Heres one way to get a lot more people to take a vaccine: require it as a condition of employment.
Private companies can adopt that policy, which could have a big impact on the uptake of the new COVID-19 vaccines now under rapid development. But such a move would be controversial.
The risk of a potential backlash can be seen in the vocal reaction against mask mandates coming from some corners. Given the current politics, imagine the potential opposition to requiring a coronavirus vaccine in order to come to the workplace.
Employers are not trying to make a political statement, but they may be accused of it, said L.J. Tan, chief strategy officer at the Immunization Action Coalition in St. Paul, Minn. Theres a lot of autonomy and independence in the U.S., and that creates constant tension with the altruistic goal of trying to protect yourself and those around you.
In the health care industry, its fairly common for employers to require vaccines. The underlying premise is that health providers must take steps to protect their most vulnerable patients.
Last year, almost 45% of health care workers said their employers required a flu shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That aggressive approach paid off with 98% flu coverage among employees at those firms -- twice as high as the flu immunization rate for the general public.
Outside of health care, employers are much more likely to recommend a vaccine, rather than require it. A mandate can lead to worker objections over medical conditions, sincerely held religious beliefs and disabilities -- and their claims are protected.
In light of these exemptions and the risk of discrimination, the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] has advised that it is best practice to simply encourage employees to take the influenza vaccine rather than to mandate it, two lawyers wrote in July in The National Law Review.
A [COVID] mandate would be an issue for many employees, said LaToya Alexander, a lawyer for Polsinelli in Dallas and co-author of the article. Based on my clients, most dont want to require a vaccine. Were hearing a lot of, What should we do? What can we do?
Employers often go to lengths to increase the uptake of annual flu shots in order to promote a healthier workforce. Many sponsor health fairs and bring in nurses to administer the vaccines for free. Some offer prizes and other incentives, and the COVID vaccine campaign is likely to have similar elements.
Itll be like the flu shot -- plus, plus, plus, said Harry D. Jones, a longtime employment lawyer for Littler Mendelson in Dallas. There will be a lot more pressure to get it done because the cost to morale would be so great if companies have to exit the workplace again.
Many people already complain about the fatigue from social distancing and wearing masks. By next summer, if the coronavirus is still spreading rapidly, its going to be difficult for employers to accept that some workers just dont want to get a vaccine, Jones said.
Employers will say, We dont want to make this mandatory, Jones said. "The CEOs and heads of HR [human resources] dont want another drama or contentious fight. But they want to stop the quarantines and disruptions.
If we have a vaccine thats safe and working, theyre going to become frustrated and tired with just asking, he said. Companies think if they just ask nicely and tell the upside, employees will do it. But theres going to be some holdouts.
He points to the evolution over requiring masks. Many elected leaders, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, merely recommended that people wear face coverings in public. But as COVID-19 outbreaks grew, Abbott and others imposed mask mandates.
No ones in a rush to announce a policy on the COVID vaccine, but some companies may become pioneers. Restaurants, for example, could stand apart by having all employees vaccinated -- and bragging about COVID-safe policies. They already tout their approach to cleaning surfaces and providing curbside pickup.
Economic factors will have a lot to do with how this unfolds, especially among workers who are facing the public, said Robert Field, a law professor and health regulation expert at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
He said companies often require drug tests for employees and say the policy improves public safety. Requiring a vaccine could be considered in a similar light, especially if public recommendations dont cut it.
If political leaders are ambivalent about a vaccine, thats going to translate into public ambivalence, Field said. And Texas already has a great libertarian tradition.
Texas is a laggard on adult vaccinations, ranking dead last with Louisiana in a recent ranking. Just 25% of Texas adults had the recommended flu and pneumonia vaccines in 2018, according to the Commonwealth Fund report.
Most people wont be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine for a while because health workers and other vulnerable groups will snap up early doses, said Tan of the Immunization Action Coalition. That will give private employers more time to assess the progress and determine how far they need to go.
If 50% to 70% of their workers get vaccinated, employers wont have to do much more, Tan said. But if its just 10% or 15%, then it may become a moral and ethical imperative. They may need to do something more dramatic to make sure their people are protected.
Released just as Britain is imposing new restrictions in response to a surge of cases, the app, called NHS Covid-19, uses technology created by Apple and Google to anonymously log when a person comes into close contact with another user of the app. If a person tests positive for the coronavirus, the app sends an alert to those they have come into contact with to get tested and quarantine.
The app, now available in Apples App Store and Googles Play store, also has a way for people to check in at restaurants, bars and other locations they visit by scanning a bar code, another measure to help track down individuals who have been exposed to the virus.
The release of the app follows various delays and challenges. The government had initially vowed to build an app without help from Apple or Google, saying it would offer more flexibility to track the spread of the virus. But after confronting technical challenges, the government reversed course. The switch delayed the release of the app, which at one point had been slated to be introduced in May. The app was released in England and Wales; similar technology had already been released in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Some older phones are not able to handle the new app, which requires version iOS 13.5 or later for an iPhone and version 6 or later for Android.
The effectiveness of the app will in part depend on how many people use it. Without wide adoption, its usefulness is more limited. The technology could also test the governments overall track-and-trace system, which has been riddled with problems.
Everybody who downloads the app will be helping to protect themselves, helping to protect their loved ones, helping to protect their community because the more people who download it, the more effective it will be, Matt Hancock, the countrys health secretary, told the BBC.
Also on Thursday, Britains top financial official, Rishi Sunak, announced a range of new and extended measures to protect jobs and help businesses, including another government wage-paying program, just days after the prime minister, Boris Johnson, set new social restrictions that he warned could last for months.
Reporting was contributed by Matt Apuzzo, Pam Belluck, Aurelien Breeden, Ben Casselman, Choe Sang-Hun, Melissa Eddy, Farnaz Fassihi, Michael Gold, Maggie Haberman, Christine Hauser, Mike Ives, Miriam Jordan, Isabel Kershner, Gina Kolata, Mark Landler, Apoorva Mandavilli, Jeffery C. Mays, Jesse McKinley, Sarah Mervosh, Raphael Minder, Christina Morales, Eshe Nelson, Benjamin Novak, Richard C. Paddock, Azi Paybarah, Elian Peltier, Daniel Politi, Monika Pronczuk, Roni Caryn Rabin, Saw Nang, Simon Romero, Adam Satariano, Anna Schaverien, Christopher F. Schuetze, Dera Menra Sijabat, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Eileen Sullivan, Sui-Lee Wee, Sameer Yasir and Elaine Yu.
Each week we answer some of your pressing questions about the coronavirus and how to stay safe. Email us your questions at goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions."
What is up CDC? First you say airborne transmission is a thing. Then you rolled it back. So ... is this something I should be worried about?
Last Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention briefly became the first major public health agency in the world to say the coronavirus could be frequently spreading through the air. A page on the CDC website on "How COVID-19 Spreads" described the coronavirus as spreading "most commonly" through "respiratory or small particles, such as those in aerosols," which are tiny airborne particles expelled from people's noses and mouths when they speak, sing, cough or breathe and which can remain suspended in the air and travel further than six feet.
Aerosol researchers such as Linsey Marr, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech, who have been pushing for health agencies to officially recognize the potential importance of aerosol spread cheered over the weekend.
But then, on Monday, CDC walked it back. "A draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error," notes a box at the top of the CDC's page, adding that the agency is still working out what to say about aerosol transmission.
In the midst of this confusion, you might be wondering what exactly is in dispute. Does the coronavirus spread through the air? What precautions can help protect you?
The bottom line is: Yes, the coronavirus may be spreading through the air, particularly in stuffy rooms where many people aren't wearing masks.
Public health agencies such as CDC and the World Health Organization agree on that it's why they've recommended that people avoid "confined and enclosed spaces with poor ventilation" and gather outdoors when possible.
They're just not clear whether it's one of the most common ways it spreads. CDC now maintains that the highest risk of catching the virus comes from spending prolonged time within six feet of an infectious person, and that it can also spread through touching a surface that someone infectious has sneezed or coughed on, and then rubbing your eyes, nose or mouth.
Some of the reluctance to describe COVID-19 as an airborne disease may stem from concerns that the label would scare the public and may require hospitals to take "a whole new level of precautions," says Marr, such as requiring an N95 mask, which blocks aerosols, to be worn around all potential COVID-19 patients.
Currently, WHO guidance considers surgical masks to be adequately protective for healthcare staffers working with potential COVID-19 patients, and advises using N95 masks in limited situations, such as when intubating patients, which is known to generate small particles from deep in the lungs. Healthcare workers who follow these recommendations have been generally protected against the virus, WHO notes.
Months of evidence point to the probability that COVID-19 is less contagious than measles, a designated airborne disease, but is still spreading through the air, says Jose-Luis Jiminez, an atmospheric chemistry professor at University of Colorado Boulder. He points to a March choir practice in Washington state, where 53 out of 61 attendees came down with COVID-19 after spending two and a half hours together at a singing rehearsal. "People who were 50 feet from the [person who was contagious] got infected," he says, based on investigations he and several colleagues conducted into the event.
Infection clusters have also emerged among students returning to college dorms, partiers in a nightclub district, guests at a wedding reception, residents in a nursing home, worshippers at a churches, staff and inmates at a prison. Most superspreading events, where many people catch the coronavirus at once, are occuring in indoor settings where people are sharing airspace.
So what precautions can you take to protect yourself against aerosol spread?
It means keeping that physical distance of six feet and then thinking beyond it. "Masks and ventilation and filtration," says Marr, can go a long way in "getting a better control on the spread of the virus."
First, that recommended six feet of distance between you and others allows more air to pass between you, helping to dispel any clouds of virus that get released. It reduces the risk that one of you will breathe in an infectious dose.
Second, wear a face mask that covers your nose and mouth. It blocks the spray of spit and breath you expel, and also affords some protection from other people's exhalations. Unlike N95 masks, which form a seal on your face, a typical cloth or surgical mask isn't foolproof against aerosols but Jimniez says that they offer reasonable protection, particularly when combined with other precautions.
"If you are outdoors with distance and with a mask that is well-fit, I would say it's extremely difficult to get the disease that way," Jiminez says.
If you do spend time indoors with others, work to improve the airflow and ventilation in the room. "We need to address ventilation in all of our public buildings, especially places like schools and restaurants," says Marr. "This can be as simple as opening doors and windows, it can be adjusting dampers and the HVAC system so that you bring in more outdoor air."
Air filters, which can be used to purify the air in a room, may help as well, she says. "There are simple things we can do to greatly improve ventilation in buildings that are not necessarily costly."
In most settings, these potential virus clouds can be dispersed with a light breeze and some fresh, clean air.
For more information about aerosols, read an FAQ explainer assembled by Marr, Jiminez and colleagues.
A glitchy electronic system that state health officials had repeatedly warned was aging and at high risk of critical failure has stymied efforts to track and manage the coronavirus in Texas and left policymakers with incomplete, and at times inaccurate, data about the pandemics spread.
The states public health agency asked Texas lawmakers for money last year to improve a reporting system the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System, or NEDSS it said was several versions behind what other states used at the time. The work was months from being finished when the coronavirus pandemic struck.
Local health officials were left to navigate a public health disaster using a system they describe as cumbersome, archaic and really slow and which until August could not keep pace with the 60,000 or more coronavirus test results it received on many days.
It was also not equipped to manage the massive undertaking of tracking and tracing coronavirus infections. The state hired a contractor to build a separate system that was not ready until late May and is still not widely used by local health departments.
People dislike NEDSS because its so tedious, its so slow, said Diana Cervantes, an epidemiologist at the University of North Texas Health Science Center who has worked for the state health services agency and the local public health department. Until recently, the program ran only on the unpopular Internet Explorer web browser.
Just as hospital workers need protective equipment in the fight against the virus, epidemiologists and other disease detectives need fast, accurate data to track where the virus is spreading and recommend how the government should respond. Gathered quickly and efficiently, public health experts say it can guide interventions that save lives.
Chris Van Deusen, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said the test information in NEDSS is just one indicator of the coronavirus spread and that a combination of data sets on hospitalizations and fatalities, for example has guided the state response.
NEDSS is now more reliable and stable after being upgraded in February and August, he said. Prior to that, it was last updated in 2017.
The scope of the pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 Americans, including more than 15,000 in Texas, has generated unprecedented demands for data even as it strains a low-tech public health sector already crippled by systemic underfunding, according to health experts. Thats been particularly true in Texas, a state with a highly decentralized public health system that spends less per capita on public health than 39 other states.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who has ultimate authority over the states response to the pandemic, has assured the public that crucial decisions hes made about allowing businesses to open or requiring Texans to wear masks are based upon data and doctors.
But the health agency has had to issue myriad corrections to its coronavirus data, acknowledging errors in counting deaths and announcing large testing backlogs that skewed a closely-watched metric Abbott cited as he let businesses start reopening in May.
Van Deusen said the recently corrected positivity rate, which represents the daily share of tests with positive results, doesnt change our understanding of what was happening during Texas summer surge of COVID-19 cases. The contours of both the old and the corrected rates are mostly similar, he said.
An Abbott spokesman did not respond to questions for this story.
One reason for the data inaccuracies was that the old NEDSS system could not process lab results fast enough, leading to a backlog of some 350,000 tests. The disclosure of the logjam sent some local health departments scrambling to sort through cases and explain the seeming sudden spike of infections to the public.
Some of the test results were so outdated by the time officials recorded them that follow-up efforts to trace the contacts of infected people were nearly pointless, local health officials said.
Laboratories also struggled to upload test results into NEDSS because of precise formatting requirements.
We are optimistic that the state will modernize their data reporting system and support it with the right resources, said CHRISTUS Health spokesperson Katy Kiser, when asked about a delay importing 95,000 test results this summer.
Texas health officials have faced the herculean task of assembling data including negative test results as well as positive ones from hundreds of different laboratories and testing sites and publishing it in near real-time. The health services agency hired a contractor to minimize problems getting lab results imported to NEDSS.
The state has done what they can under a trying situation, said Eduardo "Eddie" Olivarez, the chief administrative officer for Hidalgo Countys health and human services division. The pandemic just has astronomically increased the amount of work in things that we've never had to do in the past.
Even before the pandemic, the version of NEDSS used in Texas was very, very outdated, health commissioner Dr. John Hellerstedt told lawmakers in 2019. It was prone to blinking on and off, required a lot of maintenance and sometimes lost information that had been entered, he said.
In a plea for funding around that time, the health agency said NEDSS was at risk of failure due to aging infrastructure and was delayed in getting lab reports and other information vital to start disease investigations or inform treatment for affected patients. The delays would worsen as the system continues to deteriorate, they wrote in a 2018 appropriations request and would increasingly threaten the timeliness of public healths infectious disease response.
The agency received $3.5 million from lawmakers to upgrade NEDSS. The agency is also hiring seven people to help its four-person NEDSS team. Federal funding will pay for 18 more people for two years.
State and local authorities use NEDSS to collate information about public health threats from foodborne illnesses to diseases like mumps and measles and share it with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Used in Texas since the 2000s, the system is meant to serve as a central, electronic repository of crucial disease information.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia have an electronic system that works with NEDSS, many using commercially or custom built systems and about 20, including Texas, relying on the free base system developed by the CDC but those states may have to buy software licenses, hardware or pay for staff to tend to the technology.
The version Texas now uses looks like something out of the 1990s: gray, boxy graphics and sometimes lagging response times. Even after the August improvements, the state is not using the latest version of NEDSS, though Van Deusen said the state health department plans to upgrade and that other states arent using the latest version, either.
The upgrade had to be carefully planned so that it didnt cause information in the system to be lost, he said.
NEDSS is meant to collect standard data on each case, including things like race, age and date of onset, to ensure that what I'm calling a confirmed COVID case in Tarrant County is the same as somebody in Wisconsin, or Nevada, said Cervantes, the epidemiologist at the UNT Health Science Center. Local health officials can also use NEDSS to access COVID-19 test results that laboratories send to the state.
But NEDSS isnt robust enough for real-time tracking like tracing an infection to a local restaurant, Cervantes said. For that, health departments often turn to separate tools to organize complicated data about an infection and to trace clusters of cases, she said. National public health groups have criticized that trend as inefficient.
The state paid Deloitte more than $1.1 million in federal funds to create a separate program, Texas Health Trace, to help track coronavirus cases, and let local health officials draw on a statewide call center of contact tracers. But by the time it was rolled out in late May, some health departments had already created their own systems to investigate cases and have not merged them with Health Trace. Others decided not to switch over.
Harris County Public Health built a program it calls CRP, or COVID-19 Response Program, after finding NEDSS and other computer systems were overwhelmed and not nimble enough to handle an influx of coronavirus data, said Dr. Umair Shah, the departments executive director.
The department had already hired 300 contact tracers who were using the home-grown program which collects laboratory data and allows workers to document progress on case investigations and contact tracing before the state introduced Texas Health Trace. Shah said the department has no intention of switching to the states new system.
Austin Public Health turned to a Salesforce tool similar to Health Trace because NEDSS was a legacy system that was running really, really slow, said Chief Epidemiologist Janet Pichette. It just was not performing to meet the case demands of the department, she added.
Such pricey solutions are out of reach for other health departments, like Cameron County on the states southern tip, which has been among the hardest hit regions in Texas.
The local health department lacks the resources of some of its urban counterparts that can afford to hire contractors, buy specialized software or create polished maps, said Esmeralda Guajardo, health administrator for Cameron County Public Health.
They turned to Excel.
I cant afford to utilize NEDSS and then in the middle ... be told that theyre going to have to take it down for a few days for maintenance, as has happened before, Guajardo said.
Her department has begun to submit case information to the state through Health Trace instead of NEDSS, an improvement in her eyes even though they initially had to manually input the data.
The state is now trying to merge local systems with Health Trace and is actively importing data from jurisdictions on the back end, Van Deusen said.
The patchwork of local systems used to investigate infections before the pandemic did not allow for the kind of easy information sharing necessary to let state contact tracers augment work at the local level when needed, he said, adding that Excel and other simple tools are constrained by how many records they can store and are subject to corruption.
At Northeast Texas Public Health District, based in Tyler, officials said NEDSS was plagued by slowdowns and errors in the spring and that it was unrealistic to migrate to the Texas Health Trace application in the middle of a pandemic.
Though NEDSS responsiveness has improved since the pandemic began, epidemiologists said, they have no plans to abandon their strategy of working in Excel spreadsheets and other databases they consider more reliable.
In my 12 years of experience with [NEDSS], it crashes all the time and you just cant rely on it, said Russell Hopkins, the districts director of public health preparedness.
Compounding the states problems in getting ahead of the virus are complicated reporting chains that can make gathering raw information a nightmare. State and local officials often receive duplicate test or case information from hospitals, medical providers and laboratories.
A host of new players particularly nursing homes and other long-term care providers have begun to test for the virus and arent familiar with how to report results to state and local health officials, a process that can have exacting requirements. Health officials say crucial information is often missing, requiring them to track down additional detail or eyeball addresses to determine whether a case falls within their jurisdiction.
With so many people involved in collecting and transmitting information, there are data entry and translation errors. Olivarez, the Hidalgo County health official, has seen Hidalgo spelled with an E, or Donna written down as donut.
That has left health workers to spend hours sifting out duplicates, manually copying data into different data systems and being bombarded with faxes, particularly in the early days of the pandemic. Doctors and labs' lingering reliance on faxes which are relatively cheap and comply with federal privacy standards is in part due to lack of government funding.
Its appalling that in 2020 we're still dealing with so many of these paper faxes and having to hand enter lab data because we can't just automatically upload this sort of data, said Dr. Philip Huang, health authority for the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department.
Local and state officials have advocated for a federal fix, including $1 billion in new funding to the CDC to improve its public health surveillance systems.
In Cameron County, Guajardo said the pressure to get the data cleaned up and entered quickly is immense. Sixty percent of her public health preparedness staff has left since the pandemic began after having to work up to seven days a week, sometimes 14 hours a day, to manually input data and contact people who may have been infected. Some have sought better paying jobs.
The county has had to take an all hands on deck approach, drafting nutritionists and environmental health inspectors to track down information or sift through backlogged test results, Guajardo said. Each case is tied to a person who may be waiting to go back to work or be told what to do next if they test positive for COVID-19, she said.
The state temporarily sent staff and epidemiologists to help, and Guajardo said theyre grateful. But she worries that the backlogs, data errors and corrections will erode the publics confidence in her profession.
Because we don't have a technology in place, we're losing credibility overnight over this, she said. When you're in public health for 21 years, this is not the legacy you want.
Epidemiologists and other experts say they hope the public frustration over incomplete or delayed data during the pandemic will spur greater investment in public health technology.
Many have championed efforts to streamline the reporting process so that it can move seamlessly from medical providers to health authorities. But that goal has remained elusive.
Thats going to be one of the critical things that weve got to improve as a result of this whole situation, said George Roberts, chief executive of the Northeast Texas Public Health District. Local public health, state public health they all realize that we need to make vast improvements.
Guajardo is more blunt.
You don't put a Band-Aid on a broken leg. You don't. You have to figure out what the problem is and fix it, she said. That's what needs to happen here. We need to fix it.
Disclosure: Christus Health, Deloitte, Salesforce, University of North Texas and UNT Health Science Center have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
When the coronavirus first began spreading around the world, there was near-universal concern among experts that countries in Africa could be hit particularly hard, with high rates of transmission that could quickly overwhelm health care systems.
But roughly nine months into the pandemic, which has sickened over 31 million people and caused more than 950,000 deaths around the world, most African countries have fared significantly better than other parts of the world. The reasons are still something of a mystery more research is needed, and some studies that aim to answer the questions are only just beginning but scientists said the success of many African countries so far offers crucial lessons for the rest of the world and shine a light on how inherent biases can distort scientific research.
"The initial disease prediction models painted a very bleak picture of severe devastation of lives and economies in Africa," Dr. Sam Agatre Okuonzi, who works at Arua Regional Referral Hospital in northern Uganda, said Thursday in a World Health Organization news briefing. "In Uganda, it was predicted that by September, there would be 600,000 cases of Covid-19 and 30,000 deaths. But the reality is starkly different."
Uganda has 7,064 reported coronavirus cases and 70 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. South Africa, the hardest-hit country on the continent, has recorded more than 665,000 cases and 16,206 deaths. That represents about 28 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to more than 61 deaths per 100,000 in the U.S.
Yet even though other countries, such as Ethiopia, Algeria and Nigeria, have struggled with bigger outbreaks, most countries on the continent have succeeded so far in containing the virus's spread.
Part of that success owes to aggressive measures enacted early in the pandemic to restrict people's movements and slow transmissions within communities, said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO's regional director for Africa.
"Governments took early, quite drastic action through the lockdowns at great cost to their economies," Moeti said in the briefing. "This has bought us some time."
She said there are concerns that numbers of new infections could spike in the coming weeks as restrictions are eased and many African countries slowly return to normal. Moeti said upticks are already being observed in South Africa, Algeria, Mauritania and Ghana, likely as a direct result of the reopening of cities in May and June.
The WHO has stressed that the next few months in Africa but also elsewhere will be very important to stave off an anticipated second wave of infections.
Moeti said African countries should emphasize preparedness and must "put in place the public health capacities to contain the spread, so we don't have wide spread repeating itself in cycles."
As efforts to prepare for a possible second wave get underway, scientists are also trying to learn what African countries did right in the first phase of the pandemic.
More research is needed, but some early theories have emerged, Okuonzi said.
He said it's possible that some African countries are better equipped to respond to infectious disease outbreaks "because we have a lot of experience from Ebola and other diseases."
Shaun Truelove, an assistant scientist and modeling expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said it's also possible that some populations in Africa could have "cross-reactive immunities" from having been exposed to other circulating coronaviruses.
There's no firm evidence of that yet, but it's something researchers are actively studying. Francisca Mutapi, a professor of global health infection and immunity at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, is involved with research in Zimbabwe to assess people's immunity levels to six other known coronaviruses. Mutapi said she expects to know more about any potential cross-protections in the next four months.
Mutapi suggested that differences in culture and lifestyle could play a role. "One of the factors about the virus is it doesn't transmit very well outdoors," she said. "Africa has a significant population that is rural and spends a lot of time outdoors. That is one of the factors that we have found from our own work."
Moeti said it's also likely that demographics could explain why many African countries have had fewer Covid-19 deaths.
"In most African countries, we have about 3 percent of the population aged over 65 years," she said, adding that research has shown that young people are at lower risk of becoming severely ill from the coronavirus.
The trends in Africa stand in stark contrast to the experiences of African Americans, who, due to a range of other socioeconomic factors, are at a disproportionate risk of becoming severely ill from the coronavirus. Researchers have no reason to believe that Black people have a natural immunity to the coronavirus, despite some pseudoscience that has circulated about Black people in the U.S. The U.S. does, however, have a history of race- and socioeconomic-based health disparities.
Some researchers have raised the possibility that low numbers in Africa could be a result of underreporting, but Truelove said that's not likely to be the main reason.
"That doesn't fully explain it, because we would see health care systems being overwhelmed if there truly was an outbreak occurring," he said.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
Scientists like Truelove are eager to learn more about what has so far kept African countries from realizing the dire predictions from early on in the pandemic.
"It's really not clear why and if it's a combination of all these theories or other things, as well," he said. "It's going to be an interesting discovery process."
But beyond epidemiological concerns, the disconnect between early projections for what could happen in Africa and most of the continent's real-life experience exposes the limits of conventional infectious disease modeling, Okuonzi said.
Most models are "based on European populations, not on African populations, and they are also informed by very well-entrenched biases about Africa, that, for example, Africa is prone to disease," he said. "Covid-19 has shattered a lot of biases about the disease in general."
TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of 10:00 a.m., September 25,2020, there have been 535,018 total confirmatorylaboratory results received for COVID-19, with 14,953 totalcases and 330 deaths.
DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 67-yearold female from Kanawha County, a 69-yearold female from Kanawha County, a 94-year old male from Harrison County, a 58-yearold male from Doddridge County, and a 67-year old female from Mercer County. Thecontinued loss of West Virginians weighs heavily on all of us, said Bill J.Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. During this difficult time for our state andnation, we extend our deepest sympathy.
CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour(53), Berkeley (976), Boone (218), Braxton (13), Brooke (111), Cabell (767),Calhoun (25), Clay (34), Doddridge (22), Fayette (599), Gilmer (43), Grant(158), Greenbrier (125), Hampshire (104), Hancock (148), Hardy (88), Harrison(349), Jackson (259), Jefferson (427), Kanawha (2,554), Lewis (38), Lincoln (164),Logan (606), Marion (265), Marshall (170), Mason (141), McDowell (81), Mercer(409), Mineral (172), Mingo (372), Monongalia (1,980), Monroe (147), Morgan(53), Nicholas (99), Ohio (367), Pendleton (52), Pleasants (17), Pocahontas(59), Preston (152), Putnam (538), Raleigh (501), Randolph (240), Ritchie (12),Roane (49), Summers (49), Taylor (120), Tucker (20), Tyler (16), Upshur (64),Wayne (389), Webster (7), Wetzel (53), Wirt (12), Wood (356), Wyoming (110).
Pleasenote that delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from thelocal health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the localhealth department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain countymay not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual inquestion may have crossed the state border to be tested.
Pleasevisit the dashboard located at www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.
Free COVID-19 testing locations areavailable today in Cabell, Fayette, Kanawha, Logan, Nicholas, Wayne, and Wyomingcounties:
Cabell County, September25, 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM, Cabell County EMS Station No. 7, 1597 US Route 60,Milton, WV
Fayette County, September25, 1:00 PM 3:00 PM, J.W. and Hazel Ruby WV Welcome Center, 55 Hazel RubyLane, Mt. Hope, WV
Kanawha County, September25, 9:00 AM 3:00 PM, Shawnee Sports Complex, 1 Salango Way, Dunbar, WV
Logan County, September25, 1:00 PM 5:00 PM, Old 84 Lumber Building, 100 Recovery Road, Peach Creek,WV
Nicholas County,September 25, 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM, Nazarene Camp, 6461 Webster Road,Summersville, WV
Wayne County, September25, 11:00 AM 2:00 PM, Wayne County Health Department, 217 Kenova Avenue, Wayne,WV
Wyoming County, September25, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Oceana Square (former Magic Mart), Highway 971, Oceana,WV
Testing is available to everyone,including asymptomatic individuals. For upcoming testing locations, pleasevisit https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx.
The U.S. has reached 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus. Now experts are looking ahead, and the forecast for the fall and winter isn't good. USA TODAY
New York state officials will conduct a review of any coronavirus vaccines approved by the federal government before recommending them to New Yorkers, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
Cuomo said he feared President Donald Trump would strongarm the Food and Drug Administration into using insufficiently rigorous standards to approve vaccines.
"We are going to put together our own review committee that will advise me, so i can look at the camera and Ican say, 'It is safe to take,'" Cuomo said.
In Houston, a new study indicates the coronavirus, which has infected almost 7 million people in the U.S. alone, may have mutated to a strain that's more contagious, though not more deadly.
In Britain, the government is considering a plan to intentionally infect healthy volunteers to expeditea determination on which vaccine candidates are effective.
In Missouri, the city of St. Charles has banned music in clubs after 11 p.m., citing rowdy crowds spilling into streets.In other cities around the world, peopleare finding workarounds to make Oktoberfest a thing. Think "yodelgram."
Without masks and a vaccine, we could reach Herd Immunity from COVID-19, but deaths would skyrocket. We break down the science of it. USA TODAY
Some significant developments:
Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 6.9million cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data,and more than 202,000 deaths, a total that exceeds the population of cities such as Little Rock, Arkansas, Fort Collins, Colorado, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Globally, there have been more than 32 million cases and almost 980,000 fatalities.
What we're reading:Fever. Chills. Body aches. Shortness of breath. Some people infected with COVID-19 have battled such symptomsfor months, wondering if they'd ever feel better again. Now, finally, a treatment program originally intended for geriatric patients is bringing relief for long-suffering patients.
Mapping coronavirus:Track the U.S. outbreak, state by state.
This file will be updated throughout the day. For updates in your inbox, subscribe to The Daily Briefing newsletter.
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The Pac-12, the lone holdout against playing amid the coronavirus pandemic among the Power Five conferences, gave in on Thursday and announced a return to athletic competition. Most significantly, the conference said the high-revenue sports of football and basketball would be back on Nov. 6 and Nov. 25, respectively. Other winter sports will return to action as well.
The Pac-12 and Big Ten had simultaneously announced they would postpone fall sports, most notably football, on Aug. 11, citing health concerns during the pandemic. But the SEC, ACC and Big 12 pressed on and decided to play.
When the Big Ten changed its stance and opted to get back on the football field Oct. 24, the Pac-12 was left all alone, and there was little doubt it would resume play as well. The league's new seven-game schedule will allow its teamsto be considered for the College Football Playoff. Fans won't be allowed at the conference games.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he will establish a state panel to review any vaccines that win federal approval before he will recommend the vaccines to New Yorkers. Cuomo expressed concern over bickering between President Donald Trump and the Food and Drug Administration over the standards that will be required for approval. Trump has said he might not approvemore rigorous standards if the FDA attempts to enact them.
Cuomo said he hoped his state could become the first to become fully vaccinated. But he also said he wants to be able to assure New Yorkers the vaccines are safe.
"I'm not going to trust the federal government's opinion and Iwouldn't recommend to New Yorkers based on the federal government's opinion," Cuomo said.
Britain is reporting its highest number of new coronavirus infections in a single day, 6,632. France recorded 52 deaths and more than 16,000 new cases in a 24-hour period.Spain just went over 700,000 total cases, the first European country to reach that mark.
There are growing signs of a second wave of COVID-19 in the Old Continent, where the virus made its deepest imprint right after spreading beyond China.
While the spike in confirmed infections can be partly attributed to increased testing, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reacted to the rise in cases across all age groups by ordering pubs and restaurants closed by 10 p.m., and he warned stricter measures may be forthcoming if transmission is not suppressed.Britain has the highest death toll in Europe, with nearly 42,000 fatalities.
The presidents of Michigan's three largest research universities -- the University of Michigan, Michigan State and Wayne State -- said Thursday that most students would probably taking classes online for the rest of the school year and won't return to classrooms until next fall.
M. Roy Wilson of Wayne State in Detroit said the winter semester will look like the current term because the pandemic is going to be with us for a while.
Oktoberfest devoteeshaveknown since Aprilthat there would be no massive festival in Munich, Germany, this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But now that the season has arrived, the lack of crowdedtents filled with revelers dressed in dirndl skirts and lederhosen shouting "prost!" is having an impact.The loss of Oktoberfest, which had been scheduled to run from Sept. 19 through Oct. 4,is a huge hit for the Bavarian city, which last year saw 6.3 million guests drink 15.5 million pintsof beer and consume124 oxen, among other traditional foods.
All around the world, virtual fests are underway while many establishments hostsmall parties. In the Washington, D.C., area, you can even get a "yodelgram." Devils Backbone Brewing Co. says that's whena "real-life, yodeling TikTok sensation arrives at your house, armed with Devils Backbone Oktoberfest beer and steins plus a custom yodel."
Morgan Hines
United Airlines will roll out a new COVID-19 testing program for passengers beginning Oct. 15. The airline saidtesting at first will only be available for passengers traveling to Hawaii from San Francisco International Airport. Why Hawaii?The airline, the first in the U.S. to offer rapid testing,has more flights to the state than any other U.S. carrier, and theAloha State's new testing requirements beginthe same dayas United's.
"We'll look to quickly expand customer testing to other destinations and U.S. airports later this year," said Toby Enqvist, the airline'schief customer officer.Airlines and trade groups have been calling on the federal government to establish a testing program andrequire passengers to wear maskssince this summer. All major U.S. airlines now havetheir own mask policiesin place.
Jayme Deerwester
Global soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovi hastested positive for COVID-19, AC Milan announcedThursday.The club said the Swede, one of the premierstrikers of the last two decades,tested positive ahead of Thursday night's Europa League qualifying matchagainst Bod/Glimt.AC Milan "has informed the relevant authorities"and Ibrahimovi is in quarantine at home, theteam said in a statement. Ibrahimovi's teammatesand club staff have tested negative.
"Covid had the courage to challenge me," Ibrahimovi, who scored both his team's goals in a game Monday,said in a Twitter post. "Bad idea."
Chris Bumbaca
A ban on "music activities" after 11 p.m. kicks in Friday in St. Charles, Missouri. The city has been overwhelmed with partiers denied entry to bars in St. Louis because of coronavirus restrictions. The ban has drawn mention of the 1984 movie Footloose, in which a small town bans dancing until a newcomer played by actor Kevin Bacon rolls into town and turns the tide.
I feel a little bit like the movie Footloose, but thats not what this is about, Mayor Dan Borgmeyer told KTVI-TV. The mayor blamed rowdy crowds that have spilled into city streets, resulting in fights and creating enough concern that police presence downtown at night has tripled in recent months.
Nearly two months after federal regulators unveiled rules for at-home coronavirus tests, no company has federal approval to sell these fast andcheaptests even though the technology is ready. No company has been cleared to sell tests directly to consumers for widespread screening a step some believe is necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19.Gaining FDA authorization for these inexpensive, at-home tests is no easy task.
The way to get this under control is if people find out as early as possible they are infected and then quarantine from others, said Dr. Yukari Manabe, a Johns Hopkins University professor of medicine.
Ken Alltuckerand Ramon Padilla
The coronavirus pandemic is putting pressure on many familieswith grown children. About two-thirds of parents say they are providing financial support to their adult children during the crisis, helping to pay for everything from groceries to health care expenses, a recent survey from Country Financial found.One in five has had their adult child move back home with them, according to the survey based on responses from more than 1,300 adults in mid-August.
This trend of adult children moving back at home was something we saw a lot of out of the Great Recession, says TroyFrerichs,vice president of investment services at Country Financial. Now you are seeing it happen again.
Aimee Picchi
Thecoronavirushas exposed a secret underbelly of the travel business. Many travel agencies operate Ponzi-style schemes where one traveler's deposit pays for a previous traveler's tickets and accommodations.Everything ran smoothly as long as bookings continued to roll in.The pandemic blurred the already muddy line between business ethics and fraud and has led to not just fried nerves, but official complaints and legal action.Through public records requests, USA TODAY obtained consumer complaints related to COVID-19 filed with attorneys generals and other agencies in 20 states. Scott Keyes, who runs the website Scotts Cheap Flights, said online travel agencies often save money by providing littlecustomer service.
If a catastrophic event happens like a worldwide pandemic, Keyes said, theyre really up a creek.
Nick Penzenstadler and Josh Salman
Children are not included in the ongoing trials for a COVID-19 vaccine, so it's likely to be well into next year or beyondbefore they can get vaccinatedagainst the coronavirus thatcauses the disease. The vast majority of children don't get severely ill from COVID-19, butkids can still pass on the virus to teachers, parents, grandparents, etc.Emory University School of Medicine pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Evan Anderson called for a rapid expansion of clinical trials to include children, ideally providing results in time for them to be vaccinated before the 2021 school year.
"We owe it to our children not to delay moving forward with initial studies to evaluate promising vaccine candidates," Anderson said.
Karen Weintraub
Britain could become the world's first country to intentionally infect healthy volunteers with the coronavirus in the worlds first "human challenge" trial to expedite a determination on which COVIDvaccines work. The Financial Times reported that the government-funded studies could be announced next week and begin in January. British government officials would only say that discussions were underway for such a trial. The BBC said no deal had been signed as of Thursday. Britain has been struggling to neutralize an uptick in cases in recent weeks. Tighter restrictions, such as closing pubs at 10 p.m., went into effect across the country Thursday.
Prof Peter Horby of Oxford University told the BBC such a trial was a good idea and could quickly advance knowledge of the virus.
"I think the challenge trial has the potential to save thousands of lives and really bring the world out of the pandemic sooner," Horby said.
Researchers at Houston Methodist Hospital say a study of the second wave of the coronavirus to sweep across the city indicates a mutation that ismore contagious than the original strain. The later infections show the virus still has the crown shape that gives the virus its name, but the newer version has more of the spikes that latch onto human cells. The study, which has not yet been subject to crucial peer review,found patients infected with the variant strain had more of the virus when diagnosed than the first round of patients in the spring. There was an upside:The study showed no indication that the mutation is any more deadly than the original. Outcomes remain primarily linked to pre-existing conditions such as diabetes and obesity.
Weve now done molecular analyses of the two waves of the pandemic and one thing that stands out is the increase in the mutated strains frequency over a short period of time, Dr. James Musser, the studys author, told the Houston Chronicle. Clearly, this strain is very different.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank said the Madison campus will begin to reopen Saturdayfollowing a two-week lockdown to curb the spread ofCOVID-19 among undergraduate students.
The university was only one week into the school year when leaders all but shut down campus facilities, movedclasses online and quarantinedtwo of thelargest dorms, which house 2,220 students in total.There will be changes. The reopening will be gradual. Not all classes will start immediately and not all will return to fully in-person instruction. Classes that require specialized equipment will still be in-person or hybrid, but others may be modified.
Devi Shastri, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
COVID-19 widespread testing is crucial to fighting the pandemic, but is there enough testing? The answer is in the positivity rates. USA TODAY
Hours after some of the administration's leading health officials offered assurances that the search for a coronavirus vaccine would be conducted free of political interference, President Donald Trump on Wednesday undercut that notion and suggested he may overrule the Federal Drug Administration.Trump, who has predicted the arrival of a vaccine before the Nov. 3 election, questioned why the FDA would set a higher standard for granting emergency authorization for a vaccine, as the agency is reportedly planning on in an effort to gain public trust.
The president said FDA guidance "has to be approved by the White House. We may or may not approve it.''Earlier in the day,FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn addressed concerns of politics playing a role in the approval process, emphasizing that career scientists at the FDA drive decision making: "Science will guide our decisions,'' Hahn said. "FDA will not permit any pressure from anyone to change that."
-- Jorge L. Ortiz
Contributing: The Associated Press
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Wisconsin on Thursday logged the highestnumber of people hospitalized with the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and reportednearly 2,400 new coronavirus cases, the second-highest daily case count ever.
Gov. Tony Evers urged residents to wear masks and practice social distancing as the state continued to see what he called "unprecedented, near-exponential growth" in case counts, largely driven by young people.
Those ages 18 to 24 had a case rate five times higher than any other group about two weeks ago. But all age groups are seeing cases rise, according to Journal Sentinel data.
As of Thursday, 528 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, the most since the pandemic began, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
Of those hospitalized with the virus, 151 people were in the ICU, DHS reported. The ages of those currently hospitalized is not shared by DHS.
"I know we all wanted to get back to normal. But we will continue to see increases in cases until folks decide to take this seriously," Evers saidin a conference call with reporters Thursday.
More: What experts say about how to interpret COVID-19 data like positive cases, deaths and hospitalizations -- and what to avoid
On Thursday the state Department of Health Services reported 2,392 new cases and 10,877 negative tests, for a positivity rate of 18%.
The average positivity rate over the last seven days was 17%.
The state also reported six deaths, bringing the death toll to 1,265.
Thursday's case count is second only to the 2,533 cases reported on Sept. 18. The state has broken all-time highrecords repeatedly in September as students have returned to school.
The average daily case count over the last seven days was 1,939 on Thursday, the highest ever.
Health officials warned that the upcoming flu season could compound issues, stretching hospital capacities and putting health care workers at risk. They urged everyone to get flu shots.
"It's tremendously concerning to think about the possibility of a bad flu season on top of a COVID-19 pandemic," said Ryan Westergaard, DHS chief medical officer.
Westergaard said many of the tactics to prevent coronavirus infection also work to prevent theflu: washing hands, social distancing, face masks.
More than 1.4 million people have been tested statewide for the virus. Of the 105,932 Wisconsinites who have tested positive:
Global cases surpassed 32 million as of mid-Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 6.9million of those cases and 201,467 deaths were in the United States.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
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Need to stay updated on coronavirus news in Texas? Our evening roundup will help you stay on top of the day's latest updates. Sign up here.
Flu season starts in October, overlapping with the coronavirus pandemic that continues to rage across the state and the country. At the same time, thousands more Texas school children are scheduled to return to the classroom next month.
This combination, Texas health officials warn, could be a recipe for an unprecedented health disaster, but one they hope could be mitigated if people get their annual flu vaccines.
If we have a bad flu season and fill up our emergency rooms, our ICU beds and our hospital beds with flu [patients], were not going to be able to defend ourselves against the onslaught of the coronavirus, said John Carlo, a member of the Texas Medical Association COVID-19 task force and past chair of the Texas Public Health Coalition.
While COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are trending downward in the state, experts are still waiting to see whether the recent Labor Day weekend and students returning to in-person instruction will lead to another surge in hospitalizations. Health officials worry that a bad flu season on top of the pandemic could lead to COVID-19 testing shortages, strain hospital capacity and create further complications for school campuses. Whats worse is that doctors still dont know what a person catching both the novel coronavirus and flu at the same time might look like.
Meanwhile, some experts are keeping their fingers crossed that increased personal hygiene practices adopted during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic could help keep the worst of the flu season at bay.
In August, Gov. Greg Abbott said the upcoming flu season could be prolific and urged Texans to understand the importance of getting ahead of the curve and getting vaccinated.
If that leads to greater hospitalizations, coupled with the hospitalizations that were seeing for COVID-19, you can easily see how hospitals in this region as well as across Texas will be completely overrun with an inability for the hospitals to take care of the medical needs of everybody in the entire region, Abbott said at a press conference that followed a roundtable discussion with medical professionals in Dallas.
Carlo said the U.S. has an unfortunately really low flu vaccination rate. In Texas, an estimated 43.2% of adults and 61.8% of children were immunized in the 2018-19 flu season, according to the National Immunization Survey. He said this year the flu vaccine could also protect people from a severe outcome of having both the flu and COVID-19 at the same time.
Angela Clendenin, an epidemiologist and biostatistician at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, said the flu vaccine is typically about 40% to 60% effective.
The big misconception is when people go and get the flu shot, and then they end up getting the flu and they think that it failed and that the flu vaccination is useless, she said. Well, the thing that they dont realize is if they hadnt had the vaccine, their flu may have been much, much worse.
There is no vaccine for the new coronavirus yet, but the U.S. has a plan to deliver 300 million doses by January. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a COVID-19 vaccine will not be widely available until at least the middle of next year, with the vaccines first going to the most vulnerable population, according to a report from The Washington Post.
Clendenin said public health guidelines for dealing with transmissible diseases like these are soundly evidence-based and that people need to wash their hands, physically distance and stay home if theyre feeling sick. For COVID-19 prevention, people should wear masks, and for the flu they should get vaccinated, she said.
While coronavirus case counts and hospitalizations have declined in Texas, flu season is fast approaching, and hospitals are bracing for impact, said Carrie Williams, a spokesperson for the Texas Hospital Association. She said hospitals dont want two viruses competing for the same resources, such as doctors, nurses, intensive care unit beds and ventilators.
COVID certainly stretched hospitals this year and while our hospitals are in the business of being ready for anything, a strain on resources is not ideal when youre saving lives, she said.
Stephen Love, head of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, said while hospitals have surge plans to increase their capacity, the concern is having enough staff members and personal protective equipment.
When kids go back to school every year, doctors see an uptick in flu cases, Carlo said.
Theres always been a strong correlation between kids getting back to school and flu season, Carlo said. And the reason for that, its pretty clear that the classroom setting is the most socially dense environment in our communities.
Children interacting in a classroom increases the likelihood that respiratory illnesses will spread. On top of that, kids are susceptible to the flu, individual respiratory hygiene and hand hygiene may not be as good as we would like it to be in kids, and we know kids can shed flu virus pretty efficiently, Carlo said.
But Clendenin said for the most part, schools that have opened back up some as early as August have done quite well in managing students that returned for face-to-face classes and have had well-thought-out plans for opening, disinfecting, reporting cases and physically distancing students.
In Texas, more than 1.1 million public school students have returned to classrooms for in-person instruction or are participating in activities on campus grounds, out of about 5.5 million. Of those, at least 2,352, or less than a quarter of 1%, have reported testing positive for the virus as of Sept. 13, according to a state dashboard.
By far and large, particularly when you look at the K-12 schools, I think that a lot of the plans that they put in place to prevent COVID from spreading in their schools is also going to be helpful during flu season, Clendenin said.
Houston Independent School District is the largest in the state and has plans to resume face-to-face instruction Oct. 19, dependent on COVID-19 conditions and recommendations from health officials. Other school districts across the state are also bringing students back next month, including Dallas ISD, which plans to resume classes Oct. 5.
If everyone continues wearing a mask, washing their hands or using hand sanitizer, and practicing physical distancing, we will be able to keep flu and COVID-19 levels low, a Houston ISD representative said in an email.
The district also provides free flu shots for all employees every year, and employees can get a flu vaccine through the end of October.
Carlo said because the symptoms of both illnesses are so similar, it would be next to impossible for doctors to determine which virus someone has by looking at them, which could result in increased demand for testing.
He said other respiratory infections that typically circulate in fall and winter like the common cold will also spread along with COVID-19 and the flu.
Love said its encouraging that vaccines and the health precautions people are taking could help hospitals avoid another surge, but people cannot let their guard down.
Carlo also said those same precautions could help experts understand how to stop the spread of influenza.
We have hundreds of years of flu experiences every year, Carlo said. And yet we really, up until this year, had very little in terms of work around how we actually do these physical mitigation measures.
But this year more than ever, its important that people with even mild symptoms stay home, Carlo said.
Its not unusual in the past to show up for work, even with a cold, and to try to tough that out, Carlo said. Thats not going to be the right decision this year.
He said people who are hesitant about getting the flu vaccine because they dont believe theyre at risk for getting a severe flu infection should still get one and should consider the other people around them who have weaker immune systems.
Particularly if you are around individuals that are at higher risk, theres just not for yourself, but for other people a strong calling to do the right thing and get the flu vaccine to protect somebody in your family, protect your fellow co-workers, protect your community.
Disclosure: Texas A&M University, Texas Hospital Association, Texas Medical Association and Texas Public Health Coalition have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
The latest data shows more than seven million cases of the novel coronavirus have been reported in the United States since the country's epidemic beganand federal health officials say the country has a long way to go before achieving herd immunity against the virus.
How Covid-19 is changing the future of the health care industry
U.S. officials as of Friday morning reported a total of 7,004,600 cases of the novel coronavirus virus since the country's epidemic beganup from 6,959,400 cases reported as of Thursday morning.
America's total of confirmed coronavirus cases represents more than 20% of the total number of cases reported worldwide, Reuters reports.
U.S. officials this week reported an average of 43,000 new coronavirus cases per dayup 16% from last week's daily average. The latest data suggests that the rate of new coronavirus cases is once again beginning to surge in the United States, with spikes in new cases occurring primarily in the West and Midwest.
According to data from the New York Times, the rates of newly reported coronavirus cases are "staying high" in Puerto Rico and 18 states that have had a daily average of at least 15 newly reported cases per 100,000 people over the past week. Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Meanwhile, the rate of newly reported cases over the past seven days is "going down" in Guam, which had previously seen elevated case rates.
Eleven states that have had comparatively low case rates are now seeing those rates "going up," according to the Times. Those states are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington.
In the 23 remaining U.S. states and territories, rates are "staying low," according to the Times' analysis.
U.S. officials as of Friday morning also reported a total of 202,707 deaths linked to the coronavirus since the country's epidemic beganup from 201,822 deaths reported as of Thursday morning.
Although the coronavirus has continued to spread throughout America, federal health officials say the country remains far from reaching herd immunity against the novel pathogen.
Herd immunity occurs when enough people in a population have developed long-lasting immunity to a virus or disease, either through infections or vaccinations. According to the World Health Organization, 60% to 80% of a community's population must have natural antibodies to a virus or be vaccinated against the pathogen to reach herd immunity.
During a live-streamed Smithsonian Associates event on Wednesday, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the United States has a "long way to go" to achieve herd immunity against the novel coronavirus. Fauci said the country is "nowhere near herd immunity yet," adding that the mean infection rate in the United States likely "is around 2% to 3%."
Separately, CDC Director Robert Redfield during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Wednesday said his agency "is in the process of a very large, sequential study across the entire United States, measuring" the presence of antibodies to the novel coronavirus, which will be finalized and likely "published in the next week or so."
Redfield said, "The preliminary results on the first round show that a majority of our nationmore than 90% of the populationremains susceptible" to the novel coronavirus.
However, Redfield noted that some parts of the United States are more susceptible to the virus than others. "It varies in different geographic parts from states that have less than 1% with evidence of previous infection, to some that have more than 15, 20 and one as high as 24%," he said (Maan/Abraham, Reuters, 9/24; Guzman, "Changing America," The Hill, 9/23; Japsen, Forbes, 9/23; New York Times, 9/25).
