Coronavirus Daily News Brief – June 16: Sinovac Reacts to U.S. Disinformation Push, Mysterious Infection Hits Hundreds of Hikers in the Grand Canyon

A Starbucks in British Airways’ Terminal 5 at London Heathrow
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 1,558th day.
In news we cover today , Chinese drugmaker Sinovac hit back after reports of a U.S. military disinformation campaign against the company’s coronavirus vaccine and a mysterious infection is making hundreds of people who visit a remote part of the Grand Canyon dangerously ill.
TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY
On June 16, 2020, a new spike in cases in a section of Beijing has resulted in part of the city being placed in lockdown.  The new cases were traced to the Xinfadi food market in the south part of the city, which  provides more than 90% of Beijing’s fruits and vegetables according to state media.
Officials in New York City and Houston are considering another lockdown.  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reported that the state has been deluged with over 25,000 complaints about local businesses “that are in violation of the re-opening plan.” The record number of complaints – the governor said that the state has never received “more complaints in a shorter period of time” – spoke to the concern many residents have about the possibility of a rise in the number of infections in the state.
Jens Spahn, Bundesminister für Gesundheit or minister for health in Germany, announced that the country’s coronavirus contact tracing app would be released shortly. The app, without keeping track of actual locations, can notify anyone who came into close contact with someone who tests positive for the virus.
In other news, Starbucks, meanwhile, began to pivot from the coffeehouse model that made it so successful before the pandemic and expand its takeaway business.  It will announced plans to shutter as many as 400 stores in the United States and Canada in the next 18 months
Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 7.89 million, an increase of over 133,292 people in the past 24 hours. The death toll was at 435,141. The number of daily deaths was 4,229 on that day.
In the United States and its territories, the number of confirmed cases stood at 2.16 million, an increase of 19,142, while the death toll was at 117,849.
UNITED STATES
An independent review of New York State’s pandemic response policy found that the emergency response structures developed through experience from events including the September 11, 2001 terror attacks  and Hurricane Sandy were largely ignored by then Governor Andrew Cuomo, who opted to centralize pandemic management in the executive chamber.
The report suggests that, had the governor allowed health officials and local government officials to control some aspects of the response, it could have limited unnecessary suffering and harm caused by several one-size-fits-all executive orders.
The report was prepared by the Olson Group, which, on its LinkedIn page, says it “is a small business with impressive capabilities.”
GLOBAL NEWS
Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac hit back following reports of a U.S. disinformation campaign designed to discredit the country’s Covid-19 vaccine.
The company said that the Pentagon’s social-media attack termed it “a wrong attack that will lead to enormous disaster”
T he U.S. military launched a secret anti-vax campaign in the early months of the pandemic in an attempt to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence over the Philippines, a nation hit particularly hard by the deadly virus.
The campaign targeted China’s Sinovac vaccine and the campaign, which was first reported by Reuters, was reportedly payback for Beijing’s efforts to blame the United States for the pandemic. The campaign began under the leadership of former President Donald Trump and Trump staffers warned the incoming Biden administration about it, which in turn put an end to the program.
“Covid came from China and the vaccine also came from China, don’t trust China!” one typical tweet from July 2020 stated in Tagalog.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
If you’re noticing that people around you – friends, family, work colleagues, perhaps even yourself – is sick a lot more often, it’s not your imagination running wild nor do you have cabin fever [unless you’re in Montana, where up to 14” (36 cm)of snow is expected from late spring winter storm]:
At least 13 communicable diseases, both viral and bacterial, some common and others historically rare, are seeing case figures accelerate well beyond their pre-pandemic levels in many parts of the country, and this is happening by significant margins in some cases.
Forty countries have seen  outbreaks increase 10-fold over pre-pandemic levels and the list of diseases sounds like a mixture of titles from numerous disaster films where the world ends after a virus kept in a vault 600’ (182 m) below the earth’s surface where the entire lab is built within extra walls to prevent a potential breach, scientists do their work connected to a dedicated breathing air supply and take chemical showers to decontaminate their suits. Of course, those labs are equipped with layers of negative pressure zones, thereby  making certain the air always flows back into the laboratory when any doors are opened.
The list of viruses that are surging includes  measles, whooping cough, tuberculosis, and polio, as well as dengue and cholera.
The data from 46 organizations and public healthcare agencies was analyzed by London-based disease forecasting firm Airfinity.
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending June 8, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on June 14 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 5.4%, and the trend in test positivity is +0.8% 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 +12.6%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 was 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 remains unchanged over the past four weeks.
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 6,959 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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