Amerika

Epidemic

• OPEC and Mexico Agree to Cut Oil Production as Pandemic Slashes Demand

  New York continued to see encouraging signs in its fight against the pandemic, with the number of hospitalizations rising by 53, “the lowest number since we started doing these charts” on March 16, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a Sunday press conference. “This is the number that we have been watching…the great fear was always overwhelming the raw capacity of the hospital system.”

• Germany set to consider relaxing coronavirus restrictions

  Daily case numbers have begun to slowly reduce. There have been 127,854 confirmed cases in Germany and 3,022 people have died.

• Austria set to relax coronavirus lockdown measures

  Other public health measures, such as requiring people to wear face masks in supermarkets and pharmacies, will remain in place. The face mask rule has also been extended to other shops and public transport. Requiring people to wear personal protection is how Austria hopes to stop the virus spreading despite relaxing the lockdown.

• Engineered virus offers potential for effective vaccine against COVID-19

  As part of this experiment, scientists made mice inhale a single dose of this genetically modified version of the virus. After a period of four weeks, when these mice were exposed to a strain of the MERS virus, they survived the deadly infection. The fact that all the mice immunised with the modified PIV5 virus survived MERS virus infection gives hope for a making vaccine against COVID-19.

• How a Premier U.S. Drug Company Became a Virus ‘Super Spreader’

  Biogen employees, most feeling healthy, boarded planes full of passengers. They drove home to their families. And they carried the virus to at least six states, the District of Columbia and three countries, outstripping the ability of local public health officials to trace the spread.

• The cytokine release syndrome (CRS) of severe COVID-19 and Interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R) antagonist Tocilizumab may be the key to reduce the mortality

  Therefore, the treatment of cytokine storm has become an important part of rescuing severe patients. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) plays an important role in cytokine release syndrome (CRS). If it can block the signal transduction pathway of IL-6, it is expected to become a new method for the treatment of severe patients. Tocilizumab is a blocker of IL-6R, which can effectively block IL-6 signal transduction pathway.

• New California antibody study could point to possible herd immunity to COVID-19

  Hanson said he thinks it is possible COVID-19 has been spreading among Californians since the fall when doctors reported an early flu season in the state. During that same time, travel between China and America was unfettered. Some of those visitors even arriving on direct flights from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China.

• Coronavirus: Patients have suffered strokes and other neurological symptoms, says study

  The study found that neurological effects were seen in just over a third of all cases of hospitalised COVID-19 patients, but affected more than 45% of those with severe infections.

  It isn’t yet clear if the coronavirus is causing the strokes directly or as a result of the body’s inflammatory response, and leading neurologists say more research is needed.

  Probably inflammation plus violent coughing.

• Cholesterol-lowering treatment may worsen the outcome of a Covid-19 infection.

  As LDL-cholesterol is able to inactivate virus as well (6,7) patients on cholesterol-lowering treatment and with a life-threatening Covid-19-infection should cease this treatment; at least until they have recovered from the infection.

• Iceland finds that half its citizens with coronavirus have shown no symptoms

  And the scariest finding: At any given time, about half of its citizens who have the coronavirus — and don’t know it — are not showing any symptoms. That’s double the CDC’s recent estimate that as many as one in four people with COVID-19 may be asymptomatic.

• Nearly half of Canada’s COVID-19 deaths linked to long-term care facilities

  “Because they already have high rates of diabetes, heart and lung disease — particularly those in long-term care — they’re not able to withstand COVID-19 infection as well as healthier counterparts who live in the community,” said Hsu.

  As of Sunday, she said 41 per cent of coronavirus-related deaths in Ontario could be attributed to long-term care facilities.

• Half of coronavirus deaths happen in care homes, data from EU suggests

  Snapshot data from varying official sources shows that in Italy, Spain, France, Ireland and Belgium between 42% and 57% of deaths from the virus have been happening in [care] homes, according to the report by academics based at the London School of Economics (LSE).

• Covid-19: Waiter or food handler ‘obvious point of transmission’ on Ruby Princess

  NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said early indications suggested an infected crew member was most likely responsible for the outbreak.

  “That would seem to be the most obvious point of transmission – someone that is handling food on behalf of multiple hundreds of people,” he said.

• Covid-19 coronavirus is 10 times more deadly than swine flu: WHO

  “We know that Covid-19 spreads fast, and we know that it is deadly, 10 times deadlier than the 2009 flu pandemic,” he said.

  WHO says 18,500 people died of “swine flu”, or H1N1, which was first uncovered in Mexico and the United States in March 2009, but the Lancet medical estimated the toll to be between 151,700 and 575,400.

• Largest US study of COVID-19 finds obesity the single biggest ‘chronic’ factor in New York City’s hospitalizations

  “The chronic condition with the strongest association with critical illness was obesity, with a substantially higher odds ratio than any cardiovascular or pulmonary disease,” write lead author Christopher M. Petrilli of the NYU Grossman School and colleagues in a paper, “Factors associated with hospitalization and critical illness among 4,103 patients with COVID-19 disease in New York City,” which was posted April 11 on the medRxiv pre-print server.

• WHO says 70 vaccines in the works, with three leading candidates

  The furthest along in the clinical process is an experimental vaccine developed by Hong Kong-listed CanSino Biologics and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, which is in Phase 2.

  The other two being tested in humans are treatments developed separately by US drugmakers Moderna and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, according to a WHO document.

• Dogs join fight against COVID-19 by learning how to detect the virus

  Kiwi and other dogs in the program have been trained to be more than 80 per cent accurate. The same structure of trial is being used to teach dogs how to sniff human samples that have been treated in advance for COVID-19.

• Exogenous pulmonary surfactant as a potential adjuvanttherapy in SARS-CoV-2 patients experiencing acuterespiratory distress syndrome?

  Exogenous pulmonary surfactant therapy, while widely used for the treatment ofneonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS), has not yet been implemented fortreatment of SARS-CoV-2 associated respiratory failure, to the best of our knowledge,despite showing potential effectiveness in adult cases of acute respiratory distresssyndrome (ARDS).​ Multiple human studies indicate that surfactant instillation in largevolumes significantly improves oxygenation indices and decreases mortality.

• Israeli researchers at Hebrew U develop faster, cheaper COVID-19 test

  Haviv said that, “We have an efficient RNA extraction method, 4-10 times faster than the current method. It is based on magnetic beads and can be performed both robotically and manually.”

Panic

• Coronavirus closes meat plants in Canada and the United States as world’s largest pork producer warns of shortages

  • An Olymel pork plant in Yamachiche, Quebec, shut on March 29 for two weeks, after nine workers tested positive for the coronavirus.

  • Maple Leaf Foods suspended operations on April 8 at its Brampton, Ontario poultry plant, following three COVID cases among workers at that facility.

  • Harmony Beef in Alberta, Canada, shut its cattle slaughter operations on March 27 for two days, after a worker tested positive for the new coronavirus, prompting some federal inspectors to stay away from the site.

• Performance Food furloughs 3,000 employees as coronavirus takes toll

  Grocery distributor Performance Food Group Co (PFGC.N) said on Monday it had furloughed about 3,000 employees and cut pay, while funneling 1,100 workers to help keep its retail clients’ shelves stacked as it deals with the pressures exerted on supply chains and its business by the coronavirus crisis.

• Coronavirus: What’s happening to the beer left in pubs?

  Fifty million pints – give or take.

  That’s the amount of beer expected to go unused in barrels if pubs remain closed into the summer because of coronavirus. Publicans are currently unable to sell their lagers, ales and ciders – save for takeaways and home deliveries.

• Starving and Cannibalistic: America’s Rats Getting Desperate Amid Pandemic

  “A restaurant all of a sudden closes now, which has happened by the thousands in not just New York City but coast to coast and around the world, and those rats that were living by that restaurant, some place nearby, and perhaps for decades having generations of rats that depended on that restaurant food, well, life is no longer working for them, and they only have a couple of choices.”

• McDonald’s temporarily closes Chinese branch which banned black people

  A clip shared on Twitter by Black Livity China on Sunday showed a sign at a McDonald’s branch banning black customers: “We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant. For the sake of your health consciously notify the local police for medical isolation, please understand the inconvenience caused. police TEL:110,” it read.

• Stop the Apple and Google contact tracing platform. (Or be ready to ditch your smartphone.)

  Instead of an app, the technology is pushed down the stack into the operating system layer creating a Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform. This means the technology is available all the time, for all kinds of applications.

• South Africa’s Ramaphosa blasts ‘despicable’ crime wave during coronavirus lockdown

  Since a nationwide lockdown was announced on March 27 in a bid to curtail the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, 148 people have been arrested and charged with crimes relating to gender-based violence.

  Dozens of schools have been burgled, trashed or burnt to the ground and state-owned utility Eskom has reported an increase in cable theft and vandalism, further disrupting an already overburdened power supply.

• Coronavirus: China strips virus research from internet

  According to the directive issued by the Ministry of Education’s science and technology department, “academic papers about tracing the origin of the virus must be strictly and tightly managed”.

  Under the new policy, all academic papers on COVID-19 will require an extra vetting process before being submitted for publication.

  Studies on the origin of the virus will receive extra scrutiny and must be approved by central government officials, according to the now-deleted posts.

• Demand for Child Pornography in India Spiked Since Coronavirus Lockdown

  Data from Pornhub, the world’s largest pornography website in the world, also reveals that traffic from India has increased by 95 per cent between March 24 and March 26 2020, as compared to their average traffic, pre-coronavirus, the ICPF claimed.

  The overall demand for child pornography was an average of 5 million per month in 100 cities on the public web during December 2019, which has now spiked.

  The report reveals up to a 200 per cent increase in demand for violent content which shows children “choking”, “bleeding” and ‘tortured”. “Metro cities like New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai, besides many Tier II and capital cities, which are seeing a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, have been red-flagged by the December study as hotspots for child pornography,” the ICPF said.

• During this coronavirus pandemic, ‘fake news’ is putting lives at risk: UNESCO

  “There seems to be barely an area left untouched by disinformation in relation to the COVID-19 crisis, ranging from the origin of the coronavirus, through to unproven prevention and ‘cures’, and encompassing responses by governments, companies, celebrities and others.”

  Translation: we want global censorship power. Starting with hiding the Chinese origin of COVID-19.

• Coronavirus: Huawei urges UK not to make 5G U-turn after pandemic

  The government has banned Huawei from the most sensitive parts of the UK’s mobile networks, and limited it to 35% of the periphery, which includes its radio masts.

  But critics argue it is a security risk to allow the Chinese company to play any role at all because of fears it could be used by Beijing to spy on or even sabotage communications.

• Where now for travel? Lonely Planet closures point to an uncertain future

  As travel has outpaced the growth of the global economy for the last eight years, Lonely Planet has grown to become the world’s largest travel publisher, accounting for 31.5% of the global guidebook market. But with planes grounded, borders closed and people quarantined, where travel is headed next is anyone’s guess.

• Patel refuses to take children from Greek camps threatened by Covid-19

  It has also emerged that charities recently asked EU countries to help “decongest” the Greek island camps ahead of a possible Covid-19 outbreak. Again, the UK government is understood to have refused to offer assistance, with MSF saying that a number of EU countries including Germany, France, Luxembourg, Finland, Belgium and Bulgaria had volunteered to help transfer 2,000 children from the islands.

• It’s party after party as Kenyans trick the system

  The erection of roadblocks to stop the movement of Kenyans in and out of Nairobi, Mombasa Kwale and Kilifi counties was tested to the limit, piling pressure on the police.

  The ban on operation of bars and nightclubs also appeared to do little to stop cheeky Kenyans from holding parties, which were moved to houses.

  Those who were adventurous enough partied in parks, even along the road. Security agencies had a rough time tracking down those breaking the law, eventually arresting dozens.

• NHS coronavirus app: memo discussed giving ministers power to ‘de-anonymise’ users

  Produced in March, the memo explained how an NHS app could work, using Bluetooth LE, a standard feature that runs constantly and automatically on all mobile devices, to take “soundings” from other nearby phones through the day. People who have been in sustained proximity with someone who may have Covid-19 could then be warned and advised to self–isolate, without revealing the identity of the infected individual.

  However, the memo stated that “more controversially” the app could use device IDs, which are unique to all smartphones, “to enable de-anonymisation if ministers judge that to be proportionate at some stage”. It did not say why ministers might want to identify app users, or under what circumstances doing so would be proportionate.

• UK to remain in lockdown as coronavirus deaths rise above 11,000

  Finance minister Rishi Sunak has told colleagues Gross Domestic Product could shrink by up to 30% this quarter because of the coronavirus lockdown, The Times newspaper reported, adding Sunak was pushing for restrictions to be eased.

  Bye entitlements.

• Leaders seize new powers to fight coronavirus, fears grow for democracy

  While leaders around the world fight the spread of the coronavirus, they’re amassing sweeping new powers. As legislatures limit or suspend activities in the name of social distancing, many of the norms that define democracy – elections, deliberation and debate, checks and balances – have been put on indefinite hold.

  The speed and breadth of the transformation is unsettling political scientists, government watchdogs and rights groups. Many concede that emergency declarations and streamlining government decision-making are necessary responses to a global health threat. But they question how readily leaders will give up the powers they’ve accrued when the coronavirus eventually subsides.

  Bye democracy.

• It’s ‘People, People, People’ as Lines Stretch Across America

  In cars and on foot, they are snapping on masks and waiting for hours to stock up on groceries, file for unemployment assistance, cast their ballots and pick up boxes of donated food. The lines stretch around blocks and clog two-lane highways.

• Did China Try to Influence Germany to Give Positive Comments on Its Covid-19 Management? Yes, Claims Report

  Senior officials and staff at German government ministries were invited “to speak in positive terms about China’s management of the coronavirus,” Die Welt said, citing a confidential foreign ministry document.

  However a German intelligence source told Die Welt that “Chinese officials are pursuing an intensified information and propaganda policy with regard to the coronavirus”.

  Trump and his administration had made a point of referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan virus”, infuriating Beijing.

Tags: covid-19, linkpost, panicdemic