The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday said it is assessing the potential for the spread of COVID-19 at ongoing demonstrations nationwide sparked by the police-involved killing of Geroge Floyd. CDC representative Kristen Nordlund said the agency and federal partners are "closely monitoring" the demonstrations taking place throughout the country adding that protests and other large gatherings make it difficult to follow social distancing guidelines and "may put others at risk."
The US government's current supply of remdesivir, the only drug known to work against Covid-19, will run out at the end of the month, Dr. Robert Kadlec, a US Department of Health and Human Services official, told CNN. The government's last shipment of the drug will go out the week of June 29. Gilead Sciences, the company that makes the drug, is ramping up to make more, but it's unclear how much will be available this summer.
The first COVID-19 vaccine likely won’t be effective enough to end the global pandemic, vaccine experts say. Instead, we may live with the virus for years before a winning one emerges. In July, the first large-scale human trial of two coronavirus vaccine candidates will start, according to US health officials, who are sounding increasingly confident that some kind of vaccine will be ready to be distributed widely by December.
As tens of thousands of people continue to take to the streets to protest against the killing of George Floyd, the leader of America’s pandemic response has expressed deep concern that the demonstrations may cause a spike in coronavirus infections. More protests are planned for today.
For months, public health experts have urged Americans to take every precaution to stop the spread of Covid-19—stay at home, steer clear of friends and extended family, and absolutely avoid large gatherings.
A large study of the drug hydroxychloroquine has been retracted by three of its authors. The paper, published in the journal the Lancet last month, concluded that hydroxychloroquine, taken either alone or with an antibiotic, to treat patients with COVID-19 was of no benefit and actually increased a patient's risk of dying.