Update on the COVID-19 numbers
- Globally, there have been more than 57.3 million confirmed cases and more than 1.3 million associated deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
- The United States has reported 11.8 million confirmed cases. However, due to a lack of testing, the number of actual cases may be far higher.
- More than 253,000 people in the United States have died from the disease.
Healthline will update this page every weekday. For more information about the virus, go here.
Today, the
“As there is currently no evidence that remdesivir improves survival and other outcomes in these patients,” the WHO said in a
According to a WHO
Drugmaker Pfizer is asking U.S. regulators to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine, beginning the process that might bring limited first shots as early as next month to help end the pandemic, reported the Associated Press.
“Our work to deliver a safe and effective vaccine has never been more urgent, as we continue to see an alarming rise in the number of cases of COVID-19 globally,” said Albert Bourla, DVM, PhD, Pfizer chairman and CEO, in a statement.
The submission is based on a vaccine efficacy rate of 95 percent that was demonstrated in a phase 3 clinical study in participants without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection and also in participants with and without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, as measured from 7 days after a second dose, according to Pfizer’s November 20 press release.
A COVID-19 vaccine in development by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca isn’t only safe but triggers a similar immune response among all adults, according to the preliminary findings of a peer-reviewed, phase 2 trial, reported CNBC.
The
According to the study authors, the vaccine “appears to be better tolerated in older adults than in younger adults and has similar immunogenicity across all age groups after a boost dose.”
They emphasize that further research into the vaccine’s effectiveness is “warranted in all age groups and individuals with comorbidities.”
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended against Thanksgiving travel to prevent COVID-19 transmission, reported CNBC.
According to the
While New York City hasn’t been declared an “orange” warning zone yet, Mayor Bill de Blasio said it’s likely to happen, meaning businesses that only just reopened might have to close again according to state rules, reported CBS New York.
An orange zone designation is only one step away from the most severe category of infection “hot spot,” according to a press release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
According to CBS News, in an orange warning zone:
- schooling is conducted remotely
- houses of worship are limited to 33 percent capacity, or 25 people maximum
- gatherings are limited to no more than 10 people, indoors or outdoors
- gyms and personal care, nonessential businesses are closed
- only outdoor dining is open, with a maximum of four people per table
Officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) no longer recommend treating people with mild to moderate COVID-19 with the antiviral drug bamlanivimab.
The drug had been given emergency use authorization by the FDA earlier this year. In a statement, officials on an FDA panel said there wasn’t enough evidence the drug helped people with mild to moderate COVID-19.
They said the drug should mainly be used in clinical trials. Additionally, some people at high risk for severe COVID-19 may be given the drug in certain cases.
On Tuesday, Nov. 17, the FDA announced
“The FDA continues to demonstrate its unprecedented speed in response to the pandemic. While COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been authorized for at-home collection, this is the first that can be fully self-administered and provide results at home,” FDA Commissioner
The Lucira COVID-19 All-In-One Test Kit is available by prescription and intended for people 14 years and older who may have COVID-19. The test can be used for people younger than 14 if it’s administered by a medical professional.
In a final analysis, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer said its experimental COVID-19 vaccine appears to be 95 percent effective.
The data hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed.
The company is expected to seek emergency use authorization from the FDA within a few days.
The United States is likely seeing the last big COVID-19 surge before a possible vaccine can begin slowing the pandemic, according to one expert, reported CNN.
“The months ahead are going to look better than the weeks ahead,” Dr. Mark McClellan, a former FDA commissioner and current head of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, said at an event on Tuesday, Nov. 17, hosted by Duke University.
However, McClellan cautioned that we’re currently “past the time when it’s important not only to encourage [wearing] masks and distancing for individuals, but also to take some further steps, from state, local, and perhaps federal standpoints, to encourage more use of the steps we know work.”
Teachers’ unions across the United States are calling to stop in-person education as COVID-19 cases surge, reported Fox News.
According to the network, the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), representing roughly 180,000 educators, is urging school districts to comply with the state’s restrictions, requesting that any district within a county experiencing substantial COVID-19 cases transition to solely remote instruction.
“The state departments of Health and Education developed these guidelines based on good science and what the infection rates are in a school’s community,” PSEA president Rich Askey said Nov. 11 in a statement.
“We must follow these guidelines to the letter,” Askey said. “It’s the best way for us to slow the spread of this virus and keep our students, staff, and their families safe.”
National Education Association Rhode Island president Larry Purtill and Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals president Frank Flynn called for “a holiday pause” of in-person learning and a move to remote learning for K-12 students, reported The Providence Journal.
On Nov. 10, Chicago teachers in Marquardt School District 15, urged for an “immediate switch to remote learning” after Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued a stay-at-home advisory effective Monday, reported the Chicago Tribune.
Dolly Parton fans jokingly credit the iconic songstress with curing COVID-19 after donating $1 million last April to research ultimately leading to drugmaker Moderna’s vaccine candidate, reported Fox News.
“My longtime friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, who’s been involved in research at Vanderbilt for many years, informed me that they were making some exciting advancements toward that research of the coronavirus for a cure,” Parton announced on social media, regarding the donation. “I am making a donation of $1 million to Vanderbilt toward that research and to encourage people that can afford it to make donations.”
Parton’s contribution to vaccine research is acknowledged by researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A second COVID-19 vaccine appears highly effective in preventing illness following exposure to SARS-CoV-2.
Moderna announced Monday, Nov. 16 that its experimental vaccine is 94.5 percent effective at preventing COVID-19, according to an analysis of the company’s clinical trial.
“This is a pivotal moment in the development of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate,” said Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, in a statement. “Since early January, we have chased this virus with the intent to protect as many people around the world as possible.”
“This positive interim analysis from our phase 3 study has given us the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent COVID-19 disease, including severe disease,” Bancel added.
U.S. COVID-19 cases surpassed 11 million on Sunday, Nov. 15 as the third wave of cases continues surging, reported NBC News.
The surge comes as new restrictions are being introduced and Americans are deciding how, or even whether, they can celebrate Thanksgiving.
According to the network, over a dozen states including New Hampshire, Maryland, Colorado, and Montana, also broke daily records of cases on Saturday — with Georgia the only U.S. state to record a decrease over the past 14 days.
“We’re seeing more cases in more places than ever before,” former CDC director, Dr. Tom Frieden, told Good Morning America on Nov. 15. “Unfortunately, the numbers are going up, and they’ll continue to go up and get worse.”
“We’re probably going to see 2,000 deaths per day by the end of the year,” Frieden added.
Official stats of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the United States show numbers are rising dramatically, with experts fearing daily deaths will follow the same trend, reported CNN.
According to the network, U.S. cases were dropping after the summer surge, but cases bounced back significantly.
Johns Hopkins University data shows Thursday, Nov. 12 broke a record for the highest single-day infection totals at more than 153,000 and the highest 7-day average with 131,000 confirmed cases.
“It will not surprise me if in the next weeks we see over 200,000 new cases a day,” Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told CNN on Nov. 9.
With COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths on the rise nationwide, some states are halting their phased reopening plans, or imposing new COVID-related restrictions, reported USA Today.
More than 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, currently require people to cover their faces in public, according to an AARP list.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, member of President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 task force, said the country needs “targeted” restrictions to contain COVID-19, and not lockdown the nation, as suggested by another doctor on the panel, reported the New York Post.
“We’re not in a place where we’re saying shut the whole country down. We got to be more targeted,” Murthy said Friday, Nov. 13 on Good Morning America.
Infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Thursday, Nov. 12 that vaccine developers should push to make billions of their COVID-19 vaccines to ensure all parts of the world have access, rather than focusing solely on wealthy countries, reported Reuters.
“Now a number of different companies are talking about the ability to make billions of doses. That’s what we need. We don’t need hundreds of millions for the rich countries,” Fauci said at a webinar conducted by British think tank Chatham House.
“We need billions (of vaccine doses), so whether you live in the darkest part of the developing world, or if you live in London, you should have the same access,” Fauci said.
According to Reuters, experts have doubts about vaccine access, especially in developing countries, because candidates (like the Pfizer drug) need to be stored at temperatures of minus 94°F or below, which can present infrastructure challenges.
New COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are increasing at “alarming rates,” and experts worry they’ll get worse before the upcoming holidays, reported CNN.
“This is a humanitarian disaster — probably one of the worst stories I’ve covered in my career here at CNN,” said CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Nov. 12.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Policy Lab projects the next several weeks will see significantly worse conditions in West Coast, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic states.
“Last week, while we were distracted by the presidential election, COVID-19 transmission rates continued to accelerate across the country. The nearly universal rise in statewide hospitalization rates, particularly in our colder regions, is a pattern that will grow as we move into the holiday season,” CHOP said in a statement.
With a continuing surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, growing numbers of state leaders have started telling residents to stay home in an effort to slow virus spread, reported CNN.
These announcements follow Texas becoming the first state to surpass 1 million cases.
“I’ve seen more death in the last 3 weeks than I’ve seen in a year,” a registered nurse told CNN affiliate KFOX. “I’ve done compressions on more people in the last 3 weeks than I have in a year.”
COVID-19 cases in the United States have now surpassed 10 million since the pandemic began, according Johns Hopkins University, and almost 240,000 U.S. people have died.
Dr. Zeke Emanuel, 1 of the 10 advisory board members named by President-elect Joe Biden to his coronavirus task force, is advising the United States and other nations not to hoard a vaccine, reported Fox News.
According to Fox, Emanuel co-authored a paper in September that encouraged officials to follow a fair priority model for international distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, as opposed to practicing “vaccine nationalism.”
“Fairly distributing a COVID-19 vaccine among countries is a problem of distributive justice,” wrote Emanuel. “Although governments will be the initial recipients of vaccine, fair distribution across countries must reflect a moral concern for the ultimate recipients: individuals.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use authorization for drugmaker Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody therapy, bamlanivimab.
“This emergency authorization allows us to make bamlanivimab available as a COVID-19 treatment for recently diagnosed, high-risk patients — adding a valuable tool for doctors fighting the now-increasing burden of this global pandemic,” said David A. Ricks, Lilly’s chairman and CEO in a statement.
“The rapid development and availability of bamlanivimab could not have been achieved without the relentless work of our Lilly team, collaboration across the industry, and the urgent work being done by the government to ensure appropriate allocation to patients who need it the most,” Ricks continued.
According to Eli Lilly, the drug is intended to treat COVID-19 in non-hospitalized patients 12 years of age and older “with mild to moderate symptoms who weigh 88 pounds (40 kg) or more, and who are at high risk for developing severe COVID-19 symptoms or the need for hospitalization.”
According to Fox News, the U.S. government has already purchased 300,000 doses of bamlanivimab, and committed that Americans will have no out-of-pocket costs for the medicine. However, healthcare facilities may still charge to administer it.
About 20 percent of people with COVID-19 later develop a new mental illness, according to new research.
The study,
“This is likely due to a combination of the psychological stressors associated with this particular pandemic and the physical effects of the illness,” Dr. Michael Bloomfield, a consultant psychiatrist at University College London, who wasn’t directly involved with the study, told Reuters.
Pfizer said Monday, Nov. 9, that an early peek at the data on its COVID-19 vaccine suggests it may be 90 percent effective at preventing the disease, putting the company on track to apply later this month for emergency use approval from the FDA, reported the Associated Press (AP).
According to the AP, this announcement doesn’t necessarily mean a vaccine is imminent. It’s based on an interim analysis, from an independent data monitoring board that looked at just 94 cases recorded in a study involving about 44,000 people in the United States and 5 other countries.
Some participants were given the vaccine, while others received a placebo.
“We’re in a position potentially to be able to offer some hope,” Dr. Bill Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of clinical development, told the AP. “We’re very encouraged.”
Pfizer has previously said that with FDA approval, it hopes to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses by the end of this year and as many as over 1 billion in 2021, reported Fox Business.
President-elect Joe Biden named 13 health experts to his Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board on Nov. 9, advancing his plans despite ongoing legal challenges to the election results, reported NPR.
Biden’s panel will be co-chaired by former FDA Commissioner
“The advisory board will help shape my approach to managing the surge in reported infections; ensuring vaccines are safe, effective, and distributed efficiently, equitably, and free; and protecting at-risk populations,” said Biden in a statement.
Over 121,000 COVID-19 cases were recorded Thursday Nov. 5, surpassing Wednesday’s record by over 20,000 cases, reported CNN.
In just 48 hours, over 220,000 positive tests were reported for a total of over 660,000 new cases in the United States over the past week.
According to Johns Hopkins, an excess of 235,000 Americans have died since the pandemic began, and CNN reports that an ensemble forecast by the CDC estimates an additional 31,000 people might die during the next 2 1/2 weeks.
Many states are reinstituting restrictions in response.
Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo said on social media that she’s asking for voluntary compliance with new measures, which will take effect on November 8. These include a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew on weeknights, and restrictions on the size of private gatherings.
The St. Charles County Department of Public Health and the St. Charles County Election Authority in Missouri have announced that an election judge supervisor who tested positive for COVID-19 worked the election against advice that she quarantine.
The poll worker subsequently died, according to a press release from St. Charles County, Missouri, Department of Public Health.
However, the Department emphasized that “It’s not anticipated that close contacts will include any of the 1,858 voters who were at the polling place Tuesday,” since the worker had job duties that don’t “typically include working closely with voters,” such as distributing styluses, or taking voter identification.
“As this virus continues to spread, all aspects of the healthcare system are working together to remind the community that a positive COVID-19 test result requires that person to be responsible to others in the community,” said St. Charles County Director of Public Health Demetrius Cianci-Chapman, in a statement.
“There is no more important duty than protecting the health of our families, friends, and those who reside in the community with us,” Cianci-Chapman said.
The ‘fall surge’ long predicted by experts seems to have arrived, with the United States reporting over 100,000 new cases daily for the first time on Wednesday, Nov. 4.
According to USA Today, that number comes less than a week after the nation reached more than 9 million confirmed cases — more than any other country.
“The seasonal uptick has been predicted for months,” Dennis Carroll, PhD, chair of the Global Virome Project Leadership Board, told USA Today. “As it stands, we’re no better prepared than the spring, meaning widespread closures and shutdowns as we are witnessing in Europe are inevitable.”
According to Johns Hopkins University, confirmed cases have surpassed 48 million worldwide.
In a recent travel update, the CDC states clearly that staying home is the best way to protect yourself against COVID-19, reported the Associated Press (AP).
However, if you choose to travel, the CDC
- Is COVID-19 spreading at your destination?
- Do you live with someone who might be at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19?
- Are you at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19?
- Does your destination have requirements or restrictions for travelers?
The CDC also reminds everyone to follow masking and social distancing guidelines and to wash hands and use hand sanitizer often.
Researchers are sounding the alarm after finding a case where a person was able to shed the virus that causes COVID-19 despite having no symptoms.
The report was published this week. The single case involved an immunocompromised woman with cancer who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
For 70 days, researchers detected the virus in her upper airway despite the fact that she didn’t have symptoms.
While this is a single case, it shows how difficult it may be in stopping the virus from spreading.
Officials in Denmark are planning to kill 15 million mink after a strain of SARS-CoV-2 was linked to the animals, according to CBS News.
At least 12 people have contracted this mutated form of the virus that causes COVID-19. Experts say the overall risk of animal to human transmission of COVID-19 remains low.
Recent research suggests that delirium accompanied by fever may be another symptom of COVID-19.
The study was carried out by researchers from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) in Spain, and published in the Journal of Clinical Immunology and Immunotherapy.
“Delirium is a state of confusion in which the person feels out of touch with reality, as if they are dreaming,” explained UOC researcher, and study co-author, Javier Correa, who carried out the study, in a statement. “We need to be on the alert, particularly in an epidemiological situation like this, because an individual presenting certain signs of confusion may be an indication of infection.”
The findings suggest that together with headaches and the loss of taste and smell that can occur before coughing and breathing difficulties begin, some patients also develop delirium.
“The main hypotheses which explain how the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 affects the brain point to three possible causes: hypoxia or neuronal oxygen deficiency, inflammation of brain tissue due to cytokine storm, and the fact that the virus has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier to directly invade the brain,” said co-author, Diego Redolar Ripoll, in a statement.
The COVID-19 pandemic is again surging across the United States — setting records and predicted to take tens of thousands more lives over the next months.
According to CNN, the 7-day COVID-19 case average has also doubled in just one month with the United States reporting 99,321 new cases on Friday, Oct. 30.
According to Reuters, the United States reached a weekly record as well, with more than 575,00 cases last week
For those casting their ballot Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) informed CNN that people recovering or quarantining from COVID-19 after exposure, can go vote.
“In-person voting can be carried out safely following CDC’s recommendations for polling location and voters,” said a CDC spokesperson by email. However, to do so safely, voters should:
The
However, according to NBC News, even if a COVID-19 vaccine is only 50 percent effective, it could still make a difference. Experts emphasize that even flu vaccine effectiveness can vary widely from year to year, and the shots still offer benefits.
“If you had a 60 or 70 percent effective vaccine and everybody took it, you might actually be reaching toward herd immunity and potentially then dampen down this pandemic,” Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group and editor-in-chief of the journal Vaccine, told NBC.
Daily coronavirus counts pass 70,000–90,000 as measured by test results. However, the results of sewage testing in various states suggest things may get much worse, reported CNN.
“People start shedding virus pretty quickly after they are infected and before they start showing symptoms,” Mariana Matus, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Biobot Analytics, which is analyzing sewage for dozens of customers, told CNN. “We are seeing an upturn in the wastewater data which I think broadly matches what we are seeing across the country.”
The October 22 approval of antiviral drug remdesivir by the FDA has scientists baffled, reported Science.
According to experts, this is because:
- Only one study found the drug modestly reduced recuperation time for severely ill COVID-19 patients.
- On October 15, the World Health Organization’s
Solidarity Trial showed that remdesivir doesn’t reduce mortality or the time COVID-19 patients take to recover. - Multiple smaller studies found remdesivir had no impact on the disease whatsoever.
The United States has now surpassed 9 million COVID-19 cases, as infection rates continue to surge, among other worrying statistics.
As of Thursday, Oct. 29, 24 states saw their highest 7-day averages for new daily cases, reported CNN.
The entire country saw a record-breaking 88,521 cases and 971 deaths according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard.
National Public Radio (NPR) reported that they’ve received documents providing a “snapshot” of data collected and analyzed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These documents highlight trends in hospitalizations and show cities nearing full hospital capacity with health facilities that are stressed.
According to NPR, while this information is gathered by the federal government, it’s not shared with the public.
“At this point, I think it’s reckless. It’s endangering people,” Ryan Panchadsaram, co-founder of the COVID Exit Strategy website and a former data official in the Obama administration, told NPR. “We’re now in the third wave, and I think our only way out is really open, transparent, and actionable information.
A high number of “excess” deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic are worrying U.S. senators.
The CDC recently found evidence of more than 250,000 excess deaths in 2020 compared to the years prior. About 150,000 of these deaths were directly connected to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three Democratic senators are asking the heads of the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate the cause of these deaths.
“These are highly alarming data, revealing that, in addition to the horrific toll known from COVID-19 in the United States, over 100,000 more fatalities may have been directly or indirectly associated with the pandemic,” Senators Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Baldwin, and Tina Smith wrote according to CNN.
For those who’ve already experienced COVID-19, immunity to reinfection may linger for 5 months or longer, according to a new study published in the journal Science.
According to researchers, while this isn’t conclusive evidence that a COVID-19 antibody response will be protective, they believe it’s “very likely” it will decrease the odds of reinfection and may reduce the severity of disease if reinfection does occur.
“It is still unclear if infection with SARS-CoV-2 in humans protects from reinfection and for how long,” study authors wrote. “We know from work with common human coronaviruses that neutralizing antibodies are induced and these antibodies can last for years and provide protection from reinfection or attenuate disease, even if individuals get reinfected.”
Another recent study in preprint looked at more than 300,000 people and found signs of a 26 percent decline in antibodies after 3 months.
COVID-19 restrictions will remain in place in some form after a vaccine becomes available, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Fox News on Oct. 29.
“If we begin distributing doses of vaccine at the very beginning of 2021… I think when you start seeing people getting vaccinated in January, February, March, April, May, and it’s clear that it’s safe and that it is impacting the course of the pandemic in the United States, more and more people will want to get vaccinated,” explained Dr. Fauci. “That’s going to take several months.”
The United States is reporting another record-high average number of new cases as a top health official warned Oct. 27 that the country is at a “critical point,” reported CNBC.
“Cases are going up in most states across the country. Hospitalizations are up, although we’re still tens of thousands of hospitalizations below where we were in July, but that is rising. And we are starting to see the increase in deaths,” said Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of health who leads the government’s testing effort, on NBC’s “TODAY” show.
With the surge in cases, White House communications director Alyssa Farah is downplaying a press release from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released Oct. 27 declaring “ENDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC,” as a key administration accomplishment, saying it was “poorly worded,” reported CNN.
“We’re certainly not getting ahead of it, we’re still in the midst of the pandemic. We do say we’re turning the corner and what we mean by that is, we’re rushing therapeutics, we’re in the best place to treat the virus that we’ve ever been in. And by end of year we expect that we’ll have the vaccine, at which point we will defeat the virus,” she told CNN.
Researchers in the UK sent finger prick tests to 365,000 people and found more than a 26 percent decline in COVID-19 antibodies over 3 months.
The study is in preprint and hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed.
“We know seasonal colds can reinfect people every 6 months,” Wendy Barclay, PhD, head of the infectious disease department at Imperial College London, told Politico, also pointing out that the novel coronavirus seems to follow a similar trend.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director, Dr. Anthony Fauci said we should know if a COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective by early December.
He also said widespread vaccination is still not likely until later in 2021.
“We will know whether a vaccine is safe and effective by the end of November, the beginning of December,” Fauci said in an interview with the BBC on Sunday Oct. 25.
About half the United States has set records for new COVID-19 cases and 5 states report record deaths from the disease, reported USA Today on Oct. 26. The 5 states include Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
USA Today also reported that public health officials and contact tracers in Wisconsin say they’re struggling to keep up with virus spread, while in El Paso, Texas, COVID-19 patients are being airlifted to neighboring hospitals. To create an additional 100 beds, an El Paso civic center was converted into a medical facility.
Former FDA commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, warned that the United States is “at a tipping point,” Sunday, on Face the Nation, reported CBS News.
“We’re at a dangerous tipping point right now, we’re entering what’s going to be the steep slope of the curve of the epidemic curve,” said Dr. Gottlieb, while emphasizing, “there’s things that we can do to slow the spread. I mean, a national mask mandate can be put into place.”
Gottlieb explained that masks serve two purposes.
- The first is to protect other people from you. “So if you’re asymptomatic or presymptomatic, if you have a mask on, you’re less likely to expel respiratory droplets that can infect other people.”
- The second is to provide the wearer “some measure of protection if, in fact, you’re around people who are infected.”
On Thursday, Oct. 22, the
This approval is based on 3 randomized controlled trials including recently published final results of a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 ACTT-1 trial, according to drugmaker, Gilead.
“The approval of Veklury marks an important milestone in efforts to help address the pandemic by offering an effective treatment that helps patients recover faster and, in turn, helps preserve scarce healthcare resources,” said Barry Zingman, MD, professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, New York, in a statement.
At this point in the pandemic, over half of all Americans have been personally affected by COVID-19, according to a new HealthDay-Harris Poll online survey, reported UPI.
The national survey of 2,021 adults was conducted between October 8–12, and found that 55 percent of U.S. adults say they know someone “in their immediate or extended network of family and acquaintances,” who’s contracted or died from COVID-19.
The definition of “close contact” for someone who develops COVID-19 was expanded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Oct. 21, reported STAT News.
This was
According to STAT, while the CDC previously defined close contact as someone who spent 15 minutes or more within 6 feet of a person with the virus, the new definition is someone who spent a cumulative 15 minutes or more within 6 feet of an infectious person over a 24-hour period, even if the time isn’t consecutive.
A recent study published in the Journal of Medical Virology, suggests that some oral antiseptics, mouthwashes, and even a baby shampoo, “may have the ability to inactivate human coronaviruses” when talking, sneezing, or coughing, although further testing is needed to confirm this, reported CNBC.
“While we wait for a vaccine to be developed, methods to reduce transmission are needed,” said Craig Meyers, study author and professor of microbiology and immunology and obstetrics and gynecology at Penn State University in a statement. “The products we tested are readily available and often already part of people’s daily routines.”
A new study based in the United Kingdom will test a potential COVID-19 vaccine by giving volunteers the virus that causes the disease.
Called a human challenge trial, volunteers will be given the experimental vaccine and then exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The study will be small with no more than 90 volunteers, but it could accelerate vaccine approval if the results find the vaccine is safe and effective.
Over 200 former residents of COVID-19 quarantine facilities in Australia are being urged to get tested for blood-transmitted diseases that include HIV, after authorities admitted that the same blood-testing devices were used for multiple guests, reported CNN.
“Blood glucose level testing devices intended for use by one person were used across multiple residents. This presents a low clinical risk of cross-contamination and blood borne viruses — Hepatitis B and C, and HIV,” Australian health agency, Safer Care Victoria confirmed in a statement.
According to CNN, the agency is contacting 243 people who received a blood glucose level test before August 20, because there was a risk of cross-contamination and bloodborne viruses, including HIV.
According to a recent press release from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the statewide positivity rate is now 1.21 percent. However, the state’s hot spots stand at just over 3 percent.
“I think the context is important so people know what 1 percent means or what 2 percent means, which means New York has one of the lowest positivity rates in the nation,” said Cuomo.
The Governor emphasized that this is “because we’re very aggressive about it and when we see a flare-up or a hotspot we jump all over it.”
The number of confirmed, worldwide COVID-19 cases has surpassed 40 million, reported the Associated Press (AP).
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, this milestone was reached on the morning of Oct. 19.
The AP also reported that some U.S. states are relying on targeted measures as case numbers continue to rise. For example, in New York’s most recent round of virus shutdowns, the state is focusing on individual neighborhoods of only a few square miles and closing schools and businesses in those ‘hot spots.’
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci, said he’s “absolutely not” surprised President Donald Trump developed COVID-19 after seeing him surrounded by people not following the best public health practices to prevent spread of the disease.
Dr. Fauci said on a recent episode of CBS’ 60 Minutes, “I was worried that he was going to get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded — no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask,” reported USA Today.
As the United States nears 8 million COVID-19 cases and currently averages more than 50,000 new cases daily, experts say this signals the country is in for a tough winter, reported CNN.
Many U.S. states are currently reporting rising COVID-19 cases, which has “proven in the past to be a very good prediction of a surge in cases, which ultimately leads to a surge in hospitalizations, and then ultimately, in some individuals that will obviously be an increase in deaths,” Fauci said on Good Morning America Oct. 15, according to CNN.
A large trial studying the antiviral drug remdesivir has found that it failed to prevent deaths from COVID-19, according to the New York Times.
A study of more than 11,000 people in 30 countries by the World Health Organization found little evidence that the drug could help treat people severely ill with COVID-19.
The drug has been given emergency approval by the FDA in the United States and was used to treat President Donald Trump when he developed COVID-19. The findings haven’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
United Airlines claims the risk of COVID-19 exposure on its aircrafts is “virtually nonexistent” according to new research findings saying that with mask use, there’s only a 0.003 percent chance particles from one passenger can enter the breathing space of a passenger sitting beside them, reported ABC News.
The study was conducted by the Department of Defense in partnership with United Airlines. A mannequin was used along with an aerosol generator to see how particles moved in the aircraft.
“99.99 percent of those particles left the interior of the aircraft within 6 minutes,” United Airlines Chief Communication Officer Josh Earnest told ABC News. “It indicates that being on board an aircraft is the safest indoor public space, because of the unique configuration inside an aircraft that includes aggressive ventilation, lots of airflow.”
The 14-year-old son of the President tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month according to first lady Melania Trump.
Barron Trump reportedly tested positive days after his parents but is doing well according to a statement posted by the first lady.
“Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms,” Melania Trump said in the statement. “In one way I was glad the three of us went through this at the same time, so we could take care of one another and spend time together. He has since tested negative.”
A new study published in the medical journal Immunity suggests that people may be immune to SARS-CoV-2 for about 5–7 months after contracting the virus.
The study comes as multiple cases of reinfection have been reported. In the study, researchers found evidence that people who had developed COVID-19 and recovered had neutralizing antibodies for about 5–7 months after.
This may mean they’re immune to another case of COVID-19 during that time.
“In the public square, we’re seeing a higher degree of vigilance and mitigation steps in many jurisdictions,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield said during a call with U.S. governors, reported CNN.
The director emphasized that this holiday season posed a particular risk.
“But what we’re seeing as the increasing threat right now is actually acquisition of infection through small household gatherings,” Redfield said. “Particularly with Thanksgiving coming up, we think it’s really important to stress the vigilance of these continued mitigation steps in the household setting.”
More than 100 COVID-19 vaccine candidates are in some stage of testing, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Of those, 42 are being evaluated in clinical studies, and only 2 could possibly meet the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization guidelines by the end of 2020, reported The Motley Fool, a popular business-focused news service.
The two vaccines are Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s jointly produced BNT162b2 and Moderna’s mRNA-1273.
A 25-year-old man in Nevada is the first person in the United States to have been contracted SARS-CoV-2 on two separate occasions, reported CNBC. He’s only the fifth patient reported as reinfected with COVID-19 worldwide.
A recently published study in the Lancet showed the patient became seriously ill following the second infection.
A potential COVID-19 treatment that was taken by President Trump appears to be effective at lowering viral load in monkeys, according to a new report.
The antibody cocktail made by Regeneron was tested in both rhesus monkeys and golden hamsters. In their report published in Science, the researchers found that animals given the drug, who were then exposed to the virus, had less viral load in their upper and lower airways.
More research needs to be done before the drug will be approved for widespread use in the United States.
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However, these deaths weren’t due directly to COVID-19. Instead, these deaths were likely exacerbated by the pandemic because people delayed medical care or the lockdown lead to emotional crises.
Researchers looked at death certificates and found signs of “excess deaths” in states hit hard by the pandemic.
“There have been some conspiracy theories that the number of deaths from COVID-19 have been exaggerated,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. “The opposite is the case. We’re actually experiencing more death than we thought we were.”
A French report published in August looked at 120 patients who had been hospitalized for COVID-19 to find that 34 percent had memory loss and 27 percent had concentration problems months later, reported the New York Times.
“It is debilitating,” Rick Sullivan, 60, of Brentwood, California, told the Times. He has experienced episodes of brain fog since July after a several week bout with COVID-19 breathing problems and body aches. “I become almost catatonic. It feels as though I am under anesthesia.”
CNN’s White House correspondent, Jeremy Diamond, posted a memorandum from the President’s physician to his social media, which claims he’s no longer “considered a transmission risk to others.”
“By currently recognized standards [the President] is no longer considered a transmission to others,” wrote Dr. Sean Conley in the memo.
White House coronavirus task force member, Dr. Deborah Birx, said she’s concerned about the rise in COVID-19 cases in the Northeastern United States, also noting that more people are contracting the virus because of indoor family gatherings and social events, reported the Associated Press.
“The spread of the virus now is not occurring so much in the workplace as people have taken precautions,” said Birx. “It’s happening in homes and social occasions and people gathering and taking their mask off and letting down their guard and not physically distancing.”
Thousands of farmed minks in Utah have died of COVID-19, forcing affected sites to quarantine as the state veterinarian investigates the outbreak, reported NBC News.
The virus was discovered among the animals in the United States earlier in August, shortly after ranch workers tested positive.
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) released a blistering editorial calling for political change due to the failure to control the COVID-19 pandemic.
The prestigious medical journal didn’t call politicians out by name or party, but emphasized a lack of federal response in fighting the deadly disease.
“Our current leaders have undercut trust in science and in government, causing damage that will certainly outlast them,” the editors wrote. “Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed ‘opinion leaders’ and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies.”
The editors also said “at least tens of thousands” of American lives have been lost due to “weak and inappropriate government policies.”
The pharmaceutical company Regeneron is seeking emergency FDA approval for an experimental antibody cocktail that was given to President Trump.
The company submitted an application to the FDA asking for emergency use approval, meaning the treatment could be used before it gets a full FDA approval due to the lack of treatments for COVID-19.
The treatment is still in clinical trials and it’s unclear how effective it is and what potential safety issues there are.
They also said that only about 50,000 doses would be currently available.
In a video, President Trump referred to an unproven “antibody cocktail” being developed by drugmaker Regeneron as a miracle cure, reported the New York Times. The president said he planned to make this treatment, which hasn’t yet been government approved, free to anyone who needs it.
Trump received the drug combination under something known as a “compassionate use” request, reported the Associated Press. He was given the experimental treatment at the White House, before being taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
A certain type of flu vaccine might offer some protection against COVID-19, virologist Robert Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and chairman of the Global Virus Network, told NPR.
Gallo said he believes it’s possible that “live attenuated” flu vaccines, where the virus isn’t fully killed, may help protect people against both the flu and COVID-19.
Gallo explained that in the past these vaccines have protected against other respiratory diseases, not just the seasonal flu.
“You watch,” said Gallo. “People who get the live flu vaccine will also be protected against COVID-19. That’s the hypothesis.”
With flu season starting this month, getting the flu vaccine is still a good idea even if it won’t protect you from COVID-19.
In difficult times, you need to be able to turn to experts who understand and can help strengthen your mental well-being. We’re here for you.
Pharmaceutical company Eli Lily is seeking emergency use approval for their monoclonal antibody cocktail to be used as a COVID-19 treatment.
According to STAT news, the company issued a press release explaining that patients who took the monoclonal antibody cocktail were less likely to need hospitalization. But this information hasn’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Monoclonal antibodies are synthetic versions of the antibodies found in our blood stream. Researchers hope synthetic antibodies can help fight off viral infections.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, our nation’s top military leaders, are in quarantine after coming in contact with a senior officer who developed COVID-19, a Defense Department official told USA Today.
The official who tested positive is identified as the second highest officer at the Coast Guard, Admiral Charles Ray.
According to USA Today, the leaders now quarantined include Admiral Mark Miller, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Admiral Michael Gilday, chief of naval operations.
A vaccine against COVID-19 may be ready by year-end, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Oct. 6, reported Reuters.
“We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine. There is hope,” Tedros said in closing remarks to the WHO’s executive board meeting that examined the global response to the pandemic, reported the Washington Times.
An official from the FDA reportedly told the Associated Press that the White House blocked the publication of new safety guidelines for COVID-19 vaccines.
However, the FDA did release the guidelines in a memo posted before a key meeting by the vaccine advisory panel scheduled for later this month.
Under the guidelines, pharmaceutical companies would need to follow people who received the vaccine for at least 2 months to ensure there are no associated long-term medical risks.
After weeks of controversy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, is airborne.
The CDC now posted
Early on in the outbreak, experts and health agencies had been uncertain if the virus was able to spread via very small aerosols that could travel further than 6 feet. Now medical experts say it’s clear the virus can be spread via these small aerosols.
“Some infections can be spread by exposure to virus in small droplets and particles that can linger in the air for minutes to hours,” CDC officials wrote on the website. “These viruses may be able to infect people who are further than 6 feet away from the person who is infected or after that person has left the space.”
The CDC had initially posted similar information last month but then took it down, leading to criticism.
An inflammatory syndrome previously seen mainly in children has now been found in adults, according to a recent CDC report.
According to the report, 16 patients ranging from ages 21 to 50 have been found to have multisystem inflammatory syndrome.
Symptoms include heart damage and other signs of inflammation in the body.
For the first time since easing coronavirus restrictions, New York City seeks to reverse course in some neighborhoods, reported CBS2 New York.
An alarming increase in cases experienced in certain neighborhoods means nonessential businesses and public and private schools in those areas could be shut down later this week.
“In some parts of our city, in Brooklyn and Queens, we’re having an extraordinary problem — something we haven’t seen since the spring,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told CBS2.
On Thursday, Amazon released data showing that 19,816 presumed or confirmed COVID-19 cases have been detected across approximately 1.37 million Amazon and Whole Foods Market frontline employees in the United States.
“Testing regularly and broadly will help identify people who have contracted the coronavirus but are asymptomatic and therefore might not otherwise be tested. Identifying asymptomatic carriers means catching the virus earlier, before it spreads, which will have real benefits for our communities,” said Amazon in a statement.
The company added that Amazon employees are regularly screened for symptoms and increasingly being tested at work, whether or not they show symptoms, in order to identify asymptomatic cases.
Both Joe Biden and Vice President Mike Pence have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The news comes after the revelation that President Donald Trump has tested positive for the disease.
While Biden and Pence have initially tested negative, they may need to be monitored and tested in the future. The virus can incubate for up to 14 days and may not be detectable by tests soon after exposure.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for COVID-19.
Trump tweeted Oct. 1 that he and his wife tested positive and will be in quarantine. They were tested after his close aide Hope Hicks had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier that day.
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