Month: November 2020

The United States on Monday reported more than 1 million new cases of COVID-19 in just the first 10 days of November.The U.S. has recorded over 10 million cases of COVID-19 — the highest of any country in the world — according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.Midwestern states are being hit the hardest, with hospitalization rates in the region reaching record highs. The COVID-19 Tracking Project said more than 59,000 people were hospitalized nationwide on Monday.On the same day that the U.S. recorded this spike, two U.S. drug companies announced developments in the fight against the virus.Pfizer announced that its experimental vaccine was 90% effective in preventing the virus in participants without evidence of prior infection.U.S.-based drugmaker Eli Lilly and Canadian-based biotech firm AbCellera announced a new antibody drug known as bamlanivimab. It is part of a class of treatments known as monoclonal antibodies, which are made to act as immune cells that scientists hope can fight off the virus. The antibody therapy is similar to one given to U.S. President Donald Trump after he tested positive for COVID-19 early last month.The FDA has approved the antibody drug for people 12 and older who are at risk of developing a serious form of COVID-19.FILE – A man holds a mock syringe as demonstrators protest against Sao Paulo state governor Joao Doria and China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Nov. 1, 2020.Just hours after news of a breakthrough in the effort to develop a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, Brazil halted late-stage clinical trials of another potential vaccine.The country’s health regulator, Anvisa, announced Monday that it was pausing tests of CoronaVac, developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, after an “adverse, serious event” with a volunteer participant. The event occurred on October 29, but the statement did not go into any other details.The clinical trials in Brazil are being conducted by Sao Paulo-based research institute Butantan. Dimas Covas, the head of the state-run institute, told a local television station that a volunteer had died but that the death was not due to the vaccine.The Sinovac vaccine is the third to be put on hold after a volunteer became ill after being inoculated. U.S. pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson put a hold on its late-stage clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine last month, while another U.S.-based drugmaker, AstraZeneca, halted its late-stage trial of a vaccine developed with the University of Oxford in September after a volunteer in Britain was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord and is often sparked by viral infections.It is not uncommon for clinical trials to be suspended if a volunteer falls ill so that organizers can determine whether the illness is due to the vaccine. But Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has often expressed mistrust of China, has openly doubted the effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine and has insisted that his government will not purchase the drug.People wait next to their cars outside the Cotugno hospital as the battle with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) intensifies, in Naples, Italy, Nov. 9, 2020.Cases spike in EuropeCOVID-19 infections have spiked in other parts of the world, including in Europe, where some governments have instituted lockdown measures to slow the spread of the virus. Globally the number of confirmed cases is more than 50 million, with 1.2 million deaths and 33 million people recovered.According to The Associated Press, intensive care units in France, Italy and Spain are low on hospital beds and staff as case numbers continue to increase.The situation is worsening in Italy, where five more regions have been placed in the government’s so-called “orange” zone of its new three-tiered system that imposes various degrees of restrictions.The system splits Italy’s 20 regions into three zones — red, orange and yellow — with red indicating the most restricted areas and yellow the least restricted.Abruzzo, Umbria, Tuscany, Liguria and Basilicata will join the southern regions of Puglia and Sicily in the orange, or medium, zone; under this zone, residents can move freely within their towns or cities, but cannot leave them, while bars and restaurants are limited to delivery and takeout service.The northern province of Bolzano has been placed in the red zone, joining its sister regions of Lombardy, Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta and the southern region of Calabria. Residents in these zones will not be allowed to leave their homes except for work or medical reasons.All of Italy is under a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., while museums and shopping centers are closed on the weekends and high school classes switch from in-person to online.Italy has 960,373 confirmed novel coronavirus cases, including 41,750 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
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As severe weather events increase in frequency and intensity across the U.S. and around the world, scientists and forecasters are seeking more effective weather-mapping programs. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
Camera: Adam Greenbaum   Produced by: JulieTaboh/Adam Greenbaum
 
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A study conducted by Britain’s Oxford University suggests COVID-19 can increase a person’s risk of developing a psychiatric disorder within three months of catching the virus.
The study, published Monday in the Lancet Psychiatry Journal, indicates one in five surviving COVID-19 patients was found to be diagnosed with a mental disorder within 90 days of a positive coronavirus test. The researchers say that is about twice the normal rate.
The most common disorders diagnosed were anxiety, depression and insomnia, while patients were also found to have significantly higher risks for dementia.
One of the researchers on the study, Oxford professor of psychiatry Paul Harrison, said the study confirms common fears about the virus. “People have been worried that COVID-19 survivors will be at greater risk of mental health problems, and our findings …show this to be likely.”
Harrison suggested health services need to be prepared to deal with new mental health cases and doctors and researchers around the world urgently need to investigate the causes and identify new treatments for mental illness.
The researchers also found that people with a pre-existing psychiatric diagnosis were 65 percent more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than those without, even when the known risk factors for the virus were considered.
For their study, researchers reportedly examined electronic health records of 69 million people in the United States including over 62,000 cases of COVID-19.
 
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European Union regulators have filed antitrust charges against Amazon, accusing the e-commerce giant of using data to gain an unfair advantage over merchants using its platform.
The EU’s executive commission, the bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, said Tuesday that the charges have been sent to the company.
The commission said it takes issue with Amazon’s systematic use of non-public business data to avoid “the normal risks of competition and to leverage its dominance” for e-commerce services in France and Germany, the company’s two biggest markets in the EU.
The EU started looking into Amazon in 2018 and has been focusing on its dual role as a marketplace and retailer.
In addition to selling its own products, the U.S. company allows third-party retailers to sell their own goods through its site. Last year, more than half of the items sold on Amazon worldwide were from these outside merchants.
Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner in charge of competition, said it’s not a problem that Amazon is a successful business but “our concern is very specific business conduct which appears to distort genuine competition.”
Amazon faces a possible fine of up to 10% of its annual worldwide revenue, which could amount to billions of dollars. The company rejected the accusations.
“We disagree with the preliminary assertions of the European Commission and will continue to make every effort to ensure it has an accurate understanding of the facts,” the company said in a statement.
The company can, under EU rules, reply to the charges in writing and present its case in an oral hearing.
Vestager also opened a second investigation into Amazon over whether it favors its own products and those from third-party merchants that use its logistics and delivery services.
It’s the EU’s latest effort to curb the power of big technology companies, following a series of multi-billion-dollar antitrust fines against Google in previous years.
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A top Pakistani government scientist says Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is not suited for Pakistan, or other developing countries because of the -80°C temperatures it needs to be kept at, and the need for a second shot.The American pharmaceutical company announced Monday that late-stage testing on its potential two-dose vaccine indicates it is more than 90% effective in preventing the virus in participants without evidence of prior infection.The revelation is being hailed as a rare piece of positive news in the fight against the pandemic that has globally infected more than 50 million people, with 1.2 million deaths and 33 million people recovered.But Professor Atta Ur Rahman, who heads Pakistan’s Task Force on Science and Technology, said Tuesday it is “premature at least” for his country or others in the developing world to celebrate the Pfizer vaccine.“This is a messenger RNA vaccine and it has to be transported at -80°C, so this vaccine is not suited for developing countries,” Rahman told VOA. “The cold storage infrastructure and chains to take this from the airport across the cities and across the countries are missing in the developing world,” the professor explained.He went on to note that COVID-19 patients would require two doses of the Pfizer vaccine three weeks apart and “a low-temperature carriage” requirement makes it all the more difficult in Pakistan, where average summer temperatures in southern and southwestern regions soar to between 40°C and 50°C.COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.FILE – Students wear protective face masks, maintaining a safe distance as they attend a class amid COVID-19 pandemic in Peshawar, Pakistan, Sept. 30, 2020.Own clinical trials on Chinese vaccinesRahman said Pakistan is also conducting its own final-phase clinical trials on two Chinese-made single-dose vaccines in partnership with China. He says that the vaccines can be transported in normal temperatures, unlike the Pfizer vaccine.“Our trials are going on very well. The results are very positive as far as I am aware… Both these vaccines do not have this -80°C transportation problem. I expect the vaccines to be better suited for Pakistan than the Pfizer vaccine.” One of the vaccines under trial in Pakistan has been developed by Chinese biotech firm CanSinoBio and is already undergoing Phase 3, or large-scale, testing on humans in several countries, including China, Russia, Chile and Argentina.Rahman said the clinical trials in Pakistan, which began in September, will take at least three months and that the results will then be sent back to China to be evaluated.Pakistan has documented nearly 347,000 infections, with 7,000 deaths and almost 320,000 people recovered since the pandemic hit the country of about 220 million in February.The number of cases in Pakistan has steadily declined to a few hundred a day since mid-June, when the daily rate of infection spiked at more than 6,000.But officials in recent days have warned the South Asian nation is experiencing a second wave of infections, reporting 1,637 new cases and 23 deaths Tuesday. The resurgence has prompted the government to revive some restrictions on public movement to stem the spread of the ailment. 
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The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a Republican effort to strike down the Affordable Care Act health care law.The hearing comes weeks after Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court, giving conservatives a 6-3 majority.At the center of the case is a requirement in the 2010 law for most people to have a minimum level of health insurance or face a financial penalty.  In a 2012 case, the Supreme Court ruled that provision was allowed on the basis that it represented a tax that Congress is allowed to levy.  In 2017, the Republican-controlled Congress and set the penalty to zero.A group of states, led by Texas, is leading the current charge to dismantle the health care law, commonly known as Obamacare.  They argue that the mandate for individuals to purchase health coverage is unconstitutional, and that without that provision, the entire Affordable Care Act must be struck down.Part of the original congressional intent in requiring people to have coverage was that it would bring more healthy people into the system who would pay premiums without using many services, helping to offset costs of individuals who needed more care, including those with pre-existing conditions who had previously been denied coverage.Texas and its partners argue that eliminating the individual mandate would create an imbalance and push health costs unfairly higher.The opposition is led by California, and points to the 2017 action by Congress as evidence that lawmakers had no problem with removing only the penalty for the individual mandate while allowing the rest of the Affordable Care Act to remain in place. They further argue that as the law stands, with no penalty in place, it merely encourages people to have health insurance, and thus cannot be seen as an unconstitutional imposition by the government.The court is expected to issue its ruling in the case by late June or early July.Of the justices who were members of the court during the 2012 case, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas voted to strike down the entire law.  Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor voted to uphold it.Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch have since joined the court.If the court strikes down the law, up to 20 million people could lose their health coverage and insurance companies could be allowed to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
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Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa suspended clinical trials of a Chinese firm’s coronavirus vaccine after an unspecified “adverse incident” involving a volunteer recipient late last month. Anvisa would only say such incidents could involve a death or serious disability resulting in hospitalization.  Anvisa’s action with the CoronaVac vaccine occurred the same day a rival, U.S. pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, announced its vaccine has shown 90 percent effectiveness. Word of Pfizer’s vaccine success sent global financial markets soaring. Both the Pfizer and the Chinese Sinovac vaccine are in Phase III trials, the last stage of testing before regulators give it clearance for public use. Brazil has the highest coronavirus tally in Latin America, with more than 5,664,000 confirmed cases and 162,397 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University and Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. 
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U.S. health officials have allowed emergency use of the first antibody drug to help the immune system fight COVID-19, an experimental approach against the virus that has killed more than 238,000 Americans.  The Food and Drug Administration on Monday cleared the experimental drug from Eli Lilly for people 12 and older with mild or moderate COVID-19 not requiring hospitalization. It’s a one-time treatment given through an IV.  The therapy is still undergoing additional testing to establish its safety and effectiveness. It is similar to a treatment President Donald Trump received after contracting the virus last month. Lilly’s studies of the antibody drug are continuing. Early results suggest it may help clear the coronavirus sooner and possibly cut hospitalizations in people with mild to moderate COVID-19. A study of it in hospitalized patients was stopped when independent monitors saw the drug did not seem to be helping in that situation. The government previously reached an agreement to buy and supply much of the early production of Lilly’s drug. FILE – Lab technicians load vials of investigational coronavirus disease (COVID-19) treatment drug remdesivir at a Gilead Sciences facility in La Verne, California, March 18, 2020. (Gilead Sciences Inc/Handout)Only one drug, Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir, has full FDA approval for treating COVID-19. Government treatment guidelines also back using dexamethasone and other steroids for certain severely ill, hospitalized patients. One other treatment has an emergency use designation now: convalescent plasma, made from the blood of COVID-19 survivors. No large studies have shown it to be more effective than usual care alone, however.  The new drug is part of an emerging family of biologic therapies that offer a promising new approach to preventing serious disease and death from COVID-19. Experts say the infused drugs could serve as a therapeutic bridge to help manage the virus until vaccines are widely available. The drugs are laboratory-made versions of antibodies, blood proteins the body creates to help target and eliminate foreign infections. The new therapies are concentrated versions of the antibodies that proved most effective against the virus in patient studies. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. also has asked for emergency authorization for an antibody drug it is testing, the one Trump received. FILE – Medical technicians work at a drive-thru coronavirus testing facility at the Regeneron Pharmaceuticals company’s Westchester campus in Tarrytown, New York, September 17, 2020.FDA regulators authorized the Lilly drug using their emergency powers to quickly speed the availability of experimental drugs and other medical products during public health crises. Potential benefits must outweigh risksIn normal times the FDA requires “substantial evidence” to show that a drug is safe and effective, usually through one or more large, rigorously controlled patient studies. But during public health emergencies the agency can lower those standards and require only that an experimental treatment’s potential benefits outweigh its risks. The emergency authorization functions like a temporary approval for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. To win full approval, Lilly will have to submit additional research to fully define the drug’s safety and benefit for patients.  The government has signed an agreement with Lilly to spend $375 million to buy 300,000 vials of the drug. How many doses that would provide is unclear. Each vial contains 70 milligrams and that dose proved ineffective in the early results. It took four times that amount — 2,800 milligrams — to show any effect. The Lilly drug is authorized for people 12 and older who weigh at least 40 kilograms (about 88 pounds), and who are at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization. This includes those who are 65 years of age or older, or who have certain chronic medical conditions. 
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Twitter says it could strip President Donald Trump’s account of certain privileges when projected election winner Joe Biden takes office on January 20.
 
Trump’s recent tweets alleging voter fraud in the November 3 election have been tagged by Twitter, with notices that say for example, “This claim about voter fraud is disputed.”
 
Ordinarily, Twitter would remove such tweets, but affords world leaders some further latitude.
 
“A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable,” a Twitter spokesman told the Bloomberg news agency. “With this in mind, there are certain cases where it may be in the public’s interest to have access to certain tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules.”
 
This policy, however, does not apparently extend to former leaders, Twitter told the Reuters news organization.
 
“This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions,” a Twitter spokesman told Reuters in a statement.
 
Trump is refusing to concede the election, alleging voter fraud. He is suing various states over what he says are irregularities.  
 
Media organizations, including VOA, have projected Biden as the winner of the election, with 279 electoral votes.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the news from pharmaceutical company Pfizer that its potential vaccine showed better than 90% efficacy in Phase 3 tests. But he cautioned that a vaccine is still a long way off and that one vaccine is not a solution.Speaking to reporters in London, Johnson said the data released Monday by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, indicated the vaccine is safe, but the findings must be peer reviewed.Johnson stressed these are the “very, very early days” of this vaccine search, and he compared this news to “the distant bugle of the scientific calvary coming over the brow of the hill.” The prime minister said the bugle is louder, but the calvary is still a long way off.Johnson said the British government earlier this year ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, enough for one-third of the British population. He said they had ordered 300 million more doses from five other potential vaccines as well.But the prime minister said if the Pfizer vaccine proves effective and passes all appropriate safety checks, then the government will begin a nationwide vaccine distribution program administered by the National Health Service.Johnson was also asked about the results of the U.S. election being called for Joe Biden, with Kamala Harris as his vice president-elect. He congratulated the two Democrats and said while his government has had a good relationship with the Trump administration, he has no doubt that will continue under Biden.Johnson said he was particularly excited to work with the incoming administration in their efforts to fight climate change.
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The secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a department spokesperson. The HUD secretary “is in good spirits and feels fortunate to have access to effective therapeutics which aid and markedly speed his recovery,” the agency’s deputy chief of staff, Coalter Baker, said in a statement. After experiencing symptoms, Carson, 69, went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he was tested, reports say. The noted pediatric neurosurgeon is expected to fully recover. A memo sent to HUD staff said Carson was “resting at his house and is already beginning to feel better.” Anyone who came into contact with Carson will be notified, the memo said. Carson was one of several people who attended an election night party at the White House on Tuesday, where few attendees wore masks or practiced social distancing, several news organizations have reported. Also, the White House recently announced that chief of staff Mark Meadows and other staffers had tested positive for the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. Meadows’ diagnosis was announced November 6. A few weeks ago, President Donald Trump was hospitalized at Walter Reed after he was diagnosed with the coronavirus.President-elect Joe Biden has called on Americans to wear a mask. He said at a news conference Monday that wearing a mask is “not a political statement.” Carson joined the Trump administration in 2017. Carson ran unsuccessfully as a Republican presidential candidate in 2016. 
 
 
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With the coronavirus pandemic entering its worst phase yet, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden says the country is “still facing a dark winter,” warning that 200,000 more people could die of COVID-19 before a vaccine is widely made available.  Speaking on Monday after receiving a briefing from his transition team’s new coronavirus advisory board, Biden, in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, cautioned “the challenge before us right now is still immense and growing, and so is the need for bold action to fight this pandemic.”  The United States has surpassed 10 million cases of the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, with infection rates, hospitalizations and the number of deaths all rising.  A White House coronavirus task force meeting, led by Vice President Mike Pence, is being held later Monday.  Earlier in the day, one drugmaker announced that an early analysis suggests its vaccine is very effective in preventing COVID-19.Pfizer said a data monitoring committee found no serious safety concerns with its vaccine, which requires two doses. The pharmaceutical company and its German partner, BioNTech, intend to apply for emergency authorization for the vaccine after the third week of November. It is one of four vaccines in the United States in the final stage of testing.  FILE – Pfizer says it will ask for emergency authorization later this month for its COVID-19 vaccine currently undergoing testing. Photo illustration.Biden, calling this a “positive note,” said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will soon run a process of rigorous reviews and approvals, but it “must also be grounded in science and fully transparent, so that the American people can have confidence that any approved vaccine is safe and effective.”  The president-elect added that the vaccine, even if approved, will not be widely available for many months, thus “the challenge before us right now is still immense and growing, and so is the need for bold action to fight this pandemic.”  The government’s assistant health secretary, Public Health Service Admiral Brett Giroir, speaking separately to reporters on a conference call after Biden’s remarks, echoed the president-elect’s plea for all people in the country to wear masks until the vaccine can be widely deployed.  A lot of people remain at risk until that time, the admiral said, expressing hope that after mass vaccinations, COVID-19, while not eradicated, hopefully, “it’ll be like polio, that it’ll be a rare occurrence and one that we can deal with.” Asked about the Biden transition team’s announced plan to tackle the pandemic, Giroir replied, “I haven’t seen anything in the testing strategy that we’re not already doing.”  Giroir, a top health official in the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump promised, “we will work together between testing and smart policies to slow the spread, flatten the curve, save lives and set up for an effective and smooth transition to the next administration.”  
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Richard Branson’s Virgin Hyperloop has completed the world’s first passenger ride on a super high-speed levitating pod system, the company said on Sunday, a key safety test for technology it hopes will transform human and cargo transportation. Virgin Hyperloop executives Josh Giegel, its Chief Technology Officer, and Sara Luchian, Director of Passenger Experience, reached speeds of up to 107 miles per hour (172 km per hour) at the company’s DevLoop test site in Las Vegas, Nevada, the company said. “I had the true pleasure of seeing history made before my very eyes,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman of Virgin Hyperloop and Group Chairman and Chief Executive of DP World. Los Angeles-based Hyperloop envisions a future where floating pods packed with passengers and cargo hurtle through vacuum tubes at 600 miles an hour (966 kph) or faster.Virgin Hyperloop test in Las Vegas, Nevada, Nov. 9, 2020.In a hyperloop system, which uses magnetic levitation to allow near-silent travel, a trip between New York and Washington would take just 30 minutes. That would be twice as fast as a commercial jet flight and four times faster than a high-speed train. The company has previously run over 400 tests without human passengers at the Nevada site. The test comes a month after Reuters first reported that Virgin Hyperloop picked the U.S. state of West Virginia to host a $500 million certification center and test track that will serve as a proving ground for its technology. The company is working toward safety certification by 2025 and commercial operations by 2030, it has said.  Canada’s Transpod and Spain’s Zeleros also aim to upend traditional passenger and freight networks with similar technology they say will slash travel times, congestion and environmental harm linked with petroleum-fueled machines. 
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Tropical Storm Eta made landfall late Sunday in the Florida Keys on its way into the eastern Gulf of Mexico before taking another aim at the southeastern U.S. state later this week. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 100 kilometers per hour as it brought heavy rainfall and life-threatening flash floods to parts of southern Florida. Forecasters expect the storm to strengthen slightly into a hurricane later Monday or Tuesday but weaken again into a tropical storm before making a mainland Florida landfall. Officials have closed beaches, ports and coronavirus testing sites in the state and urged people to stay home. Florida’s governor has also declared a state of emergency in several counties to speed the government’s response. Forecasters expect Eta to drop 15 to 30 centimeters of rain on central and southern Florida through Friday. Parts of the Bahamas, Jamaica and Cuba will also see some heavy rains. Eta was a strong hurricane when it hit Nicaragua last week, bringing flooding rains to communities from Panama to Mexico. Rescuers in Guatemala continued searching Sunday for people caught in a landslide and authorities raised the official death toll to 27 with more than 100 people still missing. The storm has been blamed for at least 20 deaths in southern Mexico and at least 20 more in Honduras. 
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