Monthly Archives: February 2021

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, seen last year. Lawmakers repealed his executive order declaring a coronavirus emergency. He issued a new one. Morry Gash/AP hide caption

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, seen last year. Lawmakers repealed his executive order declaring a coronavirus emergency. He issued a new one.

Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin approved a joint resolution Thursday overriding Gov. Tony Evers' most recent COVID-19 state of emergency, abolishing a state-wide mask mandate. In response, Evers declared a new state of emergency. Effective immediately, Wisconsinites must again wear masks in public places.

The legislature approved Joint Resolution 3 Thursday in a 52-42 vote in the Assembly, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. Democrats were joined by seven Republicans, but it wasn't enough. The resolution terminated Evers' Executive Order #104, calling the emergency declaration "unlawful."

Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, told lawmakers to stand up against the governor. "I don't know when legislators became comfortable with delegating their authority to the executive branch, creating an office where he can do whatever he wants," Steineke said. "That's not how this was set up."

Steineke argued the pushback wasn't about masks, which were mandated in July by Evers' second public health emergency declaration. That said, Republicans also shot down an amendment introduced by Democratic lawmakers Thursday that would have implemented a statewide mask mandate, WPR reported.

Shortly afterward, Evers countered with Executive Order #105 and Emergency Order #1, complete with another mask mandate. In a statement released by the governor's office Thursday, Evers said his efforts to contain the coronavirus have been met with lawsuits and obstruction.

"Wearing a mask is the most basic thing we can do to keep each other safe," Evers said. "If the Legislature keeps playing politics and we don't keep wearing masks, we're going to see more preventable deaths, and it's going to take even longer to get our state and our economy back on track."

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One Emergency After Another: Wisconsin Governor And Legislators Battle Over COVID-19 - NPR

Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says President Biden told him from the outset: "We're going to make some mistakes along the way. We're going to stumble a bit. And when that happens, we're not going to blame anybody. We're just going to fix it." "Boy, was that refreshing," Fauci says. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says President Biden told him from the outset: "We're going to make some mistakes along the way. We're going to stumble a bit. And when that happens, we're not going to blame anybody. We're just going to fix it." "Boy, was that refreshing," Fauci says.

Less than three weeks into the new Biden administration, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who has headed up the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, is encouraged by the new president's approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It was very clear what President Biden wanted ... and that is that science was going to rule," Fauci says. "That we were going to base whatever we do, our recommendations or guidelines ... on sound scientific evidence and sound scientific data."

But there was something else that Biden promised, which Fauci found equally reassuring: "He said, 'We're going to make some mistakes along the way. We're going to stumble a bit. And when that happens, we're not going to blame anybody. We're just going to fix it.' "

"Boy, was that refreshing," Fauci says.

Fauci has worked with seven presidents, from Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden. Much of his career has been devoted to researching viruses and the immune system. During the AIDS epidemic, he made major contributions to the understanding of how HIV affects the immune system and was instrumental in developing drugs that could prolong the lives of people with HIV.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci became something of a medical celebrity as a member of the former administration's coronavirus task force who publicly disagreed with President Donald Trump about COVID-19 treatment, the value of masks and about the timeline for reopening. In return, Trump called Fauci an "idiot" and tweeted about firing him.

"What I think happened is that the [Trump] White House, in general the president was looking for people who were saying things that were compatible with what his feeling was about, where he wanted to go," Fauci says.

Looking ahead, Fauci says the pandemic is far from over especially as the virus mutates and new strains emerge. He says controlling the spread of the virus will help tamp down mutations. The key is to vaccinate "as many people as quickly and as efficiently as you possibly can" and "to double down on the public health measures of uniform wearing of masks, physical distancing, avoiding congregate settings particularly indoors."

Fauci notes that any vaccination efforts should address the needs of the larger global population.

"You've got to be able to get with the help of the developed world the entire world vaccinated," he says. "As we allow this infection to exist to any degree in any part of the world, it will always be a threat. So we've got to approach this the way we approach smallpox, the way we approach polio, and the way we approach measles and other devastating global outbreaks."

On the major new mutations in the coronavirus and how that affects our strategy to fight it

I think people need to understand something that's very important: RNA viruses SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus will mutate, and the more the virus replicates, the more opportunity you give it to mutate. So when you have so much infection in the community, as we have had in the United States over the last few months, where you literally have hundreds of thousands of new infections per day we were up to between 300,000 to 400,000 [cases] a day. We're down now between 100,000 to 200,000 per day. But we still have 3,000 to 4,000 deaths per day. That means the virus has almost an open playing field to replicate, [which] means you give it an opportunity to mutate.

So even though this is a challenge, we should not be set back by this. We can meet the challenge and you meet the challenge by first getting a handle on the degree of mutations by doing good genomic surveillance, No. 1, but No. 2, by doing whatever you can to prevent the replication of the virus by vaccinating as many people as quickly and as efficiently as you possibly can.

And also to double down on the public health measures of uniform wearing of masks, physical distancing, avoiding congregate settings, particularly indoors.

One of the things that we do know is that the vaccines that we have, although they are less effective in preventing disease ... when you look at serious disease with hospitalizations and deaths, the vaccines still have a pretty important, positive effect even on the mutants.

But we don't want to get confident about that. We've got to be able to match future vaccines and upgrade them to be able to be directed specifically at these troublesome mutants that have evolved.

On the misleading idea that a good way to conquer COVID-19 might be to simply let more people get infected and gain immunity that way

[Trump] wanted to focus on things other than the pandemic. So anyone who would come in, like [coronavirus adviser] Dr. [Scott] Atlas, and say, "Just let people get infected, you'll get herd immunity and everything will be fine" was a welcome strategy or a welcome philosophy.

But as it turns out and we know right now very clearly that that was an incorrect strategy, if you actually pursued a strategy of "don't try and intervene. Don't wear a mask. Don't worry about congregate settings, just let the virus take its course and try and protect the vulnerable." ... We cannot effectively protect the vulnerable [that way], because they were such an important part of our population.

So if you look at the number of people right now who have died, it's close to 450,000 people. And if you look at the seroprevalence in the country how many people already will have gotten infected there are certain areas where it's high, 20-plus%. But as an average for the country, it's probably somewhere less than 20%, which means that if you wanted to get the 70 or 85% of the people that need to be infected to give you herd immunity, a lot more people will have died. We've already had 430,000 [to] 450,000 people who have died, and we aren't even anywhere close to herd immunity.

On the origin of the FDA's "emergency use authorization," which has been used to speed COVID-19 vaccines to market

To get a drug out as quickly as you possibly can, based on the fact that the benefit looks like it was better than the risk and you didn't have to fully show efficacy yet, originated way back during the years of HIV. Compassionate use of a drug even before you get an emergency use authorization originated way back in the days of HIV, because we didn't have compassionate use to any great extent until we got into the situation with HIV in the early and mid 1980s. So there's a very good connection between some of the things that we're doing now with interventions for COVID-19 that actually originated way back when we were doing HIV in its very early years.

On two things he learned from the AIDS epidemic that he's applying to the COVID-19 pandemic now

One of them is the importance of getting the community involved and dealing with the community and their special needs. ... We have a disparity here that is striking and needs to be addressed that if you look at the incidence of infection and the incidence of serious disease, including hospitalization and deaths, brown and Black people suffer disproportionately more than whites. ...

So I think that shines a bright light on what we probably should have done all along and certainly must do in the future, is to address those social determinants of health that actually lead to the great disparity of suffering in COVID-19 among brown and Black people. We had the same sort of thing with the disparities of infection in certain demographic groups with HIV. So from an epidemiological standpoint, there were similarities there.

We also learned the importance of fundamental basic science in getting solutions. ... Back in the early days, getting infected with HIV was a virtual death sentence for the overwhelming majority. ... It was the fundamental basic science of targeted drug development that allowed us to develop combinations of drugs first single drugs and then a couple at a time, and then triple and more combinations of drugs that ultimately completely transformed the lives of people living with HIV, to the point where you went from a virtual death sentence to being able to lead essentially a normal life, as well as not infecting anybody else. ...

We know now that something we've called "treatment as prevention" [works] which means if you treat someone who's living with HIV and suppressed the level of virus to below detectable, you make it essentially impossible for that person to infect someone else. So we got there through basic science.

On being vilified by AIDS activists early on in the AIDS crisis, who believed the government should expand access to experimental medicines, and how that compares to being vilified during the COVID-19 pandemic by people who are anti-science and anti-mask

That really is a stark contrast. The [AIDS] activists were justified in their concerns that the government (even though they weren't doing it deliberately) were not actually giving them a seat at the table to be able to have their own input into things that would ultimately affect their lives. So, even though they were very theatrical, they were very iconoclastic, they seemed like they were threatening, ... never for a single moment did I ever feel myself threatened by the AIDS activist.

In fact, one particular situation, I think, was very telling. At a time when there was a lot of pushback against the government and not listening to the valid concerns of the activists, I was invited to go down and I went with just one of my staff at the time to go down essentially alone to the gay and lesbian community center in the middle of Greenwich Village to meet with what must have been anywhere from 50 to 100 activists in this meeting room. Just me and one of my staff. And they were angry with the federal government because they felt the federal government was not listening to them, and they were right I think they had a really good point.

Not for a second, did I feel physically threatened to go down there, not even close. I mean, that's not the nature of what the protest was. And I think one of the things about it was that not only were they not threatening at all in a violent way, but ultimately they were [also] on the right side of history.

On his early research into the AIDS epidemic, visiting gay bathhouses to gain a better understanding of the then-mysterious outbreak that was killing gay men

This was the very, very early years of the outbreak. In fact, it may even have been before we even discovered that HIV was the cause. And we were seeing these large numbers of mostly gay men who were formerly otherwise well, who were being devastated by this terrible, mysterious disease. And it was so concentrated in the gay community that I really wanted to get a feel for what was going on there that would lead to this explosion of a sexually transmitted disease. So I did. I went to the Castro District [of San Francisco]. I went down to Greenwich Village and I went into the bathhouses to essentially see what was going on.

And the epidemiologist in me went, "Oh, my goodness, this is a perfect setup for an explosion of a sexually transmitted disease!" And the same thing going to the gay bars and seeing what was going on. And it gave me a great insight into the explosiveness of the outbreak of a sexually transmitted disease. So I think it was important, because it gave me a really on-the-ground feel for what was actually dynamically going on.

On whether COVID-19 will be with us forever like influenza

I don't think we need to make that assumption. That certainly is a possibility that you would have enough virus floating around and changing from year to year, that you would have to treat it in some respects, the way we treat seasonal influenza, where you have to upgrade the vaccine almost every year.

There is a way, if done properly, to avoid that, and that is, for example, if we successfully vaccinate 70 to 85% of the people in the United States and dramatically diminish the level of infection if we were living in a vacuum in only the United States, then I don't think we'd have to worry about seasonal turnover and having to match. But we live in a global community and unless we get the rest of the world adequately vaccinated and unless we don't have the opportunity of this virus to mutate in a place that doesn't have access to vaccines, we will always be threatened.

Fresh Air's interview with Dr. Fauci was recorded as part of a WHYY Zoom event at which Fauci accepted WHYY's annual Lifelong Learning Award.

Sam Briger and Seth Kelley produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Deborah Franklin adapted it for the Web.

Continued here:

Dr. Fauci On Vaccinations And Biden's 'Refreshing' Approach To COVID-19 - NPR

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Read more about the latest stimulus talks and other battles shaping up in Congress, check out coronavirus updates and see more stories trending online today.

House Democrats advance measure to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees (CBS News)

Biden tells Democrats hes willing to target COVID relief checks, but not shrink them (ABC)

McConnell and the GOP are preparing a barrage of budget amendments to water down Bidens COVID-19 stimulus package (Business Insider)

Lawyer leading impeachment defense says Trump blameless for supporters riot at Capitol (radio.com)

U.S. mulls using law designed to prosecute Mafia against Capitol rioters (Reuters)

Wisconsin prosecutors seek arrest warrant for Kyle Rittenhouse, say he violated bond by failing to update address (AP)

Biden administration weighs plan to directly send masks to all Americans (NBC)

The US may soon have its first standards for consumer face masks. Are they strict enough? (CNN)

Global coronavirus vaccine confidence rising but just 54% would have it next week, study suggests (Yahoo)

U.K. to test mixing COVID-19 vaccines in world-first trial (Axios)

Younger adults responsible for most of COVID-19 spread: Study (ABC News)

Chinas coronavirus cases: Is the communist regime lying to the world? (Fox News)

A very different Super Bowl this year for sports bars (CBS)

Australian Open players isolating, tuneups paused after hotel worker tests positive for coronavirus (ESPN)

Golden Globes 2021: The Complete Nominations List (Variety)

Peeps Return with New Flavors for Spring After a Pandemic Hiatus (People)

Tokyo Olympics chief apologizes, but refuses to resign over sexist comments (CNBC)

Morgan Wallens Recording Contract Suspended Indefinitely, Is Dropped From Country Radio After Racial Slur (ET)

Taylor Swift Sued by Utah Theme Park Over Evermore Album Title (Billboard)

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Congress divided on multiple issues, coronavirus and stimulus updates & more: Whats trending today - cleveland.com

DURHAM, N.C., Feb. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- EmitBio Inc., today announced new evidence from laboratory testing that demonstrates its proprietary light technology can inactivate multiple coronaviruses, beyond the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, to include the highly lethal Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). These findings indicate a likelihood the company's technology will also be effective against SARS-CoV-2 variants (mutations).

"Over the last 20 years we have seen three life-threatening coronavirus outbreaks, SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, and now SARS-CoV-2 the virus that causes COVID-19," stated Neal Hunter, Executive Chairman of EmitBio. "Having this countermeasure at-the-ready will not only help current COVID-19 patients but will also provide protection against future outbreaks. We are moving aggressively to make sure that everyone around the world has access to this technology."

The World Health Organization reports that MERS-CoV has a 35 40% fatality rate in those testing positive, with common signs and symptoms at hospital admission that include fever, chills, muscle pain, headache, non-productive cough and shortness of breath.Most cases have been linked to residents of the Arabian Peninsula, but cases have been reported outside of this region due to travelers returning home from Saudi Arabia.

In a controlled laboratory environment, precise wavelengths of light achieved >99.9% reduction in MERS-CoV viral load at doses of energy that have previously been proven safe to human tissue. These data extend the company's ability to inactivate different coronaviruses (including SARS-CoV-2 and MERS), providing a reasonable likelihood that visible light therapy will kill coronaviruses that may exist in animal populations, but do not yet exist in the global human population.

"What we learned from these findings is that our visible light is effective at inactivating viral particles before infecting the cell, much like antibodies inactivate viruses and prevent them from entering cells," stated Dr. Adam Cockrell, Director of Virology Research, EmitBio. "The inactivation appears to hold true against two coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-2 and MERS), which are far more genetically unique than the subtle mutations arising around the world in variants of SARS-CoV-2. It's not just the recent globally circulating variants that are of concern to the coronavirus research community, but also the imminent threat of coronaviruses that have not yet emerged into the human population."

EmitBio has developed a novel, hand-held treatment device* that directs energy into the upper respiratory tract with 100% of dose available at the site of need, thereby avoiding the possible side effects of systemic treatments. This device has been designed as an at-home treatment for mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. The company recently reported results from a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial with the investigational treatment device, which showed a 99.9% reduction in viral load in adults with COVID-19. These clinical study results confirmed the expectations derived from in-vitro experiments that showed the antiviral effects of safe visible light on SARS-CoV-2.

"On a scale of genetic variation from A to Z, if you consider SARS-CoV-2 as A, and MERS-CoV as Z, and we can kill them both, then we can most likely kill everything in between," concluded Hunter.

AboutEmitBioInc.

EmitBio Inc. is a life science company using the precise delivery of light to stimulate, heal and protect the body. EmitBio is comprised of a superior team of internationally recognized light science specialists merged with immunology and virology life science experts, prepared to react quickly to the pandemic and rapidly scale manufacturing for lifesaving medical breakthroughs. For more information, visithttp://www.emitbio.com/.

EmitBio Inc. is headquartered in Durham, NC and is an operating subsidiary of KNOW Bio LLC.

* The EmitBio device is investigational and is not yet available for sale pending FDA action.

Scientific Collaboration:

The research team at EmitBio welcomes inquiries and offers of scientific collaboration from the global research community. Please direct communication to:

collaboration@emitbio.com

Media Contact:

John Wallace

jwallace@decacommunications.com

(619) 200-7856

Investor Contact:

John Oakley, Chief Financial Officer

joakley@knowbiollc.com

(919) 939-7715

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SOURCE EmitBio Inc.

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EmitBio Demonstrates New Treatment Is Effective Against Multiple Types Of Coronavirus - The Mountaineer

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) The South Dakota Department of Health reported 6 new deaths due to COVID-19, as active cases have dropped below 2,600 on Thursday.

Active cases of COVID-19 in South Dakota are at 2,517 on Thursday, according to data reported by theSouth Dakota Department of Health.

According to the latest update, 174 new total coronavirus cases were announced bringing the states total case count to 108,813 up from Wednesday (108,639). Total recovered cases are now at 104,508 up from Wednesday (104,305).

The death toll is now at 1,788. The new deaths reported include two men and four women in the following age ranges: 60-69 (2); 70-79 (1); 80+ (3).

Current hospitalizations are at 126, down from Wednesday (133). Total hospitalizations are at 6,334.

Total persons negative is now at 296,591, up from Wednesday (295,728).

There were 1,037 new persons tested reported on Thursday. Thursdays new person tested positivity rate is 16.7%.

The latest seven-day all test positivity rate reported by the DOH is 7.6%. The DOH calculates that based on the results of the PCR test results but doesnt release total numbers for how many PCR tests are done daily. The latest one-day PCR test positivity rate is 8.3%.

Vaccine tracking is now being reported by the state. As of Thursday, 51,633 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 58,053 doses of the Moderna vaccine have been administered to 76,454 total persons.

According to the South Dakota Department of Health, 15,995 people have received the second dose of the Moderna vaccine, while 17,237 people have completed the Pfizer vaccine series.

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COVID-19 in South Dakota: 6 new deaths reported; 174 new total cases; Active cases at 2,517 - KELOLAND.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) The Tennessee Department of Health reported 164 new COVID-19 cases, five new deaths, and 168 new inactive/recovered cases in Northeast Tennessee on Thursday.

Over the last seven days, Northeast Tennessee has added 1,106 new cases. During the seven days prior, the region reported 952 new cases.

There have been 47,007 cases reported in Northeast Tennessee since the pandemic began.

Over the last seven days, Northeast Tennessee has reported 54 new deaths. During the previous seven-day period, 60 deaths were reported.

There have been 909 deaths reported in Northeast Tennessee since the pandemic began.

There are currently 1,532 active cases in Northeast Tennessee, down nine from yesterday.

This marks the fourth consecutive day that active cases have declined.

The 7-day positivity rate is currently 11.92%.

The Tennessee Department of Health reported 3,154 new cases statewide, bringing the states total to 736,370 cases.

The health department also reported 169 new deaths, bringing the states total to 10,202 deaths. Thats the third highest number of new deaths reported so far. The record is 192 deaths reported on Jan. 26.

The current 14-day and 30-day death totals are at record highs, with 1,518 deaths reported over the past 14 days and 2,935 reported over the past 30 days.

There are currently 29,058 active cases in Tennessee, down 418 from yesterday. This marks the fourth day of declining active cases.

The health department reported 1,443 current COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state, down 49 from yesterday. Hospitalizations have declined daily since Jan. 20.

To date, there have been 17,469 hospitalizations across the state.

Health officials have reported 697,110 recoveries in Tennessee since the pandemic began.

The total COVID-19 case count for Tennessee is 736,370 as of February 4, 2021 including 10,202 deaths, 1,443 current hospitalizations and 697,110 are inactive/recovered. Percent positive today is 8.23%. For the full report with additional data: https://t.co/jlAz8a6Upp. pic.twitter.com/IzoSiNKX5U

The following data was reported in local counties: (number in parenthesis is change since yesterday)

Carter CountyTotal cases: 5,386 (+28)Inactive/recovered: 5,074 (+14)Deaths: 137 (+1)Active cases: 175 (+13)

Greene CountyTotal cases: 6,957 (+22)Inactive/recovered: 6,621 (+28)Deaths: 132 (+2)Active cases: 204 (-8)

Hawkins CountyTotal cases: 4,861 (+18)Inactive/recovered: 4,519 (+25)Deaths: 87 (0)Active cases: 255 (-7)

Johnson CountyTotal cases: 2,114 (+5)Inactive/recovered: 2,020 (+6)Deaths: 36 (0)Active cases: 58 (-1)

Sullivan CountyTotal cases: 13,445 (+55)Inactive/recovered: 12,728 (+48)Deaths: 249 (+2)Active cases: 468 (+5)

Unicoi CountyTotal cases: 1,727 (+2)Inactive/recovered: 1,650 (+5)Deaths: 47 (0)Active cases: 30 (-3)

Washington CountyTotal cases: 12,517 (+34)Inactive/recovered: 11,954 (+42)Deaths: 221 (0)Active cases: 342 (-8)

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164 new COVID-19 cases, five new deaths reported in NETN on Thursday - WJHL-TV News Channel 11