Coronavirus: US stunned by Australia’s virus surge, as parliament canned
Not long after Donald Trump complimented Scott Morrison on Australia’s handling of COVID-19 the US has been stunned at the sudden surge of infections here.
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Not long after Donald Trump complimented Scott Morrison on how Australia has handled the COVID-19 pandemic, the US, already left reeling by the virus, has been stunned at the sudden surge of infections here.
Prime Minister Morrison said President Trump was “very complimentary” of Australia’s response to the coronavirus “and the responsibility we take in the region” in a call between the two leaders on Friday.
But now as America learns the extent of the ‘second spike’ of coronavirus infections in Australia, that has resulted in a return to lockdown in Melbourne, they are in a state of shock.
“Until now, Australia had been heralded as a global leader in combating the novel coronavirus, which is why a sudden surge in cases came as a shock,” read a story from American broadcaster ABC News.
“Nearly 5 million residents in the hardest-hit city of Melbourne were just emerging from a two-month lockdown, beginning to enjoy the easing of restrictions, before they were told to go back indoors for six weeks — allowed to leave home only for essential purposes.”
According to the Department of Health, Australia recorded 233 new cases nationally since yesterday with 217 from Victoria.
118 Australians have now died after Victoria reported two new deaths overnight.
There are 2,700 active cases nationally with “almost all of those in the greater Melbourne and Mitchell Shire”, Prof Kelly said.
That sobering news came as the next sitting fortnight of federal parliament has been cancelled, due to concerns of the growing coronavirus situation in Victoria and New South Wales.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed the August 4 sitting would not go ahead following advice from the acting Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly.
“He advises that, despite proposed mitigation measures, the risks posed by a parliamentary sitting are significantly higher and unlikely to be resolved in the next month,” Mr Morrison said.
The acting CMO’s advice was: ‘The entry of a high-risk group of individuals could jeopardise the health situation in the ACT and place residents at unnecessary risk of infection. In addition, the health risk to Members and Senators and their staff from other jurisdictions is a material concern.”
Mr Morrison said the Government could not ignore the risk to parliamentarians, their staff, the staff within the parliament, and the broader community of the ACT.
“It is not feasible nor desirable to hold a sitting of parliament that would exclude parliamentarians from a single state,” he said.
“Our Commonwealth parliament should have representatives from all members of our federation and it is the duty of Parliamentarians to attend parliament, if it is scheduled.”
Parliament will next meet on August 24.
The return of lockdown in Melbourne and the shuttering of federal parliament has coincided with a record increase in the daily number of virus cases. According to the World Health Organisation, the total of cases rose by 237,743 in the 24 hours to midnight Friday.
US VIRUS CASES SURGE AGAIN
The COVID-19 epidemic in America is once more blowing up at an exponential rate, even as leaders of some of the worst-hit states resist mandatory mask measures to stem the spread.
Health authorities reported 78,000 new cases over the past 24 hours, according to the database run by Johns Hopkins University.
The number of patients hospitalised for the virus is at its highest level since April 23, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
The death rate, which plummeted in May and June, has been rising since last week. Florida, the new epicentre, posted more than 11,000 new cases and 128 deaths on Friday (local time).
The epidemic is meanwhile spreading to new parts of the US — Idaho, Tennessee, Mississippi.
US President Donald Trump’s ratings have plummeted since the start of the pandemic: Only 38 per cent of Americans approve of how he has handled the health crisis, against 51 per cent in March, according to a new poll.
Top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway said on Friday (local time) the cause for the decline was that the president was no longer briefing the public about the virus daily, and suggested this could be revived.
“The president’s numbers were much higher when he was out there briefing everybody on a day by day basis about the coronavirus,” she said.
“I think the president should be doing that.”
The near-daily task force briefings featuring Mr Trump were halted in late April amid mounting criticism over his performance.
“We’ve really got to regroup, call a time-out,” Anthony Fauci the United States’ top infectious disease specialist told Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg in a video chat on Thursday (local time).
“Not necessarily lock down again, but say, ‘We’ve got to do this in a more measured way,’” he added.
Meanwhile, the director of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention co-wrote an editorial urging Americans to wear masks.
The editorial from Dr Robert Redfield and two other senior CDC officials, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, argues wearing a mask is a “civic duty.”
Wearing a cloth face covering is your civic duty. This is a small sacrifice that can help turn the tide favorably in national and global efforts against #COVID19. https://t.co/We2z27OREZ
— Dr. Robert R. Redfield (@CDCDirector) July 17, 2020
“At this critical juncture when COVID-19 is resurging, broad adoption of cloth face coverings is a civic duty, a small sacrifice reliant on a highly effective low-tech solution that can help turn the tide favourably in national and global efforts against COVID-19,” Redfield and his colleagues wrote.
The CDC director has previously urged Americans, especially younger Americans, to cover their faces in order to limit the spread of the virus.
More than half of US states have issued statewide mask mandates, but a number of states that have recently reported surges in new cases — including Georgia, Florida and Arizona — have refused to do so.
TRUMP PRAISES AUSTRALIA’S COVID-19 FIGHT
It comes as Mr Trump praised Australia’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed he and Mr Trump had spoken on the phone on Friday (local time), declaring the two leaders wanted to see Australia and the US economy go forward amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
He said Mr Trump was “very complimentary” of Australia’s response to the coronavirus “and the responsibility we take in the region”.
“The United States is a key partner in that stability working with many other like-minded countries in the region, [and] you want to have a partner that carries their own weight, and Australia certainly does that,” he said.
“We are no passenger in any relationship we have, and that is greatly appreciated by American friends.”
Mr Morrison said the conversation lasted 30 minutes.
“Of course, the pandemic issues, the work that is being done by like-minded partners across the region, a lot of the global economic issues, and we were both able to speak in recent times, and both the US economy and Australian economy, our recent jobs numbers were encouraging, just as they were in the US,” Mr Morrison said.
“And we both want to see our economies go forward. We want to see people back in jobs, and we share a lot of common views on those things.”
The two leaders also discussed boosting Australia’s defence capability amid increasing global uncertainty.
Mr Morrison updated Mr Trump on the Australian Government’s 2020 Defence Strategic Update and commitment to building Australia’s defence capability, including in partnership with the US.
The pair also discussed co-ordinating approaches to multilateral organisations, and their commitment to open markets and low-tax regimes.
They talked about a range of Indo-Pacific issues including working more closely with our Southeast Asian partners and other key players like Japan and India, including through the Quad.
“But the United States is our most important alliance, and it will always continue to be along those lines. It was good to be able to [bring him up to] date on what we have been doing on our front. We have [US] troops on rotation now out through the Northern Territory,” Mr Morrison added.
“That is proceeding incredibly well, and this remains a big part of our joint effort. But we have a very respectful partnership with the United States, and we appreciate the opportunity to engage regularly.”
BRAZIL ‘PLATEAUS’, SPAIN SPIKES
Brazil, which on Thursday topped two million coronavirus cases, has “plateaued”.
“The rise in Brazil is no longer exponential,” the World Health Organisation said in a statement.
Since the beginning of the crisis, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed the seriousness of the epidemic and criticised containment measures ordered by governors in Brazilian states.
The far-right leader has himself tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently in quarantine.
India, meanwhile, passed the one-million-cases mark on Friday (local time), meaning it ranks behind the United States and Brazil as the third worst- hit country.
It comes as the regional government in Barcelona urged residents to stay home after a rise in virus cases. It also ordered the closure of cinemas, theatres and nightclubs and banned gatherings of more than 10 people.
Meanwhile, Britain could return to normality from the outbreak before Christmas, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, sketching out a timetable for easing the remaining lockdown measures in England, including lifting homeworking guidance, despite the threat of a second wave.
The pandemic has killed at least 590,000 people worldwide since it surfaced in China late last year and more than 13.8 million have been infected, according to an official tally on Friday (local time)
The United States has the most deaths with 138,360. It is followed by Brazil with 76,688, Britain with 45,119, Mexico with 37,574, and Italy with 35,017.
AUSTRALIA HOSTS WORLD’S VACCINE TRIALS
Australia is becoming the go-to destination for vital Phase II COVID-19 vaccine trials because of our scientific expertise and low virus case numbers.
Four clinical trials on COVID-19 vaccines are already taking place here and a new consortium led by the Doherty Institute called Vax4COVID is about to test two New Australian vaccine candidates and another for a large US consortium.
It comes as Oxford University prepares to report positive results from its early vaccine trials — the second glimmer of hope the medical community has delivered the world in a week.
On Wednesday, US biotechnology company Moderna revealed its early stage vaccine was safe and provoked an immune response in trial participants.
Stock markets rallied on Thursday in response to hopes that progress with two coronavirus vaccines would boost economic recovery.
Details of the Oxford team’s progress was laid bare in British newspapers on Thursday, with
claims it will reveal to The Lancet medical journal that early safety trials of the vaccine found it offered double protection producing virus killing antibodies as well as killer T cells (a key immune response).
The Oxford vaccine is the most advanced in the world and is already in trials in Brazil and South Africa to test whether it can actually prevent people catching the virus.
The Oxford team has a deal with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to make 30 million doses for the UK, 300 million doses for the US and an Indian manufacturing plant will make one billion doses for countries elsewhere in the world.
Sarah Gilbert who is heading Oxford’s vaccine research said there is an 80 per cent probability the vaccine will stop people being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 and she will know whether it works by September.
Ms Gilbert’s three children, triplets aged 21, have been injected with the vaccine as part of the clinical trials.
The Oxford vaccine uses a chimpanzee adenovirus (a common cold virus) to carry genetic material from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 into the body as a way of tricking the immune system to fight it off.
AstraZeneca saw its share price rise 5.2 per cent to 89.96 pounds on the news.
Moderna shares jumped by $5.18, or 6.9 per cent, to $80.22, after it reported its vaccine produced antibodies in all 45 people in the clinical trial.
Professor Terry Nolan, who is leading Australia’s Vax4COVID team, said the consortium will soon start testing two New Australian COVID-19 vaccine candidates produced by the Doherty Institute.
It is also in discussions with a large US consortium on another vaccine.
“Basically it’s a portal for people in the US, Europe analysis from the big companies and other consortia to see what available expertise there is in Australian academic centres to conduct these clinical trials,” he said.
Australia was a perfect place to run safety trials of COVID-19 vaccines because we have top scientists and not a lot of circulating virus.
However he said Phase III trials that test whether a vaccine prevents people catching COVID are best done in places like the US, UK or Brazil where there is a lot of virus in the community.
Australian teams are already conducting safety and dosage trials for coronavirus vaccines made by Novavax, Clover Biopharmaceuticals, Vaxine and the University of Queensland.
RUSSIAN HACKERS ACCUSED OF TRYING TO STEAL VACCINE SECRETS
Russian hackers Cozy Bear are back in the spotlight after striking again to try to steal Britain’s coronavirus vaccine.
UK cyber-spies have accused the group of launching a new campaign to snatch the secrets of the prototype COVID-19 jab.
The National Cyber Security Council said it had unmasked a targeted attack against drug companies and universities at the forefront of vaccine research.
The NCSC said the hackers, which are also known as APT29 and the Dukes “almost certainly operate as part of Russian Intelligence Services”.
Little is known about the mysterious gang, apart from the fingerprints they have left on a series of cyberattacks over the years.
Russia has denied any links to the organisation, but their attacks bear all the hallmarks of a state-run spying operation.
The hacks are usually aimed at stealing intellectual property, state secrets or other intelligence – rather than scamming cash like a criminal gang.
And Western spies have even noted their attacks coincidentally stop during Russian public holidays.
Evidence suggests Cozy Bear’s targets have included commercial entities and government organisations in Germany, Uzbekistan, South Korea, the US – and now the UK.
The group – which is believed to have been active since 2008 – first came to the attention of spooks in 2014 when it launched a cyber attack on the US government.
The group used a comic video of monkeys working in an office to lure victims into clicking into an email link and unwittingly downloading malware.
Cyber-spies from the US National Security Council said they battled with the Russian hackers during 24-hours of “hand-to-hand” cyber combat.
Shocked officials said it showed record levels of aggression in modern cyber warfare.
The State Department had to close its email server for a weekend to purge the Russians from the system.
The Dutch intelligence service AIVD later managed to infiltrate the group, Volksrant reported.
Dutch spies were able to compromise computers and even CCTV cameras in a Moscow-based university building the hackers were using.
The agents reportedly watched over the hackers’ shoulders as they carried out their remote attacks.
The Netherlands was able to definitively identify Cozy Bear as agents of Russia’s SVR agency, Wired reported.
Dutch spies warned their American counterparts about what they were witnessing – the Russians hacking into 2016 Democratic National Committee, it added.
The infamous hack – which also involved another Russian group called Fancy Bear – saw the group stealing opposition research on Donald Trump, as well as reading all email and chats.
The groups were expelled from the DNC systems within hours of detection.
But it wasn’t the last the world would hear from them.
In 2016 and 2017, phishing emails believed to have been sent by the group hit a series of American think tanks and NGOs.
The Norwegian government was also targeted – as well as the Dutch government, possibly in revenge for the previous bust.
The group then went quiet for a number of years, leading to claims they had packed up.
But these suspicions were dispelled in 2019 when three new malware families – PolyglotDuke, RegDuke and FatDuke – were discovered that Cozy Bear was found to be behind.