A woman is tested for the coronavirus at Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A woman is tested for the coronavirus at Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City.
Earlier in this pandemic, the shortage of tests for the coronavirus was a major problem in fighting the spread of COVID-19. The shortage was such that many hospitals and clinics would test only someone who had traveled to a country with an outbreak, had a known exposure to a positive case or showed symptoms of the disease.
But access to tests has improved significantly, and in some places, people can now get tested without having to show any symptoms at all. So if you can get tested, should you?
The answer is a little complicated. One point to clarify: We're talking here about the diagnostic or PCR test, used to diagnose people who are currently sick with COVID-19. We're not talking about antibody or antigen tests, which are different.
The short answer to the question is: Sure, get tested if you want. But the tests are not perfect, and the result will tell you only so much.
Let's say you test positive. Your doctor will likely instruct you to self-isolate at home. Since you're not showing symptoms, it could mean that you happened to be tested at just the right time and are infected with the virus but are asymptomatic. You could also be presymptomatic and develop symptoms in the coming days. The CDC says that if you continue to have no symptoms, you can end self-isolation 10 days after your test.
A positive result could also mean you were sick weeks earlier, fully recovered and are not infectious. The PCR test has sometimes shown positive results weeks after someone recovers, says Dr. Abraar Karan, a physician at Harvard Medical School: "The test could be detecting RNA [of the virus] even in people who are recovered but that doesn't mean that they're infectious."
Now let's say you test negative. That news would probably come as a relief. Perhaps you're hoping a negative result would free you to do certain activities without fear say, return to work or visit an older family member you haven't seen in months.
But Dr. Emily Landon, a hospital epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist at University of Chicago Medicine, warns that a negative test shouldn't be seen as your ticket to stop being cautious.
"We don't know how good these tests are in individuals who don't have symptoms," she says. "We know they're pretty good at picking up COVID when it's present in people who have symptoms. But we have no idea what a negative test means in an individual that doesn't have symptoms."
"We are certain that there are people who test negative even though they are definitely contagious," she says. "A positive test can make us relatively certain that you are shedding COVID. But a negative test does not mean the opposite." It could be that you were tested too early in the disease process or that the swab didn't pick up your infection.
Landon says it takes at least three to five days after exposure to test positive. What's more, some people test positive, then negative, then positive again. Hospitals often test people with symptoms twice to try to be more certain about the finding.
The imperfections in test results have made it difficult to know how often health care workers need to be tested, she says, because a negative test doesn't mean you don't have the virus or "that you can just stop wearing your mask and not worry about it anymore."
In other words, she says, if you're getting tested to get peace of mind, a negative test shouldn't give you much peace of mind.
Nonetheless, Robert Hecht, a professor of clinical epidemiology at Yale University, offers "an encouraging thumbs-up" to anyone who decides to get tested for the virus just because.
"This idea that you should be both concerned about your own status and recognize that you can be infected without symptoms and that states should try to make more testing capacity available for people like that," he says. "I think those are all good things in general."
From a public health perspective, Landon says, there is some value in the odd asymptomatic person being tested and finding out whether they are indeed infected with the coronavirus. "It gives you a better idea of how many people are sick. It helps us to understand the test dynamics better. And anytime somebody is positive, you can remove them from the equation [of transmission]," she says, by taking precautions so they don't infect others.
But since the negative test doesn't tell you for sure that you don't have the virus, it's not a 100% guarantee that it's safe to visit your 80-year-old grandparent.
Rent the Runway has temporarily closed stores during the pandemic as customers have shied away from using its clothing rental service. Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for Rent the Runway hide caption
Rent the Runway has temporarily closed stores during the pandemic as customers have shied away from using its clothing rental service.
Kim Timko used to rely on Rent the Runway for dresses for weddings and parties, outfits for date nights, and professional clothes for her job as a lawyer in New York. She said the clothing-rental service is "a nice way to have expensive clothes without having to buy."
But weddings have been postponed, parties canceled, and Timko is working from home during the coronavirus pandemic. Like many others, she has put her Rent the Runway subscription on hold. She may even cancel it.
She said renting expensive clothes just isn't worth the money right now or the risk of getting the virus as unlikely as that may be.
"Any packages I get, I wipe them down," Timko said. "You can't really do that with a dress. A $600 dress or something you can't, like, Lysol it."
Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman said in a statement: "While there is no evidence to suggest that [COVID-19] is spread via surfaces like fabric, all our garments, accessories, hangers, and reusable packaging are meticulously cleaned and steamed each time they are returned to us, and then sealed in plastic to protect them from any elements including human touchthat they may encounter in transit to the next customer."
Still, the company has taken a big financial hit from the pandemic. It has laid off and furloughed employees, and temporarily closed its retail stores.
Like Uber and Airbnb, Rent the Runway was founded in the wake of the Great Recession. Fueled by mountains of private capital, these companies tapped the power of smartphone apps to make it easy for strangers to share their cars, homes and even clothing. Along the way, they upended the traditional taxi, hotel and retail industries.
Now the pandemic may upend them. As another recession looms this one paired with a health crisis these businesses' survival depends on convincing customers it is safe to share at a time when health authorities are warning everyone to keep their distance.
The new safety regime: disinfectants and masks
Rent the Runway is not the only company emphasizing its cleanliness and safety rules to reassure customers.
Airbnb has created new cleaning protocols for hosts, including training on how to disinfect a home in partnership with former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.
Uber and Lyft now require drivers and passengers to wear masks. They are also giving cleaning supplies to drivers. Uber is even using facial scanning technology to ensure drivers are complying.
These measures are meant to address the immediate concerns of stopping the spread of the virus. But businesses built around sharing also are being forced to adapt to a reality where customers are far more cautious about anything that brings them in proximity with other people and, potentially, the virus. Some companies are seeking new ways to win over people's trust.
As lockdowns lift, Airbnb sees a rise in weekend getaways
International travel is pretty much off the table right now. So is renting a shared room or apartment. The short-term rental platform Airbnb expects its sales this year to be, at best, half of what they were last year. It has cut 25% of its workforce as it tries to squeeze costs.
But Airbnb said people have started to plan trips again. As evidence of a rebound, it said the number of future stays booked by people in North America was down just 20% on May 19 from the same date a year ago. Notably, though, the company has not said how much bookings plummeted at the lowest point of the pandemic.
In a reflection of the ongoing threat of the coronavirus, about half of recent bookings are for rentals within 200 miles of where people live. In other words, they are choosing destinations to where they can drive.
Murry Evans got tired of being cooped up in his Atlanta apartment.
"I'm sitting in my condo here in Atlanta, just on Zoom all day long," he said. He has used Airbnb for a couple of weekend getaways to the North Georgia mountains.
"It's just been to get out of the house and get into the outdoors where I can go hiking," he added.
He said staying at an Airbnb in the mountains feels like less of a risk than going to movie theaters, which have recently reopened in Georgia. He brings along disinfectant wipes to clean frequently touched surfaces such as doorknobs and refrigerator handles.
"My sense is if I take the proper precautions, it's going to be just like I'd take the precautions when I'm in my own home," he said.
Trading a crowded bus for car-sharing app Turo
For some sharing companies, the pandemic may even create opportunities for more business.
The app Turo lets users rent other people's cars. Alexis Jordan is using it to commute from her Washington, D.C., home to her job at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland a trip that she took by bus before the pandemic.
Jordan said she does not feel comfortable on public transportation right now.
"A lot of people would get on the bus and not wear a mask. And I just felt like Metro wasn't really taking the proper precautions," she said. "I felt more exposed."
She considered taking Uber or a taxi but was reluctant "because I'm still in close proximity with someone else," she said.
Now she wears a mask when picking up her car and, like Evans, carries wipes to clean the steering wheel and door handles.
In early April, Turo's bookings had dropped 75% from a year ago similar to the ridership drops Uber and Lyft reported at the height of the pandemic. But Turo said demand is starting to come back, with bookings over Memorial Day weekend down 11% from a year ago. Uber is also seeing more rides during rush hour in cities that are lifting stay-at-home orders, according to Andrew Macdonald, head of its global rides business.
At Turo, the rebound is being driven by local trips, thanks to commuters such as Jordan and others who just want to get out of the house.
People want to take "leisurely drives," said Andrew Mok, Turo's chief marketing officer. "They book a car, they drive up Pacific Coast Highway or they drive down to Santa Cruz from San Francisco and they drive back home."
The economic toll of the pandemic could also encourage more people to start renting their cars on Turo, Mok said.
"In a recession, folks are going to be looking even harder to make ends meet," he said. "If they can share their cars for a few days a week or a few days a month to offset all or most of their vehicle expenses, they're going to really consider doing that. We think that's going to be a huge tail wind for car-sharing on Turo."
Jordan may be one of those people. "I don't really see myself getting on any public transportation for a while, maybe a year or two," she said.
She said she is thinking about buying a car and renting it out on Turo.
What you need to know Monday:
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Sunday afternoon that the entire state of Texas will be placed under a disaster declaration in response to demonstrators in several Texas cities protesting the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed Monday in Minneapolis police custody.
The declaration allowed Abbott to designate federal law enforcement officers to perform the duties of peace officers in Texas.
Thousands of protesters marched in Texas cities on Friday and Saturday, outraged after Floyd was filmed crying out for help as a white police officer pinned him to the ground with a knee to his neck. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was later arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Alex Samuels
Gov. Greg Abbott had given El Paso County and the Amarillo area two of the state's biggest recent COVID-19 hot spots a temporary reprieve from implementing Texas' next phase of reopening. That reprieve was set to last until last Friday, both areas were required to implement the newest phase of reopening that took effect in the rest of the state the previous week.
While Abbott said the Amarillo area had "turned a corner," the picture in the El Paso area wasn't as clear. County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said officials have made good progress in increasing testing for the new coronavirus amid a surge in new cases this month. But he said he hadnt seen enough improvement to be sure the county is ready for the expanded opening. El Paso Mayor Dee Margo, on the other hand, said the situation in El Paso is more manageable now. A spokesman for Abbott echoed that optimism, citing a decline in the infection rate and stability with hospital capacity Julin Aguilar
Texas officials will release their latest total of people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus on Monday. Texas reported 1,949 more cases of the new coronavirus Sunday the highest increase since the state began reporting coronavirus case counts.
Almost every county in Texas has reported at least one confirmed case of the virus. Harris County has reported the most cases, 12,220, followed by Dallas County, which has reported 10,006 cases. The Tribune publishes maps of the latest case numbers for each county and case rates per 1,000 residents.
The state has reported 24 additional deaths, bringing the statewide total to 1,672. Harris County reported three additional deaths Sunday, bringing its total to 231 deaths, more than any other county.
As of Sunday, 1,684 patients are known to be hospitalized in Texas. Thats a decrease of 68 patients from Saturday. Mandi Cai
Editors note: The Salt Lake Tribune is providing free access to critical stories about the coronavirus. Sign up for our Top Stories newsletter, sent to your inbox every weekday morning. To support journalism like this, please donate or become a subscriber.
For the past several months, the news cycle has been dominated by little other than the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Over the past week, obviously, other issues have come to the forefront.
But the novel coronavirus does not take a break for issues of social justice.
On Sunday, the Utah Department of Health reported 264 new positive cases of COVID-19 in the state the fourth consecutive day of more than 200 new cases, and the third-highest single-day total recorded in Utah since the pandemic began.
UDOH also reported one new death a male adult younger than 65 years old from Wasatch County. That now lifts Utahs death total from COVID-19 to 113.
The bulk of the new cases, as usual, came from Salt Lake County, with 124 of them coming from the states most populous area. However, Utah County also saw a sizable increase, with 59 new cases beyond the figures provided Saturday.
Worryingly, the Two-Week Cumulative Incidence Rate is now showing previously unseen hot spots in places from Logan to St. George. High rates (more than 100 cases per 100,000 people) have been established in Blanding, Logan, Monticello, north Orem, Payson, west Provo, San Juan County, St. George, Wasatch County and Washington City.
The Bear River area has shot up from 102 cases to 218 in seven days.
There has been a significant spike in new cases since May 16, when most of the state moved to the low-risk yellow category for COVID-19 restrictions, encouraging more people to leave their homes. That trend has escalated further still over the past week.
Indeed, with those four consecutive days now of 200-plus new cases, the seven-day average of new cases in the state is 200.71 the highest it has been since the pandemic began. By way of comparison, just a week ago, on May 24, the seven-day average was 164.86. And a week before that, on May 17, the average was 141.
In all, Utah has seen 1,405 new cases this past week; that compares with 1,154 last week, and 987 the week before. The weekly number of deaths decreased by one from 17 a week ago to 16 this week.
One potentially positive development is that hospitalizations in Utah have not seen an increase corresponding with the new-case totals. As of Sunday, it was reported that there 98 positive COVID-19 cases currently hospitalized. On May 24, there were 95 hospitalizations; on May 17, there were 98.
Nationwide, the figures are staggering, but perhaps also promising.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan tweeted, Marylands #COVID19 positivity rate has dropped to 10.9%, down 54.49% from its peak on April 17. Our states current total COVID-19 hospitalizations one of the states key recovery metrics have dropped to 1,183, their lowest level since April 15.
Fifty days ago, on April 12th, we lost 800 people from COVID. Yesterday, we lost 56. Sixty days ago, we had 3,400 people come into our hospitals. Yesterday, we had 191, Cuomo said. The number of lives lost is down to 56, which is in this absurd reality we live in actually very, very good news. This reduction in the number of deaths is tremendous progress. Weve gone through hell and back, and were on the other side.
Of course, given all the mass demonstrations that have erupted across the country over the past week in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, The Associated Press wrote that health experts fear that silent carriers of the virus could unwittingly infect others at protests where people are packed cheek to jowl, many without masks, many chanting, singing or shouting. The virus is dispersed by microscopic droplets in the air when people cough, sneeze, sing or talk.
Whether theyre fired up or not, that doesnt prevent them from getting the virus," Bradley Pollock, chairman of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California, Davis, told the AP about protesters.
By comparison, whites account for 78% of Utahs population, but just 37.2% of its COVID-19 cases as of Sunday.
And, finally, UDOH reported that the total number of Utahns tested is 213,914 meaning there is a 4.6% rate of positives. It also noted 6,137 of our cases are considered recovered. " A case with a diagnosis date of more than three weeks ago, who has not died, is considered recovered.
Governors, mayors and public health officials across the US are raising fears of a surge in coronavirus cases arising from escalating protests over the death of George Floyd.
Floyd, 46, died in Minneapolis on Monday during an arrest by four police officers. The killing focused a fierce light on police brutality towards African Americans, and stoked protest and violence in most major cities.
According to figures from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, the US has seennearly 1.8m infections and nearly 104,000 deathsin the Covid-19 pandemic. In a country that does not have universal healthcare, the crisis has disproportionately affected minorities, particularly those who live in crowded urban areas.
Images of demonstrators in close proximity, many without masks, have therefore alarmed leaders to the point where some are pleading with those on the streets to protest the right way, in order to better protect themselves.
Im concerned that we had mass gatherings on our streets when we just lifted a stay-at-home order and what that could mean for spikes in coronavirus cases later, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington DC, said in a press conference on Sunday.
Im so concerned about it that Im urging everybody to consider their exposure, if they need to isolate from their family members when they go home and if they need to be tested because we have worked very hard to blunt the curve.
Bowser said protests in her city, which has seen violence several days in a row at the White House and other areas, were a mixed bag.
While I saw some people with masks last night, others didnt, she said. I saw some people social distancing, other people were right on top of each other. So we dont want to compound this deadly virus and the impact its had on our community.
Weve been working hard to not have mass gatherings. As a nation, we have to be concerned about rebound.
Bowsers message was echoed by Larry Hogan, the governor of Maryland, and by Keisha Lance-Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta, who said she was extremely concerned about Covid-19 spreading, and that protests had distracted her from dealing with the pandemic.
On Saturday, Bottoms said at a press conference: If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a Covid test this week.
On Sunday, she told CNNs State of the Union: I realised that I hadnt looked at our coronavirus numbers in two days. And thats frightening, because its a pandemic, and people of color are getting hit harder.
We know whats already happening in our community with this virus. Were going to see the other side of this in a couple of weeks.
According to the Georgia health department, more African Americans have contracted Covid-19 in the state than any other race.
The question is: how do we do protesting safely? Dr Ashish Jha, the director of the global health institute at Harvards TH Chan school of public health, told CNN. I think masks are a critical part of it.
In New York, by far the state hardest hit by Covid-19, Governor Andrew Cuomo reported 56 new coronavirus deaths statewide, the lowest number since 23 March. He did not express fears for a resurgence of the virus as a result of the protests, but figured the lockdown was a contributory factor to their proliferation.
Its not a coincidence the unrest happens in the midst of a pandemic, Cuomo said at his daily press briefing. People have lost their jobs. They are isolated at home. People are stressed and worried. It is all of that.
Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, said he supported the publics right to demonstrate peacefully, but added that the protests meant an uncertain future.
You have all the frustrations about injustice, combined with the frustrations about the injustice within the pandemic, because the pandemic displayed immense disparity combined with the fact that people spent two months cooped up indoors, he said.
We dont know what the summer brings.
Dr Theodore Long, leading the citys contact tracing strategy, offered advice.
We strongly encourage anybody who is out in the protests to wear a mask, practice proper hand hygiene and to the extent possible, socially distance, though we know thats not always going to be feasible, he said.
One reason why measles a notoriously contagious disease is so difficult to contain is because its infectious viral particles can linger in the air for up to two hours. Can the coronavirus do the same?
It's a question health officials appear to be grappling with: On Thursday, the San Francisco Department of Public Health said people must wear masks if they are within 30 feet of someone not in their household, a far greater distance than the widely recommended 6 feet of social distancing. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website reads, "It is unknown how long the air inside a room occupied by someone with confirmed COVID-19 remains potentially infectious."
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While scientists say it is possible that the coronavirus can drift through the air, many note there's no evidence these tiny bits of virus are enough to make people sick.
To understand how the virus travels by air, it's important to know whether it's hitched a ride on a jumbo jet or a paper airplane.
"It's basically a size difference," said Dr. Ronald Collman, referring to the size of the droplets that contain viral particles. Collman is a professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine.
When a person with COVID-19 coughs or sneezes, they spew relatively large droplets at least 5 micrometers in diameter into the air. These droplets are filled with viral particles.
Studies have demonstrated how those globs of saliva and sputum are so big and heavy compared to other respiratory emissions, that is that they generally come into contact with another person's face, or fall to the ground or surfaces, within about a six-foot radius.
The CDC believes those respiratory droplets are responsible for the majority of COVID-19 transmissions.
But some studiesshow viral particles can get stuck in tiny aerosols less than 5 micrometers in diameter. They're too light to fall to the ground, thus becoming airborne.
This is much like the water vapor you can see in your breath when it's cold, wafting through the air before slowing dispersing.
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The potential for the coronavirus to linger in the air is concerning to scientists who study aerosols. Kimberly Prather, a distinguished professor in atmospheric chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, addressed the possibility in a paper published this week in the journal Science.
"Aerosol transmission of viruses must be acknowledged as a key factor leading to the spread of infectious respiratory diseases," Prather and her co-authors wrote.
But evidence is lacking that this particular virus is indeed infectious in aerosolized form, Prather told NBC News.
"How long does it live when it's in the air? We still have a lot of work to do to answer that," Prather said.
Other experts agreed.
"Just because some viral element is detected does not mean it is infectious," said Dr. Aditya Shah, an infectious disease fellow at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
That's because when it comes to making a person sick, viruses tend to get their strength in numbers.
Any pathogen including SARS-CoV-2, the type of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 generally requires larger amounts of particles to become infectious. The smaller the particle, scientists say, the less likely it is to carry enough virus to survive a breezy journey into another person's body.
"I think it is plausible that there could be some level of aerosol transmission," Collman said. "But if it occurs, it's probably not very important or common."
Still, as evidence grows that people can spread the virus without having any symptoms, doctors overwhelmingly support the use of face masks to reduce the risk for infecting others with emissions of all sizes.
"People who don't wear face masks think that they're saying, 'I'm tough. I'm strong. I'm not afraid of getting COVID,'" Collman said.
"What they're really saying is, 'I don't give a damn about other people.'"
While the CDC recommends wearing face coverings in public places to cut the risk of spreading potentially infectious droplets, a study published Thursday in the journal BMJ Global Health suggests benefits to masking at home.
Researchers in China surveyed 124 families in which at least one person had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Households that were able to isolate the ill family member, as well as use disinfectants, had a lower chance of viral spread.
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What's more, the study suggested wearing face masks in the home was 79 percent effective in curbing spread of COVID-19 among family members.
"This is the first study to show effectiveness of precautionary mask use, social distancing and regular disinfection in the household," the study authors wrote.
The research also illustrated the elevated risks of transmitting the virus in close quarters, such as sitting around a dinner table or watching TV together. Still, it appears to be too soon for physicians to recommend wearing masks inside the home routinely.
Dr. Katie Passaretti, medical director for infection prevention at Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina, said it may be reasonable to wear a mask inside the home if one family member is often exposed to members of the public, or perhaps is caring for a vulnerable person.
"What's the biggest bang for your buck?" Passaretti asked. "It probably makes the most sense to encourage [masks] in households with individuals who are at higher risk for more severe disease," such as older adults or people who have weakened immune systems.
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Illustration by Joo Fazenda
There, yet again, were the flames. Before the furious conflagrations erupted in Minneapolis, the final weeks of May had already seemed like the answer to a grim math problem: What is the product of a crisis multiplied by a crisis? The official mortality count of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States swept toward a hundred thousand, while the economic toll had left forty million people out of work. It was difficult to countenance how so much misery could come about so quickly. But on Memorial Day we became video witnesses to the horrific death of George Floyd, at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. By Friday, the looted shops, the charred buildings and cars, the smoldering Third Precinctthese were evidence of what the world looks like when a crisis is cubed.
These seemingly disparate American trials are not unrelated; theyre bound by their predictability and by the ways in which the Trump Administration has exacerbated them since they began. In March, the President claimed that nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion, and he has echoed that sentiment throughout the course of the emergency. But virtually everyone paying attention to public health saw something like the novel coronavirus coming. In less than two decades, we have seen epidemics of the SARS, MERS, Ebola, and H1N1 viruses. The Obama Administration created a National Security Council Directorate to mitigate the impact of such events; the Trump Administration largely disbanded it.
On Friday, Trump tweeted that the protesters in Minneapolis were thugsa term with deep-rooted racist connotationsand later noted that the military was present in the city. When the looting starts, he warned, the shooting starts. This situation, too, is part of a long-building problem whose warning signs have gone unheeded by the current Administration. Progressives have widely criticized the 1994 Crime Bill, which was spearheaded by Joe Biden, but an element of that legislation has been underappreciated. The 1992 Los Angeles riots broke out after the acquittal of four police officers who had violently assaulted Rodney King (an incident that was also captured on video). As has often been the case with riots, the chaotic fury in Los Angeles was not simply a response to one incident but an accretion of anger at innumerable issues with a police department which had gone unaddressed for years. The Crime Bill authorized the civil-rights division of the Department of Justice to intervene in the instance of chronically troubled departments, by negotiating consent decrees that laid out specific reforms to be followed, and provided for monitors to oversee their implementation. Like the precursors to the coronavirus, Los Angelesand later Ferguson and Baltimorewas an indicator of how such problems could play out without intervention. But, in this area as well, the Trump Administration has functioned like a building contractor who cant recognize a load-bearing wall.
In July, 2017, in an address to law-enforcement officers in Suffolk County, New York, Trump told them to use more force when taking suspects into custody. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and youre protecting the head, he said. You can take the hand away, O.K.? The following May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in a speech to the National Association of Police Organizations, said that the Justice Department will not malign entire police departments. We will not try to micromanage their daily work. That November, as one of his last acts on the job, Sessions issued a memorandum that severely curtailed the civil-rights divisions ability to pursue decrees with police departments. This meant that, in communities plagued with bad policing, resentments could accrue unchecked by any higher authority until they reached their detonation points. Those detonations tend to resemble the streets of Minneapolis this week.
On Thursday, in a press conference that was short on developments or new information, Erica MacDonald, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, said, To be clear, President Trump as well as Attorney General William Barr are directly and actively monitoring the investigation in this case. But what, precisely, does that mean? Barr presides over a civil-rights division that has been stripped of its chief mechanism for creating compliance among police officers. In the past five years, the Twin Cities area has seen three other controversial police shootings: of Jamar Clark, in 2015; of Philando Castile, in 2016; and of Justine Damond, in 2017. Each of these fatal incidents featured a victim of a different racial background from the officers involved, and each was highlighted as an example of police misconduct. Like the COVID cases that emerged in Seattle at the beginning of the year, Minneapolis is a study in the importance of foresight and planning, and an example of what happens when neither of those things occurs.
The President posted his the shooting starts tweet early on Friday morning, just hours before Officer Derek Chauvin, who had knelt on George Floyds neck for eight minutes, was taken into custody and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Twitter, in an unprecedented move, labelled Trumps tweet a violation of company policy against glorifying violence. A Presidential threat to have the United States military shoot civilians is the opposite of leadership, the antithesis of wisdoma comment as ill-advised and as detrimental to the public well-being as recommending injecting disinfectant or self-prescribing hydroxychloroquine.
Our problems generally do not stem from treacherous unknowns; theyre the result of a failure to make good use of what is known already. In July, 1967, after a brutal police raid at an after-hours bar in Detroit, that city exploded in retaliatory violence. A month later, Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech to the American Psychological Association, in which he described riots as durable social phenomena that arise in conjunction with discernible conditionsacts of lawlessness that mirror the excesses of those charged with upholding the law. Leaders cannot predict the future, but they can be cognizant of the immediate past, and the possible dangers it suggests. They cannot be clairvoyant. They need only be intelligent.
When experts recommend wearing masks, staying at least six feet away from others, washing your hands frequently and avoiding crowded spaces, what theyre really saying is: Try to minimize the amount of virus you encounter.
A few viral particles cannot make you sick the immune system would vanquish the intruders before they could. But how much virus is needed for an infection to take root? What is the minimum effective dose?
A precise answer is impossible, because its difficult to capture the moment of infection. Scientists are studying ferrets, hamsters and mice for clues but, of course, it wouldnt be ethical for scientists to expose people to different doses of the coronavirus, as they do with milder cold viruses.
The truth is, we really just dont know, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York. I dont think we can make anything better than an educated guess.
Common respiratory viruses, like influenza and other coronaviruses, should offer some insight. But researchers have found little consistency.
For SARS, also a coronavirus, the estimated infective dose is just a few hundred particles. For MERS, the infective dose is much higher, on the order of thousands of particles.
The new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is more similar to the SARS virus and, therefore, the infectious dose may be hundreds of particles, Dr. Rasmussen said.
But the virus has a habit of defying predictions.
Generally, people who harbor high levels of pathogens whether from influenza, H.I.V. or SARS tend to have more severe symptoms and are more likely to pass on the pathogens to others.
But in the case of the new coronavirus, people who have no symptoms seem to have viral loads that is, the amount of virus in their bodies just as high as those who are seriously ill, according to some studies.
And coronavirus patients are most infectious two to three days before symptoms begin, less so after the illness really hits.
Some people are generous transmitters of the coronavirus; others are stingy. So-called super-spreaders seem to be particularly gifted in transmitting it, although its unclear whether thats because of their biology or their behavior.
On the receiving end, the shape of a persons nostrils and the amount of nose hair and mucus present as well as the distribution of certain cellular receptors in the airway that the virus needs to latch on to can all influence how much virus it takes to become infected.
A higher dose is clearly worse, though, and that may explain why some young health care workers have fallen victim even though the virus usually targets older people.
The crucial dose may also vary depending on whether its ingested or inhaled.
People may take in virus by touching a contaminated surface and then putting their hands on their nose or mouth. But this isnt thought to be the main way the virus spreads, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That form of transmission may require millions more copies of the virus to cause an infection, compared to inhalation.
Coughing, sneezing, singing, talking and even heavy breathing can result in the expulsion of thousands of large and small respiratory droplets carrying the virus.
Its clear that one doesnt have to be sick and coughing and sneezing for transmission to occur, said Dr. Dan Barouch, a viral immunologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Larger droplets are heavy and float down quickly unless theres a breeze or an air-conditioning blast and cant penetrate surgical masks. But droplets less than 5 microns in diameter, called aerosols, can linger in the air for hours.
They travel further, last longer and have the potential of more spread than the large droplets, Dr. Barouch said.
Updated June 1, 2020
Exercise researchers and physicians have some blunt advice for those of us aiming to return to regular exercise now: Start slowly and then rev up your workouts, also slowly. American adults tended to be about 12 percent less active after the stay-at-home mandates began in March than they were in January. But there are steps you can take to ease your way back into regular exercise safely. First, start at no more than 50 percent of the exercise you were doing before Covid, says Dr. Monica Rho, the chief of musculoskeletal medicine at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago. Thread in some preparatory squats, too, she advises. When you havent been exercising, you lose muscle mass. Expect some muscle twinges after these preliminary, post-lockdown sessions, especially a day or two later. But sudden or increasing pain during exercise is a clarion call to stop and return home.
States are reopening bit by bit. This means that more public spaces are available for use and more and more businesses are being allowed to open again. The federal government is largely leaving the decision up to states, and some state leaders are leaving the decision up to local authorities. Even if you arent being told to stay at home, its still a good idea to limit trips outside and your interaction with other people.
Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus whether its surface transmission or close human contact is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.
Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.
If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)
More than 40 million people the equivalent of 1 in 4 U.S. workers have filed for unemployment benefits since the pandemic took hold. One in five who were working in February reported losing a job or being furloughed in March or the beginning of April, data from a Federal Reserve survey released on May 14 showed, and that pain was highly concentrated among low earners. Fully 39 percent of former workers living in a household earning $40,000 or less lost work, compared with 13 percent in those making more than $100,000, a Fed official said.
The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people dont need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks dont replace hand washing and social distancing.
If youve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.
Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities using a numbers-based system, has a running list of nonprofits working in communities affected by the outbreak. You can give blood through the American Red Cross, and World Central Kitchen has stepped in to distribute meals in major cities.
Three factors seem to be particularly important for aerosol transmission: proximity to the infected person, air flow and timing.
A windowless public bathroom with high foot traffic is riskier than a bathroom with a window, or a bathroom thats rarely used. A short outdoor conversation with a masked neighbor is much safer than either of those scenarios.
Recently, Dutch researchers used a special spray nozzle to simulate the expulsion of saliva droplets and then tracked their movement. The scientists found that just cracking open a door or a window can banish aerosols.
Even the smallest breeze will do something, said Daniel Bonn, a physicist at the University of Amsterdam who led the study.
Observations from two hospitals in Wuhan, China, published in April in the journal Nature, determined much the same thing: more aerosolized particles were found in unventilated toilet areas than in airier patient rooms or crowded public areas.
This makes intuitive sense, experts said. But they noted that aerosols, because they are smaller than 5 microns, would also contain much less, perhaps millions-fold less, virus than droplets of 500 microns.
It really takes a lot of these single-digit size droplets to change the risk for you, said Dr. Joshua Rabinowitz, a quantitative biologist at Princeton University.
Apart from avoiding crowded indoor spaces, the most effective thing people can do is wear masks, all of the experts said. Even if masks dont fully shield you from droplets loaded with virus, they can cut down the amount you receive, and perhaps bring it below the infectious dose.
This is not a virus for which hand washing seems like it will be enough, Dr. Rabinowitz said. We have to limit crowds, we have to wear masks.
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Fears about catching coronavirus from contaminated surfaces have driven some people to become compulsive about cleaning countertops and wiping down their groceries. As the pandemic took hold, some poison centers even reported increased calls about excessive exposure to cleaning agents.
In recent weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appeared to adjust its stance on surface transmission of the coronavirus. New language on its website was interpreted as deemphasizing concerns, creating some confusion about the risk of catching covid-19 from frequently touched objects.
Pittsburgh-based infectious disease and critical care physician Dr. Amesh Adalja said that while the contact spread of the virus can certainly occur, it is not responsible for the bulk of transmission.
Weve always known that there is a small contribution from contaminated surfaces. I think the CDC guidance reflects the fact that were trying to focus on the main route of how this virus gets from person to person. It is from another person directly, Adalja said. Our public health strategy needs to be focused on eliminating the person-to-person spread,and there can be less emphasis on contact spread.
After some news outlets ran with the idea that the CDC was no longer concerned about surface transmission, the agency issued a statement clarifying that contact with a contaminated surface is still one way to catch covid-19.
It may be possible that a person can get covid-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose or possibly their eyes. But this isnt thought to be the main way the virus spreads, the statement said. The change on the website was intended to make it easier to read, and was not a result of any new science.
Dr. Arvind Venkat, an Allegheny Health Network emergency physician, observed that we live in a hyper-connected world, and social media can create controversies that arent always there. So, the combination of not having consistent communication and an environment in which everything is so fragmented is a bad combination in a public health crisis.
Venkat also past president of the Pennsylvania College of Emergency Physicians said public health authorities must communicate carefully and accurately to maintain trust with the public.
Since this is a new virus, were still learning as we go along. The fact that there is contradictory and changing data is to be expected, Venkat said. So, when something changes, we need to make sure that we convey that in a systematic way so that it doesnt get perceived as going back and forth.
So, what are the chances of catching covid-19 from an object or surface laden with germs?
I think the relative risk of picking it up from common things given the precautions that everybody is taking is much lower, said Seema Lakdawala, assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
But if you are a health care worker and you are working in a hospital setting with patients that are symptomatic and coughing and sneezing large volumes of the virus into their environment then, yes, the risk of catching it from a surface is much higher.
The feeling among medical experts who spoke with the Tribune-Review is people are unlikely to catch the virus from doing things like grocery shopping. Lakdawala, an expert in virus transmission, said she does not wipe down her groceries.
Everyone has their own comfort level. If somebody is taking the time to wipe down every single material three times, I would say that is a waste of their time, Lakdawala said. I think its important for the general public to understand, What kind of information do I need to make a risk assessment for myself?
Adalja said that while its important for people to continue to take protective action, they can be a little less concerned about contaminated surfaces they may have touched.
I think people can be less worried about making sure they scrub their groceries. Thats less likely to be impactful than other things, like washing your hands and trying to avoid crowded spaces and other social-distancing measures.
Paul Guggenheimer is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paul at 724-226-7706 or pguggenheimer@triblive.com.
Categories:Coronavirus | Editor's Picks | Health | Local | Allegheny | Top Stories
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Shasta County employs dozens of people who work to trace the contacts of people who test positive for COVID-19, according to public health officials. Redding Record Searchlight
1 p.m., Monday, June 1
Butte County announced Monday afternoon its first death due to COVID-19.
Public health officials said the person died in a hospital, was over 65 years old and had numerous underlying health conditions.
A previous investigation led health officials to believe the person got sick from a community-acquired infection. "No specific place or event was identified as the source of their infection," the county said.
Im very sad to announce that weve lost one of our community members to this illness. This news hits us hard, Butte County Public Health DirectorDanette York said. This COVID-19 pandemic is a historic public health challenge. Our top priority continues to be protecting the health of our community.
Butte County had 44 knkocases of COVID-19 as of Monday morning.
7 a.m., Monday, June 1
No new cases of coronavirus were reported in Shasta County on Sunday.
There also were no patients hospitalized with the disease, but four people were in quarantine and 20 were in isolation, according to the Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency.
Humboldt County, hardest hit by coronavirus in far-Northern California, broke the 100 mark in cases Saturday afternoon.The county now has 101 cases.
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The county didn't report any new positive tests over the weekend, leaving the local total at seven cases with 1,633 tests conducted.
There are 29 people, however, with test results pending.
Of the seven people infected, one is still considered to be an active case. There have been no deaths reported in Siskiyou related to the virus.
In far Northern California, here's where COVID-19 case totals stand:
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Coastal counties:
Statewide, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increasedto 110,583as of Saturday, the California Department of Health reported Sunday afternoon.
At least 4,213people in the state have died from the virus and 2,940people were hospitalized because of the disease. Another 1,391peoplesuspected to have the illness were in the hospital.
Here's how California's coronavirus cases break down by age:
Health-care workers made up 10,033of California's confirmed cases, according to state health officials. Of that number, 59have died.
As of Sundayafternoon, the number of known coronavirus cases in the U.S. was at 1.79 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
That number includes 104,383 people who have died as a result of the virus.
Worldwide, the number of confirmed cases was 6.1 million. Of that total, more than 372,100 people have died.
Alayna Shulman covers a little bit of everything for the Record Searchlight. In particular, she loves writing aboutthe issues of this community through long-form storytelling. Her work often centers on localcrime, features and politics, and has won awards for best writing, best business coverage and best investigative reporting in the California News Publishers Association's Better Newspapers Contest.Follow her on Twitter (@ashulman_RS), call her at 530-225-8372 and, to support herwork, please subscribe.
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