The number of calls about hand sanitizer have skyrocketed 70% this year, according to new data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) released yesterday
https://www.fastcomp...-products-growsApproved drug reduces ventilator time for patients with severe COVID-19
https://www.alphagal...y/ItemId/195912 There's a new bright spot at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource: Beam Line 12-1, an experimental station devoted to determining the structures of biological macromolecules with high brilliance X-rays. Researchers from around the country are using it to examine the atomic structure and function of different components of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The new beamline at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory combines an extra bright, tightly focused X-ray beam with robotics, automation, full remote access and data processing systems to expand the types of macromolecules research teams can study and allow them to run experiments faster than before and from their home laboratories.
In just the first few months of operation, researchers from Stanford University, The Scripps Research Institute, the University of California, San Francisco and the California Institute of Technology have used the new beamline to study proteins thought to be central to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Among the results are new clues about how antibodies block infection and how drugs could modulate the immune system so it responds strongly when needed while avoiding overreactions that could cause more harm than good.
The new beamline construction was funded by Stanford University, The Scripps Research Institute, several private foundations through Stanford University including the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. In BL12-1, said Scripps Professor Ian Wilson, SSRL has one of the most advanced "microfocus" X-ray beam lines in the world. "We'll be able to use smaller crystals, collect higher quality data, get a better signal-to-noise ratio and collect more data sets per hour" than ever before, Wilson said.
https://phys.org/new...ids-covid-.htmlhttps://www.youtube....h?v=mYz3KEDQDwQOne of the immune system’s oldest branches, called complement, may be influencing the severity of COVID disease, according to a new study from researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
https://www.cuimc.co...in-severe-covidhttps://www.scienced...00803092123.htmMANHATTAN — Yunjeong Kim and Kyeong-Ok "KC" Chang, virologists in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University, have published a study showing a possible therapeutic treatment for COVID-19.
Pathogenic coronaviruses are a major threat to global public health, as shown by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or SARS-CoV; Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, known as MERS-CoV; and the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 infection.
The study, "3C-like protease inhibitors block coronavirus replication in vitro and improve survival in MERS-CoV-infected mice," appears in the Aug. 3 issue of the prestigious medical journal Science Translational Medicine. It reveals how small molecule protease inhibitors show potency against human coronaviruses. These coronavirus 3C-like proteases, known as 3CLpro, are strong therapeutic targets because they play vital roles in coronavirus replication.
"Vaccine developments and treatments are the biggest targets in COVID-19 research, and treatment is really key," said Chang, professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology. "This paper describes protease inhibitors targeting coronavirus 3CLpro, which is a well-known therapeutic target."
https://www.k-state....-study8320.htmlhttps://www.scienced...00803145622.htmyet another study
Cloth face masks can reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2: new study
https://medicalxpres...-sars-cov-.html The fight against plastic pollution is being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the use of disposable masks, gloves and other protective equipment soars, but UN agencies and partners insist that, if effective measures are put into place, the amount of plastics discarded every year can be significantly cut, or even eliminated.
- Pollution driven by huge increase in mask sales
- A toxic problem
- Existing solutions could cut plastics by 80 per cent
- Global cooperation is essential
- Promote planet and job-friendly alternatives
https://moderndiplom...stic-pollution/Volunteers inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine by Vektor in good health
To date, three volunteers out of five have already been inoculated
https://tass.com/society/1185571 HANOI: Vietnam's recent COVID-19 outbreak in the central city of Danang, which led to more than 200 cases and eight deaths, appears to have started early in July, the government said on Tuesday (Aug 4), amid concern the virus may have been spreading undetected earlier.
"After having conducted antibody tests on 5,000 samples collected from infected patients and their relatives, it can be concluded that the outbreak appears to have started in early July," Dang Duc Anh, Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology said in a government statement.
Vietnam has registered 670 COVID-19 cases in total, with eight deaths as of Tuesday.
The country had gone 100 days without community transmission until the virus resurfaced on Jul 25 in Danang. More than 200 people have since been infected, with the majority in Danang.
https://www.channeln...d-july-12989924I think this is one reason Vietnam had such a strict lockdown. They didn't have the resources available to do anything else, but they sure made lemonade with what they did have:
Vietnam reported 28 new COVID-19 infections and two deaths on Tuesday (Aug 4), lifting its total cases to 670, with eight dead, as the capital Hanoi said it was
running short of the rapid testing kits being used to keep a new outbreak at bay.
https://www.channeln...t-kits-12989380Uruguay’s Secret to Success in Combating COVID-19
Move fast and listen to the scientists
Early testing and monitoring without complacency
Unity of purpose
Quality healthcare and comprehensive social safety net
https://en.mercopres...bating-covid-19France could "at any moment" lose control over the spread of the coronavirus, the government's COVID-19 scientific council warned Tuesday as official data showed the first rise in intensive care patients since April.
https://medicalxpres...ce-council.html More than 400,000 Israelis were instructed to enter quarantine during July because of possible contact with confirmed carriers of coronavirus.
People entered quarantine after instructions were delivered following phone tracing by the Shin Bet Security Agency, epidemiological investigations, and by their own initiatives according to information obtained by Ynet.
But 224,000 were told to quarantine after the Shin Bet tracking system alerted them to possible contagion while only 67,000 were warned as a result of investigations conducted by health officials.
About 100,000 Israelis decided to self-quarantine out of an abundance of caution.
https://www.ynetnews...icle/ryRThOU11DPublic's Fears of COVID-19 Are Groundless, Moved by Emotion - Ex-Israeli Health Ministry Chief
https://sputniknews....ministry-chief/Germany is already contending with a second wave of the coronavirus and risks squandering its early success by flouting social distancing rules, the head of the German doctors' union said in a newspaper interview published on Tuesday
https://www.channeln...octors-12988866How a $175 COVID-19 Test Led to $2,479 in Charges
https://www.medpaget...e/covid19/87876Watch people from all over the world gasp in horror at how the U.S. has handled COVID-19
https://www.youtube....h?v=kwkvTBgTO7Ahttps://news.avclub....r-at-1844595448PS4 game sales almost doubled during the pandemic
https://www.engadget...-074353666.htmlCalifornia GOP Consultant Rues ‘Big Mistake’ That Led to Family’s COVID Infections
https://khn.org/news...vid-infections/Trump suggests without evidence that South Korea falsifies its coronavirus statistics after being confronted about how much higher the US death rate is
https://www.business...-numbers-2020-8L'Oreal USA is requiring employees to hand over their medical history to continue working from home
https://www.business...ly-legal-2020-8 "Here's the question: I've covered you for a long time, I've gone to your rallies, I've talked to your people. They love you, they listen to you, they listen to every word you say ... they don't listen to me or the media or [Dr. Anthony Fauci], they think we're fake news. They want to get their advice from you," Swan said. "And so when they hear you say, 'Everything's under control, don't worry about wearing masks,' these are people, many of them are older people."
Trump responded, "What's the definition of 'control'?"
"It's giving them a false sense of security," Swan countered.
"Right now, I think it's under control," Trump said.
"How? 1,000 Americans are dying a day," Swan said.
"They are dying, that's true. And it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can, it's under control as much as we can control it," Trump said.
https://www.business...t-is-hbo-2020-8‘I could have died’: Arizona Trump voters beg friends to take COVID seriously after getting hospitalized
https://www.rawstory...g-hospitalized/ This is the first week that New York City’s 193,000 jobless food service workers will have to make do without a $600 CARES act check, a stark financial reality that those ex-workers might need to get used to. The federal program that funds that benefit ended last week amid an impasse over the next Congressional stimulus, and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday that he’s “not optimistic there will be a solution in the very near term.”
Local hospitality workers will now have to scrape by with more austere state unemployment assistance. Those payments, which cap out at $504 for the highest paid restaurant workers, aren’t really meant to act as the type of long-term income replacement that’s necessary amid an indefinite ban on indoor dining. Those payments are rather meant to assist people while temporarily transitioning between jobs.
For a bit of context: A waiter previously earning the city average of $42,440 will now only take home about $408 every week on state unemployment, or roughly $10.20 per hour, well under the city’s minimum wage of $15. Unemployed dishwashers will earn roughly $7.60 per hour while out of work.
The Manhattan living wage, the amount individuals needs to spend on food, medical expenses, and rent, is nearly $18 per hour, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The $600 supplement, if reinstated, would take workers well above the living wage, but whether or when that might actually happen is in question.
https://ny.eater.com...nyc-restaurants All of this is true, but it also elides one important piece of information: If Victoria were a US state, its infection rate would be one of the lowest in the nation.
The “bleak Covid-19 figures” in Victoria, as CNN (8/2/20) reported, peaked this past weekend at 671 new infections in one day. That’s indeed a huge rise in infections, up from 77 a day a month earlier (New York Times, 7/2/20), a figure that itself was seen as an alarming uptick at the time. In a state of 6.6 million people, the latest peak represents an infection rate of 102 people per day per million residents, according to Johns Hopkins tracking data, more than five times Australia’s overall national rate.
Victoria’s disaster, though, pales in comparison to typical infection rates across the United States. As of Monday, 34 out of 50 states — Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Nevada, Georgia, Tennessee, Arizona, Idaho, South Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, California, North Carolina, Maryland, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Alaska, Utah, New Mexico, Kentucky, Kansas, Minnesota, Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington — had higher daily per capita infection rates (calculated as one-week rolling averages) than the Australian hot spot.
At the top of the table, Florida’s infection rate stood at 421 new cases per day per million residents, even as observers expressed concerns that case rates could be undercounted, thanks to new self-testing centers that could result in numerous false negatives. And far from imposing lockdowns, most of these states have kept reopening plans in place; in all of Florida except for Miami-Dade County, restaurants even remain open for indoor dining, though taking off masks to eat and talk in a confined indoor space is a perfect breeding ground for Covid infection (Wall Street Journal, 7/3/20).
https://fair.org/hom...sual-in-the-us/"We are beginning to see evidence of significant progress nationwide," Trump said during a news conference at the White House. "An encouraging sign, very encouraging, I have to add, that the virus is receding."
http://www.ecns.cn/n...tt8796259.shtml WASHINGTON: The soaring number of COVID-19 cases in the United States has far outstripped many local health departments’ ability to trace the contacts of those infected, a step critical in containing the virus’ spread.
With the pandemic claiming about a thousand American lives a day, many city and county departments say they lack the money and staff to expeditiously identify people who have been exposed, according to a Reuters survey of 121 local agencies, as well as interviews with dozens of state and local officials, epidemiologists and tracers.
*snip*
Among the findings:
- The 40 local health departments with the highest caseloads have fallen far short in their efforts to reach patients who tested positive. Only about half the departments with more than 1,000 cases had reached close to all infected people at the time of the survey. The CDC recommends that newly positive cases be interviewed within 24 hours.
“It’s just impossible with the kind of numbers that we are seeing,” said Devin Raman, a senior disease investigator at the Southern Nevada Health District, including Las Vegas. - Nearly half of the local departments said they lacked sufficient staff and funds. In Missouri, many said they hadn’t received any additional money for contact tracing. “Some of them are literally running out of money right now,” Diane Weber, executive director of the Missouri Association of Local Public Health Agencies, said in July.
- Local health officials in six states complained that efforts to create statewide contact tracing systems have been hampered by issues including technical problems and poor coordination. In some cases, this has led to tension and a costly duplication of efforts, with state and local tracers calling the same people.
“We’re not going to drop the ball on tracing in our county and leave it to the state. If we did that, we’d probably all be dead,” said Joni Wise, administrator of the Vigo County Health Department in Indiana.
A spokesperson for the Indiana Department of Health acknowledged that people are more likely to answer a local call from a municipal health department than an “833” number from the state’s centralised call center. - More than three dozen public health departments said they were hindered by some residents’ failure to answer their phones or to provide accurate information when they did. Several departments said people they called had objected to contact tracing as an infringement on their privacy rights.
“We get a variety of responses from yelling and hanging up, to those telling us that they have already contacted all of their friends and will not give us those names,” said Kenosha County health director Jen Freiheit in Wisconsin.
*snip*
“If any country is saying contact tracing is difficult, it is a lame excuse,” World Health Organization Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in June. He pointed to the WHO’s success in halting an Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo by tracing 25,000 contacts a day in a remote area, where some 20 armed groups were fighting.
long
https://www.channeln...vid-19-12989692Clorox won't have enough disinfecting wipes until 2021, its CEO says
https://www.channeln...o-says-12989658 The chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s program investing billions of dollars into discovering a coronavirus vaccine, says media scrutiny of his stock ownership may delay a vaccine or make its discovery less likely because it is distracting him from his work.
Moncef Slaoui made the remarks on the official Health and Human Services podcast, released Friday, while being interviewed by Michael Caputo, HHS assistant secretary of public affairs. The interview quickly descended into a lengthy rant about the media.
“The American people need to understand that the media often times are lying to them because they don’t want a vaccine, in order to defeat Donald Trump,” Caputo said at one point.
The two men took extensive issue with news stories about Slaoui. He is working as a contractor voluntarily, drawing payment of only $1. As news reports have outlined, this exempts him from ethics rules that would apply to federal employees.
Slaoui worked for 30 years in senior roles at pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. He still holds significant stock in the company. The HHS inspector general ruled that he can continue to own stock in the pharmaceutical industry and is exempt from disclosure rules that would apply if he joined the government.
https://www.buzzfeed...ser-warns-delayUS Treasury Plans to Borrow Over $2 Trillion in 2nd Half of 2020, Partly for Future COVID-19 Relief
https://sputniknews....ovid-19-relief/Gohmert’s daughter rips GOP science denial: My dad "ignored medical expertise" — "now he has COVID"
https://www.salon.co...w-he-has-covid/
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