| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| Governors see possible 'flattening' of the curve in latest coronavirus data Posted: 06 Apr 2020 03:31 PM PDT  Improvements in New York, New Jersey, California and Washington raise hopes, but "this isn't over," one governor warns.
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| The CDC now recommends wearing a mask in some cases – a physician explains why and when to wear one Posted: 06 Apr 2020 05:08 AM PDT  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its policy and is now advising everyone, whether or not they have symptoms of COVID-19, to cover their face with a mask or cloth covering whenever social distancing is difficult to maintain. To be clear, the CDC is not saying you should wear a mask wherever you go, but rather in places where people congregate, including grocery stores and public transportation and ride-shares. The shift in recommendations reflects growing evidence that COVID-19 can be transmitted by a person's exhalations and normal speech but also the fact that people are not effectively covering their sneezes and coughs. The stealth virusCOVID-19's middle name should be "stealth." People can be shedding virus for one to three days before showing any symptoms – including no coughing, sneezing or fever – in what's called "presymptomatic transmission." A Singapore study suggests that 10% of infections are attributable to presymptomatic spread. A study of the 3,711 passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess cruise ship indicates that close to 1 in 5 COVID-19 carriers never develop symptoms. Some these people transmit the virus through "asymptomatic transmission." The proportion of infected people that never develop symptoms could be more like one-third for the general population that is younger and healthier than typical cruise takers. The virus's ability to spread so easily from one person to the next is why people are being asked to physically distance themselves from one another. But people still have to go out to get essentials at places where people gather. If a person is not coughing or sneezing, how are they spreading the virus? One way is by contact. The virus lives on the mucous membranes in the throat and nose. With people touching their faces every two-and-a-half minutes, on average it's easy to see how the virus gets on our hands, and then we can spread it to commonly used surfaces like door knobs, a plastic handle in the subway or someone else's hand. Steel and plastic surfaces can harbor live virus for three days.The other manner of spread is by asymptomatic infected people simply breathing, talking, yelling or singing. These activities aerosolize virus, creating airborne virus particles – also called droplet nuclei – that are so tiny they can float around in the air for three hours. Coughing and sneezing produce larger water and virus-borne droplets, as well as producing aerosolized virus. Common medical devices, like nebulizer machines for people with asthma and CPAP machines for those with sleep apnea, can aerosolize virus. But the concentration of aerosolized virus will be small in a large well-ventilated space and practically absent outdoors. Infectious aerosolized virus becomes more of a concern in a place like a small, poorly ventilated room. Places like a patient's bedroom in their home, some nursing home rooms and a classroom would all be concerning to me as a physician. Hospital rooms are generally better ventilated.Another key determinant of getting infected is the amount of time you are exposed – so your risk is much less with five minutes versus 30 or more minutes of exposure. People think about the danger of radiation exposure in very much the same way – how close you are to the source, the concentration of exposure and the amount of time you are exposed. DIY and surgical masks may protect you and othersThe purpose of all of us wearing face coverings or surgical masks anywhere people congregate is first and foremost to protect others if we sneeze or cough. These coverings will stop much of the large droplets that could otherwise reach people as far away as 18 feet away. Just-published research indicates that surgical masks can also decrease the amount of aerosolized virus the people produce by breathing and talking. A big question is: Can these DIY or surgical masks also protect the wearer? The same research study shows these masks impede aerosolized virus being expelled out by the user so presumably they can decrease breathing in the virus as well. But they aren't foolproof. These coverings don't fit the face tightly, so aerosolized virus and larger droplets can be sucked in through the gaps between the face and the mask when we take a breath. Additionally, some of the viral particles are so small that they can be inhaled through the cloth or paper that's used to make these masks. People should not be lulled into a false sense of security in thinking that these types of masks will protect them from airborne, aerosolized virus especially in poorly ventilated spaces frequented by others. The best thing to do is to either avoid such spaces or be in them for as short a period of time as possible. The bottom lineThe chance of catching COVID-19 from a person walking by outdoors is extremely small. Wearing face coverings is recommended and requested for when you are indoors, including mass transit and ride-shares, with other people. Anywhere you go, maintain physical distancing of at least 6 feet with no bodily contact. If someone nearby sneezes or coughs and they aren't wearing a mask, get at least 20 feet away, quickly. When you do go out on an errand, wear a face covering and get your business done as fast as you can. You don't need a N-95 mask if you wear a face covering when you go out in a public indoor place or ride mass transit and practice good physical distancing. Health care workers have to care for their COVID-19 patients within very close distances for prolonged periods of time. If they don't have a N-95 mask, the risk goes way up for them. If you have a N-95 mask, please donate it to your local hospital or first responder.[You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read our newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Why wear face masks in public? Here's what the research shows * The global effort to tackle the coronavirus face mask shortageThomas Perls does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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 NBC's "Meet the Press."
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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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| 'He's answered that question.' Trump interrupts when reporter asks Fauci about hydroxychloroquine Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:13 AM PDT  President Trump interjected when a reporter asked Anthony Fauci about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine. "He's answered that question 15 times."
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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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| UN report: Syria or allies likely behind 5 civilian attacks Posted: 06 Apr 2020 12:14 PM PDT |
| Trump says may jump into Navy furor after captain ridiculed in speech Posted: 06 Apr 2020 07:15 AM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump said he may get involved in a deepening crisis in the Navy after its top civilian on Monday ridiculed a revered former commander whose letter pleading for help for his coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier was leaked to the public. In a surprise speech to crew members of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt that was meant to be a private address, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly defended his decision to relieve Captain Brett Crozier of his command due to the leak. "If he didn't think that information was going to get out into the public in this information age that we live in, then he was A, too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly said on the carrier while it was docked in Guam on Monday.
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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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| 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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| Boris Johnson has received oxygen treatment after being admitted to hospital for 'persistent symptoms of coronavirus' Posted: 06 Apr 2020 06:03 AM PDT  Aides have become "increasingly worried" about Prime Minister Boris Johnson's health since he tested positive for the coronavirus.
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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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| Hydroxychloroquine: Can India help Trump with unproven 'corona drug'? Posted: 06 Apr 2020 03:57 AM PDT  India may 'reconsider' a ban on exporting hydroxychloroquine after a call from the US President.
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| Coral Princess cruise passenger dies of coronavirus after disembarking delay, daughter says Posted: 06 Apr 2020 03:52 PM PDT  Julie Maa says her father died of coronavirus after a disembarking delay on the Coral Princess, while her mother is still aboard with symptoms.
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| Tesla engineers show ventilator prototype on YouTube Posted: 05 Apr 2020 06:33 PM PDT  Engineers at Tesla Inc showed a prototype for a ventilator on Sunday evening in a video published on the company's YouTube channel, as hospitals around the country overwhelmed by coronavirus patients face device shortages. The design for the ventilators relies heavily on Tesla car parts, one of the engineers said, enabling the company to redeploy existing stock and produce the devices quickly. The video comes two weeks after Chief Executive Elon Musk said Tesla planned to reopen its New York factory to produce ventilators.
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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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| 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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| The man accused of leaking intimate photos of Jeff Bezos to the National Enquirer says the real source of the images is Saudi Arabia Posted: 06 Apr 2020 09:50 AM PDT  Michael Sanchez is the brother of Jeff Bezos' girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez. He does admit to confirming the relationship to the Enquirer.
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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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| Trump Urges Coronavirus Patients to Take Unproven Drug Posted: 05 Apr 2020 08:19 AM PDT  President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the federal government was placing millions of doses of a malaria drug in the federal stockpile of emergency medical supplies to make it available for coronavirus patients, even though the drug has not been approved for COVID-19 treatment and his top coronavirus advisers have warned that more study is needed to determine its safety and efficacy.Though advisers, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have cautioned many times that more data is needed on the drug, hydroxychloroquine, Trump, in a White House briefing, went so far as to urge patients to take it."What do you have to lose? Take it," the president said. "I really think they should take it. But it's their choice. And it's their doctor's choice or the doctors in the hospital. But hydroxychloroquine. Try it, if you'd like."During the briefing, as Fauci and other advisers looked on, the president talked about the potential of other medicines, too. He mentioned azithromycin, often referred to as a Z-Pak, which has been given to some patients along with hydroxychloroquine."The other thing, if you have a heart condition, I understand, probably you stay away from the Z-Pak. But that's an antibiotic. It can clean out the lung. The lungs are a point of attack for this horrible virus."In addition to treating malaria, hydroxychloroquine is also prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and some other autoimmune diseases. Laboratory studies in cultured cells have suggested that it may block the coronavirus from invading cells. And some researchers think its ability to dial back an overactive immune system -- the reason it is used for autoimmune diseases -- might help relieve the life-threatening inflammation that develops in some coronavirus patients.Still, there is no definitive proof that it works against the coronavirus, and it does not have Food and Drug Administration approval for that use. Early reports from China and France suggested that it could help, but the studies had flaws that made the findings less than reliable. Many researchers have called for controlled clinical trials to determine once and for all whether hydroxychloroquine has any value for coronavirus patients.A more recent study from China was conducted more carefully than the earlier ones, and found that the drug did help, but the study was small, included only mildly ill patients and its authors said more research was needed.Trump seized on the drug several weeks ago, at one point saying it would be a "game changer" in the course of the pandemic. Hoarding and a run on the drug followed, leaving patients who rely on the drug for chronic diseases wondering whether they would be able to fill their prescriptions.On Saturday, he continued with that message. "If this drug works, it will be not a game changer because that's not a nice enough term. It will be wonderful," he said. "It will be so beautiful. It will be a gift from heaven if it works."With no proven treatment for the coronavirus, many hospitals in the United States have simply been giving hydroxychloroquine to patients, reasoning that it might help and probably will not hurt, because it is relatively safe. But it is not considered safe for people with abnormal heart rhythms.At the Saturday briefing, Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said the agency had given special permission for imported hydroxychloroquine to be used in the United States, in part to make sure that there would be enough for patients who need it for chronic diseases like lupus.On Friday, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, warned Americans against assuming the drug would be a silver bullet against the coronavirus, noting that evidence of its effectiveness was scant and more studies were needed.But on Saturday, Trump continued to wax enthusiastic."We're going to be distributing it through the Strategic National Stockpile," he said, adding, "We have millions and millions of doses of it; 29 million to be exact."The Department of Health and Human Services directed questions to the Strategic National Reserve, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Trump said he also had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India about procuring millions more doses of hydroxychloroquine from that country.He also said there was a study indicating that patients with lupus did not contract the coronavirus, implying that perhaps their use of hydroxychloroquine was protecting them."They should look at the lupus thing. I don't know what it says, but there's a rumor out there that because it takes care of lupus very effectively as I understand it, and it's a, you know, a drug that's used for lupus. So there's a study out there that says people that have lupus haven't been catching this virus. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not."It is not clear what study he was referring to. Researchers from China did report that they noticed that their lupus patients had not caught the virus, but the observation was anecdotal, not proof.At the briefing Saturday, Fauci said the observation was worth studying.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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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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| Taliban warn peace deal with US near breaking point Posted: 05 Apr 2020 11:48 AM PDT  The Taliban said their peace deal with the United States was nearing a breaking point, accusing Washington of violations that included drone attacks on civilians, while also chastising the Afghan government for delaying the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners promised in the agreement. The Taliban said they had restricted attacks against Afghan security forces to rural outposts, had not attacked international forces and had not attacked Afghan forces in cities or military installations. The Taliban said these limits on their attacks had not been specifically laid out in the agreement with the U.S. signed in February.
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| U.S. enters 'peak death week' for coronavirus, British PM in intensive care Posted: 06 Apr 2020 11:09 AM PDT |
| 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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| 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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| U.K. Virus Deaths Slow as Government Mulls Tighter Lockdown Posted: 05 Apr 2020 06:49 AM PDT |
| Venezuelans stream home from Colombia due to virus pandemic Posted: 05 Apr 2020 09:03 PM PDT  Hundreds of Venezuelans who fled to neighboring Colombia during their country's economic crisis are now returning home, pushed by the deadly novel coronavirus and Colombia's own pandemic woes. Colombian migration officials said Sunday that 600 people -- including 35 children and 167 women -- crossed the main border point at the Simon Bolivar International Bridge in the northeastern city of Cucuta, into Venezuela one day earlier. Although the border is officially closed as a measure taken to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, Colombia has opened a "humanitarian corridor" to allow Venezuelans to return home.
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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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| '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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| Japan's Abe unveils 'massive' coronavirus stimulus worth 20% of GDP Posted: 06 Apr 2020 12:12 AM PDT  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged on Monday to roll out an unprecedented economic stimulus package, equal to 20% of economic output, as his government vowed to take "all steps" to battle deepening fallout from the coronavirus. The package, to be confirmed by the cabinet on Tuesday, will total 108 trillion yen ($989 billion), far exceeding one compiled in the wake of the 2009 financial crisis totalling 56 trillion yen in size, with fiscal spending of 15 trillion yen. "We decided to carry out an unprecedentedly massive scale of economic package worth 108 trillion yen, or 20% of GDP, following the immense damage to the economy from the novel coronavirus," Abe told reporters after a meeting with senior ruling party lawmakers.
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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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