Care home operators have warned that easing Covid-19 shielding restrictions for 2.2 million vulnerable people risks a second wave of infections, as it emerged that government scientific advisers who previously warned against such a move were not asked to reconsider the matter.
New guidance allows the clinically extremely vulnerable to go outside and, if they live alone, meet one friend from Monday. They include many in long-term care facilities for elderly people, as well as those with chronic illnesses living at home.
Strict isolation rules were expected to stay in place for at least another two weeks. The governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) warned in April that lifting the policy of shielding the vulnerable would lead to a sharp increase in hospitalisation, ICU admissions, and the death rates within this age group.
The new guidelines say shielded people can now leave their home if they wish, as long as they are able to maintain strict social distancing. If you choose to spend time outdoors, this can be with members of your own household. If you live alone, you can spend time outdoors with one person from another household.
The sudden relaxation of the rules this weekend appeared to surprise many health officials. NHS Englands primary care medical director, Nikki Kanani, indicated on Twitter that she was not told in advance.
Local directors of public health also said they were not forewarned, with one telling the Guardian they were mystified by the change, adding: The lack of information sharing is appalling. Another said: We were led to believe during the week any change would be at the end of June, once we were more reassured about the infection rate.
Nadra Ahmed, executive chairman of the National Care Association, said the loosened restrictions could bring the virus back into care homes still struggling to contain the first wave of infection, which has caused about 15,000 deaths.
How do we guarantee that the person coming to visit is Covid-free? said Ahmed. We cant. The only way we could deal with it is by isolating the resident when they come back in and testing them, but with tests still not available to many care homes, how would we be able to do that? This is inviting a virus back into the service that a lot of care homes have worked very hard to eradicate.
Asked on Monday whether the loosening of the rules for the shielding group had been discussed at Sage, Boris Johnsons official spokesman said there had been engagement with GPs, the British Medical Association and patient groups, but that the new guidance was approved by the deputy chief medical officers and Public Health England. It is understood that Sage experts were not asked to examine the issue again or submit any new evidence before the surprise change in guidance.
Many people vulnerable to Covid-19 have complained of the mental strain and loneliness of shielding, which has prevented them from going out sincelockdown measures were imposed 10 weeks ago.
Charities representing some shielded groups last Friday warned the government: As restrictions are eased for the rest of the country, the burden on those who are being asked to stay inside or away from people will become harder to bear.
Macmillan Cancer Support, the British Lung Foundation and Asthma UK, the MS Society, Kidney Care UK and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust were among those who said they were deeply concerned about the impact on the mental health of those who are shielding. Steven McIntosh, policy director at Macmillan, said the new guidance was a step forward for a group who have felt left behind and forgotten as lockdown eases.
The Relatives and Residents Association, which represents families in social care, had also called for a rethink of the shielding measures. We know some people are getting isolated and lonely and particularly for people with dementia it can be hard to understand why that has happened, said Helen Wildbore, the director of the charity. We have heard about people who have stopped eating and drinking and have lost speech.
But with many care homes focused on stopping a second wave of infection and currently restricting residents movements by agreement, Prof Martin Green, the executive director of Care England, said the new guidance will create a tension, with people saying, We have seen the announcement, so why cant I take my relative out?.
He said his members had not been consulted and that the sudden announcement was a typical example of making an announcement and publishing guidance later. They should publish the scientific advice on why this was done and they need to publish specific guidance for care homes.
On Thursday, the prime minister gave no inkling of the lifting of restrictions, telling the Downing Street press conference: I am afraid that those who have been asked to shield themselves should continue to do so.
The housing and communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, said the government was trying to find the right balance between continuing to protect those at the greatest clinical risk, whilst easing restrictions on their daily lives to make the difficult situation more bearable particularly enabling the contact with loved ones they and we all seek.
Pressed on the timing of the announcement and the lack of advance notice for GPs, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, insisted that it had been very well received by those who are shielded.
It hasnt been rushed through, far from it, he said. Weve worked for some time to make sure any changes we make small, cautious changes can benefit people in a safe way. Being able to make changes like this is important for people. Its quite hard to imagine for even those of us practising self-isolation to understand the impact of shielding.
Once wed made the decision in collaboration with all of the government bodies, we communicated the decision, and that was the right time to be able to change that advice.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said on Monday:We have engaged extensively with partners and the healthcare system throughout this process and will continue to do, particularly in the next two weeks, when more substantive measures are considered. The announcement yesterday signalled this period of engagement.
We want to make life easier for the most vulnerable and, as the number of Covid-19 cases continues to fall, the evidence shows those shielding can choose to spend time safely outside if they wish, as long as they follow social distancing guidelines.
TOKYO As the world tries to get a handle on the coronavirus and emerge from paralyzing lockdowns, public health officials have repeated a mantra: test, test, test.
But Japan went its own way, limiting tests to only the most severe cases as other countries raced to screen as many people as possible. Medical experts worried that the approach would blind the country to the spread of infection, allowing cases to explode and swamping hospitals.
It hasnt happened. Japan the grayest country in the world and a popular tourist destination with large, crowded cities has one of the lowest mortality rates from Covid-19 among major nations. The medical system has not been overwhelmed. And the government never forced businesses to close, although many chose to.
This week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared Japans battle against the outbreak a resounding success, taking the country off an emergency footing a sort of lockdown lite that lasted only a month and a half.
By doing things in a uniquely Japanese way, we were able to almost completely end this wave of infection, Mr. Abe said, adding that what he called the Japan model offered a path out of the global pandemic.
Its still unclear, though, exactly what accounts for Japans achievement and whether other countries can take lessons from its approach. Critics say Japan undercounted coronavirus deaths. And some warn that further waves of infection could undermine the governments self-congratulatory pronouncements.
Instead of testing widely to understand and limit the viruss spread through the general population, Japan has focused on quickly containing small outbreaks through contact tracing. Instead of dictating strict constraints on daily life, it has focused on educating people about measures like social distancing and gently prodding them to follow along.
Theories for the countrys relatively low mortality rate run the gamut from cultural attributes widespread mask wearing, a practice of regular hand washing, a near absence of physical greetings like hugs and handshakes to just plain luck.
A combination of many other factors, including government measures and changes in behavior among a public that feels strong pressure to follow the rules, could also be at work.
Individual actions may seem small or mundane, said Keiji Fukuda, an epidemiologist who directs the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong. But, he added, the cumulative impact of all of those efforts across the entire country to really implement some kind of distancing may have been substantial.
Whatever the formula, Japan has so far succeeded in keeping deaths low. The country has recorded fewer than 900 deaths even as the United States and European countries have reported tens of thousands.
Epidemiologists say widespread testing for the virus is important because it allows officials to isolate those who test positive, and to track trends in infection rates to help determine when it is safe to reopen schools, businesses and other places where people congregate.
Researchers at Harvard have said the goal should be to test nearly everyone who has at least mild flulike symptoms, as well as an average of 10 contacts for each person who tests positive.
Countries like South Korea and China that faced fast-growing outbreaks early in the pandemic quickly ramped up testing. China performed more than three times as many tests in Wuhan in a single day than those Japan has conducted nationwide since Feb. 18 about 455,000 tests on around 278,000 people.
Japan initially told people who suspected they were infected with the virus not to seek help unless they had experienced a fever for four days, or two days if they were over 65. Even some people with seemingly severe symptoms were refused, provoking theories that the government was trying to hide the true extent of the problem.
Medical experts said the guideline was intended to conserve hospital resources. A national law on infectious diseases mandated that anyone who tested positive, even those who were asymptomatic, had to be placed in one of the countrys few isolation wards, creating a strong disincentive for doctors to test patients with milder symptoms.
The Japanese government also said early on that test kits must be rationed because they were in short supply. That argument has since faded, however, as Japan has never used even half of its testing capacity on any given day, and it has increased its testing capacity to just over 24,000 a day.
Japan has since eased its rules to allow those who test positive but are asymptomatic to stay in hotels. It is preparing to begin limited testing for antibodies, hoping to get a better grasp of the number of people who have been infected. It also plans to introduce a smartphone app to help with contact tracing.
Despite the constrained testing for the virus, the rate of positive results has dropped below 1 percent, a fact that the governments expert panel on the virus says demonstrates that current testing levels are sufficient.
But a group of prominent Japanese academics, businesspeople and other figures has called on the government to take a much bolder step: build a capacity of 10 million tests a day and offer testing to anyone who wants it. Consecutive negative results, the group argues, could allow people to fully resume social and economic activities.
As the country has seemingly defied the odds, many public health experts, including some in the government, have warned against drawing any definite conclusions from Japans experience.
They caution that Japan is not in the clear yet, and that a second or third wave of infections could strike at any time. As more data on deaths from this year becomes available there are indications that Tokyo has undercounted dozens of coronavirus deaths the picture may not look quite as good.
Some say Japan may have a large hidden population of asymptomatic cases. Shigeru Omi, the deputy head of the governments expert panel on the coronavirus, told lawmakers that the real number of infections could be as much as 10 or 20 times as high as currently believed. Japan has reported fewer than 17,000 cases, versus more than 1.7 million in the United States.
Norio Sugaya, an infectious diseases expert at Keiyu Hospital in Yokohama, noted that Japans mortality rate, while vastly lower than those in hard-hit countries like Spain or Britain, is one of the worst in Asia.
In February, an outbreak of the virus aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess left officials scrambling. The response was widely seen as a disaster, but health experts turned it into a learning opportunity.
Epidemiologists and public health experts used the data from the ship to help develop a framework for stopping the viruss spread in Japan.
The approach emphasized reducing peoples exposure to the conditions that led the pathogen to spread on the ship. A public education campaign urged people to avoid the Three Cs closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowded places and close contact.
On TV talk shows, hosts took a no question is too stupid approach to talking about the virus, assuaging viewers anxiety and stressing the basic science of prevention: wash your hands, wear a mask, keep your distance from others.
At the same time, community health centers raced to investigate clusters using a monitoring system that had been developed to trace cases of influenza and tuberculosis.
Another key factor may have been Mr. Abes decision to close schools in late February, well before almost any other country. The decision was hugely unpopular, but it appears to have provoked an almost instantaneous change in behavior, according to polling conducted by researchers at Hiroshima University.
The day after the announcement, the percentage of people who were avoiding crowded places nearly doubled, rising to almost 60 percent. By mid-March, it was over 75, the study found.
In April, as cases began to spike, Mr. Abe declared a state of emergency. Businesses were requested to close or reduce their hours. People were asked to make only necessary trips. There were no penalties, but many complied anyway.
Makoto Sasho, 50, decided to close his grilled eel restaurant in the Meguro neighborhood of Tokyo and focus on delivery and carryout, despite assurances from the government that businesses like his could continue table service.
We conformed to societys expectations of us, he said, adding that when I thought about the future, I knew we absolutely could not be responsible for a cluster.
As Japan now begins to reopen, some experts fear that people will begin to let down their guard.
In a speech on Monday night, Mr. Abe emphasized that the end of the state of emergency did not mean a return to normal life.
What we need to aim for, he said, is establishing a new normal.
Mr. Sasho said that his customers were clamoring for him to reopen, but that he was not sure he was ready.
Its a new way of life, he said. Maybe Ill just stick with delivery and takeout.
Motoko Rich contributed reporting.
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Tru Johnson, of Milwaukee, wears a face mask as he walks down West Hampton Avenue just east of West 84th Street in Milwaukee on Sunday, March 22, 2020. Johnson was wearing the mask to help him from getting infected by the coronavirus.(Photo: Mike De Sisti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
The state Department of Health Services reported 733 newcasesof coronavirus Friday, Wisconsin'slargest single-day increase by more than 100 cases since the pandemic began.
Friday's new cases accounted for about 5.4% of the more than 13,600 tests processed since Thursday.
That's also a new record for the number of tests run in a single day, up significantly from Thursday's record-setting number of 10,626.
As of Friday afternoon, 17,707 Wisconsinites hadtested positive for the virus and 568 had died, an increase of 18 from the previous day.About 60%hadrecovered, andmore than 233,500 people hadtested negative.
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There were 423 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across the stateFriday, about a third of them inintensive care, according to theWisconsin Hospital Association. Among inpatients, 243had pending coronavirus tests as of Friday.
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 are generally slightly up compared to early May, when they briefly dipped below 300.
Among those who have been hospitalized: seven children believed to be suffering from multisystem inflammatory syndrome, the first known cases in the state, officials at Childrens Hospital of Wisconsin said Friday.
The new illness affects children who have been infected with or exposed to the coronavirus. It causesswelling in organs such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, stomach and intestines. It also can cause a persistent high fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, swelling of the hands and feet,and red eyes and tongue.
Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.(Photo: Mike De Sisti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
So far, most children diagnosed with the syndrome nationwide "have gotten better with medical care," according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
All of the patients with suspected cases identified at Childrens are younger than 5, according to a hospital spokesman. As of Friday, two remained hospitalized in good condition, while the other five were discharged after brief hospital stays and doing wellat home.
Frank Zhu, medical director for infection control and prevention control at Children's, is part of the team investigating the syndrome.
"We do not know for sure, but thecurrent working diagnosis is this is likely a post-infectious complication of COVID-19," hesaid. "These patients obviously often do not have positive tests in their nose for the virus, but have positive antibodies ... which suggests to us that this is likely not infectious."
The cases have been referred to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Another significant group among Fridays numbers came from Waupun Correctional Institution, where 213 inmates have tested positive out of about 600 results received so far a positive rate of about 35%, according to department spokeswoman Anna Neal. Fifteen Waupun staff members also had tested positive as of Friday.
Neal would not say whether any inmates had been hospitalized with COVID-19.
At Waupun, 184 of the positive resultscame after three days of testing by the Wisconsin National Guard, Neal said. The other 29 inmates with positive results had been tested earlier.
An entrance to the Waupun Correctional Institution.(Photo: Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
The numbers on the department's website will be updated once all the results from the National Guard's testing are available, she said. As of Friday afternoon, the site said213 of 231 tests at Waupun had comeback positive.
The corrections department is in the process of testing all inmates and staff members throughout the state. Waupun has by far the highest number of infections among Wisconsin's prisons.
Statewide, 7,050 inmates have been tested by the National Guard. In addition to the 184 Waupun inmates, 33 inmates around the state have tested positive. Mass testing has also been completed atMarshall E. Sherrer Correctional Center,Felmers O. Chaney Correctional Center, the Milwaukee Women's Correctional Center and the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, according to Neal.
The pandemic has continued to wreak havoc on summer activities and local businesses as well.
In a statement released Friday, organizers announced cancellation of the Milwaukees annual Air &Water Show, which would have included a headlining appearance bythe U.S. Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Team.
The rare and exceptional opportunity to host the Navy Blue Angels made this a very tough but necessary decision to make, Milwaukee Air & Water Show President Paul Rogers said in astatement.
In Waukesha, two restaurants that reopened quicklyclosed again after employees tested positive for coronavirus.
One of them, Sobelmans Pub & Grill, closed less than a day afterannouncing on social media it had reopened.
The restaurant, located on Williams Street at the edge of Waukesha's downtown commercial district, wasn't ordered to close by the health department, but its owners felt it was best to be cautious, according to the SobelmansFacebook page.
"Our remaining staff, who have been wearing face masks as a precaution, have been referred to the (Waukesha County) Health Department and we will not reopen until everyone is cleared the health of our staff, customers and community is paramount," the posting says.
The Waukesha location of Casa Tequila also has closed temporarily after a brief reopening. There,a cook was diagnosed with COVID-19.
Only the Waukesha location, at 2423 Kossow Road, is closed, according to the restaurant's Facebook page. The other Casa Tequila restaurants,in Pewaukee, Hartford and West Bend, remain open.
CarolDeptolla, Jim Higgins,Mark Johnson andRicardo Torres of the Journal Sentinel staff; andMadeline Heim andJim Riccioli of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin contributed to this report.
A Wisconsin National Guardsman trains in preparation for potential missions in response to COVID-19, March 22, 2020. The Wisconsin National Guard continues to work closely with partner state agencies to anticipate needs and potential requests for assistance. The more than 300 Wisconsin National Guard troops mobilized to state active duty are currently preparing for potential missions that could include specimen collection at mobile testing sites, transporting supplies or equipment, logistics support, and additional medical support to communities. Wisconsin National Guard photo by Spc. Emma Anderson(Photo: Spc. Emma Anderson / Wisconsin National Guard Public)
Contact Gina Bartonat (414) 224-2125 or gbarton@gannett.com. Followher on Twitter at @writerbarton.
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MADISON, Wis. (WBAY) - Friday's report from the Department of Health Services shows the state jumped well past 17,000 confirmed coronavirus cases.
For the second time this week, Wisconsin saw a dramatic rise in the number of the coronavirus test results and new cases identified, and also the second-highest death reports in one day.
The state's public and private labs completed 13,602 tests -- almost 3,000 more tests than Thursday's record. That's indicative of increased testing in Milwaukee County, which identified 450 new patients.
Statewide, testing identified 733 new patients in the past 24 hours -- well past the record one-day total of 599 cases set on Wednesday. That's 5.39% of the test results, which is about average for the past few weeks. New cases were reported in 38 of the state's 72 counties.
The state now has 17,707 confirmed coronavirus patients.
568 COVID-19 patients have died with the 18 new deaths in Friday's report. It's the third straight day the death count was in the double digits and the fourth day in a week.
Nine of the deaths reported Friday were in Milwaukee County. A death in Brown County and one in Winnebago County were also added to the toll.
2,499 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized -- 47 more since Thursday. There are 145 in ICU out of the 423 currently hospitalized.
14% of coronavirus cases have resulted in hospitalizations. 3% have resulted in death. While the rising number of people affected may be worrisome, both of these percentages continue to decline.
61% of patients are considered recovered -- a percentage that has continued to rise. The state defines a patient as recovered if 30 days have passed since the onset of symptoms or their diagnosis or their absence of symptoms or release from isolation is medically documented.
The 13,602 results the state received is the closest to its labs' testing capacity so far. The state has 56 public and private labs with a total capacity of 14,753 tests a day. Thirty-one more labs are prepared to assist the state.
County case numbersCounties with increased cases and/or deaths are indicated in bold.
WisconsinAdams - 4 cases (1 death)Ashland - 2 casesBarron - 15 cases (+1)Bayfield - 3 cases (1 death)Brown - 2,308 cases (+8) (35 deaths) (+1)Buffalo - 5 cases (1 death)Burnett - 1 cases (1 death)Calumet - 75 cases (+1) (1 death)Chippewa - 55 cases (+2)Clark - 32 cases (4 deaths)Columbia - 43 cases (+1) (1 death)Crawford - 26 casesDane - 705 cases (+26) (27 deaths)Dodge - 180 cases (+8) (1 death)Door - 38 cases (3 deaths)Douglas - 19 casesDunn - 24 casesEau Claire - 107 cases (+8)Florence - 2 caseFond du Lac - 194 cases (+2) (5 deaths)Forest - 28 cases (+2)Grant - 94 cases (+1) (12 deaths)Green - 65 cases (+5)Green Lake - 18 cases (+2)Iowa - 15 cases (+1)Iron - 2 cases (1 death)Jackson - 16 cases (+1) (1 death)Jefferson - 101 cases (+5) (3 deaths)Juneau 23 cases (+1) (1 death)Kenosha - 1,131 cases (+43) (27 deaths) (+2)Kewaunee - 34 cases (1 death)La Crosse - 53 cases (+2)Lafayette - 27 cases (+1)Langlade - 2 casesLincoln - 7 casesManitowoc - 36 cases (1 death)Marathon - 46 cases (+3) (1 death)Marinette - 33 cases (2 deaths)Marquette - 3 cases (1 death)Menominee - 3 casesMilwaukee 7,429 cases (+450) (294 deaths) (+9)Monroe - 16 cases (1 death)Oconto - 35 casesOneida - 9 casesOutagamie - 213 cases (+9) (8 deaths)Ozaukee - 159 cases (+3) (11 deaths)Pepin - 1 casePierce - 45 cases (+1)Polk - 18 cases (1 death)Portage - 11 casesPrice - 2 casesRacine - 1,579 cases (+73) (35 deaths) (+2)Richland - 14 cases (4 deaths)Rock - 620 cases (+32) (18 deaths)Rusk - 5 casesSauk - 78 cases (3 deaths)Sawyer - 8 casesShawano - 45 cases (+2)Sheboygan - 87 cases (+3) (3 deaths)St. Croix - 77 cases (+3)Taylor - 2 cases (+1)Trempealeau - 24 cases (+1)Vernon - 21 cases (+1)Vilas - 6 casesWalworth - 379 cases (+3) (17 deaths) (+1)Washburn - 2 casesWashington - 235 cases (+5) (6 deaths) (+2)Waukesha - 665 cases (+15) (28 deaths)Waupaca - 29 cases (+2) (1 death)Waushara - 8 casesWinnebago - 224 cases (+19) (4 deaths) (+1)Wood - 10 cases (1 death)
Michigan's Upper PeninsulaAlger - 0 casesBaraga - 1 caseChippewa - 2 caseDelta - 17 cases (2 deaths)Dickinson - 5 cases (2 deaths)Gogebic - 5 cases (1 death)Houghton - 5 cases (+1)Iron - 0 casesKeweenaw - 0 casesLuce - 3 casesMackinac - 8 casesMarquette - 54 cases (10 deaths)Menominee - 8 casesOntonagon - 0 casesSchoolcraft - 4 cases
SymptomsThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified these as possible symptoms of COVID-19:
PreventionThe coronavirus is a new, or "novel," virus. Nobody has a natural immunity to it. Children and teens seem to recover best from the virus. Older people and those with underlying health conditions (heart disease, diabetes, lung disease) are considered at high risk, according to the CDC. Precautions are also needed around people with developing or weakened immune systems.
To help prevent the spread of the virus:
For the foreseeable future, MinnPost will be providing daily updates on coronavirus in Minnesota, published following the press phone call with members of the Walz administration each afternoon.
Here are the latest updates from May 29, 2020:
Another 29 Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) said Friday, for a total of 996.
Of those who died, one person was age 100 or older, 11 were in their 90s, six were in their 80s, five were in their 70s, three were in their 60s, one was in their 50s and two were in their 40s. Of the 29 deaths, 24 were residents of long-term care facilities and two people were residents of a group home or residential behavioral health facility.
The current death toll only includes Minnesotans with lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 tests.
MDH also said Friday there have been 23,531 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota, up 584 from Thursdays count. Because Minnesota is only now developing the capacity to test everybody with symptoms, the number of cases of the virus is assumed to be significantly higher.
Since the start of the outbreak, 2,936 Minnesotans have been hospitalized and 592 are currently in the hospital, 259 in intensive care. Of the 23,531 confirmed positive cases in Minnesota, 16,930 no longer need to be isolated, which means they are believed to have recovered.
A total of 233,837 COVID-19 tests have been completed in Minnesota, up 8,665 from Thursday.
More information on cases can be found here.
MDHs coronavirus website:https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html
Hotline, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.: 651-201-3920
As political leaders across the United States seek to make informed decisions about when to reopen based on inadequate scientific information, 2,500 men in an Ohio prison may hold the key to releasing the rest of the country from coronavirus lockdown.
Such widespread infection in our crowded prisons is a reminder of why we need decarceration. At the same time, it has created an opportunity for research that, if conducted ethically, could shed light on this disease at a time when testing of the general population remains limited and unreliable.
Some research has been conducted already. For example, an ongoing study by Harvard researchers and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care has measured the prevalence of Covid-19 among incarcerated people and correctional staff and revealed a lack of access to testing and personal protective equipment.
But much more is needed. A comprehensive health evaluation of a huge group like the Marion residents who have been universally exposed to the virus but arent necessarily showing symptoms, would provide data that is sorely lacking in existing studies that focus primarily on very sick people or death tolls. The findings could provide government officials, businesses and universities some of the answers they need in order to reopen safely.
In addition, this research could make more Americans recognize the humanity and potential of incarcerated people, which could ultimately help to end mass incarceration and the very conditions that allowed the spread of the coronavirus behind bars.
The very idea of conducting research on vulnerable populations has a deeply troubled history, most notably with the 1932 Tuskegee experiment, in which African- American men with syphilis were not treated for 40 years, long after treatment became available, so researchers could study the progression of the disease. The Nazis conducted ghastly experiments on prisoners, and U.S. medical researchers intentionally infected prisoners in Guatemala with sexually transmitted diseases.
Given this, any study based on prisoners must be conducted transparently and voluntarily, without exploitation, mistreatment, coercion or risks to the participants. It should also include monitors from prisoner advocacy and civil rights organizations. And it should seek to improve incarcerated peoples well-being by providing them with medical attention and care which are abysmal in most prisons and creating awareness about inhumane prison conditions.
This humanitarian crisis could have been prevented if officials had heeded warnings about the danger of contamination in overcrowded and unsanitary prisons. But this devastating reality also now allows scientists to better understand the effects of the coronavirus within a population that was overwhelmingly and recently exposed to it.
Researchers should therefore study and treat medically residents of the Marion Correctional Institution or a similar prison. This population is large enough to draw statistically significant conclusions, and their exposure was both recent and synchronous, which helps to overcome the problem of asymptomatic people not showing up in the testing data.
It seems a thorough study and analysis of incarcerated people could help to establish the proportions of these groups: 1) people who have not been infected (but still may be vulnerable, unless they are somehow immune or not susceptible); 2) people who are infected and asymptomatic (though likely carriers); 3) people with mild symptoms who have made or will make a full recovery; 4) people with severe symptoms that may result in lasting health damage; and 5) people who have died of Covid-19.
As of now, in society overall, there is no reliable way to estimate the percentage of people who would fall into these five categories, as most of the attention has focused on tracking the raw numbers in Categories 4 and 5. Yet Categories 1, 2, and 3 and especially a better understanding of the proportions across all five represent the key to a national recovery.
One remarkable observation already emerging from the prison data shows how beneficial such a study could be: an analysis by Reuters revealed that 96 percent of those who tested positive in prisons in four states did not experience any symptoms. Of course, it is perhaps early in the infection cycle, and health problems may still emerge. But even if, say, 60 percent of prisoners were in Categories 1 and 2, while most of the others were in Category 3, this would seem to support an earlier reopening. If, however, the final proportions showed that only 30 percent were in Categories 1 and 2, another 30 percent in Category 3, but a full 40 percent in Categories 4 and 5, then the findings would justify much greater caution and a delayed reopening until a vaccine materializes.
True, the U.S. prison population is not fully representative. But since Covid-19 seems to have more harmful effects on men, African-Americans and people with chronic health problems, the findings from a prison study might slightly overestimate and certainly wouldnt underestimate Covid-19s negative health consequences.
I recognize the irony that the countrys failure to protect prisoners now enables research that could protect non-prisoners. But any research on the Covid-19 health responses of incarcerated people should also draw attention to their humanity and desire to contribute, while further accelerating bipartisan criminal justice reform policies.
In this way, incarcerated people could not only help to guide an effective national liberation from the Covid-19 lockdown, but also contribute to much-needed decarceration.
Marc M. Howard (@marcmhoward) is professor of government and law at Georgetown University, and the founder and president of the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice.
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A medical professional administers a coronavirus test at a drive-thru testing site run by George Washington University Hospital, on May 26, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption
A medical professional administers a coronavirus test at a drive-thru testing site run by George Washington University Hospital, on May 26, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
In April, New Orleans health officials realized their drive-through testing strategy for the coronavirus wasn't working. The reason? Census tract data revealed hot spots for the virus were located in predominantly low-income African-American neighborhoods where many residents lacked cars.
In response, officials have changed their strategy, sending mobile testing vans to some of those areas, says Thomas LaVeist, dean of Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and co-chair of Louisiana's COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.
"Data is the only way that we can see the virus," LaVeist says. "We only have indicators. We can't actually look at a person and tell who's been infected. So what we have is data right now."
Until a few weeks ago, racial data for COVID-19 was sparse. It's still incomplete, but now 48 states plus Washington D.C., report at least some data; in total, race or ethnicity is known for around half of all cases and 90% of deaths. And though gaps remain, the pattern is clear: Communities of color are being hit disproportionately hard by COVID-19.
Public health experts say focusing on these disparities is crucial for helping communities respond to the virus effectively so everyone is safer.
"I think it's incumbent on all of us to realize that the health of all of us depends on the health of each of us," says Dr. Alicia Fernandez, a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco, whose research focuses on health care disparities.
NPR analyzed COVID-19 demographic data collected by the COVID Racial Tracker, a joint project of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center and the COVID Tracking Project. This analysis compares each racial or ethnic group's share of infections or deaths where race and ethnicity is known with their share of population. Here's what it shows:
Major holes in the data remain: 48% of cases and 9% of deaths still have no race tied to them. And that can hamper response to the crisis across the U.S., now and in the future, says Dr. Utibe Essien, a health equity researcher at the University of Pittsburgh who has studied COVID-19 racial and ethnic disparities.
"If we don't know who is sick, we're not going to know in six months, 12 months, 18, however long it takes, who should be getting the vaccination. We're not going to know where we should be directing our personal protective equipment to make sure that health care workers are protected," he says.
A heavy toll of African-American deaths
NPR's analysis finds that in 32 states plus Washington D.C., blacks are dying at rates higher than their proportion of the population. In 21 states, it's substantially higher, more than 50% above what would be expected. For example, in Wisconsin, at least 141 African Americans have died, representing 27% of all deaths in a state where just 6% of the state's population is black.
"I've been at health equity research for a couple of decades now. Those of us in the field, sadly, expected this," says Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center at Yale School of Medicine.
"We know that these racial ethnic disparities in COVID-19 are the result of pre-pandemic realities. It's a legacy of structural discrimination that has limited access to health and wealth for people of color," she says.
African-Americans have higher rates of underlying conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease, that are linked to more severe cases of COVID-19, Nunez-Smith notes. They also often have less access to quality health care, and are disproportionately represented in essential frontline jobs that can't be done from home, increasing their exposure to the virus.
Data from a recently published paper in the Annals of Epidemiology reinforces the finding that African-Americans are harder hit in this pandemic. The study from researchers at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, looks at county-level health outcomes, comparing counties with disproportionately black populations to all other counties.
Their analysis shows that while disproportionately black counties account for only 30% of the U.S. population, they were the location of 56% of COVID-19 deaths. And even disproportionately black counties with above-average wealth and health care coverage bore an unequal share of deaths.
"There's a structural issue that's taking place here, it's not a genetic issue for all non-white individuals in the U.S.," says Greg Millett, director of public policy at amfAR and lead researcher on the paper.
Hispanics bear a disproportionate share of infections
Latinos and Hispanics test positive for the coronavirus at rates higher than would be expected for their share of the population in all but one of the 44 jurisdictions that report Hispanic ethnicity data (42 states plus Washington D.C.). The rates are two times higher in 30 states, and over four times higher in eight states. For example, in Virginia more than 12,000 cases 49% of all cases with known ethnicity come from the Hispanic and Latino community, which makes up only 10% of the population.
Fernandez has seen these disparities first-hand as an internist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. While Latinos made up about 35% of patients there before the pandemic, she says they now make up over 80% of COVID-19 cases at the hospital.
"In the early stages, when we were noticing increased Latino hospitalization at our own hospital and we felt that no one was paying attention and that people were just happy that San Francisco was crushing the curve," she says. "It felt horrendous. It felt as if people were dismissing those lives. ... It took people longer to realize what was going on."
People get free COVID-19 tests without needing to show ID, doctor's note or symptoms at a drive-through and walk up Coronavirus testing center located in Arlington, Va., on May 26th. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
People get free COVID-19 tests without needing to show ID, doctor's note or symptoms at a drive-through and walk up Coronavirus testing center located in Arlington, Va., on May 26th.
Like African-Americans, Latinos are over-represented in essential jobs that increase their exposure to the virus, says Fernandez. Regardless of their occupation, high rates of poverty and low wages mean that many Latinos feel compelled to leave home to seek work. Dense, multi-generational housing conditions make it easier for the virus to spread, she says.
The disproportionate share of deaths isn't as stark for Latinos as it is for African-Americans. Fernandez says that's likely because the U.S. Latino population overall is younger nearly three-quarters are millennials or younger, according to data from the Pew Research Center. But in California, "when you look at it by age groups, [older] Latinos are just as likely to die as African-Americans," she says.
Other racial groups
While data for smaller minority populations is harder to come by, where it exists, it also shows glaring disparities. In New Mexico, Native American communities have accounted for 60% of cases but only 9% of the population. Similarly, in Arizona, at least 136 Native American have died from COVID-19, a striking 21% of deaths in a state where just 4% of the population are Native American.
In several states Asian Americans have seen a disproportionate share of cases. In South Dakota, for example, they account for only 2% of the population but 12% of cases. But beyond these places, data can be spotty. In Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, Asian Americans and Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders are counted together, making comparison to census data difficult.
Fernandez points out that if COVID-19 demographic reporting included language, public health officials might see differences among different Asian groups, such as Vietnamese or Filipino Americans. "That's what's going to allow public health officials to really target different communities," she says. "We need that kind of information."
Understanding the unknowns
Months into the pandemic, painting a national picture of how minorities are being affected remains a fraught proposition, because in many states, large gaps remain in the data.
For instance, in New York state until recently the epicenter of the the U.S outbreak race and ethnicity data are available for deaths but not for cases. In Texas, which has a large minority population and a sizable outbreak, less than 25% of cases and deaths have race or ethnicity data associated with them.
There are also still concerns about how some states are collecting data, says Christopher Petrella, director of engagement for the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. For example, he says West Virginia, which claims to have race data for 100% of positive cases and 82% of deaths only reports three categories: white, black and "other."
Also some states appear to be listing Hispanics under the white category, says Samantha Artiga, director of the Disparities Policy Project at Kaiser Family Foundation,
"There's a lot of variation across states in terms of how they report the data that makes comparing the data across states hard, as well as getting a full national picture," Artiga says.
But experts fear that the available data actually undercounts the disparity observed in communities of color.
"I think we have the undercount anyway, because we know that minority communities are less likely to be tested for COVID-19," says Millett. NPR's own analysis found that in four out of six cities in Texas, testing sites were disproportionately located in whiter communities. Millet points to a recent study, released pre-peer review, that found that when testing levels went up in disadvantaged neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York City, so too did the evidence of the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on these communities.
A registered nurse draws blood to test for COVID-19 antibodies at Abyssinian Baptist Church in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City on May 14. Churches in low income communities across New York are offering COVID-19 testing to residents. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A registered nurse draws blood to test for COVID-19 antibodies at Abyssinian Baptist Church in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City on May 14. Churches in low income communities across New York are offering COVID-19 testing to residents.
Lawmakers have raised concern about the way the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports racial and ethnic data; the agency didn't report on demographics early on in the crisis, and even now it updates it weekly but with a one- to two-week lag. Democratic senators Patty Murray of Washington and Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., of New Jersey called a recent report on demographics the CDC submitted to Congress "woefully inadequate."
"The U.S. response to COVID-19 has been plagued by insufficient data on the impact of the virus, as well as the federal government's response to it," Murray and Pallone wrote in a letter sent May 22 to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. They called on the Trump administration to provide more comprehensive demographic data.
A tailored public health response
Essien says he's heard concerns from colleagues that by focusing on race and ethnicity in the disease, "some of the empathy for managing and treating is going to go away."
"If people feel like, 'Well, this is a them problem and not a me problem... then that may potentially affect the way that people think about the opening up of the country," he says.
But unless testing and other resources are directed now to communities that need them most, the pandemic will go on for everyone, says Nunez-Smith.
"This is important for everyone's health and safety," she says.
Nunez-Smith says race and ethnicity data is necessary for officials to craft tailored public health responses.
For many people, physical distancing is a privilege," she says. "If you live in a crowded neighborhood or you share a household with many other people, we need to give messaging specific to those conditions. If you need to leave work every day or leave home for work every day, if you need to take public transportation to get to an essential front line job, how can you keep safe?"
A tailored public health response is already happening in Louisiana, where LaVeist says his task force has recently recruited celebrities like Big Freedia, a pioneer of the New Orleans hip-hop subgenre called bounce, to counter misinformation and spread public health messages about COVID-19 to the African-American community.
Given the pandemic's disparate toll on communities of color, in particular low-income ones, Fernandez and Nunez-Smith say the public health response should include helping to meet basic needs like providing food, wage supports and even temporary housing for people who get sick or exposed to the virus.
"We have to guarantee that if we recommend to someone that they should be in quarantine or they should be in isolation, that they can do so safely and effectively," Nunez-Smith says.
Nunez-Smith says if you don't direct resources now to minority communities that need them most, there's a danger they might be less likely to trust and buy into public health messaging needed to stem the pandemic. Already, polls show widespread distrust of President Trump among African-Americans, and that a majority of them believe the Trump administration's push to reopen states came only after it became clear that people of color were bearing the brunt of the pandemic.
Fernandez notes that among Latinos, distrust could also hamper efforts to conduct effective contact tracing, because people who are undocumented or in mixed-status families may be reluctant to disclose who they've been in contact with.
"This is a terrible time for all of us who do health equity work," says Fernandez, "partly because this is so predictable and partly because we're standing here waving our arms saying, 'Wait, wait. We need help.' "
Connie Hanzhang Jin, Alice Goldfarb and Selena Simmons-Duffin contributed to this report.
Welcome to Poll Watch, our weekly look at polling data and survey research on the candidates, voters and issues that will shape the 2020 election.
The coronavirus has completely overtaken American life and politics, but in polls, most people dont name it as their top voting issue.
Political observers agree that what happens with the virus over the next few months is likely to determine the outcome of the November presidential election, but what they really mean is this: President Trumps response to the virusand how its perceived will probably swing the election. Tied closely to that is how much the economy bounces back.
The two top interrelated issues right now are the state of the pandemic and the state of the economy, and its hard to separate the two, Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said in an interview. The real question is what it looks like come October.
In a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released this week, voters were markedly more likely to name traditional issues like health care, the economy and foreign policy as the ones theyll be voting on.
Still, 50 percent said the virus would be very important to their vote for president, and 72 percent said the pandemic would factor into their vote at least somewhat. When asked in an open-ended question what exactly they meant by that, the most common response was some variation of this: How Mr. Trump responds.
From early April to late May, the viruss death toll skyrocketed. Just over 50,000 people had been killed by the pandemic worldwide at the start of last month, but today the death toll in the United States alone is more than 100,000. In that time, governors have called on Mr. Trump to address testing deficiencies usually to no avail and he has often struck a defiant tone when asked why he isnt doing more.
Even among Republicans, approval of Mr. Trumps handling of the virus now runs a few percentage points behind their rating of his overall performanceas president.
Voters in the political middle, including a small share of Democrats who initially gave Mr. Trump the benefit of the doubt, have particularly lost faith in his handling of the crisis. In a Fox News poll published last week, just 29 percent of independent voters gave him positive marks on dealing with the pandemic.
His numbers have also flagged in polling matchups with Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee; rare is the poll these days that finds Mr. Trump escaping the low 40s in a head-to-head scenario.
In back-to-back Fox polls, Mr. Trumps approval among registered voters on handling the pandemic fell by eight points from April to May; it now sits at 43 percent, roughly even with his 44 percent approval rating over all, according to Fox.
Basically, if you were for Mr. Trump before, you are probably still with him now. If you started out this year generally against him but willing to see how he led during the crisis, you have probably given up on that by now.
Still, it matters that Mr. Trump has proved to have a remarkably high floor. With the Republican establishment and the conservative news media firmly behind him, the president is unlikely to fall far below 40 percent approval. To finish strongly in November, he would need to win back between five and 10 points nationally, relying heavily on persuadable voters.
A lot of it has to do with where people will be economically going into the election, and who they will credit or blame for that, Thomas Sutton, a professor of political science at Baldwin Wallace University in Ohio who runs the universitys statewide poll, said in an interview. At this point in October, the unemployment rate will be less, Trump will claim credit for that, and Bidens got to run a really strong campaign with a countermessage to stop him from getting that credit and taking it to victory in Ohio.
Mr. Trump has historically enjoyed positive ratings on his handling of the economy. Of the five issues that Fox asked about in its latest poll, the economy was the only one on which voters did not generally say they would prefer to have Mr. Biden overseeing it.
The president has made it clear that he prioritizes restarting the economy soon, even if that means disregarding the warnings of his own health experts. With most states now moving forward with a partial reopening of public accommodations and businesses, Mr. Trump is eager to point to signs of economic life.
While unemployment has climbed to 14.7 percent and it is probably much higher than that, in reality the stock market has largely bounced back, and public confidence in a recovery is rising. Only 50 percent of Americans now say the worst days of the pandemic are ahead, down from three-fourths in early April.
And the Consumer Confidence Index, a polling measure of the national economic mood, finally stabilized this week after taking a historically steep plunge in the weeks before.
Youre not going to get a massive amount of economic growth in this time, but a psychological effect is the biggest thing, said Chuck Coughlin, a Republican-aligned consultant in Arizona whose firm recently published a poll in that swing state. People just beginning to feel positive about going out, beginning to socialize, seeing some restaurants open again: I think thats incredibly important for the general electoral prospects of Republicans.
While Mr. Trump has received increasingly middling reviews for his handling of the virus, many governors approval ratings have leapt. In poll after poll, Americans have been far more likely to give their state governments high marks on confronting the virus, even as they dont rate the federal governments work so well.
Many states heavily affected by the virus also happen to be swing states run by Democratic governors whose ratings have surged: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina all fit that description. In two key states, Georgia and Florida, the inverse has occurred: The approval ratings of the Republican governors, both reluctant to enforce social-distancing measures, fell.
Very few of these governors in pivotal states are up for re-election in 2020, but their popularity or unpopularity could play a role in helping to drive enthusiasm and turnout within their parties.
There are a number of governors who, if they could run for re-election in November, would be untouchable, Mr. Ayres said. They have job approvals in the 70s and 80s.
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A van is parked under the front awning of Life Care Center of Casper on May 21. Mass testing of staff and residents did not find more cases beyond that of a resident who died after being hospitalized.
In fewer than 14 days, Wyoming officials have addressed potential and realized coronavirus clusters within at least three long-term care facilities and three childcare centers.
The various facilities in Fremont, Washakie, Natrona and Albany counties fell across the spectrum in terms of the severity of their spread. At Worland Healthcare Rehabilitation Center, three residents have died and more than 20 people directly tied to the nursing home have become infected. Multiple people remain hospitalized, as of Friday.
At Caspers Life Care Center, one resident was sick and died days after his infection was confirmed. As of Friday, there are no known other coronavirus cases tied to Life Care; a Natrona County health official said the deceaseds infection is not believed to be tied to his stay at Life Care, which officials described as brief.
A Riverton nursing home Wind River Rehabilitation and Wellness has had at least two staff members infected, a state health official said Friday morning. Fremont County continues to be the hardest-hit area of the state, with 244 of the states 682 confirmed cases. The disease there first presented in another long-term care facility, the states first identified cluster.
Three childcare facilities across the state have all been affected in the latter part of May. Caspers Learning Junction closed temporarily and reopened earlier this week after one child there tested positive; that case is believed to be tied to an outbreak at Wyoming Medical Center. Mass testing at that facility turned up no additional cases.
America has been fertile ground for conspiracy theories since long before radio, television and Twitter came along to spread them fast and furiously.
Political parties alleging subversion by Roman Catholics and the Masons flourished briefly in the 1800s. A century later, people fell for Sen. Joseph McCarthys false but fervid claims of Communist infiltration throughout the government. And during the last presidential election, a North Carolina man fired an assault weapon inside a Washington pizzeria where a widespread conspiracy theory claimed Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring.
The historian Richard Hofstadter gave a name to the pathology in his groundbreaking 1964 book, The Paranoid Style in American Politics.
(N)o other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind, he wrote. It is the use of paranoid means of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant.
The problem is different now and more dangerous because, for the first time, a president of the United States, his family and many of his supporters are weaponizing it.
This month, President Donald Trump tweeted a vicious insinuation that Psycho Joe Scarborough, as he referred to his frequent MSNBC critic, had murdered an aide in 2001, while he was a Congressman from Florida. Independent fact-checkers soundly disproved it when Trump first spread it in 2017. The medical examiner found that the young woman lost consciousness and fell, suffering a fatal injury, because of an abnormal heart rhythm. She had told others she was not feeling well.
A few days after the president slandered Scarborough, Eric Trump like father, like son claimed on Fox News that the coronavirus is a Democratic hoax that will disappear magically after the November election. Democrats are exploiting it, he said, to deprive the president of his greatest tool, the mass rallies.
The nations COVID-19 death toll has passed 100,000. Many more would be dead without the shutdowns and social distancing measures that inspired Eric Trumps brazen lie.
Its doubtful that even he believes it. But he knows that many of his fathers supporters will. The hoax theory has become the party line with some Republican candidates.
Rarely, though, has political fakery been so dangerous. Calling the coronavirus a hoax encourages people to take risks with their own lives and the lives of others.
The coronavirus pandemic has spread paranoia almost as fast as the disease itself. Those who believe its a conspiracy defy distancing rules, refuse to wear masks, abuse those who do, and try to intimidate elected officials with armed protests.
Even people in the highest ranks of government have parroted unsupported suspicions that the novel coronavirus was either invented in a virus laboratory in Wuhan, China, or allowed to escape from there.
Scientists have conclusively debunked the man-made theory, showing that it is a naturally occurring contagion that spread to humans from animals exactly like many others, among them bubonic plague, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, swine flu, avian flu and the Zika virus.
Its true that U.S. Embassy officials who visited the relatively new Wuhan laboratory sent warnings about inadequate safety and management shortcomings. But no evidence has turned up that it actually let the virus escape from the bats it was studying. The long history of such animal-to-people contagions favors natural transmission instead.
Yet two of Americas notable conspiracy fanciers, Florida congressman Matt Gaetz and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, spread misinformation that the U.S. had given $3.7 million to the Wuhan laboratory. That led the Trump administration to cut off funding for an American research project on how coronaviruses spread from bats to people. The researchers had spent only about $100,000 a year working with the Wuhan lab.
Trump carried paranoia to an even more reckless extreme when, citing China, he cut off all U.S. aid to the World Health Organization, the only international body equipped to deal with the virus across borders and oceans. He followed with a threat to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO entirely.
The WHO is fairly open to criticism for having responded too slowly to the outbreak in China, but defunding it would be an overreaction like shutting down a fire department because it was slow to answer a call.
Americans have a penchant for lawsuits as well as conspiracy theories, and so at least nine have been filed against the Peoples Republic of China on account of the coronavirus.
One of these cases, a potential class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court at Miami, makes plausible allegations that China was too slow to deal with the virus, to warn the world, and share its DNA sequencing with other scientists.
But the suit then strays into an alternative theory in other words, conspiracy fantasy that the virus escaped a Chinese laboratory because its researchers sold infected animals to a food market, as researchers have been known to do in China, instead of cremating them as (Chinese) laws requires. Only in some far-out media have Chinese researchers been known to do that.
The sole source for that allegation appears to be an unsupported New York Post op-ed by the head of the right-wing Population Research Institute, whose creed is overpopulation is a myth. The article cited a single incident, not in Wuhan, where someone allegedly sold surplus pigs and cattle, and went to prison for it.
It could be true that the Wuhan laboratory was careless. However, none of the lawsuits is likely to come close to establishing that. The lawyers would have to overcome U.S. law the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act that generally prohibits such claims against foreign governments. The Miami suit aims to get around that by suing the Chinese Communist Party, as well.
Two Republican senators are sponsoring legislation to expose China to U.S. courts. That is a bad idea, considering the many ways China could retaliate, and it provides an excuse to shirk our own governments responsibility.
Editorial by the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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