Category: Corona Virus

Strapped by the same problems facing health care workers around the world, including a limited supply of personal protective equipment, hospital beds and ventilators, Guams government now had to contend with how it would protect its own people and simultaneously support the Navy. Theyre the ones that are out there, protecting our waters, Leon Guerrero said. With about two dozen Guam residents serving aboard the carrier, finding space was the least we could do.

When the Theodore Roosevelt arrived at Naval Base Guam, it brought not only a ship full of sick crew members, but a brewing political scandal. The ships commander, Capt. Brett E. Crozier, emailed a letter dated March 30 to at least 20 Navy officials about the Navys failures to support the aircraft carriers efforts to contain the outbreak, and it quickly leaked to the press. The controversy led to the swift removal of Crozier from command, followed by an impromptu trip to the Theodore Roosevelt by acting Navy secretary Thomas B. Modly, who gave a 15-minute speech to the ships crew during which he referred to Crozier as nave or stupid. By the end of the week, Modly had resigned after his remarks prompted backlash from lawmakers, retired military leaders and the rank and file.

All the while, the carriers reported coronavirus cases have continued to climb. As of Friday, there were 447 infected sailors, one of whom is Crozier himself. A sailor who had been in isolation was admitted to intensive care at the base hospital on Thursday after he was found unresponsive.

If the number of sailors who require hospitalization grows, the base could quickly run out of space to provide proper treatment. Naval Hospital Guam has six I.C.U. beds and at least 15 ventilators, according to the Navy. An additional 12 acute care beds and six critical care beds with ventilators were added in the past two weeks. On base, the elementary and secondary schools, the gym, the Navy Lodge and some older barracks have been converted to housing for sick sailors. About 230 sailors and Marines from a Japan-based medical battalion arrived on the island earlier this week to help the Navys medical staff test and treat sailors.

The Navy is in the process of testing every sailor on board, with results taking up to 96 hours. On Friday, a 20-year-old sailor who had been tested a few days earlier was still awaiting her results. For now, she spends part of her day cleaning the ship, a task for which she is issued gloves and a mask. With so many members of the crew off the boat, social distancing is easier. But her worries about her own test results are compounded by the concern she has for her family in New York, the current epicenter of the virus, and for her shipmates, including her former captain, who has become a symbol of strength for the crew.

Im angry, tired, exhausted, she told The Times. I just wanna give up. Im hurting for myself, my friends, family, shipmates. I want the world to know how strong the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt is.

Excerpt from:

How an Island Oasis Became the Navys Coronavirus Epicenter - The New York Times

Since early March, when coronavirus began to appear in Texas, weve been checking in with Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher who lately has become a familiar bow-tied presence on national cable news channels.

Hes a professor and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and co-director of the Texas Childrens Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

His lab developed a vaccine to protect against SARS, a deadly strain of coronavirus, but in 2016 wasnt able to get money to test it in humans. Now theyre racing to create a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus thats wreaking global havoc.

Earlier this week, on Twitter, he wrote:

There's a misunderstanding out there that America just hunkers down for a year, then a #vaccine magically appears, and everyone goes out to have a nice picnic on the National Mall. It would be nice, it's not impossible, our lab working 24/7, but I think a low probability scenario.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Could you talk about those tweets and the expectation that we'll have a coronavirus vaccine within the next year to 18 months?

That's certainly the aspirational goal. That was the charge from Dr. Anthony Fauci, whos advising the president. And that's what we're all working toward. Our scientists are in the lab day and night trying to make this happen and trying to accelerate it, but it's a tough goal.

Sometimes people forget how long it really does take to make a vaccine. Dr. Fauci knows this as well as anybody: He's devoted his life to the HIV AIDS vaccine the development of which has taken 30 years and counting.

Most vaccines take 10 to 25 years. That's the timeframe. My colleague Paul Offi points out that the record is probably four years from start to finish in terms of developmental licensure. That was for the mumps vaccine.

The time horizons are huge for vaccines. So then you say, Okay, well, how do you stack that up against a year to 18 months?

It's going to be very tough. We're clearly putting a lot of resources into it. A lot of smart people are thinking in innovative ways about how we could do more things in parallel. But we have to also set some realistic expectations that we might not have that vaccine in a year or 18 months and maybe not for two or three or four years.

So how do we manage? How do we manage expectations and what our country looks like during that time?

Do you have any idea where that goal of a year to 18 months comes from?

I don't know. There's a new international organization called CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, that's been charged to fix the long timelines of vaccines and to come up with new ways to accelerate. And there are some theoretical reasons to say we can do more things in parallel. The regulatory agencies are all looking at this.

So we're all going to try, but the the history says that's not a high probability. I'm listening to some of the cable news networks saying, Well, we just got to hunker down for a year and then we'll have the vaccine.

That's not a wise strategy. Or maybe we can have that as one strategy, but don't put all of our eggs in that basket. Let's have another strategy with a more realistic timeframe for vaccines.

This disease may come in waves, like the flu pandemic of 1918. That came in several waves between the beginning of 1918 and the end of 1920. That was a three-year pandemic, and that's a possibility for us as well.

Figuring out a plan for the country in the event that we don't have a vaccine is going to be very important for us. Some people are not happy that I said that because it sounds so pessimistic. It isn't.

I do think we will have other technologies coming out. We've already got the convalescing the antibody therapy. We've got some new drugs that will come online.

But let's consider a realistic timeframe too, in case the vaccines are not out, and figuring out if this virus comes in waves.

MORE Q&AS: Disaster expert Angela Blanchard on COVID-19 and the Houston economy

What would that look like in terms of getting people to back to work? How would we manage that? That includes mental health aspects. Will people have PTSD in terms of going back to work?

Well also have governors from some states unwilling to go back to social distancing once we're off that first hook. Even in this month, when things are so dire in the country, you've got about a third of the governors who are pushing back against aggressive social distancing.

What's it going to be a year from now if we're off social distancing, then we have to go back on?

And who organizes it? Who organizes the response? Who charts the plan for us?

How do we figure this out as a nation? How do we look at all the models and say, what's a realistic model? And and if this virus does show a waxing and waning course, how do we deal with that, working with governments, working with businesses, and working with health systems? This is going to be a very complicated situation.

Right now we're going mainly state by state, and looking at things like closing state borders or at least requiring self-quarantine for people traveling to Texas from Louisiana. How do you think that works?

It doesn't reflect the reality of the situation. COVID-19 is in every state in the country right now.

Travel restrictions sound appealing because they make it seem like, Well, it's over. We just shut that travel down, and that will prevent the virus from coming in. The president has said that he slowed things down by closing down travel with China. But we have reports now, based on the genetic sequence of the virus, that the virus in New York came in from Europe.

At this point, we have to recognize that the virus is probably everywhere. There's a diminishing return at this point of cutting down traffic between states.

I've seen estimates that we are maybe two weeks away from the peak here in Houston or maybe I should say, our first peak.

Thats according to the IHME model from the University of Washington.

So what should Houstonians be doing right now?

Now it's crunch time. Now's the time when you're at greatest risk of contracting the virus by being in crowds or being with people outside your home. We're trying to do everything we can to minimize the number of people that have to be brought into the hospital, who need ICUS.

Its really important now that we aggressively pursue social distancing, especially to prevent a surge on Texas Medical Center. Even though the leaders of the TMC been meeting daily, we need to do our part as citizens of Houston to minimize the number of people that go into the hospital.

It's easier for some than others. Weve talked before about the poor neighborhoods in Houston, and how social distancing is more complicated in areas of poverty and crowding, or for families where lots of people live in one house or one apartment.

Its one thing to say, Okay, everybody now has to social distance. I don't know how we do that easily in Fifth Ward or in Acres Home or in northeast Houston.

I know the mayor's worried about it, and so is the county judge and our congressional delegation from Texas. Everyone's trying to think hard how to deal with this problem.

Right now, without a vaccine, we unfortunately have to use a 14th-century approach. Thats quarantine.

Assuming that its a long time until we get a vaccine, what sorts of things do you see happening? Between waves of the virus, could we begin loosening restrictions and starting the economy up again?

The models say, as we move through the month of May, the number of transmissions will go way down. Maybe at that point we could begin opening things up.

I don't know, though. At what point do we risk the disease immediately coming back if we do that? We're starting to hear that from Singapore and elsewhere.

MORE Q&AS: Texas A&M pandemic expert: Coronavirus will have 5 stages. Were in stage 2.

We're going to need outside help here in Houston, getting advice about that. Hopefully the federal government will provide some support.

Then let's say the levels of transmission continue to stay down for the next few months. When are the predictions this virus might return? Is in the fall of this year? Is it January of next year? April next year? Getting guidance about that will be really helpful.

Other questions are, who goes back into the workforce? Is that only people that have been infected and have antibodies that make them resistant to infection? Or is it or is it everyone?

I certainly don't have the answers to that. We're going to have to have some meaningful dialogue and convene some of the best minds in the country. I suggested on CNN that bringing in the National Academy of Sciences, or a similar organization, would be very helpful. We need some of the best scientists in the country around the table, looking at the models and charting a path.

Adding to the problem is the fact that we're in an election year. Things will be so heated politically that decisions made both on the Republican side and the Democratic side may put political expediency over public health. How do you deal with that?

It's really hard. Im hearing from people who look at the relatively low number of people hospitalized in Houston, or the small number of deaths here. Theyre asking whether the cost of social distancing has been worth it, and whether we should continue staying at home. What would you say to them?

First of all, I don't know that we really know the number of people in ICUS or of deaths. And remember, we still have another two weeks before we reach our peak. So we're certainly not out of the woods by any means.

If it turns out that the data are not as high as we thought then the question always comes: Did that happen because of what we did? Or in spite of what we did?

We had this discussion before about Zika. I met with Houstons mayor and strongly recommended cleaning up the tires that breed Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes in places like the Fifth Ward. He did it.

Then we didn't have Zika. Was that because of my recommendation? We have no idea. You cant prove a negative.

But based on the experience we're seeing elsewhere, we know social distancing is really important for the next few weeks.

What else is on your mind these days? What are you watching?

Im really scratching my head figuring out what the next two and three years look like. That's a big one.

We've also now heard a lot about health, about COVID-19 as a health disparity among the African American and Hispanic communities in the southern parts of the U.S. I put that out there about almost three weeks ago: This is going to be a concern. And thats turning out to be the case, unfortunately. Fighting that in Houston is going to be really important .

How are you doing personally?

Oh, we're hanging in there. I'm spending a lot of time writing papers, and documents related to getting our vaccine off the ground, and writing some thought papers also about what the ideal characteristics are for the vaccine and how we advance the Global Health vaccine.

Im also trying to raise the funding to make it happen. Vaccine developments are expensive.

And Im also talking to people like you, to get the word out, so we get good accurate science messaging. I'm going on CNN or MSNBC and Fox News, and sometimes I'm not telling people good news.

I've been getting a bit of pushback from people I've known for years, people who are not happy that I'm not painting a very rosy picture of things.

Its taken me time to figure out how to tell real information without alarming people. I veer a little too much on the rosy. Sometimes I veer a little too much on the dark side. The best critic of all is my wife, who lets me know about it.

How is she doing?

I think good. She sees how stressed I am.

It's not just me it's our whole group, and Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, my science partner for 20 years. I'll text her at 4 a.m. when I wake up, and find out that she's already texted me at 3:30 a.m. when she's woken up. It's crazy. I'll wake up in the middle of the night and send a text, not expecting an answer to the next morning, and she's responding right away.

We're all kind of sleepless.

lisa.gray@chron.com, @LisaGray_HouTX

Original post:

Coronavirus expert Peter Hotez: Now's the time when you're at greatest risk of contracting the virus by being in crowds. - Houston Chronicle

The first type of antibody to appear is called immunoglobulin M or IgM, and its levels spike within a few days of infection. But IgM is a generic fighter. To target and destroy a specific virus, the body refines it into a second type of antibody, called immunoglobulin G, or IgG, that can recognize that virus.

As IgG levels rise, IgM levels drop; IgG levels peak around 28 days after the onset of infection.

There is a third type of antibody, called IgA, that is present in mucosal tissues like the inner lining of the lung. IgA is known to be important for fighting respiratory infections such as influenza, and is likely to be central in coronavirus infection, too.

Many of the tests being developed look for levels of all three antibodies; some look for just IgM and IgG, and still others test for only one type.

What can these tests tell us? And what cant they?

Lets begin with what they cant tell us. Because the antibodies come up so late, these tests are not helpful for diagnosing an early infection. For that they are useless, said Dr. Florian Krammer, a virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

The tests are more effective at detecting the presence of antibody responses across large numbers of people, not just to determine who is immune but how widely the virus has spread in the population.

From 25 to 50 percent of people who become infected may never develop symptoms, and some may become only mildly ill. Others may have known they were sick, but could not get tested. Serology tests would be able to identify these people and help scientists better estimate the death rate of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

We dont currently have good numbers for the numbers of people who are infected now, much less people who were infected before who were never tested, said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York. So its really important from an epidemiological perspective to do these types of serology assays.

Here is the original post:

Will a Coronavirus Antibody Test Allow Us to Go Back to School or Work? - The New York Times

Smith, who is predominantly treating Covid-19 patients at a hospital in New York City, revealed the tragic last words of a dying man he was about to place on a ventilator: "Who's going to pay for it?" the coronavirus patient asked Smith in between labored breaths.

"They were last words I'll never forget," Smith told CNN.

"(This patient) was in severe respiratory distress, had difficulty speaking, and yet still his main concern was who could pay for a procedure that would his extend his life but statistically he doesn't have a good likelihood of survival."

Knowing that the patient was most likely not going to recover once he was intubated, Smith and his colleagues called the man's wife to give them what may have been their last chance to say goodbye.

Smith called the incident "by far the worst thing" he has witnessed in his 12 years of critical care and anesthesia and said the moment shed light on a health care system that he says has been and still is failing its people.

"I was very sad and honestly, a little horrified. This demonstrates that we have a profound failure when one has to worry about their finances when they're dealing with much bigger issues that have to do with life or death."

Looking at the bigger picture

Smith did not have an answer to his patient's question and instead turned the conversation to getting the man to talk to his spouse one last time. Despite the tragic circumstances, the question was a valid concern.

"The pandemic has highlighted a lot of structural inadequacies in our country, not only the response to the pandemic itself, but our approach to health care coverage," Smith said.

For now-unemployed Americans who get their health insurance benefits from their jobs, this is yet another major crisis.

"This can only get worse if we don't improve equitable access to health care," Smith said.

"As a result of the many job losses related to the pandemic, the uninsured population will only increase, and it will still remain a challenge for those who do retain private health insurance. The last analysis I saw projected up to a 40% increase in insurance premiums by next year so that's going to be an even bigger burden we need to talk about."

CNN's Tami Luhby contributed to this report.

Here is the original post:

A nurse revealed the tragic last words of his coronavirus patient: 'Who's going to pay for it?' - CNN

MOSCOW The authorities in Moscow said on Friday that coronavirus cases are increasing rapidly here and have already pushed the citys health care system to its limit.

Warning that the outbreak in the Russian capital was far from reaching its peak, Anastasia Rakova, a deputy mayor responsible for health, said that the number of people hospitalized with the illness related to the virus in Moscow had more than doubled over the past week to 6,500. Nearly half of those infected are under the age of 45.

The citys mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, sounded a further alarm, saying that the virus is gaining momentum and that the situation is becoming increasingly problematic.

A flurry of bad news on Friday about the outbreak indicated that Russia, relatively spared until now from the ravages of the virus, has started on the same harrowing path taken weeks ago by hard hit countries like Italy and now the United States. This has dashed hopes in the Kremlin that its decision in late January to close Russias long border with China, the original source of the virus, and then limit travel from Europe had contained the outbreak.

President Vladimir V. Putin, who usually takes the lead with great fanfare in times of crisis, has mostly stayed in the background. He has retreated to his country residence outside Moscow, leaving Mr. Sobyanin, the mayor, and Russias prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, to take the heat for a health crisis that now looks set to get far worse.

Ms. Rakova, the Moscow official, warned that the capitals ambulance service and hospitals were now stretched to the limit. The virus has also started to wreak havoc in Russias vast hinterland, where the ramshackle health system seems to be contributing to the spread of the pathogen.

Hospitals in at least two regions are already overwhelmed by infected patients. In Syktyvkar, the capital of the Komi oil-producing region northeast of Moscow, the main hospital has more than 200 infected people, while scores of medical personnel and more than a thousand patients at a hospital in Ufa, 700 miles east of Moscow, have been ordered not to leave the premises after 170 people there tested positive.

Deviating from previous official assurances that Russia is well prepared for a possible crush of patients, the health minister, Mikhail Murashko, on Friday warned that the countrys health care services were now experiencing stress regarding supplies, including the supply of personal protection equipment and ventilators.

And with Mr. Putin having scored a propaganda coup recently by sending planeloads of such medical supplies to a variety of countries, including the United States, the reports of shortages could become a sore point.

With little good news to celebrate on earth, Mr. Putin on Friday spoke with Russian and American astronauts on board the international space station, congratulating them on their safe arrival in space aboard a Russian rocket launched on Thursday. Keeping his distance from the coronavirus crisis, Mr. Putin also chaired a teleconference about Russias aerospace industry.

Moscow reported 1,124 new cases of confirmed coronavirus infections on Friday, bringing the total in the city to 7,822, compared with more than 80,000 in New York City. The authorities in the Russian capital, which accounts for two-thirds of all cases in the country, last week ordered residents to stay at home except to buy food and medicine and to walk their dogs within 100 yards of their residence. But eager to avoid too much disruption to the economy, they have done little to enforce the restrictions.

Police cars drive around the city broadcasting a message appealing to dear citizens to stay indoors, and the mayor, Mr. Sobyanin, has made increasingly insistent calls for Muscovites to follow self-quarantine rules. On Friday, he warned that Moscow was still somewhere at the base of the peak and needed to prepare for a serious test ahead.

After weeks of debate about the accuracy of official figures, an official letter to Moscow hospital directors leaked online and seemed to support allegations by Kremlin critics that Russias relatively low coronavirus figures were not true. The letter, signed by the head of Moscows health department, Aleksei Khripun, acknowledged that testing had been compromised by a very high number of false results that masked the true extent of Covid-19.

Anastasia Vasilieva, the head of an independent doctors union, has accused the government of downplaying the number of cases by deliberately misclassifying Covid-19 as pneumonia. She was detained last week in what was seen as punishment for puncturing an official narrative that everything is under control.

But Russias health minister, Mr. Murashko, has himself since come close to acknowledging widespread misclassification. In an interview on state television, he said that patients with pneumonia will from now on be treated in the same way as those confirmed as having coronavirus.

Follow this link:

Russia Admits the Coronavirus Is Taking Hold After Months of Denial - The New York Times

LONDON On April 2, a wireless tower was set ablaze in Birmingham. The next day, a fire was reported at 10 p.m. at a telecommunications box in Liverpool. An hour later, an emergency call came in about another cell tower in Liverpool that was going up in flames.

Across Britain, more than 30 acts of arson and vandalism have taken place against wireless towers and other telecom gear this month, according to police reports and a telecom trade group. In roughly 80 other incidents in the country, telecom technicians have been harassed on the job.

The attacks were fueled by the same cause, government officials said: an internet conspiracy theory that links the spread of the coronavirus to an ultrafast wireless technology known as 5G. Under the false idea, which has gained momentum in Facebook groups, WhatsApp messages and YouTube videos, radio waves sent by 5G technology are causing small changes to peoples bodies that make them succumb to the virus.

The incidents starkly demonstrate how coronavirus conspiracy theories have taken a dark turn by spilling out into the real world. In just a few weeks, the pandemic has given pre-existing fringe ideas online new urgency by playing on peoples fears.

Before the coronavirus, rarely did such theories cause as much tangible harm so quickly, disinformation researchers said.

In the United States, one person died after self-medicating with chloroquine, which was touted online as a miracle cure for the coronavirus even though its efficacy is unproven. And Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was assigned more security this month after unfounded theories spread that he was part of a secret cabal working to undermine President Trump.

Most conspiracies stay online, but this is having real-world impact, said Alexandre Alaphilippe, executive director of the E.U. DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based group tracking virus conspiracy theories. He called managing pandemic misinformation a new problem because the disease is global and people everywhere are hunting for information.

The false theory linking 5G to the coronavirus has been especially prominent, amplified by celebrities like John Cusack and Woody Harrelson on social media. It has also been stoked by a vocal anti-5G contingent, who have urged people to take action against telecom gear to protect themselves.

The idea has deep internet roots. An analysis by The New York Times found 487 Facebook communities, 84 Instagram accounts, 52 Twitter accounts, and dozens of other posts and videos pushing the conspiracy. The Facebook communities added nearly half a million new followers over the past two weeks. On Instagram, a network of 40 accounts nearly doubled its audience this month to 58,800 followers.

On YouTube, the 10 most popular 5G coronavirus conspiracy videos posted in March were viewed over 5.8 million times. Today, the conspiracy can be found on Facebook in over 30 countries, including Switzerland, Uruguay and Japan.

British politicians said the conspiracy theory and the violent acts it was causing were unacceptable.

This is nonsense of the absolute highest order, said Julian Knight, a member of Parliament who leads a committee investigating coronavirus-related online misinformation. He said Facebook and YouTube needed to get a grip on the situation or risk undermining the crisis response.

Mr. Knight added that the spread of 5G conspiracies raised alarms about how information about a future coronavirus vaccine would be disseminated.

If we were to get a vaccine for Covid-19, can we trust the social media companies to ensure that the right public health messages are put out about that vaccine? he asked. That could be a question of life and death for many people.

Facebook, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, said it was starting to remove false claims that 5G technology causes the symptoms of or contraction of Covid-19. YouTube said it would reduce recommendations of videos linking the coronavirus to 5G, while Twitter said it had taken action against misleading and harmful content about the illness.

Wild claims about 5G are not new. The technology has an outsize political importance because it may provide countries with a competitive edge, with faster wireless speeds enabling more rapid development of driverless cars and other innovations.

Internet trolls have seized on 5G and its political implications to sow fear, leading to protests in the United States and elsewhere against the technology in recent years. Russians have pushed claims that 5G signals were linked to brain cancer, infertility, autism, heart tumors and Alzheimers disease, all of which lacked scientific support.

In January, as the coronavirus rippled through Wuhan, China, and beyond, it provided new fodder for anti-5G trolls. On Jan. 19, a post on Twitter speculated on a link between 5G and the disease, according to Zignal Labs, a media insights company that studied 699,000 mentions of the conspiracy this year through April 7.

Wuhan has 5,000+ #5G base stations now and 50,000 by 2021 is it a disease or 5G? the tweet said.

On Jan. 22, an article on a Belgium news website included a comment from a physician claiming that 5G was harmful to peoples health. Though it did not specifically mention the coronavirus, the doctor mentioned a possible link with current events. The article, later deleted by the publisher, reached as many as 115,000 people, according to CrowdTangle, a tool that analyzes interactions across social media.

By last month, 5G-coronavirus claims on the web and television were rising, according to Zignal Labs. A YouTube video that connected the virus to 5G last month racked up roughly two million views before the site deleted it. And the singer Keri Hilson, as well as Mr. Harrelson and Mr. Cusack, posted online about the conspiracy.

A lot of my friends have been talking about the negative effects of 5G, Mr. Harrelson wrote on Instagram to his two million followers last week, sharing a screenshot of an article that drew links between the outbreak in Wuhan and 5G development there.

A representative for Mr. Harrelson, whose 5G posts have since been deleted, declined to comment. Ms. Hilsons manager said her posts had been removed because we feel that at this time it is important to focus on the things that we know are 100 percent accurate.

After publication of this article, Mr. Cusack, through his publicist, said he was raising general health concerns about 5G; his 5G tweets have been deleted.

The conspiracy particularly resonated in Britain. In January, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had given the Chinese technology company Huawei permission to set up 5G infrastructure in the country.

In recent weeks, conspiracy theorists began saying Chinas lack of transparency on Covid-19 was evidence that Huawei should not be trusted to install 5G in Britain. Some went further and called for the destruction of wireless equipment.

We need to bring 5G down, said one person in the Facebook group Stop 5G U.K., which has more than 58,600 members.

After the British government issued shelter-in-place orders on March 23, some conspiracy theorists commented that it was a trick to secretly build 5G masts out of public view.

On April 2, in one of the first 5G-coronavirus incidents, telecom equipment in a neighborhood of Belfast in Northern Ireland was set ablaze, according to local officials.

I just couldnt believe it, said Carl Whyte, a Belfast City Council member. They are seeing these conspiracy theories on social media and going out and destroying those masts.

Word of the fire spread around the Belfast area. Richard Kerr, the minister at Templepatrick Presbyterian Church in nearby Ballyclare, said, I was taken aback that it went to that level that people were prepared to commit arson.

Other fires of telecom towers followed in Birmingham, Liverpool and elsewhere. Videos of burning equipment were shared and celebrated on Facebook. Some videos also showed telecom technicians being harassed.

You know when they turn this on its going to kill everyone, a woman said of 5G in a recent video on Twitter, as she confronted technicians laying fiber-optic cables in an unidentified British town.

Mark Steele, a prominent anti-5G activist in Britain, said the fires were a result of people being frustrated that their safety concerns werent taken seriously. Asked if he believed 5G was causing coronavirus, he said, Its looking a bit suspicious, dont you think?

Telecommunications companies, which have added more security and are working with law enforcement, said the attacks against their workers and equipment had been widespread, threatening communication networks during the crisis. Vodafone said it had experienced at least 15 incidents, while BT has had at least 11. The companies said that in many cases, vandals had damaged existing infrastructure and not new 5G gear.

The police in Belfast, Liverpool and Birmingham said they were continuing to investigate the incidents, reviewing security-camera footage and asking the public for leads.

Anti-5G groups have continued adding hundreds of members. One Facebook user shared photos this week of a wireless tower being constructed in an unidentified area of Britain.

Light it up, one commenter responded.

Adam Satariano reported from London, and Davey Alba from New York. Ben Decker contributed research.

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How a 5G Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory Fueled Arson and Harassment in Britain - The New York Times

That's how Kate McKinnon kicked off NBC's "Saturday Night Live," which included sketches that were produced by the "SNL" cast from their homes amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"Saturday Night Live At Home" attempted to recreate the feel of a normal episode by having sketches, Chris Martin as a musical guest and Tom Hanks as host.

"It's good to be here, but it's also weird to be here hosting 'Saturday Night Live' from home," Hanks said from what appeared to be his kitchen. "It is a strange time to try and be funny, but trying to be funny is 'SNL's' whole thing, so what the heck, let's give it a shot."

Hanks, who was wearing a suit, added that this was the first time he's worn anything other than sweatpants in a month.

"This 'Saturday Night Live' is going to be a little different, for one thing it's been filmed entirely by the 'SNL' cast who are currently quarantined in their homes. ... Also, there's no such thing as Saturdays anymore," he said. "And we're not really live, but we're doing everything we can to make this feel like the 'SNL' you know and love."

"Ever since being diagnosed I have been more like America's dad than ever before since no one wants to be around me very long and I make people uncomfortable," Hanks said.

"SNL" also had sketches that included everything from Larry David playing Sen. Bernie Sanders from his home, Pete Davidson singing in his mom's basement, a sketch that made fun of Zoom conferences and "Weekend Update: Home Edition" with hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che.

The two made jokes about current events before getting an official update on the pandemic from Alec Baldwin's President Donald Trump.

"My approval rating is up, my TV ratings are through the roof and every night at 7 p.m. all of New York claps and cheers for the great job I'm doing," Baldwin as Trump said over the phone.

Baldwin's Trump then said that "we have to listen to the experts on this one" including his senior adviser Jared Kushner, Fox News host Sean Hannity and MyPillow inventor and infomercial star Mike Lindell.

"All absentee ballots are covered in coronavirus," Baldwin's Trump said. "Happy Easter, everybody!"

Away from the laughs, the show's musical guest, Chris Martin of Coldplay, played a rendition of Bob Dylan's "Shelter From The Storm."

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'SNL' kicks off with Tom Hanks as host and sketches from home amid the coronavirus - CNN

For more than two years the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have warned that sub-Saharan Africa stands on the verge of a debt crisis. Ever since commodity prices began to fall in 2015, the public finances of nations stretching from Nigeria to Kenya and Chad to South Africa have deteriorated.

If China is the manufacturing centre of the world, Africa is its chief supplier of essential materials, from oil and copper to the rare-earth minerals used in mobile phones. As Chinas manufacturing waned in the middle of the last decade, so did the crucial foreign earnings that keep African nations afloat.

Making matters worse, an investment binge to build much-needed infrastructure left the continent with spiralling debt costs.

The high rate of interest that sub-Saharan governments pay on their debts means that the cumulative stock of loans can be modest in relation to national income but still be unaffordable.

This week, with the Covid-19 pandemic starting to have an impact on the African continent, senior officials at the IMF, the G20 and the World Bank will meet online for their spring conferences. To help them review the situation, research conducted by Kings College London and the Australian National University for the aid charity Oxfam found that more than half a billion more people could be pushed into poverty unless urgent action is taken to bail out the worlds poorest countries.

Oxfam said the impact of shutting down economies to prevent the virus spreading would wreck vital industries and risked setting back the fight against poverty in sub-Saharan Africa by up to 30 years.

If those governments attempt to intervene, as developed-world governments have, to support industries and communities suffering a sudden loss of income, then their public debts will soar and the world financial system will ultimately be threatened by debt defaults.

Health systems in Africa are expected to be overwhelmed and what welfare systems that are in place will buckle under the strain. Even better-equipped systems in China, the US, UK and much of Europe have struggled to cope.

For this reason, whichever way they turn, sub-Saharan governments are threatened by a financial collapse. Aid charities have already called for the IMF and World Bank to engineer a debt write-off to prevent such a situation arising. So far, the answer has been extra loans, albeit at low or zero interest rates, to bridge funding gaps in healthcare provision expected once the virus begins to make inroads.

One of the reasons for resisting write-offs can be found in the way debts have built up over the past 15 years. Almost from the moment the G7 wrote off a large slice of developing-world debt at the Gleneagles conference in 2005, African nations have allowed their debt-to-GDP ratios to inch upwards. Encouraged by the World Bank, they have sought loans from major commercial banks and the bond markets.

In the past six or seven years, the emphasis has switched to borrowing from China, in part to benefit from free advice on infrastructure projects, built by Chinese contractors. So a debt write-off by international public bodies like the IMF merely allows developing-world countries to keep paying their exorbitant private-sector debt bills and Chinese-backed development loans.

Another barrier is the lack, with a few exceptions, of any transformation in the governance of sub-Saharan states, despite 20 years of solid (albeit debt-fuelled) growth.

Many of the executives in aid agencies involved in debt relief make the point that corruption remains rife and inequality has increased, aided by developed-world lawyers, accountants and bankers who help African oligarchs stash their gains overseas tax-free.

Then there are the pre-colonial tribes and nations, which cut across todays borders and remain strong. They prevent post-colonial nations from developing strong governance and tackling corruption.

A repeat of the Gleneagles deal is difficult when so little appears to have changed in the meantime. Fatigue among donors, and a sense that money hasnt solved much so far, add to a sense of despair and fuel inaction.

Yet, this is not a time for considering the moral hazards. The G20 must act quickly, even out of self-interest. This is an interconnected world, and debts rebound if they are not dealt with as part of a programme that maintains confidence in the financial system.

To wait for another debt default in sub-Saharan Africa will serve no ones purpose. A rescue should be put in place now, before Oxfams dire predictions become reality.

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Coronavirus crisis demands that the G20 give debt relief to sub-Saharan Africa - The Guardian

Every crisis opens a course to the unknown. In an eye-blink, the impossible becomes possible. History in a sprint can mean a dark, lasting turn for the worse, or a new day of enlightened public policy.

Be still, my heart, but I see the latter. Some of the greatest advances in American history liberation of slaves, Social Security, robust clean air and water mandates were birthed by disaster.

For now, the coronavirus pandemic is an epic of sorrow, and has many mortal months still to run. But in the midst of our suffering, our grief for loved ones lost, our loneliness in social isolation, we have a chance to re-engineer our world.

Heres a look at what may follow as the pandemic starts to settle:

Health Care. Universal medical coverage, whether expanding Obamacare with a public option or some form of Medicare for all, is going to happen. Its had majority support for some time. The pandemic has just sped up the timetable. One poll found that 41 percent of adults are now more likely than they were before the pandemic to support a government-run care system covering all Americans.

When even the most dreadful Republicans but I repeat myself say that virus testing and treatment should be free, the door has opened to the obvious next step. Since the outbreak, one in four Republicans have suddenly come around to some version of what most nations already have.

Now, try running for office on a platform of taking away peoples health care. Or tolerating the condition that leaves nearly 28 million Americans with no health care at all. Yep, thats the current Republican policy, led by President Trumps attempt to gut Obamacare through the courts. Good luck with that in November.

Work. Paid family leave. Working at home. Universal sick leave. Subsidized day care. A livable minimum wage. Until about an hour ago, all of the above were considered progressive pipe dreams.

But just as World War II brought millions of women into factories, millions of people may settle into another workplace following the world war on coronavirus their homes.

Up to half the jobs in the United States could be done, at least partially, from home, by one estimate. Currently, fewer than 4 percent of jobs allow this. The benefits of telecommuting in terms of personal time, on the environment, on the psyche and on production could be enormous.

To those who cant work at home, for one bright and shining moment we all appreciate grocery clerks, truck drivers, nurses, home health care workers and others as heroes. But weve never treated them that way with the range of benefits available to those who wear a different collar.

Let Trump defend the broken status quo, while Joe Biden goes bold, defining what a people-centered economy would look like.

Food. With seven in 10 adults overweight or obese, the poor health and nutrition of most Americans is a horrid and accepted fact. But with the disproportionate number of Covid-19 deaths attributed to diet-related conditions, we are seeing, more rapidly, just how much this societal problem can kill.

This doesnt mean we should turn to fat shaming. But it does mean that, while looking at obesity as a public health problem as deadly as smoking, we can make some big structural changes in the food system.

For starters, there should be universal free school meals. Kids who take advantage of this are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables. But under the present system, many poor students feel so stigmatized that they go hungry instead.

For adults, the paradox of living in a nation where 40 million people face food insecurity while 40 percent of our food is wasted, makes no sense.

One quick solution is to allow all 42 million Americans who receive food stamps to shop online and get their groceries delivered like everyone else. One lasting solution is to standardize date labeling, so that food that may not be perfect quality is still safe to eat and can be used by food banks.

And its time to recognize the vital value of people who harvest our fruits and vegetables. Up to half of farmworkers are undocumented, and the Trump administration has been harassing and demeaning them.

But lo: The Department of Homeland Security has just classified farmworkers as essential critical infrastructure workers. Lets make that permanent through the big immigration fix that awaits a new president.

Climate. One byproduct of so many people working at home is clean air. With the global economy in a coma, emissions could fall by the largest amount since World War II. But this could have little impact on the trajectory of climate change if we dont make larger structural changes. China is already firing up its coal-powered factories.

We have only a few years to save ourselves from ourselves. Our trashed and overheated world is a slower pandemic. The good news is that, even with the crash in oil prices, renewable energy use is on an upward course. Coal is yesterday, no matter how much Trump tries to promote it and China drags its heels.

More than anything, the pandemic has shown how quickly things can change if they must. Carpe diem.

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After the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Big Reset - The New York Times

Eric Ginnard file photo eginnard@shawmedia.com

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Health officials reported Saturday that 58 more people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Will County.

The additional cases bring the total number in Will County to 1,161, according to the Will County Health Department.

The department also announced two more people, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 80s, died after contracting the virus.

After one woman's death was allocated to another county, the number of Will County patients who had died after testing positive stood at 56 on Saturday.

The Illinois Department of Public Health also announced 1,293 new cases of the virus and 81 additional deaths across the state.

As of Saturday, 19,180 people in Illinois had tested positive for COVID-19 and 677 people had died after contracting it. Over 92,000 tests for the virus had been performed in Illinois as of Saturday.

The IDPH also said 86 of the state's 102 counties had reported confirmed cases.

The update from state officials came on the day the U.S. overtook Italy for the highest death toll from the virus in the world.

The Will County Health Department provides more information about coronavirus, including the number for a COVID-19 hotline on its website, willcountyhealth.org.

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Coronavirus in Will County: 2 more dead, another 58 cases - The Herald-News