Coronavirus Daily News Brief – May 22: 14-Year-Old Bedridden From Long Covid, How Cockroaches Took Over the World

A Western Gull near Monterey Bay in California
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 1,533rd day.
In news we cover today , we report on a 14-year-old boy who is bedridden due to Long Covid. In addition, both Pfizer and Moderna are in talks to make an mRNA vaccine for the avian flu, and the Golden State marked its first day since the start of the pandemic without a Covid-related death.
TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY
On May 22, 2020, several new studies were released that showed that hydroxychloroquine, a drug touted and taken by President Trump, may harm coronavirus patients.  Those indiviuduals who took the drug were more likely to have abnormal heart rhythms, according to the study, which was published in the Lancet, and they were also more likely to die.
An early-stage vaccine developed in China appeared to be safe and was believed to offer protection against the coronavirus, according to a study published in the Lancet.
New York City began a crackdown on gatherings in front of restaurants and bars that offer takeaway drinks.  “Take out, don’t hang out” said then Mayor Bill de Blasio, at a news conference.
Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 5.24 million, of which 2.12 million hadrecovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 335,881.
In the United States and its territories, the number of confirmed cases stood at 1.63 million, while the death toll stood at 96,527. Russia continued to have the second highest number of cases in the world, with 326,448 and a death toll of 3,249, which officials in the United States continue to believed to be a significant undercount.
LONG COVID
The devastation that Long Covid wreaks has driven more than one family to consider unorthodox and alternative treatments for the condition, even though there is no consensus as to what causes Long Covid and what can be done beyond trying to address some of the symptoms.
The family of 14-year-old Dylan Smith of Easton, Pennsylvania, is considering getting Dylan treated at the Spero Clinic, a chiropractic and holistic medicine practice, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
There’s no question that Dylan appears to have a particularly severe case of Long Covid. After a second SARS-CoV-2 infection, he became increasingly unable to walk and his family reports that he is now bedridden and requires a feeding tube.
The clinic claims that it can treat “Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), fibromyalgia, Trigeminal Neuralgia, [and] neuropath,” and is run by its CEO, Katinka Van der Merwe, who only holds credentials as a chiropractor but speaks of her work “in the neurology field.”
Dylan’s mother, Stacey Smith,
“It’s a neurological clinic,” Dylan’s mother, Stacey Smith, told a reporter from WBAL-TV in Baltimore. “They’re treating Long Covid as a neurological disease where they’re healing the body from the inside out and they’re assisting the nervous system, which the nervous system affects every part of your body. It’s finally given us hope. It’s finally giving us hope that our child can get his life back.”
UNITED STATES
California marked the first time that, during the pandemic, there had been no deaths attributed to SARS-CoV-2 reported. After 1,4776 consecutive days, “we went one day without any,” one local paper noted. Over 107,000 Californians have died from the virus since early 2020.
Charges were dropped against controversial New Jersey gym owners who defied the Garden State’s pandemic restrictions.  The judge in the case said that there was insufficient evidence because the prosecutors failed to disclose more than just the summonses that police issued to the operation.  The owners of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, Ian Smith and Frank Trumbetti, paid over $165,000 in fines for violating Governor Phil Murphy’s spring 2020 shutdown order.
Smith is the same Ian Smith who, in 2007, after drinking 10 to 12 beers, got behind the wheel and ran a stop sign striking a car driven by 19-year-old Kevin Ade, who died as a result. Smith was sentenced to almost six years in prison and, in 2022, was arrested in again on drunk driving charges, having been observed driving recklessly, delaying traffic, and failing to observe marked traffic lanes, all while he was running for a seat in Congress, although he was soundly defeated in that race.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
Both Moderna and Pfizer are in talks with the federal government over the creation of a potential  avian flu vaccine program, the head of the U.S. government’s pandemic response administration said late Wednesday. The assistant secretary of preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, Dawn O’Connell, said that the vaccines would use messenger RNA technology.
Cockroaches have come to rule the world thanks to humans , a team of scientists has found. Without mankind, the German cockroach – the most pervasive species of cockroach – probably wouldn’t exist.  Based on a DNA analysis, it appears this subspecies branched off from a cousin some 2,100 years ago and successfully adapted to dwelling alongside human beings, despite the latter’s’ objections.
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 4,239 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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Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.
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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