Coronavirus Weekend News Brief – May 27: Pandemic Treaty Fails to Gain Traction, Ozempic Trial Data Shows Benefits for Kidney Disease

A street in Bozen (Bolzano in Italian) is the capital of the South Tirol and is situated in a valley at an altitude of 850 ‘ (265 m). The region has been inhabited by a German-speaking population since 679.
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 1,538th day.
In news we cover today ,  negotiations over a new treaty that is supposed to enable the world to combat the next pandemic have broken down, Ozempic shows potential benefits for kidney disease, and – four years ago today – the world received confirmation that hydroxychloroquine is not an effective medication against SARS-CoV-2.
TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY
On May 27, 2020, the United States crossed a milestone, marking the 100,000 death from the virus since it began to spread.  The figure was almost twice the number of Americans who died as a result of the Vietnam War, which lasted almost 20 years.
The World Health Organization said that it had temporarily pressed pause on  studies of hydroxychloroquine as a potential Covid-19 treatment in its Solidarity Trial, citing significant safety concerns. The drug had been touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a suitable medication for Covid patients.
On the heels of the WHO action, the French government banned doctors from prescribing hydroxychloroquine to Covid-19 patients. The French Health Ministry on Wednesday revoked its authorization for the drug used in this manner, saying that the scientific data available at present does not provide sufficient “evidence of a benefit” to support its use.  At the same time, a trial of the drug with healthcare workers was put on pause and never resumed.
The European Union announced a €750 billion ($821 billion) aid package intended to help the bloc’s economic recovery from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
Calling it “Europe’s moment,” the plan was intended to “repair and prepare [countries] for the next generation,” the bloc said in a statement.
Finally,   over 5.6 million cases of the novel coronavirus had been reported across the globe, in addition to at least 353,000 deaths, according to data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief.
UNITED STATES
California may be facing an earlier-than-normal start to the summer Covid season , health officials are warning. The amount of coronavirus virus in wastewater  rising in some areas along with the statewide positivity rate.
The increase this year is due to the new FLiRT family of subvariants that are now prevalent in the United States.
FLiRT is short for their mutations, one of which includes the letters “F” and “L,” and another that includes the letters “R” and “T.” They are distant relations of the omicron variant and they stem from JN.1, the sublineage behind the surge in cases this past winter.
GLOBAL NEWS
A truly bold attempt to adopt a pandemic “treaty” at this week’s World Health Assembly was put on hold Friday after some two and one-half  years of work in framing it. Some members of the assembly voiced disagreements over sharing information about pathogens that cause pandemics and the technology used to fight them.
The treaty’s failure leaves public health officials and researchers across the globe facing against time to get global ascent on new ways to prepare and combat whatever the next pandemic will be, and no one is disagreeing that there will be a future pandemic.
While a deal is believed to be close, the topics that need to be agreed upon include the proposed “transfer of technology” and the creation of a new fund administered by the WHO that would help enhance pandemic-fighting capabilities, “particularly in developing countries.”
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
The blockbuster weight-loss drug Ozempic has been shown to alleviate yet another serious malady. The results of a clinical trial show that the drug reduces the risk of kidney failure and death for individuals with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease by 20% to 30%.  The key compound in the drug, semaglutide, has also been shown to lower the risk of heart disease and stroke, among other health issues.
Some scientists believe that semaglutide will eventually be shown to help a more general cohort of patients who merely have kidney disease.
If you have to trace back the origin of a genetic illness, it may have come from a Neanderthal. No, we’re not calling your relatives Neanderthals, although you can, but a new study suggests a wave of Homo sapiens arrived in western Eurasia around 47,000 years ago and intermixed with Neanderthals for approximately 7,000 years.
A study published in BioRxiv and entitled “Neandertal Ancestry Through Time: Insights From Genomes of Ancient and Present-Day Humans,” shows that,  as the researchers state, “[G]ene flow from Neandertals has shaped the landscape of genetic and phenotypic variation in modern humans.” Although 7,000 years may sound long a like period of time, it was a relatively short window in evolutionary timescales.
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending May 18, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on May 24 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.4%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.2% 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 +7%.
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 unchanged over the past week.
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 10,295 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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