A version of this story appeared in the October 20 edition of CNN’s Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction newsletter. Sign up here to receive the need-to-know headlines every weekday.
China, meanwhile, is going from strength to strength, posting positive economic growth for the second quarter in a row, CNN’s James Griffith’s reports. Beijing’s success in controlling the pandemic is not so much down to lockdowns – though these have been utilized effectively against regional flare-ups – but how it handles things after people are allowed to move around again.
The country’s ability to track and trace cases whenever there is a potential new virus cluster has enabled the government to respond quickly and bring local epidemics under control. This includes a sophisticated color-sorted “health code” system to track people’s movements. A clear (green) bill of health and corresponding QR code is required to enter many businesses, ensuring that almost everyone has adopted the measure.
Compliance in China is rarely optional. Containment has also been assisted by widespread mask wearing and sticking to public hygiene regulations, which have often been strictly policed by authorities, and promoted by mass propaganda campaigns.
Yet track and trace remains shambolic in many European countries and the US still lacks a national tracing strategy. Even the White House declined offers of contact tracing help from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during its own superspreader event – which saw President Donald Trump and more than a dozen people in his circle test positive for the virus.
The pandemic has caused nearly 300,000 excess deaths in the US so far since late January – about two-thirds of which were attributed to Covid-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
YOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED
Q. What does asymptomatic mean?
A: The pandemic is affecting sleep in a number of ways.
When a vaccine comes, possibly in mid-2021, experts say people will still need to use masks for some time. “Remember that vaccines don’t render mucosal immunity – that is, you still could harbor the virus. It protects from the illness. So we could actually get more carriers in the vaccination phase. And a lot of people don’t recognize this,” said Dr. Eric Topel, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.
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WHAT’S IMPORTANT TODAY
The following month, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told the New York Times that it had not entered into a funding agreement or negotiations with Vaxart. Armistice and HHS did not respond to requests for comment.
A frustrated and at times foul-mouthed President Trump claimed on a campaign call that people are tired of hearing about the deadly pandemic which has killed more than 215,000 Americans and trashed Dr. Anthony Fauci as a “disaster” who has been around for “500 years.”
Referring to Fauci – the nation’s top infectious disease expert – and other health officials as “idiots,” Trump declared the country ready to move on, even as Covid-19 cases are spiking and medical experts warn the worst may be yet to come, Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak report.
Australia blunder prompts calls for hundreds to take HIV test
More than 200 former residents of Australian coronavirus quarantine facilities are being urged to test for blood-transmitted diseases, including HIV, after authorities admitted they used the same testing devices for multiple guests.
It’s the latest in a series of Covid-19 setbacks to hit the country and the state of Victoria in particular. Earlier breaches at Victoria quarantine hotels led to a virus outbreak in Melbourne, prompting Australia’s second-biggest city to spend months under strict lockdown.
UK will hold human challenge studies
The UK government has signed a contract for the first human challenge studies for the novel coronavirus, in which healthy volunteers are deliberately infected with the virus in a controlled setting, and some receive an experimental vaccine. Up to 19 volunteers at a time will take part in the tests in London.
Covid-19 has created a ‘shadow pandemic’ for domestic abuse victims
ON OUR RADAR
- Plague history shows how a pandemic’s course can be shaped
- French first lady Brigitte Macron is self-isolating
- A week after vaccine trial is paused, Johnson & Johnson and FDA won’t reveal critical details
- Hispanic workers most impacted in food processing and agriculture, CDC finds
- The search for students ‘missing’ in the pandemic
- New York bars wedding expected to draw 10,000 people
- Jeffrey Toobin suspended from New Yorker, on leave from CNN, after accidentally exposing himself on Zoom call
- The rich are buying more jewelry during the pandemic
TODAY’S TOP TIP
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TODAY’S PODCAST
“It’s like we’re driving down a one-lane highway. We see a car accident in front of us and we see the off ramp. And for some reason, we thought going through the car accident was the better idea.” – Dr. Ross Goldberg, President of the Arizona Medical Association
Confusion about mask wearing is rampant in the US. The messaging from scientists about the importance of masks is being distorted by noise and conflicting approaches at every level. In today’s episode, CNN’s Evan McMorris-Santoro takes a hyper-local look at the divide over masks in a single community. Listen Now.