CORONAVIRUS INFO PROVIDED BY DR. JIM HARRIS –11/19/2021

N.F.L. Requires Masks and Increases Coronavirus Testing for Thanksgiving

(By Ken Belson)

The N.F.L. strengthened its Covid-19 protocols as the number of positive cases rises across the country and people make plans to convene for Thanksgiving, and recommended facilitating testing for families of players and other employees….Every person, regardless of their vaccination status, must wear masks inside team facilities between Nov. 25 and Dec. 1, and all players, coaches and support staff also must be tested for the coronavirus on Nov. 29 and Dec. 1, after the Thanksgiving weekend.

HOPKINS CITED:

1. UNITED STATES

The US CDC reports 47.2 million cumulative COVID-19 cases and 762,994 deaths. The current daily incidence average is approximately 85,944 new cases per day and appears to be increasing. Daily mortality appears to be holding relatively steady, with the US currently averaging 1,028 deaths per day.*

2. US HEALTHCARE WORKER EXODUS Due to the protracted nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, many US healthcare workers are facing extreme burnout and leaving their posts in droves. About 18% of healthcare workers in the US have quit since the beginning of the pandemic and another 12% have been laid off. The stressors of the current emergency have nearly doubled the risk of burnout among physicians, with up to 75% reporting symptoms of exhaustion, depression, sleep disorders, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Healthcare workers also are reporting higher rates of “moral injury,” prolonged moral trauma caused by factors including staffing shortages, a lack of equipment necessary to treat patients, decreasing wages, or feelings of helplessness. The exodus is increasing strain on already pressured healthcare systems as they struggle to fill vacancies and ensure patients’ needs are met. Some experts—worried about how to restore and reinvigorate an essential, yet exhausted, workforce—are calling on the federal government for help to address healthcare worker shortages and urging healthcare systems to implement better preventive measures, such as creating chief wellness officer positions to oversee employees’ needs. With so many healthcare workers leaving their jobs, steps must be taken to ensure continuity in patient care and to prevent an implosion of the nation’s healthcare system.

3. PFIZER ORAL ANTIVIRAL Pfizer submitted a request for emergency use authorization (EUA) of its candidate oral antiviral COVID-19 treatment PAXLOVID—a combination of a new antiviral, PF-07321332, and ritonavir—with the US FDA on November 16. The submission is based on an interim analysis from a Phase 2/3 clinical trial showing the treatment demonstrated an 89% risk reduction in COVID-19-related hospitalization or death among high-risk adults when administered within 3 days of symptom onset. If authorized, the medication could help people with COVID-19 recover at home instead of seeking treatment at a hospital, and therefore reduce the strain on the healthcare system. Another similar COVID-19 treatment could be authorized soon, with an FDA advisory committee set to consider an EUA application from Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics for their candidate antiviral drug molnupiravir on November 30. The US government plans to purchase 10 million courses of Pfizer’s treatment at a cost of $5 billion, although the deal is not yet finalized. Both Pfizer and Merck have announced voluntary license agreements with the Medicines Patent Pool to allow sub-licensed generic medicine manufacturers to produce the antivirals for 95 countries, including all low- and lower-middle income countries. However, availability will remain a challenge, as Merck expects to supply around 3 million courses of its treatment before February 2022 and Pfizer expects to supply only about 300,000 courses prior to February. For context, an average of more than 500,000 cases are confirmed daily worldwide.

FROM BECKER:

COVID-19 + flu coinfections? 7 things to know

Dissecting the early COVID-19 cases in Wuhan (From SCIENCE, —— SEE ATTACHED PDF AT END)

By Michael Worobey

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA. Email: worobey@arizona.edu

”…there was a genuine preponderance of early COVID-19 cases associated with Huanan Market…Given the high transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 and the high rate of asymptomatic spread, many symptomatic cases would inevitably soon lack a direct link to the location of the pandemic’s origin. And some cases counted as “unlinked” may have been only one or two transmissions away,…the earliest known cases should not necessarily be expected to be the first infected or linked to Huanan Market: They probably postdated the outbreak’s index case by a considerable period (10) because only ~7% of SARS-CoV-2 infections lead to hospitalization (11); most fly under the radar….workers who were not necessarily directly associated with wildlife sales because the outbreak spread from human to human. The index case was most likely one of the ~93% who never required hospitalization and indeed could have been any of hundreds of workers who had even brief contact with infected live mammals….”

(J. Harris: I believe I am now satisfied as to the origin of the Pandemic)

Common raccoon dog (Not to be confused with Raccoon or Coon dog.)

The are Canids: “Any of various widely distributed carnivorous mammals of the family Canidae, which includes the foxes, wolves, dogs, jackals, and coyotes.”

(J. Harris: They look more like a coon than a coon does. I’d bet they would cook up real good?)

AND LAST BUT NOT LEASED:

How to Sell American Coons: Gut and skin them, but leave the tail on so that your potential customers at the Washateria will know it is not a Kitty Cat. Thirty years ago they would sell for about $10. Now ?