Russia unveils possible coronavirus vaccine, claiming victory in global race before final testing is complete https://t.co/n5lJVHKAcl
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 11, 2020
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that the country has become the first to approve a coronavirus vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow, with production and tens of thousands of inoculations to follow.
Officials have pledged to vaccinate millions of people, including teachers and front line health-care workers, with the experimental coronavirus vaccine beginning this month, raising global alarm that the country is jumping dangerously ahead of critical, large scale testing that is essential to determine if it is safe and effective.
Russian officials have said that a second vaccine from the state research center in Siberia, Vector, is not far behind.
The aggressive strategy from a country eager to declare a victory amid one of the worst outbreaks in the world has been criticized by outside scientists who worry that shots could be harmful or give people a false sense of security about their immunity. China has already authorized one vaccine for use in its military, ahead of definitive data that it is safe and effective…
Any bets which GOP puppets will be ‘volunteering’ to attest to the safety of this vaccine? Not the Squatter-in-Chief — his health isn’t up to risking a replacement this close to the election — but maybe Ron Johnson? Matt Gaetz? Mitch McConnell? Mike Pence?…
Our covid times :-)
Wiley Miller brings back a classic pic.twitter.com/oniEyMdH02— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) August 10, 2020
The US had +49,800 new confirmed coronavirus cases today, bringing the total to 5,251,446, and nudging the 7-day moving average back up above 55k/day, after a steady decline. pic.twitter.com/HYDa0C6Wih
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) August 11, 2020
there's also the not-inconsiderable issue of how the coronavirus is out of control in the vast majority of the u.s. and allowing in citizens who have been exposed to it won't make an iota of difference
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) August 11, 2020
Dr. Peter Hotez says the absence of a coordinated federal response to Covid-19 in the US is a "catastrophic failure."
It is why "we are now the… epicenter of the global pandemic," he adds. https://t.co/NQia2UC0qx pic.twitter.com/Xvf903aeNL
— CNN (@CNN) August 10, 2020
"Getting out of this nightmare will require more than just stopgap measures," writes @JenniferNuzzo. "The federal government needs a national strategy to equip all 50 states with the resources they need…" https://t.co/8kBYcdNvht
— Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (@JohnsHopkinsSPH) August 10, 2020
It's not that complicated.
1. Close places Covid spreads. Bars, indoor dining, choirs, etc.
2. Test-isolate-trace-quarantine. Repeat until finding and stopping most transmission
3. Wear a mask, wash your hands, watch your distance
4. Learn more about the virus and how to stop it— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) August 10, 2020
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The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide tops 20 million, with more than half the cases from the United States, India and Brazil. https://t.co/80fpu72xdq
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 11, 2020
NEW: World Health Organization says the #coronavirus has shown no seasonal pattern and if health authorities
take the pressure off fighting it, it will keep bouncing back.— Ben Tracy (@benstracy) August 10, 2020
Given the rates of growth, the world will see 300,000 new #COVID19 cases/day by the end of August & the US will reach 200,000 deaths by then.
If world rates keep rising at the current pace, we could well face the specter of >500,000 new cases/day by Dec.https://t.co/XlQWqbYgPl— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 10, 2020
There are #COVID19 resurgences all over Europe, as societies have tried to reopen, and vacationers have let their guards down.
Greece, France, Denmark, Ireland — The EU calls for renewed lockdowns.https://t.co/Tm1r48R2H7— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 10, 2020
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has accepted Russia’s offer of its coronavirus vaccine, volunteering to take the first shot as a gesture of trust and gratitude https://t.co/vevwVbiJnc
— Bloomberg (@business) August 11, 2020
"Taiwan took immediate action. The United States did not."@emilyrauhala's interview with Chuang Yin-ching, an infectious-disease specialist with the Taiwan CDC, about lessons learned from the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.https://t.co/JHuGj0jXqG
— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) August 10, 2020
Coronavirus: Australia's Northern Territory extends border restrictions for virus hotspots https://t.co/p3YUTDVxgF
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 11, 2020
Coronavirus infections stabilise in Australia's virus epicentre https://t.co/xp1mM1ve3X by @Colpackham pic.twitter.com/lI9e25TBuG
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2020
Brazil registers 22,048 new coronavirus cases and 703 new deaths https://t.co/Dmrdup4l9C pic.twitter.com/N0zqAfTRZc
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2020
Rio de Janeiro seeks to roll out mobile app for beachgoers braving pandemic https://t.co/Y3mP6B6oPK pic.twitter.com/bTqW1SZX3B
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2020
Cuba, hailed as a rare success story in Latin America for its textbook handling of the coronavirus outbreak, saw a record surge in new cases https://t.co/lHFBQzPVX1 pic.twitter.com/qwPWv4BUgF
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2020
Mexico's coronavirus death toll passes 53,000 mark https://t.co/XnUs8EPWdn pic.twitter.com/FTosNFBh0i
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2020
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That coronavirus vaccine the Russians are racing to develop? Some researchers worry it could actually make #COVID19 more deadly. https://t.co/l0kn3BNC7b
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) August 10, 2020
"Far-UVC light" safely kills airborne coronaviruses & is safe to use around humans. Far-UVC has a 222 nm wavelength. It can't penetrate the eye's tear layer or the outer dead-cell layer of skin so it can't reach or damage living cells in the body https://t.co/LIQK1QedAC pic.twitter.com/KYSHSIBSFm
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 10, 2020
Parents whose children have been battling symptoms as diverse as fatigue, breathlessness, chest pains, diarrhea and "covid toes" for weeks after suspected Covid-19 infection say there is little help to guide their kids' recovery https://t.co/pjF5GTaWLA
— CNN (@CNN) August 11, 2020
Gilead seeks U.S. approval for COVID-19 treatment remdesivir https://t.co/SM3gVYPr8K pic.twitter.com/IH1kwI36Kt
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2020
Most of the research on Covid-19 treatments can’t actually generate new knowledge about Covid-19 treatments. That’s bad, https://t.co/yLzcnj6Zkn
— Adam Rogers (@jetjocko) August 10, 2020
Sinovac launches late-stage trial for potential COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia https://t.co/t5R1Z41Wqh pic.twitter.com/BeRUdFhSVh
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2020
There are relatively safe ways to socialize in the age of "social distancing" and #COVID19, but weighing the associated risks requires a good framework for decision-making.@LizStuartDC and @KeriNAlthoff explain in this video.
Learn more: https://t.co/CQpV9IE3Xh pic.twitter.com/jE3miXsa5U
— Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (@JohnsHopkinsSPH) August 10, 2020
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This is what happens when you get all your coronavirus information from Fox docs and Trump
F&F Host Ainsley Earhardt: "97,000 kids tested positive? That was such a shock to me because we heard kids really don't get it." pic.twitter.com/T8K1spUUtQ
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) August 10, 2020
70% of the population thinks he has done a bad job on coronavirus, so, she’s not wrong. https://t.co/2FYipSvNhs
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) August 10, 2020
California’s top public health officer resigns following data-collection failures that led to an undercount of coronavirus cases https://t.co/hZi5pHk5Dr via @StevenJGorman pic.twitter.com/HfWOzXtfLw
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 11, 2020
New York is now one of the few places in the U.S. where schools can open safely, public health experts say. https://t.co/n56OK9QFC9
— NYT Health (@NYTHealth) August 10, 2020
As of this morning, @UnivHospNewark has only 3 coronavirus patients in our entire hospital, down from a high of over 300 during the worst of this.@NJGov is doing this right.
Please keep at it.
— Shereef Elnahal, MD (@ShereefElnahal) August 10, 2020
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily numbers. Nine new cases. Four cases from local infection: all non-Malaysians, including three detainees at the Bukit Jalil immigration detention depot. Five imported cases: three Malaysians returning from Japan, New Zealand and Singapore; two non-Malaysians arriving from India and Pakistan. Cumulative reported total 9,103 cases.
Six more patients recovered and were discharged. Total 8,809 patients recovered, or 96.8% of the cumulative reported total. There are 169 acute and contagious cases being isolated/treated in hostital; two are in ICU, neither is on a respirator.
No new deaths since 31 July; the total is still 125 deaths, 1.37% of the cumulative reported total, 1.40% of resolved cases.
In other news, the Kedah state Government has ordered the permanent closure of Nasi Kandar Salleh in Kubang Pasu, ground zero for the Sivagangga cluster which has led to the imposition of a targeted enhanced movement control in two states. The proprietor became the cluster’s patient zero when he returned from a trip to India and ignored his home quarantine order. (Recognising the risk of quarantine breaches, the Federal Government no longer issues home quarantine orders; all arrivals from abroad are now quarantined at their own cost in public facilities.)
Aleta
Why has the media suppressed the fact that the 1917 flu ended WW2? They don’t want Covid-19 to end the wars now because T would get the credit.
ThresherK
I read some Britons pointing out the flaws and exaggerations from Boris Johnson’s test & trace program.
I know little about it personally but it’s miles ahead of anything our Executive Branch has come up with, so I’m jealous of those people governed by Boris Johnson.
Never thought I’d say that, but here we are.
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
Bruce K
Greece: 126 new cases Monday, one death. New cases are down from the peak of 202 on Sunday, but still far above the previous average in the sub-50 range. Waiting to see if the government puts restrictions into place, beyond cracking down on rule violators.
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, China reported 13 new domestic confirmed cases and 11 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all of them at Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region. 13 cases are in critical condition, and 26 in serious condition. There are currently 567 confirmed cases (564 in Ürumqi, 1 each at Kashgar, Changji Prefecture and Xinjiang Construction Corps), and 131 asymptomatic cases (130 in Ürumqi, 1 in Changji Prefecture), plus 1 asymptomatic case exported to Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province. 38 confirmed cases recovered yesterday and were released from hospitals, 3 asymptomatic cases were released from medical quarantine. There are 15,658 close contacts under quarantine and medical observation.
For the 5th consecutive day, Dalian in Liaoning Province did not report any new cases, confirmed or asymptomatic. 5 confirmed cases has recovered and was released from hospital, and 5 asymptomatic cases were also released from medical quarantine. 1 serious cases, 57 moderate cases, and 9 mild cases are currently in the hospital.
Yesterday, China reported 31 new imported confirmed cases, 6 imported asymptomatic cases, and 2 suspect cases:
Today, Hong Kong reported 33 new cases, 32 from local transmission. This is the lowest new case count in several weeks.
Chyron HR
Translation: Scientists say it can reach and damage living cells in the body, but Trump overruled them.
WereBear
Rushed vaccines are no freakin’ joke.
If this were War of the Worlds: Oligarch Edition, the rich would hoard the super-expensive rushed vaccine for themselves.
And bad things would happen.
hells littlest angel
Russian vaccine researcher: “We mix germs with vodka. And a little shoe polish, for color. Vaccine survivors will become very strong, like in Battle of Stalingrad.”
TS (the original)
This one is hard to take – if NZ gets new cases …
Auckland locked down as Jacinda Ardern announces New Zealand’s first coronavirus cases in 102 days
So far there are 4 cases – all the one family. Instant reaction – level 3 lockdown.
Ken
Not so much “bad” as “karmic”, perhaps?
YY_Sima Qian
Interestingly, the account of the Taiwanese CDC specialist’s visit to Wuhan in mid-Jan. (along with those from Hong Kong and Macau) actually jives with those shared by national level experts on the same visit, reported by Chinese media in Mar., namely that Wuhan and Hubei authorities sought to downplay the severity of the outbreak and the possibility of human to human transmission, to outside visitors as well as teams from Beijing, and they went so far as to pressure the doctors at hospitals to do so.
Of course, the US did not heed the warning when China locked down most of the country in late Jan., or the scenes of horror from Wuhan in early Feb., Lombardia and Greater Madrid in Mar., or NYC in Apr., they were not going to be moved by a press conference in Taipei on 1/13.
YY_Sima Qian
@TS (the original): This should not be surprising. With the high percentage asymptomatic to mild cases, the virus is likely to circulate in the community at low levels, undetected by the authorities, until a super spreading event causes a large cluster of cases with a few moderate to serious cases to make the outbreak visible to the authorities. By that time an outbreak of 100 cases might have already occurred.
Chinese authorities have not been able to definitively determine the causes of the outbreaks at Harbin, Mudanjiang, Jilin City, Ürumqi or Dalian. Fomite transmission via global cold chain logistics also cannot be dismissed out of hand.
I have every confidence New Zealand will snuff out this new outbreak, of it is indeed an outbreak.
Sloane Ranger
@TS (the original): Yes. The implications of this are very worrying. It either means that there have been more breaches in NZ’s quarantine procedures for returners, there have been asymptomatic people passing it around for 103 days or these people picked it up though some unknown mechanism.
Haven’t read the article yet, so don’t know if it’s covered but it would be interesting to know how they came to notice. Did they present because they had symptoms or what?
WereBear
@Ken: Karma is too slow. I want them to get consequences NOW.
TS (the original)
@YY_Sima Qian:
I don’t doubt NZ will recover from this but as an Island Nation with quarantine on entry it is disappointing that it happened. My thoughts are that it has come in from outside of the country, rather than have been circulating within – I hope they find the source. With such minimal numbers tracking most cases is achievable.
mrmoshpotato
@hells littlest angel: Yup. Also –
Fixed.
TS (the original)
@Sloane Ranger: One of the family members was feeling ill & went to the doctor. Tested positive & then all the other family members were tested. Three more were positive.
I’m hoping it came from a quarantine breach.
prostratedragon
… the people, lying back on their balalaikas, playing their samovars …
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
In Tennessee, we are at 123,914 cases, up 1202, with 83,170 recovered, meaning we have around 40,000 active cases. Deaths are now at 1,233, with 10 new deaths reported. The positive test rate is 10.5%—reporting times are much too long.
We have 1,113 cases in hospitals, so capacity is good there, although we are edging up on ventilator use, which isn’t good.
YY_Sima Qian
How China Controlled the Coronavirus Teaching and learning in Sichuan during the pandemic.
A great piece by Peter Hessler on China’s response to COVID-19, as seen from his residence in Chengdu in Sichuan Province, as a lecturer at a local University.
I have always really enjoyed and admired Peter Hessler as a writer and a journalist. He has tremendous empathy to be able to relate from the perspective of the people he writes about, while maintaining enough of the observer’s distance to stay objective. He has a keen eye for drama in ordinary mundane lives, and a wonderful ability to tell their stories in a way to allow readers to empathize with the personalities, too. Furthermore, he uses the personal stories to illustrate the larger truths and trends of the society and nation in question, staying true to those larger truths. His writings on China have always ringed quotes true to my lived experience and those of my families and friends and acquaintances. I cannot say that about the majority of the China coverage by western MSM.
Likewise, his experiences in Chengdu, and those of his earnest students across China, would be instantly recognizable and familiar to anyone who lived in China in the past 7 months. (Especially as my wife works at a university, too.) One nugget that surprised me is the apparent reluctance of authorities to access the tremendous trove of user data from Alibaba and Tencent for contact tracing purposes, and the two giants apparent reluctance to share such information with the authorities, all with data privacy in mind. Everyone (myself) assumed that the Chinese government would access the GPS positioning records, Bluetooth signals, the mobile payments and online purchase records, and AI facial recognition from the ubiquitous CCTV cameras to easily track people’s and contact travel history. Even though both Alibaba and Tencent has always strenuously denied that they share such data with authorities, I suppose most people assumed otherwise.
On the other hand, I have not actually seen any circumstantial evidence that the authorities have indeed conducted such intrusive data access for contact tracing purposes, I just assumed that they would do so. There were reports of people having to take RT-PCR tests simply because they drove by the Xinfadi exchange on the nearby expressway, or standing across the street from the exchange after it has already closed. When we check into hotels we are asked to scan QR codes that would produce our travel history via cell tower position from the mobile service companies, but only city and district level of granularity. I have been called a couple of times by government workers to verify that I did not enter China recently, or when I moved apartments. They would not have bothered if they had all the access to my mobile payment and online purchase records, and CCTV camera footages from my residential compounds. Even the health codes relied substantially on an honor system of manual update of one’s health information, whether one’s residence is in a Medium or High Risk area, and travel history tracked by scanning QR code’s when entering and exiting facilities (which few places bother these days). Perhaps Alibaba’s and Tencent’s protestations are not just PR exercises, after all.
Why has the the CCP regime not fully used the Orwellian Surveillance powers potentially at its disposal for contact tracing? I am not entirely sure. The data privacy concerns may have to do with allowing tens of millions of bureaucrats and government workers access to detailed private information of hundreds of millions of citizens would provide fertile ground for abuse and fraud (tele-fraud is a big menace in China chiefly targeting the elderly, for example) by the unscrupulous among the government workers. Abuses and fraud would inevitably blow back onto the regime.
I have no doubt that the regime would not hesitate to require access to whatever private information on whomever person deemed a threat to the regime (be they dissidents, activists, militant terrorists or foreign agents), and Alibaba and Tencent would comply.
YY_Sima Qian
@TS (the original): 14 day quarantine is not enough to catch all of the cases. Something like 5% of cases from the Harbin, Beijing Xinfadi and Ürumqi outbreaks have incubation periods of 15 – 24 days. As long as there is international travel, no place can hermetically seal itself from COVID-19. That is why continued vigilance by health authorities is so critical. The population will become more complacent and yearn to return to the pre-COVID normal. That is just human nature. In most of China today, as well as Taiwan and Vietnam (before the Danang outbreak), you would find masking outdoors to be very low, and inconsistently enforced even in doors, because the population will come to believe that COVID-19 has been beaten. The relevant question concerning the population will most of them readily comply and cooperate with renewed restrictions when new outbreaks occur:
Soprano2
My boss’ boss was exposed to COVID last Thursday. Lucky for me, the last time I was around him was over a week ago, at least. He’s in our other building, so I rarely see him these days. I’m hoping he didn’t catch it.
Here in Springfield we’ve had several deaths the last few days. I’m hoping the mask ordinance, which is in its 3rd week, will get the numbers to start coming down. I still think they did it just in the nick of time; if only the county had followed suit.
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
@Soprano2: Here’s a piece from the Chattanooga paper on mask usage—and they strongly suggest “Masks good, no masks bad”, which should surprise exactly no one here. https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2020/aug/10/tennessee-covid-19-hospitalizations-200-arewi/529494/
(They claim coverage for north Alabama and Georgia, if you want to poke around their site.)
Also, Roger Stone is scheduled to appear at a Nashville-area church August 30—the grift goes on!
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — 52 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, 27 of which are in the Grampian region. Many of those 27 cases may be connected to the Aberdeen outbreak. The current city-wide lockdown there is being reviewed tomorrow.
The test positivity rate is 1.2%. No deaths of confirmed COVID-19 patients were reported overnight, a streak that’s continued for a couple of weeks now but data coming out tomorrow will probably report some deaths over the past week where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death certificate.
In yet more “footballers being stupid” news a Celtic first-team player apparently returned from a trip to Spain and played a match a few days later instead of undergoing 14 days quarantine/self-isolation as the law now requires after returning from Spain. Nicola Sturgeon is not taking any prisoners on this, the next Celtic match has been postponed and she’s had the Scottish Football Association high heid yins on the carpet for a telling-off. If this sort of stupid behaviour carries on then she’s quite willing to shut down the entire professional football season in Scotland for the next nine months.
terben
The new cases that are being reported in NZ have prompted an immediate lockdown in Auckland. New restrictions include the closure of public venues including libraries, museums, cinemas, food courts, gyms, pools, playgrounds and markets which will all be forced close.
Meanwhile in Australia, the focus has been on the outbreak in Victoria. There were 19 new deaths and 331 new cases today. The new case numbers are lower than the 700’s of a week ago, but the daily deaths have increased in the same time.
As well as Victoria, the case numbers in NSW are beginning to trend in the wrong way. Since the start of the week, case have crept up from ca. 10 to 22 today. Most of the today’s cases are related to known clusters and only one is still under investigation. What is worrying is that these cases that aren’t linked to other outbreaks are becoming a regular feature of the daily numbers.
Sloane Ranger
@Robert Sneddon:
Fully expecting to hear of similar behaviour by English League players. It’s just a matter of time.