COVID-19 News from Around the Web

President-elect Biden’s transition team unveiled the members of his Covid-19 task force on Monday, a who’s-who of former government health officials, academics, and major figures in medicine. The list includes Rick Bright, the former head of the vaccine-development agency BARDA ousted by the Trump administration in April; Atul Gawande, the surgeon, writer, and recently departed CEO of Haven, the joint JP Morgan Chase-Berkshire Hathaway-Amazon health care venture; and Luciana Borio, a former FDA official and biodefense specialist. … As expected, the board’s three co-chairs are Marcella Nunez-Smith, a Yale physician and researcher; Vivek Murthy, a former U.S. surgeon general; and David Kessler, a former FDA commissioner.

More than 50 million COVID-19 cases have been recorded around the world as of Sunday, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S., India and Brazil are three countries with the most cases and account for nearly half of the world count. The U.S. alone is poised to hit 10 million cases as cases and hospitalizations continue to climb. This week the U.S. hit another grim milestone as it surpassed 120,000 new confirmed cases reported each day for Thursday through Saturday. More than 237,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and the 7-day moving average of new cases is now more than 110,000, more than double what it was a month ago.

Despite Trump administration efforts to erect a protective shield around nursing homes, coronavirus cases are surging within facilities in states hard hit by the latest onslaught of COVID-19. An analysis of federal data from 20 states for The AP finds that new weekly cases among residents rose nearly four-fold from the end of May to late October, from 1,083 to 4,274. Resident deaths more than doubled, from 318 a week to 699, according to the study by University of Chicago health researchers Rebecca Gorges and Tamara Konetzka. Equally concerning, weekly cases among nursing home staff in surge states more than quadrupled, from 855 the week ending May 31, to 4,050 the week ending Oct. 25. That rings alarms because infected staffers not yet showing symptoms are seen as the most likely way the virus gets into facilities.

Even as cases spiral, many state leaders — wary of inflaming a worn-out public, dismissive of the pandemic, or philosophically opposed to government intervention — are not implementing the types of measures that succeeded in reining in major outbreaks in the spring and summer. By and large, public leaders — some Democrats but particularly Republicans — are putting the impetus on individuals to take steps to slow transmission instead of spearheading new campaigns to curtail the coronavirus.

Some health care facilities in the U.S. lack sufficient supplies of face masks as COVID-19 cases surge across the country and manufacturers work overtime to ramp up production of personal protective equipment. … Makers of so-called N95 masks — regarded as the most effective tool for protection against airborne droplets — are struggling to keep up with demand from hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities, as well as businesses in other sectors that now require them to protect workers and the public.

Though COVID-19 calls to mind common symptoms such as fever and cough, at least 16% of infected patients have only gastrointestinal symptoms, according to a large research review. A team from the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry in Canada reviewed 36 studies published through mid-July. The researchers found that 18% presented with gastrointestinal symptoms, while 16% may only have those symptoms.

The researchers studied more than 3,100 people from 48 countries, most from the United States and United Kingdom. They found that 40% of those who had COVID-19 symptoms experienced a worsening of their existing tinnitus. Some participants reported their tinnitus was initially triggered by developing coronavirus symptoms.

By this point, many people can identify symptoms of COVID-19 -- fever, fatigue, shortness of breath -- but fewer know that those can occur after a successful recovery and closely resemble another illness: chronic fatigue syndrome. "There may well be a post-viral syndrome associated with COVID-19," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease doctor, said at a July news conference organized by the International AIDS Society. "I know, because I follow on the phone a lot of people who call me up and talk about their course." Although chronic fatigue syndrome is still poorly understood, the CDC said as many as 2.5 million Americans may suffer from it.

Although viruses such as herpes simplex can infect the cornea and Zika has been found in corneal tissue and tears, this does not appear to be the case with COVID-19, according to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They said the cornea appears to resist infection from the novel coronavirus. It's not clear, however, if other tissue in and around the cornea, such as the tear ducts and the conjunctiva (loose connective tissue that covers the eyeball), can be infected.

Consumers scouring the internet for hard-to-find Clorox and Lysol cleaning products during the corona pandemic should be wary of betting scammed, federal regulators warn. At least 25 websites have allegedly been selling the products without actually delivering them to buyers, according to the FTC. The sites are designed to look like genuine sellers of Clorox and Lysol disinfecting wipes and other products.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has reportedly tested positive for the novel coronavirus. At least four other White House officials have also been infected, including one of Meadows’ aides, Cassidy Hutchinson, and senior Trump campaign aide, Nick Trainer, according to Bloomberg, which was the first outlet to report the news.

The US reported more than 121,000 infections Thursday, beating a daily case record it set just 24 hours ago. The grim tally comes after Wednesday's record of more than 100,000 cases, which was the first time the US hit a six-figure number of infections. That means in just two days, the country reported more than 220,000 positive tests, bringing the past week's total to more than 660,000 new cases of the virus. The US reported 1,210 deaths Thursday, the third day in a row the nation lost more than 1,000 people, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Health care workers will almost certainly get the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. when one is approved, according to Dr. José Romero, head of the committee that develops evidence-based immunization guidelines for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's a decision based on the science of what will quell the pandemic fastest. Once the Food and Drug Administration judges a COVID-19 vaccine to be safe, effective and authorized for use, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will make rapid recommendations to the CDC on how a COVID-19 vaccine should be used and who should get the first shots. "We anticipate having some vaccine for the high-risk individuals — health care providers — sometime in December or early January," Romero told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly on All Things Considered. "And then more and more vaccine will be rolled out."

A Missouri elections supervisor who knew they tested positive for the coronavirus and still worked at a polling site Election Day has died. The unidentified election judge supervisor in St. Charles County tested positive for the virus Oct. 30 and failed to isolate for the recommended two-week period, the county said Thursday. It is unclear what caused the election worker’s death.

Painkiller aspirin will be evaluated as a possible treatment for COVID-19 in one of Britain’s biggest trials, which will assess whether it might reduce the risk of blood clots in people with the disease. The scientists behind the RECOVERY trial, which is looking into a range of potential treatments for COVID-19, said it would include the drug, which is commonly used as a blood thinner. Patients infected with the coronavirus are at a higher risk of blood clots because of hyper-reactive platelets, the cell fragments that help stop bleeding. Aspirin is an antiplatelet agent and can reduce the risk of clots, the RECOVERY trial’s website said on Friday.

With a surge in coronavirus cases straining health systems in many European countries, Greece announced a nationwide lockdown Thursday in the hopes of stemming a rising tide of patients before its hospitals come under “unbearable” pressure. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that he acted before infection rates reached the levels seen in many neighboring countries because, after years of financial crises that have damaged its health system, it couldn’t afford to wait as long to impose restrictions as others had. Britain’s own lockdown kicked in Thursday, shuttering restaurants, hairdressers and clothing stores until at least Dec. 2. The lockdown decision was an about-face for the government, which had earlier advocated a targeted regional response to the pandemic. Italy, too, has held off on a nationwide closure, but the government announced that four regions will be put under “red-zone” lockdown for at least two weeks starting Friday, with severe limits imposed when people can leave home. Germany and France have also put some kind of shutdown into effect over the past week.