Coronavirus Morning News Brief – May 28: Pfizer, Moderna Hit With Patent Suites, Furor in France Over Hydroxychloroquine Clinical Trial

Today is National Brisket Day. A server holds a platter of brisket at Katz’s Delicatessen in New York.

Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,173rd day of the pandemic as well as National Brisket Day in the United States.

The day celebrates the tender cut of veal or beef that is considered among the most flavorful, despite being relatively inexpensive.  It takes skill and patience, however, to prepare brisket properly to ensure it is soft and tender.  Searing it after seasoning will arrest its juices from flowing out, resulting in the perfect meal.

OP-ED ON SUNDAY

Singapore Airlines Tells Cabin Crew Not to Wear Masks

It sounds astonishing, but the headline is not from the Onion.

Perhaps a bit late to the party, Singapore Airlines announced that its mask mandate for flight attendants and pilots will be lifted on June 1, nearly one year after a similar requirement for the airline’s passengers ended.

The carrier said in a statement that “in tandem with the Singapore Government’s move towards the endemic new norm, it will be stepping down the mask-wearing requirement for its flight crew with effect from June 1.”

Herein lies the rub: Some flight attendants have expressed concern over the change in policy because they were specifically told not to don face masks after starting that day.  The airline, in a memorandum to crewmembers, said that the new requirement is to maintain a “unified and consistent approach” to the Singapore Airlines uniform and appearance.

Without a hint of irony, the statement from the airline also read: “Our crew will continue to adhere to the robust health and safety measures implemented on board to safeguard the well-being of our customers and staff.”

The policy also applies to Scoot, the airline’s low-cost carrier.

Perhaps those of us who care about our own health as well as that of the cabin crew that serves us during a flight should consider a different choice in carrier.

In other news we cover today, the discredited French researcher Didier Raoult is in hot water for continuing a clinical trial on the use of hydroxychloroquine for Covid, Pfizer and Moderna were sued for patent infringement, and the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine warned that catastrophic pandemics could “become our new normal.”

UNITED STATES

Biotech company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals  filed suit on Friday against Pfizer and Moderna in Delaware federal court, again claiming that the companies’ coronavirus vaccines infringe its patents. This is the third time Alnylam has sued Pfizer and Moderna for allegedly violating its patent rights in lipid nanoparticle technology, which the vaccines use to deliver genetic material into the body.

Meanwhile, in Houston, Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine Houston and a vaccine researcher, warned that “[C]atastrophic pandemics could become our new normal,” adding that “we should expect a steady stream of new Covid cases. And because many individuals have declined Covid-19 vaccinations or boosters, we will continue to see serious cases and hospitalizations”

GLOBAL

French physicians’ bodies writing in Le Monde on Sunday called on public health authorities to punish researcher Didier Raoult for what it terms “the largest ‘unauthorised’ clinical trial ever seen” into the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat SARS-CoV-2.

Raoult, a tropical disease specialist, is the former head of the IHU Mediterranee research hospital. He and his subordinates engaged in “systematic prescription of medications as varied as hydroxychloroquine, zinc, ivermectin and azithromycin to patients suffering from Covid-19… without a solid pharmacological basis and lacking any proof of their effectiveness,” a group of 16 research bodies wrote in the op-ed piece.

TODAY’S STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, May 28.

As of Sunday morning, the world has recorded 689.4 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of less than 0.1 million from the previous day, and 6.88 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 661.8 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of less than 0.1 million from the previous day.

The reader should note that infrequent reporting from some sources may appear as spikes in new case figures or death tolls.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Sunday at press time is 20,694,518, a decrease of 30,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,656,398, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 38,120, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past eight months.

The United States reported 72,136 new cases in the period May 4 through May 10, a figure that is down 26% over the same period one week earlier, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The test positivity rate is 5.2%, up 5% over the 14 days preceding May 11.

The death toll from Covid is down 1.3% in week ending May 20, 2023, and the trend in Covid-19 deaths is down 13.3% over the same period.

Finally, the number of hospital admissions from over the past week Covid was 8,256 as of May 23, a figure that is down 11% over the preceding 7-day period.

Starting on March 25, 2023, the Morning News Brief began to update case data as well as death tolls on a weekly basis.  In addition, starting on May 15, 2023, the Morning News Brief has pressed pause on certain data sets as we assess the update of changes in reporting by U.S. health authorities at the CDC.

Since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Sunday, recorded 107.1 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.16 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, just under 45 million, and a reported death toll of 531,864.

The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States.  Rosstat last reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July 2022, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.

Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with just under 40.1 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.4 million total cases.

Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 702,664, has recorded 37.6 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.

The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are Japan, with 33.8 million cases, South Korea, with 31.6 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 25.8 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.6 million, and Russia, with 22.9 million.

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of May 11, over 270.2 million people in the United States – or 81.4% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 69.5%, or 230.6 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now over 676.7 million. Breaking this down further, 92.23% of the population over the age of 18 – or 238.2 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 79.1% of the same group – or 204.3 million people – is fully vaccinated.  In addition, 20.5% of the same population, or 53 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine, while 23.7 million people over the age of 65, or 43.3% of that population have also received the bivalent booster.

Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish the updated information on Thursdays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.  Starting on May 11, 2023, the CDC pressed pause on reporting new vaccine data, a hiatus it said would end on June 15 of this year.

Some 70% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sunday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 13.39 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 216,275 doses are now administered each day.

Meanwhile, only 30% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, 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 of vaccine.

Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.

In addition, with the start of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines.

Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)