Nearly 60,000 Americans Could Die of Covid-19 In the Next Three Weeks.https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/11/27/health/us-coronavirus-friday/index.htmlOn Thanksgiving, the US marked its 24th day in a row with more than 100,000 new cases.
Hospitalizations Thursday hit a new high -- for the 17th consecutive day -- with now more than 90,400 Covid-19 patients nationwide, according to the COVID Tracking Project. More than 1,200 deaths were reported.
The country's death toll since the pandemic's start is now more than 263,000. And nearly another 60,000 could lose their lives over the next three weeks, according to an ensemble forecast published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week.
One expert told CNN Wednesday night the number of daily deaths will likely double in the next ten days.
"So, we'll be seeing close to 4,000 deaths a day, which is how you get another 60,000 deaths in only about 20 days," Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, said.
And the gatherings that took place over Thanksgiving could further an already ferocious surge, officials warned this week, ... "In a week, more likely two weeks, we will see a surge upon a surge," Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, said Wednesday. "We're in for a tough time."
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Drugs Hyped as Coronavirus Treatment Linked to Psychiatric Disorders, Says EU Agencyhttps://www.politico.eu/article/drugs-hyped-as-coronavirus-treatment-linked-to-psychiatric-disorders-says-ema/amp/Chloroquine and a related compound, hydroxychloroquine, have been associated with cases of psychiatric disturbances and suicidal behavior after being given to COVID-19 patients, warned the EU’s drug regulator today.
The two medicines were some of the first drugs put forward as possible treatments for the coronavirus, and were famously promoted by controversial French doctor Didier Raoult and U.S. President Donald Trump. However, since then, they haven’t shown to be effective in clinical studies.
The European Medicines Agency said that it had initiated a review of the drugs after receiving a notification from Spain’s medicines authority, AEMPS, of six cases of mental disturbances linked to coronavirus patients who were given higher than authorized doses of the medicines.
Both medicines are commonly used to prevent malaria infections and are also approved to treat a number of autoimmune diseases. In certain drugs containing the compounds, psychotic disorders are listed as a rare side effect, the EMA noted.
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Trump, Carson Tout Covid-19 Treatments as Lifesavers. But Regular People Find Them Harder to Get.https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/regeneron-treatment-rationing/2020/11/25/d3339d30-2f50-11eb-bae0-50bb17126614_story.html?outputType=ampThe day after being discharged from the hospital last month, President Trump enthusiastically endorsed a new antibody cocktail, saying it had been a “cure” for his Covid-19.
“I want everybody to be given the same treatment as your president,” he said in an Oct. 7 video.
That’s not going to happen anytime soon. Frustrated doctors say they have had to ration the Regeneron medication given to Trump, and a similar one by Eli Lilly — if they can get them at all — because of extremely short supply.
The government has distributed just 205,000 doses of the drugs so far this year, at a time when around 170,000 people are being infected by the coronavirus every day.Nonetheless, patients are clamoring for the medications, in part because of Trump’s comments, as well as testimonials from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who also got the drugs before they were approved.
... “The reality is, people who have extra access to the latest and greatest treatments are not your average person. . . . People don’t realize how inaccessible these drugs are.”
Several other people in Trump’s orbit also have had covid-19 and were offered help getting access to the drugs.
Ben Carson said he had been “desperately ill” with Covid-19 and that Trump “cleared me for the monoclonal antibody therapy that he had previously received, which I am convinced saved my life.”
One adviser who contracted the virus said the president offered to get the Regeneron drug for him. “It’ll make you better overnight,” the president said, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
... “[But] the president will not be calling Regeneron so that your grandmother can receive approval for the therapy,” Walid Gellad, director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Pharmaceutical Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing, wrote in an email.
“I don’t know to what extent the public understands how limited these therapies will be initially.”...In some ways, the story of the antibody treatments is the tale of the U.S. health-care system, which tends to cater to the well-insured and well-connected, especially in providing new treatments.
Scarce supplies also are a defining theme of the pandemic, as shortages of coronavirus tests, personal protective equipment and toilet paper have forced rationing until production catches up.
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Wyoming’s Governor Resisted Calls for Mask Mandate. Now He Has Coronavirus.https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/26/wyoming-governor-covid-gordon-masks/?outputType=ampEarlier this month, with coronavirus cases rising dramatically across Wyoming,
a coalition of medical experts and nearly every county health officer in the state wrote to Republican Gov. Mark Gordon with an urgent demand: to issue a statewide mask mandate.“Education and encouragement alone have not achieved desired outcomes.
Our health care resources are becoming critically strained with hospitalizations and deaths increasing,” the letter said.
https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/more-than-20-county-health-officers-urge-wyoming-governor-to-enact-face-mask-order/article_0bf71146-f099-569a-9ffa-9d32716ede32.htmlGordon declined. “It is incredibly important that we take personal responsibility for our actions and understand how those actions can implicate others,” Gordon said last month.
Now Gordon, 63, has tested positive for the virus, his office announced Wednesday.
Wyoming, like other states in the West and Midwest, has seen coronavirus cases increase significantly this fall. The state has now topped 30,000 cases and recorded at least 215 deaths,
While some counties in Wyoming have issued local mask requirements, health experts say they’re often ignored — and enacting new rules on the county level hasn’t been easy.
When commissioners in Natrona County, which includes Casper, the state’s second-largest city, invited health officials to discuss a possible mask mandate this month, the meeting had to be adjourned early because of incessant heckling. Anti-mask protesters have repeatedly gathered at the state Capitol in Cheyenne as well.
https://trib.com/news/local/casper/natrona-county-officials-abruptly-end-meeting-in-the-face-of-heckling/article_07f12e1f-b18d-5787-9c81-7b2fd1909aba.htmlhttps://www.wyomingnews.com/coronavirus/spike-in-covid-19-cases-shows-virus-is-sticking-around-as-anti-mask-protests-persist/article_cdd9d217-56a7-5052-be47-301a17b2bee0.html
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