Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
More Than 60% Of Sailors On Aircraft Carrier Had Antibodies In Latest Sign Of Widespread Infections
Reuters: Exclusive: In Navy Study, 60 Percent Of Carrier Volunteers Have Coronavirus Antibodies
A U.S. Navy investigation into the spread of the coronavirus aboard the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier has found that about 60 percent of the roughly 400 sailors tested had antibodies for the virus, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday. All 4,800 sailors on the Roosevelt aircraft carrier were tested for the coronavirus previously, and about a quarter tested positive. But in April the Navy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started conducting a serology test to look for the presence of specific antibodies. (Ali and Stewart, 6/8)
ABC News: More Than 60% Of The 400 Sailors Tested On Carrier Had COVID-19 Antibodies
In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak aboard the carrier and the guided missile destroyer USS Kidd, the Navy has instituted new health and safety procedures aboard ships at sea or ships preparing to head out to sea to prevent future outbreaks. The sailors aboard the Roosevelt will all wear masks and carry out social distancing for the rest of their deployment in the Pacific -- a practice that all Navy ships at sea are also employing. (Martinez, 6/8)
The Hill: Officials Say 60 Percent Of Roosevelt Carrier Crew Have Coronavirus Antibodies: Report
The Theodore Roosevelt became the center of attention after an outbreak infected hundreds aboard, leading the ship's captain Brett Crozier to pen a letter to Navy officials warning about the spread. When the letter was leaked to the media, Crozier was fired. (Coleman, 6/8)
CNN: Asymptomatic Spread Of Coronavirus 'Appears To Be Rare,' WHO Official Says
The spread of Covid-19 by someone who is not showing symptoms appears to be rare, Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical lead for coronavirus response and head of the emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, said during a media briefing in Geneva on Monday. "From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual," Van Kerkhove said on Monday. (Howard, 6/9)
The Hill: WHO Official: Asymptomatic Spread Of Coronavirus 'Very Rare'
However, Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, expressed some skepticism of the WHO’s claim and said he thinks asymptomatic transmission is, in fact, an important source of spread and that some modeling shows as much as 40 to 60 percent of transmission is from people without symptoms. Jha said it’s possible the WHO is making a distinction between asymptomatic spread and presymptomatic spread, when someone eventually develops symptoms but spreads the virus before they do. (Sullivan, 6/8)
Reuters: Over Half Of People Tested In Italy's Bergamo Have COVID-19 Antibodies
More than half the residents tested in Italy’s northern province of Bergamo have COVID-19 antibodies, health authorities said on Monday, citing a sample survey. Of 9,965 residents who had blood tests between April 23 and June 3, 57% had antibodies indicating they had come into contact with the coronavirus, the survey showed. Health authorities in Bergamo said the results were based on a “random” sample which was “sufficiently broad” to be a reliable indicator of how many people had been infected in the province, which became the epicentre of Italy’s outbreak. (Amante, 6/8)
And in other scientific news on the virus —
Reuters: Symptoms Can Last For Weeks Even In Mild Cases, Lockdowns Likely Saved Millions Of Lives
The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Symptoms can linger for weeks after mild coronavirus infection COVID-19 patients not sick enough to be hospitalized are advised to isolate themselves for 14 days, but their symptoms often last much longer, doctors in Atlanta have found. They kept track of 272 non-hospitalized coronavirus patients with follow-up phone calls every 12 to 48 hours for up to 50 days. (Lapid, 6/8)
Reuters: Coronavirus May Have Spread In Wuhan In August, Harvard Research Shows, But China Dismissive
The coronavirus might have been spreading in China as early as August last year, according to Harvard Medical School research based on satellite images of hospital travel patterns and search engine data, but China dismissed the report as “ridiculous.” The research used satellite imagery of hospital parking lots in Wuhan - where the disease was first identified in late 2019 - and data for symptom-related queries on search engines for things such as “cough” and “diarrhoea.” “Increased hospital traffic and symptom search data in Wuhan preceded the documented start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in December 2019,” according to the research. (6/9)
