Coronavirus Daily News Brief – May 17: SARS-CoV-2 Cases Increasing in 12 U.S. States, Moderna Prevails in Jab Patent Dispute With Pfizer

Sunset on the Big Island of Hawaii
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 1,528th day.
In news we cover today , SARS-CoV-2 cases appear to be on the increase in at least 12 states plus the District of Columbia, Fed Chairman Powell tested positive for Covid, and Modera prevailed in a patent dispute in the European Union.
TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY
On May 17, 2020, speaking at a congressional hearing, ousted vaccine expert Dr. Rick Bright warned that, without better planning, the US risks its “darkest winter in modern history.”
A survey of doctors in the United Kingdom working during the coronavirus pandemic released on this day four years ago found that half feared for their health, the Royal College of Physicians said.
A British cabinet member, Secretary Alok Sharma, was wrong fortunately quite mistaken when he said that It was“possible that we may never find a successful coronavirus vaccine.”
In order for games to return to the stadium, Major League Baseball said that its protocols would frequent testing for players as well as for those who regularly come in close proximity to players, such as managers, coaches, and umpires.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the pandemic in France stood at 28,000, while that figure was 31, 908 in Italy.
And finally, over 4.6 million cases of Covid-19 had been recorded worldwide as of this date, including at least 314,000 deaths.
UNITED STATES
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that data suggests that SARS-CoV-2 cases are increasing in Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Washington, D.C.
While the data is up compared to the past few months, it is still significantly lower than one year earlier. In the seven days ending May 10, an average of 0.3% of emergency room patients were diagnosed with the virus nationwide, far below last summer’s peak at nearly 3% in late August.
In Washington, D.C. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell tested positive for the virus on Thursday and is currently working from home, a spokesman at the Fed said in a statement provided to the Daily News Brief.
“Chair (sic) Powell tested positive for Covid-19 late yesterday and is experiencing symptoms.” The statement went on to say that he is staying away from others, in keeping with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Powell, who is 71, returned from a trip to Europe this week during which he appeared on stage at an event with Dutch central bank president Klaas Knot in Amsterdam.
GLOBAL NEWS
Moderna prevailed in a case at the European Patent Office in its dispute with Pfizer and BioNTech over its Covid-19 vaccine, The news could be a windfall for the vaccine maker as it tries to recoup mRNA-vaccine-related profits from its rivals.
The EPO’s Opposition Division on Thursday upheld the validity of one of two disputed Moderna patents. The U.S. drugmaker has battled Pfizer and BioNTech over its market-leading Comirnaty vaccine in multiple suits..
“We are pleased to announce that the European Patent Office decided to maintain the validity of Moderna’s EP949 patent, one of the key patents currently asserted against Pfizer and BioNTech in various European national courts,” the company said in a statement shared with the Daily News Brief.
Lou Ye, a Chinese filmmaker, released “An Unfinished Film,” the story of how a film crew unboxes an abandoned 10-year-old movie that never even had a title. The reason for this is because Lou refused his producers’ demands to soften the content, which is about a gay man’s passion for another man who is involved with someone else. That was in 2019. The pandemic causes the film to be unfinished once again, leaving much of the film crew stranded in hotel rooms.
While the film starts off as a sophisticated comedy about the Chinese media, it evolves into an impassioned documentary homage to a whole nation’s trauma.
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending May 11, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on May 17 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.2%, a figure is up 0.1 percentage points from the previous 7-day period, and the trend in test positivity is -0.1% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.3%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -5.2%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 is no longer being reported as of the end of May. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 0.6%, a figure that is down 14.3%.
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, 13.58 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 8,173 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.8% 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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