12th Sep 2022 https://nfind.uk/lockdown_exit/index.php/newsletter=738 lockdown_exit

News Highlights

Bloomberg Article reports that China is stepping up its Covid defenses as a key Communist Party meeting looms restricting internal travel further as swathes of the country remain under tight lockdowns. The National Health Commission on Thursday announced a raft of measures that will be in place until the end of next month to fight a virus that shows little sign of slowing. Authorities told citizens to minimize travel during the midAutumn festival next week and National Day holidays in October ordinarily key periods for domestic tourism and asked local governments to test all residents regularly for Covid regardless of infection levels. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-09/china-restricts-domestic-travel-as-covid-outbreaks-grow 10th Sep 2022

News Highlights

The Conversation As the New Zealand government reviews mask mandates and other pandemic measures this week we argue its time to reconsider the overall COVID strategy. With the arrival of Omicron the pandemic landscape has changed worldwide. Omicrons latest BA.5 variant now dominates and in the second half of 2022 most people in all countries have acquired immunity either from vaccination or infection or both. https://theconversation.com/how-should-new-zealand-manage-covid-from-now-limit-all-infections-or-focus-on-preventing-severe-disease-189461 10th Sep 2022

News Highlights

The New York Times As fire was raging in the mountains surrounding the southwestern Chinese metropolis of Chongqing 10 million residents stood in 100plusdegree heat to get Covid tests. Two cases were detected that day in August. A week earlier in Xiamen in the countrys southeast pandemic workers swabbed the throats of fishermen before they tested their catch of fish and crab. Cars got swabbed too at an auto show last week in Chengdu in the southwest. When a strong earthquake struck Chengdu on Monday the first instinct of many residents was not to run for safety but to ask for permission to leave their homes under lockdown. Dont come downstairs @all a property manager warned in a group chat. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/09/business/china-covid-zero-xi-jinping.html 10th Sep 2022

News Highlights

Bloomberg The number of Bank of America Corp. customers making childcare payments neared prepandemic levels last month an encouraging sign for the labor market as parents get back to work. Those making such payments now total about 94 of the level seen in January 2020 a noticeable jump from the prior month the Bank of America Institute said in a report Friday. The dollar value of childcare spending per customer was up about 7 from a year ago when adjusting for inflation. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-09/bofa-child-care-spending-nears-pre-covid-level-as-parents-work 10th Sep 2022

News Highlights

Reuters Top scientists from leading academic centers are banding together to answer a key question about the root cause of long COVID whether fragments of the coronavirus persist in the tissues of some individuals. The effort known as the Long Covid Research Initiative aims to streamline research and quickly pivot to clinical trials of potential treatments. By sharing diverse skill sets and resources the group hopes to uncover the scientific underpinnings of the disease and use that to design evidencebased trials. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/top-scientists-join-forces-study-leading-theory-behind-long-covid-2022-09-08/ 8th Sep 2022

News Highlights

Reuters More Chinese cities advised residents on Wednesday to avoid unnecessary trips for the upcoming holiday long weekend adding to COVID policies that are keeping tens of millions of people under lockdown and exacting a growing economic toll. Nanjing and Wuxi major cities in eastern Chinas Jiangsu province recommended residents not leave town during the SaturdayMonday midautumn festival echoing similar advisories made by other cities this month. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/covid-alert-more-chinese-cities-advise-residents-stay-put-holiday-2022-09-07/ 7th Sep 2022

News Highlights

Nature.com Most scientists agree that lockdowns did curb COVID19 deaths and that governments had little option but to restrict peoples social contacts in early 2020 to stem SARSCoV2s spread and avert the collapse of healthcare systems. We needed to buy ourselves some time says Lauren Meyers a biological data scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. The pandemics true health cost how much of our lives has COVID stolen At the same time its clear that lockdowns had huge costs and there is debate about the utility of any subsequent lockdown measures. School and university closures disrupted education. Closing businesses contributed to financial and social hardship mental ill health and economic downturns. Theres costs and benefits says Samir Bhatt a publichealth statistician at Imperial College London and the University of Copenhagen. Scientists have been studying the effects of lockdowns during the pandemic in the hope that their findings could inform the response to future crises. They have reached some conclusions countries that acted quickly to bring in stringent measures did best at preserving both lives and their economies for instance. But researchers have also encountered difficulties. Analysing competing harms and benefits often comes down not to scientific calculations but to value judgements such as how to weigh costs that fall on some sections of society more than others. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02823-4 7th Sep 2022

News Highlights

Daily Mail Pharmacies in England warned they have insufficient Covid jabs for the autumn booster campaign. Around 1.6 million care home residents staff and housebound people will start to be given jabs to protect them ahead of winter. An additional four million people including the over75s will be able to book a fourth jab. But Leyla Hannbeck of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies said some members had receiving just a third of their orders. Weve known for months that theres going to be a vaccination process from autumn onwards she told the Sunday Telegraph. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11179437/Pharmacists-warn-not-sufficient-Covid-boosters-autumn-rollout.html 5th Sep 2022

News Highlights

Yahoo News UK In Hong Kong stringent COVID19 curbs have long made life for school students extremely hard. Now a new rule requiring higher vaccination levels could upend what progress has been made towards resuming fullday inperson classes. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/unrelenting-covid-rules-cast-clouds-000821062.html 11th Sep 2022

Exit Strategies

Reuters North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has suggested that the isolated country could begin COVID19 vaccinations in November state media reported on Friday. In a speech on Thursday to the North Korean national assembly Kim cited World Health Organization warnings that the winter could see a resurgence in coronavirus infections. Therefore along with responsible vaccination we should recommend that all residents wear masks to protect their health from November he said without elaborating. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/kim-jong-un-suggests-nkorea-may-begin-covid-vaccinations-2022-09-09/ 9th Sep 2022

Exit Strategies

Bloomberg Long Covid is costing the Australian economy the equivalent of 3.6 billion a year in lost output the Australian Financial Review reported citing an exclusive data analysis. Based on data from the countrys Treasury estimating some 31000 workers called in sick because of the condition in June the analysis by think tank Impact Economics and Policy found the economic cost came in at A100 million 68 million a week according to the AFR. That amounts to some A5.2 billion on an annual basis. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-10/long-covid-costs-australia-economy-3-6-billion-a-year-report 10th Sep 2022

Exit Strategies

The Atlantic The world has moved on from the coronavirus pandemicexcept for China. Chinese leaders continue to lock down some of the countrys largest cities spend millions of dollars on testing and hunt down individual case after individual case. Nothingneither a sinking economy nor the availability of vaccines and improved treatments nor the countrys growing isolationhas persuaded the leadership to change course. The latest wave of lockdowns has largely confined millions to their homes Just two of those lockdowns involving the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu and the tech hub of Shenzhen affected a combined population roughly equivalent to all of Canadas. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/09/china-lockdowns-zero-covid-policy/671385/ 10th Sep 2022

Exit Strategies

Bloomberg The sluggish recovery in US state and city employment has left payrolls hundreds of thousands of positions below prepandemic levels a deficit that may take years to plug as the private sector lures away workers. State and local payrolls rose to about 19.4 million last month the highest since March 2020 according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. However thats still roughly 650000 less than the peak from right before Covid19 struck even after states and municipalities received hundreds of billions of dollars in federal stimulus to ease the pandemics blow. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-07/state-local-jobs-may-take-until-2026-to-recoup-pandemic-losses 9th Sep 2022

Exit Strategies

The Wall Street Journal U.S. health authorities plan to recommend that people get Covid19 boosters once a year starting with the new shots now rolling out a shift from their current practice of issuing new advice every several months. The annual cadence would be similar to that of flu shots White House officials said though elderly people and those with weakened immune systems may need more frequent inoculations. A shift to annual Covid19 boosters would be a departure from current practice and comes after many people in the U.S. have ignored calls to get a first or second booster partly due to fatigue with repeat inoculations. https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-plans-shift-to-annual-covid-shots-as-new-boosters-roll-out-11662484424 6th Sep 2022

Exit Strategies

Regulation Asia Hong Kong is targeting November to end hotel quarantine for visitors to the city Bloomberg reports. Hong Kong has already reduced the hotel quarantine requirement from 21 days to 7 days to 3 days although a further 4 days of health monitoring is still required during which people can leave their homes but may not enter highrisk premises like restaurants and bars. The end of hotel quarantine altogether is planned to occur ahead of a summit of global bankers and a popular international rugby competition later this year. https://www.regulationasia.com/hong-kong-targets-removal-of-hotel-quarantine-requirement/ 5th Sep 2022

Exit Strategies

Bloomberg China became the first country to approve a needlefree inhaled version of a Covid19 vaccine made by Tianjinbased CanSino Biologics Inc. pushing the companys shares up as much as 14.5 Monday morning in Hong Kong. Chinas National Medical Products Administration approved CanSinos Ad5nCoV for emergency use as a booster vaccine the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sunday. The vaccine is a new version of CanSinos oneshot Covid drug the first in the world to undergo human testing in March 2020 and which has been used in China Mexico Pakistan Malaysia and Hungary after being rolled out in February 2021. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-05/world-s-first-covid-vaccine-you-inhale-is-approved-in-china 5th Sep 2022

Exit Strategies

Bloomberg Annual US sales of Covid19 shots could be high as 12.9 billion with health officials likely recommending an annual booster vaccine maker Moderna Inc. said in a meeting with investors. Exactly how big the market will be for shots made by the company and its rivals depends on who keeps receiving boosters Moderna said. It could be as little as 5.2 billion annually depending on shots prices and how many people receive them officials said Thursday in a meeting with investors in Boston. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-08/moderna-sees-annual-us-market-for-covid-19-shots-ranging-up-to-13-billion 8th Sep 2022

Partisan Exits

The Guardian The decision to reduce the number of children who are offered Covid jabs has prompted outcry from parent groups and academics. The UK Health Security Agency UKHSA said children who had not turned five by the end of last month would not be offered a vaccination in line with advice published by the UKs Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation JCVI in February 2022. UKHSA said the offer of Covid jabs to healthy five to 11yearolds was always meant to be temporary. UKHSAs Green Book which provides information on the vaccine rollout for public health professionals states This oneoff programme applies to those aged 5 to 11 years including those who turn five years of age before the end of August 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/06/anger-at-plans-to-roll-back-covid-vaccines-to-under-11s-in-england 10th Sep 2022

Partisan Exits

Bloomberg New York Governor Kathy Hochul lifted the states mask requirement for public transit removing one of the last remaining government mandates of the Covid19 pandemic. Hochul announced the decision on Wednesday after months of confusion among commuters befuddled by varying national state and local rules on where face coverings are required. Covid numbers are stable putting the state in a good place now she said. We havent seen any spikes and also people are getting back to work back to school Hochul said during a press conference at a health center in New York City shortly before receiving her omicrontargeted booster thats being made available this week. We have to restore some normalcy to our lives. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-07/new-york-governor-lifts-mask-mandate-for-shelters-nyc-subways?srnd=prognosis 8th Sep 2022

Partisan Exits

The Wall Street Journal Before new versions of the Omicron strain took hold in the U.S. Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE had begun tinkering with their widely used Covid19 vaccine. In May researchers tracking how coronavirus strains behave saw the potential for Omicron subvariants to predominate. Just in case the companies started building blueprints of shots reformulated to target BA.4 BA.5 and other substrains and laid the groundwork for testing them. The preparations proved prescient a big reason along with manufacturing enhancements that tens of millions of doses of PfizerBioNTech boosters modified to target BA.4 and BA.5 are now rolling out. If were going to be ready for the disease and its migration I dont have the time to wait said Mike McDermott Pfizers chief global supply officer. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-pfizer-and-biontech-modified-covid-19-vaccines-for-fall-boosters-11662341462 5th Sep 2022

Partisan Exits

Bloomberg Stanley Johnson the father of the UKs outgoing prime minister has left China after being caught in a Covid lockdown that spoiled his plans to shoot a travel film in Xinjiang where London has accused Beijing of widespread rights abuses. The former Conservative member of the European Parliament who has pushed for closer ties between the UK and China was in quarantine in the megacity of Chengdu when it went into lockdown last week. His youngest child Max who studied for an MBA at Beijings prestigious Tsinghua University and had been due to accompany his father to Xinjiang told Bloomberg News that Johnson had left for the UK. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-05/boris-johnson-s-father-halts-xinjiang-trip-after-covid-lockdown 5th Sep 2022

Partisan Exits

Reuters UK The British government is set to release data showing around 1.1 billion pounds of small business loans 1.27 billion made under a COVID19 emergency lending scheme has already been classified as suspected fraud a source told Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-has-classified-13-bln-covid-bounce-back-loans-suspected-fraud-source-2022-09-02/ 2nd Sep 2022

Continued Lockdown

Reuters Lloyds Banking Group has been hit by more than 300 million pounds 348 million of suspected fraud linked to COVID19 pandemicera recovery loans for small businesses the highest among big bank peers according to government data. British banks overall have classified some 1.1 billion pounds worth of the emergency lending scheme known as bounce back loans as fraud the data published on Monday by Britains Department for Business Energy and Industry BEIS showed. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/britains-lloyds-racks-up-350-million-likely-scam-covid-loans-2022-09-06/ 6th Sep 2022

Continued Lockdown

Regulation Asia Hong Kong is targeting November to end hotel quarantine for visitors to the city Bloomberg reports. Hong Kong has already reduced the hotel quarantine requirement from 21 days to 7 days to 3 days although a further 4 days of health monitoring is still required during which people can leave their homes but may not enter highrisk premises like restaurants and bars. The end of hotel quarantine altogether is planned to occur ahead of a summit of global bankers and a popular international rugby competition later this year. The heads of major Wall Street banks have been invited to the November conference organised by the HKMA Hong Kong Monetary Authority but many are reluctant to receive quarantine exemptions to attend as they do not want to be singled out for perceived preferential treatment. The hotel quarantine requirement is also seen as a deterrence for visitors looking to attend the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens tournament scheduled from 46 November as well as an international legal conference at the end of the same month. https://www.regulationasia.com/hong-kong-targets-removal-of-hotel-quarantine-requirement/ 6th Sep 2022

Continued Lockdown

Bloomberg China sealed off parts of Guiyang capital of the mountainous southern Guizhou province as an increase in virus cases triggered a stringent response in line with the countrys Covid Zero strategy. Lockdowns will be imposed in almost all communities in six of Guiyangs 10 districts for four days through the end of Thursday the local government said in a statement. Residents in the affected areas will only be allowed to leave their homes for Covid tests and all cab services will be suspended authorities said. The moves come after the city of 6.1 million reported 132 virus cases as of Monday morning 28 more than a day earlier https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-05/china-s-guiyang-locks-down-some-areas-to-contain-covid-outbreak 5th Sep 2022

Continued Lockdown

The Guardian China has intensified its efforts to rein in outbreaks of Covid19 ahead of a major political meeting by placing about 65 million people under semilockdown according to local media reports. The Chinese Communist party will begin its 20th congress on 16 October with party chief Xi Jinping widely expected to be reinstated as president for a third term. According to a report on the business portal Caixin 33 Chinese cities including eight major provincial and municipal centres have been placed under Chinas lowest static management tier of lockdown disrupting the lives of an estimated 65 million residents. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/05/china-puts-65m-people-into-semi-lockdown-ahead-of-communist-party-summit 5th Sep 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

The Local France Immunologist Brigitte Autran president of new government health advisory body the Comit de veille et danticipation des risques sanitaires Committee to monitor and anticipate health risks which has replaced the Conseil scientifique told Le Parisien that the Covid epidemic is not behind us and said that the French would have to get used to living with the virus. The Covidtracker website currently shows that the virus is in decline across France with the Rrate currently at 0.7 any figure lower than one indicates that the number of infections is falling. https://www.thelocal.fr/20220817/new-covid-wave-in-autumn-virtually-certain-say-french-experts/ 10th Sep 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Prevention Magazine COVID19 vaccines have been effective at keeping people from getting severely ill and dying from the virus but theyve required different boosters to try to keep on top of all of the coronavirus variants that have popped up. Now researchers have discovered an antibody that neutralizes all known COVID19 variants. The antibody called SP177 is the result of a collaborative effort from researchers at Boston Childrens Hospital and Duke University. Results from mouse studies theyve conducted were recently published in the journal Science Immunology and they look promising. https://www.prevention.com/health/a41092334/antibody-neutralize-covid-variants/ 9th Sep 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Business Wire Sinovac Biotech Ltd. a leading provider of biopharmaceutical products in China announced that the Chilean Public Health Institute Instituto de Salud Pblica ISP approved a phase II clinical trial for its inactivated Omicron strain COVID19 vaccine and trivalent COVID19 vaccine ancestral Delta and Omicron variants on August 31st. The clinical trial will evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of one booster dose of the two candidate vaccines in adults who had received two booster doses of CoronaVac mRNA or adenovirus vector COVID19 vaccine. This study is the worlds first study researching multivalent inactivated COVID19 vaccine. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220906005511/en/SINOVAC-Approved-to-Initiate-Clinical-Trial-for-Its-Omicron-Containing-COVID-19-Vaccine-in-Chile 8th Sep 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Reuters The 56yearold who caught the disease in spring 2020 still had not recovered about 18 months later when he killed himself at his home near Dallas having lost his health memory and money. No one cares. No one wants to take the time to listen Taylor wrote in a final text to a friend speaking of the plight of millions of sufferers of long COVID a disabling condition that can last for months and years after the initial infection. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/long-covids-link-suicide-scientists-warn-hidden-crisis-2022-09-08/ 8th Sep 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

VOA News The United States will boost its stockpile of athome COVID19 tests ordering more than 100 million tests from domestic manufacturers the White House said on Thursday but warned it was a shortterm solution. President Joe Bidens administration has repeatedly and unsuccessfully asked Congress for more pandemic money. It said last week it would request 22.4 billion in emergency funding for COVID19 relief ahead of a potential case surge in autumn. The administration is acting within its limited funding to increase the supply of athome COVID19 tests in the Strategic National Stockpile SNS by purchasing over 100 million additional athome rapid tests from domestic manufacturers the White House said in a statement. https://www.voanews.com/a/us-orders-100-million-covid-tests-white-house-says-more-needed-/6736908.html 8th Sep 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Bloomberg Drug and biotechnology firms academics investors and former government officials are launching a new lobbying group that hopes to improve longterm support for technology and products to combat future pandemics and other biological threats. Initial members of the group include Roche Holding AGs Genentech unit Flagship Pioneering Inc. Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings Inc. Siga Technologies Inc. Coherus Biosciences Inc. ImmunityBio Inc. IGM Biosciences Inc. Texas AM University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The group which will be called the Medical Countermeasures Coalition or MC2 says it hopes to create sustained investment and a better market for pandemic preparations which have often fallen victim to what is known as the cycle of panic and neglect following emergencies https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-07/pandemic-readiness-lobby-draws-in-biotech-government-members?utm_source=google&amputm_medium=bd&ampcmpId=google 7th Sep 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

The Wall Street Journal Before new versions of the Omicron strain took hold in the U.S. Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE had begun tinkering with their widely used Covid19 vaccine. In May researchers tracking how coronavirus strains behave saw the potential for Omicron subvariants to predominate. Just in case the companies started building blueprints of shots reformulated to target BA.4 BA.5 and other substrains and laid the groundwork for testing them. The preparations proved prescient a big reason along with manufacturing enhancements that tens of millions of doses of PfizerBioNTech boosters modified to target BA.4 and BA.5 are now rolling out. If were going to be ready for the disease and its migration I dont have the time to wait said Mike McDermott Pfizers chief global supply officer. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-pfizer-and-biontech-modified-covid-19-vaccines-for-fall-boosters-11662341462 5th Sep 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Bloomberg Dr. Anthony Fauci who announced his pending retirement from the National Institutes of Health on Aug. 22 worked for more than 50 years as a littleknown civil servant in a lowprofile federal agency. He spent his final two years in government as a highly divisive public figure. Faucis sudden rise to national prominence was the accidental consequence of an unforeseen global catastrophe. But he then perhaps inevitably found himself enmeshed in todays polarized political battles. After all partisan conflict in America increasingly separates those who think wellcredentialed experts like Fauci should exert major influence over policy making from those who find that prospect unappealing or even frightening. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-09-05/so-long-to-anthony-fauci-an-unlikely-avatar-of-polarization 5th Sep 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Sky News Users will be required to give information about their medical history smoking status and demographics and record some respiratory sounds such as coughing and reading a short sentence. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-app-that-detects-virus-in-your-voice-more-accurate-than-lateral-flow-tests-12690450?curator=upstract.com 5th Sep 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Bloomberg An updated Covid19 booster vaccine has been approved for use in the UK. The second bivalent vaccine made by PfizerBioNTech targets two coronavirus variants and has been approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency MHRA in those aged 12 and above. The regulator confirmed on Saturday that the vaccine had met its standards of safety quality and effectiveness. The vaccine targets both the original strain of coronavirus and the Omicron variant that emerged at the end of 2021 and follows a similar booster from Moderna which was approved in August. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-03/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-booster-approved-by-uk-medicines-regulator 5th Sep 2022