August 3, 2021

The New York Times captures the mood as Americans suffer “pandemic whiplash” while leaders struggle with shifting guidance, the vaccinated told one week they could drop masks and the next urged to put them back on. The AAMC publishes a piece conceding that the vaccines work well against Delta while arguing readers should mask anyway, the kind of both-ways framing that fed the confusion.

In China, Wuhan orders testing of all 11 million residents and halts flights and trains after a handful of local cases, a return to the sweeping controls that defined the earliest days of the pandemic. Not every trend runs one direction: Nature reports that recorded UK cases have more than halved since mid-July, a sharp decline that few researchers predicted and that they were struggling to explain.

What to Know About the Yankees’ Coronavirus Outbreak (Published 2021)

The New York Times

Wild deer have coronavirus antibodies

Science | AAAS

Yankees’ Shutdown Emphasizes Staying Power of the Coronavirus (Published 2021)

The New York Times

All about your coronavirus vaccine card (and what to do if you lose it)

The Washington Post

Coronavirus: Vaccines & Variants with Former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, MD

The Washington Post

This is how much work is left to vaccinate the world against COVID-19

The World Economic Forum

Gov. Hogan: Maryland not planning new mask mandates

Governor Larry Hogan said Tuesday his administration has no plans to reimpose a state mask mandate.

WMAR 2 News

Vaccines work well against the delta variant. Here’s why you should wear a mask anyway

AAMC

China’s Wuhan to test ‘all residents’ as COVID-19 returns

City where COVID-19 first emerged reported seven locally transmitted case among migrant workers.

Al Jazeera

Infographic: COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the Middle East and North Africa

Since multiple vaccines for COVID-19 became available at the end of 2020, countries across the world have struggled to ensure that their populations have access to sufficient quantities of the vaccines.

Brookings

How the Kyrgyz Republic Tackled the Pandemic

The Kyrgyz Republic was the first country to receive IMF emergency funding to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. IMF Country Focus spoke with the mission chief, Nikoloz Gigineishvili, about the pandemic’s impact on the economy and how the IMF supported the recovery.

International Monetary Fund

COVID ‘Fast Grants’ sped up pandemic science

Programme awarded US$50 million in rapid grants and highlights limitations in existing scientific-funding mechanisms.

Nature

Surprise dip in UK COVID cases baffles researchers

Daily recorded infections have more than halved since mid-July. Few researchers anticipated such a sharp decline, and they are now struggling to interpret it.

Nature

SARS-CoV-2-derived fusion inhibitor lipopeptides exhibit highly potent and broad-spectrum activity against divergent human coronaviruses - Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy

Nature

Thromboembolism after COVID-19 vaccine in patients with preexisting thrombocytopenia - Cell Death & Disease

Nature

Americans Suffer Pandemic Whiplash as Leaders Struggle With Changing Virus (Published 2021)

The New York Times

Macau begins COVID-19 tests and shuts some entertainment venues, casino stocks fall

Reuters

Coronavirus likely to lock India's women out of job market for years

Reuters

No COVID-19 climate silver lining in the US power sector - Nature Communications

COVID-19 has decreased power sector emissions globally and in the United States. Here the authors assess whether such reductions would have occurred in the United States in the absence of the pandemic, as well as the potential impact of COVID-19 on coal-fired power plant retirements through 2022.

Nature

Turkey's coronavirus cases jump to nearly 25,000, highest since early May

Reuters

Time-varying optimization of COVID-19 vaccine prioritization in the context of limited vaccination capacity - Nature Communications

In the context of limited supply, strategies for optimising allocation of COVID-19 vaccines are needed. Here, the authors explore time-varying strategies that adapt to the epidemiological situation and simultaneously optimise for multiple objectives including reducing numbers of infections, hospitalisations, and deaths.

Nature

A worldwide assessment of changes in adherence to COVID-19 protective behaviours and hypothesized pandemic fatigue - Nature Human Behaviour

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Petherick, Goldszmidt et al. show that, from March to December 2020, adherence to physical distancing fell worldwide, while mask-wearing adherence increased.

Nature

Modelling, prediction and design of COVID-19 lockdowns by stringency and duration - Scientific Reports

Nature

Tennessee lawmaker, once a coronavirus skeptic, now urging everyone to get vaccinated

"Covid took over my lungs with lightning speed," GOP state Rep. David Byrd said. "I developed pneumonia. I got sicker and sicker, and more and more anxious."

NBC News

Panic-Buying And Transport Lockdowns. In Wuhan, It Feels Like Early Pandemic Again

In a dramatic move reminiscent of the first days of the coronavirus in China some 19 months ago, flights and trains in and out of the city of 11 million have been halted.

NPR

Greece's Entire Synchronized Swimming Team Is Out After Positive Coronavirus Tests

First came news that one athlete had tested positive; three more quickly followed. Now the whole team is being moved to a separate hotel.

NPR

A Bright Spot Amid Haiti's Woes: Its 1st Mass Rollout Of COVID Vaccines

Haiti received its first shipment of doses in July, just days after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse — and amid rising violence, poverty and the hurricane season.

NPR

Russia’s Vaccine Diplomacy Is Mostly Smoke and Mirrors

Russian scientists rolled out the country’s COVID-19 vaccine last summer, beating Western vaccine producers to the finish line. But scarce data, broken promises, and corruption have led the vaccine to lose its luster.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

What Can Employers Do to Require or Encourage Workers to Get a COVID-19 Vaccine? | KFF

This fact sheet reviews what employers can and cannot do under current rules and guidance to require or encourage their workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

KFF

August 3, 2021

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