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Category: Health

It’s wrong to blame bats for the coronavirus epidemic

It’s wrong to blame bats for the coronavirus epidemic

A small colony of Townsend’s big eared bats at Lava Beds National Monument, Calif. Shawn Thomas, NPS/Flickr By Peter Alagona, University of California, Santa Barbara Genomic research showing that the COVID-19 coronavirus likely originated in bats has produced heavy media coverage and widespread concern. There is now danger that frightened people and misguided officials will try to curb the epidemic by culling these remarkable creatures, even though this strategy has failed in the past. As an environmental historian focusing on…

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How Covid-19 spread undetected across America because of a failure to implement large-scale testing

How Covid-19 spread undetected across America because of a failure to implement large-scale testing

The New York Times reports: Early on, the dozen federal officials charged with defending America against the coronavirus gathered day after day in the White House Situation Room, consumed by crises. They grappled with how to evacuate the United States consulate in Wuhan, China, ban Chinese travelers and extract Americans from the Diamond Princess and other cruise ships. The members of the coronavirus task force typically devoted only five or 10 minutes, often at the end of contentious meetings, to…

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How the world’s wealthiest country ran out of 75-cent face masks

How the world’s wealthiest country ran out of 75-cent face masks

Farhad Manjoo writes: Why is the United States running out of face masks for medical workers? How does the world’s wealthiest country find itself in such a tragic and avoidable mess? And how long will it take to get enough protective gear, if that’s even possible now? I’ve spent the last few days digging into these questions, because the shortages of protective gear, particularly face masks, has struck me as one of the more disturbing absurdities in America’s response to…

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Would everyone wearing face masks help us slow the pandemic?

Would everyone wearing face masks help us slow the pandemic?

Science reports: As cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ballooned last month, people in Europe and North America scrambled to get their hands on surgical masks to protect themselves. Health officials jumped in to discourage them, worried about the limited supply of masks for health care personnel. “Seriously people-STOP BUYING MASKS!” began a 29 February tweet from U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. The World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have both said that only…

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More Americans should probably wear masks for protection

More Americans should probably wear masks for protection

The New York Times reports: As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, experts have started to question official guidance about whether ordinary, healthy people should protect themselves with a regular surgical mask, or even a scarf. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to state that masks don’t necessarily protect healthy individuals from getting infected as they go about their daily lives. The official guidance continues to recommend that masks should be reserved for people…

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ER doctor who criticized hospital’s coronavirus protections gets fired

ER doctor who criticized hospital’s coronavirus protections gets fired

The Seattle Times reports: An emergency room physician who publicly decried what he called a lack of protective measures against the novel coronavirus at his workplace, PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, has been fired. Ming Lin, who has worked at the hospital for 17 years and became a local cause célèbre for his pleas for more safety equipment and more urgent measures to protect staff, was informed of his termination as he was preparing for a shift at the hospital…

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Coronavirus modelers factor in new public health risk: Accusations their work is a hoax

Coronavirus modelers factor in new public health risk: Accusations their work is a hoax

The Washington Post reports: In the one month since the first U.S. coronavirus death, America has become a country of uncertainty. New cases of infection and casualties continue multiplying. New York and Louisiana hospitals are grappling with a flood of patients that threatens to overwhelm their health-care systems. Meanwhile, the president and political conservatives are increasingly agitating to end drastic restrictions meant to buy time and save lives. Running beneath it all, in a continuous loop through our national psyche,…

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The road to coronavirus hell was paved by evangelicals

The road to coronavirus hell was paved by evangelicals

Katherine Stewart writes: Donald Trump rose to power with the determined assistance of a movement that denies science, bashes government and prioritized loyalty over professional expertise. In the current crisis, we are all reaping what that movement has sown. At least since the 19th century, when the proslavery theologian Robert Lewis Dabney attacked the physical sciences as “theories of unbelief,” hostility to science has characterized the more extreme forms of religious nationalism in the United States. Today, the hard core…

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Death rate soars in New Orleans coronavirus ‘disaster’ that could define city for generations

Death rate soars in New Orleans coronavirus ‘disaster’ that could define city for generations

USA Today reports: Throngs of revelers may have brought the coronavirus to New Orleans during Mardi Gras celebrations here. But the city’s poverty rate, lack of healthcare and affordable housing, and high rates of residents with preexisting medical conditions may be driving its explosive growth and could make it the next U.S. epicenter of the outbreak. The number of known coronavirus cases in Louisiana jumped to 2,305 on Thursday, an increase of 510 cases from Wednesday, and a total of…

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Poll finds universal lifestyle changes, rising stress and growing fears about catching coronavirus

Poll finds universal lifestyle changes, rising stress and growing fears about catching coronavirus

The Washington Post reports: The spreading coronavirus pandemic has brought massive and sudden disruption to the daily lives of most Americans amid rapidly rising fears that they could become ill with the covid-19 disease, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Almost overnight, the threat from the virus has changed habits and lifestyles. Roughly 9 in 10 say they are staying home “as much as possible” and are practicing social distancing to lessen the risk of getting the virus. Nearly…

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As U.S. struggles to stem coronavirus, China asserts itself as global leader

As U.S. struggles to stem coronavirus, China asserts itself as global leader

NBC News reports: With Italy in dire need of medical equipment, an economic superpower stepped in to help. No, not the United States. It was China. Beijing last week promised Rome a thousand ventilators and 2 million masks, part of a global outreach effort that includes massive donations across Africa and a $20 million gift to the World Health Organization earmarked to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration, meanwhile, proposed slashing the U.S. contribution to the WHO last month…

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America first: U.S. now leads the world in confirmed coronavirus cases

America first: U.S. now leads the world in confirmed coronavirus cases

The New York Times reports: Scientists warned that the United States someday would become the country hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. That moment arrived on Thursday. In the United States, at least 81,321 people are known to have been infected with the coronavirus, including more than 1,000 deaths — more cases than China, Italy or any other country has seen, according to data gathered by The New York Times. With 330 million residents, the United States is the world’s…

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Trump wants to ‘reopen America.’ Here’s what happens if we do

Trump wants to ‘reopen America.’ Here’s what happens if we do

Nicholas Kristof and Stuart A. Thompson write: President Trump says he wants the United States “raring to go” in two and a half weeks, on Easter, with “packed churches all over our country.” He and many other political conservatives suggest that we are responding to something like the flu with remedies that may be more devastating than the disease. We created this interactive model with epidemiologists to show why quickly returning to normal could be a historic mistake that would…

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New Orleans faces a coronavirus nightmare, and Mardi Gras may be why

New Orleans faces a coronavirus nightmare, and Mardi Gras may be why

The New York Times reports: Yanti Turang, an emergency room nurse at a New Orleans hospital, walked out into the parking lot in full protective gear early this month to meet a woman with flulike symptoms who had just returned home after a layover in South Korea. The woman was immediately taken to an isolation room. Around the same time, a man who had never left the country and had been in New Orleans throughout the just-concluded Mardi Gras season,…

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Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook

Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook

Politico reports: The Trump administration, state officials and even individual hospital workers are now racing against each other to get the necessary masks, gloves and other safety equipment to fight coronavirus — a scramble that hospitals and doctors say has come too late and left them at risk. But according to a previously unrevealed White House playbook, the government should’ve begun a federal-wide effort to procure that personal protective equipment at least two months ago. “Is there sufficient personal protective…

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Job vacancies and inexperience mar federal response to coronavirus

Job vacancies and inexperience mar federal response to coronavirus

The New York Times reports: Of the 75 senior positions at the Department of Homeland Security, 20 are either vacant or filled by acting officials, including Chad F. Wolf, the acting secretary who recently was unable to tell a Senate committee how many respirators and protective face masks were available in the United States. The National Park Service, which like many federal agencies is full of vacancies in key posts, tried this week to fill the job of a director…

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