The Grim Truth about the "Swedish Model". Vulnerabilities of the U.S.
service economy
Newsletter published on April 23, 2020
(1) Russian microbiologist: Wuhan Lab did crazy things, gave the virus
the ability to infect human cells
(2) Peter Chumakov: Wuhan lab developed variants of the coronavirus to
study their pathogenicity
(3) Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas trained
Wuhan institute’s staff
(4) Shi Zhengli: none of the genome sequences matched their virus samples
(5) Wuhan employees at Lenovo factory must take the stairs, not the elevator
(6) The Grim Truth about the "Swedish Model": high death rate, exceeding USA
(7) The pandemic is exposing the vulnerabilities of the U.S. service economy
(8) FT: Gilead's drug Remdesivir fails randomised clinical trial; Gilead
shares crash
(9) Ventilators 88% death rate among Covid-19 patients in NYC
(10) Rather than rushing to intubate, doctors say they now look for
other ways to boost the patients’ oxygen.
(1) Russian microbiologist: Wuhan Lab did crazy things, gave the virus
the ability to infect human cells
- Renowned Microbiologist Claims Wuhan Lab 'Did Absolutely Crazy Things'
With Coronavirus;
- "among the perpetrators might be American advisers"
- the Chinese and Americans who worked with them published all their works
- new rules will be developed that regulate the work with the genomes of
such dangerous viruses
by Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/23/2020 - 16:15
A world renowned Russian microbiologist says that the novel coronavirus
responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of Wuhan scientists
doing "absolutely crazy things" in their laboratory.
Dr. Peter Chumakov of the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology and
Russian Academy of Sciences claims that while the Wuhan scientists' goal
in creating the coronavirus was not malicious - instead, they were
trying to study the pathogenicity of the virus, according to the Daily Mail.
"In China, scientists at the Wuhan Laboratory have been actively
involved in the development of various coronavirus variants for over ten
years," he said. "Moreover, they did this, supposedly not with the aim
of creating pathogenic variants, but to study their pathogenicity."
"They did absolutely crazy things, in my opinion," he said, adding " For
example, inserts in the genome, which gave the virus the ability to
infect human cells. Now all this has been analyzed."
'The picture of the possible creation of the current coronavirus is
slowly emerging.'
He told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper: 'There are several inserts,
that is, substitutions of the natural sequence of the genome, which gave
it special properties.
'It is interesting that the Chinese and Americans who worked with them
published all their works in the open (scientific) press.
'I even wonder why this background comes to people very slowly.
'I think that an investigation will nevertheless be initiated, as a
result of which new rules will be developed that regulate the work with
the genomes of such dangerous viruses.
'It's too early to blame anyone.'
-Daily Mail
Chumakov suggested that Chinese scientists were possibly searching for
an HIV vaccine.
The Mail notes that the professor works for Russia's Federal Research
Center for Research and Development of Immunobiological Preparations -
while Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, advised against
speculation that the virus was manmade.
"In the situation where there is not enough information that has been
supported and checked by science ... we think it is unacceptable,
impossible, to groundlessly accuse anyone," said Peskov.
Meanwhile, the head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological agency,
Veronika Skvortsova, told Russia's Channel One "This question is not
that easy. It demands a very thorough study," adding "None of the
versions can be ruled out."
"We can see that a fairly large number of fragments distinguishes this
virus from its very close relative, SARS," Skvortsova added. "They are
approximately 94 per cent similar, the rest is different… I think that
we must conduct a very serious research.
(2) Peter Chumakov: Wuhan lab developed variants of the coronavirus to
study their pathogenicity
Russian scientist told about the insane experiments of Chinese coronavirus
By Andry Kut - 23.04.202026
Chinese scientists more than 10 years, conducted crazy experiments with
coronavirus in the laboratory in Wuhan. This was stated in interview to
"Moskovsky Komsomolets", chief researcher of the Institute of molecular
biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Peter Chumakov.
According to him, experts of the Wuhan lab was engaged in developing
various variants of the coronavirus ostensibly in order to study their
pathogenicity. "They were doing absolutely crazy, in my opinion, things:
for example, insertion into the genome, which gave the virus the ability
to infect human cells," — said the Russian scientist.
He admitted that in Wuhan to work on a vaccine against HIV, having no
malice. "Although no one can rule out that behind the scientists stood
curators who directed the actions of the other, they need direction," —
said Chumakov.
As the expert noted, while it is not necessary to blame anybody, but it
is necessary to conduct a serious investigation. In his opinion, there
is a possibility that the result in spreading the virus will blame
individual Chinese scientists. "But it is possible that among the
perpetrators might be American advisers," he suggested.
Earlier in April, the Nobel laureate from France Luc Montagnier, who
received the international prize for the discovery of HIV, said that the
coronavirus was created in a lab. According to him, SARS-CoV-2 developed
molecular biologists with the HIV particle, trying to create a vaccine
against AIDS.
Before the American channel Fox News, citing multiple sources, reported
that the first patient infected with a new type of coronavirus, was an
employee of the laboratory of Wuhan Institute of Virology. The official
representative of the foreign Ministry of China, Zhao Lijiang in
response stated that the version on the development of a coronavirus
SARS-CoV-2 in the laboratory in Wuhan, has no scientific basis.
(3) Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas trained
Wuhan institute’s staff
Coronavirus: Wuhan virology lab’s long history of scientific collaboration
French and US expertise behind establishment of China’s top-level
research facility into deadly and easily transmittable pathogens
International scientists defend Wuhan Institute of Virology and its
deputy director Shi Zhengli who discovered link between bats and Sars
SCMP
Linda Lew and Sarah Zheng
Published: 7:00pm, 22 Apr, 2020
International scientists have defended the Wuhan Institute of Virology,
at the heart of a persistent conspiracy theory about the origins of the
new coronavirus, pointing to its role as part of a global network into
pathogen research.
While experts have repeatedly said it is highly unlikely the new
coronavirus – named Sars-CoV-2 – accidentally leaked from the lab, its
location in the central Chinese city where the first infections were
reported has made the institute a target in the blame game between the
US and China over the pandemic.
But, from the outset, international scientists were closely involved in
the development of the institute’s highly specialised laboratory and
have repeatedly vouched for its safety procedures. In addition, the
institute’s researchers have collaborated with their global counterparts
for years.
James Le Duc, director of the Galveston National Laboratory at the
University of Texas, one of the largest active biocontainment facilities
on a US campus, was closely involved in training the Wuhan institute’s
staff from before it opened in January 2018.
Le Duc, who toured the lab in 2017 before it began operations, said
scientists from the Wuhan institute had been active in ongoing dialogue
facilitated by science bodies from the United States and China,
participating in the discussions and sharing their work. He also
defended the institute’s deputy director Shi Zhengli, whose work in
researching viruses in bats made her a target for conspiracy theorists.
"She is the research scientist who discovered the link between bats and
the original Sars virus that caused disease worldwide in 2003. She has
participated in each of our dialogues; in every session, she has been
fully engaged, very open and transparent about her work, and eager to
collaborate," he said.
Le Duc said evidence showed the new virus was not the result of
intentional genetic engineering and that it almost certainly originated
from nature, given its high similarity to other known bat-associated
coronaviruses. He also affirmed that the lab "is of comparable quality
and safety measures as any currently in operation in the US or Europe".
Peter Daszak, president of the New York-based non-profit EcoHealth
Alliance, who has been involved in research on bat coronaviruses in
China and Southeast Asia for 15 years, has been vocal on Twitter about
the campaign to discredit the institute and Shi.
In a tweet last week, Daszak said Shi had been insulted and threatened
by conspiracy theorists in the US and China. "World-class virologist,
first to identify the origin of Sars-CoV-2 and wonderful generous
person. She should be lauded as a hero, not vilified."
Peter Daszak @PeterDaszak My colleague & friend Zhengli Shi. Insulted,
threatened by conspiracy theorists in US & China. Pressured by her own
govt. World class virologist, 1st to identify origin of SARS-CoV-2 &
wonderful generous person. She should be lauded as hero, not vilified.
…
602 10:44 AM - Apr 12, 2020 The Wuhan institute opened in 1956 as a
microbiology facility, with an emphasis on agriculture. It was set up by
the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University and Central China
Agricultural University to study soil quality and the pathogens
affecting plants and animals, according to a report at the time by state
news agency Xinhua. The project was overseen by Gao Shangyin, a Chinese
scientist who received his doctorate from Yale.
Over the years the institute expanded its research to include human
infectious diseases but it was the outbreak of severe acute respiratory
syndrome, or Sars, 17 years ago that alerted China to the need for a
laboratory capable of conducting research into the deadly and highly
transmittable group of pathogens known as P4.
According to a report in scientific newspaper China Science Daily to
mark the new laboratory’s opening in January 2018, the institute’s
then-director Hu Zhihong received a call in February 2003 from the
former vice-chairman of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Chen Zhu, asking
her to oversee the building of a P4 lab.
China looked to France to overcome the lack of local expertise and the
two countries signed an agreement in 2004 to build the 300 million yuan
(US$42.4 million) lab in Wuhan. It was modelled on the P4 Jean
Mérieux-Inserm Laboratory in Lyon, where the Ebola virus was first
confirmed and characterised in 2014.
Le Duc’s Galveston laboratory provided short-term training to staff from
the Wuhan institute in 2013 and also hosted two postdoctoral scientists
from the facility, who completed the almost year-long training needed to
gain independent access to facilities rated at BSL-4 – the highest level
of bioresearch safety.
"Both have since returned to [the institute] in China, where they were
instrumental in establishing their biosafety and biosecurity training
programme for the new BSL-4 laboratory and where they continue their
independent research in the new facility," Le Duc said. "Our faculty and
staff maintain contact and continue to collaborate scientifically with
these two scientists."
Safety requirements for the P4 lab are stringent, requiring researchers
to wear positive-pressure suits and work continuously in shifts of four
to six hours, without bathroom or meal breaks. According to an article
about safety on the institute’s website last year, they must also change
their clothes and undergo a chemical disinfection procedure which takes
half an hour on both entering and leaving the facility.
"Because the P4 lab researches highly pathogenic microorganisms, inside
the lab, once the virus test tubes have been opened, it’s like opening
Pandora’s box," the notice said. "These viruses can come and go without
a trace, and while there are various protective measures, it still
requires that the researcher operates carefully to avoid risks from
operational errors."
Song Donglin, the lab project’s head, told ?Guangzhou Daily in 2018 that
the work to make the lab fit to handle dangerous pathogens had included
installation of a sewage treatment and life support system on the ground
floor of its main building.
The core laboratories, as well as filter and pipeline systems, are
housed on the second and third floors while the top level is devoted to
an air conditioning system.
(4) Shi Zhengli: none of the genome sequences matched their virus samples
How China muzzled its Bat Woman: Beijing authorities hushed up the
findings of a scientist who unlocked the genetic make-up of the
coronavirus within days of the outbreak - which is vital for tests and
vaccines
* Shi Zhengli, a virologist known as China's 'Bat Woman', sequenced
the genes of the novel coronavirus in three days but her findings were
supressed
* Their findings showed it was similar to SARS, a respiratory
disease that sparked an epidemic in 33 countries after emerging from
China in 2002
* Yanyi Wang, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, sent an
email to staff and key officials ordering them not to disclose
information on the disease
By Ian Birrell for The Mail on Sunday
Published: 07:00 AEST, 12 April 2020 | Updated: 21:21 AEST, 12 April 2020
A Chinese scientist who is the one of the world's leading experts on
coronaviruses was 'muzzled' after unravelling the genetic composition of
the new disease, which is crucial for developing diagnostic tests and
vaccines.
The revelation will fuel fresh concerns over China's cover-up of the
pandemic after it erupted in the city of Wuhan. Critics argue that
Communist Party chiefs frustrated efforts to contain the outbreak before
it exploded around the world.
At the centre of the new claims is Shi Zhengli, known as China's 'Bat
Woman' after years spent on difficult virus-hunting expeditions in dank
caves that have led to a series of important scientific discoveries.
The virologist was called back to her highsecurity laboratory in Wuhan
at the end of last year after a mysterious new respiratory condition in
the city was identified as a novel coronavirus – and within three days
she completed its gene sequencing.
Her team's work, and several other breakthroughs in subsequent days,
indicated the virus was linked to horseshoe bats found more than 1,000
miles away in Yunnan, a region of southern China.
Their findings showed it was similar to SARS, a respiratory disease that
sparked an epidemic in 33 countries after emerging from China in 2002.
Gao Yu, a Chinese journalist freed last week after 76 days of lockdown
in Wuhan, said he spoke to Shi during his incarceration and revealed:
'We learned later her institute finished gene-sequencing and related
tests as early as January 2 but was muzzled.'
The Mail on Sunday has learned that on that same day, Yanyi Wang,
director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, sent an email to staff and
key officials ordering them not to disclose information on the disease.
She warned, according to a leak on social media confirmed by activists
and Hong Kong media, that 'inappropriate and inaccurate information'was
causing 'general panic' – thought to refer to eight whistle-blowing
doctors whose warnings to local citizens had led to their arrest.
Wang said the National Health Commission 'unequivocally requires that
any tests, clinical data, test results, conclusions related to the
epidemic shall not be posted on social media platforms, nor shall [it]
be disclosed to any media outlets including government official media,
nor shall [it] be disclosed to partner institutions.'
Eight days later, a team led by a professor in Shanghai who received
samples from an infected patient, published a genome sequence on an open
access platform.
His laboratory was closed for 'rectification' two days later.
At the time, the public was being told that no new cases had been
reported in Wuhan for more than a week and there was no clear evidence
of human transmission, although dozens of health workers were starting
to fall ill with the disease.
In an online lecture last month, Shi Zhengli said her team found on
January 14 that the new virus could infect people – six days before this
fact was revealed by China.
On the same day, the World Health Organisation issued a tweet backing
China's denials of human transmissions.
Shi's team released its data identifying the disease on January 23 on a
scientific portal before publication the next month by the journal Nature.
It said the genomic sequence was 96 per cent identical to another virus
they found in horseshoe bats in Yunnan. [...]
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, based ten miles from the wildlife
market blamed as the source of Covid-19, developed a £30million
high-security laboratory after the SARS outbreak with French assistance.
It was the first laboratory in China with P4 status – denoting highest
global biosafety levels – and contains the largest virus bank in Asia.
It was this fact that sparked now discounted conspiracy theories that
Covid-19 was man-made.
Shi, the laboratory's deputy director, admits that when summoned back
from a conference to investigate the new disease, she wondered at first
if a coronavirus could have escaped from her unit.
She has warned about the danger of epidemics from bat-borne viruses. But
she says she did not expect such an outbreak in Wuhan, in the centre of
China, since her studies suggested subtropical areas in the south had
the highest risk of such 'zoonotic' transmission to humans.
Shi told the respected science journal Scientific American last month of
her relief when, having checked back through disposal records, none of
the genome sequences matched their virus samples.
'That really took a load off my mind. I had not slept a wink for days,'
she said.
For 16 years, she has plunged into caves and crevices filled with
roosting bats in areas such as Yunnan and Guangdong, where SARS first
erupted.
Her team took blood, saliva and fecal samples while also testing local
people for antibodies. [...]
(5) Wuhan employees at Lenovo factory must take the stairs, not the elevator
Wuhan employees report to a supervisor for 4 temperature checks;
everyone now has to take stairs
Inside the Dystopian, Post-Lockdown World of Wuhan
Wuhan is coming back to life, but not as anyone knew it.
Sharon Chen and Matthew Campbell, with Claire Che and Sarah Chen
April 23, 2020, 6:00 PM GMT+10
Every workday at Lenovo's tablet and phone factory on the outskirts of
Wuhan, arriving employees report to a supervisor for the first of at
least four temperature checks. The results are fed into a data
collection system designed by staff. Anyone above 37.3C (99.1F) is
automatically flagged, triggering an investigation by an in-house
"anti-virus task force."
Daily routines at the facility, which reopened on March 28 after
stopping for over two months because of the coronavirus pandemic that
began in this central Chinese city, have been entirely reengineered to
minimize the risk of infection. Before returning to the site, staff
members had to be tested both for the virus and for antibodies that
indicate past illness, and they had to wait for their results in
isolation at a dedicated dormitory. Once cleared, they returned to work
to find the capacity of meeting rooms built for six reduced to three and
the formerly communal cafeteria tables partitioned off by vertical
barriers covered in reminders to avoid conversation. Signs everywhere
indicate when areas were last disinfected, and robots are deployed
wherever possible to transport supplies, so as to reduce the number of
people moving from place to place. Elevators, too, are an artifact of
the Before Times; everyone now has to take the stairs, keeping their
distance from others all the way. [...]
(6) The Grim Truth about the "Swedish Model": high death rate, exceeding USA
The Grim Truth About the "Swedish Model": one of the world’s highest
COVID-19 death rates, exceeding USA; virus had hit around half of
Stockholm’s facilities for the elderly.
The Grim Truth About the "Swedish Model"
Apr 17, 2020
Hans Bergstrom
As the coronavirus pandemic has swept the planet, Sweden has stood out
among Western democracies by pursuing a "low-scale" lockdown. Whether
this approach speaks to a unique strength of Swedish society, as opposed
to bad judgment, can be determined by comparing Sweden's COVID-19 rate
with its neighbors'.
STOCKHOLM – Does Sweden’s decision to spurn a national lockdown offer a
distinct way to fight COVID-19 while maintaining an open society? The
country’s unorthodox response to the coronavirus is popular at home and
has won praise in some quarters abroad. But it also has contributed to
one of the world’s highest COVID-19 death rates, exceeding that of the
United States.
In Stockholm, bars and restaurants are filled with people enjoying the
spring sun after a long, dark winter. Schools and gyms are open. Swedish
officials have offered public-health advice but have imposed few
sanctions. No official guidelines recommend that people wear masks.
During the pandemic’s early stages, the government and most commentators
proudly embraced this "Swedish model," claiming that it was built on
Swedes’ uniquely high levels of "trust" in institutions and in one
another. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven made a point of appealing to
Swedes’ self-discipline, expecting them to act responsibly without
requiring orders from authorities.
According to the World Values Survey, Swedes do tend to display a unique
combination of trust in public institutions and extreme individualism.
As sociologist Lars Trägårdh has put it, every Swede carries his own
policeman on his shoulder.
But let’s not turn causality on its head. The government did not
consciously design a Swedish model for confronting the pandemic based on
trust in the population’s ingrained sense of civic responsibility.
Rather, actions were shaped by bureaucrats and then defended after the
fact as a testament to Swedish virtue.
In practice, the core task of managing the outbreak fell to a single
man: state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell at the National Institute of
Public Health. Tegnell approached the crisis with his own set of strong
convictions about the virus, believing that it would not spread from
China, and later, that it would be enough to trace individual cases
coming from abroad. Hence, the thousands of Swedish families returning
from late-February skiing in the Italian Alps were strongly advised to
return to work and school if not visibly sick, even if family members
were infected. Tegnell argued that there were no signs of community
transmission in Sweden, and therefore no need for more general
mitigation measures. Despite Italy’s experience, Swedish ski resorts
remained open for vacationing and partying Stockholmers.
Between the lines, Tegnell indicated that eschewing draconian policies
to stop the spread of the virus would enable Sweden gradually to achieve
herd immunity. This strategy, he stressed, would be more sustainable for
society.
Through it all, Sweden’s government remained passive. That partly
reflects a unique feature of the country’s political system: a strong
separation of powers between central government ministries and
independent agencies. And, in "the fog of war," it was also convenient
for Löfven to let Tegnell’s agency take charge. Its seeming confidence
in what it was doing enabled the government to offload responsibility
during weeks of uncertainty. Moreover, Löfven likely wanted to
demonstrate his trust in "science and facts," by not – like US President
Donald Trump – challenging his experts.
It should be noted, though, that the state epidemiologist’s policy
choice has been strongly criticized by independent experts in Sweden.
Some 22 of the country’s most prominent professors in infectious
diseases and epidemiology published a commentary in Dagens Nyheter
calling on Tegnell to resign and appealing to the government to take a
different course of action.
By mid-March, and with wide community spread, Löfven was forced to take
a more active role. Since then, the government has been playing
catch-up. From March 29, it prohibited public gatherings of more than 50
people, down from 500, and added sanctions for noncompliance. Then, from
April 1, it barred visits to nursing homes, after it had become clear
that the virus had hit around half of Stockholm’s facilities for the
elderly.
Sweden’s approach turned out to be misguided for at least three reasons.
However virtuous Swedes may be, there will always be free riders in any
society, and when it comes to a highly contagious disease, it doesn’t
take many to cause major harm. Moreover, Swedish authorities only
gradually became aware of the possibility of asymptomatic transmission,
and that infected individuals are most contagious before they start
showing symptoms. And, third, the composition of the Swedish population
has changed.
After years of extremely high immigration from Africa and the Middle
East, 25% of Sweden’s population – 2.6 million of a total population of
10.2 million – is of recent non-Swedish descent. The share is even
higher in the Stockholm region. Immigrants from Somalia, Iraq, Syria,
and Afghanistan are highly overrepresented among COVID-19 deaths. This
has been attributed partly to a lack of information in immigrants’
languages. But a more important factor seems to be the housing density
in some immigrant-heavy suburbs, enhanced by closer physical proximity
between generations.
It is too soon for a full reckoning of the effects of the "Swedish
model." The COVID-19 death rate is nine times higher than in Finland,
nearly five times higher than in Norway, and more than twice as high as
in Denmark. To some degree, the numbers might reflect Sweden’s much
larger immigrant population, but the stark disparities with its Nordic
neighbors are nonetheless striking. Denmark, Norway, and Finland all
imposed rigid lockdown policies early on, with strong, active political
leadership.
Now that COVID-19 is running rampant through nursing homes and other
communities, the Swedish government has had to backpedal. Others who may
be tempted by the "Swedish model" should understand that a defining
feature of it is a higher death toll.
Hans Bergstrom, a former editor-in-chief of Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s
leading daily newspaper, is a professor of political science at the
University of Gothenburg and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Engineering Sciences.
(7) The pandemic is exposing the vulnerabilities of the U.S. service economy
The pandemic is exposing the vulnerabilities of the U.S. service economy
Short-term measures are unlikely to bring back the extraordinary number
of jobs lost.
By Jeffrey Kucik and Hailey Leister
April 22, 2020 at 7:00 AM EDT
The coronavirus has gutted the U.S. labor market. Total new jobless
claims from the past month now exceed 22 million in an economy that a
month ago employed 160 million people. That's more than 1 in 10 workers.
That economic fallout from social distancing and stay-at-home orders,
part of the effort to slow down the pandemic's spread, hurts some groups
of workers much more than others.
The scale of unemployment is unprecedented
The announcement two weeks ago of 6.6 million new jobless claims was the
highest on record — and by a wide margin. It was 10 times larger than
the previous one-week high of nearly 700,000 lost jobs set during the
Reagan-era recession in October 1982. And last week, an additional 5.2
million people filed claims.
The pandemic, in other words, has been displacing workers at an
astonishing speed. Between 1965 and March, jobless claims never grew by
more than 45 percent in one week. Last month, they jumped more than
1,000 percent in the third week of March.
The result has been the first negative jobs report in almost a decade,
in which net employment shrank by 700,000 jobs in March — a number that
doesn't yet reflect the full brunt of jobless claims. The last time the
U.S. economy lost jobs was in September 2010, after the global financial
crisis, when U.S. unemployment hit 10 percent.
What's behind the fight over Wisconsin's primary? The Supreme Court's
gerrymandering ruling.
Most jobs lost are in the services sector
By far, most American workers labor in the service sector, which
includes jobs in retail, information technology and health care, among
others. In 1970, manufacturing employed about a quarter of U.S. workers.
Today, only about 10 percent of American workers are in manufacturing
jobs, like those found in steel and textile mills. Indeed, the explosion
of service sector jobs fueled the decade of job growth enjoyed since the
Great Recession. Since 2010, the United States added almost 19 million
services jobs, with jobs in areas like hospitality and transportation
increasing their share of the U.S. workforce. These now account for more
than 80 percent of U.S. jobs.
The pandemic has hit these jobs hardest. The latest data show that
service-sector businesses shed more than 90 percent of those 22 million
jobs, with leisure and hospitality accounting for almost two-thirds of
those.
Of course, these are special circumstances. A public health crisis
differs from a traditional recession. Governments around the world have
taken dramatic steps to contain the pandemic, including travel bans,
restaurant closures and stay-at-home orders. All these measures restrict
economic activity generally — but they hit the services sector
especially hard. It doesn't just mean empty planes, unused gas stations,
vacant hotel rooms and shuttered restaurants. Americans also aren't
using as many professional services, such as real estate, legal and
financial services.
Perhaps the best illustration of how many Americans now work in the
services sector — or more importantly, have lost that work — is the fact
that in March, unemployment rose across every major demographic
category, including race, gender and age.
This is the problem with calling it a 'war' against the coronavirus
What policies can help?
Bringing these jobs back — and helping those who've lost them — will be
quite difficult. First, many service-sector workers have been in
minimum-wage jobs or in positions that depend highly on tips. For
example, workers laid off from leisure and hospitality jobs averaged
just shy of $17 an hour. That's $12 less than the national average
across all industries, and it's the lowest average pay of any major U.S.
industry. That means millions of those now on unemployment were already
living paycheck to paycheck. Without work, those people are now in
desperate straits.
Second, there are no guarantees that their jobs will come back. Small
businesses closed under governors' orders may never make up the lost
revenue and be unable to reopen. Before the pandemic, the U.S. economy
was quickly moving away from reliable full-time jobs to shorter-term
contracts and freelance work. This crisis may accelerate the growth of
the "gig economy," in which businesses pay people only as they need
them, for limited periods, without offering regular salaries or
benefits. Millions of workers, already among America's "working poor,"
will be struggling even more to get by.
Europe's leaders meet this week to confront the coronavirus
With such dire prospects ahead for so many people, observers have been
debating a variety of policies to help rescue Americans from another
Great Recession, or worse. Some proposals include more robust labor
market protections, like paid sick leave, which is currently far from
guaranteed to lower-income workers. There are also renewed calls for
universal health care, given that there were 27 million uninsured
Americans before this crisis, a number that is now rising as people lose
their employer-provided coverage.
Coronavirus also touches issues such as affordable housing. Before the
crisis, housing prices were higher than average incomes in 70 percent of
the country, pricing many Americans out of homeownership. Now, millions
of newly unemployed Americans are facing difficulty paying housing
costs, giving rise to calls for federal housing vouchers and moratoriums
on evictions.
For now, Congress has jumped in to pass relief packages that will
temporarily supplement household incomes and support businesses that are
struggling to cover payroll obligations while shuttered. However, these
will not be enough to keep the working poor afloat in the United States.
Jeffrey Kucik is an associate professor in the School of Government and
Public Policy and the James E. Rogers College of Law (by courtesy) at
the University of Arizona.
Hailey Leister is a research fellow at the University of Arizona.
(8) FT: Gilead's drug Remdesivir fails randomised clinical trial; Gilead
shares crash
Stocks Dump, Gilead Crashes After FT Reports Gilead's Remdesivir "Flops"
In First Clinical Trial
by Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/23/2020 - 15:22
Update (1350ET): How did the FT and Statnews get their hands on the
remdesivir study? They were simply perusing the WHO website at the right
time and just happened to stumble upon.
How did STAT find out about remdesivir China study summary? @pharmalot
found it while perusing the WHO web site. It was just sitting there.
Smartly, he screen-grabbed it before it was gone… and then
@matthewherper, Ed and I started reporting and writing. — Adam
Feuerstein (@adamfeuerstein) April 23, 2020 [...] ==
APRIL 23, 2020 / 2:58 PM
Remdesivir doesn't help COVID-19 patients, leaked study suggests
ByBrian P. Dunleavy
April 23 (UPI) -- The antiviral drug remdesivir -- touted as a potential
treatment for COVID-19 since early March -- did not improve symptoms or
prevent death in patients with the disease, according to the preliminary
results from a clinical trial in China.
The findings of the highly anticipated study were apparently posted, in
error, to the World Health Organization website on Thursday, before they
were quickly taken down, STAT and the Financial Times reported.
(9) Ventilators 88% death rate among Covid-19 patients in NYC
New Study Shows Nearly 9 in 10 Covid-19 Patients on Ventilators Don’t
Make It
By Robert Langreth
April 23, 2020, 4:42 AM GMT+10
Researchers tracked 2,634 outcomes in NY-area hospitals
Only 3% of those over 65 on ventilators survived, report says
A giant study that examined outcomes for more than 2,600 patients found
an extraordinarily high 88% death rate among Covid-19 patients in the
New York City area who had to be placed on mechanical devices to help
them breathe.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association,
is one of the largest reviews published to date of Covid-19 patients
hospitalized in the U.S. The researchers examined outcomes for
coronavirus patients who were admitted between March 1 and April 4 to 12
hospitals in New York City and Long Island that are part of the
Northwell Health system.
Overall, the researchers reported that 553 patients died, or 21%. But
among the 12% of very sick patients that needed ventilators to breathe,
the death rate rose to 88%. The rate was particularly awful for patients
over 65 who were placed on a machine, with just 3% of those patients
surviving, according to the results. Men had a higher mortality rate
than women.
"The findings of high mortality rates among ventilated patients are
similar to smaller case series reports of critically ill patients in the
US," the authors wrote in the paper.
With no proven drugs, ventilators are one of the go-to options for ICUs
and critical care doctors in working with severe cases of Covid-19
pneumonia. But there are growing reports that few patients who get on
the machines are able to get off. As a result, some doctors are
questioning their use in Covid-19 patients and have been trying to find
methods for keeping coronavirus patients off them when possible.
The mortality rate in the study may not represent the ultimate picture
that emerges. That’s because the study only included patients for whom a
definite outcome is known-- those who died or were discharged. It didn’t
include patients still being treated at hospitals. Outcome data were
available for just 2,634 of 5,700 patients admitted during the study period.
Northwell Health researchers involved in the study said they were aware
of the debate over when to use mechanical ventilation in Covid-19
patients, but noted that the observational nature of the study made it
impossible to draw any conclusions about how best to use of ventilators
in coronavirus patients.
"We are only reporting observations in this report," said Karina
Davidson, senior vice president for research at Northwell Health. "So we
can’t say if mechanical ventilation had been withheld from these
patients there would have been a different survival rate."
(10) Rather than rushing to intubate, doctors say they now look for
other ways to boost the patients’ oxygen.
APRIL 23, 2020 / 9:02 PM / UPDATED 29 MINUTES AGO
Special Report: As virus advances, doctors rethink rush to ventilate
Silvia Aloisi, Deena Beasley, Gabriella Borter, Thomas Escritt, Kate Kelland
BERLIN (Reuters) - When he was diagnosed with COVID-19, Andre Bergmann
knew exactly where he wanted to be treated: the Bethanien hospital lung
clinic in Moers, near his home in northwestern Germany.
The clinic is known for its reluctance to put patients with breathing
difficulties on mechanical ventilators - the kind that involve tubes
down the throat.
The 48-year-old physician, father of two and aspiring triathlete worried
that an invasive ventilator would be harmful. But soon after entering
the clinic, Bergmann said, he struggled to breathe even with an oxygen
mask, and felt so sick the ventilator seemed inevitable.
Even so, his doctors never put him on a machine that would breathe for
him. A week later, he was well enough to go home.
Bergmann’s case illustrates a shift on the front lines of the COVID-19
pandemic, as doctors rethink when and how to use mechanical ventilators
to treat severe sufferers of the disease - and in some cases whether to
use them at all. While initially doctors packed intensive care units
with intubated patients, now many are exploring other options.
Machines to help people breathe have become the major weapon for medics
fighting COVID-19, which has so far killed more than 183,000 people.
Within weeks of the disease’s global emergence in February, governments
around the world raced to build or buy ventilators as most hospitals
said they were in critically short supply.
Germany has ordered 10,000 of them. Engineers from Britain to Uruguay
are developing versions based on autos, vacuum cleaners or even
windshield-wiper motors. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is
spending $2.9 billion for nearly 190,000 ventilators. The U.S.
government has contracted with automakers such as General Motors Co and
Ford Motor Co as well as medical device manufacturers, and full delivery
is expected by the end of the year. Trump declared this week that the
U.S. was now "the king of ventilators."
However, as doctors get a better understanding of what COVID-19 does to
the body, many say they have become more sparing with the equipment.
Reuters interviewed 30 doctors and medical professionals in countries
including China, Italy, Spain, Germany and the United States, who have
experience of dealing with COVID-19 patients. Nearly all agreed that
ventilators are vitally important and have helped save lives. At the
same time, many highlighted the risks from using the most invasive types
of them - mechanical ventilators - too early or too frequently, or from
non-specialists using them without proper training in overwhelmed hospitals.
Medical procedures have evolved in the pandemic as doctors better
understand the disease, including the types of drugs used in treatments.
The shift around ventilators has potentially far-reaching implications
as countries and companies ramp up production of the devices.
Many forms of ventilation use masks to help get oxygen into the lungs.
Doctors’ main concern is around mechanical ventilation, which involves
putting tubes into patients’ airways to pump air in, a process known as
intubation. Patients are heavily sedated, to stop their respiratory
muscles from fighting the machine.
Those with severe oxygen shortages, or hypoxia, have generally been
intubated and hooked up to a ventilator for up to two to three weeks,
with at best a fifty-fifty chance of surviving, according to doctors
interviewed by Reuters and recent medical research. The picture is
partial and evolving, but it suggests people with COVID-19 who have been
intubated have had, at least in the early stages of the pandemic, a
higher rate of death than other patients on ventilators who have
conditions such as bacterial pneumonia or collapsed lungs. [...]
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