Category: Corona Virus

The US reported a daily global record of more than 55,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday as infections rose in the vast majority of states and Americas top public health expert spoke of a very disturbing week.

Hospitals in some of the new hotspots in the US south and west put themselves on a crisis footing and face becoming overwhelmed. Florida reported almost 10,000 new cases in the past 24 hours and that state along with Texas, Arizona and California together made up almost half of the total of new infections.

The daily US tally stood at 55,274 new cases late on Thursday, topping the previous single-day record of 54,771 set by Brazil on 19 June and exceeding single-day tallies from any European country at the height of the outbreak there.

What weve seen is a very disturbing week, Anthony Fauci, a top federal health expert on the White House coronavirus taskforce and longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a livestream with the American Medical Association.

The surge this month, after a steady improvement in California and a continued improvement in the previous center of the pandemic, New York, has been blamed in part on Americans not covering their faces in public nor following other social distancing guidance or rules as states swiftly lifted their lockdowns.

Fauci warned that if people did not start complying, were going to be in some serious difficulty.

Cases are now rising in 37 out of 50 states. Donald Trump went to the golf club on Friday morning, before planning to fly to South Dakota for a pre-Fourth of July celebration on Friday night at Mount Rushmore, where fireworks will be detonated and no social distancing mandated despite warnings of both wildfires and Covid-19 transmission and also despite protests from Native Americans that the monument is on stolen land.

The US president also tweeted late Thursday night [sic]: There is a rise in Coronavirus cases because our testing is so massive and so good, far bigger and better than any other country. This is great news, but even better news is that death, and the death rate, is DOWN. Also, younger people, who get better much easier and faster!

California has seen positive tests climb 37% but hospitalizations are up 56% over the past two weeks.

Patients with serious cases of Covid-19 are flooding into hospitals across the southern and western states. Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Nevada and Arizona set records for hospitalizations on Thursday.

Fauci has warned that the virus is nowhere near under control in the US.

Some Arizona hospitals are rushing to expand capacity in the way many New York City hospitals were forced to at the height of the outbreak there, when up to 800 people were dying every day in April, the Washington Post reported on Friday. That means doubling up hospital beds in rooms, stopping non-essential surgery and recruiting extra health workers from outside their regions.

Arizona officials have activated crisis standards of care protocols for who gets urgent care first or a ventilator. State officials reported a record 3,013 Covid-19 hospitalizations in Arizona on Thursday.

Fauci said of the US situation: Were setting records, practically every day, of new cases in the numbers that are reported. That clearly is not the right direction.

Younger people are accounting for more of the new cases than previously, because of a swift return to social gatherings, against federal guidelines.

But infections and deaths are also increasing overall. A month ago, the US was reporting approximately 20,000 new infections a day and that has more than doubled. Confirmed coronavirus cases in the US have reached 2.75 million. There have been 128,000 deaths and the toll is rising.

We are not flattening the curve right now, Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health, told a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

Theres a lag between confirmed case and hospitalization, and between hospitalization and death. So you look at the numbers and you can see how hospital capacity could quickly become strained in coming weeks, Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona, told the Washington Post.

The USs neighbor to the north, Canada, has so far flattened its coronavirus curve with early and widespread testing, extensive mask-wearing and social distancing and slow reopening. The US is currently reporting more than 10 times more positive cases per capita than Canada, CNN reported.

Meanwhile, several US Secret Service agents assigned to the vice-president, Mike Pence, tested positive for Covid-19, or exhibited symptoms just before his planned trip to Arizona earlier this week, according to several reports. CNN claimed that eight Secret Service agents had tested positive, causing a delay in the trip while people were replaced.

Pence has recently started wearing a mask in public, after shunning them earlier despite the official federal public health guidance that they help to stop the spread.

Trump has refused to wear a mask in public or actively encourage Americans to do so.

Jonathan Reiner, an adviser to the White House medical team under George W Bush, said the president was clearly flirting with disaster by holding election rallies without social distancing or mask-wearing among the crowds and attending events mask-free.

Just because hes tested frequently, [that] isnt a Superman cape, he told CNN. He can get the virus. The more he flirts with this, the higher the likelihood that hell get it.

Read more here:

Coronavirus: US reports world's biggest daily increase in cases with 55,000 - The Guardian

(CBSDFW.COM) The Texas Medical Association is giving residents a way of seeing how at risk they are of contracting COVID-19 while taking part in their favorite activities.

As the state continues to see a surge in new COVID-19 cases, the association posted on social media a visual representation of the current risks of certain activities during the pandemic.

The risk levels were broken up into low, moderate-low, moderate, moderate-high and high and were listed by a scale of one to 10.

Some of the high risk activities listed the association include working out at a gym, attending a large concert and going to a bar.

Low and moderate-low risk activities include playing tennis, grocery shopping and eating in the outdoor area of a restaurant.

The state has recently taken steps in response to the surge. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statewide face mask requirement for counties with over 20 confirmed cases.

Last week, the governor ordered bars to close for the second time during the pandemic and restaurants to go back to a 50% limited capacity, down from 75%.

The rest is here:

Texas Medical Association Lists Activities And Their Risks Of Contracting Coronavirus - CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

A team at Henry Ford Health System in southeast Michigan said Thursday their study of 2,541 hospitalized patients found that those given hydroxychloroquine were much less likely to die.

Dr. Marcus Zervos, division head of infectious disease for Henry Ford Health System, said 26% of those not given hydroxychloroquine died, compared to 13% of those who got the drug. The team looked back at everyone treated in the hospital system since the first patient in March.

It's a surprising finding because several other studies have found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine, a drug originally developed to treat and prevent malaria. President Donald Trump touted the drug heavily, but later studies found not only did patients not do better if they got the drug, they were more likely to suffer cardiac side effects.

The US Food and Drug Administration withdrew its emergency use authorization for the drug earlier this month and trials around the world, including trials sponsored by the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health, were halted.

Researchers not involved in the Henry Ford study pointed out it wasn't of the same quality of the studies showing hydroxychloroquine did not help patients, and said other treatments, such as the use of the steroid dexamethasone, might have accounted for the better survival of some patients.

"Our results do differ from some other studies," Zervos told a news conference. "What we think was important in ours ... is that patients were treated early. For hydroxychloroquine to have a benefit, it needs to begin before the patients begin to suffer some of the severe immune reactions that patients can have with Covid," he added.

The Henry Ford team also monitored patients carefully for heart problems, he said.

"The combination of hydroxychloroquineplusazithromycin was reserved for selected patients with severe COVID-19 and with minimal cardiac risk factors," the team wrote.

The Henry Ford team said they believe their findings show hydroxychloroquine could be potentially useful as a treatment for coronavirus.

"It's important to note that in the right settings, this potentially could be a lifesaver for patients," Dr. Steven Kalkanis, CEO of the Henry Ford Medical Group, said at the news conference.

Kalkanis said that their findings do not necessarily contradict those of earlier studies. "We also want to make the point that just because our results differ from some others that may have been published, it doesn't make those studies wrong or definitely a conflict. What it simply means is that by looking at the nuanced data of which patients actually benefited and when, we might be able to further unlock the code of how this disease works," he said.

"Much more work needs to be done to elucidate what the final treatment plan should be for Covid-19," Kalkanis added. "But we feel ... that these are critically important results to add to the mix of how we move forward if there's a second surge, and in relevant other parts of the world. Now we can help people combat this disease and to reduce the mortality rate."

Zervos said hydroxychloroquine can help interfere with the virus directly and also reduces inflammation.

Researchers not involved with the study were critical. They noted that the Henry Ford team did not randomly treat patients but selected them for various treatments based on certain criteria.

The Henry Ford team wrote that 82% of their patients received hydroxychloroquine within the first 24 hours of admission, and 91% within the first 48 hours of admission.

They wrote that in comparison, a study of patients at 25 New York hospitals started taking the drug "at any time during their hospitalization."

"Maybe there's a little bit of a difference, but it's not like patients in New York were being started on day seven. That's not what happened," said Eli Rosenberg, lead author of the New York study and an associate professor of epidemiology at the University at Albany School of Public Health.

Rosenberg also pointed out that the Detroit paper excluded 267 patients -- nearly 10% of the study population -- who had not yet been discharged from the hospital.

He said this might have skewed the results to make hydroxychloroquine look better than it really was. Those patients might have still been in the hospital because they were very sick, and if they died, excluding them from the study made hydroxychloroquine look like more of a lifesaver than it really was.

"There's a little bit of loosey-goosiness here in all this," he told CNN.

Both the Detroit and New York studies were observational: they looked back at how patients did when doctors prescribed hydroxychloroquine.

While helpful, observational studies are not as valuable as controlled clinical trials. Considered the gold standard in medicine, patients in a clinical trial are randomly assigned to take either the drug or a placebo, which is a treatment that does nothing. Doctors then follow the patients to see how they fare.

Two clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19, one in the US and one in the UK, were stopped early because their data suggested hydroxychloroquine wasn't helpful.

The UK trial, run by the University of Oxford, enrolled more than 11,000 patients.

But a White House official praised the Henry Ford team's study.

Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, said the study shows hydroxychloroquine works if given early enough.

"This is a big deal," he told CNN. "This medicine can literally save tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of American lives and maybe millions of people worldwide."

Read more:

Study finds hydroxychloroquine may have boosted survival, but other researchers have doubts - CNN

Simple at-home tests for the coronavirus, some that involve spitting into a small tube of solution, could be the key to expanding testing and impeding the spread of the pandemic. The Food and Drug Administration should encourage their development and then fast track approval.

One variety, paper-strip tests, are inexpensive and easy enough to make that Americans could test themselves every day. You would simply spit into a tube of saline solution and insert a small piece of paper embedded with a strip of protein. If you are infected with enough of the virus, the strip will change color within 15 minutes.

Your next step would be to self-quarantine, notify your doctor and confirm the result with a standard swab test the polymerase chain reaction nasal swab. Confirmation would give public health officials key information on the viruss spread and confirm that you should remain in quarantine until your daily test turned negative.

E25Bio, Sherlock Biosciences, Mammoth Biosciences, and an increasing number of academic research laboratories are in the late stages of developing paper-strip and other simple, daily Covid-19 tests. Some of the daily tests are in trials and proving highly effective.

The strips could be mass produced in a matter of weeks and freely supplied by the government to everyone in the country. The price per person would be from $1 to $5 a day, a considerable sum for the entire population, but remarkably cost effective.

Screening the population for infection, however, is different from determining whether someone is infected.

The Food and Drug Administration has recently approved group P.C.R. testing to screen large numbers of people. (Group testing, which is used in other countries, assays multiple swab samples at once and if the virus is found, individuals are tested.) So there is reason to hope that the F.D.A. will also approve paper-strip tests as a way to find out where the virus has spread.

Hope needs to be replaced with surety. Biotech companies are reluctant to take these tests to market for fear that the F.D.A. will disparage them for being less sensitive than the nasal swab tests. The nasal swab test can detect extremely small quantities of viral particles.

But the problem with the nasal swab tests is their cost, which ranges from $50 to $150. They also require laboratory assessment, which can take days. That is why, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, nine of 10 infected Americans never get tested. Its also why those who do get tested, generally are tested only once.

Clearly, if youre infected and never tested, you can unwittingly spread the virus. And if you are tested, but just once, and the test comes back negative, you may still later become infectious. Finally, if your polymerase chain reaction swab is positive, but it takes five days to learn the result, you may spend those days transmitting the disease.

Group testing can dramatically lower nasal-swab-testing costs for universities and large companies. But absent federal coordination, it cant be used routinely to test all Americans.

We need the best means of detecting and containing the virus, not a perfect test that no one can use. That is where paper-strip testing would have the advantage. Their ability to be used more frequently would trump the nasal swab tests higher sensitivity. Paper-strip testing would also sharply improve diagnosis as those with a positive paper-strip test would still be given a nasal swab test.

Would everyone take a paper-strip test every day? Here market incentives will surely help. Once they are provided to all, employers would likely require their workers to take time-dated pictures of their negative test results before coming to work. Colleges would require students to do the same before coming to class. Restaurants could accept reservations only if accompanied by negative-test pictures. In short, everyone will have an incentive to test themselves daily to participate fully in the economy and return to normal life.

Once paper strips efficacy is definitively proved and they are cleared by the F.D.A., Congress can quickly authorize the production and distribution, for free, of a years supply to all Americans. Then well have not only a true day-to-day sense of Covid-19s path. Well also have a far better means to quickly contain and end this terrible plague.

Laurence Kotlikoff is a professor of economics at Boston University, and Michael Mina is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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Coronavirus Testing the Cheap, Simple Way - The New York Times

More than 80 percent of the current cases are linked to the city of Hebron, which began to shut down on Wednesday evening.

Mr. Milhim said that the five-day lockdown could be extended and called on Palestinians to follow social distancing guidelines and wear masks, warning that there would be consequences for those who did not comply.

Reporting was contributed by Rachel Abrams, Livia Albeck-Ripka, Aliza Aufrichtig, Julie Bosman, Benedict Carey, Ben Casselman, Stephen Castle, Emily Cochrane, Michael Cooper, Jill Cowan, Steven Erlanger, Richard Fausset, Luis Ferr-Sadurn, Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, Thomas Fuller, Jenny Gross, Jack Healy, Makiko Inoue, Annie Karni, Isabella Kwai, Ernesto Londoo, Patricia Mazzei, Mark Mazzetti, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, Jesse McKinley, Sarah Mervosh, Anna Momigliano, Monika Pronczuk, Adam Rasgon, Motoko Rich, Amanda Rosa, Nelson D. Schwartz, Dionne Searcey, Ed Shanahan, Eliza Shapiro, Mitch Smith, Jim Tankersley, Sabrina Tavernise, Hisako Ueno, David Waldstein, Caryn A. Wilson, Edward Wong, Sameer Yasir and Karen Zraick.

The rest is here:

Live Coronavirus News: Updates and Video - The New York Times

They would be quarantined and monitored closely, and if they became ill would receive the best known treatment possibly the antiviral drug remdesivir, or convalescent plasma from people who had recovered from the illness. But so far, remdesivirs benefits have been described as modest, and studies of convalescent plasma are still underway. The steroid dexamethasone lowered the death rate in one study, but is recommended only for those who become severely ill.

The article by Dr. Eyals group struck a chord with Josh Morrison, 34. Eight years ago, he donated a kidney to a stranger, and now runs an advocacy group for kidney donors. The opportunity to save someone elses life meant a great deal to him, and he sees challenge trials as a chance to do it again.

If it could lead to a speedier creation of a vaccine for the disease Covid-19, we are willing without reservation to have doctors infect us with the novel coronavirus, he and Sophie Rose, 22, a graduate student in epidemiology, wrote in The Washington Post.

Mr. Morrison, who had a brief career as a corporate lawyer, has begun organizing others who are interested in volunteering into a group called 1DaySooner. So far, about 30,000 people from 140 countries have signed up online saying they might participate in a challenge trial. Donations of $700,000 have enabled him to hire three full-time staff members.

There are significant risks in childbirth and kidney donation, Mr. Morrison said in an interview. No one should take them lightly but they are things we allow people to consent to. I hope for an effective treatment by the time a trial would be conducted, but if not, I do think it would be reasonable to go forward with challenge trials.

His hope is that an established research center will conduct the trials. Much of his efforts have gone toward finding a company to produce batches of the virus for use in the studies.

Our goal is not to manage the manufacturing process or trial process ourselves, he said. Our goal is to make the preconditions, so that if challenge trials would be useful, theyre available.

See the rest here:

Researchers Debate Infecting People With Coronavirus to Test Vaccines - The New York Times

So much for Ohio flattening the coronavirus curve.

Gov. Mike DeWine moved aggressively to slow the spread of the virus by shutting down the economy and issuing stay-at-home orders, but COVID-19 numbers have been climbing again after DeWine started reopening the state.

There have been 9,779 new cases just in the last two weeks, a 73 percent jump over the number for the two weeks before, according to the latest NBC News tally. And on Tuesday, there were 13 more deaths reported and 1,076 new cases.

In total, 2,876 people have died from the coronavirus in Ohio out of 52,865 reported cases since the start of the pandemic, the NBC News figures show.

"People are letting their guard down," DeWine said Thursday. "The progress the state has made is in danger of being reversed."

"We're in a crisis stage in Ohio and this can go one way or the other," the governor added.

Dr. Stephen Blatt, medical director for Infectious Disease at TriHealth Hospitals in Cincinnati, agreed and noted that young people are increasingly the ones getting infected.

I dont think we reopened too soon, our numbers were very good, Blatt told NBC News. The problem is that people are not wearing masks. You go out and everywhere you look theyre not wearing masks.

Ohio is hardly the only state that has seen a big jump in numbers. Arizona, Florida and Texas in particular have reported an explosion of new cases. And nationally, there have been more than 2.7 million reported cases and nearly 130,000 deaths, the latest NBC News figures show.

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DeWine received bipartisan praise for moving decisively to secure his state well before President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on March 13. Both he and Dr. Amy Acton, the states former health director, were lionized for leading the state through the crisis.

While Gov. Tom Wolf in neighboring Pennsylvania has issued a mandate which requires people to don a mask whenever they leave their homes, DeWine said "that's not our intent."

But during a news conference to announce guidelines for reopening Ohio's schools in the fall, DeWine said "Im not ruling out additional orders."

"Remember, we wear masks to protect each other, often because people are sick, but show no symptoms," the governor said. "Masks can be especially useful and are strongly recommended at any grade level during periods of increased risk and when physical distancing is difficult."

While DeWine is a Republican, its not clear a mask-wearing directive would fly in a state where the GOP holds a majority in the legislature and in which conservative lawmakers resisted the governors moves to curb coronavirus by closing down the state.

Ohio State Rep. Tavia Galonski, a Democrat, said she wishes DeWine would try.

Sure, there would be people who would complain, but those same people had an Ohio that we all could be proud of before DeWine turned tail and ran, Galonski told NBC News. I believe Ohioans would have responded quite well to an authoritative figure they could trust telling them to put on a mask.

Blatt said he knows masks will be a hard sell with some in Ohio.

Im sure the governor is wrestling with that, he said. If there was some way to mandating mask use, that would be helpful.

Acton stepped down in June after Ohio Republicans tried to curb her powers and protesters besieged her home demanding an end to the states stay-at-home measures. The governor said Acton would continue serving as his chief health adviser.

Not long after, the number of coronavirus cases began rising again in Ohio.

Asked whether there could be a connection between Actons departure and the increased cases, Blatt said no. She was a calming influence, the doctor said of Acton.

Ohio appeared to be on a different trajectory on May 1 when DeWine began lifting the states stay-at-home rules and a month later the numbers continued to be flat.

"We're not seeing any significant increase or reestablishment of a wave or a peak in Ohio and thats great," Mark Cameron, an infectious disease researcher and professor in the school of medicine at Case Western Reserve University, told the Cincinnati Enquirer in a story published June 16. "What that could mean is that people are still generally following the guidelines."

Thats clearly no longer the case, said Blatt.

Most of the new cases are young people and I think they just got sick of not going out and seeing their friends, Blatt said. I think they saw that things were getting better and just said, OK, lets go out. We have to get the message out that this is not over and its not going to be over for a while.

The drive to get people to wear masks has, of late, been driven by Republicans like the Texas governor who had previously been following the lead of Trump, who has rarely worn one in public.

Trump, in an interview Wednesday, said hes all for masks but does not think they should be mandatory for people in public places. Pence echoed that Thursday, saying "I don't think there's a need for a national mandate."

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican and a Trump ally, used similar language Thursday in a Fox News interview.

Look, you should wear a mask, you should social distance, Scott said. But should governments mandate these things? No.

But Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has been criticized for responding too slowly to the crisis and for reopening too soon, reported 6,563 new coronavirus cases Wednesday and 145 deaths, according to the NBC News tally.

There have been 76,278 new cases reported in Florida in the last two weeks alone, according to NBC News figures, forcing DeSantis to shut down the bars to slow the spread of the virus.

Link:

COVID-19 is on the rise again in Ohio, and an expert blames young people who aren't wearing masks - NBC News

Efforts to fully reopen the U.S. economy are faltering as 19 states pause or reverse plans to ease restrictions on business as new cases spike across the country. Despite the surge of infections, Vice President Mike Pence told CNBC the White House wants to press ahead with reopening after job numbers came in better than expected. Pence defended the administration's position on masks, saying there's no need for a national mandate. Nearly half of all states have implemented mask mandates in one form or another, including Texas.

This is CNBC's live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks.

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Travelers wearing protective masks use kiosks to check-in at the American Airlines Group Inc. counter at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, July 1, 2020.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

6:20 p.m. ET The Trump administration said airline passengers and crews should wear masks throughout their journeys but stopped short of mandating them or requiring social distancing on board, a contentious issue now between carriers.

The guidelines, issued jointly by the Department of Transportation, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, said airlines and airports should require face coverings, saying they are particularly necessary any time social distancing cannot be maintained."

The officials said airlines and airports should advise travelers "when it may not be possible to meet social distancing expectations" and stress the importance of wearing a mask and keeping hands clean during those times.

The recommendations come as U.S. airlines' policies on leaving some seats unsold to space passengers out on flightshave divergedin recent weeks. The Trump administration also said airlines should collect passenger contact data to assist with disease-tracing efforts. Leslie Josephs

Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci wears a face mask while he waits to testifiy before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on the Trump Administration's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 23, 2020.

Kevin Dietsch | Pool via Reuters

5:48 p.m. ET The coronavirus appears to have mutated in a way that might help it spread more easily, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said.

All viruses mutate, but most mutations will not meaningfully change the behavior of the pathogen, its ability to spread or the disease it causes in humans.

"The data is showing there's a single mutation that makes the virus be able to replicate better and maybe have high viral loads," Fauci said in an interview with The Journal of the American Medical Association's Dr. Howard Bauchner. "We don't have a connection to whether an individual does worse with this or not; it just seems that the virus replicates better and may be more transmissible."Will Feuer

5:04 p.m. ET Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order requiring all residents to wear a face-covering in public spaces in counties with 20 or more positive coronavirus cases.

The decision was made because the percent of total tests coming back positive and the hospitalization rate both increased too much, Abbott said.

"Wearing a face covering in public is proven to be one of the most effective ways we have to slow the spread of COVID-19," Abbott said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization both recommend that people wear them as a way to slow the spread of the virus.Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

4:49 p.m. ET The number of U.S. active-duty military personnel infected with the coronavirus has spiked in the past three weeks, a revelation that comes as the Pentagon lifts travel restrictions in 48 states.

As of Thursday, the Pentagon has reported a total of 18,071 cases. Of those 12,521 are active-duty military, 2,644 are civilians, 1,740 are dependents and 1,166 are contractors. These figures include 8,683 recoveries and 38 deaths across the entire department. Amanda Macias

An employee sweeps inside a closed bar in Austin, Texas, June 26, 2020.

Sergio Flores | AFP | Getty Images

3:54 p.m. ET Six states are closing thousands of bars again ahead of the Fourth of July weekend. But bar owners aren't happy with the rollbacks.

"The stop and start costs thousands of dollars for every business," said David Kaplan, co-owner of Death & Co, a cocktail lounge with locations in Los Angeles, Denver and New York.

The Texas Bar and Nightclub Association is suing the state over Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to close bars for the second time in three months. Others, like Todd Quigley, owner of Craft and Growler, a Dallas-based craft beer bar, take issue with how states are treating bars and restaurants differently.Amelia Lucas

3:46 p.m. ET White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association that "we're in an unprecedented pandemic" and officials can't "balance lives against the economy."

"You have people who think in one direction and those who think in the other" when it comes to the decision to reopen the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic safely", Fauci said.

Every state in the U.S. has reopened parts of their economies in recent weeks. Some, including Texas and Florida, have had to walk back those plans as cases spiked and outbreaks flared up across America.

"You don't want to balance lives against the economy," he said. "So let's get public health to help us to get the economy open as opposed to two opposing forces."Noah Higgins-Dunn

With Minnie, Mickey and friends, Walt Disney World President Josh D'Amaro waves to guests gathered on Main Street USA, in the Magic Kingdom in the final minutes before the park closed, Sunday night, March 15, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Joe Burbank | Orlando Sentinel | Getty Images

3:38 p.m. ET Walt Disney World has suspended its fall college program, according to an email to prospective participants obtained by WDW News Today.

The program has been suspended until further notice, WDW News reports, because the park is still in the early stages of reopening and many of the Disney housing complex buildings remain closed. Eligibility requirements for the program will be amended so those who applied after having recently graduated can still apply when the program re-starts, according to the report.

The announcement comes after Disney canceled internships and June-start college program members in April, according to WDW News Today.Alex Harring

3:35 p.m. ET Amazon is pushing back its annual Prime Day sale event until at least early October. The company gave third-party sellers a placeholder date of the week of October 5, according to an email obtained by CNBC and first reported by Business Insider.The email cautions that "exact Prime Day dates have not been announced."

An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC in a statement: "We have not made any announcements regarding Prime Day."

Amazon has delayed its annual shopping event several times in recent months due to coronavirus-related constraints. The company previously targeted September as the potential timing for Prime Day, but the company now faces new coronavirus outbreaks across the country, which could threaten to upend its logistics operations again.Annie Palmer

3:02 p.m. Despite June's better-than-expected payrolls numbers, employment may never return to pre-Covid levels in a handful of sub-industries.

The long-term, nationwide pivot toward e-commerce had already put pressure on apparel retail employment, and economists say the coronavirus could act as a catalyst for employers to cut labor costs permanently.

Other sectors, such as leisure and hospitality, are posting more robust rebound in payrolls numbers. Bars and restaurants employed 12.3 million Americans in February 2020, only to see that figure collapse to 6.2 million in April. It's since rebounded 47% off that low and for June rose to 9.2 million jobs.

Couriers and message carriers are among a rare group that have actually seen a net gain in employment since January. Thomas Franck

2:48 p.m. Children diagnosed with Covid-19 pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or PMIS, may develop new neurological symptoms without any of the respiratory issues commonly associated with the virus, accordingtoa study published Wednesdayin JAMA Neurology.

After examining 27 pediatric patients with coronavirus PMIS between March 1 and May 8, researchers found that four experienced new neurological symptoms. They included impairedbrain function, headaches, brainstem and cerebellar issues, muscle weakness and reduced reflexes.

All four patients required admission to the intensive care unit for treatment.

Although the study is small, researchers say the results show that Covid-19 can also cause neurological damage in children - not just adults - without any of the respiratory symptoms that have become a clear indicator of the virus. Scientists emphasized that since respiratory symptoms were uncommon among PMIS patients, clinicians should suspect Covid-19 in children who show new neurological problems without any other symptoms.Jasmine Kim

Herman Cain

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

2:41 p.m. ET Former presidential candidate and onetime possible Fed board nominee Herman Cain was hospitalized after being diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Cain, 74, was told Monday that he had tested positive for the disease, according to a statement posted to his official Twitter account.

By Wednesday, he "had developed symptoms serious enough that he required hospitalization," the statement said.

Cain was at President Donald Trump's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma last month, and was photographed sitting in close proximity with other attendees, none of whom appeared to be wearing masks.

The Trump campaign said Cain did not meet with the president. Kevin Breuninger

People wearing masks walk past a "Real New Yorkers Can Handle It" sign near Union Square amid the coronavirus pandemic on May 16, 2020 in New York City.

Alexi Rosenfeld | Getty Images

2:22 p.m. ET Facebook and Instagram users will start seeing alerts at the top of their feeds that encourage masks or face coverings when in public.

It's the latest move on Facebook's end to use its platform to try and slow the spread of Covid-19.

After the WHO declared Covid-19 a global health emergency in January, Facebook started removing misinformation about the outbreak from its platforms.

The company in April began warning users if they have liked, reacted or commented on harmful coronavirus posts that the company has found to be misinformation and removed.Jessica Bursztynsky

1:52 p.m. ET Shares of Moderna fell as much as 9.4% on a report the company's late-stage trial for a potential coronavirus vaccine will be delayed.

Moderna, which is working withtheNational Institutes of Health, was expected to begin a phase 3 trial with 30,000 participants for its vaccine candidate later this month, pending the results from its mid-stage trial.

However, the companyis pushing back the expected start date, according to health-care publication STAT News.

Moderna'sexperimental vaccine contains genetic material called messenger RNA, or mRNA. It becamethe first candidate to enter a phase 1 human trial in March.Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

12:45 p.m. ET Twenty-one states and Washington, D.C. are mandating people wear masks in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The regulations vary from state to state, with some governments requiring people to wear masks in all public spaces while other states require masks only in certain circumstances.

Here's a list:

Vice President Mike Pence, in an interview with CNBC, reiterated the Trump administration's position that a national mandate for people to wear masks is not necessary, even though coronavirus cases are surging.Spencer Kimball

12:23 p.m. ET National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said it's possible Americans will be allowed to attend sporting events in time for the fall football season.

Sports fans and players across the world have been frustrated by canceled games as public health officials urge event-based businesses to temporarily close as the coronavirus continues to rapidly spread across the globe. Collins, speaking with a Senate committee, said rapid coronavirus testing, which can produce results in under an hour, will make sporting events feasible.

"We want to see Americans have a chance to have some normal experiences of enjoying life," he told lawmakers. "I do believe this should be possible.Berkeley Lovelace, Jr.

12:20 p.m. ET Holding in-person classes this fall is safer for Cornell University students than conducting an all-virtual semester, President Martha Pollack told CNBC.

Pollack, appearing on CNBC's "Squawk Box," cited university research that found almost 50% of Cornell students intend to return to Ithaca, New York, where its campus is located, no matter how classes are held.

"If we are having residential instruction, we can mandate testing, and tracing and isolation, on a very aggressive regular basis," Pollack said. "We will be much less able to do that with students who are online and just happen to be living in Ithaca, as opposed to Chicago or Atlanta or wherever."

Cornell's plan which includes robust testing that will cost between $3 to 5 million may not work for every college, Pollack stressed. "I want to be clear, it's safer for our students at Cornell. We did the study with regard to the conditions in Ithaca." Kevin Stankiewicz

12:08 p.m. ET Employees at Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), an Amazon Air subcontractor, say they continue to face an unsafe work environment during the pandemic.

WFS workers say managers aren't enforcing mask requirements, and say hand sanitizer and soap are in short supply at facilities. At one WFS facility in Phoenix, safety concerns became so severe that a worker filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last month.

WFS is one of several companies that maintains lucrative contracts with Amazon Air. Workers load and unload cargo from Amazon planes at airports across the country, but they're not considered Amazon employees. As a result, some WFS workers say it feels like Amazon turns "a blind eye" to working conditions there, especially amid the coronavirus crisis.

As Amazon was hit with a surge of coronavirus-related demand in March, WFS workers were on the frontlines, handling the Prime packages ordered by millions of Americans who were cloistered inside their homes. Demand has stabilized but the workers now face a new round of coronavirus outbreaks around the country. WFS workers say they feel just as vulnerable as the beginning of the pandemic, since they still lack the basic protections to be able to do their job safely.Annie Palmer

An employee wearing rubber gloves and a mask greets patrons at Puckett's Grocery & Restaurant on April 27, 2020 in Franklin, Tennessee.

Jason Kempin | Getty Images

11:49 a.m. ET Nashville will move back to phase two of its reopening process, with restaurants and bars reverting to phase one, beginning Friday, NewsChannel 5 Nashville reported.

Restaurants will go back to half capacity, down from 75%, while bars must now close for the next two weeks. Retail and commercial businesses can still operate at 75% capacity, while "high touch" businesses like beauty salons and gyms can remain open at half capacity.

Mayor John Cooper said in his weekly Covid-19 update that the city will remain in the phase for "at least a few weeks," with no timeline given, according to NewsChannel 5 Nashville.Alex Harring

11:35a.m. ETAmerican Airlines warned employees that it expects it has 20,000 more employees than it needs for its reduced fall schedule and painted a weak picture of travel demand.

The Fort Worth-based carrier, which had 133,700 at the end of 2019, is urging employees to take voluntary options like buyouts, to avoid involuntary cuts once restrictions set by federal aid expire on Oct. 1. The carrier reached a deal for $4.75 billion in a separate federal loan, the Treasury Department said.

While booking trends have improved, American told staff that demand remains far below last year's levels. For example, it flew 4.2 million people in June, up from just 965,000 passengers in April.

"But to be clear, even with traffic trending upward, the absolute numbers behind these improvements are quite somber: The customer count for the same period last year was between 17 and 19 million each month," CEO Doug Parker and President Robert Isom said in a staff note. They said cash receipts topped $1 billion in June up from $11 million in April, but that it brought in an average of $4.2 billion a month over that period last year. Leslie Josephs

Dr. Scott Gottlieb

Cameron Costa | CNBC

10:49 a.m. ET The U.S. coronavirus outbreak will come to an end by January "one way or the other," thanks to a vaccine or because enough people will have already been infected and have some immunity to it, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC.

"Either we'll get to a vaccine or we'll just have spread enough it's just going to stop spreading efficiently, so we have a short period of time to get through,"Gottlieb said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "We should do everything we can to preserve what we want of our way of life over that time period to just get through it."

Gottlieb's hopes for an effective vaccine or for the U.S. population to achieve so-called herd immunity to curb the outbreak both depend on what scientists learn about the role of antibodies. Unfortunately, there's still no clear evidence that antibodies give people any protection against being reinfected.Will Feuer

10:35 a.m. ET Vice President Mike Pence said the White House does not need to impose a national mask mandate requiring that all American citizens wear a face covering to protect against the coronavirus.

"There are some areas of the country, large areas of the country, where we have very low number of cases at all," Pence said in on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "It's not a one-size-all approach whether it be on testing or on supplies and on mitigation efforts. What we want to do is empower governors and local officials to give the guidance to the people in those communities that are most appropriate to those circumstances."

Pence's comments echoed President Donald Trump's sentiments. "I don't know if you need mandatory," Trump said when asked whether he'd support a national mask mandate.Yelena Dzhanova

9:35 a.m. ET Stocks opened higher as investors cheered a bigger-than-expected rise in jobs during June as the economy tries to recover from the coronavirus shutdown, CNBC's Fred Imbert andThomas Franck reported.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 355 points higher, or 1.4%. The Nasdaq Composite hit a record high, climbing more than 1%. The S&P 500 gained 1.3%.Melodie Warner

Passengers, wearing protective face masks, walk through the international arrivals hall after arriving at Terminal 2 at London Heathrow Airport in London, U.K., on Monday, June 8, 2020.

Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

8:51 a.m. ET Britain will ease quarantine requirements for travelers from specific areas, Reuters reported Thursday.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters that self-isolation requirements will be scaled back for people arriving from certain countries or territories. More details are expected to come this week, according to the spokesperson.

The update comes as other nations and U.S. states impose stricter travel restrictions amid flaring outbreaks.Alex Harring

See original here:

Coronavirus live updates: Texas Gov. mandates face coverings; Gottlieb says worst of outbreak will pass by January - CNBC

July 1, 2020

About four-in-ten U.S. adults say it has become more common for people to express racist views toward Asians since the pandemic began

By Neil G. Ruiz, Juliana Menasce Horowitz and Christine Tamir

A couple in face masks walk in a New York City street during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Maria KhrenovaTASS via Getty Images)

How we did this

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans personal experiences with racial and ethnic discrimination since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, as well as opinions about whether racist views toward different groups have become more common. For this analysis, we surveyed 9,654 U.S. adults from June 4-10, 2020. Everyone who took part is a member of Pew Research Centers American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATPs methodology.

See here to read more about the questions used for this report and the reports methodology.

The coronavirus outbreak continues to have far-reaching health and economic consequences for the American public. But for many, especially Black and Asian Americans, the effects extend beyond medical and financial concerns. About four-in-ten Black and Asian adults say people have acted as if they were uncomfortable around them because of their race or ethnicity since the beginning of the outbreak, and similar shares say they worry that other people might be suspicious of them if they wear a mask when out in public, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Black and Asian Americans are also more likely than their white and Hispanic counterparts to say they have been subject to slurs or jokes because of their race or ethnicity, but Asian adults are the most likely to say this has happened to them since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. About three-in-ten Asian adults (31%) say they have been subject to slurs or jokes because of their race or ethnicity since the outbreak began, compared with 21% of Black adults, 15% of Hispanic adults and 8% of white adults. This aligns with some reports of incidents of discrimination against Asian Americans since the virus outbreak first emerged in China and then started spreading in the United States.

At the same time, about half of Black Americans (51%) say they have heard expressions of support because of their race or ethnicity since the coronavirus outbreak; about three-in-ten Hispanic (29%) and Asian (28%) adults say the same. The survey was conducted during a time when demonstrations continued across the country to protest the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed while in Minneapolis police custody.

Beyond the personal experiences of various groups, about four-in-ten U.S. adults (39%) say it is more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views about people who are Asian than it was before the coronavirus outbreak, while 30% say it has become more common for people to express these views toward people who are Black. Smaller shares say that, compared with before the outbreak, it is more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views about people who are Hispanic (19%) or white (14%). Asian Americans, who account for 6% of the U.S. population, are the fastest growing major racial or ethnic group in the U.S. Hispanics make up 18% of the population overall, while Black Americans are 12%.

A majority of Asian adults (58%) say it is more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views about people who are Asian than it was before the coronavirus outbreak; roughly four-in-ten white, Black and Hispanic adults say this is more common now. A sizable share of Black adults (45%) also say it is more common for people to express racist views about Black people than before the outbreak, more than the shares of white, Hispanic and Asian adults who say the same.

These are among the findings of a Pew Research Center survey of 9,654 U.S. adults conducted from June 4-10, 2020, using the Centers American Trends Panel.

A note about the Asian sample

This survey includes a total sample size of 278 Asian Americans. The sample includes English-speaking Asian Americans only and, therefore, may not be representative of the overall Asian American population (74% of our weighted Asian American sample was born in another country, compared with 77% of the Asian American adult population overall). Despite this limitation, it is important to report the views of Asian Americans on the topics in this study. As always, Asian Americans responses are incorporated into the general population figures throughout this report. Because of the relatively small sample size and a reduction in precision due to weighting, we are not able to analyze Asian American respondents by demographic categories, such as gender, age or education. For more, see Polling methods are changing, but reporting the views of Asian Americans remains a challenge.

About four-in-ten Asian (39%) and Black (38%) adults and 27% of Hispanic adults say someone has acted uncomfortable around them because of their race or ethnicity since the coronavirus outbreak. Only 13% of white adults say this has happened to them.

When asked about other negative situations they may have experienced because of their race or ethnicity since the pandemic, Asian and Black adults are more likely than Hispanic and white adults to say that they have been the subject of slurs or jokes or feared someone might threaten or physically attack them because of their race or ethnicity.

Asian Americans are more likely than any other group to say they have been subject to slurs or jokes because of their race or ethnicity since the coronavirus outbreak: 31% say this has happened to them, compared with 21% of Black adults, 15% of Hispanic adults and 8% of white adults. About a quarter (26%) of Asian Americans and 20% of Black Americans say they feared someone might threaten or physically attack them, more than the shares of white and Hispanic Americans.

Black adults younger than 50 are more likely than older Black adults to say they have had each of these experiences. For example, 44% of Black adults in the younger age group say people have acted as if they were uncomfortable around them since the pandemic began, compared with 30% of Black adults ages 50 and older. About three-in-ten Black adults under 50 (28%) say they have feared someone might threaten or physically attack them (vs. 9% of older Black adults) and 25% say they have been subject to slurs or jokes because of their race or ethnicity since the coronavirus outbreak (vs. 15%).

Black men (49%) are more likely than Black women (31%) to say someone acted as if they were uncomfortable around them. Black men are also more likely to say they have feared being threatened or physically attacked because of their race or ethnicity (27% vs. 15% of Black women).

The survey also asked about expressions of support since the coronavirus outbreak. About half of Black adults (51%) say someone has expressed support for them because of their race or ethnicity during this period, more than any other racial group. In particular, younger Black adults say they received this support (55% vs. 44% among those ages 50 and older). This survey was conducted at a time when Americans were following news coverage of George Floyds killing while in custody of Minneapolis police nearly as closely as they were following news related to COVID-19.

About four-in-ten Black Americans (42%) and 36% of Asian Americans say they worry a great deal or a fair amount that other people might be suspicious of them because of their race or ethnicity if they wear a mask or face covering when in stores or other businesses. About a quarter of Hispanic adults (23%) and just 5% of white adults say they worry about this.

Despite these concerns, majorities of Black (69%) and Asian (80%) adults as well as white (62%) and Hispanic (74%) adults say theyve worn a mask or a face covering all or most of the time in the past month when out in stores or other businesses.

Black men and women are about equally likely to say they worry that other people might be suspicious of them because of their race or ethnicity if they wear a mask or a face covering in stores or other businesses. About four-in-ten in each group say they worry at least a fair amount, with 21% of Black men and 16% of Black women saying they worry a great deal (this 5 percentage point difference is not statistically significant).

Concern among Black adults varies considerably by age. About half of Black Americans younger than 50 (51%) say they worry about people being suspicious of them because of their race or ethnicity if they wear a mask or face covering; 30% of Black adults ages 50 and older say the same.

A majority of Asian Americans (58%) and 45% of Black Americans say that it is more common for people to express racist views toward their group since the coronavirus outbreak. Smaller shares of Hispanic (21%) and white (18%) Americans say the same about people expressing racist views toward people who are Hispanic or white, respectively.

Age and education are linked to differing perceptions of whether racist views toward Asians are now more common. About half of younger adults ages 18 to 29 (51%) say that racist views about Asian people are more common now since the coronavirus outbreak, compared with about four-in-ten or fewer among those in older age groups. Those with college degrees or more (47%) also are more likely than those with some college or less education (35%) to say the same.

Democrats and those who lean Democratic (52%) are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners (25%) to say that it is more common for people to express racist views about Asian Americans since the coronavirus outbreak. This partisan gap is narrower when it comes to views about whether it is now more common for people to express racist views about people who are Black (33% of Democrats vs. 27% of Republicans say this) or Hispanic (18% vs. 8%). Meanwhile, Republicans (23%) are more likely than Democrats (16%) to say that it is more common for people to express racially insensitive views about white people.

Terminology

References to white, Black and Asian adults include only those who report being only one race and are not Hispanic. Hispanics are of any race.

All references to party affiliation include those who lean toward that party. Republicans include those who identify as Republicans and independents who say they lean toward the Republican Party. Democrats include those who identify as Democrats and independents who say they lean toward the Democratic Party.

References to college graduates or people with a college degree comprise those with a bachelors degree or more. Some college includes those with an associate degree and those who attended college but did not obtain a degree.

See original here:

Many Black, Asian Americans Say They Have Experienced Discrimination Amid Coronavirus - Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends

Patients and their families should realize that fluctuations in progress are normal.

There are going to be days where everythings going right with your lungs, but your joints are feeling so achy that you cant get up and do your pulmonary rehab and you have a few setbacks, Dr. Putrino said. Or your pulmonary care is going OK, but your cognitive fog is causing you to have anxiety and causing you to spiral, so you need to drop everything and work with your neuropsychologist intensively.

It really does feel like one step forward, two steps back, he added, and thats OK.

For many people, the lungs are likely to recover, often within months. But other problems can linger and some people may never make a full recovery, experts say.

One benchmark is a 2011 New England Journal of Medicine study of 109 patients in Canada who had been treated for acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, the kind of lung failure that afflicts many Covid-19 patients. Five years later, most had regained normal or near-normal lung function but still struggled with persistent physical and emotional issues.

On one crucial test how far patients could walk in six minutes their median distance was about 477 yards, only three-quarters of the distance researchers had predicted. The patients ranged in age from 35 to 57, and while younger patients had a greater rate of physical recovery than older patients, neither group returned to normal predicted levels of physical function at five years, the authors wrote.

The patients in the study had ARDS from a variety of causes, including pneumonia, sepsis, pancreatitis or burns. They had a median stay of 49 days in the hospital, including 26 days in the I.C.U. and 24 days on a ventilator.

Research led by Dr. Needham of Johns Hopkins found that patients have prolonged muscle weakness that lasts months or longer and that muscle weakness is not just limited to their arms and legs its also their breathing muscles, he said.

Another study by Dr. Needham and his colleagues found that about two-thirds of ARDS patients had significant fatigue a year later.

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Coronavirus Survivors: Here's What Recovery May Look Like - The New York Times