South Korea finds no link between flu shot, boy's death as toll ...

 South Korea presses on with flu vaccination programme amid concerns about deaths

OCTOBER 23, 20208:30 AMUPDATED 2 DAYS AGO

SEOUL (Reuters) - The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Friday it would press on with a wide flu vaccination programme aimed at heading off complications from the coronavirus, after reviewing more than two dozen cases of deaths that have raised public concern.

A man gets an influenza vaccine at a branch of the Korea Association of Health Promotion in Seoul, South Korea, October 23, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

A review had shown no direct link between the vaccination and 26 deaths that were investigated, the KDCA said in a statement, adding it planned to meet on Saturday to review additional analysis.

The toll of deaths among people who have been vaccinated reached 36 on Friday, sparking calls from doctors and politicians for a halt to the programme, which aims to vaccinate about 30 million of the country’s 52 million population.

Some 20 initial autopsy results from the police and the National Forensic Service showed that 13 died of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and other disorders not caused by the vaccination, while seven are undergoing additional examinations, KDCA said.

Both the forensic agency and police were not immediately reachable for comment.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun expressed condolences to the families of those who died, calling for a thorough investigation to verify the exact cause of deaths.

“So far experts said there was low possibility that the shots and deaths were related but many citizens remain anxious,” he told a meeting.

The rising death toll has fuelled debate about whether the programme, which is free for some citizens, should be suspended. The country’s largest grouping of doctors called for a halt until the safety of the vaccines is confirmed, while a major vaccine society said inoculation should continue as no relation to the deaths have been found.

ADVISED AGAINST SHOTS

Some local governments and district offices around the country have voluntarily advised residents against taking a flu shot or are considering suspending the programme.

The vaccine providers include domestic firms such as GC Pharma, SK Bioscience, Korea Vaccine and Boryung Biopharma Co Ltd, a unit of Boryung Pharm Co Ltd 003850.KS, along with France's Sanofi SASY.PA. They supply both the free programme and paid services.

Slideshow ( 4 images )

Of those who have died, 10 people received products from SK Bioscience, five each from Boryung and GC Pharma, four from Sanofi and one from Korea Vaccine. There were no details about the latest 11 case

KDCA director Jeong Eun-kyeong said on Thursday that vaccines would continue to be supplied but the government might consider suspending some products that have identification numbers matching batches manufactured at the same plant on the same day if more people die using them. One batch consists of around 150,000 doses.

It was not immediately clear if any of the vaccines made in South Korea were exported, or if those supplied by Sanofi were also being used elsewhere.

All four domestic firms declined to comment.

Sanofi referred to the KDCA findings but said in a statement to Reuters that scientific assessments and monitoring were under way and that it would closely work with local health authorities.

South Korea ordered 20% more flu vaccines this year to ward off what it calls a “twindemic” of concurrent major flu and COVID-19 outbreaks in winter.

So far 9.4 million people had been inoculated since the programme began in September, with about 789 cases of adverse reactions reported, the KDCA said.

The KDCA reported 155 new coronavirus cases as of Thursday midnight, bringing total infections to 25,698, with 455 deaths.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-southkorea-flushot/south-koreas-forensic-team-found-no-links-between-flu-shot-boys-death-media

Airlines look to Covid tests that give results in minutes

 European airlines are pinning hopes on pre-flight COVID-19 tests that deliver results as fast as pregnancy tests to help restore passengers’ confidence in taking to the skies in confined spaces with shared air.

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

By John Miller, Emilio Parodi

Germany’s Lufthansa, at the mercy of government bailouts for survival, is in talks with Swiss drugmaker Roche over deploying so-called antigen tests, according to two people familiar with the discussions, as the airline aims to make them available next month.

Italian operator Alitalia, meanwhile, told Reuters that from Wednesday it would add two flights from Milan to Rome, to the two it is already offering from Rome to Milan, exclusively for passengers with negative tests.

The tests are administered by health authorities at the airports and included in ticket prices. If they prove popular and safe, these antigen-tested flights will be expanded to more domestic, and later international, routes, the airline said.

Unlike laboratory-based molecular tests that have been the staple of health authorities in the pandemic, antigen tests do not require machines to process. Much like pregnancy tests, they can produce results in about 15 minutes.

However the tests require an uncomfortable nasal swab and are not as accurate as the molecular, or PCR, tests. They generally produce more “false negatives” which could mean sick people could slip through the cracks and onto planes.

An increasing number are hitting the market, from companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Becton Dickinson & Co and Quidel Corp and Roche, which is rebranding antigen tests from South Korea’s privately held SD Biosensor.

Airlines are pressing governments to embrace alternatives to blanket travel restrictions amid a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Europe.

Rapid antigen tests that can be administered by non-medical staff are expected to become available in coming weeks for as little as $7 each, the head of industry body the International Air Transport Association said on Tuesday.

NEGATIVE-ONLY FLIGHTS

Despite the drawbacks of such antigen tests, carriers hope they could tip the balance in convincing people to fly.

“It is to give ... confidence, at a specific point in time, that the result is positive or negative,” said Christian Paulus, a Roche research and development manager.

“The PCR remains the gold standard. Therefore if there are any questions open, or if the clinical appearance of the person who had a negative test, if the person has symptoms like a fever, then you would for sure do confirmatory testing.”

Alitalia launched its “COVID Tested Flights” programme from Rome to Milan last week, and will expand it from Wednesday. Only passengers with negative COVID-19 results can board.

“So far no positive passengers have been found,” said an Alitalia spokesman, adding that many chose to take the airline’s antigen tests the night before the flight. Travellers can access airport-testing facilities via a preferred lane with their tickets.

The airline plans to analyse findings around the middle of October, but already expects antigen-tested flights will be expanded to domestic and later international routes. “First, we have to see how this experiment goes,” the spokesman said.

The pre-flight antigen tests follow a scheme in Italy where such tests were used defensively.

SD Biosensor said its tests had been deployed at Italian airports for incoming tourists, to avoid a renewed COVID-19 wave imported from infection hotspots.

‘BETTER THAN QUARANTINE’

Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr last week told employees during a townhall meeting that the airline was in talks with Roche. The drugmaker started selling the rapid tests this week, and said SD Biosensor could initially supply it with about 40 million tests per month.

The Lufthansa tests could initially go to cabin crews, a spokeswoman said, though Bjoern Becker, a senior director of product management, ground & digital services for the Lufthansa Group, said the tests could also be made available to first-class and business-class passengers.

“We think the tests would be a better option than putting somebody into quarantine,” the airline spokeswoman said.

Beyond airlines, Germany is eyeing broader antigen test use from October, including in nursing homes where older patients have been hardest hit by the deadly virus.

Regulators still worry about test accuracy, which typically detect the virus 80% to 90% of the time, below the 95% rate of lab tests.

Still, some officials don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the pretty good as they pursue some semblance of economic normality.

“They’re good enough,” German health minister Jens Spahn said, pledging antigen tests in “significant quantities”. The state of Bavaria has already ordered 10 million.

Reporting by John Miller in Zurich, Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Ludwig Burger, Patricia Weiss and Ilona Wissenbach in Frankfurt and Emilio Parodi in Milan; Editing by Pravin Char

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-airlines-testing-f/positive-about-flying-airlines-look-to-covid-tests-that-give-results-in-minutes-idUKKCN26E0TD

ALSO:

Airlines call for COVID-19 tests before all international flights

Tuesday, 22 Sep 2020 9:47 PM MYT

PARIS (Reuters) - Global airlines on Tuesday called for pre-departure COVID-19 testing for all international passengers to replace the quarantines they blame for exacerbating the travel slump.

Rapid and affordable antigen tests that can be administered by non-medical staff are expected to become available in "coming weeks" and should be rolled out under globally agreed standards, the head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said during an online media briefing.

"We don’t see any alternative solution that would be less challenging or more effective," IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac said.

Airlines hammered by the pandemic are pressing governments to embrace alternatives to blanket travel restrictions that are still hampering a traffic recovery - and now tightening again in Europe amid resurgent case numbers.

With rapid antigen tests becoming available for as little as $7 each, De Juniac said, airlines will push for their use to be endorsed by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the U.N. agency that oversees global aviation rules.

A global agreement is needed to ensure test results on departure are accepted on arrival, he added. "It will also boost passenger confidence that everybody on the aircraft has been tested."

Antigen tests are faster but generally more likely to miss positive cases of the virus than laboratory-based molecular diagnostic tests.

Among companies marketing the new tests, German diagnostics specialist Qiagen said earlier this month it planned to launch a COVID-19 antigen test that provided results in 15 minutes and could be deployed in airports or stadiums.

(Reporting by Laurence Frost; editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/world/2020/09/22/airlines-call-for-covid-19-tests-before-all-international-flights

How Coronavirus Tests Actually Work

The coronavirus crisis is in large part a testing crisis. We are reading about tests. Arguing about tests. And, in many cases, struggling mightily to obtain tests for ourselves.

MAR. 24, 2020, AT 6:00 AM By Maggie Koerth

ADAM GLANZMAN / THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES

The coronavirus crisis is in large part a testing crisis. We are reading about tests. Arguing about tests. And, in many cases, struggling mightily to obtain tests for ourselves. But while test shortages are making headlines, there’s a lot about the technology behind these tests that isn’t as clear to the public. It’s like we’re all on one of those reality shows where you agree to marry a total stranger, entering into a high-stakes relationship with someone you couldn’t pick out of a crowd.

So let’s get a little more acquainted with the tests we can’t stop talking about. At the very least, learning a little more about the tests for COVID-19 will help you understand why it’s so hard to get one when you need it.

What happens when you get a COVID-19 test?

First, a medical professional puts a swab — an extra long, one-headed Q-tip — way, way, way up your nose. That captures viral particles, along with a bunch of other stuff that Dr. Davey Smith, a research virologist at the University of California, San Diego, referred to as “biological gunk,” like mucus and random cells. The next step, Smith said, is isolating the viral RNA — the genetic material that the virus uses to replicate itself. The RNA in a virus like the one that causes COVID-19 is similar to DNA, but instead of the twisted ladder of a double helix, it’s half that because it’s split down the middle. Some viruses carry their genetic code as DNA, but RNA viruses mutate a lot faster. That feature helps them jump species and evade both natural and medical efforts to kill them. Influenza, for instance, mutates so quickly that we need a new vaccine for it every year.

Just like DNA can identify a person, RNA can identify the virus that causes COVID-19. Isolating it requires a series of steps — adding different chemicals and repeatedly spinning the sample in a centrifuge — that aim to separate the sample into layers like a fancy cocktail shot, with the layer containing the RNA floating on the top. Then the RNA has to be further purified. There’s more than one way to separate out RNA, and companies sell kits that include the chemicals you need to make it work (called reagents, because they’re used to induce a chemical reaction).

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Why the US can’t process coronavirus tests as fast as South Korea

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From there, the RNA is mixed with short segments of DNA called primers. The primers and RNA get combined with loose building blocks of DNA, enzymes that work like genetic construction crews, and more reagents. Mix it all up, and your RNA turns into DNA.

Finally, the new DNA needs to be replicated until you have enough of it to actually study. That’s another chemistry kit — more primers, building blocks and reagents — doing what basically amounts to biological copy-paste, over and 



From there, the RNA is mixed with short segments of DNA called primers. The primers and RNA get combined with loose building blocks of DNA, enzymes that work like genetic construction crews, and more reagents. Mix it all up, and your RNA turns into DNA.

Finally, the new DNA needs to be replicated until you have enough of it to actually study. That’s another chemistry kit — more primers, building blocks and reagents — doing what basically amounts to biological copy-paste, over and over. 

This is called a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the primers used here are especially important. These replication primers are basically fragments of the virus you’re looking for, Smith said, that will bind to the genetic material of that specific virus and nothing else If there’s no COVID-19 in the sample, then COVID-19 primers won’t replicate any DNA.

“We put in some special dyes so when it builds the right DNA we’re looking for, we can see the color light up on special machines,” Smith said. If you had COVID-19, your sample will now show up with freshly built, brightly colored DNA to prove it.

Wow, that’s a lot. Is that why people can’t get their COVID-19 test results for several days?

Well, no. This process is not particularly special or time-consuming and involves techniques used all the time in genetic research. PCR, in particular, is so crucial to the entire field that the guy who invented it won a Nobel Prize back in 1993. We use this same technique to test for all kinds of other viruses, from influenza to Zika, said Dr. Mary Jo Trepka, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Florida International University.

PCR doesn’t actually take that long to do — you can get results from an influenza PCR test in 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the chemistry set-style kits are something you can order from a website, and other needed machines can be as cheap as a used sedan. Any lab that works regularly with DNA has the ability, in theory, to do this testing.

In other words, the bottleneck slowing down test results is not a technical one. It’s about logistics and supplies, Smith said. In the earliest days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was conducting all the COVID-19 testing in-house so they could monitor quality control, and they’ve been slow to authorize new labs to use their test kits. As more labs came online, though, they began running low on everything from the swabs they stick up people’s noses to the reagents that power the PCR’s chemical reactions to the human lab techs who actually do the tests, Smith and Trepka told me. It’s like a traffic jam.

Compare that to South Korea, where people can get their results in about a day. There, the government had been stockpiling the necessary chemicals for years after COVID-19’s cousin MERS briefly hit that country in 2015. That helped the country move quickly to approve and decentralize testing as soon as COVID-19 arrived.

So, wait. Is there no difference between South Korea’s test and ours, then?

There is a difference, but that doesn’t have much to do with why ours takes so much longer, Smith said. The differences are really just about which primers are being used. Researchers choose which chunks of a virus’s genetic code to use as a primer with an eye to making sure those primers are a) unique to the specific virus they’re looking for and b) likely to get preserved in any random bit of viral RNA scraped off the back of somebody’s nasal cavity. If the primer isn’t unique enough, you can get false positives. If the sequence your primer is looking for doesn’t make it from nose to test tube, then you’ll get false negatives.

There’s not really anything wrong with the primers the CDC test uses, Smith told me. Even when the CDC test was malfunctioning, that was about an inconsistent reagent, not the unique primers. South Korea is faster than us because it can conduct the tests in more places, and could right from the start. Plus, it has more supplies to do the tests with.

Is there no other way to test for COVID-19?

For right now, nope. That’s changing fast, though there are trade-offs. PCR is a great way to test for viruses because it’s both specific (unlikely to produce false positives) and sensitive (unlikely to produce false negatives), Trepka said. There are other tools that doctors use to test for more familiar viruses. For instance, if you think you have the flu, there’s a test you can take right in your doctor’s office that looks for antigens — the substances on a virus that stimulate your immune system into action. It produces results in as little as 10 minutes, but it’s not very sensitive and might tell you that you have the flu even if you don’t. “They’re helpful in clinical care but we don’t use them to monitor outbreaks,” Trepka said.

Meanwhile, new tests — like one from Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche that the Food and Drug Administration authorized on March 13 — are under development. The Roche test is 10 times faster at producing results than the standard PCR system. But unlike the PCR test, it requires the use of a rare (and proprietary) instrument. There are only 110 of these machines in the whole country. And that test still requires reagents, Smith said. As big companies like Roche bring these kinds of testing systems online, they’re sucking up the already limited quantities of reagent that smaller labs need for PCR tests. These big companies, such as Roche, are also making more reagent, Smith said. “But it’s very much profit-driven and they can corner the market very quickly,” he told me. “That’s not the end of the world, but it’s hard in the middle of the epidemic.”

CORRECTION (March 24, 2020, 9:43 a.m.): An earlier version of this article misstated the scientific definitions of sensitive and specific. When a test is sensitive it is unlikely to produce false negatives, and when a test is specific it is unlikely to produce false positives.

Maggie Koerth is a senior science writer for FiveThirtyEight. 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-coronavirus-tests-actually-work/

How did Korean fried chicken become so popular?

There is fried chicken and then there is Korean fried chicken. Anyone who’s ever tucked into a plate of Korean fried chicken will understand that there’s nothing on earth quite like the sensation of biting into perfectly crispy chicken skin that melds fluidly into juicy (oh, how juicy!) succulent meat inside.

July 22, 2019 Food, Recipes

By ABIRAMI DURAI

It’s a yin-yang balance of crunch and tenderness that has in turn created a global obsession.

Interestingly, Korean fried chicken is relatively new even in its South Korean birthplace. As recently as the 1960s, Koreans were still struggling economically so chicken was hardly ever on the table.

As the country’s financial situation improved, chicken became a facet of everyday life.

It began with the arrival of rotisserie chicken in the 1960s and became ingrained in Korean food culture with the debut of Korea’s first fried chicken franchise, Lim’s Chicken, in 1977.

By the 1990s, modern versions of Korean fried chicken had well and truly arrived with the inception of restaurants like KyoChon 1991 and Nene Chicken, both of which opened in the 1990s.

These new modern restaurants popularised different flavour options for fried chicken; KyoChon for example, has almost single-handedly been responsible for the creation of the soy-infused fried chicken variant.

KyoChon 1991 is incredibly popular in Malaysia, with more expansion planned for this year. Photo: KyoChon 1991

Another notable creation is the crazily-popular yangnyeom fried chicken, which sees fried chicken thinly coated in a sweet-spicy sauce that makes use of another Korean staple – the spicy gojuchang paste.

In Korea, fried chicken isn’t fried chicken without a side-serving of beer, hence the word “chimaek” – a portmanteau of the words “chi” from “chicken” and “maek” from “maekju” (which means beer).

Although you can opt for a non-alcoholic beverage to pair with your fried chicken, beer remains the tipple of choice.

While Korean fried chicken is undoubtedly a hit in its homeland – in 2017, the number of fried chicken joints in Korea was 36,000! – what’s surprising is how feverishly the rest of the world has caught on to this hot Korean chick.

Korean fried chicken is now a huge international export, with chains like Bonchon, KyoChon and celebrity chef David Chang’s popular Momofuku, having a lot to do with expanding the poultry’s popularity to places as far-flung as the United States, Australia, Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam and Singapore.

In Malaysia, numerous Korean fried chicken outlets pepper the local scene, from KyoChon to Chir Chir Fusion Chicken Factory, Nene Chicken and many others.

According to KyoChon 1991’s operations director Joyce Chin, just for their original and red pepper variety of fried chicken, the brand sells an average of 35,000 chicken wings daily across their 14 nationwide outlets. This number surges to 52,000 on weekends.

Chir Chir’s fried chicken comes in all forms, including the delicious crispy fried chicken (left) and garlicky chicken (right), both of which boast crispy skin and juicy meat.

In line with the growing demand for Korean fried chicken, by the end of this year, Chin estimates that they will have 21 stores and a total of 600 employees.

Chin says there are many factors that have likely contributed to Korean fried chicken’s rise on the local front but most prominent among them is the taste factor.

“Everyone has different reasons for liking Korean fried chicken but my personal opinion is that it’s much more flavourful with unique flavours such as aromatic soy garlic, burning red pepper and sweet-on-the-lips honey.

“It’s also less oily and the very thin batter allows for a paper-thin like crispiness which is different from traditional Western style fried chicken,” she says.

This crispiness is also what is most difficult to nail if you’re a home cook attempting to make this fried chicken yourself at home.

Korean fried chicken is typically lightly battered in corn starch (sometimes wheat flour or rice flour is added too) and then fried not once, but twice.
This is key to solidifying a whisper-thin crispy exterior while retaining moistness in the meat.

It is also what makes it different from Southern-style fried chicken, which is typically soaked in buttermilk first to obtain a thicker crust.

As the chickens used for Korean fried chicken are typically smaller, they crisp up well and are less likely to be tough.

When frying the chicken, you’ll have to be patient and wait for the oil to heat up to the required temperature (it should bubble furiously when you put a piece of chicken in). And trust me when I say patience is a virtue, because if you get restless and toss the chicken into the frying pan too early, you’ll end up with a soggy, greasy mess that no respectable Korean fried chicken would want to be associated with.

In the end, if you’re willing to put in the effort to make it work, you’ll end up with that most elusive of homemade creations: Perfect Korean fried chicken.

SPICY KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN (YANGNYEOM CHICKEN)

Serves 2 to 4

For the sauce

1 tsp minced ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp soy sauce
3-4 tbsp vinegar
2 1/2 tbsp gojuchang paste
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp tomato ketchup

For the chicken

8 chicken wings, cut into drummets and mid-wings, tips removed
1 tsp grated ginger
sea salt to taste
coarse black pepper to taste
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 tsp baking powder

For garnish

1 tsp lightly toasted sesame seeds
spring onions, for garnish

To make the sauce

In a pot, combine all the sauce ingredients and cook until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens up. Remove from the heat and set aside.

To cook chicken

Clean and dry chicken well. Marinate chicken with salt, pepper and ginger.

In another bowl, put potato starch. Drop chicken one by one into starch and coat thoroughly. Shake off excess starch.

In a large frying pan, heat up enough oil to nearly completely submerge chicken pieces. When oil is hot enough (test oil by dropping a piece of chicken in, if it bubbles up furiously, it’s hot enough), put in chicken pieces. Don’t overcrowd the pan as this will cause the temperature to drop.

Fry chicken for 5 to 6 minutes, turning chicken pieces to make sure they don’t overcook on one side. Remove from the heat.

Use a skimmer to remove the bits of starch that may have pooled at the bottom of the pan. Heat up oil again until bubbling, then drop chicken pieces in again and fry for 1 to 2 minutes.

Re-heat sauce until hot and quickly coat hot chicken in sauce. Sprinkle sesame seeds over chicken and garnish with spring onions. Eat immediately.

https://www.star2.com/food/2019/07/22/popularity-of-korean-fried-chicken/