Bhinneka News Online: Thursday Morning Briefing: Vaccine "moonshot"

Thursday, 14 May 2020

Thursday Morning Briefing: Vaccine "moonshot"

What you need to know about the coronavirus today

Vaccine "moonshot"
The new coronavirus could be here to stay: so believes World Health Organization emergencies expert Mike Ryan, suggesting it could become endemic like HIV.

Ryan said controlling the impact would take a "massive effort" globally, even if a vaccine was found - a prospect he described as a "massive moonshot" given the technical difficulties involved.

Separately the European Medicines Agency, which approves medicines for the European Union, said a vaccine could be approved in about a year under an "optimistic" scenario.

Track the spread of the virus with this state-by-state and county map.

Antibody tests: queue here
One thing that could help will be accurate antibody tests to establish who has already had the disease and therefore may have a degree of immunity.

Britain confirmed on Thursday it is in talks with Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding to buy its test, following the lead of the European Union and United States which have already given it their preliminary approval.

What remains unclear is how many orders have already been placed by other countries and when those tests would arrive.

"We are now moving as fast as we can to discuss with Roche purchasing of those but I can't give you an exact date when we'll be able to start rolling them out," said Edward Argar, Britain's junior health minister.

Taxing tracing
South Korean health authorities said on Thursday that they would try to reduce the amount of information released to the public about coronavirus patients and their travel routes, in an effort to stop social stigmatization and compel around 2,000 people wanted for testing to come forward.

The effort to find the group over a spike in infections centered on Seoul's nightclubs and bars has been complicated by public criticism of the clubgoers, as well as concerns about discrimination as several of the clubs cater to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.

South Korea has typically released information like a patient's age, gender, and places visited immediately before testing positive, as well as in some cases, patients' last names and general occupations.

Bamboo supply disrupted
Two giant pandas, Er Shun and Da Mao, are heading home to China from Calgary years ahead of schedule, as their bamboo supply has been disrupted due to coronavirus.

Before the pandemic, bamboo had been flown directly from China to Calgary to feed the pandas, but since those flights have been canceled, the zoo has been forced to find new ways to feed the pandas.

Shipments are now often delayed, resulting in poor quality bamboo the pandas refuse to eat.

"We believe the best and safest place for Er Shun and Da Mao to be during these challenging and unprecedented times is where bamboo is abundant and easy to access," said Calgary Zoo President and CEO Clément Lanthier in a statement.

Giant pandas consume 40 kg (88 lbs) of bamboo a day and it makes up 99% of their diet, the zoo said.

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Life under lockdown

A mental illness crisis is looming as millions of people worldwide are surrounded by death and disease and forced into isolation, poverty and anxiety by the pandemic of COVID-19, United Nations health experts said on Thursday.

“The isolation, the fear, the uncertainty, the economic turmoil - they all cause or could cause psychological distress,” said Devora Kestel, director of the World Health Organization’s mental health department.

Over a third of patients treated for COVID-19 in a large New York medical system developed acute kidney injury, and nearly 15% required dialysis, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. The study was conducted by a team at Northwell Health, the largest health provider in New York state.

The U.S. Senate narrowly blocked an amendment on Wednesday that would have prevented law enforcement from collecting information on Americans’ internet habits without a warrant, as the Senate moved toward a reauthorization of divisive surveillance tools.

Britain’s pubs may be shut, but one east London brewer has found a novel way to keep the beer flowing - by packing his kegs into a van and pulling pints on people’s doorsteps. Driving a white van with the slogan “tactical beer response unit” on the side, Peter Brown, the director of Forest Road Brewing, spends his day fulfilling delivery orders.

The global novel coronavirus crisis continues to batter the U.S. labor market, with millions more Americans, including white collar workers, expected to have filed for unemployment benefits last week as the hit from the pandemic spills over into a broader swath of the economy.

5 min read