Tag Archives: pandemic

Buzzfeed News reports: On March 27, as emergency rooms in New York and across the country began filling with coronavirus patients struggling to breathe, President Donald Trump posted on Twitter to urge Ford and General Motors to “START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!” One of the thousands of replies that the tweet attracted struck an equally urgent tone: “We can supply ICU …

MarketWatch reports: The collapse in the U.S. economy caused by the coronavirus pandemic triggered the biggest drop in gross domestic product in the first quarter since 2008 in a prelude to an even more massive decline in the spring. GDP, the official scorecard for economic growth, shrank at a 4.8% annualized pace. GDP, the official scorecard for the economy, shrank …

NPR reports: Half the country has been personally economically impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and overwhelming numbers of Americans do not think schools, restaurants or sporting events with large crowds should reopen until there is further testing, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. President Trump does not fare very well as far as his handling of the pandemic goes. …

The Washington Post reports: Results from coronavirus antibody tests have started to trickle in, and they bolster the consensus among disease experts that the virus is significantly more lethal than seasonal flu and has seeded the most disruptive pandemic in the past century. “I think it is the worst pandemic since 1918,” said Cecile Viboud, an epidemiologist at the National …

CNBC reports: Quest Diagnostics announced Tuesday that individuals can now skip a doctor’s visit and order a coronavirus antibody test online in a push to broaden Covid-19 screening. An antibody test shows whether someone has been exposed to or potentially had the coronavirus and developed the antibodies to fight the infection. It doesn’t guarantee immunity, but physicians say a positive …

Reuters reports: The United States has reported more than a million coronavirus infections only because of its testing, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, hailing the effort as being “much better than any other country in the world.” The Twitter comments came amid warnings from state public health officials that shortages of trained workers and materials have limited testing capacity. …

The Birmingham News reports: Alabama is taking its first steps in reopening the state in a plan dubbed “Safer at Home.” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced Tuesday the current stay-at-home order due to coronavirus will be allowed to expire April 30 with the new plan in place May 1 – 15. Most businesses may open subject to sanitation and social-distancing …

Jonathan Swan reports at Axios: In an interview for “Axios on HBO,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told me he wishes he had sounded the alarm sooner about the coronavirus. The coronavirus has now killed more than 22,000 New Yorkers, giving Cuomo’s state the worst death toll in the world — vastly worse than other dense global cities like Tokyo …

Right wing columnist Dennis Prager writes: The ease with which police state tactics have been employed and the equal ease with which most Americans have accepted them have been breathtaking. The federal, state, county and city governments are now restricting almost every freedom except those of travel and speech. Americans have been banned from going to work, meeting in groups, …

ABC News reports: As their high school reopened after being closed for a month due to the coronavirus, students in Madagascar’s capital city were given face masks and a small bottle of an herbal extract they were told to drink to protect them from COVID-19. Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina promoted the drink, Covid Organics, on national television saying it will …

The Hill reports: The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE) model this week increased its projected U.S. coronavirus death toll as a number of states move to reopen businesses. The projected number of deaths rose from 67,641 a week ago to 74,073, IMHE said in a statement on Monday. The new figure is still lower than …

The Guardian reports: Some of the richest people in the US have been at the front of the queue as the government has handed out trillions of dollars to prop up an economy it shuttered amid the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, the billionaire class has added $308 Bto its wealth in four weeks – even as a record …

CBS News reports: A growing number of U.S. states plan to join hard-hit European countries this week by starting to lift lockdown measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. They do so as the number of people confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 in the U.S. exceeded 1 million, and the death toll topped 56,000. The CDC will release …

The Washington Post reports: Some form of social distancing will probably remain in place through the summer, Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus task force coordinator, said — the same day several governors expressed optimism about the course of the virus and outlined their plans for a piecemeal reopening of their economies. It was the latest instance of conflicting signals …

NBC News reports: The board chairman of Tyson Foods is warning that “millions of pounds of meat will disappear” from the national food supply chain as the coronavirus outbreak forces food processing plants to shutter. “The food supply chain is breaking,” John Tyson wrote in a full-page advertisement published Sunday in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The …

Miami’s ABC News affiliate reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis used ground zero, nursing homes and God’s waiting room all in one sentence at his press briefing on coronavirus Sunday, raising the eyebrows and the ire of a few. “Florida is ground zero for the nursing home, we’re God’s waiting room,” DeSantis said Sunday. “We have a huge number of facilities, a …

The Army Times reports: The best easy-to-find material for a homemade face covering to protect against coronavirus transmission is four-ply microfiber cloth, according to Army researchers at the service’s Combat Capabilities Development Command. Researchers with the command’s Chemical Biological Center said in a news release that the four-ply microfiber cloth, which can be found in the cleaning section of most …

Via press from the World Health Organization: WHO has published guidance on adjusting public health and social measures for the next phase of the COVID-19 response. Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could serve as the basis for an “immunity passport” or “risk-free certificate” that would enable individuals to …

The Miami Herald reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tripled the number of coronavirus symptoms it lists on its website. The federal organization previously listed fever, cough and shortness of breath as symptoms of COVID-19. The CDC has added six additional symptoms as people “have had a wide range of symptoms reported,” it says on its website. …

The Miami Herald reports: About 6 percent of Miami-Dade’s population — about 165,000 residents — have antibodies indicating a past infection by the novel coronavirus, dwarfing the state health department’s tally of about 10,600 cases, according to preliminary study results announced by University of Miami researchers Friday. The study, spurred by Miami-Dade County officials, will be an ongoing weekly survey …