Paramedic Jess Baddams poses while holding a blood sample during an antibody testing programme at the Hollymore Ambulance Hub of the West Midlands Ambulance Service in Birmingham on June 5. Simon Dawson/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
About 7% of participants in a British study tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, according to results from the first month of the nationwide study.
The test results, which indicate previous infection with coronavirus, ranged from 10.4% of Londoners to about 4.4% of people living in the southwest of England and Scotland.
The widespread United Kingdom serology, or antibody, study uses volunteers for a much larger, ongoing health study called the UK Biobank. UK Biobank has collected samples and health information from 500,000 volunteers for research.
The researchers have recruited more than 20,000 volunteers from regions across the UK for the coronavirus antibody study. They are being asked to provide monthly blood samples that the Oxford University-based Target Discovery Institute will test for the antibodies.
The first round of results focused on 17,776 participant samples, taken in May and June. Nationally, 7.1% were positive for Covid-19 antibodies, the researchers reported on the Biobank website. Just under 11% of people under 30 had antibodies, compared to 5.4% of those over 70.
The results confirm other studies that indicate Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups appeared to be hardest hit by Covid-19, which is consistent with findings from the United States.
Among Black participants, about 11.3% tested positive for antibodies, as opposed to 6.9% of White participants. Researchers noted that the differences between ethnic groups could not be fully explained by age or place of residence. But previous infection was also higher among those living in lower socioeconomic areas.
The team says that their continued research will provide insight into the way antibody levels change over time, hopefully answering questions about immunity, reinfection and the impact of stay-at-home orders.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that more than 200 children have tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a summer camp in Georgia at the end of June. That's more than a third of the nearly 600 Georgia residents who attended, according to the CDC's report.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp issued an executive order on June 11 allowing campers and workers to attend overnight camps if they received a negative COVID-19 test within 12 days of starting camp. The camp ran from June 21 to 27, and more than 500 of the campers and staffers were children ages 17 and younger, the CDC reported. Out-of-state attendees were not included in the CDC's reporting.
On June 24, a teenage staff member who had been experiencing chills while at the camp tested positive for the virus. While campers began to be sent home that same day, the camp did not officially close until three days later, the CDC said.
While the camp "adopted most components" of the CDC's official suggestions for summer camps, the CDC reported that the camp did not require campers to wear cloth face masks and did not open windows and doors of the buildings to allow increased ventilation. People sleeping in the same cabins and "engaging in regular singing and cheering" also "likely contributed to transmission," the CDC said.
Children between the ages of 6 and 10 had the highest attack rate — the number of positive cases divided by the total number of attendees — at 51%, followed by teens between the ages of 11 and 17 at 44%. But these rates, the CDC said, "are likely an underestimate."
The CDC said that what happened at the camp indicates that "children of all ages are susceptible" to the coronavirus, especially when placed in large group settings, and "might play an important role in transmission."
"The multiple measures adopted by the camp were not sufficient to prevent an outbreak in the context of substantial community transmission," the CDC report said.
"Correct and consistent use of cloth masks, rigorous cleaning and sanitizing, social distancing, and frequent hand washing strategies, which are recommended in CDC's recently released guidance to reopen America's schools, are critical to prevent transmission of the virus in settings involving children and are our greatest tools to prevent COVID-19," the CDC added.
Although the CDC did not identify the camp, CBS affiliate WGCL reported on an outbreak at a Georgia camp in June. On June 24 — the same day that the CDC reported a camp staffer testing positive — a YMCA Camp High Harbour counselor reported testing positive for coronavirus, according to WGCL.
Campers were sent home from the camp over the following few days, according to a statement by YMCA of Metro Atlanta CEO Laurent Koontz. By July 10, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that about 85 people at the camp had tested positive for coronavirus.
The camp, with locations at Lake Allatoona and Lake Burton, has been closed for the summer, according to its website.
Forty-five coronavirus cases at the University of Southern California have been connected to three fraternities associated with the school, according to the Los Angeles Department of Public Health. The health department, which is now investigating the outbreak, said in a statement to CBS News that it "may be linked to a large social gathering on July 4th."
USC first identified a cluster of about 15 cases along its fraternity row in a campus health alert on July 9. At the time, the school said "patients with confirmed positive tests" were in self-isolation at home or "in the process of being privately transported to isolation."
Dr. Sarah Van Orman, chief health officer for USC Student Health, however, wrote in a July 16 university advisory that the school was seeing "worrisome trends emerge" from its smaller summer population.
"Recent student exposure and illness has been traced back to group gatherings," Van Orman wrote. She noted there had been no transmission among students living in residence halls.
According to Van Orman, the school's positivity rate increased from 5% to 9% among students during the first two weeks of July. "Most of these cases are attributed to congregate living environments in private residences and group gatherings, especially over the Fourth of July weekend," she wrote.
School officials said that while the outbreak affected fraternity houses, it wasn't clear if those with the virus were members of fraternities or people who leased out rooms during the summer.
In response to the pandemic, the school has moved the vast majority of classes online, canceled events, limited on-campus housing, and added mask requirements as well as social distancing and symptom-checking measures, CBS Los Angeles reports.
The school has reported a total of 60 COVID-19 cases among students since July 5.
No new cases have been reported in the last week, leading school officials to believe the outbreak is over, CBS LA reports.
As of Thursday, the Los Angeles Department of Public Health has confirmed 41 new deaths and 2,628 new cases of COVID-19 across the county, according to a press release. In total, it has identified 185,872 positive cases of COVID-19, and 4,552 deaths due to the disease.
California currently leads the country for the largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. There have been 492,934 confirmed cases and 9,026 deaths in California as of Friday, with by far the largest concentration — 186,036 confirmed cases, and 4,559 deaths — located in Los Angeles.
Gatherings of people from different households are currently prohibited under the county's Health Officer Order for the control of COVID-19.
"These are high-risk situations where COVID-19 can spread quickly to many people," reads the health department's statement regarding the USC outbreak. "Those people, even if they are asymptomatic, can then spread it to their household, which may include someone who becomes seriously ill or who may die."
"As we have seen, people's health, people's livelihoods, and people's lives are at stake."
COVID-19 Daily Update:
July 30, 2020
Cases: 2,628 (185,872 to date)
Deaths: 41 (4,552 to date)
Current Hospitalizations: 2,022 pic.twitter.com/OCnp8RLDxR
USC is not the only university that has seen cased linked to fraternity houses. Earlier this month, more than 100 students living in fraternity houses near the University of Washington campus reported testing positive for COVID-19. The Interfraternity Council, a student-led governing board for UW fraternities, said that at least 105 residents living in 15 fraternity houses have self-reported that they tested positive, CBS affiliate KIRO-TV reported.
The university, located in Seattle, learned Saturday that some fraternity residents had symptoms of COVID-19, and public health officials noticed a spike in cases among people ages 18 to 20, according to university spokeswoman Michelle Ma.
Daniel Leifer, a pediatrician studying dermatology at UW, estimated that he saw about a dozen parties when walking by Greek Row in recent months. Students stood close together, and masks were nowhere to be seen, he said.
"Unless all of us understand that right now our only tools are physical distancing and wearing masks, we're going to continue to have devastation, not only in terms of the economy, our learning, our academics, our jobs, but people dying," Van Orman told the Los Angeles Times.
"Each of us have to decide what we stand for. Frats need to do that as well."
California health officials reported the state’s first coronavirus death of a child on Friday as the statewide tally of fatalities surpassed 9,000, saying the victim was a teenager who had other health conditions.
The teenager's death occurred in the Central Valley, but officials at the state Department of Public Health released no other details, citing privacy rules. The Central Valley is the state’s major agricultural region and recently has become one of California’s hot spots for the virus.
It’s extremely rare for children to die of the coronavirus. As of mid-July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 228 children had died of the disease in the U.S., less than 0.2% of the nation’s deaths at the time.
In California, more than 9,000 people have now died from the virus, and three-quarters were 65 and older. Only about 9% of California’s nearly half-million confirmed virus cases are children, and very few have suffered conditions serious enough for hospitalization, according to state data.
Scientists still aren’t certain why children don’t seem to be as seriously affected by the virus as adults.
In March, Los Angeles County officials said a 17-year-old boy died of the virus. At the time it was believed to be the first death of a child, but days later local health officials walked back the initial finding, saying it was possible he died from something else. County health officials said the case would need to be evaluated by the Centers for Disease Control.
Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster, said the boy from his city died from septic shock after being admitted to the hospital with respiratory issues.
How likely children are to contract and spread the virus is a key question as leaders in California and elsewhere determine if and how to safely reopen schools this fall. Most California counties are now on a state monitoring list because of rising virus cases and and may not reopen schools for in-person instruction until they are off the list for 14 days.
Statewide, 96 deaths were reported in the last day, according to figures released Friday. Cases are still increasing by the thousands each day, but the curve appears to be flattening. The average number of new cases per day over the past week was 8,322, compared to 9,881 in the previous week.
The average percentage of people testing positive dropped to 6.5% over the past seven days, compared to 7.2% over 14 days.
Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged more support for the Central Valley on Monday, including $52 million in federal money for eight counties to improve testing and find places for people to isolate or quarantine if they can’t do so at home. The eight counties, including Fresno and Kern, home to major cities, had positive test rates between 11% and 18% at the beginning of the week.
For many people, the coronavirus causes no symptoms and for others only mild or moderate illness, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and be fatal.
"I think there are 15-20 of my guys that are not going to vote for anything. ... It's a statement of the obvious that we will not have everybody on our side," McConnell told WHAS, a Kentucky radio station.
McConnell's estimate comes as congressional Democrats and the administration are struggling to reach an agreement after days of talks about a potential fifth coronavirus package as cases climb across the country and an economy bludgeoned by the pandemic.
ADVERTISEMENT
McConnell, during the radio interview, said the two sides were "light-years apart," the latest sign that Congress and the White House are not close to a quick deal.
"This negotiation is going to be tough," he added. "At the moment there's not much movement."
McConnell, asked why a sizable portion of his conference is opposed to another bill, noted the growing size of the country's debt after Congress has already appropriated nearly $3 trillion in the previous four coronavirus bills.
"Their argument's not irrational. ... They don't think we ought to pass another one of these bills. I don't agree with that," McConnell said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Asked what those GOP senators would say to voters, McConnell added, "I think everybody's got to make their best call here."
If 20 Republicans voted against an eventual coronavirus deal, that means McConnell would need support from at least 27 Democratic senators to get the bill over a 60-vote procedural threshold and pass it in the Senate. McConnell said during an interview with PBS "Newshour" earlier this week that "about 20 of my members think that we’ve already done enough."
"One Senator said: 'There are a hundred problems with the plan.' Another: 'It’s a mess. I can’t figure out what this bill is about.' ... Those would be harsh criticisms if they came from Democrats. But those quotes weren’t from Democrats, those were Republican senators talking about their own party’s plan," Schumer said during a speech from the Senate floor this week.
The previous four bills passed the Senate with either no opposition or only a handful of "no" votes.
But McConnell has repeatedly acknowledged that he expects the next deal to be more contentious.
"What's happened here is that the political environment has deteriorated significantly. ... We're four months closer to the election," he said.
The Hancock County Health Department notified Greenfield-Central Junior High School Thursday afternoon that one of their students, who had attended part of the school day, tested positive for Covid-19, Superintendent Harold Olin said in a letter.
Olin said the school enacted its "Positive COVID-19 Test Protocol" once school officials became aware of the positive result.
School officials immediately isolated the student within the school's clinic, and they examined the student's schedule, including transportation and extracurricular activities, to determine who had come in close contact.
As part of the district's return to in-person learning, "all areas of all schools" are already being disinfected professionally each evening, according to Olin's letter. But the superintendent noted that special attention would be given to areas and classrooms that the infected student had visited.
"We understand that this information will cause concern for some of you. It was very evident today that nearly all of our families and students were prepared to properly follow the safety protocols we have established," Olin said. "Adhering to these protocols is essential for maintaining a safe environment for all students and staff."
The leaders of the House Problem Solvers Caucus Friday expressed optimism that Republicans and Democrats will soon come together on a major coronavirus deal to continue supplemental unemployment benefits, help struggling small businesses and fund the reopening of schools.
Reps. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., predict an agreement will come within a matter of days. Negotiators are under pressure to act due to Friday's expiration of $600-per-week federal unemployment benefits, schools needing help to reopen this month and lawmakers wanting to preserve their August recess.
"I think we're going to get this done this coming week," Gottheimer said in an interview with Fox News on Friday. "...With the Senate coming in this week, this is really when I believe it'll get negotiated and I presume that (the House) will come back at the back end of the week to vote on it."
Reed said he's confident the White House and House and Senate negotiators will find a middle ground between the House's $3 trillion bill that passed in May and the Senate GOP's $1 trillion proposal that was unveiled this week.
“Obviously, we have to do a deal," Reed told Fox News. "Not to do anything is a disservice to the American people. The institution of Congress is better than that."
Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. lead the House Problem Solvers Caucus.
Reed and Gottheimer have a knack for working out bipartisan solutions as co-chairs of the 50-member caucus that's equally split between Republicans and Democrats. The Problem Solvers Caucus already put out a checklist back in April on how to reopen the economy safely.
Their optimism about a deal stems from the seriousness of the economic and health crisis and the pressure lawmakers are under to act quickly.
"It is amazing when the deadline comes, the Beltway will respond and put a package together," Reed said of the often chaotic nature of last-minute deals in Washington DC.
More than 30 million unemployed Americans will lose their $600-per-week supplemental payments starting Friday, putting additional strain on out-of-work households. Meanwhile, small businesses and restaurants continue to hurt due to the economic fallout of the ongoing pandemic and lost capacity from social distancing restrictions.
"Given these realities, people are going to have to act," Gottheimer said. "I think both sides realize that there's no other choice."
While there are many differences between the House Democrats' bill and the Republican plan, Reed and Gottheimer say they should find bipartisan agreement on funding for state and local governments, additional small business loan support, another round of direct stimulus payments, restoring some level of supplemental unemployment benefits and helping equip schools and campuses to safely reopen.
"We'll obviously have to find some sort of middle ground between all sides here, but I'm really optimistic that we will achieve it," Gottheimer said.
Reed predicts Democrats and Republicans will find a cost compromise, in part, by reprogramming some of the unused money from the $150 billion coronavirus relief fund for state and local governments and the $659 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for small businesses.
On Friday, White House and Congressional negotiators seemed very far apart on a deal, with both sides blaming the other the impasse.
But talks will resume at 9 a,m. Saturday at the Capitol between White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Both Reed and Gottheimer offered one piece of advice to their party's leaders.
COVID-19 - Latest - Google News
August 01, 2020 at 05:35AM
https://ift.tt/319qcxI
Bipartisan leaders of Problem Solvers Caucus predict deal on horizon for coronavirus stimulus bill - Fox News
COVID-19 - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/2VQ2gy8
On Friday, the California Department of Public Health reported the first confirmed death of a teen from coronavirus in the state.
In a statement, the department said the following:
The California Department of Public Health confirmed today the COVID-related death of a teenager in the Central Valley. This is the first death in California of a teenager, and this young person had underlying health conditions. Due to patient confidentiality, CDPH will not provide any additional information about this death. There have been no reported deaths in younger age categories, including children 5 and under.
Per the official statement, this is the first confirmed coronavirus death in a Californian under the age 18. There have been other minors who are suspected to have succumbed to the virus, but the connection was never confirmed via a positive test.
The news comes just one day after an outbreak was reported at USC, infecting about 40 people on fraternity row there.
“A significant number of the cases were associated with four fraternity houses,” a university health official said.
In all, about 150 Trojan students and employees have tested positive so far, even as the school has moved the vast majority of classes online, canceled events, limited on-campus housing, added mask requirements as well as social-distancing and symptom-checking measures.
While early in L.A.’s coronavirus outbreak cases were much more prevalent among people over 60 years old, a majority of the area’s infections have now been recorded in people between the ages of 18 and 49.
California also quietly reported on Friday that it has seen 9,000 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began. There was no media announcement, no press conference from once-ubiquitous Governor Gavin Newsom.
California now trails only New York and New Jersey in terms of death toll from the virus. While those states have bent the COVID curve down, California is still losing record numbers of residents daily.
The state saw an all-time high of 197 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday. California’s pandemic accounted for another 194 new deaths on Thursday.
Deaths have dramatically increased from the near-flat levels in June. Two weeks ago, that daily average of lives lost due to the virus was just 89. On Friday, the 14-day daily average of daily deaths attributed to coronavirus had risen to 112.
The spike began in earnest last week, with a then-record 157 deaths on Thursday topped by 159 deaths recorded last Friday.
Over the weekend and early in the week, those numbers dipped as state officials announced new reporting protocols had created a backlog of results. The recent skyrocketing numbers are, no doubt, at least in part due to that backlog. But the fact that they have resumed on a march to new highs does not bode well.
In addition to the deaths milestone, California reported 8,086 new coronavirus cases, for a total of 493,588 since the pandemic began.
Health - Latest - Google News
August 01, 2020 at 03:42AM
https://ift.tt/30hRkLH
California Coronavirus Update: First Teen Death From Virus Confirmed In State As Death Toll Passes 9,000 - Deadline
Health - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/2zrj9Ud
ESPN MLB insider
Author of "The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports"
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred told MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark on Friday that if the sport doesn't do a better job of managing the coronavirus, it could shut down for the season, sources familiar with the conversation told ESPN.
The league and players recognize the coming days are a critical juncture following an outbreak among the Miami Marlins in which 21 members of the organization have tested positive for COVID-19. Two positive tests by St. Louis Cardinals players on Friday exacerbated concerns inside the sport about the presence of the coronavirus and whether the jointly agreed-upon protocols are being followed properly to prevent outbreaks similar to Miami's.
Should another outbreak materialize, Manfred, who has the power to shut down the season, could move in that direction. Multiple players briefed on the call fear the season could be shut down as soon as Monday if positive tests jump or if players continue not to strictly abide by the league's protocols.
State and local governments have pressured baseball about players skirting the mandates outlined in the league's 113-page operations manual, sources told ESPN. Broadcasts that have shown players high-fiving, spitting and not wearing masks have left government officials wondering how seriously players are taking the protocols, sources said.
Further, there is concern about off-the-field choices, with one high-ranking official saying: "There are some bad decisions being made."
The Cardinals' game against the Milwaukee Brewers was postponed Friday and rescheduled to a doubleheader Sunday. Already, the Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies, who last played Miami on Sunday, were missing scheduled games, leaving 20% of the league's Friday slate empty.
Major League Baseball and the MLBPA on Friday jointly announced the results of COVID-19 testing through Thursday. Of the 11,895 samples taken over the past week, there were 29 positive tests -- 20 by players and nine by staff members.
Health - Latest - Google News
July 31, 2020 at 06:18AM
https://ift.tt/3fh4oFk
Fauci, Birx recommend wearing goggles, face shields in addition to masks - WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland
Health - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/2zrj9Ud
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews addresses the media at the daily briefing on July 31, in Melbourne, Australia. Darrian Traynor/Getty Images
The Australian state of Victoria reported 672 new coronavirus cases and eight deaths on Friday, according to the state's premier Daniel Andrews.
The total number of infections in Victoria, the second-most populous state in Australia, now stands at 10,577, with 112 deaths, according to Andrews.
“Aged care, healthcare settings, warehouse settings, food distribution settings -- these places are where we’re seeing new cases,” Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said during Friday’s news briefing.
Door knocking campaign: Andrews said he has no announcements to make about harsher lockdowns but he would not rule out more frequent door knocking to check if people are staying at home.
More than 130 people -- one in four of those who’ve tested positive -- were caught defying stay-at-home orders, according to the Premier.
Authorities have increased manpower to crack down on isolation dodgers, with 34 teams of officers deployed to knock on the doors of infected individuals.
“Both public health experts from the Victorian team and those on a national level will spend the next day or two looking at the data at the six-week point, the halfway point of the stay-at-home orders that we put in place,” Andrews said. “That analysis will happen today and tomorrow, and then we'll have more to say.”
Though Friday’s figures are slightly lower than the previous day, Andrew said that it is “almost impossible” to see Victoria’s economy open up any time soon.
The immune systems of some people who have not been exposed to the novel coronavirus could have some familiarity with the pathogen -- possibly helping to reduce the severity of illness if that person does get Covid-19, a new study suggests.
The study, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that among a sample of 68 healthy adults in Germany who had not been exposed to the coronavirus, 35% had T cells in their blood that were reactive to the virus.
T cells are part of the immune system and help protect the body from infection. T cell reactivity suggests that the immune system might have had some previous experience fighting a similar infection and may use that memory to help fight a new infection.
So how could their immune system have reactive T cells if they never had Covid-19? They were "probably acquired in previous infections with endemic" coronaviruses, the researchers -- from various institutions in Germany and the United Kingdom -- wrote in the new study. Using this T cell memory from another-yet-similar infection to respond to a new infection is called "cross-reactivity."
'The big question is ... understanding what the role of those T cells might be'
The new study involved analyzing blood samples from 18 Covid-19 patients, ages 21 to 81, and healthy donors, ages 20 to 64, based in Germany. The study found that T cells reactive to the coronavirus were detected in 83% of the Covid-19 patients.
While the researchers also found pre-existing cross-reactive T cells in the healthy donors, they wrote in the study that the impact those cells might have on the outcome of a Covid-19 illness still remains unknown.
"It does appear in this study that there is a significant proportion of individuals that have this cross-reactive T cell immunity from other coronavirus infections that may have some impact on how they fare with the novel coronavirus. I think the big question is trying to jump from the fact that they have these T cells to understanding what the role of those T cells might be," Adalja said.
"We know, for example, children and younger adults are relatively spared from the severe consequences of this disease, and I think that one hypothesis might be that the pre-existing T cells that exist may be much more numerous or more active in younger age cohorts than in older age cohorts," Adalja said.
"And if you could compare people maybe with severe and mild illness and try and look at the T cells in those individuals and say, 'Are people who have severe disease less likely to have cross reactive T cells versus people who have mild disease maybe having more cross reactive T cells?' I think that there's biological plausibility to that hypothesis," he said. "It's clear though that the T cell presence doesn't prevent people from getting infected, but does it modulate the severity of infection? That's what it appears could be the case."
So far during the coronavirus pandemic, much focus has been on Covid-19 antibodies and the role they play in building immunity against the disease.
But infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville who was not involved in the new study, said that T cells can not be overlooked.
"Here's a study that suggests actually there may be some cross-reactivity -- some priming of the pump if you will -- with the normal conventional coronaviruses that cause colds in humans and there may be some cross-reactivity with the Covid virus that's causing so much damage. That's in and of itself intriguing because we had thought from the antibody perspective that there wasn't much cross at all," Schaffner said.
"It's not entirely surprising because these are all members of a family. It's as though they're cousins in the same family," he said. "Now we have to see whether there is any impact of this in clinical practice. ... Does it make it more or less likely that the person who is infected with Covid actually will develop an illness? And does it have any implications for vaccine development?"
'Almost every person in the world has had some encounter with a coronavirus'
Adalja added that he was not surprised to see this T cell cross-reactivity in the study participants who had not been exposed to the novel coronavirus, named SARS-CoV-2.
"SARS-CoV-2 is the seventh human coronavirus that has been discovered, and four of the human coronaviruses are what we call community-acquired coronaviruses, and together those four are responsible for 25% of our common colds," Adalja said. "Almost every person in the world has had some encounter with a coronavirus, and since they are all part of the same family, there is some cross reactive immunity that develops."
The new Nature study isn't the only paper to suggest a certain level of pre-existing immunity among some people to the novel coronavirus.
Alessandro Sette and Shane Crotty, both of the University of California, San Diego, wrote in a comment paper published in the journal Nature earlier this month, that "20--50% of unexposed donors display significant reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 antigen peptide pools," based on separate research -- but they noted that the source and clinical relevance of the reactivity remains unknown.
Sette and Crotty wrote that "it is now established that SARS-CoV-2 pre-existing immune reactivity exists to some degree in the general population. It is hypothesized, but not yet proven, that this might be due to immunity to" common cold coronaviruses.
Video: Professor can't shake Covid-19 symptoms months after diagnosis (CNN)
Actor Bryan Cranston revealed today a recent bout with COVID-19, posting an Instagram video of himself donating his antibody-positive plasma for research and encouraging people to wear a mask.
The Breaking Bad and Broadway Network star says in the video (watch it below) that he had COVID-19 “a little while ago” and that he had very mild symptoms (“slight headache, tightness of chest and lost all taste and smell”).
In a message accompanying the video, Cranston writes:
Hi. About now you’re probably feeling a little tied down, restricting your mobility and like me, you’re tired of this!! Well, I just want to encourage you to have a little more patience. I was pretty strict in adhering to the protocols and still… I contracted the virus. Yep. it sounds daunting now that over 150,000 Americans are dead because of it. I was one of the lucky ones. Mild symptoms. I count my blessings and urge you to keep wearing the damn mask, keep washing your hands, and stay socially distant. We can prevail – but ONLY if we follow the rules together. Be well – Stay well. BC
In the serious but very funny video, Cranston documents a recent visit to UCLA Blood and Plasma Donation Center, where he donates the plasma for research into the possible treatment uses of coronavirus antibody-positive blood. The process, he says, takes about an hour, which Cranston passed by watching A Face in the Crowd starring Andy Griffith. “Oh yeah,” he says when the movie starts.
At the end of the video, a message appears that says, in part, “This is something you might be able to do too.” The onscreen message ends: “Don’t forget to wash your hands, social distance and wear a mask!”
Allowing citizens to sue China for damages caused by the novel coronavirus would backfire and open up the United States to the same level of scrutiny from other countries around the world, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Thursday.
Feinstein, whose remarks came during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, said, "We launch a series of unknown events that could be very, very dangerous. I think this is a huge mistake."
"Where I live... we hold China as a potential trading partner," she said earlier. "As a country that has pulled tens of millions of people out of poverty in a short period of time. And as a country growing into a respectable nation among other nations. And I deeply believe that. I've been to China a number of times. I've studied the issues."
Feinstein claimed other countries, including China, may decide to use the new legal precedent against the U.S., setting off a chain reaction, resulting in global chaos.
Her comments come three months after Missouri's Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican, provided a statement to Fox News about a lawsuit he filed against China on behalf of the state, saying that the impact of COVID-19 has led to thousands of Missourians being infected, killed and economically devastated.
"In Missouri, the impact of the virus is very real -- thousands have been infected and many have died, families have been separated from dying loved ones, small businesses are shuttering their doors, and those living paycheck to paycheck are struggling to put food on their table," he wrote.
After the lawsuit was filed, an article posted on the Global Times, which is a branch of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP's) People's Daily, said the nation is "extremely dissatisfied with the abuse of litigation" by U.S. leadership," and is considering punitive countermeasures against U.S. individuals, entities and state officials, including Schmitt.
As the partisan divide with respect to China continues to deepen, Democrats have refrained from condemning the CCP's actions while Senate Republicans -- along with members of the Trump administration -- have chosen to take the Chinese government head-on.
In addition to Schmitt's efforts, GOP Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rich Scott, R-Fla., have been publically critical of the CCP, with Scott going so far as to introduce a Senate bill to shield vaccine research from Chinese spies and infiltrators.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also taken a hardline stance against China, warning state governors of China's sophisticated practices with regard to U.S. infiltration and later claiming the CCP poses a real "risk" to the safety and security of America.
Feinstein's comments come as the results of a new Pew Research Center survey were released, showing that over three-quarters of American adults blame the Chinese government for the global spread of the coronavirus and over 60 percent of respondents said the country has done a poor job handling the aftermath of the outbreak.
The survey, which polled 1,003 individuals and was conducted from June 16 to July 14, showed 73 percent of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of China, which marks the most negative rating in the 15 years that Pew Research Center has been conducting polling on the subject.
Fox News' Dom Calicchio contributed to this report.
COVID-19 - Latest - Google News
July 31, 2020 at 07:44AM
https://ift.tt/3fjEbGi
Feinstein: Letting Americans sue China over coronavirus response would be 'huge mistake' - Fox News
COVID-19 - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/2VQ2gy8
The death of Herman Cain, attributed to the coronavirus, has made Republicans and President Trump face the reality of the pandemic as it hit closer to home than ever before, claiming a prominent conservative ally whose frequently dismissive attitude about taking the threat seriously reflected the hands-off inconsistency of party leaders.
Mr. Cain, a former business executive and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, had an irreverent, confrontational style that mirrored the president’s own brand of contrarian politics. In his more recent role as a public face for the president’s re-election campaign, he became an emblem of Trump-supporting, mask-defiant science skeptics, openly if not aggressively disdainful of public health officials who warned Americans to avoid large crowds, cover their faces and do as much as possible to limit contact with others.
His view was shared by many conservatives, who have applied a hard-nosed, culture war mentality to the virus, the most serious public health crisis in a century.
Mr. Trump wrote in praise of Mr. Cain on Twitter on Thursday, calling him “a Powerful Voice of Freedom and all that is good.”
But Mr. Cain’s death showed how ill-suited that mind-set is to the country’s current predicament. More than 150,000 Americans have died in a pandemic that is ravaging parts of the country where conservative leaders long resisted taking steps that have slowed the virus elsewhere, such as mask mandates and stay-at-home orders.
Those include places like Tulsa, Okla., where Mr. Cain attended a Trump campaign rally in June and showed his disregard for safety precautions on social media shortly before receiving a diagnosis for the virus.
With a uniformity that has defied rising death tolls in their own backyards, Republicans at the federal, state and local levels have adopted a similar tone of skepticism and defiance, rejecting the advice of public health officials and deferring instead to principles they said were equally important: conservative values of economic freedom and personal liberty.
From Arizona to Texas, as infection rates soared and hospital beds filled up, Republican governors stood in the way of local governments that wanted to do more. They overruled city mask mandates, arguing that it amounted to a form of government overreach. They said that requiring businesses to close or limit their capacity would strangle the economy and save few lives. They accused the news media and political opponents of exaggerating the risks to hurt the president’s chances for re-election.
They scorned the experts and mocked those who heeded the government’s warnings. Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, a close ally and vigorous defender of the president, walked around the Capitol in March wearing a Hazmat-style gas mask as he prepared to vote on coronavirus relief legislation.
The governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, posted a picture of himself eating dinner with his family at a crowded restaurant a few days after the World Health Organization formally declared a pandemic. “It’s packed tonight!” his caption read.
And this month in Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson scoffed at the idea of a mask mandate, telling a cheering crowd of supporters, “You don’t need government to tell you to wear a dang mask.”
Yet the virus more than occasionally reminded them that it strikes people of all political stripes indiscriminately.
After his mask stunt, Mr. Gaetz learned that he might have been exposed to someone who was infected and attended the Conservative Political Action Conference. He said he would enter quarantine, and he did not end up having the virus. Mr. Stitt tested positive for the virus this month, the first governor in the country to do so. He continues to resist pressure to issue a mask order, calling it “a personal preference.”
And this week, adding to the list of people with direct access to the president who have tested positive was Robert C. O’Brien, the national security adviser. Others include Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News commentator who is dating Donald Trump Jr. and is helping lead the Trump campaign’s fund-raising efforts.
Among some conservative defenders of the president, there is a sense that complaints about masks and other mandates as a threat to personal freedom are overblown.
Grover Norquist, a conservative activist who lobbies for lower taxes and regulations and has served on the board of the National Rifle Association, said that using Mr. Cain’s death to attack Republicans “is going two steps too far.” But he added, “There’s a difference between not being excited about being told what to do” and refusing to do it altogether. “But on something like this, when you’re out in public, you should wear a mask because it’s not about you.”
Yet there have been few indications that the spate of coronavirus cases among Republicans is leading to any kind of major reckoning in the party. After Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas tested positive this week, he blamed his diagnosis on wearing a mask.
Mr. Trump, who has spoken of being rattled by the death of an old friend who contracted the virus, has been photographed only rarely with a mask on and has repeatedly said he does not consider wearing one the appropriate step for him. He has allowed, however, that he is supportive of mask-wearing by others.
The visuals that emerged from the White House from the beginning of the pandemic suggested an attitude that was, at best, not overly cautious. At an event at the White House in March with executives from Walmart and Walgreens in which Mr. Trump praised his administration’s preparedness, he shook hands and patted the backs of multiple people, prompting critics to complain that the president was sending mixed signals to the public.
When the virus re-emerged after it initially appeared to have been subdued, it took weeks of public pressure and private lobbying by advisers and friends before Mr. Trump more frankly acknowledged the toll the resurgent virus has taken across the American South and West.
Even some of the harshest critics of Republican leadership said they did not think that Mr. Cain’s death would cause much reflection inside the party.
Evan McMullin, who ran against Mr. Trump as a third-party candidate in 2016, wrote on Twitter that Mr. Cain was “the first senior casualty of the science denial Trump cult.”
In an interview, Mr. McMullin said he had little hope this was a wake-up call. “I wish that was the case,” he said. “Many voters who support the president live in a totally different, alternate information environment in which the news of Herman Cain’s death — his visit to the Trump rally, his decision to not wear a mask — won’t reach them.”
Mr. Cain was eager to display his disregard for the experts and their warnings. Before the Trump rally in Tulsa, which local public health officials had urged the campaign to postpone, Mr. Cain urged people to “Ignore the outrage” and to defy “the left-wing shaming!”
Mr. Trump did at one point reschedule the rally, but only after an outpouring of anger that it had been scheduled for the day of Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the emancipation of slaves.
When the rally went forward on June 20, Mr. Cain, one of the most prominent African-American Trump supporters and a member of his Black Voices for Trump coalition, posed for a photo with other Black attendees. None, including him, wore masks.
A few hours before the event, the campaign had disclosed that six Trump campaign staff members who had been working on the rally had tested positive for the coronavirus during a routine screening.
Mr. Cain tested positive on June 29. On July 2, his staff announced that he had been hospitalized. Weighing in on the no-mask policy for a Trump rally planned at Mount Rushmore on July 3, Mr. Cain’s Twitter feed was approving: “PEOPLE ARE FED UP!”
Employers across the country are being sued by the families of workers who contend their loved ones contracted lethal cases of Covid-19 on the job, a new legal front that shows the risks of reopening workplaces.
WalmartInc., Safeway Inc., Tyson FoodsInc. and some health-care facilities have been sued for gross negligence or wrongful death since the coronavirus pandemic began unfolding in March. Employees’ loved ones contend the companies failed to protect workers from the deadly virus and should compensate their family members as a result. Workers who survived the virus also are suing to have medical bills, future earnings and other damages paid out.
In responding to the lawsuits, employers have said they took steps to combat the virus, including screening workers for signs of illness, requiring they wear masks, sanitizing workspaces and limiting the number of customers inside stores. Some point out that it is impossible to know where or how their workers contracted Covid-19, particularly as it spreads more widely across the country.
The new coronavirus has created a global health and economic crisis, responsible for the death of more than 150,000 people in the U.S. while straining resources and institutions.
The cases are part of an unfolding liability threat facing U.S. companies of all industries as many resume operations after having employees work remotely or being shut down altogether for months.
The coronavirus relief bill that Senate Republicans unveiled this week would make it harder for workers to sue their employer if they get sick on the job. The proposed legislation protects companies, schools and churches from being held liable for coronavirus infections beginning in December 2019, unless they acted with willful misconduct or engaged in grossly negligent behavior.
The bill would cap punitive damages, set a clear-and-convincing-evidence burden of proof and raise requirements for personal-injury lawsuits. It would also push such lawsuits to federal courts, which potentially are more favorable to defendants.
The measures face resistance in the Democratic-controlled House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposes the GOP liability plans. She wants lawmakers to instead bolster protections for workers by strengthening Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules.
Legal experts say the GOP proposals would significantly curb, but not eliminate, cases filed on behalf of sickened workers.
“The amount of litigation on the horizon is enormous,” said Harold H. Kim, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, an arm of the business trade group.
Labor unions and consumer advocates say that few lawsuits have been filed, and that the Senate bill would deny redress to injured workers and their families. About 69 employment and labor cases contending that workers were exposed or potentially exposed to the virus had been filed as of late July, according to a coronavirus litigation tracker maintained by the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth.
Sedika Buljic worked at Tyson for 18 years. She died in April from complications of Covid-19.
Photo: Buljic Family/Associated Press
Employers rarely are found liable for employee deaths tied to the workplace. That’s because the legal bar for proving fault is high, and because states often restrict such complaints to their workers’ compensation systems, which typically limit payouts to a portion of a worker’s salary, coverage of their medical bills and disability compensation.
Legal experts say the coronavirus pandemic could change how such cases play out. Early lawsuits on behalf of sickened workers center on whether employers adhered to state and federal guidelines for reducing the spread of the virus, which evolved rapidly in March and April, especially on mask use, and at times conflicted with each other.
Employers who didn’t send sick workers home, enforce social distancing or adhere to mask-wearing guidance could be found liable, legal experts say. Cases that show the employer acted with gross negligence—which aren’t precluded by the Senate proposal and sometimes can proceed outside the workers’ compensation system—could result in out-of-court settlements or end up before sympathetic juries.
Pedro Zuniga worked for 22 years handling produce in a Safeway distribution center in Tracy, Calif. In mid-March, he and other workers complained to supervisors that the work environment wasn’t safe because colleagues were coming in sick, according to Paul Matiasic, an attorney representing the claim by Mr. Zuniga’s family. Mr. Matiasic said management threatened to retaliate against workers if they didn’t show up as the distribution center expanded its hours to meet increased food-shopping demands.
Mr. Zuniga with his children and family members in Halloween costumes.
Photo: Zuniga Family
On March 20, the grocer posted a “Team Talk” memo in the distribution center titled “Coronavirus Risks: Fact vs. Fiction.” The sign, which bears the logo of Safeway parent Albertsons Companies, recommended against wearing a mask in the workplace.
“If you are healthy, a mask will not protect you from the respiratory drops an infected person coughs out,” the sign read. “Open areas of the mask can let those drops in.”
On April 4, Mr. Zuniga—trembling, coughing and feverish—went to an area hospital after getting a Covid-19 test, which came back positive. The next day he was transferred to intensive care, where he was put on a ventilator and placed in a medically induced coma. He died eight days later at age 52.
Norma Zuniga, his widow and the mother of their five children, in May sued Safeway and Albertsons for gross negligence and wrongful death in Alameda County Superior Court seeking general and punitive damages. The lawsuit contends that the grocer failed to follow March 9 guidance from OSHA aimed at preparing workplaces for Covid-19, which called for isolating sick workers. It said the grocer misled workers when it said that wearing protective equipment wouldn’t help prevent the spread of the disease.
“It defies common sense,” Mr. Matiasic said of the mask posting, a copy of which is included in Ms. Zuniga’s lawsuit.
An Albertsons grocery store in New Mexico in early April.
An Albertsons spokeswoman said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation. In July, Safeway and Albertsons filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that it didn’t meet the criteria for proceeding outside the workers’ compensation system. It also had the case moved to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The grocer denied that it failed to take appropriate workplace safety precautions. It said that as of March 20, neither the CDC’s nor California’s official guidance recommended wearing masks, and that state occupational safety and health interim guidance at the time said masks didn’t protect people from airborne infectious disease. It also said that state health and safety officials inspected the distribution center on April 15 regarding Covid-19 procedures and found no violations.
The Ebola outbreak of 2014 offers some clues for how sickened workers’ lawsuits could play out.
Two nurses contracted the deadly virus after treating a Liberian Ebola patient at a Dallas hospital that year. One of them, Nina Pham, sued the company that owned the hospital for not properly training or protecting staff to handle Ebola. The hospital’s owner, Texas Health Resources, denied those claims. The two sides reached an undisclosed settlement out of court two years later.
Ebola survivor Nina Pham in Dallas in 2015.
Photo: Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News/Associated Press
Brent Walker, an attorney who represented Ms. Pham, said that hospitals that didn’t provide properly fitted N95 masks to clinicians treating Covid-19 patients face particular liability risk because federal regulations already required they do so before the pandemic hit. Other cases are expected to hinge on whether health-care employers followed international and U.S. safety guidelines, he said.
In general, cases may come down to a simple question: “What was negligent as opposed to just an unfortunate outcome?” Mr. Walker said.
Health-care employer groups say that facilities faced an unprecedented workplace safety threat when the pandemic unfolded and shouldn’t be held responsible if they took reasonable precautions to protect employees.
“Many of our institutions were overwhelmed with people with the symptoms and had to react accordingly and were not getting the best guidance from the government,” said Tom Nickels, executive vice president at the American Hospital Association. “To come back and second guess and pick apart actions that people took under a very stressful situation, we think, is incredibly unfair.”
Wando Evans worked the overnight shift stocking shelves and performing maintenance at a Walmart in the Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park. In late March, he told store management he had symptoms consistent with Covid-19, said Tony S. Kalogerakos, an attorney representing Mr. Evans’s family. “They just put him back to work,” Mr. Kalogerakos said, citing information from Mr. Evans’s colleagues.
Walmart employee Wando Evans, who died in March.
On March 23, after his symptoms worsened, he again notified store management and was sent home. Two days later he was found dead in his home at age 51.
Mr. Evans’s family in April filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against Walmart seeking unspecified damages. It contends the retailer didn’t initially follow CDC or OSHA recommendations, which put workers and the public at risk.
Walmart filed a motion to dismiss the case in June on the grounds that the claims cannot be brought in a civil lawsuit because they should be handled exclusively by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission.
Peggy Cross, a 72-year-old part-time employee at a Walmart in Dallas, in June sued the retailer in Dallas County District Court for more than $1 million. Her suit contends that she contracted Covid-19 at work because the retailer failed to provide proper protective equipment and take other safety measures. Ms. Cross survived the virus after being hospitalized for a week in late April, according to her complaint. Ms. Cross and her lawyers didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove declined to answer specific questions on Mr. Evans’s lawsuit, or comment on Ms. Cross’s. He said that, while it may be impossible to determine where or how someone contracts the virus, the retailer is taking steps to protect workers and customers.
Shoppers waited to enter a Walmart in Burbank, Calif., under a sign explaining mask requirements in July.
In April, Walmart began taking store workers’ temperatures and requiring that they wear masks or other face coverings. Walmart also has installed sneeze guards at registers, placed social-distancing decals on floors and limited the number of customers in stores. It announced that customers must wear masks in stores in mid-July.
“We continue to mourn the loss of Wando Evans and our thoughts remain with his family. We’re also thankful Ms. Cross has recovered from her illness,” Mr. Hargrove said. “We take these situations seriously and are continuing to defend the company in both cases.”
The families of three employees who worked at Tyson’s pork processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, and died after contracting Covid-19 sued the meat company and nearly 20 of its executives, managers and supervisors in June.
Their complaint, filed in Iowa District Court for Blackhawk County, contends that management was aware that the virus was spreading through the plant by early April, and was urged by local law enforcement and health officials to shut it down. Yet Tyson kept the plant open for days and allowed employees to work crowded elbow-to-elbow while most weren’t wearing face coverings, according to the lawsuit.
More than 1,000 Tyson employees were infected with Covid-19 at the Waterloo facility and five have died, according to the lawsuit.
Reberiano Garcia, who worked at Tyson and died in April.
Photo: Garcia Family
Among them were Sedika Buljic, a 58-year-old Bosnian refugee who worked at Tyson for 18 years before she died April 18 from complications of Covid-19. Reberiano Garcia, a 60-year-old father of 10 whose wife died of cancer last fall, succumbed to the virus on April 23. Jose Luis Ayala, Jr., a 44-year-old maintenance worker known for tinkering with computers, died May 25 from complications of the virus.
The complaint filed by their families says that the company acted with gross negligence because it encouraged sick employees to come to work and failed to implement or convey a range of safety measures to workers, many of whom don’t speak English. The families are seeking unspecified economic, noneconomic and punitive damages.
Tyson said on April 22 it was closing the plant because of Covid-19 cases, worker absenteeism and community concerns. It reopened May 7 after testing all returning workers for the virus, opening an on-site health clinic at the plant and taking other safety measures.
In a court filing earlier this week, Tyson denied the plaintiffs’ allegations and moved the case to a federal court.
Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson declined to comment on the lawsuit. He said the meat company started educating workers about the virus in multiple languages in January and told employees to stay home if they didn’t feel well. Mr. Mickelson said that the county health department for weeks declined to share information about Tyson workers with Covid-19, and that once it provided the company with a list of names and case information, the company decided to idle production at the plant.
“We’re saddened by the loss of any Tyson team member and sympathize with their families. Our top priority is the health and safety of our workers,” Mr. Mickelson said. He said Tyson is aware of a small number of active Covid-19 cases involving workers at its Waterloo plant.
Maurice Dotson, a nursing assistant who helped clothe and change the diapers of residents at the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas, went to a local hospital in early April with symptoms of the new coronavirus. He told his mother that “I got the virus at my job but I’m going to be all right,” said Quentin Brogdon, an attorney for his mother.
Maurice Dotson, a nursing assistant at the West Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Austin, Texas, who died in April.
Photo: Dotson Family
Mr. Dotson tested positive for the virus and, after being put on a ventilator, died April 17. He was 51 years old. In May his mother filed a lawsuit in Travis County District Court against the nursing home seeking damages of $1 million or more. Her petition contends that the nursing home acted with negligence because it failed to appreciate the danger of Covid-19 and didn’t properly train workers to mitigate its spread.
Regency Integrated Health Services, which manages the nursing home, denied the allegations in a June court filing.
Brooke C. Ladner, a senior vice president at the company, declined to comment on the lawsuit. She said staff members at the facility are following enhanced infection control and prevention processes that were implemented when the pandemic began in early March, and that Mr. Dotson “was a dedicated health-care worker who touched countless lives.”
COVID-19 - Latest - Google News
July 31, 2020 at 02:30AM
https://ift.tt/30eOKpQ
Families File First Wave of Covid-19 Lawsuits Against Companies Over Worker Deaths - The Wall Street Journal
COVID-19 - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/2VQ2gy8
