| Trump offers competing coronavirus messaging, warning of death but lamenting lockdown Posted: 04 Apr 2020 06:39 PM PDT  Trump repeated a favorite refrain of some conservatives, who have said that the coronavirus "cure"—that is, a nationwide shutdown—cannot be worse than the disease itself.
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| New York coronavirus deaths 'effectively flat' as U.S. braces for peak cases in hot spots Posted: 06 Apr 2020 02:44 PM PDT  New York state remains at the center of the coronavirus outbreak with more than one-third of all cases in the United States. "Now is not the time to be lax," Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned.
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| Supreme Court rejects church challenge to ban on bus ads Posted: 06 Apr 2020 06:50 AM PDT  The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a Catholic church in Washington, D.C., that sought to place religious-themed ads on public buses. The justices are leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling that found no fault with the Washington transit agency policy that banned all issue-oriented advertisements on the region's rail and bus system. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington sought to place an ad on the outside of public buses in the fall of 2017.
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| Joe Biden: Democrats ‘May Have to Do a Virtual Convention’ Due to COVID-19 Posted: 05 Apr 2020 07:34 AM PDT  Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden said on Sunday morning that the Democratic National Convention may need to be "virtual" amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, adding that the party's convention is "necessary" this year.Appearing on ABC's This Week, Biden was asked by anchor George Stephanopoulos whether it was wise for Wisconsin to hold its primary as scheduled this upcoming Tuesday, noting fellow Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has called on it to be postponed over safety concerns."Well, look, I think they should just follow the science," Biden replied. "I think whatever the science says we should do."Stephanopoulos, meanwhile, wondered whether this also held true for the convention, which has already been moved out to August to allow for additional time to monitor the situation with COVID-19 and social distancing guidelines. Prior to the party pushing it back a month, Biden admitted publicly that it could not occur as scheduled in July."And does that hold for the convention as well?" Stephanopoulos asked. "Are you open to the idea that it just might not be possible to do the convention in August?""Yes. Well, we'll have to do a convention, may have to do a virtual convention," Biden responded. "We should be thinking about that right now. The idea of holding a convention is going to be necessary but we may not be able to put 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 people in one place and that's very possible."The former vice president reiterated the need to "follow the science" while stating that we need to listen to the experts, specifically citing top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci. He further noted that amid the health crisis, the country may need to start thinking about how it's going to hold elections, saying voting by mail could be a national option.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Boris Johnson's government reportedly believes the coronavirus may have accidentally leaked from a Chinese laboratory Posted: 06 Apr 2020 04:50 AM PDT  "Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is that laboratory in Wuhan," one UK government official told the Mail on Sunday.
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| Japan to declare coronavirus emergency, launch stimulus of almost $1 trillion: PM Posted: 05 Apr 2020 04:19 PM PDT  Japan is to impose a state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures as early as Tuesday to contain the coronavirus, while the government prepares a $990 billion stimulus package to soften the economic blow. Domestic infections topped 4,000, Jiji news reported, and 93 have died - not a huge outbreak compared with some global hot spots. "Japan won't, and doesn't need, to take lockdown steps like those overseas," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters, citing the opinion of infectious disease experts.
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| Whale sharks: Atomic tests solve age puzzle of world's largest fish Posted: 06 Apr 2020 02:55 AM PDT  Data from Cold War nuclear bomb tests help scientists accurately age whale sharks for the first time.
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| Brazil minister offends China with 'racist' virus tweet Posted: 06 Apr 2020 09:33 AM PDT  China demanded an explanation from Brazil Monday after the far-right government's education minister linked the coronavirus pandemic to the Asian country's "plan for world domination," in a tweet imitating a Chinese accent. In the latest incident to strain ties between Brasilia and Beijing, Education Minister Abraham Weintraub insinuated China was behind the global health crisis. "Geopolitically, who will come out stronger from this global crisis?" he wrote on Twitter Saturday.
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| Her granddaughter was sick, so Dr. Birx stayed home: 'You can’t take that kind of risk' around the president Posted: 06 Apr 2020 05:22 PM PDT  Dr. Deborah Birx, one of the two leading medical experts on the White House coronavirus task force, said Monday that out of deference to social-distancing rules she had stayed away from her daughter's house — even though her 10-month-old granddaughter had registered a fever of 105 degrees over the
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| California lends 500 ventilators to 4 states, 2 territories Posted: 06 Apr 2020 10:45 AM PDT  The White House said Monday that 500 ventilators on loan from California will be shipped to Nevada, Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam as the nation faces a crush of coronavirus-related hospitalizations. California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced earlier the nation's most populous state would share some of its ventilators, a necessary tool to keep struggling patients breathing, with the national stockpile even as it hunts for more of its own supplies. Newsom suggested that New York may be one of the states to receive the ventilators, but he said the federal government was best poised to decide where they were needed most.
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| A New Zealand man who drunkenly filmed himself coughing on people at a supermarket has been charged with endangering life Posted: 05 Apr 2020 11:23 PM PDT  The man later apologized, saying: "It never should've happened, the alcohol had really taken effect and I have no sensor when I get this messy."
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| Peter Navarro Touts His Qualifications on Unproven Coronavirus Drug: ‘I’m a Social Scientist’ Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:00 AM PDT  Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro roundly dismissed concerns from the nation's top infectious-disease expert on an unproven coronavirus drug while touting his own qualifications as a "social scientist" on Monday, adding that he knows "how to read statistical studies."Over the weekend, it was reported that Navarro clashed with Dr. Anthony Fauci over the efficacy of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine. Navarro reportedly attacked the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director at the White House for questioning his knowledge of science as he promoted the drug's potential.During a CNN interview Monday morning, Navarro essentially confirmed the heated debate indeed took place while lauding the drug as an effective treatment of COVID-19. Asked by anchor John Berman about the disagreement he had with Fauci, Navarro quickly pointed to a small study in China that shows some possible efficacy as a source of some of the tension."There was that discussion on Saturday, and if we didn't have disagreement or debate in the Trump administration, this administration would not be as strong as it is," Navarro added.Berman, meanwhile, noted that Fauci himself has urged caution on the Chinese study's findings while saying there are other studies that haven't shown much effectiveness."So why is Dr. Anthony Fauci, the lead infectious-disease doctor in this country, wrong about this?" Berman wondered aloud."I'll let him speak for himself, but I'll have two words for you: second opinion," the Trump aide replied. "In terms of the studies that exist, I think you would grant me that there are numerous studies on this, which show preliminary therapeutics."The CNN host cut Navarro off, asking him what exactly were his qualifications to take on a top medical expert on matters of medicine and disease."Doctors disagree about things all the time," Navarro said. "My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that I'm a social scientist. I have a Ph.D. and I understand how to read statistical studies, whether it's in medicine, the law, economics, or whatever."The economist went on to tout the opinion of a doctor who had recently misrepresented his qualifications to Fox News' Laura Ingraham, eventually resulting in Ingraham being forced by Twitter to remove a tweet celebrating hydroxychloroquine's supposed miraculous healing effects at a New York hospital.Berman would continue to confront Navarro on his qualifications and expertise on coronavirus and the drug, eventually prompting Navarro to ask the CNN anchor whether he'd take the hydroxychloroquine if he were sick."I would listen to my doctor about whether or not I should take it," Berman said, adding, "I would not listen to someone involved with trade policy."At the end of the segment, meanwhile, Berman took great offense when Navarro suggested that he actually didn't want people to recover from the disease."We all want the same thing, which is people to get better," Berman declared, causing Navarro to snarkily reply, "I'm not sure we do sometimes.""Don't you dare," the CNN anchor shot back, noting he currently has two colleagues who have been stricken with the disease.Navarro pleaded innocent, claiming Berman was putting words in his mouth and didn't let him finish his sentence while insisting he was just trying to show a "false dichotomy."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Iran will never ask U.S. for coronavirus help: official Posted: 06 Apr 2020 02:35 AM PDT  Iran will never ask the United States for help in the fight against the new coronavirus, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected offers from Washington of humanitarian assistance for Iran, the Middle Eastern country so far worst-affected by the coronavirus, with 3,739 deaths and 60,500 people infected according to the latest figures on Monday.
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| 430,000 People Have Traveled From China to U.S. Since Coronavirus Surfaced Posted: 05 Apr 2020 07:59 AM PDT  Since Chinese officials disclosed the outbreak of a mysterious pneumonialike illness to international health officials on New Year's Eve, at least 430,000 people have arrived in the United States on direct flights from China, including nearly 40,000 in the two months after President Donald Trump imposed restrictions on such travel, according to an analysis of data collected in both countries.The bulk of the passengers, who were of multiple nationalities, arrived in January, at airports in Los Angeles; San Francisco; New York; Chicago; Seattle; Newark, New Jersey; and Detroit. Thousands of them flew directly from Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, as American public health officials were only beginning to assess the risks to the United States.Flights continued this past week, the data show, with passengers traveling from Beijing to Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, under rules that exempt Americans and some others from the clampdown that took effect on Feb. 2. In all, 279 flights from China have arrived in the United States since then, and screening procedures have been uneven, interviews show.Trump has repeatedly suggested that his travel measures impeded the virus' spread in the United States. "I do think we were very early, but I also think that we were very smart, because we stopped China," he said at a briefing on Tuesday, adding, "That was probably the biggest decision we made so far." Last month, he said, "We're the ones that kept China out of here."But the analysis of the flight and other data by The New York Times shows the travel measures, however effective, may have come too late to have "kept China out," particularly in light of recent statements from health officials that as many as 25% of people infected with the virus may never show symptoms. Many infectious-disease experts suspect that the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks after the first American case was confirmed, in Washington state, on Jan. 20, and that it had continued to be introduced. In fact, no one knows when the virus first arrived in the United States.During the first half of January, when Chinese officials were underplaying the severity of the outbreak, no travelers from China were screened for potential exposure to the virus. Health screening began in mid-January, but only for a number of travelers who had been in Wuhan and only at the airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. By that time, about 4,000 people had already entered the United States directly from Wuhan, according to VariFlight, an aviation data company based in China. The measures were expanded to all passengers from China two weeks later.In a statement Friday, Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, described Trump's travel restrictions as a "bold decisive action which medical professionals say will prove to have saved countless lives." The policy took effect, he said, at a time when the global health community did not yet "know the level of transmission or asymptomatic spread."Trump administration officials have also said they received significant pushback about imposing the restrictions even when they did. At the time, the World Health Organization was not recommending travel restrictions, Chinese officials rebuffed them and some scientists questioned whether curtailing travel would do any good. Some Democrats in Congress said they could lead to discrimination.In interviews, multiple travelers who arrived after the screening was expanded said they received only passing scrutiny, with minimal follow-up."I was surprised at how lax the whole process was," said Andrew Wu, 31, who landed at Los Angeles International Airport on a flight from Beijing on March 10. "The guy I spoke to read down a list of questions, and he didn't seem interested in checking out anything."Sabrina Fitch, 23, flew from China to Kennedy International Airport in New York on March 23. She and the 40 or so other passengers had their temperature taken twice while en route and were required to fill out forms about their travels and health, she said."Besides looking at our passports, they didn't question us like we normally are questioned," said Fitch, who had been teaching English in China. "So it was kind of weird, because everyone expected the opposite, where you get a lot of questions. But once we filled out the little health form, no one really cared."In January, before the broad screening was in place, there were over 1,300 direct passenger flights from China to the United States, according to VariFlight and two American firms, MyRadar and FlightAware. About 381,000 travelers flew directly from China to the United States that month, about a quarter of whom were American, according to data from the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration.In addition, untold others arrived from China on itineraries that first stopped in another country. While actual passenger counts for indirect flyers were not available, Sofia Boza-Holman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said they represented about a quarter of travelers from China. The restrictions, she added, reduced all passengers from the country by about 99%.Trump issued his first travel restrictions related to the virus on Jan. 31, one day after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency. In a presidential proclamation, he barred foreign nationals from entering the country if they had been in China during the prior two weeks. The order exempted U.S. citizens, green-card holders and their noncitizen relatives -- exceptions roundly recognized as necessary to allow residents to return home and prevent families from being separated. It did not apply to flights from Hong Kong and Macao.About 60% of travelers on direct flights from China in February were not U.S. citizens, according to the most recently available government data. Most of the flights were operated by Chinese airlines after American carriers halted theirs.At a news conference about the restrictions, Alex Azar, the health secretary, repeatedly emphasized that "the risk is low" for Americans. He added, "Our job is to work to keep that that way."Health officials also announced an expansion of the screening beyond arrivals from Wuhan. Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explained that people would be screened for "significant risk, as well as any evidence of symptoms." If there was no reason for additional examination, "they would be allowed to complete their travel back to their home, where they then will be monitored by the local health departments in a self-monitoring situation in their home."The procedures called for screening to be conducted in empty sections of the airports, usually past customs areas. Passengers would line up and spend a minute or two having their temperature taken and being asked about their health and travel history. Those with a fever or self-reported symptoms like a cough would get a medical evaluation, and if they were thought to have been infected or exposed to the virus, they would be sent to a hospital where local health officials would take over.Passengers would also be given information cards about the virus and symptoms. Later versions advised people to stay at home for two weeks.In a statement Thursday, the CDC described the entry screening as "part of a layered approach" that could "slow and reduce the spread of disease" when used with other public health measures."We cannot stop all introductions," the CDC added, noting that the coronavirus pandemic was "especially challenging due to asymptomatic and presymptomatic infections and an incubation period of up to two weeks."Separately, on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the administration's measures were "unprecedented" and allowed "the U.S. to stay ahead of the outbreak as it developed."Passengers including Wu described a cursory screening process when they arrived in the United States.Wu, who has had no symptoms and has not become ill, said he was told to stay inside for 14 days when he landed in Los Angeles. He said he received two reminder messages the next day by email and text, but no further follow-up.Another traveler, Chandler Jurinka, said his experience on Feb. 29 had an even more haphazard feel. He flew from Beijing to Seattle, with stops in Tokyo and Vancouver.At the Seattle-Tacoma airport, he said, an immigration officer went through his documents and asked questions unrelated to the virus about his job and life in China. At no point did anyone take his temperature, he said."He hands me my passport and forms and says, 'Oh, by the way, you haven't been to Wuhan, have you?'" Jurinka said. "And then he says, 'You don't have a fever, right?'"Like others, he left the airport with a card that recommended two weeks of self-quarantine and a promise that someone would call to check up on him. He said he never got a call.Other travelers also said the follow-up from local health departments was hit-or-miss. Some received only emails or texts.Jacinda Passmore, 23, a former English teacher in China who flew into Dallas on March 10, after a layover in Tokyo, got a thorough screening at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. It took about 40 minutes, she said, before she was cleared for her flight home to Little Rock, Arkansas.State health workers later dropped off thermometers at her house and insisted her entire family stay home for two weeks and provide updates on their condition."They asked us every day: 'Have you stayed inside? Have you met anyone? Have you been quarantined?'" Passmore said. "They're really nice about it. They said, 'If you need anything, we can go grocery shopping for you.'"Nineteen flights departed Wuhan in January for New York or San Francisco -- and the flights were largely full, according to VariFlight. For about 4,000 travelers, there was no enhanced screening.On Jan. 17, the federal government began screening travelers from Wuhan, but only 400 more passengers arrived on direct flights before Chinese authorities shut down the airport. Scott Liu, 56, a Wuhan native and a textile importer who lives in New York, caught the last commercial flight, on Jan. 22.Liu had gone to Wuhan for the Spring Festival on Jan. 6, but decided to come back early as the outbreak worsened. At the Wuhan airport, staff checked his temperature. On the flight, he and other passengers filled a health declaration form, which included questions about symptoms like fever, cough or difficulty breathing.After they arrived at JFK in New York, the passengers were directed to go through a temperature checkpoint. "It was very fast," he said. "If your temperature is normal, they will just let you in."Liu said no one asked him questions about his travel history or health, and he received a card with information about what to do if he developed symptoms. At the time, there were no instructions to isolate. Liu said he and his friends all decided to do so anyway."I stayed at home for almost 20 days," he said.About 800 passengers on five charter flights were later evacuated from Wuhan by the U.S. government and directed to military bases, where they waited out two weeks of quarantine.The charter flights began on Jan. 29. Instagram posts from one showed CDC officials in full protective gear on the plane and escorting passengers after landing.One group of passengers was eventually flown to Omaha, Nebraska, to be taken by bus to a National Guard camp for quarantine. Video showed them accompanied by a full police escort, with lights flashing, helicopters overhead and intersections blocked off along the way.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Researchers found the coronavirus lasted on a surgical mask for 7 days, showing how crucial it is to properly remove face coverings after wearing them Posted: 06 Apr 2020 02:25 PM PDT  Given their findings, researchers urged people to avoid touching the outside of the masks, where the coronavirus particles can last up to a week.
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| Americans play the 'waiting game' after last passenger plane from Moscow canceled Posted: 05 Apr 2020 09:23 AM PDT  "If I don't get a flight soon, then I probably won't see my dad ever again," said Grace Mitchell.
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| Russian white supremacists are terrorists says Trump Posted: 06 Apr 2020 10:01 AM PDT  It is the first time the government has labelled a white supremacist group a terror organisation.
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| Tiger at NYC's Bronx Zoo tests positive for coronavirus Posted: 05 Apr 2020 01:51 PM PDT  A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere, federal officials and the zoo said Sunday. The 4-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia, and six other tigers and lions that have also fallen ill, are believed to have been infected by a zoo employee who wasn't yet showing symptoms, the zoo said. "We tested the cat out of an abundance of caution" and aim to "contribute to the world's continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus," said Dr. Paul Calle, the zoo's chief veterinarian.
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| Philippine police reportedly shot a man dead under Duterte's orders to kill any lockdown troublemakers Posted: 05 Apr 2020 10:27 PM PDT  The man attacked local officials with a scythe after they told him to wear a face mask, according to a police report.
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| Doctor Scolds Fox News: It’s ‘Irresponsible’ to Promote Unproven Coronavirus Drug Posted: 06 Apr 2020 12:47 PM PDT  Amid Fox News' round-the-clock promotion of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential coronavirus cure, renowned biologist Dr. William Haseltine told Fox News host Dana Perino on Monday that it was "irresponsible" to tout the unproven drug and called claims of its miraculous healing powers "complete and utter nonsense."Haseltine, who recently said Trump's response to the pandemic was "among the worst in the world" and "dangerous," was asked by Perino to give his thoughts on the drug which the president has called a "game-changer" despite limited evidence of its effectiveness."It is sad, to me, that people are promoting that drug," Haseltine, known for his HIV/AIDS research, responded. "We know, already, from studies, at best it will have a very mild effect. At very best."The doctor went on to note that there have been conflicting studies on the drug's efficacy in treating coronavirus, reiterating that even studies showing a positive effect show it to be "very mild." He also said that the drug has been used against other viruses to no effect."The thing that makes me sad about that story is some people may take it who are on other medications who have other underlying conditions and may have very serious, even life-threatening consequences," Haseltine declared. "It is not something to take unless a doctor prescribes it."Perino, meanwhile, defended the promotion of the drug, noting that the administration has left it up to doctors whether they want to prescribe the drug for off-label use to treat the disease before bringing up some of the more sensational stories of hydroxychloroquine's effectiveness."What about, I know you don't go by anecdotal evidence, but there are stories of people saying that they have had this Lazarus effect by using this drug," Perino wondered aloud."That is nonsense," Haseltine fumed. "Complete and utter nonsense. And in any situation, there are always going to be people who promote one kind of quack cure or another. And there are Lazarus effects."Last week, Fox News host Laura Ingraham was forced by Twitter to remove a tweet in which she claimed that a Lenox Hill coronavirus patient had a "Lazarus"-like recovery after taking hydroxychloroquine. The doctor who apparently told her the claim, however, was not an oncologist at Lenox Hill, as Ingraham had originally asserted."We know that at very best, this drug will have a very mild effect on changing the course of the disease, if it has any effect at all," Haseltine continued. "That is what the data has shown so far, and I am convinced that that is what further studies will show. And it is not without adverse consequence. It is irresponsible to promote this drug at this time.""I hear you loud and clear," Perino replied.Fox News hosts and commentators, along with frequent guest Dr. Mehmet Oz, have repeatedly pushed and endorsed hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment of COVID-19, prompting the president to endlessly hype the drug. Besides calling it a "game-changer," Trump has suggested that he "may take it"—despite not being diagnosed with the disease—while encouraging Americans to use it. "What do you have to lose?" Trump asked over the weekend.MSNBC Host Stephanie Ruhle Shuts Down Marco Rubio's Coronavirus SpinRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 'Together we are tackling this disease’: Queen Elizabeth II delivers speech during coronavirus crisis Posted: 05 Apr 2020 12:24 PM PDT  Queen Elizabeth II delivered a brief speech on Sunday during the growing coronavirus crisis.
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| Lebanese stranded abroad by coronavirus outbreak return home Posted: 05 Apr 2020 03:33 AM PDT  Lebanon's crippling financial crisis including tight capital controls has complicated the plight of Lebanese stuck abroad, with tough restrictions on accessing cash. Prime Minister Hassan Diab, speaking to reporters at Beirut international airport on Sunday, said about 21,000 Lebanese had registered for flights back to Lebanon. "Hopefully this cloud, the cloud that is the health situation with corona, passes quickly and infections are minimal for Lebanese whether at home or abroad," said Diab.
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| The coronavirus can live on a surgical mask for 7 days, cloth for 2 days, and paper for 3 hours. Here's how to disinfect surfaces properly. Posted: 06 Apr 2020 01:52 PM PDT  The coronavirus tends to spread via droplets passed between people. But viral particles can also live on surfaces for hours or days.
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| Former FDA commissioner expects New York health-care system will be pushed to the brink, but 'won't go over' Posted: 05 Apr 2020 10:28 AM PDT  Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has issued some dire warnings since the early days of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus, but on Sunday he indicated some steps taken by the U.S. federal government and states might be paying off -- both in terms of curbing the spread and preparing the health-care system for an onslaught of patients.New York City remains the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, and its hospitals are struggling. Gottlieb reiterated the predication made by numerous officials that the city, and New York state, are on the verge of peaking next week, which will undoubtedly stretch the health-care system thin. But he said he, ultimately, he thinks there will be enough ventilators for severe COVID-19 patients thanks to a historic effort to expand their supply, preventing New York from going past its tipping point.> The New York healthcare system "will be right on the brink" \- strained - "but won't go over" @ScottGottliebMD tells @margbrennan . He adds, "I don't think they will run out of ventilators." pic.twitter.com/AhnAanf4rN> > -- Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) April 5, 2020As for the rest of the country, Gottlieb believes mitigation efforts like social distancing are "clearly working," as case rates slow in northern states, though he's concerned the next set of hot spots will be in the South. > "Mitigation is clearly working," @ScottGottliebMD tells @margbrennan, but notes that states in the Sunbelt - across the south - are going to be the next hotspots in the United States. pic.twitter.com/wD4q1Z5yUf> > -- Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) April 5, 2020More stories from theweek.com New York City plans to temporarily bury coronavirus victims in a park Obama suggests lawmakers follow Elizabeth Warren's coronavirus recovery plans Trump's fervor for an unproven COVID-19 drug is reportedly fueled by Rudy Giuliani, Dr. Oz
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| Illinois man who feared girlfriend had COVID-19 fatally shoots her, himself Posted: 06 Apr 2020 08:11 AM PDT  The sheriff's office said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the vast majority of service calls involve domestic disputes and crisis intervention.
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| Trump says the fired Navy commander's letter pleading for help for his coronavirus-stricken ship 'looked terrible' and was 'not appropriate' Posted: 04 Apr 2020 07:28 PM PDT  President Donald Trump said Saturday he agreed with the Navy's decision to fire Capt. Brett Crozier over his letter pleading for help.
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| Recent developments surrounding the South China Sea Posted: 05 Apr 2020 10:09 PM PDT  The People's Liberation Army Daily and other state media reported last week that the Eastern Theater Command responsible for patrols around Taiwan held endurance training with early-warning aircraft last month.
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| Japan’s Abe Set to Declare Virus Emergency As Cases Jump Posted: 05 Apr 2020 11:55 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to declare a state of emergency, media reports said, after coronavirus cases in Tokyo jumped over the weekend to top 1,000, raising worries of a more explosive surge.After last week saying the situation didn't yet call for such a move, Abe changed course and will announce the plan as soon as Monday, media reports said. The formal declaration for the Tokyo area will be coming as early as Tuesday, the Yomiuri newspaper reported without attribution. The declaration could also cover the surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa, as well as Osaka, and be given a time limit of six months, broadcaster TBS said, citing sources close to the matter.The process for making the declaration picked up pace Monday, with Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is handling the virus response, meeting Abe alongside the government's top expert adviser on the pandemic. The premier may unveil his plan at a meeting of his virus task force after 6 p.m.The declaration could go into effect as Japan's biggest-ever stimulus package worth 60 trillion yen ($550 billion) is set to be announced Tuesday.No LockdownThe state of emergency, which comes after pressure from local governors and the medical community, doesn't enable a European-style lockdown.Declaring a state of emergency hands powers to local governments, including to urge residents to stay at home for a certain span of time during the emergency period. By contrast with some other countries though, there is no legal power to enforce such requests due to civil liberties protections in Japanese law.Abe's government saw its approval rating slip to its lowest since October 2018 in a poll from broadcaster JNN released Monday with a majority of respondents faulting the way the government has managed the virus crisis. The poll taken April 4-5 showed that about 80% of respondents said the declaration should be made.The governors of Tokyo and Osaka have been pushing for the declaration as the recent spike in cases sparked concerns Japan is headed for a crisis on the levels seen in the U.S. and several countries in Europe.Japan was one of the first countries outside of the original epicenter in neighboring China to confirm a coronavirus infection and it has fared better than most, with about 3,650 reported cases as of Monday -- a jump from less than 500 just a month ago. That's the lowest tally of any Group of Seven country, although Japan might be finding fewer mild cases because it has conducted a relatively small number of tests.Last week, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo advised American citizens who live in the U.S. but are currently in Japan to return home, "unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period." It added Japan's low testing rate makes it hard to accurately assess the prevalence of the virus. The Japan Medical Association warned last week that the jump in cases in the nation's most populous cities is putting more pressure on medical resources and that the government should declare a state of emergency.Tokyo reported 143 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, the largest number in a single day. It marked the second straight day the city's daily infection tally exceeded 100.Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is already pressing residents to avoid unnecessary outings, and television showed many of the capital's main shopping areas almost deserted over the weekend. The Tokyo local government is set to begin leasing hotels this week to accommodate mild cases, making room in its hospitals for the seriously ill.(Updates with media reports on area, time period)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| When Coronavirus Is Over, Middle East Chaos Will Only Be Worse Posted: 05 Apr 2020 02:23 AM PDT  For a time the Middle East seemed like it just froze, the conflicts of yesterday put in quarantine—as so many of us have been—while various countries strive to contain an epidemic of biblical scale. Don't expect that to last. The coronavirus outbreak is not the great equalizer, nor is it the crisis in which past rivalries will be forgotten.Trump's Most Vital Mideast Allies Are Trending Fast Toward TyrannyLike an earthquake, the coronavirus is magnifying the foundational weaknesses of the least prepared countries, exacerbating existing inequalities across the region. And like a particularly lethal aftershock, the crash of the oil price further debilitates petroleum-based economies that lack the financial reserves to weather the secondary blow to their system. For Gulf countries, the "double whammy" of the coronavirus and the oil shock, while major disruptions, can be weathered with mass injections of capital. Moreover, these countries appear to have been some of the best prepared to deal with the pandemic, likely because they already faced the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak. They acted relatively quickly and decisively to identify cases and close down their borders. That's not to say that things aren't going to be bad for Gulf countries—they will—but there will be different shades of bad. By contrast, Algeria, Iraq, Egypt, and Lebanon are certain to be hit especially hard by the twin blows. Algeria and Iraq's budgets are so tied to the price of oil that they have no margin to maneuver. The economic crisis will also hit Egypt, especially with the loss of tourism, while Lebanon was in the process of defaulting on its sovereign debt even before the outbreak really took off. Refugee and internally displaced communities across the region also are going to be hit very hard, which is likely to increase refugee flows both within and outside the region—with potential recipients of these flows having another reason to close their doors. As a result, the burden of these new refugees is poised to be borne most by the states that can least afford to do so and those that already are host to massive displaced populations.This widening gap will have an impact on the region's geopolitics. Desperate people do desperate things, and desperate regimes even more so. The recent escalation in attacks against coalition forces in Iraq which resulted in the killing of two U.S. and UK soldiers in the Taji military base is one example of what could become a trend: namely, the growing need for countries weakened by the outbreak to project strength. Iran has been at the epicenter of the crisis in the region and its lack of transparency and effort to maintain ties with one of its last trading partners, China, turned the crisis into a nightmare—making us, as geopolitical analysts, wonder what does Iran have to lose and where could its proxies strike next?Beyond that, as the crisis shifts America's focus even more inwards, local actors will test Washington's willingness to respond to escalation. Given what happened in Iran, and the possible geopolitical consequences, this raises the questions of what would (or more likely will) happen if/when the crisis will reach these levels in areas such as Syria, Yemen, Libya or Gaza? In an already unequal world, the crisis may well make asymmetric warfare even more relevant than it already was.While some regimes struggling against popular protest movements may have perceived a silver lining in the outbreak, a day of reckoning is not far over the horizon. In Algeria and Lebanon the streets are emptying fast. Now that the scale of the outbreak has set in, most if not all protesters won't be marching for weeks or months to come. But there will be some reluctance to call off the demonstrations. Some protesters view their local regimes as worse than the virus. Those who decide to continue demonstrating will face a crackdown rationalized by the outbreak—Algeria already issued a ban on protests. The pandemic will break the momentum of these popular movements, but, once the dust settles, these may also come back swinging at governments that mishandled the crisis. The Middle East and North Africa were in the middle of a second Arab Spring. There's every reason to expect the uprisings to regain their momentum when "coronavirus season" is over.On a domestic level, the crisis likely won't bring people together, at least not in the long term—and not only because of the need for social distancing. Sectarian tensions are liable to increase, particularly as a result of Iran's catastrophic mishandling of the situation. In the Gulf, where much of the initial outbreak was the result of Iran-related travels—which are difficult to track given that Gulf citizens who travel to Iran don't get their passports stamped—fear of a broader outbreak due to such travel is already having an impact, with Saudi Arabia closing the Shiite-majority region of Qatif, and other Gulf countries reluctant to repatriate their own citizens from Iran. The lack of testing capabilities in Sunni areas of Iraq (when compared to Kurdish and Shiite-majority areas), a similar lack of balance between testing numbers among the Jewish and Arab communities in Israel alongside tensions prompted by lockdown measures in Jaffa, all highlight the possibility that the outbreak will widen domestic divides rather than bridge them.In Israel, the crisis has revealed—overnight—the government's willingness to approve massive spying on its own population at a time when parliament can't convene to monitor the use of data gathered by the Israeli Security Agency. This is not an isolated case: more broadly, containment measures and the subsequent reaction by their respective populations will widen the gap between governments who managed to gain public trust, and those who didn't.All of these factors suggest the coronavirus pandemic will turn into a defining moment for the region, not simply because of its magnitude, but because it came at a time when most countries were experiencing their own political crises—and failed to build any immunity to the one that suddenly knocked at their doors.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Coronavirus: Africa will not be testing ground for vaccine, says WHO Posted: 06 Apr 2020 03:52 PM PDT  Two doctors sparked outrage after suggesting a vaccine for coronavirus could be tested in Africa.
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| From 271 to 13: American suspends most NYC flights amid coronavirus crisis; demand 'evaporating' Posted: 05 Apr 2020 07:36 PM PDT  American, a big player in New York, usually operates more nearly 300 daily flights from New York's three major airports.
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| Black mistrust of medicine looms amid coronavirus pandemic Posted: 05 Apr 2020 08:32 AM PDT  Roughly 40 million black Americans are deciding whether to put their faith in government and the medical community during the coronavirus pandemic. Historic failures in government responses to disasters and emergencies, medical abuse, neglect and exploitation have jaded generations of black people into a distrust of some public institutions.
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| Half of the US hydroxychloroquine supply — the drug Trump touts as a possible coronavirus treatment — has been abruptly cut off Posted: 06 Apr 2020 11:22 AM PDT  India over the weekend banned all exports of the drug used to treat lupus, arthritis, and malaria as Trump touts its unproven effects on COVID-19.
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| Wisconsin moves forward with election despite virus concerns Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:43 AM PDT  Voters in Wisconsin will face a choice Tuesday of participating in a presidential primary election or heeding warnings from public health officials to stay away from large crowds during the coronavirus pandemic. Hours after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued an order postponing the election for two months, the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday sided with Republicans who said he didn't have the authority to reschedule the race on his own. Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court quickly followed with a ruling blocking Democratic efforts to extend absentee voting.
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| U.S. coronavirus deaths top 10,000 as medical officials warn worst is yet to come Posted: 06 Apr 2020 05:02 PM PDT  "It's going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives," Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on MSNBC's Meet the Press.
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| U.K. Warns Lockdown Could Be Tightened if Public Defy Rules Posted: 05 Apr 2020 09:58 AM PDT |
| Police in Russia shoved a man into a van and forced him to abandon his dog in a park for violating the city's lockdown order Posted: 05 Apr 2020 10:16 AM PDT  At the end of March, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin closed all restaurants, cafe, bars, and parks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
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| Health experts say official U.S. coronavirus death toll is understated Posted: 05 Apr 2020 08:36 PM PDT  Public health experts and government officials agree that the U.S. government's coronavirus death toll almost certainly understates how many Americans have actually died from the virus.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only counts deaths where the presence of the coronavirus is confirmed in a lab test, The Washington Post reports, and "we know that it is an underestimation," CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said.There are many reasons why the numbers are underreported. Strict criteria in the beginning of the outbreak kept many people from getting tested for coronavirus, and it's still difficult to get tested in some areas, for example. There's also the matter of false negatives, and not all medical examiners have tests or believe they should conduct postmortem testing, even on people who died at home or in nursing homes where there were outbreaks. Experts also believe some February and early March deaths that were attributed to influenza or pneumonia were likely due to coronavirus.The official death count is based on reports sent by states, and as of Sunday night, the CDC reports 304,826 confirmed U.S. cases and 7,616 deaths. The Post, other media outlets, and university researchers update their numbers more frequently, with the Post reporting on Sunday night that 9,633 people have died from coronavirus in the U.S., and at least 337,000 cases have been confirmed.More stories from theweek.com Stocks rebounded after some hopeful coronavirus news but change 'doesn't necessarily reflect anything fundamental' New York City plans to temporarily bury coronavirus victims in a park Trump's fervor for an unproven COVID-19 drug is reportedly fueled by Rudy Giuliani, Dr. Oz
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| Chinese masks, or 'blue gold', arrive for Swiss hospitals Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:42 AM PDT  A Boeing 747 landed in Geneva on Monday with 92 tonnes of protective medical equipment including masks made in China for distribution to 13 Swiss hospitals and pharmaceutical associations as they battle the COVID-19 pandemic. The flight contained 2.5 million surgical masks, 10 million gloves as well as goggles and thermometers worth more than 3 million Swiss francs ($3.1 million), and made by Sinopharm Group Co Ltd. Another delivery arrived in Zurich on Sunday evening on a chartered Swiss airline flight from Shanghai carrying protective gowns for dozens of health care facilities.
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| New York new coronavirus cases 'dropping for first time' Posted: 05 Apr 2020 02:28 PM PDT  New infections and deaths are down in New York, but officials say the danger for Americans is still high.
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| Monster storm strengthens in Pacific, lashing Vanuatu Posted: 05 Apr 2020 11:30 PM PDT  A deadly Pacific cyclone intensified as it hit Vanuatu on Monday, threatening a natural disaster that experts fear will undermine the impoverished Pacific nation's battle to remain coronavirus-free. Tropical Cyclone Harold, which claimed 27 lives when it swept through the Solomon Islands last week, strengthened to a scale-topping category five superstorm overnight, Vanuatu's meteorology service said. It made landfall on the remote east coast of Espiritu Santo island on Monday morning and was heading directly for Vanuatu's second-largest town Luganville, which has a population of 16,500.
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| Fauci: it is a 'false statement' to say the US has the coronavirus pandemic 'under control' Posted: 05 Apr 2020 12:28 PM PDT  "We are struggling to get it under control," Fauci said Sunday. At a prior press conference, Trump said the US had "tremendous control" of the virus.
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| Has Sweden Found the Right Solution to the Coronavirus? Posted: 06 Apr 2020 03:30 AM PDT  If the COVID-19 pandemic tails off in a few weeks, months before the alarmists claim it will, they will probably pivot immediately and pat themselves on the back for the brilliant social-distancing controls that they imposed on the world. They will claim that their heroic recommendations averted total calamity. Unfortunately, they will be wrong; and Sweden, which has done almost no mandated social distancing, will probably prove them wrong.Lots of people are rushing to discredit Sweden's approach, which relies more on calibrated precautions and isolating only the most vulnerable than on imposing a full lockdown. While gatherings of more than 50 people are prohibited and high schools and colleges are closed, Sweden has kept its borders open as well as its preschools, grade schools, bars, restaurants, parks, and shops.President Trump has no use for Sweden's nuanced approach. Last Wednesday, he smeared it in a spectacular fashion by saying he'd heard that Sweden "gave it a shot, and they saw things that were really frightening, and they went immediately to shutting down the country." He and the public-health experts who told him this were wrong on both counts and would do better to question their approach. Johan Giesecke, Sweden's former chief epidemiologist and now adviser to the Swedish Health Agency, says that other nations "have taken political, unconsidered actions" that are not justified by the facts.In the rush to lock down nations and, as a result, crater their economies, no one has addressed this simple yet critical question: How do we know social-isolation controls actually work? And even if they do work for some infectious epidemics, do they work for COVID-19? And even if they work for this novel coronavirus, do they have to be implemented by a certain point in the epidemic? Or are they locking down the barn door after the horses are long gone?In theory, less physical interaction might slow the rate of new infections. But without a good understanding of how long COVID-19 viral particles survive in air, in water, and on contact surfaces, even that is speculative. Without reliable information on what proportion of the population has already been exposed and successfully fought off the coronavirus, it's worth questioning the value of social-isolation controls. It is possible that the fastest and safest way to "flatten the curve" is to allow young people to mix normally while requiring only the frail and sick to remain isolated.This is, in fact, the first time we have quarantined healthy people rather than quarantining the sick and vulnerable. As Fredrik Erixon, the director of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels, wrote in The Spectator (U.K.) last week: "The theory of lockdown, after all, is pretty niche, deeply illiberal — and, until now, untested. It's not Sweden that's conducting a mass experiment. It's everyone else."We've posed these simple questions to many highly trained infectious-disease doctors, epidemiologists, mathematical disease-modelers, and other smart, educated professionals. It turns out that, while you need proof beyond a reasonable doubt to convict a person of theft and throw them in jail, you don't need any actual evidence (much less proof) to put millions of people into a highly invasive and burdensome lockdown with no end in sight and nothing to prevent the lockdown from being reimposed at the whim of public-health officials. Is this rational?When we asked what evidence is available to support the utility of quarantine and social isolation, academics point to the Diamond Princess cruise ship, with 700 COVID-19 passenger cases and eight deaths. But the ship is an artificially engineered, densely packed container of humans that bears little resemblance to living conditions in most countries.The other major evidence academics often cite is the course run by the 1918 swine flu, which swept the globe 102 years ago and was not a coronavirus. Philadelphia did not practice social distancing during the 1918 pandemic, but St. Louis did and had a death rate lower than Philadelphia's. But how is that relevant to today's crisis? Apart from the post hoc, ergo propter hoc nature of the argument, a key difference was that the GIs returning from World War I Europe who were carrying the swine-flu virus couldn't fly nonstop from Paris to St. Louis. They had to land at East Coast ports such as Philadelphia. It's therefore not surprising that the sick GIs rested and convalesced while spreading the virus on the East Coast, and they got better before continuing to St. Louis and other interior cities.Basing the entire architecture of social distancing on the evidence from the 1918 swine flu makes no sense, especially when that architecture causes significant destruction in the lives and livelihoods of most of the American population.But the social-isolation advocates frantically grasp at straws to support shutting down the world. It bothers them that there is one country in the world that hasn't shut down and that hasn't socially isolated its population. It bothers them because when this coronavirus epidemic is over, they would probably love to conclude that social isolation worked.Sweden has courageously decided not to endorse a harsh quarantine, and consequently it hasn't forced its residents into lockdown. "The strategy in Sweden is to focus on social distancing among the known risk groups, like the elderly. We try to use evidence-based measurements," Emma Frans, a doctor in epidemiology at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, told Euronews. "We try to adjust everyday life. The Swedish plan is to implement measurements that you can practice for a long time."The problem with lockdowns is that "you tire the system out," Anders Tegnell, Sweden's chief epidemiologist, told the Guardian. "You can't keep a lockdown going for months -- it's impossible." He told Britain's Daily Mail: "We can't kill all our services. And unemployed people are a great threat to public health. It's a factor you need to think about."If social isolation worked, wouldn't Sweden, a Nordic country of 10.1 million people, be seeing the number of COVID-19 cases skyrocket into the tens of thousands, blowing past the numbers in Italy or New York City? As of today, there are 401 reported COVID-19 deaths in Sweden.The really good news is that in Sweden's ICU census, which is updated every 30 minutes nationwide, admissions to every ICU in the country are flat or declining, and they have been for a week. As of this writing (based on currently available data), most of Sweden's ICU cases today are elderly, and 77 percent have underlying conditions such as heart disease, respiratory disease, kidney disease, and diabetes. Moreover, there hasn't been a single pediatric ICU case or death in Sweden — so much for the benefits of shutting down schools everywhere else. There are only 25 COVID-19 ICU admissions among all Swedes under the age of 30.Sweden is developing herd immunity by refusing to panic. By not requiring social isolation, Sweden's young people spread the virus, mostly asymptomatically, as is supposed to happen in a normal flu season. They will generate protective antibodies that make it harder and harder for the Wuhan virus to reach and infect the frail and elderly who have serious underlying conditions. For perspective, the current COVID-19 death rate in Sweden (40 deaths per million of population) is substantially lower than the Swedish death rate in a normal flu season (in 2018, for instance, about 80 per million of population).Compare that with the situation to Switzerland, a similar small European country, which has 8.5 million people. Switzerland is practicing strict social isolation. Yet Switzerland reports 715 cumulative Wuhan-virus deaths as of today, for a death rate nearly double the number in Sweden. What about Norway, another Nordic country that shares a 1,000-mile open border with Sweden, with a language and culture very similar to Sweden's? Norway (population 5.4 million) has fewer reported COVID-19 deaths (71) than Sweden but a substantially higher rate of coronavirus ICU admissions.On Friday, one of us spoke with Ulf Persson in his office at the Swedish Institute for Health Economics. He said that everyone he knows is calm and steady, behaving with more caution than normal, following such government-mandated social controls as a 50-person limit on gatherings and only sit-down service at bars and restaurants. Persson estimates that the Swedish economy will drop about 4 percent because of the global economic shutdowns. But that's nothing compared with the Great Depression unemployment levels of 32 percent that the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of St. Louis recently forecast for the United States.Nature's got this one, folks. We've been coping with new viruses for untold generations. The best way is to allow the young and healthy -- those for whom the virus is rarely fatal -- to develop antibodies and herd immunity to protect the frail and sick. As time passes, it will become clearer that social-isolation measures like those in Switzerland and Norway accomplish very little in terms of reducing fatalities or disease, though they crater local and national economies -- increasing misery, pain, death, and disease from other causes as people's lives are upended and futures are destroyed.John Fund is a columnist for National Review and has reported frequently from Sweden. Joel Hay is a professor in the department of Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy at the University of Southern California. The author of more than 600 peer-reviewed scientific articles and reports, he has collaborated with the Swedish Institute for Health Economics for nearly 40 years.
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| 'OK, boomer!' Supreme Court hands partial victory to federal worker claiming age discrimination Posted: 06 Apr 2020 08:58 AM PDT  The case won attention at oral argument when Chief Justice John Roberts asked whether the phrase "OK, boomer" would qualify as age discrimination.
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