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My chosen article comments on how Covid-19 has impacated the education system worldwide. Due to the rapid increase in Covid-19 cases, countries entered a lockdown. As children weren't aloud to leave their homes, education was delivered via online platforms. Research indicated online learning made the students retain the information better, and that It might still be utilized post-pandemic. It is reported that the continuation of e-learning will have a big impact on the worldwide education market. The artcle mentions there was already a large amount of money spent on e-learning educational resources, such as video conferencing tools. It follows up by commenting the rapid increase in usage of such resources, due to Covid-19.
I consider very interesting, how the article covers the geographical view on e-learning.  It is pointed out that in less developed countries, such as Indonesia, around 34% of students adquire the necessary hardware, such as computers; meanwhile 95% of students in  first world countries such as Switzerland, have access to them. The article also covers the social aspect, saying that the pandemic will widen the digital divide, and the age group aspect by saying younger children are affected more negatively by online learning, as sen in the sentence "A structured enviroenment is required."

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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. This is how

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Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time, meaning the changes coronavirus have caused might be here to stay.

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https://www.poconorecord.com/story/opinion/columns/2021/02/11/protecting-american-democracy-our-nations-future-after-jan-6-what-its-worth/4466815001/
This articule from Pocono Record talks about the after effects of January 6. This is a day that will forever be marked in American society as the day we almost all of our democracy.

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The article I chose is about President Joe Biden's new COVID-19 relief plan that will cost over 1 trillion dollars. The President and Vice President have been meeting with many big businesses and CEO's hoping to gain some support for the expensive piece of legislation. It is reported that he has been in contact with Wall Street officials, American Airlines officials, and General Motors officials amongst others. The bill includes a plan to give $1,400 directly to Americans as well as raise the federal minimum wage, which is a very controversial topic. It is reported that not everyone the President has spoken to has supported his bill including a CEO from the U.S Chamber of Commerce that warned Biden of raising the minimum wage to $15 dollars, the article fails to mention why. It is reported that 63% of small business owners (who the bill will likely be affecting most) support the pay increase proposed. On Tuesday President Biden met with the CEO's of Walmart, Lowe's, GAP, and JP Morgan to discuss the bill further. His goal - general agreement surrounding jobs and healthy economic growth. Democrats now have the advantage of passing bills without Republican support, an absolute game changer in the United States congress.

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The article I chose is about President Joe Biden's new COVID-19 relief plan that will cost over 1 trillion dollars. The President and Vice President have been meeting with many big businesses and CEO's hoping to gain some support for the expensive piece of legislation. It is reported that he has been in contact with Wall Street officials, American Airlines officials, and General Motors officials amongst others. The bill includes a plan to give $1,400 directly to Americans as well as raise the federal minimum wage, which is a very controversial topic. It is reported that not everyone the President has spoken to has supported his bill including a CEO from the U.S Chamber of Commerce that warned Biden of raising the minimum wage to $15 dollars, the article fails to mention why. It is reported that 63% of small business owners (who the bill will likely be affecting most) support the pay increase proposed. On Tuesday President Biden met with the CEO's of Walmart, Lowe's, GAP, and JP Morgan to discuss the bill further. His goal - general agreement surrounding jobs and healthy economic growth. Democrats now have the advantage of passing bills without Republican support, an absolute game changer in the United States congress.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/10/stimulus-update-biden-white-house-builds-business-coalition-to-support-plan.html

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In this article, reporter Tessa Wong explores the reasons that Taiwan, despite its widely praised measures taken to control Covid on the island, Taiwan will not be allowed to attend this year's WHO summit. Taiwan's disputes with China stem from the end of the 1949 chinese civil war, in which millions of Chinese people fled the soon-to-be victorious communist chinese forces and emigrated to Taiwan. Under China's 'One China' policy, Taiwan is viewed by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) as a breakaway province, whereas the ROC (Republic of China- Taiwan's official name) Views their island as an independent nation. Taiwan, ever since 1972 has been barred admission to the UN in large part due to the One China Policy, wherein china feels that the UN having 2 chinese delegations would 'split state sovereignty' Why is Taiwan ineligible for "participation in the United Nations"? (china-embassy.org) The article goes on to outline the problems of Taiwan not being allowed in to these WHO meetings, stating that while they have access to the member nations' data and have the ability to share their own,she states it is at a diminutive level not respective to the potential help theses insights could bring. The article links a recent interview bewteen Hong Kong World City and WHO deputy director general Bruce Aylward, in which the Deputy General appears to avoid questions about Taiwan's status, and when pressed further on it, states that the interview had already covered China' . This was seen by critics and the author alike as repeating the CCP line in regards to Taiwan's status as a part of China. The article has a general pro-taiwan feeling, but manages to stay very measured in the conclusions reached

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This article "vaccines are not enough to beat covid" by Kevin J.Tracey, explains how vaccines won´t be enough in the battle against covid. He begins by explaining how despite vaccines getting developed, this doesn´t mean covid will be over. Vaccines arent always 100% effective and on top of that, not everyone has access to them. Tracey compares the coronavirus with the flu, explaining how despite the fact that the flu has a vaccine, medicine is needed in order to combat said virus and protect us from it. He highlights the fact that without medicine we might never fully fight coronavirus, and emphasizes on the fact that more research towards potential FDA approved medicine should be done, since there is only one current treatment which is FDA approved which helps covid related hospitalized patients. He explains how President Biden recently approved an executive order  to perform "more large-scale randomized clinical trials and further studies on the most promising treatments to date". This article provides with good arguments, i truly believe that by making research for potential medicine, this could get better. He mentions an argument , which is the flu, and comments on other things that have already been done in this aspect, but begs for change and comments on what he believed the government should be doing to help improve this global issue.

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The world's attention is rightly focused on news of COVID-19 vaccine updates, from eligibility to supply. But we will make a critical error if we ignore the need for treatments as well as vaccines. Vaccines may not reach everyone for many years. Vaccines will not protect everyone. And as infection surges threaten to overwhelm hospitals and nursing homes, immediate remedies are needed. So, it is vitally important we continue to research treatments to limit and cure COVID-19.

Consider the flu, which is targeted annually with widely available and effective vaccines. But since no vaccine is perfect, there remains a significant need for flu therapies such as Tamiflu and Relenza because these drugs prevent hospitalizations and save lives. We need Tamiflu-like and Relenza-like drugs for COVID-19.

To date, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has only fully approved one treatment, intravenous remdesivir, for hospitalized patients. The FDA has also approved other intravenous therapies including convalescent plasma; a monoclonal antibody drug called bamlanivimab; and a cocktail of the monoclonal antibodies casirivimab and imdevimab for outpatient care under emergency use authorization (EUA). While these drugs can be helpful, their requirement for intravenous administration severely hampers their widespread use. Because EUAs are issued during an emergency, the data for drug risks and benefits are much less than required for full FDA approval. The widespread and uncontrolled use of numerous EUA drugs has made it difficult to perform proper randomized clinical trials for other new experimental treatments, because it is unethical to ask a patient to participate in a clinical trial when they may or may not receive an EUA-approved treatment.The overuse of EUAs makes it difficult or impossible to know if these therapies truly are actually effective and safe. What is badly needed is more randomized clinical trials.

To accelerate the discovery of essential new treatments, the U.S. government needs to commit to supporting and coordinating the research. I am encouraged by President Biden's recent executive order calling for more large-scale randomized clinical trials and further studies on the most promising treatments to date. Federal government oversight is required to properly assess the risks and benefits of current EUA treatments individually and in combination because often these drugs are used together.

Support is also required for using other available FDA-approved off-the-shelf drugs that might help prevent hospitalizations, as in the recent findings indicating colchicine, a common gout medication, prevents COVID-19 hospitalizations. At the Feinstein Institutes, we are also studying the use of famotidine, the common antacid Pepcid, in outpatients to assess whether it may also reduce the need for hospitalization. Without properly supported research, the world will not learn whether such treatments or useful or not.

President Biden should also organize an advisory panel to coordinate these clinical trial efforts and share results from outcomes and best practices. Because it is in the interest of national security, such coordination and prioritization of clinical trials cannot be left to the profit-driven pharmaceutical industry. Consider that famotidine and colchicine are off-patent and have been labeled as generics for many years. But what if they prove to be effective and safe, as well as cheap? Even if such news won't result in big profits or move the stock price, the world should know.

Understandably and properly enough, it is a national priority to vaccinate the populace. But not at the expense of ignoring patients who will continue to become ill and need new lifesaving treatments. We are making steady progress but must significantly enhance support for research and for national coordination of clinical trial efforts.

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Vaccines Alone Are Not Enough to Beat COVID

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The world's attention is rightly focused on news of COVID-19 vaccine updates, from eligibility to supply. But we will make a critical error if we ignore the need for treatments as well as vaccines. Vaccines may not reach everyone for many years. Vaccines will not protect everyone.

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The article that I chose is about the investigation of the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists believed that the virus originated from bats, but this theory has not been yet verifies. A virus expert from the World Health Organization (WHO), Peter Ben Embarek says that there aren't any bat environments in Wuhan, so it could have been transmitted to people through another animal. Testing for the virus has been carried out among animals in China, but they have not found any results on which animal it could have originated from. WHO experts have denied the hypothesis that the virus originated from a lab leak. They also found no indication that there was any sign of the virus before December of 2019. It took some time for the Chinese government to allow this visit from WHO experts and they only agreed to it because of the international pressure they were receiving. Authorities in China have controlled the information about the possible causes of the pandemic. This article is a good example of media serving democracy during the pandemic because it is showing all sides of the story. It starts by talking about the investigation that is going on in order to find the origin of the virus, but explains to the readers why it has taken so long to fin an answer. It also points out that authorities in China have not always wanted to cooperate and let others investigate the origin. This article is not unfair because at the end of it they point out that Chinese authorities have controlled how much information has been given to the people about this topic. This article is reliable on the information that they are giving because in many parts of the article they are directly quoting experts on this topic.

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Investigators on Tuesday said they were still trying to find the animal vector through which the COVID-19 virus was transmitted to humans.

Scientists think the disease originated in bats, but the World Health Organization (WHO) team visiting the Chinese city of Wuhan is looking into how it could have made the jump to humans via another mammal.

The WHO presented its findings so far alongside Chinese experts at a joint study news conference.

What has the WHO found so far?

WHO virus expert Peter Ben Embarek told the briefing that work to identify the origins of the coronavirus pointed to a natural reservoir in bats.

However, he said the absence of bat environments in Wuhan indicated that it had been transmitted to humans through another animal.

Widespread testing for the virus had been carried out across animal species in many Chinese provinces, but this had failed to yield a result.

"Through these studies, it has not been possible to pinpoint any animal species as a potential reservoir for this disease," Embarek said.

The possibility remains that the virus was directly transmitted to humans from bats, or that it had somehow been transmitted through food - particularly frozen products.

The team remains hopeful that the animal source can still be identified.

Team member Marion Koopmans said it was important to trace back all animal species and products that were on the market. This had already shown that there were some animals confirmed as susceptible, like rabbits, or suspected of being susceptible, such as ferrets, badgers or bamboo rats.

Lab leak eliminated as explanation

The WHO expert essentially ruled out a fourth theory that the novel coronavirus had somehow leaked from a Chinese lab.

"The laboratory incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus into the human population," said Embarek. "Therefore it is not in the hypothesis that we will suggest for future studies."

He agreed with a Chinese assessment that there was "no indication" the disease was circulating in the city before December 2019, when the first official cases were recorded.

Why is the visit only taking place now?

The team from 10 different nations has visited hospitals, research institutes, the traditional wet market tied to the outbreak and other sites.

Their visit took months to negotiate after China only agreed to it amid massive international pressure. Beijing has continued to refuse appeals for a strictly independent investigation.

Wuhan: A year after the coronavirus outbreak

An unmasked clown

Most Wuhan residents wear masks in public, particularly as the coronavirus has not disappeared and there have been a number of new cases elsewhere in China. "Many people are beginning to hoard masks, disinfectant and other protective equipment," 29-year-old English teacher Yen told DW.

Author: Uta Steinwehr

Thorny diplomatic issues lie behind the WHO visit, with Washington demanding a "robust" probe and Beijing issuing a warning not to "politicize" the investigation.

Authorities in China have tightly controlled information about the possible causes of the pandemic that has now infected more than 106 million people and killed more than 2.3 million.

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Coronavirus: WHO fails to find animal source of COVID-19 | DW | 09.02.2021

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Investigators on Tuesday said they were still trying to find the animal vector through which the COVID-19 virus was transmitted to humans. Scientists think the disease originated in bats, but the World Health Organization (WHO) team visiting the Chinese city of Wuhan is looking into how it could have made the jump to humans via another mammal.

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This article from the BBC talks about how a commonly used arthritis medication can help treat life threatening cases of COVID. Clinical trials in which patients were given a mixture of a standardly used steroid, and tocilizumab, an anti-inflammatory drug known to treat arthritis, have produced promising results that could potentially reduce the number of intensive-care patients in hospitals. The main benefits of Tocilizumab come from how it can help reduce inflamed lungs and organs, one of the more serious symptoms of the virus. The article includes an anecdotal story from a woman who participated in the trial, who claims that the treatment stabilized her condition and prevented her from having to be placed in intensive care. Furthermore the article includes perspectives from a range of health professionals, including an intensive care medic and the national medical director of the NHS. I’d say this article is fair in how it delivers information. It’s democratic in that it provides information that could benefit the greater good of the public, and also appears reliable with numerous opinions from different people.

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By Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online

A drug normally used to treat arthritis can be a life-saver for some of the sickest hospital patients with Covid, new research shows.

For every 25 patients treated with tocilizumab, along with a cheap steroid already routinely given, an additional life would be saved, the experts say.

Some hospitals are now doing this.

As well as improving survival and recovery time, it can avoid patients needing to be moved to intensive care, say the NHS doctors.

Wendy Coleman, 62, received the treatment last year when she was admitted to Chesterfield Royal Hospital with severe Covid-19.

"I was struggling to breathe quite badly and on the verge of being placed in an intensive care unit.

"After I was given tocilizumab, my condition stabilised and I didn't get any worse. Up until then, it was quite scary as I didn't know if I was going to make it or not," she said.

Researchers say around half of people admitted to hospital with Covid could benefit from the treatment.

They have carried out a clinical trial with more than 4,000 volunteers, like Wendy, and say the results are "tremendous".

Half of these Covid patients were given tocilizumab, via a drip, alongside usual care with a life-saving cheap steroid drug called dexamethasone.

In that group, compared to another group that did not receive the new drug:

Tocilizumab cut death risk - 596 (29%) of the patients in the tocilizumab group died within 28 days compared with 694 (33%) patients in the usual care group

And it reduced the chance of a patient needing to go on a ventilator or dying from 38% to 33%

Combined, tocilizumab and dexamethasone should cut death risk by about a third for patients on oxygen and halve it for those on a ventilator, the researchers say.

Prof Martin Landray, joint chief investigator of the RECOVERY trial and a medical expert at Oxford University, said: "Used in combination, the impact is substantial. This is good news for patients and good news for the health services that care for them in the UK and around the world."

Co-researcher and intensive care medic Dr Charlotte Summers, from Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, said: "These findings are a tremendous step forwards. This therapy looks like it keeps people out of the intensive care unit so they never need to see people like me which can only be a good thing."

The treatment isn't cheap, costing around £500 per patient on top of the £5 course of dexamethasone. But the advantage of using it is clear - and less than the cost per day of an intensive care bed of around £2,000.

The drugs dampen down inflammation, which can go into overdrive in Covid patients and cause damage to the lungs and other organs.

The preliminary trial results will soon be submitted to a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: "We are working quickly and closely with colleagues across the health system and sector to ensure every NHS patient who needs this treatment should be able to access it - reducing further pressures on the NHS and potentially saving thousands of lives."

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Arthritis drug tocilizumab cuts deaths from Covid

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By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online A drug normally used to treat arthritis can be a life-saver for some of the sickest hospital patients with Covid, new research shows. For every 25 patients treated with tocilizumab, along with a cheap steroid already routinely given, an additional life would be saved, the experts say.

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In this article "Covid Variants and Vaccine Resistance: all you need to know" by The Guardian, they discuss the Covid Vaccine and how it will affect the new strands that have appeared in different areas of the world. While the world has had the vaccine to look forward to,  there has been concern expressed over whether or not the vaccine will be effective with every single strand. The article's purpose is to assure the public that although the vaccine won't be able to cover the strands as well as the original version of COVID-19. In limited testing, the vaccine has been able to prevent serious illness, hospitalization, and death from the strands even though it hasn't outright prevented the illness. I think this article serves the public well as it is fair in it's assessment of the pandemic and it's current solution. While it states that it is going to help prevent death and serious illness. They also mention and constantly source researchers which adds to the credibility and prevents the viewer from being misinformed.

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The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is the mainstay of the UK government's immunisation plans and vital globally.
Will it work against the variant of the virus that emerged in South Africa?
A study carried out by Oxford and Astra Zeneca together with the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa shows that it does not protect people infected with the variant against mild to moderate Covid, but the researchers believe it will still prevent severe illness, hospitalisation and death.

The study involved more than 2,000 people with an average age of 31, which means they were relatively young and at lower risk. So scientists cannot yet be certain the protection remains against serious disease, but they think it's likely.
Do other vaccines offer better protection against this variant?
It's not possible to make comparisons because we don't have the detailed data - the study will be published in the coming days. But trials of other vaccines in communities affected by this variant show that none of them work as well as they do against the original coronavirus.

Quick Guide
Vaccines: how effective is each one?
Show

Pfizer/BioNTech
Country US/Germany

Efficacy 95% a week after the second shot. Pfizer says it is only 52% after the first dose but the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) says this may rise to 90% after 21 days.

Doses Clinical trials involved two doses 21 days apart. The UK is stretching this to 12 weeks.

Oxford/AstraZeneca
Country UK

Efficacy 70.4% 14 days after receiving the second dose. May have up to 90% efficacy when given as a half dose followed by a full dose. No severe disease or hospitalisations in anyone who received the vaccine.

There have been concerns it is less effective against the South African variant of the coronavirus, and that a rare type of blood clot can be a side effect.

Doses Two, four to 12 weeks apart

Moderna
Country US

Efficacy Phase 3 trial results suggest 94.1%.

Doses Two, 28 days apart

Novavax
Country US

Efficacy Phase 3 trials suggest 89.3%.

Doses Two

Janssen (part of Johnson & Johnson)
Country US

Efficacy 72% in preventing mild to moderate cases in US trials but 66% efficacy observed in international trials. 85% efficacy against severe illness, and 100% protection against hospitalisation and death.

Doses: One, making it unique among Covid vaccines with phase 3 results so far

Sinovac
Country China

Efficacy Unclear. Researchers in Brazil have found the efficacy of the Chinese vaccine to be as low as 50.4%, whereas Turkish officials reported interim data from trials showing efficacy was 91%.

Photograph: Stéphane Mahé/X02520

Thank you for your feedback.

Data that has recently been published, from trials of two vaccines that took place partly in South Africa after the emergence of the variant, show a marked decline in efficacy. Novavax had 89% efficacy in trials in the UK, but 60% in South Africa, where 92% of the cases were caused by the variant. The Janssen vaccine, made by a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, had 72% efficacy in the US but 57% in South Africa. Both vaccines, however, still protected against severe disease, hospitalisation and death.

Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, which ran large-scale trials with spectacular results showing 95% efficacy before the variants appeared, now think the South Africa variant will reduce that. They have only conducted lab studies, but on the basis of those, they say the vaccine may may perform less well against the variant. We don't yet know how much less well.
What about the variant that emerged in Kent?
There's better news about this one. Oxford/AstraZeneca have carried out a small study, details of which came out on Friday, with much more upbeat results. In a pre-print, not yet peer-reviewed, they said the vaccine efficacy fell from an average of 84% against the original virus to 75% against the Kent variant.

Researchers from the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease, led by Prof Ravi Gupta, found that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine successfully protected against the Kent variant, called B117. "Our findings suggest that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is likely to offer similar protection against B117 as it does against the previous strain of Sars-CoV-2," he said.

"Although we found a reduction in the ability of antibodies to neutralise the virus, given the number of antibodies produced following vaccination, this should still only have a relatively modest effect and people should still be protected."

People over 80 needed a second dose three weeks later, however, to mount an adequate antibody response.
What does this mean for hopes of herd immunity?
Researchers now say there needs to be a shift in thinking. There hasn't been good data on whether any of the vaccines prevent transmission from one person to another, but governments and the public have of course been hoping that vaccination would deliver herd immunity - so that even people who have not had the jab would be safe - and get life back to normal.

Prof Shabir Madhi from the University of the Witwatersrand, who was the lead investigator in this and other vaccine studies in South Africa, says we need to reset the goal to protecting people from hospital and death and stop assuming the virus will go away.

"These findings recalibrate thinking about how to approach the pandemic virus and shift the focus from the goal of herd immunity against transmission to the protection of all at risk individuals in population against severe disease," he said.

Share your stories

If you have been affected or have any information, we'd like to hear from you. You can get in touch by filling in the form below, anonymously if you wish or contact us via WhatsApp by clicking here or adding the contact +44(0)7766780300. Only the Guardian can see your contributions and one of our journalists may contact you to discuss further.

Can the vaccines be altered to protect us against the variants?
Yes, scientists say. Work is already underway in all the labs. It should not be too difficult to tweak the vaccines to recognise the changed spike protein, but there are challenges. One is testing the variant vaccine, which will not take anything like as long as the original trials. It could be just weeks. Prof Sarah Gilbert, from the University of Oxford, said they were working on it and she expected a new version would be ready in the autumn, when it could be used as a booster dose.

The other challenge is keeping up with the pace of mutations. These variants have emerged swiftly and show quite a number of changes, and there will be others.
What does the future look like?
Nobody thinks the virus is going away, having spread as widely as it has. It is now endemic in the population. We will probably have to deal with it as we do with the ever-changing flu viruses. Each year the World Health Organization lists the virus strains likely to be most prevalent, which are included in the annual vaccine. One day they may be doing that for coronavirus too.

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Covid variants and vaccine resistance: all you need to know

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The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is the mainstay of the UK government's immunisation plans and vital globally. Will it work against the variant of the virus that emerged in South Africa?

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This article in the Washington Post discusses the warning from health officials about the spread of new coronavirus variants that could be more deadly. They suggest that Americans should consider wearing two masks or knotting the ear loops to make the mask tighter, in order to avoid too much air flow. According to the article, health officials claim that the use of masks has been key in combating the virus, but it requires a global effort. The ability to persuade the public into doubling-up masks is in the hands of a new administration. The article adds that the Trump administration did a poor job of encouraging mask wearing at the start of the pandemic, the ex-President refused to wear a mask himself for the first few months. In my opinion, this article is very informative in that it discusses in detail how to properly wear two face coverings and repeatedly mentions the CDCs recommendations on a number of ways to properly wear a face mask. The article is strong in informing the public of proper health guidelines and also shares some mask regulations in European countries to emphasize that this is a global effort, that includes Americans.

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As new variants of covid-19 spread within the United States, health professionals have suggested that Americans wear two masks or upgrade to an N95. (John Farrell/The Washington Post)

Please Note

The Washington Post is providing this important information about the coronavirus for free. For more free coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter where all stories are free to read.

Federal health officials on Wednesday urged Americans to consider wearing two masks as one of several strategies to better protect themselves against the threat of new and more contagious variants of the coronavirus.

"We know that universal masking works," said John T. Brooks, medical officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's covid-19 response. "And now these variants are circulating ... whatever we can do to improve the fit of a mask to make it work better, the faster we can end this pandemic."

Two methods substantially boost fit and protection, according to a CDC report and guidance released Wednesday. One is wearing a cloth mask over a surgical mask. The second is improving the fit of a single surgical mask by knotting the ear loops and tucking in the sides close to the face to prevent air from leaking out around the edges and toform a closer fit.

Both of those methods reduced exposure to potentially infectious aerosols by more than 95 percent in a laboratory experiment using dummies, the report said.

A year after the coronavirus' arrival in the United States, - with the death toll approaching 500,000 - the updated guidance stresses the importance of mask-wearing as one of the best defenses against more transmissible variants, along with social distancing, avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated indoor spaces, and practicing frequent hand washing.

It represents a new administration's effort to present clear instructions to Americans after the mixed messaging of the prior one in which health officials urged mask-wearing, but President Trump refused to do so and ridiculed those who did.In part as a result, many Americans refuse to wear them.

The instructions also come at a potentially perilous moment as health officials race to vaccinate tens of millions of peoples to protect them from more transmissible and possibly more lethal variants, but remain hampered by a limited vaccine supply.

Until now, CDC's recommendation has focused on cloth masks because of worries about a shortage of medical procedure masks and N95 respirators masks for health-care personnel.But as supply has improved, the agency is providing information about the pros and cons of different masks "so consumers can make an informed choice about what they want to use," Brooks said.

President Biden has urged all Americans to wear masks and signed executive orders requiring their use on federal property and on planes, trains and buses. Thirty-six state governments currently require people to wear face coverings in public to curb the spread of the coronavirus, according to a tally by AARP. The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico also have mask orders. Meanwhile, three states - Iowa, North Dakota and Mississippi - have lifted such mandates.

Brooks and other public health experts say the key takeaway of the new guidelinesis mask fit, which improves filtration, or the ability of material to block tiny particles.

"Double masking is one way you can do it," he said, noting that double masking does notmean double protection. "It may not be the right solution for everybody,"he added. For some people, wearing two masks can impede breathing or obstruct peripheral vision that could lead to a fall and result in injury.

Surgical masks can also be adjusted to make them better fit the contours of the face, Brooks said. The three-ply masks, which may be flat pleated or cone shaped, are not designed to protect against infections from viruses and bacteria, but rather to prevent contamination of sterile surgical sites and to prevent blood and other fluids from splashing onto the wearer's mouth and nose.

Knotting the medical procedure mask where the loops attach to the face helps the mask fit closer to your face, but it also slightly reduces mask size, he said.

"People with big faces may have difficulty getting the mask to cover their nose and mouth completely when they do the knot, so you really have to look around and find a technique that works well for you," Brooks said.

Studies have shown that fit also can be improved using simple materials, including nylon hosiery around the neck and over either a cloth or surgical mask, and the use of mask fitters - adjustable frames or braces worn either as ear loops or behind the head to secure face-coverings tightly on noses.

CDC conducted experiments last month to test the effectiveness of mask combinations at reducing the amount of particles released during a cough. A three-ply surgical mask blocked 42 percent of particles from a simulated cough, and a three-ply cloth mask blocked 44 percent. But a cloth mask covering a medical mask blocked 92 percent of the particles, the report said.

In a second experiment, a dummy wearing double masks and one wearing a knotted/tucked medical reduced exposure for an unmasked dummy by 82 percent and 62 percent respectively. When one dummy was not wearing any masks and the one acting as the bystander wore a double mask or a knotted/tucked medical mask, the bystander's exposure was reduced by 83 and 64.5 percent respectively.

But when both dummies wore double masks or knotted/tucked medical masks, the bystander's exposure was reduced by more than 95 percent in both situations.

Brooks cautioned against generalizing the numeric findings of the studies, however. The experiments used one type of cotton mask and one type of medical mask in a laboratory, "not with human beings,"he said.

Other experts expressed concern that double masking could discourage mask-wearing.

"I would rather people focus on finding one quality mask that meets the mark, versus trying to layer masks and create discomfort, difficulty breathing ... or frustration that might lead to no mask at all," said Saskia Popescu, an infectious-disease epidemiologist and assistant professor at George Mason University.

David Rothamer, an engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison, has experimented with masks on mannequins in classrooms while studying the best ways to prevent the spread of the virus in college classes. He said heis not a proponent of double masking because it consumes more masks, and can also lead to more air leakage.

"The only reason to [wear two masks] is if you can get better fit," he said.

Linsey Marr, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech who has studied how to maximize mask efficiency, offered these tips for ensuring the best mask fit:

"You should not be able to see or feel any kind of open spots around the edges of your mask, especially around your nose, which is why a metal bridge is so important for fitting tightly around the nose.

"You don't want gaps around the cheek or chin, really anywhere," she said. "One way you can check for that is when you are breathing through it, does it feel like air is leaking out of the side? Put your hand on the edge to see if you feel anything. When you breathe in, you should feel suction up against your face."

Other signs of leakage include eyeglasses fogging up or cold breath coming from the sides of masks while outside, she said.

Another test involves breathing hard in front of a mirror to see if you blink while wearing a mask, which would indicate leakage from the top of the mask.

If masks fail these tests, Marr said, you should try a different kind of mask. "Peoples' faces have such different shapes that you can try to find something that can work better for your face," she advised.

Updated February 10, 2021

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Federal health officials emphasize proper mask fit to protect against coronavirus variants, urging double masks in some cases

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Please Note The Washington Post is providing this important information about the coronavirus for free. For more free coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter where all stories are free to read.

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The article "Fast-spreading coronavirus variant is doubling every 10 days in the US" by Yasemin Saplakoglu, talks about the concerns of new mutations and variants of Covid-19. Studies have discovered a new strain called "B.1.1.17" which is spreading at an exponential rate and by March it will likely by the most common variant of the virus. According to the article, the "B.1.1.17" variant has multiple mutations on its spike protein which it uses to latch into and evade human cells and thus allowing the virus to spread at a faster rate and more efficiently. Moreover, the article then talks about how researchers attempt to understand how fast this new strain of virus is spreading. Researchers began to examine data from half million corona positive samples and they concluded that it began spreading in the U.S. around the end of November. However, even though they found the strain is still at a "low level frequency" yet it appears more transmissible than previous variants. Moreover, since its still not widespread in the U.S there is still a chance to implement stricter guidelines and regulations to stop the spread.

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The coronavirus variant that was first identified in the U.K. is now spreading rapidly in the U.S., doubling every 10 days, according to a new study.

That means that the variant, known as B.1.1.7., is growing exponentially in prevalence. B.1.17 made up around 2% of currently circulating strains in the last week of January and likely doubled to 4% of circulating strains 10 days later, and 10 days after that, will double to 8%, then 16% and so on. By March it will likely be the most common variant in the country.

The variant, which seems to be about 40% to 70% more transmissible than previous forms of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, has "gained a strong foothold across the world," the authors wrote in a new preprint study posted on on Feb. 7 and not yet peer-reviewed.
Related: UK coronavirus variant: All your questions answered
B.1.1.7 has multiple mutations on its spike protein - which the virus uses to latch onto and invade human cells; those mutations seem to allow the virus to spread faster and more efficiently compared with earlier forms of the virus. B.1.1.7 was first detected in September 2020 in the U.K., and just two months later, it became the dominant variant in the country. The variant has now been detected in at least 80 countries and territories across the globe, according to the World Health Organization.

After B.1.1.7 showed up in Portugal and Ireland, those countries "observed devastating waves of COVID-19," the authors wrote in the new study. "Our study shows that the U.S. is on a similar trajectory as other countries where B.1.1.7 rapidly became the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicted that B.1.1.7 would become the dominant strain in the U.S. by March, Live Science previously reported, and unfortunately, this study suggests that prediction is coming true.

To understand how fast B.1.1.7 is spreading in the U.S., researchers examined data from a half-million positive test samples in the U.S. collected by genomics company Helix since July 2020. They found that B.1.1.7 likely arrived in the U.S. toward the end of November and had spread to at least 30 states by January.

They also found that while the variant is still at a "relatively low frequency," in the U.S., it is 35% to 45% more transmissible than earlier forms of the virus; and its prevalence appears to be doubling every 10 days across the country. The variant was most prevalent in Florida, accounting for 4.5% of cases there by the last week of January. That also fits with published data from the CDC showing that most of the 690 known cases of B.1.1.7 came from Florida, followed by California, according to the CDC. That said, the data didn't cover the entire U.S. and so variants may be circulating undetected in several states, according to the study.

Labs in the U.S. are sequencing only a small proportion of SARS-CoV-2 samples, so many new and unknown variants may be circulating under the radar, the authors wrote. "The more established surveillance programs in other countries have provided important warnings about variants of concern that can impact the U.S., with B.1.1.7 representing only one variant that demonstrates the capacity for exponential growth," they wrote.

Given that B.1.1.7 is still not extremely widespread in the U.S., there's still time to implement surveillance programs and mitigation efforts in the weeks to come, the authors wrote. But "unless decisive and immediate public health action is taken," the spread of the variant will likely have "devastating consequences" within a few months in the U.S., they added.
Originally published on Live Science.
Scientists weren't sure at first whether B.1.1.7 is more deadly and more transmissible than earlier forms of the virus. Some early evidence from the U.K. suggests that it may be 30% more deadly, but that evidence is still uncertain, Live Science previously reported. In any case, B.1.1.7 is "almost certainly destined" to become the dominant strain in the U.S. by March, the authors wrote.

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Fast-spreading coronavirus variant is doubling every 10 days in the US

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The coronavirus variant that was first identified in the U.K. is now spreading rapidly in the U.S., doubling every 10 days, according to a new study. That means that the variant, known as B.1.1.7., is growing exponentially in prevalence.

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This article by ‘El Pais’ describes the economic impacts of the third (current) wave of covid-19 on Spanish businesses and how the government and EU have diagnosed the situation. The article points out that according to the ECB Spain has ‘less money than other countries on the coronavirus classics’. Moreover the ministry of economy admitted that as things are the pandemic will ‘negatively affect growth, at least in the first quarter of the year’. Then, the article goes on to highlight the economic plans of the Spanish Government and the ECB to stimulate the economy and aid small businesses.

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Spain has done more or less what it had to do to combat the economic effects of the coronavirus crisis, but it has spent less money on the effort than other countries, according to the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Although the executive's rhetoric has not changed significantly, the Economy Ministry is now admitting that the third wave of the pandemic "will negatively affect growth" at least in the first quarter of the year, according to a document seen by EL PAÍS that also warns against prematurely ending relief measures for struggling businesses.

We are going to increase direct aid to businesses and the self-employed affected by the pandemic

Economy Minister Nadia Calviño

The deterioration of the economic forecast in a country that has already experienced one of the sharpest contractions in Europe, and the risks that this entails, suggests that Spain will introduce more support initiatives over the coming months while the country waits for the positive effects of the Covid vaccines and the release of €140 billion in European recovery funds.

Failing that, there is a serious risk that the economy could soon be dealing with a wave of insolvencies that both the IMF and the ECB have been warning about. And that could lead to trouble for the banking sector, which the government wants to avoid at all costs.

The report seen by EL PAÍS underscores the need for measures, stating that it is "indispensable to avoid a premature withdrawal of support, and to organize schemes to assist viable businesses."

And at a talk organized by Barcelona's Cercle d'Economía association on Monday, Economy Minister Nadia Calviño offered a few more details about the kind of policies planned by Spain's minority government, made up of a coalition of the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the leftist Unidas Podemos.

Direct aid

The executive wants to activate "as soon as possible" direct aid for struggling companies, which has been a key demand of business leaders, unions and others who are dissatisfied with a recent relief package that focused on tax breaks, state-guaranteed loans and other forms of indirect support. Regional governments in tourism-dependent areas have been especially vocal in their demands for direct aid, a move that is also supported by Bank of Spain Governor Pablo Hernández de Cos, the opposition Popular Party (PP), and even some members of the executive itself.

The Economy Ministry's document cites a report by the Bank of Spain, whose position is that while the government's credit-based measures have helped companies stay afloat, the latter's debt levels have soared as a result. In other countries, credit schemes have been complemented with direct aid. The Spanish central bank has warned that insolvency could affect nearly one in five companies if the effects of the crisis are long-lasting, particularly in an economy that is highly dependent on sectors hard hit by the pandemic such as tourism. And the effects could be compounded by the structural problems of the Spanish labor market, which relies heavily on temporary contracts.

Forecasts overtaken by reality

Calviño continues to uphold the ministry's economic forecast for this year - a growth rate of 7.2% that could rise to 9.8% if the EU funds are spent - but the market consensus is that those figures have been overtaken by reality. And the 28-page report seen by this newspaper admits that "some of the sectors hardest hit by the crisis ( hospitality, transportation and recreational services) will still not be back to a normal situation at the end of the year."

The minister defended the government's policies despite the warnings from international organizations about the country's insufficient response to the crisis. She noted that the executive's measures represent "20% of gross domestic product (GDP)" including public loan guarantees, the ERTE job retention scheme, support for the self-employed and the guaranteed minimum income scheme.

But she also pledged to "adopt new measures or instruments as long as they are necessary," and stressed that "we are going to increase direct aid to businesses and the self-employed affected by the pandemic," with a focus on small and medium companies and on viable firms. The key will lie in defining what is a viable firm.

A piece of advice that former ECB governor Mario Draghi reportedly gave French finance minister Bruno LeMaire at the outset of the coronavirus crisis could well make sense for Spain too: "Spend your money, my friend. The time has come to spend. Now. Later it will be too late."

English version by Susana Urra.

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Scale of coronavirus third wave pushes Spain to pledge more help for businesses

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Spain has done more or less what it had to do to combat the economic effects of the coronavirus crisis, but it has spent less money on the effort than other countries, according to the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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The article “ SARS-CoV-2 Isn’t Going Away, Experts Predict” was written by David Adam, and was taken from The Scientist. It revolves around the debate between Politicians trying to schedule  an end to the pandemic, whilst scientists argue that the epidemic will forever be in the air, much like the common cold. Adam makes reference to Boris Johnson, who utilized several verbal contortions to predict the end of COVID-19, however, the author points out that in spite of the accelerated vaccine programs, the end of it is not what Political figures are advertising. Kate Baker, an expert in infectious disease stated that “The chances of this disease going away are very small.” In other words, this article argues that the future of COVID-19 will either be eradicated, or it will not. If it is not, this indicates that future generations will share their world with SARS-CoV-2 too. The reasoning behind my choosing of this article is because it presents statistics from professionals in an unbiased manner by providing evidence which makes arguments supporting the vaccine through previous eradications much like smallpox in the 1970's, and polio today, which is still an epidemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, yet also counterarguing it in a more realistic fashion. This is because alongside vaccination, comes consent, which many might be hesitant about, considering there is not hard core evidence which can confirm immunity, as well as eradication demanding a large global coordination through the means of political, social, and economic structure. My conclusion surrounding this article is that it provides an array of credible sources, and contextualized data which argues affirmatively in and against favor of pinpointing the end of the pandemic, which hence reduces bias. This allows for readers to be more rational in their thinking process, in order to determine and make smart judgements concerning their health. (304 words)

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Never one to use two words when six will do, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reached for a range of verbal contortions to predict an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He's used the 1815 battle of Waterloo-"the morale-boosting bugle-blasting excitement of Wellington's Prussian allies coming through the woods"-to describe vaccinations, and warned against the premature lifting of restrictions by invoking Steve McQueen's fate in the 1960s movie The Great Escape: "if we try to jump the fence now, we will simply tangle ourselves in the last barbed wire."

Despite the verbose promises of victory as vaccine programs around the world accelerate, the pandemic is unlikely to end with the knock-out blow against the virus that Johnson and other political leaders promise. The best we can hope for, scientists predict, is an uneasy truce.

I don't think that anyone who is reasonably well-informed about infectious diseases and how they move in populations thinks we are going to eradicate COVID.

-Kate Baker, University of Liverpool

"The chances of this disease going away are very small," says Kate Baker, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Liverpool in the UK. "I think we're going to end up tolerating a certain level of disease."

In simple terms, the future of COVID-19 comes down to one of two possible paths. Either we eradicate the virus, or we don't. And if we don't, then the disease will become endemic, Baker says. Future generations will share their world with SARS-CoV-2 with the same weary familiarity as we do already with germs that cause everything from influenza to measles to the common cold.

"I don't think that anyone who is reasonably well-informed about infectious diseases and how they move in populations thinks we are going to eradicate COVID," Baker says.

The world has managed to stamp out viral diseases before, including the original SARS outbreak that killed hundreds when it swept through southeast Asia in 2002-'03. That virus spread from people who already showed symptoms, which made it relatively easy to prevent onward transmission by quarantining those who were sick. In contrast, people infected with SARS-CoV-2 are unknowingly contagious for several days before they become ill, if they ever do.

Given such asymptomatic transmission, the only way to eradicate COVID-19 would be through a sustained global vaccination program, says Graham Medley, an infectious disease modeller at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who is helping to advise the UK government. This was done with smallpox in the 1970s and has almost been achieved with polio today, with the disease remaining endemic in just Afghanistan and Pakistan.

For these viruses, vaccines are available to provide so-called sterilizing immunity. The immune response generated by the vaccines is so effective it stops people becoming ill and stops them from passing on the disease to others. Although COVID-19 vaccines reduce the severity of symptoms, there is little evidence they block transmission, and experts tell The Scientist they think it is unlikely.

"My bet is against that. Not anything against the vaccines, but it doesn't seem like that's how our immunity to coronaviruses typically works," says Jennie Lavine, a biologist at Emory University in Atlanta.

Even if there were a COVID-19 vaccine that introduced sterilizing immunity, and enough people could be persuaded to take it, eradication is far from guaranteed. Such an effort would take years and would be hugely expensive, particularly as populations would need booster jabs periodically to protect them from possible flare-ups.

"We would have to keep vaccinating if it existed anywhere else in the world," says Medley. "Eradication requires a large global coordination, which is just not there at the moment. We have a vaccine that works but we don't have the political, social, and economic structure to distribute it equally around the world."

For these reasons, experts expect that COVID-19 will become endemic, a term epidemiologists reserve for when disease spread settles at a relatively stable baseline level-in other words, the phase after a rapidly growing epidemic.

The endemic future of COVID-19

An epidemic slows to make a disease endemic as the number of available susceptible hosts drops over time, so that each infected individual passes the disease to just one other person on average. Without vaccines, this steady state emerges only when large numbers of people are infected and then either die or gain immunity. By safely offering immune protection, vaccinations against COVID-19 will speed this transition to endemicity, and massively reduce the death toll along the way.

Exactly how the disease will show itself once it becomes endemic is unclear, Lavine says. A modelling study she published earlier this month in suggests it will pose a similar threat to existing common-cold viruses. Catching the SARS-CoV-2 virus once or twice in childhood, the study concluded, should then prevent people from getting severe disease from it later in life. "We don't know the answer to that yet because we haven't had enough time. But from data on other coronaviruses that seems extremely likely," she says.

Key to this prediction is that COVID-19 continues to trigger mild or no symptoms in children when they are exposed to the virus for the first time. Such childhood exposure can then be tolerated by society because it grants lasting immune protection, topped up by regular re-exposure to the circulating virus.

The world has probably been here before. The four coronaviruses identified as responsible for many common colds are thought to have been far more dangerous when they first emerged as human diseases. "Some of these we think were the basis for what people at the time called flu epidemics or pandemics," says Marc Veldhoen, an immunologist at Lisbon University in Portugal.

Studies suggest that the so-called Russian flu that killed 1 million people in 1890 may have been caused by the human coronavirus OC43, Veldhoen says. "And now it's endemic." The end of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, he says, may only be the start of our relationship with this virus.

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SARS-CoV-2 Isn't Going Away, Experts Predict

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Never one to use two words when six will do, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reached for a range of verbal contortions to predict an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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This article talks about the spread of COVID-19 on a scientific level and how there have been many studies that prove the spread through air droplets on a surface level. The author points out that COVID is contracted through particles in the air, especially in closed spaces, and adds information that makes the statements reliable (like specific data). The argument made is that there is a current contradiction in society and it is seen through the emphasis on deep cleaning all spaces  as a form of COVID protection.  The conclusion I get from this article is that people are very afraid of any type of germs anywhere, as this, in concept, could translate to COVID. Like in the beginning of the pandemic there was a big emphasis on washing your hands, there is now a big emphasis on cleanliness overall. I believe that this is a positive impact. While deep cleaning may not protect us from COVID, being clean allows us to be safer from other diseases.

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COVID-19 rarely spreads through surfaces. So why are we still deep cleaning?

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The coronavirus behind the pandemic can linger on doorknobs and other surfaces, but these aren’t a major source of infection.

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This article, written by The New York Times in the earlier period of the pandemic, “Texas Hospital Says Man, 30, Died After Attending a “Covid Party”, talks about precisely that: a man who died after attending a “Covid Party”, with the intention of testing if the virus was real or not. The article begins describing what happened with the man, and later continues by going in depth about the trans-course of such parties, providing different examples of other parties and suggesting the meaning behind the so-called “Covid Parties”, for example, that people attend to get immune or just to place bet with friends over who will get infected first. I think this article is somewhat inaccurate, but they do state in the beginning that they are not sure about the reliability of such parties, so at least the reader is aware. This article was written to inform the Corona parties, but also had a deeper intention of scaring, and providing awareness so that people do not continue to undergo such activity. I find this article to be a little unfair, since they indirectly suggest that the latest outbreak of the virus should be blamed on these parties.

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Health experts have been skeptical that such parties occur, and details of this case could not be independently confirmed.

The patient who died had attended a gathering with an infected person to test whether the coronavirus was real, the chief medical officer at Methodist Hospital said. Credit... Christopher Lee for The New York Times

A 30-year-old man who believed the coronavirus was a hoax and attended a " Covid party" died after being infected with the virus, according to the chief medical officer at a Texas hospital.

The official, Dr. Jane Appleby of Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, said the man died after deliberately attending a gathering with an infected person to test whether the coronavirus was real.

In her statements to news organizations, Dr. Appleby said the man had told his nurse that he attended a Covid party. Just before he died, she said the patient told his nurse: "I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it's not."

Health experts and public officials have cast doubt over whether "Covid parties" are a real phenomenon, and past reports of such parties have fallen apart or remained unconfirmed upon closer examination.

The Times could not independently verify Dr. Appleby's account. On Monday, the San Antonio health department said its contact tracers did not have any information "that would confirm (or deny)" that such an event had happened there.

In recent days, the hospital distributed video of Dr. Appleby describing the case, along with a press statement. She did not say when or where the party took place, how many people attended or how long afterward the man was hospitalized with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. She said she was sharing the story to warn others, especially in Texas, where cases are surging.

The hospital, citing patient confidentiality rules, declined to publicly identify the man. His family did not respond to several interview requests passed along through the hospital.

Asked about skepticism about the story, Laura Breeden, a spokeswoman for Methodist Healthcare, said, "I was not there; however, Jane Appleby is our chief medical officer. I believe what she says is true."

There were 8,332 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the state on Saturday, according to a New York Times database. Over 258,000 cases and more than 3,200 deaths have been recorded in Texas so far. At least five people between the ages of 30 and 39 have died from coronavirus in San Antonio according to virus-tracking efforts there.

Past reports of "Covid parties" have fallen apart. County health officials in southeastern Washington State reported in May that they had evidence that at least two coronavirus cases were linked to one or more so-called Covid-19 parties, then quickly reversed themselves, saying that the parties may have been more innocent gatherings.

In Alabama, reports that students were gathering to bet on who could get infected with the virus first - with the sickened winner taking home a pot of money - led to warnings from the University of Alabama to students about the parties' risks, but state health officials were unable to confirm the events even happened.

The idea seems to have its origin in a practice from the days before there was a chickenpox vaccine. Some parents hosted chickenpox parties to infect their children with the disease, as it was thought to be more dangerous to contract as an adult.

The vaccine is the safest way to protect against chickenpox now that it is available, though some, including former Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky, still allowed their children to participate in such gatherings to contract the illness.

A Covid party would be "dangerous, irresponsible and potentially deadly," said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.

"Attending such a party may be a path to an early demise, if not chronic and unrelenting fatigue, chest pain, difficulty breathing and daily fevers, if you do survive," Dr. Glatter said.

The coronavirus does not behave like the chickenpox, he said, and deliberate infection with either virus is a bad idea.

The United States recently hit a record number of new Covid-19 cases per day, with over 68,000 confirmed cases on Friday.

Being infected by the coronavirus has yet to be proved to provide immunity, so reinfection is still possible.

In an Op-Ed article for The Times, Dr. Greta Bauer, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, warned against so-called coronavirus parties, noting that even young people can be hospitalized and face long-term damage from the virus.

"It is important that we don't take unnecessary risks with unknown consequences," Dr. Bauer wrote. "If we can avoid infection, we need to do exactly that."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that people infected with the coronavirus should not attend gatherings, and that any event where people are mingling without face coverings or social distancing is inherently high risk.

A California man died from Covid-19 after going to a party - not held for the purpose of infecting its attendees - where people did not wear masks and an infected person had attended.

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Texas Hospital Says Man, 30, Died After Attending a 'Covid Party'

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Health experts have been skeptical that such parties occur, and details of this case could not be independently confirmed. A 30-year-old man who believed the coronavirus was a hoax and attended a " Covid party" died after being infected with the virus, according to the chief medical officer at a Texas hospital.

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Welcome to our Covid-19 news Padlet,  the class platform to share annotated links to Covid-19-related news items and stories. INSTRUCTIONS ---------> 

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Welcome to our Covid-19 news Padlet,  the class platform to share annotated links to Covid-19-related news items and stories. INSTRUCTIONS ---------> 

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1. Double click on the wall to open a new text box.
2. Click on the link icon at the bottom of the box and copy-paste the URL to your chosen news story or news item. Your item can either be in a text format or in video format.
3. Annotate your link (200-250 words): Summarize the gist of the news article and briefly explain why you think this article is either a good or a bad example of news media serving democracy during the pandemic: is this article unfair or inaccurate in its account of the crisis? Is this article reliable in its management of information? You can either write or leave an audio comment.
(See my example on this board and a student's sample as models).
4. INCUDE YOUR NAME at the top of your post.
5. You can like, comment or leave audio messages to your classmate's post if you wish (click on the three-dotted icon at the bottom of the box to discover all the options!)
6. Choose the article you want to analyze in your blog entry from the  Padlet Board and to call dibs on it, write your name underneath by adding a comment!

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In this Politico article, "Greek PM accused of breaking coronavirus lockdown rules -again", Nektaria Stamouli discusses the recent actions of Greece's Prime Minster Mitsotakis and his continued flouting of the country's Covid 19 restrictions. While the article does not condone the PM's actions it does highlight the opinions of other government officials including that of Alexis Tsipras, leader of the main opposing political party. Leading by example, especially in these turbulent times of Covid 19 is of paramount importance, especially in smaller, tourist dependent countries such as Greece who need to be in a position to open their borders over the summer and all tourists to safely enter without the risk of jeopardizing all of Greece's counter Covid 19 measures. This is a very interesting read, especially when one considers how well Greece dealt with the first wave of the pandemic.

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ATHENS - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has come under fire again for apparently disregarding his own government's coronavirus lockdown rules.

Videos and pictures started circulating over the weekend on social media, appearing to show Mitsotakis during a visit to the island of Ikaria attending a gathering with 30-40 people on the balcony of the house of a local MP from the ruling New Democracy party, Christodoulos Stefanadis‬, who is also a doctor.

Mitsotakis was visiting the remote islands of Ikaria and Fournoi in the eastern Aegean over the weekend to oversee vaccination progress. According to local media reports, government officials, ministers and health officials were also present at the gathering.

This comes on the first weekend of tough new restrictions in many parts of the country, as well as an earlier curfew of 6 p.m.

Greeks have been in lockdown since November and are not allowed to attend gatherings or move from one municipality to the other to visit their families. They are only allowed to leave their homes to go to work, shop for essentials, visit a doctor or exercise close to their house and in groups of no more than three people. Rule-breakers face fines of €300 and the organizers of a gathering €3,000.

Nearly 6,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Greece so far and over 260 people are currently in intensive care. The rise in cases again forced the government to announce new restrictions on Friday.

Mitsotakis was previously accused of breaking lockdown rules in early December, when he faced a backlash over mountain-biking with his wife in a forest around the Parnitha mountain north of Athens and posing for photos with several passersby - none of them wearing masks.

The gathering on Ikaria has been denounced by all opposition parties, who called the pictures "provocative" and "offensive" and the prime minister "irresponsibly arrogant."

"Τhe wise man does not make the same mistake twice," said Alexis Tsipras, leader of the main opposition party Syriza, on Instagram. "It is obviously not a repeated act of carelessness, but it shows deep arrogance and boasting. I am in power and I do what I want. Why? Because I can do so."

Stefanadis said that during the lunch, all preventative health measures were taken, with the meeting taking place outdoors and people wearing masks between meals. He added that the number of attendees was high because the prime minister was accompanied by the government delegation from Athens, as well as their security team.

Government spokesman Christos Tarantilis said the opposition's criticism "lacks seriousness," but added that "in any case, in the prime minister's future tours, every possible effort will be made to avoid creating a false impression."

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Greek PM accused of breaking coronavirus lockdown rules - again

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ATHENS - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has come under fire again for apparently disregarding his own government's coronavirus lockdown rules. Videos and pictures started circulating over the weekend on social media, appearing to show Mitsotakis during a visit to the island of Ikaria attending a gathering with 30-40 people on the balcony of the house of a local MP from the ruling New Democracy party, Christodoulos Stefanadis‬, who is also a doctor.

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This article from BBC news, refers to the “exponential” increase of Covid-19 cases in France in August 28 which according to the author, “It was the largest daily spike since 31 March, when 7,578 cases were tallied at the peak of the first wave”. In other words, this article argues that In France the number of reported cases is now as high as it was at the peak of the epidemic. The reason why I’ve chosen this article is because I believe it manages statistics of diagnosed cases in an imprecise an misleading way, something that has become the norm when reporting figures related to Covid-19 diagnosed cases and deaths in Europe. By comparing the current infection rate with those reported in March, this article is downplaying the fact that at the start of the epidemic, the only people being tested were those who were being admitted to hospital, who were seriously ill. Many of them died. Which is why, in France, there was this very sharp, initial case fatality rate of 35% (World Health Organization, 13/09/2020). In addition, this articles fails to remind the readers that these figures leave out the majority of people who have been infected, mainly those who do not have symptoms, which means that on the one hand, infection rates are potentially higher, and fatality rates potentially fall further. In other words, test results do not equal the number of cases! My conclusion is that news media are generally failing to report figures and rates appropriately, advising readers and viewers on the right way to interpret numbers. (260 words).

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France has recorded its biggest daily rise in coronavirus infections since March, as President Emmanuel Macron raised the possibility of another nationwide lockdown.

A further 7,379 cases were confirmed on Friday, bringing the country's total to 267,077.

It was the largest daily spike since 31 March, when 7,578 cases were tallied at the peak of the first wave.

France was seeing an "exponential" rise in cases, the health ministry said.

The ministry said Friday's rise follows daily increases of 6,111 on Thursday and 5,429 on Wednesday.

Despite the sharp rise, hospital numbers and daily deaths were relatively stable, as young people less vulnerable to the disease make up most of the new infections, the ministry said.

Another 20 people were confirmed to have died with Covid-19 on Friday, bringing France's overall death toll to 30,596.

Shortly before Friday's figures were released, Mr Macron said a second national lockdown could not be ruled out if infections spiralled out of control.

However he said his government was trying to avoid the return of restrictions that would set back the country's fragile economic recovery.

"Containment is the crudest of measures to fight against a virus," said Mr Macron, urging people to be "collectively very rigorous".

France began easing its eight-week-long lockdown in May. But some parts of the country - including the capital Paris - remained under tighter controls.

Local authorities have been given powers to enforce lockdown measures, such as closing down bars and restaurants, in areas where cases are surging.

On Friday, masks were made mandatory outdoors in Paris to fight the rising infections.

Spain and Germany have also recorded their highest numbers of daily cases since the spring in recent days, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a resurgence of the disease in Europe.

On Thursday, Hans Kluge, the director general of the WHO's Europe office, said young people should not be complacent about the virus.

"It may be that the younger people are not necessarily going to die from it, but it's a tornado with a long tail. It's a multi-organ disease, so the virus is really attacking the lungs, but also the heart and other organs," he said.

As winter approaches, young people would also be in closer contact with older people, he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Friday that in the coming months things would become "even more difficult than now", as people have been able to enjoy life outdoors over the summer.

A protest against Germany's coronavirus restrictions was due to take place in Berlin on Saturday, despite a consistent rise in cases above 1,000 a day recently.

Spain, among the first European countries to see a second spike of infections, diagnosed 3,829 new cases on Friday. Ahead of the new school year, the government said school children aged six and over must wear masks to class.

Hungary announced on Friday it would close its borders to foreigners from 1 September to curb the spread of coronavirus. The country recorded 132 new infections on Friday, the highest daily number since the peak of the pandemic.

Turkey reported its highest number of deaths in 24 hours since 17 May on Friday. Another 36 people died, pushing the country's death toll to 6,245. Meanwhile, the number of daily new cases again rose above 1,500, prompting the government to impose restrictions.

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Coronavirus: France sees 'exponential rise' in cases

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France has recorded its biggest daily rise in coronavirus infections since March, as President Emmanuel Macron raised the possibility of another nationwide lockdown. A further 7,379 cases were confirmed on Friday, bringing the country's total to 267,077. It was the largest daily spike since 31 March, when 7,578 cases were tallied at the peak of the first wave.

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This article from BBC News, "Coronavirus in Tanzania: the country that's rejecting the vaccine", details the Tanzanian government's stance on the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the country's president, John Magufuli, has declared the country "Covid-19 free". Even though the government claims there are no cases of the virus, the article demonstrates that there actually are. In fact, it starts off with a true story centering the death of a woman's husband, who she suspected had Covid-19 himself, after losing his sense of taste and having a dry cough. However, the real name of the woman and her husband cannot be included in the piece because of the government's restrictions on anybody publicly speaking about the disease. In fact, the only people that can speak out about COVID-19 are the president, the country's health minister and three other top officials, with the government not even disclosing the actual cases of COVID-19 in the country. Multiple perspectives from the president and the health minister are included in the article, giving the government's stance on the topic. However, perspectives from WHO, local doctors, and even locals are also included (even though they had to contribute anonymously fearing the government). Therefore, I believe that this piece is accurate and that it is a source of reliable information. This article is a super interesting read!
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In the Politico article, "The U.S. vs. the world: How major nations are recovering from the coronavirus", Ryan Heath argues that there is a direct correlation between economic recovery (in terms of GDP) and government mandates surrounding COVID-19. Through analyzing the cultural norms of countries (such as Eastern Asian countries e.g., China, Vietnam), health systems and access to widespread tests (Germany), and the reluctancy of political leaders to enforce a nationalized plan (UK, and U.S.), Heath gives a series of examples of what worked and what did not - in regards to keeping number of cases down - as well as the economic implications for each country in regards to their response and the ways they attempted to mitigate the damages. I chose this article because it provides a good example of gathering an array of credible sources (government reports, published medical studies, and interviews with esteemed officials), contextualizing that data, and also providing counterarguments to the sources used in order to allow for the reader to be fully informed and able to weigh the legitimacy of the argument presented by Heath.

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Jan Hatzius, a Goldman Sachs analyst who co-authored the report, told POLITICO that U.S. economic results since July bear out the relationship between health and growth. The economy's improvement, he noted, corresponds to a rising share of the American population subject to state and local mask mandates - from about 40 percent in June to its current 80 percent.

East Asian economies where mask-wearing is a national norm, such as China, Japan and South Korea, have avoided the worst recessions, as have countries like Vietnam and Singapore, which instituted mask mandates early on in the pandemic. Like China, Vietnam is now posting positive economic growth.

After becoming the first coronavirus epicenter outside of China, Italy used a mask mandate to help beat dire second quarter GDP predictions, vastly outperforming the United Kingdom, which resisted mask rules for months.

Masks are not the only medicine: Germany's rigorous testing and well-prepared health system put its health and economic outcomes consistently ahead of both its large neighbors and the U.S.

Recession before recovery

While national economies are likely to have hit rock bottom back in April, countries that have failed to contain the virus such as the U.S. are on the path to prolonged recession, rather than recovery.

Under the Trump administration, the country started locking down in mid-March - and many states did not do so until April - well behind hard-hit European countries. And the U.S. opened up sooner. That helped achieve better economic numbers in the second quarter than much of Europe, but it also didn't snuff out the virus.

Unable or unwilling to close state borders, the coronavirus has ricocheted around the U.S., in contrast to EU countries which closed their internal borders for months. Covid-19 case levels have plateaued at a much higher in the U.S. than in other rich countries, and public health officials fear the onset of flu season and cooler weather will cause another spike.

by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects American Covid-19 deaths to be around 408,000 by December 31 if current policies are maintained, rising to 608,000 if current pandemic restrictions are eased. If a national mask mandate were in place, the death toll could be limited to 286,000.

"In the COVID recession, economic conditions are too closely tied to the pandemic's trajectory to be able to forecast with confidence the course of recovery," writes Stanford University's Michael J. Boskin.

Economists now warn that instead of the "v-shaped" recovery President Donald Trump has been promising - a reference to an economic bounce to match the dip of spring 2020 - it now risks a "double-dip" recession without renewed economic aid.

In the U.S., 80 percent of 235 economists surveyed by the National Association of Business Economics in August see a 1-in-4 chance of such a recession, where the economy would retrench again, as it did in the spring, rather than keep recovering.

The warning signs include mounting bankruptcies as a flood of U.S. government support from April to July turns into a trickle, and the likelihood that falling temperatures will dent outdoor dining and other tourism-related spending.

U.S unemployment numbers are another cause of concern. On Wednesday, United Airlines and Ford announced tens of thousands of layoffs, and the World Travel and Tourism Council just over 12 million out of 16.8 million tourism-related jobs in the U.S. are at risk of being lost in a "worst case" scenario in coming months. The U.S. Travel Association puts the number at 8 million.

While 10.5 million jobs have been created since the beginning of June, bringing the official unemployment rate down to 8.4 percent, claims for a new pandemic unemployment assistance program designed for freelance and gig workers are rising: 760,000 claims last week, up from 607,806 claims the previous week. Overall, more than 29.2 million American workers are now receiving unemployment insurance benefits.

One way to illustrate the depth of the economic shock facing the U.S. is to compare jobless numbers here with the 19-strong collection of Eurozone countries, which has a nearly identical population to the U.S. More than 35 million Americans made unemployment claims between April and June, compared to just 4.5 million in the Eurozone, according to the EU statistics agency Eurostat.

One of the reasons European companies were able to keep a lid on unemployment: They kept up to 45 million workers on paid furlough schemes, according to a European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) estimate.

That policy would suggest European governments are racking up more pandemic-related debt than the U.S., but their overall stimulus packages are of a similar size, and European government debt levels are lower, on average.

A newsletter from POLITICO that unpacks essential global news, trends, and decisions.

The U.S. government budget deficit is also projected to triple this year to $3.3 trillion, soaring to the largest percentage of gross domestic product since 1945, per Congressional Budget Office calculations. As a result, federal debt will exceed 100 percent of GDP by the end of 2020. Just seven of the European Union's 27 member countries have debt levels above 100 percent of GDP.

Trump, however, continues to deflect responsibility for the country's economic straits, and tout things like the country's stock market performance to suggest the economy is bouncing back. Contrast that response with the government in Australia, which announced Wednesday that the country had entered its first recession in 29 years. While Australia's recession is smaller than America's, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Parliament "this is a devastating day for Australia."

Elsewhere, Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe resigned last week: officially for health reasons, but also dragged down by a 32 percent approval rating. While Japan's economy is doing the best of the G7, and has a far lower unemployment rate than the U.S., it's still the country's worst recession on record, and leaves Japan with worse economic and health outcomes than regional rivals China, South Korea and Taiwan.

An unwanted global leader

While China's global economic influence is growing, the United States economy remains the world's largest, and its health has the ability to lift up or drag down other national economies.

With the U.S. unable to harness its famous innovation and labor market flexibility to quickly bounce back to growth as it did after the 2008 financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns the global recovery "is projected to be more gradual than previously forecast," and bankruptcy rates could triple to 12 percent in 2020 from an average of 4 percent of small and medium enterprises before the pandemic.

The IMF and organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have been revising their GDP projections downward for all G7 economies since January 2020. Most economies are only expected to get back to their pre-COVID-19 levels by late 2022, assuming a vaccine becomes widely available in 2021.

Other positive forecasts may be offering false hope. The IMF projects an impressive-looking growth rate for 2021 - 4.5 percent for the U.S. and 5.4 percent globally - but achieving even that would still leave the global economy 6.5 percent smaller in December 2021 than in January 2020 when the virus hit.

"The recovery will peter out, even if we don't tip into another outright recession because of unemployment," said Albert Edwards, a global strategist at French banking giant Société Générale who became famous for foreseeing the 2008 global financial crisis. "It will certainly feel like a depression," he said.

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The U.S. vs. the world: How major nations are recovering from coronavirus

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Jan Hatzius, a Goldman Sachs analyst who co-authored the report, told POLITICO that U.S. economic results since July bear out the relationship between health and growth. The economy's improvement, he noted, corresponds to a rising share of the American population subject to state and local mask mandates - from about 40 percent in June to its current 80 percent.