Coronavirus: A New Strain from Denmark

A new strain of the coronavirus has been detected in Denmark that is linked to human to mink and back to human transmission. 

CNN (Nov 7) reports about the situation:

Denmark announced it would cull its entire mink population after it discovered evidence that the disease that causes novel coronavirus had mutated in mink, after being passed on by humans. The new variant was also found to have spread to humans, with 214 confirmed infections as of Friday.

. . . Reuters reported that 90,000 mink were slain in Spain over the summer after an outbreak at a farm, after which several human workers at the farm were infected. In June, Reuters also reported that 10,000 mother mink and around 50,000 mink pups were gassed to death on a farm in the southern Dutch town of De Mortel, as part of the country's wider drive to cull around 3,500.

. . . Coronavirus mutations are not expected to alter vaccine efficacy, a World Health Organization scientist said in June.

BBC (Nov 10) adds:

Danish scientists are worried that genetic changes in a mink-related form of the virus, infecting a dozen people, has the potential to make future vaccines less effective.

. . . The genetic data from Denmark was released on an international database a few days ago, with some scientists questioning why it had not been released sooner.

Coronavirus: Impact on Landlords in New York City

I wrote a blog post about the idea that residents are moving out of New York. I recently came across a couple articles that looked at the situation from the landlord's side.

This Complex via Yahoo (Oct 29) article rpeorts:

[Harlem building owner Stacey Golia] said more than half of her two-bedroom units are currently vacant, suggesting remote college courses and closed campuses were a major factor in the shortage of tenants. She explained that while many renters are receiving assistance to get them through the crisis, small building owners have been left to fend for themselves. 

"Even though the units are vacant right now, I'm still paying as if the entire building has been occupied," said Golia, who shells out $100,000 a year in mortgage payments and property taxes. "It's financially detrimental. There are rent pauses, there are court pauses. But there are no pauses on property taxes ... Just because you're a landlord doesn't mean you have a pot of gold sitting at the end of a rainbow." 

Coronavirus: How Mexico's Various State/City Governments are Dealing with the Virus

Per Worldometer, Mexico's deaths per million are close to that in the United States. Associated Press (Oct 25) reports that the death toll is much higher:

Mexican health authorities acknowledge the country’s true death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is far higher than previously thought, saying there were 193,170 “excess” deaths in the year up to Sept. 26.

Of those, 139,153 are now judged to be attributable to COVID-19. Mexico’s official, test-confirmed death toll is only about 89,000, but officials previously acknowledged many people didn’t get tested or their tests were mishandled.

So there is approximately 50,000 differential between the official death numbers and unofficial numbers. We can put the actual death toll in Mexico at around 150,000 (Since I'm mentioning the United States, there are data points that indicate that the United States is also under-counting deaths.)

Coronavirus: Governor Gavin Newsom of California Parties

Governor Gavin Newsom of California was recently outed for having attending a friend's 50th birthday dinner. Now one's 50th birthday is definitely a birthday to celebrate, but this action results in certain hypocrisy - especially since he's implemented a curfew across the vast majority of California. 

The Associated Press (Nov 13) points this out:

Newsom and state and local health officials have urged people to stay within their own households. If people must visit others, they should meet outside, include no more than three households, wear masks, stay socially distant and limit their interaction to two hours.

Coronavirus: Sweden Edges Towards Locking Down

Sweden has been a topic of this blog before coronavirus hit the globe. Now, when it comes to coronavirus, I'm still following the country with a keen eye. When last I looked into Sweden, which was just a couple weeks back, the data implied that they were entering a second wave. The country had implemented certain restrictions such as limiting bars to 50 people. The restrictions looked very similar to what occurred in their first wave. As can be seen on Worldometer, their second wave is now significantly higher than their first (with the caveat that nobody probably really knows what the first wave looked like across the globe due to a lack of testing). As can be seen, they're averaging around 4,300 cases a day. If you adjust for population, that would equate to around 140,000 daily cases in the United States. Essentially, if you think cases are out of control in the United States, they're also out of control in Sweden.

With that, the country has implemented far tighter restrictions.

Marketwatch (Nov 16) reports: 

But in a dramatic U-turn on Monday, new restrictions will no longer be a recommendation but enshrined in law as part of Sweden’s Public Order Act, which means there will be harsh penalties for violating them. Lawbreakers could face fines or up to six months in prison.

 
The restriction is aimed at public events such as sporting events and concerts and doesn’t extend to private gatherings.

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven told citizens: “It’s going to get worse. Do your duty and take responsibility to stop the spread of infection.

“There should not be social situations with more than eight people even if they are not formally affected by the law. This is the new norm for the whole society, for all of Sweden. Don’t go to the gym. Don’t go to the library. Don’t have dinners. Don’t have parties. Cancel.”

The Guardian (Nov 16) adds:

The interior minister, Mikael Damberg, said the strict new limit on gatherings would be in place for an initial four weeks but could be extended to run over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Prison? So they go from relatively lax restrictions to 6 months in prison? That's a true 180 turn. 

The order applies to public gatherings and not private ones. I'm not sure if this applies to stores. It looks more like it applies to bars and clubs. Anyways, what's the worth for a bar, club or gym to even stay open if only 8 people are allowed inside. If true that this doesn't apply to stores, it would indicate that they're still less restrictive than other European countries. What I didn't read in the articles is anything about wearing masks.

Coronavirus: European Lockdowns

Many parts of Europe decided to lock down again starting in early November. I decided to do a little digging into what exactly each country is doing in this regard.

Germany

The Guardian (Oct 28) reports: 

1. Contacts are to be reduced to a maximum of two households, and no more than 10 people, the chancellor, Angela Merkel and the leaders of Germany’s 16 states decided during an emergency video conference.

2. Restaurants, bars, leisure facilities and cultural institutes including opera houses and theatres will face orders to close, while schools and nurseries are expected to remain open, as well as the majority of businesses and work places. Shops and hairdressers will also be allowed to stay open.

Per DW (Nov 16), new restrictions may be put in place next week.

United Kingdom

The Guardian (Oct 31) reports:

1. Can different households mix indoors? No, not unless they are part of an “exclusive” support bubble, which allows a single-person household to meet and socialise with another household.

2. People can only leave home for the following reasons:

Coronavirus: Venezuela's Healthcare Workers

Per Worldometer, Venezuela continues to have far fewer cases than most of the South American countries. But is that realistic?

The Christian Science Monitor (Oct 8) provides some clues from the perspective of healthcare workers:

Shortages of COVID-19 safety gear have been common across the globe, but the situation in Venezuela is more complex than a challenge of simple supply and demand.

More than 5 million people have fled the Andean nation in recent years . . . Among the millions who have left are doctors, nurses, and medical students, resulting in sparsely-staffed hospitals and clinics.

. . . Some 13 of Dr. Navas’ colleagues have died over the past six months. As of Oct. 5, at least 213 medical workers have died from the coronavirus across Venezuela, making up one-third of the total deaths reported, says Dr. Lorenzo, whose organization is trying to track deaths. 

Coronavirus: Brazil's Cases and Deaths Declining - Will It Last?

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I last looked into Brazil on June 20th. At the time, there was a prediction that COVID-19 deaths in Brazil would surpass the United States in raw numbers by July. Per Worldometer, that did not happen. Even now, Brazil has far fewer deaths (absolute numbers) than the United States. If you take a look at Worldometer's charts, case and death charts looks vastly different. In the United States, daily cases look to be on a rollercoaster that keeps on going up while Brazil appears to be sliding down. When it comes to daily deaths, the United States is somewhat flat since July while Brazil sloped up and then sloped down. Both countries have leaders (President Trump and President Bolsonaro) who are putting a greater priority on economics versus saving lives than many other countries. Why exactly are Brazil's daily cases and deaths trending better than in the United States? One thought that came to mind was that maybe Brazil was reducing their daily testing and so were having fewer reported cases. Per Our World in Data, that doesn't appear to be true. Yes, their daily testing numbers are very choppy, but they don't seem to be declining. If testing isn't the reason, then on the surface it does appear that Brazil is doing far better than the United States right now.

Coronavirus: A Reinfection Death in The Netherlands

Can you catch COVID-19 a second time? The answer is yes though there haven't been very many documented cases. Newsweek (Nov 13) reports:

Since the start of the pandemic, it has been unclear how long immunity lasts in people who have been infected with coronavirus. However, a number of recent reports show sufferers can be reinfected. The first reinfection case recorded was a woman in Hong Kong. In total, there have now been five confirmed reinfection cases.

Coronavirus: Sweden's Second Wave

When it comes to COVID-19, Sweden is a country that people are keeping an eye on due to their less restrictive policies towards the outbreak. Throughout the summer, it appeared that there were very few cases. But with fall upon us, per Worldometer, it does look like Sweden is facing a second wave. It does look like it may be as strong as the first one in terms of confirmed cases; however, it is likely that the first wave was understated in terms of cases. 

The potential for a second wave has been a concern. In fact, back in August, I wrote:

As Business Insider reports, let's see what occurs when the summer ends. As the article mentions, there are currently fewer people in the office (due to vacations). CBS News reported about the lack of face masks. With people returning to work and with few wearing masks, there should be a spike come October - November (if those assumptions drive infections). I think this is what people will be studying next.

In response to this second wave, CNN (Oct 23) reports that Sweden has implemented certain restrictions. Of course, these restrictions look very similar to restrictions that were put in place at the beginning of the pandemic:

Nightclubs where dancing is permitted will be limited to a capacity of 50 people in Sweden, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced Thursday. 

Coronavirus: Brain Fog

Here's a follow-up to my previous blog post that looked into the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on those who have recovered via a study published from Northwestern Medicine. The study looked at altered mental function after recovery.  

The New York Times via MSN (Oct 11) looks into this study by discussing it with the senior author as well as talking with specific individuals suffering from brain fog:

It’s becoming known as Covid brain fog: troubling cognitive symptoms that can include memory loss, confusion, difficulty focusing, dizziness and grasping for everyday words. Increasingly, Covid survivors say brain fog is impairing their ability to work and function normally.

“There are thousands of people who have that,” said Dr. Igor Koralnik, chief of neuro-infectious disease at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, who has already seen hundreds of survivors at a post-Covid clinic he leads. “The impact on the work force that’s affected is going to be significant.

Coronavirus: Deteriorating Neurological Function

One thing we've learned about COVID-19 is that once you recover, you don't fully recover to your pre-COVID-19 mental and physical state. The New York Times (Oct 5) explores this further:

Nearly a third of hospitalized Covid-19 patients experienced some type of altered mental function — ranging from confusion to delirium to unresponsiveness — in the largest study to date of neurological symptoms among coronavirus patients in an American hospital system.

And patients with altered mental function had significantly worse medical outcomes, according to the study, published on Monday in Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. The study looked at the records of the first 509 coronavirus patients hospitalized, from March 5 to April 6, at 10 hospitals in the Northwestern Medicine health system in the Chicago area.

. . . After they were discharged, only 32 percent of the patients with altered mental function were able to handle routine daily activities like cooking and paying bills, said Dr. Igor Koralnik, the senior author of the study and chief of neuro-infectious disease and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine. In contrast, 89 percent of patients without altered mental function were able to manage such activities without assistance.

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: People Have the Power? Electoral Politics and Democracy

The Los Angeles Times has their annual Festival of Books. This year, of course, the discussion panels are being held online. That's my favorite part of the book festival so I have a list of 7 panels I plan to watch online. Hopefully, I'll get to watch all of them. The first one was called, "People Have the Power? Electoral Politics and Democracy." There were three panelists who discussed the following:

Paul Adler - Professor of Management and Organization, Sociology, and Environmental Studies at USC

He sees us in six crises at the moment: economic irrationality, workplace disempowerment, government non-responsiveness, environment unsustainability, social disintegration and international conflict. He sees these crises as inevitable as long as we have a capitalist system where companies don't cooperate with each other.