Forbes - Numbers Keep Rising

Plus: Thanksgiving travel precautions

The numbers keep rising in the U.S. Yesterday, more than 2,000 people were reported to have died of Covid-19, and about 80,000 are hospitalized from the disease around the country. Though there has been some good news about vaccines this week, the same isn’t necessarily true with treatments. Even though the FDA gave emergency approval to a combination of Eli Lilly’s arthritis drug and remdesivir yesterday, not everyone is convinced those medications work. In fact, this morning the World Health Organization said there is no evidence that remdesivir helps Covid-19 patients with recovery or survival.

Business

Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asked the Federal Reserve to return unused money from the CARES Act so that congress can reappropriate the money-- though it won’t go to any more pandemic emergency programs. 

Pfizer and BioNTech announced that they plan to apply for emergency authorization from the FDA for their Covid-19 vaccine today.

Science & Health

A new study shows that Covid-19 patients are highly infectious within the first five days of showing symptoms, which could help explain this pandemic’s rapid exponential spread. 

Research from Oxford shows that immunity to Covid-19 may last for at least six months, but more studies need to be done. 

Since Covid-19 reinfection is possible, it should be taken into account when evaluating future pandemic priorities, argues Forbes contributor Dr. William Haseltine.

On The Upside

Eradicating Cervical Cancer: This isn’t Covid-19 related, but it’s still great news. The World Health Organization recently released its plan on how it hopes to eradicate cervical cancer once and for all.