World Coronavirus Dispatch: Pandemic toll on US to be 4x of Great Recession

J&J stops vaccine trial after adverse reaction, crowds protest as Argentina cases pass 900,000, Trump's health in six graphs and other pandemic-related news across the globe

The Covid-19 pandemic will exact a $16 trillion toll on the US -- four times the cost of the Great Depression -- when adding the costs of lost lives and health to the direct economic impact, according to former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and fellow Harvard University economist David Cutler.

About half of that amount is related to lost gross domestic product as a result of economic shutdowns and the ongoing spread of the virus, while the other half comes from health losses including premature death and mental and long-term health impairments, Cutler and Summers wrote in an essay published online Monday in in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Read more here

Let’s look at the global statistics:

Total Confirmed Cases: 37,857,361

Change Over Yesterday: 643,769

Total Deaths: 1,081,695

Total Recovered: 26,314,126

Nations hit with most cases: US (7,804,660), India (7,175,880), Brazil (5,103,408), Russia (1,318,783) and Colombia (919,084)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Johnson & Johnson pauses Covid vaccine trial after ‘adverse reaction’: US drugmaker Johnson & Johnson has paused all trials of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine after one of the participants developed an “adverse reaction”. It was not immediately clear what caused the reaction in the participant, or whether it was linked to the vaccine, J&J said in a statement, without disclosing further details. Read more here

China looking at giving students vaccines still being tested: China National Biotec Group, or CNBG, a subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm Group, is in talks with the Chinese government about giving students headed abroad to study its experimental vaccines, sources told Bloomberg, who asked not to be identified as they’re not authorized to speak publicly. Various government agencies are still working on the plan and no final decision has been made. Read more here

Crowds protest as Argentina's cases pass 900,000: Thousands have joined anti-government protests in Argentina as confirmed coronavirus infections continue to rise, passing 900,000 on Monday. Many Argentines are angry at the government's handling of the crisis and the economic effect of lockdowns, as well as issues such as corruption. Read more here

No new cases in Singapore, first time since February: Singapore recorded no new local cases of Covid-19 for the first time since February, as the city-state rebounded from an outbreak in migrant worker dormitories. There were no cases in the community as well as in the foreign worker dormitories, according to a statement Tuesday from the Ministry of Health. Read more here

Disney reorganises business to emphasise streaming: Walt Disney has reorganised its operations to put a higher priority on streaming. Disney said it would separate content production from distribution, with an eye towards making television shows and movies. Streaming has been the sole bright spot for Disney this year as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged its other business, such as theme parks, cruise ships and blockbuster movies. Read more here

Specials 

Youth count cost of Covid on their future
 

Three months into the pandemic, one-third of employees aged 18-24 excluding students lost their jobs or were furloughed in the UK, according to the Resolution Foundation, a think-tank, compared with one in six prime-age adults. From June to August, the youth unemployment rate was 13.1 per cent — up from 10.8 per cent the previous year — compared to 4.5 per cent for the general population. The think-tank expects there to be an additional 620,000 young people unemployed by the close of 2020, as constraints on hiring and investment hit. Estimates from the ONS for May to July show an estimated 1.4 million people were unemployed in the UK. Read more here

Trump’s health in six graphs 
 

US President Donald Trump is back at the White House after a dramatic nine days in which he tested positive for coronavirus, was flown to hospital, was given experimental drugs and made an impromptu drive-by to meet supporters while still sick.

How ill has Mr Trump been and has he recovered? These six graphics help explain what we know - and what we don't. See here

At home: Spend some time with your pandemic logbooks
 

A peek into the lives of readers at home. Read here