COVID-19

Yep.... rapid acceleration of COVID cases in the U.S.

Average daily new coronavirus cases in U.S. hit all-time high, expert warns of ‘exponential spread’
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/26/ave...icials-warn-exponential-spread-is-coming.html
  • The average number of new daily cases of coronavirus in the United States is at a record.
  • “We are likely to see a very dense epidemic,” former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday.
  • As daily new cases skyrocket, hospitalizations are rising, too, and deaths, which lag furthest behind those other indicators, are beginning to tick up.
The average number of new daily cases of coronavirus in the United States is at a record — stressing local hospital systems and forcing new curfews and other restrictions in some parts of the country.

With fall holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving approaching, the U.S. has now established its third peak of daily new cases with no signs of letting up.

Over the past seven days, the country reported an average of about 68,767 new cases every day, the highest seven-day average recorded yet, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. The seven-day average is up more than 22% compared with a week ago, according to CNBC’s analysis.

106761334-1603713716390-20201026_us_new_cases_curve_updated.png


“We are likely to see a very dense epidemic,” former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday. “I think we are right now at the cusp of what is going to be exponential spread in parts of the country.”

The U.S. is also testing more people than ever, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project. However, more testing cannot account for the rise in cases, health officials say, because the percent of tests coming back positive has increased as well. About 6.2% of tests were positive on Sunday based on a seven-day average, according to Hopkins, up from 5.2% a week earlier.

The U.S. reported an all-time high single-day spike in cases on Friday, when the country reported 83,757 new cases, according to Hopkins data. Health officials have warned for months that cases would likely rise as parts of the country entered the fall and winter. That’s largely because people are spending more time indoors, where the virus can spread more easily. Epidemiologists also say the virus may be able to spread more easily in colder, drier air.

More than 20 states reported record-high numbers of average daily new cases, and cases are rising by 5% or more in 40 states, according to CNBC’s analysis. Many of the states with the fastest growing outbreaks are those in the Midwest and West, which did not report many cases of the virus earlier in the pandemic. Adjusted for population, the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Montana and Idaho are reporting more average daily new cases than anywhere else in the country.

(More at above url)
 
gwb-trading said:
View attachment 242436
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Trump Team Just Announced Its Surrender to Pandemic

"Donald Trump has surrendered without even putting up a battle. I have no doubt he will be remembered as the greatest presidential failure in American History."
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  • Op-Ed by Jeffrey Sachs
Unlike tens of millions of people around the world who have contracted COVID-19 because of their poverty, bad luck, vulnerability as essential workers, or poor decisions by policymakers, US President Donald Trump’s infection is of his own making. Trump’s disdain for science and his brazen disregard for public-health advice led directly to his own illness; far worse, they have fueled America’s soaring COVID-19 death toll – now at....

Since the pandemic began, public health experts around the world have begged the public to wear face masks, avoid large gatherings, and maintain physical distance from others, in order to stop the transmission of the virus. Leave it to Trump, a man of pathological disposition, to reject all such advice. Barely two days before announcing that he and the First Lady had tested positive, Trump was mocking Joe Biden for wearing one. “I don’t wear a mask like him,” Trump said at the first presidential debate. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away … and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
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wrbtrader
 
Iran reports COVID-19 death every four minutes, extends curbs
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...very-four-minutes-extends-curbs-idUSKBN27B12N

Iran extended COVID-19 curbs in Tehran and across the country on Monday as health authorities said they were recording a death from the virus every four minutes.

Some hospitals had run out of beds to treat new patients, the head of the national coronavirus task-force told state TV. “Our doctors and nurses are tired. I urge everyone to respect the protocols,” Alireza Zali said.

The health ministry in the Middle East’s hardest-hit country reported 337 new deaths and 5,960 new cases over the past 24 hours. A banner on state TV said that amounted to a death every four minutes.

Authorities have complained of poor social distancing, and Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said last week the death count could soon rise to 600 a day if Iranians fail to respect health protocols.

The closure of schools, mosques, shops, restaurants and other public institutions in Tehran, that was due to end on Monday, would now be extended until Nov. 20, state TV reported.

“Extreme measures and limitations” will be imposed for one week in at least 43 counties where the infection rates have been alarming, the TV report added, citing officials. It added that 21 one of Iran’s 31 provinces were on a coronavirus red alert.

Tehran has blamed U.S. sanctions for hampering its efforts to tackle the outbreak. Washington, accusing Iran of “incompetent and deadly governance”, has refused to lift sanctions that were reimposed after 2018 when Trump exited Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six powers.

Monday’s data took Iran’s total death toll to 32,953 and the number of identified cases to 574,856, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said.

Some experts have doubted the accuracy of Iran’s official coronavirus tolls. A report by the Iranian parliament’s research centre in April suggested that the coronavirus tolls might be almost twice as many as those announced by the ministry.
 
gwb-trading said:
Iran reports COVID-19 death every four minutes, extends curbs
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...very-four-minutes-extends-curbs-idUSKBN27B12N

Iran extended COVID-19 curbs in Tehran and across the country on Monday as health authorities said they were recording a death from the virus every four minutes.

Some hospitals had run out of beds to treat new patients, the head of the national coronavirus task-force told state TV. “Our doctors and nurses are tired. I urge everyone to respect the protocols,” Alireza Zali said.

The health ministry in the Middle East’s hardest-hit country reported 337 new deaths and 5,960 new cases over the past 24 hours. A banner on state TV said that amounted to a death every four minutes.

Authorities have complained of poor social distancing, and Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said last week the death count could soon rise to 600 a day if Iranians fail to respect health protocols.

The closure of schools, mosques, shops, restaurants and other public institutions in Tehran, that was due to end on Monday, would now be extended until Nov. 20, state TV reported.

“Extreme measures and limitations” will be imposed for one week in at least 43 counties where the infection rates have been alarming, the TV report added, citing officials. It added that 21 one of Iran’s 31 provinces were on a coronavirus red alert.

Tehran has blamed U.S. sanctions for hampering its efforts to tackle the outbreak. Washington, accusing Iran of “incompetent and deadly governance”, has refused to lift sanctions that were reimposed after 2018 when Trump exited Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six powers.

Monday’s data took Iran’s total death toll to 32,953 and the number of identified cases to 574,856, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said.

Some experts have doubted the accuracy of Iran’s official coronavirus tolls. A report by the Iranian parliament’s research centre in April suggested that the coronavirus tolls might be almost twice as many as those announced by the ministry.
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They won't forget the sanctions. Donnie just had to take a giant shit on the mending of those relations
 
It's time to drop the whole "new case this week v last week" stuff, and just show "active number of cases".

How they would define active? I dunno', pick it out of a hat.
 
It is now pretty clear that natural antibody immunity for COVID lasts a mere 2 to 7 months in the majority of people who recover from infection. There are already multiple medically documented cases of re-infection months apart. This means that "natural herd immunity" is a complete farce.

Coronavirus: Antibodies fall rapidly after COVID infection, dashing hopes of herd immunity - study
Researchers find that the number of people with antibodies in their study fell by 26% since lockdown measures were relaxed.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...tibodies-fall-rapidly-after-recovery-12115510

Hopes that the population will become immune to COVID-19 have been dashed by new research showing antibodies fall rapidly after recovering from the disease.

So-called herd immunity has been proposed by some scientists as a better alternative to lockdowns in tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

It would require around 50-60% of the population to have protection against the virus so it could no longer transmit efficiently.

However, a major UK study has found that rather than building immunity over time, the number of people with antibodies has fallen by 26% since lockdown was eased over the summer.

Researchers from Imperial College London screened 365,000 people over three rounds of testing between June and September.

Results of the REACT-2 study showed that 6% of people had antibodies to the virus around the time lockdown was eased in late June and early July.

But by the start of the second wave last month, this dropped to just 4.4%.

Professor Helen Ward, one of the researchers, said the new results strongly suggest that herd immunity is unachievable.

"When you think 95 people out of 100 are still likely to be susceptible, we are a long, long way from anything resembling population level protection against onward transmission," she said.

"It's not something you can use as a strategy for infection control [for COVID-19] in the population."

The finding is another blow to scientists behind the controversial Great Barrington Declaration, who had suggested that vulnerable people could be shielded at home while the virus spreads through the young and healthy to build up herd immunity.

The proposal has been strongly criticised by many other scientists.

The researchers found younger people, those from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities and health workers had higher antibody levels, possibly because they were in regular contact with infected individuals.

The fall in antibodies suggest people will be regularly re-infected, just as they are with related coronaviruses that cause the common cold.

Professor Wendy Barclay, an infectious diseases specialist and one of the researchers, said antibodies peak three to four weeks after symptoms and then drop away, as they do for related viruses.

She said: "Seasonal coronaviruses that circulate every winter and cause common colds can re-infect people after six to 12 months.

"We suspect that the way the body reacts to infection with this new coronavirus is similar to that."

There have so far only been a handful of documented cases of re-infection.

Dr Alexander Edwards, associate professor in biomedical technology at the University of Reading, said: "What is not clear is how quickly antibody levels would rise again if a person encounters the virus a second time.

"It is possible they will still rapidly respond, and either have a milder illness, or remain protected through immune memory.

"So even if the rapid antibody test is no longer positive, the person may still be protected from re-infection."

The study, which is yet to be peer reviewed, only measured antibodies.

It is possible that another arm of the immune system called T-cells, may remain active, but there is currently no available test for them.

Scientists are cautious about using the results to predict the protection provided by a vaccine.

They say immunisations may lead to a more robust antibody response.

Health Minister Lord Bethell said the study "is a critical piece of research, helping us to understand the nature of COVID-19 antibodies over time, and improve our understanding about the virus itself".

He added: "We rely on this kind of important research to inform our continued response to the disease, so we can continue to take the right action at the right time.

"It is also important that everyone knows what this means for them - this study will help in our fight against the virus, but testing positive for antibodies does not mean you are immune to COVID-19."
 
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