"When everything looks bleak, we know that someone somewhere is full of hope and strength and wants to take action," says one ad, showing a series of Black people. "Walking the walk and rolling their sleeves to go to normal sooner."
"Volunteer to find the Covid-19 vaccine. Help end the uncertainty," the voice-over says.
Another ad shows a couple cooing in Spanish at a video of their newborn grandson.
The couple's daughter looks into the camera.
"I wonder when they're going to get to see him," she says in Spanish.
The vaccine trials -- there are three underway in the United States -- need more minorities to sign up. Dr. Larry Corey, who runs the group that put out the ads, said he knows the ads won't instantly increase enrollment, but he hopes they help.
"Not everybody is thinking about how they could play a role in ending the pandemic," said Corey, who is leading the Covid-19 Prevention Network. "The point of any advertising is to reveal options, to reveal choices."
The ads were developed by the Covid-19 Prevention Network, which is based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and two advertising agencies, Socialisssima and Sam Bonds Creative. The ads are scheduled to start airing Tuesday on major television networks as well as the BET network, the Oprah Winfrey Network, TV One, Telemundo, and Univision.
Why clinical trials are seeking minority volunteers
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has urged that about 37% of the volunteers in coronavirus vaccine clinical trials be Latino, and 27% be Black.
Enrollments so far have fallen far short of that.
Researchers have two reasons for wanting to improve these numbers.
Vaccines and medicines can work differently in different racial and ethnic groups, so diversity in clinical trials is important.
Also, in order for the vaccine clinical trials to succeed, scientists have to recruit people who have a high likelihood of encountering the virus. Otherwise, the researchers will have to wait a longer time to know if the vaccine works or not.
Ads are not enough
Pastor Ricky Temple, who leads a large Black church in Savannah, Georgia, said he found the ads "touching."
"I think these are great. The pointing to the arm was a graceful invitation to participate that was inviting and personal," he said of the ads, which include Black and Latino bus drivers, teachers, nurses, students, parents, and grandparents.
Inspired by Dawn Baker, a Savannah television news anchor who in July became the first person to enroll in a Phase 3 coronavirus clinical trial in the US, Temple asked leaders in his church how they felt about encouraging members of the congregation to join the trials.
The answer was a resounding "no."
"It was a response based in fear centered in a lack of trust, and it's on my left, it's on my right, it's everywhere I turn," Temple said.
The Black community has historically been hesitant to join clinical trials because of past abuses in medical trials and ongoing injustices in the healthcare system. Black study subjects were horrifically mistreated in the Tuskegee syphilis trials from 1932 until 1972, and Black people still face injustices and disparities in today's medical system.
Temple said President Trump adds to that mistrust when he says a vaccine could be ready by Election Day, which experts say would be too quick and scientifically unsound.
Temple said the ads won't change all of this, but they're "a good start" towards building trust in medical research within the Black community.
"You chip away, you chip away, you chip away, and one day people won't remember all the bad things that happened. Tuskegee will be way in the back somewhere and we'll think those people are no longer with us and now there's a new crew," he said.
Half a million U.S. children have been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association.The groups said 70,630 new child cases were reported from Aug. 20 through Sept. 3. This is a 16% increase in child cases over two weeks, bringing up the total to at least 513,415 cases, the groups said in their weekly report on pediatric coronavirus cases."These numbers are a chilling reminder of why we need to take this virus seriously," American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Sally Goza said in a news release. "While much remains unknown about COVID-19, we do know that the spread among children reflects what is happening in the broader communities," she added."A disproportionate number of cases are reported in Black and Hispanic children and in places where there is high poverty. We must work harder to address societal inequities that contribute to these disparities."Children represent nearly 10% of all reported cases in the U.S., according to the report. The child cases are likely underreported because the tally relies on state data that is inconsistently collected."This rapid rise in positive cases occurred over the summer, and as the weather cools, we know people will spend more time indoors," Dr. Sean O'Leary, the vice chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, said in a news release."Now we are heading into flu season. We must take this seriously and implement the public health measures we know can help," O'Leary added."That includes wearing masks, avoiding large crowds, and maintaining social distance. In addition, it will be really important for everyone to get an influenza vaccine this year. These measures will help protect everyone, including children."The AAP recommends that any child 6 months or older get a flu shot in line with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Pediatricians say it's more important than ever to make sure kids get either the flu shot or the protective nasal spray before the end of October.That's because having two respiratory disease circulating at the same time flu and coronavirus will be confusing to doctors, parents and caregivers. Plus, hospitals and clinics could become overwhelmed with the double burden.The two viruses cause similar symptoms but a study published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open found that children hospitalized with COVID-19 were more likely to have fever, aches, diarrhea and vomiting than were children with influenza.Children with COVID-19 also tended to be older and have at least one underlying health condition.COVID-19 and seasonal flu in children lead to similar rates of hospitalization, intensive care admission, and need for a ventilator to help breathing, the study found. The CDC says 188 children died from flu over the 2019-2020 season.
Half a million U.S. children have been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association.
The groups said 70,630 new child cases were reported from Aug. 20 through Sept. 3. This is a 16% increase in child cases over two weeks, bringing up the total to at least 513,415 cases, the groups said in their weekly report on pediatric coronavirus cases.
"These numbers are a chilling reminder of why we need to take this virus seriously," American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Sally Goza said in a news release. "While much remains unknown about COVID-19, we do know that the spread among children reflects what is happening in the broader communities," she added.
"A disproportionate number of cases are reported in Black and Hispanic children and in places where there is high poverty. We must work harder to address societal inequities that contribute to these disparities."
Children represent nearly 10% of all reported cases in the U.S., according to the report. The child cases are likely underreported because the tally relies on state data that is inconsistently collected.
"This rapid rise in positive cases occurred over the summer, and as the weather cools, we know people will spend more time indoors," Dr. Sean O'Leary, the vice chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, said in a news release.
"Now we are heading into flu season. We must take this seriously and implement the public health measures we know can help," O'Leary added.
"That includes wearing masks, avoiding large crowds, and maintaining social distance. In addition, it will be really important for everyone to get an influenza vaccine this year. These measures will help protect everyone, including children."
The AAP recommends that any child 6 months or older get a flu shot in line with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pediatricians say it's more important than ever to make sure kids get either the flu shot or the protective nasal spray before the end of October.
That's because having two respiratory disease circulating at the same time flu and coronavirus will be confusing to doctors, parents and caregivers. Plus, hospitals and clinics could become overwhelmed with the double burden.
The two viruses cause similar symptoms but a study published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open found that children hospitalized with COVID-19 were more likely to have fever, aches, diarrhea and vomiting than were children with influenza.
Children with COVID-19 also tended to be older and have at least one underlying health condition.
COVID-19 and seasonal flu in children lead to similar rates of hospitalization, intensive care admission, and need for a ventilator to help breathing, the study found. The CDC says 188 children died from flu over the 2019-2020 season.
Researchers across the world are racing to produce a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine. Currently, 37 vaccines are being tested in clinical trials on humans, and at least 91 vaccines are in the preclinical phase. Russia was the first country to approve a vaccine, but it did so without a Phase 3 trial; now scientists are working to conduct additional trials after receiving international disapproval.
The White House has made optimistic assertions that a vaccine could be ready before the Nov. 3 election, but many scientists, regulators and public health experts are concerned that the rush to distribute a vaccine before it has been fully tested for safety and efficacy is potentially dangerous.
As of Tuesday, Sept. 8, more than 27.4 million people had been infected with the coronavirus worldwide and more than 890,000 had died. Clearly there is a need for speed to put a halt to the spread of the coronavirus and to save lives. And there is a need for safety to create a vaccine that is both effective and not harmful. How should we balance those two important needs?
In the Sept. 4 article Pharma Companies Plan Joint Pledge on Vaccine Safety, Katie Thomas, Noah Weiland and Sharon LaFraniere write about a group of drug companies that said they would not release any vaccines that do not follow rigorous efficacy and safety standards:
Scientists have been rushing at record speed to develop a vaccine that could end the pandemic, which has taken nearly 190,000 lives and infected more than six million people in the United States. Three companies Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca are testing their candidates in late-stage clinical trials.
Pfizers chief executive said this week that the company could see results as early as October, but the others have said only that they plan to release a vaccine by the end of the year.
Public health experts have applauded the companies rapid development of a vaccine, and early results have been promising. But in recent weeks, they have grown worried as Mr. Trump and his allies have begun talking about a vaccine that could be ready before the election on Nov. 3.
Even as companies are competing to be the first to bring a coronavirus vaccine to market, they must navigate perilous political terrain. If they are among the first to bring a successful vaccine to market, they could earn major profits and help rehabilitate the image of an industry battered by rising drug prices.
But if a vaccine turns out to have dangerous side effects for some people, the fallout could be catastrophic, damaging their corporate reputations, putting their broader portfolio of products at risk and broadly undermining trust in vaccines, one of the great public health advances in human history.
In tweets and public comments, Mr. Trump has explicitly tied his re-election fortunes to a vaccine, an idea detailed last week at the Republican National Convention, where promotional videos featured the administrations efforts to fund and develop one in its crash program called Operation Warp Speed.
What goes into making a vaccine and having it approved for public use? In What We Know About the C.D.C.s Covid-19 Vaccine Plans, Carl Zimmer and Katie Thomas detail the stages of vaccine approval:
Once vaccines are designed, they go through four stages of testing. In the preclinical stage, researchers test them on animals. For Covid-19, these animals include hamsters and genetically modified mice, both of which can experience some of the same symptoms as humans.
If these tests yield promising results, then the vaccines go into three phases of clinical trials in people.
In Phase 1, doctors give the vaccine to a small number of volunteers. They keep an eye on them to make sure they dont have any immediate negative reactions. Its not uncommon for people to feel achiness in their muscles or even a mild fever, but these mild symptoms typically dont last long.
In Phase 2 trials, scientists give the vaccine to hundreds of people split into groups, like children and older adults, to determine whether the vaccine acts differently in them. In both Phases 1 and 2, researchers analyze the blood of volunteers to see if their immune systems are learning to fight the virus with antibodies and immune cells that can kill infected cells.
Finally, in Phase 3 trials, scientists give the vaccine to tens of thousands of people and a placebo to tens of thousands of others.
Mr. Zimmer and Ms. Thomas go on to explain the importance of a Phase 3 trial:
In such a trial, volunteers are randomly assigned to receive either the vaccine or the placebo. They dont know which one they are given, nor do their doctors. By blinding the trial, researchers ensure that no bias creeps into the study.
A Phase 3 trial collects data about the symptoms volunteers experience after their injection, and whether they become infected with the coronavirus. After unblinding the data, researchers compare the rates of infection and adverse side effects between people who receive the vaccine and those who receive the placebo.
If significantly more people get Covid-19 on the placebo than the vaccine, that is evidence that the vaccine is effective. The F.D.A. has indicated that vaccine makers should aim for 50 percent protection in order to be considered effective.
If significantly more people who receive the vaccine suffer serious side effects, that may indicate that the vaccine isnt safe or may be safe only for certain groups, like people under the age of 65.
Students, read the rest of the first article, then tell us:
How concerned do you feel about your own health and well-being from the coronavirus? What about that of your family, friends and community? What would an effective and safe vaccine mean to you? What would it mean for the country? The world?
Consider the benefits of expediting the vaccine creation and approval process. Consider the risks. Do you think the benefits outweigh the risks? Why or why not?
Are you concerned that politics and the United States election might affect the vaccine approval process? Are you worried that the Trump administration might be pressuring manufacturers to rush vaccine development for political purposes? Or, do you think any White House pressure is appropriate given the severity of the pandemic and its effects on our health and society?
Are you encouraged by the prospect of a vaccine that could become widely available sometime soon? Or are you worried about it? Do you think drug companies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are doing enough to make sure it is safe and effective? If not, what more could they do?
About Student Opinion
Find all our Student Opinion questions in this column. Have an idea for a Student Opinion question? Tell us about it. Learn more about how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Trump fixates on the promise of a coronavirus vaccine real or not as key to reelection bid The Philadelphia Inquirer
ultrastructural morphology exhibited by corona viruses
Sonora, CA Tuolumne County Health Officials are reporting another death of a resident that tested positive for COVID-19.
This brings the countys total deaths linked to coronavirus to three. Public Health officials share the deceased is a male in his 70s who was hospitalized. They add that he had no apparent contributing underlying health conditions.
Over the weekend, nine new positive coronavirus cases were identified, including three on Saturday, four on Monday, and two today (Tuesday). Of the current cases, there are three individuals in isolation, one person is hospitalized, and five have recovered.Additionally, five other individuals that were in isolation have since recovered.
As reported previously, any Sierra Conservation Center inmates that test positive for COVID-19 are not added to the countys numbers. However, staff that lives in the county will be figured into the total number of cases. The countys total number of cases is 196 with six active and 187 recovered.
In alignment with the new State Health Officer Order, Dr. Liza Ortiz, Interim Tuolumne County Health Officer has issued an updated Local Health Officer Order here. This site provides more detailed information on the criteria used to determine the tier into which a county is placed and how counties can move from one tier to another.
If you are having COVID-like symptoms, self-isolate and contact your healthcare provider or the Adventist Health Triage Line at 209-536-5166 Mon-Fri, or 209-536-5000 after hours. If you need immediate medical attention, please call ahead and go to Rapid Care or the Emergency Department. You can also visit www.valleycovidhelp.com for more information.
The no-cost state testing site is open at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds Tuesday Saturday 7am to 7pm. Appointments can be scheduled ahead of time at: https://lhi.care/covidtesting Appointments are recommended. The site offers to test children ages 3 and older (accompanied by a parent or guardian). Tuolumne County Public Health encourages anyone concerned about possible exposure to go get tested stating; Local COVID-19 testing sites have been processing and reporting their results more expediently lately.
It is important that people continue to follow prevention guidelines to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, including:
Thank you for your support and efforts to protect the safety and health of our community
Written by Tracey Petersen.
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Visit our Health Section, under the Community tab or keyword: health. All of our Coronavirus updates are here.
Pre-clinical
vaccines not yet in human trials
vaccines in small-scale safety trials
vaccines in expanded safety trials
vaccines in large-scale efficacy trials
vaccines approved for general use
Source: WHO. Last updated 9 Sep
Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Vaccines normally require years of testing and additional time to produce at scale, but scientists are hoping to develop a coronavirus vaccine within 12 to 18 months.
Vaccines mimic the virus or part of the virus they protect against, stimulating the immune system to develop antibodies. They must follow higher safety standards than other drugs because they are given to millions of healthy people.
In the pre-clinical stage of testing, researchers give the vaccine to animals to see if it triggers an immune response.
In phase 1 of clinical testing, the vaccine is given to a small group of people to determine whether it is safe and to learn more about the immune response it provokes.
In phase 2, the vaccine is given to hundreds of people so scientists can learn more about its safety and correct dosage.
In phase 3, the vaccine is given to thousands of people to confirm its safety including rare side effects and effectiveness. These trials involve a control group which is given a placebo.
University of Oxford/AstraZeneca
CanSino Biologics Inc./Beijing Institute of Biotechnology
BioNTech/Fosun Pharma/Pfizer
Wuhan Institute of Biological Products/Sinopharm
Chinese company Sinovac is developing a vaccine based on inactivated Covid-19 particles. The vaccine has shown a promising safety profile in the early stages of testing and is now moving into Phase 3 trials in Brazil.
Beijing Institute of Biological Products/Sinopharm
Gamaleya Research Institute
Osaka University/ AnGes/ Takara Bio
Kentucky Bioprocessing, Inc
Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies
Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems, Rep of Kazakhstan
Cadila Healthcare Limited
Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical/Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Inovio Pharmaceuticals/ International Vaccine Institute
Instituto Finlay de Vacunas, Cuba
Institute Pasteur/Themis/Univ. of Pittsburgh CVR/Merck Sharp & Dohme
West China Hospital, Sichuan University
FBRI SRC VB VECTOR, Rospotrebnadzor, Koltsovo
People's Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Sciences/Walvax Biotech.
Clover Biopharmaceuticals Inc./GSK/Dynavax
ReiThera/LEUKOCARE/Univercells
University of Queensland/CSL/Seqirus
Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corporation/NIAID/Dynavax
University of Melbourne/Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
The Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Australia is conducting a phase 3 trial using a nearly 100-year-old tuberculosis vaccine. The vaccine is not thought to protect directly against Covid-19 but might boost the bodys non-specific immune response.
Source: WHO. Last updated 9 Sep
President Trump acknowledged to the journalist Bob Woodward that he knowingly played down the coronavirus earlier this year even though he was aware it was life-threatening and vastly more serious than the seasonal flu.
This is deadly stuff, Mr. Trump said on Feb. 7 in one of 18 interviews with Mr. Woodward for his coming book, Rage.
You just breathe the air and thats how its passed, the president told Mr. Woodward in audio recordings made available on The Washington Post website. And so thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. Its also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.
But three days after those remarks, Mr. Trump told the Fox Business anchor Trish Regan: Were in very good shape. We have 11 cases. And most of them are getting better very rapidly. I think they will all be better. A little less than two weeks later, he told reporters on the South Lawn that we have it very much under control in this country.
By Feb. 26, the president was publicly dismissing concerns about the lethality of the virus. Its a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for, he said at a White House news conference. And well essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner.
And by Feb. 28, at a rally in South Carolina, Mr. Trump denounced Democrats for their concerns about the virus as their new hoax, after the Russia investigation and his impeachment.
The audio recordings show that as Mr. Trump was absorbing in real time the information he was given by health and national security experts, he made a conscious choice not only to mislead the public but also to actively pressure governors to reopen states before his own government guidelines said they were ready.
By March, Mr. Trump was straightforward with Mr. Woodward about his tactics. I wanted to always play it down, the president said in an audio recording of an interview on March 19. I still like playing it down, because I dont want to create a panic.
This is deadly stuff, the president repeated for emphasis.
Despite the presidents own words in the recordings, the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, told reporters on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had never publicly played down the virus.
The Post and CNN were given advance copies of the book and published details on Wednesday. The New York Times obtained its own copy.
As part of the White Houses effort at damage control, Mr. Trump told reporters that his recorded remarks to Mr. Woodward were vastly different from what he was telling the public because he was worried about frightening people.
We dont want to instill panic, the president said on Wednesday. We dont want to jump up and down and start shouting that we have a problem that is a tremendous problem and scare everybody.
But his acknowledgment that he was fully aware by early February of the perils of the virus only intensified questions about why he was so slow to respond, and why he did not tell Americans the truth to better prepare them for the worst public health crisis in the United States in more than a century.
Mr. Woodwards book also illustrated that as much as Mr. Trump tries to change the subject before the November election to law and order and a call for a crackdown on nationwide protests against police brutality, he is unable to escape scrutiny for his response to a virus that has killed nearly 190,000 people in the United States and upended the lives of millions more.
The president also told Mr. Woodward on March 19 of the virus: Part of it is the mystery. Part it is the viciousness. You know when it attacks it attacks the lungs. And I dont know when people get hit, when they get hit, and now its turning out its not just old people, Bob. He went on: Just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. Its not just old, older. Young people too plenty of young people.
And yet in an interview broadcast by Fox and Friends on Aug. 5, Mr. Trump asserted: If you look at children, children are almost, and I would say almost definitely, but almost immune from this disease. I dont know how you feel about it, but theyve got stronger immune systems than we do somehow for this.
Two days later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that children are at risk for severe Covid-19.
One question swirling in Washington on Wednesday was why Mr. Trump had given Mr. Woodward such extensive access. Mr. Woodward, a longtime editor and reporter at The Washington Post who with Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon, has written books on most of Mr. Nixons successors, many of them critical. Karl Rove, President George W. Bushs former top political adviser, noted on Fox News on Wednesday that nearly every president who has cooperated with Mr. Woodward regretted it.
Current White House officials said that Mr. Trump opened his door to Mr. Woodward in the hope that the eventual book would be positive. Mr. Trump did not speak to Mr. Woodward for his first book on the Trump presidency, Fear, and the president has maintained that it would have turned out better had he participated. Officials also said that Mr. Trump, who has great faith in his ability to sell people on his version of events, was eager to have Mr. Woodwards seal on his time in office.
Although Mr. Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, spoke extensively to Mr. Woodward, White House officials were pointing fingers at one another on Wednesday about who was responsible for giving the journalist such access.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump repeatedly bragged about his limited ban on travel into the United States from China at the end of January, and falsely claimed that almost everyone disagreed with him at the time. Mr. Woodwards book documents that the majority of the presidents advisers urged him to go ahead with the ban during a meeting in the Oval Office before he ultimately did.
When pressed on why he did not do more in February and March, knowing what he knew, Mr. Trump maintained that he had not expected the virus to spread as far and as fast as it did.
You didnt really think it was going to be to the point that it was, he said. All of a sudden the world was infected. The entire world was infected. Everyone was scrambling around looking where to buy face masks and all of the other things.
On Capitol Hill, several Republicans defended the president.
I dont think he needs to go on TV and scream that were all going to die, said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and an ally of the president who White House aides said encouraged the president to participate in the book. But his actions of shutting the economy down were the right actions. I think the tone during that time sort of spoke for itself. People knew it was serious.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said he had not seen the book and directed questions to the White House.
Democrats were quick to slam Mr. Trump for his comments. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said that the book offered damning proof that Donald Trump lied and people died.
Emily Cochrane contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research.
Researchers at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health suggest the case tally in the US does not "capture the total burden of the pandemic because testing has been primarily restricted to individuals with moderate to severe symptoms due to limited test availability."
"We know that in the US, earlier on in the epidemic, the people who were getting tested had moderate to severe symptoms," said Jade Benjamin-Chung, one of the study's co-authors and a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Berkeley Public Health. "And we know that since then, we have a larger number of asymptomatic people who are affecting the total number of infections but may not be included in confirmed case counts."
The findings supports previous statements by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that indicate the number of cases in the country is far greater than thought. In June, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said testing likely missed 90% or so of cases.
Vaccine will be effective or 'it won't get moved along,' surgeon general says
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Jerome Adams, US Surgeon General, pledged in a Senate hearing Wednesday they would get the Covid-19 vaccine if and when one is deemed safe.
"I am ready to roll up my sleeve as soon as they say it's effective," Collins said, when asked if he would get the vaccine in public view.
The two took questions from senators during the Senate Health Committee hearing on vaccines. Adams and Collins assured the senators and the American public that the vaccine process was being led by science, not partisan politics.
"I want the American people to hear me say this: There will be no shortcuts. This vaccine will be safe. It will be effective. Or it won't get moved along," Adams said. "And when a vaccine is either approved or authorized by the FDA, I and my family will be in line to get it."
More tests needed, report says
The US should be performing as many as 200 million Covid-19 tests every month well into next year to have any chance of controlling the pandemic, experts say in a new report.
That number is far beyond the country's current capacity, according to the report released Wednesday by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy.
"The U.S. will likely need very large numbers of all types of Covid-19 tests well into 2021 to contain outbreaks while returning toward normal activity, with a particular need for more screening tests that have very fast turnaround times," the report reads.
Public health experts across the country have for months said testing will play a critical role in helping to reel in the pandemic. Getting enough people tested -- and getting their results back quickly -- will aid contact tracers in tracking down Americans exposed to the virus and help control outbreaks.
Fewer than 30 million tests are currently reported monthly in the country, the report says. As the virus ran unabated across American communities over the summer, some officials said contact tracing was nearly impossible with the lack of testing capacity and the uncontrolled spread.
Adm. Brett Giroir, the testing lead for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has said repeatedly the US cannot test its way out of the pandemic.
Echoing other officials' claims, the report from the team of experts says more testing is vital.
"At present infection rates, a basic screening strategy will require approximately 200 million tests each month for students and staff at the nation's primary and secondary schools and residents and staff at nursing homes for them to open safely and in stages," the team wrote.
But things could turn around. Testing capacity is improving and companies are working to develop fast and cheap on-the-spot tests that -- if distributed widely enough --- could make a difference, the report says.
"By October 2020, based on recent and announced expected market entry, point-of-care tests will rise to at least 70 million tests per month," the team wrote.
By January, the US could reach nearly 200 million tests monthly. And more growth is possible, the experts said.
One major coronavirus vaccine trial hits pause
The stop may be temporary and the illness may not have been caused by the vaccine. The company is making sure before it goes ahead with more testing. The company didn't give details on the illness.
"This is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials," the company said in a statement.
"In large trials, illnesses will happen by chance but must be independently reviewed to check this carefully," the company said.
Collins, the NIH director, said the AstraZeneca hold is due to "spinal cord problem." Collins said the pause is "not at all unprecedented."
Indeed, pausing in vaccine trials is very common, according to Farrar, of the Wellcome Trust, and Dr. Melanie Saville, Director of Vaccine Research and Development at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
"In many ways, I think it shows that the oversight of the trial is working well," Farrar said.
Two other Phase 3 vaccine trials
There are two other vaccine candidates in Phase 3 trials, one developed by Moderna, another by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech. All three have US government funding and backing.
"It has an excellent profile and I consider this vaccine ... near perfect, and which has a near perfect profile," Sahin said.
Pfizer and BioNTech say they plan to provide 100 million doses of their vaccine candidate, BNT162, by the end of the year, and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
AstraZeneca's pause on trials could give the public more confidence that companies are sticking to the safety first rule, despite the push from President Trump to get a vaccine out more quickly.
CNN's Eric Levenson, Allison Main, Lauren Mascarenhas and Amanda Watts contributed to this report.
A relative prays at the Mrtires 19 de Julio Cemetery on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, on Aug. 20. Peru has one of the world's highest per capita coronavirus-related death tolls, according to Johns Hopkins University. Raul Sifuentes/Getty Images hide caption
A relative prays at the Mrtires 19 de Julio Cemetery on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, on Aug. 20. Peru has one of the world's highest per capita coronavirus-related death tolls, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Updated at 6:10 p.m. ET
Peru's government has launched a campaign of emotional shock tactics to persuade its citizens to help stop the coronavirus from causing more death and misery in a country with one of Latin America's biggest outbreaks.
Peruvian President Martn Vizcarra acknowledges the campaign "may seem too harsh." Yet he says: "We are in a war. ... You have to call things as they are."
The "war" that Vizcarra says they are waging is a result of the virus's painful and unexpectedly widespread impact on his country of more than 30 million people. Peru has now registered almost 30,000 coronavirus-related deaths, the largest toll in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico. That is despite the Peruvian government's imposing a nationwide quarantine less than two weeks after detecting the country's first case on March 6.
Peru's per capita COVID-19 mortality rate of 93.28 per 100,000 is higher than that of any other nation except the tiny European republic of San Marino (population: 34,000), according to an analysis by Johns Hopkins University.
The awareness campaign has the slogan "COVID does not kill by itself. Let's not be accomplices." Half-a-minute, heart-wrenching videos are being broadcast on Peruvian TV and shared online in an effort to drive home the case for masks and social distancing.
They show scenes from everyday life people happily cracking open beers on a street corner, men playing a soccer game and a family visiting a grandmother.
After a few seconds, the scene abruptly cuts to the consequences: an elderly relative on a ventilator in a hospital, gasping for breath.
The need for such hard-hitting messages was underscored on Aug. 22 by a tragedy at the Thomas Restobar nightclub in Lima, the capital. The club held an illegal Saturday night party that was raided by the police. There was panic. Thirteen people died in the ensuing stampede. Officials later revealed that 11 of the dead tested positive for the coronavirus.
The scale of the pandemic has left Peruvians feeling "sad and angry," says veteran Lima-based journalist Jacqueline Fowks. It has also ignited debate about what has gone wrong and why.
Fowks cites the fact that 7 out of 10 Peruvian workers are in the informal sector and often "couldn't afford to isolate" because they're dependent on daily earnings.
But she also lays much of the blame on the country's "very poor" health system, which failed to conduct effective testing and contact tracing and, in some areas, collapsed.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Peru had one of the region's strongest economies, thanks to a commodities boom. Yet while average health spending per capita in Latin America and the Caribbean was $1,026 in 2017, Peru spent only $680, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The Peruvian government had plans to increase the health budget but failed to carry these out, says Dr. Godofredo Talavera, president of the Peruvian Medical Federation.
"The government doesn't fulfill its promises," he told NPR, as he stood within a throng of angry doctors and nurses at a recent protest rally outside the Health Ministry. "We don't have oxygen! We don't have ventilators!" he said.
No one disputes that Peru is being hit hard by the pandemic, yet some believe the official numbers for coronavirus infections and deaths are inflated. Peru has mostly relied on rapid testing that measures only antibodies, says Dr. Rubn Mayorga, the World Health Organization's representative in Peru.
Mayorga says these show if someone had the virus at some point: "You can have somebody who has [died of] ... something else, but since you have a COVID-19 antibody test, you will be declared as having died of COVID."
What is not in doubt, however, is the devastating economic impact of the virus on Peru. Its gross domestic product in April was about 40% lower than it was the same month last year, a record decline. The speed with which the economy is shrinking has since slowed, but the country's Economy Ministry estimates output to be down 12% in 2020 overall.
Miguel Jaramillo, an economics expert with the Lima-based think tank Grade, expects parts of the economy to rebound quickly. But he says he is concerned about "the long-term consequences of the loss of human capital a generation that is going to have a very hard time finding a job."
Jaramillo says that four years ago, he was a member of a presidential commission into the reform of social protection. Its findings came to nothing. He hopes the pandemic will now prompt Peru to learn from past mistakes.
"I hope we don't waste this opportunity to ... create a real system of social protection and make a serious effort to formalize the economy," he says.
Ricardo Ramos, a computer shop owner and software developer in Lima, is feeling this breathtakingly steep downward spiral firsthand.
In the last few months, Ramos has lost more than two-thirds of his income. He has already laid off five of his seven employees. He says he loses sleep every night, lying awake and "trying to dream up ways of reinventing the business."
Others are still less fortunate. To see that, you only need visit the poorer parts of Lima, says journalist Fowks: "You will see a lot of people in the streets, walking around asking for money, asking for food, asking for any kind of help."
President Donald Trump admitted to publicly downplaying the real threat of Covid-19 for weeks, even as cities and states shut down and more Americans fell sick, according to excerpts and audio recordings from reporter Bob Woodwards forthcoming book Rage.
I wanted to always play it down, Trump said on March 19. I still like playing it down, because I dont want to create a panic.
In several interviews with Woodward, Trump said he was aware of the threat of the novel coronavirus as early as January, and continued downplaying the true risk the disease presented well into March, when the USs epidemic took off. (CNN published audio clips from the interviews.)
On February 7, Trump told Woodward, This is deadly stuff. He told Woodward that it was five times as deadly as the flu. He acknowledged that the virus goes through air, adding, Thats always tougher than the touch. You know, the touch, you dont have to touch things, right? But the air, you just breathe the air, and thats how its passed.
Later that month, Trump claimed in public that the virus would disappear like a miracle. He also said that you have 15 people [with the coronavirus], and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. In early March, he also publicly compared the coronavirus to the flu, arguing that Covid-19 hadnt killed as many people in the US as the common flu does.
On March 19, Trump acknowledged to Woodward that Covid-19 could hit young people as well as old people. That conversation is when he said he still wanted to downplay the threat.
By then, it was perfectly clear that the virus was a real threat in the US. Cases and deaths were starting to rise in the New York City region in particular. San Francisco was already under lockdown. Trump was holding daily press briefings about the virus. On the same day he told Woodward he downplayed the crisis, he boasted about his administration having everything under control.
Later in March, Trump insisted in public that the US would be able to go back to normal and reopen by Easter Sunday in April. Youll have packed churches all over our country, Trump said on March 24. I think itll be a beautiful time.
Trump told Woodward that his intent was to avoid a panic. But experts say that Trumps response to the virus particularly the magical thinking that colored his public comments fueled the outbreak in America. That fostered a sense of complacency among the public and other leaders, building resistance to necessary public health measures against Covid-19 like social distancing, testing, and masking.
Once states began locking down, Trump pushed them to reopen too early and too quickly to LIBERATE themselves from economic calamity. After his administration suggested people wear masks in public, Trump claimed it was a personal choice, refused to wear a mask himself, and said people wear masks to spite him. He also hyped up unproven and even dangerous treatments, at one point musing about people injecting bleach to treat Covid-19. And he was slow to expand US testing capacity, arguing that more testing made the US look bad by revealing more cases; he instead punted the issue to local, state, and private actors unequipped for the full job.
It begins in many ways, and you could argue it ends in many ways, with the Trump administration, Ashish Jha, the faculty director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, previously told me. If George W. Bush had been president, if John McCain had been president, if Mitt Romney had been president, this would have looked very different.
This continued, based on Woodwards reporting and the presidents admission in audio recordings, well after the threat of Covid-19 was clear even to Trump.
The result: The US is doing about seven times worse than the median developed country, ranking in the bottom 20 percent for Covid-19 deaths among wealthy nations. If America had the same death rate as Canada, 100,000 more Americans would likely be alive today.
Trump, however, has admitted no responsibility for all of this. In his last interview with Woodward in July, Trump said, The virus has nothing to do with me. Its not my fault. China let the damn virus out.
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