Coronavirus Daily News Brief – March 19: N.Y.C. Schools Relax Isolation Guidance, Bolsonaro Indicted, ‘It’s 10 P.M. Do You Know Where Your Children Are?’

A fruit stand in São Paulo’s Mercadão or Municipal Market
Good afternoon. 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 its 1,469th day.
In news we cover today, Brazil’s Covid-skeptic former president was charged with falsifying vaccination data, New York City public schools loosened isolation guidance, and the man behind the success of one of the most famous public-service announcements for child safety has died.
THE LEDE
As Covid Slows to a Drip, the NIH Ends Its Guidance on Covid Treatments But the Fat Lady Has Yet to Sing
The U.S. National Institutes of Health has issued the final version of its Covid-19 Treatment Guidelines, perhaps the most influential reference work of its kind for SARS-CoV-2 since its humble beginnings four years ago.
It’s hard to believe it has only been four years, as it feels more like four centuries have passed, but in the spring of 2020, people were downing hydroxychloroquine and hoarding livestock store supplies of ivermectin when there was not only no proof that either of these drugs worked against infection by what we then called the novel coronavirus and, soon thereafter, there were studies that conclusively showed that a decent placebo would have greater efficacy.
The NIH saw fit to convene a panel of 40 experts and the result was this august series of guidelines. A view of the archives is a tribute to human ingenuity and how quickly scientific knowledge and technological progress evolved in the initial years of what was only declared to be a pandemic four years ago on March 11, 2020.
An online archive of the guidance will remain online August and, going forward, it will be a variety of physicians’ groups who typically fill the role of stewards of best-practice guidance including the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America that will be the keepers of SARS-CoV-2 treatment guidelines.
With all this, it’s important that we don’t throw away the baby with the bath water and forget the lessons of the past four years.  It’s still common sense to avoid crowded spaces, practice preventative medicine, continue good hygiene including frequent handwashing, stay out of poorly ventilated places, and spend more time outdoors.
It’s been a long time since people were wiping the mail and lettuce leaves with disinfectant and we’ve learnt quite a bit in the interim. Let’s hope it sticks.
Keep in mind that, even with a significant drop in cases and deaths, in the period January 8 through February 4, 2024, there were over 503,000 new cases and at least 10,000 new fatalities reported.
Finally, and it’s not even close to the first time I’ve said or typed this: “It ain’t over until the fat lady sings.”
For the curious, this phrase apparently was first uttered many decades ago, perhaps by multiple different people at various times in the twentieth century, but Samuel Goldwyn is said to have explained to a friend how to know when an opera is actually over by saying, “Just remember, it ain’t really over ‘til the fat lady sings.”  The first known reference in the media appeared in the Dallas Morning News on March 10, 1976, in a sports-related article quoting Texas Tech sports information director Ralph Carpenter as saying, “the opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings” with reference to a basketball tournament. The Yale Book of Quotations seems to confirm Carpenter as the originator of the phrase, even though he probably wasn’t.
As for me, I had always imagined it was something Groucho Marx would have said.
Nonetheless, the colloquialism “It ain’t over until the fat lady sings” implies that one should not presume or pretend to know the outcome of an event that ostensibly is still in progress.
It’s typically invoked at such time where it appears that said event is possibly nearing its conclusion and meant as a caveat against assuming that the current state of affairs is a foregone conclusion and, hence, irreversible.
The phrase clearly has its origins in opera, where sopranos are known for being plus sized, to put it politely.  Some see the phrase’s beginnings in the Wagner opera cycle “Der Ring des Nibelungen” where, in its last part, “Götterdämmerung,” the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, traditionally portrayed by an amply endowed soprano, in her farewell scene – which has a duration of approximately 20 minutes – is about the end of the world, or at least the world of the Norse gods.
This is not to be confused, however, with what Yogi Berra famously said, namely “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.”  Berra actually never uttered those exact words and it appears that the then former majority leader of the Connecticut State Senate and future U.S. senator Joe Lieberman, at the time a candidate for state attorney general, summed up the race for that position in 1982 by invoking Berra’s name thusly: “As Yogi Berra said, ‘it ain’t over till it’s over.”
As Mark Twain said, “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
THIS DAY IN COVID HISTORY
On March 19, 2020, amidst the escalating threat posed by the novel coronavirus, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order.
Within hours, everything in the Golden State had changed: its streets emptied, schools and businesses were shuttered, and supermarket shelves were stripped bare.
UNITED STATES
In New York City, the Board of Education updated its isolation guidelines and no longer mandates that  students who are symptomatic no longer isolate at home for five days after testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, a change in line with current CDC protocols. Students who do test positive should nonetheless don facemasks and practice social distancing.
GLOBAL NEWS
Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, was indicted by the country’s federal police on suspicion of fraud over allegations that he falsified coronavirus vaccination data while in office.
The far-right leader apparently ordered one of his closest aides to enter false vaccination data into the Ministry of Health’s system for both himself and his daughter. The former president’s top aide, Lieutenant-Colonel Mauro Cid, along with 15 other officials, were also indicted for participating in the same scheme.
Bolsonaro was infamous for downplaying the severity of the pandemic and discouraged Brazilians from getting inoculated against the virus, despite the severity of the outbreak in the country.
IN MEMORIAM
Longtime New York City broadcast news anchor Bill Jorgensen died last week at the age of 96. In addition to what the New York Times television critic Jack Gould described as his “thoroughly professional news summary” due in part to “Mr. Jorgensen’s durably pleasing style and demeanor,” adding that “[H]e suggests authority without affectation,” Jorgensen’s lasting contribution to child safety was his suggestion for a station break that preceded the newscast and has been copied by stations across the country, where Tom Gregory announced: “It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?”
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday banned ch rysotile asbestos, the last form of the naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral still imported into the country. Exposure to the mineral is linked to lung and other forms of cancer, killing an estimated 40,000 Americans each year.
The ban on chrysotile asbestos represents the first chemical substance banned since a 2016 law expanded the EPA’s powers to regulate toxic substance
Asbestos is fire-resistant and durable and has long been used in building materials like insulation. It was also common in floor tiles manufactured before 1980 so it might be under your kitchen table and chairs.
Most significantly, asbestos is challenging for the body to clear; when inhaled, it can cling to the lining of the lungs, causing a form of cancer known as mesothelioma.
The manufacture of asbestos has declined steadily since the 1970s but  chrysotile asbestos was until todayimported  from Brazil and Russia and used to make car brakes and gaskets. Moreover, one-third of U.S. chlorine plants use it for manufacturing.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Tuesday, March 19.
As of Tuesday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.24 million Covid-19 cases, a figure that is virtually unchanged in the last 24 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.14 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.03 million in the same period.
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 Tuesday at press time is 22,095,183, a decrease of 24,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,059,890, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,293, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 19 months.
Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Tuesday, recorded 111.68 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.22 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45.03 million, and the world’s fourth highest death toll, 533,523.
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 38.82 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 710,427, has recorded 38.59 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 26.72 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.9 million, and Russia, with 24.03 million, as nine and ten respectively.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending March 9, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on March 15 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 5.2%, and the trend in test positivity is -1.5% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 1%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -24%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 13,391, a figure that is down 13.5% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 2%, a figure that is down 4.8% in the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Tuesday, 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 2,085 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.
Finally, as of March 15, 2024, only the following countries and territories have not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever:
Antarctica
British Antarctic Territory
Peter Island
Overseas
Bouvet Island
Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Prince Edward Islands
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
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
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