A medical worker walks in front of Transform MD Medical Center in White Plains, N.Y., where antibody testing was being offered. Pablo Monsalve/VIEW press/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption
A medical worker walks in front of Transform MD Medical Center in White Plains, N.Y., where antibody testing was being offered.
Most people infected with the novel coronavirus develop antibodies in response.
But scientists don't know whether people who have been exposed to the coronavirus will be immune for life, as is usually the case for the measles, or if the disease will return again and again, like the common cold.
"This to me is one of the big unanswered questions that we have," says Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, "because it really says, 'What is the full exit strategy to this and how long are we going to be contending with it?' "
He's one of many scientists on a quest for answers. And the pieces are starting to fall into place.
Antibodies, which are proteins found in the blood as part of the body's immune response to infection, are a sign that people could be developing immunity. But antibodies are by no means a guarantee a person will be protected for life or even for a year.
Shaman has been studying four coronaviruses that cause the common cold. "They're very common and so people seem to get them quite often," Shaman says. Ninety percent of people develop antibodies to those viruses, at least in passing, but "our evidence is those antibodies are not conferring protection."
That may be simply because colds are relatively mild, so the immune system doesn't mount a full-blown response, suggests Stanley Perlman, a pediatrician who studies immunology and microbiology at the University of Iowa. "That's why people get colds over and over again," he says. "It doesn't really tickle the immune response that much."
He's studied one of the most severe coronaviruses, the one that causes SARS, and he's found that the degree of immunity depended on the severity of the disease. Sicker people remained immune for much longer, in some cases many years.
For most people exposed to the novel coronavirus, "I think in the short term you're going to get some protection," Perlman says. "It's really the time of the protection that matters."
Perlman notes that for some people the symptoms of COVID-19 are no worse than a cold, while for others they are severe. "That's why it's tricky," he says, to predict the breadth of an immune response.
And it's risky to assume that experiences with other coronaviruses are directly applicable to the new one.
"Unfortunately, we cannot really generalize what kind of immunity is needed to get protection against a virus unless we really learn more about the virus," says Akiko Iwasaki, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the Yale University School of Medicine.
An immunobiologist, she is part of a rapidly expanding effort to figure this out. She and her colleagues are already studying the immune response in more than 100 patients in the medical school hospital. She's encouraged that most people who recover from the coronavirus have developed antibodies that neutralize the coronavirus in a petri dish.
"Whether that's happening inside the body we don't really know," she cautions.
Research like hers will answer that question, eventually.
But not all antibodies are protective. Iwasaki says some can actually contribute to the disease process and make the illness worse. These antibodies can contribute to inflammation and lead the body to overreact. That overreaction can even be deadly.
"Which types of antibodies protect the host versus those that enhance the disease? We really need to figure that out," she says.
The studies at Yale will follow patients for at least a year, to find out how slowly or quickly immunity might fade. "I wish there was a shortcut," Iwasaki says, "but we may not need to wait a year to understand what type of antibodies are protective."
That's because she and other immunologists are looking for patterns in the immune response that will identify people who have long-term immunity.
Researchers long ago figured out what biological features in the blood (called biomarkers) correlate with immunity to other diseases, says Kari Nadeau, a pediatrician and immunologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She expects researchers will be able to do the same for the new coronavirus.
Nadeau is working on several studies, including one that seeks to recruit 1,000 people who were previously exposed to the coronavirus. One goal is to identify people who produce especially strong, protective antibody responses. She says the antibody-producing cells from those people can potentially be turned into vaccines.
Another critical question she's zeroing in on is whether people who become immune are still capable of spreading the virus.
"Because you might be immune, you might have protected yourself against the virus," she says, "but it still might be in your body and you're giving it to others."
It would have huge public health implications if it turns out people can still spread the disease after they've recovered. Studies from China and South Korea seemed to suggest this was possible, though further studies have cast doubt on that as a significant feature of the disease.
Nadeau is also trying to figure out what can be said about the antibody blood-tests that are now starting to flood the market. There are two issues with these tests. First, a positive test may be a false-positive result, so it may be necessary to run a confirmatory test to get a credible answer. Second, it's not clear that a true positive test result really indicates a person is immune and, if so, for how long.
Companies would like to be able to use these tests to identify people who can return to work without fear of spreading the coronavirus.
"I see a lot of business people wanting to do the best for their employees, and for good reason," Nadeau says. "And we can never say you're fully protected until we get enough [information]. But right now we're working hard to get the numbers we need to be able to see what constitutes protection and what does not."
It could be a matter of life or death to get this right. Answers to these questions are likely to come with the accumulation of information from many different labs. Fortunately, scientists around the world are working simultaneously to find answers.
You can contact NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris at rharris@npr.org.
The condition, which has been found in children who test positive for coronavirus, causes potentially deadly symptoms.
SEATTLE A potentially deadly new illness thought to be linked to the coronavirus is impacting children.
The condition is rare but has been seen in seven states, including Washington state.
We assumed our son had allergies because he had a little bit of itchy eyes and you know, just felt a little punky, said Theresa Lawson.
Her 13-year-old son Anthony started feeling sick a week ago with itchy eyes, a low-grade fever, dizziness, a headache and a rash.
He tested negative for the coronavirus at urgent care and told it was probably an allergic reaction.
But his symptoms went from mild to deadly in a matter of days.
He was now having problem breathing, we couldnt get any kind of oxygen reading on him. His lips had turned bright red, his eyes, all the whites of his eyes were solid red. His fingernails started to turn blue, Lawson said.
They rushed him to the emergency room, and he was then transferred to Seattle Childrens Hospital.
We met him in the cardiac ICU where we were told he was in the middle of heart failure, which came as an absolute shock to my husband and I because just a couple of days ago hes healthy and everything is fine, Lawson said.
According to Lawson, she was told by doctors that her sons organs were failing.
They ended up taking a blood test, Lawson said, That blood test came back positive for the COVID-19 antibodies, which at that moment was confirmation that he had in fact been infected at some point.
Children presenting with a symptom of shock where their heart function is poor, and their blood pressure is low, they have to receive medication to maintain their blood pressure, they need to be on a ventilator to support them, said Dr. Michael Portman.
Dr. Portman is a cardiologist at Seattle Childrens Hospital and the Director of theKawasaki Disease Clinic, a disease that doctors say is very similar to this new COVID-19 linked illness.
Both these illnesses, the COVID-related illness as well as the Kawasaki disease are some sort of inflammatory illness. And we know that Kawasaki Disease, theres some sort of environmental trigger, it might be a virus, and it causes a hyperimmune response in children, Dr. Portman said.
Lawson said her sons doctors do not believe Anthony has Kawasaki Disease.
Dr. Portman said since the illnesses are similar, they have noticed a link in treatments.
This is obviously still evolving that one of the treatments which is intravenous gamma globulin seems to help the patients with this new syndrome. This is the primary treatment for Kawasaki disease, Dr. Portman said.
Dr. Portman said this illness is still very rare but its important to look out for the signs and symptoms.
If their child has persistent fever for four or five days, they should not assume that its just the COVID or another virus and its going to go away, he explained, Fever persistence for five days, especially if it includes any of those symptoms needs to be evaluated so we can make sure that nothing more serious is going on.
Lawson shared a similar sentiment.
Weve heard a lot of other parents say, well were afraid to go to the hospital because if our kid isnt sick we worry that they might get sick, and I think that is a really dangerous game to play with your childrens lives or anyone elses lives, she said. Dont let your fear of they might it, keep you from going in. if something doesnt seem right, go in let somebody take a look at them.
Lawson said her son is starting to show signs of improvement, but that hes not out of the woods just yet.
Im happy to say that our son, although still in the ICU is in far, far better condition than he was when he came in here. We are hesitant to you know, 100% feel relief because we truly dont know yet what has caused this, Lawson said.
Lawson added, support from the community helped them persevere in one of the scariest moments of her familys life.
We have been so blessed by so many people who have heard about this through friends and family who have sent messages of support. When things were really tough for us, that got us through. So, we were just very grateful, she said.
As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread, public health and economic well-being are increasingly in conflict. Governments are prioritizing public health, but the current solutionsocial isolationis costly as commerce remains shut down. Restarting economies could rekindle the pandemic and cause even worse human suffering. Innovation can help societies escape the untenable choice between public and economic health. The world needs effective vaccines, therapies, or other solutions. But how do we achieve these solutions, and achieve them quickly?
Innovation policy can accelerate advances, with high returns. In the United States, COVID-19 has reduced gross domestic product (GDP) by 30%. What if additional investment in research and development (R&D) could bring forward an effective vaccine by just 1 day? If this investment costs less than the daily loss in GDP ($18 billion in the United States alone), it would pay for itself. Even large incremental funding to support R&D will be miniscule in scale compared to the $2.8 trillion the U.S. government is spending to compensate for the economic shutdown.
What principles should guide government innovation policy to battle COVID-19? It is critical to support many independent avenues of research. Outcomes from R&D investments are uncertain. Many avenues will be dead ends, so many different pathseach corresponding to an independent effortshould be pursued. Consider funding 10,000 such efforts. Even if each had only a 0.1% chance of producing an advance in prevention, treatment, or infection control, the probability of at least five such advances would be 97%. By contrast, if efforts crowd into only a few prospects, the odds of collective failure can become overwhelming.
This innovative push must draw widely on talent. Research talent is plentiful, but many laboratories and teams are now shuttered and dispersed by the pandemic. Private investment gravitates toward marketable solutions, but key insights are likely to come from asking why questions (for example, basic research into the pathophysiology of the disease) and not simply from shovel ready drug development projects. Moreover, good ideas often come from unexpected corners. Useful solutions may be discovered outside biomedicine, including through engineering disciplines and information technology.
What would a bold innovation policy agenda look like? In the United States, funding for R&D must be fortified, as recently called for by the Task Force on American Innovation and 17 other organizations. Also, a principal investigator already receiving public funding should be able to receive immediate support to work on COVID-19 with minimal application burden and decisions within 1 week. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has taken some first steps with emergency procedures to supplement existing grants, but these efforts need to draw on additional labs and talent, and to accelerate review. The marginal investment through the NIH, at $3 billion, appears modest in size, equating to the U.S. GDP loss in just 4 hours. Globally, researchers with relevant expertise are essential workers; they should have access to their labs and additional resources to engage in the COVID-19 battle.
Government support for private sector R&D should be delivered at great speed. A Pandemic R&D Program could deploy loans that are forgivable later, based on actual investment in COVID-19related innovations, thus ensuring that financial constraints do not slow down solutions. More support could come through supplementing the R&D tax credit system, which already exists in the United States and other countries.
In June 1940, the U.S. government created the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), composed of eminent scientists and innovators in the public and private sectors, with the mandate to achieve innovations related to the war effort. This leadership structure drove the rapid development of numerous technologies, including weapons systems but also antimalarial drugs and penicillin manufacturing. A COVID-19 Defense Research Committee could similarly be empowered to coordinate and fund solutions to the pandemic. This group would track R&D efforts, create a public clearinghouse documenting the avenues pursued, fund innovations and the scaling of successful advances, and streamline bureaucracy. The new vaccine effort, Operation Warp Speed, moves in this direction. But we also need efforts beyond vaccines.
COVID-19 presents the world with a brutal choice between economic and public health. Innovation investments are essential to avoiding that choiceyet tiny in cost compared to current economic losses and other emergency programs. Even the slight acceleration of advances will bring massive benefits.
Construction at the COVID-19 field hospital at McCormick Place in Chicago on April 10. The city pared back plans for a 3,000-bed temporary hospital at the nation's largest convention center as infection numbers decreased. Nam Y. Huh/AP hide caption
Construction at the COVID-19 field hospital at McCormick Place in Chicago on April 10. The city pared back plans for a 3,000-bed temporary hospital at the nation's largest convention center as infection numbers decreased.
As hospitals were overrun by coronavirus patients in other parts of the world, the Army Corps of Engineers mobilized in the U.S., hiring private contractors to build emergency field hospitals around the country.
The endeavor cost more than $660 million, according to an NPR analysis of federal spending records.
But nearly four months into the pandemic, most of these facilities haven't treated a single patient.
Don't see the graphic above? Click here.
Public health experts said this episode exposes how ill-prepared the U.S. is for a pandemic. They praised the Army Corps for quickly providing thousands of extra beds, but experts said there wasn't enough planning to make sure these field hospitals could be put to use once they were finished.
"It's so painful because what it's showing is that the plans we have in place, they don't work," said Robyn Gershon, a professor at New York University's School of Global Public Health. "We have to go back to the drawing board and redo it."
But the nation's governors who requested the Army Corps projects and, in some cases, contributed state funding said they're relieved these facilities didn't get more use. They said early models predicted a catastrophic shortage of hospital beds, and no one knew for sure when or if stay-at-home orders would reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
"All those field hospitals and available beds sit empty today," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said last month. "And that's a very, very good thing."
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, said: "These 1,000-bed alternate care sites are not necessary; they're not filled. Thank God."
Senior military leaders also said the effort was a success even if the beds sit empty. Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked at a news conference if it bothered him to see the field hospitals go unused.
"For gosh sakes, no," Hyten said. "If you see beds full, that means the local capacity of the local hospitals to handle this [has] been overwhelmed. And now we're into an emergency situation."
The Army Corps started building more than 30 field hospitals, retrofitting convention centers and erecting climate-controlled tents, in mid-March. Agency officials pushed to get these facilities done fast limiting the bidding process and often negotiating directly with contractors they knew could deliver on time.
"I tell our guys, you have three weeks," Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, said at a Pentagon news briefing in March. "You get as much as you can [get] done in three weeks. And then the mission is complete. We have a narrow window of opportunity. If we don't leverage that window of opportunity, we're gonna miss it."
At Chicago's McCormick Place, workers scrambled in April to transform the convention center into a massive temporary hospital with 3,000 beds more than the biggest hospital in Illinois.
"This was an empty convention hall," Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during a news conference while flanked by construction workers in hard hats and bright yellow vests. "Monumental, round-the-clock dedication is what got this done before we need it, preparing for saving lives in the event that things become as bad as some have predicted."
But just as construction got underway, states were issuing stay-at-home orders. And the spread of the coronavirus eventually began to slow.
Work on the field hospitals continued, though some projects were scaled back including McCormick Place. The field hospital opened with one-third of the beds originally planned, and it closed its doors a few weeks later after treating fewer than 40 patients.
The same story is playing out across the country. In fact, most Army Corps field hospitals haven't seen a single patient.
In many parts of the U.S., hospitals were able to expand their capacity to keep up with the surge of coronavirus patients. But in New York, hospitals were overwhelmed, and local officials pleaded with the public to save hospital beds for people who needed them most.
"The mantra was, 'Don't come to the hospital, don't go to the doctor, stay home, stay home till your lips turn blue,' " said Gershon of NYU's School of Global Public Health. "Well, we now know that was a crazy set of advice."
Gershon said she worries that a lot of people followed that advice and that some may have died because of it including a cousin of hers on Long Island. He stayed at home as he got sicker, Gershon said, and later died on a ventilator in the hospital.
Contractors built two field hospitals on Long Island, on the campuses of the State University of New York at Stony Brook and SUNY Old Westbury, at a total cost of more than $270 million.
The Army Corps limited the competition in awarding the projects to speed the process, which usually takes six to nine months, according to agency documents. Officials noted they were able to complete the contract award for the Stony Brook project in a "little more than three days."
"This time savings was critical in order for construction to begin as quickly as possible, supporting the unusual and compelling nature of the urgency of this procurement and the national emergency," the document said.
The two Long Island field hospitals were completed in late April. They never opened to the public and didn't treat any patients.
"That's outrageous," Gershon said. "That's completely crazy. I hope they didn't take them down."
The temporary hospitals in New York haven't been taken down. They're on hold in case they need to be reopened in the future, according to a state health department spokesman.
New York has "so far avoided the worst-case scenario we were preparing for," the spokesman said in a statement. "There has been a reduced need for hospital beds, and as of now we are not moving forward on purchasing supplies and equipment or securing staff for these sites."
Even in New York City, where the Army Corps field hospital did treat COVID-19 patients, it never reached full capacity.
"There are a lot of losers in it and not a lot of winners," said Dario Gonzalez, an emergency doctor with the New York City Fire Department who helped lead the medical response at the temporary hospital at the Javits Center in Manhattan.
"It was very disappointing," Gonzalez said. "Everybody was here, ready to work, ready to get patients in."
Medical supplies are viewed inside the Javits Center in March in New York City. The Javits field hospital treated about 1,100 patients while it was open for three weeks. Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Medical supplies are viewed inside the Javits Center in March in New York City. The Javits field hospital treated about 1,100 patients while it was open for three weeks.
The plan was for the Javits Center to take patients from overwhelmed hospitals in the city. But in practice it wasn't that easy. Some hospitals complained that the intake process was too complicated. And they sent few patients to Javits even as they resorted to treating patients in the hallways.
During the three weeks it was open, the Javits field hospital treated about 1,100 patients. Gonzales said it could have handled a lot more.
"We all could have done a much better job," Gonzalez says. "And we've got to really get it together to get that right the next time."
Officials in other states such as Illinois and Michigan also said field hospitals can be quickly reopened if there's an increase in coronavirus cases.
"We really wanted to make sure that we were maintaining some of the physical infrastructure that has been built there. So that should we need it, it doesn't take us a long time to potentially turn that back on," said Allison Arwady, the public health commissioner in Chicago.
She said officials there are keeping a close eye on the number of COVID-19 patients in local hospitals.
"We watch it really closely every day," Arwady said. "And certainly if we start to see any direction that things are not going the right way, we stand ready in case that needs to be reassessed."
National Desk Senior Producer Walter Watson and intern Brooklyn Riepma contributed to this report.
For the first time since the middle of March, Hawaii health authorities had no new COVID-19 infections to report.
The number of new infections has been declining in recent weeks, prompting more discussion about how to reopen the economy yet prepare for a possible comeback of the virus.
But state officials caution that the lack of new cases Friday is likely a lull.
As businesses reopen, as people become more active and travel more freely, we will inevitably see an increase in cases, said Dr. Sarah Park, the state epidemiologist.
The number of new COVID-19 cases daily is dwindling, but health officials believe that is temporary.
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
The cumulative case count on Hawaii island stands at 74, Oahus at 408, Kauais at 21, and Mauis at 116. Ten other residents have been diagnosed outside of Hawaii.
Peak infection rates were documented in late March and early April, and the last time DOH had no new cases to report was March 13.
However, state-verified cases come at a lag, since the virus has an incubation period that can last as many as 14 days, and officials begin case investigations once a test confirms diagnosis.
The number of cases statewide remains at 629.
The Department of Health also updated some of its data reporting this week.
In March, a spokesperson with the Hawaii COVID-19 Joint Information Center told Civil Beat the category of released from isolation was an indication of recovery. But on Thursday, the center indicated in a footnote that the number also included the 17 people who have died due to coronavirus related issues.
Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 must isolate themselves.
To date, 566 people have been released from isolation according to DOH. One more person was added to that category on Friday, presumed to be another person in recovery because the death toll was unchanged.
As of Friday, to be released from isolation, a patient needs to be free of fever for three days or at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first occurred, whichever is longer. That period was recently extended by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from seven to 10 days after symptom onset.
The department also purged 1,010 duplicate tests in its testing count on Thursday.
There appears to have been a glitch in the ELR reporting, in that the system was over counting some tests over the past week. Staff have fixed the issue and adjusted the data, a press release stated.
Approximately 34,206 people have been tested for the COVID-19 disease as of Thursday.
The Harvard Global Health Institute has calculated the minimum number of tests that should be conducted in each state. Hawaii is among nine states that have exceeded those testing minimum estimates.
Some retailers on the Big Island and Kauai reopened Thursday. Maui has scheduled a partial reopening of businesses on Monday, and Oahus next phase of reopening is slated for May 15.
Restaurant operations continue to be limited to take-out and the tourism industry has tumbled.
Since the pandemic hit its shores, Hawaiis unemployment rate rose from 3% to 35%, making it the highest rate in the country.
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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
Exactly 40 years ago today, on the 8th of May 1980, the World Health Assembly officially declared that the world and all its peoples have won freedom from smallpox.
Smallpox is the first and, to date, the only human disease to be eradicated globally.
Until it was wiped out, smallpox had plagued humanity for at least 3000 years, killing 300 million people in the 20th century alone.
Its eradication stands as the greatest public health triumph in history.
As the world confronts the COVID-19 pandemic, humanitys victory over smallpox is a reminder of what is possible when nations come together to fight a common health threat.
Many of the basic public health tools that were used successfully then are the same tools that have been used to respond to Ebola, and to COVID-19: disease surveillance, case finding, contact tracing, and mass communication campaigns to inform affected populations.
The smallpox eradication campaign had one crucial tool that we dont have for COVID-19 yet: a vaccine; in fact, the worlds first vaccine.
As you know, WHO is now working with many partners to accelerate the development of a vaccine for COVID-19, which will be an essential tool for controlling transmission of the virus.
But although a vaccine was crucial for ending smallpox, it was not enough on its own.
After all, the vaccine was first developed by Edward Jenner in 1796. It took another 184 years for smallpox to be eradicated.
The decisive factor in the victory over smallpox was global solidarity.
At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States of America joined forces to conquer a common enemy.
They recognized that viruses do not respect nations or ideologies.
That same solidarity, built on national unity, is needed now more than ever to defeat COVID-19.
Stories like the eradication of smallpox have incredible power to inspire.
But there are many more untold stories about health around the world.
Next Tuesday, the 12th of May, WHO will announce the five winners of our inaugural Health for All Film Festival.
The winning films were chosen by a distinguished panel of jurors from almost 1300 entries from 110 countries.
The short-listed films can be seen on WHOs YouTube channel, and we invite everyone to join us on our social media channels next Tuesday, for the announcement of the winners.
===
Yesterday, I announced the resources WHO estimates it needs to deliver our updated Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19.
The updated plan estimates that WHO requires US$1.7 billion to respond to COVID-19, across the three levels of the organization, between now and the end of 2020.
This estimate includes the funds that WHO has already received to date, leaving WHOs COVID-19 response with a funding gap of US$1.3 billion for 2020.
To be clear, this estimate only covers WHOs needs, not the entire global need.
WHO is deeply grateful to the countries and donors who responded to WHOs initial Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan, and to the hundreds of thousands of individuals, corporations and foundations who have contributed to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund we thank you so much for your commitment and support.
Our updated strategic plan takes into account the lessons we have learned so far, strengthening WHOs role in global and regional coordination.
It is built on five strategic objectives:
First, to mobilize all sectors and communities;
Second, to control sporadic cases and clusters by rapidly finding and isolating all cases;
Third, to suppress community transmission through infection prevention and control and physical distancing;
Fourth, to reduce mortality through appropriate care;
And fifth, to develop safe and effective vaccines and therapeutics.
To support these objectives, WHO will continue to provide technical, operational and logistics support to countries, and we will continue to update and adapt our guidance according to local needs.
In certain fragile settings and countries with weaker health systems, WHO will continue its operational work as a provider of essential health services.
===
As we reflect today on the eradication of smallpox, were reminded of what is possible when nations come together to confront a common foe, to confront a common enemy.
The legacy of smallpox was not only the eradication of one disease; it was the demonstration that when the world unites, anything is possible. If there is a will, there is a way.
It gave us the confidence to pursue the eradication of other diseases like polio and Guinea worm.
Like smallpox, COVID-19 is a defining challenge for public health.
Like smallpox, its a test of global solidarity.
Like smallpox, COVID-19 is giving us an opportunity not only to fight a single disease, but to change the trajectory of global health, and to build a healthier, safer, fairer world for everyone to achieve universal health coverage, to achieve our dream from the establishment of WHO in the 1940s: Health for All.
Thank you.
Before we move on to questions, Id like to mention one small way we are commemorating the eradication of smallpox.
When WHOs smallpox eradication campaign was launched in 1967, one of the ways countries raised awareness about smallpox was through postage stamps when social media like Twitter and Facebook was not even on the horizon.
To commemorate the 40th Anniversary of smallpox eradication, the United Nations Postal Administration and WHO are releasing a commemorative postage stamp to recognize global solidarity in fighting smallpox.
I especially want to thank my friend Mr Atul Khare, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support, for making this commemorative stamp possible.
Getty
There are big changes coming to the future of work.
Heres what you need to know - and how it will affect you.
With 62% of employed Americans working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, what is the future of work? For the past few months, youve worked at home, done countless Zoom calls, juggled home schooling, and have tried to maintain composure in the face of uncertainty. How will your job change in the future? Some changes may be temporary until there is a Coronavirus vaccine, while other changes may become permanent. Here are some ways that your job may change due to COVID-19:
This wont apply to every job, but it turns out many people can actually work from home productively. Plus, the majority of employed Americans who have been working from home would prefer to continue a work-from-home policy. According to Gallup, approximately 60% of Americans workers prefer to work remotely as much as possible, even when public health restrictions are lifted. If more employees work from home, there is increasing potential to disrupt the commercial real estate market. As more employees work from home, there is less overall need to own or rent office space. Watch for the impact on supply and demand in commercial real estate.
If more employees work from home, employers may increase monitoring of their employees. That means your productivity could be measured and tracked, even if youre working outside a traditional office environment. Many companies already do this, but now it would take place in your home. For example, your employer could track your keystrokes on your computer to analyze your productivity, or understand how often you are away from your computer. While there are evident privacy concerns, this is not a spy novel. Companies argue that responsible monitoring is necessary to ensure productivity.
The entire world wont work from home. Offices will still exist. However, they may look different. Big trading floors or other open floor plans may be replaced in some cases by cubicles or other partitions for health reasons. How will social distancing be maintained at work? These may be temporary changes until theres a Coronavirus vaccine, or employers may find that this new normal layout may continue so long as it doesnt hinder productivity, jeopardize health or adversely affect employee morale.
What will happen to all those standing-room-only, in-person meetings in conference rooms? Video conference calls have become more popular than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic. This could continue even after a Coronavirus vaccine. If you work in any sales-oriented job, in-person contact may be essential to your business. However, from a public health perspective, frequent business travel may be replaced by more video conference calls. It may not happen in every industry, but companies will want to protect employees and clients alike in a post-COVID world. This doesnt mean business travel is going away (its not), but companies may limit travel. This has direct implications for the airline and hospitality industries, at least in the short-term.
5. Happiness at work matters
Your happiness at work matters. There are many lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. As more than 30 million people have lost their job due to COVID-19, many people will start to think critically about their job, where they work, their health and other financial realities in the wake of Coronavirus. As more people work from home, your work life and personal life will become more connected. This has important implications for your happiness. No longer can you think of your work life and personal life as separate. Your happiness at home and at work both need to be present. If youre happy at home and miserable at work, that formula wont work. One silver lining is this may be your wake-up call to go find more meaningful work in which you feel more inspired and can create impact.
Business will go on. Life will continue. It just may look different than before. Will all these changes happen at once? Maybe. It depends on your employer, industry, job type and other financial and non-financial factors. Will these changes become permanent? Its too soon to tell. Employers may test the waters, monitor the public health situation and collect employee feedback. One thing is certain in this uncertain time: changes to the future of work are coming.
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"I'm not new to this game, I'm true to the game," the blues singer told CNN. "I've been doing it for a long time. You really have a lot of ups and downs in this crazy situation."
Cohen is part of a community of musicians trying to keep the blues alive in a landscape where live music is on hold and the artists dedicated to the genre are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19.
"It shut a lot of us down," Cohen said. "The ones that were doing the clubs, they don't have the clubs [to perform in] anymore. They don't have the regular gigs anymore. They don't have anything."
Musician and singer Sam Frazier, Jr. recently rose to the top of the kidney transplant list, but he is now unsure when he might receive one because of the pandemic.
He told CNN he's working hard to protect himself and stay healthy, but misses performing -- even locally in Alabama where he lives.
"I'm an entertainer," he said. "I'm a singer. I play the harmonica, guitar and I can play the [bass] drum using my feet. I sing blues and I sing country. That's what I do."
Already in a crisis situation
The group helps book members for performances and also provides financial assistance to artists.
Timothy Duffy, founder and executive director of the foundation, told CNN that many of the artists they assist are most susceptible to falling critically ill were they to contract Covid-19.
"Almost all our partners are elderly, so that makes them extremely vulnerable to the virus," Duffy said. "The majority, over 80% of the artists we work with, are African Americans over the age of 55."
Duffy said most of them were already making do with annual incomes of less than $18,000 a year. Any work they used to get from playing bars and restaurants is now gone.
"They're already in a crisis situation," said Duffy, whose organization gave out 85 grants to struggling artists in April and helped set up grocery and medicine deliveries for some. "They're already marginalized, so our staff has a dedicated social worker that is working to ensure that our artists are safe and informed."
Still singing
Cohen said she appreciates the help as she waits things out in the new normal and finds strength in what she's already overcome.
"I lost everything in Katrina," said Cohen, who added she relies on the power of positive thinking and consuming inspirational content. "I haven't lost everything because of this pandemic."
She definitely hasn't lost her ability to entertain.
Lately she takes her audio equipment to a nursing home where her brother resides. With current health precautions preventing her from entering, Cohen performs for residents from the parking lot.
"I wanted to make sure that my brother got some entertainment," she said. "They said the only way that we could see them is to go to their windows outside and you know, wave to them and talk to them through the windows with the windows closed. But they can still hear you."
A man wearing a face mask travels on a ferry to cross the Yangtze River in Wuhan in April. Chinese officials are working to silence people suspected of challenging the narrative that authorities in Wuhan and Beijing acted swiftly and efficiently to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A man wearing a face mask travels on a ferry to cross the Yangtze River in Wuhan in April. Chinese officials are working to silence people suspected of challenging the narrative that authorities in Wuhan and Beijing acted swiftly and efficiently to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
China's leaders have declared the coronavirus outbreak largely under control within its borders. Now, the authorities are working to control the narrative of how the country contained the virus by questioning and even detaining people who might possess information that challenges the official line.
Those being questioned include Internet-savvy archivists; families and their legal counsel suing the state for damages from the coronavirus epidemic; and even lauded volunteers who staffed critical emergency services from the epicenter city of Wuhan.
In February, during the peak of the outbreak in Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated, thousands of volunteers delivered supplies to hospitals, drove medical workers around the city and staffed online mental health services.
But now public security agents are questioning these volunteers over suspicions they provided foreign organizations with documentation that has led to accusations that China intentionally covered up the full extent of its coronavirus epidemic, according to two people familiar with the matter. They requested anonymity because those questioned were told by security agents to keep the matter confidential.
Some of the volunteers questioned ran a telephone hotline that became a well-known resource offering both counseling services and help finding open hospital beds as Wuhan's health care system became overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
Hotline volunteers kept active counts of hospital beds and emergency cases of the coronavirus across Wuhan information that could be used for estimating fatalities.
"The police say they have been investigating whether different Chinese volunteer groups provided U.S. intelligence agencies with the real death number of COVID-19 in China," said a person familiar with the police questioning who declined to be named for fear of retribution.
Another Shanghai-based volunteer group said a prominent organizer of theirs had also been questioned by public security agents in connection with possibly leaking information to foreign agencies and was asked to provide a list of names of other volunteers. The group, which denies leaking any information, said the organizer refused to identify the volunteers.
Official messaging from China's Communist Party insists the authorities in Wuhan and Beijing acted swiftly and efficiently to implement lockdown measures and contain the outbreak.
This effort to silence those who might provide information contradicting the official Chinese narrative comes as U.S. intelligence officials have been warning the White House that China vastly undercounted its coronavirus death toll, according to various U.S. news reports. The stakes are high: Missouri and Mississippi are suing China over damages from the coronavirus pandemic, and U.S. citizens have filed several related class-action lawsuits alleging China covered up the scope of the initial outbreak in Wuhan.
"A whitewash"
China has strenuously denied the allegations. "The sole purpose for some U.S. politicians trying to fool others with their obvious lies is to shift the blame of their own incompetence," a foreign ministry spokesperson said last month. A day later, China's state broadcaster ran a segment on its widely watched evening news program that featured footage of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with "liar" stamped in red letters across his visage, in response to unfounded allegations from Pompeo that the coronavirus was leaked from a Wuhan lab.
Current efforts to conceal unfavorable information contrast with Chinese leaders' transparency pledge following the 2003 SARS epidemic, which health officials initially tried to hide, according to Susan Shirk, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of California, San Diego.
That year, Shirk points out, Chinese leadership changed hands Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao took over as president and premier and promised to do things differently. "It was the new broom sweeping out the old ways of doing things and made a point of creating a new image emphasizing transparency," Shirk said.
But China's handling of the COVID-19 outbreak seems to revert to old ways. "[Chinese leaders] decided to not go with transparency but to go with a whitewash," Shirk says. "That's very different from SARS."
In several cases over the past month, China has outright detained those suspected of challenging the official version of how the outbreak was quickly brought to heel.
Eyes on GitHub
For the past three months, Beijing tech worker Chen Mei and more than a dozen other tech-savvy volunteers used GitHub, the open-source programming platform, to archive copies of nearly four dozen, often critical, journalistic reports and essays put together by Chinese writers, journalists, freelance bloggers and writers deleted by China's Internet censors.
Among the articles Chen and others archived was a widely read profile of Ai Fen, a Wuhan doctor who first forwarded a medical report in early January nearly three weeks before Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned the public about the epidemic to other doctors describing a mysterious SARS-like pneumonia arising in hospitals. GitHub, which is not blocked in China, is widely used by programmers and companies to collaborate on writing software.
Beijing tech worker Chen Mei and more than a dozen other tech-savvy volunteers used GitHub, the open-source programming platform, to archive copies of nearly four dozen, often critical, journalistic reports and essays put together by Chinese writers, journalists, freelance bloggers and writers deleted by China's Internet censors. Family of Chen Mei hide caption
Beijing tech worker Chen Mei and more than a dozen other tech-savvy volunteers used GitHub, the open-source programming platform, to archive copies of nearly four dozen, often critical, journalistic reports and essays put together by Chinese writers, journalists, freelance bloggers and writers deleted by China's Internet censors.
Then on April 19, Chen was suddenly detained, say three people close to him. Two friends Cai Wei, who helped update the GitHub archive, and Cai's girlfriend Xiaotang were also detained in Beijing on the same day as Chen for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," according to a police notice seen by NPR. Lawyers for both Cai and Xiaotang say they have been unable to meet or communicate with their clients.
"Chen Mei used his personal ID on GitHub, so I sent him a message saying his ID was public and to be careful," said Lucy Qiu, a friend of Chen's. "That was our last contact."
NPR's calls to Beijing's Changping district police department, near where Chen lives, and calls and texts to the Chaoyang district police department, where the three are reportedly being held, were not answered.
Suing the city
Families demanding justice from the state have also been subject to sustained pressure from China's security apparatus.
"It is all part of social stability management," said a lawyer who has been providing legal aid to Wuhan residents. He requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. "They made a mistake, and they will not allow people to take them to court."
He is part of a group of about 20 lawyers who helped Wuhan residents seeking to sue the city and provincial government for allegedly mishandling the outbreak. They say that local officials failed to notify the public early enough about the virus' contagiousness and the extent of the outbreak in Wuhan.
In mid-April, several of the lawyers were called in by Chinese justice ministry officials and were told to stop their pro bono work. They were also asked to name the other lawyers in the group and plaintiffs. At least three plaintiffs have since dropped their cases after being coerced by police, according to those who were providing them legal assistance.
But a handful of Wuhan residents say they are pressing ahead with their lawsuits despite the danger in doing so. "What happened in Wuhan was a warning for the entire country. Leaders here created havoc for the entire country," one of the plaintiffs, whose mother died in February from the coronavirus, told NPR by phone. He vowed to continue with his lawsuit, saying it was his responsibility to push for an accurate accounting of human suffering during the lockdown.
Then he hung up abruptly, saying his phone was being monitored.
Chinese researchers who tested the sperm of men infected with Covid-19 found a minority had the new coronavirus in their semen. According to the researchers, this opened up a small chance the disease could be sexually transmitted, though this claim has been questioned by other academics in the wake of the findings being published.
Such commentators have noted that while viral genome may be found in body secretions, it must be new and active to be infectious. It is unclear from the Chinese study whether the researches found old traces, or active new virus.
The study by doctors at Chinas Shangqiu municipal hospital of 38 men hospitalised with the disease found that six of them(16%), tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 in their semen.
The researchers said that while the findings were preliminary, and based on only a small number of infected men, more research is needed to see whether sexual transmission might play a role in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Further studies are required with respect to the detailed information about virus shedding, survival time and concentration in semen, the team wrote in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
If it could be proved that Sars-CoV-2 can be transmitted sexually ... [that] might be a critical part of the prevention, they said, especially considering the fact that Sars-CoV-2 was detected in the semen of recovering patients.
Independent experts said the findings were interesting but should be viewed with caution and in the context of other small studies that have not found the new coronavirus in sperm.
A previous small study of 12 Covid-19 patients in China in February and March found that all of them tested negative for Sars-CoV-2 in semen samples.
Allan Pacey, a professor of andrology at Sheffield University in the UK, said the studies should not be seen as conclusive, as there were some technical difficulties in testing semen for viruses. He said the presence of Sars-CoV-2 in sperm did not show whether it is active and capable of causing infection.
However, we should not be surprised if the virus which causes Covid-19 is found in the semen of some men, since this has been shown with many other viruses such as Ebola and Zika, he said.
Sheena Lewis, a professor of reproductive medicine at Queens University Belfast, stressed that this was a very small study and said its findings were in keeping with other small studies showing low or no Sars-CoV-2 in tests of semen samples.
However, the long-term effects of Sars-CoV-2 on male reproduction are not yet known, she said.
This article was amended on 8 May 2020 to expand on the distinction between finding inert Covid-19 in semen, and finding active new Covid-19. A sub-heading mentioning the chance of sexual transmission was changed to attribute this claim to the authors of the study cited in the article.
