Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 3-24-20

CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
US Coronavirus Death Toll Hits 300 As More States Urge Residents To Stay Home
Coronavirus Vaccine: WHO Officials Say At Least 20 Are In Development In Global Race For Cure
More than 300 people in the United States have now died from coronavirus, as the illness tightens its grip on the country and prompts fears of widespread shortages of medical sup- plies.
As of Saturday night, a total of 323 people infected with the disease have died. Minnesota reported its first death while Washington had the highest number of deaths at 94, followed by 70 deaths in New York, according to CNN's tally.
A number of private companies joined the government's efforts to restock masks, venti- lators and other supplies while the US Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of the first rapid diagnostic test that could de- tect the disease in approximately 45 minutes.
Millions of people in five states were spending their first full weekend at home as states ramped up restrictions in an attempt to curb the spread. The number of cases is now surpassing 25,000 nationwide.
As Californians adjusted to their new nor- mal, Gov. Gavin Newsom urged younger residents to avoid visiting beaches.
"Be a good neighbor, be a good citizen,"
Newsom said. "(It's) time to recognize it's not only about the old folks, it's about your impact in their lives. Don't be selfish."
A few hours earlier, New York Gov. An- drew Cuomo had warned younger people of the risk after 54% of the more than 10,000 confirmed cases in the states were individuals between the ages of 18 and 49.
An Israeli scientist works at a laboratory at the MIGAL Research Institute in Kiryat Shmona in the upper Galilee in northern Israel on March 1, 2020 where efforts are underway to produce a vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus adapted from another for infec- tious bronchitis virus.
The World Health Organi- zation is working with scien- tists across the globe on at least 20 different coronavirus vac- cines with some already in clin- ical trials in record time — just 60 days after sequencing the gene.
“The acceleration of this
process is really truly dramatic in terms of what we’re able to do, building on work that started with SARS, that started with MERS and now is being used for COVID-19,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for WHO’s emergencies program, said at a press conference at the organi- zation’s headquarters in Geneva on Friday.
The vaccines are still a long way away from being available for public use, WHO officials cautioned. Leading scientists say the clinical trials and safety approvals needed to get a workable vaccine to market could take up to 18 months.
Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s emergencies program, said the trials are necessary. There’s only one thing more dangerous than a bad virus “and that’s a bad vac- cine,” he said.
Why The Coronavirus Has Been So Successful
One of the few mercies dur- ing this crisis is that, by their nature, individual coron- aviruses are easily destroyed. Each virus particle consists of a small set of genes, enclosed by a sphere of fatty lipid mole- cules, and because lipid shells are easily torn apart by soap, 20 seconds of thorough hand- washing can take one down. Lipid shells are also vulnerable to the elements; a recent study shows that the new coron- avirus, SARS-CoV-2, survives for no more than a day on card- board, and about two to three days on steel and plastic. These viruses don’t endure in the world. They need bodies.
But much about coron- aviruses is still unclear. Susan Weiss, of the University of Pennsylvania, has been study- ing them for about 40 years. She says that in the early days, only a few dozen scientists shared her interest—and those numbers swelled only slightly after the SARS epidemic of 2002. “Until then people looked at us as a backward field with not a lot of importance to human health,” she says. But with the emergence of SARS- CoV-2—the cause of the COVID-19 disease—no one is
likely to repeat that mistake again.
To be clear, SARS-CoV-2 is not the flu. It causes a disease with different symptoms, spreads and kills more readily, and belongs to a completely different family of viruses. This family, the coronaviruses, in- cludes just six other members that infect humans. Four of them—OC43, HKU1, NL63, and 229E—have been gently annoying humans for more than a century, causing a third of common colds. The other two—MERS and SARS (or “SARS-classic,” as some virolo- gists have started calling it)— both cause far more severe disease. Why was this seventh coronavirus the one to go pan- demic? Suddenly, what we do know about coronaviruses be- comes a matter of international concern.
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020