Research finds 5 genes linked to severest form of Covid-19

‘A study found five key genes central to many severe cases of COVID-19 and pointed to some existing drugs that could be repurposed to treat those at risk of getting critically ill from the disease...

‘Five key genes are linked with the severest form of COVID-19, scientists said on Friday, in research that also pointed to several existing drugs that could be repurposed to treat people who risk getting critically ill with the pandemic disease.

‘Researchers who studied the DNA of 2,700 COVID-19 patients in 208 intensive care units across the United Kingdom found that five genes involving in two molecular processes – antiviral immunity and lung inflammation – were central to many severe cases.’

Read here (Aljazeera, Dec 11, 2020)

The magnifying glass: How Covid revealed the truth about our world

‘A fitting symbol of this global pandemic would be a magnifying glass. For while the virus ended and upended so many lives, and spawned a whole new vocabulary – social distancing, furlough, herd immunity, R number, circuit breaker, bubble, unmute – it did not remake the global landscape so much as reveal what was already there, or what was taking shape, just below the surface.

‘It amplified it, sometimes distorting it, sometimes illuminating it in alarming detail. Covid‑19, the disease that was first reported to the World Health Organization one year ago this month, served as a lens through which we were able to see our politics, our planet and ourselves with a new and shocking clarity. It made 2020 a year of revelation, even if what was uncovered was not nearly as new as we might imagine.’

Read here (The Guardian, Dec 11, 2020)

Information for UK recipients on Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine: UK government

‘Warnings and precautions: Talk to your doctor, pharmacist or nurse before you are given the vaccine if you have:

• Had a serious allergic reaction to a previous vaccine, medicine or food
• Had any problems following previous administration of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 such as allergic reaction or breathing problems
• A severe illness with high fever. However, a mild fever or upper airway infection, like a cold, are not reasons to delay vaccination.
• A weakened immune system, such as due to HIV infection, or are on a medicine that affects your immune system
• A bleeding problem, bruise easily or use a medicine to inhibit blood clotting

‘As with any vaccine, COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 may not fully protect all those who receive it. No data are currently available in individuals with a weakened immune system or who are taking chronic treatment that suppresses or prevents immune responses.

‘Other medicines and COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2: Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are using, have recently used or might use any other medicines or have recently received any other vaccine.

‘Pregnancy and breast-feeding: There is currently limited data available on the use of this vaccine in pregnant women. If you are pregnant or breast-feeding, think you may be pregnant or are planning to have a baby, ask your doctor or pharmacist for advice before you receive this vaccine. As a precaution, you should avoid becoming pregnant until at least 2 months after the vaccine.’

Click here to read more (UK government, Dec 2020)

The billionaires who profited from the pandemic should help pay for our recovery

‘The collective wealth gain of roughly a trillion dollars that the billionaires have enjoyed is more “than it would cost to send a stimulus check of $3,000 to every one of the roughly 330 million people in America,” the report states. “A family of four would receive over $12,000.” The report points out that a trillion dollars is also “double the two-year estimated budget gap of all state and local governments”—the deficit facing states that will certainly prompt them to make more cuts in public jobs and services if it isn’t addressed. The authors of the report don’t argue that taxing the recent gains of the mega-rich would cover the entire fiscal cost of the pandemic. They stress, instead, the undoubted fact that, at the very apex of U.S. society, there is now a staggering—and historic—amount of wealth that could be taxed.’

Read here (The New Yorker, Dec 10, 2020)

How kids’ immune systems can evade Covid

‘Their immune system sees the virus “and it just mounts this really quick and effective immune response that shuts it down, before it has a chance to replicate to the point that it comes up positive on the swab diagnostic test”, says Melanie Neeland, an immunologist who studied the family, at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

‘Even in children who experienced the severe but rare complication called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, studies report that the rate of positive results on RT-PCR range from just 29% to 50%.‘

Read here (Nature, Dec 10, 2020)

Not without India: World's pharmacy gears up for vaccine race

‘India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, is getting set for the massive global blitz to contain the coronavirus pandemic with its pharmaceutical industry and partners freeing up capacity and accelerating investments even without firm purchase orders. India manufactures more than 60% of all vaccines sold across the globe, and while its $40 billion pharmaceutical sector is not yet involved in the production of the expensive Pfizer Inc and Moderna shots, the nation will play a pivotal role in immunizing much of the world. Indian companies are set to produce eight, more affordable vaccines designed to fight COVID-19, including AstraZeneca's Covishield, called the "vaccine for the world here" by its developers.’

Read here (Reuters, Dec 10, 2020)

In an Iranian intensive care unit, doctors grapple with Covid-19 and US sanctions

"The most worrying thing for a doctor is to know there are medicines (plentifully) available in some parts of the world but not here," said Dr. Alireza Fatemi. This how the agony of coronavirus differs in Iran: nowhere else in the world faces this monster of a virus with the added scourge of President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" sanctions, which Iranian officials and doctors insist have hampered their Covid-19 fight.

Read here (CNN, Dec 10, 2020)

Man named William Shakespeare, one of the first to get Pfizer vaccine, sets off pun cascade

‘To be or not to be vaccinated, that is the question. After an 81-year-old named William Shakespeare became the second person in the West to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in Britain outside clinical trials Tuesday, social media erupted with joy, puns and many quotes from the great British playwright. “They really are prioritising the elderly: this guy is 456,” wrote one user, while the term “Two Gentlemen of Corona,” a play on “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” swiftly became a top trend in Britain. Others quipped that the first batch of inoculations, part of the first mass coronavirus immunization campaign in the West, marked the “Taming of the Flu.”

Read here (Washington Post, Dec 9, 2020)

Rich countries have bought too many Covid-19 vaccines: Amnesty International

‘Rich countries have secured enough coronavirus vaccines to protect their populations nearly three times over by the end of 2021, Amnesty International and other groups said on Wednesday (Dec 9), possibly depriving billions of people in poorer areas. "Nearly 70 poor countries will only be able to vaccinate one in 10 people against COVID-19 next year unless urgent action is taken," Amnesty International said, based on recent calculations. "Updated data shows that rich nations representing just 14 per cent of the world's population have bought up 53 per cent of all the most promising vaccines so far," it said.’  

Read here (Channel News Asia, Dec 9, 2020)

People with a history of ‘significant’ allergic reactions shouldn’t have Pfizer jab, UK regulator warns

‘The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency updated its guidance to British health service trusts on who should receive the vaccine. The precautionary advice came after two members of Britain’s National Health Service, who received the vaccine on Tuesday, experienced allergic reactions to the shot. Both are recovering well, according to the national medical director for the NHS.’

Read here (CNBC, Dec 9, 2020)

How a history of ‘medical racism’ may fuel mistrust in Covid-19 vaccines

‘A history of neglect and deception has been cited for the skepticism many Black Americans feel about COVID-19 vaccines. A similar dynamic has affected ethnic groups in other countries. That may pose a challenge to health officials trying to save lives and vaccinate sufficient portions of the population.’

Read here (World Economic Forum, Dec 9, 2020)

The Covid-19 vaccines are here: What comes next?

‘The outstanding progress made by the scientific community has brought the vaccine closer to our doorstep. The baton now passes from the scientific community to a new collaborative effort, led by government and policy makers, healthcare professionals, the private sector, and other community groups. The COVID-19 vaccine rollout will be unlike any other prior vaccine delivery effort. Governments and their partners will be expected to rapidly accelerate their efforts to ensure they are able to address community expectations.

‘Multiple factors will make the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine more complex than any other previous vaccine effort.

‘Accelerated pace and giant scale of delivery: Countries face a four-by-four challenge: a vaccine arriving at four times the pace and requiring delivery at four times the scale.

‘Four times the pace. The coronavirus vaccine has been developed four times faster than the mumps vaccine, which was the previous record for a vaccine developed for use in a widespread community setting. The consequence of this pace of clinical development is that governments and policy makers have had far less time than previously to prepare for a robust vaccination program.

‘Four times the scale. The COVID-19 vaccine rollout is expected to be four times larger than any previous effort because the aspiration is for broad adoption at significantly higher rates than typically achieved with seasonal adult vaccines, such as the flu. Compared with the flu, for which roughly half the adult population across the OECD is covered each year with a single dose, the COVID-19 situation may require vaccinating more than half the adult population with two doses. Globally, that means billions of people could seek the vaccine.’

Read here (McKinsey & Co, Dec 9, 2020) 

WHO against mandatory Covid-19 vaccines

‘The World Health Organization said on Monday (Dec 7) that persuading people on the merits of a COVID-19 vaccine would be far more effective than trying to make the jabs mandatory. The WHO said it would be down to individual countries as to how they want to conduct their vaccination campaigns against the coronavirus pandemic.

‘But the UN health agency insisted making it mandatory to get immunised against the disease would be the wrong road to take, adding there were examples in the past of mandating vaccines use only to see it backfire with greater opposition to them.’

Read here (Channel News Asia, Dec 8, 2020)

‘This was a gift to us’: Ivermectin effective for Covid-19 prophylaxis, treatment

‘Numerous studies have provided evidence supporting the use of ivermectin to prevent and treat COVID-19, according to the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance. Paul Marik, MD, FCCM, FCCP, founder of the alliance and a professor and chief of the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, said that ivermectin “is a safe drug that is exceedingly cheap.”

‘He added that “what is truly remarkable — this was a gift to us — ivermectin has high activity against COVID-19.” In a press conference, researchers said that ivermectin is an FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug that has been available for approximately 40 years and previously earned researchers a Nobel Prize.’

Read here (Healio, Dec 8, 2020)

FLCCC Alliance: Review of the emerging evidence demonstrating the efficacy of Ivermectin in the prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19

Read PDF here (FLCCC Alliance, Dec 7, 2020) 

Blunders eroded US confidence in early vaccine front-runner

‘On the afternoon of Sept. 8, AstraZeneca officials had a conference call with the Food and Drug Administration. The discussion covered important ground: What would AstraZeneca need to do to win the F.D.A.’s blessing for the coronavirus vaccine it was developing with the University of Oxford?

‘But the AstraZeneca representatives neglected to mention a crucial development: Two days earlier, the company had quietly halted trials of its vaccine around the world, including a late-stage study in the United States. It acted after a participant in Britain fell ill.

‘A few hours after the conference call, the story broke about the halted trials. That was how key F.D.A. officials heard the news, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.’

Read here (New York Times, Dec 8, 2020)

The institutional crisis and Covid-19

‘This is what an institutional crisis looks like. The most extreme claims of corruption become readily embraced by one faction and condemned by another. The belief that the presidency is corrupt becomes the framework of political life.

‘This goes beyond the political. I have written about the crisis of expertise, of experts who know their own field brilliantly but cannot comprehend the consequences of their actions beyond that field. The American government after World War II was built on the sanctity of expertise. That principle has since come under challenge in many areas, where the myopia of the experts undermined its depth.

‘The COVID-19 pandemic drove the point home. There were those who invoked the authority of medical experts as paramount. There were those who argued that, absent a cure, the solution the experts submitted – masks and social distancing – was only marginally effective and ignored the devastating economic and social consequences of the solution. There was no clear institutional authority that could strike a reasonable balance.’

Read here (Other News, Dec 8, 2020)

When will you be eligible for the Covid vaccine? Britain

Broadly, vaccines are being given to the most vulnerable first, as set out in a list of nine high-priority groups, covering about a quarter of the UK population. They are thought to represent 90-99% of those at risk of dying from Covid-19.

1. Residents in care homes for older adults and their carers
2. 80-year-olds and over and frontline health and social care workers
3. 75-year-olds and over
4. 70-year-olds and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
5. 65-year-olds and over
6. 16 to 64-year-olds with serious underlying health conditions
7. 60-year-olds and over
8. 55-year-olds and over
9. 50-year-olds and over

People aged over 80 in hospital, frontline health staff and care home workers have been the first to get the jab at 70 designated hospitals hubs across the UK.

Read here (BBC, Dec 8, 2020)

Anti-inflammatory therapy for Covid-19 infection: The case for colchicine [also used for gout]

‘Given the large body of data demonstrating colchicine’s inhibitory effects on neutrophil activity, cytokine generation and the inflammation/thrombosis interface, together with an overall lack of evidence for systemic immunosuppression, there is a rationale to study colchicine as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Given that colchicine is generally well tolerated, simple to take and inexpensive, demonstration of colchicine as a useful agent in COVID-19 would potentially spare patients morbidity and mortality, help to conserve valuable clinical resources (hospital floor and ICU beds, ventilators, etc), and dramatically reduce the cost of COVID-19 care. Colchicine might be of particular use in resource-poor rural and developing world settings, both of which have been increasingly affected by COVID-19. However, unless and until evidence is obtained from adequately designed and randomised placebo-controlled trials, this hypothesis must remain speculative.

‘The optimal dose of colchicine for daily use, even in well-established conditions such as gout, is unknown. Many but not all patients tolerate up to 1.2 mg daily in divided doses; whether lower doses such as 0.5 mg or less daily can be equally effective is unknown. The largest colchicine study for COVID-19 (ColCorona) is testing a dose of 0.5 mg daily based on prior cardiology trials. The duration of colchicine therapy for SARS-COV2 infection would also need to be determined. Most studies to date test a treatment duration of 2–4 weeks, concordant with the acute course of the infection; whether a shorter or longer treatment would be optimal is unknown. Finally, the timing of colchicine initiation is uncertain, with some studies beginning treatment in the outpatient setting, and others in the early inpatient setting. Given the recent track record of failure of treatment of severe COVID-19 treatment with anti-IL-6 biologics such as tocilizumab (a much more potent but also more specific immunosuppressive agent), it is likely that the severe inpatient setting is not the optimal condition under which to assess colchicine efficacy.’

Read here (BMJ, Dec 8, 2020)

The vaccines are coming. It’s time to call your mom

‘The next, crucial step in beating the pandemic? Having conversations with our vaccine-shy loved ones...

‘Uncomfortable relatives are my specialty. As a doctor, I’ve been trying for years to get my family and friends to follow prudent medical advice. It hasn’t gone so well. A decade ago, they’d say, “You’re just in medical school.” Then I was “just in residency.” Now, unfortunately, I’m a pathologist, which doesn’t exactly scream “people person.” I have had some successes, though. Last year, after a hundred gentle conversations, I finally convinced my parents to get the flu vaccine. (Verdict: “It wasn’t so bad.”) A couple months later, Covid-19 struck. I try not to feel completely responsible for this irony...’

Read here (Wired, Dec 7, 2020)

Coronavirus: How can we imagine the scale of Covid's death toll?

‘The suffering from the coronavirus pandemic has come to define 2020. But how do you grasp the immense scale of loss? Flowers - symbols of grief, peace, and love - serve as a tribute to those who have died.

‘Imagine the pandemic as a  flower. In the animation below, the stem grows as Covid-19 cases increase over time and the petals unfurl as more people die with the disease.’

View here (BBC, Dec 7, 2020)

The science behind an RNA vaccine

‘In just 10 months, a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been approved by Britain for emergency use to prevent Covid-19. Another by Moderna is being evaluated for emergency use authorisation by several regulators, including the United States Food and Drug Administration...

‘This 10-month timeline for vaccines to get from concept to licensing is ground-breaking; most take more than 10 years to reach this stage. There are several other RNA vaccines in the pipeline, including the one our team at Duke-NUS Medical School is working on in partnership with Arcturus Therapeutics. Here is the science behind such vaccines...’

Read here (Straits Times, Dec 7, 2020)

Neutralising the threat of Covid-19

Informative and interesting talk with Q&A relevant to Malaysia, live-streamed on Dec 7, 2020. Professor William James, is Professor of Virology and Tutor in Medical Sciences, Jeffrey Cheah Professorial Fellow, and is attached to The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. He is currently contributing to the work on the Oxford University AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The talk is moderated by Prof. Abhi Veerakumarasivam, Co-Chair & Professor, ASEAN Young Scientists Network & Sunway University.

View here (YouTube, Dec 7, 2020)

UK ready for roll-out but Pfizer CEO 'not certain' if vaccine stops transmission

‘Days after getting back-to-back approvals from the United Kingdom (UK) and Bahrain health regulatory bodies for the emergency use of its coronavirus vaccine, Pfizer Inc CEO Albert Bourla is now "not certain" if the company-made vaccine to prevent the Covid-19 can actually stop the transmission of the infection. The basic.

‘...during an interview with NBC's Lestor Holt, Pfizer CEO, when asked whether a person can still transmit the virus after vaccination, said he was "not certain". "I think this is something that needs to be examined. We are not certain about that right now with what we know," he was quoted as saying.’

Read here (India Today, Dec 6, 2020)

Coronavirus pandemic could push over 1 billion people in extreme poverty by 2030, says UN

‘Due to the severe long-term impact of the coronavirus pandemic, an additional 207 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030. This will bring the total number of the world's extremely poor to more than a billion, according to a new study by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

‘The study assesses the impact of different coronavirus recovery scenarios on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), evaluating the multidimensional effects of the pandemic over the next decade. It is part of a long-standing partnership between the UNDP and the Pardee Center for International Futures at the University of Denver.’

Read here (India Today, Dec 6, 2020)

Tucked into the Covid-19 stimulus package? Protection for corporations

‘US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been one of the few Democratic lawmakers to spotlight what’s really going on. Last week, she tweeted: “If you want to know why Covid-19 relief is tied up in Congress, one key reason is that Republicans are demanding legal immunity for corporations so they can expose their workers to Covid without repercussions.”

‘The bipartisan initiative aims to obscure its Dr Evil level of depravity by superficially depicting the liability shield as merely temporary. But that seems like a ruse, as indicated by private equity mogul and senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who said the federal Covid-19 liability shield provision “provides a temporary suspension of any liability-related lawsuits, state or federal level associated with Covid-19, giving states enough time to put in place their own protections”.’

Read here (The Guardian, Dec 5, 2020)

The governance of Covid-19: Anthropogenic risk, evolutionary learning, and the future of the social state

‘We consider the implications of the Covid-19 crisis for the theory and practice of governance. We define ‘governance’ as the process through which, in the case of a given entity or polity, resources are allocated, decisions made and policies implemented, with a view to ensuring the effectiveness of its operations in the face of risks in its environment. Core to this, we argue, is the organisation of knowledge through public institutions, including the legal system. Covid-19 poses a particular type of ‘Anthropogenic’ risk, which arises when organised human activity triggers feedback effects from the natural environment. As such it requires the concerted mobilisation of knowledge and a directed response from governments and international agencies. 

‘In this context, neoliberal theories and practices, which emphasise the self-adjusting properties of systems of governance in response to external shocks, are going to be put to the test. In states’ varied responses to Covid-19 to date, it is already possible to observe some trends. One of them is the widespread mischaracterisation of the measures taken to address the epidemic at the point of its emergence in the Chinese city of Wuhan in January and February 2020. 

‘Public health measures of this kind, rather than constituting a ‘state of exception’ in which legality is set aside, are informed by practices which originated in the welfare or social states of industrialised countries, and which were successful in achieving a ‘mortality revolution’ in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Relearning this history would seem to be essential for the future control of pandemics and other Anthropogenic risks.’

Read here (NCBI, Dec 4, 2020)

As first Pfizer vaccine doses arrive in UK, officials tell doctors and nurses they won’t get priority

‘Priority will go to people over 80 years old and to nursing home caregivers, and even for those groups, demand could quickly outstrip supply in the early months, public health officials cautioned. The 800,000 doses Britain expects to get this month “could be the only batch we receive for some time,” warned Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers.’

Read here (Washington Post, Dec 4, 2020)

Covid survivors with long-term symptoms need urgent attention, experts say

‘There is an urgent need to address long-term symptoms of the coronavirus, leading public health officials said this week, warning that hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions of people worldwide might experience lingering problems that could impede their ability to work and function normally.

‘In a two-day meeting Thursday and Friday, the federal government’s first workshop dedicated to long-term Covid-19, public health officials, medical researchers and patients said the condition needed to be recognized as a syndrome, given a name and taken seriously by doctors. “This is a phenomenon that is really quite real and quite extensive,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said at the conference on Thursday.’

Read here (New York Times, Dec 4, 2020)

Vaccine nationalism? An incurable disease called hope

‘It is disheartening to see ‘vaccine nationalism’ eclipse the hope around the development of the vaccine. The rich countries, with 13% of the world’s population, have already secured 3.4 billion doses of the potential vaccines; the rest of the world has pre-committed vaccine orders of 2.4 billion doses. The poorest countries, with a population of 700 million people, have no agreements for the vaccine. They depend on the Covax vaccine, developed in partnership between the World Health Organization, the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Covax has agreements to secure about 500 million doses, which would be enough to vaccinate 250 million people and cover about 20% of the populations of the poorest countries. In contrast, the United States of America, by itself, has made agreements to purchase enough doses to cover 230% of its population and could eventually control 1.8 billion doses (about a quarter of the world’s near-term supply).

‘The way things are going, two-thirds of the world’s population will not have a vaccine before the end of 2022... The struggle between ‘vaccine nationalism’ and the ‘people’s vaccine’ mirrors the fight between the North and the South over questions of debt and over vast areas of human development... Precious resources need to go toward testing, tracing, and isolation to break the chain of infection of the virus; they need to go toward building up the public health infrastructure, including training health care professionals who would need to give the two-dose injection to billions of people; they need to be used for the building of regional pharmaceutical production; and certainly they need to go toward the immediate relief for people, including income support, food provision, and social protection against the shadow pandemic of patriarchal violence.’

Read here (The Bullet, Dec 4, 2020) 

Unconventional measures for extraordinary times no excuse for more abuse

‘...There are widespread concerns that bolder expansionary fiscal policies are likely to be abused by typically short-termist governments of the day, tempted by macroeconomic (ethno-)populism, and unconcerned about the medium- and long-term consequences of increased spending, borrowing and debt. 

‘Only much better governance, transparency and accountability can minimise harm due to likely ‘leakages’ and abuses associated with increased government borrowing and spending. Such fiscal policies typically involve governments borrowing, especially by selling bonds and other securities, including to central banks. 

‘Publics often presume that governments tax first in order to spend. In fact, they usually spend first, and then tax. Poorly accountable governments often take advantage of real, exaggerated or imagined crises to pursue more populist macroeconomic policies to secure regime survival and benefit the politically well-connected.’

Read here (ksjomo.org, Dec 3, 2020)

Vaccination cards will be issued to everyone getting Covid-19 vaccine, health officials say

‘The Department of Defense released the first images of a Covid-19 vaccination record card and vaccination kits Wednesday. Vaccination cards will be used as the "simplest" way to keep track of Covid-19 shots, said Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition, which is supporting frontline workers who will administer Covid-19 vaccinations... Every dose administered will be reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers. The CDC did not immediately respond to CNN's inquiry about whether such a database would include a record of everyone immunized.’

Read here (CNN, Dec 3, 2020)

Designing vaccines for people, not profits

‘The Covid-19 crisis is a perfect test of whether a more public-health-oriented approach to innovation and production will prevail in the years ahead. While Pfizer is sticking with the model of maximising shareholder value, AstraZeneca has at least pledged not to profit from its vaccine ‘during the pandemic.’ Yet, despite all the public investment that underwrote these innovations, the process will remain opaque, leaving one to wonder if AstraZeneca is actually ready to prioritise public health over profit and offer its vaccine at cost.

‘While the recent vaccine news has brought hope, it also has exposed the pharmaceutical industry’s broken business model, casting doubt on the prospects of delivering a people’s vaccine and achieving health for all. Business as usual may allow us to scrape by in this crisis. But there is a better way to do things. Before the next pandemic arrives, we must recognise vaccines as global health commons, and start to reorient the innovation system toward symbiotic public-private partnerships governed in the public interest.’

Read here (Social Europe, Dec 2, 2020)

Covid vaccines: Calling the shots

‘The lesson of the coronavirus vaccine response is that a few billion dollars a year spent on additional basic research could prevent a thousand times as much loss in death, illness, and economic destruction. At a news conference, US health adviser, Anthony Fauci, highlighted the spike protein work. “We shouldn’t underestimate the value of basic biology research,” Fauci said. Exactly. But as many authors, such as Mariana Mazzacuto have shown, state funding and research has been vital to development of such products.

‘What better lesson can we learn from the COVID vaccine experience than that the multi-national pharma companies should be publicly owned so that research and development can be directed to meet the health and medical needs of people rather than to the profits of these companies. Then the necessary vaccines can get to the billions in the poorest countries and circumstances rather than to just those countries and people who can afford to pay the prices set by these companies.

“This is the people’s vaccine,” said corporate critic Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program. “Federal scientists helped invent it and taxpayers are funding its development. … It should belong to humanity.”

Read here (The Bullet, Dec 2, 2020)

Options to reduce quarantine for contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection using symptom monitoring and diagnostic testing

‘The US CDC published updated guidance regarding quarantine after known exposure to SARS-CoV-2. The CDC’s quarantine guidance continues to direct individuals to quarantine for 14 days* after the last known exposure to a COVID-19 patient, but the updated guidance provides options to shorten the quarantine period. Under the new guidance, individuals who do not exhibit any COVID-19 symptoms can end their quarantine as early as Day 10* without testing and Day 7* if they have a negative diagnostic test result (RT-PCR or antigen test). Importantly, for individuals who get tested, the test specimen should be collected within 48 hours of ending the quarantine period, which means that individuals should be tested at Day 5 or later. Even if a test conducted on Day 5 or 6 is returned before Day 7, in no case should quarantine be terminated prior to Day 7.’

Read here (US CDC, Dec 2, 2020)

Revelations in Malaysia’s pioneering Covid-19 study

‘Malaysia has something new to be proud of... Just two weeks ago, a band of Malaysian medical professionals wrote and published Southeast Asia’s first national study on Covid-19 cases, representing an entire country’s experience.

‘It was featured in The Lancet, arguably the most prestigious and influential medical journal in the world. Titled “Clinical characteristics and risk factors for severe Covid-19 infections in Malaysia: A nationwide observational study”, it was written by Benedict Lim Heng Sim, Suresh Kumar Chidambaram, Xin Ci Wong, Mohan Dass Pathmanathan, Kalaiarasu M Peariasamy, Chee Peng Hor, Hiu Jian Chua, and Pik Pin Goh. It provides a detailed picture of the disease’s spread in Malaysia from Feb 1 till May 30, 2020.

Ethnic mix: ‘Malays account for 58.4% of all cases and 70.0% of all severe cases, while the Chinese account for 6.7% of all cases and 12.1% of severe cases and Indians account for 2.3% of all cases and 4.5% of severe cases. The ratio of severe cases to all cases of almost 2 to 1 for Chinese and Indians might be due to their slightly older-skewing population. Other nationalities account for 23.8% of all cases but only 4.9% of all severe cases – a ratio of almost 5 to 1. This, again, could be due to the foreign worker population which generally skews younger and so has a reduced chance of developing a severe instance of the disease.’

Co-morbidities: ‘Those with hypertension are the most at risk at 48.6%, followed by diabetes mellitus at 39.1% and chronic cardiac disease at 14.0%. Surprisingly enough, being an active smoker does not indicate an elevated risk of developing a severe infection. Smokers account for 9% of all cases and 7% of severe cases...’

Read here (FreeMalaysiaToday, Dec 2, 2020)

Clinical characteristics and risk factors for severe COVID-19 infections in Malaysia: A nationwide observational study

Read here (The Lancet, Nov 17, 2020)

Pandemic, ‘Great Reset’ and resistance

‘The Covid pandemic is a turning point, an opportunity to change. The reset we need now is not the creation of a ‘post-human, post-nature’ world defined by unregulated corporate-led growth of artificial intelligence and biotechnology. We need to balance digitalization and commoditization with an ecological reset, a way of living that respects the environment, promotes agroecology, bioregionalism and local communities. We need to raise our consciousness and understanding of humanity as a species in nature, our connectedness to each other and the rest of planetary life.’

Read here (IPS News, Dec 1, 2020)

Five things you need to know about living with a disability during Covid-19

1. Risk of contracting COVID-19 is higher for persons with disabilities
2. Risk of severe symptoms and death is higher
3. Living in institutions increases the risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19
4. Discrimination in accessibility of healthcare and life-saving procedures
5. The broader COVID-19 crisis affects persons with disabilities more

Read here (UN DESA Voice, December 2020)

Zoom and gloom: How empathy and creativity can re-humanise video conferencing

‘Sitting in a videoconference is a uniformly crap experience. Instead of corroding our humanity, let’s design tools to enhance it...

‘Looking back on my experience of videoconferencing, I still get an odd emotional pain. The feeling is a kind of shame. Not so much for my own wooden performance and the failure of the technology. But rather a feeling that we have all lost a bit of our humanity through it. My interest in these technologies is ethically motivated. I am not at all happy with the banal dehumanisation that results from bad videoconferencing experiences. If, for example, students and teachers can’t express their humanity in education, through its technologies, then we’re just not doing it right.

‘However, I’d like to think that this exploration of videoconferencing in contrast with other more humane experiences has provided some hope and indications of the way to go... That’s how designing works: incremental improvements based on insights drawn from experience. Let’s be optimistic, and keep designing to humanise tech, and using tech to learn about being better humans.’

Read here (Aeon, Dec 1, 2020)

US Covid cases found as early as December 2019, says study

‘Testing has found Covid-19 infections in the U.S. in December 2019, according to a study, providing further evidence indicating the coronavirus was spreading globally weeks before the first cases were reported in China.

‘The study published Monday identified 106 infections from 7,389 blood samples collected from donors in nine U.S. states between Dec. 13 and Jan. 17. The samples, collected by the American Red Cross, were sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing to detect if there were antibodies against the virus...

‘The revelations in the paper by researchers from the CDC reinforce the growing understanding that the coronavirus was silently circulating worldwide earlier than known, and could re-ignite debate over the origins of the pandemic.’

Read here (Bloomberg, Dec 1, 2020)

The surprising mental toll of Covid

‘You didn't need a crystal ball to forecast that the COVID-19 pandemic would devastate mental health. Illness or fear of illness, social isolation, economic insecurity, disruption of routine and loss of loved ones are known risk factors for depression and anxiety. Now studies have confirmed the predictions. But psychologists say the findings also include surprises about the wide extent of mental distress; the way media consumption exacerbates it; and how badly it has affected young people.

‘For example, a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in August, found a tripling of anxiety symptoms and a quadrupling of depression among 5,470 adults surveyed compared with a 2019 sample. Similarly, two nationally representative surveys conducted in April, one by researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health and another at Johns Hopkins University, found that the prevalence of depressive symptoms (B.U.) and “serious psychological distress” (Hopkins) were triple the level measured in 2018. “These rates were higher than what we've seen after other large-scale traumas like September 11th, Hurricane Katrina and the Hong Kong unrest,” says Catherine Ettman, lead author of the B.U. study.’

Read here (Scientific American, Dec 1, 2020)

An effective response to Europe’s fiscal paralysis: George Soros

‘With Hungary and Poland vetoing the EU budget and Covid recovery fund, the case for issuing perpetual bonds has never been stronger

‘Perpetual bonds offer the great advantage that the principal never has to be repaid; only the annual interest is due. The discounted present value of future interest payments diminishes over time – it will approach, but never reach, zero. A certain amount of financial resources – say, the €1.8tn currently planned – would go several times further if it were used to issue perpetual bonds rather than ordinary bonds. This would largely solve Europe’s financial problems.

‘If one country issued perpetual bonds, it would have the additional advantage that other European countries would find it an example worth following. The Frugal Five should find perpetual bonds particularly attractive. After all, they like to save money.’

Read here (The Guardian, Dec 1, 2020)

UN special session on Covid-19 must recognise right to health & access to vaccines

‘The UN General Assembly is holding a Special Session on the Covid-19 pandemic at the level of Heads of State and Government on 3 and 4 December.. It took more than a year of discussions to overcome the opposition of certain states, notably the United States and President Donald Trump.

‘The holding of this Special Session (the 37th in the history of the UN) is of considerable importance. It is a unique opportunity to define and implement joint actions at the global level to fight the pandemic in order to ensure the right to life and health for all the inhabitants of the Earth. As the President of the UN General Assembly wrote in his letter of convocation: “Let us not forget that none of us are safe until we are all safe”....’

This is a lengthy opinion piece by Riccardo Petrella, Emeritus Professor, Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium). His research and teaching fields have been regional development, poverty, science and technology policy and globalisation.

Read here (IPS News, Nov 30, 2020)

What you need to know about the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines

‘All three drugmakers have moved at record speed, and the first shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines could be given in the coming weeks. This article answers a list of questions that ordinary people need to know before they commit to the vaccinations.’

Read here (Washington Post, Nov 30, 2020)

Babies born to mums with Covid-19 may have antibodies, but scope of protection is unclear

‘Although babies of women infected with Covid-19 during their pregnancies have been born with antibodies, it remains unclear if this means the baby is immune to the coronavirus or how long the immunity would last. Earlier this month, Mrs Celine Ng-Chan, 31, gave birth to her second child and was told by her son's paediatrician that he has antibodies against the virus.’

Read here (Straits Times, Nov 29, 2020)

Public needs to prep for vaccine side effects

‘This summer, computational biologist Luke Hutchison volunteered for a trial of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine. But after the second injection, his arm swelled up to the size of a “goose egg,” Hutchison says. He can't be sure he got the vaccine and not a placebo, but within a few hours, Hutchison, who was healthy and 43, was beset by bone and muscle aches and a 38.9°C fever. “I started shaking. I had cold and hot rushes,” he says. “I was sitting by the phone all night long thinking: ‘Should I call 911?’”

‘Hutchison's symptoms resolved after 12 hours. But, he says, “Nobody prepared me for the severity of this.” He says the public should be better prepared than he was, because a subset of people may face intense, if transient, side effects, called reactogenicity, from Moderna's vaccine. Some health experts agree.’

Read here (Science, Nov 27, 2020) 

United States: Beyond the wasteland -- New strategies for pivoting from the pandemic crisis to a recovery built on economic justice

‘Decades of falling wage shares mean that millions of households are ready to spend more if only they could earn more income. A well-calibrated recovery strategy that combines public spending on goods and services with regulation of predatory corporate behavior and effective redistribution can unleash a virtuous growth circle that improves living standards for the vast majority and strengthens government finances even as it generates resources to boost public services and tackle the environmental catastrophe.

‘Such a strategy would consist of the following elements:

• A prolonged fiscal expansion with immediate support to employment creation and social services, including a strong component in the care economy;
• Public-infrastructure investment to accelerate the energy transition by combining policies to encourage investments in renewables and discourage fossil fuel extraction;
• Policies to improve industrial capacity based on raising productivity and greater energy efficiency;
• Progressive tax reforms shifting the burden from indirect taxes such as sales and value-added taxes (which are regressive and discourage spending) to direct taxation, especially on high-income earners (whose consumption is relatively unaffected by taxation) and on corporate earnings and rents (with exemptions depending on employment creation).

Read here (The American Prospect, Nov 27, 2020)

AstraZeneca says its Covid-19 vaccine needs 'additional study'

‘The head of British drug manufacturer AstraZeneca said on Thursday (Nov 26) further research was needed on its COVID-19 vaccine after questions emerged over the protection it offers, but the additional testing is unlikely to affect regulatory approval in Europe.

‘Instead of adding the trial to an ongoing US process, AstraZeneca might launch a fresh study to evaluate a lower dosage of its vaccine that performed better than a full dosage, AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot was quoted as saying in a Bloomberg News report.’

Read here (Channel News Asia, Nov 27, 2020)

WHO to look at controversial Italian samples in search for origins

‘The World Health Organization is looking into controversial research suggesting the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 was circulating in Italy months before it was first detected in China, the health body said on Friday, while cautioning against using such data to speculate about the disease’s origins.

‘The WHO plans to run tests with the Italian researchers who made waves earlier this month for their peer-reviewed findings based on tests of blood samples from a cancer screening carried out starting before the pathogen was detected in China.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, Nov 27, 2020) 

Coronavirus was on many continents before Wuhan outbreak, Chinese team says

‘Paper by Chinese researchers says a strain can be traced to eight countries from four continents before the Wuhan outbreak. First human transmission may have occurred on the Indian subcontinent, it says – but other scientists question the finding.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, Nov 27, 2020)

Gender equality achievements being wiped out by pandemic

‘The coronavirus pandemic could wipe out 25 years of increasing gender equality, new global data from UN Women suggests. Women are doing significantly more domestic chores and family care, because of the impact of the pandemic. "Everything we worked for, that has taken 25 years, could be lost in a year," says UN Women Deputy Executive Director Anita Bhatia. Employment and education opportunities could be lost, and women may suffer from poorer mental and physical health.

Read here (BBC, Nov 27, 2020)

Businesses and residents near Top Glove dormitories on edge, as Covid-19 cases spike among workers

"We didn't know about workers being infected until last week," said resident Kandasamy Padakat Hurian, 43 who lives in a house directly across a worker dormitory. "When I went out to work at 7am on Monday (Nov 16), army trucks and the police were already here. By evening when I returned, the (barbed) wire was in place," Mr Kandasamy recounted. Prior to last week, Jalan Teratai would be busy in the evenings as petty traders and hawkers lined the road with stalls. "When the government came and locked down the place, everyone fled. It has become very quiet,” he said 

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

Some serious questions about the Top Glove cluster – P. Gunasegaram

‘Did world’s No. 1 glove maker put profit over safety?

‘After the Sabah debacle, where unrestricted campaigning ahead of the September 26 state elections and easy travel conditions resulted first in a steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Sabah and subsequently, in the peninsula, the Top Glove cluster now raises serious questions over the lack of controls by a major company and the government itself.

‘It is a wonder that more measures were not taken by both the company and the authorities to control the menace that has become the Top Glove cluster, even though signals were clearly there that things could get out of hand.’

Read here (The Vibes, Nov 26, 2020)

How Covid-19 will impact our cities in the long term

‘The biggest opportunity for cities from this pandemic is to build back better with the planned fiscal stimulus: more climate resilient infrastructure, green initiatives such as increasing public spaces, creating vehicle free streets, making bike lanes, refurbishing buildings to multiple uses and thereby doing more with less. This cannot be done by the public sector alone. Cities will need to attract private sector and social partners to close the financing gap. Good governance is an imperative to attract private financing and to work with the private sector.’

Read here (World Economic Forum, Nov 25, 2020)

With vaccines on the horizon, here’s how business leaders can plan ahead

‘Vaccine announcements get the globe closer to eradicating the virus, but questions still remain. Business leaders will need to consider a range of potential scenarios for access and distribution to adjust to the changes still ahead. For business planning only, Salesforce Future Lab developed a selection of hypothetical scenarios in discussions with leading experts to help leaders understand the range of scenarios for which they might need to plan.’

Hypothetical Scenario 1: “Zero Hurdles” -- In this scenario, business leaders could look forward to the crisis ending as quickly and evenly as possible around the world. In-person work and consumer confidence could come back close to pre-crisis levels over the summer and fall of 2021, though masking, distancing, and ventilation would still be necessary for many more months.

Hypothetical Scenario 2: “Sprint and Stumble” -- In this scenario, many business leaders might initially make investments betting on a rapid re-emergence from crisis conditions, only to be surprised as optimism evaporates. As the crisis stretched on, those who recognized the continuing risk would likely be in the best position, but even they would still face stiff economic headwinds.

Hypothetical Scenario 3: “Long March” -- In this scenario, business leaders could be increasingly challenged to maintain the safety of their staff and customers before the vaccine arrives, as the public becomes less willing to adhere to public health guidance. But after its arrival, the impact is similar to “Zero Hurdles” above, with a relatively rapid return to workplace safety and consumer confidence.

Read here (World Economic Forum, Nov 25, 2020) 

What message will persuade people to take a vaccine?

‘Scientists are charging ahead to make a COVID-19 vaccine available, working out the challenging logistics of wide-scale production and distribution. Milkman is hopeful that the work of the BCFG team will, in turn, help more people take the vaccine. “Even if we get the supply chain issues right, even if we get every corner drugstore to someday be supplying these, we have to get them into arms in order for them to change the course of the pandemic,” she said. “And the messaging is going to be key to that.”

Read here (Knowledge@Wharton, Nov 24, 2020)

Crisis standards of care: Lessons from New York City hospitals’ Covid-19 experience

‘The purpose of this project was to convene a forum in which critical care physicians from a number of hospitals across New York City could frankly discuss their experiences with implementation of crisis standards of care (CSC). The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, in collaboration with New York City Health + Hospitals, convened a virtual working group in October 2020 consisting of 15 New York City intensive care unit (ICU) directors.’

Major themes discussed and suggestions moving forward are contained in the 23-page report.

Read here (The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Nov 24, 2020) 

Scientists are puzzling over one crucial number as they evaluate the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine

‘The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate is given to people as two doses, at least one month apart. The trial data, which comes from late-stage studies in the UK, Brazil and South Africa, suggests that the vaccine is 62% effective if people get two full doses, but 90% effective when they get a half-strength version of the first dose. The information was provided in a press release and hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal. AstraZeneca and Oxford said they're submitting the results for review and publication.’

Read here (Business Insider, Nov 24, 2020)

China and Russia are using coronavirus vaccines to expand their influence. The US is on the sidelines

“Global health and pharmaceutical interventions are getting sucked into balance-of-power politics,” said David Fidler, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “For the U.S., this creates geopolitical nightmares, because we are not in the game.” Beijing and Moscow are marshaling the vast powers of their states to develop vaccines for domestic and international use, accompanied by grand claims of scientific and manufacturing prowess. There are critical questions about safety and efficacy — or even how much each country can produce. But, for the moment, those questions are overshadowed in a seller’s market.

Read here (Washington Post, Nov 24, 2020)

Has capitalism turned the COVID-19 emergency into a disaster?

‘Exploit it’ - Protect the People or the Profit? ‘We were in a crisis before COVID-19 - a crisis of capitalism. Join Ali Rae in this first episode of “Al Hail The Lockdown” - a 5 part series exploring the complexities of our global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, Ali speaks with filmmaker and activist Astra Taylor, economist Aditya Chakrabortty and economic sociologist Linsey McGoey about disaster capitalism, philanthro-capitalism and how the structures of capitalism have left us ill-equipped to deal with the fallout of COVID-19.’

View here (Aljazeera, Nov 24, 2020) 

Moderna's chief medical officer says that vaccine trial results only show that they prevent people from getting sick — not necessarily that recipients won't still be able to transmit the virus

‘Moderna Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks told Axios that the public should not "over-interpret" the vaccine trial results to assume life could go back to normal after adults are vaccinated. "They do not show that they prevent you from potentially carrying this virus transiently and infecting others," Zaks told Axios.  While he believes, based on the science, that it's likely that vaccine does prevent transmission, but said there's still no solid proof of that yet. "I think it's important that we don't change behavior solely on the basis of vaccination," he said.’

Read here (Business Insider, Nov 24, 2020)

A tale of two economies: Stephen Roach

‘As financial markets celebrate the coming vaccine-led boom, the confluence of epidemiological and political aftershocks has pushed us back into a quagmire of heightened economic vulnerability. In Dickensian terms, to reach a “spring of hope,” we first must endure a “winter of despair.”...

‘With COVID-19 still raging – and rates of infection, hospitalization, and death now spiraling out of control (again) – the near-term risks to economic activity have tipped decidedly to the downside in the United States and Europe. The combination of pandemic fatigue and the politicization of public health practices has come into play at precisely the moment when the long anticipated second wave of COVID-19 is at hand.

‘Unfortunately, this fits the script of the dreaded double-dip recession that I warned of recently. The bottom-line bears repeating: Apparent economic recoveries in the US have given way to relapses in eight of the 11 business cycles since World War II. The relapses reflect two conditions: lingering vulnerability from the recession, itself, and the likelihood of aftershocks. Unfortunately, both conditions have now been satisfied.’

Read here (Project Syndicate, Nov 24, 2020)

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says proof of Covid-19 vaccination will be a condition of international air travel

‘Proof of COVID-19 vaccination will be a non-negotiable condition of international air travel, according to the Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. Anti-vaxxers will be grounded in the brave new world, with Mr Joyce confirming vaccination will be a requirement to fly internationally.

‘Mr Joyce has repeatedly warned that international air travel won’t resume until there’s a vaccine available for staff and travellers, but on Monday night he went a step further, telling A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw that as soon as a vaccine becomes available it will be a condition of travel. “For international travellers, we will ask people to have a vaccination before they get on the aircraft,’’ he said.’

Read here (News.com, Nov 23, 2020)

China pushes for QR code based global travel system

‘Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for a "global mechanism" that would use QR codes to open up international travel. "We need to further harmonise policies and standards and establish 'fast tracks' to facilitate the orderly flow of people," he said. The codes will be used to help establish a traveller's health status. But Human Rights advocates warn that the codes could be used for "broader political monitoring and exclusion".’

Read here (BBC, Nov 23, 2020)

MMA says private healthcare underutilised in battle against Covid-19

‘The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has called on the government to incorporate private healthcare in its fight against Covid-19, saying that the sector's capabilities are being underutilised. "Our government healthcare facilities should not be taking on this battle all on its own. Private healthcare, an important component in our country’s overall healthcare system, can be an added strength in managing Covid-19 but is still underutilised.’

Read here (Malaysiakini, Nov 23, 2020)

A larger, more sinister pandemic lurks beneath Covid-19

‘More than one in five Americans hospitalised with COVID-19 also contracts a bacterial infection. Absent effective antibiotics, those lucky enough to beat the coronavirus might die at the hands of these not-so-novel pathogens. 

‘Unfortunately, the pipeline of new antibiotics is running dry. Less than 100 years after the development of penicillin, drug-resistant superbugs are threatening to gain the upper hand in our fight against bacterial infections.Superbugs already take an enormous toll on health-care systems around the world. About 700,000 people globally die each year due to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Without new and better treatments, that figure could rise to ten million by 2050.’

Read here (Channel News Asia, Nov 23, 2020)

The efficacy of the Sputnik V vaccine is 91.4%, based on the second interim analysis

‘The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a well-studied human adenoviral vector platform that has proven safe and effective with no long-term side effects in more than 250 clinical trials globally conducted during the past two decades - while the history of the use of human adenoviruses in vaccine development began in 1953. More than 100,000 people have received approved and registered drugs based on human adenoviral vectors. The uniqueness of the Russian vaccine lies in the use of two different human adenoviral vectors which allows for a stronger and longer-term immune response as compared to the vaccines using one and the same vector for two doses.’

Read here (Sputnik V, Nov 23, 2020)

Is emergency use authorisation the best way to get a Covid-19 vaccine to the public?

‘While an emergency use authorization may be the speediest way for public health officials to begin a vaccination campaign, it may not end up shaving that much time off of a more traditional route to government approval. Using a different expedited process, the FDA cleared a novel Ebola vaccine in just six months. Polls have shown that many Americans are wary of getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Other paths toward granting official approval to COVID-19 vaccines may get vaccines to the public almost as quickly as emergency use authorization can—while providing the public with greater reassurance that those vaccines are safe and effective.’

Read here (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Nov 23, 2020)

Oxford vaccine: How did they make it so quickly?

‘Ten years' vaccine work achieved in about 10 months. Yet no corners cut in designing, testing and manufacturing... They are two statements that sound like a contradiction, and have led some to ask how we can be sure the Oxford vaccine - which has published its first results showing it is highly effective at stopping Covid-19 - is safe when it has been made so fast. So, this is the real story of how the Oxford vaccine happened so quickly.’

Read here (BBC, Nov 23, 2020)

Coronavirus vaccine hesitancy in Black and Latino communities

‘COVID Collaborative, Langer Research, UnidosUS and the NAACP conducted a poll on attitudes and impacts of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in the Black and Latinx communities. The report summarizes these findings and highlights key areas of focus for policy makers, health care professionals, and others working to increase vaccine uptake.’

Read here (Covid Collaborative, Nov 23, 2020)

Why emergency Covid-vaccine approvals pose a dilemma for scientists

‘Immunizations are speeding towards approval before clinical trials end, but scientists say this could complicate efforts to study long-term effects...

‘Once a vaccine is granted emergency approval, there is pressure on developers to offer the immunization to trial participants who received a placebo. But if too many people cross over to the vaccine group, the companies might not have enough data to establish long-term outcomes, such as safety, how long vaccine protection lasts and whether the jab prevents infection or just the disease.

“It’s a real vaccine-development dilemma,” says Klaus Stöhr, who formerly headed vaccine design at the pharmaceutical company Novartis in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is now retired. Still, Stöhr thinks that the vaccine should be granted emergency-use authorization, because its effectiveness has been established and there is a dire need.’

Read here (Nature, Nov 23, 2020)

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)