Don’t panic, but there is another virus out there that could cause a pandemic.  This one is an influenza strain circulating in pigs and their caretakers in China.  It is not currently causing widespread illness, and it may never do so. But it has “all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus,” according to the authors of a new study in the FILE – A patient receives a flu vaccination in Mesquite, Texas, January 23, 2020.‘Good news, bad news’ “There’s good news and bad here,” Pavia said. “I think the bad news is that once again, it looks as if we’re identifying strains of flu that are emerging in populations with the potential to jump to humans.”However, only a handful of serious cases have been reported.”The severity remains low. That’s good news,” Pavia said, adding, “there’s no guarantee that it’s going to stay that way.”Other factors also must change before alarm bells really go off, experts note.”What is really important for influenza pandemic emergence, as well as for any viral pandemic emergence, is sustained airborne transmission,” said University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine microbiologist and molecular geneticist Seema Lakdawala, who was not part of the research team.While a few people are getting infected, she said there is no sign now of sustained transmission.Food animals are a common source of new flu viruses. Birds, pigs and humans can all exchange flu strains. Pigs are especially welcoming environments for influenza viruses to reinvent themselves. Multiple strains can infect one animal, swap genes and emerge as a novel strain.Unpredictable There is no telling when the right combination of genes will fall into place and produce a virulent, transmissible virus.A lethal strain called H5N1 first appeared in poultry in Hong Kong in 1997 and resurfaced in 2003. It kills more than half the people it infects. But for reasons scientists do not understand, it has not gone pandemic.”It’s still a concern. It has caused hundreds of deaths,” said senior scholar Gigi Gronvall at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who was not involved with the research. “But for whatever reason, even though all eyes were on that, it was this other virus that took off in 2009.” FILE – Researchers of the Veterinary Institute under the Academy of Agricultural Research check on African Swine Flu at Ryongsong District in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 10, 2019.That year, H1N1 emerged from pigs and sparked a pandemic. Researchers estimate that nearly 300,000 people died from it in the first year. Since then, health officials have increased efforts to monitor livestock farms and markets for new viruses.”There’s been a big improvement, but it’s far from complete,” Pavia said. “The challenge is enormous. Influenza circulates among ducks, turkeys, swine – not to mention there are strains that infect everything from horses to dogs. And tracking all of these is an enormous task.”The effort is understaffed and underfunded, “like so many things in public health,” he said.And that’s dangerous. “We’ve seen the consequences of inadequate public health surveillance in the emergence and failure to control COVID-19,” Pavia noted. Flu tools Unlike COVID-19, health experts have tools against influenza that might help if the new strain were to launch a new pandemic.  “We know how to test for influenza viruses,” Lakdawala said. Flu antivirals are only partly effective, “but we do at least have antivirals that can limit the severity of disease. We have a number of them. We also have a vaccine platform that is already approved and safe.”  A vaccine could be available in a matter of months.  But there is no way to know whether the newly identified strain will spark a pandemic.”The more you study flu, the more you realize we just don’t know how to predict that,” Pavia said.  
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Amid continuing concern among members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force he leads, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is emphasizing the positives.  “Fatalities are at the lowest level since March,” Pence told reporters Tuesday during a visit to U.S. Public Health Service headquarters. “We’re in a much better place than four months ago, even two months ago.”  Pence noted there are 12 states “with rising cases and percent positive cases” and another 28 states with either of those situations.  Pence is visiting two of the current worst-hit states this week — Arizona and Texas.  A team of 62 disaster medical assistance personnel deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Administration are now on the ground in Arizona, Pence announced.  Social distancing signs are posted at one of the bars closed for the next 30 days due to the surge in coronavirus cases, June 30, 2020, in Scottsdale, Ariz.The number of coronavirus cases in Texas on Tuesday rose by 6,975 — the highest single-day increase since the start of the pandemic, according to the state’s health department.  All 50 states are reopening their economies, according to Pence, however 16 states have scaled back on permitting some activities — a move the vice president emphasized he fully supports. “We’re going to slow the spread. We’re going to flatten the curve. We’re going to save lives,” he predicted.  The top U.S. infectious disease specialist told lawmakers Tuesday on Capitol Hill he is “quite concerned” about surges of coronavirus cases in the country.   “We are now having 40,000 new cases a day,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. And so, I am very concerned.”  Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 30, 2020.As schools prepare to reopen in August and September, Fauci said a vaccine probably will not be available by then.  “Working with the companies and the investments made by this Congress, hopefully there will be doses available by the beginning of next year, said Fauci, a member of the coronavirus task force.  Committee chairman, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, stressed the importance of reopening schools and called on President Donald Trump and the public to wear masks to help prevent further increases in the spread of COVID-19.  Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., asks questions during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 30, 2020.“Unfortunately, this simple lifesaving practice has become part of a political debate that says if you’re for Trump, you don’t wear a mask. If you’re against Trump, you do,” Alexander said in opening remarks. “That is why I have suggested the president should occasionally wear a mask, even though there are not many occasions when it is necessary for him to do so.”  Alexander added that Trump “has millions of admirers,” who “would follow his lead.”   White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked about that during a Tuesday briefing.  “The president is the most tested man in America” for COVID-19, and thus does not need to wear a mask, she replied.  Pence noted that both he and Trump have worn a mask in public.  “We’re going to respect the right of Americans” and encourage them to listen to the guidance of local health authorities, added Pence. More than 125,000 COVID-19 deaths, about one-quarter of all fatalities worldwide, have been reported in the U.S., although many experts believe the U.S. death toll is much higher.  In addition to leading the world in COVID-19 fatalities, the U.S. is also the world leader in infections, with more than 2.6 million of the over 10.3 million cases, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.   Many of the first U.S. states to reopen, mostly southern and western states, are experiencing sharp increases in coronavirus cases.  Pence characterized this as partly due to the U.S. now being able to test 500,000 to 600,000 people every day. “Something changed about two weeks ago,” the vice president noted.   The new surges in the U.S. has triggered renewed criticism of Trump’s handling of the crisis just months before the November presidential election.   Reporters sit socially-distanced as Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del., June 30, 2020.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden strongly criticized what he called Trump’s “historic mismanagement” of the pandemic during remarks Tuesday in Delaware.  “I’m not going to be holding rallies,” Biden said, contrasting his campaign with that of the president, who has been criticized for recent indoor events in Oklahoma and Arizona.     
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Something data crunchers have noticed during the coronavirus pandemic: countries with recent outbreaks of measles have fewer deaths and serious illnesses from the coronavirus. Is this a coincidence? Or is there something about the measles mumps and rubella vaccine that protects against the worst outcomes of the coronavirus? We learn more from VOA’s Carol Pearson.Produced by: Barry Unger
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Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​. Daily DebunkClaim: The novel coronavirus was intentionally engineered by the U.S. government in research overseen by Dr. Anthony Fauci.Verdict: FalseRead the full story at: USA TodaySocial Media DisinfoFlourishClaim: COVID-19 became a leading cause of death globally by the end of May 2020.Verdict: Mostly AccurateRead the full story at: Health Feedback
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As part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, a Ugandan innovator has come up with a plastic shield for motorcycles to protect both driver and passenger. The shield is seen as not just reducing body contact, which could spread the virus, but also added security for motorcycle taxi drivers.  Halima Athumani reports from Kampala.VIDEOGRAPHER: Francis Mukasa
PRODUCER: Jon Spier   
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Saying it is not too soon to begin planning for the post-COVID-19 economy, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Tuesday pledged to invest more than $17 billion in the country’s education system and $6.13 billion for infrastructure investment. Speaking at Dudley College of Technology in central Britain, Johnson acknowledged it might seem premature to discuss a post-COVID future in light of recent surges of the virus in the nation and elsewhere in the world. But he maintained that Britons cannot continue to be “prisoners of this crisis.” Comparing his plan to former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” programs of the 1930’s designed to lift the United States out of the Great Depression, Johnson pledged to “build, build, build” and speed up government plans for new schools, hospitals and road repair. Johnson renewed a campaign pledge to build 40 new hospitals in Britain, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock releasing the list of new buildings in the next few days. He also pledged to continue and step up funding for the National Health Service and “fix the problems of social care that every government has flunked for the past 30 years.” Noting the economic downturn driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson said, “We must work fast, because we know that people are worried about their jobs and their businesses.” As Johnson spoke of the post-COVID economy, the reality of the pandemic was evident in the British city of Leicester, where a spike in coronavirus infections prompted the government to reinstate a lockdown. All the city’s schools and non-essential shops were forced to close, fewer than two weeks after they had been allowed to reopen. 
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Better-than-expected economic numbers from China Tuesday helped Asian markets rebound from Monday’s staggering losses.  Tokyo’s Nikkei index gained 1.3% Tuesday, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 0.5% and the Shanghai’s Composite index finished 0.7% higher.   The S&P/ASX index in Sydney earned 1.4%, with Seoul’s KOSPI index up 0.7% and the TSEC in Taiwan up 0.6%.  Mumbai’s Sensex was trading 0.5% in late afternoon trading.   China’s monthly survey of factory managers, the purchasing managers index, was 50.9 for June, just above the mark that separates expansion and contraction.  Investors also reacted positively to Monday’s report of a stronger-than-expected U.S. housing market in the face of a rising number of COVID-19 cases across the United States, which led to a strong closing for Wall Street. But the situation is much different in Europe, with the FTSE index in London down one percent, the CAC-40 in Paris down 0.5%, and the DAX index in Frankfurt is trading 0.3% lower.   In oil markets, U.S. crude is selling at $39.32 per barrel, down 0.9% per barrel, while the international standard, Brent crude, is selling at $41.52 per barrel, down 0.4%.   And the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are all trending negatively, indicating a slow opening on Wall Street Tuesday. 
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Baseball fans may soon be able to watch games at stadiums in South Korea. But they’ll have to do it without beer, food, or their friends sitting next to them. The measures are part of a new coronavirus quarantine manual released Tuesday by the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO).  Since early May, the KBO has played games inside empty stadiums. A limited number of fans will be able to attend starting in July, but with strict social distancing and other measures in place.  Spectators will have their temperatures checked upon entrance, will be required to wear face masks for the duration of the approximately three-hour games, and must sit at least one seat apart from each other.  Only non-alcoholic beverages will be allowed. Food will be sold in concourse concession stands, but not permitted in seating areas.  Perhaps the most dramatic change: shouting, singing, and cheering will be discouraged in an attempt to prevent physical contact and airborne respiratory droplets – the main mode of coronavirus transmission.  It is a strong contrast from the typical fan experience at Korean baseball games, which are usually filled with noisy, high-intensity cheers and corresponding dance moves – customs that for some fans are just as important as the on-field action.  In a statement, the KBO acknowledged fans may not like the new restrictions. “However, in order to prevent COVID-19 infections and ensure a safe viewing experience, our fans will need to follow these rules,” the statement read.  The new normal The rules serve as a possible preview for professional sporting events that could resume in the United States and elsewhere in the coming weeks.  Major League Baseball, the main U.S. professional baseball league, plans to start an abbreviated, two-month regular season starting July 23 or 24.  The league hasn’t ruled out eventually allowing fans. But some teams have said their stands won’t be filled anytime soon, especially since U.S. coronavirus cases are once again soaring. Revenue woes The Korean baseball league was one of the earliest professional sports leagues to resume play, thanks in large part to South Korea’s successful handling of the virus. The KBO’s ten professional teams began playing practice games in March. But without gate revenue, the teams have been nearing a financial “breaking point,” according to the Yonhap news agency.  “We’ve been paying our players and employees in full. But if we keep playing without fans in July, a lot of teams will run into extremely serious trouble,” one club official told the news agency. “They may have to take out a loan to pay salaries.” The new fan policy may only help the franchises so much. Initially, teams can sell only 30 percent of their ticket capacity, although that figure could increase to 50 percent by the end of the year. 
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The novel coronavirus is spreading too fast and across too many places in the United States to bring it under control, a top expert said Monday as some states set records for new cases every day.  “We have way too much virus across the country for that right now, so it’s very discouraging,” Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told The Journal of the American Medical Association.  Dr. Schuchat called the surge in new cases just “the beginning,” and said new cases are not being rapidly identified and isolated with proper contact tracing.  “I think there was a lot of wishful thinking around the country that, hey it’s summer. Everything’s going to be fine. We’re over this and we are not even beginning to be over this. There are a lot of worrisome factors about the last week or so,” she said. A patient returns his testing sample at a self-collection COVID-19 testing site, Monday, June 29, 2020, in Houston. COVID-19 cases continue to surge across Texas.Dr. Schuchat appealed to people to wear masks, practice social distancing and not to expect any kind of relief until there’s a vaccine.  The city of Jacksonville, Florida, where the Republican Party will hold its convention in August, said Monday it will require masks for all public locations.  State officials have also halted alcohol consumption at bars because of what Governor Ron DeSantis called “widespread noncompliance.”        New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday that indoor dining will not resume as planned this week because of the threat of the virus.  The Trump administration has said only 4% of U.S. counties has seen a jump in new coronavirus cases. But according to the Associated Press, more than 20% of the U.S. population lives in those counties. Arizona, California, Florida and Texas are among the states that have seen the biggest spike in new cases.  President Donald Trump, with members of the president’s coronavirus task force, listens as Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC at the White House, Feb. 26, 2020The United States is expected to be on the European Union’s list of countries whose citizens are barred from traveling there because of COVID-19.  Diplomats say Brazil, India and Russia are also expected to be on the list because of their high number of cases.  “This is not an exercise to be nice or unfriendly to other countries, this is an exercise of self-responsibility,” Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, told Spanish radio.   EU diplomats say the list will be revised every 14 days.  President Donald Trump suspended most European travelers from entering the United States in March.   Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the worst of the coronavirus outbreak is over in Canada but urged citizens to stay alert.  “After a very challenging spring things are continuing to move in the right direction,” Trudeau said Monday. “What the situation we’re seeing in the United States and elsewhere highlights for us is that even as our economy is reopening, we need to make sure we are continuing to remain vigilant.”   Non-essential border crossings between the United States and Canada are set to expire on July 21. But it is unclear how Canada will react if the surge in cases in the United States continues.  Canadian-based Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group filed for bankruptcy protection Monday after the coronavirus pandemic forced it to cancel shows and lay off about 95% of its performers and staff.   In New York, Broadway theaters that first closed in March because of the coronavirus outbreak will now remain shut through the end of the year.   The shutdown has meant temporarily closing 31 plays and musicals, and putting as many as 100,000 actors, musicians, dancers, stagehands, and other theater professionals out of work. 
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Nigeria’s slave descendants hope race protests help end discrimination”>When Barack Obama was elected the first Black U.S. president in 2008, Anthony Uzoije noticed less contempt towards descendants of slaves like him in his south-eastern Nigeria community.Uzoije, from Ogbaru in Anambra state, now hopes Black Lives Matter protests globally will inspire similar change for him and the Igbo people, one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa and principal group enslaved during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.It is estimated that between 10 and 20% of Igbos – amounting to many millions of people – are descendants of slaves and still face significant discrimination, which has sparked unrest and violence in recent years in some areas.Slave descendants are banned by traditional law and custom from traditional leadership positions and belonging to prestigious local groups. So-called “freeborn” people are forbidden from marrying them, according to the culture in many communities.”People began to see that if the white man can allow Obama to be president, why can’t you allow your fellow black to occupy whatever position. People began to realize that what they were doing is nonsense,” said Uzoije, 67, who is the chairman of the Ogbaru People’s Convention, an association of slave descendants.”When people here see that there is more equality between the black and the white people in America, it will affect the way they treat their fellow black brother,” Uzoije told the Thomson Reuters Foundation via phone from his home in Onitsha.The British colonial administration officially abolished slavery in Nigeria in the early 20th century and finally eradicated it in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but the descendants of slaves retained the stigma of their ancestors.The discrimination continues and not just against descendants of slaves in south-eastern Nigeria, with similar reports from countries across Africa, including Ghana, Senegal, and Benin Republic.For while no data exists on the number of slave descendants in Nigeria or in Africa, communities know about every family’s history and lineage so it is impossible to hide.Laws against such discrimination exist in the Nigerian constitution and, in 1956, legislators in what was then the Eastern Nigeria house of assembly, voted overwhelmingly for a law banning the discrimination against slave descendants.But these laws are difficult to enforce, especially at the grassroots level where people pay more attention to traditional beliefs than to the country’s constitution, and where there are social implications of violating local laws.For the past three years, 44-year-old Oge Maduagwu has been traveling to different communities in south-eastern Nigeria to advocate for equal rights for descendants of slaves.With the recent BLM protests, she hopes those responsible for the ongoing discrimination in Nigeria and across Africa will re-examine their attitudes, and that more Africans globally join the fight against the inequality in their own homelands.”They should realize what the black people in America are going through is exactly what the slave descendants here are going through,” said Maduagwu, founder of the Initiative for the Eradication of Traditional and Cultural Stigmatisation in our Society (IFETACSIOUS).”(They must) find a way to abolish it here before they raise their voices against what the whites are doing over there.Maduagwu’s activism was inspired by the widespread opposition to marriage with slave descendants.She is not a slave descendant herself but witnessed the discrimination while growing up in Oguta in Imo State of south-eastern Nigeria.She finally decided to do something to bring it to an end after a close friend was prevented from marrying someone she loved because he was descended from a slave.”She was devastated and moved in with me for two weeks and we inconsolably cried together,” Maduagwu said from her home in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.”Her pain became my pain. The humanity and activism in me came alive.”Maduagwu founded the charity IFETACSIOUS in 2017 to facilitate dialog between traditional leaders and descendants of slaves, providing a forum where they can address the laws and customs that promote discrimination.Her work has taken her to about five of Nigeria’s 36 states, including Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo.She has achieved some success, with a handful of traditional leaders openly declaring an end to all discrimination against slave descendants.For Maduagwu it is vital this is a peaceful process. She is concerned that the agitation for equality has turned violent in the past, as has been the case in some parts of the United States.”Healing will not come through fighting,” she said.While there are hundreds of slave descendants in Uzoije’s community, the Ogbaru People’s Convention has 40 registered members whose activism has prompted some changes.For example by pressuring religious leaders to intervene in cases where romance with slave descendants was opposed by families, some of their children have gone on to marry so-called “freeborn” citizens.”When a young man sees a lady he wants to marry, they should allow them. That is the important thing,” Uzoije said.He noted, however, that the change in attitudes following Obama’s election was not necessarily accompanied by a change in laws. Descendants of slaves in Ogbaru are still not allowed to run for local leadership positions.”Change is gradual. It’s not automatic,” he said. 
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