UK could stop official Covid death count over claims of 'exaggeration'

THE HOME OF ORWELL PLAYS HIDE THE SAUSAGE

Issued on: 10/08/2020 - 00:30

FILE PHOTO: Nurses care for victims of the coronavirus in Surrey, Britain, May 22, 2020. © Steve Parsons/Pool, Reuters

Text by:NEWS WIRES

The UK's official COVID-19 daily death count could be scrapped following an investigation into Public Health England's method of counting the toll, The Telegraph newspaper reported.

The conclusions of the investigation, which was ordered by Health Secretary Matt Hancock after it emerged officials were "exaggerating" virus deaths, are expected this week, the newspaper said.

One recommendation could be to move to a weekly official death toll instead, a government source told the Telegraph.

Britain paused its daily update of the death toll last month and the government ordered a review into how Public Health England reports coronavirus deaths, after academics said the daily figures may include people who died of other causes.

Academics in a blog post had warned that the way the government health agency calculated the figures was skewed as patients who tested positive for coronavirus, but are successfully treated, will still be counted as dying from the virus "even if they had a heart attack or were run over by a bus three months later".

England's death figures vary substantially from day to day due to this reason, the academics had argued.

In contrast, the other parts of the United Kingdom do not follow the same approach. There is a cut-off threshold of 28 days in Scotland after a positive test, after which a patient is not automatically considered to have died from the virus.

Britain, one of the countries hardest hit by the virus, reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, its highest daily increase since June, taking the total number of cases past 310,000.

(REUTERS)

#BOLSONAROVIRUS
Bolsonaro assails Brazil network blaming him for virus deaths

Issued on: 09/08/2020 -

A message projected on a building in Rio de Janeiro on August 9, 2020 honored the 100,000 Brazilians killed so far by the novel coronavirus, calling them 'victims of Bolsonaro' Mauro PIMENTEL AFP/File

Rio de Janeiro (AFP)

President Jair Bolsonaro lashed out Sunday at the "cowardice" of Brazil's most widely viewed TV network for suggesting he bore heavy blame for the nation's more than 100,000 coronavirus deaths.

The far-right president accused TV Globo of treating the death milestone as if it were "a World Cup final," saying on Twitter that it had been both "cowardly and disrespectful of the dead."

On Saturday night, shortly after the official announcement that the 100,000-death mark had been passed, TV Globo opened its news report with a long editorial highly critical of Bolsonaro's handling of the health crisis.


News anchors pointedly noted that an article in the Brazilian constitution states that "health is the right of all and the duty of the National Government."

They then asked, "Has the president of the republic done his duty?"

Bolsonaro said in his tweet Sunday that "disinformation kills more than the virus." He suggested that TV Globo was using COVID-19 for political purposes, which itself could lead to deaths.

Bolsonaro has played down the coronavirus from the beginning, dismissing it as a "little flu," questioning the lockdowns ordered by some state governors and saying their economic impact could be "more deadly than the virus."

Bolsonaro said Sunday that he has a "clear conscience," adding that "we have done everything possible to save lives."

On Saturday, numerous politicians sent messages of comfort to the families of the 100,000 people who died and criticized the government's handling of the crisis. Congress and the Supreme Court announced a period of mourning.

But Bolsonaro simply shared a tweet from a government spokesman emphasizing the number of people who have recovered from the virus -- he is actually one of them -- and making no mention of the death toll.

© 2020 AFP

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Algerian journalist who covered protests faces verdict

Issued on: 10/08/2020 -

Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni, 40, was arrested on March 29 on charges of 'inciting an unarmed gathering' and 'endangering national unity' after covering demonstrations by anti-government protesters RYAD KRAMDI AFP

Algiers (AFP)

An Algerian journalist faces years in prison if convicted on Monday in a trial rights groups call a test of press freedom in a country recently rocked by anti-government protests.

Khaled Drareni, 40, was arrested on March 29 on charges of "inciting an unarmed gathering" and "endangering national unity" after covering demonstrations by the "Hirak" protest movement.

Weekly protests rocked Algeria for more than a year and only came to a halt in March due to the novel coronavirus crisis.

The prosecutor called for Drareni to be sentenced to four years in prison, fined 100,000 dinars ($784) and stripped of his civil rights at the opening of his trial at the Sidi M'hamed court in Algiers on August 3.

Drareni, editor of the Casbah Tribune news site and correspondent for French-language channel TV5 Monde, denied the charges when he appeared via video-conference due to coronavirus measures.

"I just did my job as an independent journalist," he said, according to a statement by press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), for which Drareni also works.

He added he had exercised his "right to inform as a journalist and citizen".

RSF, part of an international support committee for Drareni, condemned the charges and said "a prison sentence would be proof of a shift to authoritarianism" in Algeria.

If judges "accept this absurd indictment, it would show that Algeria's judiciary and executive have turned their back on the ideals of the country's independence," RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

The US-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists joined calls that have multiplied in recent weeks to release journalists in Algeria.

"Algerian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Khaled Drareni, especially as there is no evidence he did anything except his job as a journalist," said CPJ regional programme coordinator Sherif Mansour.

The Algerian judiciary has stepped up prosecutions and convictions of journalists, Hirak activists, political opponents and bloggers in recent months.

Drareni was charged along with protest members Samir Benlarbi and Slimane Hamitouche, who were released on bail in July and also face jail time, fines and loss of their civil rights.

Some journalists have been accused of sowing discord, threatening national interests and being on the payroll of "foreign parties", with several in prison and trials under way.

In July, Ali Djamel Toubal, a correspondent for the privately-owned media group Ennahar, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for, among other things, broadcasting footage showing police officers mistreating anti-regime demonstrators.

RSF ranked Algeria 146 out of 180 countries and territories in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, five places lower than in 2019.

© 2020 AFP

Indonesia's Mt. Sinabung blasts tower of smoke and ash into sky

Issued on: 10/08/2020 

AFP

Medan (Indonesia) (AFP)

Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupted Monday, belching a massive column of ash and smoke 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) into the air and coating local communities in debris.

The volcano on Sumatra island has been rumbling since 2010 and saw a deadly eruption in 2016.

Activity had picked up in recent days, including a pair of smaller eruptions at the weekend.

There were no reports of injuries or deaths, but authorities warned of possible lava flows.

"People living nearby are advised to be on alert for the potential appearance of lava," Indonesia's Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre said in a statement.

The crater's alert status remained at the second-highest level.

No one lives inside a previously announced no-go zone around the volcano, but small communities nearby were coated in a layer of thick ash from Monday's eruption.

Sinabung roared back to life in 2010 for the first time in 400 years. After another period of inactivity it erupted once more in 2013, and has remained highly active since.

In 2016, seven people died in one of Sinabung's eruptions, while a 2014 eruption killed 16.

In late 2018, a volcano in the strait between Java and Sumatra islands erupted, causing an underwater landslide that unleashed a tsunami which killed more than 400 people.

Indonesia is home to about 130 active volcanoes due to its position on the "Ring of Fire", a belt of tectonic plate boundaries circling the Pacific Ocean where frequent seismic activity occurs.

© 2020 AFP

Lebanon government on brink over blast fallout

Issued on: 10/08/2020

Protesters demand an end to an entrenched political system dominated by sectarian interests and family dynasties JOSEPH EID AFP

Beirut (AFP)

Lebanon's government was teetering Monday as two ministers' resignations over the deadly Beirut port explosion threatened to snowball and protesters' fury on the scarred streets showed no sign of abating.

The under-fire cabinet, struggling to weather the political storm, was due to meet in the afternoon amid widespread demands for an end to an entrenched political system dominated by sectarian interests and family dynasties.

Six days after the enormous chemical blast, which wreaked destruction across swathes of the capital and was felt as far away as the island of Cyprus, residents and volunteers were still clearing the debris off the streets.

International rescue teams with sniffer dogs and specialised equipment remained at work at the disaster's fire-charred "ground zero", where the search was now for bodies and not survivors.

According to the health ministry, at least 158 people were killed in Lebanon's worst peacetime disaster, 6,000 were wounded and around 20 remained missing.

The Lebanese want heads to roll over the tragedy and are asking how a massive stockpile of volatile ammonium nitrate, a compound used primarily as a fertiliser, was left unsecured at the port for years.

The country's top officials have promised a swift and thorough investigation -- but they have stopped short of agreeing to an independent probe led by foreign experts.

Two ministers have already decided they could no longer stand with a government that has shown little willingness to take the blame or to put state resources at the service of the victims.

- Resignations -

Environment Minister Damianos Kattar criticised the "sterile regime" when he announced his resignation on Sunday, hours after Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad became the first to quit.

At least nine lawmakers have also announced they would step down in protest, as have two senior members of the Beirut municipality.

The August 4 blast, which drew comparisons with the Hiroshima atom bomb, was so enormous that it altered the shape of not only of Beirut's skyline but even of its Mediterranean coastline.

But it remained to be seen whether the disaster will also have a lasting impact on Lebanon's political landscape, whose masters were widely seen as being primarily bent on self-preservation and buck-passing.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab gave a short televised address on Saturday evening to suggest early elections, but protesters were utterly unconvinced and ransacked several ministries even as he spoke.

During a second evening of protests on Sunday, the rage sparked by the explosion that disfigured Beirut and scarred so many of its residents had not relented, and violent street clashes flared again.

"The resignation of ministers is not enough. Those who are responsible for the explosion should be held accountable," said Michelle, a demonstrator in her early twenties.

She carried a poster of a friend who was killed in the explosion, inscribed with the message "My government killed me".

- 'Direct' aid -

Demonstrators lamented that security forces were using tear gas against blast victims instead of helping them clean their wrecked homes and find a roof.

"We need an international investigation and trial to tell us who killed our friends and all the other victims, because they might try to conceal the truth," said Michelle.

French President Emmanuel Macron supported the idea when he visited last Thursday, but his calls for reform and transparency appeared to receive less attention among Lebanese officialdom than his offer to raise aid money.

An online emergency support conference Macron chaired Sunday, attended virtually by a slew of world leaders including US President Donald Trump, came up with pledges for more than 250 million euros.

Macron, who was given a hero's welcome when he trudged through the rubble of ravaged old Beirut to meet distressed residents, stressed the aid would go "directly" to the population.

Many Lebanese are sceptically waiting to see how the aid delivery will navigate a sophisticated and deeply entrenched system of local and sectarian patronage organised by the country's party barons.

Lebanese aid groups have warned foreign donors that any financial assistance risked being syphoned away.

The Beirut disaster compounded what has become Lebanon's annus horribilis, deepening a dire economic crisis which had dragged half of the country into poverty in recent months.

The obliteration of the port and its huge grain silos in a country hugely reliant on imports has sparked fears of food shortages in the coming weeks.

Adding to Lebanon's woes, coronavirus cases are reaching new highs almost every day, putting further strain on hospitals that are treating blast victims and the dozens wounded in the repression of the protests.

© 2020 AFP

Beirut protestors call for fall of government on second day of demonstrations

Lebanese police fired tear gas to try to disperse rock-throwing protesters blocking a road near parliament in Beirut on Sunday in a second day of anti-government demonstrations triggered by last week's devastating explosion.

Fire broke out at an entrance to Parliament Square as demonstrators tried to break into a cordoned-off area, TV footage showed. Protesters also broke into the housing and transport ministry offices.

Tuesday's blast of more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate killed 158 people and injured more than 6,000, compounding months of political and economic collapse and prompting furious calls for the government to quit.

Riot police wearing body armour and carrying batons clashed with demonstrators as thousands converged on Parliament Square and nearby Martyrs' Square, a Reuters correspondent said.

Big protests in #beirut demanding the goverment and parliament to resign. https://t.co/UbaQn98v7J— louay kadri (@louaykadri) August 9, 2020

"We gave these leaders so many chances to help us and they always failed. We want them all out, especially Hezbollah, because it's a militia and just intimidates people with its weapons," Walid Jamal, an unemployed demonstrator, said, referring to the country's most influential Iran-backed armed grouping that has ministers in the government.

Lebanon's top Christian Maronite cleric, Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai, said the cabinet should resign as it cannot "change the way it governs".

"The resignation of an MP or a minister is not enough ... the whole government should resign as it is unable to help the country recover," he said in his Sunday sermon.

Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad said she was resigning from Prime Minister Hassan Diab's government on Sunday, citing the explosion and the failure of the government to carry out reforms.

Her departure was followed on Sunday by the resignation of Lebanon's environment minister, Damianos Kattar.

"In light of the enormous catastrophe... I have decided to hand in my resignation from government," Kattar announced in a statement, saying he had lost hope in a "sterile regime that botched several opportunities."

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

NOT IMMUNE

One-third of children hospitalized with COVID-19 require ICU care, CDC says

Children hospitalized with COVID-19 are just as likely to require ICU admission as hospitalized adults, a CDC analysis finds. Pictured, a woman and child sit between neon yellow circles for social distancing at The High Line park in New York City in July. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Roughly one in three children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States has required treatment in the intensive care unit, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hospitalized adults infected with the new coronavirus are admitted to the ICU at essentially the same rate, the agency said.
However, adults are about 20 times more likely to need hospital care after getting infected than children, the CDC said.

"Although the cumulative COVID-19-associated hospitalization rate among children is low compared with that among adults ... children can develop severe COVID-19 illness," agency researchers wrote.

RELATED Arizona teacher testifies in-person classes place students into 'petri dish'

The findings are based on an analysis of data from the COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network, a surveillance system that monitors laboratory-confirmed cases and hospitalizations in 14 states. The analysis covered the period between March 1 and July 25, the CDC said.

Over that nearly five-month span, eight children for every 100,000 in the general population was hospitalized for COVID-19. For adults, that figure was 164 per 100,000 in the general population, the CDC said.

Although ICU admission rates were about the same for children and adults, invasive mechanical ventilation was required in less than 6% of children, compared to nearly 19% of adults, CDC researchers said.

The COVID-19 hospitalization rate for children, however, increased four-fold over the nearly five-month period, and were highest for children age 2 and younger, at roughly 25 per 100,000 in the population, the agency said.

Nearly 30% of children hospitalized for COVID-19 between March and July were Black and 46% were Hispanic. More than 40% of the hospitalized children also had an underlying chronic health condition, with obesity being the most common, the CDC researchers said.

Fewer than 1% of children infected with COVID-19 died as a result. "Most reported cases of COVID-19 in children appear to be asymptomatic or mild," the CDC researchers wrote.

RELATED Testing, tracing needed to prevent COVID-19 spread at schools, study finds

#TRUMPVIRUS

 The United States surpassed 5 million total reported COVID-19 cases on Sunday, as positive cases continue to rise in some parts of the country..

As of Sunday afternoon, the United States had reported a total of 5,022,187 cases and 162,696 deaths -- both the highest totals in the world -- according to data collected by John's Hopkins University

#CORONAVIRUSA

COVID-19 deaths in U.S. surpass 160K amid another 60,000 cases

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- The COVID-19 death toll in the United States has surpassed 160,000, updated scientific research data showed Friday.

Study: N95 masks without valves most effective against COVID-19

N95 masks without valves are most effective at protecting against the new coronavirus, followed by surgical or polypropylene masks, researchers say. Photo by RevsReels/Pixabay

When it comes to face masks, not all are equally effective, a new study finds.

Duke University researchers developed a way of testing various types of masks to see which did the best job of stopping droplets coming from people's mouths, preventing spread of the new coronavirus.


They relied on a makeshift apparatus consisting of a box, a laser, a lens and a cellphone camera.

"We confirmed that when people speak, small droplets get expelled, so disease can be spread by talking, without coughing or sneezing," said Martin Fischer, a chemist and physicist at the Durham, N.C., campus. "We could also see that some face coverings performed much better than others in blocking expelled particles."

RELATED Masks safe for most people with lung diseases, experts say

What masks do the best job? That would be N95 masks without valves, followed by surgical or polypropylene masks.

Handmade cotton masks also stop a lot of droplets from normal speech, researchers said.

But bandanas and neck fleeces like balaclavas didn't block saliva spray much at all.

RELATED Testing every two days, masks, distancing may limit COVID-19 spread at college

"This was just a demonstration -- more work is required to investigate variations in masks, speakers, and how people wear them," Fischer said in a university news release. He added it demonstrates that businesses and others that are providing masks to employees or patrons could do similar testing.

"If everyone wore a mask, we could stop up to 99% of these droplets before they reach someone else," said Dr. Eric Westman, an associate professor of medicine at Duke. "In the absence of a vaccine or antiviral medicine, it's the one proven way to protect others as well as yourself."

The report was published online Aug. 7 in the journal Science Advances.

HE GOT FINED 

FOR NOT WEARING A MASK

Study: High levels of mercury, plastic toxins found in stranded whales, dolphins



A Gervais' beaked whale, stranded in St. Lucie County in Florida in 2019, was part of a study that examined tissue from stranded dolphins and whales for toxins. Photo courtesy of Dr. Annie Page-Karjian/Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Dolphins and whales stranded on beaches in the southeastern United States had high levels of toxins, including mercury and chemicals found in plastic, according to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

Scientists who led the study said the data provides new, troubling information about the impact of pollution on marine mammals -- knowledge that could help save vulnerable and declining species.


The findings also could be a warning for humans, because whales and dolphins eat seafood that people also eat, researchers said.

"We must do our part to reduce the amount of toxicants that enter into our marine environment, which have important health and environmental implications not just for marine life, but for humans," lead author Dr. Annie Page-Karjian said.

"Dolphins eat a variety of fish and shrimp in these marine environments and so do humans," said Page-Karjian, an assistant research professor of marine wildlife at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, Fla.

Besides plastic chemicals, the study found toxins in the animals that included mercury, triclosan -- an antibacterial agent used consumer products like in soap and toothpaste -- and atrazine, a herbicide.

The study, published last week, examined tissue from 83 dolphins and whales that became stranded from North Carolina to south Florida and died from 2012 to 2018. Eleven animal species were tested for 17 toxins.

RELATED Florida scientists study health effects from exposure to toxic algae

The study is the first to report concentrations of toxicants in a white-beaked dolphin and in Gervais' beaked whales, species for which the scientific literature remains sparse.

The researchers involved in the study are licensed to retrieve bodies of marine mammals nationally and internationally as part of a network to respond to the stranding of marine animals.

Such science collected from the dead animals is difficult to collect from live animals, and the stranded animals often are in stages of sickness or decay, said Justin Perrault, another study participant, who is director of research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center Juno Beach, Fla., 12 miles north of West Palm Beach.

RELATED Scientists 'alarmed' to find 220 pounds of plastic in dead whale's stomach

"Some of the mercury levels we found were the highest found anywhere in the world," Perrault said. "It is eye-opening. To see the levels of some of these contaminants is alarming," Perrault said.

Despite those high levels, the study was unable to determine if the toxins caused the animals to beach themselves, said James Sullivan, executive director at Harbor Branch.

"It's really hard to judge, when an animal strands, if the toxins in the animal were related to why it stranded," Sullivan said. "But these health problems do stack up. The animal is much more susceptible to succumbing to natural disease and environmental problems, just like humans are more likely to get ill from coronavirus if they have underlying conditions."

Although the study focused on the Southeast, it has broader implications for marine mammal conservation, said John Calambokidis, senior research biologist with Olympia, Wash.-based Cascadia Research.

"There are many things we do not know about how many contaminants accumulate and might impact marine mammals," Calambokidis said. "This is valuable especially because there are so many chemicals that are used by humans and enter the environment and many are not tested for."