National Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol
Good afternoon. I’m Jonathan Spira, director of the Center for Long-Term COVID Research, reporting to you. Here’s the news on day 1541 of the global pandemic.
Our news todaya House subcommittee wants access to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s personal email and cellphone records, a new study shows that the risk of death and other long-term COVID symptoms remains three years after infection, and the United States announced the dismantling of a large botnet criminal enterprise around the world, seizing luxury goods and property worth $34 million.
Today marks the first year of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic
On May 30, 2020, Israeli health officials reported a surge in coronavirus infections after the country lifted lockdown restrictions. The country recorded at least 101 new cases on May 29 and 79 new cases on May 28, after the country’s number of new cases remained at 20 in the previous days. Israeli officials attributed the increase in cases to a lack of discipline in following social distancing guidelines.
Canada has announced it will extend a ban on cruise ships and ferries with more than 100 passengers operating in its waters until the end of October.
When Japanese theme parks reopen, visitors will be asked not to make loud noises such as screaming while riding rides. In addition, park managers will measure the temperature and health status of visitors upon arrival. This move is intended to reduce the amount of aerosols emitted by visitors during their visit.
Finally, according to data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning Briefing, the number of coronavirus cases worldwide is 6.1 million, of which 2.7 million have recovered. The death toll is 369,127.
In addition, for the first time since the outbreak began, closed cases exceeded active cases. There are 3.02 million active cases worldwide and 3.07 million closed cases. Among the active cases, 2.98 million are mild cases, and severe cases account for 2%, or 53,466.
Long-term COVID-19
A new study foundThree years after first contracting COVID-19 Infectpatients haved Once hospitalized with the virus, levels remained “significantly elevated”” The risk of death or worsening health from long-term COVID-19 complications.
The study, published May 30 in the journal Nature Medicine, found that even among people whose initial cases did not require hospitalization, the threat of long COVID and its related problems remained.
“People are getting new illnesses after they were infected three years ago,” said Dr. Ziad Al Ali, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis and the study’s lead author. “This challenges the idea that these viruses are self-sustaining or that they become irrelevant after the acute first phase.”
The study tracked more than 130,000 patients and is the largest study to date to look at the progression of the virus in patients over a full three-year period.
Two years later, Dr. Al-Aly found that patients were at increased risk for long-term COVID-related illnesses, including diabetes, lung disease, fatigue, blood clots, gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal disorders.
USA
In Washington, D.C., a House subcommittee is investigating The coronavirus pandemic has prompted calls for access to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s personal email and cellphone records after his former adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases testified last week that the two had communicated through a “back channel.”
Global Cybercrime Network Assisting in Pandemic Relief Fund Fraud Dismantled A 35-year-old Chinese man was arrested in an international law enforcement operation authorised by the court in Singapore.
The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that law enforcement officers seized about $4 million worth of watches, sports cars and other luxury assets, including a Ferrari and a Rolls-Royce, and $30 million worth of real estate in East Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean and the United States as part of a global crackdown on criminal networks.
The botnet created by the group has infected more than 19 million different IP addresses and has been used by thousands of people to conduct pandemic and unemployment fraud, as well as cyberattacks, child exploitation, harassment, bomb threats, and export violations.
According to the indictment unsealed on May 24, between 2014 and July 2022, Chinese citizen YunHe Wang and others created and distributed malware to hack into and aggregate a network of millions of home Windows computers around the world that were associated with more than 19 million unique IP addresses. Wang then earned millions of dollars in fees by renting the infected IPs to cybercriminals.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute, A promising new human monoclonal antibody developed by the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Columbia University appears to be a step toward a universal antibody cocktail that targets all strains of SARS-CoV-2.
“The fact that this antibody was effective against the original SARS-CoV-2 strain, omicron and SARS-CoV is strong evidence that this antibody will continue to work against future strains, especially when paired with other antibodies,” said Luis Martinez-Sobrido, PhD, a professor at Texas Biomedical Sciences and co-lead author of the study, which was published as a preprint on bioRxiv.
Epidemic statistics
A quick look at the current COVID-19 statistics in the United States
In the United States, in the week ending May 18, 2024, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on May 24, the test positivity rate was 3.4%, and the trend of the test positivity rate in the most recent week was -0.2%. At the same time, the proportion of emergency department visits diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 was 0.4%, and the trend of emergency department visits was +7%.
As of the end of May, the number of people hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 in the U.S. is no longer being reported. Meanwhile, the percentage of people who have died from SARS-CoV-2 is 0.6%, a figure that has not changed over the past week.
Vaccination Focus
As of press time, about 70.6% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. To date, 13.58 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, with 209 doses currently being administered every day.
Meanwhile, only 32.8% of people in low-income countries have received one dose of vaccine, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries—Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, and Nepal—have achieved 70% vaccination coverage, but many are below 20%, with rates at or below 10% in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania.
Furthermore, with North Korea set to begin vaccinations in late September 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has yet to undergo mass vaccinations
Finally, as of April 14, 2024, Turkmenistan is the only country in Central Asia that has not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection, despite strong suspicions of the virus’ presence there. Meanwhile, the last region in the world to have its first SARS-CoV-2 infection was the New Zealand territory of Tokelau, which reported its first five cases on December 21, 2022.
Where did all the data go?
We regret to inform you that the global daily statistics in the Coronavirus Daily News Brief will no longer be updated from April 15, 2024. Over the past 15 months, as more and more politicians and governments have tried to put SARS-CoV-2 in the rearview mirror, outbreak data reporting has gradually stopped, and we are now at the point where we can no longer provide statistically valid case data worldwide.
We are developing potential new authoritative sources and will present them once they have been properly vetted, so please continue to watch this space. In the meantime, our coverage of the long-term COVID-19 pandemic will remain largely unchanged.
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Anna Breuer contributed reporting.
The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Centre for Long-Term COVID-19 Research. www.longcov.org
If you have long Covid and need someone to talk to, call the Long Covid Peer Advice Line (HOPELINE). HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.
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