• Trump Adds Confusion on COVID-19 Treatments as U.S. Deaths Top 50,000

    Direct sunlight, injected disinfectants, heat. Those were some of the remedies for coronavirus infection President Donald Trump mentioned during yesterday’s White House task force briefing. Today the manufacturers of Lysol and Dettol cleaners, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the CDC, issued statements and warnings contradicting Trump’s remarks. They warned consumers against ingesting any disinfectants, and urged them to follow the warning labels on disinfectants containers. The FDA on Friday has issued a strong statement urging doctors and patients not to use hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat COVID-19 patients outside of controlled medical trials. The warning came after the largest retrospective test of the two compounds has proven ineffective in treating the disease relative to a placebo, while having serious side effects, including death, in some cases. The U.S. has so far recorded 884,004 cases and 50,360 deaths.

  • Britain Starts Testing Vaccine for Coronavirus on Humans

    Britain has performed the first human trial of a coronavirus vaccine in Europe. Zlatica Hoke writes in VOA News that two volunteers were injected Thursday in the city of Oxford, where a university team developed the vaccine in less than three months. Hundreds of other volunteers will be injected with the trial vaccine, and the same number will get a vaccine for meningitis so the results can be compared. Volunteers will not know which vaccine they are getting. The trial offers new hope just as an antiviral drug – remdesivir — proved ineffective against coronavirus on patients in China.

  • FDA Warns about Hydroxychloroquine Dangers, Cites Serious Effects

    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Friday that people should not take chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 outside of a hospital or formal clinical trial, citing reports of “serious heart rhythm problems.” Madeline Farber writes for Fox News that many of those adverse effects occurred in patients with the virus who were treated with the anti-malaria drugs, often in combination with azithromycin, also known as Z-Pak. President Trump has described such drugs as a potential “game-changer,” although results from clinical trials are not yet in to show whether they are effective. “We will continue to investigate risks associated with the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for COVID-19 and communicate publicly when we have more information,” the FDA wrote. The adverse events reported include abnormal heart rhythms such as QT interval prolongation, dangerously rapid heart rate called ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, and in some cases, death, the agency said. The FDA did not say how many deaths have been reported. Patients who also have other health issues such as heart and kidney disease are likely to be at increased risk of these heart problems when receiving these medicines. The malaria drugs are not approved for use in COVID-19 patients, but the FDA is allowing hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine products donated to the Strategic National Stockpile to be distributed and used in limited circumstances, such as for certain hospitalized patients with COVID-19, the agency noted.

  • As the Coronavirus Interrupts Global Supply Chains, People Have an Alternative – Make It at Home

    As COVID-19 wreaks havoc on global supply chains, a trend of moving manufacturing closer to customers could go so far as to put miniature manufacturing plants in people’s living rooms. Most products in Americans’ homes are labeled “Made in China,” but even those bearing the words “Made in USA” frequently have parts from China that are now often delayed. The coronavirus pandemic closed so many factories in China that NASA could observe the resultant drop in pollution from space, and some products are becoming harder to find. Joshua M. Pearce writes in The Conversation that at the same time, there are open-source, freely available digital designs for making millions of items with 3D printers, and their numbers are growing exponentially, as is an interest in open hardware design in academia. Some designs are already being shared for open-source medical hardware to help during the pandemic, like face shields, masks and ventilators. The free digital product designs go far beyond pandemic hardware. The cost of 3D printers has dropped low enough to be accessible to most Americans. People can download, customize and print a remarkable range of products at home, and they often end up costing less than it takes to purchase them.

  • Coronavirus: The U.K. Could Be over the Peak

    While most British people support the lockdown, they will still be keen to know when the epidemic has reached its peak. Well, they don’t need to wait any longer – the answer is in. Data suggests that the UK is most likely over the peak. Christian Yates writes in The Conversation that data released by NHS England, in which deaths are aggregated by the date of death rather than the date of reporting, shows a clear decline in recent days. “While the figures are subject to constant revision, the numbers are starting to give us a coherent picture of the shape of the epidemic,” he writes. “Knowing that we have passed the peak is important because it shows that we can, with great effort and sacrifice, bring this disease under control.” He notes that the numbers are not always clear, for several reasons: there are large numbers of different sources for the figures in the U.K.– the different branches of the NHS, government websites and the Office for National Statistics – all of whose figures differ slightly. A more obfuscating factor is the lag between people dying and their deaths being reported. In rare instances, this can be as long as a month, although the vast majority of deaths make their way into the government’s daily totals within a week. And even when these daily numbers are reported by date of death (as in the NHS numbers in the top figure), there are reasons to doubt that they are a true reflection of the number of deaths. “Still, being over the peak is indisputably positive news,” he notes. “Although not cause for celebration, reaching the plateau is perhaps cause for a somber degree of relief.”

  • Government tells U.K. Businesses: Time to Get Back to Work

    Businesses are being discreetly advised by ministers on how to get people back to work in the coming days and weeks amid growing concerns over the economic impact of the lockdown.  Harry Yorke, Gordon Rayner, and Hayley Dixon write in The Telegraph that the government believes there is plenty of room within the existing restrictions for more people to be working, and is now actively encouraging firms to reopen. British Steel, house builder Persimmon and McDonalds are among the latest in a growing number of firms announcing that they are reopening despite the lockdown. It came as the chief medical officer said there was now “scope for maneuver” to ease some restrictions in the near future because the transmission rate of the virus is now within a manageable range. Scientific advisers have told ministers that Britain should be in a position to start lifting the lockdown by mid-May, with a team of experts compiling a detailed report on the issue for Boris Johnson when he returns to work next week. Ministers are already making plans for garden centers, car dealerships and other retailers where social distancing can be maintained, to reopen during the first phase of a gradual exit from lockdown. New data shows that increasing numbers of people are venturing out to shops, parks and workplaces as the nation grows tired of staying at home.

  • Europeans Start Feeling a Way Out of Coronavirus Lockdowns

    European governments are rolling out plans outlining how they will start to cautiously unlock their countries and fire up their economies, but the lifting of lockdowns is being complicated by a string of studies suggesting that even in cities and regions hit hard by the coronavirus, only a small fraction of the population has contracted the infection. That presents governments with exactly the same dilemma they faced when the virus first appeared: Lock down and wreck the economy to save lives and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed with the sick, or, allow the virus to do its worst and watch health care systems buckle and the death toll mount. There had been hope that sizable numbers — many more than confirmed cases — had contracted the virus, protecting them with some immunity, even if temporary, from reinfection. That would help ease the complications of gradually lifting restrictions.

  • Ministers Can’t Keep Hiding Behind the Science

    It’s dishonest and cowardly to keep pretending that how and when the lockdown is lifted isn’t a political judgment call. Matthew Parris writes that the political leaders of the country – the U.K. in his case, but any country – must have the courage to share with the public the political — political, not medical — choices they must make, and take ownership “of the trade-offs that only politics can settle: trade-offs between deaths caused by one disease and deaths caused by others less immediately in the public eye; between the longevity of the elderly and the education of the young; between mortality in April 2020 and debt that will scar a whole generation; between loss of life and loss of livelihood.” Whichever side you come down on in this trade-off, Parris write. somebody’s got to say there’s a trade-off, and it isn’t ‘the’ science. “It is for the ministers who will make the judgment to be upfront with the public about the human cost. They can ‘follow’ the science, cite the science, be guided by the science, but in the end the science will lead them to a point where paths diverge.”

  • COVID-19 Disruptions: Understanding Food Security Implications

    According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the world’s food systems and disrupting regional agricultural trade and value chains. The FAO has warned that food shortages are a real risk in the coming months. This global health crisis will test our food and trade systems in ways never experienced before.

  • Coronavirus and Its Social Effects Fueling Extremist Violence, Says Government Report

    The coronavirus pandemic and its social repercussions are fueling violence by both frustrated individuals and domestic terrorists, according to a new intelligence report by the Department of Homeland Security. Social distancing has meant the cancelation of mass gathering events that are historically appealing targets for both international and domestic terrorists, the report adds, but “the pandemic has created a new source of anger and frustration for some individuals. As a result, violent extremist plots will likely involve individuals seeking targets symbolic to their personal grievances.”

  • France, Europe Mull Controversial Coronavirus Tracing Apps

    France’s parliament votes next week on plans to use a controversial tracing app to help fight the coronavirus, as the country eyes easing its lockdown next month. Lisa Bryant writes in VOA News that French Digital Affairs Minister Cedric O says the downloadable app would notify smartphone users when they cross people with COVID-19, helping authorities track and reduce the spread of the pandemic. In a video on the ruling party’s Facebook page, O said the so-called “Stop COVID” app will fully respect people’s liberties, and will be completely voluntary and anonymous. It also will be temporary — lasting only as long as the pandemic, he added. The government wants to launch the app on May 11, the date it has set to begin easing a two-month lockdown in the country. It initially announced a parliamentary debate on the technology, but that’s been changed to a vote, after major pushback from lawmakers.

  • WHO Warns of Long Road Ahead with COVID-19

    The global COVID-19 total yesterday reached 2,623,231 cases from 185 countries, along with 182,359 deaths. At a media telebriefing yesterday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus, PhD, the WHO’s director-general, said most of the epidemics in Western Europe have stabilized or are declining. However, there are worrying upward trends in Africa, Central and South America, and Eastern Europe, though numbers are still relatively low.

  • Study Calls into Question Use of Malaria Drug for COVID-19

    A retrospective study of patients with COVID-19 found no evidence that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, either with or without the antibiotic azithromycin, reduced mortality or the need for mechanical ventilation. Researchers also found that hydroxychloroquine alone was associated with increased mortality. Early excitement about the combination was based on a small French study, and President Donald Trump soon began touting the combination as a potential “game changer,” but the findings from the study, which is the largest to date to report on outcomes from treating COVID-19 patients with the anti-malaria drug and uses a database that has been used for many different studies, suggest that the hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin combination may not be as promising for treating COVID-19 as some have hoped. 

  • NIST Tool Could Help Hospitals Repurpose Rooms for Disinfecting N95 Masks

    In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals across the United States are disinfecting N95 masks by placing them in repurposed rooms or shipping containers injected with a disinfectant known as vaporized hydrogen peroxide, or VHP. A new tool from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can help hospitals and medical professionals determine which rooms should be used to disinfect N95 masks. The tool estimates the amount of VHP masks would receive and suggests that larger rooms containing fewer objects, with less-reactive surfaces and slower ventilation, maintain VHP concentration the best.   

  • Brazil: Jair Bolsonaro’s Strategy of Chaos Hinders Coronavirus Response

    Brazil faces a tremendous uphill struggle in its response to COVID-19, the disease associated with the new coronavirus. Already eroded by years of budget cuts, the country’s public health system, the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), has been further undermined by the president, Jair Bolsonaro. Last week he participated in a demonstration during which opposition to lockdown measures was combined with calls for a military intervention to shut down Brazil’s congress and supreme court. Since coming to power in January 2019, Bolsonaro has led an attack on science and professional expertise – cutting research funds, substituting managers of research institutes with inexperienced political appointees, and publicly intimidating scientists. COVID-19 is a new phase of this ongoing war.