’ for organ trafficking victims

‘Fewer transplants means a huge unmet demand for organs... Rising inequality pushing disadvantaged to take desperate measures... Social media facilitates trade’

Read here (SciDev, Nov 5, 2020)

China seeks to flip the script on Covid blame game

‘Chinese state media is advancing a possible alternative explanation for the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, one that claims that the contagion may have first arrived in China from abroad in imported frozen foods. Chinese officials quoted in the reports suggest  “cold chain food contamination” could debunk the widely held belief that the novel coronavirus first emerged from a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, from where it reputedly made its lethal global spread.’  

Read here (Asia Times, Nov 4, 2020) 

Denmark to cull millions of minks over mutated coronavirus

‘Denmark, the world's biggest producer of mink fur, said Wednesday it would cull all of the country's minks after a mutated version of the new coronavirus was detected at its mink farms and had spread to people. The mutation "could pose a risk that future (coronavirus) vaccines won't work the way they should," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a press conference, adding: "It is necessary to cull all the minks."

“The mutated virus could thereby have serious negative consequences for the whole world’s response to the ongoing pandemic,” she said. Danish police estimated that between 15 and 17 million minks would need to be put down. Twelve people are currently registered as infected with a mutated form of the coronavirus in Denmark, according to news wire Ritzau. The mutated virus is reported to respond weakly to antibodies.’

Read here (The Local, Denmark, Nov 4, 2020)

Lung damage found in Covid dead may shed light on ‘long Covid’: Study

‘A study of the lungs of people who have died from COVID-19 has found persistent and extensive lung damage in most cases and may help doctors understand what is behind a syndrome known as ‘long COVID’, in which patients suffer ongoing symptoms for months. “The findings indicate that COVID-19 is not simply a disease caused by the death of virus-infected cells, but is likely the consequence of these abnormal cells persisting for long periods inside the lungs,” said Mauro Giacca, a professor at King’s College London who co-led the work. In a telephone interview, Giacca said that, while his research team found no overt signs of viral infection or prolonged inflammation in other organs, they discovered “really vast destruction of the architecture of the lungs”, with healthy tissue “almost completely substituted by scar tissue”.

Read here (Reuters, Nov 4, 2020)

The wisdom of pandemics

‘Viruses are active agents, existing within rich lifeworlds. A safe future depends on understanding this evolutionary story...

‘Researchers since then have uncovered evidence that pathogens exert ‘the strongest selective pressure to drive the evolution of modern humans’. Among the drivers, look to evidence that prehistoric pandemics played a role in selecting for ancestral traits and behaviours that we recognise as human today. Scientists following another thread in this evolutionary narrative describe viral nucleic acids insinuating themselves into our genetic codes. The biologist David Enard at Stanford University in California and colleagues have concluded that ‘viruses are one of the most dominant drivers of evolutionary change across mammalian and human proteomes’...

‘As we become more deft at exploring the nested, dynamically complex relationships among viruses, bacteria, fungi and ourselves, we’ll come closer to grasping how pandemics emerge from a rupturing and rearranging of these relationships. From this deep linking of Aion with Chronos, we can already see the outlines of the wisdom that pandemics offer us. What we’re beginning to faintly understand is this: if we wish to survive as a species, we must gather all of our knowledge from multiple perspectives – however fragmented and partial – and actively engage in conversations with the world we inhabit and that gives us life. Only then will we begin to understand ourselves, and live up to our name, the wise ones, Homo sapiens sapiens.’

Read here (Aeon, Nov 3, 2020)

Polls reform panel hails govt review of electoral process for Covid-19 era

‘The Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) today welcomed the government's willingness to review create laws concerning elections during the pandemic. Its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said it is high time a comprehensive review be conducted on existing laws for the electoral process, whether it is for by-elections or for a general election. “This is especially to determine if elections can be suspended in times of crises, including those related to health, public disorder, natural disaster, or in situations which threaten national security,” he said in a statement.’

Read here (Malay Mail, Nov 3, 2020)

Winning trust for a vaccine means confronting medical racism

‘Just about every minority group residing in the United States can point to what feels like a reasonable basis for suspicion. For African Americans, there is not only the notorious Tuskegee study, which withheld syphilis treatment from rural Black men, but also experiments that used enslaved women to perfect surgical techniques and studies that tested new drugs in poor neighbourhoods without adequate consent. The Latino community can point to a syphilis study in Guatemala that was even more unethical than the Tuskegee one, and to pharma companies basing tests of the first versions of birth control pills, which caused significant side effects, in Puerto Rico (and also in Haiti). Attempting to pass smallpox to Native Americans via contaminated blankets is an infamous episode in Colonial-era history, and the US government has underfunded the Indian Health Service since its 1955 founding, depriving reservation dwellers of what should have been guaranteed medical care.’

Read here (Wired, Nov 2, 2020)

Daisy Chain: Can a Cornish town adapt to survive another lockdown?

‘When the remote town of St Just, Cornwall, was locked down in March, the small community worried that its economy wouldn't survive. But one town councillor, Daisy Gibbs, rallied an army of volunteers to form 'the Daisy chain', an informal support network to ensure every household in the district had support. Inspired by her imagination and resilience, filmmaker Sky Neal followed the Daisy Chain for seven months, as local businesses adapted and the community pulled together to realise a more sustainable future. However, as a second wave of restrictions threatens, the town has to dig deep to find the resilience they need to ensure their future. Can they re-invent their local economy to survive and thrive beyond Covid?’

View here (The Guardian, Nov 2, 2020)

Addressing Malaysia’s nutrition crisis post Covid-19: Time for nutrition-focused social protection

• With stunting and wasting at 21.8 and 9.7% respectively in 2019, Malaysia was experiencing a malnutrition crisis even prior to COVID-19.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has directly resulted in a severe economic crisis that will exacerbate food and nutrition insecurity.
• People who are already exposed to critical food and dietary deprivations before COVID-19 are most vulnerable to food insecurity.
• Food and nutrition insecurity are linked to malnutrition, where children in households with food insecurity were more likely to be malnourished.
• Beyond the consequences for individuals and families, food and nutrition insecurity has been linked to long-term economic effects such as higher health care expenditures, lower educational achievement, lost productivity, lower earnings in adulthood and increased risk of poverty later in life.
• Strengthening child-sensitive and nutrition-focused social protection is essential to reducing vulnerability, building resilience, and mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 crisis and should be a top policy priority

Download PDF here (Unicef, Nov 2020)

Covid-19: A global survey shows worrying signs of vaccine hesitancy

‘We [a group of prominent scientists] recently surveyed 13,426 people in 19 countries. We included two of Africa’s most populous and visible nations, Nigeria and South Africa, which are among the most affected by COVID-19 on the continent. Overall, we found that 71.5% of participants said they would take a “proven safe and effective vaccine” while 14% would refuse it outright. An additional 14% said they would hesitate to take the vaccine.

‘But that average figure is deceptive. It was raised by favourable responses from two Asian countries that also recorded very high trust in government health recommendations. More than 80% of Chinese respondents and 75% of South Koreans said they would accept a vaccine. South Africans came closer than any other country to the 70% standard, at almost 65%. But only 46.3% of Nigerians said they would do so. This is slightly higher than the results we found in Spain, Sweden, Poland, Brazil and Ecuador.’

Read here (IPS News, Nov 1, 2020)

Sungai Buloh Hospital Covid-19 team gets global health awards recognition

‘The Covid-19 team at Sungai Buloh Hospital, Selangor has been recognised at the Global Health Awards (GLA) 2020 recently for its unwavering efforts to fight the pandemic. Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah congratulated the head of Sungai Buloh Hospital Infectious Disease Department Dr Suresh Kumar, and Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Department head Dr Shaiful Azman Zakaria, as well as the hospital's Covid-19 team as a whole for the recognition.

‘According to the Global Health Awards website, the regional Asia-Pacific awards aim to recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets that have maintained consistently high standards in delivering quality care and pushed the boundaries of delighting their customers at every stage and in every interaction.’

Read here (Malaysiakini, Nov 1, 2020)

Long-term symptoms of COVID-19 ‘really concerning’, says WHO chief

‘The WHO Director-General described the vast spectrum of COVID-19 symptoms that fluctuate over time as “really concerning.” They range from fatigue, a cough and shortness of breath, to inflammation and injury of major organs – including the lungs and heart, and also neurological and psychologic effects. 

‘Symptoms often overlap and can affect any system in the body. “It is imperative that Governments recognize the long-term effects of COVID-19 and also ensure access to health services to all of these patients,” he said. “This includes primary health care and when needed specialty care and rehabilitation.”

Read here (UN News, Oct 30, 2020)

Taiwan just went 200 days without a locally transmitted Covid-19 case. Here's how they did it

‘As much of the world struggles to contain new waves of the Covid-19 pandemic, Taiwan just marked its 200th consecutive day without a locally transmitted case of the disease. Taipei's response to the coronavirus pandemic has been one of the world's most effective. The island of 23 million people last reported a locally transmitted case on April 12, which was Easter Sunday. As of Thursday, it had confirmed 553 cases -- only 55 of which were local transmissions. Seven deaths have been recorded.’

Read here (CNN, Oct 30, 2020)

Human Rights Watch: “Whoever finds the vaccine must share it” — Strengthening human rights and transparency around Covid-19 vaccines

‘The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that the fates of people all over the world are interconnected: protecting one country’s people and its economy from the impacts a deadly infectious disease is impossible unless the people of other countries are also protected. Governments have a critical role to play in funding efforts to develop safe and effective vaccines. But no amount of funding will guarantee equitable access without decisive collective action and global cooperation to challenge the profit-driven and opaque systems that have determined access to lifesaving treatments and vaccines in the past.

‘Governments should continue to fund Covid-19 vaccines, especially to ensure access for low- and middle-income countries. While doing so, they should take all possible measures, including directing and conditioning funds in ways that are aligned with their human rights obligations to share the benefits of scientific knowledge and its applications widely, and ensure participation, transparency, and accountability in vaccine research, development, and manufacturing.’

Read here (Human Rights Watch, Oct 29, 2020)

Why many white men love Trump’s coronavirus response

‘Some 82 percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s coronavirus response—a higher percentage than before the president was diagnosed with the virus. This is despite the fact that more than 220,000 Americans have died, and virtually every public-health expert, including those who have worked for Republican administrations, says the president has performed abysmally.

‘Experts offer a few different explanations for the spell that Trump has cast over his supporters. The simplest is that Trump voters like Trump, and as is often the case with people we like, he can do no wrong in their eyes. “We might just as easily ask why Trump opponents think he is doing a horrible job with the pandemic,” says Richard Harris, a political scientist at Rutgers University.’ In academic terms, this is called “my-side bias”—objective reality looks different through the lens of your home team...

‘Shana Kushner Gadarian, a political scientist at Syracuse University, pointed out that understanding the failures of Trump’s pandemic response might require intimate knowledge of other countries’ public-health systems—a tall order for the average person...

‘But another prominent scholar of the American right believes Trump support among men, in particular, is rooted in something more psychological. Many white men feel that their gender and race have been vilified, says the sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild. Their economic prospects are bad, and American culture tells them that their gender is too. So they’ve turned to Trump as a type of folk hero, one who can restore their sense of former glory. Exposing themselves and others to the coronavirus is part of that heroism.’

Read here (The Atlantic, Oct 29, 2020) 

Why schools probably aren’t Covid hotspots

‘Data gathered worldwide are increasingly suggesting that schools are not hot spots for coronavirus infections. Despite fears, COVID-19 infections did not surge when schools and day-care centres reopened after pandemic lockdowns eased. And when outbreaks do occur, they mostly result in only a small number of people becoming ill. However, research also shows that children can catch the virus and shed viral particles, and older children are more likely than very young kids to pass it on to others. Scientists say that the reasons for these trends are unclear, but they have policy implications for older children and teachers.’

Read here (Nature, Oct 29, 2020)

NEJM paper on Iceland throws into question Imperial College team results: Antibodies stable after 4 months. Also death rate 0.3%, 44% not diagnosed

‘Our results indicate that antiviral antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 did not decline within 4 months after diagnosis. We estimate that the risk of death from infection was 0.3% and that 44% of persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Iceland were not diagnosed by qPCR.‘

Read here (NEJM, Oct 29, 2020)

Read here the BBC story on Imperial College study that says antibodies drop rapidly  

Artificial intelligence model detects asymptomatic Covid-19 infections through cellphone-recorded coughs

‘In a paper published recently in the IEEE Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology, the [MIT] team reports on an AI model that distinguishes asymptomatic people from healthy individuals through forced-cough recordings, which people voluntarily submitted through web browsers and devices such as cellphones and laptops.

‘The researchers trained the model on tens of thousands of samples of coughs, as well as spoken words. When they fed the model new cough recordings, it accurately identified 98.5 percent of coughs from people who were confirmed to have Covid-19, including 100 percent of coughs from asymptomatics — who reported they did not have symptoms but had tested positive for the virus.’

Read here (MIT News, Oct 29, 2020)

Cate Blanchett: ‘Covid-19 has ravaged the whole idea of small government’

In this extract from her essay collection Upturn, the actor considers the disruptions of the pandemic and the renewed fervour for social and economic justice...

‘For the arts, I fear the good old days of root and soil porous gateway-ism are a thing of the past. The relationship between artist and audience has changed fundamentally. The tools of the future on hand today, from selfies to Zoom, are just awkward attempts to grab back the surface appearance of connectivity. Real connectivity will need to find a new way. The good news is, it will – and it will be fascinating and illuminating and confronting.’

Read here (The Guardian, Oct 29, 2020)

We need fresh ideas to handle the Covid recession — Jeyakumar Devaraj

‘What is the most appropriate budget for Malaysia to navigate the economic recession that the Covid pandemic has precipitated? This is the crucial issue we should be discussing so that appropriate solutions can be found. Each country needs to develop a national consensus on how the finite financial capacity of the nation should be deployed to limit the health and economic fallout of the ongoing pandemic. Unfortunately, we in Malaysia have been distracted by political intrigues for far too long.

‘The PSM would like to share our analysis of the current recession and put forward a set of ideas on how we should tackle the economic fallout of the Covid Pandemic. We need a clear understanding of the situation we are in so that we can plan coherently for the coming year...’ 

The analysis and suggestions come under seven headings:

1. We cannot “talk up” the economy
2. Pumping in more credit into the system is not going to work
3. The government has to take the lead role in managing the economy and protecting the rakyat
4. This is not going to be a V-shaped recession
5. More targeted relief for the poorest families
6. A “Green New Deal” for Malaysia
7. The government should use “debt monetisation” as one of the methods to raise funds for the programs mentioned above.

Read here (The Malay Mail, Oct 28, 2020) 

Antibodies ‘fall rapidly after infection’

‘Levels of protective antibodies in people wane "quite rapidly" after coronavirus infection, say researchers. Antibodies are a key part of our immune defences and stop the virus from getting inside the body's cells. The Imperial College London team found the number of people testing positive for antibodies has fallen by 26% between June and September. They say immunity appears to be fading and there is a risk of catching the virus multiple times. The news comes as figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the number of Covid-19 deaths in the UK rose by 60% in the week of 16 October.’

Read here (BBC, Oct 28, 2020)

Read here NEJM paper on Iceland which throws into question this

It’s hard to enforce pandemic health rules on Halloween. Just look at what happened in 1918

‘Just as the state of the pandemic varied, so too did the precautions that cities took for Halloween. Newspaper articles in the digital archive of the Influenza Encyclopedia, produced by the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, provide a glimpse at the range of Halloween safety protocols in major cities nationwide.

‘One thing they make clear: it’s already hard enough to enforce safety protocols on a day like Halloween, but that challenge gets even more intense during a pandemic.’

Read here (Time, Oct 28, 2020) 

Coronavirus: Fact checks on immunity and related matters

‘A large study out of the UK suggests immunity after a COVID-19 infection reduces fast, especially among older people. This is a quick fact check on the following: (1) How long am I immune after a COVID-19 infection? (2) Why does research on immunity differ? (3) Do people who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection continue to use protective measures? (4) Do some people, who have had a COVID-19 infection, show no immunity?’

Read here (DW, Oct 28, 2020)

A flu shot might reduce coronavirus infections, early research suggests

‘In the new study, Mihai Netea, an infectious disease immunologist at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and his colleagues combed through their hospital’s databases to see if employees who got a flu shot during the 2019–2020 season were more or less likely to get infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. Workers who received a flu vaccine, the researchers found, were 39 percent less likely to test positive for the coronavirus as of June 1, 2020. While 2.23 percent of nonvaccinated employees tested positive, only 1.33 percent of vaccinated ones did. Netea and his team posted their findings on the preprint server MedRxiv on October 16.’

Read here (Scientific American, Oct 27, 2020)

Finance Covid-19 relief and recovery, not debt buybacks

‘In the face of the world’s worst economic contraction since the Great Depression, a sense of urgency has now spread to most national capitals and the Washington-based Bretton Woods institutions. Unless urgently addressed, the massive economic contractions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and policy responses to contain contagion threaten to become depressions.

‘Nevertheless, many long preoccupied with developing countries’ debt burdens and excessive debt insist on using scarce fiscal resources, including donor assistance, to reduce government debt, instead of strengthening fiscal measures for adequate and appropriate relief and recovery measures.

‘Most debt restructuring measures do not address countries’ currently more urgent need to finance adequate and appropriate relief and recovery packages. In the new circumstances, the debt preoccupation, perhaps appropriate previously, has become a problematic distraction, diminishing the ‘fiscal space’ for addressing contagion and its consequences...

‘Despite her earlier reputation as a ‘debt hawk’, new World Bank Chief Economist Carmen Reinhart recognizes the gravity of the situation and recently advised countries to borrow more: “First fight the war, then figure out how to pay for it.” Hence, in these COVID-19 times, donor money would be better utilized to finance relief and recovery, rather than debt buybacks.

‘Multilateral development finance institutions should resume their traditional role of mobilizing funds at minimal cost to finance development, or currently, relief and recovery, by efficiently intermediating on behalf of developing countries. They can borrow at the best available market rates to lend to developing countries which, otherwise, would have to borrow on their own at more onerous rates.’

Read here (IPS News, Oct 17, 2020) 

Back to intensive care, where I notice one major change

‘When I first reported from a Covid intensive care unit in April, I was left haunted by what I'd seen. All but one patient had been on a ventilator, in a medically induced coma. It was eerily quiet, just the rhythmical sound of machines pumping air into lungs.

‘The medical teams were at a loss to know how best to treat a savage condition which was ravaging victims' lungs and other organs. Lives hung in the balance, often for weeks on end. In early April, two out of three ventilated patients did not survive.

‘Today, in this intensive care unit (ICU) at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, only one of the five patients is on a ventilator. The others are sitting up, engaging with the nurses, reading or watching TV.’

Read here (BBC, Oct 27, 2020)

US Covid-19 cases are skyrocketing, but deaths are flat—so far. These 5 charts explain why

 ‘In just the last two weeks, the global daily tally for new COVID-19 cases has jumped more than 30%, according to TIME’s coronavirus tracker, which compiles data from Johns Hopkins University. The steep upward trend is driven by viral waves in Europe and the United States that started in August and mid-September, respectively. On Oct. 23, the daily case count in the U.S. reached a new record high, suggesting that this wave will be worse than the one that swept the country over the summer.

‘But despite this rapid uptick in cases, the daily death count in the U.S. is not yet rising at the same rate, and remains at lower levels than in April. At face value, a lower case-to-fatality rate suggests that fewer people who test positive for the virus are dying from it. But the virus hasn’t necessarily become less lethal; it isn’t mutating quickly enough for that to be the case.

‘What’s happening now is not a result of how the virus treats humans, but rather how humans are treating the virus—that is, how we test for it, how we avoid it and how we combat it. The following five charts explain how human-driven factors are, at least for the moment, keeping deaths from spiking as high as they did early in the pandemic, even as cases rise dramatically...’

Read here (Time, Oct 26, 2020)

Trump team just announced its surrender to the pandemic: Jeffrey Sachs

‘The Trump administration has announced its unconditional surrender to the Covid-19 pandemic. "We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas," White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" on Sunday. Donald Trump has surrendered without ever joining the battle. I have no doubt he will be remembered as the greatest presidential failure in American history...

‘Trump surrounded himself with fools and knaves who echoed his false belief that the choice was Covid versus the economy. This includes three types of advisers who led Trump to his likely imminent political demise and to our nation's mass suffering... The first group were the evangelical preachers who were more interested in packing their pews than in saving their parishioners who caught the disease in their megachurches... The second group was the Murdoch media empire with the "thought leadership" ― if one can call it that ― of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, and the nihilism of Fox News... The third group was those who would stand up and oppose the overwhelming scientific consensus on NPI's, thereby bolstering Trump in his conviction to do nothing.’

Read here (CNN, Oct 26, 2020) 

Coronavirus: How the world of work may change forever

‘More than seven months have passed since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Hundreds of millions of people have lived through lockdowns. Many have made the abrupt shift to working from home; millions have lost jobs. The future looks uncertain. We don't know when, or if, our societies might return to normal – or what kind of scars the pandemic will leave.

‘Amid the upheaval, BBC Worklife spoke to dozens of experts, leaders and professionals across the globe to ask: what are the greatest unknowns we face? How will we work, live and thrive in the post-pandemic future? How is Covid-19 reshaping our world – potentially, forever?

‘We’ll roll out these important views from some of the top minds in business, public health and many other fields in several articles over the next few weeks. We'll hear from people including Melinda Gates on gender equality, Zoom founder Eric Yuan on the future of video calls, Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler on what’s next in travel and Unesco chief Audrey Azoulay on the ethics of artificial intelligence.’

Read here (BBC, as at Oct 26, 2020)

More mass testing in China after 137 Covid-19 cases in Xinjiang: All new cases asymptomatic

‘Mass testing began on Saturday evening to cover 4.75 million residents in and around Kashgar, Xinjiang province, after a 17-year-old garment factory worker tested positive for the virus. The new cases - all asymptomatic - were linked to a factory in Shufu county where the girl and her parents worked, the Xinjiang health commission told a press briefing on Sunday.’

Read here (Channel News Asia, Oct 26, 2020)

China's battle against Covid-19

‘A moving 30-minute feature film [released on the Martin Jacques Youtube channel] about how China fought Covid-19. Mainly filmed in Wuhan, it captures the agony of the city and the heroic efforts of the healthcare workers, both those from Wuhan and those who came from all over to China as volunteers to offer their support.’

View here (Martin Jacques, Oct 25, 2020)

Emerging humanitarian Covid-19 crisis in Sabah: Bridget Welsh & Calvin Cheng

‘Sabah’s Covid-19 situation transcends health. A crucial part of this is recognising the difficult economic circumstances on the ground. Many of these are the product of failings in policy in the past, with the crisis bringing deep vulnerabilities to the surface. Socio-economic conditions are worsening with the lockdown. Even before 2020, Sabah’s economy had been in a tight spot. The state’s relatively high reliance on commodity-related economic activity (roughly half of the Sabah economy in 2019 was derived from commodity agriculture and mining), along with a sizable tourism sector, means that a large share of Sabah’s economy is subject to the whims of the global economy.’

Read here (Malaysiakini, Oct 25, 2020)

Malaysia set for emergency measures to avert snap polls amid Covid-19 pandemic

‘Malaysia's Cabinet was locked in a special meeting on Friday (Oct 23) morning to decide on emergency measures to ensure that the upcoming budget session in Parliament does not result in snap elections amid the resurgent wave of coronavirus infections. Sources with knowledge of these options told The Straits Times that an "economic emergency" could be proclaimed to ensure that government spending to curb Covid-19 - which has seen total cases doubling this month alone - is not jeopardised by an increasingly unstable political atmosphere. "It will not be similar to the curfews and military presence we had after the 1969 race riots.’

Read here (Straits Times, Oct 23, 2020)

Stop wiping down groceries and focus on bigger risks, say experts on coronavirus transmission

“To the best of my knowledge, in real life, scientists like me — an epidemiologist and a physician — and virologists basically don’t worry too much about these things,” said David Morens, a senior adviser to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony S. Fauci... 

‘But public confusion about the coronavirus and surfaces is understandable, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “Scientists really haven't really done a very good job of explaining how you get evidence for different types of transmission or different transmission routes.” Finally, she said, it’s important to remember that “viruses have to have a host and they can’t replicate without one. So … the main place that’s going to be the source of virus in anybody’s household is going to be the people in it and not the surfaces or the physical environment.” “Even if there’s virus kicking around on certain things,” she said, “that risk can really be mitigated practically by washing your hands.”

Read here (Washington Post via MSN, Oct 23, 2020)

Covid-19 blood plasma therapy has limited effect, study finds

‘It has been touted as a breakthrough treatment by Donald Trump, and there are hopes that blood plasma containing coronavirus antibodies may help British patients during the second wave of Covid-19 as well. But a study, which is published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on Friday, suggests “convalescent plasma” has only limited effectiveness and fails to reduce deaths or stop the progression to severe disease.

‘The research involved 464 adults with moderate Covid-19 who were admitted to hospitals in India between April and July. Approximately half received two transfusions of convalescent plasma, 24 hours apart, alongside standard care, while the control group received standard care only. One month later, 19% of those who received the plasma had progressed to severe disease or had died of any cause, compared with 18% in the control group. Plasma therapy did, however, seem to reduce symptoms, such as shortness of breath and fatigue, after seven days.’

Read here (The Guardian, Oct 23, 2020)

Face masks go hi-tech amid the Covid-19 pandemic, from one with a translator to another that monitors vital signs

‘A Japanese start-up has created a face covering that allows people to have a conversation while keeping up to 10 metres apart – and also acts as a translator. A Singaporean face mask has sensors that monitor temperature and blood oxygen levels, while a company in South Korea has made an air purifier mask.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, Oct 23, 2020)

Johns Hopkins calls for papers on Covid-19 and systemic racism

‘The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security’s journal, Health Security, issued a call for papers for an upcoming Special Feature on systemic racism in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (scheduled for May/June 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on health, economies, and social structures have disproportionately impacted racially marginalized populations. Racial and ethnic minority communities are experiencing elevated COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, stemming in part from ineffective response efforts and longstanding barriers to accessing healthcare and public health programs and services. Evidence-based and peer-reviewed research is urgently needed to examine the root causes and impacts of systemic and pervasive racial and ethnic inequities in the context of COVID-19 as well as how systemic racism manifests in the practice of health security, including in preparedness for, response to, and recovery from COVID-19. The journal is actively encouraging submissions from women, underrepresented minority scholars in health security, and scholars with disabilities.’

Read here (Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Oct 23, 2020)

Why is coronavirus so deadly?

1. Master of deception: ‘In the early stages of an infection the virus is able to deceive the body. Coronavirus can be running rampant in our lungs and airways and yet our immune system thinks everything is a-ok.’
2. It behaves like a 'hit and run' killer: ‘The amount of virus in our body begins to peak the day before we begin to get sick. But it takes at least a week before Covid progresses to the point where people need hospital treatment.’ 
3. It's new, so our bodies are unprepared: ‘This lack of prior-protection is comparable to when Europeans took smallpox with them to the New World, with deadly consequences.’
4. It does peculiar and unexpected things to the body: ‘Covid starts off as a lung disease (even there it does strange and unusual things) and can affect the whole body.’ Like “corrupting” lung cells, clotting blood and causing runaway inflammation.
5. And we're fatter than we should be: ‘Covid is worse if you are obese, as a generous waistline increases the risk of needing intensive care, or death.’

Read here (BBC, Oct 23, 2020)

Non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) measures that work, lag time, population compliance and more: The Lancet

‘A recently published article in Lancet Infectious Diseases has taken a look at potential associations between country-level reproduction numbers (R) and non-pharmaceutical interventions introduced and lifted throughout the course of the pandemic.

‘Increases in R were associated with relaxing of the following measures: school closures, public event bans, bans on gatherings greater than ten people, stay-at-home orders and other movement restrictions. However, the only significant associations for increases in R above 1 were school reopening and lifting bans on gatherings over 10 people. 

‘Authors noted that the full effect of introducing or lifting non-pharmaceutical interventions took 1-3 weeks on average from the date of implementation. Authors made further recommendations regarding the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions by national governments, noting that other factors, such as population compliance, also influence the success of non-pharmaceutical interventions and may not be fully captured in the study.’

Read here (The Lancet via Johns Hopkins University, Oct 22, 2020)

China wants to supply the world with its coronavirus vaccine

‘China plans to rapidly ramp up its capacity to produce a vaccine for the coronavirus (Covid-19), state media CCTV has announced. It plans to dominate vaccine supply domestically and globally, despite the fact Western nations are unlikely to acquire a Chinese vaccine. It will be pushed to the rest of the world instead. China's vaccine was developed in almost the same way as the "Oxford vaccine" in the UK, using virus enhancement techniques to create an inert but powerful antibody response, which if used with a second booster shot could offer several years of immunity, even against mutant strains, according to Chinese scientists.’

Read here (Asia Times, Oct 21, 2020)

NUS start-up develops 60-second breath test to detect Covid-19

‘Researchers in Singapore have developed a breath test to detect COVID-19 within a minute, said the National University of Singapore (NUS) on Tuesday (Oct 20). The test, which detects volatile organic compounds (VOC) in a person’s breath, achieved more than 90 per cent accuracy in a clinical trial involving 180 patients.’ 

Read here (Channel News Asia, Oct 20, 2020)

Vietnam is fighting Covid without pitting economic growth against public health

‘The motto for the first phase was that if we stay alive, the question of wealth and the economy can come later. Ordinary people did suffer, such as the gig economy workers: whenever I order a Grabcar (a south-east Asian version of Uber) these days, the vehicle that arrives is always newer and more expensive that what I’m used to; as a driver explained, those who used to pick me up in their cheaper cars have had to sell them to stay afloat, leaving only those with deeper pockets left in the market.

‘But now the government has shifted its anti-Covid strategy towards the economy. The tactics for the second wave are more sophisticated. Contact tracing is still prompt and aggressive but lockdown and isolation are more selective; international flights have been opened for foreign workers, such as engineers from South Korea’s LG, who are needed to keep the economy functioning.’

Read here (The Guardian, Oct 20, 2020)

World’s vaccine testing ground deems Chinese Covid candidate ‘the safest, most promising’

‘Brazil is one of the world’s top COVID-19 vaccine testing grounds. Now officials there say that CoronaVac, the experimental COVID-19 vaccine from Chinese developer Sinovac, is the safest of the coronavirus immunizations evaluated in the country so far.

“The first results of the clinical study conducted in Brazil prove that among all the vaccines tested in the country, CoronaVac is the safest, the one with the best and most promising rates,” São Paulo Gov. João Doria told reporters in Brazil on Monday.’

Read here (Fortune, Oct 20, 2020)

What fans of ‘herd immunity’ don’t tell you

‘First, it makes no mention of harm to infected people in low-risk groups, yet many people recover very slowly. More serious, a significant number, including those with no symptoms, suffer damage to their heart and lungs. One recent study of 100 recovered adults found that 78 of them showed signs of heart damage. We have no idea whether this damage will cut years from their lives or affect their quality of life...

‘Second, it says little about how to protect the vulnerable. One can keep a child from visiting a grandparent in another city easily enough, but what happens when the child and grandparent live in the same household? And how do you protect a 25-year-old diabetic, or cancer survivor, or obese person, or anyone else with a comorbidity who needs to go to work every day?...

‘Third, the declaration omits mention of how many people the policy would kill. It’s a lot...If these restrictions are simply eased — as opposed to eliminating them entirely, which would occur if herd immunity were pursued — deaths could rise to as many as 571,527. That’s just by Feb. 1. The model predicts daily deaths will still be increasing then.

‘Will we have achieved herd immunity then? No.’

Read here (New York Times, Oct 19, 2020)

Covid-19 has exposed the catastrophic impact of privatising vital services

‘The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the catastrophic fallout of decades of global privatisation and market competition. When the pandemic hit, we saw hospitals being overwhelmed, caregivers forced to work with virtually no protective equipment, nursing homes turned into morgues, long queues to access tests, and schools struggling to connect with children confined to their homes. People were being urged to stay at home when many had no decent roof over their heads, no access to water and sanitation, and no social protection. 

‘For many years, vital public goods and services have been steadily outsourced to private companies. This has often resulted in inefficiency, corruption, dwindling quality, increasing costs and subsequent household debt, further marginalising poorer people and undermining the social value of basic needs like housing and water. We need a radical change in direction.’

Read here (The Guardian, Oct 19, 2020)