Food Bank for Larimer County is hoping for 5,500 donated turkeys this year. Fort Collins Coloradoan
Rounding the corner of Sara Steen's Fort Collins home, walkers, cyclistsand passers-by are greeted with dozens of circles.
Roughly the size of small dinner plates, each one boasts a different color scheme and, at their center,a small stick-figure person.
There are 63 total, with each one representing63people in Larimer County who had died from COVID-19 as of Nov. 14the last time Steen updated the handmade memorial.
Andfollowing an act of vandalism that led Steen's neighbors to rally around and rebuild the memorialearlier this month, Steen said the circles alsorepresent something else now: her community.
Steen started working on thememorial's first iteration a few months ago.
"I just spent a lot of September feeling sad that people weren't talking more about the people who were dying (of COVID-19)," Steen said, adding that at that point, deaths were reaching large milestones both nationally and closer to home.
"I felt like I wanted a way to personally acknowledge them."
In mid-September, Larimer County marked its 50th death related to COVID-19. Since then, there have been an additional 17 deaths linked to the virus, bringing Larimer County's latest COVID-19 death toll to 67 people as of Friday afternoon, according to the county's health department.
As of Friday morning, 2,730 Coloradans had died with COVID-19, according to the state health department.The U.S. has surpassed 250,000 COVID-related deaths, and more than 1.3 million have been reported globally.
Amid COVID-19 surge, Larimer County begs: Don't gather in person for Thanksgiving
Steen, a sociologist, said shewanted a way to visually represent the hole the virus was leaving in our community.
She started by cutting out small posterboard circles and drawingthe figure of a person in the middle of each. She made 50 as well asa sign explaining the projectthen laminated and postedthem all on the sidewalk-facing sectionof her backyard fence in the Parkwood East neighborhoodnorthwest of the intersection of Drake and Timberline roads.
After putting up the memorial, Steen said she heard manypeople stopping at it while she was in her backyard.
"I heard a lot of 'Oh my goshes,'" Steen said, adding that through the month of October, many people also stopped byto thank Steen for erecting the small memorial.
"Other people were having the same feeling I had been feeling," she said, adding that she wanted the memorial to serve as just a visual reminder, not a political message.
"I think people just get kind of inured to the numbers," she said.
But on the morning of Nov. 5, Steen said she walked outside to see the opposite of a thank-you.
The previous night or earlier that morning, someone had vandalized the memorial by marringeach circlewith streaksofblack spray paint.
"Honestly, I kind of just curled up on the sidewalk," Steen said. "It just made me so sad someone would choose to do that."
Sara Steen's' COVID-19 memorial in the Parkwood East neighborhood was vandalized in early November.(Photo: Sara Steen)
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"But then, once the vandalism happened, we had so many people come by ... they came to the door to say, 'Sorry that happened, what can we do?'" Steen said. "I really quickly realized that we needed to rebuild it."
Steen posted a new sign to the fence announcing plans to start the memorial over again. She asked any interested neighbors to craft newcircle emblems as replacements, and many did just that dropping off newly designed circlesat Steen's home.
One neighbor volunteered to laminate the new circles and another spent hourscleaning the paint off of Steen's original emblems.
By Nov. 15, Steen said the memorial had been fully rebuilt, featuring63 handmade emblemsrepresenting a COVID-19 death in Larimer County. The emblems are now a mix of Steen's original emblems that had been cleaned and 36 emblems that had been submitted to her by neighbors.
Steenplans to keep updating the memorial to reflect the county's COVID-19 deaths, she said.
"Now it feels like much more of a community memorial," Steen said. "It's just beautiful ... I'm so grateful to be in this community. I'm not dwelling on the vandalism piece."
Aside from the emblems,anew sign is posted with the memorialnotingthe number of people who had died from COVID-19 in Colorado, the United States and across the worldas of Nov. 14.
Other small emblems adorn the fence, too. One shows a drawing of awater lily. Another says "Rest in Peace," with the image of a rose.
And at the center, there's a poem tacked to the fence an excerpt from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Dirge Without Music."
"Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave/Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind," it reads. "Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave./I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned."
Two adults walk past a memorial honoring the Larimer County residents who have died from COVID-19 in Fort Collins, Colo. on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. After the emblems were vandalized, a neighborhood-wide effort restored the memorial in less than two weeks. (Photo: Bethany Baker / The Coloradoan )
Life in Larimer County: Your guide to the newest Larimer County COVID restrictions
Erin Udell reports on news, culture, history and more for the Coloradoan. Contact her at ErinUdell@coloradoan.com. The only way she can keep doing what she does is with your support. If you subscribe, thank you. If not, sign up for a digital subscription to the Coloradoan today.
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FRIDAYMAP UPDATEAlso on Friday, Gov. Justice provided a look at West Virginias latest mid-week County Alert System map update.
Redcounties:6(Berkeley, Hardy, Jackson, Marshall, Mineral, Wood)Orangecounties:14(Barbour, Boone, Brooke, Cabell, Hampshire, Hancock, Jefferson, Mason, Morgan, Ohio, Putnam, Wayne, Wirt, Wyoming)Goldcounties:13(Clay, Grant, Harrison, Kanawha, Lincoln, Mingo, Monroe, Nicholas, Preston, Ritchie, Taylor, Upshur, Wetzel)Yellowcounties:12(Calhoun, Fayette, Greenbrier, Logan, Marion, McDowell, Mercer, Monongalia, Pleasants, Raleigh, Randolph, Tyler)Greencounties:10(Braxton, Doddridge, Gilmer, Lewis, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Roane, Summers, Tucker, Webster)
The map is updated live on theDHHRs COVID-19 Dashboard(Click "County Alert System" tab)throughout the week for informational purposes and to provide an indication of how each county is trending ahead of each Saturday at 5 p.m.; the time when each county is assigned its official color designation for the next week, which determines the level of scholastic, athletic, and extracurricular activities permitted in each county for that particular week.
Through the pod, then, our kids are now a primary vector for contagion putting not just my wife and me at risk, but also our parents, if we choose to see them. The map of my bubble makes this plain if not for our children, my wife and I would be an island unto ourselves. But the thing about kids is, theyre never alone as Gurley pointed out, your friends and co-workers may live by themselves, but if you have kids, theres a good chance they associate with other kids, and you can be sure those kids are around other adults, creating an invisible chain between you and people you dont know.
A lot of people, it turns out. Rebecca Green, the mom of one first grader in the pod, is a doctor who has daily contact with two colleagues and about 10 in-person patients a week. Greens younger son, the first graders brother, attends a preschool with 10 other children and two teachers. Through this single connection, then, my kids are linked to at least two dozen other people, including a rotating cast of patients. Green told me that she thinks about this level of exposure often, and she outlined several mitigating factors. Her practice has strict Covid rules around illness and anyone with even a cold has to have a negative Covid test to return to work, she told me. The preschool is also exceedingly careful. Someone had a cold three months ago and everyone had to have a negative Covid test to return to preschool, she said.
Still, for months, Ive been linked to two dozen strangers, just a few ill-timed coughs away from Covid, and all the while Id been none the wiser. As I was analyzing the far-flung corners of my bubble, I was often reminded of the double-dipping bit from Seinfeld. The dip looks untouched, pristine. But how many people are double-dipping their chips in your dip?
So that sealed the deal, then, right were staying home for Thanksgiving?
Well, not so fast. Mapping the far reaches of my coronavirus bubble revealed far more contacts than Id expected, but there was something unexpectedly reassuring about candidly discussing Covid risks with Green and other parents. I discovered that my network is robust in ways that I hadnt anticipated. All of my indirect contacts are taking the virus seriously none of them spun conspiracy theories about the pandemic, or suggested it was no big deal or told me to bug off and mind my own business. None of them were beyond risk, but I was also satisfied that they seemed to be doing the best they could to avoid getting sick.
I asked Gurley if I was crazy to even consider visiting my family for the holidays. She told me I wasnt. In a pandemic, everyone is at some level of risk; whats important is understanding your risk, and deciding whether seeing your loved ones is worth it. I think we have to acknowledge the reality of peoples lives, she said. In my family, for example, we have a family member who has been diagnosed with stage-four cancer and may not live very long so of course that person is at high risk, but at the same time, would we pass up the chance to see them in a way that we felt was safe?
I wouldnt be going to Thanksgiving to see a family member dying of cancer. Mine is a more mundane desire to see my folks in person in a year weve spent mostly apart, and to accommodate their intense desire to spend time with our kids before the kids get too old for all that. This may not be enough to satisfy others scrutiny on social media, among lefties like myself who proudly believe in science and ostentatiously defer to expertise, Ive noticed quite a bit of travel-shaming. The C.D.C. says the safest way to spend Thanksgiving is to stay home. After discovering how huge my bubble is, shouldnt I just go with that advice?
But I cant do it. Even after Ive mapped my bubble, the question of whether or not to go still feels, in the end, like a gut call, ruled more by emotion than empirical data.
The flu and COVID-19 have many of the same symptoms. But there are differences. Wochit
As COVID-19 cases surgeacross Colorado, here's what to know about getting tested for the virus in Larimer County:
The Larimer County health departmentprovides no-cost drive-thru testing three days a week, with prioritization given to those who pre-register ahead of time.
However, testing will be limited during Thanksgiving week (see the next section for details). Normal hours are:
An update on outbreaks: Larimer County sees 25 new COVID-19 outbreaks in latest state data
Testing through the Larimer County health department will only be offered from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday at 2350 Research Blvd. in Fort Collins, with walk-ins being accepted only from 9 to 10:30 a.m.
Testing through the county will also be available at The Ranch in Loveland from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, with walk-ins also only being accepted from 9 to 10:30 a.m.
There will be no COVID-19 testing atSalud Family Health Centers on Nov. 26 and 27. UCHealth drive-thru testing sites will be closed Thanksgiving Day.
COVID-19 tests from UCHealth are currently only available to people with a provider's order or thoseexperiencing symptoms like fever, shortness of breath or a new cough. UCHealth COVID-19 testing sites require all patients to have either an order or an appointment for a test. If you show up outside of your scheduled appointment, you may not receive your test. A nasal swab test at UCHealth costs $85, though many insurance providers cover COVID-19 testing. Antibody blood tests cost $100.
COVID-19 supplies and test results are free at Salud, but your insurance company may be billed for the provider time. No co-pay will be collected. Salud requires online registration in order to get a COVID-19 test.
Fort Collins:1830 Laporte Ave.; 970-484-0999; drive-thru and walk-up testing available (weather and staff permitting) from 1 to 3:30 p.m.Tuesdays,Thursdays and Fridays.
You can schedule a COVID-19 test in Fort Collins or Loveland through Banner Health by calling 1-844-549-1856.
Wellington: 7950 Sixth St.; 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. COVID-19 tests at this site are free for those without insurance as part of the federal CARES Act. Patients are encouraged to pre-register for a test online.
As COVID-19 surges, Larimer County begs: Don't gather in person for Thanksgiving
King Soopers, which has various locations in Larimer County,recently began offering rapid antibody testing in its pharmacies. Conducted using a finger-prick blood sample, the tests are $25 and typically provide results within 15 minutes. Anyone who believes they have been previously infected with COVID-19 and are not currently experiencing symptoms are eligible for the test.
UCHealth offers antibody testing at the following locations:
Erin Udell reports on news, culture, history and more for the Coloradoan. Contact her at ErinUdell@coloradoan.com. The only way she can keep doing what she does is with your support. If you subscribe, thank you. If not, sign up for a digital subscription to the Coloradoan today.
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Photo by Gregory Bull / Associated Press
Above: Nurse practitioner Debbi Hinderliter, left, collects a sample from a woman at a coronavirus testing site near the nation's busiest pedestrian border crossing in San Diego. Aug. 13, 2020
San Diego County public health officials reported a record-high 1,091 new COVID-19 infections and eight deaths Friday, raising the region's totals to 69,231 cases and 960 deaths.
Four women and four men died between Nov. 1 and Nov. 19. Their ages ranged from early 50s to early 90s. All had underlying medical conditions.
Friday was the 10th consecutive day more than 600 new coronavirus cases were reported by the county, and the most reported in a single day. On Sunday, 1,087 cases were recorded, 922 were reported Wednesday and 899 on Thursday.
"The virus is widespread and every element of our community is impacted," said Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county's public health officer. "Now more than ever it is vital that San Diegans avoid gatherings and crowds, wear a face covering when they are out in public and stay home if they are sick."
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The last seven days have marked the highest daily case counts in San Diego County since the start of the pandemic, with 736 cases reported on Saturday, 833 on Monday and 718 on Tuesday.
On Nov. 11, a then-record 661 cases were reported surpassing the 652 cases reported Aug. 7. Another 620 cases were reported Nov. 12.
A total of 34,021 tests a new record were reported Friday and 3% of those came back positive, dropping the 14-day rolling average of positive tests to 4.7%
The number of COVID-19 cases in the hospital continues to rise, with 440 currently hospitalized in the county and 127 in intensive care nearly double the numbers a month ago.
Wooten said anyone hosting a gathering should keep it small, short and safe.
"Small" meaning gatherings should be limited to a maximum of three stable households. "Short" meaning the gathering should last two hours or less. And "safe" meaning that people should stay outdoors as much as possible and wear a face covering when they are not eating or drinking.
Of the total number of cases in the county Wednesday, 4,329 or 6.3% have required hospitalization and 981 patients or 1.4% of all cases had to be admitted to an intensive care unit.
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Eleven new community outbreaks were confirmed Friday, three in business settings, three in faith-based settings, two in childcare settings; one in a TK-12 school setting, one in a restaurant/bar setting and one in a gym setting. A community outbreak is defined as three or more COVID-19 cases in a setting and in people of different households over the past 14 days.
County officials announced Thursday law enforcement will step up COVID- 19 compliance protocols, including education and citations, amid spiking coronavirus cases.
Sheriff Bill Gore said Thursday four two-deputy teams will begin making "a full-time commitment" to the county's 18 cities and unincorporated areas, ensuring compliance with public health orders. Several cities have already confirmed they will send officers to assist deputies in their duties, Gore said.
The county has issued 52 cease-and-desist orders since Monday, including five Thursday to Alliance MMA and Functional Republic, both in Chula Vista, Crunch Fitness in Serra Mesa, The Element Dance Center in La Mesa and IB Fitness in Imperial Beach. Residents can report egregious violations of the health order on the county complaint line at 858-694-2900 or email SafeReopeningComplianceTeam@sdcounty.ca.gov.
Gore said deputies would not be going door-to-door but, rather, follow up on complaints. Education about public health orders will be the first method used, Gore said. Citations could follow.
"The bottom line is: wear those damn masks out there and social-distance," he said.
The announcement about increased enforcement measures came on the day Gov. Gavin Newsom announced California counties in the state's "purple" tier will be subject to a curfew prohibiting all "nonessential" activities and gatherings between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.
The limited Stay At Home Order applies to all counties in the most restrictive tier of the state's coronavirus monitoring system, purple, which includes Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. The order will take effect at 10 p.m. Saturday and remain in effect until 5 a.m. Dec. 21.
California updated its four-tier COVID-19 reopening statistics Monday, with San Diego County among those sinking further into the purple tier of the state's four-tier economic reopening roadmap.
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The county had a rate of 12.1 new daily coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents, an increase of 2.1 compared to last week. The state-adjusted daily case rate increased to 10.7 per 100,000 population from 8.7 last week.
The region has an adjusted rate due to a significant effort to increase the volume of testing. The county officially entered the purple tier and its associated restrictions just after midnight Saturday.
San Diego County's rate of positive tests increased from 2.6% last week to 4.3% Tuesday. The health equity metric, which looks at the testing positivity for areas with the least healthy conditions, remained steady at 6.5%.
In response to rising cases statewide, Newsom on Monday pushed the vast majority of California counties into the purple tier.
With purple-tier restrictions in place, many nonessential businesses were required to move to outdoor-only operations. These include restaurants, family entertainment centers, wineries, places of worship, movie theaters, museums, gyms, zoos, aquariums and cardrooms.
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At a joint virtual meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), ECOSOC President Munir Akram pointed to the impact on the poorest countries and the poorest people.
Obviously, our first priority is to control and defeat the virus. Some countries have done well, and others, not so well. The virus is still out of control. We must act together and we must act with urgency, he stressed.
At the national level, he urged governments to help the vulnerable, especially the people in the informal sector, and small and medium sized enterprises. At the international level, vulnerable countries must be provided with fiscal space to avert economic collapse, he added.
Our first priority is to control and defeat the virus ...we must act together and we must act with urgency ECOSOC President Munir Akram
Turning to recovery from the pandemic, Mr. Akram spoke of the need to use the crisis as an opportunity to build forward better, calling on the international community to demonstrate willingness to address the structural challenges and inequalities that are the underling causes of many of the economic challenges, and the threats to peace and security.
The joint meeting of the two UN bodies served as a forum for Member States to exchange views on a wide range of topics related to durable peacebuilding and sustainable development, and ways to address the challenges. This year, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on development and peacebuilding gains featured prominently in the deliberations.
Speaking alongside Mr. Akram, Bob Rae, Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), outlined the specific challenges faced by post-conflict countries, where the Commission is engaged.
Several countries where the PBC is engaged are at risk of seeing double digit contractions in economic growth, and small and medium enterprises, which employ 90 per cent of the workforce in Africa, have suffered severe consequences, he said.
This requires us to fundamentally rethink our approaches, and to put livelihoods, economic security for citizens, and inclusive economic development at the heart of peacebuilding, Mr. Rae urged.
Several countries where the PBC is engaged are at risk of seeing double digit contractions in economic growth PBC Chair Bob Rae
The PBC Chair also highlighted that the need for sufficient funding to support nationally-owned and nationally-led initiatives, which address root causes of the conflict, and sustain peace and development over the long term.
He warned that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened risks of fragility globally and added new pressures on already scant peacebuilding resources.
Demand is outpacing the supply for funding, Mr. Rae said, underlining the urgent need for commensurate financial support, including through increased support to the UN Peacebuilding Fund.
Inga Rhonda King, President of the Security Council for the month of November, highlighted the important roles played by the PBC and ECOSOC in assisting Member States advancing their peacebuilding priorities and for mobilizing comprehensive development responses to peacebuilding challenges at the local, national and regional levels.
The Security Council, for its part, worked to address possible security implications related to the impact of the pandemic by adopting resolution 2532 which reinforced the Secretary-General's calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities, she continued.
Ms. King also spoke of the recent high-level open debate on the Contemporary Drivers of Conflict and Insecurity, where Security Council members were united in their calls for adequately financed, integrated and sustainable approaches to conflict prevention and peacebuilding in line with the principles of international law.
As we endeavor to fulfil the aspirational goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, our primary blueprint for a peaceful and prosperous world, we need, more than ever a comprehensive and collective approach, added the Security Council President.
In a pre-recorded video message to the meeting, UN Deputy Secretary-GeneralAmina Mohammedsaid Member States are currently negotiating resolutions on the next Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review and the 2020 review of the peacebuilding architecture, and that the 2016 resolutions on the matter led to greater coherence between development, humanitarian and peacebuilding actions.
As a result, she declared: the United Nations system is better equipped to achieve lasting impact in contexts where development and peace efforts are integrated. She warned Member States that the COVID19 pandemic drives fragility and conflict, underscoring the need for strong collaboration between ECOSOC and PBC.
To that end, the organs must reconcile short-term humanitarian and stabilization needs, with longer-term peacebuilding and development processes.
Let us seize the opportunity to increase collaboration between humanitarian, development and peace actors, at all levels, to leave no one behind, she said.
Doctors are criticizinga hearing held this week by U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, about controversial treatments forCOVID-19, including hydroxychloroquine a drug that studies have found tobe ineffective and in some cases dangerous when treating the disease.
During the hearing, Johnson pushed a baseless theory that the medical community was working to deny patientsdrugs such as hydroxychloroquine because they were cheaper than other treatments.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration revoked the emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine in June because of its lack of effectiveness and cited its potential for serious cardiac adverse events and other potential serious side effects.
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Michael Carome,a former FDA advisory committee member, slammed Johnson over the hearing.
"Facts dont matter,"Caromesaid of the hearing's approach. "Evidence doesnt matter. It is just outrageous that they continue to cling to this notion that hydroxychloroquine can be effective."
Johnson, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, also raised questions during the Thursday hearing about the response of federal agenciesto the coronavirus pandemic.
"I believe international, federal and state medical agencies and institutions have let us down," Johnson said. "I fear too many have been close-minded bureaucrats, potentially driven by conflicting interests and agendas."
The three witnesses Johnsoninvited to the hearing, which was titled, "Early Outpatient Treatment: An Essential Part of a COVID-19 Solution," have promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and other controversial treatments for the virus.
The fourth witness, Ashish Jha, was invited by a Democratic senator.
Jha,a physician, health policy researcher and a deanof the Brown University School of Public Health,later tweeted, "Today was a very, very odd day."
He added that"the hearing was a testament to how politicized science has become."
"I shared evidence of studies that have failed to find benefit of HCQ," Jhatweeted. "Threeother witnesses shared personal experiences. And suggested my testimony was reckless because it would deny people access to lifesaving HCQ."
He added,"I found myself defending evidence, doctors, and scientists. There are key issues we need Congress to be airing right now. Hydroxychloroquine isn't one of them."
Rigorous, well-controlled studies have consistently shown that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in treating COVID-19. Some research suggests it actually may be dangerous when used to treat COVID-19 patients.
Since the start of the pandemic, the FDA has received more than 2,700 reports of serious adverse events involving COVID-19 patients being treated with hydroxychloroquine. In 462 of these cases, the patient ultimately died. The vast majority of the reports are from Spain, the U.S. and France.
Despite a lack of proof, President Donald Trump promoted the drug early on in the pandemic.He has alsoclaimed without evidence that hydroxychloroquines benefit was being suppressed to hurt him politically and that doctors are inflating the coronavirus death count for monetary gain.
Jerry Avorn, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said hydroxychloroquine isn't being recommended for good reason; it is ineffective and potentially dangerous.
"The idea that scientists are discouraging the use of (hydroxychloroquine) because its cheap is about as crazy as the Presidents contention that the number of COVID-19 cases is being inflated because doctors make more money by doing so," Avorn said.
"We need to base policy on reality rather than on crazy conspiracy theories, whether its about the pandemic or elections," he said.
It was the first hearing Johnson's committee has held on the pandemic.
"What he is doing is outrageous," Carome said.
Carome, a physician and director of the health research group of Public Citizen, a patient advocacy and watchdog organization, said it was offensive to claim that the doctors are not using hydroxychloroquine because it is inexpensive.
He noted that doctors are using the inexpensive steroiddexamethasone, which is proved to reduce deaths in COVID-19 patients.
In March,Johnson accused the media of focusing too much on deaths linked to COVID-19, saying, "I'm sure the deaths are horrific, but the flip side of this is the vast majority of people who get coronavirus do survive."
Johnson, who tested positive for COVID-19 in October, argued last month that Wisconsin had "flattened the curve" during the pandemic, saying "generally deaths are still pretty flat because... we've gotten better at treating it."
Doctors have made strides in treating COVID-19 patients, but new cases, hospitalizations and deaths have spiked in Wisconsin as the state has faced one of the worst outbreaks in the country in recent months.
Another 78 Wisconsinites died Friday, bringing the state's COVID death toll to 2,954 lives lost.
Robert Freedland, a Wisconsin ophthalmologist and member of theCommittee to Protect Medicare, said he was extremely concernedby Johnson's hearing.
Freedland said Johnson and others should be promoting mask wearing and physical distancing rather than disinformation, and he criticized Johnson's past comments about the curve being flattened, saying, "I don't think he took the same geometry course I did."
A spokesman for Johnson did not respond to a request for an interview Friday.
The witnesses invited by Johnson to testify at Thursday's hearing were Peter McCullough, a cardiologist and Vice Chief of Medicine at Baylor University Medical Center; Harvey Risch, professor of epidemiology at Yale University; and George Fareed, a physician at Pioneers Medical Center.
During the hearing, they stressed what they called the need for early treatment of COVID-19, includinghydroxychloroquine.
Risch, for example, said "government research institutions have invested billions of dollars in expensive patent medication and vaccine development but almost nothing in early outpatient treatment."
Fareed said:"I have not seen a single negative cardiac event and few other side effects, despite what we hear in the media."
The comments of the three doctors were praised as "heroic testimony" by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a conservative medical group.
The group which is opposed to the Affordable Care Act and othergovernment involvement in health care,includingmandatory vaccination programs hassued the FDA, arguing in onecourt filing that "theDeep State has improperly interfered with access to HCQ for COVID-19."
Use of hydroxychloroquine peaked in late March, when the drug was granted emergency use authorization, with an estimated 73% ofhospitalized COVID-19 patients being treated with the drug, according to a study published this month on Epic Health Research Network.
The use of the drug then began to fall sharply as questions arose about its effectiveness and safety.
By June 15, when the emergency use authorization was revoked, an estimated 6% of patients were being treated with the drug, according to the study. Its use has since steadily declined and it now is rarely used.
The study was based on information from 457 hospitals in 27 U.S. states that use Epics system for electronic health records.
G. Caleb Alexander, a drug safety expert and professor atJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said it was "case-closed when it comes to whether or not hydroxychloroquine helps people hospitalized with COVID-19. It doesn't."
"This has nothing to do with profit motives or economic markets it has to do with science and public health, which is especially vital when there are tens of thousands of lives on the line."
Daphne Chen of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Contact Mary Spicuzzaat (414) 224-2324 ormary.spicuzza@jrn.com. Followheron Twitter at @MSpicuzzaMJS.
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HARRISBURG (KDKA) Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine says there could be a coronavirus vaccine available within the next month, although that wont be an immediate cure or end to the pandemic.
If the federal approval process remains on track we still have to see that we could have a vaccine within the next month, Dr. Levine said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
However, we do not know how quickly the vaccine supply will meet the demand. It is important to remember again that when the vaccine becomes available, it will not be a cure certainly not an immediate cure or end to the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Levine says after Pfizer and Moderna finish their phase three trials with their vaccines, the FDA has to complete a review to grant emergency use authorization.
There was concern in the past about the politicization of this process. I feel very comfortable that there has been no politicization of this process, that science has driven the process, said Dr. Levine.
She says there are significant logistical challenges to distribute and administer the vaccines to the public.
Shes anticipating at least two vaccines, pointing to Moderna and Pfizer, then says there are four more in the pipeline. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require two doses, she says, and the Pfizer vaccine has to be kept at -80 degrees Celsius.
The Moderna vaccine we will be able to have even more of a widespread distribution because that can just be kept in the refrigerator, said Levine.
She says the states vaccine plan, which you can read here, tries to tackle these logistical hurdles.
Our plan takes all of that into consideration, and we stand ready to distribute and administer the vaccines. We have been working very closely with Operation Warp Speed as well as the CDC and other federal officials and other states, but we do need more funding, she said.
The CDC and federal government authorized $340 million to the states, which she said is in contrast to about $8 billion to $12 billion to develop the vaccine. She said $340 million to the state isnt enough, and shes calling for more funding.
Dr. Levine says there will be three phases of distribution and administration. The first to get it will be the critical population people like healthcare workers, those 65 years and older and residents in congregate care settings.
Once theres a large number of doses available, critical populations not yet vaccinated and the general population will get vaccinated. Once theres a sufficient supply of doses, the entire population will get vaccinated.
We are in for a very challenging time, which is why we are talking about containment and mitigation and emphasizing how things are. We anticipate, again, that were going to be rolling this out through the winter and then the spring and into the summer. It could take a significant amount of time to immunize everyone in Pennsylvania. I anticipate that were going to be wearing masks in 2021, well into maybe until the end of 2021, she said.
She adds, Were going to need to meet this challenge, and the governor and I have confidence that Pennsylvanians are strong and resilient and will meet this challenge andwill be successful.
The body builds a protective fleet of immune cells when infected with COVID-19, and in many people, those defenses linger for more than six months after the infection clears, according to a new study.
The immune cells appear so stable, in fact, that immunity to the virus may last at least several years, the study authors said. "That amount of [immune] memory would likely prevent the vast majority of people from getting hospitalized disease, severe disease, for many years," co-author Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology in California, told The New York Times, which first reported on the study.
That said, making predictions about how long immunity to the coronavirus lasts can be "tricky," Nicolas Vabret, an assistant professor of medicine at the Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science.
"It would be surprising to see the ... immune cells build up in patients over six months and suddenly crash after one year," Vabret said in an email. But "the only way to know whether SARS-CoV-2 immunity will last decades is to study the patients over the same period of time."
In other words, we won't know exactly how long immunity lasts without continuing to study those who have recovered from COVID-19. However, the new study, posted Nov. 16 to the preprint database bioRxiv, does provide strong hints that the protection is long-lived although clearly not in all people, as there have been several cases of individuals being reinfected with the coronavirus after recovering.
Related: 20 of the worst epidemics and pandemics in history
The research dives into the ranks of the human immune system, assessing how different lines of defense change after a COVID-19 infection.
These defenses include antibodies, which bind to the virus and either summon immune cells to destroy the bug or neutralize it themselves. Memory B cells, a kind of white blood cell, "remember" the virus after an infection clears and help quickly raise the body's defenses, should the body be reexposed. Memory T cells, another kind of white blood cell, also learn to recognize the coronavirus and dispose of infected cells. Specifically, the authors looked at T cells called CD8+ and CD4+ cells.
The authors assessed all these immune cells and antibodies in 185 people who had recovered from COVID-19. A small number of participants never developed symptoms of the illness, but most experienced mild infections that did not require hospitalization. And 7% of the participants were hospitalized for severe disease.
The majority of participants provided one blood sample, sometime between six days and eight months after the onset of their infections. Thirty-eight participants gave several blood samples between those time points, allowing the authors to track their immune response through time.
Ultimately, "one could argue that what they found is not so surprising, as the immune response dynamics they measure look like what you would expect from functioning immune systems," Vabret said.
The authors found that antibodies specific to the spike protein a structure on the surface of the virus remain stable for months and begin to wane about six to eight months after infection. At five months post-infection, nearly all the participants still carried antibodies. The volume of these antibodies differed widely between people, though, with an up to 200-fold difference between individuals. Antibody counts normally fall after an acute infection, Vabret noted, so the modest drop-off at six to eight months came as no surprise.
Related: 11 surprising facts about the immune system
By comparison, memory T and B cells that recognize the virus appear extremely stable, the authors noted. "Essentially no decay of ... memory B cells was observed between days 50 and 240," or eight months later, Marc Jenkins, an immunologist at the University of Minnesota Medical School, who was not involved in the study, said in an email.
"Although some decay of memory T cells was observed, the decay was very slow and may flatten out at some point," Jenkins added. There's reason to believe that the number of memory T cells may stabilize sometime after infection, because T cells against a related coronavirus, SARS-CoV, have been found in recovered patients up to 17 years later, according to a study published July 15 in the journal Nature.
Early in the pandemic, scientists raised concerns that immunity to the virus may wear off in about a year; this trend can be seen with the four coronaviruses that cause the common cold, Live Science previously reported. However, studies suggest that the body's reaction to common coronaviruses may differ from that to viruses like SAR-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, which hopped from animals to humans.
"We don't really know why seasonal coronaviruses do not induce lasting protective immunity," Vabret said. But the new study, along with other recent evidence, suggests that SARS-CoV-2 immunity may be more robust, said Jason Cyster, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study.
That said, a few participants in the new study did not mount long-lasting immune responses to the novel virus. Their transient responses may come down to differences in how much virus they were initially exposed to, or genetics may explain the difference, Cyster said. For instance, genes known as human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes differ widely between individuals and help alert the immune system to foreign invaders, Live Science previously reported.
These inherent differences between people may help explain cases of COVID-19 reinfection, which have been relatively rare but are increasing in number, Science Magazine reported.
Again, to really understand how long COVID-19 immunity lasts, scientists need to continue to study recovered patients. "Certainly, we need to look six months down the road," and see whether the T and B cell counts remain high, Cyster said.
Should immunity be long-term, one big question is whether that durability carries over to vaccines. But natural immunity and vaccine-generated immunity cannot be directly compared, Vabret noted.
"The mechanisms by which vaccines induce immunity are not necessarily the same as the ones resulting from natural infection," Vabret said. "So the immune protection resulting from a vaccine could last longer or shorter than the one resulting from natural infection."
For example, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use a molecular messenger called mRNA to train the body to recognize and attack the coronavirus. No mRNA-based vaccine has ever been approved before, so "we practically know nothing about the durability of those responses," Cyster said.
"I think [that's] the big unknown for me, among the many," he said.
But while some unanswered questions remain, the main takeaway from the new study is that "immune memory to SARS-CoV-2 is very stable," Jenkins said. And fingers crossed perhaps those hopeful results will hold well into the future.
Originally published on Live Science.
Michigan set a new record for daily COVID-19 cases with 9,779 cases reported Friday, one week from its last record. The state also added 53 deaths.
In the past week, Michigan has ranked sixth nationally for the highest number of cases and fifth for most deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracker.
The latestadditions bring the state's total of confirmed cases to 295,177 and 8,377deaths since the virus was first detected in Michigan in March,according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Michigan shattered its weekly coronavirus case record last week with a total of 44,019 new cases reported, the fifth consecutive record week for confirmed infections.
So far this week, the state has added 43,364 casesand 383deaths.
Drive-up testing for COVID-19 continues at Beaumont Hospital's north entrance in Royal Oak, Michigan on Friday, March 27, 2020.(Photo: Daniel Mears, The Detroit News)
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced wide-ranging new restrictions Sunday night to combat what she described as the "worst moment" yet in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services ordered a temporary pauseon in-person learning for high schools and colleges, suspension of in-person dining at restaurants and bars, and the closure ofbowling alleys, movie theaters and casinos.
Under the order, effective through Dec. 8,indoor residential gatherings are limited to two households at any one time.
Child care centers, hair salons, retail shops and preschool through eighth-grade schools are still be allowed to operate. Parks and outdoor recreation areas will continue to be open, and gatherings of up to 25 people can take place at funerals. Restaurants can offer take-out and outdoor dining, while gyms and pools can be open for individual exercise.
About 3,481 adults were hospitalized statewide with COVID-19 and another 391 with suspected caseson Friday, compared with 999 COVID inpatients a month earlier on Oct. 13, according to state data.
A chunk of last week's caserecord was added last Friday when the state saw118 virus-related deaths and a daily record of 8,516 newcases of COVID-19.
The state reported 416 new deaths linked to the virus last week, which was the largest weekly total since early May.
Michigan's new cases have beendoubling every two- to two-and-a-half weeks. The previous weekly high of confirmed cases was set the week ending Nov. 7,at 29,614.
Michigans dailyrecord for deaths was reached onApril 16 with 164.
Deaths stayed near single digits each day from July through September but spiked again with 10 to 18 per day in early October. Deaths have been trending upwardthis month, with 43 on Nov. 3,65 on Nov. 7,84 on Nov. 10 and118 on Nov. 13.
A week before Thanksgiving, Michigan Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun and Whitmer warned against holiday gatherings Thursday, saying residents should avoid having Thanksgiving with anyone outside of their own household.
Khaldun said every region of the state is experiencing "alarming" infection rates and positivity rates in testing for the virus.
"Indoor gatherings are a major way that COVID-19 is spreading right now. Khaldun said. And at the rates were seeing in the state, it is very likely that if you are gathering for Thanksgiving, the virus will also be around the table."
The state department added new tracking Wednesday indicating that wastewater surveillance is being conducted in 37 counties throughout Michigan, in both the upper and lower peninsulas. There are approximately 270 testing sites, which include wastewater treatment plants and congregate facilities, such as jails, long-term care facilities, K-12 schools, universities, child care facilities and group homes.
The virus can be detected in wastewater for up to seven days. Officials believe monitoring wastewater can provide an early indication for the presence of the disease in the community before critical illnesses occur.
Hospitalizations of virus patients in Michigan are up more than five-fold over seven weeks, officials say. Health care leaders are projecting that the state willexceed thespring hospitalization peak late this month.
According to Beckers Hospital Review, Michigan has the 10th highest hospitalization rate as a percentage of total beds and the sixth-highest number of COVID patients inICUs.
Across the state, Michigan has just under 24,000 hospital inpatient beds. More than77%, or 18,519, of those beds were filled as of Friday, according to data reported to the state by 88% of hospital systems. Intensive care beds were at 80% capacity, according to the reporting hospitals.
Unlike the spring surge, which was concentrated in southeast Michigan, this escalation is spread across the state. Nearly 11% of COVID tests run in the state are coming back positive.A positivity rate above3% is concerning to public health officials.
"The situation has never been more dire," Whitmer said Sunday. "We are at the precipice, and we need to take some action."
The surge in cases comes as drugmakers are reporting encouraging results in trials of vaccines.
Pfizer said Wednesday that the latest interim results from its ongoing coronavirus vaccine study suggest the shots are 95% effective and that the vaccine protects older people most at risk of dying from COVID-19. The company said it plans within days to askU.S. regulators to allow emergency use of the vaccine.
On Monday, Moderna Inc. said its vaccine appears to be 94.5% effective, according to preliminary data from an ongoing study.
Pfizer said Friday it is asking U.S. regulators to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine, starting the clock on a process that could bring limited first shots as early as next month and eventually an end to the pandemic but not until after a long, hard winter.
Chief executives of five major hospital systems across Michigantried to wake up the public last week to the "exponential" rate of infection spread as patients fill up emergency rooms and hospital beds.
The hospital leaders pleaded with community members to help stem the spread by wearing masks, washing their hands, practicingsocial distancing and staying away from large social gatheringsso medical centers don't become overrun with patients.
"The health care system can capsize if you don't keep it under control," Beaumont Health CEO John Fox said.
The state was tracking more than 900active outbreaks as of Sunday, its highest number yet,Khaldun said.
Top categories for outbreaks continueto be long-term care settings, such as nursing homes, manufacturing facilities and schools, but health officials are also seeing increases in the numbers of outbreaks in healthcare settingsand in restaurants and bars, she said.
The state released 63 new school-related outbreaks adding to more than 150 existing outbreaks, the majority of which are at high schools.
At long-term care facilities, there are 991 new resident cases and 166 new deaths from the virus for a total of 12,449 cases and 3,018 deaths. Staff members continue to face hurdles within the facilities. There are 1,055 new confirmed staff cases for a total of 8,684 cases and 35 staff deaths, according to the state department.
Khaldun cautioned the state's contact-tracing system is "strained" right now due to the sheer volume of cases.
"While our local health departments are doing their best, as they have been doing all year, the system is simply not keeping up. It, too, has limited capacity," Khaldun said.
"Because there are now so many positive cases, and those cases, each have so many contacts, it is taking longer for us to reach all of them. This means that there may be people walking around who are a close contact with a positive case, and they don't even know it."
She said fewer than a third of positive cases the state is investigating were among peoplein quarantine at the time of their diagnosis, meaningover two-thirds of people with positive cases are out and about,potentially spreading the virus to others.
As of Saturday,138,862 have recovered from the virus.
srahal@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @SarahRahal_
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