Coronavirus Global Updates, Dec 01: South Korea reports more than 400 new Covid-19 cases

[Bulls n Bears]

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Zimbabwe COVID19 Update


COVID-19 update: As at 30 November 2020, Zimbabwe had 10 034 confirmed cases, including 8 489 recoveries and 277 deaths.


 





 


Coronavirus might infect the brain through the nose, German researchers find


The coronavirus may invade the brain through nerve cells in the nose, German researchers reported Monday.

Autopsy results from 33 people who died of coronavirus showed the virus in the brain and in the nasopharynx -- the upper part of the throat where it connects to the nasal cavity. The researchers found high concentrations of virus in the tissue associated with smell (the olfactory mucosa).

Why this matters: The findings can help explain some of the neurological symptoms of coronavirus infection -- notably, the loss of smell that so many people experience, the researchers reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

They might also help explain symptoms such as headache, fatigue, vomiting and nausea, according to Frank Heppner of the Berlin Institute of Health.

How the study was done: The researchers sampled tissue from the patients and used imaging to see RNA from the virus. They found evidence the virus travels along the nerves from the cells lining the throat and sinuses to the brain.

“Lower levels of viral RNA were found in the cornea, conjunctiva (eyes) and oral mucosa, highlighting the oral and ophthalmic routes as additional potential sites of SARS-CoV-2 central nervous system entry,” they wrote.

It’s not a surprising finding -- researchers have suspected the coronavirus gets into the central nervous system this way. Other viruses do, too, including flu. The German study is unique in that imaging was used to catch the virus in the act.

 

Meadows to meet with FDA chief as Trump asks where emergency approval of vaccine is

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows wears a protective mask as he departs the Senate Republican policy luncheon in the Hart Senate Office Building on Oct. 21 in Washington, DC. Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is scheduled to meet with FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn Tuesday, as President Donald Trump has privately demanded to know why his agency hasn't granted emergency use for Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine yet, according to two sources. 

Meadows summoned Hahn for a progress update over the weekend. Hahn requested their meeting happen over the phone, one source said, but was told by the White House that the chief of staff preferred to meet in person. That appears to have led to concern within the FDA that the meeting could become tense, leading Hahn to issue a statement to Axios tonight defending the FDA's timeline. 

"Let me be clear — our career scientists have to make the decision and they will take the time that’s needed to make the right call on this important decision," Hahn said.

Pfizer applied for the EUA on Nov. 20. 

Emergency use authorization from the FDA is not the same as full approval, but allows products to be used under particular circumstances before all the evidence is available for approval, according to previous CNN reporting. 

The FDA has previously said it has scheduled a meeting of its outside advisory panel to discuss Pfizer and BioNTech's application for emergency use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine for Dec. 10.

But Trump has become privately frustrated over how long the process is taking, sources told CNN. He has proudly and publicly admitted to pressuring the FDA to move faster. 

"It could have taken four or five years to do this," Trump told reporters about vaccine progress on Thanksgiving. "Normally, it probably would have taken four or five years, just getting it through the FDA. We pushed it very hard."

It's not clear how the meeting between Meadows and Hahn will go until it takes place. A sense of distrust between Trump's closest advisers and career scientists on the FDA already existed before the FDA issued public statements about the meeting on Monday night. 

 

Friday is "locked and loaded" date for state coronavirus vaccine plans

Friday is the “locked and loaded” date for states to have their dose requests for Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine, Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, told CNN Monday.

After that, they won’t be able to change their requests, said Hannan, whose group is helping states with their immunization plans.  

"I guess they're calling it the locked and loaded date," she said. "And their allocation numbers won't change after December 4."
"The pieces need to be put into place and locked in," Hannan said. "They've got these sites prepared. They've talked to them. They're planning out exactly how many doses they're going to use and how, over what timeframe. They're getting all of that in place." 

Friday is also the deadline for states to submit physical locations for the Pfizer vaccine, according to Gen. Gustave Perna, who is helping to oversee Operation Warp Speed.

Another Covid-19 vaccine maker, Moderna, has a similar deadline set for Dec. 11, according to Perna. 

Pfizer and Moderna have both submitted requests for emergency use authorization to the US Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has called meetings of its advisers for Dec. 10 to discuss Pfizer’s application and Dec. 17 to discuss Moderna’s. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Monday it was possible people could begin receiving vaccines by Christmas.

 

The US reported nearly 158,000 new cases on Monday

The United States reported 157,901 new coronavirus cases and 1,172 virus-related deaths on Monday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

That brings the country's total to at least 13,541,221 cases and 268,045 deaths.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases. 

 

Fauci warns that traditional holiday gatherings are "the perfect setup" for Covid-19 transmission

After many Americans traveled and gathered with people living outside of their households for Thanksgiving, Dr. Anthony Fauci urged people to do things differently over the rest of the holiday season.

“I actually think that we need to, this time, do things a little bit differently,” Fauci told Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Monday. 

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, acknowledged that it will be difficult for people to stay apart over the holidays. 

“That seems to be unfortunately … the antithesis of the Christmas, the New Year, the Hanukkah season, because you really want to bring friends, the warmth, the fireplace, the people sitting down together,” he said. “Unfortunately, that's the perfect setup for people who may have no symptoms and innocently and inadvertently come into the home and infect someone.”

Fauci said that people should consider whether they have friends and family who are susceptible to the virus.

“If you do, do you really want to take the chance of exposing that person to something that might not allow them to have future Christmases and New Years and Hanukkahs?” he asked.

 

South Korea reports more than 400 new Covid-19 cases

High school students and staff wait in line to take coronavirus tests at a makeshift clinic set up on a playground of a school in Sejong, South Korea, on Friday, Nov. 27. Kim Ju-hyung/Yonhap via AP

South Korea reported 451 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the nation’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced.

Of those, 420 are locally transmitted infections and 31 imported -- and 255 of the cases were detected in the Seoul metropolitan area, the KDCA said.

The new cases bring the national tally to 34,652 coronavirus cases. 

No additional deaths were reported, meaning the country's death toll remains at 526.

 

People who receive a coronavirus vaccine should expect "low grade" side effects, says Fauci

People who receive a coronavirus vaccine should expect “low grade” side effects, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday.

“When you get an injection of the vaccine, you induce a response. In some people, they don't feel anything,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Monday.


“Others feel an ache in the arm. Some may feel an ache in the arm and kind of a little chilly feeling, almost like you have a flu-like syndrome, and in a minority of people that get a fever. They'll actually get a fever for a day.”


“Almost all of this goes away within 24 or at the most, 48 hours,” he added. 

It’s important to be honest with people about the side effects they may experience, said Fauci.

“What the body is telling you by that response is that it's responding well to the injection,” he said.

 

A record 96,039 people in the US are currently hospitalized with Covid-19

A record 96,039 people in the United States are currently hospitalized with Covid-19, according to data published Monday evening by The COVID Tracking Project.

This is the third straight day of new record numbers, following a slight dip reported on Friday.

The states with the most people currently hospitalized with Covid-19 are Texas, California, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

 

All Americans who want to be vaccinated will be by June, Operation Warp Speed official says

Asked about his expectations regarding how many Americans will be vaccinated against Covid-19 by June, Lt. Gen. Paul Ostrowski, director of supply, production and distribution for Operation Warp Speed, said, “A hundred percent of Americans that want the vaccine will have had the vaccine by that point in time.”

“We will have over 300 million doses available to the American public well before then,” Ostrowski told MSNBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian on MSNBC Monday afternoon.

About the vaccines: Pharmaceutical company Moderna intends to apply Monday to the US Food and Drug Administration for authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine.

Moderna will become the second company to apply to the FDA for emergency use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine. Pfizer applied on Nov. 20 with data showing similarly high efficacy.

The FDA is scheduled to meet with its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on Dec. 10 to review Pfizer's application and on Dec. 17 to review Moderna's application.

 

US could be administering two coronavirus vaccines before Christmas, HHS secretary says

Distribution of Covid-19 vaccines could begin within weeks, pending authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said.

“We could be seeing both of these vaccines out and getting into people's arms before Christmas,” Azar said during an interview with “CBS This Morning” on Monday. 

An FDA advisory committee is scheduled to discuss Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine on Dec. 10.

“We could be looking at approval within days after that," Azar said.

Pfizer applied to the FDA for emergency use authorization earlier this month and Moderna applied on Monday. The FDA committee is expected to consider Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine on Dec. 17.

 

 

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