16Good 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 1,491st day.
In news we cover today, a new study shows that SARS-CoV-2 can linger in a patient’s blood for many months, the U.K. Test to Treat program is closing, and the U.S. Department of Justice continues to catch pandemic fraudsters.
THE LEDE
Didier Raoult’s Now Discredited Research Advocating for Hydroxychloroquine Four Years Ago. Trump Touted It. Thousands Died From It..
It was perhaps not wise for Didier Raoult, a French microbiologist, to become the authoritative face of using chloroquine or its variant hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19. Both drugs have been discredited as a treatment for SARS-CoV-2.
Raoult, a tropical disease specialist, is the former head of the IHU Mediterranee research hospital.
Hydroxychloroquine gained prominence in the spring of 2020, just about four years ago, in part due to now-discredited research by Raoult and because then-President Donald Trump promoted hydroxychloroquine as a kind of “miracle drug,” who said: What do you have to lose? Take it.”
It turned out that the answer was, quite a bit.
In August 2020, we noted that the Infectious Diseases Society of America, in its Covid-19 treatment guidelines, strengthened its stance against the use of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of Covid-19, telling physicians not to use it to combat Covid.
In May 2023, we reported that French physicians’ bodies writing in Le Monde called on public health authorities to punish Raoult for what it terms “the largest ‘unauthorised’ clinical trial ever seen” into the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat SARS-CoV-2.
Raoult and his subordinates engaged in “systematic prescription of medications as varied as hydroxychloroquine, zinc, ivermectin and azithromycin to patients suffering from Covid-19… without a solid pharmacological basis and lacking any proof of their effectiveness,” a group of 16 research bodies wrote in the op-ed piece.
Meanwhile, in July 2023, we reported that Raoult was facing allegations for a pattern of unauthorized experiments on homeless people.
Raoult and colleagues had violated the nation’s 1988 Huriet Law that established rights for participants in biomedical research trials. Researchers cited in the press argued that Raoult’s team had conducted unauthorized studies while collecting blood samples from homeless people in the 1990s.
Raoult’s advocacy of hydroxychloroquine eventually led to a reconsideration of his research broadly, to his professional detriment. Sadly, this was too little and too late.
A study released in January 2024 showed that some 17,000 Covid patients died after taking the drug during the initial wave of SARS-CoV-2 cases.
TODAY IN COVID HISTORY
On April 10, 2020, there was disagreement between then President Donald Trump and then New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as to whether, as the former president stated, the number of hospital beds in use on that date across the state had been “substantially reduced.”
That’s not what Cuomo said nor is it what the actual numbers reflect. Cuomo did say that the change in ICU admissions was “a negative number” today, noting it was the the first time the figure declined albeit slightly since the coronavirus pandemic started.
In his televised briefing that day, a program which had become a staple of morning television programming, Cuomo said the state is only in the “first wave” of the pandemic, and people “must be prepared.”
Meanwhile, then U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent his third night in intensive care, while the country is preparing to determine whether an extension of the lockdown is necessary.
As of this date, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe was 1.54 million, of which 340,452 have recovered, based on data compiled and reported by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 89,957.
LONG COVID
SARS-CoV-2 can persist for months, or even years, in the human body after infection. A paper published on April 8 in the journal The Lancet strongly suggests that the virus has that capability.
The study, Plasma-Based Antigen Persistence in the Post-Ccute Phase of Covid-19 and led by researchers at the University of California San Francisco and Harvard University, gives credence to the belief that the virus can linger in tissue and organs, even after the patient has recovered from acute infection.
The researchers analyzed blood samples from 171 adults who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. They found that one-quarter of those had Covid proteins in their blood for up to one year after their initial infection.
The data brings greater confidence to the theory of viral persistence and the findings may be helpful in more rapidly developing tests and treatments for Long Covid.
UNITED STATES
The Department of Justice said Wednesday that, over the past three years, its Covid-19 Enforcement Task Force has charged over 3,500 people with federal crimes and recovered more than $1.4 billion in fraudulently obtained pandemic relief funds. It has also reached over 400 civil settlements and judgments.
The White House used the announcement as a platform from which to propose legislation that would provide more funding for anti-fraud enforcement and extend the statute of limitations on such crimes. The legislation would also work on government databases to improve detection of potential fraudsters before payments are made.
The number of SARS-CoV-2 cases is relatively stable, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only two states posted increases in weekly cases figures, while figures were relatively stable in 19 states. Some 29 states reported either a decline or a likely decline, the agency said.
GLOBAL NEWS
In the United Kingdom, the home so-called Test to Treat program is shutting down on April 16 , leaving disabled and vulnerable Covid-19 patients without suitable options for accessing timely diagnosis and care.
The program had allowed people to enroll and receive Pfizer’s Covid-19 and Flu Home Test. If they were symptomatic and had a positive test, they could receive free telehealth services.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Wednesday, April 10.
As of Wednesday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.74 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.01 million in the last 24 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.6 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.02 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 Wednesday at press time is 22,132,228, a decrease of 1,800 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,097,436, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 34,792, 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 Wednesday, recorded 111.81 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, 45.04 million, and the world’s fourth highest death toll, 533,568.
The last data made available by Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service in July 2022 showed that the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic in the country was 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat has not released any additional data on the death toll in Russia since then.
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 38.83 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 711,380, has recorded 38.74 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 24.91 million, and Russia, with 24.12 million, as nine and ten respectively.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending March 23, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on April 1 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 4.0%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.6% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.6%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -21.1%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 9,345, a figure that is down 13.9% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 1.5%, a figure that is down 16.7% in the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Wednesday, 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 3,962 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 31, 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
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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