Almost 1.3% of the world’s population has
now been infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus,
and more than 2.1 million people have died.
One person has been infected every 7.7
seconds, on average, since the start of the year. Around 668,250 cases have
been reported each day over the same period, and the global fatality rate
stands at 2.15%.
The worst-affected countries – the United
States, India, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom – make up more than half
all reported COVID-19 cases but represent 28% of the global population,
according to a Reuters analysis.
It took the world 11 months to record the
first 50 million cases of the pandemic, compared to just three months for cases
to double to 100 million. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi )
Around 56 countries have begun vaccinating
people for the coronavirus, administering at least 64 million doses. Israel
leads the world on per capita vaccinations, inoculating 29% of its population
with at least one dose.
With over 25 million cases, the United
States has 25% of all reported COVID cases although it accounts for just 4% of
the world’s population. The United States leads the world in the daily average
number of new deaths reported, accounting for one in every five deaths reported
worldwide each day. With just under 425,00 fatalities, the United States has
reported almost twice as many deaths as Brazil, which has the second-highest
death toll in the world.
Jacqueline
Charles and Taylor Dolven, The Miami Herald 6
hrs ago
Jan. 27—The State Department warned Americans to strongly
reconsider travel Tuesday as a new COVID-19 testing requirement went into
effect and new variants of the virus were detected in Latin America and the
Caribbean.
"If you're overseas right now,
it could be harder to come home for awhile," said Ian Brownlee, the State
Department's acting assistant secretary for consular affairs. "Everyone
needs to be prepared to be potentially seriously disrupted in their trip."
Brownlee's warning came on the first
day of the U.S.'s new testing requirement for inbound travelers overseas. All
airline passengers, regardless of citizenship, must now present proof of a
negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of travel or show proof that they
have recovered from the deadly virus. Anyone failing to do either will be
denied boarding by the airlines and will be responsible for any additional
lodging costs.
While U.S. embassies overseas can
help U.S. citizens with information and possibly a loan to help them return
home, Brownlee said they do not have the ability to provide COVID-19 testing
for those seeking to return.
"The bottom line message is:
This is really not the time for people to be engaging in discretionary travel
and that all travel should be postponed until we get a better handle on getting
this virus under control, and accelerating our vaccination strategies," he
said.
The new measure is part of an
executive order issued by the Biden administration to tighten COVID-19
restrictions with the hope of slowing down the spread of several highly
contagious variants of the disease that are now spreading in the region.
At least 15 countries and
territories in the Americas, including the United States, have confirmed the
presence of at least one of three emerging variants: Those first identified in
southeast England, South Africa or Brazil.
The new variants are proving to be
very difficult and their emergence highlights the challenges U.S. health
officials are facing in the race to vaccinate as many people as they can
against infections, said Dr. Marty Cetron, director of the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention's global migration and quarantine division.
"They all suggest that they are
potentially more contagious than the current circulating predominate virus.
They can quickly become the predominant virus that's circulating and several of
them have presented challenges in ...evading some of the natural immunity and
challenges toward looking at our vaccine solutions," he said.
The Pan American Health Organization
confirmed the spread of one of of the highly contagious mutated strains of the
virus to 14 countries Tuesday. That list grew hours later when the Cayman
Islands, a British dependent territory 433 miles south of Miami, reported that
the U.K. variant had also been detected in three recent travelers arriving from
Barbados and Britain.
----So far, Caribbean health experts
have discovered the U.K. variant in Cayman Islands, St. Lucia, Jamaica and
Trinidad and Tobago. Separately Cuba, according to PAHO, has reported the
presence of the South African strain while the Dominican Republic has confirmed
the presence of the U.K. variant.
On Tuesday, the U.S. surpassed 25
million reported cases of COVID-19 and over 400,000 deaths, the CDC said,
making the variants even more of a threat. The CDC made a last-minute decision
to eliminate a two-week waiver for airlines flying to countries where it will
be difficult for passengers returning to the U.S. to comply with the new
testing rule.
More
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/americans-warned-against-travel-as-covid-variants-spread-and-testing-rules-go-in-effect/ar-BB1d7vTj?ocid=uxbndlbing
UPDATE 1-PharmaMar says paper in
journal Science confirms vaccine efficacy January 26, 2021 8:56 AM
MADRID, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Spanish pharmaceutical
company PharmaMar said on Tuesday that peer review journal Science has
published a paper that confirms its drug Plitidepsin has a “potent preclinical
efficacy” against COVID-19.
---- A study carried out in vitro and in
vivo by a team of scientists in New York, San Francisco and Paris showed the
drug leads to a reduction of viral replication, resulting in a 99% reduction of
viral loads in the lungs of Plitidepsin-treated animals, the Science paper
reported, according to a PharmaMar statement. “We believe that our data and the
initial positive results from PharmaMar’s clinical trial suggests that
Plitidepsin should be strongly considered for expanded clinical trials for the
treatment of COVID-19,” PharmaMar quoted Science as saying.
The drug, already authorised in some
markets to treat tumours, blocks a protein associated with the COVID-19 virus.
Toxicity of the drug is well known and the doses used in COVID-19 trials are
well tolerated in humans, the company said.
PharmaMar said it was in talks with
various regulatory agencies to start Phase III trials.
https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-pharmamar/corrected-update-1-pharmamar-says-paper-in-journal-science-confirms-drugs-efficacy-idUSL1N2K10IL
Moderna says it believes vaccine
will work against new variants January 25, 2021 1:49 PM
By Reuters Staff
(Reuters) - Moderna Inc said on Monday it believes its
COVID-19 vaccine protects against new variants found in Britain and South
Africa, although it will test a new booster shot aimed at the South African
variant after concluding the antibody response could be diminished.
The company said in a news release
it found no reduction in the antibody response against the variant found in
Britain. Against the South African variant, it found a reduced response but
still believed its two-dose regimen would provide protection.
Moderna shares closed 12.2% higher
at $147.00 on Monday.
The emergence of new variants in
Britain, South Africa and Brazil has created some concern that mutations in the
virus may make vaccines less effective.
Moderna said it is looking at
whether a booster shot - either of its existing vaccine or of a new shot
designed to protect against the South African variant - could be made available
in future if evidence were to emerge that protection declined.
“The virus isn’t going to stand
still,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge said on a conference call. “While the
current strains appear to be well-protected by our COVID-19 ... it’s important
that we remain vigilant and develop potential tools and countermeasures that
would allow us to continue to beat back the pandemic.”
Moderna said it expects its current
vaccine will remain protective for at least a year after completing the
two-dose course. It does not expect to test a third dose until at least six
months after that course is finished.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-moderna/moderna-says-it-believes-vaccine-will-work-against-new-variants-idUSKBN29U2N4?feedType=mktg&feedName=&WT.mc_id=Newsletter-UK&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018%20Template:%20UK%20MORNING%20DIGEST%202021-01-26&utm_term=NEW:%20UK%20Morning%20Digest
What is behind fears that UK
coronavirus variant is more lethal? January
25, 2021 5:34 PM By Kate Kelland
LONDON
(Reuters) - British scientists have said the UK variant of the coronavirus that
is behind a surge in COVID-19 infections there may be not only more
transmissible, but also more lethal - with a mortality risk around 30% higher
than other variants.
The UK variant - known as B.1.1.7 - is also
up to 70% more contagious than other coronavirus variants circulating in the UK
and has already been detected across the world. U.S. health officials have
warned it could become the dominant variant there by March.
WHAT NEW
EVIDENCE DO THE UK SCIENTISTS HAVE? The mortality-risk evidence comes from the
UK government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group
(NERVTAG) and is based on four separate studies carried out on the same
dataset. The studies link data from COVID-19 testing in the community with
deaths from the disease.
While each analysis showed a slightly different
result, all of them pointed to higher mortality risk among people infected with
the B.1.1.7 variant than among those infected with other variants in the UK.
None of the analyses suggested the death
risk is lower.
NERVTAG combined the findings into a model
which estimated an average mortality risk increase of about 30%.
HOW CERTAIN ARE
THE SCIENTISTS OF THEIR FINDINGS? The UK government’s chief scientific
adviser, Patrick Valance, said on Friday that there was some “uncertainty”
about the mortality rate estimates because the data were from a series of
different bits of information.
The preliminary data come from analyses of a
relatively small proportion of the UK population who were known to be infected
with the new variant, said Susan Hopkins, an expert at Public Health England
(PHE), adding that evidence “from some but not all data sources” point to a
higher death risk. “It is possible that we are not seeing the full picture,”
she said.
Julian Tang, a clinical virologist at
Leicester University, also noted that numbers were small, so the results “might
be potentially subject to large changes later”.
But asked about the uncertainty at a
briefing on Monday, John Edmunds, a professor of mathematical modelling of
infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said
the findings were “statistically significant” and should be taken seriously.
“There is quite a lot of evidence and the
effect is not small,” he said.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-uk-variant-explain/what-is-behind-fears-that-uk-coronavirus-variant-is-more-lethal-idUSKBN29U1ZN
Next, some vaccine links
kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most
informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World
Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines . https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY
Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford
Website . https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
Regulatory
Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker . https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource
centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
https://rt.live/
Covid19info.live
https://wuflu.live/
Centers for Disease Control
Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
The Spectator
https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported.
Highly efficient grid-scale
electricity storage at fifth of cost Date: January 22, 2021
Source: University of Warwick
Summary: Researchers have found a way to enhance
hybrid flow batteries and their commercial use. The new approach can store
electricity in these batteries for very long durations for about a fifth the
price of current technologies, with minimal location restraints and zero
emissions.
Researchers in WMG at the University
of Warwick, in collaboration with Imperial College London, have found a way to
enhance hybrid flow batteries and their commercial use. The new approach can
store electricity in these batteries for very long durations for about a fifth
the price of current technologies, with minimal location restraints and zero
emissions.
The researchers enhanced three
hybrid flow cells using nitrogen doped graphene (exposed to nitrogen plasma) in
a binder-free electrophoresis technique (EPD).
Wind and solar power are
increasingly popular sources for renewable energy. Unfortunately, intermittency
issues keep them from connecting widely to the National grid. One potential
solution to this problem involves in the deployment of long-duration battery
technology, such as the redox flow battery. Despite its great promise the
current costs of this system are a key determining factor to real-world
adoption. An affordable grid battery should cost £75/kWh, according to the US
Department of Energy. Lithium-ion batteries, which lead the charge for grid
storage, cost about £130/kWh.
Now WMG researchers have found a way
of enhancing hybrid flow batteries or regenerative fuel cell (RFC) technology
that could store electricity for very long durations for about one-fifth the
cost of current storage technologies, with flexibility in siting and with
minimal environmental impact. The technology combines carbon-based electrodes
with economically sourced electrolytes, (manganese or sulphur, which are
abundant chemicals in the planet) by means of a simple and yet highly effective
electrophoretic deposition of nano-carbon additives (nitrogen-doped graphene)
that enhance the electrode durability and performance significantly in highly
acidic or alkaline environments.
The researchers have published their
findings in a paper entitled, 'Hybrid Redox Flow Cells with Enhanced
Electrochemical Performance via Binderless and Electrophoretically Deposited
Nitrogen-Doped Graphene on Carbon Paper Electrodes' in the December 2020 edition
of the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces .
Dr Barun Chakrabarti, a Research
Fellow in WMG at the University of Warwick and one of the lead authors on the
paper said:
"This EPD technique is not only
simple but also improves the efficiencies of three different economical hybrid
flow batteries thereby increasing their potential for widespread commercial
adoption for grid-scale energy storage."
The hybrid flow battery's total
chemical cost is about 1/30th the cost of competing batteries, such as
lithium-ion systems. Scaled-up technologies may be used to store electricity
from wind or solar power, for multiple days to entire seasons, for about £15 to
£20 per kilowatt hour. These batteries are also extremely useful for grid-scale
load levelling applications as their design is very flexible due to their
unique feature of sizing their power independently of their energy.
The
energy density of a hybrid flow battery, especially the polysulphide/air system
(S-Air), is 500 times higher than pumped hydroelectric storage. It is also so
much more compact and can be placed near any renewable generation.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210122112306.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
“It is hard for us,
without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm of
reason that would see us losing one dollar in any of those [CDS] transactions.”
Joseph J. Cassano, a
former A.I.G. executive, August 2007, on Credit Default Swaps that wiped out
A.I.G in 2008.
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