Coronavirus Breaking News

Innovative platforms such as nucleic acid (DNA and RNA), virus-like particle, peptide, viral vector (replicating and non-replicating), recombinant protein, live attenuated virus, and, inactivated virus development studies are currently focused on producing a COVID-19 disease preventive vaccine. Update listing on this webpage.

Over 480 clinical trial, patient recruitment projects are sponsored by Antidote.

In the USA, there have been 5,228,817 confirmed cases of COVID-19 disease detected through U.S. public health surveillance systems in 50 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, reported the U.S. CDC as of August 14, 2020.

Furthermore, the CDC confirmed 166,317 coronavirus related fatalities during 2020. According to the New York Times, about 41% of these fatalities are related to nursing home residents and/or staff.

The U.S CDC updated their coronavirus guidance on August 3, 2020, suggesting that people who have recovered from COVID-19 related infections can reduce their social-distancing efforts for the next 3-months, because of limited immunity.

The history of smallpox holds a unique place in medicine. One of the deadliest diseases known to humans, it is also the only human disease to have been eradicated by vaccination. Smallpox was spread by close contact with the sores or respiratory droplets of an infected person, similar to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus of 2019.

Over history, leaders were able to help end smallpox pandemics through vaccination campaigns.

In 1768, Russian empress Catherine the Great volunteered to be inoculated against smallpox in an effort to show her subjects that the emerging medical technique was safe, reported the Financial Times on August 13, 2020.

Then, a few years later in 1775, General George Washington took command of the Continental Army when America was fighting a 2-front war: one for independence, and a second for survival against smallpox. Because Washington knew the ravages of the disease firsthand, he understood that the smallpox virus, then an invisible enemy, could cripple his army and end the war before it began. He too was inoculated to display his leadership.

As COVID-19 disease preventive vaccines become available, which leaders will lead by example?

'If contact tracing apps are following Gartner’s famous hype cycle, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion they are now firmly in the “trough of disillusionment," said an MIT Technology article published on August 10, 2020. There are apps highly ranked in MIT Technology Review’s COVID Tracing Tracker, such as Ireland’s app, which has one of the world’s best adoption rates, with 37% of the population downloaded the app in its first week.

Now that the state of Virginia has launched its digital-contact-tracing app called COVIDWise, Americans will learn first 'hand' how these apps help reduce the spreading of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

According to Reuters, VA Governor Ralph Northam said, “No one is tracking you. None of your personal information is saved.”

To help resolve the nursing-home catastrophe in the USA -- about 38% of all coronavirus related fatalities -- the U.S. federal government announced on August 13, 2020, it had shipped 1,846 rapid point-of-care testing devices to more than 950 nursing homes across the country.

Data published by the U.S. CDC on August 14, 2020, suggest that a substantial number of COVID-19 cases in Oregon have gone undiagnosed --- was approximately 10 times the measured cumulative COVID-19 incidence obtained by nucleic acid testing --- and that a large portion of Oregon’s population remains susceptible to COVID-19 infection.

These findings are similar to those reported in a recent survey in the neighboring state of Idaho.