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Good morning.
Were covering new federal guidelines on lifting coronavirus-related restrictions, a break in Chinas decades-long economic growth, and Amazons struggles during the pandemic. Its also Friday, so theres a new news quiz.
President Trump issued nonbinding guidelines on Thursday that recommend a patchwork reopening of the country, backing down from an earlier assertion that he would decide how and when to end widespread lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
Youre going to be calling the shots, he told the nations governors on a conference call. Well be standing right alongside of you, and were going to get our country open and get it working.
The guidelines urge states not to lift restrictions until they reach a 14-day period in which case numbers fall steadily and hospitals are not overwhelmed. But the guidance doesnt envision the comprehensive testing that public health experts have sought and left difficult questions unanswered, including on travel between states.
Here are the latest updates from the U.S. and around the world, as well as maps of the pandemic.
In other developments:
New podcast: What is the internet doing to us? Our latest audio series, Rabbit Hole, explores what happens as our lives move online. Listen to the first episode here.
The details: Weve compiled expert virus-related guidance on subjects including health, money and travel.
The Times is providing free access to much of our coronavirus coverage, and our Coronavirus Briefing newsletter like all of our newsletters is free. Please consider supporting our journalism with a subscription.
Infectious disease experts are unsure just how deadly the coronavirus will be, after projecting earlier this year that around 1 percent of infected people would die, a rate 10 times that of a typical flu.
According to various unofficial trackers, about 6.4 percent of people confirmed as infected with the virus have died worldwide. But on the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where scientists have a much better understanding of how many people the infection really reached, the rate was a small fraction of that.
We examined the sources of uncertainty behind the numbers.
Related: Obesity may be one of the most important predictors of severe coronavirus illness, new studies say. Its an alarming finding for the U.S., which has one of the highest obesity rates in the world.
Another angle: A nursing home in Queens has reported 29 deaths from the virus, although two workers told The Times that the actual toll was far higher.
Since the pandemic reached the U.S., the online retailer has struggled to respond after experiencing sales growth in one month that usually would take years, according to one business adviser. Sometimes products are in stock. Sometimes they arent.
Amazons adjustments have generated confusion for consumers, just as people are turning more than ever to online shopping.
Kate Scarpa, an Amazon spokeswoman, said the company was regularly updating its processes. We know that people are depending on us, she said.
Related: As online buying has surged, so have the number of cargo flights, which has caught the attention of those who live near airports.
Go deeper: The pandemic has illustrated how close to the edge many Americans were living, with pay and benefits eroding even as corporate profits surged. In the past month, about 22 million people in the U.S. have lost their jobs, roughly the number of positions that were created in the past decade.
Masks have become an emblem in the fight against the coronavirus, with officials recommending and in some cases requiring that people wear them.
Featured video: How does a New Yawker tawk? The #BestNYAccent challenge on Instagram, started by a film director who was sidelined with Covid-like symptoms, brought out the sound of an unflappable city.
In memoriam: Brian Dennehy won two Tony Awards in an acting career that spanned more than 50 years in theater, movies and television. He died on Wednesday at 81.
News quiz: Did you follow the headlines this week? Test yourself.
Modern Love: In this weeks column, a married couple who lived in separate cities face the pandemic.
Late-night comedy: Conan OBrien lamented New Yorks new mask policy: Yeah, everyone has to wear a mask. The players on the New York Jets said, Thats OK, were used to hiding our identity.
What were reading: This Bon Apptit essay about learning to cook through crisis with the help of an Italian mother over FaceTime. Until this, I hadnt laughed once while reading about how people are coping with the pandemic, writes Jenna Wortham, a staff writer for The Times Magazine and a host of our Still Processing podcast.
Cook: Adding tuna to your puttanesca gives it heft. And you can still make it in well under 30 minutes.
Read: A look at the history and culture of crossword puzzles is among 12 new books we recommend. Want a good barometer of what people are reading at home? Look no further than our best-seller lists.
Dream: Its nice to drift through the idea of living in this restored rowhouse in Malaysia, if you could get there (and had $1.8 million to spend). Its nice to go to galleries as well, if only virtually, to look at art from Feliciano Centurin and Jennifer Bolande. (You could make yourself into art afterward, maybe?)
We have more ideas about what to read, cook, watch and do while staying safe at home.
This week, our video team took you inside Tripoli, Libya, where residents already facing the horrors of a war zone are grappling with the pandemic. Shelling has prompted more people to flee to the city center, and fresh attacks in residential areas mean they must choose between fleeing further, and risking exposure to the virus, or staying put, and risking bombardment.
Melina Delkic, on the Briefings team, spoke with one of the people interviewed in the video, Montaha Nattah, a 21-year-old student. Heres their text exchange lightly edited for space.
Whats your typical day like?
Most of my day is spent writing papers, preparing projects, attending classes and studying for exams. Studying during quarantine is quite difficult you barely have the energy to get tasks done but studying while living in a war zone and being quarantined is an outrageous combination I would never want anyone to experience.
Libyans are used to leaving their houses whenever there is intense shelling nearby. Unfortunately, during the era of Covid-19, that is not the case.
How long have you lived in Tripoli?
My whole life until 2018, when I got to study at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. I visited Libya every summer and winter break, but during these extraordinary times and despite the ongoing conflict, I decided to go back home because I believe that home is a feeling, not only a place.
If this pandemic is going to be the end of the world, then Id rather die in my hometown next to my family.
What are you seeing and hearing around you right now?
Living in Tripoli nowadays means hearing drones flying above your head most of the time. It means hearing projectiles falling around you. It means seeing and smelling smoke and polluted air when you open your window because of the places that get bombed.
And finally, it means putting your earphones on whenever there is intensive shelling, so you can forget about the reality a little.
Thats it for this briefing.
As we end another week, I wanted to thank all the readers whove written recently, particularly those whove asked how we at The Times are doing. It means a lot to us.
See you next time.
Chris
Thank youTo Melissa Clark for the recipe, and to Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the rest of the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.
P.S. Were listening to The Daily. Todays episode includes an interview with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, whose district has been hit hard by the coronavirus. Heres todays Mini Crossword, and a clue: Container of peanut butter or jelly (three letters). You can find all our puzzles here. Apoorva Mandavilli, the founding editor in chief of Spectrum, an award-winning news site on autism science, is joining The Times as a health and science writer.
The migrants flew to Guatemala on an April 13 flight from Brownsville, Texas, the sources said.
During a live televised address Thursday night, Guatemala's presidential spokesman Carlos Sandoval said both countries were working closely "to revalidate the health status of Guatemalans returned in recent days," adding that Covid-19 tests "would be carried out again on the cases that tested positive and also on the people who tested negative" in both countries.
An ICE spokesperson told CNN Thursday that "the health and welfare of detainees in ICE custody is of the highest priority to the agency. ICE closely follows (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidance as a standard practice and particularly in response to the changing dynamic of this global pandemic. Currently, CDC is on the ground in Guatemala to review and validate the Covid-19 tests performed on those arriving from ICE Air flights. Once results are available, ICE will determine whether to re-evaluate current medical procedures with CDC guidance to ensure that any newly necessary practices are implemented."
According to its website regarding Covid-19, ICE conducts, "a visual screening consistent with current ICE policy and procedures on those detained lacking medical summary information (new apprehensions) who are delivered to the aircraft. Those detainees who are not 'new apprehensions' are brought to the aircraft with medical clearance."
The guidance goes on to say, "any ICE detainee who fails to pass screening by a flight medical provider and/or is suspected of having a health-risk condition potentially contagious to other detainees, staff and/or third parties, will be denied boarding and referred to an ICE approved facility for screening."
ICE further notes that a temperature test is conducted before boarding the aircraft. "In accordance with (ICE Health Service Corps) guidance, any detainee with a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher will be immediately referred to a medical provider for further evaluation and observation," they said.
Joaqun Samayoa, a spokesman for Guatemala's Foreign Affairs Ministry, told a WhatsApp media group Thursday that flights will be suspended between Guatemala and the United States until further notice. He said the decision was agreed upon by both countries.
From CNNE's Michelle Mendoza in Guatemala City, CNN's Natalie Galln in Mexico City and Priscilla Alvarez in DC. CNN's Abel Alvarado and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.
Dr. Anthony Fauci says we will never be able to act like "there never was a coronavirus problem." USA TODAY
During World War II, 407,317 Americans died in a fightfor global democracy. The dead were heraldedas representatives of the Greatest Generation and honored in books, movies andmemorials.
The Vietnam War claimed 58,220 lives in a bitterbattle that divided the nation. Heroic tributes eluded both the deceasedand survivors as a new generation developed a deep skepticism towardgovernment.
And on Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists killed 2,977 as the countryrecoiled in horror. Strict surveillancemeasures were embraced as the military plunged into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that havelasted the better part of two decades.
The U.S. has suffered horrific death tollsthroughout history, from one-day cataclysms to wars to pandemics such as the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed a staggering675,000 Americans.Another 116,151 died in those same years fighting in World War I.
Each wave ofdeathbroughtunprecedentedsocietal changes. Historians expect the coronavirus outbreak will be no different, even if their exact nature remains elusive. The finalCOVID-19 death toll andhow Americans judge the government's response to the virusare sure to color how we look back on this crisis.
In this Dec. 7, 2016, file photo, sailors on the USS Halsey salute while passing by the USS Arizona Memorial during a moment of silence at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The bombing of that port sent the U.S. into World War II, a war that took more than 400,000 lives but galvanized the country.(Photo: Eugene Tanner, AP)
Will this be another World War II moment, where a nation rejoices in its unified effort to vanquish a common enemy, or another Vietnam stalemate withcitizens debating whether the actions of leadersled to needless deaths and suffering?
"If it starts to appear that this situation is badly bungled and leaders have failed us resulting in more deaths than necessary, the potential is greater for a national upheaval,"says Mark Atwood Lawrence, historian and Vietnam War scholar at the University of Texas, Austin.
Since the first U.S. coronavirus death was reported in Seattle on Feb. 29, more than 33,000 lives about one-fifth of the global toll have been lost to COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the pathogen.
While a national self-quarantine seems to behelping slowthe outbreak, the grim meter keeps ticking. For those who have lost loved ones, the pain is omnipresent. For others,sobering images provide a window into what has been lost, from caskets being laid into a field on New York Citys Hart Islandto white body bags in a vacant room at Detroits Sinai-Grace Hospital.
Initial models forecast as many as 2.2 million American deaths from the coronavirus if no social distancing measures were implemented. That number dropped into the hundreds of thousands as states enacted a range of stay-at-homemeasures, from issuing fines to violators to simply urging greater personal responsibility. The nation's de facto infectious disease expert,Anthony Fauci, now says deaths could be capped at 60,000.
The coronavirus is causing major stresses in households. Here's a look at how the country is doing and tips on how to cope with mental health issues. USA TODAY
The most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that in 2017, 647,457 Americans died from heart disease, 599,108died from cancer, 169,963 from accidents (nearly 40,000 of those due to cars), 146,383from strokes, 83,564from diabetes and 55,672from influenza or pneumonia.
As much as holding the number of coronavirus victims at 60,000 will be viewed as a victory to some, a death toll reached in mere months that equals 11 years of fighting in Vietnam will leave a lasting scar, says Douglas Brinkley, historian and author at Houston's Rice University.
Workers wearing personal protective equipment bury bodies in a trench on Hart Island in the Bronx borough of New York. The death toll from the coronavirus in New York City is nearly half that of the entire country.(Photo: John Minchillo, AP)
This is a seismic event in U.S. history that will be recalled for generations to come, and what will be remembered more than the economic woes is the death toll, says Brinkley, who predicts memorials will be erected to honor the doctors and nurses who died helping people, if not the virus victims themselves.
Brinkley says this loss may be felt even more acutely across the country than the deaths resulting from post-World War II conflicts or tragedies such as 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,833 people in 2005. The reason: the ubiquity of the shared experience.
The sheer scale of COVID-19 matters, he says. Were not talking about an isolated region or city that was hit, this has canvassed the country and given everyone a giant timeout to deal with an unwelcome reality.
Part of what must come out of any national trial where lives are lost is a narrative that most of the country can agree on, says Carolyn Marvin, professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvanias Annenberg School of Communications and author of Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the Flag.
Velocity Urgent Care operations coordinator and medical assistant Lucy Adkinson holds up a sign while looking for the next patient to test for the novel coronavirus in Woodbridge, Virginia. Doctors and nurses are fast emerging as the heroes of this COVID-19 pandemic, much the way soldiers in World War II were celebrated after that costly victory of Nazism.(Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
That critical collective story is what allows people to understand the sacrifice and gain something from the experience, she says.But with the U.S.bitterly divided along political lines, its possible a unified post-COVID-19 narrative wont come together quickly or perhaps at all.
If that happens, Marvin says, then we will have lost the opportunity to understand ourselves better as a country capable of coming together as a stronger unified group.
Previous moments of great loss inU.S. history elicitedvarying reactions.
The Civil War, which took 750,000 lives between 1861 and 1865, ended slavery and broughta fundamental reshaping of a nation that had been at risk of imploding under its differences.
In 1918, the nationhad fewer people and wasnt connected by technology as it is today. That means the devastating Spanish Flu pandemic took its toll town by town, with some suffering greatly and others less so. Mostly what caught the publics attention was the ghastly nature of the illness, says John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.
It wasnt so much about the numbers as the way people were dying, some within 24 hours, turning dark blue due to lack of oxygen, some bleeding from the eyes and ears and 28 being the peak age of death, Barry says.
The big lesson from that epidemic that may apply today is the devastating second wave of Spanish flu deaths that hit after the country reopened prematurely, allowing the virus to spread more.
One of the articles on the front page of the Tunkhannock Republican on Thursday, Oct. 17, 1918, features a story whose headline reads, "Uncle Sam's Advice on Flu." The 1918 Spanish Flu killed 675,000 Americans.(Photo: EILEEN BLASS, USA TODAY)
If we can keep our deaths to 60,000, that would be a victory, but it involves keeping our current measures into May, he says.
World War II killed nearly half a million Americans, but because the outcome was a triumph over fascism those deaths were lionized, says historian Brinkley. Not only that, but the nation as a whole reveled in its collective sense of accomplishment.
That event was so costly in terms of lives, but it also gave rise to a sense of American exceptionalism and can-do-ism, he says.
In fact, much like the horrors of the Spanish flu and World War I were followed by the Roaring '20s,a period of fiscal prosperity and cultural renaissance, the post-WWII years were marked by both a baby and economic boom that cast those who died as heroes that helped usher in better times.
While so far COVID-19 has pulled back the curtain of Oz and revealed a nation unready for a medical crisis, Brinkley is hopeful that the resulting deaths will not be in vain and instead will bring about a re-dedication to scientific rigor and national preparedness for future pandemics.
The Ronald Reagan administration and other government officials were criticized for not doing more during the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic that took hold in the early 1980s and to date has killed more than 650,000 Americans. In subsequent years, the crisishelped raiseawareness about safer sex practices and LGBTQ rights.
In this file photo, the second wave of combat helicopters of the 1st Air Cavalry Division fly over an isolated landing zone during Operation Pershing, a search and destroy mission on the Bong Son Plain and An Lao Valley of South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. That war killed nearly 60,000 Americans and ultimately left the country bitterly divided throughout much of the 1970s.(Photo: Patrick Christain, Getty Images)
The Vietnam War likely presents the most stark example of when a large number ofAmericans died for a cause that did not triumph, as the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam only to let the Communist regime it had been battling at great cost take charge.
The war, which lasted from 1964 to 1975, had a notable turning point in the court of public opinion. It happened when CBS anchor Walter Cronkite said in a 1968 broadcast that he believed the war was, at best, a stalemate. Weeks later, President Lyndon Johnson sensed he had lost public support and declined to seek reelection.
Historian Lawrence hopes that our coronavirus tragedy echoes the Vietnam conflict in the sense that it could produce an intense debating about the role of government in our lives, something I sense the upcoming presidential debates will be full of.
When it comes to shocks to the national nervous system, fewevents seared more than 9/11, which, much like COVID-19, had its biggest effect on New York City.
But the pandemic already has and will continue to affect us in a deep way for a much longer period of time because of the scale of deaths and the economic impact, says Joseph Margulies, professor of law and government at Cornell University and author of What Changed When Everything Changed: 9/11 and the Making of National Identity.
Margulies says that while 9/11 gave the powerful sensation of carnage falling from the sky on a cloud-free Tuesday morning, the way COVID-19 has unfolded gradually and nationally means we are still starting to sort out what this means to us all and it may take time.
In some ways, one could argue that the exact number of those killed in a tragedy doesnt matter simply because the unexpected loss of even one American life can have the same impact as the passing of thousands. Consider the shock that swept the nation after the Boston Marathon bombing, when three people were killed.
Instead, what is of paramount importance in the wake of any deadly event is simply sharing a sense of loss and grief, says Kari Watkins, executive director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
This virus is a modern-day terrorist attack on us all, so if I lost my father or friend to 9/11 or Oklahoma City or COVID-19, the loss is the same, Watkins says. The sacrifice is the same.
In this April 24, 1995 photo, an Oklahoma City police car decorated with the words, "We will never forget" and a small American flag sits near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The American terrorist who set the blast killed 168 people, including 19 children. Life changed in the U.S. in its aftermath, with a new attention paid to domestic terrorism and beefed up security at federal buildings around the country.(Photo: Rick Bowmer, AP)
Twenty-five years ago on April 19, a bomb placed in a truck by Timothy McVeigh ripped through a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 128. The dead included children at a day care center. A nation reeled, domestic terrorism took center stage and government buildings were wrapped in protective monoliths.
Watkins has been planning a big remembrance event for Sunday, one set to include dignitaries and victims alike. Because of the outbreak, it will be cut back and livestreamed.
Nonetheless, she says, there is no mistaking the mission behind marking that dark day in 1995.
Whenever we go through these national tragedies, people have to have a chance to rebuild their lives and move forward, Watkins says. So many are dying now, but we have to make the very best of the very worst. We might take baby steps together, and maybe there will be mistakes on both sides of the political aisle. But we should all be working together now for America.
Follow USA TODAY national correspondent Marco della Cava: @marcodellacava
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President Trumps leadership is undergoing a stress test. The coronavirus pandemic illuminates how partisan divides can affect both how people perceive a threat and what they think should be done in the face of such a formidable challenge.
Trump voters the people who feel deeply seen and represented by the president view their president as under attack. The foes include Democrats, the viruss relentless spread and, particularly, China. I spoke with several Trump supporters about how they see their governments leadership in this time of crisis.
Maurice Rosenstein owns Casa Do Brasil, a steakhouse in College Station, Texas. He voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and plans to vote for him again in 2020.
Hes a strong willed and minded man, Mr. Rosenstein said. I think hes done a great job with our economy.
He does not have the polish as a politician, but I think he has done a great job, Mr. Rosenstein added about the coronavirus response. He pointed toward shutting down the travel from China as a positive step. The mans just got guts, he added. He will go down in history as a very good president in my eyes.
Mr. Rosensteins restaurant has, in his words, been devastated by the pandemic restrictions. His staff of 64 is down to 20. The takeout business doesnt generate a profit.
While lauding the presidents response to the coronavirus, he directed most of his ire toward China.
I dont think I want to buy anything again from China, even if Ive got to pay double, he said. These people created a pandemic that I dont think well ever get out of 100 percent, probably in my lifetime. Its terrible.
Michael Ricciardi owns Global Cleaning USA, a commercial cleaning company in Toms River, N.J. Many of his regular customers have suspended services because their buildings are shut down, though his company is still doing specialty deep-cleans.
I think that him shutting down the travel from China early was a huge help as far as trying to contain it, Mr. Ricciardi said. It was just alarming to see how quick this thing spread.
Mr. Ricciardi believes that the coronavirus is a man-made virus by China during an election year.
He said that he would like to see the president hold China more responsible for the coronavirus. To me this is biochemical warfare.
China needs to be investigated and they need to be held responsible if found theres any evidence that they did this on purpose, he added.
The way I see it, you cant call a guy a racist for stopping travel to China a month ago and do a 360 flip a month later and say he didnt stop travel soon enough. Youre checkmated as far as Im concerned. You already made yourself look like a dummy by doing that, Mr. Ricciardi said.
Jarrett Stern is a hospital administrator in Littleton, N.H. He has worked in health care for 25 years. Mr. Stern said that he has been pretty impressed with the federal governments response to the coronavirus. Its always easier to sit back and armchair quarterback what they did.
He pointed to passing the stimulus package and advising states as to how to minimize the spread of the virus as positive steps. He said he has also been impressed with the daily White House briefings.
Jane Murphy Timken is the chairwoman of the Republican Party in Ohio. I think the president has been doing a phenomenal job, she said. He has assembled a fantastic team of leaders who are experts in their field.
The president, she said, is a take-action person. Hes not going to be sitting in his office. Hes going to be on the phone.
He has high expectations for people who work for him and theyre doing the best to deliver, Ms. Timken said. The attitude is all hands on deck. Everyone needs to step up.
For him the priority is the health and safety of the American people, she added. His America First is proving correct. We need to take care of the United States and its citizens.
Ms. Timken criticized Democrats for being critical of the federal government at this time. Theres a tendency to attack. Ive seen Democrats tend to do this, and I dont think it bodes well. When the American public is losing their jobs and concerned about their health and safety, partisan attacks dont go over well. I think there will be a backlash to that, she said.
The American people love the president because he is a fighter and he is fighting for them, Ms. Timken added.
Ted Cruz recently told Fox News that the mainstream media was trying to root for disaster. Both senators have just been named to a White House task force to open the economy, which makes me feel not one iota safer.
My particular favorite, though, is Ron Paul, the former congressman from Texas who published a very long column on March 16 on the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity website headlined The Coronavirus Hoax. There just werent enough people with the disease to warrant the incursion into our civil liberties, he warned. That was just about a week before his son, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, came down with the faux virus himself.
I will say in defense of my state that none of these people are stupid; they arent the stereotypical yahoos that so many non-Texans like to imagine live among us in droves. No. They represent the stubborn if expediently applied strain of anti-government independence that is inherent in the Texas character, which conveniently dovetails with being a Trump toady.
Mr. Abbotts fealty to the president, along with that of our senators, could mean that Texans could become the public health guinea pigs who will suffer mightily if the state opens too soon.
What all this behavior will mean in a state that is slowly turning purple is anyones guess. We are lucky that, thanks to local stay-in-place orders and a comparative lack of density in our cities, the number of Texas cases is only over 16,000, with deaths at over 390. But we are not at peak, experts tell us, and meanwhile over one million Texans have filed for unemployment. Thats a number that will cause a lot of restiveness here, and maybe some reflection on just how much actual leadership Republican leaders have displayed during this awful time.
Not that leadership hasnt been on display in other quarters. Some of the slack has been taken up by the private sector, with restaurant and small-business owners banding together to help their colleagues and trying their best to fill in for a government that is M.I.A.
The big businesses have gotten into the act, too, in particular HEB, a San Antonio-based grocery store chain that has become a lifesaver during the kinds of climate emergencies that have become the new normal here (see: Hurricane Harvey, 2017). As my colleagues Dan Solomon and Paula Forbes reported recently in Texas Monthly, HEB has had a pandemic and influenza plan since 2005, when it first took note of the H5N1 threat. The chain put that plan in effect in 2009 when the H1N1 swine flu hit.
Democrats blocked the effort, however, and Speaker Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, responded with their own proposal that would double the size of Mr. McConnells:
They, too, called for an additional $250 billion in small-business loans, but with stricter conditions on how and to which businesses they would be granted.
They also proposed $100 billion to provide hospitals with testing and personal protective equipment, $150 billion for state and local governments, and a 15 percent increase to the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit (also known as food stamps.)
But Mr. McConnell returned the favor of blocking that proposal, which means small businesses, hospitals, local governments and SNAP recipients will have to wait until lawmakers can negotiate in person. That may be just as well for Governors Andrew Cuomo and Larry Hogan, who say states and territories need at least $500 billion in federal aid, not $150 billion.
In the United States, roughly half the population relies on employers for health insurance. As the fraught saying goes, If you like your employer-based plan, you can keep it. But if a pandemic costs you your job, the only thing you keep is the pandemic.
With millions of Americans now losing their coverage, Ella Nilsen reports at Vox that Democrats have introduced a plan to increase subsidies for COBRA, a program that allows laid-off employees to continue buying into their plans. As Ms. Nilsen explains, COBRA is prohibitively expensive, but if more people are able to access it with these extra subsidies, it could possibly help fill a large gap in insurance coverage.
The benefit of this plan is that it allows for relatively seamless continuity of coverage, and getting unemployed workers onto COBRA can happen very quickly, Larry Levitt, the senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told Ms. Nilsen.
But as the health care policy analyst James Medlock points out, COBRA subsidies are also an expensive solution, since they effectively function as a transfer of public money to for-profit insurers. And, as the writer Molly Crabapple notes, if you didnt have employer-sponsored insurance before the pandemic, COBRA wont help you.
Another way to prevent the number of uninsured from skyrocketing is to expand Medicaid, as Senator Doug Jones has proposed. Others have called for lowering the eligibility age of Medicare to 0 (effectively enacting a version of Medicare for all).
Facebook just announced another step in trying to set the record straight about misleading information about the novel coronavirus on its platform. In the coming weeks, the company will start directing people who have previously liked, reacted, or commented on harmful misinformation about Covid-19 to information from more authoritative sources, such as a myth-busters website by the World Health Organization (WHO).
This represents one of the first times Facebook will warn a specific set of users who have interacted in the past with false information. Experts have argued for years that the social network is rife with misleading information that taints public discourse and asked Facebook to take the retroactive approach.
We want to connect people who may have interacted with harmful misinformation about the virus with the truth from authoritative sources in case they see or hear these claims again off of Facebook, wrote Guy Rosen, Facebooks vice president of integrity, in a company blog post released on Thursday. The notifications will apply only to Facebook and not its other platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, social media users have been posting popular and dangerous hoaxes about the virus, including false cures and myths about the origins of the outbreak. In response, companies like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have been stepping up their measures to flag and sometimes delete this type of content. In March alone, Facebook says it labeled 40 million posts as false on its network, relying on its team of independent third-party fact-checkers. Still, plenty of bad information that fact-checkers dont catch regularly slips through the cracks or is caught only after tens of thousands of users have already seen the posts in question.
Facebook included a screenshot of a new News Feed message that will show users who have interacted false coronavirus information, pointing them to WHO resources.
The design Facebook provided looks more like a gentle nudge than a specific warning, and some have called for stronger notifications that specifically correct the record on individual false claims. When Recode asked about what the notifications will look like, a spokesperson for Facebook said the design in the blog post is an early version and that its also testing more explicit variations.
Well continue to iterate on these designs with a goal of ensuring people whove been exposed to harmful misinformation about Covid-19 are connected with the facts, said the spokesperson.
For Facebooks critics, the move toward retroactively notifying users about misleading Covid-19 content, even if incremental, is a welcome development. Many academics and policy experts have scolded Facebook for lax moderation not only on Covid-related topics but also on misinformation around issues like immigration and politics. Historically, Facebook and other social media companies have been reluctant to flag politically contentious information as false, arguing that over-policing content on their platforms could limit free speech. But with the coronavirus, the company has adopted a more aggressive approach.
[T]he company has taken a key first step in cleaning up the dangerous infodemic surrounding the coronavirus, but it has the power to do so much more to fully protect people from misinformation, wrote Fadi Quran, campaign director at nonprofit activist group Avaaz, in a statement to Recode. Avaaz is one of several groups that has been pushing for stronger fact-checking and for corrections to be issued more broadly on the platform, not just on content about Covid-19. New research commissioned by the organization shows that Facebook corrections have a major impact in shaping users views and can effectively reduce peoples belief in misinformation by 50 percent.
Facebook declined to answer a question from Recode about whether it will apply its warnings to other types of misinformation in the future.
For companies like Facebook, its a lot easier to draw a line in the sand on misinformation about coronavirus topics than around more politically contentious ones, like gun rights, abortion, immigration, or even the 2020 US elections. While theres still plenty of uncertainty about Covid-19 even alleged biases of authoritative sources like the WHO have come under question its still much easier to prove why a hoax about Covid-19 is wrong than it is to confirm the veracity of a personal attack on a politician.
In the next few weeks, well learn more about what these new retroactive notifications to Facebook users that have been exposed to coronavirus misinformation will look like, not to mention how widely theyre being sent out. But it may take much longer before we see if Facebooks new moderation strategy will be a lasting mechanism to fight misinformation online more broadly.
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Another NYU Langone study, which focused on patients under the age of 60, found that those with obesity were twice as likely to be hospitalized and were at even higher risk of requiring critical care. The association between obesity and more severe disease was not seen in patients over the age of 60.
The severity of the illness often comes as a surprise to younger adults, and provides another layer of shock to this disease, the papers author, Dr. Jennifer Lighter, said.
Studies highlighting the risks of obesity have been conducted in other countries as well.
Though most of the early reports from China pointed to risk factors like Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, which are common in people with obesity, scientists in Shenzhen, China, posted a preliminary report online this month finding that Covid-19 patients with a high body mass index were at more than double the risk of severe pneumonia than those with a lower B.M.I.
Another study from China, which looked at outcomes among a group of 112 Covid-19 patients, reported that of the 17 patients who died, 15 were either overweight or obese.
More recently, a French study reported that nearly half of 124 Covid-19 patients in Lille, France, had obesity, twice the rate of a comparison group of intensive care patients hospitalized for other reasons last year. The study also reported that the need for mechanical ventilation increased with higher body weight.
At Ochsner Health, a system with 41 hospitals in Louisiana and southern Mississippi, Dr. Leo Seoane, the companys senior vice president, said that 60 percent of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 had obesity and that obesity appeared to nearly double their risk of requiring a ventilator.
We in the U.S. have not always identified obesity as a disease, and some people think its a lifestyle choice. But its not, said Dr. Matthew Hutter, director of the Weight Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. It makes people sick, and were realizing that now.
What is Covid-19?
It is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has transferred to humans from animals. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared it a pandemic.
According to the WHO, the most common symptoms of Covid-19 are fever, tiredness and a dry cough. Some patients may also have a runny nose, sore throat, nasal congestion and aches and pains or diarrhoea. Some people report losing their sense of taste and/or smell. About 80% of people who get Covid-19 experience a mild case about as serious as a regular cold and recover without needing any special treatment.
About one in six people, the WHO says, become seriously ill. The elderly and people with underlying medical problems such as high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, or chronic respiratory conditions, are at a greater risk of serious illness from Covid-19.
In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) has identified the specific symptoms to look for as experiencing either:
As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work, and there is currently no vaccine. Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system.
No. In the UK, the NHS advice is now that anyone with symptoms should stay at home for at least 7 days. If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home. This applies to everyone, regardless of whether they have travelled abroad.
In the UK, you should look on the dedicated coronavirus NHS 111 website for information. If you get worse or your symptoms last longer than seven days, you should call NHS 111. People will no longer be tested for the virus unless they are in hospital.
Many countries have imposed travel bans and lockdown conditions in order to try to halt the spread of the virus. You should check with your local authorities for the latest advice on seeking medical assistance.
As of 17 April, more than 2.1m people have been infected in over 185 countries, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
There have been more than 145,000 deaths globally. Over 4,500 of those deaths have occurred in mainland China, where the coronavirus was first recorded in the city of Wuhan. The US has had more than 34,500 fatalities, Italy more than 22,000 and Spain has seen more than 19,500. The US has more confirmed cases than any other country over 676,000. Many of those who have died had underlying health conditions, which the coronavirus complicated.
More than 543,500 people are recorded as having recovered from coronavirus.
We dont yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus is, and we wont know until more data comes in, but estimates of the mortality rate have ranged from well below 1% in the young to over 3% among those who are elderly or have underlying health conditions. Seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate below 1% and is thought to cause about 400,000 deaths each year globally. Sars had a death rate of more than 10%.
Another key unknown is how contagious the coronavirus is. A crucial difference is that unlike flu, there is no vaccine for the new coronavirus, which means it is more difficult for vulnerable members of the population elderly people or those with existing respiratory or immune problems to protect themselves. Hand-washing and avoiding other people if you feel unwell are important.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals. In 2002, Sars spread virtually unchecked to 37 countries, causing global panic, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 750. Mers appears to be less easily passed from human to human, but has greater lethality, killing 35% of about 2,500 people who have been infected.
Due to the unprecedented and ongoing nature of the coronavirus outbreak, this article is being regularly updated to ensure that it reflects the current situation at the date of publication. Any significant corrections made to this or previous versions of the article will continue to be footnoted in line with Guardian editorial policy.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the state of emergency will last until May 6, adding that the goal is for residents to limit contact with others by up to 80%. Franck Robichon/AP hide caption
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the state of emergency will last until May 6, adding that the goal is for residents to limit contact with others by up to 80%.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a nationwide state of emergency, expanding the one put in place less than two weeks ago that covered Tokyo and six other prefectures as the deadly coronavirus continues to spread.
The prime minister also announced plans to give stimulus funds of 100,000 yen, the equivalent of about $930, to each of Japan's 120 million citizens to lessen the economic hardship of the faltering Japanese economy.
Japan's first modern state of emergency was put into place early last week. It was limited to Tokyo, as well as Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures and Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka.
This latest declaration now applies to all 47 of Japan's prefectures.
"I decided to put all prefectures under the state of emergency to curb infections in respective areas and especially to keep the movement of people to a minimum heading into the Golden Week holidays," Abe said at a meeting of a government task force on the coronavirus response, according to Kyodo News.
Abe added the goal is for Japanese residents to limit contact with others by up to 80%, Kyodo News reported.
The emergency order is in effect until May 6.
Earlier this week NPR reported the governor of Hokkaido prefecture, Japan's northernmost main island and the largest prefecture by total area, declared a state of emergency after seeing a spike in confirmed coronavirus cases.
That announcement was made less than a month after officials in Hokkaido moved to lift a similar emergency after there were reports that spread of the virus was subsiding. The area is popular among Japanese and international tourists.
Major Japanese-based global brands are beginning to wind down production. Toshiba will close all its factories and offices in the country from April 20 through at least May 6, according to NHK World-Japan. The move is expected to impact some 76,000 employees.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Toyota said it will close many of its Japanese factories for several days in April and May.
The paper also reports tourism to the country fell by a staggering 93% in March after the government restricted entry for most international travelers.
Late last month, the International Olympic Committee postponed the Summer Olympics to 2021 because of the coronavirus. They had been slated to start in July in Tokyo.
Nationwide, more than 9,000 people in Japan are confirmed to have the virus, NHK reported. "More than a quarter of all the confirmed infections in Japan have been reported in Tokyo," the broadcaster added. "Officials announced 149 new cases in the capital on Thursday."
