It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Goodall is best known for her 60-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees.
She posted a video message Tuesday, asking that Lucy be transferred from the Edmonton Valley Zoo to a sanctuary in Tennessee.
“Lucy is a very lonely elephant,” Goodall says in the video. “Of course there are people who care about and love and care for Lucy but that can’t make up for the lack of elephant companionship.”
Goodall says elephants are highly intelligent and extremely social and Lucy is the only elephant at the zoo. The activist says elephants develop friendships that last throughout their lives, they recognize each other, are sentient and share similar emotions to humans: joy, sorrow, grief and pain.
“Each day she spends at the zoo is another day of sadness, and especially during your long, cold, dark winter,” Goodall says.
“There’s a wonderful and accredited sanctuary in Tennessee that’s offered to take her in. I know there are concerns as to whether Lucy is healthy enough to be moved but other older elephants have been successfully transported over long distances.
“I beg of you to invite an independent veterinarian with an appropriate knowledge of elephants to examine Lucy and determine how best she can be prepared for and supported for her journey.”
Lucy, a 45-year-old Asian elephant, has lived at Edmonton’s zoo since 1977. The zoo has long maintained that moving her to a sanctuary would worsen her condition or kill her.
In 2016, Lucy’s condition was reviewed by an independent veterinarian. At the time the vet said Lucy was suffering from dental and respiratory issues even then, but if the zoo chose to move her she was “highly likely” to “potentially” die en route to a sanctuary.
According to Lindsey Galloway, executive director of the Edmonton Valley Zoo, moving the elderly elephant would be “unethical.” Instead, the zoo plans to make changes to her enclosure and routine to make her as comfortable as possible.
The zoo reportedly plans on reaching out to outside experts who specialize in working with geriatric elephants to learn more about what could be done for Lucy.
Animal rights activists have been calling for Lucy to be moved for a number of years, citing things like the elephant’s cramped space, Edmonton’s cold weather and the fact that Lucy is alone as reasons to relocate her.
The November 2019 examination found results continue to show that Lucy the elephant should not be moved to a sanctuary.
Sinclair says the bill would ban new captivity of great apes and elephants unless it’s licensed and for their best interests, including for conservation and non-harmful scientific research. That would allow courts to issue orders to move them to new care or to improve their living conditions. Bill S-218 had its first reading on Nov. 17. “This is exactly the sort of inappropriate conditions the Jane Goodall Act would prohibit, and why it is so necessary,” Sinclair said. “A key element of the act, the ‘Noah Clause,’ authorizes the federal cabinet to extend legal protections to additional captive, non-domesticated species through regulation.”
Lucy, accompanied by a member of her care team, on her daily walk Tuesday. (Travis McEwan/CBC)
Lucy, the Edmonton Valley Zoo's ailing 47-year-old Asian elephant, is now breathing solely through her mouth and is not fit to travel, a recent medical assessment has concluded.
"Lucy's breathing issue is more serious than the visiting experts anticipated," the City of Edmonton said in a news release Tuesday.
Despite calls over the years for Lucy to be moved to an elephant sanctuary, she will live out her remaining years at the zoo.
Canada's Accredited Zoos and Aquariums requires an independent assessment of Lucy yearly to keep her in Edmonton as a lone elephant. The most recent assessment provided "great insights into Lucy's health and wellness, including medical information previously unknown," the city said.
The assessment was performed by four elephant veterinary and husbandry experts: Dr. Frank Goeritz, Dr. Thomas Hildebrandt, Dr. Patricia London and Ingo Schmidinger.
"Aside from her ineligibility to travel, she is a geriatric patient and would not be able to cope with her new environment (unfamiliar habitat, new caretaker staff, and other elephants)," Goeritz and Hildebrandt wrote in their report.
Not unanimous
Not all of the visiting experts agreed that Lucy is not fit for travel.
"Lucy is being kept more like a pet and not being allowed to be the wild elephant she is," London wrote in her report.
"It is also highly possible that the cold dry environment may be adding to her respiratory problems."
Lucy's mouth breathing was first reported in 2009, when endoscopic exploration of her trunk discovered a narrowing of the nasal passage.
Her breathing problems have since worsened, and now include "very severe" hypoxemia and hypercapnia — low oxygen and high carbon dioxide levels in her blood and tissues, Goeritz and Hildebrandt found.
The root cause of the condition remains undiagnosed.
The experts also discovered a large uterine tumour, (leiomyoma) which they say is common in female elephants who have never given birth. The tumour is being treated with a vaccine recommended by the visiting veterinarians.
Recommended changes to Lucy's diet and medical treatments have resulted in a 326-kilogram weight loss since the assessment was conducted four months ago, the release said.
Goeritz and Hildebrandt concluded Lucy potentially has another four to eight years to live, and "would not survive independently from humans.
"[The] ultimate goal is to keep Lucy stimulated and engaged and to provide her with good care for the rest of her life," they wrote.
London, however, said Lucy could live another 15 years or longer, and recommended she be transported to an elephant sanctuary in the United States.
"Both the temperature and the decreased amount of sunlight in Edmonton creates an inhospitable and cruel environment for an Asian elephant," London wrote.
"The forced walks on the snow and ice in –15 C weather borders on absurd."
Lucy was born in the wild and brought to Edmonton from Sri Lanka as a two-year-old orphan in 1977.
The zoo began her gradual retirement from public activities in 2020.
Lucy, seen here in May 2022, was born in the wild and brought to Edmonton as a two-year-old orphan in 1977. (Kory Siegers/CBC)
Zoo director Gary Dewar said Lucy's caretakers are dedicated to her well-being.
"Over the past 45 years, staff at the Edmonton Valley Zoo have worked tirelessly to give Lucy the best care and best home she deserves," Dewar said in the city's news release.
"We will strive to ensure she continues to receive excellent care."
The zoo will continue to monitor Lucy's weight and overall health, as well as look at possible changes to her housing, enrichments and routines, Dewar said.
He said some of the experts will return later this year to do follow-up examinations.
Thursday, April 01, 2021
LUCY, ANOTHER LONELY ELEPHANT Cher Fighting To Free Elephant From Edmonton Zoo
In addition to being an Oscar-winning actress, music icon and international superstar, Cher is also co-founder of Free the Wild, an organization devoted to freeing animals held in captivity in zoos and repatriating them in their natural habitats.
In that role, notes the organization's website, the "Moonstruck" star wrote a letter to Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson and Gary Dewar, director of the Edmonton Valley Zoo, calling for the release of an elephant named Lucy after 45 years of captivity.
In Cher's letter, the organization offers to send an independent elephant expert vet to examine Lucy in order to "determine the genuine status of her health."
Cher's letter follows a previous letter, sent in February, to Free the Wild co-founder Gina Nelthorpe Cowne, from Dr. Rick Quinn, a veterinarian and director of the Jane Goodall Institute.
In Quinn's letter, Lucy is described as "an Asian elephant who has lived in the sub-artic conditions of Canada for over 40 years. She has never been with another Asian elephant and her only companion was taken away in 2006. Edmonton Valley Zoo’s limited operating times means even the company of humans is few and far between.”
Lucy is also suffering significant health issues due to captivity. "She is 1,000 lbs overweight and suffers from significant arthritis and foot disease. She has difficulty bearing weight on her back legs and, due to an inappropriate diet, suffers dental issues and painful colic issues which have caused her to collapse – seen lying down, slapping her stomach with her trunk. With no place to swim, no mud in which to wallow or trees to scratch against, Free The Wild aims to work with Edmonton Valley Zoo to find an amicable solution in securing her release. Despite being 45 years old, Lucy has another 15-20 years left of her life,” the letter continues.
Cher has used her celebrity in recent years to to assist in freeing elephants from zoos.
In November 2020, Cher travelled to Cambodia to watch as Kavaan — dubbed by the media as "the world's loneliest elephant — was released into an elephant sanctuary after being freed from a Pakistani zoo after more than three decades of captivity.
Saturday, April 08, 2023
Inside the den: Edmonton's urban coyotes rear their young close to human habitat, study finds
Story by Wallis Snowdon • CBC
A discarded shopping cart, a shipping container, an abandoned vehicle — all have provided refuge for Edmonton's newest generation of urban coyotes, wild canines that are building their dens surprisingly close to human habitat.
With Edmonton's population of coyotes growing, a recent survey of their dens shows that pups are emerging each spring from busy, unexpected places deep within the city landscape, increasing the risk of conflict with people and pets.
As spring's pup-rearing season begins, researcher Sage Raymond says her survey of 120 coyote dens demonstrates that, in urban landscapes, coyotes dens are closer than expected.
The animals are hiding in plain sight — rearing their pups surprisingly close to homes and other buildings, but under dense cover on steep slopes to conceal their young from people and their dogs.
Keeping dens at a safe distance may help reduce bad encounters with the animals, especially when coyotes are aggressively protecting their young, said Raymond, a grad student researcher at the University of Alberta and the Edmonton Urban Coyote Project.
"I think of kind of coyotes during the period when they have pups as just being a little bit more trigger-happy," she said.
"They fear a threat to their young, which are very vulnerable at that time."
Researcher Sage Raymond used her tracking skills to locate 120 coyote dens in Edmonton.
With prairie grasslands to the south and boreal forest to the north, and a river valley cutting across the city, Edmonton has long been home to a large population of urban coyotes.
Between 500 and 1,000 are believed to roam the city.
Raymond began searching for dens in January 2022. She followed a total of 500 kilometres of coyote tracks in the snow.
She focused her searches on urban green spaces, including parks and golf courses, and also quiet industrial yards.
Raymond expected coyotes would tend to choose secluded places for their dens. Instead, she found them in areas busy with humans and dogs.
Dens were located, on average, 85 metres from the nearest building, she said.
For their dens, coyotes prefer dense cover, steep slopes and eastern exposure. Within this high-quality habitat, coyotes "weren't too fussy" about where they chose to have their dens, Raymond said.
She likens Edmonton's coyotes to homebuyers who may not be picky about the neighbourhood they live in but are very fussy about the style and size of their home.
Related video: Nature nuts loving this 'amazing example of biodiversity' so close to Edmonton (cbc.ca)
"What we found is that coyotes can be very, very selective about their den sites ... so that the den feels very remote, even though it's actually quite close to buildings," she said.
When coyotes are giving birth and caring for their young, they are especially vulnerable, she said. Finding dens so close to human habitat demonstrates the species' incredible ability to adapt to the city landscape and blend "their lifestyle with the urban lifestyle," she said.
To measure the frequency of conflict between coyotes and people and their pets, Raymond relied on the Edmonton Urban Coyote Project's community reporting database.
Citizen complaints about coyotes collected between 2010 and 2020 were coded so that each event included a GPS location, a date, and coyote behaviour. She cross-referenced that information with the location of each den.
The prevalence of conflict increased during the pup‐rearing period.
Conflict also increased near known den sites in the most exposed locations, outside of naturalized areas, Raymond said.
"Those dens that are way out in the river valley aren't really a big problem," she said.
"That is a really important result because it suggests that we could have better coexistence with coyotes by preventing denning near human-dominated spaces.
"Even though they're closer than you might think, they're not necessarily problematic."
Raymond tracked the dens exclusively in winter, when they were vacant.
She returned in late summer, after the pups had grown and moved out, to get a closer look.
At each site, she measured the den, took soil samples, and measured the proximity to major features within the urban landscape, including roads and the North Saskatchewan River.
Most commonly, coyotes chose shelter under tree roots, Raymond found. Other dens were under shipping containers or built using urban waste including concrete blocks, scrap metal, tires and a discarded door.
Raymond surveyed each site for the availability of fresh water, tree cover and a problematic food source in the city— garbage.
The prevalence of trash inside many of the dens suggests coyotes are being habituated to human food and scents at a young age, she said.
Dens on private property were not included in the survey, although they may represent an important source of physical conflict between people, pets and coyotes, Raymond said.
The city doesn't track numbers on complaints specific to coyote dens but does monitor the sites in partnership with the coyote project research team.
Park rangers can respond to dens on public lands by closing the area, putting up signs, or hazing the adults after the pups have grown, said city spokesperson Chrystal Coleman.
The animals may be destroyed but lethal management is always a last resort, she said.
Coyotes are a fixture in the city and rarely pose a threat to humans but keeping dens out of a residential areas should be a priority, Raymond said.
Residents and city managers should work to keep urban landscapes clean of garbage, food waste, dense vegetation and debris, she said.
"People don't actually know they have a den, sometimes even in their own yard, until the pups emerge," she said.
"And so our best option is preventative measures."
Except it ain't. Last fall one of the elephants injured her trunk on the fence at the zoo. The zoo enclosure is too small and what the heck are we doing keeping tropical animals in a boreal region in an outdoors Zoo.
And this is the same reactionary defense of the indefensible, that Zoo Check got when they denounced West Edmonton Mall for their enclosure and imprisonment of Dolphins,all died except Howard who was secretly shipped out in the middle of the night.
Spokesman Julie Woodyer said today that renowned African elephant expert Winnie Kiiru, project manager of the Amboseli Human-Elephant Conflict Project in Kenya, visited several Canadian zoos last fall and determined that the climate is too cold and enclosures too compact at many facilities in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.
“After reviewing all of the elephant enclosures in Canadian zoos, it is my opinion that the Edmonton Valley Zoo is the worst at this time,” Kiiru said in her report, released last month.
“The climate in Edmonton is completely inappropriate for elephants.”
In her conclusion, she recommends that the “City of Edmonton take immediate action to move Lucy and Samantha to a sanctuary that can provide them with a more appropriate physical and social environment and to close the elephant exhibit at this zoo.”
And it's not just Edmonton, Zoo Check has criticized the famous Calgary Zoo for elephant breeding.
Female elephants are matriarchal social animals, needing to be in a group, which is not what occurs in Zoo's or circuses.
Elephants live in a very structured social order. The social lives of male and female elephants are very different. The females spend their entire lives in tightly knit family groups made up of mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts. These groups are led by the eldest female, or matriarch. Adult males, on the other hand, live mostly solitary lives.
The social circle of the female elephant does not end with the small family unit. In addition to encountering the local males that live on the fringes of one or more groups, the female's life also involves interaction with other families, clans, and subpopulations. Most immediate family groups range from five to fifteen adults, as well as a number of immature males and females. When a group gets too big, a few of the elder daughters will break off and form their own small group. They remain very aware of which local herds are relatives and which are not.
Elephants are also self aware, that is they have the ability to think and communicate. Thus it is unconscionable to keep them imprisoned and neither Zoo can defend its actions as being good for the animals, the species, or science.
From a study reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an Asian elephant housed at the Bronx Zoo in New York, repeatedly touched a white cross painted above its eye, when it saw this mark reflected in a large mirror. Another mark made on the forehead in colourless paint, was ignored, showing that it was not the smell or feeling which caused the interest. Elephants are among the very small number of species such as the great apes and Bottlenose Dolphins capable of self-recognition.
Elephants in Zoos and Circuses in North America are the direct result of the Slave Trade and are the last vestige of that original Atlantic trade that brought Africa to the attention of North America's colonizers.
"Chart of the Sea Coasts of Europe, Africa, and America . . ." From John Thornton, The Atlas Maritimus of the Sea Atlas. London, ca. 1700. Geography and Map Division. (1-11)
This map's elaborate cartouche (drawing), embellished with an elephant and two Africans, one holding an elephant tusk, emphasizes the pivotal role of Africa in the Atlantic trading network. The South Atlantic trade network involved several international routes. The best known of the triangular trades included the transportation of manufactured goods from Europe to Africa, where they were traded for slaves. Slaves were then transported across the Atlantic--the infamous middle passage--primarily to Brazil and the Caribbean, where they were sold. The final leg of this triangular trade brought tropical products to Europe. In another variation, manufactured goods from colonial America were taken to West Africa; slaves were carried to the Caribbean and Southern colonies; and sugar, molasses and other goods were returned to the home ports.
A Human zoo (also called "ethnological expositions" or "Negro Villages") was a 19th and 20th century public exhibit of human beings usually in their natural or "primitive" state. These displays usually emphasized the cultural differences between indigenous and traditional peoples and Western publics. Ethnographic zoos were often predicated on unilinealism, scientific racism, and a version of Social Darwinism. A number of them placed indigenous people (particularly Africans) in a continuum somewhere between the great apes and human beings of European descent
Entrepreneur William Reynolds, who billed the city as The Riviera of the East, had a herd of elephants march in from his Dreamland on Coney Island in about 1907, ostensibly to help build the boardwalk, but in reality to generate publicity.
Zoo authorities hope Madhubala’s health will improve once she is relocated to Safari Park
| Photo by Fahim Siddiqui
Five months after her ‘pen pal’ Noor Jehan passed away, Madhubala, caged behind concrete bars at the Karachi Zoo, stands under the tree where her best friend is now buried. She gazes at onlookers with vacant eyes that only show emotion when her mahout enters her enclosure with sugar cane.
Approximately 12 kilometres away, Madhubala’s herd partners Sonu and Malaika, housed at the Safari Park, suffer from knee swellings, cracked feet and joint pains.
All these African elephants, the last of the species in Pakistan, are suffering a fate they never signed up for. They — along with Noor Jehan — arrived in Pakistan 14 years ago. They were captured from Tanzania, after poachers shot their mother in front of them.
According to the zoo staff, these young ladies, now between the ages of 16 and 17, were just young calves when they were brought as captives to Karachi. They were then separated: Noor Jehan and Madhubala were sent off to the zoo, while Malaika and Sonu were kept at the Safari Park.
While the three remaining elephants are inching towards a reunion, it is at the cost of losing one of their companions.
The African pachyderm Madhubala will join two elephants from her original herd when she is rehomed at Karachi’s Safari Park. But will this guarantee a better life for her?
After Noor Jehan’s painful death earlier this year due to a tumour, the international animal welfare organisation Four Paws — which is closely working with the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), which runs the Karachi Zoo — recommended immediately moving Madhubala to the Safari Park, a relatively greener and calmer place, for a “better chance at life.”
After some back and forth, a decision was made to move Madhubala to the Safari Park by mid-September, says an official at Karachi Zoo who did not want to be named.
He says Four Paws — who are currently in the city — had visited Madhubala and declared her fit to be moved to the new abode. “They said she is absolutely fine,” he says.
The elephant’s mahout Yusuf, on the other hand, says he was given special instructions by the doctors to ensure Madhubala was stress-free. “For the next few days, we have been told to stay with her day and night,” he says.
But a visit to the zoo shows Madhubala was anything but relaxed. She repeatedly made attempts to break down the door of her enclosure and kept banging her head on the steel bars of the cage — what experts call a “clear” sign of distress.
Yusuf has also noticed this. “She just doesn’t want to be alone. She wants you to sit next to her and talk to her. She gets agitated whenever she is alone,” he says.
“Imagine losing someone you have spent over a decade with… it gets very lonely,” says Yusuf. The mahout, who has been looking after the elephants at the zoo, adds that he had no idea what he would do once Madhubala was moved to the Safari Park. “We have spent a lifetime with these elephants.”
A closer view of Madhubala’s enclosure proves that preparations for her relocation are in full swing. Apart from her main cage, two other small pens have been taken down and transported to the Safari Park.
“They want to save money,” the official at the zoo says, pointing at the dismantled pens.
At the Safari Park too, a 25 foot by 38 foot concrete cage, identical to the one at the zoo, is under construction.
Earlier, Dr Amir Khalil, who is heading the Four Paws team, visited the Safari Park to oversee arrangements there for Madhubala’s enclosure. After the assessment, he suggested some measures, including a larger allocation of space for the elephants, from three acres to five acres.
Dr Khalil adds that Four Paws would also train the on-ground staff before Madhubala is rehomed. But given the KMC’s tainted past , doubts remain regarding whether relocating Madhubala is the solution to the wildlife crisis.
Despite living at Safari Park, which is termed a better place for elephants, Malaika and Sonu have been diagnosed with several diseases over the past several years. Recently, a report found that Sonu was suffering from a foot injury that seemed to have occurred due to the damaged concrete floor and moist conditions in her enclosure. Meanwhile, Malaika had developed a parasitic infection, the same that had eventually led to Noor Jehan’s death.
Zohare Ali Shariff, who has hands-on experience of captive wildlife management, explains to Eos that one common reason that captive animals, including elephants, were less immune to illnesses was the non-fulfilment of their basic needs.
“Elephants are highly intelligent animals, who have a very strong memory, they remember everything,” he says. “From the day they were put in captivity, these animals have been mistreated and tortured. They are beaten with sticks and are screamed at. All of this causes the elephants continuous stress and ultimately affects their health.”
Shariff says Madhubala may be suffering from several traumas. The primary one may be the loss of a loved one. “She was attached to Noor Jehan and witnessed the entire drama that unfolded before her death… this must be deeply embedded in her memory.” This explains her long visits to Noor Jehan’s grave.
Solitary confinement at the zoo and years of abuse have also deeply affected Madhubala, and a new enclosure at the Safari Park may not help with her healing, as Shariff says it is “too small and another torture cell.”
Elephants, he elaborates, need an environment that, if not a mirror, is similar to their natural habitat — land spread over hundreds of acres, earth underneath and abundant trees.
“Even with captive elephants, they should be provided an environment that functions according to the animal’s needs,” he points out.
Shariff also highlights how it may take Madhubala several months to adjust with the other elephants, even if they were originally members of her herd. He says elephants are not predators and the chances of a fight among them are relatively low, but there is a standard protocol in such matters that must be followed.
This includes first introducing the elephants to each other from a distance — or adjacent enclosures — and then slowly increasing their interaction.
Shariff hopes that moving Madhubala to the Safari Park would improve the quality of her life, but at the same time expresses apprehensions on whether government organisations, such as the KMC, can be trusted with taking care of the elephant.
He laments the KMC’s previous mismanagement, adding that neither the diet nor the veterinary care provided to captive animals in the city was at par with international standards.
“It is not possible to release these animals in the wild, they have been in captivity almost their entire life,” the expert adds. “The only option is to make zoos better.”
On the other hand, Jude Alan, animal activist and founder of the ‘I Am Noor Jehan Movement’, says the elephants in Karachi should be sent to an international sanctuary, such as the Islamabad elephant Kaavan was.
He tells Eos that when talks pertaining to Madhubala’s relocation had first started circulating, the KMC had agreed on providing 16-18 acres of land at the Safari Park. “But they have now agreed over less than five acres… Is this a joke?”
Elephants, on an average, walk for over 30km in a day. The Safari Park land cannot even be regarded as a drop in the ocean.
“The government does not care about these animals or their well-being, they have robbed the elephants of their rights,” Alan asserts, adding that African elephants belonged to Africa and should be sent back. “Let’s show them some dignity, we owe them this.”
The activist added that he, along with 22 other people, were working on taking this battle to court.
According to a 2008 study, zoo life can be deadly for elephants. It states that elephants born and raised in zoos live less than half as long as elephants living in their native areas. African elephants live an average of 60-70 years in the wild.
Scientists link most of these deaths to obesity because, even though the animals are well-fed, they get very little exercise. More recently, science has also revealed that elephants possess elements of neural wiring in their cerebral cortex, just like humans, linked with higher cognitive functions such as social awareness and language.
However, the same networks also makes these giant mammals susceptible to extreme boredom, depression and stereotypical behaviour during imprisonment — as in the case of the Karachi elephants.
And yet, all that zoos care about in Pakistan is entertainment for people during holidays. The writer is a staff member of Dawn.com and tweets @NMuzhira
Nonpharmaceutical interventions saved lives and eased burdens during COVID’s first wave, new study shows
James Peters and Mohsen Farhadloo say masking, shelter-in-place and other measures reduced growth rates of deaths, case numbers and hospitalizations in early 2020
MOHSEN FARHADLOO (LEFT) AND JAMES PETERS: “WHEN YOU SCALE THESE NUMBERS UP TO THE MILLIONS, THESE MEASURES COULD BE PREVENTING HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS OF DEATHS.”
The measures world governments enacted at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 remain a source of controversy for policy experts, researchers and media commentators. Some research maintains that they did little to cut down mortality rates or halt the virus’s spread.
According to Peters and Farhadloo, some of these studies do not account for the effectiveness of nonpharmaceutical interventions in other aspects, such as decreases in hospitalizations and overall number of cases. Other studies overlooked data from separate time frames after implementation, essentially taking a snapshot of a situation and extrapolating conclusions.
Writing in the journal AJPM Focus, Peters and Farhadloo note that nonpharmaceutical interventions were in fact effective at reducing the growth rates of deaths, cases and hospitalizations during the pandemic’s first wave.
The researchers say they hope that their findings will dispel some falsehoods that continue to circulate to this day.
Small numbers have a big effect
The researchers conducted a systematic literature review of 44 papers from three separate databases that used data from the first six months of the pandemic. They concentrated on this timeframe because, by fall 2020, the second wave had emerged and governments and individuals had changed their behaviours, having had time to adapt to the measures.
Peters and Farhadloo harmonized the various metrics used across the papers and divided the different kinds of measures into 10 categories. They then measured their effectiveness on case numbers, hospitalization and deaths over two, three or four, and more weeks after implementation.
Among other results, the researchers found that:
Masks were associated with decreases in cases and deaths.
Closing schools and businesses resulted in lower per capita deaths, but those effects decreased after four weeks.
Restaurant/bar closures and travel restrictions corresponded to decreases in mortality after four weeks.
Shelter-in-placeorders (SIPOs) resulted in fewer cases but only after a delay of two weeks.
SIPOs and mask wearing were associated with reducing the healthcare burden.
Policy stringency, SIPOs, mask wearing, limited gatherings and school closures were associated with reduced mortality rates and slower case number growth rates.
“We found that wearing masks led to an estimated reduction of about 2.76 cases per 100,000 people and 0.19 in mortality. These effects sound small but are statistically significant,” Peters explains.
“When you scale these numbers up to the millions, these measures could be preventing hundreds or thousands of deaths.”
Farhadloo adds that understanding the usefulness of these measures can help counter the growth of misinformation online.
“We started this project in 2022, while COVID health measures were still in place. At that time, some people were citing research saying that these measures were not effective. But the scientific research articles they were referring to were flawed.
“We wanted to respond to the existing misinformation and disinformation that was being disseminated on social media by raising awareness about it.”
Peters believes that the paper, which looks at effectiveness over a longer time span than most previous studies, can inform policy makers in the future.
“If and when another pandemic occurs, we should be more prepared. We should know which policies are most effective at mitigating not only mortality but cases and hospitalizations as well.”
The Effects of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions on COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations, and Mortality: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis
Innovative COVID-19 analysis supports prevention protocols in health care settings
Using high-tech contact tracing and COVID-19 genetic data, researchers prove certain prevention measures protect health care workers and patients from contracting the virus with vast majority of transmission happening outside of hospital setting
RESEARCHERS FOUND IN A NOVEL STUDY THAT THE TRANSMISSION OF SARS-COV-2, A PATHOGENIC VIRUS THAT CAUSES COVID-19, COULD BE PREVENTED USING SIMPLE MEASURES IN THE HEALTH CARE SETTING AT UC SAN DIEGO HEALTH.
In early 2020, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a highly contagious and pathogenic virus, made its alarming debut and quickly spread worldwide, causing the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that threatened human health and public safety. While the world was brought to a standstill, hospitals and health care systems entered unchartered territory and quickly adapted to the evolving health crisis to care for their community and keep potentially sick patients and health care workers from spreading the virus.
The magnitude of response involved the reinforced universal masking of health care workers and patients at the hospital and regular SARS-CoV-2 testing of all health care workers and patients upon admission, regardless of symptoms, and strict isolation protocols for those infected with the virus.
Approximately four years after the pandemic was declared, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine used high end technology and an innovative approach to evaluate the effectiveness of those prevention measures implemented in the health care setting during the last three waves of the pandemic.
The study, published in the January 16, 2024, online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases, was a first of its kind to use information from electronic health and contact tracing records to closely analyze the genetic makeup of the virus combined with the comparison of how the diverse strains were physically being spread among patients and health care workers in the hospital.
Researchers found that the implemented infection prevention parameters in the health care setting, including ventilation standards of at least five clean air changes per hour, combined with universal masking, prevented most SARS-CoV-2 transmissions. In patients who tested positive for the virus, personal protective equipment (PPE) shielded and virtually eliminated health care associated transmission.
“When the pandemic started, it was scary because initially we did not have rapid diagnostic nor treatments available, and we did not fully understand how the virus was transmitted or if our infection prevention protocols were adequate,” said Francesca Torriani, MD, senior author of the study, and program director of Infection Prevention and infectious disease specialist at UC San Diego Health.
“Therefore, the potential implications of the virus and the welfare of our workforce and patients was an utmost concern. I witnessed health care workers fearful of contracting the virus at work and potentially infecting their loved ones at home.”
Torriani adds that limiting the spread of infection and blocking the virus at the source became the highest priority.
“In response to the progressing pandemic and with the trust and support from executive leadership at UC San Diego Health, we learned many life-saving lessons and strengthened infection prevention control measures to reduce the risk of transmission between patients and health care workers. The swift adoption and modification of infection prevention protocols in health care were felt to be an opportunity for deeper exploration of the effectiveness of our procedures.”
The researchers took an innovative approach never used before to evaluate the different variants of the samples to identify if they were temporarily or physically near one another, suggesting health care transmission. Electronic health record data of patients, whose identities were protected throughout the study, and metadata about staff access and movement to these records, accompanied by a robust contact tracing program, were used to classify, isolate and assess individuals exposed to specific strains of the virus.
“While the virus strains were very distinguishable in the second and third wave of the pandemic, during the explosive and homogenous Omicron wave, we found that we could not rely on genetic data alone,” said Christopher Longhurst, MD, co-author of the study, executive director of Jacobs Center for Health Innovation, and chief medical officer and chief digital officer at UC San Diego Health.
“We had to dive deeper into the electronic documentation and social network analysis, such as individuals with similar virus strains, and considering their physical interaction in the hospital, to determine what really happened and how the virus was being spread.”
Researchers examined the genetic makeup of SARS-CoV-2 during three consecutive waves and compared how closely a person’s genetic variant was related to another’s.
The study involved the collection of 12,933 virus samples from 35,666 patients and health care professionals from November 1, 2020 to February 27, 2022.
“Even when hundreds of health care workers were becoming infected every week during the peak of the Omicron wave, we found that they were no more likely to acquire the virus in the hospital system,” said Joel Wertheim, PhD, co-senior author of the study and associate professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “The outcomes reveal the hidden patterns of viral transmission.”
The results from both the genetic and social networking analysis showed that while universal masking was key to prevent transmissions, airborne negative pressure rooms, universal N95 respirator masks or even closing the door of a patient’s room were not essential elements to protect against transmission in the health care setting.
In fact, most transmissions occurred outside of the health care setting, physical contact in the community, between households or when universal masking was not followed in the setting of unrecognized SARS-CoV-2 infection. Viral transmission was more likely to occur in shared spaces, such as breakrooms or lobbies.
“Our analysis really highlights that our health care system, with its safety measures including ventilation standards, robust viral testing, and early implementation of universal masking, was able to protect health care workers and patients during the pandemic,” said Shira Abeles, MD, co-author of the study, associate professor in the Department of Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and infectious disease specialist at UC San Diego Health.
Longhurst adds the type of technological approach used can be a model for future studies and a tool deployed for epidemics of highly contagious infectious diseases.
“The pandemic has shown us what’s at stake. This novel methodology, combining a digital social network derived from electronic health record data with genomic analysis of viral strains, can be used again in the future to model spread of health care associated infections,” said Longhurst.
Co-authors of the study include: Jocelyn Keehner, UCSF; Lucy Horton, Frank E. Myers, Lindsay Riggs-Rodriguez, Mohammed Ahmad, Sally Baxter, Aaron Bussina, Kalen Cantrell, Priscilla Cardenas, Peter De Hoff, Robert El-Kareh, Jennifer Holland, Daryn Ikeda, Kirk Kurashige, Louise Laurent, Andrew Lucas, David Pride, Shashank Sathe, Allen Tran, Tetyana Vasylyeva, Gene Yeo, Rob Knight, all at UC San Diego.
Funding support for the study came, in part, from UC San Diego Health and Jacobs Center for Health Innovation.
JOURNAL
Clinical Infectious Diseases
Glowing COVID-19 diagnostic test prototype produces results in one minute
IMAGE: USING A BIOLUMINESCENT SUBSTRATE THAT REACTS WITH SARS-COV-2 SPIKE PROTEIN (SHOWN IN THE INSERT), RESEARCHERS HAVE DEVISED A POTENTIAL ONE-MINUTE COVID-19 TEST. view more
CREDIT: RYO NISHIHARA
Cold, flu and COVID-19 season brings that now-familiar ritual: swab, wait, look at the result. But what if, instead of taking 15 minutes or more, a test could quickly determine whether you have COVID-19 with a glowing chemical? Now, in ACS Central Science, researchers describe a potential COVID-19 test inspired by bioluminescence. Using a molecule found in crustaceans, they have developed a rapid approach that detects SARS-CoV-2 protein comparably to one used in vaccine research.
From fireflies to lantern fish, many animals possess the chemical tools to produce light. Typically, this reaction requires the substrate luciferin and the enzyme luciferase. However, a class of less discriminating luciferins, known as imidazopyrazinone-type (IPT) compounds, can glow when encountering other proteins, including ones that aren’t considered enzymes. Previous research suggests that IPT luciferins could serve as the basis for a new type of medical test that uses luminescence to announce the presence of a target protein in a specimen. Ryo Nishihara, Ryoji Kurita and colleagues suspected that an IPT luciferin could react with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which allows the virus particles to invade cells and cause COVID-19 ― and open the door to develop a glowing test.
The team first investigated 36 different IPT luciferins’ abilities to react with a single unit of spike protein. Only one molecule, which came from tiny crustaceans from the genus Cypridina, emitted light. The researchers then tested the luciferin’s activity with the spike protein in its natural state, as three units folded together. They found that, over the course of 10 minutes, an adequate amount of light could be detected. A commercially available luminescence reading device was required; the light could not be seen by the naked eye. Additional experiments indicated that the IPT luciferin was selective because it did not glow when exposed to six proteins that occur in saliva. They define this specific luminescence reaction by non-luciferase biomolecules as “biomolecule-catalyzing chemiluminescence (BCL)”.
Finally, they found that the luciferin could detect the amount of the spike protein in saliva with the same accuracy as a technique currently used in vaccine development. However, the luciferin system delivered results in one minute — significantly faster than the current rapid point-of-care tests.
This BCL-based approach could serve as the basis for a simple “mix and read” test in which the IPT luciferin is added to untreated saliva from someone suspected of having COVID-19, according to the researchers. They note that a similar approach could be adapted to detect other viruses that possess spike-like proteins, such as influenza, MERS-CoV and other coronaviruses.
The authors acknowledge funding from the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
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Note: ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies.
EDMONTON — A University of Alberta professor is co-leading a new international vaccine safety network to examine why some people who received a COVID-19 vaccine experienced very rare adverse events associated with the vaccine.
The International Network of Special Immunization Services (INSIS), based at the U of A, is a consortium of academic medical centres around the world coming together to study very rare adverse events after vaccination. An adverse reaction is considered very rare when it affects less than .001 per cent of the population.
“The bar for safety with vaccines is very high because we’re giving them to healthy people to prevent them from getting sick,” says U of A pediatric infectious disease professor Dr. Karina Top, who alongside Dr. Robert T. Chen, scientific director of the Brighton Collaboration — a leading non-profit vaccine safety organization — is co-leading INSIS. “We don’t want these events to occur, and we want to understand why, so we can prevent them in the future.”
INSIS is receiving up to US$15.3 million over four years from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to study why these very rare adverse events happen and who is most at risk. The network aims to help manufacturers develop new vaccines that will be even safer.
Vaccines have helped to eradicate deadly diseases such as smallpox, they save two-to-three million children a year, and they even help to combat certain types of cancer such as cervical and throat cancers, which are caused by HPV. The impact of COVID-19 vaccines has been even more striking. In the first year of their rollout during the pandemic, vaccines saved 20 million lives.
Very rare adverse events associated with immunizations tend to be detected after vaccines are rolled out at a population level. Clinical trials typically include a relatively small number of participants, which may not fully represent the diverse population that will receive a vaccine after its approval. When the vaccine is rolled out to millions of people, a broader range of individuals with varying health conditions and genetic backgrounds may receive a vaccine. This increased sample size allows for detection of very rare adverse events that might occur.
Cutting-edge safety science
The INSIS team will use cutting-edge techniques to measure the types of cells and molecules in human blood samples to identify how a vaccine may trigger an adverse event. The INSIS team will compile unprecedented amounts of data from around the world to compare information about people who experienced very rare adverse events and those who did not.
The ultimate goal of this project will be to enhance the safety assessment of vaccine candidates developed to combat emerging infectious threats before emergency authorization. This will be critical for achieving the 100 Days Mission, which aims to compress vaccine development against such pathogenic threats with pandemic potential to within just 100 days of their identification.
“Compressing vaccine development against emerging pathogens down to 100 days will be critical to combatting future pandemic threats,” explains Jakob Cramer, director of clinical development at CEPI. “Data from INSIS will help to inform health authorities on the most appropriate type of vaccine that should be used in specific outbreak settings and populations. If we can identify risk factors and identify causal mechanisms for potential serious adverse events ahead of time, immunization campaigns can be adapted to mitigate such risks in those who are potentially vulnerable to harm, contributing to increased levels of public confidence in vaccines and enabling the development of even safer vaccines.”
