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Category: Health

The pandemic will be tamed, but not before a horrible winter

The pandemic will be tamed, but not before a horrible winter

Donald G. McNeil Jr. reports: The regions of the country now among those hit hardest by the virus — Midwestern and Mountain States and rural counties, including in the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming — are the ones that voted heavily for Mr. Trump in the recent election. The president could help save his millions of supporters by urging them to wear masks, avoid crowds and skip holiday gatherings this year. But that seemed unlikely to occur, many health experts…

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‘Absolutely remarkable’: No one who got Moderna’s vaccine in trial developed severe Covid-19

‘Absolutely remarkable’: No one who got Moderna’s vaccine in trial developed severe Covid-19

Science reports: Continuing the spate of stunning news about COVID-19 vaccines, the biotech company Moderna announced the final results of the 30,000-person efficacy trial for its candidate in a press release today: Only 11 people who received two doses of the vaccine developed COVID-19 symptoms after being infected with the pandemic coronavirus, versus 185 symptomatic cases in a placebo group. That is an efficacy of 94.1%, the company says, far above what many vaccine scientists were expecting just a few…

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Trump administration leaves states to grapple with how to distribute scarce vaccines

Trump administration leaves states to grapple with how to distribute scarce vaccines

Politico reports: The Trump administration is shunting to the states hard decisions about which Americans will get the limited early supplies of coronavirus vaccines — setting up a confusing patchwork of distribution plans that could create unequal access to the life-saving shots. Federal and state officials agree that the nation’s 21 million health care workers should be first in line. But there is no consensus about how to balance the needs of other high-risk groups, including the 53 million adults…

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Eschewing Occam’s razor, China seeks to change Covid origin story

Eschewing Occam’s razor, China seeks to change Covid origin story

The Observer reports: Nearly a year after doctors identified the first cases of a worrying new disease in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the country appears to be stepping up a campaign to question the origins of the global Covid-19 pandemic. State media has been reporting intensively on coronavirus discovered on packaging of frozen food imports, not considered a significant vector of infection elsewhere, and research into possible cases of the disease found outside China’s borders before December 2019. The…

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How the Covid-19 pandemic has been curtailed in Cherokee Nation: By ‘following the science’

How the Covid-19 pandemic has been curtailed in Cherokee Nation: By ‘following the science’

Usha Lee McFarling reports: While the United States flounders in its response to the coronavirus, another nation — one within our own borders — is faring much better. With a mask mandate in place since spring, free drive-through testing, hospitals well-stocked with PPE, and a small army of public health officers fully supported by their chief, the Cherokee Nation has been able to curtail its Covid-19 case and death rates even as those numbers surge in surrounding Oklahoma, where the…

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Doctors and nurses in the fight against Covid are suffering combat fatigue

Doctors and nurses in the fight against Covid are suffering combat fatigue

The New York Times reports: About 2 a.m. on a sweltering summer night, Dr. Orlando Garner awoke to the sound of a thud next to his baby daughter’s crib. He leapt out of bed to find his wife, Gabriela, passed out, her forehead hot with the same fever that had stricken him and his son, Orlando Jr., then 3, just hours before. Two days later, it would hit their infant daughter, Veronica. Nearly five months later, Dr. Garner, a critical…

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After admitting mistake, AstraZeneca faces difficult questions about its vaccine

After admitting mistake, AstraZeneca faces difficult questions about its vaccine

The New York Times reports: The announcement this week that a cheap, easy-to-make coronavirus vaccine appeared to be up to 90 percent effective was greeted with jubilation. “Get yourself a vaccaccino,” a British tabloid celebrated, noting that the vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, costs less than a cup of coffee. But since unveiling the preliminary results, AstraZeneca has acknowledged a key mistake in the vaccine dosage received by some study participants, adding to questions about whether…

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Pope Francis: A crisis reveals what is in our hearts

Pope Francis: A crisis reveals what is in our hearts

Pope Francis writes: In this past year of change, my mind and heart have overflowed with people. People I think of and pray for, and sometimes cry with, people with names and faces, people who died without saying goodbye to those they loved, families in difficulty, even going hungry, because there’s no work. Sometimes, when you think globally, you can be paralyzed: There are so many places of apparently ceaseless conflict; there’s so much suffering and need. I find it…

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Supreme Court follows public health guidance in remote hearings but blocks limits on religious gatherings

Supreme Court follows public health guidance in remote hearings but blocks limits on religious gatherings

The Associated Press reports: The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will continue to hear arguments by telephone through at least January because of the coronavirus pandemic. The court’s announcement extended telephone arguments by a month. “The Court will continue to closely monitor public health guidance in determining plans for the February argument session,” the court said in a statement. Politico reports: The Supreme Court signaled a major shift in its approach to coronavirus-related restrictions late Wednesday, voting 5-4 to bar…

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A growing number of Americans are going hungry

A growing number of Americans are going hungry

The Washington Post reports: More Americans are going hungry now than at any point during the deadly coronavirus pandemic, according to a Post analysis of new federal data — a problem created by an economic downturn that has tightened its grip on millions of Americans and compounded by government relief programs that expired or will terminate at the end of the year. Experts say it is likely that there’s more hunger in the United States today than at any point…

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Pandemic restrictions riddled with contradictions

Pandemic restrictions riddled with contradictions

Amanda Mull writes: Two weeks ago, I staged a reluctant intervention via Instagram direct message. The subject was a longtime friend, Josh, who had been sharing photos of himself and his fiancé occasionally dining indoors at restaurants since New York City, where we both live, had reopened them in late September. At first, I hadn’t said anything. Preliminary research suggests that when people congregate indoors, an infected person is almost 20 times more likely to transmit the virus than if…

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Communities of color continue to die from the coronavirus at much higher rates than Whites

Communities of color continue to die from the coronavirus at much higher rates than Whites

The Washington Post reports: Dennis Bannister’s daughter, Demi, was the first to die. She was only 28, a beloved third-grade teacher who likely caught the virus during a training at her Columbia, S.C., school district. Doctors diagnosed her with a bladder infection, and by the time they realized their mistake, it was too late. Not long after, the family’s matriarch, Shirley, 57, complained of difficulty breathing. She was twice sent home from the emergency room before returning by ambulance and…

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World leaders discuss help for poorest nations in post-Covid world, while Trump golfs

World leaders discuss help for poorest nations in post-Covid world, while Trump golfs

Reuters reports: Leaders of the 20 biggest economies are debating this weekend how to distribute Covid-19 vaccines, drugs and tests around the world so that poorer countries are not left out as nations look for ways to manage a post-coronavirus recovery. The leaders are holding a two-day virtual meeting via video-conference due to the pandemic, under the chairmanship of Saudi Arabia, which holds the rotating presidency of the G20 until the end of November. The Covid-19 pandemic, which will throw…

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As CDC warns against Thanksgiving travel, here are a dozen more things you can do to help stop COVID-19

As CDC warns against Thanksgiving travel, here are a dozen more things you can do to help stop COVID-19

While it may be deflating, events like the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade are best watched from home this year. Here, the Harold the Fireman balloon lies face down as he readied for the parade on Nov. 27, 2019. Gary Hershorn via Getty Images By Pamela M. Aaltonen, Purdue University As Americans prepare for the first Thanksgiving in the time of the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a stark warning a week before the big day:…

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At America’s best Covid-prepared hospital: ‘We are on an absolutely catastrophic path’

At America’s best Covid-prepared hospital: ‘We are on an absolutely catastrophic path’

Ed Yong writes: Perhaps no hospital in the United States was better prepared for a pandemic than the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. After the SARS outbreak of 2003, its staff began specifically preparing for emerging infections. The center has the nation’s only federal quarantine facility and its largest biocontainment unit, which cared for airlifted Ebola patients in 2014. The people on staff had detailed pandemic plans. They ran drills. Ron Klain, who was President Barack Obama’s “Ebola…

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How China crushed coronavirus

How China crushed coronavirus

Wired reports: Hong Wei* returned to his hometown of Luoyang in Henan province for the Spring Festival in early February. It took a few days for the gateway of his residential compound to be cordoned off, signalling that only residents should enter. For Hong, this was just the first sign of the mass mobilisation of people that has characterised China’s remarkably successful response to the coronavirus pandemic. Hong’s uncle had already stocked up on all the ingredients to serve roast…

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