Welcome to this week’s roundup of developments from the coronavirus pandemic. As some countries grapple with concerns about a second wave, scientists investigate what makes meat factories high-risk environments and new research offers optimism for a vaccine.
Second wave worries
As lockdown restrictions have been relaxed, some countries are facing striking increases in coronavirus infections. A Guardian analysis of coronavirus data, in combination with the University of Oxford’s coronavirus government response tracker, has identified that 10 of the 45 worst-affected countries are also among those rated as having a “relaxed response” to the pandemic, based on the public information campaigns, containment measures and closures currently in place.
The countries include the US, which is experiencing its largest increase in coronavirus cases since April, with new weekly cases increasing by a quarter compared with last week. Iran also began to experience a second surge of infections as it lessened its lockdown through May. Officials suggested the increase could be down to more testing, but the proportion of tests returning positive also increased, indicating that the virus had once again spread among the population.
In Germany, the R rate has risen well above one this week. However, overall numbers of infections in Germany are still low and the trend is partly driven by a large localised outbreak at a meat-processing plant. Case numbers have also risen in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Sweden.
Outbreaks at abattoirs and meat factories
Meat plants have emerged as apparent hotspots for outbreaks, with several large clusters focused on slaughterhouses in the US and Canada, more than 1,500 workers infected at Europe’s largest meat processing plant in Germany, and three meat factories shut down in England and Wales after more than 100 people tested positive. According to the Food and Environment Reporting Network (Fern), which has been tracking the outbreaks, nearly 30,000 meat-plant workers across the US and Europe have been infected with the virus and more than 100 have died.
This week, German scientists identified air cooling systems as an overlooked risk factor that could explain the trend. Martin Exner, a public health expert at the University of Bonn who was called in to analyse the Tönnies plant in Gütersloh – the site of a major outbreak – concluded that the air filtration system had contributed to the spread of aerosol droplets laden with the virus, saying the finding could have “big consequences” for other sites across the world.
Vaccines may be less effective in older people
Scientists have warned that a Covid-19 vaccine may work less well in older people, who are at the greatest risk of becoming ill and dying from the disease. If confirmed in trials, this would need to be considered when deciding who to vaccinate – for instance, children may need to be offered vaccines to protect their grandparents. “Sometimes it is possible to protect a vulnerable group by targeting another group and this, for example, is being done with influenza,” said Prof Peter Openshaw, from Imperial College London. “In the past few years, the UK has been at the forefront of rolling out the live attenuated vaccine for children.”
New results from Oxford University’s vaccine team were a source of optimism this week. Tests in pigs, which respond in a similar way to humans, found that two doses of the vaccine candidate resulted in a significantly increased antibody response over one dose. Previous results in animal studies suggested that a single dose of vaccine may not provide the most robust protection against infection and so the latest results indicate it may be possible to boost efficacy by giving a follow-up jab. Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at Oxford University who is heading its Covid-19 vaccine research, told the UK’s House of Lords committee that none of the 140 vaccines in development around the world was likely to be perfect, but that a useful vaccine did not have to be 100% effective. “Even with 50% accuracy, we could actually go a long way to protecting the population,” she said. “So we’re optimistic that we will have something, and, if necessary, we can combine the vaccines to get something that works even better.”
Science Weekly podcast
This week’s podcast tackles the question of how worried smokers should be. Reports suggest there are lower rates of smokers being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 in France, and trials are under way to test whether nicotine patches can reduce the severity of infection. But there is also data showing that smokers are more likely to contract the disease and develop severe symptoms. The Guardian’s health editor, Sarah Boseley, talks to Dr Nick Hopkinson, a respiratory medicine specialist at Imperial College London.
Oxygen shortages faced by hospitals
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that hospitals are facing a shortage in oxygen concentrators needed to support the breathing of Covid-19 patients with respiratory distress. “Many countries are now experiencing difficulties obtaining oxygen concentrators,” the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said. “Demand is currently outstripping supply.”
The health agency has bought 14,000 oxygen concentrators from manufacturers and plans to send them to 120 countries in the coming weeks, Tedros said. A further 170,000 concentrators, worth about $100m, will be potentially available over the next six months.
