At-Home COVID-19 Tech Is Finally Able to Help Control the Pandemic
For a country so technologically advanced, the U.S.’ tech response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been slow, at best. Plenty of factors are to blame: a nimble response required political and financial support, not denial, and strong public-health messaging, not bungled and confusing communication.
But, 10 months into the pandemic, at-home virus-fighting tools are at last making headway. Smartphones, for example, can notify users if they have potentially been exposed to others who have tested positive for COVID-19. While such technology has existed for months, it’s only beginning to take off, thanks to a new approach from Apple and Google called Exposure Notifications Express, or EN Express, as my colleague Alejandro de la Garza reports . EN Express, which launched in September, lets states send push notifications asking residents to opt in, which is helping adoption rates in some states soar. In Colorado, where EN Express has only been available since late October, more than 28% of adults signed up by the end of November. The hope is that EN Express will help people to isolate or quarantine and get tested to reduce spread.
Another big at-home tech development came yesterday when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization to the Ellume test, the first over-the-counter COVID-19 test you can do fully at home. With the Ellume, which costs about $30, users swab their own nose and can get antigen-based results in about 20 minutes. It's not perfect; "this test, like other antigen tests, is less sensitive and less specific than typical molecular tests run in a lab," said Dr. Jeff Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health—meaning false negative and false positive results will occasionally happen. In trials, the Ellume correctly identified 96% of positive samples and 100% of negative samples in people with symptoms; the numbers dipped to 91% and 96%, respectively, in asymptomatic people. But that’s still accurate enough to be enormously helpful, and accessible enough to make a difference, though the cost will be prohibitive for many to use frequently. A similar rapid antigen test from Abbott, called BinaxNOW, also gained emergency use authorization for home use from the FDA today. It takes just 15 minutes to complete and costs $25, though unlike Ellume's test, it requires a prescription.
Other intriguing tech tools in the fight against COVID-19 include existing wearable devices, which researchers across the country have been testing for months to see how accurate they might be at predicting whether a user has COVID-19, even if they’re asymptomatic. Early (and promising) results are rolling in for several studies of various devices, including Apple Watches, Fitbits and Oura smart rings, which suggest that wearables like these can detect infections by monitoring users’ heart rate or temperature, STAT reports. For the Oura ring study, published this week in ScientificReports , temperature data were able to predict COVID-19 infection in 76% of infected participants about three days before they felt ill. Such an early warning system could signal to users that it’s time to stay home to avoid infecting others, perhaps curbing viral spread. But research continues, and further studies are necessary before wearables offer a virus-detection feature.
If Americans were to widely adopt these tech tools, and those that will surely follow, the nation’s pandemic response would be stronger. The more options that are available, the better.
The Trump Administration is reportedly negotiating a deal with Pfizer that includes a clause requiring Pfizer's suppliers of materials needed to produce the company’s vaccine to prioritize its purchase requests, according to the New York Times. That would enable the pharma company to manufacture tens of millions more doses from April through June. The administration faced criticism recently when it failed to pre-order enough doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to cover a substantial number of Americans. Currently, it only has secured enough to vaccinate 50 million. Even when adding in the pre-ordered doses of the Moderna vaccine, which will almost certainly be granted emergency authorization later this week, Trump's administration has only secured enough to inoculate 150 million people (less than half the country) by the summer.
Costa Rica granted emergency use authorization to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine yesterday, CNN reports. The country has agreed to purchase 3 million doses, and vaccinations could begin in the first quarter of 2021. Chile also gave emergency use authorization to the same vaccine today.
More than 1,600 health care workers in New York City have been vaccinated so far with no reports yet of serious side effects, CNN reports. Some recipients are experiencing mild side effects, including pain at the injection site, fatigue and muscle aches, expected to last a day or two based on studies of the shot. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said today that the city plans to launch a dashboard that will track vaccinations across the five boroughs.
However, one health care worker in Alaska had a serious allergic reaction after getting the Pfizer vaccine yesterday and had to be hospitalized, the New York Timesreports. The person had no history of drug allergies, but whether they had any other type of allergies is so far unknown. They are in stable condition, CNN reports.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
The Global Situation
More than 73.4 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 1.6 million people have died. On Dec. 15, there were 625,480 new cases and 13,998 new deaths confirmed globally.
Editor's note: On Nov. 25, Turkey changed its policy to include asymptomatic cases in its daily numbers. On Dec. 10, the country provided a large case dump to bring the total historical reporting in line with this new standard. However, the data are not yet available to accurately distribute this increase retroactively. The result is a significant anomaly that impacts the charts and maps both for Turkey, and, due to the country’s large case numbers, the world.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here is every country with over 1 million confirmed cases:
The World Health Organization's Europe office warned today that the coronavirus pandemic will likely get worse across the region next year. "Despite some fragile progress, COVID-19 transmission across the European Region remains widespread and intense," the guidance reads. "There is a high risk of further resurgence in the first weeks and months of 2021, and we will need to work together if we are to succeed in preventing it." To get through the winter months, the WHO advises countries to focus on reducing crowding at busy mountain ski resorts, which are known sites for seeding infections and contributing to the resurgence of the virus in Europe. The WHO also suggests that individuals postpone or downsize celebrations and gatherings.
London, which is back on “very high" alert, resumed a strict lockdown today after cases there surged over the past three weeks. Pubs, cafes and restaurants will close except for takeout and delivery, CNN reports, while residents will be barred from meeting people outside of their households, except in limited numbers at parks, public gardens or sports facilities. (However, up to three households are allowed to mingle indoors from Dec. 23 to 27 in a so-called "Christmas bubble.") Infection rates in London are rising among all age groups, U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said, and in some parts of London and the surrounding areas, cases are doubling every week.
After leaders in Sweden took an infamously lax approach to the coronavirus pandemic, the country is now in a second wave that’s threatening to overwhelm its health system. Recently, the country instituted policies more aligned with the rest of Europe, the New York Times reports, including closing some schools and limiting public gatherings. Yesterday, a new report from a special commission found that the government had failed to protect older people, bolstering the notion that the so-called “Swedish experiment” was a failure.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. had recorded more than 16.7 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. More than 303,000 people have died. On Dec. 15, there were 198,357 new cases and 3,019 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
As the failed Swedish experiment showed, when governments chase a herd-immunity strategy to COVID-19 without a vaccine, it results in too many unnecessary deaths to be a viable or humane option. Yet internal emails show that key members of the Trump administration were pushing exactly this approach, despite senior Trump officials denying it, according to a Politico exclusive . “There is no other way, we need to establish herd [immunity], and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups [sic] expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD," wrote former science adviser Paul Alexander on July 4 to a group of senior officials including his boss, Health and Human Services assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo. "Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk...so we use them to develop herd [immunity]...we want them infected." In a statement to Politico, a spokesperson for HHS said that Alexander’s herd-immunity views “absolutely did not” shape the department's approach.
Congress may yet pass a COVID-19 relief deal this week, potentially including a second (smaller) stimulus check for households that earn below a certain income level. Those checks could be $600-$700, the Washington Post reports—about half the amount of the direct payments that millions of Americans received in the spring. The package would also include relief for small businesses, unemployed Americans and schools, as well as funding for vaccine distribution.
Joyce Warshaw, mayor of Dodge City, Kansas, resigned yesterday after receiving death threats over her support for a mask mandate. The threats began after Warshaw—whose aunt died from COVID-19 and whose daughter contracted it—spoke out in favor of such a rule in a December USA Today article, the AP reports. Despite her resignation, Warshaw did not back down from her stance. “I don’t feel safe anymore due to some people’s actions and words...but that does not take away from the fact that I truly love Dodge City and will always call it home,” she wrote on Facebook yesterday.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Dec. 16, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Top Photos of 2020
TIME's photo team chose the 100 news photos that captured 2020, and plenty—of health care workers in full protective gear, of COVID-19 patients being intubated—illustrated the bleak circumstances of the pandemic. Read more here.
Why Christmas Trees Are Such a Hot Item This Year
It started with toilet paper, flour, at-home gym equipment...and now there's a run on Christmas trees. Amanda Mull of The Atlantic reports on a surprising twist in this dark December: that people are feeling festive enough to buy Christmas trees at all. But it also makes sense, she says. “People need something new and fun to do, and picking up and decorating a Christmas tree will give a family at least a day of wholesome entertainment with a joyful payoff,” she writes. Read more here.
Pandemic Weddings Are Sickening More Than Just the Guests
Wedding photographers are having a rough pandemic. They often must get up close and personal with the wedding party and guests—all of whom differ in how seriously they take the virus. "I would say about 50% of the weddings I’ve shot, there’s been no masks at all," one told TexasMonthly. Read more here.
The New Vaccine’s Race For a Name
Multiple COVID-19 vaccines are being produced, but what should we call them? Naming a vaccine takes a surprising amount of thought, care and time—typically, about two years-worth, STAT reports. Of course, now that timeline is very much condensed, and names will be expected when the vaccines receive full FDA approval next year. Branding experts are aiming for a user-friendly, approachable name, one that's sufficiently "science-y" without being alienating. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
If you were forwarded this and want to sign up to receive it daily, click here.
Today's newsletter was written by Mandy Oaklander and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
沒有留言:
張貼留言