Tag Archives: Source
News floating through NAB sources is a media trial: Marriyum | Instant News
ISLAMABAD: Information PML-N Secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb accuses Prime Minister Imran Khan of being behind every NAB case and references to the opposition, especially PML-N leaders.
Responding to the news about the new reference being prepared against Sharif’s family by the NAB, he said the purpose of hovering the anonymous news source was only to harass and insult through a media smear campaign. He said no matter how many fictitious references Imran Khan might write to Sharif’s family, his immense corruption cannot remain hidden behind such diversions.
A PML-N spokesman said the NAB-Niazi alliance had failed to construct false narratives by creating false references to Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and their family members. He said there had been an endless vicious campaign against Sharif’s family and despite all the power and records, the corrupt PTI led by Imran Khan had not been able to prove corruption against them.
He said the failure that began in Panama was reduced to cases of sewers, private property and now ancestral property. He alleged that the unholy NAB-Niazi alliance did not even feel ashamed when dragging a 90-year-old mother into their political victimization.
“The Accountability Bureau is blind to the court ruling on Banigala, to the Age of Park House produced by political ATMs, worth millions of flats at the Grand Hyatt, 23 illegal secret accounts, billions channeled to Imran Khan from questionable people and organizations.
A PML-N spokesman said the persecution of Sharif’s family by the NAB was very clear. “And when they cannot find anything to satisfy their grudges, they have bent to become victims of female family members and residences,” he said. But he said all this could not frighten and silence PML-N.
Italy Facilitates Long Lockouts, Leaders Push Washington Vaccine Efforts – NBC4 | Instant News
Millions of people were allowed to return to work in Italy on Monday because Europe’s longest lockdown began to subside, while countries from Iceland to India took steps to relax the coronavirus restrictions. Businesses, including hairdressers in Greece and restaurants in Lebanon, open their doors under new conditions.
With increasing pressure in many countries for further steps to restart the economy, politicians are also trying to increase funding for VCO-19 vaccine research. There is hope that someone can be available in a few months, but a warning that it can take longer.
Italy, the first European country to be hit by a pandemic and a country with one of the highest death tolls in the world, began to move after the closing two months. In all, 4.4 million Italians can return to work, and restrictions on movement are reduced.
Traffic in downtown Rome was picked up, construction sites and manufacturing operations resumed, the park reopened and florists returned to the Campo dei Fiori market for the first time since March 11.
“This is something that brings happiness and excitement, and people have been missing it lately,” vendor Stefano Fulvi said. He doesn’t expect to break even in the near future, “but you have to take risks at some point.”
But the freedom of newly discovered Europeans was limited because officials feared it would trigger a second wave of infections.
In Italy, mourners can attend the funeral, but services are limited to 15 people and there is still no word on when the Mass will continue. The restaurant scrubbed their floors in preparation for take-out service, but the service sat a few more weeks.
Southern Italy prepares for the return of students and workers trapped in the north who were hit hard when the lockout was put in place. Some regional governors said they would ask anyone who arrived home to be quarantined for two weeks.
“This is a new page that we must write together, with trust and responsibility,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in his message to the Italians.
Belgium allows several companies to open offices for employees, although remote work is still recommended. Like the Italians, Greeks, Spaniards and many others in Europe, Belgians were told to wear masks on public transportation.
The Italians still have to carry a certification that explains why they left. Greece, which began lifting locks seven weeks on Monday, dropped the same conditions for people to send text messages or bring written permission that justifies being outside the room.
Greek hair salons and shops such as those that sell books and sporting goods are reopened, with strict hygiene and measures to keep their distance.
Athena hairdresser Konstantina Harisiadi has installed a plastic glass barrier in the reception and at the manicure station. The new sign, “Silence is security,” is intended to prevent chatter and limit the potential for virus transmission. On the first day of its opening, all of his clients wore masks.
Harisiadi was ordered through the end of the month but, being forced to operate with clients was far less than usual, meeting the needs would be a struggle.
“We will try our best,” he said, adding that he did not want to use any method of firing staff. “As a small family business owner, I will avoid it. And with my colleagues, I will find a solution to be managed.”
But he also regrets the way the atmosphere will change.
“Everything is different. There is no spontaneity – we can’t greet each other, talk, laugh. We are entering a new era, “he said.
People in Spain who were hit hard came out for the first time to cut their hair or take food, but many small shops were still closed because the owner worked to meet strict health and hygiene guidelines. The neighbor of Portugal also reduced his containment measures and allowed small shops to open.
At the western tip of Europe, Iceland is also reopening a hair salon – along with high schools, dentists and other businesses – after the country has plagued the virus outbreak.
In the Middle East, Lebanon allows restaurants to open at 30% capacity during the day starting Monday. But many business owners say they will not reopen because they will lose more money if they operate under such restrictions in a faltering economy. Cafes, clubs and bars have been ordered to remain closed until June.
India allows some economic activity to continue after a five week shutdown, even when the rate of infection rises slightly. The locking has slowed the spread of the virus but has caused great difficulties for the poor people of India.
An estimated 1.5 million South Africans return to work after five weeks in captivity. Certain mining, manufacturing and retail sectors are reopening with up to 30% of their workforce. Private trains, buses and minibus taxis are back operating with lower occupancy rates, and all South Africans must wear masks in public.
Russia reports a steady increase in infections, fueling fears the country’s hospitals will be overwhelmed. Authorities say that wider testing has contributed to the surge. Russia’s economy has been partially closed since the end of March, and lockdowns have been extended until May 11.
Governments around the world have reported 3.5 million infections and more than 247,000 deaths, including more than 67,000 deaths in the United States, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University. Deliberately concealed outbreaks, low testing rates and severe pressure of the disease on the health care system mean that the true scale of the pandemic is undoubtedly much larger.
Developing a vaccine will be the key to returning to everyday life that is not too restricted. On Monday, an alliance of world leaders held a virtual summit in hopes of raising about 4 billion euros ($ 4.37 billion) for vaccine research, around 2 billion euros for treatment and 1.5 billion euros for testing. Officials say that number is only the beginning.
Leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Norway and top European Union officials said that the money collected would be channeled largely through recognized global health organizations. The EU executive commission hopes that the United States will take part, but it is still unclear what role, if any, Washington might play in the donor conference.
The German Minister of Health said there were “promising” developments but warned that developing vaccines was one of the biggest challenges in medicine.
“I would be happy if we succeeded in a few months, but I think we must remain realistic,” Jens Spahn told ARD television on Sunday. “This can also take years, because of course there will be setbacks – we’ve seen it with other vaccines.”
___
Moulson reports from Berlin. Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
Leading Italian Wire Service Uses Ethereum to Thwart Copycats | Instant News
Stefano de Alessandri, head of the newswire Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) of Italy, had a problem in early April: Frauders published fake COVID-19 articles disguised as their own.
These articles look like ANSA. Driving the largest wire service branding in Italy, they tell the story, mostly of a fake one, from the Italian government’s coronavirus response. That is a threat to public information. Even worse, it was an attack on ANSA’s credibility perception.
“We ask people to call us to say,” Why did you publish this? Is this true? Are you sure ?, “said Alessandri about the past three weeks. If the reader is interested in these stories, he worries they will lose trust in the ANSA brand.
ANSA has an answer ready to launch: A blockchain registration system called “ANSAcheck” that stamps legitimate articles with traceable and indisputable evidence. An article is among 3,000 ANSA distributed to 24 shareholder publishers and 87 news partners every day.
ANSAcheck, which uses the Ethereum blockchain to store this data, debuted on April 9 to combat news of a fake corona virus.
Why blockchain?
Although ANSA deployed ANSAcheck during the peak of medical misinformation, ANSA had begun designing the system a year earlier in partnership with Ernst & Young (EY). The hope is that the big books distributed can be used to dispute the specter of false news and broader imitators.
ANSAcheck registers important details including title, time stamp, content hash, ID, and article publishing events on the Ethereum blockchain. That makes this information available through a small green graphic displayed at the bottom of almost every new piece of work published on the site.
The reader sees this “story of the story” by clicking on the ANSAcheck logo, and the actual details by clicking on the certificate, where the High Block transaction, Hash Transaction, Block ID is stored. Most ANSA readers may not understand this jumbled up of foreign technology concepts, but for those who are familiar with ethereum, this is the key that proves the legitimacy of the article.
ANSAcheck tries to lend credibility to the origin of the article. Read the latest article about an Italian regional governor who resigned from the ban on pandemic era home-pizza delivery. That published article the green logo is visual evidence published at ANSA. The reader can click to landing page and accompany certificate for more detailed smart contract details. And the last link to general list shows everything is recorded at a gas price of $ 0.18.
ANSAceck ports this information throughout the article life cycle, updating smart contracts as appropriate to show edits and secondary paths in transparent and verifiable media. Ultimately, this will allow ANSA third-party publications to do the same.
“This is the first step to linking ANSA and publishers in the same environment but the idea is to export the same property that is applied on the ANSA website to other publishers,” said MATA developer Giuseppe Perrone during April 22 webinar guided by his company.
Social media distribution
ANSAcheck eradicates the false news epidemic that preceded COVID-19 and is likely to last long after the virus has faded.
Fraudsters will likely continue to copy trusted news agencies as long as social media sites continue to spread these impersonators. Bombs that are bent with false stories flood the natural skepticism, according to Paul Brody, global blockchain leader EY. This makes articles ready to spread even stronger when sent in trusted brand wrappers.
“There are two things that have to happen to spread false information,” Brody told CoinDesk. “Number one, you have to make false information. Number two, you have to convince people to continue. “
So far, social media networks, whose business model is largely focused on keeping users engaged, are not effective at stopping this spread. Forget about banning fake news content, which can face difficult legal hurdles. These sites only mark suspicious content and, as Brody said, are vulnerable to the tendency of users to share.
Newswires such as ANSA, which distributes 3,700 articles daily to ream affiliate sites, are also vulnerable. A site can claim that the story is ANSA’s story and readers will not have an easy way to lie.
“If we can start to engineer things in such a way that it’s easier to tell the truth rather than sending something fake, it can be transformational,” Brody said.
Brody said ANSAcheck could be the basis of that transformation.
Trust but verify
ANSAcheck blockchain is not and cannot verify the information contained in the article is the truth. As de Alessandri stressed to CoinDesk, it only documented an article that came from a certain site and was published at a certain time.
“We are not saying through this solution we are not publishing fake news, but we are telling our readers that this story comes from ANSA,” de Alessandri said during the EY webinar.
That could still be enough to disrupt the fake news chains that mine their credibility from the reputation of newswires like ANSA, according to Brody. In marking articles with verifiable sources, ANSAcheck makes a default tool for checking sources.
“We can ensure that each machine returns a legitimate message at the top of the list,” Brody said. “Imagine if you have a leading news organization that all have authenticity tools. We can bring that data up at the top of the list, and if someone goes looking for it, it doesn’t matter what bubble they live if what they see initially comes from news organizations that have reputation and truth. “
At this time, a broader vision of blockchain-based news is more a goal than a reality. ANSAcheck pilots, who are not yet a month old, are limited to “80 or 90 percent” of ANSA articles, and the recognizable green stamp only appears on the original content on their site. It has not been able to spread through the network.
De Alessandri is not particularly worried about the implications of ANSAcheck’s social media. During the EY webinar he said that protecting the reputation of old media was more important in the system.
“I don’t think that’s the last solution, but this is a small step,” de Alessandri said during the webinar. “Every tool we can apply to maintain, to enlarge professional information is a benefit for everyone, not only for people who work in the media business but for democracy and for society.”
Disclosure Read More
A leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and complies strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is a subsidiary that operates independently of the Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrency and startup blockchain.
Canada, the US is in talks to extend border closure amid a pandemic, sources said | Instant News
A view of the US-Canada border crossing on April 8, 2020 from Detroit, Michigan. US and Canadian officials hold talks that will almost certainly lead to an agreement to keep the land border closed for at least a few more weeks, sources said.
Picture of Elaine Cromie / Getty
US and Canadian officials hold talks that will almost certainly lead to an agreement to keep land borders closed for non-essential travel for at least a few more weeks, sources said.
The border between Canada and the United States is restricted to all non-essential travel on March 21, for the 30-day period ending April 19, in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19.
Partial closure of the border does not affect important travel, including truck and railroad traffic carrying food and goods, supply chain keys, and travel to work. Flights between the two countries continue but have been restricted. Border closure also applies to migrants crossing the border on informal crossings, but not for temporary foreign workers needed by Canadian farmers and other food production.
The source, who is knowledgeable about the negotiations, said US and Canadian officials were discussing whether to reopen the border for unnecessary travel, even though they said it was very unlikely that the restrictions would be lifted. The source said the discussion was more focused on whether to extend the border restrictions by two weeks or a 30-day period. The Globe and Mail did not reveal the names of the sources because they were not allowed to discuss bilateral negotiations publicly.
Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the extension of the restrictions made sense as long as the novel coronavirus remained a threat on both sides of the border.
Beatty said border measures were imposed for valid medical reasons, but the US and Canada took into account the need to ensure the flow of goods across the Canadian, US and Mexican borders.
“Our feeling is that for business purposes, the border is quite smooth,” he said. “Obviously for Canadian businesses, we must be able to get supplies from other countries, and this is very important for North America, because there are now problems with supply chains in other parts of the world.”
Beatty said that Canadian supermarket executives, for example, had told him they could get agricultural produce from Mexico by land without problems on the US-Canada border.
“Even in Canada, we have restrictions on movement so it makes sense to have boundaries at the border of your country as long as medical threats remain high,” he said.
Beatty said the challenge going forward was to ensure that there were national plans to restart the economy, which would likely occur on a sector-by-sector or region-by-region approach.
“Our supply chain that crosses provincial boundaries is more important than before, because many of our supply chains are disrupted. So having coordination and the ability to get supplies from the province, where restrictions may be more stringent, will be very important for businesses that are reopened in other areas, “he said.
Reopening the border for unnecessary trips would not make sense at this time, especially along the borders of Ontario and Quebec. New York and Michigan have been hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Elliot Tepper, senior colleague at the Norman Paterson School of International Relations, said health authorities on both sides of the border would support the extension but he expressed concern about reports in The New York Times and other US media that the Trump administration, led by the White House. trade adviser Peter Navarro, pushed for the reopening of a large part of the US economy on May 1.
“If the US reopens its economy in a significant way, and we don’t, it will create an entirely new health security situation,” Prof. Tepper.
“If Canada remains locked and cautious about reopening, based on the best health expertise we have, and right on the other side of the border, our main partners in many ways, reopening in a way that can cause a second wave of infections, which is fundamentally will change the border situation. “
Prof. Tepper said this would cause problems for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau because President Donald Trump himself had indicated that he wanted to reopen the US economy as he headed for election year.
Christopher Sands, director of the Canadian Institute at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center, said border measures were not yet perfect, citing US initial plans to send troops along the northern US border and orders to stop 3M from supplying medical equipment to Canada.
But apart from this, Mr Sands said the two countries had overcome difficulties and indicated that they could work together for mutual economic interests.
“The first 30 days of the joint border restriction have not ended yet, but I think the government must renew this arrangement. “It’s not going well from a messaging perspective, where Ottawa and Washington assume responsibility,” Sands said. But actions on the ground have been positive and justify extending the arrangement as one of the important tools in the box to stop the spread of COVID-19. “
Six states in the US Northeast, including New York and New Jersey, took the first tentative step on Monday to reopen their economy by forming a regional panel to develop a strategy, after President Donald Trump confirmed that any decision to restart the economy was his. make. Reuters
With bears appearing in the Aspen area, humans need to start securing food, homes | Instant News
Kelsey Brunner / The Aspen Times
Colorado Parks and Wildlife received nearly 950 calls about the black bear incident and sightings in Pitkin County last year – far more than any other mountain hotspot.
Wildlife officials received 313 bear calls in La Plata County, which includes Durango, and 112 calls in Eagle County, which included Vail, according to Randy Hampton, public information officer for the Northwest Territories of CPW.
The highest number of calls in Pitkin County, 442, involved damage to homes, cars and other property by bears trying to access food sources, Hampton said. One incident involved a bear attack on hikers in the Hunter Creek Valley.
With bears beginning to move when they come out of winter hibernation, CPW is renewing its annual efforts to make homeowners and visitors in the mountains of Colorado heed calls to avoid creating situations that allow bears to access food. That means keeping food away from cars, locking windows and doors on the ground floor of homes and garages, bringing pet food inside, leaving bird feeders and cleaning the grill.
Support Local Journalism
“If your neighbor weighs 600 pounds, is aggressive and hungry, what will you do?” – Randy Hampton, CPW
“The message is the same as before because it’s the right message – don’t do things that attract bears to your property,” Hampton said last weekend.
CPW received 17 bear-related calls in Pitkin County this spring and received calls from a total of eight countries. A bear creating a commotion in Snowmass Village was trapped and moved last week.
CPW and other public agencies in Pitkin County have planned a “bear summit” in April to discuss human-bear conflicts, responses and communicate with the public. It was postponed due to social distance requirements and a ban on assembly due to the coronavirus pandemic. Officials hope to meet in May.
Hampton has a blunt but effective description of how people should think of black bears.
“If your neighbor weighs 600 pounds, is aggressive and hungry, what will you do?” she says. “That’s the way we have to treat this. We have to assume the bear wants to enter your house. “
Male bears usually emerge first from hibernation, followed by landlords and then females born during hibernation, usually in mid to late April, according to CPW. Hungry bruins look for grass, aspen shoots, and other vegetative material – soft foods that help them restore their digestive and metabolic systems to normal after months of not eating. It is very important for their health that they do not have access to trash and other human food sources.
“Every time a bear gets a snack, a bird feeder, hummingbird feeder, trash, it teaches the bear that people mean food,” Mark Lamb, CPW’s wildlife manager for the South Park and Metro Denver Area in the west, said in a statement. . “People who think this one time, no big deal, are totally wrong. This is a big problem when you add ‘one time’ to how many ‘one time’ they get from your neighbors too. It adds up.”
CPW received 5,369 reports of bear-human incidents last year in the entire state. About one third of the reports involved contained garbage.
If natural food sources are scarce or if human food sources are easily accessible, bears look in residential areas for their next meal.
CPW has information and tips titled “Living with Bears in Colorado” at https://cpw.state.co.us/bears.
“Biologists see bears that change most of their life cycles into communities,” CPW said in a news release. “When a high-country berry bush produces several hundred calories and a trash can delivers thousands of calories through leftovers and greasy food, bears will make easy choices. Once they make that choice, they instinctively are trained by their stomachs to look for easy choices. “
Unfortunately, easy access to human food is often a death sentence for so-called bear problems. While some bears were moved after the first offense, the perpetrators repeatedly and aggressive bruins were killed.
“The bear is always the loser,” Lamb said.
Canadian doctors once posted to Beijing were ignored by Ottawa after offering help with COVID-19 responses | Instant News
The Canadian Public Health Agency relies heavily on the World Health Organization for information and guidance in responding to the rapid spread of the deadly new virus.
Denis Balibouse / Reuters
For seven years, Felix Li has been serving at the forefront away from Canadian public health, in China. When a doctor posts to Beijing, he establishes relationships with health authorities that allow him to peer under the official rhetoric of the country which has been the source of various viral epidemics in the past few decades.
When Dr. Li returned to Canada in 2015 and retired from the Canadian Public Health Agency (PHAC) after 23 years, he was not replaced.
But he maintained his contact within the Chinese public health system and wanted to help when other outbreaks began to emerge.
So, a few days after the closure of Wuhan on January 23, he sent an e-mail to PHAC, including Chief of the Public Health Officer Theresa Tam, who offered his expertise.
“I offer to go back to Ottawa to work with them on this. I need to help, to save lives, “said Dr. Li in an interview.
In the e-mail, he described his knowledge of the Chinese system and the contacts he maintained there.
“I got an email back saying, ‘We will talk about it and let you know.’ But I never got a response after that. “
Instead, PHAC relies heavily on the World Health Organization for information and guidance in responding to the rapid spread of the deadly new virus.
Coronavirus Guide: Important updates and resources about the COVID-19 pandemic
But critics have questioned the relationship between WHO and China, whose response has been praised by WHO effectively. Health organizations have raised little public concern about the reliability of information provided by Beijing, although there is evidence to show that Chinese authorities significantly reported the number of deaths due to the outbreak.
Li said that, during his time in China, there were differences in the “quality of information” he could obtain by communicating directly with people at the Chinese Ministry of Health and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. During the 2013 H7N9 bird flu outbreak, for example, he received a direct update from Chinese officials.
If he works now, he “might get more timely and accurate information about many things,” he said.
There are good reasons to look for more sources of information, said public health experts.
A Chinese woman wears a protective mask because her body temperature is checked by a security guard before entering a shopping area on March 14, 2020 in Beijing, China.
Kevin Frayer / Getty Images
“In acute emergencies, there is always the benefit of contacts expertise in the field ‘and contacts in getting access to data and understanding the nuances of the actual context. There is always value in having multiple sources of data, information or intelligence, and it would be wise to have as many sources as possible, “said James Orbinski, director of the York Institute of Global Health Research at Dahdaleh University.
“Relying on a single source of information for critical decision making leaves you open to all its biases and limitations, and every source – even ‘official’ ones, such as WHO, the Chinese government, the CIA, the United States government, the Canadian government – has biases and limitations. “
PHAC says it has complete confidence in its methods – and in WHO. “With the situation related to COVID-19 growing rapidly throughout the world, Canada will continue to work with its international partners, including WHO and China, as well as with provincial and territorial partners to reduce risks for Canadians and globally. community, “spokeswoman Anna Maddison said in a statement via email.
The agency can rely on Canadian foreign services “to share and gather information related to public health and health issues,” Maddison said.
Canadian embassies and consulates in China, however, have worked with low staffing levels after non-essential staff – including provincial representatives – were sent home.
Unlike the U.S., Canada does not have extensive global public health services, which makes it dependent on WHO. That’s not a bad thing, said Srinivas Murthy, an infectious disease specialist at the University of British Columbia who has worked with WHO.
“WHO is a very prominent, very powerful organization that has that capacity,” said Dr. Murthy. “I don’t think Canada specifically needs foreign public health agencies.”
But there is also the risk of relying on an agent which itself depends on information from China, a country where statistics are often subject to political necessity. U.S. Disease Control and Prevention Center itself criticized for cutting its staff in China by two thirds before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spoke when the graph was displayed during a briefing on coronavirus at the White House, Wednesday, April 8, 2020, in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence
Alex Brandon / The Associated Press
In Canada, meanwhile, it appears that health leaders have not received adequate advice about the potential weakness of Chinese data transmitted by WHO, said Charles Burton, a senior colleague at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute who has twice worked at the Canadian embassy in Beijing.
The result was that “misinformation motivated by Chinese politics tragically caused unnecessary Canadian deaths,” he said.
Dr. Li began his public health work in Beijing in 2008 with the belief that “Canadians should not respond to epidemics or pandemics when they reach the coast of Canada. We must work proactively with China. “
He declined to offer his views on how China and Canada responded to COVID-19, for fear of damaging relations with public health officials he still hoped to work with.
“As medical doctors and public health doctors, our job is to save lives. “If I am called, I will take the next flight to Ottawa,” he said.
Now it is recommended that you wear face masks in crowded public settings such as grocery stores and pharmacies, pay attention to how to make three masks recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Written instructions are available at tgam.ca/masks
Register for Coronavirus Update Bulletin to read important coronavirus news today, features and explanations written by Globe reporters.
Study Finds Most Cases of COVID-19 in NYC Coming from Europe, Elsewhere in the US – NBC New York | Instant News
What you need to know
- The first confirmed COVID-19 case in New York City came from sources mainly Europe and the United States, according to the first molecular epidemiological study of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19
- The research, published online, was led by the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai and was the first to track the source of the case.
- The study also found that, although the first New York State case was confirmed in March, the virus had circulated around the area the previous week.
The first confirmed COVID-19 case in New York City came from sources mainly Europe and the United States, according to the first molecular epidemiological study of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, conducted by Mount Sinai.
The study, published online, was led by the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai and was the first to track the source of the case. This study shows that the epidemic in this city mostly arises through uninterrupted transmission between the United States and Europe. He also found limited evidence to support a direct introduction from China, where the virus originated, or other locations in Asia.
“These results indicate that SARS-CoV-2 comes to the New York City region mainly through Europe via untraceable transmissions,” Viviana Simon, MD, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at ISMMS, said. “Only one of the cases studied was infected with a virus which is a clear candidate for entry from Asia, and the virus is most closely related to virus isolates from Seattle, Washington.”
New York City has become one of the main centers of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the US with more than 4,000 deaths in the metropolitan area.
The research team from the Icahn Institute for Data Science and Genomic Technology, Global Health and the Emerging Pathogens Institute, and the Department of Microbiology, Pathology, and Genetics and Genomics Science sequenced 90 SARS-CoV-2 genes out of 84 of the more than 800 confirmed. COVID-19 positive cases in the Mount Sinai Health System.
“We are sequencing the genomes of the COVID-19 cases identified until March 18,” Harm van Bakel, Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genomics at ISMMS, said. “These cases were taken from 21 New York City neighborhoods in four regions (Manhattan, Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn), as well as two cities in neighboring Westchester County.”
The researchers then analyzed this sequence along with all 2,363 SARS-CoV-2 genes that are available to the public from around the world to determine the most likely origins of the SARS-CoV-2 type that infects Mount Sinai patients.
“Phylogenetic analysis of 84 different SARS-CoV2 genomes shows some independent but isolated introductions mainly from Europe and other parts of the United States. In addition, related virus groups found in patients living in various urban environments provide strong evidence of transmission of the SARS-CoV2 community in the city before March 18, 2020, “van Bakel said.
Although the federal government instituted targeted screening of possible COVID-19 cases, as well as a number of travel restrictions to limit its spread in the United States from hotspots in China, Iran, and, later, European countries, the first case in the state. New York was identified in New York City last month.
On March 1, the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, announced the first confirmed coronavirus case in the city.
However, this study found another interesting element: while the case of the State of New York was first confirmed in March, the virus circulated around the area a few weeks earlier.
“This study also shows that the virus is likely to circulate as early as the end of January 2020 in the New York City area. This underscores the urgent need for initial and continuing extensive testing to identify untracked transmission clusters in the community,” Simon said.
According to the researchers, knowing the time the virus came to New York and the route taken was important for evaluating and designing effective containment strategies.
The Environment is at the Largest Risk for the Severe Case-19 COVID – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth | Instant News
NBC 5 Investigate, working with the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, obtains an exclusive view of the Dallas environment where people who get COVID-19 are more likely to develop the most serious infections, which require critical care and ventilators.
The environment in the red zone in the map below has the highest prevalence of risk factors for severe COVID-19 disease. These conditions – heart disease, diabetes, stroke, asthma, COPD, kidney disease and obesity – are often factors that can cause coronavirus patients in hospitals that are already depressed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Map data provided by the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston:
“The data was taken from two federal sources: American Community Survey 5-Summary Summary, from the US Census Bureau, released in December 2019, and the 500 Cities Project from the CDC. The 500 Cities Project offers chronic disease data, based on respondents’ self-reports from the Factor Survey Annual Behavioral Risk This data is presented at the census-tract level for the 500 largest cities in the US We combine the two data sources for each of the three cities and report them on the map that follows, because our aim is to highlight the areas with the highest risk in each city, we rank tracts separately and identify the top 20% with the highest scores. “
Mapping high-risk areas can be vital in preparing for a COVID-19 surge in the city, said Dr. Stephen Linder, director of the Institute for Health Policy at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.
“Once they are mapped, we can better target our resources. We can target our efforts to the population that is most likely to place a demand on the hospital care system,” Linder said.
Linder and his team Dritana Marko and Thomas F. Reynolds analyzed data collected by the CDC and the U.S. Census Bureau to determine the census pathway with the highest prevalence of risk factors.
NBC 5 Investigate
One such zone is east of the Central Expressway and south of Forest Lane. The others walked along the north side of Interstate 30, east of Loop 12 toward Downtown Dallas. And there is a red zone, east of Buckner Boulevard and north of Interstate 30, stretching to Mesquite.
But the biggest, and most unhealthy part of the city where people are at greatest risk is the wide stretch of southern Dallas that lies between US Highway 67 to the west and CF Hawn Freeway to the east. That is in an area where Linder’s team said COVID-19 cases were far more likely to require hospitalization.
“That is the south-central region where you have a census channel that has the highest prevalence, not only from one or two but up to seven different chronic disease conditions,” Linder said.
That’s where Edgar Love lives, in the Queen City neighborhood west of Fair Park.
“I live in a desert of food
as well as the desert family medical clinic. I have to go to their place, “said
Love, who is taking blood pressure medicine and is approaching 69th birthday.
NBC 5 Investigate
It was Love’s neighborhood, and the others were marked in red, which caught the attention of Dallas District Judge Clay Jenkins when he looked at the map.
“We know that those are the places that need the most intensive intervention, if we have hope to stop this,” Jenkins said in an interview with NBC 5 Investigate.
Lots of flaws in southern Dallas
insurance, doctors are not present in the environment and chronic health conditions go away
left untreated, putting the population at great risk in a pandemic.
“That won’t be bad for
themselves and their families. This will hurt us all with the health of our community. And
now we see that, “Jenkins said.
NBC 5 Investigate
Adding to the concern some Dallas County ZIP codes with the highest concentration of risk factors are among those where the virus has attacked hard.
On Tuesday, the District of Dallas Health and Human Services reported 75227 ZIP codes south of I-30 and along Buckner Boulevard and ZIP codes 75115 in DeSoto each had between 38 and 47 cases. 75216 ZIP codes in southeast Dallas have between 29 and 37 cases.
The Dallas County Health Department said it had surged into those areas, including a drive-thru virus testing site that was set up at Ellis Davis Field House at 9191 S. Polk Street.
“We have outreach workers who walk the streets in the area, put up special education materials, work with … some shop owners,” Dr. Philip Huang, director of the Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services.
Another setback in southern Dallas’s ability to prepare and protect against the corona virus is the fact that most major hospitals in other parts of the city, according to an analysis by NBC 5 partners at The Dallas Morning News.
The newspaper’s study showed residents in the neighborhood had to travel a longer distance to reach a full scale hospital. It does not take into account the Dallas VA Medical Center at 4500 S. Lancaster Road, which is limited to military veterans and, in some cases, their family members.
Many Covid-19 patients who are seriously ill in Dallas County suffer from diabetes. About one in every four who are treated in the ICU suffer from diabetes. In their study, UT Health researchers focused on the Dallas environment with the highest concentration of diabetics and heart disease and above the age of 60. They found one of the greatest concentrations of risk factors in the environment in southern Dallas near Interstate 45 and Interstate 20.
“That represents a special subgroup of the population that we identified as vulnerable to severe infections. They are at high risk, “said Linder, UT’s health policy director. The Linder team suggested a list of the main zip codes where Dallas should focus testing and even temporary hospital resources to prepare.
UT Health
Alvaro Saenz, head of the MD Medical Group which serves low-income families in southern Dallas, said NBC 5 Investigate they work hard to keep patients current with their chronic health needs during a pandemic.
“We even honestly have people whose main job is to call patients and say,” Okay, did you take medicine this week? If not … ‘What can we help you with?’ “Saenz said.
Jenkins and Huang said they wanted to expand COVID-19 testing in environments identified as red zones on the map developed by UT Health, but limited test and funding capacity. But they said they were looking for ways to focus more on high-risk zones, knowing that detecting cases and reducing the spread of viruses in those areas could protect the most vulnerable.
“This is the population
it will suffer the most. And that’s why we care so much
putting as much resources in and supporting this field as we can, “Huang
the word.
He and other regional officials urged everyone to take extreme precautions during this crisis, wherever they live, because COVID-19 was not chosen by the ZIP code.
NBC 5 Investigate
Everyone is at risk even if they do not live in an area where more people tend to develop severe infections.
In southern Dallas, Edgar Love
said that, like his neighbor, he heeded the warning – squatting and
hope the virus doesn’t come knocking on the door.
“I try to stay safe … try to stay as much as possible,” he said.
For more information about this story, see Wednesday’s edition of The Dallas Morning News. To view the complete UT Health study for Dallas, Austin and San Antonio open the document below.