Hopefully on home-testing as soon as possible, experts call the idea a long shot.
Over the past few weeks, Harvard scientists have made headlines for their bold idea of stopping the spread of coronavirus: bringing out decades-old antigen tests in testing technology, a daily use for millions of Americans.
These tests are not very good at selecting low-level infections. But it is cheap and convenient, and gives results in minutes. Dr. Michael Meena, a scientist at Harvard, argued that real-time data would be much better than long-delayed test pipelines.
The rapid and frequent approach to testing has attracted the attention of scientists and journalists around the world, and even High officials In the Department of Health and Human Services.
But more than a dozen experts said interesting in theory, while ubiquitous antigen testing, would not be effective in practice. In addition to tackling huge rational hurdles, he said, the plan relies on compliance by people who are increasingly confused by extensive buy-in and coronavirus testing. The objective is also to assume that rapid tests can achieve their intended purpose.
“We’re coming up with new ways to control this epidemic,” said Asher Babadi, director of clinical microbiology services at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. But he said antigen tests that can work at home have not yet entered the market.
Also, no rigorous study has shown that it is better to test faster and more frequently than sensitive but slower in the real world, he said. “The data for it is what is missing.”
Dr. Alexander Nder, a director of the Infectious Diseases Diagnosis Laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital and author of a recent report on the epidemic, said the approach presented was “largely ambitious, and we need to examine it against reality.” Testing strategies in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
To date most coronavirus tests rely on a laboratory technique called PCR, which has long been considered the gold standard because it can select even small amounts of genetic material from microorganisms such as coronavirus.
But efforts to collect, ship and process samples for PCR tests by the sputtering supply chain have been compromised, increasing turnaround times. And the longer the wait, the less use it will have.
On Sunday, thousands of Hong Kong police officers took to the streets of Hong Kong to protest the postponement of assembly elections due to the epidemic and the imposition of national security law by China, giving officials new powers to move critics forward.
A large police presence was observed around the Kowloon Peninsula, where some activists called for a march on the day the election was to begin, despite the rules of social distance, which prohibited gathering. However, occasional pro-democracy mantras erupted as small groups were injured in the side streets, with fewer protesters than the large crowd gathered last year.
While Hong Kong has seen an increase in coronavirus cases in the past month, recent waves have largely come under control. One week after the daily average in one or less double digits, the city announced 21 new cases on Sunday.
The Hong Kong government, with the help of a team from mainland China, launched a universal testing program last week that said it was necessary to break the hidden chains of virus transmission. Some activists and healthcare activists urged residents to boycott the scheme, calling it a waste of resources motivated by political will to tarnish China’s central government’s image.
The first batch of 128,000 tested at the program found six positive cases, including four people with previously confirmed cases, who were treated in hospitals, health officials said Thursday. Five more cases were announced by the program on Sunday. About 10 million people in the city of 7.5 million have registered for the tests.
For many Americans, Labor Day is a goodbye to summer before the kids go back to school and the cold weather arrives. But public health experts worry that amid the epidemic, there will be devastation this fall.
After Memorial Day and the 4th of July, cases of Covid-19 spread around the United States as people organized family gatherings or gathered in large groups.
The country’s top infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony S. Fawcett said he wanted people to enjoy Labor Day weekend, but cautioned to avoid post-holiday spikes in the circumstances: have fun outside; Avoid crowds, and keep gatherings of 10 people or less; And also outside, wear a mask and study physical distance if you spend time with people outside your home.
“We’ll see what happens over the weekend, and we want to make sure we don’t have too fast,” said Dr. Fausi.
In terms of daily case counts, going to Labor Day weekend is worse than United States Memorial Day weekend. The nation now has about 40,000 new confirming cases per day, up from about 22,000 before Memorial Day weekend.
Dr Fauki said the increase in infections after Labor Day would make it more difficult for people to control the spread of coronavirus in the fall when they go indoors.
Public health experts said it is more challenging to persuade people to reduce their Labor Day weekend plan than the previous holiday weekend, as many people experience epidemic fatigue after six months of bans, closures and divorces.
Eleanor J., assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. “People are tired of taking this precaution and turning their lives upside down,” Murray said. “They are missing their friends and family, and everyone wants things to go normally. It’s perfectly understandable, but unfortunately, we don’t really get the saying. “
Although he is the most trusted confidante of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, he was careful to keep himself away from the virus whenever possible. Mr. Lopez Obrador questioned the science behind facial masks and minimized the epidemic at the beginning of doing a little testing. To avoid economic hardship, he has imposed a strict ban on travel.
Under his supervision, Mexico has the fourth highest mortality rate from coronavirus worldwide.
As of Saturday, 67,326 coronavirus deaths had been reported in Mexico, according to the Times database. But the health ministry also said that 122,765 more deaths than usual had been reported in the country since the epidemic began in August, indicating that the exact figure could be higher than reported.
While Mr. Lપેpez Obrador was still kissing children at rallies and comparing the virus to the flu, Mrs. Shenbum was thinking for a long epidemic. She led an aggressive testing and contact tracing campaign, and set up a test kiosk where people get free admission.
Everyone in Mexico City should use face masks on public transport and wear a mask whenever he addresses the news media. And when doctors told him that the N95 mask, imported by the federal government from China, was too narrow to fit the Mexican face, he turned the local factory into a mask-making operation.
For Ms. Shenbaum, Ph.D. With scientist. In energy engineering, aligning very closely with the president means that she will ignore practices she knows are in the best interests of public health. Wandering too far, and she risks losing the support of a political kingmaker who is believed to be – the first woman and first Jewish man elected to lead the country’s capital – as the party’s next presidential candidate.
Yet, while refusing to criticize the President, his strategy has been to follow science.
Other coronavirus news from around the world:
-
India On Sunday, 90,632 new coronavirus cases were reported, a world record. According to the Times database, the coronavirus outbreak in India, with more than 100 million cases, devastated the economy until the recent boom.
-
MelbourneAustralia, Australia’s second-largest city, extended its lockdown on Sunday until at least September 28. The state of Victoria, the epicenter of Australia’s worst outbreak, has been under lockdown since early August.
The virus is spreading around the college campus as students return.
Within days of the University of Iowa reopening, students were complaining that they could not take coronavirus tests or were sniffing at people who believed they were in isolation. Undergraduates The sidewalks were jammed And Downtown Bar, Masks hanging under their chins, never mind the city’s mask command.
Now, Iowa City is a full-fledged epidemic hot spot – one of the top 100 college lodge communities around the United States where the infection has spread in recent weeks as students return to the fall semester. Yet the rate of infection has turned downward in the Northeast, where U.S. While the virus was in the first place, it is high in many states in the Midwest and South – and evidence suggests that students returning to larger campuses are a major factor.
In a New York Times review of 203 U.S. counties where students make up at least 10 percent of the population, nearly half have experienced the worst weeks of the epidemic since Aug Gust. In half of them, statistics show that new numbers of infections are currently at their peak.
Despite the surge in cases, there has been no increase in deaths in college college communities, the data show. This suggests that most infections originate from campus, as young people who are infected with the virus die less than older people.
However, leaders fear that infected young people will contribute to the spread of the virus throughout the community.
The increase in infections reported by the county health department is due to the fact that many college-led administrations are also announcing clusters on their campuses. The potential for the virus to spread beyond campus greens has deeply affected workplaces, schools, governments and other organizations in local communities.
The result is always increasing tensions between the traditional town and the robe as college-led towns have tried to balance the economic dependence on universities with which there are fears of public health.
Across the world, including some of the world’s richest countries, educators are struggling to figure out how to facilitate distance learning during an epidemic. But in poor countries like Indonesia, this challenge is particularly difficult.
In North Sumatra, students climb a tall tree a mile from their mountain village. The branches above the ground bent over the tall branches, hoping for a strong enough cellphone signal to complete their assignments.
The journey of these students and others like them is a symbol of the hardships faced by millions of school children in the Indonesian archipelago. Officials have closed schools and brought in remote learning, but internet and cellphone service is limited and many students do not have smartphones and computers.
According to the Ministry of Education, more than a third of Indonesian students have limited or no internet access, and experts fear that many students will lag far behind, especially in remote areas where study online study will be an innovation.
Indonesia’s efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus have met with mixed results. As of Saturday, there were 190,665 cases in the country and 7,940 people had died. But testing has been limited and independent health experts say the actual number of cases is many times higher.
With the start of the new academic year in July, virus-free zone schools were allowed to reopen, but these schools give only a fraction of the country’s students. Until August Gust, communities in low-risk areas will be able to decide whether to reopen schools, but few have done so.
Itje Chodidja, an education officer and teacher trainer in the capital Jakarta, said students have no idea what to do, and parents think it’s just a holiday. “We still have a lot of areas where the internet is not used. In some areas, it is also difficult to get electricity. “
Reporting includes Robert Gabloff, Shawn Hubbler, Daniel Ivory, Jennifer Jett, Natalie Kitroff, Sarah Cliff, Tiffany May, Dera Menra Sijabat, Richard C. Paddock, Tara Parker-Pop, In Stin Ramsay, Sarah Watson and Catherine J. Wu contributed.
