All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Coronavirus: Germany puts Spain’s Catalonia, Navarre and Aragon on high-risk list

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Holidaymakers returning from Catalonia, home to Barcelona, will have to present a negative coronavirus test or go into quarantine upon arriving in Germany. It’s one of three Spanish regions newly designated high risk.

German Health Expert Karl Lauterbach: “The Authorities Should Focus Their Efforts on Super-Spreaders*” – DER SPIEGEL – *Super-spreader events.

Lauterbach: When someone is tested, they must be systematically questioned with the help of a form whether they were present at a potential super-spreader in the preceding days — a choir event, a wedding — or if they are a teacher in a school. If the test is positive, all other participants in the event must be immediately quarantined without delay, even before they are tested. That is the only way to prevent them from passing the virus along during the period in which they are contagious. DER SPIEGEL: What if someone in a class at school becomes infected? Lauterbach: Then all students in the class and their families must be quarantined for a week. That is the only way to prevent classrooms from becoming super-spreader sites. More than a week of quarantine, by the way, isn’t necessary. Positive cases are hardly ever contagious for longer than that, even if they are still sick.

Source: German Health Expert Karl Lauterbach: “The Authorities Should Focus Their Efforts on Super-Spreaders” – DER SPIEGEL

How Essential Food Workers Are Fighting Back | Civil Eats

“A nightmare.”

That’s how a decade-long employee for Tyson Foods, Inc. in northwest Arkansas describes working for the meat processor during the COVID-19 pandemic. The machine operator didn’t want to be publicly identified for fear of reprisal, but he told Civil Eats that he’s worried about his safety since the coronavirus began to spread at meatpacking plants in March.

“Everything is really dirty, and they don’t deep clean areas when people have tested positive for COVID-19,” he said. “Whenever workers start having symptoms, we are not told who is sick or who is not.”

 

Source: How Essential Food Workers Are Fighting Back | Civil Eats

To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to extend the duration of presumptive eligibility periods under the Medicaid program to allow presumptively eligible individuals to have more time to file applications for enrollment under State plans under such program, and for other purposes. (H.R. 7892) – GovTrack.us

Source: To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to extend the duration of presumptive eligibility periods under the Medicaid program to allow presumptively eligible individuals to have more time to file applications for enrollment under State plans under such program, and for other purposes. (H.R. 7892) – GovTrack.us

Contact Tracing Is Failing in Many States. Here’s Why. – The New York Times (Lack of leadership from Washington sealed failure and can unlock success but… people need to work together!)

Contact tracing, a cornerstone of the public health arsenal to tamp down the coronavirus across the world, has largely failed in the United States; the virus’s pervasiveness and major lags in testing have rendered the system almost pointless. In some regions, large swaths of the population have refused to participate or cannot even be located, further hampering health care workers.

Portland sees peaceful night of protests following withdrawal of federal troops | US news | The Guardian

The withdrawal of federal agents from frontline policing of demonstrations in downtown Portland significantly reduced tensions in the city overnight.

Protesters in support of Black Lives Matter once again rallied near the federal courthouse that became a flashpoint, and the scene of nightly battles amid the swirl of teargas, after Donald Trump dispatched agents to end what he called anarchy in the city after weeks of demonstrations.

But in the absence of the federal officers, Thursday night’s protest passed off without major incident or intervention by the police.

 

Source: Portland sees peaceful night of protests following withdrawal of federal troops | US news | The Guardian

Single-shot COVID-19 vaccine proves successful with primates – Harvard Gazette

A single-shot vaccine for COVID-19 being developed by a group of scientists, led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) immunologist Dan H. Barouch, has proven successful in tests on primates and could begin phase 3 trials as early as September.

Source: Single-shot COVID-19 vaccine proves successful with primates – Harvard Gazette