Coronavirus News (201)

How the pandemic might play out in 2021 and beyond This coronavirus is here for the long haul — here’s what scientists predict for the next months and years. ..........  June 2021. The world has been in pandemic mode for a year and a half. The virus continues to spread at a slow burn; intermittent lockdowns are the new normal. An approved vaccine offers six months of protection, but international deal-making has slowed its distribution. An estimated 250 million people have been infected worldwide, and 1.75 million are dead.    

Two decades of pandemic war games failed to account for Donald Trump The scenarios foresaw leaky travel bans, a scramble for vaccines and disputes between state and federal leaders, but none could anticipate the current levels of dysfunction in the United States. .............  last year, leaders in the field ranked the United States top in the Global Health Security Index, which graded 195 countries in terms of how well prepared they were to fight outbreaks, on the basis of more than 100 factors. ............   Now, as COVID-19 cases in the United States surpass 4 million, with more than 150,000 deaths, the country has proved itself to be one of the most dysfunctional ...........  some countries that hadn’t ranked nearly so high in evaluations, such as Vietnam, executed swift, cohesive responses. ........  Pandemic simulations first started gaining popularity in the 2000s. Biosecurity and public-health specialists took their cue from war-game exercises used by the military, in an effort to stress-test health systems, see what could go wrong and scare policymakers into fixing the problems. ...........  2017: A pandemic simulation takes place at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. ........  2019: Event 201, a simulation of a novel coronavirus pandemic, is held in New York City. 2020: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic kills more than 670,000 people in the first half of the year. ............  In January 2017, the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington, backed a pandemic simulation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — a gathering of global leaders in business, politics and academia. ...........  In May 2018, with leaders in the White House and Congress who had never dealt with a major epidemic, Inglesby and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University hosted an exercise in Washington DC called Clade X. It featured a respiratory virus that was engineered in a laboratory. One early lesson of this simulation was that travel bans didn’t stop the virus from gaining ground. Infections spread rapidly below the radar because half of the people infected showed few or no symptoms. Medical supplies ran short, and hospitals were overwhelmed. Federal and state leaders issued conflicting messages. More than 20 months passed before a vaccine was available. ...................   Six top-line recommendations emerged from the exercise. These included reducing vaccine production time, and creating a “robust, highly capable national public health system that can manage the challenges of pandemic response”. .............  members of the biosecurity community have often focused on vaccines, rather than on the complex, systemic deficiencies in the public-health system. They often overlooked the “middle game” in outbreak responses. ............    insufficient attention is devoted to harnessing and coordinating enough health workers and biomedical resources to efficiently test people, treat them, find their contacts and quarantine them. This is precisely the conundrum that the United States finds itself in right now. .............  the discussion after the simulation focused on straightforward end-game strategies such as vaccine development, rather than the more complicated strengthening of the national public-health system. ...............   muddling the response in the early months of an epidemic has catastrophic repercussions. ..........  Confusion emerged in most pandemic simulations, but none explored the consequences of a White House sidelining its own public-health agency. .........  “You need gas in the engine and the brakes to work, but if the driver doesn’t want to use the car, you’re not going anywhere”  ........    New Zealand, Taiwan and South Korea showed that it was possible to contain the virus ..........   The places that have done well with COVID-19 had “early, decisive action by their government leaders” he says. Cameron agrees: “It’s not that the US doesn’t have the right tools — it’s that we aren’t choosing to use them.” ..................   After more than 70 people in Taiwan died as a result of SARS in 2003, the government mapped out its emergency-response network. “Every year since then, for the past 17 years, they’ve held annual outbreak exercises and practised, practised, practised” ..............   Despite its proximity to the outbreak, Taiwan has had only seven deaths from COVID-19 so far. ...........   The daily number of new COVID-19 cases broke records throughout much of July, after many states attempted to reopen their economies. ...........   restructuring health systems, empowering public-health leaders and ensuring that all components function in unison in the event of a crisis. ...........  financial turmoil would last for years, or even a decade. But societal impacts — including loss of faith in government and the media — could last even longer.   

Profile of a killer: the complex biology powering the coronavirus pandemic Scientists are piecing together how SARS-CoV-2 operates, where it came from and what it might do next — but pressing questions remain about the source of COVID-19. .........   Under electron microscopes, these viruses resembled the solar corona, which led researchers in 1968 to coin the term coronaviruses for the entire group. It was a family of dynamic killers: dog coronaviruses could harm cats, the cat coronavirus could ravage pig intestines. .........  genetic evidence suggests that it has been hiding out in nature possibly for decades. ..............  “There will be more, either out there already or in the making” .........  With 30,000 genetic bases, coronaviruses have the largest genomes of all RNA viruses. Their genomes are more than three times as big as those of HIV and hepatitis C, and more than twice influenza’s. ..........  Influenza mutates up to three times more often than coronaviruses do, a pace that enables it to evolve quickly and sidestep vaccines. But coronaviruses have a special trick that gives them a deadly dynamism: they frequently recombine, swapping chunks of their RNA with other coronaviruses. Typically, this is a meaningless trading of like parts between like viruses. But when two distant coronavirus relatives end up in the same cell, recombination can lead to formidable versions that infect new cell types and jump to other species ................   Estimates for the birth of the first coronavirus vary widely, from 10,000 years ago to 300 million years ago. Scientists are now aware of dozens of strains3, seven of which infect humans. ...........  Among the four that cause common colds, two (OC43 and HKU1) came from rodents, and the other two (229E and NL63) from bats. The three that cause severe disease — SARS-CoV (the cause of SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 — all came from bats. But scientists think there is usually an intermediary — an animal infected by the bats that carries the virus into humans. With SARS, the intermediary is thought to be civet cats, which are sold in live-animal markets in China. .................. SARS-CoV-2 — or a very similar ancestor — has been hiding in some animal for decades. ........  A neighbour’s cough that sends ten viral particles your way might be enough to start an infection in your throat, but the hair-like cilia found there are likely to do their job and clear the invaders. If the neighbour is closer and coughs 100 particles towards you, the virus might be able get all the way down to the lungs ...........  the virus can also bypass the throat cells and go straight down into the lungs. Then patients might get pneumonia without the usual mild symptoms such as a cough or low-grade fever that would otherwise come first ............  SARS-CoV-2 can mix the transmissibility of the common cold coronaviruses with the lethality of MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV .................   SARS-CoV-2 can shed viral particles from the throat into saliva even before symptoms start, and these can then pass easily from person to person. SARS-CoV was much less effective at making that jump, passing only when symptoms were full-blown, making it easier to contain. ............  SARS-CoV-2 is much better at infecting people, but many of the infections don’t progress to the lungs. ...........  And as with SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and animal coronaviruses, the damage doesn’t stop with the lungs. A SARS-CoV-2 infection can trigger an excessive immune response known as a cytokine storm, which can lead to multiple organ failure and death. The virus can also infect the intestines, the heart, the blood, sperm (as can MERS-CoV), the eye and possibly the brain. Damage to the kidney, liver and spleen observed in people with COVID-19 suggests that the virus can be carried in the blood and infect various organs or tissues ..............   The virus might be able to infect various organs or tissues wherever the blood supply reaches ............  First, the protein’s receptor-binding domain latches on to a receptor called ACE2, which sits on the surface of the host cell. ACE2 is expressed throughout the body on the lining of the arteries and veins that course through all organs, but it is particularly dense on the cells lining the alveoli and small intestines. ...........  SARS-CoV-2 is so good at infecting the upper respiratory tract that there might even be a second receptor that the virus could use to launch its attack. ........  Like the four generally mild human coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 would then circulate constantly and cause mainly mild upper respiratory tract infections ........  OC43 was responsible for a pandemic that killed more than one million people worldwide in 1889–90 — an outbreak previously blamed on influenza. Today, OC43 continues to circulate widely and it might be that continual exposure to the virus keeps the great majority of people immune to it. .........  Many scientists are reserving judgement on whether the tamer coronaviruses were once as virulent as SARS-CoV-2. People like to think that “the other coronaviruses were terrible and became mild”, says Perlman. “That’s an optimistic way to think about what’s going on now, but we don’t have evidence.”

Coronavirus News (200)

The Winter Will Be Worse When socializing outside gets harder in much of the U.S., daily life will get more dismal, and the virus might spread even further..........  “There really is no easy way to socialize during late fall [and] winter in large parts of the country if you're not doing it outside ........... Could I have people over in my house for two hours on a Sunday morning in December? Barring really good testing, probably not.” .............  and “if the space is heated, it can lead to dry air,” which is more hospitable to the virus. ..........  stay at least six feet apart, wear a mask, wipe down frequently touched surfaces, meet in a building with sufficient filters in its ventilation system, use a portable air purifier and a humidifier, and stay clear of crowded rooms ..............   the widespread use of cheap, quick coronavirus tests. “Imagine those tests get better and they become ubiquitous—could you go and hang out with a friend if you both tested negative that morning, in a community that doesn't have large transmission? I would feel comfortable” doing that, he said. But “I probably wouldn't give them a hug and sit right next to them.” ...........  “The winter could get a lot worse than even now,” Noymer said. “There’s plenty of room [in the population] for this thing to expand.” ..........  “Also, people are already feeling pandemic fatigue, and I think that'll only get worse.” Due to the combination of indoor transmission risk and that increased desire to gather, he thinks “there almost surely will be a spike in cases” this winter. ...........   that people spend more time indoors together, that the lower level of humidity suits the viruses better, that our mucous membranes get drier and more vulnerable to infection ...........  Making matters worse, the pandemic will, if it isn’t somehow neutralized, coincide with flu season, which usually starts in October and is at its worst December through February. ..............  “COVID compromises the respiratory system and so does flu, so each of them makes the other one worse” ........ because the two diseases have some symptoms in common, telling them apart can be difficult. .................. “It’s not [primarily] about summer or winter,” he explained. “It’s about outdoors versus indoors … Arizona in June is like Boston in December.” ............  “It’s always winter inside a meatpacking plant” ............ “I am more optimistic that November, December, January, February are not going to be some kind of apocalypse that looks like what life felt like in March or April,” Jha said. “I think we can do better than that. But it will require policy intervention.” Namely: widespread, affordable, and quick testing; strongly enforced masking mandates; and improved ventilation in classrooms and other indoor spaces. ...........  a “nightmare scenario” playing out, with people cooped up indoors, schools closed, a still-weak testing regime, and a bad flu season. Americans could be living like that for months. “I think it is wholly avoidable, but 150,000 deaths later, a lot of this was avoidable,” Jha said. “So I don’t put it past our nation to botch the next phases of the response.”    

Immunology Is Where Intuition Goes to Die Which is too bad because we really need to understand how the immune system reacts to the coronavirus. .........  An immunologist and a cardiologist are kidnapped. The kidnappers threaten to shoot one of them, but promise to spare whoever has made the greater contribution to humanity. The cardiologist says, “Well, I’ve identified drugs that have saved the lives of millions of people.” Impressed, the kidnappers turn to the immunologist. “What have you done?” they ask. The immunologist says, “The thing is, the immune system is very complicated …” And the cardiologist says, “Just shoot me now.” ................  the immune system is very complicated. Arguably the most complex part of the human body outside the brain, it’s an absurdly intricate network of cells and molecules that protect us from dangerous viruses and other microbes........  Immunology confuses even biology professors who aren’t immunologists  ...........  Immunity, then, is usually a matter of degrees, not absolutes. And it lies at the heart of many of the COVID-19 pandemic’s biggest questions. Why do some people become extremely ill and others don’t? Can infected people ever be sickened by the same virus again? How will the pandemic play out over the next months and years? Will vaccination work? .........  T-cells do demolition; antibodies do cleanup. ........  “any virus that can make people sick has to have at least one good trick for evading the immune system,” Crotty says. The new coronavirus seems to rely on early stealth, somehow delaying the launch of the innate immune system, and inhibiting the production of interferons—those molecules that initially block viral replication. “I believe this [delay] is really the key in determining good versus bad outcomes,” says Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale. It creates a brief time window in which the virus can replicate unnoticed before the alarm bells start sounding. Those delays cascade: If the innate branch is slow to mobilize, the adaptive branch will also lag. .....................  Immune responses are inherently violent. Cells are destroyed. Harmful chemicals are unleashed. Ideally, that violence is targeted and restrained ..............  “If you can’t clear the virus quickly enough, you’re susceptible to damage from the virus and the immune system” .........  three broad groups of pathogens: viruses and microbes that invade cells, bacteria and fungi that stay outside cells, and parasitic worms...........   why so many “long-haulers” have endured months of debilitating symptoms .........  surveyed 700 long-haulers and a third had tested negative for antibodies, despite having symptoms consistent with COVID-19 ............  The immune system’s reaction to the virus is a matter of biology, but the range of reactions we actually see is also influenced by politics. Bad decisions mean more cases, which means a wider variety of possible immune responses, which means a higher prevalence of rare events. In other words, the worse the pandemic gets, the weirder it will get. ...................  20 to 50 percent of people who were never exposed to SARS-CoV-2 nonetheless have significant numbers of T-cells that can recognize it. ...........  The immediate uncertainty around our pandemic future “doesn’t stem from the immune response,” Cobey says, but from “policies that are enacted, and whether people will distance or wear masks.” ............   The virus could cause annual outbreaks. It might sweep the world until enough people are vaccinated or infected, and then disappear. It could lie low for years and then suddenly bounce back. All of these scenarios are possible 

Coronavirus News (199)

The Coronavirus Is Never Going Away No matter what happens now, the virus will continue to circulate around the world. ......  The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has sickened more than 16.5 million people across six continents. It is raging in countries that never contained the virus. It is resurging in many of the ones that did. If there was ever a time when this coronavirus could be contained, it has probably passed. One outcome is now looking almost certain: This virus is never going away. ..........  The coronavirus is simply too widespread and too transmissible. ........  Even when a much-anticipated vaccine arrives, it is likely to only suppress but never completely eradicate the virus. (For context, consider that vaccines exist for more than a dozen human viruses but only one, smallpox, has ever been eradicated from the planet, and that took 15 years of immense global coordination.) We will probably be living with this virus for the rest of our lives. ..............  The new virus spreads more easily—and in many cases asymptomatically. ....... In SARS, antibodies—which are one component of immunity—wane after two years. Antibodies to a handful of other coronaviruses that cause common colds fade in just a year. .........  Rather than a onetime deal, a COVID-19 vaccine, when it arrives, could require booster shots to maintain immunity over time. You might get it every year or every other year, much like a flu shot. ..........  SARS-CoV-2 likely originated as a bat virus, with a still-unidentified animal perhaps serving as an intermediate host, which could continue to be a reservoir for the virus. (SARS also originated in bats, with catlike palm civets serving as an intermediate host—which led officials to order the culling of thousands of civets.) .........  So far, tigers at the Bronx Zoo and minks on Dutch farms seem to have caught COVID-19 from humans and, in the case of the minks, passed the virus back to humans who work on the farm. .......  Over time, SARS-CoV-2 becomes just another seasonal respiratory virus, like the four other coronaviruses that cause a sizable proportion of common colds: 229E, OC43, NL63, and HKU1. These cold coronaviruses are so common that we have likely all had them at some point, maybe even multiple times. They can cause serious outbreaks, especially in the elderly, but are usually mild enough to fly under the radar. One endgame is that SARS-CoV-2 becomes the fifth coronavirus that regularly circulates among humans. .........  The “flu” is not one virus but actually several different strains that circulate seasonally. .......  A descendent of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic strain is still the seasonal flu today. .......... The seasonal peaks never quite reach pandemic heights because of building immunity in the population. Eventually, a new strain, against which people have no immunity, comes along and sparks a new pandemic, and then it becomes the new dominant seasonal strain. ............ “I think this virus is with us to the future,” Ruth Karron, a vaccine researcher at Johns Hopkins, told me. “But so is influenza with us, and for the most part, flu doesn't shut down our societies. We manage it.”

How the Pandemic Defeated America A virus has brought the world’s most powerful country to its knees. ...........  A virus a thousand times smaller than a dust mote has humbled and humiliated the planet’s most powerful nation. America has failed to protect its people, leaving them with illness and financial ruin. It has lost its status as a global leader. It has careened between inaction and ineptitude. The breadth and magnitude of its errors are difficult, in the moment, to truly fathom. ..........   Despite ample warning, the U.S. squandered every possible opportunity to control the coronavirus. And despite its considerable advantages—immense resources, biomedical might, scientific expertise—it floundered. While countries as different as South Korea, Thailand, Iceland, Slovakia, and Australia acted decisively to bend the curve of infections downward, the U.S. achieved merely a plateau in the spring, which changed to an appalling upward slope in the summer. “The U.S. fundamentally failed in ways that were worse than I ever could have imagined” ...........  almost everything that went wrong with America’s response to the pandemic was predictable and preventable. A sluggish response by a government denuded of expertise allowed the coronavirus to gain a foothold. Chronic underfunding of public health neutered the nation’s ability to prevent the pathogen’s spread. A bloated, inefficient health-care system left hospitals ill-prepared for the ensuing wave of sickness. Racist policies that have endured since the days of colonization and slavery left Indigenous and Black Americans especially vulnerable to COVID‑19. The decades-long process of shredding the nation’s social safety net forced millions of essential workers in low-paying jobs to risk their life for their livelihood. The same social-media platforms that sowed partisanship and misinformation during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa and the 2016 U.S. election became vectors for conspiracy theories during the 2020 pandemic. ...........  In 2018, I wrote an article for The Atlantic arguing that the U.S. was not ready for a pandemic, and sounded warnings about the fragility of the nation’s health-care system and the slow process of creating a vaccine. But the COVID‑19 debacle has also touched—and implicated—nearly every other facet of American society: its shortsighted leadership, its disregard for expertise, its racial inequities, its social-media culture, and its fealty to a dangerous strain of individualism. ........... SARS‑CoV‑2 is something of an anti-Goldilocks virus: just bad enough in every way. Its symptoms can be severe enough to kill millions but are often mild enough to allow infections to move undetected through a population. It spreads quickly enough to overload hospitals, but slowly enough that statistics don’t spike until too late. ........... Wild animals harbor an estimated 40,000 unknown viruses, a quarter of which could potentially jump into humans. ............. COVID‑19 is merely a harbinger of worse plagues to come. ........... every recent misstep and foundational sin, every unattended weakness and unheeded warning, every festering wound and reopened scar ..........  Bats alone could host thousands of unknown coronaviruses; in some Chinese caves, one out of every 20 bats is infected. ..............  such viruses infect a substantial number of people every year. “Most infected people don’t know about it, and most of the viruses aren’t transmissible,” Daszak says. But it takes just one transmissible virus to start a pandemic. ..........  Sometime in late 2019, the wrong virus left a bat and ended up, perhaps via an intermediate host, in a human—and another, and another. Eventually it found its way to the Huanan seafood market, and jumped into dozens of new hosts in an explosive super-spreading event. The COVID‑19 pandemic had begun. ...............  Our species has relentlessly expanded into previously wild spaces. Through intensive agriculture, habitat destruction, and rising temperatures, we have uprooted the planet’s animals, forcing them into new and narrower ranges that are on our own doorsteps. Humanity has squeezed the world’s wildlife in a crushing grip—and viruses have come bursting out..........  In 2003, China covered up the early spread of SARS, allowing the new disease to gain a foothold, and in 2020, history repeated itself. The Chinese government downplayed the possibility that SARS‑CoV‑2 was spreading among humans, and only confirmed as much on January 20, after millions had traveled around the country for the lunar new year. ...............  The World Health Organization initially parroted China’s line and did not declare a public-health emergency of international concern until January 30. By then, an estimated 10,000 people in 20 countries had been infected, and the virus was spreading fast.............  In 2018, he dismantled an office that had been assembled specifically to prepare for nascent pandemics. American intelligence agencies warned about the coronavirus threat in January, but Trump habitually disregards intelligence briefings. The secretary of health and human services, Alex Azar, offered similar counsel, and was twice ignored. ..................  “By early February, we should have triggered a series of actions, precisely zero of which were taken.” Trump could have spent those crucial early weeks mass-producing tests to detect the virus, asking companies to manufacture protective equipment and ventilators, and otherwise steeling the nation for the worst. Instead, he focused on the border. ..................    Travel bans may sometimes work for remote island nations, but in general they can only delay the spread of an epidemic—not stop it. And they can create a harmful false confidence, so countries “rely on bans to the exclusion of the things they actually need to do—testing, tracing, building up the health system” ...............   A president who is fixated on an ineffectual border wall, and has portrayed asylum seekers as vectors of disease, was always going to reach for travel bans as a first resort. And Americans who bought into his rhetoric of xenophobia and isolationism were going to be especially susceptible to thinking that simple entry controls were a panacea. .............  the U.S. wasted its best chance of restraining COVID‑19. Although the disease first arrived in the U.S. in mid-January, genetic evidence shows that the specific viruses that triggered the first big outbreaks, in Washington State, didn’t land until mid-February. The country could have used that time to prepare. ...........  With impunity, Trump lied. With impunity, the virus spread. ......... Chinese scientists published SARS‑CoV‑2’s genome on January 11 ..........  Diagnostic tests are easy to make, so the U.S. failing to create one seemed inconceivable. Worse, it had no Plan B. .........  Water running along a pavement will readily seep into every crack; so, too, did the unchecked coronavirus seep into every fault line in the modern world. ...............    In response to the global energy crisis of the 1970s, architects made structures more energy-efficient by sealing them off from outdoor air, reducing ventilation rates. Pollutants and pathogens built up indoors, “ushering in the era of ‘sick buildings’ ” ...............  The indoor spaces in which Americans spend 87 percent of their time became staging grounds for super-spreading events. One study showed that the odds of catching the virus from an infected person are roughly 19 times higher indoors than in open air. ............  The U.S. imprisons five to 18 times more people per capita than other Western democracies. Many American prisons are packed beyond capacity, making social distancing impossible. Soap is often scarce. Inevitably, the coronavirus ran amok. ...............  America’s nursing homes and long-term-care facilities house less than 1 percent of its people, but as of mid-June, they accounted for 40 percent of its coronavirus deaths. ............  “Especially in the beginning, we catered our entire [COVID‑19] response to the 20 percent of people who required hospitalization, rather than preventing transmission in the community.” ..........  a national temperament that views health as a matter of personal responsibility rather than a collective good. .............   At the end of the 20th century, public-health improvements meant that Americans were living an average of 30 years longer than they were at the start of it. Maternal mortality had fallen by 99 percent; infant mortality by 90 percent. Fortified foods all but eliminated rickets and goiters. Vaccines eradicated smallpox and polio, and brought measles, diphtheria, and rubella to heel. These measures, coupled with antibiotics and better sanitation, curbed infectious diseases to such a degree that some scientists predicted they would soon pass into history. But instead, these achievements brought complacency. “As public health did its job, it became a target” of budget cuts ..................   Compared with the average wealthy nation, America spends nearly twice as much of its national wealth on health care, about a quarter of which is wasted on inefficient care, unnecessary treatments, and administrative chicanery. The U.S. gets little bang for its exorbitant buck. It has the lowest life-expectancy rate of comparable countries, the highest rates of chronic disease, and the fewest doctors per person. This profit-driven system has scant incentive to invest in spare beds, stockpiled supplies, peacetime drills, and layered contingency plans—the essence of pandemic preparedness. America’s hospitals have been pruned and stretched by market forces to run close to full capacity, with little ability to adapt in a crisis.....................  “We’re designed for discrete disasters” like mass shootings, traffic pileups, and hurricanes, says Esther Choo, an emergency physician at Oregon Health and Science University. The COVID‑19 pandemic is not a discrete disaster. It is a 50-state catastrophe that will likely continue at least until a vaccine is ready. ........... American hospitals operate on a just-in-time economy. They acquire the goods they need in the moment through labyrinthine supply chains that wrap around the world in tangled lines, from countries with cheap labor to richer nations like the U.S. The lines are invisible until they snap. About half of the world’s face masks, for example, are made in China, some of them in Hubei province. When that region became the pandemic epicenter, the mask supply shriveled just as global demand spiked. ............... The supply of nasopharyngeal swabs that are used in every diagnostic test also ran low, because one of the largest manufacturers is based in Lombardy, Italy—initially the COVID‑19 capital of Europe. About 40 percent of critical-care drugs, including antibiotics and painkillers, became scarce because they depend on manufacturing lines that begin in China and India. Once a vaccine is ready, there might not be enough vials to put it in, because of the long-running global shortage of medical-grade glass—literally, a bottle-neck bottleneck. ..............  the U.S. could have averted 36,000 COVID‑19 deaths if leaders had enacted social-distancing measures just a week earlier. .............    More than 26 million people lost their jobs, a catastrophe in a country that—uniquely and absurdly—ties health care to employment. .............  In the middle of the greatest health and economic crises in generations, millions of Americans have found themselves disconnected from medical care and impoverished. They join the millions who have always lived that way. ...............   Elderly people, already pushed to the fringes of society, were treated as acceptable losses. Women were more likely to lose jobs than men, and also shouldered extra burdens of child care and domestic work, while facing rising rates of domestic violence. In half of the states, people with dementia and intellectual disabilities faced policies that threatened to deny them access to lifesaving ventilators. Thousands of people endured months of COVID‑19 symptoms that resembled those of chronic postviral illnesses, only to be told that their devastating symptoms were in their head. Latinos were three times as likely to be infected as white people. Asian Americans faced racist abuse. Far from being a “great equalizer,” the pandemic fell unevenly upon the U.S., taking advantage of injustices that had been brewing throughout the nation’s history. ...................    “There’s nothing about Blackness that makes you more prone to COVID” ...   Instead, existing inequities stack the odds in favor of the virus. ...........  A third of the people in the Navajo Nation can’t easily wash their hands, because they’ve been embroiled in long-running negotiations over the rights to the water on their own lands. Those with water must contend with runoff from uranium mines. Most live in cramped multigenerational homes, far from the few hospitals that service a 17-million-acre reservation. As of mid-May, the Navajo Nation had higher rates of COVID‑19 infections than any U.S. state. .................  Americans often misperceive historical inequities as personal failures. ...........    Clear distribution of accurate information is among the most important defenses against an epidemic’s spread. And yet the largely unregulated, social-media-based communications infrastructure of the 21st century almost ensures that misinformation will proliferate fast. .............  existing conspiracy theories—George Soros! 5G! Bioweapons!—were repurposed for the pandemic. An infodemic of falsehoods spread alongside the actual virus. .................  Like pandemics, infodemics quickly become uncontrollable unless caught early. But while health organizations recognize the need to surveil for emerging diseases, they are woefully unprepared to do the same for emerging conspiracies. ..............  Drawn to novelty, journalists gave oxygen to fringe anti-lockdown protests while most Americans quietly stayed home. ................   Snake-oil merchants have peddled ineffectual silver bullets (including actual silver). Armchair experts with scant or absent qualifications have found regular slots on the nightly news. And at the center of that confusion is Donald Trump................    No one should be shocked that a liar who has made almost 20,000 false or misleading claims during his presidency would lie about whether the U.S. had the pandemic under control; that a racist who gave birth to birtherism would do little to stop a virus that was disproportionately killing Black people; that a xenophobe who presided over the creation of new immigrant-detention centers would order meatpacking plants with a substantial immigrant workforce to remain open; that a cruel man devoid of empathy would fail to calm fearful citizens; that a narcissist who cannot stand to be upstaged would refuse to tap the deep well of experts at his disposal; that a scion of nepotism would hand control of a shadow coronavirus task force to his unqualified son-in-law; that an armchair polymath would claim to have a “natural ability” at medicine and display it by wondering out loud about the curative potential of injecting disinfectant; that an egotist incapable of admitting failure would try to distract from his greatest one by blaming China, defunding the WHO, and promoting miracle drugs; or that a president who has been shielded by his party from any shred of accountability would say, when asked about the lack of testing, “I don’t take any responsibility at all.” ................  Trump is a comorbidity of the COVID‑19 pandemic. He isn’t solely responsible for America’s fiasco, but he is central to it. A pandemic demands the coordinated efforts of dozens of agencies. “In the best circumstances, it’s hard to make the bureaucracy move quickly,” Ron Klain said. “It moves if the president stands on a table and says, ‘Move quickly.’ But it really doesn’t move if he’s sitting at his desk saying it’s not a big deal.” ...............  during the three months when some 2 million Americans contracted COVID‑19 and the death toll topped 100,000, the agency didn’t hold a single press conference. ..............   the U.S. sleepwalked into the worst possible scenario: People suffered all the debilitating effects of a lockdown with few of the benefits. Most states felt compelled to reopen without accruing enough tests or contact tracers. ...........  Despite declaring himself a “wartime president,” he merely presided over a culture war, turning public health into yet another politicized cage match. Abetted by supporters in the conservative media, he framed measures that protect against the virus, from masks to social distancing, as liberal and anti-American. Armed anti-lockdown protesters demonstrated at government buildings while Trump egged them on, urging them to “LIBERATE” Minnesota, Michigan, and Virginia. Several public-health officials left their jobs over harassment and threats. ................   It is no coincidence that other powerful nations that elected populist leaders—Brazil, Russia, India, and the United Kingdom—also fumbled their response to COVID‑19. “When you have people elected based on undermining trust in the government, what happens when trust is what you need the most?” ..............   “Trump is president,” she says. “How could it go well?” .........   Many used masks widely; New Zealand didn’t. Many tested extensively; Japan didn’t. Many had science-minded leaders who acted early; Hong Kong didn’t—instead, a grassroots movement compensated for a lax government. Many were small islands; not large and continental Germany. Each nation succeeded because it did enough things right. .............  Yes, having Trump at the helm during a pandemic was worrying, but it was tempting to think that national wealth and technological superiority would save America. “We are a rich country, and we think we can stop any infectious disease because of that,” says Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “But dollar bills alone are no match against a virus.” ............... The virus was never beaten in the spring, but many people, including Trump, pretended that it was. Every state reopened to varying degrees, and many subsequently saw record numbers of cases. After Arizona’s cases started climbing sharply at the end of May, Cara Christ, the director of the state’s health-services department, said, “We are not going to be able to stop the spread. And so we can’t stop living as well.” The virus may beg to differ. .............   The country behaved like a horror-movie character who believes the danger is over, even though the monster is still at large. The long wait for a vaccine will likely culminate in a predictable way: Many Americans will refuse to get it, and among those who want it, the most vulnerable will be last in line. ...............   In 2019, more Americans were concerned about terrorists and cyberattacks than about outbreaks of exotic diseases. Perhaps they will emerge from this pandemic with immunity both cellular and cultural. ............  A June survey showed that 60 to 75 percent of Americans were still practicing social distancing. ............   Polls in May also showed that most Democrats and Republicans supported mask wearing, and felt it should be mandatory in at least some indoor spaces. It is almost unheard-of for a public-health measure to go from zero to majority acceptance in less than half a year. .......  People of all political bents became more dissatisfied with the Trump administration. As the economy nose-dived, the health-care system ailed, and the government fumbled, belief in American exceptionalism declined. ................  Defiant and largely cloaked in masks, protesters turned out in more than 2,000 cities and towns. Support for Black Lives Matter soared: For the first time since its founding in 2013, the movement had majority approval across racial groups. These protests were not about the pandemic, but individual protesters had been primed by months of shocking governmental missteps. Even people who might once have ignored evidence of police brutality recognized yet another broken institution. They could no longer look away. ...............   Pandemics, climate change, the sixth extinction of wildlife, food and water shortages—their scope is planetary, and their stakes are overwhelming. ............  COVID‑19 is an assault on America’s body, and a referendum on the ideas that animate its culture. Recovery is possible, but it demands radical introspection. America would be wise to help reverse the ruination of the natural world, a process that continues to shunt animal diseases into human bodies. It should strive to prevent sickness instead of profiting from it. It should build a health-care system that prizes resilience over brittle efficiency, and an information system that favors light over heat. It should rebuild its international alliances, its social safety net, and its trust in empiricism. It should address the health inequities that flow from its history. Not least, it should elect leaders with sound judgment, high character, and respect for science, logic, and reason. ..........    The pandemic has been both tragedy and teacher.

Is This the Beginning of the End of American Racism? Donald Trump has revealed the depths of the country’s prejudice—and has inadvertently forced a reckoning.........   He has held up a mirror to American society, and it has reflected back a grotesque image that many people had until now refused to see: an image not just of the racism still coursing through the country, but also of the reflex to deny that reality. Though it was hardly his intention, no president has caused more Americans to stop denying the existence of racism than Donald Trump. ..............  these activists weren’t merely advocating for a few policy shifts. They were calling for the eradication of racism in America once and for all. ...........  by early June, roughly three out of four Americans were saying that “racial and ethnic discrimination” is a “big problem” in the United States—up from only about half of Americans in 2015 .............   Trump woke up the next morning once again in a state of angry denial. “Those Tweets were NOT Racist,” he tweeted. “I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!” ..............  a racist nation had elected a racist president .........  Trump said at a private White House meeting in June 2017, Haitians “all have AIDS” and Nigerians would never “go back to their huts” once they came to the United States. .............  Near the end of his first year in office, Trump wondered aloud at a White House meeting: “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” He was referring to Haiti, El Salvador, and nations in Africa. He suggested that the U.S. should bring in more people from countries like Norway. .............   In the Trump years, the problem is obvious, and it isn’t Black people’s behavior. ........  a massacring nation that said it cherished life, a slaveholding nation that claimed it valued liberty, a hierarchal nation that declared it valued equality, a disenfranchising nation that branded itself a democracy, a segregated nation that styled itself separate but equal, an excluding nation that boasted of opportunity for all. A nation is what it does, not what it originally claimed it would be. Often, a nation is precisely what it denies itself to be. ..................  A critical mass of Americans rejected the South’s claim that enslavement was good and came to recognize the peculiar institution as altogether bad. ...............     just as the 1850s paved the way for the revolution against slavery, Trump’s presidency has paved the way for a revolution against racism. ...........     I had Stage 4 colon cancer. I had two choices: denial and death, or recognition and life. America now has two choices. .........   Just as the abolitionists of the 1850s demanded the immediate eradication of slavery, immediate equality must be the demand today. .......  the normal in which racist policies, defended by racist ideas, lead to racial inequities ..........  The abolition of slavery seemed as impossible in the 1850s as equality seems today. ...........  Abolish police violence. Abolish mass incarceration. Abolish the racial wealth gap and the gap in school funding. Abolish barriers to citizenship. Abolish voter suppression. Abolish health disparities. Not in 20 years. Not in 10 years. Now. 

America Should Prepare for a Double Pandemic COVID-19 has steamrolled the country. What happens if another pandemic starts before this one is over? .........   Viruses aren’t sporting. They will not refrain from kicking you just because another virus has already knocked you to the floor. And pandemics are capricious. Despite a lot of research, “we haven’t found a way to predict when a new one will arrive” ........  As new diseases emerge at a quickening pace, the only certainty is that pandemics are inevitable. So it is only a matter of time before two emerge at once. ...........  The longer this fiasco drags on, the more vulnerable America becomes to further disasters: inbound hurricanes, wildfires, and many other viruses that lie in wait. ..........  Several strains of influenza with pandemic potential are lurking in pigs and poultry, and some have repeatedly infected farmers over the past decade. Wild mammals harbor an estimated 40,000 unknown viruses, a quarter of which could conceivably jump into humans. Changing climate and shrinking habitats have brought those viruses into closer contact with people and livestock, while crowded cities and air travel hasten their spread. ...........  waning global solidarity is a problem. “Our international laws are based on a bargain that countries will rapidly notify each other [about emerging diseases] and, in exchange, they’ll have protection against the economic impacts of sharing that info” ........  That compact was violated during COVID-19, after China suppressed information about the outbreak and other countries quickly implemented travel bans. The U.S. is now on the receiving end of many such bans. .........  A country that has badly mishandled its own outbreak, that has bought up the world’s stock of important drugs, and that has petulantly withdrawn from global alliances is less likely to receive warnings or support if a new crisis emerges. ..........  nations like the U.S., Brazil, Russia, and India, which are stretched and struggling. ............   Currently, the scientific community is hell-bent on studying COVID-19, but basic questions remain unanswered. Why do some people get sick and others do not? What’s the full range of symptoms? Why do some people infect many while many infect no one? ..........  While Americans freaked out in May about so-called murder hornets, the worst locust outbreak in 70 years devastated croplands in East Africa and South Asia. While a single case of plague in China made headlines, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was being dog-piled by dangerous viruses: The nation just beat a two-year Ebola outbreak in its war-ravaged east, only to face another Ebola assault on its western flank, along with COVID-19 and the world’s largest measles outbreak. ..........  The DRC and many other countries are already living through what is functionally identical to a double pandemic—several infectious disasters, overlaying one another. The U.S. is barrelling toward the same situation. Even without a second pandemic, regular seasonal flu strains are inbound. ...............  Other known and preventable diseases will also run amok if the current pandemic continues unabated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in Michigan, the proportion of five-month-olds who are up-to-date on their vaccines fell from 68 percent in May 2019 to 50 percent in May 2020. Childhood vaccinations have also declined in many other states as doctor offices closed or parents canceled appointments. ............  Global programs that fight HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis are being disrupted as workers are reassigned to fighting COVID-19, supplies run out, and labs are inundated. Vaccination programs were suspended in many countries, leading to rises in measles, cholera, and diphtheria. If such initiatives are paused too long, the world could lose decades of ground against polio—a disease that was almost eradicated. “We’ve been very close to the end of polio for a very long time, and we’re not far away from the scenario where it comes roaring back” 

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ईः र यी  हामी सबैलाई लाग्छ– मुलुकमा नेता भएनन्। भइरहेका नेता हे-यो, आशा मर्छ। मौका नपाएका दोस्रो वा तेस्रो पुस्ताका व्यक्तिलाई हे-यो झन् मन मरेर आउँछ।  ..... जहिल्यै वरिष्ठ नागरिकले सत्ता बाँडफाँटमा गरेका झैझगडाले वाक्क भइसकेका मानिसलाई अहिले त्राण चाहिएको छ।

अस्पतालको गोलचक्कर : यस्तो मृत्यु कसैको नहोस् !   

कोरोनाको दोस्रो चरण : फेरि लकडाउन गर्ने कि अर्थतन्त्र चल्न दिने ? विश्लेषक भन्छन्- अब नेपालले लकडाउन धान्न सक्दैन .......  यसरी पहिलो केस देखिएको दिनदेखि करिब तीन महिनासम्म जारी रहेको कठोर लकडाउनको अवधिलाई नेपालमा कोरोना प्रतिरोधको पहिलो अवधि मान्न सकिन्छ ।  .........  पहिलो चरणमा स्थानीय तहले क्वारेन्टिन र राहतमा विपद कोषको रकम खर्च गरेर सिध्याए । सुरुको चरणमा चामल, दाल र तेल बाँड्ने अभियान नै चल्यो । तर, लकडाउन लम्बिँदै जाँदा सरकारी निकायहरुले राहत बाँड्न छाडे । ..........  असारसम्म आइपुग्दा स्थानीय तहमा विपद व्यवस्थापनको कोष सकिइसकेको छ । केन्द्र र प्रदेशबाट गएको रकम पनि कोरोना व्यवस्थापनमा सकिएको छ । अब दोस्रो चरणको सामना कसरी गर्ने भन्ने चिन्ता स्थानीय तहमा छ । .......... कसैले काठमाडौंको अवस्था इटलीको जस्तै भयावह हुन्छ भन्ने विश्लेषण गरेका थिए । .......  जतिखेर लकडाउन अन्त्यको घोषणा गरियो, त्यसपछि संक्रमणको दर र जोखिम दिनानुदिन बढेको बढ्यै छ । ....... अन्ततः लकडाउन अन्त्य भएको घोषणा गरेको सरकारले बिराटनगर, जनकपुर र वीरगञ्ज लगायतका शहरमा लकडाउनकै झल्को दिने गरी निशेधाज्ञा घोषणा गरेको छ । .........  कोरोनाको महामारीपछि चैत ११ गतेदेखि बन्द भएका बारा-पर्साको औद्योगिक करिडोर फेरि बन्द भएको छ । आर्थिक नगरीका रुपमा परिचित वीरगञ्ज बजार फेरि ठप्प भएको छ । १२० दिनको लकडाउन खुकुलो भएपछि बजार आंशिक चल्न थालेको थियो, तर फेरि सिडियो कार्यालयले निशेधाज्ञा घोषणा गरेर बन्द गरेको छ । ......... केन्द्र सरकारले कर असुल्ने उद्देश्यले लकडाउन समाप्त भएको घोषणा गरिरहँदा सिडियो कार्यालयमार्फत् चोरबाटोबाट लकडाउनको घोषणा गरिएको छ, पर्सा, बारा, धनुषा, सप्तरी र मोरङसम्म । जबकि यी जिल्लाका उद्योगधन्दाहरु नेपालको अर्थतन्त्रका मेरुदण्ड हुन् । .......... केन्द्र सरकार लकडाउन अन्त्य भएको घोषणा गरेर ढुक्कसँग बसेको छ भने पर्सादेखि मोरङसम्मका विभिन्न जिल्लामा सिडियो ले नै लकडाउन घोषणा गरेका छन् । भलै लकडाउनलाई लकडाउन नभनेर निशेधाज्ञा नाम दिइएको छ । .......... ‘लकडाउन त कसैले धान्नै सक्दैन, इकोनोमीलाई चलायमान बनाउनैपर्छ । सरकारले अघिल्लो लकडाउन पनि हतासमा गरेको हो, खुकुलो गर्दा पनि आत्तिएर, कुनै अध्ययनविनै गर्‍यो ।’ .......... तर, दोस्रो चरणमा कोरोनाको जोखिम यसैगरी बढ्दै गयो भने त्यसलाई फैलन नदिनका लागि  के गर्ने त ? वीरगञ्जमा जस्तै काठमाडौंमा पनि भयो भने के गर्ने ? यसबारे सम्भवतः सरकारी अधिकारीहरुले सोचेका छैनन् । ........  देशभरि संक्रमण बढिरहादा सोमबारको मन्त्रि परिषद बैठकमा कोरोनाबारे कुनै छलफल भएन । ...... सरकारलाई यतिबेला विवादास्पद व्यक्तिहरुको नियुक्ति र राजनीतिक भागवण्डामै फुर्सद छैन । दोस्रो चरणको कोरोनाविरोधी लडाइँ सिडियोकै भरमा चलिरहेको छ ।

आज प्रदेश २ का ६ जिल्लामा निषेधाज्ञा, सर्लाहीमा आजैबाट जारी  

सांसद प्रदीप यादव भन्छन्- संक्रमितहरुले स्वास्थ्यकर्मीको सल्लाह पाउन छाडे  ‘वीरगंजमा कोरोना संक्रमितहरु घर भित्रै मर्दा पनि कसैले थाहा नपाउने र मतलब नगर्ने अवस्था भयो’ ..... वीरगन्ज त ‘कोरोना सिटी’ भइसक्यो।

Fighting COVID-19 could cost 500 times as much as pandemic prevention measures Significantly reducing transmission of new diseases from tropical forests would cost, globally, between $22.2 and $30.7 billion each year. The COVID-19 pandemic will likely end up costing between $8.1 and $15.8 trillion globally. ....................  The failure to protect tropical rainforests has cost trillions of dollars stemming from the coronavirus pandemic .........  To reduce disease transmission, Kaufman and his collaborators propose expanding wildlife trade monitoring programs, investing in efforts to end the wild meat trade in China, investing in policies to reduce deforestation by 40%, and fighting the transmission of disease from wild animals to livestock. .................  In China alone, wildlife farming (a government-monitored effort to sustainably hunt wild animals without overhunting them) is an approximately $20 billion industry, employing 15 million people ............  Every year, two new viruses are estimated to transfer from animals to humans, the researchers say. Historically, these have included HIV, MERS, SARS-CoV-1, H1N1, and most recently, the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. .........   “There are many people who might object to the United States fronting money, but it’s in our own best interest.   

If Covid Is A Sneeze, Climate Catastrophe Is Full Blown Fever

April 21: The Medicine Men Of Yesterday The exponential growth of the pandemic is no different from the exponential graph of climate catastrophe that the world has been drawing for itself. And so this pandemic is also an opportunity for the world to put itself on a path to tackle climate change. 

April 6: The Virus Asks For Out Of The Box Thinking This virus can not be tackled in any one country. It will have to be tackled simultaneously in every country. .......  This is the dress rehearsal for climate change. The coronavirus is forcing the world to do what needs to be done to fight climate change.

March 31: Working Remotely Permanently To Solve Global Warming  

COVID-19 is awful. Climate change could be worse. economic hardship not seen in many generations ........  the only way to avoid the worst possible climate outcomes is to accelerate our efforts now. ...... More than 600,000 people have died, and tens of millions are out of work. This April, car traffic was half what it was in April 2019. For months, air traffic virtually came to a halt. ......... “To understand the kind of damage that climate change will inflict, look at COVID-19 and spread the pain out over a much longer period.” ............  The loss of life and economic misery caused by this pandemic are on par with what will happen regularly if we do not eliminate the world’s carbon emissions. ..........  by 2060, climate change could be just as deadly as COVID-19, and by 2100 it could be five times as deadly. .......... In the next decade or two, the economic damage caused by climate change will likely be as bad as having a COVID-sized pandemic every ten years. ........... “If we learn the lessons of COVID-19, we can approach climate change more informed about the consequences of inaction.” ............  The current global crisis can inform our response to the next one. ......  In the next decade or two, the economic damage caused by climate change will likely be as bad as having a COVID-sized pandemic every ten years. And by the end of the century, it will be much worse if the world remains on its current emissions path. .........  Let science and innovation lead the way. ....... overall, the world should be using more energy, not less—as long as it is clean. .......  Any comprehensive response to climate change will have to tap into many different disciplines. Climate science tells us why we need to deal with this problem, but not how to deal with it. For that, we’ll need biology, chemistry, physics, political science, economics, engineering, and other sciences. .......... Make sure solutions work for poor countries too. ........  More than anywhere else, climate change will dramatically increase death rates in poor countries near or below the Equator, where the weather will get even hotter and more unpredictable. ..........  the effects of climate change will almost certainly be harsher than COVID-19's, and they will be the worst for the people who did the least to cause them. ........  Start now. .......  Unlike the novel coronavirus, for which I think we’ll have a vaccine next year, there is no two-year fix for climate change. It will take decades to develop and deploy all the clean-energy inventions we need. ...........  Health advocates said for years that a pandemic was virtually inevitable. The world did not do enough to prepare, and now we are trying to make up for lost time.

If Covid Is A Sneeze, Climate Catastrophe Is Full Blown Fever https://t.co/4GftHOmh3n @BillGates @gatesfoundation @melindagates #COVID19 #COVIDー19 #coronavirus #CoronavirusOutbreak #pandemic #lockdownextension

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) August 5, 2020

Fighting COVID-19 could cost 500 times as much as pandemic prevention measures https://t.co/DqLuX3BQCC pic.twitter.com/JFdV6ljGCC

— World Economic Forum (@wef) August 5, 2020

Coronavirus News (197)

Breaking Faith With the Electoral College 

Republicans want to punish Americans for not working—but it doesn't make economic sense  the benefits are extremely popular with the public, including nearly half of Republican voters polled .........  for many Americans, working simply isn't safe ..........  The latest research finds no correlation between the generosity of unemployment benefits and job finding. Current high unemployment rates are the result of a jobs shortage, not a sudden widespread lack of motivation. ...........  The truth is that Conservative opposition to expanded unemployment benefits may have less to do with the amount of the benefits than who they think is receiving them. It's impossible to disentangle the politics of the safety net from the anti-Blackness that indelibly shapes them. ..........  white Americans think recipients of safety net programs are primarily Black (despite the fact that the majority of recipients are white) and that Blacks are lazy and undeserving of assistance ..........  when whites perceive threats to their relative advantage, their racial resentment increases, in turn leading to heightened opposition to safety net programs .......... Whites' belief that Blacks were lazy has been used to justify policies, like slavery, that coerce Black work for centuries. Modern work requirement policies for federal assistance, a particular obsession of the Trump administration, were actually born of a political compromise between New Deal reformers and Southern Democrats who wanted to ensure that Blacks did not have access to New Deal cash assistance programs like Aid to Dependent Children. This racist exclusion aimed at Black people, by propping up anti-safety-net ideology for generations, has also spilled over and harmed every other marginalized group in the U.S. .........  The Trump Administration's current threat to cut unemployment benefits, justified by the myth that these benefits are disincentivizing work, is just the latest in a long conservative tradition of attacking the social safety net by relying on faulty, racist stereotypes.   

अपहरण गर्ने मन्त्री, अपहरणकारी जोगाउने प्रधानमन्त्री थप सामग्री

Transformational reform is the only way out for India, says Rajan  According to Rajan, what probably keeps the government from offering more stimulus measures is that India had moved into the coronavirus crisis with a 9% fiscal deficit (for both the Centre and states) and the tendency of policymakers to take sovereign credit ratings as a symbol of its economic management. ...........  According to Rajan, one area for policy reform is bankruptcy. The existing model, which prefers auctioning off even reasonably viable companies for default, could be replaced with one that encourages more debt renegotiation without replacing the existing management, as the economic circumstances have changed during the pandemic. .........  suspending fresh bankruptcy cases was unfortunate as it views bankruptcy resolution as a punishment and not necessarily as a way of restructuring capital structure and ownership. .........  having a fine-tuned bankruptcy system was important as banks, especially public sector lenders, were not willing to go for out-of-court negotiations for debt restructuring.  

DO WE REALLY NEED THE OFFICE? What the WFH boom means for the future.  ......  I exercise in the same space in which I answer emails and Slack messages. .......  anywhere from 5% to 15% of Americans worked from home before the pandemic. As of April, half of Americans who were employed pre-Covid now report working from home ..........  rowing outbreaks across the country (and new evidence of indoor airborne transmission) may keep many other offices closed for an indeterminate period of time ............ despite a recent outbreak in Beijing, many offices have remained open since late February, largely due to widespread monitoring and aggressive testing and tracking .........  Covid-related restrictions are still largely in place in office buildings across Europe. ........  the trajectory toward more remote work for knowledge workers has been accelerating for years .......  “The share of the labor force that works from home tripled in the past 15 years .........  remote work benefits productivity, but this wholesale shift is forcing us to recognize, call out, and reject dangerous norms, such as the “ideal worker” fallacy that disproportionately affects parents and, primarily, women ...........   a bleak picture of how forced remote work is impacting U.S. mothers in heterosexual dual-career households ......... the “gigification” of knowledge work ............  open offices had plenty of unintended consequences and that spaces can be designed to produce specific performance outcomes ...........  how long employees will work from home (some companies, like Twitter, say “forever”) ............  whether a “hybrid” or rotational working environment is effective  

Google just changed the WFH game for everyone  The company told workers on Monday that they can work from home until July 2021. ...... "Google is a trendsetter," said Mauro Guillén, a management professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of the forthcoming book "2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything." And the competition is always paying attention. "The first thing that will go through every [Silicon Valley] executive's and human resources teams' minds is: When do we introduce a policy that matches or beats it?" said Arran Stewart, co-founder of Job.com.............   Google still didn't go as far as companies like Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB) that have already announced that some employees will work from home permanently. ....... Twitter said in May it will allow some of its workforce to continue working from home "forever" if they want. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said as many as 50% of the company's employees could be working remotely within the next five to 10 years. .......... remote workers also give companies access to a much wider talent pool. .........  something that could create -- for certain industries -- a truly global labor market ........  For companies who are planning to make work-from-home succeed for the long haul, there has to be a focus on measurable outcomes .........  managers need to lay out objectives and time frames and give employees the freedom to get things done when required.   

Coronavirus News (196)

The Key to Defeating COVID-19 Already Exists. We Need to Start Using It | Opinion  .......  I am referring, of course, to the medication hydroxychloroquine. When this inexpensive oral medication is given very early in the course of illness, before the virus has had time to multiply beyond control, it has shown to be highly effective, especially when given in combination with the antibiotics azithromycin or doxycycline and the nutritional supplement zinc. ............  I myself know of two doctors who have saved the lives of hundreds of patients with these medications, but are now fighting state medical boards to save their licenses and reputations. The cases against them are completely without scientific merit. ........... renew my call for the immediate early use of hydroxychloroquine in high-risk patients .......  In the northern Brazil state of Pará, COVID-19 deaths were increasing exponentially. On April 6, the public hospital network purchased 75,000 doses of azithromycin and 90,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine. Over the next few weeks, authorities began distributing these medications to infected individuals. Even though new cases continued to occur, on May 22 the death rate started to plummet and is now about one-eighth what it was at the peak. ............ A reverse natural experiment happened in Switzerland. On May 27, the Swiss national government banned outpatient use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. Around June 10, COVID-19 deaths increased four-fold and remained elevated. On June 11, the Swiss government revoked the ban, and on June 23 the death rate reverted to what it had been beforehand. People who die from COVID-19 live about three to five weeks from the start of symptoms, which makes the evidence of a causal relation in these experiments strong. Both episodes suggest that a combination of hydroxychloroquine and its companion medications reduces mortality and should be immediately adopted as the new standard of care in high-risk patients...........    Hydroxychloroquine has shown major success when used early in high-risk people but, as one would expect for an antiviral, much less success when used late in the disease course. Even so, it has demonstrated significant benefit in large hospital studies in Michigan and New York City when started within the first 24 to 48 hours after admission. ................  In fact, as inexpensive, oral and widely available medications, and a nutritional supplement, the combination of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin or doxycycline, and zinc are well-suited for early treatment in the outpatient setting. The combination should be prescribed in high-risk patients immediately upon clinical suspicion of COVID-19 disease, without waiting for results of testing. Delays in waiting before starting the medications can reduce their efficacy. ..............  a classic example of how extra-scientific factors overrode clear-cut medical evidence ......... For the sake of high-risk patients, for the sake of our parents and grandparents, for the sake of the unemployed, for our economy and for our polity, especially those disproportionally affected, we must start treating immediately......  Harvey A. Risch, MD, PhD, is professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health.

Hydroxychloroquine Is Not a Key to Defeating COVID-19   On July 15, Oxford University reported in a randomized and controlled study that hydroxychloroquine did not reduce 28-day mortality after randomly allocating 1,561 patients to receive hydroxychloroquine and 3,155 patients to receive standard care. On July 23, The New England Journal of Medicine published a study of 667 patients, who were randomly given hydroxychloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin or standard care, with a 1:1:1 ratio. This study found that the use of hydroxychloroquine, either alone or with azithromycin, did not improve outcomes. Cardiac side effects, however, were more frequent in individuals receiving hydroxychloroquine. Other well-designed studies published earlier have all shown that hydroxychloroquine has no benefit in managing COVID-19. Earlier observational studies have also pointed out the lack of benefits and safety profile when treating COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine.............  Considering the replicable evidence from multiple studies showing no benefits but safety concerns, it is not surprising to see health authorities all around the world, as well as the World Health Organization, halt hydroxychloroquine studies and recommend against its use. .........  Some also draw conclusions from a study done in Brazil, available only in Dropbox and on WordPress. This work not only had no formal research design, but did not even confirm whether enrolled patients actually had COVID-19. Many other studies used by hydroxychloroquine supporters should all be taken with multiple grains of salt because they are all poorly designed, inconclusive and outdated. ..............   The keys to defeating COVID-19 are solidarity, leadership, transparency and collaboration. Hydroxychloroquine is not one of them, and wrongfully promoting this drug is not protecting our lives........ Jon Zhou is a doctor of pharmacy, a practicing health care professional and a graduate of master of public health/global health from Yale School of Public Health.

Coronavirus News (195)

Harris talks ambition in women of color after personal attacks during Biden's VP search

Afghan woman, 105, recovers from Covid A patient of Alzheimer’s with dementia, the 105-year-old, hailing from Afghanistan and a resident of France, has recovered from coronavirus. As she was discharged on Friday, a group of doctors and nurses bid her farewell.

The Mysterious Life of Birds Who Never Come Down Swifts spend all their time in the sky. What can their  journeys tell us about the future?  ...... Swifts are magical in the manner of all things that exist just a little beyond understanding. 

Jeff Bezos written statement to Congress 

"LindaJean Swanson Voth

Post by my friend's daughter who is trying to recover from Covid. She was a personal trainer in Excellent physical condition before it hit. Young, too!

Day....I just stopped counting honestly...I think 120 days

Every time I think I’ve seen all of the aftermath of Covid in my body...something new happens. I’ve been dealing with crazy tachycardia since April. I’ve passed out a few times, due to crazy high heart rate. My heart rate would hit 200 bpm followed by chest pain, just sitting on my couch. Today I passed out in the grocery store, because my heart rate dropped to 40 bpm. I wish it would make up its dang mind. I’m so thankful for a nice customer who stopped to help me. If you ask my doctor though...all my heart tests are normal .

According to a neurologist at Stanford that I did a webinar with, the inflammation is happening in the blood vessels and Covid is causing micro clots. There are 2 people in my long haulers group in their 20s...yes 20s.. that have suffered heart attacks this week, after all their heart tests came back normal. These clots are causing strokes and heart attacks, in young people with healthy hearts. In countless autopsies done on a Covid patients, they found hundreds of these clots in the heart, brain, and lungs. In the study I posted below, they found that 3/4 of the patients that beat Covid, had some sort of damage to their hearts...months later. Do you still think Covid is just like the flu?? Being a preschool teacher and working with special education, I’ve had the flu every dang year. Let me tell you...IT IS NOTHING LIKE THE FLU!! God I’d do anything to have my life back

Lisa Nicholson

Why would she go to the store????? And possibly spread it"

Kamala Devi Harris: The Clear Choice For VP

I believe Kamala Harris of California is the clear front runner who Joe Biden should pick to be his running mate. 

She is a woman. Biden made it clear early on his running mate will be a woman. 

This year has seen the Black Lives Matter uprising. Americans of all races are rising up against racism. People that look like Kamala Harris in all walks of life have been carrying the double stone weights of racism and sexism. 

Police brutality is the center stage of the conversation. Her criminal justice background is great timing. 

A VP is one heartbeat away from the presidency. A VP should be able to step in at a moment's notice. Jack Kennedy was Senator before he was president. Joe Biden was Senator before he was Vice President. Being a Governor is not a requirement. Kamala Harris has executive abilities. She led a large team as Attorney General of California. Even running for Senate in a large state like California is a major executive undertaking. 

She has been vetted publicly. She ran for president and dropped out early enough to not harm Joe Biden's chances. Pete, Amy, and others followed suit later on. 

India is fast emerging America's new Britain. The US and India are emerging strong global allies. Indian Americans are the most successful ethnic group inside America. Indian CEOs run Microsoft and Google, two of the four tech giants. India deserves representation. Kamala Devi Harris is half Indian by birth. Kamala is an Indian name. It means the lotus flower. That just so happens to be the election symbol of the ruling party in India. Vote Lotus. In America now. 

American Jews feel strongly about Israel, as they should. American Indians feel strongly about India, as they should. 

And what about California! The most reliably blue big state that could be its own country can not be taken for granted just because it is reliably blue. That loyalty needs to be rewarded. 

This is the year when Texas falls. This is the year when Georgia falls. This is the year when Florida falls back. 

Joe Biden is about to receive a mandate that asks for a strong VP, perhaps the most powerful VP in history. That is Kamala Harris. 

She is a woman. She is black. She is Indian. She is from California. She has been a prosecutor and knows the criminal justice system. Before you can change the rules of the game, you have to know the rules of the game. 

Kamala Devi Harris: The Clear Choice For VP https://t.co/qaz5GFTT3z @KamalaHarris @SenKamalaHarris @AOC @RepAOC @narendramodi @PMOIndia @AmitShah @BJP4India @JoeBiden @AndrewYang @PeteButtigieg @ewarren #JoeBidenLandslide2020 #JoeBidenForPresident2020

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) August 1, 2020

Harris talks ambition in women of color after personal attacks during Biden's VP search https://t.co/BDId6OH85E

— Jeffrey Levin (@jilevin) August 1, 2020