Category: Corona Virus

Italy and Spain have both reported their biggest single-day death tolls from the coronavirus as Germanys 83 million citizens were warned they would be confined to their homes on Monday if they fail to behave responsibly this weekend.

As Europes governments ramp up already draconian restrictions to curb the coronavirus, authorities in Rome on Friday announced 5,986 new cases and a record 627 new deaths, raising the totals to 47,021 infections and 4,032 fatalities.

In Spain, the death toll rose to 1,002, a highest-ever increase of 235 in 24 hours. The latest statistics showed 19,980 confirmed cases across the country, more than a third in Madrid. Army specialists are to help disinfect care homes after the virus claimed more than 50 lives at elderly care facilities across the region.

The army, already deployed in northern Italy to help move bodies as funeral services are overwhelmed, will also be used to help police the lockdown in Lombardy, regional president Attilio Fontana said. The request to use the army is accepted and 114 soldiers will be on the ground, Fontana said. It is not enough, but its positive.

Helge Braun, Angela Merkels chief of staff, warned that a near-total lockdown as in force in Italy, Spain and France could soon be necessary in Germany. We will look at the behaviour of the people this weekend, Braun told Spiegel magazine.

Saturday is a decisive day, and we will keep a close eye on that. The chancellor would hold a conference call with state premiers on Sunday, he said.

The epidemic has infected more than 255,000 people worldwide and killed more than 10,400, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Italy on Thursday overtook China as the centre of the biggest outbreak, with authorities in Beijing on Friday reporting no new cases of domestic transmission for the second day running.

Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force response coordinator, said the virus appears to be less deadly for younger people but warned that data from Italy indicated the fatality rate is twice as high for men across all age groups. No one is immune, she said. We know its highly contagious to everyone. Mexico and the US announced plans to sharply limit travel over their busy shared border as part of efforts to control the outbreak.

As Spanish health authorities warned the peak of the crisis was still a few days away, frontline care workers described beleaguered hospitals operating near capacity and struggling with severe shortages of protective gear such as masks and gloves.

The current situation in hospitals in Madrid is critical, said ngela Hernndez of the Association of Doctors and Professionals in Madrid. The healthcare system is in a state of alarm. Spains health minister has promised reinforcements, including medical students and recently retired physicians.

In the UK all cafes, pubs, restaurants, gyms and other similar venues were ordered to close from Friday evening for the foreseeable future, and the government followed some other European countries in saying that it would pay a large proportion of workers wages.

Belgium, which entered lockdown on Wednesday, on Friday reported its biggest daily rise in number of deaths since the beginning of the epidemic. Sixteen more people had died from the virus, the health ministry said, bringing the total to 37, with more than 2,000 cases.

As in many European countries, schools, kindergartens, bars, nightclubs and non-essential shops have been closed in most parts of Germany and people urged to avoid unnecessary social contact in a bid to avoid a full-scale lockdown.

But people are still socialising outside, some even organising corona parties. The leaders of Germanys states warned mandatory confinement would be next. Unless everyone fundamentally changes their behaviour, we wont avoid tougher measures and sanctions, said the Baden-Wrttemberg premier, Winfried Kretschmann.

The countrys largest state, Bavaria, led the way on Friday, instituting a lockdown from midnight. We are not locking Bavarians in but we are winding down public life almost completely, the state premier, Markus Sder, said.

Beyond Europe, more than 1.2 million Iranians ignored pleas by the government, clerics and local authorities to stay at home, taking to the countrys roads at the start of Iranian new year. Iran on Friday reported 149 new deaths, making a total of 1,433 and 19,644 confirmed cases in all. South Africa said its confirmed cases had risen to 202, the most in the sub-Saharan region, while Tunisia announced a lockdown.

In the US, the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, ordered all workers in non-essential businesses to stay home and banned gatherings statewide, while Californias population of 40 million experienced their first day under lockdown.

Gavin Newsom, the governor of the countrys most populous state, earlier wrote to Donald Trump to warn that 25.5 million Californians, roughly 56% of its population, could contract the virus.

President Trump said US authorities were aiming to fast-track the antimalarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine synthetic forms of quinine, used to treat malaria for centuries for use as a coronavirus treatment.

Both Italy and France have said this week that they will extend their restrictions and may tighten them further as the number of deaths on the continent continues to rise.

In Austria, which has reported more than 2,200 coronavirus cases and six deaths, the chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, said on Friday that the signs were encouraging, but the country must continue to stick with the measures it had taken earlier. Hold tight, Kurz said. We must not slow down.

In France, which on Friday reported 12,612 cases 450 deaths, President Emmanuel Macron said the country was only at the beginning of the crisis. We are right at the start, Macron said. We have taken exceptional measures to absorb this first wave, but weve started a race against the virus. We must react strongly, and reorganise ourselves continually. We need to anticipate.

On Friday, authorities reminded people that exercise should be confined to 20-30 minutes in close proximity to home and alone, adding that they should only leave home once a day, choosing between, for example, shopping and exercise.

Police would step up security checks in Paris train stations from Friday, a spokesman said, as the country further escalated its lockdown measures. Like anyone else in France stopped by police without documentation to justify their presence outside their homes, rail passengers will face a fine of 135 (123). The mayor of Nice imposed a curfew starting from 8pm local time, going a step further than the national lockdown.

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Coronavirus: Italy and Spain record highest single-day death tolls - The Guardian

New York City reports 5,683 cases and 43 deaths.

Late Friday, officials reported 5,683 confirmed coronavirus cases in New York City and 43 deaths. Earlier in the day, officials had put the number of cases at 5,151 and the number of deaths at 29.

As of late Friday, there were 736 confirmed cases in the Bronx (compared with 667 earlier in the day); 1,740 in Brooklyn (1,518); 1,402 in Manhattan (1,314); 1,514 in Queens (1,406); and 285 on Staten Island (242). Six cases were not linked to a specific borough.

Governor Cuomo ordered all nonessential businesses to keep all workers at home.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Friday issued a sweeping edict meant to compel New Yorkers to stay indoors as much as possible, ordering all nonessential businesses to keep their workers home as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the state raced toward 8,000.

New York State, with 6 percent of the U.S. population, now accounts for around half of all cases in the country.

Here are the highlights of Mr. Cuomos executive order, which takes effect Sunday at 8 p.m.:

Healthy people under 70 should limit outdoor activity to getting groceries and medicine, but they may exercise, walk outside and participate in other noncontact physical activities if they stay six feet away from others.

Mass transit will keep running, but people should not use it unless they absolutely must. Roads will remain open.

Nonessential gatherings of any size for any reason are banned.

There are stronger restrictions for people who are 70 and older, have compromised immune systems or have underlying illnesses. Those rules include wearing masks when in the company of others and not visiting households with multiple people.

Businesses considered nonessential must keep all of their workers at home.

Essential businesses that can stay open include: grocers and restaurants, health care providers, pharmacies, gas stations, convenience stores, banks, hardware stores, laundromats and cleaners, child-care providers, auto repair shops, utility companies, warehouses and distributors, delivery services, plumbers and other skilled contractors, animal-care providers, transportation providers, construction companies and many kinds of manufacturers.

Businesses that violate the order will be fined and forced to close. The state does not plan to fine people who violate the regulations, Mr. Cuomo said.

These provisions will be enforced, the governor said at a briefing in Albany. These are not helpful hints.

Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut issued an order similar to Mr. Cuomos on Friday, and Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said he planned to order on Saturday that all nonessential businesses in that state shut down as well.

For weeks, as the coronavirus has spread across the globe, New York officials have warned that a surge of cases could overwhelm the states health care system, jeopardizing thousands of patients.

Now, it seems, the surge has arrived.

In a startlingly quick ascent, New York reported on Friday that the state was closing in on 8,000 positive tests, about half of the cases in the United States. The number was 10 times higher than what was reported earlier in the week.

The sharp increase is thrusting the medical system toward a crisis point, officials said.

In the Bronx, doctors at Lincoln Hospital and Health Center said they have only a few remaining ventilators for patients who needed them to breathe. In Brooklyn, doctors at Kings County Hospital Center say they are so low on supplies that they are reusing masks for up to a week, slathering them with hand sanitizer between shifts.

Some of the jump in New Yorks cases can be traced to ramped-up testing, which the state began this week. But the escalation, and the response, could offer other states a glimpse of what might be in store if the virus continues to spread. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Friday urged residents to stay indoors and ordered nonessential businesses to keep workers home.

As it prepares for the worst-case projections, the state is asking retired health care workers to volunteer to help. The city is considering trying to turn the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, the largest convention center in the country, into a makeshift hospital.

Case numbers continue their startling rise.

Friday afternoon, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York State stood at 7,845, according to the most recent data from the city and state a jump of more than 2,000 from Thursday.

The state had performed 10,000 tests overnight, bringing the total number of people tested in New York to 32,427, officials said. Around 1,250 people were hospitalized, a hospitalization rate of 18 percent, the governor said.

Mr. Cuomo said New York was now testing more people per capita than China or South Korea.

As testing has ramped up rapidly in the state and the virus spreads, confirmed cases have grown at a breathtaking pace: When the week began, there were only about 700 cases in the state. Now there are about 10 times that.

Mr. Murphy said on Friday that 890 people in New Jersey had tested positive for the virus and that 11 had died, up from nine on Thursday. In Connecticut, officials reported 35 new confirmed cases on Friday, bringing the states total to 194. Four Connecticut residents have died of the virus.

Broadway producers have agreed to pay hundreds of actors, musicians, stagehands and others for the first few weeks of the industrys shutdown, and to cover their health insurance for at least a month.

The emergency relief agreement, which was announced late Friday, was negotiated by the Broadway League, a trade group, with 14 labor unions representing various workers, including ushers, makeup artists and publicists.

The Broadway shutdown, prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, has cost thousands of people their jobs, and is causing trickle-down damage to many Times Square businesses that depend on theater patrons.

The industry, which was idled on March 12, had initially said it hoped to resume performances on April 13, but a reopening is now expected more likely to be in May or June.

Under the agreement, all unionized employees will be paid for the week that was cut short by the shutdown, and the next two weeks.

The Army Corps of Engineers has sent service members to tour hotels in New York City to figure out how to convert up to 10,000 vacant rooms into temporary hospital rooms amid the coronavirus outbreak, Army officials said on Friday.

The Corps had not yet decided where the temporary hospitals would be, but General Todd Semonite, the Corps commander, said that candidates included empty hotels and the Javits Center on Manhattans Far West Side.

Mr. Cuomo wants the Corps to help build temporary hospitals, saying that he believes the state will have a disastrous shortage of hospital beds, particularly intensive-care beds.

General Semonite said that the Corps could turn empty hotels into intensive-care units, and could even convert hotel rooms into negative pressure rooms, which would prevent contamination from leaving the room and flowing into surrounding areas.

Crowds throng a new test center in Queens.

Early Friday, about 100 people lined up for coronavirus tests outside the emergency room at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, one of several public hospitals that the city Health Department said on Thursday would begin testing people for the virus by appointment only.

The other public hospitals offering tests as of Friday included Bellevue, Harlem, Metropolitan, Kings County, Lincoln, Woodhull and Queens, officials said. Test centers are expected to open at Coney Island and Jacobi hospitals early next week. The city also plans to open several drive-through test sites at its hospitals.

Officials said they expected to test 150 people a day at each of the centers, which were created to ensure that New Yorkers with moderate to severe symptoms had access to tests without going to emergency rooms.

Those who have mild symptoms, are not over 50 or do not have underlying health conditions should continue to stay home, practice social distancing and consult their health care providers if their symptoms do not subside in three to four days.

Officials in New Jersey said that more than 600 people had been tested by Friday afternoon at the states first drive-through testing center, quickly exceeding its capacity and causing anyone not already in line to be turned away.

Governor Murphy said that people who were still hoping to be tested at the site, at Bergen Community College in Paramus, should try again Saturday morning. A second drive-through site, at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, is expected to open on Monday.

To say there was pent-up demand would be the understatement of the century, Mr. Murphy said on Friday.

The site was scheduled to close for the day at 4 p.m., and state officials said that only those in line by around 1:50 p.m. would be eligible for testing.

In Connecticut, officials in Darien decided to move the first drive-through testing center proposed for in the town because of some logistics issues. The center, which was supposed to open at Darien Town Hall, will instead open on Monday at Darien High School.

Some Darien residents had objected to the Town Hall location.

Wow, this is maddening, Luke Bronin, the mayor of Hartford, wrote on Twitter. Public health needs to come before the convenience of homeowners offended by the location of the temporary test sites.

Holy Name Medical Center, a midsize community hospital in Teaneck, N.J., has been at the center of an outbreak in Bergen County, which has about a quarter of both the states confirmed cases and deaths from the virus.

The hospital has cleared its pediatric wing to make space for people infected with the virus, where 29 people are being held in isolation, and has carved its emergency room in two areas, creating a modified coronavirus wing.

On Friday, its chief executive, Mike Maron, said he had tested positive for the virus and was recovering at home.

As soon as I began developing symptoms, I self-quarantined and was tested, Mr. Maron said.

Holy Name has tested 453 people for the coronavirus in tents set up outside its emergency room and the hospital has treated 83 patients who tested positive.

All local and select bus services in New York City will effectively be free starting on Monday as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the subway and buses, works to keep its operations going while also protecting employees.

The authority is asking riders to begin boarding buses through the rear door, which will allow for more space between riders and drivers at the front of buses, the agency said in a statement.

The changes do not apply to authoritys express bus lines. Riders must still those buses from the front and pay, although they will not be allowed in the first three rows of seats.

Rear-door boarding will help ensure a safe social distance, said Sarah Feinberg, New York City Transits interim president. The safety of our employees and customers is Priority One.

Reporting was contributed by Helene Cooper, Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, Luis Ferr-Sadurn, Michael Gold, Christina Goldbaum, Joseph Goldstein, J. David Goodman, Matthew Haag, Jeffery C. Mays, Jesse McKinley, Andy Newman, Azi Paybarah, Michael Paulson, Brian Rosenthal, Ed Shanahan, Jeffrey E. Singer, Liam Stack, Tracey Tully and Neil Vigdor.

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43 Coronavirus Deaths and Over 5,600 Cases in N.Y.C. - The New York Times

This is not true of infectious scourges such as influenza. The flu hits the elderly and chronically ill hard, too, but it also kills children. Trying to create herd immunity among those most likely to recover from infection while also isolating the young and the old is daunting, to say the least. How does one allow exposure and immunity to develop in parents, without exposing their young children?

The clustering of complications and death from Covid-19 among the elderly and chronically ill, but not children (there have been only very rare deaths in children), suggests that we could achieve the crucial goals of social distancing saving lives and not overwhelming our medical system by preferentially protecting the medically frail and those over age 60, and in particular those over 70 and 80, from exposure.

Why does this matter?

I am deeply concerned that the social, economic and public health consequences of this near total meltdown of normal life schools and businesses closed, gatherings banned will be long lasting and calamitous, possibly graver than the direct toll of the virus itself. The stock market will bounce back in time, but many businesses never will. The unemployment, impoverishment and despair likely to result will be public health scourges of the first order.

Worse, I fear our efforts will do little to contain the virus, because we have a resource-constrained, fragmented, perennially underfunded public health system. Distributing such limited resources so widely, so shallowly and so haphazardly is a formula for failure. How certain are you of the best ways to protect your most vulnerable loved ones? How readily can you get tested?

We have already failed to respond as decisively as China or South Korea, and lack the means to respond like Singapore. We are following in Italys wake, at risk of seeing our medical system overwhelmed twice: First when people rush to get tested for the coronavirus, and again when the especially vulnerable succumb to severe infection and require hospital beds.

Yes, in more and more places we are limiting gatherings uniformly, a tactic I call horizontal interdiction when containment policies are applied to the entire population without consideration of their risk for severe infection.

But as the work force is laid off en masse (our family has one adult child home for that reason already), and colleges close (we have another two young adults back home for this reason), young people of indeterminate infectious status are being sent home to huddle with their families nationwide. And because we lack widespread testing, they may be carrying the virus and transmitting it to their 50-something parents, and 70- or 80-something grandparents. If there are any clear guidelines for behavior within families what I call vertical interdiction I have not seen them.

The rest is here:

Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease? - The New York Times

An epidemiologist answers the biggest questions she's getting about coronavirus. Wochit

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to shut down daily life across the globe, thousandsof our readers across the nation have asked us questions about COVID-19.

And we're answering them.

Forbasic facts about the virus what it is,how it spreads and where it's located you can get caught up by reading our in-depth explainer here.We've also debunked someviralcoronavirus myths.

But you're curious and continue to ask important questionsvia our newsletter, Coronavirus Watch. (Not a newsletter subscriber?Sign up for it here!)

So below, you can find answers to questions such as: Isit OK to be outside? How old are people who are dying in the U.S.? Is it safe to get carry-out food?

If you don't see an answer you're looking for, check outour first batch of answers, addressing things like:Can testing show if someone has had coronavirus and then recovered?Can someone get the coronavirus more than once?

What else would you like to know? Ask us by filling out the form you can find here.

Pamela from Wellsville, Pennsylvania

Acknowledging that older adults and persons with underlying health conditions are more susceptible to COVID-19, a growing number of stores are dedicating time or opening earlier for senior shoppers and other at-risk groups.

But Tania Elliott,clinical instructor of infectious diseases atNYU Langone, says she doesn't advise it. "That gives a false sense of security," she said. "By encouraging older people with chronic diseases to go out at a dedicated time, you're still exposing them to a bunch of other people, and if one person in that crowd is infected, then the virus will spread."

Elliott said she'd rather see storeslimiting the number of people who can enter during a given time period so that there are fewer people in the store. She also encourages healthy people to do the shopping.

Pam from Seven Lakes, North Carolina

The chances of transmission through your mail is very low, Elliott says. "Parts of the virus can fall on surfaces and survive on surfaces for up to 72 hours. But you have to have pretty good conditions for that to happen. So the likelihood would be very small, even with no precautions," she said.

Elliott advises people to put their mail down on a plastic plate instead of directly on a counter top or table, to use a letter opener, and to wash hands thoroughly after touching the mail.

Research on how long a virus may live on surfaces is evolving.The CDC has said there is likely very low risk of transmission of COVID-19 from products or packaging that are shipped over a period of days or weeks "because of poor survivability of these coronaviruses on surfaces."

But a recent studyfound that viable virus could be detected up to three hours later in the air, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.

Alfrom Topeka, Kansas

Officials suggest self-quarantining for two weeks if you've had exposure to somebody with the virus and might be infected. It's a way to monitor if symptoms develop and, at the same time, avoid any possible spread to others. Since the incubation period for the virus is up to 14 days, you're "cleared" for the virus after two weeks, Elliott said.

After that, you still need to practice social distancing.

Danny from Sundance, Wyoming

No, for several reasons,saysPeter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

While a protective antibody is generated in those who are infected, scientists are not yet sure whether thatimmunity will last for a short period of time, for years or for life. Some say the possibility of reinfection is very likely.

Moreover, a new federal health report says Americans of all ages have faced serious health complications amid the outbreak. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that among the roughly 12% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. known to need hospitalizations, about 1 in 5 were among people ages 20 to 44.Anywhere from 14% to 21% of adults ages 20 to 44 with COVID-19 have been hospitalized, the CDC data estimates. Two to 4% of cases led to ICU admissions, and less than 1% were fatal.

Finally, it's important to avoid getting and spreading the virus. While the young may not be the most at risk, they're carrying the disease to those who are more vulnerable, such as older people and those with underlying conditions.Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, on Wednesday urged "the millennial generation"to take special precautions. "You have the potential to spread it," she said.

Linda from Hendersonville, Tennessee

Vaccines against pneumonia, such as pneumococcal vaccine and Haemophilus influenzae type Bvaccine, do not provide protection against the new coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization.The vaccines simplyguard against those specific bacterial infections.

The COVID-19 viruscan, in fact, cause pneumonia, but the vaccines cannot prevent this pneumonia.

Patti from Carmel, Indiana

Yes, that's OK! Just be sure to maintain distance from other people.The Centers for Disease Control and Preventionrecommenda distance of about 6 feet.

Even in some California counties where residents are being asked to stay home and"shelter in place," it's still fine to gofor a run, hike or do other outdoor activities, as long as proper social distancing is observed, according to local health officials.

Just remember: The White House recommends thatyou should avoid social gatherings involving more than 10 people, as well as all non-essential travel, shopping trips and social visits.

Social distancing: Why it's so important to stopping the spread of coronavirus

Social distancing matters. Here is how to do it and how it can help curb the COVID-19 pandemic. USA TODAY

Dennis from Las Vegas

Yes, there are many projections, but scientists say theyall hinge on how people behave. That's why it's essential to social distance and do what you can to prevent spread.

A conservativeUSA TODAY analysis based on data from the American Hospital Association, U.S. Census, CDC and WHOestimates that 23.8 million Americans could contract COVID-19, leavingalmost six seriously ill patients for every existing hospital bed. Another analysisfinds thatAmericastrajectory of community spread is trending toward Italys, where circumstances are dire.

One researcher at theGlobal Center for Health Securityestimated last month that as many as 96 million Americans could be infected.The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Securityestimatedthat 38 million Americans will need medical care for COVID-19. The CDC's worst-case-scenario is that about 160 million to 210 million Americans will be infected by December. Under this forecast, 21 million people would need hospitalization and 200,000 to 1.7 million could die by the end of the year.

Outside the U.S., leaked British documents projected thata coronavirus outbreakcould rage untilspring 2021.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said 60% to 70% of her country's population could eventually become infected.

USA TODAY analysis: America's coronavirus 'curve' may be at its most dangerous point

Debby from Omena, Michigan

The CDC and WHO have not issued formal guidance on carry-out food.

While the CDC says that there is no evidence to supporttransmission associated with food, aperson may get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own face. The virus can, for example, survive on cardboard up to 24 hours, according to a recent study.

The issue of carry-out food also raises concerns about therisk couriers are facing by interacting with customers during their shifts. That's why some companiesare now offering"contactless" delivery options that help peoplemaintain social distancing by allowing couriers to ring the doorbell and leave the package outside.

Study finds: Coronavirus can live in the air for hours and on surfaces for days

It's vital to clean surfaces you touch every day amid the coronavirus outbreak. Here are mistakes to avoid. USA TODAY

Pam from Easton, Maryland

There's no specific data on this question yet, according to Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinics Vaccine Research Group.

However, we do know that someone infected with the virus may begin showing symptoms anywhere between oneand 14 days after catching the virus,most commonly around five days, according to WHO.

"The peak viral shedding occurs during the first fivedays after the onset of symptoms.My guess is that within a few days of being exposed, these patients are beginning to shed virus," Poland said.

Carlos from Los Angeles

The most common symptoms are fever, tiredness and dry cough, according to WHO. Shortness of breath is also among the most common symptoms, according to the CDC.In most cases where symptoms present, those symptoms come together, Hotez said.

"Usually it presents with fever and cough,or fever, cough, and shortness of breath," he said."It might present with one of those symptoms first, but then it rapidly progresses to the others."

Some patients also have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea. Some people do not have symptoms at all.

ANew York neurosurgeonis warning people against looking out for fever as the first tell-tale symptom of the virus. Hissymptoms began with a little bit of congestion and only later progressed to afever, body aches and chills.

More on testing: Coronavirus test swabs aren't your standard Q-tips, and they're running out as testing ramps up

Catherine from Carson City, Nevada

In some cases, the virusultimately damages tiny air sacs in the lungs, restricting oxygen to the bloodstream and deprivingother major organs including the liver, kidney and brain of oxygen.

Severe cases of coronavirus: Some result in brain damage, inability to walk

In a small number of severe cases, that can develop into acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which requires a patient be placed on a ventilator to supply oxygen. However, if too much of the lung is damaged and not enough oxygen is supplied to the rest of the body, respiratory failure could lead to organ failure and death.

Here's what that looks likeinside the body.

Becky from Bentonville, Arkansas

In the U.S., ages range from people in their 50s to 90s, according to state and local health departments.

At least two people as young as 53 have died after contracting the virus. One was a Orleans Parish,Louisiana, resident who had underlying medical conditions, according to state health officials. Another patient was a53-year-old woman in New York City who had diabetes and heart disease, the mayor said.

However, this range is not conclusive becausehealth officials have not released the specific ages of several other patients,and new deaths are being reported eachday.

Antonio fromPatchogue, New York

No, the presence of the coronavirus would not turn a flu test positive.However, it's possible to have both the coronavirus and the flu at the same time. In that case, the flu test would be positive.

The opposite is also true: Presence of the flu would not result in a positive coronavirus test.It's important to note that, even if someone tests negative for the coronavirus,they still may be infected with the coronavirus.

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

Ted from Scottsdale, Arizona

No. While shortness of breath is among the most common symptoms of the virus, according to the CDC, that diagnosis does not necessarily involve holding a large breath for 10 seconds. Medically known as dyspnea, shortness of breathis often describedas "an intense tightening in the chest, air hunger, difficulty breathing, breathlessness or a feeling of suffocation," according to the Mayo Clinic.

If you think you may be sick, call your doctor and follow CDC guidance.

Debra from Dayton, Ohio

The longer a mask is usedand the more damp it becomes, the less effective it is, Poland said. "Butit is definitely better than the alternative of no mask!"

Contributing: Adrianna Rodriguez, Dalvin Brown, Marco della Cava,Jayme Fraser and Matt Wynn

Follow Grace Hauck on Twitter @grace_hauck

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We've been flooded with thousands of reader questions on coronavirus. We're answering them. - USA TODAY

While I didnt emerge as a postdoc epidemiologist, the lessons I took away, hidden in plain sight all these years, would be valuable to any member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Its all there, from Contagions advocacy for social distancing to Outbreaks and Hot Zones depictions of how interagency squabbling can slow responses. Even the epigraph of Outbreak, from the Nobel laureate and bacteriologist Joshua Lederberg, should have focused us on the gravity of a pandemic earlier: The single biggest threat to mans continued dominance on the planet is the virus.

But I also noticed something else: These films have perhaps numbed us to those very viruses that threaten us mostthe viruses that do not have a giant fatality rate or change our physical appearance. In Outbreak, Dustin Hoffmans Col. Sam Daniels, a virologist with the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, contends with Motaba, a fever-inducing virus that kills 100 percent of its patients in two to three days. In The Hot Zone, Ebola leaves its patients with a rash and kills them quickly. In Contagion, MEV-1 has a mortality rate around 20 percent. If Motaba had hit the U.S. the government would have been faster to quarantine cities and issue shelter-in-place orders, shutting down schools and non-essential businesses. Had Ebola been spreading around Indianapolis, I bet those revelers across the street would have stayed at home. But my neighbors seemed blind to COVID-19, which is more insidious and subtly dangerous than the diseases from the movies. Its mortality rate is in the single digits low enough so many think they have little to fearbut it is proving just as disabling to the economy and our way of life, if not more, than much more deadly outbreaks, which can be contained faster.

Earlier this week, I asked Dr. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist, why all of these movies hadnt moved politicians and voters to take viral epidemics more seriously. I dont think movies change the way people feel about things, he told me, adding that he was working with the writer of Contagion, Scott Z. Burns, on a public awareness campaign ad on the novel coronavirus.

The fact that the United States has dodged the bullet with all of the latest infectious diseases, my perception of our government is that unless its screaming hot in the headlines, nothing will be done, says Tracey McNamara, a technical consultant on Contagion and a veterinary medicine professor at Western University of Health Services, told me.

Contagion, hints at our lackadaisical approach to any virus that isnt produced in a Hollywood studio: Theres a scene in which a reporter asks Centers of Disease Control and Prevention Administrator Dr. Ellis Cheever, played by Laurence Fishburne, whether the government is overreacting to a virus that would claim 26 million lives in 29 days.

Dr. Cheever, are you concerned that the CDC faces a credibility issue here, after the perceived overreaction to H1N1? the reporter asks.

Id rather the news story be that we overreacted than that many people lost their lives because we didnt do enough, Cheever replies.

Set pieces and dramatic press conference scenes like this one seemed a critical part of any disaster movie. Now, we see them almost everyday when the coronavirus task force briefs the nation. For decades, these films have thrilled theatergoers with an invisible enemy, the stark reality of an apocalyptic human-versus-nature, us-versus-it conflict. But the actual conflict in all of these films is actually something different: Its us versus the bureaucracy. These are not so much films about disasters as they are films about government.

Contagion is such a compelling filmlife is unfolding very much like the movie, says McNamara, who discovered West Nile Virus in the summer of 1999 while working as the chief pathologist at the Bronx Zoo, when crows started falling from the sky and into exhibits that August. The speed with which it spread. How it spread.

Turns out, Hollywood has been offering Washington clues about how a pandemic might transpire for decadesand what the government should do to fight it. Here are just a few:

Much of Outbreak revolves around the efforts of the protagonist (Col. Sam Daniels, played by Dustin Hoffman) to convince his boss, Brigadier General William Ford (played by Morgan Freeman) that the country faces a real threat from the fictional Motaba virus. Daniels spends much of the film battling with Army General Donald McClintock, played by Donald Sutherland, to get the word out about the dangers of the virus.

After Daniels ex-wife, CDC staffer Dr. Roberta Robby Keoughplayed by Rene Russotreats a dying and infected patient, she laments not getting a CDC advisory out about the virus faster. The CDC staffers efforts were blocked by her superiors. I shouldve forced the alert, the doctor says, explaining Motabas deadly effects. Christ, Sam. I opened this guy up, she tells her ex. Looked like a bomb went off inside. His pancreas, liver, kidney, spleenall the organs were liquified. Christ, I shouldve forced the alert.

In Contagion, weeks into the outbreak of MEV-1, Dr. Sanjay Gupta (played by himself) asks CDC Administrator Cheever how many people have died from the disease during a cable television appearance. The answer, Cheever admits, was very difficult to know exact numbers because reporting varied by state. There are 50 different states in this country, which means there are 50 different health departments. Followed by 50 different protocols.

And in the final episode of The Hot Zone, a dispute between an Ebola researcher and the head of the CDC almost derails efforts to get to the bottom of the Reston, Virginia, Ebola outbreak.

The guy hates my guts, Walter said of the CDC official Trevor Rhodes (James DArcy). Im never going to convince him to help.

You need to bury whatever happened between you two, Carter. You got no choice.

The messages of all these filmsinfighting and turf battles make things worsefelt apt for the ongoing feud between Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is a branch of HHS that operates independently. A series of incidents over the past 120 days suggest basic communication and coordination between CMS and HHS is lacking, thereby jeopardizing HHS mission and undermining public trust, HHS chief information officer Jose Arrieta wrote a recent memo.

The latest incident? On February 23, HHS email system crashed, causing vital messages about the emergency coronavirus funding package to be delayed for up to 11 hours. The cause: Vermas Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had failed to brief HHS leaders about a test that would send thousands of messages through the system. The outage slowed the administrations response to the deadly outbreak.

In the six-part National Geographic mini-series The Hot Zone, based on the 1994 non-fiction book by Richard Preston, Wade Carter, a fictionalized reclusive Ebola expert who studied the virus in the field, is frustrated that more senior officials arent taking the threat of Ebola on American soil more seriously. Carter tells Army Col. Nancy Jaax (played by Julianna Margulies), a veterinarian who helped contain Ebola-infected monkeys from the Philippines: Did I want this? Never. Now its here. Would it be good for the Oval Office to be pissing its pants about this now? You bet.

But by the end of the series, after the scientists ultimately contained an Ebola outbreak in Reston, Virginia, there seems to be little appetite from public policymakers to take the threat of an epidemic seriously. We see a flyover shot of Capitol Hill. In a nameless committee room, the deputy secretary of the National Institutes of Health asks Jaax: So no one died?

Thats correct, Mr. Chairman, Jaax says. But four people tested positive for the Ebola virus.

And 172 people were tested and came up negative, the deputy secretary responded, unperturbed.

The warning was clear: When scientists are worried, people should listen. And yet, not more than a week ago, President Donald Trump and some Republican members of Congress, along with conservative television hosts, were saying that journalists and Democrats were overplaying the threat of the coronavirus. Now some of those pols who thought it was no big deal are getting tested for COVID-19 themselves.

In The Hot Zone, Jaaxs husband, Noah Emmerichs Lt. Col. Jerry Jaax, makes a plea: Its no secret the CDC needs more funding for research and developmentmeaning that the CDC was caught somewhat flat-footed by the outbreak in Reston.

But back in real life, just last week, even as coronavirus was spreading in the United States, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought defended the Trump administrations proposed $35 million cut to the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund, designed for use by the CDC.

Rep. Matt Cartwright, the Democratic member from Pennsylvania, bristled at the cuts in a hearing with Vought. The question is today, as we sit here and we know about coronavirus and the impact its taking on the people of the world and the economies of the world and the stock market and everything, as you sit here today, are you ready to take that back?

In none of the virus movies I watched do we see the U.S. president. He or she is often one of the least important characters. In Contagion, hes moved underground. In Outbreak, we only see the chief of staff, talking White House officials through the ethics of bombing a California town, executing all of its citizens in order to contain Mataba. Instead, the most important charactersthe ones who do the talkingare the public health officials, virologists, researchers and frontline healthcare workers. In the movies, scientists always offer a clear explanation and as much information as they have to concerned citizens. Politicians would only get in the way.

President Donald Trump didnt get the memo. His statements about coronavirus have been perplexing and counterproductive. He said we have it under control. He compared it to the flu. He told people with the virus to go to work. He suggested the virus would disappear. Then he declared a national emergency.

In contrast, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Deborah Birx, a global health official at the State Department who is now White House coronavirus response coordinator, are lucid, calm presenters of informationperhaps the administrations most credible spokespeople. If this were a Hollywood movie, those two would have been doing most of the talking from the beginning.

Bryan Cranston, who plays Rear Admiral Lyle Haggerty in Contagion, alludes to a congressman who is at risk of infecting his fellow members of Congress with MEV-1. Theres a sick congressman from Illinois in D.C., Haggerty says. He was in Chicago over the holiday. They are using the pod to fly him home, and then they are closing Midway and OHare. The governor there is calling out the national guard. They are setting up roadblocks. They are shutting down the board of trade, public transportation. Even the Teamsters are pulling their drivers off the road.

Any policymaker who watched that scene and connected the dots wouldnt have been able to escape the realization that in the event of a pandemic, it would be important for Congress to have a way of working remotely. This week, several representatives and senators directed some staffers to work from home. Still, members of Congress, many of whom are at risk of higher mortality rates given their average age57.8 years in the House and 61.8 years in the Senate dont have an established way to conduct their business remotely.

The Wolfgang Petersen film Outbreak is perhaps the least subtle of the group of films. A lab clinician infected with Motaba sees a movie with his girlfriend. As a result, the entire town of Cedar Creek, Californiapopulation 2,600is nearly bombed with the the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in our arsenal by the U.S. government to contain the spread of the virus.

When Daniels and Keough survey the infected at a makeshift hospital in Cedar Creek, Keough remarks: So manyso fast.

Apparently they all gathered at a movie theater, Daniels replies.

In Contagion, the CDC administrator urges social distancing and not shaking hands as the best advice for controlling the spread of MEV-1. We see empty gyms and open-floor plan offices. Right now, our best defense has been social distancing, Fishburnes Cheever, the CDC director, tells Dr. Sanjay Gutpa in a cable television studio. No handshaking. Staying home when you are sick. Washing your hands frequently.

The idea for the scene came from Lipkin, the Columbia University epidemiologist who told the films writer, Scott Z. Burns, that he would serve as a technical adviser on the movie if he agreed to make it as scientifically accurate a film as possible.

In the films emotional denouement, Cheever visits the home of one the CDCs janitors to deliver a vaccine, where he explains to the janitors son the origins of the handshake. (The scene was designed to disclose the history of the handshake, Lipkin told me in an interview earlier this week.)

Do you know where this comes from? Shaking hands? he asks the boy, after delivering the vaccine by pushing a swab up his nostril. It was a way of showing a stranger you werent carrying a weapon in the old days.

These days, we are all presumed to be armed and dangerous.

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What I Learned About Coronavirus From Binge-watching 10 Hours of Virus Movies - POLITICO

The sensitivity can be less than 100 percent and still be very useful, Ko says, in many cases. But as that number falls, so does the usefulness of any given result. In China, the sensitivity of tests has been reported to be as low as 30 to 60 percentmeaning roughly half of the people who actually had the virus had negative test results. Using repeated testing was found to increase the sensitivity to 71 percent. But that means a negative test still couldnt fully reassure someone like the teacher that he definitely doesnt have the virus. At that level of sensitivity, Ko says, if youre especially risk-averse, do you just say: If you have a cold, stay home?

An inaccurate testone prone to false positive or false negative results, can be worse than no test at all, Ian Lipkin, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University, told me in an email. The CDC has not shared the exact sensitivity of the testing process it has been using. When Fauci was asked about it on Monday, he once again hedged. If its positive, you absolutely can make a decision, he said. If its not, thats a judgment call. Usually a second test is recommended, and it depends on the patients symptoms, exposures, and how sick they appear to be.

The tests involve other variables, too. Samples must be taken using a long cotton swab that goes into the back of the patients nose (or mouth, though this seems to be a less sensitive method). In either case, sometimes you just dont get enough mucus on the swab. It can be hard to know if that was the cause of a negative test result when results come in from the lab a day later.

Read: The official coronavirus numbers are wrong, and everyone knows it

In attempt to increase sensitivity of the testing process, China not only swabbed people multiple times, but also added CT scans for an additional clue. The scans can sometimes help identify the unique patterns of lung damage caused by the virus, says Howard Forman, who practices radiology in the emergency department at YaleNew Haven Hospital. But scanning is a slow process to do at large scales, and its costly and involves exposure to radiation. You would need dedicated scanners as well, so as not to contaminate other patients, he told me. So it becomes very difficult to use CT for high-level screening.

Given the number of variables, widespread screening tests for the virus are not looming on the horizon as a way to obviate the urgent need for social distancing.

Some hope is being placed in biotech companies that are working to develop quick, mobile tests that could give results anywherebe it at a doctors office or in a modified parking lot. The goal would be to allow people to know if they have a cold or if they have the virus and need to self-quarantine, right there in the doctors office, says William Brody, a radiologist and former president of Johns Hopkins University. He is currently working on one such project with Hong Cai, a molecular biologist, at a small company called Mesa. The duo told me this is, at best, months away from being tested widely. Even then, its sensitivity will remain to be seen, and will likely be less than that of the current, slower tests. But Hong says her team is working as expeditiously as possible to solve the problem.

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What Will You Do If You Start Coughing? - The Atlantic

A recovered coronavirus patient takes a selfie before being discharged from a hospital in Sri Lanka. Researchers are trying to determine whether having a case of COVID-19 will give you immunity. Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images hide caption

A recovered coronavirus patient takes a selfie before being discharged from a hospital in Sri Lanka. Researchers are trying to determine whether having a case of COVID-19 will give you immunity.

It's unclear whether people who recover from COVID-19 will be immune to reinfection from the coronavirus and, if so, how long that immunity will last.

"We don't know very much," says Matt Frieman, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. "I think there's a very likely scenario where the virus comes through this year, and everyone gets some level of immunity to it, and if it comes back again, we will be protected from it either completely or if you do get reinfected later, a year from now, then you have much less disease."

"That is the hope," he adds. "But there is no way to know that."

Researchers do know that reinfection is an issue with the four seasonal coronaviruses that cause about 10 to 30% of common colds. These coronaviruses seem to be able to sicken people again and again, even though people have been exposed to them since childhood.

"Almost everybody walking around, if you were to test their blood right now, they would have some levels of antibody to the four different coronaviruses that are known," says Ann Falsey of the University of Rochester Medical Center.

After infection with one of these viruses, she says, antibodies are produced but then the levels slowly decline and people become susceptible again.

"Most respiratory viruses only give you a period of relative protection. I'm talking about a year or two. That's what we know about the seasonal coronaviruses," says Falsey.

In studies, human volunteers who agreed to be experimentally inoculated with a seasonal coronavirus showed that even people with preexisting antibodies could still get infected and have symptoms.

That happens even though these viruses aren't as changeable as influenza, which mutates so quickly that a new vaccine has to be developed every year.

"We work with some common cold coronaviruses. We have samples from 30 years ago, strains that were saved from 30 years ago, and they're not appreciably different than the ones that are circulating now," says virologist Vineet Menachery of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Still, seasonal coronaviruses probably do mutate a bit over time to evade the body's defenses, says Frieman. But there's little known about what those changes might look like, since researchers don't do annual surveillance of coronaviruses as they do for influenza.

It's also possible that, for some reason, the body's immune response to seasonal coronaviruses is just not that robust or that something about the infection itself may inhibit the body's ability to develop long-term immunity.

"Maybe the antibodies are not protective, and that is why, even though they are present, they don't work very well," says Frieman.

The other known human coronaviruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, can cause more severe disease, and basically nothing is known about the possibility of reinfection with those viruses.

Some people sickened by SARS, the dangerous coronavirus that emerged in China in 2002, did develop a measurable immune response that lasted a long time.

"We've gone back and gotten samples from patients who had SARS in 2003 and 2004, and as of this year, we can detect antibodies," says Stanley Perlman of the University of Iowa. "We think antibodies may be longer lasting than we first thought, but not in everybody."

Still, it's hard to predict how those survivors' bodies would react if they were exposed to the SARS virus again. "There were 8,000 cases, the epidemic was basically brought to an end within six months or eight months of the first case, so we don't have anyone who was reinfected that we know of," says Perlman.

The other severe coronavirus, MERS, emerged in the Middle East in 2012. "We have almost no information about reinfection because there has only been a total of 2,500 cases over eight years," says Perlman, who notes that the odds of anyone getting reinfected with that virus are not great, especially considering that 35 percent of people who had it died. Survivors of MERS did generate an immune response to the virus that can be detected up to two years later, he says. And the more ill the patient was, the more robust and long-lasting the immune response.

Until the recent emergence of SARS-Cov2, the official name of the current coronavirus, and this pandemic, scientists say, there just hasn't been much of a research push to fully understand how and why reinfection with coronaviruses can occur.

"You get colds over and over again, and I don't think we think that we're really so well protected against any of them, second time around," says Perlman. "You don't care, either, because it's just a cold virus. I mean, you'd like to not get a cold again, but it's not really a big deal."

This pandemic, he notes, "is a big deal."

He would bet that the virus that causes COVID-19 won't reinfect people. But he wouldn't guess how long their immunity might last.

What's more, some people might have stronger protection from reinfection than others.

"Based on other infections where you get a deep lung infection, you are usually protected against the second infection. If you just have a mild COVID-19 infection that involves your upper airway, maybe it will behave like a common cold coronavirus and maybe you can be reinfected again," says Perlman. "We just really don't know. It's even hard to speculate."

Understanding the natural immune response to this virus is important for vaccine development, he notes.

"If the natural infection doesn't do very well in giving you immunity, what is going to happen with the vaccine?" says Perlman. "How are we going to make sure that that vaccine not only induces a response that works for the next six months, but two to three years?"

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If You Get Coronavirus And Recover, Do You Develop Immunity : Goats and Soda - NPR

Now, we're learning who some of them were, what they did and what they were passionate about.

Those lost to the coronavirus include a former New York fire marshal who sprang into action on 9/11, a mother to six who was battling breast cancer, and four members of a New Jersey family.

Here are some of their stories.

A retired New York fire marshal

And yet, after a career of service, Knox had more to give. He had been retired for two years on September 11, 2001, but he sprang into action that day to help his country and his community.

"He took his vehicle and all the gear that he still had remaining from his time with the FDNY and drove down to The Battery and made the trek from there all the way to Ground Zero," his son, Zachary Knox, told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "And he was there for several weeks afterward."

Knox was still going to the gym as of a few weeks ago. "He was a very vibrant 84-year-old," his son said. "I think people decades younger than him had trouble keeping up."

Zachary wants his father to be remembered as someone who was "always very committed to being ... just a man full of integrity."

"He lived and died by his word," Zachary said. "That's the way he always was, and people loved him for it."

Knox is survived by his wife, four children and six grandchildren.

Four members of one family

"It's absolutely surreal," Elizabeth Fusco told CNN's Chris Cuomo. "They were the roots of our lives ... It's like the second we start to grieve about one, the phone rings and there's another person gone, taken from us forever."

Days later, on Wednesday, Elizabeth's brother Carmine Fusco died, just hours before their mother and the family matriarch, 73-year-old Grace Fusco, died, too.

And another brother, Vincent Fusco Jr., passed away on Thursday.

Elizabeth was on the phone Wednesday for her mother's final moments. While on a call with the hospital, she heard her mother coding in the background, she said, and doctors' frantic attempts to save her.

"I listened to those doctors and those machines code my mother on the phone when she passed," Elizabeth said. "I'll never get over that."

Grace Fusco had 11 children and 27 grandchildren.

Three other relatives are hospitalized in New Jersey, and 19 other family members have been tested and are waiting on the results, according to Roseann Paradiso Fodera, Grace's cousin and an attorney representing the family. Children, parents and grandchildren have been quarantined.

"This is an unbearable tragedy for the family," Paradiso Fodera said.

A single mother and breast cancer survivor

Sundee Rutter, a 42-year-old mother of six, died on March 16 in Everett, Washington, after contracting the coronavirus, her older sister Shawnna Olsen told CNN.

"My sister was amazing," Olsen said. "She was the first to lend a helping hand to anyone."

Rutter had been battling breast cancer and was in remission when she fell ill, Olsen said. She was taken to Providence Hospital in Everett, where she died.

Olsen called her baby sister a "hero" who always put her children -- ages 13 to 24 -- first. Rutter had been a single mother since the death of her husband in 2012, Olsen said.

Per his "mother's wishes," Rutter's oldest son will become the legal guardian of his younger siblings, Olsen told CNN.

"They are well loved by family, community and complete strangers," Olsen said of the children.

An NBC News staffer

Edgeworth recently worked in the equipment room, Lack said, but before that, he spent most of his 25 years at NBC News as an audio technician.

"Many of you were fortunate enough to work with Larry over the years," Lack said, "so you know that he was the guy you wanted by your side no matter where you were."

That sentiment was echoed by Roxanne Garcia, CNN's senior director of newsgathering, who worked with Edgeworth for 17 years at NBC.

"He was a really big man with a really big heart," Garcia said, adding, "He had a great laugh and a great smile."

Edgeworth spent countless months covering stories far from home, in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, Garcia said.

"He always made you feel like there was someone there who cared about you," she said, "and there was someone who cared about the story we were telling."

Edgeworth leaves behind a wife and two sons, Lack's memo said.

A retired magician

Richard Curren, a father of two, fell ill last week and died just a few days later.

He had been living at an assisted living facility in Florida with his wife of more than five decades.

Their son, Eric Curren, told CNN that the couple met in Chicago. They raised their family there before retiring to Florida about a decade ago.

Curren had worked in sales until he decided he wanted to be a professional magician, his son said. Sheila was his assistant.

He was also passionate about water sports and competitive swimming.

His family said he was hospitalized with respiratory issues considered routine, but he died this week. Doctors told the family his death was due to complications from coronavirus.

"I think the family is in shock because he always pulled through," the Curren's daughter, Tracie Curren, told WPLG.

As a magician, Curren loved sharing magic tricks with children.

"No matter how many joint replacement surgeries he endured, he still couldn't resist a chance to get down on the carpet to play with a toddler," his son wrote on Facebook.

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These are the faces of some of the US coronavirus victims - CNN

The pop star announced Friday in an Instagram video that she'll pick three fans whom she'll help buy much-needed items as communities face home isolation, supply shortages and mounting unemployment.

"Our world is going through such hard times right now," Spears said in the video. "Whether it's with food or I'm getting your child diapers or whatever it is, DM me and I will help you out."

Her generosity is part of the #DoYourPartChallenge, an online movement in which people explain what they're doing to help others during the health crisis, then nominate three others to do the same.

Spears nominated Will Smith, Kate Hudson and her boyfriend, Sam Asghari.

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Britney Spears offers to help fans struggling due to coronavirus - CNN

He's a man that hears what he wants to hears and he puts it through the lens of a marketer. He is a marketer, said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. His image is, Im on top of this, Im tough, and anything he hears that supports that theory of the case, he grabs and utilizes.

Those around Trump disagree. They say his numbers-focused mindset is a crisis asset. Trumps specific obsession with the number of coronavirus cases is the right approach, argued former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who made headlines when he insisted wrongly that Trump had drawn the largest ever inaugural crowd.

Having a metric-based business mentality is what you need during periods of crisis, said Spicer, who visited the White House at least twice this week. Either people are getting better and its being contained or its not. Its the only judge of success.

More broadly, Trumps team thinks the numbers are in his favor, arguing the administration started taking action the first week of January. Since then, Trump has up a task force, declared a public health emergency, requested billions from Congress and announced early restrictions on travel from China. Trump aides also note the administration has facilitated the shipments of test kits to U.S. and foreign labs.

For years, Trump has been obsessed with records, ratings and statistics, mentioning them constantly and often inflating the figures, failing to acknowledge the human aspect or overhyping his own role. Theres interest rates and unemployment rates, crowd sizes and polls, stock markets gains and immigrant apprehension numbers.

Before running for office in 2016, Trump had spent his five decades in the real estate, marketing and reality TV businesses. He sold himself to voters on that background, touting his ability to strike deals with countries and companies alike.

Once in office, he talked about policy moves like one-off deals, often becoming preoccupied with certain figures.

For example, he has constantly complained about trade deficits when the value of what the country imports exceeds its exports spouting off the amount with each country. $500 billion a year with China, $100 billion with Japan, $17 billion with Canada.

When Trump has struck new deals with China, Mexico and Canada and others, hes always noted how much the agreement will reduce each trade deficit.

When youre in the real investment business, the performance is only based on numbers and thats all that matters, said a Republican who speaks to Trump. He spent a lifetime on it. Hes not going to think differently now. Thats how you judge real estate. Thats all they have. Its all about the money.

But Trump has been accused of forgetting the people behind the numbers.

In August, Trump touted the crowd size of a rally held at the same time as an event of then Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke - while visiting medical staff who had treated victims of a mass shooting.

That criticism has resurfaced during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Trump has scoreboard obsession. It hasnt worked with coronavirus - POLITICO