Coronavirus Daily News Brief – May 3: Diabetes Drug May Prevent Long Covid, Louisiana Woman Stole $440K in Pandemic Relief Funds
Saint Louis Cathedral at Jackson Square, New Orleans
Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,514th day.
In news we cover today, a Louisiana woman defrauded the U.S. government of $440,000 in pandemic relief funds, researchers found that a common diabetes drug will lower the amount of SARS-CoV-2 in a patient and could reduce likelihood of onset of Long Covid, and students became much more dependent on their smartphones during the first years of the pandemic.
TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY
On May 3, 2020, an Oxford scientist who was working on a vaccine for the novel coronavirus said that Covid-19 shots would be like flu shots: A person would need to get one every year.
The Trump administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, said she found the at Michigan’s state Capitol last week “devastatingly worrisome” given the lack of social-distancing precautions taken.
Officials in New York State said that schools would remain closed for the remainder of the academic year amidst the coronavirus outbreak. Then Governor Andrew Cuomo said in his morning briefing that it would not be possible to reopen them “in a way that would keep our children and students and educators safe.”
Meanwhile, Macy’s, one of the largest department store chains in the United States, said it planned to reopen all of its 775 stores, which would include Bloomingdale’s stores and the company’s flagship store on Herald Square in Manhattan, by the end of June 2020.
The number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 3.5 million, of which 1.15 million had recovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 246,950.
LONG COVID
A study from researchers at the University of Minnesota reported that the common diabetes drug metformin may decrease the likelihood of the onset of Long Covid and will decrease the amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the body, thereby decreasing some symptoms. Further, metformin will help reduce the risk of rebound symptoms, provided it is given early in the course of non-severe illness.
The study, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Disease, comprised testing metformin against a placebo in 999 adults infected with Covid-19 during the omicron wave. More than 50% of the study enrollees were vaccinated. The participants in the study represented a standard- risk population.
UNITED STATES
A Baton Rouge, Louisiana, woman defrauded the U.S. government of $440,000 in pandemic relief funds and made extravagant purchases including a Range Rover, the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Middle District Court said Friday.
Linda Gurvin submitted six fraudulent applications seeking more than $1 million in federal loans under the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster loan program and made fraudulent applications in the names of two new entities, namely a non-profit foundation and a church, that she formed for this specific purpose.
Gurvin was convicted on wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions and sentenced to three years in federal prison in the courtroom of Chief Judge Shelly Dick, who also sentenced her to pay more than $496,000 in restitution to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Dick further ordered her to forfeit an additional $447,600 in proceeds from her offenses.
The fraudster’s life before the pandemic appears to be a mystery. Her LinkedIn page is blank and only one connection is listed while her Facebook page appears to have been scrubbed of any photographs of postings made after 2016.
In Connecticut, Raymond Dolphin, a middle school principal in Manchester took steps to focus his pupils on their studies while also improving their mental health. What he did was simple: he banned the use of smartphones at school. The move came because students had become much more attached to their phones during the isolation they faced in the first years of the coronavirus pandemic.
The school now requires pupils to place their phone in a Yondr pouch, a patented neoprene case that students aren’t able to open while on school grounds. The reports are promising from parents, teachers, and even the pupils themselves. Students are reporting to parents and teachers that they are making more friends and parents are reporting an improvement in their children’s studies, grades, and mental health.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that the avian flu virus circulated in cows for four months before the outbreak was confirmed. It appears that the spread in cattle started from a single spillover event from birds in the Texas panhandle that may have taken place in early December last year.
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending April 20, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on April 26 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.0%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.4% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.4%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -17.9%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 5,615, a figure that is down 14.4 % over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 0.9%, a figure that is down 10% in the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine at press time, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 8,645 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.7% 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 beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number
Finally, as of April 14, 2024, only Turkmenistan in Central Asia is only state that has not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever, although it is strongly suspected that the virus is present there. Meanwhile, the last territory in the world to have its first ever SARS-CoV-2 infection was Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand that reported its first five cases on December 21, 2022.
Where Has All the Data Gone?
We regret to inform that, as of April 15, 2024, the Global Daily Statistics data in the Coronavirus Daily News Brief are no longer being updated. Over the past 15 months, as more politicians and governments sought to place SARS-CoV-2 in the rear-view mirror, pandemic data reporting sputtered out and we are now at the point where it is simply not feasible to provide statistically valid case data on a global scale.
We are developing potential new and authoritative sources that we will present once they have been properly vetted, so stay tuned to this space. In the meantime, our Long Covid and pandemic coverage will remain much the same.
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Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.
The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org
If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.
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