COVID-19 Report

2020-12-27 02:05:56 This channel is shutting down. If you're looking for pandemic updates, follow @COVID19Up.

And if you live in the United States, please sign this petition to #ForceTheVote on Medicare for All.

➜ ForceTheVote.org/ Open / Comment

2020-12-26 20:12:09 Japan Bans All Foreign Visitors From Entry Until End of January to Prevent New Coronavirus Strain Spread

Japan announced Saturday it would temporarily ban non-resident foreign nationals from entering the country, citing the risk of a new, highly infectious variant of the coronavirus.

The country's travel ban will take effect on Dec. 28 and run through January, government officials said in a statement.

The announcement comes as Tokyo reached a record number of new COVID-19 cases this weekend, with health officials recording 949 new cases in the capital city on Saturday.

Officials have confirmed that a more highly contagious strain of the virus from the United Kingdom has entered the country, with the first detected cases involving passengers arriving from Britain. @COVID19Up SOURCE Open / Comment

2020-12-25 23:06:05 Leaked Documents Reveal How China's "Army of Paid Internet Trolls" Helped Censor COVID-19

As the coronavirus spread in China, the government stage-managed what appeared on the domestic internet to make the virus look less severe and the authorities more capable, according to thousands of leaked directives and other files. @G3News SOURCE Open / Comment

2020-12-25 20:58:01 Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Causes Swelling and Inflammation in Patients Who Have Cosmetic Facial Fillers

The FDA advisory committee reviewing the new Moderna vaccine has noted a specific side effect involving several trial participants who have cosmetic facial fillers.

Local board certified dermatologist Dr. Shirley Chi explains what the FDA committee noted.

"In these cases the patients all had swelling and inflammation in the area that was given the filler. A couple of the patients had cheek filler six months prior to their vaccine and one patient had lip filler done two days after the vaccine. All were treated with steroids and anti-histamines and all of their reactions resolved," she said.

Millions of people have physician administered cosmetic facial fillers to smooth out fine lines, wrinkles and to enhance cheeks and lips. Chi says the reaction to the vaccine is immunological. @COVID19Up SOURCE Open / Comment

2020-12-24 22:48:08 Fauci: Herd Immunity Could Require 90% of Country to Be Vaccinated

Achieving herd immunity against the coronavirus could require as much as 90% of the population to be vaccinated, Anthony Fauci said in an interview published Thursday.

Fauci, the country's top infectious diseases expert, acknowledged in the New York Times interview that he has been incrementally raising his estimate of herd immunity numbers.

“When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75%,” Dr. Fauci told the Times. “Then, when newer surveys said 60% or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.”

The Times noted that about a month ago, Fauci began saying herd immunity would take “70, 75%” of Americans being vaccinated.

Fauci said experts don't really know for sure the level of vaccinations needed for herd immunity, but the initial estimates of 60-70% were based on early data.

“We need to have some humility here,” Fauci said in the interview. “We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70-90% But, I’m not going to say 90%.” @COVID19Up SOURCE Open / Comment

2020-12-24 22:39:32 New SARS-CoV-2 Strain’s Transmissibility to Cause More Deaths, Study Shows

The mutated coronavirus strain that’s been spreading in the U.K. appears to be more contagious and will likely lead to higher levels of hospitalizations and deaths next year, a new study showed.

The variant is 56% more transmissible than other strains, according to the study by the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. There’s no clear evidence that it results in more or less severe disease.

The U.K. government had previously said the mutated variant appears to be as much as 70% more transmissible than other circulating strains. Additionally, it has almost two dozen mutations that may affect proteins made by the coronavirus, Patrick Vallance, the U.K.’s chief scientific adviser, said on Dec. 19. @COVID19Up SOURCE Open / Comment

2020-12-24 21:51:01 Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Causing More Allergic Reactions Than Expected

The chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed said the frequency of allergic reactions to the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is higher than what would be expected for other jabs, according to a report.

Dr. Moncef Slaoui said the last time he was updated on allergic reactions was Tuesday, when there were six cases, and added that the data on COVID-19 immunizations is lagging behind the actual numbers, CNN reported.

“That frequency, as it stood yesterday, is superior to what one would expect with other vaccines,” he said.

On Monday, a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases official said the US is looking at why some people have suffered severe allergic reactions shortly after receiving the Pfizer shot. @COVID19Up SOURCE Open / Comment

2020-12-24 20:01:23 Yet Another New COVID-19 Variant Seems to Have Developed, This One in Nigeria

Another new variant of the coronavirus appears to have emerged in Nigeria, Africa's top public health official said Thursday, but he added that further investigation was needed.

The discovery could add to new alarm in the pandemic after similar variants were announced in Britain and South Africa, leading to the swift return of international travel restrictions and other measures just as the world enters a major holiday season.

"It's a separate lineage from the U.K. and South Africa," the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. He said the Nigeria CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in that country—Africa's most populous—will be analyzing more samples. @COVID19Up SOURCE Open / Comment

2020-12-24 19:47:38 Black Doctor Dies of COVID-19 After Complaining of Racist Treatment

Lying in a hospital bed with an oxygen tube hugging her nostrils, the Black patient gazed into her smartphone and, with a strained voice, complained of an experience all too common among Black people in America.

Susan Moore, the patient, said the white doctor at the hospital in suburban Indianapolis where she was being treated for COVID-19 had downplayed her complaints of pain. He told her that he felt uncomfortable giving her more narcotics, she said, and suggested that she would be discharged.

“I was crushed,” she said in a video posted to Facebook. “He made me feel like I was a drug addict.”

In her post, which has since circulated widely on social media, she showed a command of complicated medical terminology and an intricate knowledge of treatment protocols as she detailed the ways in which she had advocated for herself with the medical staff. She knew what to ask for because she, too, was a medical doctor.

It didn't matter. @COVID19Up SOURCE Open / Comment

2020-12-24 19:47:29 Family of 18-Year-Old U.S. Student Jailed in Cayman Islands for Violating COVID-19 Rules Calls on Trump to Intervene

The family of a U.S. college student who was imprisoned for violating coronavirus restrictions in the Cayman Islands is calling on the Trump administration to intervene. Skylar Mack, an 18-year-old pre-med student at Mercer University in Georgia, was sentenced to four months in prison after breaking her mandatory quarantine.

"She just wants to come home," her grandmother, Jeanne Mack, told the "Today" show on Monday. "She knows she made a mistake, she owns to up to that, but she's pretty hysterical right now."

After an outcry, her sentence was reduced to two months on Tuesday. @COVID19Up SOURCE Open / Comment