The daily Astorian., July 02, 2020, Page 21, Image 21

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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, July 2, 2020
Virus surges putting US at risk
Country could see
100,000 cases daily
By LAURAN
NEERGAARD
Associated Press
The U.S. is “going in the
wrong direction” with the
coronavirus surging badly
enough that Dr. Anthony
Fauci told senators Tuesday
some regions are putting the
entire country at risk — just
as schools and colleges are
wrestling with how to safely
reopen.
With about 40,000 new
cases being reported a day,
Fauci, the government’s top
infectious disease expert,
said he “would not be sur-
prised if we go up to 100,000
a day if this does not turn
around.”
“I am very concerned,”
he told a hearing of the Sen-
ate Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions committee.
Infections are rising rap-
idly mostly in parts of the
West and South, and Fauci
and other public health
experts said Americans
everywhere will have to start
following key recommenda-
tions if they want to get back
to more normal activities
like going to school.
“We’ve got to get the
message out that we are all
in this together,” by wearing
masks in public and keeping
out of crowds, said Fauci,
infectious disease chief at
the National Institutes of
Health.
Connect the dots, he told
senators: When and how
school buildings can reopen
will vary depending on how
widely the coronavirus is
spreading locally.
“I feel very strongly we
need to do whatever we can
to get the children back to
school,” he said.
The Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention
plans more guidelines for
local school systems, Direc-
Kevin Dietsch/AP Photo
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies before the Senate on Capitol
Hill on Tuesday.
INFECTIONS ARE RISING RAPIDLY MOSTLY IN PARTS OF THE
WEST AND SOUTH, AND FAUCI AND OTHER PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS
SAID AMERICANS EVERYWHERE WILL HAVE TO START FOLLOWING
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS IF THEY WANT TO GET BACK TO
MORE NORMAL ACTIVITIES LIKE GOING TO SCHOOL.
tor Robert Redfield said.
But in recommendations
for colleges released Tues-
day, the agency said it won’t
recommend entry testing for
all returning students, fac-
ulty and staff. It’s not clear
if that kind of broad-stroke
testing would reduce spread
of the coronavirus, the CDC
concluded. Instead, it urged
colleges to focus on contain-
ing outbreaks and exposures
as students return.
Lawmakers also pressed
for what Sen. Patty Mur-
ray of Washington state, the
committee’s top Democrat,
called for a national vaccine
plan — to be sure the race
for the COVID-19 vaccine
ends with shots that really
are safe, truly protect and are
available to all Americans
who want, one.
“We can’t take for granted
this process will be free of
political influence,” Mur-
ray said. She cited how Pres-
ident Donald Trump pro-
moted a malaria drug as a
COVID-19 treatment that
ultimately was found to be
risky and ineffective.
The Food and Drug
Administration
released
guidelines Tuesday say-
ing any vaccine that wins
approval will have to be at
50% more effective than
a dummy shot in the final,
required testing. That’s
less effective than many of
today’s vaccines but inde-
pendent experts say that
would be a good start against
the virus.
FDA Commissioner Ste-
phen Hahn said vaccine
makers also must test their
shots in diverse populations,
including minorities, the
elderly, pregnant women and
those with chronic health
problems.
“We will not cut corners
in our decision-making,”
Hahn told senators.
About 15 vaccine candi-
dates are in various stages
of human testing world-
wide but the largest studies
— including 30,000 people
each — needed to prove if a
shot really protects are set to
begin this month. First up is
expected to be a vaccine cre-
ated by the NIH and Mod-
erna Inc., followed closely
by an Oxford University
candidate.
At the same time, the
Trump
administration’s
“Operation Warp Speed”
aims to stockpile hundreds
of millions of doses by
year’s end, so they could rap-
idly start vaccinations if and
when one is proven to work.
Redfield said the CDC
already is planning how to
prioritize who is first in line
for the scarce first doses and
how they’ll be distributed.
But a vaccine is at the
very least many months
away. For now, the com-
mittee’s leading Republican
stressed wearing a mask —
and said Trump, who noto-
riously shuns them, needs to
start because politics is get-
ting in the way of protecting
the American people.
“The stakes are too high
for the political debate about
pro-Trump,
anti-Trump
masks to continue,” said Sen.
Lamar Alexander of Tennes-
see, who chaired Tuesday’s
hearing.
Alexander said he had to
self-quarantine after a staff
member tested positive for
the virus but that he person-
ally was protected because
his staffer was wearing a
mask.
“The president has plenty
of admirers. They would
follow his lead,” Alexan-
der said. “The stakes are too
high” to continue that fight.
Associated Press writ-
ers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar,
Matthew Perrone, Collin
Binkley and Mike Stobbe
contributed to this report.
David Davis/Statesman Journal
Lincoln County remains in phase one of the state’s reopening phases.
Newport a hot spot for virus
3.4% of residents
tested positive in
Oregon State study
By ZACH URNESS
Statesman Journal
Newport has remained an
area of concern for the spread
of COVID-19 on the central
Oregon Coast, according to
an Oregon State University
study released Tuesday.
Already home to one of
Oregon’s highest number
of confirmed cases per cap-
ita following an outbreak in
a seafood factory, the study,
which tested a random sam-
ple of the town’s 10,000 peo-
ple, indicated that 3.4% of
the coastal community had
the virus last week.
“Our results indicate the
virus is relatively preva-
lent in Newport,” said Ben
Dalziel, assistant professor
in the College of Science at
Oregon State and co-direc-
tor of the project. “We know
this because previously
undiagnosed infected indi-
viduals are present in a ran-
dom sample of participating
households across the city.
This indicates the potential
for significant further spread
unless strong actions are
taken to reverse the course
of COVID-19 in Newport.”
In the study, two 30-per-
son teams canvased 30
neighborhoods across the
city, testing a total of 569
people. Of those, 13 tested
positive for SARS-CoV-2,
the virus that causes COVID-
19, a news release said.
Newport’s zipcode —
97365 — was identified
last week having 246 con-
firmed COVID-19 cases.
That translated to 229 cases
per 10,000, the highest rate
in the state.
The outbreak has been
traced back to Pacific Sea-
food’s fish processing plants
in Newport. Of the 376
employees that were tested,
124 tested positive, the sec-
ond-largest
workplace
related outbreak in the state.
“This kind of random
sampling gives us a type of
data we don’t have, and we
will be working with OHA
and OSU to understand how
to incorporate this into the
data tools we currently use,”
Lincoln County Commis-
sioner Kaety Jacobson said.
“We will also be looking at
the feasibility and cost of
doing further sampling stud-
ies like this one.”
Lincoln County has
taken aggressive measures
to combat COVID-19 since
the beginning of the pan-
demic. It kicked out tour-
ists in March to keep the
virus from being imported
and has remained in phase
one reopening status, one of
the few counties that haven’t
moved to phase two. It was
also among the first counties
to require a face-covering in
public spaces.
The results of the study
indicate residents “should
pay close attention to guid-
ance provided by health offi-
cials,” said Javier Nieto,
dean of Oregon State’s Col-
lege of Public Health and
Human Services and one of
TRACE’s leaders.
“Other measures such as
social distancing and avoid-
ing large gatherings will also
help slow the spread of the
virus,” Nieto said. “It is par-
ticularly important that indi-
viduals who have symptoms
or tested positive follow state
and county health guidelines
such as self-isolating and
seeking medical care.”
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