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Category: Health

Postal Service warns 46 states their voters could be disenfranchised by delayed mail-in ballots

Postal Service warns 46 states their voters could be disenfranchised by delayed mail-in ballots

The Washington Post reports: Anticipating an avalanche of absentee ballots, the U.S. Postal Service recently sent detailed letters to 46 states and D.C. warning that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted — adding another layer of uncertainty ahead of the high-stakes presidential contest. The letters sketch a grim possibility for the tens of millions of Americans eligible for a mail-in ballot this fall: Even if people follow…

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The plan that could give us our lives back

The plan that could give us our lives back

Robinson Meyer and Alexis C. Madrigal write: Michael Mina is a professor of epidemiology at Harvard, where he studies the diagnostic testing of infectious diseases. He has watched, with disgust and disbelief, as the United States has struggled for months to obtain enough tests to fight the coronavirus. In January, he assured a newspaper reporter that he had “absolute faith” in the ability of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to contain the virus. By early March, that conviction…

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The real coronavirus death toll in the U.S. has already surpassed 200,000

The real coronavirus death toll in the U.S. has already surpassed 200,000

The New York Times reports: Across the United States, at least 200,000 more people have died than usual since March, according to a New York Times analysis of estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is about 60,000 higher than the number of deaths that have been directly linked to the coronavirus. As the pandemic has moved south and west from its epicenter in New York City, so have the unusual patterns in deaths from all causes….

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Population immunity is slowing down the pandemic in parts of the U.S.

Population immunity is slowing down the pandemic in parts of the U.S.

MIT Technology Review reports: The large number of people already infected with the coronavirus in the US has begun to act as a brake on the spread of the disease in hard-hit states. Millions of US residents have been infected by the virus that causes covid-19, and at least 160,000 are dead. One effect is that the pool of susceptible individuals has been depleted in many areas. After infection, it’s believed, people become immune (at least for months), so they…

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Russia doesn’t really know whether its Covid vaccine works

Russia doesn’t really know whether its Covid vaccine works

Max Nisen writes: Russia is prematurely declaring victory in the race for a vaccine against Covid-19, with potentially dangerous consequences for the Russian population. President Vladimir Putin says his government has approved a vaccine and will start inoculating teachers and medical workers this month, before embarking on a mass vaccination effort in the fall. Yet the shot is not backed by evidence from a complete phase 3 trial, the gold standard for confirming safety and efficacy. Deciding to move ahead…

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‘A smoking gun’: Infectious coronavirus retrieved from hospital air

‘A smoking gun’: Infectious coronavirus retrieved from hospital air

The New York Times reports: Skeptics of the notion that the coronavirus spreads through the air — including many expert advisers to the World Health Organization — have held out for one missing piece of evidence: proof that floating respiratory droplets called aerosols contain live virus, and not just fragments of genetic material. Now a team of virologists and aerosol scientists has produced exactly that: confirmation of infectious virus in the air. “This is what people have been clamoring for,”…

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Antibody drugs could be one of the best weapons against Covid-19. But will they matter?

Antibody drugs could be one of the best weapons against Covid-19. But will they matter?

STAT reports: From the moment Covid-19 emerged as a threat, one approach to making drugs to treat or prevent the disease seemed to hold the most promise: They’re known as monoclonal antibodies. Now, scientists are on the brink of getting important data that may indicate whether these desperately needed therapies could be safe and effective. Clinical trials involving a pair of antibodies developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals will read out early results in September. A separate effort from Eli Lilly could…

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Why America’s window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 is closing

Why America’s window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 is closing

Helen Branswell writes: The good news: The United States has a window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 before things get much, much worse. The bad news: That window is rapidly closing. And the country seems unwilling or unable to seize the moment. Winter is coming. Winter means cold and flu season, which is all but sure to complicate the task of figuring out who is sick with Covid-19 and who is suffering from a less threatening respiratory tract infection….

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The greatest weakness of American men? Fear of looking weak

The greatest weakness of American men? Fear of looking weak

Alex Abad-Santos writes: Fellas, is it gay to not die of a virus that turns your lungs into soggy shells of their former selves, drowning you from the inside out? Is wearing a mask to avoid death part of the feminization of America? Is it too emasculating to wear a mask to protect the others around you? Does staying alive make you feel weak? According to many American men, yeah. Poll after poll, most recently a Gallup poll from July…

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Does coronavirus linger in the body? What we know about how viruses in general hang on in the brain and testicles

Does coronavirus linger in the body? What we know about how viruses in general hang on in the brain and testicles

Are there places in the body where SARS-CoV-2 can hide from the immune system? fotograzia / Getty Images By William Petri, University of Virginia As millions of people are recovering from COVID-19, an unanswered question is the extent to which the virus can “hide out” in seemingly recovered individuals. If it does, could this explain some of the lingering symptoms of COVID-19 or pose a risk for transmission of infection to others even after recovery? I am a physician-scientist of…

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America tops 5 million confirmed virus cases, to Europe’s alarm

America tops 5 million confirmed virus cases, to Europe’s alarm

The Associated Press reports: With confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. hitting 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe. Perhaps nowhere outside the U.S. is America’s bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe’s epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February, and the…

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Trump flouts coronavirus guidelines with golf club gathering, calling it a ‘peaceful protest’

Trump flouts coronavirus guidelines with golf club gathering, calling it a ‘peaceful protest’

The Washington Post reports: Just before 7 p.m. Friday evening, members of President Trump’s private golf club here began streaming into a gilded ballroom by the dozens. Some carried wine glasses — few wore masks. The happy hour scene just steps from the golf course was orchestrated by Trump, who decided late Friday to hold an impromptu news conference and invite his club members to gather indoors in defiance of state restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the novel…

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Bill Gates predicts pandemic will be over by the end of 2022

Bill Gates predicts pandemic will be over by the end of 2022

Wired: At this point, are you optimistic? Bill Gates: Yes. You have to admit there’s been trillions of dollars of economic damage done and a lot of debts, but the innovation pipeline on scaling up diagnostics, on new therapeutics, on vaccines is actually quite impressive. And that makes me feel like, for the rich world, we should largely be able to end this thing by the end of 2021, and for the world at large by the end of 2022….

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Dr. Anthony Fauci says chance of coronavirus vaccine being highly effective is ‘not great’

Dr. Anthony Fauci says chance of coronavirus vaccine being highly effective is ‘not great’

CNBC reports: White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that the chances of scientists creating a highly effective vaccine — one that provides 98% or more guaranteed protection — for the virus are slim. Scientists are hoping for a coronavirus vaccine that is at least 75% effective, but 50% or 60% effective would be acceptable, too, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a Q&A with the Brown University School of Public…

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Three major scientific controversies about coronavirus

Three major scientific controversies about coronavirus

It is unclear how well masks work. People Image Studio/Shutterstock By Manal Mohammed, University of Westminster Although political leaders have closed borders in response to COVID-19, scientists are collaborating like never before. But the coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) is novel – and we don’t yet have all the facts about it. As a result, we may have to change our approach as new scientific data comes in. That doesn’t mean the science isn’t trustworthy – we will get the full picture over…

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The next global depression is coming and optimism won’t slow it down

The next global depression is coming and optimism won’t slow it down

Ian Bremmer writes: The world is confused and frightened. COVID-19 infections are on the rise across the U.S. and around the world, even in countries that once thought they had contained the virus. The outlook for the next year is at best uncertain; countries are rushing to produce and distribute vaccines at breakneck speeds, some opting to bypass critical phase trials. Meanwhile, unemployment numbers remain dizzyingly high, even as the U.S. stock market continues to defy gravity. We’re headed into…

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