• Conflict, Disasters Trigger Record Number of Internally Displaced

    A new report finds a record 50.8 million people globally are displaced within their own countries due to conflict, violence and natural disasters.  The report, published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, part of the Norwegian Refugee Council, says an estimated 33.4 million people were newly displaced in 2019, the highest annual figure since 2012. 

  • Study: Many Asymptomatic COVID-19 Cases Undetected

    More than half of residents of a Seattle-area nursing home had no symptoms when they tested positive for COVID-19 and had probably already spread the disease, according to a new study. “Our data suggest that symptom-based strategies for identifying residents with SARS-CoV-2 are insufficient for preventing transmission in skilled nursing facilities,” the researchers wrote. “Once SARS-CoV-2 has been introduced, additional strategies should be implemented to prevent further transmission, including use of recommended personal protective equipment, when available, during all resident care activities regardless of symptoms.”

  • “Playing Russian Roulette”: Nursing Homes Told to Take the Infected

    The coronavirus has killed nearly 11,000 residents and staff members at nursing homes and long-term care facilities nationwide, according to a New York Times analysis. This is close to a quarter of the 56,495 deaths in the United States (as of Monday) from the pandemic. And yet, at the epicenter of the outbreak, New York issued a strict new rule last month: Nursing homes must readmit residents sent to hospitals with the coronavirus and accept new patients as long as they are deemed “medically stable.” California and New Jersey have also said that nursing homes should take in such patients. Homes are allowed to turn patients away if they claim they can’t care for them safely.

  • German start-up in global demand with anti-virus escalators

    Tanja Nickel and Katharina Obladen were still in high school when they patented an idea to disinfect escalator handrails using UV light. Michelle Fitzpatrick writes (AFP / Barron’s) that a decade later, their small German start-up UVIS can barely keep up with orders from around the world for their coronavirus-killing escalators and coatings for supermarket trolleys and elevator buttons. “Everybody wants it done yesterday,” Obladen, 28, told AFP at the company’s workshop in central Cologne. “The pandemic has made businesses realise they need to invest in hygiene precautions for staff and customers. It’s gone from nice-to-have to must-have.” As Germany begins to relax some lockdown restrictions, the start-up’s five-person team has been inundated with requests from shops, offices and cafes eager to reopen to a public newly aware of the health risks lurking in shared spaces.

  • Israeli Researchers Say They Can Make Disinfectant from Tap Eater

    Researchers electrify water to produce hypo chloric acid at defined level of acidity; patented method has not been published in science journal or subject to peer review. Shoshana Solomon writes in the Times of Israel that researchers at Bar-Ilan University have developed what they say is a new way to make strong and environmentally friendly disinfectants to kill bacteria and viruses by using just tap water. The disinfectant materials were recently tested by researchers in the virology labs of Prof. Ronit Sarid of the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences at the university and at the Poriya Hospital in the north of Israel, and were “proven effective” in neutralizing microbes, fungus and corona-type viruses, Aurbach said in a phone interview.

  • COVID-19 Is Another Wake Up Call for Food Security

    With lockdowns ordered to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, there are fears of food shortages caused by panic buying and supply chain disruptions. Paul Teng writes in SciDev.Net that recent announcements by some countries that they are initiating export restrictions of food products or reviewing export agreements have brought back memories of the 2007—2008 food crisis when there was an interruption to global food supply chains as several key countries limited exports of rice and wheat. This unleashed a series of events around the world, including food shortages, price spikes and civil disobedience in over 30 countries.

  • Life after Lockdown: New Zealand on the Verge of “Brilliant” Victory after Five Weeks of Restrictions

    For five weeks, Kiwis have endured some of the toughest lockdown conditions anywhere in the world. Jonathan Marshall writes in The Telegraph that the rules were conveyed loudly, clearly and frequently: no socializing with anyone outside your household; no beach swimming or boating; no holidays; no hiking; no children’s playgrounds; no weddings; no funerals; no haircuts, no restaurants - or even Uber Eats. “Educational” police roadblocks – and in around 500 cases prosecution – faced anyone failing to comply with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s “stay home and save lives” mantra. Now, the country appears to be on the verge of victory.

  • Failure to Count COVID-19 Nursing Home Deaths Could Dramatically Skew U.S. Numbers

    With the clustering of people who are frail and have multiple other illnesses like heart disease, stroke, chronic lung disease and diabetes, the risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 is much higher in nursing homes. Yet, the United States does not know how many people are dying from COVID-19 in part because the government is only just now requiring nursing homes to start reporting numbers of presumed and confirmed cases and deaths to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thomas Perls writes that the missing cases could dramatically skew the national death count.

  • COVID-19 Treatments: Pandemic Urgency No Excuse for Ignoring Rigorous Clinical Research

    Leading biomedical ethicists are calling on the global research community to resist treating the urgency of the current COVID-19 outbreak as grounds for making exceptions to rigorous research standards in pursuit of treatments and vaccines. Crises are no excuse for lowering scientific standards, the authors of a paper, titled “Against Pandemic Research Exceptionalism,” argue.

  • Economic Reopening Begins, as Two Promising Drugs Suffer Setbacks

    Five things, among many others, caught our eye this week: On Saturday, the number of worldwide coronavirus deaths passed 205,000, with the U.S. death toll reaching 55,094; European governments outlined their plans for reopening their economy, and several have started on the process of going back to normal, or, rather, the new normal; the FDA issued a stern warning that hydroxychloroquinea, alone or in combination with azithromycin – touted by President Trump as “game changers” — should not be used to treat COVID-19 outside of a hospital or formal clinical trial; a similar disappointment befell the antiviral medicine remdesivir from Gilead Sciences, which failed to speed the improvement of patients with COVID-19 or prevent them from dying; the Justice Department got a court order to stop a Florida church from selling on its website an industrial bleach which the church marketed as a miracle treatment for the virus – the DOJ move came a few days before last Thursday’s White House briefing, in which Trump mused about whether household disinfectant injections or ingestion could be effective in treating the coronavirus.

  • EU Approves $580 Billion to Mitigate COVID-19 Consequences

    The European Union approved a $580 billion aid package to help mitigate the consequences of coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in member countries. VOA News reports that European Council President Charles Michel said Thursday the package was expected to be operational by 1 June. Michel said it would help pay lost wages, keep companies afloat and fund health care systems. At Thursday’s virtual summit, the EU leaders also agreed on a recovery fund, without giving a specific figure, intended to rebuild the 27-nation bloc’s economies. However, officials said $1.1 trillion to $1.6 trillion would be needed. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the impact of the economic crisis following the coronavirus outbreak is unprecedented in modern times.

  • 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.