Coronavirus: we separate myths from facts and give advice

[Anthea]

Riots break out in Paris

Riots have broken out in Paris amid anger over police 'heavy-handed' treatment of ethnic minorities during the coronavirus lockdown



Tear gas and baton charges were fired by police in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, northern Paris, in the early hours this morning as fireworks exploded in the street.

Armed police were seen moving through the area as groups of protesters congregated.

It comes after a 30-year-old was critically injured in the neighbourhood in a collision with an unmarked police car.

President Emmanuel Macron extended France's social distancing measures until May 11. Its daily death toll from the virus fell to the lowest level in three weeks today as 395 deaths were recorded, bringing the total to 19,718.

Riots have broken out in the Parisian suburb of Villeneuve-la-Garenne following allegations of heavy handedness against ethnic minorities by police forces.

Protesters fired fireworks at buildings and into police officers in early hours of this morning

Fireworks dyed the sky red above the Parisian suburb early this morning, videos posted on social media show.

Bins were also filmed blazing and filling the air with smoke as armed police moved into the area.

Police were filmed manhandling French journalist Taha Bouhafs, who is from an Algerian background, and holding his arms behind his back.

He had filmed tear gas canisters being fired by officers who were hit by numerous fireworks.

The early morning violence followed prosecutors opening an enquiry after a 30-year-old motorcyclist was critically injured following a collision with an unmarked police car in Villeneuve-la-Garenne.

Friends of the victim, who have not been named, claimed the incident on Saturday night was an example of police heavy-handedness against ethnic minority communities during the lockdown.

‘The very badly injured man comes from an Arab Muslim background,’ said a source close to the case.

‘He is critical in hospital, and people in the area have reacted very badly to what has happened.’

A local police spokesman said: ‘Police and their reinforcements have been the target of rioters, who have thrown stones and fireworks.

‘The violence started in Villeneuve-la-Garenne and has spread to other towns and estates nearby.’

Protesters let off fireworks. The riots were triggered after a 30-year-old man was severely injured in a collision with an unmarked police car in the area

Police threw tear gas and baton charges as they moved to disperse protesters in the area

A police officer was seen carrying a large gun as they moved through the neighbourhood

Last week prosecutors in Béziers, in the south of France, announced that officers were facing criminal charges after a father-of-three died while under arrest for breaching the Coronavirus lockdown.

Three officers were videoed dragging Mohamed Gabsi, 33, along the ground during a curfew.

They are suspected of ‘intentional violence by a public official leading to manslaughter’ and ‘non assistance of a person in danger’.

The offences come with a potential combined prison sentence of 15 years plus, said local prosecutors.

The case is particularly sensitive because Mr Gabsi was a Muslim, and Béziers is run by a far-Right mayor who is supported by the National Rally party, which used to be called the National Front.

Mr Gabsi had suffered a heart attack by the time he arrived at a local police station, and witnesses saw two of the officers sitting on top of him in their patrol car.

Mr Gabsi’s suspicious death follows numerous complaints about police racism as forces across France enforce one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe.

A spokesman for France’s Human Rights League described the death of Mr Gabsi, who was from an Arab background, as a ‘scandal that shows how the poor are being killed’ by the lockdown.

France on Tuesday reported a total of 19,718 deaths from coronavirus since the start of the health emergency. A total of 152,894 cases have also been detected in the country.

Its stringent lockdown measures are 'working', Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told a press conference today.

French authorities have said they will publish plans for ending the lockdown 'within two weeks', and begins to air their strategy 'in the coming days'.

'It is likely that we are not going to see an end to confinement that would happen in one move everywhere and for everyone,' Mr Philippe said, revealing details of the strategy.

The French lockdown could lead to a 10 per cent contraction in the French economy this year.

The country has been in lockdown from March 17, and this will continue until at least May 11.

Link to Article - Photos:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... kdown.html

[Anthea]

Hydroxychloroquine
to be tried in US

Anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine which has been promoted by Trump as a cure for Covid-19 is given go ahead for US trials

The Swiss drugmaker Novartis has reached an agreement with US regulators

There will soon be a randomized trial of the drug in 440 hospitalised patients

So far there's no scientific proof it helps those afflicted with the new coronavirus

An anti-malaria drug which has been promoted by Donald Trump as a cure for coronavirus has been given the go ahead for US trials.

The Swiss drugmaker Novartis has reached an agreement with US regulators to hold a randomized trial of the drug hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19 disease in 440 hospitalized patients, it was announced today.

The trial will begin within weeks at more than a dozen US sites. Results will be reported as soon as possible, the company added.

The decades-old medicine has received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorization for coronavirus disease, but so far there is no scientific proof it helps those afflicted.



An anti-malaria drug which has been promoted by Trump as a cure for coronavirus has been given the go ahead for US trials

'We recognize the importance of answering the scientific question of whether hydroxychloroquine will be beneficial for patients with COVID-19 disease,' said John Tsai, Novartis's top drug developer.

'We mobilized quickly to address this question in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study,' he added.

The drug, also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, has been promoted by President Trump - who described it as a 'game changer' earlier this month.

But some are worried the administration's advocacy for an unproven medicine for COVID-19 has short-circuited the oversight process.



Donald Trump has been criticised for endorsing the drug despite a lack of evidence of its effectiveness. 'What have you got to lose? Take it,' he said earlier this month

Trump has repeatedly talked up the drug's potential benefits, while downplaying potential side effects, such as causing irregular heartbeats in some patients.

There are several additional studies of hydroxychloroquine underway, including at the University of Washington and University of Minnesota, as well as work by the National Institutes of Health in the United States.

Trump has been touting the drug for weeks, and says millions of doses have been procured for the national stockpile, as hospitals around the country continue to clamor for medical equipment.

'You not going to die from this pill. There could be some side effects but the side effects is more so from the Z pack,' he said last week, talking up a combination therapy with antibiotic Azithromycin.

Trump also vented that if anyone besides himself were touting the drug, it would be popular.

'You know, what do you have to lose?' he said about the drug recently.

Companies such as Novartis, Roche and Gilead Sciences are testing older medicines developed to treat other diseases, for signs they could be repurposed to tackle the coronavirus epidemic. Gilead just expanded a trial of its Ebola drug remdesivir.

Trump encourages people to 'try' hydroxychloroquine for COVID

Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan has said the medicine is one of his biggest hopes against the viral epidemic.

However the antimalarial drug did not speed up coronavirus patients' recovery in a trial in China, scientists revealed earlier this week.

In a disappointing blow for the promising drug, doctors said it did not work as a cure.

Patients who were taking it suffered fewer symptoms than others who were treated alongside them without the medication but their recovery time was the same.

It was the second setback in a week for the medication, after a clinical trial in Brazil had to be stopped because patients developed heart problems.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... rials.html

[Anthea]

Worldwide Covid-19 death
toll soars past 170,000

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 170,000 lives around the globe, the latest figures by Johns Hopkins University show, as regions of the US – the world’s top Covid-19 hotspot – gear up to lift lockdown measures

The university’s worldwide death tally reached 170,042 on Monday evening, as both cases and fatalities keep climbing across scores of nations. Though the overall mortality rate will continue to fluctuate as new data becomes available, the current global average is now somewhere just under 7 percent, according to statistics gathered by Worldometer.

Eight countries have observed fatality rates above 10 percent, while the US – which has the highest absolute death toll – recently moved up slightly to 5.36 percent, still falling below the world average.

#Coronavirus: Global Death Toll Surpasses 170,000 deaths with a 6.87% #Covid19 Death Rate.There are now 8 countries with a Case Fatality Rate above 10%. The US has moved up to 18th with a 5.36% mortality rate. pic.twitter.com/62yddBioT3
— Coronavirus Updates - Alexander Higgins (@kr3at) April 20, 2020

As the health crisis drags on, however, several countries are preparing to reopen their economies, which have suffered under sweeping lockdown measures, including business closures and varying levels of travel restrictions.

Germany, Norway, Poland, and the Czech Republic, among others, have all signaled intentions to scale back the measures in the coming days, with Germany already allowing some businesses to reopen on Monday. But some harder-hit European countries, such as Spain and France, will take more time, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stating that the measures were working, but the “results are still not enough and still fragile.” France’s lockdown, meanwhile, will continue for at least another three weeks.

The US – the worst-affected nation in the pandemic in terms of cases and deaths – has also begun mulling how to kickstart its economy, with US President Donald Trump allowing state governors to decide exactly how and when to re-open with guidelines issued last week.

Georgia and Tennessee have already announced plans to bring their economies back into action, with the governors of both states laying out roadmaps back to normalcy on Monday. While other areas, such as New York, will take longer to reopen, dozens of states are now arranging plans to do so once the viral outbreak dies down, many governors working together in regional blocs to coordinate the process.

https://www.rt.com/usa/486389-coronavir ... al-deaths/

[Anthea]

WHAT IS REMDESIVIR?

Remdesivir was developed by Gilead Sciences to treat Ebola, the deadly hemorrhagic fever that emerged in West Africa in 2014

Ebola, like COVID-19, is caused by a virus, and scientists are now testing remdesivir to treat coronavirus patients, but it's too soon to know if the drug works or not.

Remdesivir produced encouraging results earlier this year when it showed promise for both preventing and treating MERS - another coronavirus - in macaque monkeys.

The drug appears to help stop the replication of viruses like coronavirus and Ebola alike.

It's not entirely clear how the drug accomplishes this feat, but it seems to stop the genetic material of the virus, RNA, from being able to copy itself.

That, in turn, stops the virus from being able to proliferate further inside the patient's body.

NIH researchers in charge of the macaque study recommended that it move ahead to human trials with the new coronavirus.

Scientists have listened, and human trials for remdesivir first began in Nebraska.

Most recently, researchers trialing the drug at the University of Chicago reported that most of the 125 COVID-19 patients they'd teated with the drug had been discharged from the hospital, according to Stat News.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ayer_click

[Anthea]

France to unveil
end of lockdown

Regions don’t decide, retailers open all at once: France to unveil nationwide plan to lift Covid-19 lockdown next week

Lifting the coronavirus lockdown in France will not be done region by region, and state representatives will be key in deciding the reopening on the ground, latest statements from Paris reveal ahead of next week’s final exit plan.

As the lockdown-weary French are looking forward to the May 11 date, the government is still making up its mind on how to make that first major step on the way “back to normal.”

On Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron met with local officials and mayors via a video link to discuss the government’s strategy to lift the lockdown. He revealed that it will “not be done in a regionalized manner.” However, he has also referred to the procedure as being “decentralized.”

What it means, in effect, is that the local officials – prefects and mayors – will be making decisions about which restrictive measures go first, depending on the situation on the ground. A detailed plan on how to exit the lockdown will be presented on “around” Tuesday next week, Macron said.

Starting from May 11, France’s schools and businesses will be gradually reopened. However, the return to school will be on voluntary basis, the presidency said. While the government advised citizens to wear “non-professional” face masks, it promised this will not be compulsory.

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said all retail outlets would be allowed to reopen on May 11, but food venues would have to remain closed until further notice.

“We want all retailers to be able to open on May 11 in the same way, out of fairness,” Le Maire told France Info radio. “I would only set aside restaurants, bars and cafes.”

Also on rt.com Forget oil, cocaine prices in France SURGE thanks to coronavirus crisis

France, which is among the worst coronavirus-hit nations, has been in strict lockdown mode since March 17. It has registered over 157,000 Covid-19 cases, including more than 21,000 deaths, according to the latest figures by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, the pandemic tally has now passed the 2.6 million mark, and more than 184,000 people have succumbed to the disease.

https://www.rt.com/news/486662-france-c ... n-lifting/

[Anthea]

LIST OF SYMPTOMS

Until recently, only three symptoms of coronavirus were listed:

Fever
Cough
Shortness of breath

This weekend, the list has been expanded to include following signs:

Chills
Repeated shaking with chills
Muscle pain
Headache
Sore throat
New loss of taste or smell

[Anthea]

13 wounded in
celebratory gunfire

At least 13 people were wounded during celebratory gunfire on Wednesday night as tens of thousands of people in Duhok province took to the streets to celebrate the recovery of COVID-19 patients in the area

“13 people were wounded during the celebratory gunfire, with four of them needing minor surgery,” Hamza Razki, spokesperson for Duhok’s health department told Rudaw English.

“Nine others sustained injuries, but none were life threatening,“ he added.

Duhok province has seen one of the lowest infection rates in the country, with a total of 15 confirmed cases since the first case was reported on March 18.

Provincial officials announced on Sunday that all 15 patients had made full recoveries and planned a celebration for Wednesday night, although a partial lockdown remains in place.

Authorities called on people to come out at 10pm on and light candles. Drone footage from Rudaw showed fireworks going off in different parts of Duhok city, but the mood soon changed as rifles, pistols and machine guns were used by some to celebrate the occasion.

Families on rooftops ran for cover, fearing for their lives. “I went on the roof with my three children and my wife and lit a candle and I could hear some fireworks in distance,” Mahdi Mohsen, 42, a civil servant told Rudaw English.

“All of a sudden my neighbour fired a full magazine in the air. Others started too so [we] ran into the house.” Mahdi said, adding that his neighbours are members of the KRG security forces.

He also found bullet casings in his garden on Thursday morning.

Videos circulating on social media showed people firing AK-47 kalashnikovs, pistols and machine guns in the air.

“I swear to god one of my friends in a snap [multimedia message] was firing a PKC and DShK [heavy machine gun]” Amad Essa wrote on Facebook.

Hundreds of thousands of people across the Kurdistan Region own firearms, either as members of the security forces or private citizens. Celebrations often end with a small number of people using gunfire to mark the occasion.

Authorities have repeatedly promised to crackdown on unauthorized gun ownership with little success as dozens of gun markets still operate across the region.

Duhok Police spokesperson Hemn Sulaiman could not be reached for comment. However he took to social media to condemn the gunfire.

“Alas, for those people who became the reason for ruining every celebration, no one expresses appreciation to another person in this way,” he wrote.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Iraq office expressed “high concern” on Wednesday night regarding “the unprotected behavior of some citizens during the partial lifting of the lockdown” and called on the Iraqis to adhere to the recommendations to avoid gatherings and maintain social distancing.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has introduced strict measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus in the four provinces under its administration, including a region-wide lockdown in mid-March. Government efforts to contain the virus have been applauded by WHO.

Thousands of medical professionals work day and night to treat the 337 people infected across the region and stop the spread of the virus, which has killed four people. Twenty-five patients are still being treated at various hospitals in the region.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/230420201

[Anthea]

London's Kurdish
community helps others

When customers at their cafe began to dry up with the city on lockdown, London business partners Ali Kalkan and Cemal Polat knew they had to shift gears to keep up with the times

With the help of the community – and a little Kurdish hospitality – the two have launched a successful initiative to prepare and deliver meals to people who need them the most, and brought people together in the process. For just over a month now, they have been delivering food to health workers and the vulnerable. So far, they have delivered just over 3,000 meals to individuals at home in quarantine, who can check their website to see what type of food is on offer.

Communities around the world are struggling under the weight of lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Businesses have closed their doors, key workers are risking their health, and every household is distracted by fears for loved ones. After the UK government mandated that cafes and restaurants only serve takeaway meals, the pair saw an opportunity to help, and decided to transform their cafe into the hub of a community-wide support network for those in need.

Health workers are at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19. Doctors, nurses, and hospital staff are facing a challenge unlike any other in a generation. Long working hours, the complications arising from treating patients in isolation, and a lack of personal protective equipment means that work has become more dangerous and more difficult. For the long-time London residents, both 32 years old and of Kurdish origin, the need to help out and support the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) was clear.

“They’ve got life and death responsibility in their hands and they work under critical conditions. For them, it’s like going to war every single day," Cemal told Rudaw English via telephone. "They can contract the virus which could potentially kill them, or affect their loved ones.”

A recent poll of UK healthcare workers by YouGov for the IPRR thinktank found that the stress of lifesaving health care work was impacting their own health and well-being. More than 50 percent of those asked reported problems such as stress and trauma as a result of working to treat COVID-19.

The elderly and unwell are also facing an arduous time. Isolation can be a severe experience if contact with other people is potentially life-threatening. Going to the shops is often too dangerous, and the respite that comes with socializing with friends and family is too often an impossibility.

With the connection of London’s Kurdish community, they are able to find and reach the most in need. “People in our community will get through to us by social media, or their relatives will ask for help. We’ve had a few drop-offs lately to the vulnerable who can’t physically go to the supermarket as they must maintain social distancing. says Ali. While supermarket queues can sometimes last for an hour of waiting in risky social proximity, “we are there for them when it comes to food or medications and prescriptions,” Ali told Rudaw English.

Friends since primary school, Ali and Cemal share a strong bond which has lasted for twenty years. They came from the same region in Turkey, and shared a lot in common. “Our families knew each other; both our parents worked in factories. When a lot of Kurdish people arrived in the country, they worked in textiles,” Cemal explains.

After high school they lost touch when Cemal went into higher education and Ali busy at work, but soon got back in touch with each other. When they reconnected in adulthood, they decided to become business partners. “Ali had flown from Istanbul and I picked him up from the airport. We went to a Kurdish restaurant in London, I even remember what I had to eat that day, we had a meeting and thought ‘this is what we have to do,’” Cemal remembers.

Beginning with car leasing, the friends-turned-business partners went on to expand into cafes and hospitality. They now have four cafes in London – including Drury 188-189 and 215 Hackney, which is focused on Middle Eastern food. Most recently, they’ve developed their own app to ensure their leased vehicles are used safely and efficiently.

Despite success in business, the pair say their family values taught them to always remember to look after their staff. Part of the motivation to start delivering food to health workers and the vulnerable was the fact that members of their staff, including two cooks from the Kurdish community, did not qualify for UK financial support during the lockdown because they had only recently started working at the cafes.

By asking for donations from the local community, the cooks were able to be paid a living wage. Many of the donations, which total more than $11,000, have come from London’s Kurdish community. The wider support network of London’s Kurds also came in useful when implementing the plan.

Meryem Kaya, a general practitioner in London, helped Ali and Cemal contact hospitals that are seeking food for medical staff. She says that the initiative has been beneficial in other ways too. “Sometimes people who are immigrants or are from ethnic minority backgrounds don’t have the confidence to take part in such initiatives. I think seeing other people do it probably gives them encouragement as well,” Kaya told Rudaw English.

“It’s a good way to boost the morale of the NHS staff," she added. "There have been comments from the London Ambulance staff about how touched they’ve been by the poster outside the restaurant. I think it’s been really good work and very appreciated.”

Ali and Cemal say they plan to carry on with food donations until the end of the lockdown in the UK.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/world/lon ... -240420201

[Anthea]

Kurdistan successful
in fight against virus

In less than five months, coronavirus has brought about a major global crisis crippling health, social and economic systems across the world. Many countries have considered this pandemic the biggest crisis since World War II. Having taken various containment measures, each country is battling the epidemic with its own set of measures

Developed countries enjoying strong economic and health infrastructure are confident that they are strong enough to fight off the virus. They appear less worried compared to others as they did not take serious precautions, taking the disease for granted. Now they are hard-hit by the epidemic, and there is a huge and serious burden on their shoulders, with the bulk of COVID-19 deaths coming from developed countries.

Countries such as Turkey, China and Russia hid the news of the spread of Covid-19 in their countries at the beginning, announcing the spread of the virus only after numbers began to rise.

Other countries took the global spread of the disease into account and started a realistic observation of the crisis early on. With the very first cases and even before the virus spread within their borders, they started to take strong and serious precautions. In other words, they were ahead of the virus. This group includes the Kurdistan Region.

The Kurdistan Region Government's COVID-19 data in terms of cases, deaths and recoveries compared to figures published by neighbouring countries such as Iran and Turkey is incomparable.

As of today, there are 344 reported cases of COVID-19 in the Kurdistan Region. Of those, 318 have recovered, four people have died, and there are just 22 active cases

What has really contributed to the speedy control over the virus in the Region is frequent health instructions by the government to the public, the curfew, encouraging people to adhere to the lockdown measures and the control of borders in order to establish a strong defence system.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is worried that the pandemic has not gone away and has refrained from annoucing victory over the virus, while other countries- like the USA, Iran and Italy- claim they are defeating the virus if fewer daily infections are recorded.

The KRG's success in battling coronavirus is due to a number of reasons.

The KRG has managed to persuade the people of the Kurdistan Region including authorities, political parties, opposition groups, different ethnic and religious groups, civil society, and media outlets that they were all in the same boat. The KRG also managed to convince the public that despite the halt of economic activities and the unexpected plunge in oil prices, they would not suffer from any economic crisis or a loss of livelihood.

Many countries soon feared that they would engage in biological warfare because of the severity of the coronavirus, closing doors on economic talks and rejecting one another's scientific assistance. But the Kurdistan Region has kept its doors wide open, welcoming any assistance offered from the international community and learning from other countries experiences.

The KRG has followed a balanced discourse to enforce coronavirus confinement measures - organizing them within a legal framework in order to prevent them from being violated - and it has proved effective. For example, there are no reports of any inappropriate conduct shown by religious clerics and figures against the decision of the closure of mosques or other holy shrines, or reports of any negative dealing with expats in the Kurdistan Region. In many countries, there are examples of foreigners being assaulted and negative reactions to the closure of religious sites.

In an authentic and transparent way, the government has informed the people of the Kurdistan Region that their health resources were limited and unable to handle any major crisis. People have not taken the government's warnings for granted, helping boost the nation's commitment to the health advice.

The KRG has been successful in hammering home the concept that the fight against coronavirus is not the job of the health sector alone, but also of individuals and families.

In this process, we have witnessed a beautiful coordination and cooperation between health workers and security forces including Asayesh, Peshmerga and all the other relevant sides.

Media outlets in the Kurdistan Region have also played a pivotal role in the fight against coronavirus, raising awareness about the importance of the health instructions and showing to the public how other countries suffer from the pandemic.

The KRG has managed this period with strong and precise daily updates about cases and developments on the ground agaisnt COVID-19. With daily updates, the government has been successful in laying out strong plans to tackle the sources of new cases.

From testing to quarantine and recovery, people have commended the government measures.

With a timely and suitable measures, border crossings and airports were organized, which have largely contributed to control of the situation.

With the measures mentioned above, the KRG has been successful in fighting coronavirus and has become a beautiful example of the people of the Kurdistan Region for the international community.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/opinion/250420201

[Anthea]

Kurdish doctors use social
media to educate diaspora

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, people all over the world are struggling. More than 197,500 people have died worldwide. While healthcare providers continue to risk their lives on the front lines in hospitals, there is another arena of public health education that needs to be addressed

There exists an abundance of misinformation and a lack of access to reliable information, especially in immigrant communities, that places many at risk. It is important that we educate ourselves and others in our communities to help prevent risky behavior and further transmission of the virus.

The COVID-19 crisis forced many people to stay at home and adhere to social distancing guidelines as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While this situation creates a challenge for reaching people through traditional methods for health education, it also inspires the creation and utilization of innovative strategies to provide health education during a crisis.

In an effort to dispel misinformation and educate our global Kurdish community, the Kurdish American Medical Association (KAMA) has worked diligently to provide useful and reliable information about the virus. In response to the pandemic, the group developed a COVID-19 team to translate public health information to Kurdish communities based on CDC and WHO guidelines. The USA has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world and the experience by Kurdish American doctors and scientists can be valuable to our Kurdish people.

In a recent effort to educate the global Kurdish community, KAMA developed a “Tele-Public Health Education” model to bring updated information on COVID-19 to our global Kurdish community through utilization of social media. The model operates on recruiting Kurdish American experts and scientists on medical panels to educate the general public about COVID-19, while engaging and answering questions from the public. KAMA is strategically partnering with community organizations and media outlets like the Kurdish Project, Arta Radio and Çiyayê Kurmênc to expand the outreach to the global Kurdish community outside of the USA.

The sessions are streamed online through Facebook, where experts provide an overall update on the status of COVID-19 and engage with a live audience by answering their questions. These live Facebook sessions are spoken in Kurdish and offer viewers an interactive way to have their questions answered immediately by Kurdish doctors and experts.

Each session will include new guests and specialists to address the spectrum of COVID-19 impact on other health conditions and the population. The purpose of these sessions is solely for education and raising awareness about COVID-19. We encourage everyone to seek advice from medical professionals as individual cases and symptoms vary.

With new information discovered daily, this format provides rapid response and complies with social distancing – two of the most crucial components for managing this outbreak. These sessions are able to safely reach an unlimited audience, providing easy access, as well as real-time updates and answers to your most pressing questions.

In the midst of a pandemic with no vaccine, it is important that we inform ourselves and encourage others to do the same. Education is crucial in preventing the spread of transmission and can subsequently save many lives.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/opinion/25042020

[Anthea]

Wuhan discharges its
last coronavirus patient

Chinese city where pandemic began now has no one suffering from it in its hospitals

China remains on alert for second possible wave, with Beijing reimposing curbs

Wuhan is still testing residents regularly despite relaxing most restrictions

The city in Hubei province reported 46,452 cases, 56 per cent of national total

The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the global coronavirus pandemic began, now has no remaining cases in its hospitals, health officials said yesterday.

But the country remains on alert for a second possible wave, with Beijing reimposing some of its lockdown measures and other cities seeing new quarantines.

Wuhan and the province of Hubei were put in lockdown near the end of January, with roads sealed, trains and planes cancelled and residents unable to move freely for more than two months.

National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng announced: 'The number of new coronavirus patients in Wuhan was at zero, thanks to the joint efforts of Wuhan and medical staff from around the country.'

The focus has since shifted to the northeast border province of Heilongjiang, which has seen large numbers of imported coronavirus cases entering from Russia.

The border town of Suifenhe, with its 70,000 population, went into lockdown at the start of the month while nearby Harbin, home to 10 million, has become the new battlefront.

Staff members lined up at attention as they prepare to spray disinfectant at Wuhan Railway Station on Friday

And 1,000 miles away in Beijing, the authorities opened gyms and swimming pools only to quickly close them again to prevent any spread.

The district of Chaoyang is home to many expats and international offices and was put down into quarantine measures after travellers began to return, infecting Beijing locals who had stayed at home.

There were no signs of any worry yesterday as people packed into a flower market in Suzhou city, in east China's Jiangsu province.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... arged.html

[Anthea]

US hospitals testing heartburn
drug as COVID-19 treatment

Hospitals in New York have been quietly testing a heartburn drug as a treatment for coronavirus after doctors in China found that elderly survivors were taking it

Northwell Health had tested famotidine (sold in oral form under brand name Pepcid) on 187 critically ill patients out of an intended 1,174 as of Saturday as part of an American trial.

Interim results from 391 patients should be available in 'a few weeks' Kevin Tracey, a former neurosurgeon in charge of Northwell's research told Science magazine.

Interest in the drug amid the pandemic developed after doctors in Wuhan found that although one in five COVID-19 patients over the age of 80 were dying, of the survivors, many were taking pills for heartburn.

Northwell Health had tested famotidine (sold in oral form under brand name Pepcid) on 187 critically ill patients out of an intended 1,174 as of Saturday as part of an American trial. Pictured in this file image, is Lenox Health Medical Pavilion part of Northwell Health system in New York on March 28

They discovered that the poor elderly people had a higher survival rate. The poor patients used famotidine because it was cheaper than omeprazole. Famotidine is sold under the brand name Pepcid and omeprazole is sold as Prilosec.

In a review of 6,212 medical records, with many patients on ventilators, the doctors in China found that only 14 percent of the elderly people using famotidine died while 27 percent of elderly people on omeprazole passed away

Scientists suspect that in COVID-19, famotidine binds to the papainlike protease which helps pathogens replicate in the body and stops them replicating

US scientists have used the 3D structures of 2003's SARS coronavirus to predict the behavior of the new coronavirus, COVID-19.

WHAT IS FAMOTIDINE?

Famotidine is an antacid and antihistamine which blocks certain receptors that trigger the release of stomach acid.

It’s known as an H2 (histamine 2) blocker and is sold under the brand name Pecid or Pepcid AC.

As well as treating heartburn caused by acid indigestion, it is also used to treat stomach ulcers and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Testing 2,600 compounds on the new protease, they found several dozen that proved promising but pharmacists have narrowed it down to three, one of which is famotidine.

After getting approval from the FDA, Northwell – which runs 13 hospitals in New York – used its own money to start a blind double trial.

On April 14, the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which operates under Kadlec, gave Florida-based Alchem Laboratories, a $20.7 million contract for the trial. The money is reported to cover most of Northwell's upfront cost.

Doctors have only been able to gather enough patients to test on because many are undergoing trials of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine. A group of patients on hydroxychloroquine and famotidine will be compared to those on just hydroxychloroquine as well as hundreds treated early on in the COVID-19 outbreak.

'Is it good science? No,' Northwell's Tracey told Science magazine. 'It's the real world.'

David Tuveson, director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center, recommended famotidine to his sister, who had coronavirus

The 44-year-old New York City hospitals engineer's lips wee blue with hypoxia but after taking her first megadose of famotidine her fever broke the following day and her oxygen saturation level returned to normal

Tuveson said five of her colleagues who had the new virus also recovered after taking over-the-counter versions of famotidine

Those over 80 with heartburn issues and that used the cheaper drug, Pepcid (left), had a higher survival rate than those using the expensive alternative, Prilosec (right). Pepcid contains famotidine and Prilosec contains omeprazole

Michael Callahan, a doctor based at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, returned from Wuhan with the famotidine information and now it is being used with hydroxychloroquine

'What do you have to lose?' says Trump as he pushes malaria drug

They kept trials under wraps as after President Trump called the anti-malarial drug a 'gamechanger' in a coronavirus task force briefing, people have rushed to hoard it.

'If we talked about this to the wrong people or too soon, the drug supply would be gone,' Tracey said.

Timothy Wang, head of gastroenterology at Columbia University Medical Center, is also helping Northwell's efforts by retrospectively reviewing records of 1,620 COVID-19 patients.

Northwell is also testing Regeneron's sarilumab and Gilead Science's remdesivir.

There's not enough evidence to suggest any drug as an effective COVID-19 treatment.

Michael Callahan – a doctor based at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston who returned from Wuhan with the famotidine information – has since evacuated Americans off two cruise ships with coronavirus outbreaks.

He said: 'No amount of smart people at the [National Institutes of Health] or Harvard or Stanford can outclass an average doctor in Wuhan.'

Trump on fired Dr. Rick Bright: 'I never heard of him'

HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE DID NOT IMPROVE SURVIVAL ODDS FOR 600 CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS
By Natalie Rahhal, Acting Us Health Editor

Patients treated with hydroxychloroquine are no better of than those who don't receive the drug hailed by Trump as a 'game-changer' results of a New York state Health Department trial suggest.

'I think from the review that I heard basically it was not seen as a positive, not seen as a negative,' said Governor Andrew Cuomo during CNN's coronavirus town hall.

Ultimately, the study, conducted by SUNY at Albany, is intended to involved some 4,000 coronavirus patients, but the preliminary results are from a sample of 600 patients.

Disappointingly, survival rates were no better among the group treated with the experimental drug than among those who got the standard supportive care, including oxygen, IV fluids and, if necessary, mechanical ventilation.

Of the 600-some coronavirus patients treated at 22 New York City area hospitals, some were treated with hydroxychloroquine alone, others were treated with the malaria drug plus the antibiotic azithromycin, and a third group got only the typical supportive care.

'We don't see a statistically significant difference between patients who took the drugs and those who did not,' Dr David Holtgrave, who led the SUNY Albany study told CNN.

Notably, there were not higher rates of heart problems among the patients given hydroxychloroquine, despite the potential for dangerous arrhythmias as a side effect.

A Veteran Affairs study found that more COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine died than did those who didn't receive the drug

Dr Holtgrave stressed, however, that the results of his stud are preliminary findings of an ongoing study that have not been peer-reviewed or published.

He and his team expect the full research, inclusive of 1,200 patients, will be ready for release as early as next week.

'Hopefully what we've done here is to start collecting data and evidence and learning lessons as we go forward about effects and side effects,' he told CNN.

Echoing Dr Holtgrave's sentiments during CNN's round table, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr Stephen Hahn said: 'Obviously you need to wait for the entire cohort of individuals to have been treated with the complete course of treatment to get a full read on that.'

So far, the researchers have only revealed a hint at comparative survival rates, but the full study will also detail differing hospital stay lengths and whether patients treated or not treated with hydroxychloroquine had to be put in ICUs on ventilators, according to CNN.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ID-19.html

[Anthea]

Ventilators are killing patients

A frontline nurse working in New York on coronavirus patients claims the city is killing sufferers by putting them on ventilators

'It's a horror movie,' she said through a friend. 'Not because of the disease, but the way it is being handled.'

And she said relatives of the sick need to make it clear as soon as a person is taken to the hospital that they do not want them hooked up to the breathing machines.

The nurse, who has relocated to New York temporarily to help with the city's COVID-19 crisis, persuaded a friend — a nurse practitioner who is not working on coronavirus patients — to make the video for her in order to tell the world what she says is happening inside hospitals.

'I am her voice here. I'm going to tell you what she has told me,' said the nurse practitioner, who was identified only as Sara NP. 'She wants this to get out.'

'She has never seen so much neglect. No one cares. They are cold and they don't care anymore. It's the blind leading the blind.'

Nurse claims COVID-19 patients are being 'murdered' in NY hospitals

A frontline nurse working in New York on coronavirus patients claims the city is killing sufferers by putting them on ventilators, advocating against them The nurse persuaded a friend, nurse practitioner Sara NP who is not working on coronavirus patients, to make the video to get the word out

'It's a horror movie. Not because of the disease, but the way it is being handled,' the frontline nurse said through Sara NP. Pictured: Ventilator tubes are attached to a patient suffering from COVID-19 on the Medical Intensive Care Unit floor in New York City

More than 12,000 people have died from the virus in New York City, with another 4,300 dying in other parts of the Empire State, which is a far larger number than any other state in the country

'People are sick, but they don't have to stay sick. They are killing them, they are not helping them,' added the friend in the video posted on YouTube.

'She used the word murder, that coming from a nurse who went to New York City expecting to help.

'Patients are left to rot and die — her words. People are being murdered and no one cares.'

Sara would not reveal which hospital the nurse is working in 'for the safety of those involved.'

More than 12,000 people have died from the virus in New York City, with another 4,300 dying in other parts of the Empire State, which is a far larger number than any other state in the country.

Republican Minnesota state Senator Scott Jensen told Fox News' Laura Ingraham that Medicare pays hospitals three times as much if patients are placed on ventilators.

'How can anyone not believe that increasing the number of COVID-19 deaths may create an avenue for states to receive a larger portion of federal dollars,' Jensen later posted on his Facebook page.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that around 80 percent of people who go on the machines die, although he's referencing patients who were already in dire conditions before being put on the machines.

Republican Minnesota state Senator Scott Jensen told Fox News' Laura Ingraham that Medicare pays hospitals three times as much if patients are placed on ventilators

This is not the first time the use of ventilators have been questioned for its efficacy.

In a YouTube video posted earlier this month New York emergency room doctor Cameron Kyle-Sidell said: 'I've talked to doctors all around the country and it is becoming increasingly clear that the pressure we're providing may be hurting their lungs.

'It is highly likely that the high pressures we're using are damaging the lungs of the patients we are putting the breathing tubes in

'It's not our fault. We didn't know,' added Kyle-Sidell, saying that is the way other acute respiratory syndromes have been treated.

'We are running the ventilators the wrong way,' he said, calling for the protocols to be changed.

'COVID positive patients need oxygen, they do not need pressure. They will need ventilators, but they must be programmed differently.'

Kyle-Siddell did not return calls from DailyMail.com. He told Medscape on April 6 he stepped down from working in the intensive care unit at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn because he didn't want to follow the hospital's ventilator protocol.

'I could not morally, in a patient-doctor relationship, continue the current protocols which, again, are the protocols of the top hospitals in the country.

'I could not continue those,' he said. 'You can't have one doctor just doing their own protocol.'

Maimonides also did not answer a request for comment.

Sara said COVID-19 patients are placed on ventilators rather than less invasive CPAP or BiPAP machines due to fears about the virus spreading.

And in a YouTube video posted earlier this month New York emergency room doctor Cameron Kyle-Sidell (pictured) said: 'I've talked to doctors all around the country and it is becoming increasingly clear that the pressure we're providing may be hurting their lungs. Kyle-Siddell later said he stepped down from working in the intensive care unit at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn because he didn't want to follow the hospital's ventilator protocol

She said there are other problems in the 'crappy' hospital where her friend is working, such as lack of personal protective equipment.

She said: 'The patients don't know any better. They don't have family with them. There is no one there with them to advocate for them. So they are scared, and they give consent.

'The ventilators have high pressure, which then causes barotrauma, it causes trauma to the lungs', adding that the best way to survive is to 'buck the system.'

'Your loved one is not going to have you in there advocating for them once they go in, you're not allowed in.

Do not give consent for intubation if you don't want to be intubated or for your loved one to be intubated… As soon as you give that consent, you might not come out of it

And she said if there is a specific medication — such as the hydroxychloroquine that President Donald Trump has touted, the best thing to do is lie.

'A tip from inside the system — if you want a medication to be given, you've got to report that it's an at-home medication, and that you demand that it be continued.'

Sara claimed patients who stop breathing are not resuscitated — again due to fear of the virus spreading.

'Full code, not doing compressions, family is not there. They have no one to answer to. No one is being held accountable.'

She said there are other problems in the 'crappy' hospital where her friend is working, such as lack of personal protective equipment.

'They stay in the same PPE all shift, except for the top pair of gloves… they're only changing the gloves on the outside.'

They keep the same gowns and masks on because the theory is that all patients on a COVID-19 floor will already have the virus. But she says that is faulty logic as some are there to see if the coronavirus can be ruled out.

'So even if they're rule-out COVID and they're not COVID they're going to get COVID because they're using the same PPE all shift and they're carrying that contamination to all of the patients

And she claimed some nurses who have been brought to New York are sitting in hotels never being called.

'Yet they're still understaffed and there are hundreds of people, hundreds of nurses in the hotels waiting to be called on to a shift. So there is manpower enough if the goal were to actually save people, but resources are not being utilized properly or to full capacity in a way that maximizes the patient benefit or improves the outcomes.'

The nurse practitioner also criticized some of the nurses who are risking their own health to treat COVID-19 patients.

'We have nurses being celebrated as heroes who are killing people,' she said.

'They're not heroes, and they're being brainwashed to think they're doing something great just by going to work because they're brave enough to go to work.

'But what are you doing at work? You're certainly not saving people if you're not even running codes. You're not even going into patients' rooms. You're a coward. You're hurting people, you're killing them, you're contributing to the problem.

The nurse practitioner said she knows she will receive hate messages for her comments. 'Frankly, I don't care because this could save someone's life.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ators.html

I had read similar reports in the UK about the dangers of ventilators

[Anthea]

Vaccine by September?

Scientists at Oxford University in the UK say they are one step closer in developing a vaccine to stop the spread

Last month, promising results were seen after six rhesus macaque monkeys were injected with a single dose of the university's new vaccine.

This means that a new vaccine trial involving more than 6,000 participants will be started by the end of next month in an effort to show the vaccine is safe and effective.

With emergency approval, 'a few million' doses could be available as early as September, if the inoculation works, reported The New York Times.

Oxford University in the UK is now enrolling more than 6,000 participants in a trial to show the vaccine is safe and effective (pictured)

Last month, six rhesus macaque monkeys were injected with a single dose of Oxford University's new vaccine and four weeks after being exposed to the vaccine, all were healthy.

With emergency approval and if the vaccine works, 'a few million' doses could be available as early as September. Pictured: EMTs lift a man after moving him from a nursing home into an ambulance in Brooklyn, New York, April 16

For the animal trial, run at the National Institutes of Health's Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana, six monkeys were each injected with one dose.

Then, they were all exposed to the strain of the novel coronavirus, known as SARS-COV-2, which had sickened other monkeys in the lab.

Four weeks later, all six monkeys were healthy and showed no signs of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

'The rhesus macaque is pretty much the closest thing we have to humans,' lead researcher Dr Vincent Munster told The Times.

Munster said after sharing more results with other scientists, he hopes to submit the findings to a peer-reviewed journal.

While there is no guarantee the findings will be replicated in humans, it's a good first sign.

As many as 100 potential COVID-19 candidate vaccines are now under development by biotech and research teams around the world, and at least five of these are in preliminary testing in people in what are known as Phase 1 clinical trials.

Italy's ReiThera, Germany's Leukocare and Belgium's Univercells said they were working together on another potential shot and aimed to start trials in a few months.

ReiThera's chief technology officer Stefano Colloca told Reuters his three-way consortium's potential vaccine technology would allow for production to be rapidly scaled up from tens of thousands to millions of doses, and would also have a long shelf-life to ease distribution.

'We'll begin the trials in July. We have to add to the challenge of developing a safe vaccine for COVID-19 the important need to guarantee the production of millions of doses in record time', he told Reuters.

Charlie Weller, head of vaccines at the Wellcome Trust global health charity, said on Wednesday that to develop safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines to protect everyone as soon as possible, 'the world needs to be prepared to execute the largest and fastest scale-up in vaccine manufacturing history'.

A Swiss scientist said on Thursday he aimed to get ahead of industry projections that a COVID-19 vaccine will take 18 months, with a hope to put his laboratory's version in use in Switzerland this year.

Martin Bachmann, head of immunology at Bern's Inselspital hospital and founder of start-up Saiba Biotechaims, said he planned to begin human trials in August in 240 volunteers if he gets the necessary approval from drug watchdog Swissmedic.

Instead of using a weakened virus like some vaccines, Bachmann said his team had opted for a 'virus-like particle' that mimics the coronavirus, only without its genetic material needed for replication.

Companies in China, where the disease is thought to have originated, are also working on potential vaccines.

The race for a vaccine has been fueled by the shortage of options for treating the disease.

The European Union's drug regulator on Thursday reiterated a warning against using two older malaria drugs outside of trials or national emergency use programs, citing potentially lethal side effects.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/arti ... nkeys.html

I am strongly against animal testing

We have prisons full of drug dealers, rapists, child molesters and murderers, so test vaccines of them rather than innocent animals

[Anthea]

UNHCR gives refugees, IDPs cash

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is providing displaced Iraqis and refugees cash support to help them buy COVID-19 protection items like latex gloves, face masks and sanitizers

Although Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have confirmed 1,680 coronavirus cases since the outbreak began, there have fortunately been no infections recorded in camps for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).

This does not mean they have been spared financial hardship as a result of the pandemic.

The Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) imposed a lockdown in mid-March, shutting down schools, ministries, and local businesses and suspending traffic within and between cities.

To prevent the virus spreading to the camps, where residents live in close quarters with limited sanitation utilities, local authorities decided to prevent anyone leaving – costing many camp residents their jobs.

UNHCR began distributing cash in Basirma refugee camp in Erbil on April 15 to help residents buy virus protection items. The agency warned on April 17 that these people are “at a higher risk due to their difficult living conditions.”

“To mitigate these risks, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, decided to help more than 110,000 vulnerable families (more than 550,000 people) from the refugee, internally displaced, and returnee communities in Iraq by providing them with cash so that they can purchase basic hygiene items to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” read a statement from the agency.

Each family is provided with 240,000 Iraqi dinars ($195).

The aid was distributed in Bardarash camp over the last few days. The camp is home to 1,700 Kurdish families (6,823 individuals) who fled Turkey’s October 2019 offensive in northern Syria.

UNHCR “is supporting the refugees and the internally displaced people and returnees with cash in order to enable them to buy their needs, like [latex] gloves, [face] masks and sanitizers so that they can protect themselves from [corona]virus,” Rasheed Hussein, a UNHCR representative, told Rudaw on Thursday.

The agency will also distribute money to those living outside the camps, but “only target the families that are very vulnerable and are in need of this support.”

However, many cash-strapped refugees say they are using the money to buy daily essentials rather than virus protection items.

“What does 240,000 [dinars] cover? If you go to the bazaar, you will spend 250,000,” Najiya Mohammed, a camp resident, told Rudaw.

“We came here and lost all our money,” Gulistan Abdul-Latif, another refugee, told Rudaw, tears in her eyes. “Everything is expensive here. Not just 240,000, even 400,000 does not suffice [for a month].”

There are around 1.4 million IDPs and refugees in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, according to data from IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix. The Kurdistan Region alone is home to 1,052,425 displaced people: 787,705 of them IDPs and 264,720 refugees, mostly from northeast Syria (Rojava), according to the Region’s Joint Crisis Coordination Center (JCC).

Both UNHCR and IOM have appealed for more than $46 million to contribute to curbing the spread of COVID-19 in Iraq.

“This scale-up aims to ensure that vulnerable refugee, IDPs, and returnee families have access to basic hygiene items in addition to conducting essential activities including health promotion and awareness-raising, provision of medical equipment, training of health workers, strengthening health care services and disinfection activities in camps and support early detection of positive cases,” UNHCR said in a statement.

In addition to halting the spread of the virus, IOM wants to use donated funds for “mitigating the impact of the outbreak including the socio-economic impact.”

“There are large IDP, refugee, returnee, and migrant communities in Iraq that already face challenges accessing healthcare and relevant information, and are still recovering from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) crisis and subsequent economic downturn,” said IOM Iraq Chief of Mission Gerard Waite.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/24042020

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