Category: Corona Virus

On Wednesday, Twitter briefly locked conservative site The Federalists account for suggesting people deliberately expose themselves to the novel coronavirus. The Federalist promoted the medically unsound idea of medical chickenpox parties to infect young, healthy people with the virus under controlled quarantine.

The tweet was removed for violating the social media platforms policies, and a Twitter spokesperson tells The Verge that the account was temporarily locked for violating the Twitter Rules regarding COVID-19.

Twitter bans coronavirus-related content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information. That includes tweets promoting ineffective or counterproductive treatments, denying the effectiveness of measures like social distancing, or contradicting known public health facts.

The Federalist was tweeting an article where an Oregon physician urged readers to seriously consider a somewhat unconventional approach to the pandemic. But unconventional is a bit of a euphemism. The hospital system is overloaded even without deliberate infections, and unlike with chickenpox, we dont know how long COVID-19 immunity lasts. In other words, hosting a coronavirus chickenpox party is a very bad idea.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a global lockdown and thousands of deaths, as well as economic chaos. America has the third-highest number of confirmed cases, after China and Italy. Congress is attempting to mitigate the economic harm with a stimulus package.

President Donald Trump has chronically minimized the risk of coronavirus infection and made falsely rosy claims about new treatments and vaccines, recently alarming experts by suggesting social distancing restrictions end by Easter Sunday. Other Republicans have either downplayed the threat or argued that some Americans should accept a heightened risk of death to let the country leave lockdown. Social media platforms have to decide when these statements could have a negative effect on the larger pandemic response, sometimes drawing ire in the process.

Earlier this week, blogging platform Medium removed an article from technologist and former Mitt Romney campaign team member Aaron Ginn. Ginn claimed that the COVID-19 response was being driven by hysteria or a mob-like fear. A Medium spokesperson told The Verge that Ginns essay violated rules against controversial, suspect, and extreme content, which cover distorted or pseudoscientific arguments that could have serious social repercussions.

Every day, we are removing coronavirus-related posts that violate our rules, the spokesperson said.

Twitter also slapped a warning on the article when it was later reposted elsewhere, telling readers who clicked the link that it was potentially harmful or associated with a violation of Twitters Terms of Service.

Ginns Medium article didnt fit the stereotype of social media misinformation posts, which often incorporate alarmist exaggerations, blatantly made-up facts, or miracle cure scams. But critics like University of Washington biology professor Carl Bergstrom cited logical leaps that painted a misleading yet widely cited portrait of the pandemic. The Wall Street Journals editorial board, however, slammed Mediums decision and urged platforms not to require conformity with the judgment of expert institutions, even as many of those institutions themselves woefully misjudged the situation months or weeks ago.

Facebook also recently published guidance for COVID-19 hoaxes and misinformation, drawing a line around content that could contribute to imminent physical harm. That includes statements like saying that social distancing doesnt work something Facebook says it recently started taking down. It doesnt include more abstract claims like conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus, which arent considered immediately harmful, but can be de-ranked and flagged with a warning label, like other false information on the platform.

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Twitter locks The Federalists account over coronavirus chickenpox parties tweet - The Verge

Advanced computers have defeated chess masters and learned how to pick through mountains of data to recognize faces and voices. Now, a billionaire developer of software and artificial intelligence is teaming up with top universities and companies to see if A.I. can help curb the current and future pandemics.

Thomas M. Siebel, founder and chief executive of C3.ai, an artificial intelligence company in Redwood City, Calif., said the public-private consortium would spend $367 million in its initial five years, aiming its first awards at finding ways to slow the new coronavirus that is sweeping the globe.

I cannot imagine a more important use of A.I., Mr. Siebel said in an interview.

Known as the C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute, the new research consortium includes commitments from Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago, as well as C3.ai and Microsoft. It seeks to put top scientists onto gargantuan social problems with the help of A.I. its first challenge being the pandemic.

The new institute will seek new ways of slowing the pathogens spread, speeding the development of medical treatments, designing and repurposing drugs, planning clinical trials, predicting the diseases evolution, judging the value of interventions, improving public health strategies and finding better ways in the future to fight infectious outbreaks.

Condoleezza Rice, a former U.S. secretary of state who serves on the C3.ai board and was recently named the next director of the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank on the Stanford campus, called the initiative a unique opportunity to better manage these phenomena and avert the worst outcomes for humanity.

The new institute plans to award up to 26 grants annually, each featuring up to $500,000 in research funds in addition to computing resources. It requires the principal investigators to be located at the consortiums universities but allows partners and team members at other institutions. It wants coronavirus proposals to be submitted by May and plans to award its first grants in June. The research findings are to be made public.

The institutes co-directors are S. Shankar Sastry of the University of California, Berkeley, and Rayadurgam Srikant of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The computing power is to come from C3.ai and Microsoft, as well as the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois. The schools run some of the worlds most advanced supercomputers.

Successful A.I. can be extremely hard to deliver, especially in thorny real-world problems such as self-driving cars. When asked if the institute was less a plan for practical results than a feel-good exercise, Mr. Siebel replied, The probability of something good not coming out of this is zero.

In recent decades, many rich Americans have sought to reinvent themselves as patrons of social progress through science research, in some cases outdoing what the federal government can achieve because its goals are often unadventurous and its budgets unpredictable.

Forbes puts Mr. Siebels current net worth at $3.6 billion. His First Virtual Group is a diversified holding company that includes philanthropic ventures.

Born in 1952, Mr. Siebel studied history and computer science at the University of Illinois and was an executive at Oracle before founding Siebel Systems in 1993. It pioneered customer service software and merged with Oracle in 2006. He founded what came to be named C3.ai in 2009.

The first part of the companys name, Mr. Siebel said in an email, stands for the convergence of three digital trends: big data, cloud computing and the internet of things, with A.I. amplifying their power. Last year, he laid out his thesis in a book Digital Transformation: Survive and Thrive in an Era of Mass Extinction. C3.ai works with clients on projects like ferreting out digital fraud and building smart cities.

In an interview, Eric Horvitz, the chief scientist of Microsoft and a medical doctor who serves on the spinoff institutes board, likened the push for coronavirus solutions to a compressed moon shot.

The power of the approach, he said, comes from bringing together key players and institutions. We forget who is where and ask what we can do as a team, Dr. Horvitz said.

Seeing artificial intelligence as a good thing perhaps a lifesaver is a sharp reversal from how it often gets held in dread. Critics have assailed A.I. as dangerously powerful, even threatening the enslavement of humanity to robots with superhuman powers.

In no way am I suggesting that A.I. is all sweetness and light, Mr. Siebel said. But the new institute, he added, is a place where it can be a force for good.

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A.I. Versus the Coronavirus - The New York Times

HONG KONG What began as a classic Lunar New Year celebration ended with nearly a dozen members of a family sickened and a city of seven million on edge.

Nineteen members of an extended family gathered in January for hot pot a traditional Chinese meal in which diners dip raw meat, seafood and vegetables into a shared caldron of simmering broth.

By the end of the meal, 11 people had unwittingly contracted the new coronavirus, the largest single cluster of cases to date in Hong Kong. Reports about the family, later known in the local news media as the hot pot clan, alarmed many in this semiautonomous Chinese city, spurring restaurants to action and leading residents to avoid large banquet-style meals, as well as hot pot.

As restaurants around the world close or retool in an effort to enforce social distancing, Hong Kongs hot pot restaurants offer both a cautionary tale and some good advice about how to continue to serve customers amid an epidemic.

Soon after the cases were confirmed, and just weeks after a lockdown was imposed in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the epidemic started, the party venue where the family had eaten closed its doors for good.

Other hot pot restaurants saw trade drop off rapidly. Spots famous for the dish pulled it from their menus.

One restaurant, Suppa, said business was down as much as 96 percent after news of the family spread across the city. For two days, it had no customers at all.

The hardest part is to restore peoples confidence, said Bong Kwok, 34, one of the restaurants founders, who opened Suppa in 2017. This happened too fast.

The outbreak was the latest in a string of recent troubles for the restaurant and the city.

Jason Ho, 33, the restaurants other founder, described the past few months as a roller coaster.

For months last year, the restaurants Causeway Bay neighborhood was shrouded in tear gas as street battles raged between antigovernment protesters and riot police officers.

After weeks of recording new cases in the single digits, Hong Kong is experiencing a resurgence in coronavirus cases, linked to travelers and overseas residents from Europe who returned to the city as the pandemic marched across the globe.

The new wave of infections prompted the government on Monday to announce a ban on alcohol sales at bars and restaurants in an effort to encourage social distancing, dealing another blow to the industry.

Mr. Kwok and Mr. Ho have been savvy about how to best continue to serve customers amid heightened tensions and changing rules. Their methods for coping could serve as a useful model for restaurateurs in other cities dealing with similar issues.

Suppa, a homonym for give it a blanch in Cantonese, rolled out delivery services for the first time in February, a move welcomed by loyal patrons who wanted to enjoy hot pot away from the crowds.

Those who choose to dine-in are met by an employee with a thermometer who checks their temperature at the door and asks about their travel history.

At another restaurant managed by the pair, a customer was turned away because his body temperature reached 99.7 degrees Fahrenheit, or 37.6 degrees Celsius, the low range of a fever.

It was awkward, Mr. Kwok said. It could make them feel bad, but it had to be done.

In the days since the hot pot clan fell ill, the local news media, doctors and even local legislators have debated the relative safety of eating hot pot and other family-style meals.

Early on, one doctor speculated that steam from the boiling soup carried by air currents made hot pots a particularly dangerous activity. Others have since refuted that assertion, noting that any shared meal in proximity to others risks exposure.

There isnt sufficient evidence to show that this novel coronavirus can be transmitted through activities such as hot pots and saunas, said Sophia Chan, Hong Kongs secretary for health.

Benjamin Cowling, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong, said transmission more likely occurred with prolonged close contact in a room with poor ventilation than as a result of any particular method of cooking.

Mr. Kwok, the restaurant owner, faulted something altogether different. He argued that it was not peoples actual diet but their media diet that had caused problems.

He blamed the unfair maligning of hot pots on the rapid spread of panic and misinformation during a crisis.

People may not think its real, he said of news shared online and among friends, but they will share it anyway.

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When Your Restaurants Star Dish Is Blamed for Spreading Coronavirus - The New York Times

When I asked NASA leadership whether they had changed their approach to asking for Artemis funding in the midst of the pandemic, I was prepared for the agencys usual, dreamy remarks about the importance of exploring the great unknown. The answer, while indirect, was more down-to-earth, in keeping with the tone of the times: NASA space exploration has been an economic driver for the U.S. economy, creating tens of thousands of jobs, reducing our trade deficit, and inspiring countless Americans to pursue careers in STEM fields, Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, said in a statement. Artemis will continue that long tradition, growing our economy and improving life on Earth for generations to come.

It might be tempting, for the science-fiction-minded, to think that global emergencies like this pandemic are proof that space exploration is more worthwhile than ever, because its our ticket out of here. But moving a large chunk of humanity off Earth, even if it could be done, would hardly be a panacea. Preparing a passenger ship to Mars under threat of infection would be difficult, and so would preventing the virus from hitching a ride. The International Space Station remains in operation, with three people currently on boardand three more expected to launch in Aprilbut the station is a laboratory, not a disaster bunker.

Read: What do you tell someone who still wont stay home?

Its just incredibly humbling, Sara Seager, an astrophysicist at MIT, told me recently. Because we think were so great, right? We can launch all these spacecraft. Were just so powerful. And now were just basically knocked into a standstill.

Seager works on a NASA mission to detect distant planets outside our solar system, which means she spends her days thinking about worlds beyond Earth. Shes still thinking about exoplanets right nowafter all, she still has to workbut like many of us, she is glued to the news, trying to stay healthy, and navigating the strange new norms of everyday life; Massachusetts, where she lives, issued a stay-at-home advisory last week. If some big exoplanet news came out tomorrow, Seagerwhom The New York Times once referred to as The Woman Who Might Find Us Another Earthprobably wouldnt pay attention to it. I dont think people have the bandwidth to get excited about new discoveries right now, she said.

Space exploration unfolds over the course of years, even decades; it involves a particular kind of thinking about the future and requires us to imagine separate realities with all the vividness with which we experience our own. It seems almost ridiculous to ask people to consider the cosmic right now, when the great unknown can just as easily apply to the next couple of weeks.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

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The Pandemic Has Grounded Humankind - The Atlantic

As global leaders race to contain the brutal threat of a growing pandemic, a triumvirate of denial has emerged in Latin America, with the leaders of Brazil, Mexico and Nicaragua downplaying the danger of a looming outbreak.

In the beginning, Obrador dismissed the threat posed by the novel coronavirus and "this idea that you can't hug," telling reporters on March 4, "You have to hug. Nothing happens." Ten days later, he posted a video of himself surrounded by supporters, hugging them and kissing a child. Two days after that, he held up two amulets and told reporters they would protect him from the virus.

As confirmed cases have surged in recent days, AMLO, as the president is often called, has shown more concern, encouraging people to stay home. He said his cabinet will be working on ways to help vulnerable populations, providing relief to small businesses and banning gatherings of 100 people or more.

But as recently as Sunday, he posted a video encouraging people to continue to go out to eat, urging Mexicans to limit any damage to the economy. "We do nothing good and we don't help if we're paralyzed, if we act in an exaggerated way," he said in the video. "Let's continue living life normally."

Then, he insisted Tuesday that fighting the virus starts at home. "It is a fact that daughters take care of parents," he said at a press conference. "Men can be more detached but daughters are always tending to their mothers, their fathers. So, men and women, take care of our elderly," he concluded, going on to say multiple times that Mexico is prepared to handle the crisis.

To date, Mexico has registered 405 confirmed cases. An additional 1,219 others are suspected of having the virus and five people have died so far. Experts have told CNN given the paltry level of testing in the country, the true count could be much higher.

Two doctors who are on the frontline of the fight warn that Mexico could be a disaster waiting to happen. "I do not think Mexico is prepared for this," said one veteran physician at a leading hospital in Mexico City, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to media. "We aren't testing enough because there aren't enough tests, and we do not remotely have enough beds, enough ventilators, not even enough facemasks to treat this epidemic."

Another doctor at a leading private hospital in Mexico City who was not authorized to speak publicly told CNN that he feared hospitals will soon reach their maximum capacity. "Given that during this epidemic the number of cases will inevitably rise exponentially, hospitals in Mexico would collapse within a matter of days should that happen," he said.

In the absence of a large federal response, the fight against the virus has largely fallen to Mexico's states, municipalities, and even private businesses. On Monday, Mexico City forced all bars, nightclubs, and movie theaters to close and banned gatherings of 50 people or more (though CNN witnessed lots of people still out on city streets Monday).

Although restaurants in Mexico City are exempt from Monday's new policy, many chose to close anyway. Meroma, an extremely popular high-end restaurant in Mexico City, closed last week. "We have decided to be a step ahead of the authorities and close...It is a very hard decision for us but we want you all to be safe...," read a sign at its entrance.

Across the country, schools have elected to shutter and many large businesses told employees to work from home, despite there being no clear federal mandate to do so.

Brazil

When news emerged on March 12 that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's press secretary had tested positive for the virus, some hoped the president who described the novel coronavirus as "overrated" would take the viral threat more seriously.

But he's only doubled down since then, calling the virus "a little flu" in a television interview on Sunday. "The people will soon see that they were tricked by these governors and by the large part of the media when it comes to coronavirus," he told Brazilian network Record TV, referring to the states of Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, where governors have declared states of emergency.

Brazil has recorded the most cases in Latin America, at 2,247 cases so far. Thirty-four people have died. And in light of little action federally, local governments have started taking preventive steps in the hopes of avoiding potential fallout: Soccer stadiums and convention centers are being converted into field hospitals as cities prepare for overwhelmed hospitals. States across Brazil have closed shopping malls and schools while banning public gatherings.

And many Brazilians aren't buying Bolsonaro's reassurances. In cities across the country, residents go to their windows and balconies every night at 8:30pm, banging pots and pans to show discontent with Bolsonaro's administration.

Nicaragua

As one of the western hemisphere's poorest nations, Nicaragua is in a worse position than most to fight off any potential outbreak inside its borders. It only has two cases so far, but fear is mounting inside the country as citizens express discontent with the government response led by President Daniel Ortega, who hasn't been seen in public in weeks.

Bryan, 27, lives with his 52-year-old mother and tells CNN they have been staying home since neighboring Costa Rica reported its first case. But the government, he says, acts as if nothing has changed.

"The government is participating in political marches outside, there was just one on Saturday," he told CNN on a phone call, asking to only use his first name for fear of retaliation.

Nicaragua's vice president, Rosario Murillo -- the wife of President Ortega -- has advised Nicaraguans to turn to religion in difficult times. "We can move forward serenely...responsibly, and above all believing in the Lord, knowing that this faith defends and saves us," Murillo said in the context of the coronavirus, according to state-run news agency Digital 19.

The federal government has taken few preventative measures so far, only launching a public hygiene campaign while monitoring tourists from countries with a high number of cases, according to Digital 19. As a part of the hygiene campaign, the government sent workers door to door with instructions on how to properly wash hands.

Judith, 36, pretended not to be home. "They could be spreaders of the virus," she said to CNN, using only her first name to protect her identity. "They don't wear masks."

A doctor in the city of Jinotepe, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job, said Nicaragua's public health system is not equipped to deal with an outbreak. "Nicaragua has a vulnerable health system and an infection this massive could create disasters, our system will collapse," he said to CNN. "It is greatly irresponsible for the state to not take real measures against this pandemic."

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the number of suspected cases of coronavirus in Mexico.

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Why are these three presidents downplaying coronavirus warnings? - CNN

It is a familiar trope in films and books about apocalypse: as the world totters, people flee to a small island and hunker down, hoping the remoteness will offer a haven until the threat has passed.

A romantic notion, but if youre eyeing one of Irelands offshore islands as a refuge from coronavirus be warned the locals would rather you stay away.

Residents of Achill, Aran and Rathlin have expressed alarm at being labelled sanctuaries on social media and have appealed to outsiders to steer clear.

We conducted a poll and the overwhelming response was people would rather that tourism is halted, said Mire U Mhaolin, manager of a community development co-op on the Aran Islands, in the Atlantic off the coast of Galway. We feel we dont have the resources to deal with an outbreak here.

The three Aran islands, Inis Mr, Inis Mein and Inis Orr, have a combined population of 1,300, many elderly inhabitants and just two doctors.

If the coastguard had to evacuate a patient with coronavirus the crew would then have to go into quarantine, leaving the islands even more vulnerable, said U Mhaolin. Normally we welcome tourism but we are taking an opportunity to ask people to not visit.

Islanders have asked for and received a commitment from private ferry operators to curb services and restrict the number of visitors.

This request is being made in an attempt to minimise both the short-term and the long-term effect this disease will have on these beautiful islands and their peoples, Aran Island Ferries said.

However, a state-owned ferry service has continued operating, citing a public service mandate that can be overruled only with an official lockdown, which has not been declared.

That allowed the arrival last week of a group of visitors who rented a cottage, said U Mhaolin. I think they were Irish, a bunch of young people.

Residents on Rathlin, an island off the coast of County Antrim, with a population of 135 and no known case of Covid-19, have also restricted ferry services to essential travel in an effort to discourage tourists. The ferry terminal at Ballycastle, on the Northern Ireland mainland, closed to the public on 23 March.

Some residents of Achill island, which is connected to the rest of County Mayo by a bridge, have been appalled by visitors who have flocked to beaches and ignored physical distancing recommendations.

Achill Island is not a safe haven, tweeted one local. It is a top-heavy residential community of venerable elderly people We have seen the arrival of an enormous amount of out-of-towners. Some are showing such disregard for the guidelines You are not on holidays!

Chris McCarthy, Achills tourism manager, echoed the criticism. A lot werent adhering to the HSE (Health Service Executive) directives its not good to see.

Visitors that respected guidelines were still welcome, he said, but they should know the island was no haven from the pandemic.

Two people have been diagnosed with coronavirus, said McCarthy, and they want the public to know the disease has arrived. They want it out there that just that because were isolated it doesnt mean it cant get here.

A local GP, Noreen Lineen-Curtis, said Achill needed to take measures like anywhere else.

The comedian David ODoherty told the Irish Times he brought his elderly parents to the familys cottage in Achill. Its isolation, but isolation with a lot more space than you would get in the city. its my favourite place on earth, it really is, which is why its a weird place to be stuck in an apocalypse.

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Irish islands aren't smiling as tourists threaten to bring coronavirus onshore - The Guardian

Though Shopify has been policing the new sites, it also encourages its customers to go into the dropshipping business. It offers a guide for starting such a business and makes money from them by charging a monthly fee and a percentage of sales. The Canadian company is one of the largest turnkey e-commerce sites in the world, bringing in $1.5 billion last year. In February, Shopify announced that it had hosted over a million businesses.

New sites selling coronavirus products come online every day. A majority of the sites tracked by The Times appeared over the past two weeks, including over 70 registered since Wednesday, according to data from DomainTools, a cyberforensics company. The sites target users around the world and are in English, French, Spanish, German, Romanian, Icelandic and other languages.

The registrations are part of a larger increase in Coronavirus-related activity, said Chad Anderson, senior security researcher at DomainTools. In February, he said, he saw about 100 new websites a day related to the pandemic. Now, the figure is 2,000. Their systems have flagged about half of those as likely related to malware, ransomware or phishing.

Its a massive uptick, Mr. Anderson said.

The operator of another Shopify dropshipping site, covid-defender.com, who would identify himself to The Times only as Radwan, said he lived in Denmark and had run Facebook ads for his site. The site sells face masks for $30 to $40, including one marketed for children described as Kid Mask Protection Against Virus and Bacteria With N95 Standards.

He said he believed the suppliers statements that the masks were certified to the standards claimed. It doesnt say by any means that it provides 100 percent protection, he said.

He said he had not heard of shortages of the masks he sold. If I had heard of any shortage anywhere on the planet I would not sell it, he said. Even so, he said, it was up to his customers to vet the products before buying.

They shouldnt trust these stores, and they have to find the proper information themselves, he said.

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Coronavirus Spurs a Wave of Suspect Websites Looking to Cash In - The New York Times

I am texting the doctor. I am texting Ts five siblings on a group chat, texting my parents and my brother, texting Ts business partner and employees and his dearest friends and mine, in loops and loops, with hearts and thankful prayer-hands emoji. He is too exhausted, too weak, to answer all the missives winging to him at all hours. Dont sugarcoat it for my family, he tells me. He has asked for the gray sweater that was his fathers, that his father wore when he was alive. He will not take it off.

Its as if we are in a time warp, in which we have accelerated at 1 time speed, while everyone around us remains in the present already the past to us and they, blissfully, unconsciously, go about their ordinary lives, experiencing the growing news, the more urgent advisories and directives, as a vast communal experience, sharing posts and memes about cabin fever, about home-schooling, about social distancing, about how hard it all is, while were living in our makeshift sick ward, living in what will soon be the present for more and more of them. I took out the kitty litter, CK says, and I saw some people standing on the corner, and I was like, I want to see strangers! And then I heard them saying: Its actually been really nice. Its been a chance to connect as a family. And I was like, No, actually, I dont want to see strangers, and I came back in.

CK and I confine ourselves to the half bathroom, the one with the litter box, which she is now in charge of. Over the past days and days, drifty, dreamy CK has become my chief assistant on my nursing/housekeeping/kitchen rotations, feeding the cat and cleaning the litter box, folding laundry, preparing Ts small meals, washing dishes and pots, coordinating with me in a complicated choreography when I come out of the sickroom holding dishes so we can get them into the dishwasher without my touching the handles or having to wash my dry, raw hands even more. I feel like were talking to each other more like equals now, she says. She is right.

I am consumed with trying to keep us safe. I wipe down the doorknobs, the light switches, the faucets, the handles, the counters with disinfectant. I swab my phone with alcohol. I throw the days hoodie into the laundry at night as if it were my scrubs. I wash all our towels, again and again. When CK wants to shower, I wipe down the whole main bathroom where T refills his water cup, where he has had diarrhea, where he coughs and spits out phlegm with bleach, take out Ts washcloth, towels and bathmat and replace them with clean ones, telling CK to try not to touch anything, to shower and go right back to her room. Then I do the same. If T needs to use the bathroom before were ready to shower, I do the whole bleach routine again before we go in. Twice, in the first week of the illness, I eased him into an Epsom-salt bath. But not since then. He is too weak. It would be too much. There is no way. When he shuffles down the hall from the bedroom to the bathroom, he lists against the wall. He splashes water on his face in the bathroom, and that has to be enough.

I run through possibilities. Im not so worried about CK getting sick. I can nurse her too. Its if I get sick. I show her how to do more things, where things go, what to remember, what to do if What if T is hospitalized? What if I am? Could a 16-year-old be left to fend for herself at home, alone? How would she get what she needed? Could she do it? For how long?

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What I Learned When My Husband Got Sick With Coronavirus - The New York Times

Representatives of the big three package deliverers in the United States U.P.S., FedEx and the Postal Service insisted there is no need. The C.D.C. has advised that there is a low risk of transmission on packages, said Matthew OConner, a spokesman for U.P.S. FedEx, in a statement. The guidance from the W.H.O. is that the likelihood of an infected person contaminating commercial goods is low, and the risk of catching the virus that causes COVID-19 from a package that has been moved, traveled, and exposed to different conditions and temperature is also low.

David Partenheimer, a spokesman for the Postal Service, noted that the surgeon general, Dr. Jerome M. Adams, along with the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, has indicated that there is currently no evidence that COVID-19 is being spread through the mail.

This is because many scientists think it is quite unlikely that you can catch the coronavirus by touching a surface that has the virus on it and subsequently touching your own mouth or nose. (One review of scientific publications on the subject concluded that hand washing seems to cut the risk of respiratory infection by a mere 16 percent but added that the studies examined were of poor quality and more research was urgently needed.)

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment Germanys equivalent of the F.D.A. advises that while the virus could, theoretically, be transmitted through this kind of smear infection, as opposed to the standard droplet infection, there have been no known cases in which individuals have caught the coronavirus by touching a contaminated surface and then transferring the virus to their mouth or nose. Then again, contact transmission is notoriously difficult to study and document.

A paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week shed more light on the subject. A group of researchers from the National Institutes of Health, the C.D.C., Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles, misted virus particles into a rotating drum and studied how long the floating particles survived on various surfaces. They found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus survived for up to 24 hours on cardboard three times longer than its cousin, the original SARS.

In that light, you might expect the virus to remain viable for hours but probably not days on mail, said James Lloyd-Smith, one of the studys authors. But there are important caveats.

Among these: The study specifically looked at aerosolized virus particles, rather than the fine droplets that infected people emit with each cough or sneeze. The line between aerosols and droplets is fuzzy, but, broadly, droplets are bigger and settle more quickly, while aerosols are smaller and float for longer.

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Youve Got Mail. Will You Get the Coronavirus? - The New York Times

We answer the often searched question: "What are the symptoms of coronavirus versus the flu?" USA TODAY

The Senate will reconvene at noon to take up the$2 trillion stimulus deal reached Wednesday that includesdirect payments tomost Americans and an unprecedented amount of money to small businesses.

Also Wednesday,it was revealed that Britain's Prince Charles tested positive for the virus. And stocks opened higher followinga historic rally Tuesday.

The stimulus deal was revealed at about 1 a.m. following five days of talks. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it a "bipartisan agreement on the largest rescue package in history."The Senate will hold a vote to end debate and clear the way for final Senate passage, likely later Wednesday.

After its expected passage, the bill goes to the House for a vote before heading to President Donald Trump's desk.The deal comes as confirmed cases in America, now over 55,000, have been climbing at an exponential rateespecially in New York and more are expected as the U.S. increases testing.

The U.S. death toll was at 802early Wednesday after eclipsing 600 on Tuesday. Globally, more than 19,600people have been killed by the virus according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.

Our live blogis being updated throughout the day. Refresh for the latest news.More headlines:

People earning less than $75,000 per year will get $1,200 checks under the stimulus agreement. Married couples earning less than $150,000 will get $2,400 and children will be worth another $500 each under the deal. The final language is still being crafted but the package includes $367 billion for small businesses, $500 billion for loans to larger industries, $100 billion for hospitals and the health care system and$600 more per week in unemployment benefits for those out of work.

Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer said the goal is to ensure that every worker who is laid off or furloughedcan pay their bills.

"And because so many of them will be furloughed rather than fired, if they have benefits, they can continue, and extremely important they can stay with the company or small business," he said.

Britain's Prince Charles, heir to the throne, has tested positive for the coronavirus, his official royal residencesaid in a statement.The statement said that Prince Charles, 71,has "been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health." His wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, does not have the virus, a testshowed.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth has canceled a number of diary events "as a sensible precaution" amid the outbreak, but as late as last week she was still holding "audiences" with members of the public. Britain's monarch is 93.

Kim Hjelmgaard

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Italy saw a jump in its daily death toll following two straight days of declines, the nation's civil protection chief said Wednesday. Tuesday saw 743 deaths, up from 601 on Monday and 653 on Sunday. More than 6,800 have died since the outbreak swept into Italy last month. In Spain, where an ice rink has been converted into a morgue, 738 more deaths were reported for a total of 3,434 overall, surpassing China's total.

Iran reported 122 deaths, bringing the total there to more than 2,000.United NationsHigh Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned that U.S. sanctions are impeding Irans efforts to fight coronavirus and are putting the entire world in danger. "In a context of global pandemic, impeding medical efforts in one country heightens the risk for all of us," Bachelet said.

U.S stock opened higher Wednesday followingthe Dow Jones Industrial Average's biggest surgesince 1933. Global markets roared, however, with Japan's Nikkei 225 index jumping 5.3%, Hong Kong adding 3% and Sydney climbed 3.6%.Tokyo share prices were also boosted by the decision to postpone the 2020 Olympics to July 2021 in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

That followed a stunning 11.4% surge Tuesday in the Dow. The S&P 500 index leaped 9.4% as a wave of buying around the world interrupted what has been a brutal month of nearly nonstop selling.

Waffle House, known for weathering many a natural disaster, said it's closing 365 of its restaurants.The chain posted a map on social media showing the closed restaurants, while another 1,627 across the southeastern U.S. remained open. The posts also featured the hashtag "#WaffleHouseIndexRed. The Facebook Post drew almost 1,000 comments, most of the reflecting alarm, such as"Oh geez, now we can worry" and "It's getting real sir."

The chain has its own"Waffle House Index"used during natural disasters to assess damage. If a store is closed, it's likely in an area with significant damage.

Most of them wont attendclasses in person, but thousands of Liberty University students will returnto the evangelical Virginia campusamid the coronavirus pandemic.

Most of the students are not at-risk because of their age, President Jerry Falwell Jr. argued in an interview withthe News and Advance in Lynchburg. The president of the private, Christian collegeis a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump.

Liberty's move is remarkable as the coronavirus spreads acrossthe United States.Hundreds of universities have closed their campuses and asked students to leave crowded dorms.Some have allowed students who cant move back homeinternational students or those without secure housing but most campuses are becoming emptier, not fuller.

Chris Quintana

Early evidence suggestsclosing bars, restaurantsand other businesses to keep people apart in places including New York City,has slowed the incidence of fevers thatare an early indicator of coronavirus, according to a newanalysis of fevers and symptoms across the U.S.

Data from health technology company Kinsa, which did the analysis using its digital thermometers, show the number of people with flu-like illness atypical fever and symptoms began dropping almost immediately after mandatory social distancing measures were implemented in some areas.

The companydownloads fever readings from more than 1 million thermometers in use around the U.S. Itpredicted the 2018 spread of the flu and bad colds that were often mistaken for the flu last winter.

"When you shut down schools and businesses, you are breaking the chain of infections," said Kinsa CEO Inder Singh. "The data are showingit is working and the clusters of fever we were seeing are leveling off and diminishing within days."

Jayne O'Donnell

Members of the coronavirus task force are advising anybody who has been intheNew York metropolitan area recently to self-quarantine for two weeks to avoid spreading the virus.Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator,said recent visitors may have been exposed to the virus and should take measures to avoid infecting others.

"This will be very critical, that those individuals do self-quarantine in their homes over these next 14 days to make sure they dont pass the virus to others based on the time they left New York,'' Birx said. "So if they are four days out, it is just 10 more days.

AnthonyFauci,director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said people in the New York City metro area have beeninfected at a rate eight to 10 times higher than elsewhere.

Erick A. Smith

New York University will offer senior medical students an opportunity to graduate a few months early provided theyve met all their requirements and have all their credits to put more doctors in the field to fight the coronavirus.

Students were told Tuesday night via email that details were still being worked out, but that they might be able to start working as soon as April.

NYUs Grossman School of Medicine has made the offer to students in response to Gov. AndrewCuomos directive to get more physicians into the health system more quickly," the school said in a statement, according to media reports.New York state could be just two weeks from seeing 40,000 patients requiring intensive care in facilities equipped for only 3,000, Cuomo warned.

We are not slowing it. And it is accelerating on its own, he said in New York City. "We are now looking at a bullet train."

Lindsay Schnell

Alaska and Hawaii are the first two states tomandate a 14-day quarantine for all visitors and residents arriving at state airports.Alaska's order goes into effect Wednesday and will be reviewed by April 21. Hawaii's order is effective Thursday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also issued an executive order requiring anyone flying to Florida from New York, New Jersey or Connecticut to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival. That mandate took effect Tuesday.

Nicquel Terry Ellis

Cases of COVID-19(Photo: USA TODAY)

Contributing: The Associated Press.

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Coronavirus live updates: $2 trillion stimulus deal; Prince Charles sick; US deaths top 800 - USA TODAY