Tag: coronavirus

Dr. Anthony Fauci isn’t ‘particularly concerned’ about the safety of Moderna coronavirus vaccine

White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday he is “not particularly concerned” about the safety risk of a potential coronavirus vaccine by Moderna, despite the fact that it uses new technology to fight the virus. 

The vaccine, which entered a large phase-three human trial Monday, uses messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA molecules, to provoke an immune response to fight the virus. Scientists hope mRNA, which relays genetic instructions from DNA, can be used to train the immune system to recognize and destroy the virus. While early studies show promise, mRNA technology has never been used to make a successful vaccine before.

“It’s a novel technology. We are certainly aware of the fact that there’s not as much experience with this type of platform as there are with other standards,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters on a conference call alongside National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins.

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NYC coronavirus lockdown led to sharp rise in domestic violence, data shows

At the height of New York’s coronavirus lockdown, domestic violence in the five boroughs skyrocketed, data show.

When the pandemic first laid siege, experts predicted that mandatory lockdowns and soaring unemployment would cause a rise in household abuse, and figures now bear them out — with domestic-violence reports at some agencies doubling and even tripling in the past few months.

“We’ve never been busier,” lamented Nechama Bakst, senior director of the Met Council’s family-violence program.

“We have seen people who never experienced violence starting to experience violence, and people who have experienced violence experience worse violence.”

Typically, the non-profit gets about 70 new cases a month — but in April, they juggled 135, another 145 in May and 146 more in June, the organization said.

“We see more choking, more sexual violence, kind of much more intense and serious acts of crime,” the director said.

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Seattle asks state to create $100 million coronavirus relief fund for undocumented immigrants

The Seattle City Council passed a resolution Monday asking Gov. Jay Inslee and Washington state lawmakers to help undocumented immigrants who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.

The measure urges Inslee and the Legislature to create a “Washington Worker Relief Fund,” with an initial allocation of at least $100 million, “to provide emergency economic assistance to undocumented Washingtonians.” The vote was 9-0, and Mayor Jenny Durkan will add her signature.

The nonbinding resolution, a lobbying move that won’t change conditions on the ground in Seattle, also asks the state leaders to create a wage-replacement system for workers who don’t qualify for regular unemployment benefits.

Undocumented immigrants are barred from federal assistance, so they aren’t getting stimulus checks and they aren’t collecting unemployment benefits.

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Unhinged Woman Pepper Sprays Man For Not Wearing Facemask In Public Park

As the debate over mandatory mask orders continues as American’s coronavirus summer of discontent grates on, one woman was allegedly caught on video pepper spraying a stranger after confronting him for not wearing his mask outdoors in a dog park.

Nevermind the fact that the coughing and tearing induced by pepper spraying a subject would only serve to spread the virus, there aren’t really any defensible reasons for confronting somebody for not wearing their mask outside. Somebody throwing a tantrum after being asked to put on a mask is one thing; but a man minding his own business being suddenly attacked? That doesn’t exactly paint the hard core “wear your mask or else” crowd in the best light.

According to KTVU, a San Diego woman posted a video of a stranger attacking her husband with pepper spray for allegedly not wearing a coronavirus mask at a San Diego dog park while having lunch.

“That is me crying hysterically in the background because my innocent husband just got maced for no reason,” Ash O’Brien said in a Facebook post sharing the video.

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Miami Police Setting Up ‘Mask Traps,’ Issuing $100 Fines to People Wearing Masks Improperly

It’s been less than two weeks since Miami-Dade County announced it would be fining people for not wearing masks in public. Already, Florida media outlets are filled with stories of people cited for wearing masks improperly, lowering masks to sip a drink, or removing their face coverings once outside of a store.

On Thursday, the Miami Herald reported that the Miami-Dade Police Department has issued 162 citations for violating the county’s mandatory mask ordinance, which comes with a $100 penalty.

One woman, Johanna Gianni, says she removed her mask in the parking lot of a Publix grocery store in North Miami Beach, when a police officer approached her and wrote her a ticket for not wearing a mask. Gianni told the Herald the parking lot was nearly empty and that she felt set up by police.

She’s not the only one.

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When It Comes To Masks, There Is No “Settled Science”

The literature on masks broadly looks at the efficacy of different types of masks and their efficacy at preventing particle penetration (controlled studies) and the likelihood of infectious spread (case studies of healthcare workers). Other studies question the detrimental effects of masks, particularly with prolonged use. Cloth masks, which have become the norm for public use, have been shown to have penetration rates as high as 97% according to a BMJ study (which used to stand for the British Medical Journal, but is now titled by its acronym). A study of the use of cloth masks during the far more serious 1918 influenza pandemic showed no beneficial results, and another study demonstrates that cloth masks are particularly ineffective compared with medical masks. Surgical and cotton medical masks fared better, but still with discouraging results overall (see here, here, here, here, and here).

As masks-for-all advocates are quick to point out, N95 respirators do show beneficial results in containing viral infections, but these are virtually unworn by the public (and they have only recently become available to those outside of the healthcare profession).

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Hydroxychloroquine

If you’ve watched the news lately, you might be under the impression that a medicine President Trump touted as a possible game changer against coronavirus — has been debunked and discredited. Two divergent views of the drug, hydroxychloroquine, have emerged: the negative one widely reported in the press and another side you’ve probably heard less about. Never has a discussion about choices of medicine been so laced with political overtones. Today, how politics, money and medicine intersect with coronavirus.

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