Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 23: FDA Finds Traces of H5N1 Avian Flu in Milk, Trump’s ‘Bleach’ Moment

A spray bottle of Lysol disinfectant

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 1,504th day as well as English Language Day.

English Language Day celebrates the most spoken language in the world, with an estimated 1.456 billion speakers.

In news we cover today, today marks the fourth anniversary of then President Trump’s infamous “bleach” moment, the U.S. FDA said it had found traces of H5N1 Avian Flu in milk in grocery stores, and a U.K. study shows that increased drinking in the early years of the pandemic resulted in 2,500 additional deaths.

THE LEDE

It’s Been Exactly Four Years Since the President of the United States Suggested Injected Humans With ‘Disinfectant’

Today is the fourth anniversary of then President Trump’s viral bleach moment, as it’s sometimes referred to, a moment I’m quite sure that the former president would rather most people forget.

Trumps’ remarks came after a Department of Homeland Security presentation on early research suggesting that the coronavirus might be decontaminated in sunlight.

U.S. President Joseph Biden took the opportunity to poke fun at the former president over his infamous suggestion –  delivered at a White House briefing –  that SARS-CoV-2 could be treated with an “injection” of disinfectant.

“Don’t inject bleach. And don’t vote for the guy who told you to inject bleach,” Biden said in a social media post.

In case you don’t recall this, let’s look at the instant replay: Trump, while discussing the effects of light and humidity on how the virus spreads, claimed that his health advisers were going to “test” whether “very powerful light” could be brought “inside the body” to kill Covid.. Without missing a beat, he then continued: “And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. … It would be interesting to check that.”

As Trump’s contentions went viral, the maker of disinfectants Lysol and Dettol were forced to issue a statement warning that “under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body.”

TODAY IN COVID HISTORY

On April 23, 2020, the United Kingdom’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said at the daily Downing Street briefing that the country will have to rely on social distancing measures until there is a vaccine or a treatment for coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Whitty’s counterpart in the United States, CDC Director Robert Redfield, had to walk back a statement he made to the Washington Post.

“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” Redfield was quoted as saying.

Speaking at the White House the following day, Redfield clarified that the second wave “could be more difficult, more complicated” and not “worse.”

A study of New York State’s largest healthcare system, Northwell Health, that was released on this date showed that approximately 25% of coronavirus patients who needed ventilators to help them breathe died within the first few weeks of treatment.

The study also found that the novel coronavirus appeared to be causing sudden strokes in adults in their 30s and 40s, who did not have any comorbidities.

In South America, demonstrators took to the streets of Bogota, protesting over what they said is a lack of support from the government during the country’s lockdown.

In China, many Wuhan residents said they believed there could be a second wave in the epicenter of the outbreak, now that the city is returning to normal life. History later proved they were correct.

Finally, seven additional big cats at New York’s Bronx Zoo have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, the non-profit organization that runs the zoo, bringing. the total to eight big cats including four tigers, three African lions, and a Malayan tiger, among others.

UNITED STATES

A new study from Johns Hopkins University that the coronavirus pandemic did not delay child development nearly as much as had been believed in children aged 5 and under.

The study, which analyzed data from 50,000 children using the Ages and Stages Questionaire-3, found only slight declines in communication, problem-solving, and personal-social skills, with no significant change in motor skills.

GLOBAL NEWS

A new study found that children are less likely than adults to develop severe cases of Covid. This is because the cells in their noses are better at fighting off the virus, the study, entitled “Age-Specific Nasal Epithelial Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Infection” which was published in the journal Nature on April 15 of this year, suggests.

The study, led by researchers at University College in London, showed that aging adult nose cells contain 100 times more virus in the first few days after an infection. The researchers’ discovery could serve to explain why older adults suffer far worse from Covid while children are very rarely very ill.

The U.K. Office for National Statistics reported that alcohol killed a record number of people in the country in 2022. Compared with statistics from 2019, before the start of the pandemic, nearly 2,500 more people died from drinking. The ONS also said that the pandemic caused already heavy drinkers to increase their intakes even more.

OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it had detected viral particles of H5N1 avian influenza in milk purchased at grocery stores, but the agency says it still believes that the milk is safe to drink.

The agency further stated that it believes the viral particles were detected by highly sensitive lab tests and are likely to have been remnants of viruses killed during the pasteurization process. It said that it does not think it is likely that the particles would able to infect people but it is conducting additional tests to be completely sure.

PANDEMIC STATISTICS

CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE

In the United States, in the week ending April 13, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on April 19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.4%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.1% 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 -19.9%.

The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 6,604, a figure that is down 13.8 % over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 1.0%, a figure that is down 9.1% 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 2,182 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

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