Puzzling, often debilitating after-effects plaguing COVID-19 "long-haulers" | CBS News

Doctors are still searching for answers to why a portion of people who were diagnosed with COVID-19 are still suffering symptoms months later. Anderson Cooper reports.

Spalding: the CCP’s Influence on 2020 | The Epoch Times

Robert Spalding, a retired Air Force brigadier general and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said this “entire year has been dominated by actions of the Chinese Communist Party” because “2020 has really been about the coronavirus.” He said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enabled the spread of the virus through international air travel while blocking domestic air travel within China. He said the CCP locked down the distribution of PPM masks around the world, put pressure on the World Health Organization to not talk about human to human transmission, encouraged panic on social media, and spread disinformation that the virus originated from the United States and Spain. Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Robert Spalding said: “What does it have to do with the CCP? Why did we have massive mail-in ballots? Because of the Coronavirus. Why do we have the Coronavirus? Because of the Chinese Communist Party.” “So when you add all of these things together, the actions by the Chinese Communist Party deliberately impacted the U.S. election,” he said.

Hopes rise for end of pandemic as Pfizer says vaccine is 90% effective | World news | The Guardian

Hopes are soaring that a Covid vaccine is within reach, following news that an interim analysis has shown Pfizer/BioNTech’s candidate was 90% effective in protecting people from transmission of the virus in global trials. The vaccine performed much better than most experts had hoped for, according to the companies’ analysis, and brings into view a potential end to a pandemic that has killed more than a million people, battered economies and upended daily life worldwide. The data is from an interim analysis and the trial continues into December but the headline results were emphatic. Regulators will be looking to process an emergency licence application at record speed.

Mental Health, Substance Use, and Suicidal Ideation During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, June 24–30, 2020 | MMWR

Overall, 40.9% of 5,470 respondents who completed surveys during June reported an adverse mental or behavioral health condition, including those who reported symptoms of anxiety disorder or depressive disorder (30.9%), those with TSRD symptoms related to COVID-19 (26.3%), those who reported having started or increased substance use to cope with stress or emotions related to COVID-19 (13.3%), and those who reported having seriously considered suicide in the preceding 30 days (10.7%) (Table 1). At least one adverse mental or behavioral health symptom was reported by more than one half of respondents who were aged 18–24 years (74.9%) and 25–44 years (51.9%), of Hispanic ethnicity (52.1%), and who held less than a high school diploma (66.2%), as well as those who were essential workers (54.0%), unpaid caregivers for adults (66.6%), and who reported treatment for diagnosed anxiety (72.7%), depression (68.8%), or PTSD (88.0%) at the time of the survey.

Scientists baffled at disappearance of influenza... but is it really gone, or just masked by Covid-19? | RT Op-ed

There has been a 98% plummet in flu infections this year, dispelling fears of a Covid and flu ‘twin-demic’ about which many had warned. Experts say we can thank masks and social distancing. But does this really add up? Although there is no mass testing for flu as there is for Covid, the WHO says that surveillance of data from around the world shows flu rates collapsing everywhere. Australia essentially ‘skipped’ their flu season this year, with not a single case reported since July (their peak). In fact, flu has more or less vanished throughout the Southern Hemisphere, and early indicators suggest it will follow suit north of the equator. What can explain this unprecedented decline?