US Expected To Pass 100k Deaths Sunday; Oxford Vaccine Trial Faces Major Setback: Virus Updates

Summary:

• US nears 100k deaths
• Russia sees new cases below 10k for 9 straight days
• Brazil sees new cases, deaths rise at alarming rate
• Mexico reports another daily record jump of ~3,300
• UK furor over Dominic Cummings grows
• Oxford vaccine trial sees new obstacles

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Sunday’s New York Times front page says it all…

Front page of today’s New York Times.

1,000 Americans who have died from coronavirus, or just 1% of US death toll. pic.twitter.com/BAlMlY9utq

— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) May 24, 2020

…By midnight ET on Sunday, many expect the number of confirmed coronavirus-linked deaths in the US will have passed the critical 100k milestone, a number that’s represents not only a critical psychological milestone but an upper limit on the death toll promised by President Trump.

With the growing focus on the death toll and doubts emerging about the effectiveness of remdesivir and the progress made by Moderna,  the Telegraph published a report in Sunday’s paper claiming that an Oxford University-affiliated vaccine trial, which one overly-enthusiastic scientist once claimed might produce substantial quantities of a “safe” vaccine by the fall – potentially enough to start administering the vaccine to the most vulnerable health-care workers, actually hasn’t made much progress at all, and only has a ~50% chance of success, according to scientists affiliated with the project.

This is the same vaccine that AstraZeneca struck a $1.2 billion deal with the US government to produce 400 million doses of the unproven vaccine as part of President Trump’s operation “Warp Speeds”, which is looking increasingly like a moonshot, big-swing on a few untested therapies and vaccines in the hope that at least one might pan out.

Elsewhere, in the UK, the press remains fixated on the scandal over whether Boris Johnson senior advisor Dominic Cummings violated quarantine rules to visit several family members. As calls for Johnson to fire Cummings over the transgression intensify, Cummings and the administration have insisted that he acted “reasonably” and have so far refused to set him adrift, even amid growing backlash to Johnson’s leadership as deaths continue to pile up.

Johnson has announced that he will host Sunday’s Downing Street press conference, replacing Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick. The briefing has also been delayed to 5pm London Time (12pmET). Watch it live below:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4jzboq6Ftw]

New York Gov Andrew Cuomo will also deliver his daily briefing starting at noon.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC_7iLQzYtI]

Even as NY’s testing rate reached a new peak of 50k tests run in a day, the state’s infections have continued to drop, which is an extremely promising sign. Elsewhere in the US, Casinos in Las Vegas have said they plan to reopen June 4, though with precautions including using dice disinfected by UV light.

Health officials in Moscow just revealed on Sunday that 12.5% of Muscovites may have already been infected with the virus, or nearly 1.5 million people.

Additionally, Brazil reported 16,508 new cases of the virus and 965 new deaths as the country remained the largest single contributor to the global total for the day. Across the massive nation, 347,398 cases and 22,013 deaths have been confirmed. Mexico reported 3,329 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, bringing its total to 65,856 cases after what was the US southern neighbor’s largest daily jump yet.

Russia confirmed 8,599 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 344,481. Russia has the third-highest number of infections behind the US and Brazil, though in a promising sign, the number of new cases reported has lingered below 10,000 for nine days in a row, a sign that the lockdown is finally starting to work, despite the virus’s deep penetration of Russian society.