WASHINGTON - China said on Friday that it had joined a global COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan backed by the World Health Organization, becoming the biggest economy to date to pledge support to distribute the shots fairly.
Meanwhile, the country is holding separate talks with the WHO to have its COVID-19 vaccines assessed, a step toward making them available for international use.
Public health experts welcome the Chinese move, yet caution potential safety concerns.
They are calling on China to publish all its clinical trial data to ensure transparency and gain public trust, saying rushing out a vaccine without adequate efficacy and safety testing is a recipe for disaster.
Clinical trial data
Socorro Escalate, WHO's coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies in the Western Pacific region, indicated this week that China had held preliminary discussions with the organization to have its vaccines included in a list for emergency use.
Beijing currently has at least four experimental vaccines in the final stage of clinical trials. The country has been giving hundreds of thousands of essential workers considered at high risk these experimental vaccines before the conclusion of phase III trials.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told VOA that its important for the WHO to evaluate the Chinese vaccines, yet also called on China to publish its data to ensure transparency.
It is also important that we see the data from the clinical trials and the vaccinations that are already taking place. The world is going to need a lot of vaccines, and if China has developed a safe and effective vaccine, its a good thing. We just need to see the data, he said.
One of the vaccines currently in the final stage of a clinical trial is Ad5-nCoV. Produced by Chinese pharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics, the vaccine has been tested among Chinese military members. Beijing said it had obtained data supporting the vaccines safety and effectiveness. But since China hasnt published that data, international infectious disease experts cannot verify its claim.
This is why it is essential that the Chinese companies release their trial data as well as the data from their experience vaccinating people in the military so that we can all understand how safe and efficacious this vaccine may be, Adalja told VOA.
Dr. Laura Kahn, a scholar at Princeton Universitys Program on Science and Global Security, agrees.
Rushing out a vaccine without adequate efficacy and safety testing is a recipe for disaster, she told VOA, The public must trust a vaccine in order to be willing to get themselves or their loved ones vaccinated, she said.
When scientists raced to develop a polio vaccine in the 1950s before adequate testing, the result was some 40,000 inoculated children contracting the disease from the vaccine, according to Kahn.
"In an era of public mistrust, a vaccine rush job is not the way to go. For the time being, until a vaccine is fully tested, wearing a mask is the way to go," she continued.
Joining COVAX
On Friday, China joins some 168 countries that have already announced their participation in COVAX, including 76 wealthy, self-financing ones. Neither the United States nor Russia has joined the program.
Yet Beijing did not give details on the level of support it will provide to the initiative co-led by the GAVI vaccines alliance, the WHO, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
The COVAX initiative aims to deliver at least two billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2021. It is designed to discourage national governments from hoarding COVID-19 vaccines and focusing on first vaccinating the most high-risk people in every country.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement Friday that China has ample Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capabilities and will prioritize supplying developing countries when vaccines are ready.
News Tuesday that state officials are ramping up plans to massively expand COVID-19 testing opportunities across Minnesota served to reaffirm a point public health leaders have been making for weeks: The pandemic here is far from over.
The ramp-up includes new saliva testing sites opening in Moorhead and Winona this week and Brooklyn Park next week. The states already running a site in Duluth and is building out a lab in the St. Paul suburbs to process the waves of tests expected to follow.
Collectively, Minnesota will be able to process 60,000 tests per day, officials said, about twice what its managed on its best days to date.
The biggest thing we can do to ensure our kids have an opportunity to be in school, that our businesses and restaurants remain open, is to simply follow the science around masking, around social distancing, getting tested, Gov. Tim Walz told reporters Tuesday. To not do these things will guarantee that others get it.
Here are Minnesotas current COVID-19 statistics:
2,151 deaths
114,574 positive cases
2,355,124 tests, 1,600,861 people tested
5.5 percent seven-day positive test rate
The Minnesota Department of Healths report Tuesday showed the states COVID-19 numbers remain headed in the wrong direction. Active active caseloads remain at record highs.
Tuesdays data extended a weeklong trend of newly confirmed cases averaging more than 1,000 a day. The seven-day average of active, confirmed cases in the state remains at a record high.
Hospitalizations are also trending higher. The positive test rate trend remains above 5 percent, the threshold where officials become concerned.
Officials had anticipated seeing an October surge in cases expected from Labor Day weekend gatherings, sporting events and college student meetups at the start of fall semester. They also expected the wave would put more people in the hospital. That appears to be happening.
While the spike early in the pandemic was driven largely by illnesses tied to long-term care facilities and workplace sites such as meatpacking plants, officials say the current spread is diffused, making it even harder to trace and isolate cases.
Were seeing this widespread transmission in the community. Thats whats really concerning, Kris Ehresmann, the states infectious disease director, said Monday.
New cases are up dramatically over the past month in all age groups 30 and older. That includes a concerning rise in the number of new cases among Minnesotans ages 60 and older. Its not clear why.
People in their 20s still make up the age bracket with the states largest number of confirmed cases more than 26,000 since the pandemic began, including some 15,000 among people ages 20-24.
The numbers help explain why experts remain particularly concerned about young adults as spreaders of the virus.
While less likely to feel the worst effects of the disease and end up hospitalized, experts worry youth and young adults will spread it to grandparents and other vulnerable populations and that spread could hamper attempts to reopen campuses completely to in-person teaching.
The number of high school-age children confirmed with the disease has also grown, with more than 10,700 total cases among children ages 15 to 19 since the pandemic began.
Regionally, northern, southern and central Minnesota have driven much of the recent increase in new cases while Hennepin and Ramsey counties show some of the slowest case growth in the state.
Collectively, rural areas of Minnesota continue to report the most new COVID-19 cases. Northern Minnesota, once by far the region least affected by the disease, has seen its caseload grow dramatically in recent weeks relative to its population.
Central Minnesota cases are skyrocketing. Its not clear why.
Early on, many Minnesotans thought COVID-19 would be only a Twin Cities metro area problem, but now the biggest problems are happening outside the suburban and urban parts of the state.
The hottest of our hot spots are outside the metro area, Ehresmann said Friday. That includes Martin and Pipestone counties in southern Minnesota, where positive test rates are hitting 10 percent, about twice the statewide average.
Ehresmann implored Minnesotans again to wear masks in indoor public gathering spaces, socially distance and stay home if they dont feel well. People in greater Minnesota, she added, they have it within their control to make things better.
Minnesota health officials on Monday put out new guidance to ease visiting rules for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in the state.
Visitors must now be allowed if the long-term care facility has not had a COVID-19 exposure in the last 14 days. Another requirement for opening nursing homes is if there's low to medium virus transmission in the county.
There are exceptions if there is a reasonable or clinical safety cause not to open, such as staffing issues.
The new rules go into effect Saturday. They are being introduced to align with new federal recommendations. Visitors still must schedule their time with the facilities, be screened for symptoms and wear masks.
Long-term care settings have long been a deep concern for the states public health authorities. Among the 2,144 whove died from COVID-19 related complications in Minnesota, about 71 percent had been living in long-term care or assisted living facilities; nearly all had underlying health problems.
Officials had placed severe visiting restrictions early on in the pandemic, hoping to stem the spread of the disease. Theyve also acknowledged the psychological toll that takes on residents and their families.
In Minnesota and across the country, COVID-19 has hit communities of color disproportionately hard in both cases and deaths.
Minnesotans of Hispanic descent are testing positive for COVID-19 at about five times the rate of white Minnesotans. They, along with Black Minnesotans, are also being hospitalized and moved to intensive care units at higher rates than the overall population.
Similar trends hold true for Minnesotas Indigenous and Asian residents.
The newest numbers, though, show newly confirmed cases accelerating among Latino people in Minnesota.
Distrust of the government, together with deeply rooted health and economic disparities, have hampered efforts to boost testing among communities of color, particularly for undocumented immigrants who fear their personal information may be used to deport them.
A third effort aimed at removing Gov. Tim Walz from office has been tossed out. The Minnesota Supreme Court dismissed the latest recall petition in an order signed Monday by Chief Justice Lorie Gildea.
The voters who brought the recall petition argued that Walz overstepped his power with a statewide mask use mandate designed to limit the spread of coronavirus. They said it conflicted with a state law barring people from concealing their identity in public unless it is tied to protection from weather, religious beliefs or medical treatment.
Gildeas order doesnt reach a conclusion about whether the mandate is legal or not. But the chief justice said either way the proposed petition does not allege facts that, if proven, would constitute malfeasance required under the recall law. The prior recall attempts were turned back in May and July.
Brian Bakst | MPR News
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities has moved into it's third stage of its plan for safely bringing students back to campus.
The school's four-stage Maroon and Gold Sunrise Plan limited the movement and interactions of students living in campus housing during their first weeks on campus.
During the first stage, students were in their residents halls almost exclusively. And during the first and second stage, there was a 9 p.m. curfew.
The campus is now moving into stage three, meaning students have full access to campus and the surrounding community. But they have a midnight curfew to be back in the dorms.
The third stage will last about two weeks. The fourth and final stage, is "COVID-19" normal, meaning there are no back home time constraints, though students must avoid large gatherings, maintain physical distancing and wear masks, as they've had to do at all other stages.
Peter Cox | MPR News
The state prison in Stillwater is on lockdown after 90 inmates tested positive for COVID-19.
Routine mass testing this week found 90 new COVID-19 infections at the prison, bringing its total number of cases to 115, the Department of Corrections says.
The department says the inmates with confirmed cases either have no symptoms or are mildly symptomatic. However, a 70-year-old man is receiving medical attention outside the prison.
The department says in a statement that all but two of the men who tested positive reside in the Cell Hall D and Atlantis living units.
Matt Sepic | MPR News
The Minnesota Department of Health and local officials are offering another round of free COVID-19 testing sites around the state this week.
Testing sites will be open Wednesday and Thursday in Aitkin, Alexandria, Anoka, Faribault, Luverne and St. Cloud.
Testing also will be available Thursday and Friday afternoons at New Hope Baptist Church in St. Paul.
For more details on times and testing locations and to sign up for an appointment go to the MDH website.
State health officials also announced that they're opening a second COVID-19 saliva testing site later this week, in Winona.
The state opened its first saliva testing site in Duluth late last month. The second site will open Wednesday at the Winona Mall.
Health Department officials say they are trying to be proactive as COVID-19 cases continue to surge around the state. They say that they're especially concerned about a growing spread of the coronavirus throughout greater Minnesota.
Saliva testing will be available to anyone who wants it or thinks they need it. So far more than 7,000 people have completed saliva testing at the first site in Duluth. State officials plan to open as many as eight more sites across the state in the coming weeks.
The Winona testing site will be open five days a week, from Wednesday through Sunday. Find more information here.
MPR News Staff
Close-knit St. Johns monks seek space to stay safe in pandemic: The monks share close quarters. They eat together three times a day and pray together four times a day. And many are still actively involved in teaching and ministry outside the abbey at the university or in local parishes. When COVID-19 arrived, their close-knit community and collective way of life meant their most vulnerable members would be at risk.
Walz says loosening restrictions about 'striking a balance' between data, follow-through: The gobernor said hes well aware that Minnesota is taking steps to relax precautions against spreading COVID-19, even as the pandemic widens in the state.
Minnesota to allow more visits to nursing homes, long-term care facilities: More people soon will be able to visit loved ones in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. The Minnesota Department of Health says the changes are set to go into effect on Saturday.
Data in these graphs are based on the Minnesota Department of Health's cumulative totals released at 11 a.m. daily. You can find more detailed statistics on COVID-19 at theHealth Department website.
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Brigham Young University Idaho released a campus update Monday saying that the university is "troubled" by accounts that students have deliberately exposed themselves to COVID-19 in the hopes of selling plasma that contains antibodies for the disease.
"The university condemns this behavior and is actively seeking evidence of any such conduct among our student body. Students who are determined to have intentionally exposed themselves or others to the virus will be immediately suspended from the university and may be permanently dismissed," the university said in the update.
Idaho plasma centers are offering greater compensation for donations containing COVID-19 antibodies, EastIdahoNews.com has reported.
The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of plasma with COVID-19 antibodies to treat the disease in hospital settings and has concluded that the product may be effective as a treatment.
-- Lilah Burke
North Merrimack, Mass., has the state's highest rate of new COVID-19 infections, and town officials blame one of its constituents -- Merrimack College -- for that distinction.
We are being penalized artificially, Chris Nobile, the chair of the town's Board of Selectmen, told WBZ-TV, in Boston.
North Merrimack has just 16 positive cases among its residents, but an outbreak at Merrimack that left dozens of students infected at one of its residence halls inflated the town's numbers.
As a result, North Merrimack is considered in the "red zone" in the state's system for rating COVID levels, which limits its ability to expand the capacity of restaurants, libraries and other facilities.
The town's board asked Governor Charlie Baker to separate campus outbreaks from the data for the cities and towns in which they're located.
Without the Merrimack College cases, the Town would have an incident rate of 3.8percent and be categorized as a green (lower risk) community, the letter said.
-- Doug Lederman
Kutztown University, in Pennsylvania, welcomed 3,300 students to campus in the fall. But more than 1,000 left within weeks, fearing COVID-19 and opting for online education, The Morning Call reported.
In addition to not having the students on campus, the university is losing $3.5million in room and board fees it would have collected.
Paul Berlet, a Kutztown student who didnt return this year, said, Its not a safe, healthy environment right now, especially when you factor in the lack of social gatherings, which is good, and the inability of the administration to actually keep these people safe.
-- Scott Jaschik
Several universities have experienced significant outbreaks affecting students in the last several days.
Ohio University announced Tuesday that officials in the Athens City-County Health Department had ordered it to impose quarantines on students in two residence halls after about a quarter of them tested positive. Sixteen of 69 residents in Jefferson Hall and 22 of 78 students in Tiffin Hall contracted the virus.
The students who tested positive moved into isolation, while the other students were moved into quarantine halls.
An outbreak among the University of Washington's fraternities and sororities had affected 239 students as of Tuesday morning, the university said. The cases affect students in 16 of the university's 45 Greek houses. The number of cases has risen from 179 cases a week ago and 117 two weeks ago.
Monmouth University, in New Jersey, meanwhile, attributes about 125 COVID-19 cases to what President Patrick Leahy called an "isolated super-spreader event." He declined to say what the event was.
-- Doug Lederman
Car pools are good for the environment and help ease congestion, but they can be risky in the midst of a pandemic.
Thats the warning the Rhode Island Department of Health is sounding after tracing a spate of new infections to car pool clusters.
So far, the number of infections is tiny.
Of all the people who have tested positive, roughly 15 have reported carpooling in the 14 days before symptom onset, Rhode Island Health Department spokesman Joseph Wendelken said Tuesday in an email to NBC News. They work for eight different organizations.
But Rhode Island is a tiny and very congested state. The average commute for state residents traveling by car, public transportation and other means is about 24.8 minutes, according to U.S. Census and other data compiled by the IndexMundi website.
And many Rhode Islanders commute to work in Boston, which has some of the worst traffic in the nation.
It wasnt immediately clear how many Rhode Islanders rely on car pools. But a Brookings Institution analysis of 2016 census data found that 76 percent of Americans drive alone to work and just nine percent use car pools.
Still, far more people carpool in the United States than use public transportation, according to an analysis of more recent census data by the venerable Eno Center for Transportation.
So commuters crammed into an enclosed space are a potential Covid-19 hot spot on four wheels and extra precautions have to be taken before you get into the vehicle.
You need to wear a mask the whole time, Wendelken told the NBC News affiliate in Providence. That means making sure you have your mask on before you get into the car.
Also, Wendelken added, you want to make sure youre doing a symptom check before you get in the car.
Really, everyone should be doing this if theyre heading into a workplace, to make sure that youre not experiencing any of these symptoms, he said.
It also means riding to work with the same people every day.
If people are going to be carpooling, its really important that theres some consistency there, Wendelken said.
Keep the windows cracked for air flow and err on the side of caution, he added.
We really want people to be conservative, to play it safe, and if theyre having symptoms, stay home, Wendelken said.
Rhode Island was one of the Northeastern states that was hit hard in the early days of the pandemic.
New York, however, was the epicenter of the pandemic in March and alarm bells went off in Providence after lawmakers began hearing reports of Empire State residents decamping for their second homes in tony Rhode Island towns like Newport.
Fearing an explosion of new cases, Rhode Islands Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo in March dispatched the state police and the National Guard to stop motorists with New York plates at the border to enforce a 14-day quarantine.
I know this is unusual. I know this is extreme. And I know some people dont agree with it, Raimondo said. Its absolutely not a decision I make lightly.
Rhode Island, as of Tuesday, had recorded 26,960 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,139 Covid-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest NBC News figures.
That is just a fraction of the 216,430 deaths and 7.8 million Covid-19 cases reported nationwide and Rhode Islands 1.97 percent positivity rate is the eighth lowest in the country, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Research Center.
Corky Siemaszko is a senior writer for NBC News Digital.
More than 90 cases of COVID-19 have been reported at Lancaster County schools so far into the 2020-21 school year.
The cases come from 15 school districts, plus a brick-and-mortar charter school in Lancaster city and the county's career and technology center.
And that might not be all.
With the Pennsylvania Department of Health not tracking COVID-19 cases in schools, it's up to each district to notify the community of a positive test from someone inside its schools.
Reporting methods differ wildly from district to district.
Some schools have posted a letter online after discovering each positive test. Elizabethtown Area has added a "COVID-19 dashboard" showing the number of at each of its schools.
Hempfield, meanwhile, is publishing daily a simple "yes" or "no" as to whether it conducted contact tracing that day. The number in the list below, therefore, corresponds to the number of times the district has conducted contact tracing. The number of actual cases may be higher.
Some districts haven't published anything.
Only School District of Lancaster has specified whether the positive tests came from a student or a staff member.
With each case comes contact tracing, cleaning and sanitizing buildings and, in some cases, school closures.
Six schools Conestoga Valley High School, Donegal Intermediate School, East High Street Elementary School, Pequea Valley High School, Pequea Valley Intermediate School and Penn Manor High School have temporarily closed this fall due to COVID-19.
Below is a list of known school districts and individual schools that have reported at least one case of COVID-19.
Last updated Oct. 14.
List follows map.
TOTAL: 93.
Cocalico:Three one each at Cocalico High School, Cocalico Middle School and Reamstown Elementary School.
Columbia Borough: One.
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Conestoga Valley: Nine seven at Conestoga Valley High School, one at Brownstown Elementary school and one at Gerald G. Huesken Middle School.
Donegal: Four three at Donegal Intermediate School and one at Donegal Primary School.
Eastern Lancaster County: One at Garden Spot High School.
Elizabethtown Area:Twelve three each at Elizabethtown Area High School and Elizabethtown Area Middle School, two each at Bear Creek School, Rheems Elementary School and East High Street Elementary School.
Ephrata Area:One at Ephrata High School.
Hempfield:Twelve.
La Academia Partnership Charter School: One.
Lampeter-Strasburg:Four three at the Lampeter-Strasburg High School and one at Martin Meylin Middle School.
Lancaster County Career & Technology Center: Four.
Manheim Central: Two one each at Doe Run Elementary School and Manheim Central Middle School.
Manheim Township: Three one each at Manheim Township High School, Manheim Township Middle School and Reidenbaugh Elementary School.
Penn Manor:Nine six at Penn Manor High School and one each at Manor Middle School, Marticville Middle School and Central Manor Elementary School.
Pequea Valley:Six.
School District of Lancaster: Twelve six students and six staff members.
Warwick: Nine four at Warwick Middle School, two at Warwick High School and one each at John Beck Elementary School, Kissel Hill Elementary School and Lititz Elementary School.
Are we missing any confirmed COVID-19 cases at Lancaster County schools? Let us know by emailing ageli@lnpnews.com.
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1 The virus was engineered in a laboratory in China.
Because the pathogen first emerged in Wuhan, China, President Donald Trump and others have claimed, without evidence, that it started in a lab there, and some conspiracy theorists believe it was engineered as a bioweapon.
Why Its False: U.S. intelligence agencies have categorically denied the possibility that the virus was engineered in a lab, stating that the Intelligence Community... concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified. Chinese virologist Shi Zhengliwho studies bat coronaviruses and whose lab Trump and others have suggested was the source of COVID-19compared the pathogens sequence with those of other coronaviruses her team had sampled from bat caves and found that it did not match any of them. In response to calls for an independent, international investigation into how the virus originated, China has invited researchers from the World Health Organization to discuss the scope of such a mission.
Why People Believe It: People want a scapegoat for the immense suffering and economic fallout caused by COVID-19, and Chinaa foreign country and a competitor of the U.S.is an easy target. Accidental lab releases of pathogens do sometimes occur, and although many scientists say this possibility is unlikely, it provides just enough legitimacy to support a narrative in which China intentionally engineered the virus to unleash it on the world.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Trump has lied about the diseases severity, saying it is no more dangerous than seasonal influenza. Trump himself admitted to journalist and author Bob Woodward in recorded interviews in early February and late March that he knew COVID-19 was more deadly than the flu and that he wanted to play down its severity.
Why Its False: The precise infection fatality rate of COVID-19 is hard to measure, but epidemiologists suspect that it is far higher than that of the flusomewhere between 0.5and 1percent, compared with 0.1percent for influenza. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the latter causes roughly 12,000 to 61,000 deaths per year in the U.S. In contrast, COVID-19 had caused 200,000 deaths in the country as of mid-September. Many people also have partial immunity to the flu because of vaccination or prior infection, whereas most of the world has not yet encountered COVID-19. So no, coronavirus is not just the flu.
Why People Believe It: Their leaders keep saying it. In addition to his repeated false claims that COVID-19 is no worse than the flu, Trump has also saidfalselythat the numbers of deaths from COVID-19 are exaggerated. In fact, reported deaths from COVID-19 are likely an undercount.
Despite a strong consensus among public health authorities that masks limit transmission of coronavirus, many people (the president included) have refused to wear one. Georgias governor Brian Kemp went so far as to sign an executive order banning city governments from implementing mask mandates. He even sued Atlantas mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms when she instituted one, although he has since dropped the lawsuit. Nevertheless, as coronavirus cases spiked around the U.S. during the summer, even states that were once staunch holdouts implemented mask orders.
Why Its False: Masks have long been known to be an effective means of what epidemiologists call source control (preventing a sick patient from spreading a disease to others). A recent analysis published in the Lancet looked at more than 170 studies and found that face masks can prevent COVID-19 infection. It has also been widely established that people can be infected with and spread COVID-19 without ever developing symptoms, which is why everyone should wear a mask toprevent asymptomatic people from spreading the virus.
Why People Believe It: Early guidance on masks from the CDC and the WHO was confusing and inconsistent, suggesting that members of the general public did not need to wear masks unless they had symptoms of an infection. The guidance was in part driven by a shortage of high-quality surgical and N95 masks, which the agencies said should be reserved for health care workers. Even though face coverings are now mandated or recommended in many states, some people refuse to wear one because they consider it emasculating or a violation of their civil liberties.
In a book and in the conspiracy theory film Plandemic, Judy Mikovits, who once published a high-profile but eventually retracted study on chronic fatigue syndrome, makes the unsubstantiated claim that National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates could be using their power to profit from a COVID-19 vaccine. She also asserts without evidence that the virus came from a lab and that wearing masks activates your own virus. An excerpt from the film was widely shared by anti-vaxxers and the conspiracy theory group QAnon. The video was viewed more than eight million times on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram before it was taken down.
Why Its False: There is no evidence that Fauci or Gates has benefited from the pandemic or profited from a vaccine. In fact, Fauci has sounded alarms throughout the pandemic about the risks of the virus, and Gates has a long history of philanthropy geared toward eliminating communicable diseases. Mikovitss claims about the viruss origin and the efficacy of masks also have no scientific support.
Why People Believe It: Wealthy or influential figures such as Gates and Fauci are often the target of conspiracy theories. Trump has at times attacked Fauci, a member of his own coronavirus task force, calling him an alarmist. Some of the presidents followers may find it more palatable to believe that Fauci is exaggerating the severity of the outbreak than to acknowledge the Trump administrations failure to contain it.
When a small study in France suggested the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine might be effective at treating the disease, Trump and others seized on it. The study is now widely criticized, but some people have continued to tout the medication despite growing evidence that it does not benefit COVID-19 patients. In a tweet, Trump called the hydroxychloroquine treatment one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine, and he has mentioned it repeatedly in his public coronavirus briefings, continuing to hype the drug. In late July he retweeted a video featuring Stella Immanuel, a Houston, Tex.based physician (who has made questionable assertions in the past, including that doctors had used alien DNA in treatments and that demons cause certain medical conditions by having sex with people in their dreams), claiming that hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for COVID-19. The video was viewed tens of millions of times before social media companies took it down.
Why Its False: Several studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine does not protect against COVID-19 in those who are exposed. The Food and Drug Administration initially issued an emergency use authorization for the drug, but the agency later warned against its use because of the risk of heart problems and ultimately revoked its authorization. And in June the National Institutes of Health halted its clinical trial of the medication, stating that although it was not harmful to patients, it did not provide any benefit.
Why People Believe It: Initial reports suggested hydroxychloroquine might be a potentially promising drug, and people are most likely to believe the first things they learn about a topic, a phenomenon called anchoring bias. And because Trump has repeatedly claimed that the drug is effective, his supporters may be more likely to believe reports that confirm their views rather than those that challenge them.
As coronavirus cases surged in the U.S., Trump frequently claimed that the spikes were merely the result of more people being tested. He has tweeted that without testing... we would be showing almost no cases and has said in interviews that the reason numbers appear to have gone up is that testing has increased.
Why Its False: If this scenario were true, one would expect the percentage of positive tests to decrease over time. But numerous analyses have shown the opposite. The rate of positive tests rose in many states (such as Arizona, Texas and Florida) that had big outbreaks this past summer, and it decreased in states (such as New York) that controlled their outbreaks. In addition, hospitalizations and deaths increased along with cases, providing more evidence that the national increase in positive tests reflected a true increase in cases.
Why People Believe It: There was a severe shortage of tests in the U.S. early on during the pandemic, and their availability has increased (although actual testing remains far short of what is needed). It is logical to wonder whether more cases are simply being detectedif you look only at total cases and not at the proportion of positive tests or the rates of hospitalization and death.
Early on in the pandemic, some speculated that the U.K. and Sweden were planning to let the coronavirus circulate through their populations until they reached herd immunitythe point at which enough people are immune to the virus that it can no longer spread. (Both nations governments have denied that this was their official strategy, but the U.K. was late to issue a full lockdown, and Sweden decided against widespread restrictions.)
Why Its False: There is a fundamental flaw with this approach: experts estimate that roughly 60 to 70 percent of people would need to get COVID-19 for herd immunity to be possible. Given the high mortality rate of the disease, letting it infect that many people could lead to millions of deaths. That tragedy is what happened during the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which at least 50million people are thought to have perished. The U.K.s COVID-19 death rate is among the worlds highest. Sweden, for its part, has had significantly more deaths than neighboring countries, and its economy has suffered despite the lack of a shutdown.
Why People Believe It: They want to get back to normal life, and without a widely available COVID-19 vaccine, the only way to achieve herd immunity is to let a substantial number of people get sick. Some have speculated that we may have already achieved herd immunity, but population-based antibody studies have shown that even the hardest-hit regions are far from that threshold.
Worrying reports have emerged that many people may refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine once it is available. Conspiracy theories about potential vaccines have circulated among anti-vaxxer groups and in viral videos. In Plandemic, Mikovits falsely claims that any COVID-19 vaccine will kill millions and that other vaccines have done so. Another conspiracy theory makes the ludicrous assertion that Gates has a secret plan to use vaccines to implant trackable microchips in people. Most Americans still support vaccination, but the few voices of opposition have been growing. A recent study observed that although clusters of anti-vaxxers on Facebook are smaller than pro-vaccination groups, they are more heavily interconnected with clusters of undecided people. One Gallup poll found that one in three Americans would not get a COVID-19 vaccine if it were available today and that Republicans were less likely to be vaccinated than Democrats.
Why Its False: Vaccines save millions of lives every year. Before a vaccine is approved in the U.S., it must generally undergo three phases of clinical testing to show that it is safe and effective in a large number of people. The top COVID-19 vaccine candidates are currently being tested in large-scale trials in tens of thousands of people.
Why People Believe It: There is good reason to be cautious about the safety of any new vaccine or treatment, and the politicization of the fda under the Trump administration has raised legitimate concerns that any vaccine approval will be rushed. Nevertheless, previous safety trials of the top vaccine candidates did not find major adverse effects; larger trials for safety and efficacy are now underway. Nine pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines have pledged to stand with science and not release one unless it has been shown to be safe and effective.
Manchester Mayor Lonnie Norman passed away on Monday morning after being hospitalized for Covid-19 on October 1, the city announced on Facebook."It is said that when your work speaks for itself -- let it," his family said in a statement. "Mayor Lonnie Norman's eight decades on this planet were filled with work that testifies to both his accomplishments and his values."
His family counted a new recreation complex, a soccer field, improvements to parks and infrastructure and advocacy for rural hospitals among his many achievements.
One of his proudest accomplishments was his role as a friend and supporter of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which began in 2002 and is now one of the most popular summer music festivals in the nation.
Tens of thousands of people flock to the town of about 11,000 each year for four days of concerts and camping on a 700-acre farm. This year's festival was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and new dates have been set for September 2021.
Norman's family asked for donations to the Bonnaroo Works Fund, the festival's charitable arm, and the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in lieu of flowers, a sign of his dedication to the community.
Never lost a political race
Norman spent four decades with the Arnold Engineering Development Complex, before entering public office in 1984.
"In his numerous campaigns for public office, he never lost a political race," his family said. "He loved his hometown and they loved him."
His family urged the public to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously.
"COVID-19 is ... real and it took our beloved Lonnie Norman from us. To his fellow public officials, we say please remember your duty to keep the public safe," they added.
"To our fellow citizens, we say please wear a mask, practice physical distancing, and protect public health and each other. We are all in this together."
The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected low- and middle-income Americans as well as communities of color, exacerbating inequality and leading to increased financial stress.
Those hit hardest by the pandemic are now feeling the most anxiety about their personal finances. Nearly 75% of Americans with annual household incomes of less than $50,000 said they were at least somewhat concerned about their financial situation right now, compared to 63% with annual household incomes of $100,000 or more, according to a September survey from the National Endowment for Financial Education.
This marks a change over the last few months in April, a similar survey from NEFE showed that financial stress was consistent for those on opposite ends of the spectrum. Now, the burden has shifted to lower income and minority families, whose wages and safety nets have been stretched further as the Covid-19 crisis continues.
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Even families that had an emergency cushion are probably seeing those funds getting low now, said Billy Hensley, PhD, president and CEO of NEFE.
"It's harder to make up for that the less you make," he said. "It's very troubling, and it will just continue the longer this goes on."
To make it through the pandemic, 74% of Americans have adjusted their personal finances, according to the NEFE survey, yet changes haven't been equal across the board. Eighty-six percent of Black and 74% of Hispanic people surveyed had made a financial adjustment, compared to 70% of White respondents.
As the pandemic continues, it may be harder for the most vulnerable families to further cut back expenses, especially as they draw down any emergency savings. Still, there are actions that people can take to improve their financial standing, regardless of socioeconomic status.
If it's not possible to cut back on essential expenses, there are other ways to lower monthly bills or at least gain some flexibility in payment, according to certified financial planner Lee Baker, owner and president of Apex Financial Services in Atlanta.
He recommends calling your bank and other creditors to see if there are any programs you could benefit from during the pandemic. Some credit card issues are offering flexible payments, or waiving late fees and interest because of the Covid-19 crisis. Borrowers may also be able to take advantage of mortgage forbearance programs that may lower or suspend monthly payments.
"We've been encouraging people to not leave any stones unturned be proactive early on," said Baker, a member of theCNBC Financial Advisor Council.
Increasing your financial literacy can help alleviate stress around money and help you better set yourself up for the future. Many organizations offer free or low-cost education sessions, said Hensley from NEFE.
NEFE has a free online program called Smart about Money that helps people learn the basics, according to Hensley. There are also local programs available across the country through United Way. And, AARP offers online education sessions for seniors, as well.
We've been encouraging people to not leave any stones unturned be proactive early on
Lee Baker
owner and president of Apex Financial Services
Unfortunately, many families will continue to struggle financially through the coronavirus pandemic and recession, said Hensley. But eventually the crisis will subside and the economy will stabilize, putting many Americans back in better standing.
"It's hard to focus on tips when you're in a freefall," said Hensley. "But once you recover, create a plan for that, set goals."
He also said to accept that it may take time to rebuild your finances such as an emergency fund, especially if you had to draw from it during the pandemic.
"Don't beat yourself up if it's going to take a long time," he said. Don't be "discouraged by the fact that you had it, and you used it because you needed it."
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Instruction
The majority of journalists covering the pandemic say Facebook is the biggest spreader of disinformation, outstripping elected officials who are also a top source, according to an international survey of journalism and Covid-19.
The social media platform, which announced this week it was updating its hate speech policy to ban content that denies or distorts the Holocaust, was identified by 66% of journalists surveyed as the main source of prolific disinformation.
Despite 82% reporting the misinformation to Facebook, and its other platforms WhatsApp and Instagram, which also spread fake news, almost half said they were unhappy with the response.
Twitter, YouTube and Google Search also frequently spread disinformation about Covid-19, the survey conducted by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University found.
The pandemic project was launched in April 2020 to study the impacts of the coronavirus crisis on journalism worldwide and to collect evidence-based suggestions to inform the recovery.
The first 30 findings from our English language survey are both startling and disturbing, said author and Australian academic Julie Posetti, the global director of research at ICFJ. Based on an analysis of 1,406 vetted survey completions during the pandemics first wave, we can conclude that many journalists covering this devastating human story, at great personal risk, were clearly struggling to cope.
Almost half of the respondents, drawn from the US, the UK, India, Nigeria and Brazil, nominated politicians and elected officials as the second top source of disinformation after social media. The lack of trust in government agencies was also prevalent.
The survey backs up findings published in August that websites spreading misinformation about health attracted nearly half a billion views on Facebook in April alone, as the coronavirus pandemic escalated worldwide.
Facebook had promised to crack down on conspiracy theories and inaccurate news early in the pandemic but fuelled traffic to a network of sites sharing dangerous false news.
Journalism is one of the worst affected industries during the pandemic as hundreds of jobs have been lost and outlets closed in Australia alone.
Ninety per cent of journalists surveyed said their media company had implemented austerity measures including job losses, salary cuts and outlet closures.
Earlier this year News Corp Australia closed more than 100 local and regional newspapers or made them digital-only, cutting about 500 staff.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the newspaper industry has lost more than 50% of its employees since 2001, and Covid has sped up the decline.
The most pressing need was financial help to pay salaries and keep afloat, followed by mental health support, the journalists surveyed said.
Many journalists were struggling to cope with the mental, physical, personal and professional impacts of the crisis during the first wave of COVID-19, the report said.
