Posted: Feb 15, 2021 / 02:32 PM HST / Updated: Feb 15, 2021 / 06:13 PM HST
HONOLULU (KHON2) A Navy Sailor from Hawaii has died of COVID-19, according to the US Navy.
[Hawaiis Breaking NewsDownload the FREE KHON2 app for iOS or Android]
Aviation Support Equipment Technician 1st Class Marcglenn L. Orcullo was assigned to assault ship USS Wasp, homeported in Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
He was admitted to Sentara Princess Anne Hospital on Jan. 17 where he tested positive for COVID-19. As his symptoms worsened, Orcullo was transferred to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for treatment in the hospitals intensive care unit.
By Feb. 12, Petty Officer Orcullo died of COVID-related complications. He was 42 years old.
It is unclear whether he had any underlying conditions.
We need to operationalize equity and build systems that prioritize people of color in COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
The Alaska Vaccine Allocation Advisory Committee is committed to equitable access for all Alaskans by promoting justice and mitigating health inequities, but thus far, we are unfortunately falling short of this goal.
Approximately one-third of the vaccinations given in Alaska so far are currently reported as unknown race. This makes it impossible to accurately interpret the available data. Using even the incomplete data, there seem to be potential disparities in vaccinations received between racial groups. Notably, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders comprise 1% of the Alaska population, make up 2.7% of COVID-19 cases, 5.8% of COVID-19 deaths and only 0.3% of the vaccinated persons for whom race is known.
We need complete data on race and ethnicity during ongoing vaccine distribution in order to achieve equitable outcomes. We need to figure out why one-third of the vaccines are reported as unknown race and then work to remedy this problem. The state dramatically improved collection of race and ethnicity data for COVID-19 cases over the course of the pandemic, and we know we can do better with vaccination data as well.
Phase Ib Tier 2 opened last week, which is worth celebrating. To meet the goal of equitable vaccine access, we strongly recommend that multi-generational households, which are currently in an unopened tier, be moved into the currently open Tier 2. This group closely resembles those living in congregate settings who are currently eligible for vaccination.
Additionally, people of color are more likely to live in multi-generational homes, so prioritizing this group could help work toward equitable vaccine distribution, as white people are prioritized in other aspects of the tier-based distribution system. The current tiers prioritized white populations by prioritizing people 65 and older, an age group that has proportionally more white people compared with the population as a whole. So does prioritizing education staff of all ages this group also has proportionally more white people compared with essential workers, which has proportionally more people of color, and currently is restricted to age 50 and above.
We need to take concrete action to make equitable vaccine distribution a reality. It is vitally important that the public is kept informed via all forms of media and through community partners about vaccine eligibility and administration. With the rapidly changing information, more resources need to be dedicated to getting the message of vaccine availability to all communities and neighborhoods. People must have accessible ways to make appointments.
Finally, we need to have vaccine clinics that are at times and locations that are welcoming and convenient for our communities of color. We have seen tremendous creativity in the efforts of the tribal health system to successfully reach remote and isolated communities in our state. We can use this example to ensure that everyone in our urban centers also has the opportunity to receive the vaccine when eligible.
Celeste Hodge Growden is president of the Alaska Black Caucus.
The mathematician who calculated whether all the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 could fit in a single soda can broke it down step-by-step.
Lately, some people have tried to put into perspective how much SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, there is in the world. And now people are claiming all of it currently out in the world could fit in a single soda can.
That has some wondering two things: is it true and just how much is that really?
THE QUESTION
Can all of the COVID-19 virus in the world fit in a single soda can?
THE ANSWER
Yes. The mathematician who calculated this even broke down step-by-step how he did the math.
WHY WE ARE VERIFYING
This claim that all of the SARS-CoV-2 in the world is about 160 mL is being made on viral posts across different social media platforms and in various headlines. Posts like the one below add a visual element to it, showing it could all fit in a single soda can with room to spare.
WHAT WE FOUND
The claim comes from a February 10 article written by Christian Yates, a mathematician based in the United Kingdom. He is a senior lecturer of mathematical biology there and shows up in the universitys directory.
He estimates that there is about 120 mL of SARS-CoV-2 in the world right now which would actually fill a space of 160 mL because spheres like the virus leave lots of open space when packed together. Yates has to do a lot of estimation on the way to that total because theres a lot that plays into it that scientists dont have an exact number for, yet.
First of all, he needed to get a total number of people currently sick with the virus. That isnt tracked, so the next best thing is to estimate based on daily, newly confirmed cases. Our World in Data shows a bit less than half-a-million confirmed cases per day but estimates in the millions from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) because of lapses in testing and asymptomatic cases. Yates rounded up IHMEs number in his calculation and estimated viral load per person there.
He then took a study on viral load ranges for COVID-19, kept in mind that people at different stages of the disease have different levels of viral load and went with a number in the middle. When he combined that with estimates of how many people should have the virus at any one time when you keep daily new cases constant, he estimated there are 200 quadrillion (thats a two followed by 17 zeros) in the world at any one time.
The next step was to calculate the size of each of these many virus particles. Yates said COVID-19 virus particles are 80 to 120 nanometers in diameter, which is backed up by a National Library of Medicine study that measured the size of the particles in microns. To put that size in perspective, a single strand of human hair is about 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide and a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.
Yates works out the volume of these particles from the diameter using a common formula and finds that these many virus particles equal about 120 mL. But if you were to pack them all together, they would take up a larger space because spheres leave a lot of open space. He said if you use the most efficient packing method possible, they would take up a space of 160 mL.
A typical can of Coca-Cola is about 12 fluid ounces, which is just under 355 mL. That means all of the COVID-19 virus particles in the world take up less than half of a can of soda.
And while his calculations are based on estimates, he often went high instead of low. So its more likely the true total amount of virus particles in the world is a bit smaller than the number he ended up on. So even if his estimates are off, all of the virus particles would still fit in a soda can and likely fill it up even less.
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By DAVID KLEPPER, FARNOUSH AMIRI and BEATRICE DUPUY
As the coronavirus spread across the globe, so too did speculation about its origins. Perhaps the virus escaped from a lab. Maybe it was engineered as a bioweapon.
Legitimate questions about the virus created perfect conditions for conspiracy theories. In the absence of knowledge, guesswork and propaganda flourished.
College professors with no evidence or training in virology were touted as experts. Anonymous social media users posed as high-level intelligence officials. And from China to Iran to Russia to the United States, governments amplified claims for their own motives.
The Associated Press collaborated with the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab on a nine-month investigation to identify the people and organizations behind some of the most viral misinformation about the origins of the coronavirus.
Their claims were explosive. Their evidence was weak. These are the superspreaders.
FRANCIS BOYLE
WHO HE IS: A Harvard-trained law professor at the University of Illinois, Boyle drafted a 1989 law banning biological weapons and has advised the nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Palestinian Authority.
Boyle has no academic degree in virology or biology but is a longstanding critic of research on pathogens. He has claimed Israeli intelligence was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; that SARS, the swine flu and Ebola have been genetically modified; and that West Nile virus and Lyme disease escaped from a U.S. biowarfare lab. He has also claimed that Microsoft founder Bill Gates was involved in the spread of Zika.
COVID CLAIM: Boyle says the coronavirus is a genetically engineered bioweapon that escaped from a high-level lab in Wuhan, China. He maintains it shows signs of nanotechnological tinkering and the insertion of proteins from HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. He alleges that U.S. researchers helped create it, and that thousands of doctors, scientists, and elected leaders are conspiring to hide the truth.
Boyle promoted his claim in an email to a list of news organizations and personal contacts on Jan. 24, 2020. That same day, he was interviewed on a podcast called Geopolitics and Empire. That podcast was cited by a little-known Indian website, GreatGameIndia, and went viral, with Boyles comments picked up and featured in Iranian-state TV, Russian state media, and fringe websites in the U.S. and around the world. Hes since repeated his claims on Alex Jones show Infowars.
EVIDENCE? Boyle bases his argument on circumstantial evidence: the presence of a Biosafety Level 4 lab in Wuhan, the fact that other viruses have escaped from other labs in the past, and his belief that governments around the world are engaged in a secret arms race over biological weapons.
Biosafety Level 4 labs or BSL4 labs have the highest level of biosafety precautions.
It seemed to me that obviously, this came out of the Wuhan BSL 4, Boyle told The Associated Press.
A World Heath Organization team concluded it was extremely unlikely the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab, and other experts have said the virus shows no signs of genetic manipulation.
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GREATGAMEINDIA
WHAT IT IS: A website that was an early promoter of the theory that the coronavirus was engineered.
Its Jan. 26, 2020, story on Coronavirus bioweapon-How China Stole the Coronavirus From Canada and Weaponized It was picked up by far-right financial blog Zero Hedge and shared to thousands of social media users before it was promoted by conservative website RedStateWatcher and received more than 6 million engagements.
COVID CLAIM: GreatGameIndia claims that the virus, which has now killed more than 2 million people worldwide, was first found in the lungs of a Saudi man and then sent to labs in the Netherlands and then Canada, where it was stolen by Chinese scientists. The article relies in part on speculation from Dany Shoham, a virologist and former lieutenant colonel in Israeli military intelligence.
Shoham was quoted discussing the possibility that COVID is linked to bioweapon research in a Jan. 26, 2020, article in the conservative U.S. newspaper The Washington Times. In that article, Shoham was quoted saying there was no evidence to support the idea that the virus has escaped from a lab, but GreatGameIndia did not include that context in its piece.
We do stand by our report, said website co-founder Shelley Kasli wrote in an email. In fact, recently Canadians released documents which corroborated our findings with Chinese scientists A lot of information is still classified.
EVIDENCE? The coronavirus most likely first appeared in humans after jumping from an animal, a World Health Organization panel announced this month, saying an alternate theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab was unlikely.
Americas top scientists have likewise concluded the virus is of natural origin, citing clues in its genome and its similarity to SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. Vincent Racaniello, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University, who has been studying the virus since its genome was first recorded, has said it is clear that the virus was not engineered or accidentally released.
It is something that is clearly selected in nature, Racaniello said. There are two examples where the sequence tells us that humans had no hand in making this virus because they would not have known to do these things.
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THE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH ON GLOBALIZATION
WHAT IT IS: The Montreal-based center publishes articles on global politics and policy, including a healthy dose of conspiracy theories on vaccines and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Its led by Michel Chossudovsky, a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa and a conspiracy theorist who has argued the U.S. military can control the weather.
The center publishes authors from around the world many of whom have advanced baseless claims about the origins of the outbreak. In February, for instance, the center published an interview with Igor Nikulin suggesting the coronavirus was a U.S. bioweapon created to target Chinese people.
The centers website, globalresearch.ca., has become deeply enmeshed in Russias broader disinformation and propaganda ecosystem by peddling anti-U.S. conspiracy theories, according to a 2020 U.S. State Department report which found that seven of its supposed writers do not even exist but were created by Russian military intelligence.
COVID CLAIM: While the center has published several articles about the virus, one suggesting it originated in the U.S. caught the attention of top Chinese officials.
On March 12, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian retweeted an article published by the center titled: Chinas Coronavirus: A Shocking Update. Did The Virus Originate in the US?
This article is very much important to each and every one of us, he posted in English on Twitter. Please read and retweet it. COVID-19: Further Evidence that the Virus Originated in the US.
He also tweeted: It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation.
The story by Larry Romanoff, a regular author at the center, cites several debunked theories, including one that members of the U.S. military brought the virus to China during the Military World Games in fall 2019. Romanoff concludes that it has now been proven that the virus originated from outside of China, despite scientific consensus that it did.
EVIDENCE? The World Health Organization has concluded that the coronavirus emerged in China, where the first cases and deaths were reported. No evidence has surfaced to suggest the virus was imported into China by the U.S.
Chossudovsky and Romanoff did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment. Romanoffs biography lists him as a visiting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, but he is not listed among the universitys faculty. The university did not respond to an email asking about Romanoffs employment.
Romanoffs original article was taken down in the spring, but Zhaos tweet remains up.
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IGOR NIKULIN
WHO IS HE? A four-time failed political candidate, Nikulin is prominently quoted in Russian state media and fringe publications in the west as a biologist and former weapons inspector in Iraq who served on a U.N. commission on biological and chemical weapons in the 1990s.
COVID CLAIM: Nikulin argues the U.S. created the virus and used it to attack China. He first voiced the belief in a Jan. 20, 2020, story by Zvezda, a state media outlet tied to the Russian military. He appeared on Russian state TV at least 18 times between Jan. 27, 2020, and late April of that year.
Once the virus reached the U.S., Nikulin changed his theory, saying globalists were using the virus to depopulate the earth.
Nikulin has expressed support for weaponizing misinformation to hurt the U.S. in the past. On his website, he suggests claiming the U.S. created HIV as a way to weaken America from within. Russian intelligence mounted a similar 1980s disinformation campaign dubbed Operation INFEKTION.
If you prove and declare that the virus was bred in American laboratories, the American economy will collapse under the onslaught of billions of lawsuits by millions of AIDS carriers around the world, Nikulin wrote on his website.
EVIDENCE? Nikulin offered no evidence to support his assertions, and there are reasons to doubt his veracity.
Former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler, for whom Nikulin claims to have worked, said he had no memory of Nikulin, and that his story sounded sloppily fabricated, and not credible.
No U.N. records could be found to confirm his employment.
In an exchange with the AP over Facebook, Nikulin insisted his claims and background are accurate, though he said some records from U.N. work were destroyed in an American bombing during the Iraq invasion.
When told that Butler didnt know him, Nikulin responded This is his opinion.
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GREG RUBINI
WHO HE IS: Greg Rubini is the name of an internet conspiracy theorist who claims to have high-level contacts in intelligence and listed his location on Twitter as classified, until he was kicked off the platform. His posts have been retweeted thousands of times by supporters of QAnon, a conspiracy theory centered on the baseless belief that Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the deep state and a secret sect of satanic pedophiles and cannibals.
COVID CLAIM: Rubini has tweeted that Dr. Anthony Fauci created the coronavirus and that it was used as a bioweapon to reduce the worlds population and undermine Trump.
EVIDENCE? Rubinis doesnt appear to be the intelligence insider that he pretends to be.
Buzzfeed attempted to track down Rubini last year and determined it is the alias of a 61-year-old Italian man who has worked in marketing and music promotions. A previous version of his Twitter bio indicates he is a fan of classic rock and the films of Stanley Kubrick.
Attempts to reach Rubini online and through business contacts were unsuccessful.
Rubini has bristled at efforts to verify his claims. When a social media user asked: My question to you @GregRubini is, Where and what is your proof? Rubini responded curtly: And my question is: why should I give it to you?
Twitter suspended Rubinis account in November 2020 for repeated violations of its policies.
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KEVIN BARRETT
WHO HE IS: A former lecturer on Islam at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Barrett left the university amid criticism for his claims that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were orchestrated by people linked to the U.S. and Israeli governments.
Barrett calls himself a professional conspiracy theorist, for want of a better term and has argued government conspiracies were behind the 2004 Madrid bombing, the 2005 London bombing, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting.
COVID CLAIM: Barrett said he is 80% sure coronavirus was created by elements within the U.S. government as a bioweapon and used to attack China.
Iran was a secondary target, he has argued. Writing for Irans PressTV, he said the early outbreak in that country suggests that the Americans and/or their partners the Israelis may have deliberately attacked Iran.
Barrett further detailed his views during an interview with the AP.
It seemed fairly obvious to me that the first hypothesis one would look at when something as extraordinary as this COVID pandemic hits, is that it would be a US bio-war strike, he said.
EVIDENCE? Barrett cited reports that the US warned its allies in November 2019 about a dangerous virus emerging from China. Barrett said thats long before authorities in China knew about the severity of the outbreak.
Official sources have denied issuing any warning. If the U.S. did know about the virus that soon, it was likely thanks to intelligence sources within China, which may have known about the virus as early as November 2019, according to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
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LUC MONTAGNIER
WHO HE IS: Montagnier is a world-renowned virologist who won the Nobel prize in 2008 for discovering HIV.
COVID CLAIM: During an April interview with the French news channel CNews, Montagnier claimed that the coronavirus did not originate in nature and was manipulated. Montagnier said that in the process of making the vaccine for AIDS, someone took the genetic material and added it to the coronavirus. Montagnier cites a retracted paper published in January from Indian scientists who had said they had found sequences of HIV in the coronavirus. AP made multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact Montagnier.
EVIDENCE: Experts who have looked at the genome sequence of the virus have said it has no HIV-1 sequences. In January, Indian scientists published a paper on bioRXIV, a repository for scientific papers that have not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a traditional scientific journal. The paper said that the scientists had found uncanny similarity of unique inserts in COVID-19 and HIV. Social media users picked up the paper as proof that the virus was engineered. As soon as it was published, the scientific community widely debunked the paper on social media. It was later withdrawn.
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SUPREME LEADER ALI KHAMENEI and HOSSEIN SALAMI
WHO THEY ARE: Khamenei is the second and current Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has the final say on all matters of state, including the economy, military and health divisions.
Since being elected to office in 1981, Khamenei has maintained his skeptical view of the U.S. as Irans foremost enemy. The tensions between the two countries boiled over in 2018 when Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions. At the time, Khamenei remarked, I said from the first day: Dont trust America.
Hossein Salami was appointed by Khamenei as commander of Irans Revolutionary Guard in April 2019. He leads the countrys paramilitary force that oversees Irans ballistic missile program and responds to threats from both inside and outside the country.
COVID CLAIM: Salami declared on March 5, 2020, that Iran was engaged in a fight against a virus that might be the product of an American biological attack. On those grounds, Salami ordered a Ground Force Biological Defense Maneuver to test the countrys ability to combat a biological attack. Beginning March 16, the Ground Force, in close collaboration with the Health Ministry, began holding nationwide biodefense drills.
Khamenei was among the first and most powerful world leaders to suggest the coronavirus could be a biological weapon created by the U.S. During his annual address on March 22 to millions of Iranians for the Persian New Year, Khamenei questioned why the U.S. would offer aid to countries like Iran if they themselves were suffering and accused of making the virus.
Khamenei went on to refuse U.S. assistance, saying possibly (U.S.) medicine is a way to spread the virus more. Last month, he refused to accept coronavirus vaccines manufactured in Britain and the U.S., calling them forbidden. The Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
EVIDENCE: There is no evidence that the U.S. created the virus or used it as a weapon to attack Iran.
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Doctors say injection site pain, fever, and headache are normal responses to the COVID-19 vaccines and show immunity is building. What if you don't feel anything?
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Health officials have said mild to moderate side effects are expected and normal with the currently approved COVID-19 vaccines. In fact, doctors say it's a sign the immune system is responding to the shot.
So, what if you get vaccinated and don't feel anything?
THE QUESTION
If you don't have side effects from your COVID-19 shots, does that mean the vaccine did not work for you?
THE ANSWER
Not necessarily. Doctors say there was a "significant" percentage of participants in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine trials who did not demonstrate the common side effects.
WCNC.com reader Carmen Christensen first posed this question after receiving her second vaccine shot and noting she did not feel anything particularly adverse in the days afterward.
"That was the 11th of February," said Christensen, of when she received that final dose. "(On the) 12thnothing. 13thnothing. 14thnothing. So, I have had no side effects from either one of them."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pain in the injection arm, fever, chills, tiredness, and headache are all normal reactions to the vaccine and signs "your body is building protection."
Christensen wanted to know if the lack of side effects was a sign that her shots weren't working.
Dr. Meg Sullivan, Medical Director for Mecklenburg Public Health, said not necessarily.
"The lack of side effects does not indicate that the vaccine is not working," said Sullivan.
Similarly, a lack of harsher second-dose side effects, which the CDC also states are more common, doesn't necessarily mean the shots are not working.
"It's not a guarantee," Dr. Brannon Traxler, Interim Public Health Director for South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control, said. "Not everybody who gets their second dose feels this way."
Food and Drug Administration briefing documents for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines show the top three reactions for both products were injection site pain, fatigue and headache.
Below are the shares of both trials' participants who reported these symptoms.
While some of the reactions were quite common, Sullivan said the data still shows "there was a significant percentage of people that did not have side effects."
Side effects or not, it's important to note that anyone fully vaccinated still needs to follow COVID-safe protocols like masking and social distancing, according to CDC guidance.
While Christensen has a little more peace of mind knowing her lack of side effects doesn't necessarily mean her shots didn't work, she still plans to take care.
"I'll still wear the mask after my two weeks. I'm still going to be safe until all of this is over," Christensen said.
Have a relative or friend in another state and want to know when they can get vaccinated? VisitNBC News' Plan Your Vaccine siteto find out about each state's vaccine rollout plan.
Washingtons new Vaccine Equity Fund partners with community-based organizations to vaccinate communities hit hardest by COVID-19.
SEATTLE Washington state leaders announced a new fund Monday aimed at improving access to the COVID-19 vaccine in communities disproportionately impacted by the virus.
"Now is the time to address these inequities," said Lilliane Ballesteros, executive director of the Latino Community Fund. "Now is the time to mobilize our collective resources quickly to those in need and those best position to help them. The vaccine initiative is, we think, a critical step forward for recovery."
The Vaccine Equity Fund, which will be led by All In WA, will help create mobile vaccine teams and send funds to community-based organizations that can conduct linguistically and culturally-specific vaccine education and outreach as well as operate pop-up clinics.
The funds could be used for technical assistance to aid vaccine registration, transportation to help people get to vaccine sites or paying for staff, facilities and equipment needed for pop-up and mobile vaccine clinics, according to All In WA. Grants could also help community organizations expand outreach and coordination, train community leaders, distribute translated materials and targeted communications and develop phone and text banking.
Targeted populations include communities of color, immigrants and refugees and rural and remote communities.
All In WA aims to raise $15 million to match government dollars, which could total $30 million in funding.
A report released last week from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) found racial disparities in COVID-19 vaccinations, especially among Hispanic, Black and multiracial communities.
The disparity is highest among Hispanic people. Although Hispanic people make up 13.2% of Washingtons population, just 4.7% have gotten at least one COVID-19 shot.
Black people make up 3.9% of Washingtons population, but only 2.2% have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine.
Asian and Native American people are both overrepresented in vaccine efforts, according to the report.
The public can make donations to the Vaccine Equity Fund on All In WA's website.
The U.S. government distributed millions of fast-acting tests for diagnosing coronavirus infections at the end of last year to help tamp down outbreaks in nursing homes and prisons and allow schools to reopen.
But some states havent used many of the tests, due to logistical hurdles and accuracy concerns, squandering a valuable tool for managing the pandemic. The first batches, shipped to states in September, are approaching their six-month expiration dates.
At least 32 million of the 142 million BinaxNOW rapid Covid-19 tests distributed by the U.S. government to states starting last year werent used as of early February, according to a Wall Street Journal review of their inventories.
The unused tests cost the federal government $160 million, according to the review, which calculated the cost by multiplying the per-unit price paid by the federal government times the number of unused tests states reported in response to the Journals queries.
The demand has just not been there, said Myra Kunas, Minnesotas interim public health lab director.
Nurses, firefighters, doctors, pharmacists and others have worked together to administer more than four million doses of COVID-19 vaccine statewide through Sunday.
According to a tweet from Gov. Greg Abbott, not only has the state surpassed four million doses, the last million doses were given out in just the last eight days.
Full coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak and how it impacts you
Data from the Texas Department of State Health Services show more than 111,000 doses of vaccine are headed to North Texas this week, about one-third of the state's weekly allotment. Winter weather, however, may delay or cancel some vaccine clinics so be sure to check with your provider if you have an appointment to receive the vaccination.
Even more doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be available the following week when FEMA is expected to open vaccine supersites in Arlington and Dallas where federal officials plan to vaccinate more than 10,000 people per day starting Feb. 24.
The vaccines sent to the supersites are on top of the ones already being distributed around the area.
Want to Get on a Vaccine Waitlist?
As the state begins to distribute the COVID-19 vaccines for those in Phase 1A and 1B, county health departments have begun waitlists for those wish to be inoculated.
You can now register to recieve the vaccination in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties. Links are below:
Waitlist Links: Collin - Search Waitlist | Dallas | Denton | Tarrant
You do not need to be a resident of the county to register for a COVID-19 vaccine in that county -- registration is open to anyone in Texas. For those without internet access, Tarrant County is also taking registrations by phone at 817-248-6299. In Dallas County, call the DCHHS vaccine hotline at 1-855-IMMUNE9 (1-855-466-8639). In Denton County, call 940-349-2585.
The vaccine is currently only being administered to those who are part of Phase 1A and 1B, as outlined by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Those in Phase 1A are front-line healthcare workers or residents of long-term care facilities. Phase 1B includes those who are over the age of 65, or those over the age of 16 with a chronic medical condition that puts them at risk for severe illness.
The DSHS said Feb. 4 they are continuing to discuss when to expand vaccine availability to group 1C and whether or not that group will include teachers.
Once vaccinated, people are expected to get some level of protection within a couple of weeks after the first shot, but full protection may not happen until a couple of weeks after the second shot. Even when fully vaccinated, it's still possible to become infected by the virus since the vaccine does not offer 100% protection.
The Texas DSHS advises that the vaccine will not be readily available for the general public until late spring or early summer 2021.
A medic holds Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin vials during the countrywide inoculation drive, in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021.
Vishal Bhatnagar | NurPhoto | Getty Images
India could become the world's second largest Covid vaccine maker, and analysts say the country has the capacity to produce for both its own population and other developing countries.
Most of the world's vaccines have historically come from India. Even before Covid-19, the South Asian country produced up to about 60% of the world's vaccines and can do so at a relatively low cost.
"India has been a manufacturing hub for vaccines even before the pandemic, and should therefore be a strategic partner in the global inoculation against COVID-19," JPMorgan analysts wrote in a report last month.
Consulting firm Deloitte predicts that India will be second only to the U.S. in terms of coronavirus vaccine production this year. PS Easwaran, a partner at Deloitte India, said more than 3.5 billion Covid vaccines could be made in the country in 2021, compared to around 4 billion in the U.S.
Furthermore, companies in India are currently scaling up production to meet demand.
"We are expanding our annualized capacities to deliver 700 million doses of our intramuscular COVAXIN," said Indian firm Bharat Biotech, which developed a Covid vaccine together with the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research.
Covaxin has been approved for emergency use in India, but has been mired in controversy due to criticism that there was a lack of transparency in its approval, and also because it hasn't published enough efficacy data.
Another vaccine known as Covishield in India and co-developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has also been granted emergency approval in India. It is being produced locally by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
According to Reuters, SII makes around 50 million doses of Covishield every month, and plans to increase production to 100 million doses a month by March.
Other Indian companies have agreed to produce vaccines for developers such as the Russian Direct Investment Fund and U.S. firm Johnson & Johnson. To be clear, these vaccine candidates have not been approved for use yet.
"Even without successful vaccine development from their own pipelines, available capacity provides opportunity to partner as contract manufacturers with approved vaccine developers to meet supply needs particularly for India and other [emerging markets]," the JPMorgan report said.
With a proven track record on the scale at which vaccines are produced, India should be able ramp up production to meet international demand as well.
Nissy Solomon
Centre for Public Policy Research
India's vaccines will likely be more suitable for developing countries, said K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.
Some of the leading vaccines right now, such as the ones from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, make use of messenger RNA technology (mRNA) which uses genetic material to trigger the body's own infection-fighting process.
Those vaccines require "stringent cold chain requirements" that will be difficult, or even "out of the realm of possibility," for most health systems, Reddy said.
Vaccines made in India are easier to transport and cheaper, putting the country in a better position than the U.S. and Europe when it comes to meeting demand in the developing world, he added.
India's huge production capacity also gives analysts confidence that the country can provide vaccines to other nations.
New Delhi has pledged to send vaccines to its neighboring countries, and has already supplied 15.6 million doses to 17 countries, according to Reuters.
"India's manufacturing capabilities are sufficient to meet domestic demand," said Nissy Solomon, a senior research associate at Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR).
"With a proven track record on the scale at which vaccines are produced, India should be able ramp up production to meet international demand as well," she told CNBC.
Solomon added that the country monitors domestic needs before making decisions on exports.
Bharat Biotech, for its part, said it is "fully prepared to meet the needs of India and global public health."
However, there will be challenges as the country seeks to meet the vaccine demand in India and beyond.
Jefferies equity analyst, Abhishek Sharma, wrote in a note that the rollout of vaccines in India has been slow. Even under the assumption that the speed of vaccinations will increase, Sharma estimates that only 22% of India's 1.38 billion population can be vaccinated in a year.
That's roughly the number of people India wants to inoculate by July or August.
"The supply of vaccines is not as much a problem as that of storage, distribution and vaccine uptake," said CPPR's Solomon.
"India lacks the capacity to store and distribute to the masses at a scale as big as this," she said, adding that the country should "strategically" choose vaccines that do not have to be stored at extreme temperatures.
I would say that [these challenges are] more like speed breakers which will slow down the program, rather than actual roadblocks which require the program to stop.
K Srinath Reddy
Public Health Foundation of India
The vaccines that India currently manufactures require normal refrigeration, but those produced by Pfizer-BioNTech need to be kept in extremely cold temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius(minus 94degreesFahrenheit), while those by Moderna have to be stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus4degrees Fahrenheit).
The "real challenge" is in the sheer number of people who need to be vaccinated, said Reddy from the Public Health Foundation of India.
"This is the first time that an adult immunization program is being undertaken at such an unprecedented scale," he told CNBC.
He said immunization programs typically focus on vaccinating children and mothers, and logistics network may not be prepared to handle vaccines for entire populations.
Reddy suggested that existing cold chain for food products could be used for vaccines, and was hopeful that this problem could be resolved.
"I would say that [these challenges are] more like speed breakers which will slow down the program, rather than actual roadblocks which require the program to stop," he said.
The superspreaders behind top COVID-19 conspiracy theories
By DAVID KLEPPER, FARNOUSH AMIRI and BEATRICE DUPUY
https://apnews.com/article/conspiracy-theories-iran-only-on-ap-media-misinformation-bfca6d5b236a29d61c4dd38702495ffe
As the coronavirus spread across the globe, so too did speculation about its origins. Perhaps the virus escaped from a lab. Maybe it was engineered as a bioweapon.
Legitimate questions about the virus created perfect conditions for conspiracy theories. In the absence of knowledge, guesswork and propaganda flourished.
College professors with no evidence or training in virology were touted as experts. Anonymous social media users posed as high-level intelligence officials. And from China to Iran to Russia to the United States, governments amplified claims for their own motives.
The Associated Press collaborated with the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab on a nine-month investigation to identify the people and organizations behind some of the most viral misinformation about the origins of the coronavirus.
Their claims were explosive. Their evidence was weak. These are the superspreaders.
FRANCIS BOYLE
WHO HE IS: A Harvard trained law professor at the University of Illinois, Boyle drafted a 1989 law banning biological weapons and has advised the nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Palestinian Authority.
Boyle has no academic degree in virology or biology but is a longstanding critic of research on pathogens. He has claimed Israeli intelligence was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; that SARS, the swine flu and Ebola have been genetically modified; and that West Nile virus and Lyme disease escaped from a U.S. biowarfare lab. He has also claimed that Microsoft founder Bill Gates was involved in the spread of Zika.
COVID CLAIM: Boyle says the coronavirus is a genetically engineered bioweapon that escaped from a high-level lab in Wuhan, China. He maintains it shows signs of nanotechnological tinkering and the insertion of proteins from HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. He alleges that U.S. researchers helped create it, and that thousands of doctors, scientists, and elected leaders are conspiring to hide the truth.
Boyle promoted his claim in an email to a list of news organizations and personal contacts on Jan. 24, 2020. That same day, he was interviewed on a podcast called Geopolitics and Empire. That podcast was cited by a little-known Indian website, GreatGameIndia, and went viral, with Boyles comments picked up and featured in Iranian-state TV, Russian state media, and fringe websites in the U.S. and around the world. Hes since repeated his claims on Alex Jones show Infowars.
EVIDENCE? Boyle bases his argument on circumstantial evidence: the presence of a Biosafety Level 4 lab in Wuhan, the fact that other viruses have escaped from other labs in the past, and his belief that governments around the world are engaged in a secret arms race over biological weapons.
Biosafety Level 4 labs - or BSL4 labs - have the highest level of biosafety precautions.
It seemed to me that obviously, this came out of the Wuhan BSL 4, Boyle told The Associated Press, dismissing the accepted explanation that the virus emerged from the Wuhan market as completely preposterous.
A World Heath Organization team concluded it was extremely unlikely the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab, and other experts have said the virus shows no signs of genetic manipulation.
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GREATGAMEINDIA
WHAT IT IS: A website that was an early promoter of the theory that the coronavirus was engineered.
Its Jan. 26, 2020, story on Coronavirus bioweapon-How China Stole the Coronavirus From Canada and Weaponized It was picked up by far-right financial blog Zero Hedge and shared to thousands of social media users before it was promoted by conservative website RedStateWatcher and received more than 6 million engagements.
COVID CLAIM: GreatGameIndia claims that the virus, which has now killed more than 2 million people worldwide, was first found in the lungs of a Saudi man and then sent to labs in the Netherlands and then Canada, where it was stolen by Chinese scientists. The article relies in part on speculation from Dany Shoham, a virologist and former lieutenant colonel in Israeli military intelligence.
Shoham was quoted discussing the possibility that COVID is linked to bioweapon research in a Jan. 26, 2020, article in the conservative U.S. newspaper The Washington Times. In that article, Shoham was quoted saying there was no evidence to support the idea that the virus has escaped from a lab, but GreatGameIndia did not include that context in its piece.
We do stand by our report, said website co-founder Shelley Kasli wrote in an email. In fact, recently Canadians released documents which corroborated our findings with Chinese scientists... A lot of information is still classified.
EVIDENCE? The coronavirus most likely first appeared in humans after jumping from an animal, a World Health Organization panel announced this month, saying an alternate theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab was unlikely.
Americas top scientists have likewise concluded the virus is of natural origin, citing clues in its genome and its similarity to SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. Vincent Racaniello, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University, who has been studying the virus since its genome was first recorded, has said it is clear that the virus was not engineered or accidentally released.
It is something that is clearly selected in nature, Racaniello said. There are two examples where the sequence tells us that humans had no hand in making this virus because they would not have known to do these things.
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THE CENTRE FOR RESEARCH ON GLOBALIZATION
WHAT IT IS: The Montreal-based center publishes articles on global politics and policy, including a healthy dose of conspiracy theories on vaccines and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Its led by Michel Chossudovsky, a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa and a conspiracy theorist who has argued the U.S. military can control the weather.
The center publishes authors from around the world many of whom have advanced baseless claims about the origins of the outbreak. In February, for instance, the center published an interview with Igor Nikulin suggesting the coronavirus was a U.S. bioweapon created to target Chinese people.
The centers website, globalresearch.ca., has become deeply enmeshed in Russias broader disinformation and propaganda ecosystem by peddling anti-U.S. conspiracy theories, according to a 2020 U.S. State Department report which found that seven of its supposed writers do not even exist but were created by Russian military intelligence.
COVID CLAIM: While the center has published several articles about the virus, one suggesting it originated in the U.S. caught the attention of top Chinese officials.
On March 12, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian retweeted an article published by the center titled: Chinas Coronavirus: A Shocking Update. Did The Virus Originate in the US?
This article is very much important to each and every one of us, he posted in English on Twitter. Please read and retweet it. COVID-19: Further Evidence that the Virus Originated in the US.
He also tweeted: It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation.
The story by Larry Romanoff, a regular author at the center, cites several debunked theories, including one that members of the U.S. military brought the virus to China during the Military World Games in fall 2019. Romanoff concludes that it has now been proven that the virus originated from outside of China, despite scientific consensus that it did.
EVIDENCE? The World Health Organization has concluded that the coronavirus emerged in China, where the first cases and deaths were reported. No evidence has surfaced to suggest the virus was imported into China by the U.S.
Chossudovsky and Romanoff did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment. Romanoffs biography lists him as a visiting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, but he is not listed among the universitys faculty. The university did not respond to an email asking about Romanoffs employment.
Romanoffs original article was taken down in the spring, but Zhaos tweet remains up.
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IGOR NIKULIN
WHO IS HE? A four-time failed political candidate, Nikulin is prominently quoted in Russian state media and fringe publications in the west as a biologist and former weapons inspector in Iraq who served on a U.N. commission on biological and chemical weapons in the 1990s.
COVID CLAIM: Nikulin argues the U.S. created the virus and used it to attack China. He first voiced the belief in a Jan. 20, 2020, story by Zvezda, a state media outlet tied to the Russian military. He appeared on Russian state TV at least 18 times between Jan. 27, 2020, and late April of that year.
Once the virus reached the U.S., Nikulin changed his theory, saying globalists were using the virus to depopulate the earth.
Nikulin has expressed support for weaponizing misinformation to hurt the U.S. in the past. On his website, he suggests claiming the U.S. created HIV as a way to weaken America from within. Russian intelligence mounted a similar 1980s disinformation campaign dubbed Operation INFEKTION.
If you prove and declare... that the virus was bred in American laboratories, the American economy will collapse under the onslaught of billions of lawsuits by millions of AIDS carriers around the world, Nikulin wrote on his website.
EVIDENCE? Nikulin offered no evidence to support his assertions, and there are reasons to doubt his veracity.
Former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler, for whom Nikulin claims to have worked, said he had no memory of Nikulin, and that his story sounded sloppily fabricated, and not credible.
No U.N. records could be found to confirm his employment.
In an exchange with the AP over Facebook, Nikulin insisted his claims and background are accurate, though he said some records from U.N. work were destroyed in an American bombing during the Iraq invasion.
When told that Butler didnt know him, Nikulin responded This is his opinion.
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GREG RUBINI
WHO HE IS: Greg Rubini is the name of an internet conspiracy theorist who claims to have high-level contacts in intelligence and listed his location on Twitter as classified, until he was kicked off the platform. His posts have been retweeted thousands of times by supporters of QAnon, a conspiracy theory centered on the baseless belief that Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the deep state and a secret sect of satanic pedophiles and cannibals.
COVID CLAIM: Rubini has tweeted that Dr. Anthony Fauci created the coronavirus and that it was used as a bioweapon to reduce the worlds population and undermine Trump.
EVIDENCE? Rubinis doesnt appear to be the intelligence insider that he pretends to be.
Buzzfeed attempted to track down Rubini last year and determined it is the alias of a 61-year-old Italian man who has worked in marketing and music promotions. A previous version of his Twitter bio indicates he is a fan of classic rock and the films of Stanley Kubrick.
Attempts to reach Rubini online and through business contacts were unsuccessful.
Rubini has bristled at efforts to verify his claims. When a social media user asked: My question to you @GregRubini is, Where and what is your proof? Rubini responded curtly: And my question is: why should I give it to you?
Twitter suspended Rubinis account in November 2020 for repeated violations of its policies.
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KEVIN BARRETT
WHO HE IS: A former lecturer on Islam at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Barrett left the university amid criticism for his claims that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were orchestrated by people linked to the U.S. and Israeli governments.
Barrett calls himself a professional conspiracy theorist, for want of a better term and has argued government conspiracies were behind the 2004 Madrid bombing, the 2005 London bombing, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting.
COVID CLAIM: Barrett said he is 80% sure coronavirus was created by elements within the U.S. government as a bioweapon and used to attack China.
Iran was a secondary target, he has argued. Writing for Irans PressTV, he said the early outbreak in that country suggests that the Americans and/or their partners the Israelis... may have deliberately attacked Iran.
Barrett further detailed his views during an interview with the AP.
It seemed fairly obvious to me that the first hypothesis one would look at when something as extraordinary as this COVID pandemic hits, is that it would be a US bio-war strike, he said.
EVIDENCE? Barrett cited reports that the US warned its allies in November 2019 about a dangerous virus emerging from China. Barrett said thats long before authorities in China knew about the severity of the outbreak.
Official sources have denied issuing any warning. If the U.S. did know about the virus that soon, it was likely thanks to intelligence sources within China, which may have known about the virus as early as November 2019, according to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
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LUC MONTAGNIER
WHO HE IS: Montagnier is a world-renowned virologist who won the Nobel prize in 2008 for discovering HIV.
COVID CLAIM: During an April interview with the French news channel CNews, Montagnier claimed that the coronavirus did not originate in nature and was manipulated. Montagnier said that in the process of making the vaccine for AIDS, someone took the genetic material and added it to the coronavirus. Montagnier cites a retracted paper published in January from Indian scientists who had said they had found sequences of HIV in the coronavirus. AP made multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact Montagnier.
EVIDENCE: Experts who have looked at the genome sequence of the virus have said it has no HIV-1 sequences. In January, Indian scientists published a paper on bioRXIV, a repository for scientific papers that have not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a traditional scientific journal. The paper said that the scientists had found uncanny similarity of unique inserts in COVID-19 and HIV. Social media users picked up the paper as proof that the virus was engineered. As soon as it was published, the scientific community widely debunked the paper on social media. It was later withdrawn.
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SUPREME LEADER ALI KHAMENEI and HOSSEIN SALAMI
WHO THEY ARE: Khamenei is the second and current Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has the final say on all matters of state, including the economy, military and health divisions.
Since being elected to office in 1981, Khamenei has maintained his skeptical view of the U.S. as Irans foremost enemy. The tensions between the two countries boiled over in 2018 when Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions. At the time, Khamenei remarked, I said from the first day: Dont trust America.
Hossein Salami was appointed by Khamenei as commander of Irans Revolutionary Guard in April 2019. He leads the countrys paramilitary force that oversees Irans ballistic missile program and responds to threats from both inside and outside the country.
COVID CLAIM: Salami declared on March 5, 2020, that Iran was engaged in a fight against a virus that might be the product of an American biological attack. On those grounds, Salami ordered a Ground Force Biological Defense Maneuver to test the countrys ability to combat a biological attack. Beginning March 16, the Ground Force, in close collaboration with the Health Ministry, began holding nationwide biodefense drills.
Khamenei was among the first and most powerful world leaders to suggest the coronavirus could be a biological weapon created by the U.S. During his annual address on March 22 to millions of Iranians for the Persian New Year, Khamenei questioned why the U.S. would offer aid to countries like Iran if they themselves were suffering and accused of making the virus.
Khamenei went on to refuse U.S. assistance, saying possibly (U.S.) medicine is a way to spread the virus more. Last month, he refused to accept coronavirus vaccines manufactured in Britain and the U.S., calling them forbidden. The Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
EVIDENCE: There is no evidence that the U.S. created the virus or used it as a weapon to attack Iran.
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