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Pourquoi la France n’a plus de masques

En 2011, le stock d’Etat comptait 1,4 milliard de masques. Mais en 2013, nouvelle doctrine et restrictions budgétaires ont scellé le sort de ce stock tombé à 150 millions, suscitant une pénurie.

Mais une usine française capable de produire 100 millions de masques par an a été fermée en 2018.

Le manque de masques engendré par le coronavirus a mis à jour les vices de l’internationalisation de la production industrielle dans l’hexagone où a resurgi le souvenir d’une usine bretonne capable de produire 100 millions de masques par an en 2018.

Alors que la polémique sur l’impréparation du gouvernement devant la crise du Covid-19 se poursuit, l’histoire d’une usine bretonne de confection de masques fermée en 2018 est remontée à la surface, symbole de la désindustrialisation française.

Situé à Plaintel, près de Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor), l’usine Spérian, rachetée en 2010 par l’américain Honeywell, pouvait, avant sa fermeture définitive en octobre 2018, produire 100 millions de masques par an sur des machines fabriquant 4 000 masques à l’heure.

«Les sections syndicales CGT et CFDT de l’usine de Plaintel avaient à l’époque, lancé un cri d’alarme pour empêcher la fermeture du site et la destruction de leur outil de production […] Elles s’étaient même adressées au Président de la République Emmanuel Macron et au Ministre de l’Economie Bruno Le Maire. Mais ces derniers ce sont contentés d’accuser réception de leurs courriers mais se sont bien gardés d’intervenir», a dénoncé le 26 mars un communiqué de Solidaires Côtes-d’Armor sur Facebook.

L’entreprise spécialisée a bénéficié d’une commande de 200 millions de masques par l’Etat dans le cadre de la créations de stocks stratégiques après la crise du virus H1N1 en 2009, rappelle France 3 Bretagne. Ces commandes lui ont permis d’acheter de nouvelles machines et de recruter jusqu’à 280 salariés.

Avec le changement de stratégie de l’Etat en 2011, l’entreprise s’est retrouvée en forte difficulté financière et a enchaîné quatre plans sociaux jusqu’à la fermeture de son site à Plaintel et la délocalisation d’une partie de la production en Tunisie. Quant aux machines, encore récentes, elles ont été pour la plupart détruites sur ordre du propriétaire américain de l’usine.

«Solidaires propose également que le site industriel de fabrication de masques de protection sanitaire de Plaintel soit récréé en urgence sous un statut d’Etablissement Public Industriel et Commercial (EPIC) ou sous la forme d’une Société Coopérative Ouvrière de Production (SCOOP)», a réclamé Solidaires dans son communiqué du 26 mars.

Plus d’un milliard de masques commandés à l’étranger

Pris de cours par l’épidémie de Covid-19, l’Etat rencontre de fortes difficultés à répondre à la demande de masques : environ 40 millions par semaine pour une capacité de production nationale de 8 millions.

«Je veux que d’ici la fin de l’année nous ayons obtenu cette indépendance pleine et entière»

«Je peux vous annoncer un chiffre qui dépasse désormais le milliard [de masques commandés à l’étranger]», a déclaré le ministre de la Santé Olivier Véran lors d’une conférence de presse commune avec le Premier ministre Edouard Philippe le 28 mars. Deux jours plus tard, un premier avion en provenance de Chine a débarqué 8,5 millions de masques médicaux en région parisienne dans le cadre du pont aérien mis en place entre la Chine et la France.

«Fin avril nous serons à plus de 10 millions» de masques fabriqués en France et «nous continuerons cet effort», a déclaré Emmanuel Macron ce 31 mars depuis l’usine de masques de la PME Kolmi-Hopen en périphérie d’Angers (Maine-et-Loire). «Je veux que d’ici la fin de l’année nous ayons obtenu cette indépendance pleine et entière», a-t-il déclaré à cette occasion par ailleurs.

Originaux: RT France

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Italian politicians say Netherlands’ lack of solidarity amid COVID-19 crisis threatens EU

In an open letter published in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and posted on Twitter by European Parliament member Carlo Calenda, one of the signatories, a 12-strong group of Italian politicians has called out the Netherlands, citing its reluctance to support EU financial assistance to the countries most affected by the coronavirus.

They found fault with the Netherlands for blocking emergency aid to EU member states, despite “using its tax system to withdraw tax revenue from major European countries for years”, the letter has it.

The question is about the so-called “coronabonds” – special instruments that are aimed at raising funds to help EU member states overcome the economic fallout of the raging pandemic, with repayment obligations to be shouldered by the entire bloc.

While nine countries supported the plan, “the Netherlands is currently leading a group of countries that oppose this strategy, and Germany also seems to want to follow this group”, the politicians said, adding that the additional funds would enable the bloc to assist “the socially weak… who are most affected by the crisis today”.

Led by Member of the European Parliament Carlo Calenda, the politicians addressed the German public, calling on it to remember an episode in history when the Germans were granted sufficient support to rebuild after World War II, all the way to the country’s reunification.

“The Dutch attitude is an example of a lack of ethics and solidarity in every respect”, the politicians fumed.

The large European rescue fund could be structured similarly to the billions of deutschmarks that Germany needed even though it “could never have repaid the accumulated debts”, the Italians stated, adding that in today’s case, on the contrary, “old debts are neither deleted nor distributed”.

The Italian politicians, including Governors Stefano Bonaccini (Emilia-Romagna) and Giovanni Toti (Liguria), and the mayors of Ancona, Bologna, Brescia, Genoa, Milan, Padua, Syracuse, and Venice, pointed out that the issues at the centre of the debate challenge “the survival of the European Union”.

They argue that the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic and its varying impact on different states has proven that the EU must act as a united body that is willing to cooperate and give a helping hand in case of an emergency. Otherwise, they said, the bloc is doomed:

“But if it does not now prove that it exists, it will cease to exist”, they continued.

The pandemic has already inflicted massive damage on the global economy – primarily on small and medium businesses – as trade logistics and economic networks at large have been disrupted due to across-the-board quarantines and self-isolation. Some business spheres, like the travel and the service sectors, have been altogether brought to a standstill, with economists alleging that the “financial stress” may last well beyond 2020.

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Russian Covid-19 aid plane to US: Putin asked Trump if he needed help & he accepted, Kremlin spokesman says

A cargo plane loaded with medical supplies and protection equipment may depart for the US by the end of Tuesday, the Kremlin said, after a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Today, technical coordination was conducted, and preparations were underway to send an aircraft from Russia [to the US], which is expected to leave by the end of the day,” Peskov said, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, discussed this assistance during their phone conversation on Monday.

The issue of protective gear was raised during the Monday phone talks, with Putin asking if the US needed help and Trump accepting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

Moscow suggested the aid in anticipation that the US will be able to return the favor if necessary, once its manufacturers of medical and protective equipment catch up with demand, Peskov said.

The current situation “affects everyone without exception and is of a global nature,” he added.

There is no alternative to acting together in the spirit of partnership and mutual assistance.

On Monday, Trump told reporters at the White House press briefing that “Russia sent us a very, very large planeload of things, medical equipment, which was very nice.”

The comment left everyone scratching their heads, as no one in the US seemed to know anything about the plane in question. It appears the US president was referring to the aid arranged on the phone call as something that had already happened.

Since 22 March, Russia has been sending mobile teams of military virologists and doctors, as well as vehicles for aerosol disinfection and medical equipment to Italy.

Peskov chastised “some of the American side” who “at least did not contribute to the prompt resolution of technical issues” regarding the agreed-upon delivery, which could explain the delay.

Header: A Russian Il-76 transport military aircraft is loaded with medical aid to be sent to Italy amid the Covid-19 pandemic. © Russian Defence Ministry / Alexey Ereshko

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8 strains of the coronavirus are circling the globe. Here’s what clues they’re giving scientists

At least eight strains of the coronavirus are making their way around the globe, creating a trail of death and disease that scientists are tracking by their genetic footprints.

While much is unknown, hidden in the virus’s unique microscopic fragments are clues to the origins of its original strain, how it behaves as it mutates and which strains are turning into conflagrations while others are dying out thanks to quarantine measures.

Huddled in once bustling and now almost empty labs, researchers who oversaw dozens of projects are instead focused on one goal: tracking the current strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that cause the illness COVID-19.

Labs around the world are turning their sequencing machines, most about the size of a desktop printer, to the task of rapidly sequencing the genomes of virus samples taken from people sick with COVID-19. The information is uploaded to a website called NextStrain.org that shows how the virus is migrating and splitting into similar but new subtypes.

While researchers caution they’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg, the tiny differences between the virus strains suggest shelter-in-place orders are working in some areas and that no one strain of the virus is more deadly than another. They also say it does not appear the strains will grow more lethal as they evolve.

“The virus mutates so slowly that the virus strains are fundamentally very similar to each other,” said Charles Chiu, a professor of medicine and infectious disease at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus first began causing illness in China sometime between mid-November and mid-December. Its genome is made up of about 30,000 base pairs. Humans, by comparison, have more than 3 billion. So far even in the virus’s most divergent strains scientists have found only 11 base pair changes.

That makes it easy to spot new lineages as they evolve, said Chiu.

“The outbreaks are trackable. We have the ability to do genomic sequencing almost in real-time to see what strains or lineages are circulating,” he said.

So far, most cases on the U.S. West Coast are linked to a strain first identified in Washington state. It may have come from a man who had been in Wuhan, China, the virus’ epicenter, and returned home on Jan. 15. It is only three mutations away from the original Wuhan strain, according to work done early in the outbreak by Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at Fred Hutch, a medical research center in Seattle.

On the East Coast there are several strains, including the one from Washington and others that appear to have made their way from China to Europe and then to New York and beyond, Chiu said.

Beware pretty phylogenetic trees

This isn’t the first time scientists have scrambled to do genetic analysis of a virus in the midst of an epidemic. They did it with Ebola, Zika and West Nile, but nobody outside the scientific community paid much attention.

“This is the first time phylogenetic trees have been all over Twitter,” said Kristian Andersen, a professor at Scripps Research, a nonprofit biomedical science research facility in La Jolla, California, speaking of the diagrams that show the evolutionary relationships between different strains of an organism.

The maps are available on NextStrain, an online resource for scientists that uses data from academic, independent and government laboratories all over the world to visually track the genomics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It currently represents genetic sequences of strains from 36 countries on six continents.

While the maps are fun, they can also be “a little dangerous” said Andersen. The trees showing the evolution of the virus are complex and it’s difficult even for experts to draw conclusions from them.

“Remember, we’re seeing a very small glimpse into the much larger pandemic. We have half a million described cases right now but maybe 1,000 genomes sequenced. So there are a lot of lineages we’re missing,” he said.

COVID-19 hits people differently, with some feeling only slightly under the weather for a day, others flat on their backs sick for two weeks and about 15% hospitalized. Currently, an estimated 1% of those infected die. The rate varies greatly by country and experts say it is likely tied to testing rates rather than actual mortality.

Chiu says it appears unlikely the differences are related to people being infected with different strains of the virus.

“The current virus strains are still fundamentally very similar to each other,” he said.

The COVID-19 virus does not mutate very fast. It does so eight to 10 times more slowly than the influenza virus, said Anderson, making its evolution rate similar to other coronaviruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

It’s also not expected to spontaneously evolve into a form more deadly than it already is to humans. The SARS-CoV-2 is so good at transmitting itself between human hosts, said Andersen, it is under no evolutionary pressure to evolve.

Shelter in place working in California

Chiu’s analysis shows California’s strict shelter in place efforts appear to be working.

Over half of the 50 SARS-CoV-2 virus genomes his San Francisco-based lab sequenced in the past two weeks are associated with travel from outside the state. Another 30% are associated with health care workers and families of people who have the virus.

“Only 20% are coming from within the community. It’s not circulating widely,” he said.

That’s fantastic news, he said, indicating the virus has not been able to gain a serious foothold because of social distancing.

It’s like a wildfire, Chiu said. A few sparks might fly off the fire and land in the grass and start new fires. But if the main fire is doused and its embers stomped out, you can kill off an entire strain. In California, Chiu sees a lot of sparks hitting the ground, most coming from Washington, but they’re quickly being put out.

An example was a small cluster of cases in Solano County, northeast of San Francisco. Chiu’s team did a genetic analysis of the virus that infected patients there and found it was most closely related to a strain from China.

At the same time, his lab was sequencing a small cluster of cases in the city of Santa Clara in Silicon Valley. They discovered the patients there had the same strain as those in Solano County. Chiu believes someone in that cluster had contact with a traveler who recently returned from Asia.

“This is probably an example of a spark that began in Santa Clara, may have gone to Solano County but then was halted,” he said.

The virus, he said, can be stopped.

China is an unknown

So far researchers don’t have a lot of information about the genomics of the virus inside China beyond the fact that it first appeared in the city of Wuhan sometime between mid-November and mid-December.

The virus’s initial sequence was published on Jan. 10 by professor Yong-Zhen Zhang at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center. But Chiu says scientists don’t know if there was just one strain circulating in China or more.

“It may be that they haven’t sequenced many cases or it may be for political reasons they haven’t been made available,” said Chiu. “It’s difficult to interpret the data because we’re missing all these early strains.”

Researchers in the United Kingdom who sequenced the genomes of viruses found in travelers from Guangdong in south China found those patients’ strains spanned the gamut of strains circulating worldwide.

“That could mean several of the strains we’re seeing outside of China first evolved there from the original strain, or that there are multiple lines of infection. It’s very hard to know,” said Chiu.

The virus did not come from a lab

While there remain many questions about the trajectory of the COVID-19 disease outbreak, one thing is broadly accepted in the scientific community: The virus was not created in a lab but naturally evolved in an animal host.

SARS-CoV-2’s genomic molecular structure – think the backbone of the virus – is closest to a coronavirus found in bats. Parts of its structure also resemble a virus found in scaly anteaters, according to a paper published earlier this month in the journal Nature Medicine.

Someone manufacturing a virus targeting people would have started with one that attacked humans, wrote National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins in an editorial that accompanied the paper.

Andersen was lead author on the paper. He said it could have been a one-time occurrence.

“It’s possible it was a single event, from a single animal to a single human,” and spread from there.

Header: A map of the main known genetic variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 disease. The map is being kept on the nextstrain.org website, which tracks pathogen evolution.
nextstrain.org

Published in USA TODAY at 1:06 PM EDT Mar 31, 2020

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‘Significant advances’ in development of coronavirus vaccine

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Tuesday with the Director of the Israel Institute for Biological Research Prof. Shmuel Shapiro, and heard from him updates on the progress of the Institute’s research and development efforts on vaccines and anti-body treatments for the coronavirus.

Prof. Shapiro noted that significant advances have been made in pre-vaccination planning and are currently preparing a formula for animal trials.

Earlier, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett delivered his daily update on the Israeli effort to curb the coronavirus.

“There’s light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel,” Bennett declared, adding that “there is no exponential growth in the rate of infection and mortality in Israel. We are the country with the lowest mortality rate in relation to the number of patients in countries with significant infection, less than Germany even: 0.3 percent.”

Bennett was asked whether a full closure would be imposed on Bnei Brak, saying police had expanded enforcement in the city and the health care system is focused on conducting more tests. “If it’s necessary to impose a curfew on a neighborhood or building, we won’t hesitate,” he said.

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COVID-19 carrying dog-handler volunteers to train dog to diagnose, test coronavirus

srael Dog Unit (IDU) dog-handler Bram Settenbrino, who is presently quarantined with the coronavirus, volunteered to pilot test and train his personal weapons-sniffing service canine to detect the scent of the coronavirus.

Bram, who joins dozens of others quarantined with coronavirus in the Tel Aviv Dan Panorama Hotel that was recently converted into a quarantine facility by the Israeli defense establishment, said, “I’m in a rare position as I’m still diagnosed with coronavirus together with many others who have tested positive. It’s a godsend that I happen to be a volunteer dog-handler of a service dog that is a trained cadaver and weapons-sniffing detection dog. That’s what we do. And if I can make a small contribution to save many lives, I am happy to do that.”

Settenbrino continued: “Additionally, even after I G-d willing recover, I’m less likely to contract coronavirus and am thus in a unique position to test and train with many coronavirus patients. I asked the head of the IDU as well as the staff at the Hotel to permit me to have my service dog – Dana admitted to join me here so that we can commence immediate training under the auspices of expert trainers who will guide me. I know that the chances are slim, but what have we to lose?”

IDU Commander Yekutiel (Mike) Ben Yakov, who operates the civilian canine unit offering security to Jewish towns and which is the lead search and rescue organization in Israel already, sent an urgent request to Israels Defense Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, saying that Bram is in a position to potentially make an historic contribution to detecting and treating coronavirus patients and to saving many lives in Israel and around the world.

“Bram is already a proven and successful dog-handler and has already succeeded in recovering and rescuing missing people in Israel with the unit on his first search for a missing person, when he first joined the unit, last year. May it be the will of G-d that he succeeds in his valiant battle with coronavirus.”

The IDU is already in contact with world experts to seek immediate guidance from leaders in the field to devise the best strategy and methods to move forward if the IDF and Health Ministry give Bram and Dana a green light to commence training. The IDF Oketz Unit earlier announced that they too are seeking to train dogs to detect coronavirus and British experts have also announced a similar pilot.

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Israel’s chief rabbis say Passover Seder can’t be held via videoconference

The Chief Rabbinate on Tuesday issued guidelines for Passover in the age of coronavirus, saying it was not permitted to hold the traditional Seder by videoconference and dismissing a previous ruling by several rabbis who said it was allowed.

In what may have been one of the boldest rulings issued on technology in recent years, 14 Sephardic Orthodox rabbis in Israel last week declared that families may conduct their shared Seder over videoconference, despite Orthodox religious law normally banning the use of electronic devices on Shabbat and festivals.

The written ruling (Hebrew) had come as leaders were warning the elderly not to heighten their chance of coronavirus infection by meeting with young relatives — and as Israeli families discussed the pain this separation causes them. It states that the coronavirus crisis has created an extreme situation that merits drawing on special leniencies in Jewish law.

However, the ruling was met with scathing criticism by other rabbis, and many of the signatories have since backtracked.

In a statement Tuesday, chief rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef said holding the Seder via technological means was forbidden, and that the previous ruling had been “unqualified.”

“Loneliness hurts, and an answer for that should be found, perhaps via a call through the computer on the festival’s eve, before it begins,” they said in the statement. “But not by desecrating the festival in a way that has been allowed only in cases of ‘pikuach nefesh’ [where an act is necessary to save lives].”

Two of the rabbis who had issued the previous ruling, Rabbi Yehuda Shlush and Rabbi Rafael de Loya, issued a response doubling down on their conclusion.

“Against the background noises by the chief rabbis and others, we are sticking to our opinion and ruling that Zoom and similar products are permitted during the Seder” if used in accordance with the guidelines they had set out, they said.

In their statement, the chief rabbis said their instructions were based on discussions they have held with professionals in the Health Ministry and in the National Security Council.

They also wrote that prayers should be held alone and at home, without a “minyan” [quorum of 10 worshipers]. However, they said each congregation should announce a specific time for everyone to start the prayer.

The chief rabbis said “mikveh” ritual baths for women would remain open and that they were under strict supervision regarding cleanliness and disinfection. Ritual baths for men are closed.

The process of selling one’s “chametz” [bread and other leavened wheat products prohibited during Passover] to be rid of it during the holiday, can be done online via the Rabbinate’s website, the statement said.

Instead of burning chametz, people should this year throw it into a bin and pour bleach on it so it is no longer fit for even a dog to eat. If not much is left, people can dispose of it by flushing it down the toilet instead.

If burning chametz, people are advised to do so close to home. It was advisable to not leave much chametz to be disposed of on Passover eve, they said.

Hagalah [making utensils kosher by immersing them in boiling water] should be done at home, in a clean oven on maximum heat for 20 minutes, and only if the utensils don’t have plastic, wood or rubber parts.

Another special instruction was for firstborns who normally participate in a “siyum” [completion of a Torah, Mishnah or Talmud unit] to avoid having to fast on Passover eve.

The chief rabbis said it was advisable for each firstborn to complete studying a unit by that day by themselves, but that if that isn’t possible the siyum can be done by phone or other technological means.

Header: Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau, left, and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef attending a New Year’s ceremony at the national headquarters of the Israel Police in Jerusalem, September 7, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

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Nurses are stepping in to say Shema with the patients

Today, I was asked to lay tefillin on a patient lying in the ICU, who was vented and sedated. I couldn’t — for infection control reasons — but I did reassure the sleeping patient that he is in good hands and that his family sends their love. I said a quick prayer in my gear before stepping out and carefully disrobing.

Today, I downloaded Vidui, the Jewish deathbed prayer, because we have some patients who may reach that point, and they reach it rapidly and unexpectedly, and family is not allowed to be there, and nurses are stepping in to say Shema with the patients.

Today, I had a three-way conversation with a Hasidic 60-year old patient, her son, and their rabbi, to determine end-of-life decisions, as she neared intubation. She kept blinking away tears, but nodded at me to continue, saying, “This is important.”

Today after work, I snuck into an ICU in a different institution to check on someone and assure the family that their loved one is okay, and they cried in relief.

And today, I comforted and cried with multiple community members, as they called me throughout the day, wailing, as loved ones died today, age 39, age 42, age 50. I prescribed Ativan for those who needed the numbness and guided them on how to attend funerals (N95 mask, gloves, and 20 feet away from others).

And then I drove home, passing shrieking ambulances on the highway bringing more patients for me to care for tomorrow.

Original: TOI – Blimi Marcus is a nurse practitioner at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and an adjunct professor at Hunter College. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

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New research shows danger posed by coronavirus to people in their 40s and 50s

Middle-aged people, and not just the elderly, have a dramatically higher risk of dying or developing serious illness from the coronavirus, new research from Britain has found.

The findings came in a comprehensive analysis of virus cases in mainland China.

Researchers from Britain analyzed more than 3,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, as well as data from hundreds of passengers repatriated from the outbreak city of Wuhan.

They discovered that age is a key determining factor in serious infections, with nearly one in five over-80s requiring hospitalization, compared to around one percent among people under 30.

The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal, found that 4% of infected people in their forties required hospitalization and double that number of people in their fifties.

Taking into account estimates of the number of cases that may not have been clinically confirmed — that is, mild or asymptomatic infections — the data showed that the hospitalization rate of patients in their fifties was 8.2%.

It estimated that the mortality rate from confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China was 1.38%. If unconfirmed cases are taken into account, the death rate dropped to 0.66%.

The authors of the research said that while this was significantly lower than previous estimates, COVID-19 is still several times deadlier than previous pandemic viruses, such as H1N1.

“Our estimates can be applied to any country to inform decisions around the best containment policies for COVID-19,” said Azra Ghani, a study co-author from Imperial College London.

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Umbrella Corporation | Coronavirus

The design provided for the company’s dark positioning and involvement in the development of viruses, including coronavirus, weapons, genetic research and biological weapons.

The design is made in cutting-edge technological contrasts with vivid typography and interactive blocks for deep immersion in the atmosphere of evil.

Artem Markovsky on BEHANCE

Concept images are copyrighted materials belonging to their authors.
Special thanks @raphlange20 for wonderful T-virus render & Capcom for keyvisuals.

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US: Hospitals firing doctors who talk to the press

US Health care systems have warned emergency room doctors and nurses that if they speak out about working conditions inside a hospital, they will be fired, reported Bloomberg.

Ming Lin, an emergency room physician in Washington state, said he was told Friday he was out of a job because he’d given an interview to a newspaper about a Facebook post detailing what he believed to be inadequate protective equipment and testing.

In Chicago, a nurse was fired after emailing colleagues that she wanted to wear a more protective mask while on duty. In New York, the NYU Langone Health system has warned employees they could be terminated if they talk to the media without authorization.

“Hospitals are muzzling nurses and other health-care workers in an attempt to preserve their image,” said Ruth Schubert, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Nurses Association. “It is outrageous.”

Hospitals have traditionally had strict media guidelines to protect patient privacy, urging staff to talk with journalists only through official public relations offices. But the pandemic has ushered in a new era, Schubert said.

Health-care workers “must have the ability to tell the public what is really going on inside the facilities where they are caring for Covid-19 patients,” she said.

One reason is to prepare other nurses and doctors for the looming onslaught of cases and encourage donations of much-needed equipment, particularly the personal protective equipment or PPE that protects them from being infected and in turn infecting other patients as well as their families when they go home.

In China, one of the earliest alarms about the mysterious new illness was raised by a doctor in an online chatroom in late December. He was reprimanded and forced to sign a police statement that the post was illegal. He later contracted the disease from a patient and died.

“It is good and appropriate for health-care workers to be able to express their own fears and concerns, especially when expressing that might get them better protection,” said Glenn Cohen, faculty director of Harvard Law School’s bioethics center. It’s likely hospitals are trying to limit reputational damage because “when health-care workers say they are not being protected, the public gets very upset at the hospital system.”

Doctors are a famously independent profession, where individual medical judgment on what’s best for the patient is prized over administrative dictates. That’s reared its head during the Covid-19 outbreak, with many physicians, nurses and other health-care workers taking to social media to express deep concerns about the lack of protective gear or much-needed patient-care equipment like respirators. Some posts have gone viral and are being shared hundreds of thousands of times, often tagged with #GetMePPE. Privacy laws prohibit disclosing specific patient information, but they don’t bar discussing general working conditions.

NYU Langone Health employees received a notice Friday from Kathy Lewis, executive vice president of communications, saying that anyone who talked to the media without authorization would be “subject to disciplinary action, including termination.”

Jim Mandler, a spokesman for NYU Langone Health, said the policy was to protect patient and staff confidentiality. “Because information is constantly evolving, it is in the best interest of our staff and the institution that only those with the most updated information are permitted to address these issues with the media.”

New York’s Montefiore Health System requires staff get permission before speaking publicly, and sent a reminder in a March 17 newsletter that all media requests “must be shared and vetted” by the public relations department.

“Associates are not authorized to interact with reporters or speak on behalf of the institution in any capacity, without pre-approval,” according to the policy, which was seen by Bloomberg News.

Lauri Mazurkiewicz, the Chicago nurse who was fired by Northwestern Memorial Hospital after urging colleagues to wear more protective equipment, has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit.

“A lot of hospitals are lying to their workers and saying that simple masks are sufficient and nurses are getting sick and they are dying,” she said.

Mazurkiewicz, 46, has asthma and cares for her father, who suffers from a respiratory disease. At 75, he’s in one of the most at-risk groups of dying from the virus. “I didn’t want to get infected because I’m not wearing the proper mask and then spread it to my patients and my family,” she said.

A Northwestern Memorial Hospital spokesperson declined to comment, citing the lawsuit. The hospital said in an emailed statement that it “is committed to the safety of our employees.”

Charles Prosper, chief executive of PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center’s Northwest network where Lin worked in Bellingham, said in an email that Lin was “publicly critical” of the hospital’s readiness to deal with patients. Lin’s contract is through TeamHealth, which said it’s seeking to find him new work.

“Our oath is to do no harm,” Lin said. “I spoke out for patient safety and as a result I got terminated.”

Not all hospitals are blocking staff from talking to the press. New York’s Mount Sinai has been scheduling media interviews for nurses, physicians and trainees to help the public understand the severity of the crisis, a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The University of California San Francisco Medical Center has gotten hundreds of such calls and encouraged workers to talk to reporters.

Nisha Mehta is a 38-year radiologist from Charlotte, North Carolina, who runs two Facebook groups for physicians with around 70,000 members. She’s fielded numerous requests from health-care workers hoping to get their stories into the public arena.

“I’m hearing widespread stories from physicians across the country and they are all saying: ‘We have these stories that we think are important to get out, but we are being told by our hospital systems that we are not allowed to speak to the press, and if we do so there will be extreme consequences,” she said.

Many say they get daily emails urging them not to talk to the media under any circumstances. “The public needs to hear these stories and other physicians need to hear them to be warned against what’s coming,” Mehta said. “It’s so important that everyone understands how bad this is going to get.”

Source: Bloomberg

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Sheldon Adelson ships two million masks to U.S. hospitals

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson has procured approximately two million face masks to counter the shortage of the much-needed protective gear at hospitals across the United States, a source close to the billionaire informed Jewish Insider on Monday.

The masks were produced in China at Adelson’s expense and are being shipped to first responders and hospitals in New York and Nevada that are fighting the coronavirus pandemic, the source said.

Of the masks donated by Adelson, 250,000 will go to the Trump administration’s coordinated effort to assist health workers. On Sunday, the first planeload of health care supplies arrived in New York City from China through a public-private partnership called Project Airbridge, the White House said.

Adelson is a supporter of President Donald Trump and a mega-donor to the Republican Party and candidates. His wife, Miriam, is a medical doctor.

Source: Jewish Insider

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Israel ranked number 1 in coronavirus safety

Israel has been ranked first in the Covid-19 Health Safety Countries Ranking on the Deep Knowledge Group website.

Israel received a score of 619. Singapore placed second with a score of 600.

Slovakia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Hungary, Austria, Germany, and Greenland rounded out the top ten.

The United states placed 27th with a score of 140.

India was ranked the least safe country with a score of 39.48

Coronavirus Health Safety Countries Ranking

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Italy directs request to Israel’s Health Ministry

Italy’s Health Ministry has asked the Israeli Health Ministry for permission to use the Israeli educational video describing the coronavirus infection chain.

Italian government officials were also joined by government officials from Georgia and Ukraine, who have approached International Relations Deputy Director Einav Shimron to allow them to use the “infection chain” video and broadcast it in their countries.

This is a world-renowned Health Ministry video showing the rapid infection of the coronavirus and how it passes from one hand to the next when touching common surfaces: door handle, elevator buttons, ATM keys, supermarket cart, parking ticket buttons, and public use surfaces.

The film produced by the Government Advertising Bureau shows the speed of infection and the importance of using tissues and wipes while avoiding direct contact with public surfaces and emphasizing the importance of hand-washing.

The video is broadcast on all TV networks and has been translated into Arabic, Russian, English, and Amharic.

Shimron said: “We’ve allowed all countries that contacted us to use the video freely. We’re ready to provide all our information materials to the world’s countries.”

VIDEO

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Spain sees record death toll with 849 dead in 24 hours

Once again, Spain hit a new record with 849 people dying of COVID-19 in 24 hours, hiking the overall death toll to 8,189, the government said on Tuesday.

The increase came after a day in which the number of deaths had fallen slightly, raising hopes the epidemic could be reaching its peak in Spain, which has logged the world’s second-highest number of deaths from the virus after Italy.

Another 9,222 people tested positive for the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 94,417.

With both new infections and deaths up around 11% each, Spain is seeing a slight rebound in the outbreak.

That’s despite an overall timid slowdown in its spread for the past week, allowing authorities to focus on avoiding the collapse of the health care system. At least one-third of Spain’s 17 regions were already at their limit of capacity in terms of intensive care unit usage, while new beds are being added in hotels, exhibition and sports centers across the country.

At least 14% of those infected are much-needed medical personnel. Many of them lack proper protective gear.

The government also wants to cushion the social effects of a major economic slowdown. Spain is officially “hibernating,” with new measures halting all but essential economic activity coming into full force on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s left-wing cabinet is expected to add a new 700-million-euro aid package, including zero interest loans, as well as suspend evictions for families who can’t afford to pay their home rent.

Header: A priest gives funeral rites at Salvador cemetery during the coronavirus outbreak, near Vitoria, northern Spain, March 30, 2020. (Alvaro Barrientos/AP)

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Health Ministry said close to imposing closure on Bnei Brak

The Health Ministry is close to imposing a closure on the mostly ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak, according to a report by Channel 12 news Tuesday.

The report said the ministry has already prepared an injunction to go ahead with a closure on the town, which has the highest ratio of confirmed cases of coronavirus infection to tests carried out, according to figures released by the ministry earlier Tuesday.

According to the report the injunction states that residents of the town will only be allowed out of their homes “to purchase food, medicines and essential items, within the closed area; to seek medical assistance, even if it is outside of the closed area.” Employees of essential industries will be allowed to leave the restricted area to go to and return from work, the report claimed.

Bnei Brak has 571 confirmed infections out of 1,656 tests carried out. Jerusalem has 650 confirmed cases, but out of a far higher total of tests — 5,834. All told, Israel had as of Tuesday conducted 62,819 tests, with 4,843 people being found positive. Tel Aviv has 278 confirmed cases, followed by Ashkelon with 114 and Rishon Lezion with 104.

On Monday, Channel 12 reported that Health Minister Yaakov Litzman wants police to control the entrances and exits from Bnei Brak, and to provide food and essential products to residents to keep them at home.

Health Ministry director general Moshe Bar Siman-Tov confirmed that the issue had been raised in a conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Ministry representatives.

“We are preparing for such scenarios,” he told Channel 12. “It requires intense involvement by the Home Front Command and the police — I believe we will see progress on the matter during the course of the day.”

The reports follow several incidents in which ultra-Orthodox residents of Bnei Brak flouted Health Ministry regulations intended to curb the spread of the virus, among them an open-air wedding and a funeral, both attended by hundreds of people.

Similar incidents have occurred in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with 198,863 residents crammed in, at a rate of over 27,000 people per square kilometer, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The overwhelming majority of Bnei Brak residents are ultra-Orthodox, including members of some hardline sects who have resisted government directives shutting synagogues, schools, and houses of study. Some rabbinical leaders initially dismissed the panic over the virus, but most have since urged their followers to adhere to Health Ministry rules.

Header: Police officers close synagogues and disperse public gatherings in the ultra Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, March 31, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Source: TOI