The Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen, a bookstore in an 800-year-old church on the Dominicanerkerkstraat in in Maastrich. The newspaper The Guardian called it the “most beautiful bookstore” in the world.
Good day. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,426th day of the pandemic.
IN MEMORIAM
Dutch Writer With Severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Dies with Dignity at Age 28
Lauren Hoeve, A 28-year-old autistic Dutch woman, chose assisted suicide and died last Saturday rather than carry on with the torture that is severe chronic fatigue syndrome, known also as myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME. She had had the condition since 2019.
Ms. Hoeve, who also had ADHD, died with her parents and best friend by her side.
The former book blogger began to document her euthanasia application back in 2022, opening up about how living with ME had affected her, while attempting to break the taboo surrounding conversations about dying.
Under Dutch law, according to a government website, any action intended to terminate life is in principle a criminal offence. It goes on to say that “[T]he only exemption from criminal liability is where a patient is experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement and the attending physician fulfils the statutory due care criteria.” Ms. Hoeve met their criteria.
She left behind a final entry in her aptly named blog, Brain Fog, sharing advice that she at one point or another would have liked someone to have offered her.
“Wees niet bang om kwetsbaar te zijn.” Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable
“Het is helemaal oké om te zeggen dat je iets niet weet.” It’s ok to say you don’t know something.
“Investeer in een goed matras en hoofdkussen.“ Invest in a good mattress and pillow.
“Wanneer je een compliment of lief berichtje krijgt, schrijf of sla deze ergens op waar je het later” If you receive a compliment, write it down so you can look at it later (perhaps at a moment when you are feeling down).
“Wees jezelf… Houd een dagboek bij…” and in a variation of carpe diem, “Stel het niet uit, leef!” Be yourself… Keep a diary… Don’t delay, live!.
Ironically, they are words to live by.
In other news we cover today, experts fear that the change in Covid isolation periods in some states will lead to more cases of Long Covid, a deadly fungus infection has now been confirmed in 36 U.S. states, and the JN.1 omicron subvariant is close to accounting for 100% of all SARS-CoV-2 infections in the United States.
LONG COVID
The recent shortening of the isolation period by California health officials for those who test positive for SARS-CoV-2 will lead to more cases of Long Covid, two researchers wrote in an op-ed in the Merced Sun-Star, a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Merced, California.
The researchers, Julia Moore Vogel, a Long Covid patient-researcher at Scripps Research and the Patient Led Research Collaborative, and Alison Cohen, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UC San Francisco and an affiliated researcher with the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, make a clear case as to why the change is not only ill-advised but dangerous in that it will lead to more, not fewer, individuals missing work or school and be counterproductive because there will be more infections and, hence, more cases of Long Covid, and encourage public health officials in the state to “do better.”
UNITED STATES
T he JN.1 subvariant of omicron, which, according to CDC data, comprised 0.1% of all cases in the United States in October last year, is now the dominant subvariant, with 93.1% of all cases as of February 1.
JN.1 was first detected by the World Health Organization in late August. At the time it appeared to be spreading slowly, but as the mercury fell and people began to spend more time indoors, cases involving JN.1 has spiked.
Meanwhile, news of the increased percentage of JN.1 cases comes as key trends reflecting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 are now showing signs of slowing, after a peak over the winter holidays.
“Several key indicators are showing decreasing levels of activity nationally,” the agency said on Friday in its weekly respiratory viruses report.
Perhaps to be filed under the “Because we haven’t had enough to worry about over the past four years of pandemic,” candida auris, also known as C. auris and which is a type of yeast that can cause severe illness and spreads easily amongst patients in healthcare facilities, has now been confirmed in the state of Washington. Four patients have been hospitalized.
“Candida auris is an emerging fungus that presents a serious global health threat,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on its website. More than one in three patients infected with an invasive form of the fungus die as a result.
Washington is the 36th state in which C. auris has been confirmed.
Two women, Tatiana Benjamin and Heaven West, who defrauded a New York City program known as the HotelRoom Isolation Program to the tune of $400,000 were sentenced last week.
The program offered free hotel rooms to help those with SARS-CoV-2 isolate.
U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan sentenced Benjamin to one year of imprisonment plus three years of supervised release, and Heaven West to time served plus three years of supervised release and both were ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in forfeiture and restitution.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
King Charles has been diagnosed with an unnamed form of cancer, Buckingham Palace said.
“During the King’s recent hospital procedure for benign prostate enlargement, a separate issue of concern was noted. Subsequent diagnostic tests have identified a form of cancer.“
The statement went on to say that ““His Majesty has today commenced a schedule of regular treatments, during which time he has been advised by doctors to postpone public-facing duties. Throughout this period, His Majesty will continue to undertake state business and official paperwork as usual.”
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Monday, February 5.
As of Monday morning, the world has recorded 702.73 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.01 million in the last 48 hours, and 6.98 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 673.63 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.01 million in the past 48 hours.
The reader should note that infrequent reporting from some sources may appear as spikes in new case figures or death tolls as well as the occasional downward or upward adjustment as corrections to case figures warrant.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Monday at press time is 22,115,756, a decrease of 4,000 in the past 48 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,079,598, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 36,158, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 16 months.
Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Monday, recorded 110.86 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.2 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45.03 million, and a reported death toll of 533,454.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July 2022, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat last reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July 2022, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.81 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 709,407, has recorded 38.34 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 34.57 million cases, as number six; Japan, with 33.8 million cases placing it in the number seven slot; and Italy, with 26.71 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.89 million, and Russia, with 23.88 million, as nine and ten respectively.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending January 27, 2022, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on February 2, 2024 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 6.3%, and the trend in test positivity is -4.6% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 2%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -11%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 22,636, a figure that is down 10.9% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 3.6%, a figure is virtually unchanged over the past week.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Monday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 10,010 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.7% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number.
Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.
The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org
If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.
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