The first doses of a swine flu vaccine were available in a little over five months.
ATLANTA ATLANTAWork to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is moving at warp speed, and its not the first time scientists have moved quickly to develop a vaccine to stem a pandemic.
The United States government is pouring billions of dollars into an effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine as quickly as possible. Work on a vaccine began in January. The effort, called Operation Warp Speed, is on track to have a vaccine available to the public by the end of the year or early 2021.
In 2009, the country was in a similar rush, needing a vaccine to protect Americans from the Swine Flu.
In that case, it took a little over five months.
Lets look at why this effort is taking longer.
The virus that swept the world in 2009 was a new strain of the flu. There was already a flu vaccine that scientists adjust each year.
We had a base, says Dr. Walt Orenstein of Emory Vaccine Center. Even though it was a different influenza virus, we have an understanding of what we needed to trigger in terms of an immune response.
Vaccines work by imitating an infection that prompts your bodys immune system to fight back.
Scientists first need to learn what will prompt an immune response to a particular disease.
While they had a head start with the Swine Flu, Dr. Orenstein tells us thats not the case with COVID-19.
We dont understand yet what is and what isnt a protective immune response, says Dr. Orenstein. We have suspicions, but we dont really have clear knowledge.
COVID-19 is caused by a new strain of the coronavirus. Its not the first coronavirus, but the others never resulted in a vaccine.
They were developing vaccines but never got to licensure and use, says Dr. Orenstein.
Work on a Swine Flu vaccine began in late April 2009. The first doses of the swine flu vaccine were given on October 5th as the U.S. was experiencing a second wave of the virus. The vaccine was not widely available until November of that year.
The World Health Organization declared an end to the pandemic the following August.
By then, the virus had taken at least 100-thousand lives worldwide.
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Australia would have to negotiate through global health organisations to ensure supply, she said. "Supply of any vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 in Australia is being coordinated by international health-based bodies (the World Health Organisation, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and vaccine alliance Gavi). Interaction with national governments, including Australia, are held at the global level."
Science and technology company Merck has also been working with the Oxford group on large-scale manufacturing of the product, but local managing director of Merck Life Sciences Rebecca Lee said the Australian arm of the business did not engage in vaccine production.
"Merck does not undertake vaccine manufacturing in Australia, however, our Life Science business is providing our expertise and resources to support vaccine research currently underway," she said.
In June AstraZeneca reached a deal with Europe's vaccine alliance to supply 400 million doses at no profit.
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The Australian government told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald last week it was talking to a range of vaccine manufacturers to discuss supply.
Australian listed biotech CSL, which is working with the University of Queensland on its vaccine trials, said the results from the Oxford study were "very encouraging" because they show vaccines that target the coronavirus' "spike proteins" are technically feasible.
CSL's vaccine company Seqirus is one of the largest flu vaccine manufacturers in the world. The $132 billion biotech's experience in making vaccines at scale has meant CSL is a leading prospect for any local vaccine production. The biotech's vice-president of recombinant product development, Anthony Stowers, said the company's priority was working with UQ on its vaccine project. However, it was keeping open discussions with other developers and projects, he said.
"In parallel to our work with UQ, we are exploring ways to support the manufacture of other vaccines under development and will keep discussions open."
Director of Intellectual Property at UTS faculty of law Professor Natalie Stoianoff said even if Australia had the capacity to manufacture the Oxford vaccine, there would be potentially complex licensing deals with the patent holders.
"Australia does have a number of companies that can do vaccine manufacturing. They might take a licence to do it and sell it here exclusively...the difficulty that might arise is if AstraZeneca doesn't want to licence other manufacturers," she said.
Get our Coronavirus Update newsletter for the day's crucial developments and the numbers you need to know. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald's newsletter here and The Age's here.
Emma is the small business reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald based in Melbourne.
Public health officials in at least two Colorado counties warn they may have to roll back some aspects of their reopening as novel coronavirus infections continue to rise in the state.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment notified Larimer and Jefferson counties that theyre at risk of losing their variances, which allow local governments to loosen restrictions on certain events and businesses after they show progress in curtailing the spread of COVID-19.
We must take swift, strategic action now to help keep our cases below the permitted threshold, so we do not have to take giant steps backwards in our countys recovery efforts, said Dr. Mark Johnson, executive director for Jefferson County Public Health, in a statement.
As a result, Jefferson County Public Health on Monday issued a new order requiring venues to receive approval from the agency before holding events with more than one designated activity, and which would have more than 100 people inside or 175 people outside, according to a news release.
The order, which goes into effect at 5 p.m. Monday, comes weeks after Jefferson County Public Health said Bandimere Speedway violated social-distancing requirements at a July 4 event. A ruling in the court case stemming from that dispute is expected Tuesday morning.
Under its variance, Jefferson County has a limit of 580 new cases during a two-week period. The county reported 486 cases between July 5 and July 18, according to the news release.
Jeffcos state variance, which was approved in June, affects the number of people allowed to gather, including in gyms, malls, breweries and houses of worship.
Larimer Countys variance was approved in May and covers the opening of gyms, theaters, bowling alleys, pools and other businesses. The variance will be rescinded if Larimer County confirms more than 25 new cases, or 10% of individuals tested on three separate days, during a two-week period.
The increase in COVID-19 cases in Larimer County is partly attributed to large gatherings during the July 4 weekend, according to a news release.
I know that we will regroup and reverse this uptick, said Tom Gonzales, Larimer County public health director, in a statement. But in order to do that, we must all take this seriously and be diligent with handwashing, face coverings and social distancing. We must slow our case count to keep our businesses open.
The county has two weeks to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus or its variance could be modified or revoked, according to the news release.
Join our Facebook group for the latest updates on coronavirus in Colorado.
Dublin, July 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "COVID-19 Diagnostics (PCR Testing, Antibody Testing) and Therapy (Immunotherapy, Vaccines, Antiviral, Cell-based, Plasma therapy) Market Opportunity Assessment and Global Forecast to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The healthcare systems have been struggling to manage the COVID-19 patient population globally and hence the medical researchers are racing to find a solution to the pandemic. According to this latest publication, the leading areas of research include antibodies, protein-based vaccines, antiviral, drug repurposes, RNA-based vaccines, non-replicating viral vectors, and cell-based therapies. While more than 50% of the therapies being developed are in the preclinical stage, government initiatives, such as Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by FDA, is expected to accelerate the research and development (R&D) process.
Based on healthcare options, the COVID-19 impact assessment is analyzed into diagnostics and treatments areas. The market opportunity of these products is estimated to reach USD 13.9 billion in 2025. The diagnostics segment is further divided into PCR-based testing and antibody testing. The treatment area is segmented into vaccines, immunotherapies, anti-virals, cell-based therapies, and other therapies. Vaccines and anti-virals are the most explored treatment options currently being investigated by researchers worldwide.
Geographically, North America has been the most affected region, primarily attributed to the U.S. being the most affected country having the most number of confirmed cases as well as deaths, globally. Other most affected nations include the U.K., Spain, France, Italy, Brazil, Germany, and India among others. Further, almost all the affected nations have experienced rapid economic decline leading GDP decline, an increase in unemployment rates, and an increase in the inflation rates.
To overcome the situation, governments have imposed restriction on people movement as well as invested resources towards dealing with crisis and supporting all research and medical efforts towards developing a treatment option. The U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, China, and India are some of the key nations leading the research and production efforts geared towards developing COVID-19 medication.
Some of the key players engaged in COVID-19 diagnostics and treatment development include Roche Holding AG (Switzerland), Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (U.S.), Abbott Laboratories (U.S.), Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), AbbVie Corporation (U.S.), Gilead Sciences, Inc. (U.S.), Eli Lilly and Company (U.S.), Moderna, Inc. (U.S.), Novavax, Inc. (U.S.), Medicago, Inc. (U.S.), Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (U.S.), GlaxoSmithKline (U.K.), Sanofi S.A. (France), Johnson & Johnson (U.S.), Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. (U.S.), AstraZeneca Plc (U.K.), Pfizer, Inc. (U.S.), CTI Biopharma Corporation (U.S.), OncoImmune, Inc. (U.S.), Athersys, Inc. (U.S.), Celularity, Inc. (U.S.), Pluristem Therapeutics (Israel), and Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company Ltd (Japan), among others.
Key Topics Covered:
1. Introduction
2. Research Methodology
3. Coronavirus: Epidemiology3.1. About Coronavirus3.2. Transmission & Symptoms3.3. Prevention3.4. Epidemiology
4. Executive Summary4.1. Introduction4.2. Global Economic Impact4.3. COVID-19 Response4.4. COVID-19 Research Pipeline4.5. COVID-19 Pipeline Development Challenges4.6. Key Companies
5. Covid-19: Impact on Healthcare Industry5.1. Introduction5.2. Key Trends & Impact on Healthcare Subsegments5.3. Diagnostics5.3.1. PCR / Rapid Antigen Testing / Nucleic Acid-Based Tests5.3.1.1. Advantages Offered by PCR Testing in COVID -19 Diagnosis5.3.1.2. Restraints5.3.1.3. Key Companies5.3.2. Antibody Testing / Serological Testing5.3.2.1. Advantages Over Molecular Tests5.3.2.2. Use of Antibody Testing for Herd Immunity Analysis and Easing Lock-Down5.3.2.3. Restraints5.3.2.4. Key Companies5.4. Therapies5.4.1. Vaccines5.4.2. Immunotherapies (Antibodies)5.4.2.1. Monoclonal Antibody5.4.2.2. T-Cell Therapy5.4.2.3. Potential Game Changers: Antibodies5.4.2.3.1. Ilaris (Canakinumab)5.4.2.3.2. Sylvan (Siltuximab)5.4.2.3.3. Lenzilumab5.4.2.3.4. Ultomiris (Ravulizumab-CWVZ)5.4.2.3.5. Tocilizumab5.4.3. Antivirals5.4.3.1. Potential Game Changers5.4.3.1.1. Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)5.4.3.1.2. Remdesivir5.4.4. Cell-Based Therapies5.4.5. Other Therapies5.4.5.1. Plasma Therapy5.4.5.2. Devices
6. Geography Impact Assessment6.1. Introduction6.1.1. Global Virtual Fund-Raising Event to Raise USD 8 Billion for Coronavirus Vaccine6.2. North America6.2.1. COVID-19 Impact on the U.S. Economy6.2.2. Significant R&D Investment by the U.S. Government for COVID-19 Treatment6.2.3. High Dependence on the U.S. on Drugs Import Expected to Create Drug Shortages6.2.4. Investments by Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Canadian Government6.2.5. Canada Announced Investment of USD 192 Million on Vaccine Development as Well as Partnering with Industry and Academics6.2.6. Creation of SARS-COV2 Vaccine-Bank by Researchers in Canada6.3. Europe6.3.1. Economic Impact of COVID-19: European Nations6.3.2. European Firms to Lead the COVID-19 Treatment Researches6.3.3. U.K. at Forefront in Drug Development Researches to Fight Covid-196.3.4. Partnership of European Pharmaceutical Giants - Sanofi and GSK To Develop COVID-19 Vaccine6.3.5. German Vaccine Became the First European MRNA Vaccine to Enter Human Testing6.3.6. Growing Interest of Billionaire in German Drug Development for COVID-196.4. APAC6.4.1. Economic Impact of COVID-19: APAC6.4.2. Asian Countries Leading the Diagnostics Test Commercialization6.4.3. India In Favourable Position for Future Production Of COVID-19 Vaccine6.4.4. Chinese Lockdown to Negatively Impact the Drugs Supply Chain6.5. Rest of the World6.5.1. Government Initiatives to Support COVID-19 Medicine Research & Other Drug Supply in Brazil6.5.2. Saudi Arabia to Invest USD 2 Billion in Coronavirus Vaccine Development6.5.3. Government Initiatives to Support Rapid Development of COVID-19 Therapy in South Africa
7. Competitive Landscape7.1. Introduction7.2. Agreements/Deals/Partnerships/Collaborations/Joint Ventures7.3. R&D Updates7.4. Auhrozation / Approvals7.5. Donations Made7.6. Funding Received7.7. Capacity Expansion7.8. Other Growth Strategies
8. Company Updates8.1. Company Segmentation8.2. Diagnostic Companies8.3. Antivirals8.4. Vaccine Developers8.5. Immunotherapy Firms8.6. Cell-Based Therapy8.7. Plasma Therapy
Companies Mentioned
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/cvgzn9
Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
This spring, as countries around the world told people to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, doctors in neonatal intensive care units were noticing something strange: Premature births were falling, in some cases drastically.
It started with doctors in Ireland and Denmark. Each team, unaware of the others work, crunched the numbers from its own region or country and found that during the lockdowns, premature births especially the earliest, most dangerous cases had plummeted. When they shared their findings, they heard similar anecdotal reports from other countries.
They dont know what caused the drop in premature births, and can only speculate as to the factors in lockdown that might have contributed. But further research might help doctors, scientists and parents-to-be understand the causes of premature birth and ways to prevent it, which have been elusive until now. Their studies are not yet peer reviewed, and have been posted only on preprint servers. In some cases the changes amounted to only a few missing babies per hospital. But they represented significant reductions from the norm, and some experts in premature birth think the research is worthy of additional investigation.
These results are compelling, said Dr. Denise Jamieson, an obstetrician at Emory Universitys School of Medicine in Atlanta.
About one in 10 U.S. babies is born early. Pregnancy usually lasts about 40 weeks, and any delivery before 37 weeks is considered preterm. The costs to children and their families financially, emotionally and in long-term health effects can be great. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, babies born premature, especially before 32 weeks, are at higher risk of vision and hearing problems, cerebral palsy and death.
The best way to avoid these costs would be to prevent early births in the first place, said Dr. Roy Philip, a neonatologist at University Maternity Hospital Limerick in Ireland.
Dr. Philip had been vacationing abroad when his country entered lockdown on March 12, and he noticed something unusual when he returned to work in late March. He asked why there had been no orders while he was gone for the breast milk-based fortifier that doctors feed to the hospitals tiniest preemies. The hospitals staff said that there had been no need, because none of these babies had been born all month.
Intrigued, Dr. Philip and his colleagues compared the hospitals births so far in 2020 with births between January and April in every year since 2001 more than 30,000 in all. They looked at birth weights, a useful proxy for very premature birth.
Initially I thought, There is some mistake in the numbers, Dr. Philip said.
Over the past two decades, babies under 3.3 pounds, classified as very low birth weight, accounted for about eight out of every thousand live births in the hospital, which serves a region of 473,000 people. In 2020, the rate was about a quarter of that. The very tiniest infants, those under 2.2 pounds and considered extremely low birth weight, usually make up three per thousand births. There should have been at least a few born that spring but there had been none.
The study period went through the end of April. By the end of June, with the national lockdown easing, Dr. Philip said there had still been very few early preemies born in his hospital. In two decades, he said, he had never seen anything like these numbers.
While the Irish team was digging into its data, researchers in Denmark were doing the same thing, driven by curiosity over a nearly empty NICU. Dr. Michael Christiansen of the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen and his colleagues used newborn screening data to compare births nationwide during the strictest lockdown period, March 12 to April 14, with births during the same period in the previous five years. The data set included more than 31,000 infants.
The researchers found that during the lockdown, the rate of babies born before 28 weeks had dropped by a startling 90 percent.
Anecdotes from doctors at other hospitals around the world suggest the phenomenon may have been widespread, though not universal.
Dr. Belal Alshaikh, a neonatologist at the University of Calgary in Alberta, said premature births across Calgary dropped by nearly half during the lockdown. The change was across the board, though it seemed more pronounced in the earliest babies, he said.
At Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Dr. Irwin Reiss, a neonatologist, saw a smaller drop-off in premature births.
At Mercy Hospital for Women outside Melbourne, Australia, there were so few premature babies that administrators asked Dr. Dan Casalaz, the hospitals director of pediatrics, to figure out what was going on.
In the United States, Dr. Stephen Patrick, a neonatologist at Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, estimated there were about 20 percent fewer NICU babies at his hospital than usual in March. Although some sick full-term babies would stay in the NICU, Dr. Patrick said preterm babies usually made up most of the patients, and the drop-off seemed to have been driven by missing preemies.
When Dr. Patrick shared his observation on Twitter, some U.S. doctors shared similar stories. Others said their NICUs were as busy as ever. Some groups in other countries have said they didnt see a change, either.
If lockdowns prevented early births in certain places but not others, that information could help reveal causes of premature birth. The researchers speculated about potential factors.
One could be rest. By staying home, some pregnant women may have experienced less stress from work and commuting, gotten more sleep and received more support from their families, the researchers said.
Women staying at home also could have avoided infections in general, not just the new coronavirus. Some viruses, such as influenza, can raise the odds of premature birth.
Air pollution, which has been linked to some early births, has also dropped during lockdowns as cars stayed off the roads.
Dr. Jamieson said the observations were surprising because she would have expected to see more preterm births during the stress of the pandemic, not less.
It seems like we have experienced tremendous stress in the U.S. due to Covid, she said.
But all pregnant women may not have experienced the lockdowns in the same way, she said, as different countries have different social safety nets in general, and the stress of unemployment and financial insecurity may have affected communities unevenly.
Some later premature births also might have been avoided during lockdowns simply because doctors werent inducing mothers for reasons like high blood pressure, Dr. Jamieson said. But that wouldnt explain a change in very early preterm births, as the Danish and Irish authors found.
The causes of preterm birth have been elusive for decades, and ways to prevent preterm births have been largely unsuccessful, Dr. Jamieson said. According to the C.D.C., premature births in the United States rose in 2018 for the fourth straight year. White women had about a 9 percent risk of premature birth in 2018, while African-American womens risk was 14 percent.
If the trends in the data are confirmed, the pandemic and lockdowns could be something like a natural experiment that might help researchers understand why premature birth happens and how to avoid it. Maybe some maternity leave should start before a mothers due date, for example.
The Danish and Irish researchers have now teamed up and are building an international group of collaborators to study how Covid lockdowns affected early births.
For years, nothing has advanced in this very important area, Dr. Christiansen said, and it seems it took a virus attack to help us get on track.
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In our state, coronavirus cases continue to rise, with 920 new confirmed cases recorded Saturday. Elsewhere, Texas and Florida are struggling to keep up as new cases overwhelm emergency rooms.
Throughout Sunday, on this page, well be posting Seattle Times journalists updates on the outbreak and its effects on the Seattle area, the Pacific Northwest and the world. Updates from Saturday can be found here, and all our coronavirus coverage can be found here.
A total of 920 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Washington on Sunday, bringing the state's total to 46,946. The Washington State Department of Health also reported three additional deaths. In Washington, 1,447 people have now died from the disease.
In King County, 13,153 cases and 635 deaths have been reported, an increase of 200 cases and two deaths from the day before.
The data reported Sunday was updated as of 11:59 p.m. Saturday.
A total of 809,339 tests have been conducted in the state, with 5.8% of them coming back positive.
Seattle Times staff
More than 6 million people enrolled in food stamps in the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic, an unprecedented expansion that is likely to continue as more jobless people deplete their savings and billions in unemployment aid expires this month.
From February to May, the program grew by 17%, about three times faster than in any previous three months. Among the 42 states for which The New York Times collected data, caseloads grew in all but one.
Read more from the New York Times.
The New York Times
President Donald Trump declined to say whether he will accept the results of the November election, claiming without evidence that mail-in voting due to the coronavirus pandemic could rig the outcome.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, the president also continued to play down the severity of the coronavirus crisis in the country, declined to say whether he is offended by the Confederate flag and dismissed polls showing him trailing former vice president Joe Biden by a significant margin.
Several states switched to primarily vote-by-mail primaries earlier this year, and the U.S. Postal Service is bracing for an onslaught of mail-in ballots this fall as states and cities seek alternatives to in-person voting.
In the Fox News Sunday interview, Wallace asked Trump whether he considers himself a gracious loser. Trump replied that he doesnt like to lose, then added: It depends. I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election. I really do. Trumps comment echoed unfounded claims he has made in recent weeks that mail-in voting is susceptible to widespread fraud. Read the full story here.
The Washington Post
President Donald Trump sought to draw a hard line on the coronavirus relief bill Sunday, saying it must include a payroll tax cut and liability protections for businesses, as lawmakers prepare to plunge into negotiations over unemployment benefits and other key provisions in coming days.
I would consider not signing it if we dont have a payroll tax cut, Trump said in an interview on Fox News Sunday. Democrats strongly oppose a payroll tax cut, and some Republicans have been cool to it, but Trump said a lot of Republicans like it.
Trumps comments come as Senate Republicans are exploring new limits on emergency unemployment benefits for people who were high earners before losing their jobs, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of internal planning.
If the White House and Senate GOP priorities make it into the bill, the legislation would effectively cut taxes for people who have jobs while cutting benefits for the unemployed. Read the full story for more details about the $1 trillion-plus stimulus proposal, which may extend federal unemployment benefits for a limited period of time.
The Washington Post
With coronavirus cases rising across the country and the U.S. death toll topping 137,000, President Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed concerns about the spike in infections, telling Fox News that many of those cases shouldnt even be cases.
Many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day, the president told Fox News host Chris Wallace in an interview. They have the sniffles and we put it down as a test.
Trumps remarks came after another week of grim data highlighting the uncontrolled spread of the virus. Infections rose in states from every region of the country, with more than a dozen states on Saturday reaching record highs in their seven-day averages for new daily cases.
Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Kentucky reported new single-day case records on Saturday, while states from Vermont to North Dakota to Oregon showed significant increases in their weekly averages, according to tracking by The Washington Post. Read the full story here.
The Washington Post
NFL training camps are still on schedule to start July 28 for most teams, with rookies set to report this week.
But much about how camps and the preseason will be conducted including how COVID-19 testing will work and whether there will be exhibition games remains unsettled. And on Sunday morning, many of the NFLs top players including Seahawks Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner and Bruce Irvin took to Twitter to state their concerns about camps starting with so much remaining uncertain.
Many, including Wilsons, came with the hashtag #WeWantToPlay, making it clear it was part of a coordinated effort. Tweeted Wilson: I am concerned. My wife is pregnant.@NFLTraining camp is about to start. And theres still No Clear Plan on Player Health & Family Safety. We want to play football but we also want to protect our loved ones.#WeWantToPlay.
Read the full story about questions other Seahawks players hope will be cleared up before they're set to report to training camps. Prominent players from several other teams also took to social media on Sunday to express concerns, which you can read about in another story here.
Bob Condotta
AUSTIN, Texas A health official on the Texas Gulf Coast said 85 infants have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Corpus Christi Nueces County Public Health Director Annette Rodriguez said Friday that the 85 infants are each younger than 1, but offered no other details, including how the children are suspected to have become infected.
These babies have not even had their first birthday yet. Please help us to stop the spread of this disease by staying home except for necessary trips, socially distancing and wearing masks in public, Rodriguez said during a public health update in Corpus Christi.
Texas health officials reported more than 10,000 new cases for a fifth consecutive day on Saturday and said 130 more people have died due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, bringing the number of reported cases to 317,730 and the number of deaths to 3,865. Read the full story here.
The Associated Press
It stands as the biggest economic rescue in U.S. history, the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill swiftly approved by Congress in the spring. And its painfully clear now, as the pandemic worsens, it was only the start.
With COVID-19 cases hitting alarming new highs and the death roll rising, the pandemics devastating cycle is happening all over again, leaving Congress little choice but to engineer another costly rescue. Businesses are shutting down, schools cannot fully reopen and jobs are disappearing, all while federal emergency aid expires. Without a successful federal plan to control the outbreak, Congress heads back to work with no endgame to the crisis in sight.
Its not going to magically disappear, said a somber Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., during a visit to a hospital in his home state to thank front-line workers.
Lawmakers return Monday to Washington to try to pull the country back from the looming COVID-19 cliff. While the White House prefers to outsource much of the decision-making on virus testing and prevention to the states, the absence of a federal intervention has forced the House and Senate to try to draft another assistance package. Read the full story about the $1 trillion-plus stimulus proposal.
The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO Gregory Arnold walked into the wardens office April 1 as the novel coronavirus ripped through one of the largest immigration detention centers in the United States. Waiting with about 40 guards to begin his shift, he heard a captain say face masks were prohibited.
Incredulous, he and a guard who recently gave birth wanted to hear it from the boss. Arnold told Warden Christopher LaRose that he was 60 years old and lived with an asthmatic son.
Well, you cant wear the mask because we dont want to scare the employees and we dont want to scare the inmates and detainees, Arnold recalls the warden saying.
In the weeks that followed, Otay Mesa Detention Center would see the first big outbreak at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements 221 detention centers. The origins of the outbreak are uncertain, but accounts of workers and detainees reveal shortcomings in how the private company that manages the center handled the disease: There was an early absence of facial coverings, and a lack of cleaning supplies. Symptomatic detainees were mixed with others. Read more about the outbreak here.
The Associated Press
When the coronavirus forced Washington school buildings to close in March, the changes to education were swift and complete. Class went online. Parents became de facto teachers. Lesson plans were replaced by a focus on student well-being and safety.
The transformation left many wondering: Why havent we made changes overnight or even over decades so education is truly equitable for all children?
Puget Sound education leaders, especially people of color who have long known schools set up Black and brown children for failure, say its past time to reimagine how education could better serve their communities.
But they see a dawning awareness among mostly white leaders that the countrys education system is rife with racism and inequity. The inequities are structural the training and diversity of teachers, what children are taught and how they are disciplined and are all rooted in methods that harm Black and Latino students more than their peers and fail to help them succeed.
The pairing of a pandemic that changed the basic structure of school indeed, no ones certain whether or how schools will reopen in just a few weeks with a simultaneous conscience-raising social movement has opened a window where radical change is possible. Read more here about what this change could look like.
Hannah Furfaro and Katherine Long
Its always the personal stories that bring events to life. So how are future generations going to learn about the pandemic of 2020? The statistics and charts show the catastrophic figures, but, after a while, the numbers seem to meld into each other.
Now, theSeattle Public Library,along with the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), theWashington State Historical Societyin Tacoma and the Southwest Seattle Historical SocietysLog House Museumare among those asking you to send in your COVID-19 stories and photos to chronicle the pandemics effects on ordinary life.
For now, at least, that means through their websites. At some later date, when its possible, your contributions might be accepted in person.
We are living in this historic moment, and we need to try and capture that. I was surprised at how thoughtful the submissions were, says Maggie Wetherbee, head of collections for the Historical Society museum in Tacoma. Read more about the project here.
Erik Lacitis
Tom Fox, owner of Martini Cleaners in Burien, has doubts about the future of business casual.
Dress shirts, slacks and other office garb made up more than half of Foxs dry cleaning, pressing and tailoring business before the pandemic. Today, he sees only a fraction of that, thanks largely to COVID-related work-from-home regimens that have left office workers everywhere in sweatpants and T-shirts.
Like many businesses, Fox has limped along by cutting staff hours and thinks he can stay open at least through the end of year. But he has no idea whether that will be long enough for business casual to return to business as usual.
Anxieties like these are now standard operating procedure for business owners and managers, who know they face months of uncertainty until a vaccine or other treatment is widely available. That leaves them in constant fear of a COVID-19 outbreak among staff or customers, or another statewide lockdown. Read the full story here.
Paul Roberts
April Berg, a Democrat and Everett school board member, was trying to get elected to the Legislature without being in the same room as her campaign manager. COVID-19 and social-distance guidelines had kept them apart.
Berg, vying for a 44th Districtopen seatin the House, was in Mill Creek. Katharine Gillen, just graduated from Whitman College, lived in Walla Walla. They were spending a lot of time on the phone and emailing, when Berg had an idea: Gillen could move in with Berg's family. If they lived together, they could be in the same bubble, social distancing with outsiders but not each other.
Thats not to say all the challenges of the campaign are gone as Washingtons Aug. 4 primary looms, with ballots now arriving at voters homes. The novel coronavirus pandemic has made almost every candidates life more difficult but also sparked innovation as many campaigns shift, like everything else these days, online. Read more about candidates' creative campaign strategies here.
Nina Shapiro
Teaching changed almost instantly due to COVID-19. Class went online. Parents became de facto teachers. Lesson plans were replaced by a focus on student well-being and safety. So why haven't we made changes overnight or even over decades so education is truly equitable for all children? Education Lab explores what nearly a dozen education experts said theyd like to see change as schools reopen.
How do you campaign during COVID-19? The novel coronavirus pandemic has made almost every candidates life more difficult but also sparked innovation as many campaigns shift, like everything else these days, online. Washingtons Aug. 4 primary looms, with ballots now arriving at voters homes.
If the COVID-19 shutdown didnt kill your business, trying to reopen might. Many businesses are bracing for months of lower revenue from health restrictions, consumer uncertainties, and the complicated economic ripple effects of stay-at-home and other social changes during the pandemic.
Older children can spread the coronavirus just as much as adults, a new study found. In theheated debate over reopening schools, one burning question has been whether and how efficiently children can spread thecoronavirusto others. A large new study from South Korea offers an answer: Children younger than age 10 transmit to others much less often than adults do, but the risk is not zero. And those between the ages of 10-19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults do.
The Trump administration is trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcomingcoronavirusrelief bill, The Washington Post reported Saturday. The administration is also trying to block billions of dollars that GOP senators want to allocate for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and billions more for the Pentagon and State Department to address the pandemic at home and abroad, according to people familiar with the talks.
Police in Barcelona closed down access to a large area of the citys beaches on Saturday after too many sunbathers ignored authorities request to stay at home amid a new wave of surging coronavirus infections.
How will future generations remember what we're all going through? TheSeattle Public Library,along with the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), theWashington State Historical Societyin Tacoma and the Southwest Seattle Historical SocietysLog House Museumare among those asking you to send in your COVID-19 stories and photos to chronicle the pandemics effects on ordinary life. Find out more on how to participate.
Medical professionals from the U.S. Navy were deployed Sunday to aid hospitals in four cities across southern Texas and the Rio Grande Valley, according to Gov. Greg Abbott's office, as nearly half the state's counties have recently been designated "red zones" by the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Early on in the pandemic, hot spots were mainly tied to outbreaks in enclosed spaces, like meatpacking plants and nursing homes. Health experts are increasingly seeing small outbreaks in the community from families and friends gathering to people congregating at summer tourist destinations.
Five U.S. Navy teams were sent to four locations across Texass southern region: Harlingen, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and Rio Grande City.
"The support from our federal partners is crucial in our work to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our communities throughout Texas," Abbott said in a written statement.
As the state continues to see record-high numbers of people hospitalized with the virus, local hospitals particularly the Rio Grande Valley and the Coastal Bend are being pushed to their limit because of the rapid spread of the coronavirus in recent weeks.
Ambulance operators in the Rio Grande Valley area described wait times of up to 10 hours to deliver patients to packed emergency rooms. Doctors and nurses are working extra shifts and have had to label and save their face masks for reuse.
As of Saturday, the four-county region that includes Harlingen had just 24 ICU beds available for a population of about 1.4 million people, according to the latest state data.
The explosion of new coronavirus tests that could help to end the pandemic Nature.com
To speed turnaround times, Dr. Collins said, health officials are pushing for more point-of-care testing on the spot tests designed to be done rapidly and easily, without the need for specialized laboratory equipment or personnel.
Some of these tests could be completed in a doctors office, or perhaps even at home, in under an hour. Simple, speedy tests could prove to be a boon for institutions and communities that care for large numbers of vulnerable people, such as nursing homes. They could also help health workers bring testing supplies to populations that have often been denied access to testing and reliable health care, including those marginalized by race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status.
A handful of point-of-care tests have been greenlighted for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration.
We need to invest a lot of money, and the government is willing to do so, in scaling those up, Dr. Collins said on Sunday. Thats the kind of thing that I personally, along with many others in other parts of the government, are working on night and day to try to do a better job of.
But Dr. Prosper pointed out that speed often comes at the price of accuracy an issue that has plagued some point-of-care tests in the past. Though rapid testing can still play a substantial role in mitigating the spread of the coronavirus, researchers will need to remain wary of these trade-offs, she said.
As testing efforts continue to ramp up, Dr. Martinez cautioned that the nation will need to maintain its vigilance for some time yet. The effects of social distancing are reversible, she said. If people give up on those strategies too soon, Its likely that we will observe a third or a fourth peak. And that could have big implications.
In an interview on Sunday with CBSs Face the Nation, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, reiterated the potentially devastating consequences of failing to rein in the virus, noting spikes in cases in states like California, Texas, Arizona and Florida. He warned that other states, like Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, could follow similar patterns.
It was still early in Californias coronavirus outbreak when Lina Ili started feeling the symptoms that would soon turn her familys life upside down.
Coughing and running a fever, she holed up inside the bedroom of her Long Beach home for weeks. But breathing grew increasingly difficult, Ili, 46, said. You couldnt even lie down because it felt like a heaviness on your chest.
On April 5, her husband, Aoga Ili Jr., decided it was time to take her to the hospital, where she tested positive for COVID-19.
The next day, her 22-year-old son, Taylor, was hospitalized. A few days later, her husband was too. In a matter of days, three of the five members of their household were put in the intensive care unit. Lina had it worst and spent four days on a ventilator.
I wouldnt wish it upon my worst enemy, she said. Just as simple a thing as to breathe, I dont take it for granted anymore.
The Ilis, whose parents came from Samoa more than 40 years ago, are among nearly 1,400 Californians with ancestry in Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and other Pacific islands who have been infected with the coronavirus, which is sickening and killing members of the small but close-knit community in disproportionate numbers.
In L.A. County, Pacific Islanders suffer the highest infection rate of any racial or ethnic group, more than 2,500 per 100,000 residents. Thats six times higher than for white people, five times higher than for Black people and three times higher than for Latinos, according to county health demographic data that exclude Long Beach and Pasadena, which have their own health departments.
Health experts say the reasons are similar to why Black people and Latinos are falling ill and dying at higher rates: reduced access to healthcare; higher levels of poverty; crowded housing; multigenerational households that make it more difficult to physically distance or quarantine; and higher rates of underlying health conditions that increase risk for severe illness from COVID-19, such as heart and lung disease, asthma and diabetes. Many Pacific Islanders also work in frontline jobs, such as food service, hospitality and healthcare, where they are more likely to contract the virus and bring it home.
But community leaders say there are other factors that are unique to the culture of Pacific Islanders, and they say that public health officials have failed to adequately address them.
Among these factors are cultural traditions that center on large family gatherings, in-person church services, funerals and birthday celebrations that, in some cases, have continued despite orders to maintain social distance. Leaders in the Pacific Islander community say also that a cultural stigma associated with a positive diagnosis may be facilitating the spread of the virus.
The shame factor of it is real, said Dr. Raynald Samoa, an endocrinologist at City of Hope in Duarte who battled COVID-19 himself. People are not getting their families tested. Theyre not speaking out, theyre not getting identified because theyre afraid that theyre going to have to stay home from work or that its going to negatively impact their family.
Samoa has helped raise awareness by speaking about his experience in Facebook videos and other appearances and urging Pacific Islanders to take the virus seriously and heed health guidelines.
Samoa faulted health officials for taking no proactive measures to reduce rates of transmission and infection in Pacific Islander communities.
I wish there were things in place, but there was nothing, Samoa said. That left it to Pacific Islander groups to assemble their own COVID-19 response team, devise their own strategy and messaging based on past work with chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer, and push the county to use it.
California is home to nearly 317,000 Pacific Islanders, and more than 55,000 of them reside in Los Angeles County, according to census data that include people who identify as multiracial, which is common in the community.
Statewide, Pacific Islanders have experienced infections and deaths at higher rates than most other groups, but the disparities arent as pronounced as they are in L.A. County. Their statewide infection rate is three times higher than that of white Californians, and 20% higher than Latinos infection rate, while their death rate is nearly 60% higher than that of white people but lower than that of Black residents.
Although numbers remain small overall California has reported 35 deaths and 1,389 confirmed cases among Pacific Islanders as of July 15 they reveal an outsize toll on a community that already experiences higher rates of underlying health conditions. Sixteen Pacific Islander residents in L.A. County have died, for a rate of 83 per 100,000 people twice as high as white and Latino county residents.
Health officials say they are not surprised by the high rates of illness.
Sadly, these disparities are consistent with other health disparities we see and reflect deeply rooted and pervasive inequities in our society that are in part fueled by racism, xenophobia, and a lack of opportunities and resources to support optimal health, Natalie Jimenez, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County Department of Public Health, said in an email.
The county Health Department has examined statistics on Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders from the beginning of the COVID epidemic but did not initially report them to protect confidentiality due to the low numbers of reported cases and deaths, Jimenez said.
Local health officials began releasing data on infections and deaths among Pacific Islanders at the urging of community groups who saw a lack of targeted response. Pacific Islander leaders began pushing officials, county by county, to release data on their community rather than lumping them together with Asians.
In L.A. County, health officials began publishing those numbers in late April, two days after Pacific Islander groups requested it in a Zoom meeting.
Jimenez, the department spokeswoman, said the reason we began publishing the disaggregated data was that, based on the communitys input and the unprecedented threat posed by the COVID epidemic, we felt that the benefits outweighed the risks of posting the statistics.
Those statistics have been crucial for getting people in the community to take the threat seriously, said Alisi Tulua, a program manager with the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, which pushed for their release. Weve been using the data as our biggest, most convincing talking point.
With the partial reopening and recent surge in cases, however, community groups and faith leaders fear theyll only see the trend compounded as waves of the virus spread through their families and churches.
Our community is back to work and more exposed. So its going to be twice as hard to quarantine and try to get tested, Tulua said. While its flattening for other people, its still climbing in our community. If we bring it home, maybe were OK, but our parents will suffer. And if were not careful, were going to kill off a whole generation of our people.
Pastor Kitione Tuitupou, left, livestreams services from inside First United Methodist Church of Bellflower, whose congregation of about 100 is majority Tongan.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Jimenez said the L.A. County Health Department has been working with Pacific Islander groups for a few months to create culturally relevant and sensitive materials that resonate with the community. That includes tailored outreach with educational graphics that will be shared on social media in the Tongan, Samoan, Chamorro and Marshallese languages, public service announcement videos featuring Tongan, Samoan and Chamorro community leaders and photos of Pacific Islander families wearing masks. Those materials are being distributed to community leaders, she said.
Because health officials had not yet released data on Pacific Islanders, the Ilis didnt know their community was seeing higher rates of coronavirus infection when they started getting sick.
The oldest son, Pele Ili, 26, quickly became the only healthy adult in his household, and suddenly found himself the caretaker for his whole family, tending to his sick parents and brother while trying to protect his 12-year-old brother, Solo, from falling ill too.
On Easter Sunday, Pele, a service manager at a payroll company who also blogs, posted about his familys experience on Instagram in an effort to get others to take the stay-at-home orders seriously.
I was naive to think this couldnt touch my family. I was ignorant to think that me feeling healthy meant that I was okay to attend a few small gatherings but little did I know my house was compromised, Pele wrote on April 12. ... This could happen anywhere, anytime, and to anyone whenever youre not home. No one is above this.
Being outspoken was important to combat the stigma, Pele later said. Pacific Islanders have this sense of pride, where they can take care of themselves and they want to keep everything in house, you know, just to not draw as much attention on our family.
He documented his familys ordeal, shooting extensive video and posting it to YouTube, and now looks back on it as one of the most overwhelming and emotional times of his life.
There were times where I didnt know if they were ever gonna come back out, he said. They could barely talk. And I think the hardest part was just not knowing what was going to happen.
Dr. Samoa and other leaders worry that, in addition to being exposed to the virus at the workplace, people are being exposed to COVID-19 at churches that are the heart of many Pacific Islander communities.
Although some have taken health precautions, others have seemingly ignored them, including one church that held an in-person fundraiser last month that was also streamed online, Samoa said. I didnt see a mask in that place, and the social distancing was minimal.
Churches are where people congregate; its the village center, Samoa said. So if the village leadership is not promoting safe behaviors, then the community suffers.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, First United Methodist Church of Bellflower Pastor Kitione Tuitupou now livestreams Sunday services.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
The Rev. Kitione Tuitupou, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Bellflower, a multiethnic congregation of about 100 people that is majority Tongan, has been playing it safe, livestreaming Sunday services since stay-at-home orders were issued in March.
Although people are eager to return, they are also fearful, he said. Peoples faith really holds them up at this time. So even though they really want to come back to church, we remind them to be patient.
For the Ilis, the sudden suspension of in-person gatherings has been difficult and isolating.
They had to halt their weekly attendance at St. Cornelius Church and the meals they shared with extended family afterward in favor of a livestreamed Mass. Yet theyve adopted new traditions to stay connected, like a 5:30 p.m. Zoom prayer hour with out-of-state family members.
Were learning to be creative, Pele said.
Lina Ili, now recovered, to this day doesnt know where she contracted the virus but is still dealing with the stigma.
People are still kind of afraid to be in the same area as us, she said. But, at this point, she said she only regretted trying to fight off the illness at home for too long.
She, like her oldest son, now speaks at webinars urging other Pacific Islanders who may be feeling symptoms to get tested and seek medical help.
The hardest part for our culture is admitting you need help, Lina said. You could be helping someone else, or saving a life.
