Disinfecting surfaces may not help much
The U.S. death toll from coronavirus has surpassed 250,000, including 1,700 reported Wednesday alone. Hospitalizations across the nation have exploded, with almost 80,000 Americans now receiving inpatient treatment.
Happy Thanksgiving? Not so much.
New York canceled its massive Thanksgiving Day parade weeks ago. Houston followed suit and Detroit is planning a virtual event as well.
The death toll the virus has inflicted among Americans is more than twice as large as the number of U.S. service members who died in World War I. Only two American conflicts have claimed more lives than the coronavirus – the Civil War (nearly 500,000, including non-combat deaths) and World War II (405,000), according to figures from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Despite the development of therapeutics that have saved an untold number of lives, the worst impacts of the virus may be yet to come. The nation is in the midst of a major increase in cases that has produced 16 consecutive days of at least 100,000 new infections and a daily average for November of more than 130,000.
Masks remain a hard sell to some governors despite surge
Some Republican governors remain unconvinced that mandatory facial coverings are a necessary tool in curbing the pandemic despite urgings of most public health experts. Thirty-six states have some type of statewide mask requirement. The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico require them, too. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a fast-rising GOP star, are among the headliner holdouts. Both spoke to the media this week. Neither budged from their position.
Ducey, in his first news pandemic briefing since Oct. 29, held a moment of silence and prayed for victims but suggested that a statewide mask mandate would not help halt the surge. Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, a Democrat, responded on Twitter, decrying the Republican governor’s “lack of leadership.”
The South Dakota State Medical Association issued a statement urging a statewide mask mandate. Noem, in her first news conference to address the pandemic in over three months, said cases were increasing in many states with mandates, adding that communities were free to establish local regulations. She dismissed state mandates as simply something that would “make people feel good.”
Put down the sponge and skip the disinfectant, they probably won’t help
Wash your hands, wear a mask and keep your distance. As the pandemic drags on, those protocols continue to draw homage from public health experts. But the era of madly scrubbing surfaces is ending as those same experts suggest the effort does little to mitigate the virus threat. Dr. Kevin P. Fennelly, a respiratory infection specialist with the National Institutes of Health, told The New York Times this week that “a lot of time, energy and money is being wasted on surface disinfection and, more importantly, diverting attention and resources away from preventing airborne transmission.”
As far back as September, Dr. Dean Blumberg, a pediatric infectious disease expert at UC Davis Medical Group, was preaching how unlikely it was to get COVID-19 by touching a contaminated surface.
“You’d need a unique sequence of events,” he told WebMD. “Someone would need to get a large-enough amount of the virus on a surface to cause an infection. Then, the virus would need to survive long enough for you to touch that surface and get some on your hands. Then, without washing your hands, you’d have to touch your eyes, nose (or) mouth.”
Europe sees dip in new cases
European officials announced a modest gain in the continent’s battle against the virus. New cases decreased to 1.8 million cases last week, down from over 2 million the week before. Dr. Hans Henri Kluge, the World Health Organization regional director for Europe, credited adherence to “risk-reducing behavior.” Still, an average of 4,500 lives are lost to COVID-19 in Europe every day, Kluge said. He described further lockdowns as a last resort and said that if mask use reached 95%, lockdowns would not be needed.
“I would like to emphasize that every time we choose to follow guidance, stop the spread of misinformation or address denial, we contribute to preventing lives lost,” he said.
Third vaccine shows promise
England’s University of Oxford on Thursday announced encouraging early testing results for yet another vaccine candidate.
The vaccine being developed Oxford researchers and U.K.-based AstraZeneca appears to trigger a “robust immune response” in healthy adults, including those aged 56 and older, the university said.
The Phase II testing data is crucial for elderly adults who are among the most vulnerable to face serious illness and death from COVID-19. Phase III trials involving more than 30,000 volunteers are underway. Two other vaccine candidates, from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, have displayed encouraging results in Phase III trials.