The U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
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 1,509th day.
In news we cover today , Dr. Anthony Fauci will publicly give testimony in front of Congress in June, a study by Korean researchers found that the recurrence of uveitis was higher after inoculation with a coronavirus vaccine, and Astra Zeneca admitted in court papers that its coronavirus vaccine could in rare cases cause blood clots.
TODAY IN COVID HISTORY
On April 28, 2020, the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that countries that were eager to loosen restrictions put in place to combat the novel coronavirus would be “balancing lives against livelihoods.”
Scientists at Oxford’s Jenner Institute said their vaccine for the coronavirus could be available by September if it were proven to work. Additional trials involving over 6,000 people for coming month had been scheduled with a goal of showing the vaccine was safe and effective. If it proves to work, they said that several million doses could be quickly made available.
Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 3.1 million, of which 944,067 had recovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 214,105.
UNITED STATES
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who 18 months ago retired at the age of 82 as the president’s chief medical advisor and as director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, agreed to publicly testify in Congress on Covid origins and early pandemic policies.
Fauci, who helped steer both the Trump and Biden administrations’ efforts to combat SARS-CoV-2, will appear on June 3 in front of the House Oversight select subcommittee. Congressmen on the committee are expected to press him on the still-unknown origins of the pandemic as well as the nation’s response.
It marks the first time infectious-disease doctor Anthony S. Fauci will publicly face Congress since leaving government.
Four years ago, Vicki Dennis was hospitalized after developing unusual symptoms following a SARS-CoV-2 infection in 2020. She presented with itchy skin, yellowing skin, and dark urine. Once in hospital, she was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cholangitis and told she would need a liver transplant within five years. Five months ago, Dennis finally received a live liver transplant from a friend. The liver should regenerate to full size in both patient and donor.
GLOBAL NEWS
Astra Zeneca, which is currently involved in a class-action suit over claims its vaccine caused death and serious injury in dozens of cases, said that its vaccines could cause blood clots in very rare instances.
In a filing made to a British High Court in February that was reported by the Telegraph, the pharmaceutical house said that its coronavirus vaccine “can, in very rare cases, cause” thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, also referred to as TTS. TTS is a condition that causes blood clots along with a low blood platelet count.
The company said that “the causal mechanism is not known.”
“Further,” the company continued in the filing, “TTS can also occur in the absence of the AZ vaccine (or any vaccine). Causation in any individual case will be a matter for expert evidence.”
Meanwhile, a new study shows that a recurrence of uveitis in the 12 months following an individual’s inoculation against the coronavirus was 17% in individuals who had received the vaccine when compared with those who had not.
The study, which was published on April 25, 2024 in JAMA Ophthalmology and looked at a cohort of 473,934 Korean adults with a history of the condition.
Uveitis is inflammation inside your eye and usually happens when the patient’s immune system is fighting an infection.
The researchers, who were based at Hanyang University College of Medicine in Seoul, said that the amount of risk varied with different vaccine types, the study’s authors said, and was higher between the first and second vaccination doses, decreasing after subsequent vaccinations.
The World Health Organization issued an advisory about the next iteration of vaccines to combat Covid. The WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Covid-19 Vaccine Composition said that vaccine makers should use a monovalent JN.1 lineage as the antigen in forthcoming formulations, given that SARS-CoV-2 is currently expected to evolve from that variant.
The WHO also issued a new report in which it sought to clarify what counts as a pathogen that can spread through the air. The WHO loosened the definition of airborne pathogens – which include SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and measles – to include when respiratory droplets spread through the air and when they land on a person, regardless of the size of the droplet.
According to the new report, the phrase “transmission through the air” can be used to describe when infectious respiratory particles become airborne and spread, and the subcategories of “airborne transmission” and “direct deposition” can both fall under this blanket phrase.=
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending April 20, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on April 26 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.0%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.4% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.4%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -17.9%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 5,615, a figure that is down 14.4 % over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 0.9%, a figure that is down 10% in the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine at press time, 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 4,152 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 April 14, 2024, only Turkmenistan in Central Asia is only state that has not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever, although it is strongly suspected that the virus is present there. Meanwhile, the last territory in the world to have its first ever SARS-CoV-2 infection was Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand that reported its first five cases on December 21, 2022.
Where Has All the Data Gone?
We regret to inform that, as of April 15, 2024, the Global Daily Statistics data in the Coronavirus Daily News Brief are no longer being updated. Over the past 15 months, as more politicians and governments sought to place SARS-CoV-2 in the rear-view mirror, pandemic data reporting sputtered out and we are now at the point where it is simply not feasible to provide statistically valid case data on a global scale.
We are developing potential new and authoritative sources that we will present once they have been properly vetted, so stay tuned to this space. In the meantime, our Long Covid and pandemic coverage will remain much the same.
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Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this issue.
The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org
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