Category Archives: Covid-19

In 2010, the moral philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah made a list of practices that he believed people in the distant future will condemn our generation of humanity for, much as people in the 21st century almost universally condemn slavery or the denial of womens suffrage.

His four candidates were the American prison system, which cages about 2.3 million Americans at any given time; the exploitation of animals in factory farms; the abandonment of Americas elderly (and the elderly of many rich countries) in nursing homes; and environmental degradation.

My friend Avi Zenilman, a journalist turned nurse, sent me Appiahs piece a few weeks into the coronavirus pandemic, when Appiahs list started to read like a premonition. Excluding the environment climate change specifically, which has gotten a temporary respite as we do much less carbon emitting under quarantine Appiahs list doubles as a rundown of the most prominent and brutal vectors of Covid-19 in the US.

Coronavirus outbreaks have been reported at carceral facilities across the country, including pretrial detention centers like Rikers Island where most inmates have not yet been convicted of the offense with which theyre charged; one prison in Ohio reported that 78 percent of inmates tested positive. More humane states are releasing prisoners simply to avoid a medical catastrophe that feels inevitable if they stay caged.

The Tyson, Smithfield, and JBS meat production companies have shut down pork plants that collectively produce 15 percent of Americas pork due to coronavirus spread. Tysons CEO took out a full-page newspaper ad warning that the nations food supply is breaking down. Thats a ludicrous exaggeration (experts say the US isnt about to run out of food), but it is true that the factory farming industry is particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 and poses a pandemic risk generally.

Nursing homes for both older people and those with disabilities are likewise seeing widespread coronavirus outbreaks. The Washington Post analyzed news reports and state data releases and found that almost 1 in 10 nursing homes in the US have reported coronavirus cases. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that in the 23 states for which data exists, 27 percent of deaths from Covid-19 have occurred in nursing homes. In several states, like Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, most deaths have occurred in nursing homes.

Its not a coincidence that Covid-19 is foregrounding these institutions. This crisis has cast a spotlight on inequalities that have plagued American life for decades, and it is forcing us to look seriously at how we relate to one another. Social distancing has a way of clarifying social reality, and Americas social reality is one of haves and have-nots.

If I were more religious, I would say this feels like a biblical plague, a force beyond our control identifying our worst societal sins to get us to finally pay attention. But that would be incorrect, because in many ways the spread of this virus is within our control. That the coronavirus has ripped through the US via these vectors only underscores how complicit Americans have been in making ourselves more vulnerable to this disease.

What factory farms, prisons, and nursing homes have in common is that theyre warehousing efforts. They all involve placing people or animals into confined facilities where most of society doesnt have to think too hard about them anymore. They are institutions optimized for neglect.

Few people would likely be able to eat a Chicken McNugget if each order came with a photo of the tortured chickens who were killed to fulfill that order; but because that torture takes place behind closed doors, confined to a few big facilities in rural areas and staffed by invisible low-wage workers, people are free to forget about the actual chickens and the working conditions there and eat their nuggets in peace. Its no fluke that ag gag laws banning the dissemination of information about factory farms are one of the industrys main lobbying priorities. Big corporations know perfectly well what would happen if people actually paid attention.

Prisons enable governments to take people that civilian society doesnt want to deal with anymore and stash them out of sight so that average citizens can forget about them. That enables truly horrendous conditions. Groups of prisoners in Washington, DC, and Texas are so desperate that theyve sued for access to soap, cleaning supplies, and toilet paper amid the pandemic. On at least one unit, a closet full of cleaning supplies and clean rags is present, but residents are told they will be punished if they attempt to access or use those supplies to clean the unit, their own cells, or their hands and bodies, the DC lawsuit alleges.

These conditions are hardly new a one-ply-per day rationing of toilet paper and a ban on showering more than once a week were among the policies at Attica state prison in New York that sparked the 1971 prisoner takeover there. But this neglect is increasingly deadly in a pandemic.

Nursing homes are not necessarily an injustice, and there are plenty of valid reasons for families to place relatives there, or for residents to ask to be placed in homes. My family is no exception. But the same mechanisms through which nursing homes ease pressure on family caregivers make them places where widespread neglect is possible. Richard Mollot, an advocate for long-term care patients, notes that about one-third of Medicare beneficiaries admitted to nursing homes reported suffering some kind of harm within two weeks of entering the home.

These are the short-term residents for whom homes are paid the most and who are typically most able to articulate their concerns if something is wrong, Mollot writes. Where does that leave a majority of residents who are there long-term, most of whom are older, frail and cognitively impaired?

Warehousing leaves its victims vulnerable to Covid-19 through at least two mechanisms. First, it forces affected individuals into close proximity with one other including those maintaining the warehouse, like factory farm staff or prison guards or nursing home attendants. Its difficult to socially distance under those conditions.

But the second mechanism is subtler and arguably just as important. Warehousing fosters social inequality, and we know that social inequality kills.

Pandemics are times of scarcity. Tests are scarce, doctors and nurses are scarce, masks and gloves are scarce. And scarce goods tend to be distributed according to existing social inequalities, because those inequalities reflect varying levels of respect paid to various groups by governments, businesses, and other social decision-makers.

So it is with coronavirus. Its fairly well-known at this point that Covid-19 has disproportionately affected black Americans. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that out of Covid-19 patients for whom race is known, 30 percent are African American, more than double African Americans share of the overall population.

Unauthorized immigrants in detention, or working close-proximity jobs at farms and as delivery staff, or just existing in the US without access to most of the social safety net, are uniquely vulnerable too, and not just in the US but in many rich countries. Many report fear of seeking out health care because of the risk that their status will be uncovered.

We see the same inequalities with factory farms, nursing homes, and prisons. Incarcerated people, especially ones locked up for violent offenses, have long suffered from politicians, and the publics, conviction that their past deeds make them undeserving of help. Thats especially true now, with grave consequences for both them and their guards.

Nursing home patients are victims not just of density but of a broader societal disregard toward older people and those with disabilities. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick famously suggested that Americans 70-plus should be willing to die to get the economy back running again.

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 outbreaks at factory farms arent among their animals but among their staffers and the staffers at meatpacking facilities, who are disproportionately black, Latino, and/or immigrants. Warehousing hurts the people enlisted to do the warehousing, too. (And, it should be noted, even though the coronavirus didnt originate in a factory farm, factory farms are a pretty big pandemic risk if not this pandemic, it may well be the next one.)

None of this is an accident. Social inequality, as the political theorist Judith Shklar taught us, fosters cruelty. In unequal societies, where one group of individuals is privileged in power above others, that power differential creates the social estrangement necessary for the powerful to treat the less powerful with cruelty.

But social equality can remedy social cruelty. If such social distances create the climate for cruelty, then a greater equality might be a remedy, she wrote. Even Machiavelli had known that one cannot rule ones equals with cruelty, but only ones inferior subjects.

Covid-19 is not simply a natural disaster. It is a brutal reminder of the consequences of inequality Shklar identified. And it is a reminder that things can be different. The US can shrink its prisons. It can create housing laws, social supports, and other structures that enable older people to live with their families whenever possible. It can abolish factory farming, for both the animals and the workers sakes.

Pandemics are social phenomena, and addressing pandemics requires attacking social inequalities head-on.

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Covid-19 in prisons and meatpacking plants shed a light on Americas moral failures - Vox.com

By Saturday, there had been 26 deaths in Alexandria, Virginia, due to COVID-19. Fifteen of them were residents of long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes and assisted-living communities.

By Saturday, there had been 26 deaths in Alexandria, Virginia, due to COVID-19. And 15 of them (58%) were residents of long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes and assisted-living communities.

The death rate is reflected across Virginia, where 54% of deaths due to the coronavirus outbreak have come in similar facilities.

There are nine long-term care facilities in Alexandria, and the city is pushing those businesses to change their models to minimize the further spread of the coronavirus and prevent similar outbreaks in the future.

More Coronavirus News

In a news release Saturday, the city explained that it is encouraging these nine facilities to offer its employees a series of enhancements that might prevent further infections: a living wage; full-time hours so they do not need to work at more than one facility; paid sick leave along with other health benefits; and enhanced training on how to handle the outbreak of an infectious disease.

The majority of the workers in these jobs are women of color who earn $30,000 annually or less, and cannot afford to miss work when they are sick. Because they work so closely with vulnerable residents, they can in turn bring the virus back to their families.

Since the virus continues to spread in communities throughout the United States, Alexandria said it wants to be sure its long-term care facilities make certain they are doing their best to make sure their vulnerable residents do not get sick.

The city said it is constantly monitoring these facilities to make sure they have adequate training and personal protective equipment. In addition, it is working with the nursing homes to make sure its staff members are well trained in preventing and controlling infections.

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Majority of Alexandria COVID-19 deaths were in long-term care sites, as city seeks better pay, benefits for workers - WTOP

CLEVELAND, Tenn. (WDEF)- Bradley County hosted a drive thru Covid-19 testing event Saturday at Cleveland middle school.

One man tells News 12 hes trying to stay on the safe side and reassure himself that hes not carrying the virus.

Ive got year sinuses and its getting a little extra bad this year. So Im here to reassure myself to make sure its nothing else.

Participants simply provide contact information so they can receive their results on time. Its the first weekend surge event hosted in Cleveland but the county has already offers drive through testing.

The number of positive cases are expected to change.

Yeah we expect to see the numbers go up but thats because were testing more people and were going to get a better picture of where it is in our community said Goodhard.

The Tennessee Health Department will handle positive cases accordingly.

Weve got contact tracers that will be working with the individuals that do test positive to see where theyve been and who they have been in contact with so we can mitigate the situation.

293 people were tested at the Cleveland Middle School site.

Those who were tested are expected to get their results back within 72 hours.

We encourage everybody to stay at home as much as possible. We know thats been difficult for a lot of people but keep your distance and monitor your symptoms.

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Drive Thru Covid-19 Testing Hosted in Cleveland - WDEF News 12

Britains once bustling high streets are now eerily quiet, with all non-essential shops closed and thousands of staff furloughed. Many may never reopen as the lockdown accelerates shifts to online shopping, while others will have to find ways to adapt to a radically different retail world of long-term social distancing rules and nervous customers afraid of catching the virus.

The British Independent Retailers Association warned last week that one fifth of their members might close for good if footfall is low. Yet some of the big non-food retailers such as Homebase and B&Q are starting to reopen stores, and the British Retail Consortium has issued guidance on how non-essential shops could trade while keeping customers and staff safe.

The Observer spoke to five shop owners on one British high street to find out how they are faring and what the future holds for their businesses.

Hairdresser Anne Murray misses her regulars and the small intimacies that are shared during haircuts at her usually busy salon on Wares High Street. People really open up to you, she says from her home in the Hertfordshire commuter-belt town. Were like secondary counsellors.

Her salon, Mint, has been closed since the lockdown was announced at the end of March. She has been able to furlough the other hairdresser she employs and is planning to use a 10,000 cash grant to pay her bills. But she worries she might be one of the last shops to reopen as hairdressers will struggle to comply with social distancing rules, which are likely to stay in place until at least the end of the year. When you cut someones hair, you are rarely face to face, she says. But the physical proximity makes it hard. It is impossible to stay two metres away.

Murray, 37, would consider wearing PPE if it was made available to shop workers. I would definitely do that in order to protect other people and myself, she adds. But hairdressing is quite a personal service and so it would be very odd.

However, an extended closure could potentially put the salon at risk. I cant think of many businesses that could survive for that long unless they are online, she says. It makes me feel sad and anxious. In my household, it is a major source of income. My salon brings in more than my husbands business.

She sometimes walks down the High Street during her exercise and wonders how it will look after the coronavirus crisis is over: Its eerie and so quiet. I go past the other shops and cant help thinking which ones will and wont survive.

Al Bramley is getting ready for the phone to start ringing with takeaway orders in the Mexican restaurant he launched with his business partner, Brett Cahill-Moreno, in September.

People tend to do their own stuff at the start of the week and then treat themselves at weekend. Theres a lot of Zoom parties and quizzes and they tend to buy takeaways for those occasions, he says taking a quick break, while two chefs prep food in the kitchen.

Before the lockdown, the restaurant was packed with diners. Now the tables and chairs are stacked up against the walls. Bramley, 50, and Cahill-Moreno, 47, closed completely for two weeks, with all 10 staff furloughed. But last month they brought back two chefs and two front-of-house staff to provide takeaway meals. Weve had to adapt and change the way we do things, says Bramley.

Last weekend, they had 140 orders and they are hoping to expand beyond Ware. They have even launched an app to speed up ordering: It went live last week and weve had 650 downloads already.

However, their turnover has halved and they will only be able to keep going if they can secure a long-term rent reduction. We are going to have to renegotiate our rent with our landlord, Bramley says. I havent had that conversation yet, but its coming.

Bramley has been thinking hard about how he could lay out the tables in the restaurant to keep diners and staff two metres apart. We could do about 25 covers inside. And if the sun is shining, we could do another 30 covers outside, he says. With the takeaway market and a rent reduction, we could just about survive.

The tiny Book Nook on Wares High Street had not even been open a year before it was forced to shut. The owner Julia Chesterman, 49, had to mark the anniversary with a cup of tea and slice of cake in an empty shop. I sat down with the bookshop cat and I had a tear in my eye, she says. In a year we have become a little community hub and achieved so much.

Chesterman initially tried delivering books but it wasnt practical. I was taking telephone orders and leaving books on peoples doorsteps but to be honest I wasnt getting enough orders, she says. In the end she closed completely and furloughed herself.

Even though the shop is quite narrow, Chesterman is confident she could reopen safely. She would probably only need to limit the number of customers on a Saturday morning, when lots of people come in for tea and cake. We never really get overwhelmed, she adds.

Chesterman, who used to work for the library service, is not especially worried about reduced footfall. Bookselling can be quite challenging, she says. Im not in this business to make a massive profit. I just want to do something that I love and be part of the community.

The last time estate agent Jake Shropshire, 49, was in Wares branch of Jonathan Hunt was in March. I was able to rescue my telephone and computer, he says.

Since then the usual buying and selling of property has almost ground to a halt. Theres been no property viewings, he says. It has all stopped.

Shropshire is trying to keep existing house sales on track. We are nursing along sales as best we can, but 60% of the lawyers we deal with have been furloughed so there are challenges.

There are buyers stuck in property chains containing vulnerable individuals. We have one where a person is shielding so everyone else in that chain will have to wait, says Shropshire.

A few are moving, however. He is giving the keys to the buyers of a derelict Grade II-listed house this weekend. There is no crossover of people. There is no danger of contamination, he says. Im just going to leave the keys on their doorstep, ring the bell and run off.

While he can ride out rest of the lockdown, Shropshire has some concerns about reopening. Staff will need to be paid but it will take a while for new houses to be marketed and sold. Our income is not instantaneous. Its going to be three months at best before any money comes in, he says. Thats going to be the tough part.

Cathy Emmerson, 53, decided to close her card shop the day before Boris Johnson announced a national lockdown. We closed at the end of Mothers Day, she says. Ive got four members of staff and I didnt feel comfortable asking them to come to work.

It might be difficult to maintain social distancing when the shop eventually reopens as it is not much bigger than a living room. We deal with people directly. The elderly like us to read cards to them. Staff need to move around the shop too, she says.

Nonetheless, she is confident she will find a way to comply. If we have to put up a sign saying two customers only we will, she says. Its a card and greetings shop. It only gets busy on Saturday and around occasions.

She worries more about the market for party products. Im hoping people will want balloons to party but how much socialising will we be allowed to do? Some of our business came from people going out for meals and having drinks at parties. But the greetings card side will definitely remain because people like to send a card.

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After Covid-19: How will a socially distanced high street actually work? - The Guardian

Janesvilles two hospitals are working to secure equipment and supplies needed to process COVID-19 tests on site, which would get results to patients sooner.

Both hospitals are unsure how soon they might get the equipment because of frequent changes in demand and in the supply chain for medical equipment.

Meanwhile, Beloit Health System has been processing tests at its own facility for about a week, the Beloit Daily News reported.

Beloit Health System can process about 25 tests per day with results sometimes coming back in as little as 45 minutes.

The Gazette was unable to reach representatives from Beloit Health System for further comment by press time.

Edgerton Hospital and Health Services has the capability to test on site but needs more of a chemical reagent needed to process samples, trauma manager Alison Hanaman said.

People who are tested have to be quarantined until they get results. Getting those results faster means less time in quarantine and more peace of mind for those who test negative, Mercyhealth Medical Director Mark Goelzer said.

Those who test positive have to be isolated until a public health nurse determines they have recovered.

Officials and epidemiologists nationwide have said more testing is a key step toward a return to normalcy.

Jeff Shadick, regional vice president of laboratory services for SSM Health, said more testing can help identify hot spots, such as the ones identified in meatpacking plants in the Green Bay area.

More widespread testing also helps public health workers determine how and where the disease has spread through contact tracing, he said.

State officials last week told providers to begin testing people with mild COVID-19 symptoms, leading to an uptick in the number of people tested.

In Rock County, 2,317 people have received test results since March 14. Of those, 615 have gotten results since Monday, or 27% of the total.

Mercyhealth, SSM Health and Edgerton Hospital officials said they have been able to conduct more testing but worry about the availability of testing supplies.

In the beginning, hospitals dealt with a reagent shortfall. Then the number of other supplies, primarily nasal swabs, reached critically low levels, Shadick said.

The good news is that the supply of testing materials is stabilizing as manufacturers get approval from the federal government for emergency production, Shadick said.

But hospitals, state organizations and the federal government are competing for the gear, making it difficult to get everyone what they need, Mercyhealths Goelzer said.

As of Friday, 222 Rock County residents have tested positive for COVID-19. Six people have died.

Mercyhealth

Mercyhealth is sending its tests to commercial labs and receiving results in a day or two, Goelzer said.

The system recently opened a second drive-thru site for testing, Goelzer said. Patients must be referred by a doctor before they can go to either drive-thru location.

Mercyhealth has the equipment needed to do in-house testing but is waiting to secure the appropriate supplies, Goelzer said. How soon the supplies come depends on the systems vendors, he said.

Mercyhealth also is working on attaining antibody tests to determine whether somebody might have already been infected, Goelzer said. Such testing is still in early stages of development and has varying levels of accuracy, he added.

Supply shortages prevent Mercyhealth, and most other hospitals, from doing as much testing as they want to do, Goelzer said.

SSM Health

Tests from SSM Health St. Marys Hospital-Janesville are processed at an SSM Health lab in Madison. Six couriers collect tests in Janesville each day and transport them there, Shadick said.

Patients get same-day results, Shadick said. Thats a major improvement from the beginning of the pandemic when it took six to eight days to get results.

SSM Healths regional lab can test 1,800 kits per month and serves seven hospitals in Wisconsin, Shadick said.

Tests are sent to commercial labs if the regional lab reaches capacity, Shadick said.

Equipment to test on site in Janesville has been ordered but is delayed as equipment is redirected to areas of greater need, Shadick said.

Edgerton Hospital

Edgerton Hospital is sending test results to commercial labs with results coming back in less than 24 hours, Hanaman said.

Tests are available at the hospital and at the systems clinic in Milton. Patients are evaluated upon arrival and are tested if they show COVID-19 symptoms, which include cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills, headache, sore throat, muscle pain, and loss of taste or smell.

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Janesville hospitals hoping to add on-site COVID-19 test processing - Janesville Gazette

But some scientists and legal experts say the moves reflect a dangerous disregard for science in the middle of a deadly pandemic, and could be used to further weaken protections down the road.

The main type of pollution in question -- PM 2.5 -- are microscopic particles that float in the air we breathe and measure barely a fraction of the diameter of a human hair.

The current PM 2.5 standard requires air particle levels to be limited to 12 micrograms per cubic meter.

Still, the EPA decided to leave the regulations untouched.

"Based on review of the scientific literature and recommendation from our independent science advisors, we are proposing to retain existing PM standards which will ensure the continued protection of both public health and the environment," EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in an April 14 statement justifying the move.

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Poor air quality has been linked to Covid-19 impacts. Trump's EPA is still limiting pollution restrictions. - CNN

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The McHenry County Health Department reported 24 additional people who tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday, bringing the total to 703, with 39 deaths.

On Saturday, the IDPH reported the death of a man in his 60s in McHenry County.

As has been the case, Woodstock (60098) continues to have the highest amount of cases in the county, with 147 people who have tested positive for coronavirus, the IDPH said on its website. McHenry (60050) is the second highest, with 100. This makes Woodstock's positive test rate 31.1% and McHenry's 23.87%.

Here is the rest of the local breakdown of cases by municipality, per the IDPH: Crystal Lake (60014), 76; Harvard (60033),54; Bull Valley, Crystal Lake and Prairie Grove (60012),49 ; Algonquin (60102) 52 ; Lake in the Hills (60156), 48; Cary (60013), 43; Johnsburg and McHenry (60051),45 ; Huntley (60142),38; Spring Grove (60081),25; Marengo (60152),22 ; Wonder Lake (60097), 19 ; Fox River Grove (60021),9 ; and Richmond (60071), 6.

Kane County reported 1,886 total positive COVID-19 cases and 57 deaths, according to its health department's website, and Lake County, according to the IDPH, has 3,975 positive cases and 141 deaths to coronavirus.

Across the state, the IDPH announced 2,450 new cases of coronavirus and 105 additional deaths.

The IDPH is currently reporting a total of 58,505 cases, including 2,559 deaths, in 97 counties in the state.

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IDPH reports one McHenry County COVID-19 death Saturday, bringing total to 39 - Northwest Herald

Apple and Google have released the first version of their exposure notification API, which they previously called the contact tracing API. This is a developer-focused release, and is a seed of the API in development, with the primary intent of collecting feedback from developers who will be using the API to create new contact tracing and notification apps on behalf of public health agencies.

Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook told EU Commissioner Thierry Breton that the API would be arriving shortly, and this version is indeed now available albeit to a specific and limited group that includes select developers working on behalf of public health authorities globally, according to the companies. This is a test release thats intended to provide the opportunity for development and feedback in advance of the APIs public release in mid-May, at which time developers will be able to use the software feature on devices with publicly available apps released through the iOS and Google software stores, respectively.

Apple and Google say they will be providing this coming Friday additional details about the API and its release, including sample code to show how it operates in practice. Both are intent on providing updates to the documentation as they become available, and in adding access to new developers throughout testing, though this will be gated because the companies are limiting access to this API to authorized public health authorities only.

Already, Apple and Google have made available on their respective developer websites documents that describe the specification in detail, and provided an update with improvements to the techs functioning, including in terms of its protection of user privacy, and the ease with which developers can deploy it within their apps, as discussed during a press call last week.

This update includes an added ability for health authorities to define and calculate an exposure risk level for individuals based on their own criteria, as that varies organization to organization. This will be variable based on approximate distance of an individual to a confirmed exposed COVID-19 patient, as well as the duration of that exposure. Developers can customize notification messaging based on their defined exposure levels to ensure alerts correspond correctly to calculated risk.

The beta update also includes a new setting for users that allows them to toggle COVID-19 exposure notification access for individual apps, as pictured in the screenshot below.

Apple and Google first announced the combined API and eventual system-level contact tracing feature on April 10, and intend to release the first version of the API publicly in mid-May, with the system-level integration to follow in the coming months. The tech is designed to be privacy-preserving, ensuring that contact IDs are rotating and randomized, and never tied to an individuals specific identifying information.

Originally posted here:

Apple and Google release first seed of COVID-19 exposure notification API for contact tracing app developers - TechCrunch

Why are the origins of the pandemic so controversial?

How Covid-19 began has become increasingly contentious, with the US and other allies suggesting China has not been transparent about the origins of the outbreak.

Donald Trump, the US president, has given credence to the idea that intelligence exists suggesting the virus may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, although the US intelligence community has pointedly declined to back this up. The scientific community says there is no current evidence for this claim.

This follows reports that the White House had been pressuring US intelligence community on the claim, recalling the Bush administrations pressure to stove pipe the intelligence before the war in Iraq.

A specific issue is that the official origin story doesnt add up in terms of the initial epidemiology of the outbreak, not least the incidence of early cases with no apparent connection to the Wuhan seafood market, where Beijing says the outbreak began. If these people were not infected at the market, or via contacts who were infected at the market, critics ask, how do you explain these cases?

Two laboratories in Wuhan studying bat coronaviruses have come under the spotlight. The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is a biosecurity level 4 facility the highest for biocontainment and the level 2 Wuhan Centre for Disease Control, which is located not far from the fish market, had collected bat coronavirus specimens.

Several theories have been promoted. The first, and wildest, is that scientists at WIV were engaged in experiments with bat coronavirus, involving so-called gene splicing, and the virus then escaped and infected humans. A second version is that sloppy biosecurity among lab staff and in procedures, perhaps in the collection or disposal of animal specimens, released a wild virus.

The scientific consensus rejecting the virus being engineered is almost unanimous. In a letter to Nature in March, a team in California led by microbiology professor Kristian Andersen said the genetic data irrefutably shows that [Covid-19] is not derived from any previously used virus backbone in other words spliced sections of another known virus.

Far more likely, they suggested, was that the virus emerged naturally and became stronger through natural selection. We propose two scenarios that can plausibly explain the origin of Sars-CoV-2: natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic [animal to human] transfer; and natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer.

Peter Ben Embarek, an expert at the World Health Organization in animal to human transmission of diseases, and other specialists also explained to the Guardian that if there had been any manipulation of the virus you would expect to see evidence in both the gene sequences and also distortion in the data of the family tree of mutations a so-called reticulation effect.

In a statement to the Guardian, James Le Duc, the head of the Galveston National Laboratory in the US, the biggest active biocontainment facility on a US academic campus, also poured cold water on the suggestion.

There is convincing evidence that the new virus was not the result of intentional genetic engineering and that it almost certainly originated from nature, given its high similarity to other known bat-associated coronaviruses, he said.

The accidental release of a wild sample has been the focus of most attention, although the evidence offered is at best highly circumstantial.

The Washington Post has reported concerns in 2018 over security and management weakness from US embassy officials who visited the WIV several times, although the paper also conceded there was no conclusive proof the lab was the source of the outbreak.

Le Duc, however, paints a different picture of the WIV. I have visited and toured the new BSL4 laboratory in Wuhan, prior to it starting operations in 2017- It is of comparable quality and safety measures as any currently in operation in the US or Europe.

He also described encounters with Shi Zhengli, the Chinese virologist at the WIV who has led research into bat coronaviruses, and discovered the link between bats and the Sars virus that caused disease worldwide in 2003, describing her as fully engaged, very open and transparent about her work, and eager to collaborate.

Maureen Miller, an epidemiologist who worked with Shi as part of a US-funded viral research programme, echoed Le Ducs assessment. She said she believed the lab escape theory was an absolute conspiracy theory and referred to Shi as brilliant.

While the experts who spoke to the Guardian made clear that understanding of the origins of the virus remained provisional, they added that the current state of knowledge of the initial spread also created problems for the lab escape theory.

When Peter Forster, a geneticist at Cambridge, compared sequences of the virus genome collected early in the Chines outbreak and later globally he identified three dominant strains.

Early in the outbreak, two strains appear to have been in circulation at roughly at the same time strain A and strain B with a C variant later developing from strain B.

But in a surprise finding, the version with the closest genetic similarity to bat coronavirus was not the one most prevalent early on in the central Chinese city of Wuhan but instead associated with a scattering of early cases in the southern Guangdong province.

Between 24 December 2019 and 17 January 2020, Forster explains, just three out of 23 cases in Wuhan were type A, while the rest were type B. In patients in Guangdong province, however, five out of nine were found to have type A of the virus.

The very small numbers notwithstanding, said Forster, the early genome frequencies until 17 January do not favour Wuhan as an origin over other parts of China, for example five of nine Guangdong/Shenzhen patients who had A types.

In other words, it still remains far from certain that Wuhan was even necessarily where the virus first emerged.

The pandemic has exacerbated existing geopolitical struggles, prompting a disinformation war that has drawn in the US, China, Russia and others.

Journalists and scientists have been targeted by people with an apparent interest in pushing circumstantial evidence related to the viruss origins, perhaps as part of this campaign and to distract from the fact that few governments have had a fault-free response.

The current state of knowledge about coronavirus and its origin suggest the most likely explanation remains the most prosaic. Like other coronaviruses before, it simply spread to humans via a natural event, the starting point for many in the scientific community including the World Health Organization.

Further testing in China in the months ahead may eventually establish the source of the outbreak. But for now it is too early.

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Where did Covid-19 come from? What we know about its origins - The Guardian

Mick Jagger and Will Smith will be among dozens of international and Indian celebrities performing from their homes in a four-hour concert to raise funds for the battle against coronavirus in India, where the number of cases is surging.

The countrys cricket captain Virat Kohli, actors Priyanka Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan are some of the top domestic names billed to perform or read messages during the event on Sunday.

The performances will be livestreamed by Facebook and will pay tribute to workers fighting the pandemic.

Organised by the Bollywood directors Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar, the event is intended to raise millions of dollars for more than 100 groups providing food and other essential services during the crisis.

Concert organisers said the money was needed for those who have no work and no home and do not know where their next meal is coming from.

Indias 1.3 billion people have been in lockdown since 25 March. Restrictions have recently been eased, but they are expected to last until at least 17 May.

The shutdown has stranded millions of migrant workers in cities with little food or money. Special trains were organised on Saturday to help thousands of labourers finally return home.

India has so far reported 37,335 coronavirus cases and 1,218 deaths. More than 2,000 new infections were recorded in the last 24 hours. Experts fear a lack of testing and poor reporting procedures mean the death toll is much higher.

The government has announced a series of special activities to rally support for frontline workers. The Indian air force is to stage a flypast on Sunday and military helicopters will shower petals on hospitals caring for coronavirus patients. Warships will also put on a special display.

Other participants at the concert, called I For India, are reported to include Bryan Adams, Mindy Kaling, Jack Black and the Indian stars AR Rahman and Akshay Kumar.

Continued here:

Mick Jagger and Will Smith to perform in India Covid-19 concert - The Guardian