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EXCLUSIVE: EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak will testify publicly before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic next month, Fox News Digital has learned.
Daszak will testify before the COVID subcommittee on May 1, chaired by Rep. Brad Wenstrup.
US TAXPAYER FUNDS FLOWED TO CHINESE ENTITIES THAT CONDUCTED CORONAVIRUS RESEARCH BEFORE COVID PANDEMIC: GAO
Daszak testified behind closed doors in November, but House Republicans said his testimony contained many "discrepancies," according to a letter from Wenstrup and other committee chairs sent to Daszak. The letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, also contained a list of documents and records Daszak must produce to the committees prior to his public hearing next month.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer; House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rogers; House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith; and House Subcommittee on Health Chairman Brett Guthrie will also be invited to the May 1 hearing to ask questions of Daszak.
Democrats on the COVID Subcommittee also told Fox News Digital that they have "serious concerns that EcoHealth Alliance disregarded federal reporting requirements that ensure grantees are accountable to the American people."
Fox News Digital previously reported that EcoHealth Alliance received millions of dollars in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). U.S. taxpayer funds flowed to Chinese entities conducting coronavirus research through EcoHealth Alliance.
Peter Daszak, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), uses his mobile phone at a hotel in Wuhan, Hubei province, China February 3, 2021. (REUTERS/Thomas Peter)
Those funds at least $600,000 were redirected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and went towards research to assess the transmission of bat coronaviruses to humans. The research included conducting RNA extractions and DNA sequencing on bat samples, and conducting biological experiments on pathogen spillover from bats to humans.
EcoHealth Alliance also received over $200,000 in funds that were redirected to Wuhan University and went towards disease surveillance research activities, including collection of biological samples from individuals in China with high levels of exposure to bats for Wuhan Institute of Virology to conduct further screening.
Former U.S. government officials, like former director of NIH Francis Collins, said that the U.S. taxpayer funds were not approved to conduct gain of function research, which is research that involves modifying a virus to make it more infectious among humans.
US FUNDED RESEARCH TO CREATE 'MUTANT VIRUSES' AT WUHAN LAB AHEAD OF COVID-19, RECORDS SHOW
"Dr. Daszaks closed door testimony raised serious concerns about EcoHealth Alliances relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology," COVID Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup told Fox News Digital. "Even after the Select Subcommittee reminded Dr. Daszak that he could be subject to criminal prosecution if he lied to the Committees, Dr. Daszak made numerous claims that seemed to be inconsistent with outside evidence and previous revelations."
Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, has serious concerns EcoHealth Alliance's relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
"We are looking forward to an honest forum where the American people can hear directly from the President of EcoHealth Alliance and finally receive the answers about the origins of COVID-19 that they deserve," Wenstrup said.
One discrepancy in his testimony, Wenstrup said, was regarding gain-of-function research at a University of North Carolina lab.
Daszak, during his closed-door interview,was asked about the companys DEFUSE research proposal EcoHealth Alliance, with the University of North Carolina (UNC) and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), submitted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
When asked about the location of planned experiments involving the reverse engineering and characterization of coronavirus spike proteins, Daszak said he understood that the gain of function work would be conducted at UNC.
But Wenstrup and the committee found a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) document which calls into question whether Daszaks testimony omitted a material fact and was misleading.
According to the document, Daszak had written to his collaborators at UNC and the Wuhan Institute of Virology saying that he did "not propose that all of this work will necessarily be conducted" at UNC, but wrote that he did "want to stress the US side of this proposal so that DARPA are comfortable with our team."
Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus make a visit to the institute in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on February 3, 2021. (Hector Retamal/ AFP)
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"Once we get the funds, we can allocate who does what exact work, and I believe that a lot of these assays can be done in Wuhan as well," Daszak wrote, according to the committee.
Wenstrup said that comment "appears to be materially inconsistent with your testimony assuring the committees that the proposed work was planned to be done exclusively at UNC."
Next, the committee is raising questions about Daszaks testimony regarding biosafety levels used by the Wuhan Institute of Virology when conducting research funded by the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID).
The committee said EcoHealth Alliance intended to follow the weaker biosafety measures set by the Chinese government instead of the U.S. biosafety standards that should have regulated the research EcoHealth conducted with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
"The Committees are alarmed at the divergence between your statements and your comments in the DEFUSE draft. These revelations undermine your credibility as well as every factual assertion you made during your transcribed interview," the letter to Daszak states. "The Committees have a right and an obligation to protect the integrity of their investigations, including the accuracy of testimony during a transcribed interview. We invite you to correct the record."
FBI DIRECTOR SAYS COVID PANDEMIC 'MOST LIKELY' ORIGINATED FROM CHINESE LAB
Ahead of his public testimony, Wenstrup is demanding Daszak turn over phone records and calendars between November 2019 and January 13, 2021 with a focus on documents showing any meetings or phone calls between Daszak and the federal government or any entity in China.
This aerial view shows the P4 laboratory, center, on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Opened in 2018, the P4 lab conducts research on the world's most dangerous diseases, according to Getty Images. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
Wenstrup is also demanding Daszak provide a list of EcoHealth employees who visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology since January 2018, and documents and communications between EcoHealth and federal government agencies between January 2014 through the present.
Those requested documents would be related to the reinstatement and renewal of the grant entitled "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronvirus Emergence," documents regarding the suspension of Wuhan Institute of Virology, and more.
Wenstrup is also calling for documents and communications between EcoHealth Alliance and the FBI and the Intelligence Community, including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA, between January 2014 and the present.
Peter Daszak, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), waves as he leaves a hotel in Wuhan, Hubei province, China February 10, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song (REUTERS/Aly Song)
By April 18, the committee expects Daszak to turn over records of communications with the Wuhan Institute of Virology regarding the origins of COVID-19, or SARS-CoV-2; records of communications regarding EcoHealths efforts to obtain WIVs lab notebooks pursuant to NIH oversight and compliance; records of biosafety and microbiological and biomedical lab standards; and more.
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"EcoHealth Alliance used U.S. taxpayer dollars to conduct risky research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab. Americans demand to know whether their taxpayer dollars funneled to the Wuhan lab caused the COVID-19 pandemic and demand accountability for this abuse of taxpayer dollars," Comer told Fox News Digital. "Peter Daszak may have provided false information to Congress about EcoHealths risky research and must correct the record. We look forward to his public testimony in May so that we can continue to provide answers to the American people about the pandemic and enact reforms to prevent future pandemics."
And Chairman Griffith told Fox News Digital that it "appears that Dr. Daszak wasnt telling the full story to us."
"I would urge him to be more forthcoming about precisely where and when his organization was planning to conduct research, since it is a federal crime to lie to Congress," Griffith warned.
A spokesperson for Democrats on the COVID subcommittee told Fox News Digital that throughout the Congress, they have "underscored the importance of pursuing and prioritizing forward-looking reforms that enhance biosafety standards in the United States and around the globe so that we can reduce the threat of future outbreaks and prevent future pandemics."
"In the Select Subcommittees probe of federally funded research, testimony and documents reviewed by Select Subcommittee Democrats raise serious concerns that EcoHealth Alliance disregarded federal reporting requirements that ensure grantees are accountable to the American people," the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "We look forward to Dr. Daszaks testimony before the Select Subcommittee on this matter next month."
The U.S. Energy Department and the FBI have determined that COVID-19 likely emerged from a lab leak in China.
A single-shot vaccine that protects against multiple coronaviruses, including the one that causes COVID-19, has been developed. It erased all viral traces from the lungs of animal subjects, opening a pathway for a similar human vaccine.
While Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has gobbled up most of the headlines these past few years, it's really just one nasty virus in a group of them. The class of bugs it belongs to is known as Sarbecovirus, which stands for SARS Betacoronavirus. These are viruses that mostly develop in bats and other mammals and have the potential to spread to humans like SARS-CoV-1 (which became commonly known as SARS during its 2020 outbreak).
As we all know by now, there are individual vaccines to combat different viruses like the ones that ward off COVID-19 and the flu. But getting people to take multiple vaccines is a challenge. Plus, it gets even trickier because these vaccines need to be repeated on a regular basis for them to have maximum efficiency.
In what could be a step change in the fight against coronaviruses, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin-Madison created a new vaccine that, when tested on hamsters, removed all traces of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 plus its omicron variants from the animals' lungs. The team had previously identified hamsters as suitable animals on which to test potential vaccines.
To create the vaccine, the team focused on the same thing that the anti-COVID mRNA vaccines targeted: the spike proteins that are a hallmark of coronaviruses. In this case, the researchers created a trivalent vaccine, meaning that it targets three prominent spike proteins common to multiple Sarbecoviruses, particularly variants of the SARS and COVID-19 causing bugs.
The researchers say that they are hopeful that their successful vaccine can be further developed to combat germs from other coronavirus subfamilies as well as other viruses like those that cause the flu. They indicate the desire for some of the specific antigens they developed in their research to move forward to preclinical trials and they imagine what other types of research could help expand and improve their findings.
"While we are encouraged by these results, there are several additional avenues that would be interesting to explore in future work," they wrote in a paper published in Nature Communications. "Enhancing mucosal immunity might not only enhance protection against viral infection, but also decrease viral transmission. Intranasal vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 has been explored with several platforms (and) the adaptation of our platform for intranasal delivery could be a promising avenue for improving the mucosal response. Characterizing the longevity of protection would also be an interesting avenue for future research. It would be particularly interesting to determine whether stronger mucosal immunity results in more durable protection against symptomatic disease."
Based on the results of the future research projects they detail, a trivalent sniff once every few years rather than multiple jabs in the arm every year may eventually become the standard of care for boosting our defenses against multiple infections.
Source: Georgia Tech
The coronavirus pandemic started due to the spread of the Sars CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus. Like all viruses, since the first outbreak in 2019, COVID-19 has evolved. New, mutated versionsknown as variantshave developed and become predominant, and older ones have faded away. If you contract the virus, your symptoms will often depend on the variant youve caught. Other factors also play a role in your symptoms, such as vaccination status, age, and overall health.
There is a wide range of symptoms of COVID-19. Depending on the variant, symptoms develop 2-14 days after exposure and can last from several days to weeks. Understanding the current variants and their differing symptoms can be a critical way to protect yourself from COVID-19 and its complications.
Currently, COVID JN. 1 is the most prevalent variant. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of March 2024, this variant accounted for over 95% of cases in the United Statesa dramatic rise from November 2023, when this was just 7.8%. JN. 1 is a descendant of BA. 2.86a subvariant of Omicron (COVID B.1.1.529). Omicron spread widely after first being detected in the U.S. in December 2021.
Compared to previous variants, research suggests that while JN. 1 may be less likely to lead to severe illness and hospitalization, it may be more contagious. Like other variants of Omicron, this type has a faster incubation period (the time after infection and before symptoms). This variant takes an average of 3.4 days for symptoms to appear compared to five days for all other types.
The most common symptoms of this variant include:
Two subvariants of this type (JN. 1. 13 and JN. 1. 18) have recently been on the rise. Both subvariants cause similar symptoms and currently represent approximately 10.8% and 1.6% of U.S. cases respectively.
HV. 1 is another variant of the Omicron strain. This variant was the most dominant type in the U.S. until December 2023. According to the latest updates from the CDC, it currently represents about 0.4% of all cases in the U.S., a dramatic drop from 2023, when this variant accounted for 30% of cases.
Like JN. 1, this variant is known to be highly contagious and less severe in terms of hospitalizations and deaths. According to a study published in 2024, common signs of this variant include:
COVID BA. 2.86 (or Pirola) is a subvariant of BA. 2, which was the main Omicron variant. This variant only accounts for about 0.1% of all COVID-19 cases, as of March 2024.
The World Health Organization (WHO) called BA. 2.86 a variant of concern." There's evidence that this variant is more transmissible and contagious than other variants, even if youve been vaccinated or had a previous infection. However, vaccination is critical for preventing moderate or severe cases of this variant.
Common symptoms of the BA. 2.86 variant include:
COVID JG. 3 is a descendant of EG. 5 (Eris")another strain of the Omicron variant. Currently, this variant only represents about 0.2% of COVID cases in the U.S. This Omicron subvariant isnt associated with a higher risk of severe cases or hospitalization. While it may also be more transmissible, the current vaccines remain effective for COVID JG. 3.
Symptoms of this variant include:
In March 2024, only about 0.2% of cases in the U.S. were due to COVID BA. 2, an earlier variant of Omicron. However, in March 2022, WHO reported this variant was dominant worldwide. Researchers found BA. 2 to have 50 genetic differences from the original Omicron strain.
Due to its structural differences, BA. 2 is significantly more transmissible than earlier strains. BA. 2, like other Omicron variants, was linked with a lower rate of hospitalization and severe outcomes when compared to COVID variants (such as Delta). It also has a faster incubation periodabout 3.5 days.
COVID BA. 2 causes the following symptoms:
This Omicron subvariant first emerged in April 2023 and became one of the more dominant strains globally. But this variant has been on a decline. While COVID JD. 1. 1 represented 5.1% of COVID cases in November 2023, its prevalence is currently at about 0.1% in the U.S.
Like many other Omicron subvariants, the symptoms of JD. 1. 1 include:
COVID HK. 3 has spread worldwide. In November 2023, about 5% of people who tested positive for COVID-19 had this type. Since then, the prevalence of this variant has dropped to 0.1% of all cases.
Researchers havent found HK. 3 to lead to more severe disease compared to other variants. That said, this variant may be more contagious and have a higher risk of reinfection (getting COVID again). Fortunately, the current vaccines remain effective in preventing moderate or severe cases of this variant.
If you develop COVID HK. 3, you may notice the following symptoms:
COVID-19 is an airborne virus, meaning that the virus spreads if you inhale germs from other infected people. The virus also spreads through droplets when someone coughs or sneezes. However, you can use some preventative strategies to reduce your risk of contracting the virus and developing symptoms. These methods include:
It's worth noting that if you're a caretaker of an older parent, young child, or other loved one, avoiding contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 isn't always possible. However, wearing a mask when you're taking care of them and washing your hands frequently can help minimize your risk.
Seeking timely medical care can be critical for more severe cases of COVID. Your risk of complications from COVID is higher if youre over 50, have a chronic condition (like diabetes, asthma, heart or lung diseases), or are immunocompromised. If you test positive for COVID-19, it's important to let your provider know via phone call or online portal.
Consider calling your provider for extra medical support or advice on treatment options if you develop more moderate symptoms of COVID-19, such as:
Severe symptoms of COVID prompt calling 911 and getting emergency care. These include:
Like all viruses, COVID-19 has evolved and changed since it started in 2019. New variants (mutated versions) of the virus continue to emerge. COVID JN. 1 is currently the predominant U.S. variant, accounting for over 95% of infections. However, other COVID-19 variants have similar symptomssuch as cough, runny nose, congestion, fever, and body aches.
Vaccination, good hygiene practices, and isolation from people with COVID-19 are good ways to protect yourself from the virus.
Donald Trump, in seeking election to a second term, is promising to bring back the good ol days when he was in charge. Hes even used the time-honored political mantra, inanely in all caps: ARE YOU BETTER OFF THAN YOU WERE FOUR YEARS AGO? Its a peculiar question, given that four years ago the nation was reeling from the greatest public health crisis in modern historya crisis that Trump, by any measure, spectacularly mismanaged.
As it happens, The Progressive tracked Trumps almost daily steps for a two-page Smoking Gun offering called Crisis? What Crisis? It first appeared in the magazines June/July 2020 issue, and, since Trumps mishandling of the pandemic didnt end when that issue went to press, we continued our timeline online. Day after day, intern Nuha Dolby and I would plug in new entries. We continued it all the way until mid-November, about two weeks after Trump was defeated at the polls. Recently, I revisited that timeline and continued it through the end of Trumps presidency. I made a few tweaks and trims, added a few items here and there, and found new links to replace ones that had stopped working.
The result is an absolute tidal wave of gross incompetence on the part of the former and would-be future President, which led to tens of thousands of preventable deaths. It is a shocking reminder of Trumps manifest unfitness in a time of crisis.
January 2017: Days before Trumps Inauguration, members of his administration are briefed by outgoing Obama Administration officials on the need to prepare for a pandemic. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross reportedly dozes off; others grouse about having to attend.
May 2018: Trump disbands the White House agency charged with planning for a pandemic and reassigns its top official. In a world of limited resources, you have to pick and choose, says one Trump team member.
January to August 2019: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducts a training exercise for a hypothetical respiratory virus that begins in China and spreads rapidly to the United States. A draft report identified multiple failings in the governments ability to respond. Nothing is done about it.
January 10, 2020: Former Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert, sacked by President Donald Trump in 2018, warns in a tweet: We face a global health threat, imploring the nation to Coordinate!
January 11: Chinese scientists post the genome of the new coronavirus, and within a week German virologists produce the first diagnostic test for the disease.
January 18: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar briefs Trump in a phone call on the potential seriousness of COVID-19.
January 22: Asked at a press conference if he is worried about a pandemic, Trump replies, No. Not at all. And we have it totally under control. Its one person coming in from China, and we have it under control.
January 27: White House aides meet with then-acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney trying to get senior officials to pay more attention to the virus, according to The Washington Post.
January 29: White House Economic Adviser Peter Navarro warns that COVID-19 could take more than half a million American lives and cause nearly $6 trillion in economic damage.
January 30: Azar speaks directly to Trump about a possible pandemic. Trump brands him an alarmist. That same day, the World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a global health emergency.
Late January to early February 2020: U.S. intelligence officials emphatically warn Trump at his daily briefings about the developing pandemic. The system was blinking red, one official told The Washington Post. They just couldnt get him to do anything about it.
February 2: Trump tells Fox News host Sean Hannity, We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.
February 10: Russ Vought, Trumps acting OMB director, states during a press briefing, Coronavirus is not something that is going to have ripple effects.
February 23: Navarro sends another memo, this one directly to Trump, warning that COVID-19 could kill as many as two million Americans.
February 25: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells reporters it expects COVID-19 to spread across the country, causing severe disruption. Trump is angered by this announcement, saying it alarmed people unnecessarily and caused the stock market to drop.
Late February: The United States refuses to join more than sixty nations in accepting diagnostic test supplies from the World Health Organization, saying it wants to develop its own test.
February 27: Trump assures the nation the virus will like a miracle . . . disappear. The next day, he tells supporters at a rally in South Carolina, Now, the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus . . . . This is their new hoax.
March 4: In a Fox News appearance, Trump blames testing delays on Barack Obama, who left office more than three years before. He disputes the World Health Organizations death rate findings, saying he had a hunch the numbers are lower.
March 6: Trump proudly announces, Anybody that wants a test can get a test, which isnt true. That same day, he calls the pandemic an unforeseen problem that came out of nowhere.
March 13: Trump blames Obama for testing delays, saying I dont take responsibility at all.
March 19: Trump says the outbreak is something that just surprised the whole world. And if people would have known about it, it could have stoppedbeen stopped in place.
March 27: Trump for the first time invokes the Defense Production Act to order General Motors to begin manufacturing ventilators, work that was already underway.
April 4: Trump, in his press briefing, calls the outbreak something that nobody could have ever projected.
April 11: The United States passes all other nations in the number of COVID-19 deaths, including China and India, both of which have populations more than four times as large.
April 12: Navarro, in an appearance on 60 Minutes, challenges the program to find any segment it aired during the Bush or Obama Administrations that said, Hey, global pandemics coming. The show points out that it aired such stories in 2005 and 2009, with Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health warning that the nation would not be prepared.
April 13: Trump falsely asserts it will be entirely his decision, not that of governors, when to open up the states.
April 14: Trump, in a fundraising appeal, urges his supporters to stand with him and hold China accountable for their lies and deceptions during the Coronavirus pandemicby sending him money.
April 17: Trump urges citizens in several states with Democratic governors to rebel against the health advice being offered by his own administration and demand an end to protective measures meant to staunch the spread of COVID-19.
April 20: Trump declares at his daily briefing, People are amazed at how early I acted. He predicts between 50,000 and 60,000 total COVID-19 deaths, saying this would be a triumph.
April 23: Trump suggests at his daily briefing that one way for people to battle COVID-19 is by injecting themselves with disinfectants like bleach.
April 27: As the number of U.S. deaths nears his upper prediction of 60,000, Trump tosses out a new number: 70,000. I think weve done a great job, he says.
April 29: Trump asserts that Americans will soon be having some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each other.
May 3: As the number of U.S. deaths nears 70,000, Trump revises his upward estimate to 90,000.
May 5: Trump announces his plan to disband his coronavirus task force.
May 6: Trump changes his mind, saying he wants the task force to continue indefinitely.
May 8: Contradicting his own experts, Trump announces that the coronavirus is going to go away without a vaccine. He doesnt say when.
May 14: Trump identifies a solution to the crisis: If we didnt do any testing, we would have very few cases.
May 17: Health Secretary Azar winks at yahoos across the country who are crowding into bars against the advice of health officials: I think in any individual instance youre going to see people doing things that are irresponsible. Thats part of the freedom that we have here in America.
May 19: Trump defends his decision to take hydroxychloroquine, calling a study produced by his own government that found the anti-malarial drug did more harm than good a Trump enemy statement.
May 22: The United States has now recorded about 95,000 COVID-19 deaths, more than twice as many as any other nation.
May 22: The medical journal Lancet publishes a study of Trumps suggested use of antimalarial drugs on 96,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients on six continents. For those given hydroxychloroquine, there was a 34 percent increase in risk of mortality and a 137 percent increased risk of a serious heart arrhythmia.
May 25: Trump threatens to pull the planned late-August Republican National Convention from North Carolina if state officials dont agree to allow the event to be fully occupied.
May 26: Trump mocks Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and a reporter at a press conference for wearing masks in public, as his own health officials have recommend.
May 27: Four months after the United States records its first known case of COVID-19, the death toll for Americans tops 100,000. Trump complains in a tweet: The Radical Left Lamestream Media, together with their partner, the Do Nothing Democrats, are trying to spread a new narrative that President Trump was slow in reacting to Covid 19. Wrong, I was very fast . . . !
May 29: Trump announces that the United States will withdraw from the World Health Organization, saying the organization has failed to hold China accountable for the spread of COVID-19.
June 2: Trump tweets that he is seeking a new venue for the Republican National Convention because North Carolina has refused to guarantee that the event can be held without COVID-19 restrictions like facial masks and social distancing.
June 8: Trump, not having held any rallies since March, announces his plans to restart them in the next two weeks. His campaign manager, Brad Parscale says, Youll again see the kind of crowds and enthusiasm that sleepy Joe Biden can only dream of.
June 11: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals begins the first U.S. human clinical trials of a COVID-19 antibody cocktail.
June 15: The federal Food and Drug Administration withdraws emergency approval for hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug Trump lauded as treatment for COVID-19. The FDA says such medications are likely to be ineffective.
June 16: Vice President Pence says fears of COVID-19 are overblown as nine states hit new single-day highs or set records for seven-day new coronavirus case averages.
June 20: Trump holds a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, despite warnings from health officials about the risk of spreading COVID-19. On the day of the rally, six of Trumps own campaign staff test positive for the virus; two more cases are subsequently confirmed among staff who worked the event.
June 22: Twenty-nine states report a jump in COVID-19 cases, with some breaking daily records. Many new outbreaks occurred in Georgia, Texas, and Florida, states that were among the earliest to reopen.
June 23: Trump doubles down on claims he made at his Tulsa rally, saying he wasnt joking when he asked health officials to slow down testing for COVID-19 so the numbers werent as bad. The White House had tried explaining away his comments as being in jest.
June 26: Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, slams Vice President Mike Pence for saying the United States is doing a good job of containing COVID-19 except for a couple of hotspots. Hoetz says: These are not hotspotsthese are the largest metropolitan areas in the United States.
June 29: The United States surpasses 2.5 million cases of COVID-19.
June 30: The European Union re-opens its borders to fourteen countries but not the United States because of its failure to contain COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci says he would not be surprised if the U.S. daily total of new cases more than doubles to 100,000 cases per day.
July 6: Trump tweets that the United States now has the worlds lowest COVID-19 mortality rate. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, it actually has the sixth-highest death rate among the twenty most-affected countries, at 4.5 percent.
July 7: Five weeks after threatening to do so, Trump announces that the United States is formally withdrawing from the World Health Organization. This comes on the same day the nation hits three million cases of coronavirus.
July 8: Trump denounces the CDCs guidelines for reopening schools, including masks, hygiene, and staggered scheduling, calling them impractical. He also says Democrats think its going to be good for them politically, so they keep the schools closed.
July 18: The Trump Administration axes billions of dollars in funding recommended by Republicans for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing.
July 20: In an interview with Fox News, Trump says many COVID-19 cases are young people who have the sniffles. On this same day, the official U.S. death toll from COVID-19 tops 140,000.
July 28: Trump praises Stella Immanuel, a doctor and preacher who believes in witchcraft and alleges a plot to vaccinate people against being religious, calling her spectacular. On this same day, the U.S. COVID-19 death toll surpasses 150,000.
July 30: Former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain dies from COVID-19; he was diagnosed with the virus days after attending a Trump rally in Tulsa, without wearing a mask. It later comes to light that Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows responded to this news by saying, We killed Herman Cain.
August 4: Trump rebukes Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus task force coordinator, for saying the pandemic is extraordinarily widespread across the country, blaming her negative outlook on Crazy Nancy Pelosi.
August 5: Its going away. Itll go away. Things go away. No question in my mind that it will go away, Trump says regarding COVID-19 during a White House press briefing. This comes days after Dr. Fauci told the House Select Subcommittee that he did not believe the coronavirus would ever completely go away given its contagious nature.
August 5: Twitter temporarily blocks Trumps election campaign account from tweeting until it removes a post with a video clip from a Fox News interview in which Trump falsely claims children are almost immune from this disease. Facebook removes a post containing the same video from Trumps personal page.
August 9: The United States hits five million cases of COVID-19, by far the highest number in the world.
August 22: President Trump tweets that The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3.
August 23: Trump announces FDA authorization of the emergency use of convalescent plasma therapy, an unproven treatment, for COVID-19 patients. Scientists react with alarm, with one saying if you end up hospitalized, your doctor wont know if plasma is helpful or not. Thats why we do science.
September 2: Trump goes maskless as he surveys the damage done during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. At a roundtable meeting during the trip, Trump says those in attendance can take off their face masks if you feel more comfortable doing so.
September 4: According to a forecast from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, the global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic could triple by the end of 2020, with a fall wave of infections potentially propelling fatalities in the United States to 410,000.
September 11: Politico reports that Trump-appointed health aides demanded and received the right to review CDC reports charting the progress of COVID-19, which have contradicted Trumps optimistic messages about the pandemic. CDC to me appears to be writing hit pieces on the administration, one appointee complained.
September 14: Health and Human Services spokesperson Michael Caputo accuses scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of gathering a resistance unit for sedition against President Trump.
September 17: Newly revealed documents show that the U.S. Postal Service had planned to send 650 million masks to American households for free, even drafting a press release. But the plan was scrapped.There was concern from some in the White House . . . that households receiving masks might create concern or panic, explained one administration official.
September 21: The CDC website is edited to remove notes suggesting that COVID-19 can spread through airborne transmission. The agency claims the language had been posted in error, but former FDA chief Dr Scott Gottlieb tells CNBC that Its really hard to believe that this was an accidental posting.
September 22: The United States hits 200,000 coronavirus deaths.
September 30: Researchers at Cornell University who analyzed thirty-eight million articles about the pandemic in media around the world release a study finding Trump to be the single largest driver of spreading coronavirus misinformation, which it dubbed an infodemic.
October 2: Trump announces that he and First Lady Melania have tested positive for COVID-19. The previous afternoon, Trump attended a fundraising rally in New Jersey, potentially putting his own supporters at risk.
October 5: Trump urges Americans, none of whom have access to health care comparable to his, to Dont be afraid of Covid. Dont let it dominate your life. On returning from the hospital and still highly contagious, Trump removes his mask before entering the White House.
Oct 6: Stephen Miller, Trumps top speechwriter, tests positive for the coronavirus. This brings the total number of cases in the White House outbreak to at least thirty-four.
October 13: Two anonymous senior White House administration officials tout herd immunity, the idea that the best way to fight COVID-19 is to have lots of people contract it. Health experts, The New York Times reports, have concluded that about 85 to 90 percent of the American population is still susceptible to the coronavirus.
October 16: The White House appoints two political operatives, Nina Witkofsky and Chester Moeller, to the CDC to try to control the information it releases about the pandemic. Neither has any public health background.
October 19: People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots, President Trump declares during a campaign stop, later calling Dr. Fauci a disaster. Also, Twitter removes a tweet by Scott Atlas, a Trump favorite health advisor, that declares: Masks work? NO. Twitter says this violated its policy on coronavirus misinformation.
October 20: The United States seven-day average of new daily cases moves above 58,300, levels of COVID-19 not seen since the first week of August. Average daily new cases have increased 70 percent since September 12, when the country was at a two-month low of about 34,300.
October 25: White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows says we are not going to control the pandemic because it is a contagious virus just like the flu. The administration, he added, is making efforts to contain it.
October 29: In a Fox News interview, Donald Trump Jr. claims deaths from COVID-19 have dropped to almost nothing. On this day, 1,004 people in the U.S. die from the virus.
October 31: A Stanford University study estimates that eighteen of Trumps reelection rallies/superspreader events have led to an additional 30,000 additional cases and 700 additional deaths.
November 2: Speaking at a campaign rally in Florida, Trump responds to a crowds chants of Fire Fauci by saying: Dont tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election. Trump cannot directly fire Fauci but can pressure his boss to do so.
November 3: Joe Biden beats Trump in the presidential election, although the race is not called for several days.
November 4: The United States hits 104,004 new coronavirus cases in one day, an all-time high.
November 9: The United States tops ten million cases of coronavirus. Also, CNN reports that almost 20 percent of coronavirus patients get a psychiatric diagnosis within ninety days, mainly for depression or anxiety.
November 17: Politico reports that, for the first time in fifty years, an outgoing presidential administration is stonewalling an incoming one. Trumps team has denied Bidens team any COVID-19 briefings, federal agencies haven't briefed Bidens teams in general, and no security clearances have been done for Biden staffers.
November 18: The United States surpasses 250,000 deaths due to COVID-19.
November 19: The CDC urges Americans to not travel or come into contact with non-household members for Thanksgiving, a week away.
December 11: The FDA authorizes emergency use of the first COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.
December 14: The recorded death toll from COVID-19 in the U.S. surpasses 300,000, less than four weeks after reaching the quarter-million mark.
December 29: The first U.S. case of the COVID-19 Alpha variant is reported by the Colorado Department of Health.
Data source
This study was conducted using anonymous customized research data extracted from the NHIS Database between February 1, 2017, and January 31, 2021. This database is primarily based on the Korean NHIS, a single government insurer that covers approximately 97% of the Korean population and supports Korean hospitals and nursing facilities. The customized database is representative of the transmission data provided by anonymous health insurance and long-term care insurance data20. The database provides healthcare utilization information for both in- and outpatients, including patient demographics, diagnoses, comorbidities, and prescribed medications. The Korean Classification of Disease (KCD), 5th7th editions, and a modification of the International Classification of Disease and Related Health Problems, 10th revision, were used to code the diagnoses. The NHIS coding system was used to collect demographic data (including age, sex, and income) and accompanying diagnostic codes, including diabetes (E1014), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (J44), chronic kidney disease (N18), dyslipidemia (E78), stroke (I6064), hypertension (I1015), and depression (F32, F33, and F34.1). The type of anti-dementia drug (donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine, or memantine) was also extracted, and the pharmaceutical prescription codes for the anti-dementia drugs are described in Supplementary Table 1.
This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Hanyang University Guri Hospital (2022-04-040) and registered with the Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS) under registration number KCT0008217. All personal information in the NHIS database was de-identified, and the requirement for informed consent was waived by the ethics committee of Hanyang University Guri Hospital. Furthermore, all methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guideline (STROBE checklist) and regulations.
All individuals in the customized research database visited a medical institution with a recorded dementia-related diagnostic code and anti-dementia medication from February 2018 to January 2020 (Fig.1). Dementia was identified in the claims data based on KCD-5, 6, or 7 codes. Patients with dementia were defined as those with a history of outpatient visits or admissions based on dementia-related diagnostic codes and anti-dementia drug use. Dementia-related diagnostic codes were F00 (Dementia in Alzheimers disease), F01 (Vascular dementia), F02 (Dementia in other diseases classified elsewhere), F03 (Unspecified dementia), G30 (Alzheimers disease), G31.00 (Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia), G31.01 (Semantic variant primary progressive aphasia), G31.02 (Nonfluent primary progressive aphasia), G31.03 (Logopenic primary progressive aphasia), G31.04 (Primary progressive aphasia), and G31.82 (Dementia with Lewy bodies). We established a washout period commencing in 2002. We excluded all patients who had documented visits to healthcare facilities with a dementia-related diagnostic code before February 2018.
Patients with dementia receiving anti-dementia medications were divided into two groups: (1) newly diagnosed with dementia between February 2018 and January 2019, and (2) newly diagnosed with dementia between February 2019 and January 2020 (Fig.1). The records were followed for one year until January 2020 to January 2021. No medical records with dementia-related diagnostic codes during this period were considered as follow-up loss, while death was considered as mortality. Mortality data were obtained from the death dates recorded within the NHIS database.
We used the ICD-10 version of the CCI, which includes 17 diagnostic categories of acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, cerebral vascular accident, dementia, pulmonary disease, connective tissue disorder, peptic ulcer, liver disease, diabetes mellitus, diabetes mellitus with complications, paraplegia, renal disease, cancer, metastatic cancer, severe liver disease, and HIV21. As all participants had dementia, the other 16 diagnostic categories were weighted and calculated as the CCI. The weighted values and corresponding ICD-10 codes are listed in Supplementary Table 2.
The annual numbers of patients with dementia in 2018 (from February 2018 to January 2019) and 2019 (from February 2019 to January 2020) were identified and followed for one year to determine mortality and follow-up loss (Fig.1). Descriptive analyses were conducted to verify the demographic features of the two cohorts. All patients with dementia receiving anti-dementia medications were divided according to age (5 groups:<50, 5059, 6069, 7079, and80), sex, and income (quintiles) and compared. Categorical variables are expressed as percentages or frequencies. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the relationships between various parameters (including year of diagnosis, age, sex, CCI score, residence, classification of the medical department, and income level) and follow-up loss or mortality. Age, sex, CCI score, residence, comorbidities, classification of medical institutions, classification of diagnosed medical departments, and income level were adjusted for as potential confounders. All statistical analyses were performed using SAS system version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA) and Python 3.9.11 with the SciPy library, and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio The number of new COVID-19 cases in Ohio fell by fewer than 100 cases this week, staying nearly steady from 2,291 last week to 2,224 this week, the state reported Thursday.
The small decrease was enough to count as the seventh consecutive week that new cases have dropped.
The last time that new case numbers were nearly this low was late July when the count was 2,054. A year ago at this same time, the new case count was 6,354.
As recently as early January, the weekly case numbers were over 15,000, at 15,046.
At least 1,333,453 Ohioans have received the updated one-dose COVID-19 vaccine, an increase of 3,974 people from the prior week, the state reported. This represents 11.4% of the states population.
The total COVID-19 case count since early 2020 in Ohio has reached 3,739,400.
There were 114 Ohioans newly hospitalized in the last week, raising the total since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 to 151,077. There were four people admitted into the ICU, bringing the total since 2020 to 15,786.
The state health department reported an additional 24 deaths from COVID-19, raising the total to 43,883. Death reporting sometimes lags by weeks.
April 4 recap
* Total reported cases: 3,739,400, up 2,224.
* Total individuals with updated vaccine: 1,333,453, up 3,974.
* Total reported deaths: 43,883, up 24.
* Total reported hospitalizations: 151,077, up 114.
* Total reported ICU admissions: 15,786, up 4.
March 28 recap
* Total reported cases: 3,737,176, up 2,291.
* Total individuals with updated vaccine: 1,329,479, up 5,000.
* Total reported deaths: 43,859, up 37.
* Total reported hospitalizations: 150,963, up 96.
* Total reported ICU admissions: 15,782, up 3.
Julie Washington covers healthcare for cleveland.com. Read previous stories at this link.
Scientists have been searching for the optimal coronavirus vaccine since the Covid-19 pandemic started. The mRNA vaccines developed through the federal government's "Operation Warp Speed" program were a massive innovation; however, annually updating those boosters for specific SARS-CoV-2 variants is inefficient for scientists and patients. SARS-CoV-2 is just one member of the Sarbecovirus (SARSBetacoronavirus) subfamily (others include SARS-CoV-1, which caused the 2002 SARS outbreak, as well as other viruses circulating in bats that could cause future pandemics).
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a new vaccine that offers broad protection against not only SARS-CoV-2 variants, but also other bat sarbecoviruses. The groundbreaking trivalent vaccine has shown complete protection with no trace of virus in the lungs, marking a significant step toward a universal vaccine for coronaviruses.
We had been working on strategies to make a broadly protective vaccine for a while. This vaccine may protect not just against the current strain circulating that year, but also future variants."
Ravi Kane, Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
They presented their findings in "Broad protection against clade 1sarbecoviruses after a single immunization with cocktail spike-protein-nanoparticlevaccine," published in the February edition ofNature Communications.
Kane and his research group have been working on the technologies to develop more widely protective vaccines for viruses since he joined Georgia Tech in 2015. Although the team didn't specifically foresee Covid-19 arising when it did, pandemics have regularly occurred throughout human history. While the team pivoted their vaccine research to address coronaviruses, they were surprised by how rapidly each new variant arose, making their broader vaccine even more necessary.
Once they realized the challenge inherent in how fast SARS-CoV-2 mutates, they had two options for how to build a vaccine: design one to be widely preventative against the virus, or use the influenza vaccine, which updates annually for the anticipated prevalent variant, as a model.
Making a broad vaccine is more appealing because it enables patients to get one shot and be protected for years. To create their general vaccine, Kane's team capitalized on the key to the original mRNA vaccines -; the spike protein, which binds the virus to healthy cells. Their vaccine uses three prominent spike proteins, or a trivalent vaccine, to elicit a broad enough antibody response to make the vaccine effective against SARS-CoV-2 variants as well as other sarbecoviruses that have been identified as having pandemic potential.
"If you know which variant is circulating, you can immunize with the spike protein of that variant," Ph.D. student and co-author Kathryn Loeffler said. "But a broad vaccine is more difficult to develop because you're protecting against many different antigens versus just one."
Collaborators in the Kawaoka group at the University of Wisconsin tested their vaccine in hamsters, which they had previously identified as an appropriate animal model to evaluate vaccines and immunotherapies against SARS-CoV-2. The vaccine was able to neutralize all SARS-CoV-2 omicron variants tested, as well as non-SARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses circulating in bats. Even better, the vaccine provided complete protection with no detectable virus in the lungs.
Kane hopes that the vaccine strategy his team identified can be applied to other viruses -; other coronavirus subfamilies as well as other viruses such as influenza viruses. They also expect that some of the specific antigens they describe in this paper can be moved toward preclinical trials. Someday, a trivalent vaccine could comprise a routine part of people's medical treatment.
Source:
Journal reference:
Halfmann, P. J., et al. (2024). Broad protection against clade 1 sarbecoviruses after a single immunization with cocktail spike-protein-nanoparticle vaccine.Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45495-6.
The spread of bird fluaround the globe and among different speciesis raising the risk that humans can become infected,according to the head of the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).
It is spreading, acknowledged King County Public Health Officer Doctor Jeff Duchin. Its spreading globally, its spreading in the United States as well. I think well find more and more animals, mammals in particular, will be infected as the virus moves from one population to the next.
Just this week, a Texas man became the second known person in the U.S. to contract bird flu, more formally known as avian influenza H5N1.
More on the virus: Deadly bird flu found in Puget Sound harbor seal population
But Duchin insisted, Theres no new concern here for the general public. The risk remains low.
People most likely to contract avian flu, including the Texas case, are those who are in close contact with infected animals.
Thats unlikely to happen in Washington state right now. Though we have seen past outbreaks of avian flu in wild birds and backyard domestic flocks, the Washington State Agriculture Department said there have been no new, confirmed cases in 2024.
Although the avian flu has been detected in a variety of animals, including bears, seals, foxes, dogs and cats, Right now (the virus) it doesnt bind to the human airway the same way its binding to the tissues of these animal species, and thats very good for us, according to Duchin.
But on the social media platform X this week, Dr. Duchin posted: Although the risk to humans has not fundamentally changed at this time, we might take this opportunity to review lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and improve our preparedness in public health, healthcare systems and communities.
Local birds affected: Avian flu outbreak kills 700 waterfowl around Skagit Bay
Thats because viruses can mutate.
Being prepared doesnt mean just having plans on the shelf, he told KIRO Newsradio.It means putting resources in place to allow those plans to actually be implemented, to make sure that we have the capacity in our public health and health care delivery systems and in our communities so that we can weather another pandemic because one will emerge whether its from avian influenza or another coronavirus or a currently unrecognized virus.
We know it will happen, again, he continued.
Heather Bosch is an award-winning anchor and reporter on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of her storieshere. Follow Heather onX, formerly known as Twitter, oremail her here.
COVID-19 (coronavirus) replaced stroke to become the second-leading cause of death globally in 2021, causing 94 deaths per one lakh population and slashing life expectancy by 1.6 years, an international research published in The Lancet journal has found.
Disrupting more than three decades of consistent improvements in life expectancy and deaths, COVID-19 reversed this long-standing progress to emerge as one of the most defining global health events of recent history, researchers said.
In 2020, deaths around the world rose by 10.8% compared to 2019, and in 2021, they rose by 7.5% relative to 2020. Death rates too followed a similar trend, rising by 8.1% in 2020 and an additional 5.2% in 2021, the study estimated.
Globally, COVID-19 and related deaths were responsible for slashing life expectancy by 1.6 years between 2019 and 2021, even as reduced deaths from infections, stroke, and of newborns, among others, had helped steadily enhance life expectancy between 1990 and 2019, the researchers found.
India lost 1.9 years of life expectancy due to COVID-19, resulting in a net gain of 7.9 years of life expectancy between 1990 and 2021, the study showed. "COVID-19 had a pronounced influence on the reduction in global life expectancy that occurred," the authors wrote.
The researchers forming the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Causes of Death Collaborators estimated mortality and years of life lost from 288 causes of death across 204 countries and territories for every year from 1990 until 2021. Region-wise, death rates from COVID-19 were the highest in the sub-Saharan Africa.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, it was at 271 per one lakh population and almost 200 deaths per one lakh population, respectively. The rate was the lowest in southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania at around 23 deaths per one lakh population, the researchers estimated.
The impact of COVID-19 on life expectancy was found to be wide-ranging in severity, with Andean Latin America seeing a loss of 4.9 years and the southern sub-Saharan Africa seeing a reduction of 3.4 years, to the east Asia, which witnessed almost no change, they said in the study.
The leading cause of death worldwide in 2021 continues to be ischaemic heart disease, as was the case in 2019 and 1990, the researchers found. The disease is caused by a reduced blood flow to a certain body part due to clotting or constricting blood vessels.
Stroke, at the third position amongst the top five causes of death, was found to be followed by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at fourth, and other pandemic-related mortality at fifth. COPD is a lung condition usually seen to affect heavy smokers.
The GBD study, providing "latest comprehensive estimates of cause-specific mortality," gives insights about the global landscape of disease before and during the first two years of the pandemic, revealing changes in disease-burden patterns that followed, according to the researchers, coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, U.S.
