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Category: Health

Coronavirus testing hits dramatic slowdown in U.S.

Coronavirus testing hits dramatic slowdown in U.S.

Politico reports: The number of coronavirus tests analyzed each day by commercial labs in the U.S. plummeted by more than 30 percent over the past week, even though new infections are still surging in many states and officials are desperately trying to ramp up testing so the country can reopen. One reason for the drop-off may be the narrow testing criteria that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last revised in March. The agency’s guidelines prioritize hospitalized patients, health…

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Liar-in-chief: Trump’s dystopian campaign of revisionist history

Liar-in-chief: Trump’s dystopian campaign of revisionist history

McKay Coppins writes: On February 28, Donald Trump stood before a crowd of supporters in South Carolina and told them to pay no attention to the growing warnings of a coronavirus outbreak in America. The press was “in hysteria mode,” the president said. The Democrats were playing politics. This new virus was nothing compared with the seasonal flu—and anyone who said otherwise was just trying to hurt him. “This is their new hoax,” Trump proclaimed, squinting out from behind a…

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Role models: Researchers show world leaders how to behave in a crisis

Role models: Researchers show world leaders how to behave in a crisis

In an editorial, Nature journal says: Although the coronavirus pandemic has become a threat to every country on Earth, world leaders are all at sea — showing few signs that they wish to cooperate genuinely to combat it. By contrast, tens of thousands of researchers from different disciplines and countries have joined research and public-health efforts to fight COVID-19. They are working across continents, lending their time, ideas, expertise, equipment and money to the emergency public-health effort. They are providing…

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U.S. may need to extend social distancing for virus until 2022, study indicates

U.S. may need to extend social distancing for virus until 2022, study indicates

Reuters reports: The United States may need to endure social distancing measures adopted during the coronavirus outbreak until 2022, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health. The study comes as more than 2,200 people died in the United States from the outbreak on Tuesday, a record, according to a Reuters tally, even as the country debated how to reopen its economy. The overall death toll in the U.S. from the virus stands at more than 28,300 as…

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For six key days, China didn’t warn public of likely pandemic

For six key days, China didn’t warn public of likely pandemic

The Associated Press reports: In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people; millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations. President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day, Jan. 20. But by that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week…

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Trump administration was warned in 2018 about safety risks at Wuhan lab studying bat coronaviruses

Trump administration was warned in 2018 about safety risks at Wuhan lab studying bat coronaviruses

Josh Rogin writes: Two years before the novel coronavirus pandemic upended the world, U.S. Embassy officials visited a Chinese research facility in the city of Wuhan several times and sent two official warnings back to Washington about inadequate safety at the lab, which was conducting risky studies on coronaviruses from bats. The cables have fueled discussions inside the U.S. government about whether this or another Wuhan lab was the source of the virus — even though conclusive proof has yet…

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U.S. military says coronavirus likely occurred naturally but not certain

U.S. military says coronavirus likely occurred naturally but not certain

Reuters reports: U.S. intelligence indicates that the coronavirus likely occurred naturally, as opposed to being created in a laboratory in China, but there is no certainty either way, the top U.S. general said on Tuesday. The remarks by Army General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, could fan speculation about the coronavirus’ origins — something China has dismissed as a conspiracy theory that is unhelpful to the fight against the pandemic. Asked whether he had any…

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U.S. Covid-19 death toll is likely much higher than the official count

U.S. Covid-19 death toll is likely much higher than the official count

By Jack Gillum, Lisa Song and Jeff Kao, ProPublica, April 14, 2020 In recent weeks, residents outside Boston have died at home much more often than usual. In Detroit, authorities are responding to nearly four times the number of reports of dead bodies. And in New York, city officials are recording more than 200 home deaths per day — a nearly sixfold increase from recent years. As of Tuesday afternoon, the United States had logged more than 592,000 cases of…

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Governor wouldn’t issue a stay home order. Now South Dakota has one of the nation’s largest coronavirus hot spots

Governor wouldn’t issue a stay home order. Now South Dakota has one of the nation’s largest coronavirus hot spots

The Washington Post reports: As governors across the country fell into line in recent weeks, South Dakota’s top elected leader stood firm: There would be no statewide order to stay home. Such edicts to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, Gov. Kristi L. Noem said disparagingly, reflected a “herd mentality.” It was up to individuals — not government — to decide whether “to exercise their right to work, to worship and to play. Or to even stay at home.”…

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Inequality doesn’t just make pandemics worse — it could cause them

Inequality doesn’t just make pandemics worse — it could cause them

Laura Spinney writes: A lot has been written about how this pandemic is exacerbating social inequalities. But what if it’s because our societies are so unequal that this pandemic happened? There is a school of thought that, historically, pandemics have been more likely to occur at times of social inequality and discord. As the poor get poorer, the thinking goes, their baseline health suffers, making them more prone to infection. At the same time they are forced to move more,…

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As coronavirus pandemic rages, Trump disregards advice to tighten clean air rules

As coronavirus pandemic rages, Trump disregards advice to tighten clean air rules

The New York Times reports: Disregarding an emerging scientific link between dirty air and Covid-19 death rates, the Trump administration declined on Tuesday to tighten a regulation on industrial soot emissions that came up for review ahead of the coronavirus pandemic. Andrew R. Wheeler, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said his agency will not impose stricter controls on the tiny, lung-damaging industrial particles, known as PM 2.5, a regulatory action that has been in the works for months….

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‘We need an army’: Hiring of coronavirus contact tracers seen as key to curbing disease spread

‘We need an army’: Hiring of coronavirus contact tracers seen as key to curbing disease spread

STAT reports: K.J. Seung is surprised to be hiring and training new workers in Boston. His public health nonprofit, Partners in Health, specializes in helping the poorest people in developing nations — tracking down contacts of Ebola patients in Liberia and Sierra Leone; running child health and HIV clinics in Haiti; and operating tuberculosis control programs in Peru. But now it is advertising for 500 people to help do what’s known as contact tracing to try to control Covid-19 in…

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East and West coast governors preempt move by Trump and form pacts to control reopening of economies

East and West coast governors preempt move by Trump and form pacts to control reopening of economies

CNN reports: States on the country’s East and West coasts are forming their own regional pacts to work together on how to reopen from the stay-at-home orders each has issued to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. The first such group to be announced came Monday on the East Coast. Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island and Massachusetts each plan to name a public health and economic official to…

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As more of grocery workers die, increasingly they fear showing up at work

As more of grocery workers die, increasingly they fear showing up at work

The Washington Post reports: Doug Preszler wasn’t thinking about risk when he took a cashier job at a regional supermarket in eastern Iowa. But five months in, he has found himself at the forefront of a global crisis with little training or protection — save for the pocket-size bottle of hand sanitizer and Ziploc full of disposable gloves he brings from home each day. The 51-year-old has told himself not to live in fear yet concedes he increasingly is. Even…

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Apple, Google debut major effort to help people track if they’ve come in contact with coronavirus

Apple, Google debut major effort to help people track if they’ve come in contact with coronavirus

The Washington Post reports: Apple and Google unveiled an ambitious effort Friday to help combat the novel coronavirus, introducing new tools that could soon allow owners of smartphones to know if they have crossed paths with someone infected with the disease. The changes the two companies announced targeting iPhone and Android devices could inject valuable new technological support into contact tracing, a strategy public health officials say is essential to allowing people to return to work and normal life while…

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