Coronavirus world: China’s batwoman’s ‘doomsday’ variant warning, Australia’s hidden death toll
The woman at the heart of the suspected lab leak of Covid-19 from China has warned the world to prepare for many more deadlier variants.
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
China’s “batwoman” warned that new deadly Covid variants are set to sweep across the world amid fears a catastrophic “doomsday” mutation could emerge.
Virologist Shi Zhengli – who slammed claims that the bug leaked from her lab as “baseless” – says spiralling case numbers across the globe has allowed the coronavirus more chances to mutate, reports The Sun.
The researcher – known as “batwoman” for her work and studies into the origin of novel coronaviruses – implored vaccine sceptics to get jabbed as she warned Covid will continue to mutate and that the world must learn to live with the virus.
“As the number of infected cases has just become too big, this allowed the novel coronavirus more opportunities to mutate and select,” Dr Zhengli told the People’s Daily.
“New variants will continue to emerge.”
The virologist, who is head of the centre for emerging infectious diseases at the Institute of Virology, has hit back at claims Covid leaked from the lab, accusing the world of “trying to pour filth” on her.
Circumstantial evidence linking the virus’ origins to the site – which was probing bat coronaviruses – continues to mount, with it suggested Covid may have escaped by a researcher getting infected, improperly disposed of waste, or potential breaches in the security at the lab.
China denies the lab leak and all wrongdoing over its handling of the initial Covid outbreak in December 2019.
But Dr Zhengli’s warning of further deadly variants comes after experts claimed Covid could eventually mutate into an “ultimate” variant 600 times more infectious than the original from Wuhan.
The study, which plotted future outcomes for the virus, flagged a worrying – although rare – possibility it could truly outfox vaccines and lockdown attempts.
A lab in Israel found there is a way Covid could spread much faster, if the right mutation happened.
Meanwhile, it is feared a new Covid variant worse than the Delta and Lambda strains may emerge in the US.
The pandemic is accelerating most markedly in the US and Canada which saw a jump of 44 per cent in average daily cases over the past week.
As hospitals in Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri reach their capacity while cases in Florida surge, epidemiologist Michael Osterholm warned further mutations may be worse.
“The next variant could be Delta on steroids,” he told Newsweek.
It comes after authorities in Wuhan this week ordered all 11 million residents to be tested after new cases emerged for the first time in a year.
AUSTRALIA’S HIDDEN Covid DEATH TOLL REVEALED
Meanwhile, Australia’s hidden Covid-19 death toll has been revealed for the first time.
New figures, obtained under Freedom of Information laws and first reported by the ABC, reveal 54 Australian citizens have died from Covid-19 while abroad as at mid-May this year.
The deaths span 27 countries, including France, India, Indonesia, the US and the UK.
Limited quarantine capacity has stymied the ability of Australians to return home since the borders were closed in March last year.
In June, the number of international arrivals was halved to reduce the pressure the system faced under the Delta strain of Covid-19.
National cabinet was forced to cut arrivals after the highly infectious variant seeped into the community from a series of hotel quarantine breaches.
It meant only 3035 passengers would be allowed to enter Australia each week instead of 6070.
Labor states – Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia – fought for the reduction.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian disagreed and said she sympathised with the thousands who would be likely stranded.
“My heart goes out to thousands of Australians who have to wait longer to come home,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“I have expressed this view publicly, but I have also expressed it to my colleagues: Just because you reduce the number of people coming in, doesn’t mean outbreaks aren’t going to happen.
“I am disappointed that every state hasn’t done its fair share, but I appreciate and have to respect the decision of national cabinet.”
There are more than 35,000 Australians registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as wishing to return from overseas.
A parliamentary inquiry was told last week that 438 of those registered are unaccompanied Australian children.
In September 2020, Mr Morrison said he hoped to get “as many people home, if not all of them,” by Christmas.
CNN FIRES UNVACCINATED STAFF
News organisation CNN has fired three employees who violated its Covid policy by turning up to its US office unvaccinated.
In a memo, the media giant’s president Jeff Zucker said the vaccination was mandatory for staff in its offices or out in the field.
“Let me be clear – we have a zero-tolerance policy on this,” Zucker, chairman of news and sports for WarnerMedia, said in a statement.
CNN did not release any details about the firings or where the employees were based.
The company had planned for workers to return to its US offices in September, but that has been delayed until mid-October due to the rise in Delta variant infections.
US Covid CRISIS
Covid cases are surging in the US with daily numbers almost double what they were last week amid the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the seven-day average for new cases daily was 89,463 on Thursday, up 43 per cent from the week before.
“Across the board, we are seeing increases in cases and hospitalisation in all age groups,” Dr Walensky said at the White House’s COVID-19 briefing.
According to Dr Walensky, new hospitalisations had increased by about 41 per cent from the previous week, with a seven-day average of 7,348 admissions.
White House COVID-19 response chief, Jeff Zients, said that seven states with some of the lowest vaccination rates were driving the latest surges.
Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi accounted for around half of the new cases and hospitalisation — despite making up for less than a quarter of the country’s population, Mr Zients said.
“Vaccinations are the very best line of defence against Covid and the Delta variant, and we’re doing everything we can to keep getting shots in arms,” he added.
Mr Zients said that some of these states had seen “significant increases” in residents getting vaccinated against the virus.
Earlier, the US rejected an appeal from the UN health agency for a moratorium on Covid-19 vaccine booster shots, while China tightened overseas travel curbs after recording its highest number of infections in six months.
The World Health Organisation said halting booster shots until at least the end of September would help ease the drastic inequity in dose distribution between rich and poor nations. And that, they said, would help fight a pandemic that has killed more than 4.25 million people worldwide.
“We cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the world’s most vulnerable people remain unprotected,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Washington swiftly shot down the proposal.
“We definitely feel that it’s a false choice and we can do both,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, adding that the US has donated more doses than any other country.
“Also in this country (we) have enough supply to ensure that every American has access to a vaccine,” she added.
The WHO said the moratorium would help towards the goal of vaccinating at least 10 per cent of every country’s population by the end of September.
At least 4.27 billion doses have been administered globally so far, according to an AFP count.
In countries categorised as high income by the World Bank, 101 doses per 100 people have been injected – but in the 29 lowest-income countries, that figure drops to just 1.7 doses per 100 people.
Highly vaccinated Israel began rolling out a booster shot for over-60s last month, while Germany said Tuesday it would start offering third doses from September.
However WHO vaccines chief Kate O’Brien said there was no convincing evidence yet as to whether booster doses were actually necessary.
NYC MANDATES PROOF OF JAB FOR PUBLIC VENUES
Gyms, bars, restaurants, theatres and sporting venues.
Anyone who wants to visit these venues indoors in New York City will need to provide proof of Covid vaccination starting this month, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Tuesday.
People who haven’t had the shot will be denied entry.
“It’s time for people to see vaccination as necessary to living a good and full and healthy life,” Mr de Blasio said during his daily press briefing.
“This is crucial, because we know that this will encourage a lot more vaccination.”
The “Key to NYC Pass” program will make New York the first major US city to create such a mandate and, according to the mayor, marks a significant escalation of the city’s efforts to curb the recent uptick in Covid cases driven by the Delta variant, and will launch on August 16.
“It will require vaccination for workers and customers in indoor dining, in indoor fitness facilities, indoor entertainment facilities,” he said.
“The only way to patronise these businesses indoors is if you’re vaccinated.”
“If you want to participate in society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated.”
The mandate will be enforced following a public service announcement campaign on September 13, Mr de Blasio said.
“If we’re going to stop the Delta variant, the time is now,” he added.
“This is going to make clear, you want to enjoy everything great in this summer of New York City? Go get vaccinated.”
The program is modelled after the vaccine passport programs rolled out in France and other European countries, officials said.
The specifics of the new policy will be finalised in the next two weeks, Mr de Blasio said.
New Yorkers will be required to show either the state’ “Excelsior Pass,” the city’s new vaccine pass or Center for Disease Control’s paper vaccine card, as proof of vaccination, officials told the New York Post.
“We’ve got to shake people at this point and say, ‘Come on now.’ We tried voluntary. We could not have been more kind and compassionate. Free testing, everywhere you turn, incentives, friendly, warm embrace. The voluntary phase is over,” Mr de Blasio said on MSNBC last week. “It’s time for mandates, because it’s the only way to protect our people.”
GERMANY TO OFFER Covid BOOSTER SHOTS
Germany is set to start offering booster shots for Covid vaccines, including AstraZeneca and Pfizer, amid concerns about the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant.
Health Minister Jens Spahn and his 16 regional peers have decided that elderly and at-risk people should receive a booster shot, citing concerns over “a reduced or rapidly declining immune response” among some groups.
According to the health ministry, mobile vaccination teams should be sent into care and nursing homes to offer Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna booster shots to residents, regardless of which vaccine they had originally.
Doctors will also be able to administer booster jabs to those who qualify, including people with weakened immune systems.
A booster shot will also be offered to anyone who received the two-dose AstraZeneca or single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines “in the interests of preventive healthcare”, a document released by the health ministry said.
Both AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson are viral vector vaccines, whereas the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use novel mRNA technology that has shown high efficacy in studies.
The ministers also agreed to make the coronavirus vaccine more widely available to over-12s, going a step further than the country’s STIKO vaccines regulator.
US WON’T RETURN TO LOCKDOWNS
The US is unlikely to shut down again despite projections that “things are going to get worse” amid a surge in Covid cases as the Delta variant rips through the country.
“I don’t think we’re going to see lockdowns,” Dr Anthony Fauci, who is the nation’s top infectious disease expert and Chief Medical Adviser to the US President, said in a press conference on Sunday.
“I think we have enough of the percentage of people in the country – not enough to crush the outbreak – but I believe enough to not allow us to get into the situation we were in last winter.”
While the US is not expected to immediately return to Covid lockdowns – which saw businesses, schools and entire cities close – at the start of the pandemic, “things are going to get worse” as the Delta variant continues to spread, Dr Fauci warned.
The average number of daily new coronavirus cases in the US has nearly doubled in the past 10 days, according to a Reuters analysis.
An internal report compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the Delta variant spreads much faster, is more likely to infect the vaccinated, and could potentially trigger more severe illness in the unvaccinated compared with all other known variants.
“We have 100 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not getting vaccinated,” Dr Fauci added.
More than 610,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, according to the CDC.
The CDC last week reversed its earlier mask guidance and now recommends that all people ― regardless of vaccination status ― wear masks when indoors in parts of the country where there’s a substantial risk of Covid transmission.
That’s more than half of the country, according to the latest data.
TIGERS CONTRACT Covid AT INDONESIAN ZOO
Two Sumatran tigers are recovering at a Jakarta zoo after being infected with coronavirus, as Indonesian officials probe how the critically endangered animals got sick.
Nine-year-old Tino and 12-year-old Hari tested positive in mid-July after they experienced flu-like symptoms, had trouble breathing and lost their appetites.
But the male tigers were on the mend after treatment, said Suzi Marsitawati, head of Jakarta’s Parks and Forest Service.
“Both animals are healthy now,” she said in a statement. “Their appetite has returned to normal and they are active again.”
Ragunan Zoo has been closed since June as Covid-19 cases soar nationwide.
“We traced all the nurses and zookeepers (in contact with the tigers) and at the time they were sick, nobody was infected with Covid-19,” Ms Marsitawati said.
“So we are still trying to find the source.”
Indonesia has been struggling to control its deadliest Covid-19 outbreak since the pandemic began as the highly infectious Delta variant tears across the archipelago.
The country has reported more than 3.4 million cases and 94,119 virus deaths, but the official tally is widely believed to be a severe undercount, due to low testing and tracing rates.
QANTAS UNVEILS OVERSEAS TRAVEL PLANS
Overseas travel on Qantas and Jetstar will require a “digital health pass” from passengers when borders reopen, the airline giant has announced.
The Australian reports that the pass will contain information about Covid tests and vaccination status.
It came as day after Qantas appealed to the Federal Government to mandate Covid vaccinations for aviation workers, the airline has revealed what will be required of travellers in future.
According to The Australian, the travel pass developed by the International Air Transport Association has been trialled by Qantas on overseas repatriation flights this year and is considered the most secure and convenient way to verify a passenger’s Covid status.
The digital travel pass will be delivered via a free smart phone app, allowing vaccine certificates and proof of a negative Covid test to be uploaded before a flight.
Qantas group chief customer officer Steph Tully said the digital health pass was the key to resuming overseas travel.
“Many governments are already requiring proof of vaccine or a negative Covid test result for international travel,” Ms Tully said, per The Australian.
“Even if it wasn’t a government requirement, Qantas has always been a leader in safety and we have a responsibility to our customers and crew.
“A digital health pass will connect customers with Covid testing facilities, health authorities and airlines, and ultimately enable the opening of more travel bubbles and borders.”
It came as vaccine passports launched in England after the NHS app was upgraded.
A new “domestic” feature has been added to the software – while users are told they may need to show the pass “at places that have chosen to use the service”.
The Sun reported that some users said they’ve weren’t able to click through to the new addition – suggesting it’s not currently in use for all.
The app is the NHS app, rather than the UK’s Covid-19 app which is used to check into venues using a QR code.
Before today, users could use the app to show proof of their vaccination status for foreign travel.
It could also be used for Government-backed Covid trials at major events, including getting into Wembley for Euro 2020.
In addition, businesses can use it to make sure workers have been double-jabbed.
– with AFP
Originally published as Coronavirus world: China’s batwoman’s ‘doomsday’ variant warning, Australia’s hidden death toll
Join the conversation
State’s big move on cutting-edge vaccines
One Aussie state has revealed its next move on a major vaccine development project – which promises to change the way it responds to future health challenges.
Read more
$1.1m plan to overhaul Long Covid, chronic fatigue care
Guidelines to treat the 750,000-plus Australians who have Long Covid and chronic fatigue syndrome are more than two decades old. See the plan to fix them.
Read more