Category: Corona Virus

Senate Democrats on Thursday sought assurances from Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that his department would not interfere with undocumented immigrants seeking medical attention.

This is a public health and safety issue that, if anything else, puts all of our communities at risk, Senator Jacky Rosen, Democrat of Nevada, said. Will the department refrain from apprehending individuals based solely on their immigration status while theyre seeking care?

Mr. Cuccinelli said ICE does not conduct enforcement at health care facilities absent single case exigent circumstances.

But immigrant advocates say that stepped-up enforcement could deter people from seeking medical care.

On Wednesday, nine Democratic senators wrote a letter to President Trump and members of his coronavirus task force urging the agency to halt civil immigration enforcement in or around health care facilities.

The senators also requested that Homeland Security publicly state that the administrations new wealth test, known as the public charge rule, would not penalize immigrants who receive treatment for coronavirus symptoms by labeling them public charges, thus barring their paths to green cards.

We cannot allow the fear this ill-considered rule creates to scare families away from getting the help that they may need if they come into contact with people, with the coronavirus, the Democrats said in the letter.

Reporting was contributed by Mike Baker, Rick Gladstone, Katie Robertson, Vindu Goel, Melissa Eddy, Michael Wolgelenter, Marc Santora, Niki Kitsantonis, Mitch Smith, Sarah Mervosh, Davey Alba, Tiffany May, Claire Fu, Elaine Yu, Farah Stockman, Ed Shanahan, Neil Vigdor, Lauretta Charlton, James Gorman, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Matt Richtel, Mitch Smith, Amy Harmon, Michael Gold, Ben Dooley, Richard Prez-Pea, Azi Paybarah, Joseph Goldstein and Kirk Johnson.

See original here:

Coronavirus Cases Surge in U.S. and Europe - The New York Times

SEATTLE Two emergency medicine doctors, in New Jersey and Washington State, are in critical condition as a result of coronavirus, reinforcing concerns that the nations front-line medical workers are becoming especially vulnerable to the virus, the American College of Emergency Physicians said.

A lot of us think that despite everything we do, we will probably be exposed, said Dr. William Jaquis, the chair of the group. Still, he said, The first reported case certainly sends a shock wave through the community.

Emergency rooms represent a busy intake point for hospitals, where patients come in with symptoms but no diagnosis. As the coronavirus spreads during the typical flu season, emergency physicians are triaging large numbers of patients around the country with symptoms that could be the virus.

As compared to anyone else at a hospital, you are operating with the most incomplete information, said Dr. Angela Fusaro, an emergency doctor in Atlanta.

One of the ill physicians, a man in his 40s, is a doctor at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland, Wash., a hospital near Seattle which has seen one of the largest concentrations of cases in the United States.

EvergreenHealth is providing care for one of our physicians who has a confirmed case of Covid-19. He is in critical condition but stable, the hospital said in a statement.

Dr. Jaquis said it appeared that the doctor had access to adequate protective equipment. This was an area with an outbreak, so they were expecting and prepared. That obviously makes us more nervous.

The other physician, a doctor in his 70s in Paterson, N.J., was also in isolation in intensive care. The doctor led his institutions emergency preparedness and was admitted to the hospital several days ago with upper respiratory problems, the physicians group said.

The nationwide shortage of N-95 protective masks has been concerning to doctors, who increasingly feel the need to use them in more situations to stay safe, Dr. Jaquis said.

Some emergency departments are adapting their facilities to minimize the risk to health care providers and other patients, opening tents to triage patients outside their buildings and creating separate entrances for patients and doctors, who do not typically wear protective gear as they come and go.

Emergency doctors at times must tend to patients before their virus risk is assessed, and may have a need, such as a major injury, that needs urgent attention, Dr. Fusaro said. Things that might be necessary to stabilize their life are pretty intimate, she said. If you have to put in a breathing tube, you are going to be right up against them. You cant practice that type of medicine from afar.

Read this article:

Two Emergency Room Doctors Are in Critical Condition With Coronavirus - The New York Times

"Bottom line, it's going to get worse," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Fauci testified Wednesday at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Patrick Semansky/AP hide caption

"Bottom line, it's going to get worse," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Fauci testified Wednesday at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Updated at 3:50 p.m. ET

The coronavirus outbreak has now infected more than 1,000 people in nearly 40 U.S. states and the country's top authority on infectious diseases says things will only get worse.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warns that the number of cases of the COVID-19 viral disease will continue to grow because containment measures and contact tracing have failed to prevent community spread of the virus.

"Is the worst yet to come, Dr. Fauci?" Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, asked Fauci on Wednesday.

"Yes, it is," Fauci replied.

While this coronavirus is being contained in some respects, he testified, the U.S. is seeing more cases emerge through community spread as well as international travel.

"I can say we will see more cases, and things will get worse than they are right now," Fauci said. "How much worse we'll get will depend on our ability to do two things: to contain the influx of people who are infected coming from the outside, and the ability to contain and mitigate within our own country."

He added: "Bottom line, it's going to get worse."

Any potential vaccines for the virus are still at least a year or a year and a half away, Fauci said.

Health officials are now working to bolster coronavirus testing in the U.S., Fauci said: "We need to know how many people ... are infected, as we say, under the radar screen."

Local and state health officials, desperate to stop the coronavirus from spreading in hard-hit areas, are enacting bans on public gatherings, closing schools and encouraging people to avoid close contact with others. Their goal is to slow down the virus as they work concurrently to contain it.

A few areas are also widening the availability of COVID-19 testing including offering drive-up service. Until this week, several U.S. states did not have labs that could test for the virus. Federal officials say the role of local agencies will become only more important.

"As we experience the growing community spread in the United States, the burden of confronting this outbreak is shifting to states and local health professionals on the front lines," the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, said during Wednesday's committee hearing.

The U.S. public health system currently has the capacity to test up to 75,000 people, Redfield said.

The country's hot spots remain Washington state (273 cases as of Wednesday morning), New York (176 cases) and California (157 cases). The coronavirus has killed at least 31 people in the U.S. most of them in Washington. Deaths have also been reported in California, Florida, New Jersey and South Dakota.

Those COVID-19 numbers come from a dashboard created by Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering, which tracks the data nearly in real time. Those figures have been more up to date than the public tally kept by the CDC, which updates its national map at noon ET each day using numbers from 4 p.m. the previous afternoon.

The CDC maintains a separate count for the nearly 50 infected Americans who were repatriated to the U.S. from Wuhan, China, and Yokohama, Japan.

Coronavirus symptoms and prevention

To prevent the coronavirus from spreading, the CDC recommends washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or using a hand sanitizer if a sink isn't available. The World Health Organization says people should wear face masks only if they're sick or caring for someone who is.

"For most people, COVID-19 infection will cause mild illness; however, it can make some people very ill and, in some people, it can be fatal," the WHO says. "Older people, and those with pre-existing medical conditions (such as cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease or diabetes) are at risk for severe disease."

The most common symptoms of COVID-19, according to a recent WHO report that draws on more than 70,000 cases in China, are the following: fever (in 88% of cases), dry cough (68%), fatigue (38%) and sputum/phlegm production (33%).

Shortness of breath occurred in nearly 20% of cases, and about 13% had a sore throat or headache, the WHO said.

See original here:

Coronavirus: Over 1000 Cases Now In U.S., And 'It's Going To Get Worse,' Fauci Says - NPR

BEIJING China is pushing a new theory about the origins of the coronavirus: It is an American disease that might have been introduced by members of the United States Army who visited Wuhan in October.

There is not a shred of evidence to support that, but the notion received an official endorsement from Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose spokesman accused American officials of not coming clean about what they know about the disease.

The intentional spreading of an unfounded conspiracy theory which recirculated on Chinas tightly controlled internet on Friday punctuated a downward spiral in relations between the two countries that has been fueled by the basest instincts of officials on both sides.

The insinuation came in a series of posts on Twitter by Zhao Lijian, a ministry spokesman who has made good use of the platform, which is blocked in China, to push a newly aggressive, and hawkish, diplomatic strategy. It is most likely intended to deflect attention from Chinas own missteps in the early weeks of the epidemic by sowing confusion or, at least, uncertainty at home and abroad.

Mr. Zhaos posts appeared to be a retort to similarly unsubstantiated theories about the origins of the outbreak that have spread in the United States. Senior officials there have called the epidemic the Wuhan virus, and at least one senator hinted darkly that the epidemic began with the leak of a Chinese biological weapon.

[Read: Two women fell sick from the coronavirus. One survived.]

The conspiracy theories are a new, low front in what they clearly perceive as a global competition over the narrative of this crisis, said Julian B. Gewirtz, a scholar at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard.

There are a few Chinese officials who appear to have gone to the Donald J. Trump School of Diplomacy, added Mr. Gewirtz, who recently published a paper on Chinas handling of the AIDS epidemic, after a similar disinformation campaign. This small cadre of high-volume Chinese officials dont seem to realize that peddling conspiracy theories is totally self-defeating for China, at a moment when it wants to be seen as a positive contributor around the world.

The circulation of disinformation is not a new tactic for the Communist Party state. The United States, in particular, is often a foil of Chinese propaganda efforts. Last year, Beijing explicitly accused the American government of supporting public protests in Hong Kong in an effort to weaken the partys rule.

The old tactic has been amplified by more combative public diplomacy and a new embrace of a social media platform that is blocked in China to spread a message abroad.

Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of California at San Diego who studies Chinese politics, said that while the campaign was very likely an attempt to distract and deflect blame, a more worrisome possibility was that some officials fabricated the idea and persuaded top leaders to believe it.

If the leadership really believes in the culpability of the U.S. government, he warned, it may behave in a way that dramatically worsens the bilateral relationship.

Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, has faced sharp criticism for the governments initial handling of the outbreak, even at home. Public anger erupted in February when a doctor who was punished for warning his colleagues about the coronavirus died, prompting censors to redouble their efforts to stifle public criticism.

Chinese officials have repeatedly urged officials in other countries not to politicize what is a public health emergency. Conservatives in the United States, in particular, have latched on to loaded terms that have been criticized for stigmatizing the Chinese people. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo referred to the Wuhan virus, while Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, called it the Chinese coronavirus.

In response, Chinese officials and state news media have stepped up their criticism of American officials comments.

Only days before Mr. Zhaos latest post, the Xinhua news agency published a commentary denouncing Washingtons poisonous coronavirus politics and warning that spreading rumors simply encouraged fear, division and hate.

Their dangerously irresponsible statements are highly counterproductive at this drastic hour that demands solidarity and cooperation, the commentary, written by Gao Wencheng, said, and could be much more menacing than the virus itself.

The coronavirus, according to all evidence, emanated from Wuhan, China, in late December. Scientists have not yet identified a patient zero or a precise source of the virus, though preliminary studies have linked it to a virus in bats that passed through another mammal before infecting humans.

A senior official of Chinas National Health Commission, Liang Wannian, said at a briefing in Beijing last month that the likely carrier was a pangolin, an endangered species that is trafficked almost exclusively to China for its meat and for its scales, which are prized for use in traditional medicine.

The first cluster of patients was reported at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, and studies have since suggested that the virus could have been introduced there by someone already infected. Wuhan and the surrounding province of Hubei account for the overwhelming amount of cases and deaths, so there is no scientific reason to believe the virus began elsewhere.

Mr. Zhaos assertion began with a post linking to a video of the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert R. Redfield, testifying before the House on Wednesday and suggesting that some flu deaths might have been caused by the coronavirus.

When did patient zero begin in US? Mr. Zhao wrote on Twitter, first in English and separately in Chinese. How many people are infected. What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your date! US owe us an explanation.

Mr. Zhao appeared to refer to the Military World Games, which were held in Wuhan in October. The Pentagon sent 17 teams with more than 280 athletes and other staff members to the event, well before any reported outbreaks. The Pentagon has had confirmed cases in South Korea and Italy and is bracing for more to emerge, but no illnesses have been tied to American service members from October.

Mr. Zhaos remarks were spread on Chinas most prominent social media platform, Weibo, under a hashtag: #ZhaoLijianPostedFiveTweetsinaRowQuestioningAmerica. By late afternoon on Friday, that hashtag had been viewed more than 160 million times, along with screenshots of the original Twitter posts.

The State Department summoned the Chinese ambassador on Friday to protest Mr. Zhaos comments, officials in the Trump administration said.

At the regular briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, another spokesman, Geng Shuang, sidestepped three questions about whether Mr. Zhaos suggestion had politicized the crisis and reflected official Chinese policy.

He instead noted the statements made by American officials and lawmakers to smear and attack China.

We are firmly opposed to this, he said. In fact, the international community, including the United States at home, have different views on the source of the virus. What I have been saying in recent days is that the Chinese side always believed that this is a scientific issue and requires scientific and professional opinions.

Claire Fu contributed research.

Read this article:

China Spins Tale That the U.S. Army Started the Coronavirus Epidemic - The New York Times

Mike Pence, commander of the U.S. coronavirus task force for some reason. Photo: ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the United States should brace for a domestic coronavirus outbreak, with the director of its National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases explaining that its not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country any more, but a question of when this will happen. Globally, more than 167,400 cases of this pneumonia-like disease have been reported across every continent except Antarctica, with at least 6,329 deaths so far. Last week, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and President Trump declared a national state of emergency. So far, at least 66 American patients with the virus have died.

Heres everything we know about the spread of the virus in the U.S. so far.

As of March 16, there were at least 3,602 confirmed cases of COVID-19 the disease caused by the novel coronavirus in the U.S. In the past few days, the number of confirmed cases has accelerated dramatically, with over 1,100 new cases announced since Friday morning. However, officials have warned that due to delays in testing, the number of infected individuals is likely much higher. Most of the initial cases were people who recently traveled to China or were released from quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which experienced an outbreak last month. Increasingly, though, new cases have cropped up in people who have no known association with outbreak epicenters, suggesting that the virus has been spreading undetected through person-to-person contact for weeks.

COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in 49 states and Washington, D.C., with the largest outbreaks in Washington State, New York, and California. As of Monday morning, in Washington State, 42 American patients with the virus had died. Twenty-seven of those deaths have been linked to an outbreak of COVID-19 at a long-term-care facility, the Life Care Center, in Kirkland, Washington.

As of Monday morning, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York rose to 732, with six confirmed deaths from the virus.

Over the weekend, officials in many states ramped up restrictions on large gatherings. On Sunday, the CDC recommended a ban on all gatherings of 50 people or more including weddings, festivals, parades, concerts, sporting events, and concerts for the next eight weeks. Restaurants and bars were ordered closed in New York City, Massachusetts, Ohio, Washington, Puerto Rico, and parts of California. (In some places, restaurants can remain open for takeout and delivery, or if they significantly reduce their occupancy. Other cities, including Los Angeles, have closed movie theaters and gyms as well.)

Officials in a growing number of cities and states have announced that schools will close this week, including in New York City, Massachusetts, Oregon, Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, and Kentucky. Some schools in California, Washington State, and Texas have closed as well. In New York City, the largest school district in the country, public schools will remain closed until at least April 20, though Mayor Bill de Blasio said there was a strong chance they would not reopen before the end of the school year. The mayor said that some schools will reopen as enrichment centers to provide services to vulnerable children, including homeless students and those with special needs, and that the city would open centers to provide child care for the children of health-care and emergency workers.

Officials in a number of states have encouraged companies to allow employees to telecommute if possible, and an increasing number of colleges and universities have suspended in-person classes, with some schools asking students not to return to campus after spring break. Many churches have canceled services, and the NBA has suspended its season after a player tested positive for the virus. Experts have called on nursing homes to limit nonessential social visits due to the high risk of transmission.

In a press conference last week, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency and said that coronavirus could impact daily life in the city for the next six months. De Blasio also cautioned New Yorkers about the spread of misinformation: Despite rumors to the contrary, as of Monday morning, elected officials had not called for shutting down mass transit or roadways, which are considered necessary to ensure that health-care systems continue to operate. New Yorkers can text COVID to 692692 for accurate updates.

An increasing number of New York City institutions have closed to the public, including Broadway theaters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Met Opera, and the citys annual St. Patricks Day Parade has been postponed. Many New York talk shows have begun taping without studio audiences, with some suspending production altogether.

Last week, New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced a containment zone in New Rochelle, a New York City suburb with one of the countrys largest outbreaks of COVID-19, where the National Guard has been deployed to clean facilities and deliver food to quarantined residents. Cuomo has also warned that the New York hospital system may soon be overwhelmed by the number of coronavirus cases, and has requested that the Army Corps of Engineers be deployed to New York to build more hospital beds.

On Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over the coronavirus. So what does that mean, exactly? Trump declared the emergency under the Stafford Act, which effectively frees up federal emergency management funds to be used for relief. On Friday, Trump said that the declaration would give him the authority to use up to $50 billion in federal funds to help states and territories fight the spread of coronavirus.

Trump also announced plans to accelerate and expand access to coronavirus testing, saying that millions of tests for the virus would be made available, though he added that he did not think that many would be necessary. He gave more authority to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, who will now be able to lift restrictions on doctors and hospitals to give them more flexibility in fighting the virus, including the ability to treat patients remotely. The president urged states to set up emergency operations centers effective immediately, and also announced that he would waive interest on student loans.

Last month, President Donald Trump put Vice-President Mike Pence a man with a frankly dismal track record in public health in charge of the coronavirus response, assuring the public that the White House is very, very ready for this.

The Trump administration has since announced a number of travel restrictions. Last week, President Trump barred entry of all foreign nationals who have been in high-risk countries, including China, Iran, and much of Europe, within the last 14 days. As of March 13, American citizens and permanent residents who are returning to the U.S. from those areas are required to fly through one of 13 airports, listed here. The State Department has issued an advisory telling Americans to reconsider travel to all foreign countries, and has also advised Americans, especially those who are older or have existing medical conditions, to avoid cruises at this time.

There have been many issues with the availability and accuracy of the coronavirus test within U.S. borders. Some people say theyve been denied tests. Indeed, the criteria for getting tested were initially prohibitively narrow: Previous guidance stated it should be limited only to those who may have come into direct contact with the virus, whether by through a hot spot of contagion or an infected individual. Though Pence has since announced that anyone in the country can be tested for coronavirus, subject to doctors orders, theres still been widespread confusion, and government coronavirus hotlines have reportedly been inundated with calls.

The U.S. House and Senate recently reached a deal to provide $8.3 billion in emergency funding to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which has been approved by the Senate. According to the WashingtonPost, the money will go toward the development of a vaccine, public-health funding, medical supplies, and research of coronavirus in other countries. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has said it will take up to 18 months to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.

Early Saturday morning, the House passed a sweeping aid package for people affected by the coronavirus, and the Senate is expected to vote on the measure this week. The package would establish paid emergency leave for some American workers, expand food assistance, and offer free coronavirus testing.

In most cases, COVID-19 is not fatal, but it appears to pose the greatest risk to elderly people and those with preexisting conditions that compromise their immune systems. The New York Times reports that among those who have died in the U.S., almost all have been in their 70s, 80s, and 90s. (Doctors and medical workers may also be at greater risk, due to their higher-than-average odds of exposure.) Because the CDC anticipates a sharp uptick in domestic transmission, though, it is urging people to prepare for the worst: Stock up on supplies medicine, non-perishable foods, toilet paper, etc. and fastidiously wash your hands. (Heres our guide to protecting yourself.)

Face masks have been selling out online and in stores, but the surgeon general has pleaded with people to stop buying them. Surgical masks dont do much to keep out disease-spreading particles, and the masks that do seem to help N95 facial respirators are recommended only for people who are already infected, or for health-care workers and caregivers. People wearing masks as a preventive measure may be taking valuable and limited resources away from those who actually need them. If you do find yourself in need of an N95 respirator, and you have creative facial hair, the CDC also has thoughts on which mustache styles will be safest in a pandemic.

If you have symptoms associated with coronavirus coughing, fever, respiratory issues call your doctor before simply showing up at their office: The virus is highly contagious and you want to limit the possibility of spreading it, bearing in mind that right now, the odds are better that you simply have a cold or the flu. (Which is also serious, and many health experts would advise you to get a flu shot.) If you are sick, the CDC recommends that you stay home and self-isolate, confining yourself to one room as much as possible and wearing a face mask when you have to interact with others. Wash your hands frequently soap and water and at least 20 seconds of scrubbing and avoid touching shared household items, cleaning high-touch surfaces (like your phone) regularly. Your health-care provider and even local health department will help you determine how long its appropriate for you to keep up these precautions.

Regardless of whether or not you have symptoms, though, keep your hands clean, and seriously, stop touching your face.

This post has been updated.

Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily

Original post:

Everything to Know About the Coronavirus in the United States - The Cut

The US Health and Human Services Department was the victim of a cyberattack yesterday, the agency confirmed to Recode.

Bloomberg, which was first to report the attack on Monday morning, initially described it as a hack, but updates to its story removed the word hack, instead referring to it as multiple incidents of a cyber intrusion. A subsequent ABC News story said it was actually a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, which is a type of cyberattack but not a full breach. A DDoS attack is more consistent with Bloombergs description, which said the agencys servers were overwhelmed with millions of hits designed to slow or shut them down. Both reports said the attack was not successful and that no data was accessed.

Caitlin B. Oakley, a spokesperson for the HHS, told Recode that there was a significant increase in activity on HHS cyber infrastructure but that it remained fully operational.

Early on while preparing and responding to Covid-19, HHS put extra protections in place, Oakley said. HHS has an IT infrastructure with risk-based security controls continuously monitored in order to detect and address cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities.

Meanwhile, the National Security Council confirmed to Bloomberg that there was an incident but downplayed its impact, adding that HHS and federal networks are functioning normally at this time.

We are aware of a cyber incident related to the Health and Human Services computer networks, and the federal government is investigating this incident thoroughly, John Ullyot, NSC spokesperson, said in a statement to Bloomberg. HHS and federal government cybersecurity professionals are continuously monitoring and taking appropriate actions to secure our federal networks.

In a Monday morning tweet, Washington Post reporter Ellen Nakashima said that a Department of Homeland Security source told her the attack has been overblown and that the site never crashed or seemingly was in any danger of doing so.

Details of the cyberattack at HHS emerged at the same time as a flurry of reports about a foreign disinformation campaign designed to spread fear during the coronavirus pandemic. Three anonymous federal officials told the Associated Press that such an effort was underway, though they did not specify which foreign entity was leading the effort. Bloomberg also reported that a recent tweet referencing a misinformation campaign from the National Security Council was related to the attack:

But its not entirely clear how the two incidents are related. The NSC tweet appears to be a reference to a viral text message that says President Trump is on the verge of declaring a nationwide mandatory quarantine a rumor that the White House has denied. It also seems as though such an action by the president would not be constitutional, since theres little evidence that a DDoS attack would result in the spread of misinformation.

An attack on the HHS during the coronavirus pandemic is probably not a coincidence, and now is obviously one of the worst possible times for an elevated level of uncertainty and fear. According to Bloomberg, officials dont yet know who is responsible but are assuming its a hostile foreign actor.

So far, its hard to know how seriously to consider the threat of further cyberattacks. DDoS attacks are common as cyberattacks go, because they are relatively easy. Where DDoS attacks that flood a server with messages can be performed with a single computer, a more powerful DDoS requires a network of computers or botnets. Over the course of the past decade, these types of attacks have become increasingly popular as tools of political protest or weapons of disruption. As long as the attacker has enough bots in their arsenal, they can temporarily devastate their victim websites, which may be forced offline for hours or even days an outcome that would have been particularly harmful in this case but, fortunately, appears to have been avoided.

While it doesnt look as though the HHS attack did more than spread fear, cybersecurity researchers have warned of several coronavirus-related phishing campaigns and malware posing as official emails or websites from health organizations. Those threats, along with the possibility of a foreign disinformation campaign, serve as additional evidence that were only just beginning to comprehend the scope of the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences.

Original post:

The Health Department website was attacked in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic - Vox.com

An office worker is screened with an infrared thermometer as he enters a building in New Delhi, India. Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

An office worker is screened with an infrared thermometer as he enters a building in New Delhi, India.

Mild.

Moderate.

Serious.

Severe or extreme.

These are some of the adjectives being used to describe the symptoms displayed by patients with COVID-19. Vice President Pence used them in his remarks to the nation this week:

"Some some large percentage have mild flu symptoms; some have serious flu symptoms."

At this stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is not a standard definition of what symptoms are associated with these designations.

It can take years for such guidelines to be issued for a newly identified disease, according to Dr. Sandro Galea, an epidemiologist and dean of the Boston University School of Public Health.

Nonetheless, there are some preliminary definitions that can be helpful in understanding the range of symptoms.

Mild

In 80% of known cases, COVID-19 causes mild to moderate illness, according to a report of a joint World Health Organization-China mission of 25 infectious disease experts held in China late last month.

At a press conference on March 9, Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, had this to say about the symptoms for a so-called "mild" case: "This mild infection starts normally with a fever, although it may take a couple of days to get a fever. You will have some respiratory symptoms; you have some aches and pains. You'll have a dry cough. This is what the majority of individuals will have."

It is "nothing that will make you feel like you need to run to a hospital," says Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

A mild case of COVID-19 in and of itself is not dangerous. But in some cases more commonly in older people and in people with underlying health issues a mild case can progress to a moderate case that could require some supportive care such as fluids for dehydration, typically in an emergency room or urgent care center, especially if hospitals are overwhelmed by the most acute cases.

Moderate

Symptoms of being moderately ill with COVID-19 include coughing, fever above 100.4, chills and a feeling that you don't want to or can't get out of bed, says Adalja.

Some patients also experience shortness of breath, although that can occur in various ways. "Shortness of breath is a wide spectrum and whether we consider treatment will be based on how short of breath they are, their age and other health conditions," says Galea.

"Is it shortness of breath after climbing a flight of stairs or when there's no activity for example, when you're just sitting in a chair?" says Dr. Theresa Madaline, hospital epidemiologist at the Montefiore Health System in New York City.

In either case, there's cause for concern with a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 case. "Shortness of breath [with this virus] is a symptom to always check with a health care provider. Period," says Dr. Kenneth E. Lyn-Kew, a pulmonologist in the Section of Critical Care Medicine and Department of Medicine at National Jewish Health in Denver.

That's because shortness of breath can be caused by low oxygen levels in the blood. Blood carries oxygen to organs and tissues, and low levels can lead to organ shutdown or even death.

For patients with moderate symptoms, hospitalization is unlikely unless they are having difficulty drawing a breath or are dehydrated. Signs of dehydration can include increased thirst, dry mouth, decreased urine output, yellow urine, dry skin, a headache and dizziness.

But there's another possible development within the "mild to moderate" classification. "Some of those individuals will go on to develop a mild form of pneumonia," Van Kerkhove says. While pneumonia can often resolve on its own, especially in younger people, in older people and in those with underlying health conditions, pneumonia can be life-threatening or require hospitalization, especially if their immune system is weak.

In these instances, without supplemental oxygen or, if needed, a respirator to aid breathing, a patient's organs can shut down and the patient can die, says Galea. People with pneumonia can also get secondary bacterial infections, which can be life-threatening and require treatment with intravenous antibiotics.

A case that is "mild to moderate" will last about two weeks from the first signs of symptoms to recovery, WHO says.

Serious, severe, extreme

According to the report of the WHO-China joint mission, in about 1 in 5 patients, the infection gets worse. About 14% of cases can develop into severe disease, where patients may need supplemental oxygen. And 6% of cases become critical and may experience septic shock a significant drop in blood pressure that can lead to stroke, heart or respiratory failure, failure of other organs or death.

Theresa Madaline says that in some patients, symptoms can progress to severe in a few hours or over several days.

A different problem can occur if disease progresses. The virus can enter lung cells and start replicating, killing the cells. The immune system may take action to fight the virus, creating inflammation, destroying lung tissue and sometimes resulting in a more severe form of pneumonia.

This [immune system] response can impair your ability to get oxygen into your blood. Without enough oxygen, inflammation can become more severe and result in organ failure.

What to tell your doctor about symptoms

"Keep in mind that mild, moderate and severe are the inelegant terms we have right now," says Dr. Shira Doron, hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. "Use symptoms rather than adjectives when you speak to a health care provider" and then they can determine whether you need to consider treatment.

Read the original post:

Defining Coronavirus Symptoms: From Mild To Moderate To Severe : Goats and Soda - NPR

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, the news is coming at a fast and furious pace. But dont let the volume send you into a panic about your health and that of your loved ones.

The mantra is, Keep calm and carry on, said Dr. Marguerite Neill, an infectious disease expert at Brown University.

Heres a list of frequently asked questions about the coronavirus outbreak and its symptoms.

Common symptoms of this infection include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. The illness causes lung lesions and pneumonia. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common.

Patients may also exhibit gastrointestinal problems or diarrhea, and Dr. Neill said we are learning about different symptoms as we go. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

In some cases, people who had appeared stable rapidly deteriorate in the second week; anyone infected needs careful monitoring.

If you think youre sick as a result of the novel coronavirus, you can help safeguard your loved ones and community by staying at home, except to get medical care.

The current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that you call a medical professional if you notice symptoms and

Live in or have traveled to an area with a known coronavirus outbreak

or

Have had close contact with someone who has traveled to an area with an outbreak

or

Have had close contact with anyone infected.

Call your doctor or health professional before you go. That will help him or her prepare for your visit and prevent the spread of the virus to other people in the office. Be sure to wear a mask when you go to the doctors office and when youre around other people. If you cannot find a mask, you can create a makeshift one from a scarf or T-shirt.

The C.D.C. also suggests that you avoid public transportation, ride-sharing services and taxis, and that you separate yourself from other people and animals in your home as soon as possible. That means not letting anyone enter your room and, ideally, not sharing bathrooms. Others should stay more than three feet away from you and avoid any surface you might have coughed on or touched, including doorknobs, plates, cups and towels. Disinfect the environment as much as possible.

Many state health departments have set up hotlines for people who want more information, but long wait times have been reported. Eventually, specific coronavirus testing centers may be set up.

Follow the same steps listed above if you think your children, or anyone else in your household, may be infected. Both the coronavirus and influenza are most dangerous to people who are over 65 or have chronic illnesses or a weak immune system. Children infected with the new coronavirus tend to have mild or no symptoms, and it is unclear how easily they transmit the disease to teenagers or adults.

The coronavirus seems to be more deadly than seasonal flu and quite contagious. Early estimates of the coronavirus death rate from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, have been around 2 percent, while the seasonal flu, on average, kills about 0.1 percent of people who become infected. But children appear to be more affected by the flu.

By contrast, the 1918 flu had an unusually high fatality rate, greater than 2 percent. Because it was so contagious, that flu killed tens of millions of people.

The new coronavirus seems to spread very easily, especially in confined spaces like homes, hospitals, churches and cruise ships. It appears to spread through droplets in the air and on surfaces from a cough or sneeze.

Whether a surface looks dirty or clean is irrelevant. If an infected person coughs and a droplet lands on a surface, a person who then touches that surface could pick it up.

A study of other coronaviruses found that they remained on metal, glass and plastic for two hours to nine days. But there is good news: The virus is relatively easy to destroy using any simple disinfectant or bleach.

Droplets can sit on the surfaces of latex gloves. Some experts suggest wearing cloth or leather gloves that absorb droplets and are bulky enough to discourage you from touching your face.

That is still unknown. This is a new virus, and everyone is believed to be susceptible.

Flu transmission decreases in hot weather every year, and the SARS coronavirus emerged in winter and was eliminated by the following June. But SARS was beaten by aggressive containment measures, not by the weather. The four mild coronaviruses that cause common colds still circulate in warm weather and cause summer colds.

In the 1918 and 2009 flu pandemics, there was a second wave in the fall.

There is no approved antiviral drug for the coronavirus, though several are being tested. For now, doctors can recommend only the usual remedies for any viral illness: rest, medicine to reduce pain and fever, and fluids to avoid dehydration.

Coronavirus patients with pneumonia may also need oxygen, and a ventilator if breathing trouble worsens. Some patients who appear to be doing well have a crash in the second week of their illness.

An experimental vaccine for the coronavirus may be ready for testing in humans within a few months. But even if it is approved, it will take much longer, at least a year, before it is available for widespread use. In the meantime, experts are urging people and their children to get a flu shot.

This virus can be deadly. Theres a reason government officials and medical experts across the world are issuing strong warnings.

About 80 percent of victims will recover without any need for hospitalization. Still, the cases categorized as mild by the Chinese C.D.C. included those with mild pneumonia, meaning there is fluid in the lungs but not seriously enough to require supplemental oxygen or intensive care. The other categories are severe, which means oxygen or ventilation is required, and critical, which means lung or organ failure.

It is important to keep these distinctions in mind, both to avoid unnecessary panic and to get a clear picture of the likelihood of transmission.

Many people are now panicking, and some actually are exaggerating the risks, said Dr. Jin Dong-Yan, a virology expert at the University of Hong Kong.

Unlike other, more mild coronaviruses, this one causes many deaths.

It is unclear how many completely symptom-free cases there are, because some people test positive a day or two before developing symptoms. The World Health Organization believes that only about 1 percent of cases never develop a fever or any other symptoms.

View original post here:

What Are the Symptoms of a Coronavirus Infection? - The New York Times

Hotels have always been in the business of providing a good nights rest, but a growing number of brands are adding tools to help guests chill out and get to sleep.

And that was before the anxiety caused by the coronavirus.

Well-being is top of mind for everyone today, and we think thats going to continue in the future, said Mia Kyricos, senior vice president and global head of well-being at Hyatt Hotels. If you think about the world we live in now, its 24/7. We increasingly have demands in work and life.

Starting April 1, Hyatt is rolling out a partnership with the Headspace meditation app. Guests will be able to get content on relaxation and sleep-guided meditation through the Hyatt loyalty program mobile app. The chain will also offer content from Headspace via TVs at its hotels.

Were starting with 200 properties and rolling out from there, growing globally, Ms. Kyricos said. Theres a real interest for people to practice self-care.

Data from the National Institutes of Health bears this out. A survey found that the number of American adults who reported meditating in the previous year tripled from 2012 to 2017, jumping to 14 percent from roughly 4 percent.

The wellness offerings may also provide an opportunity for hotels to increase revenue, according to a study released in December by CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm. With a glut of new rooms projected to cut into hotels profits, owners and managers were looking for alternatives to raising room rates even before Covid-19 curbed travel and dampened demand. A CBRE analysis of 159 hotels with on-site spas found that, in 2018, spa revenue rose at a higher rate than overall operating revenue.

Spas have really expanded beyond the four walls, said Jenna Finkelstein, a director at CBRE who focuses on the hotel industry. More and more, wellness is becoming a major decision factor when choosing a hotel.

Last fall, Calm, an app that delivers meditation and nature sounds, announced a partnership with Novotel, one of the brands of the French hotel conglomerate Accor, to give guests guided meditations for relaxation and sleep. Starting this year, in a phased rollout, guests at Novotel hotels around the world may sign up for a free two-month subscription to Calms premium tier of content.

Big brands in many industries, but specifically in travel, are listening to their customers and realizing that wellness is more important to them, said Alex Will, chief strategy officer at Calm.

I think people are just searching for help with sleep and relaxation in general, Mr. Will said. Its just tiring. We have this always-on lifestyle now. It just creates a huge amount of stress and strain on the body.

Travel is becoming increasingly more stressful, Mr. Will said.

The growing awareness that sleep is an important part of staying healthy has increased the interest in technology that can help people fall and stay asleep.

Broadly speaking, travel and sleep are major-use cases above and beyond our partnership with Novotel, Mr. Will added. The thing we hear a lot from our users is if you cant sleep, it makes everything else feel very hard in day-to-day life.

Although these initiatives predate the coronavirus pandemic, they are well-positioned to address travelers current fears, said Ms. Finkelstein of CBRE.

Especially with coronavirus and everything thats happening, you are starting to see people either pull back on travel or be a little more cautious when they travel, she said.

In-room relaxation offerings, she added, were particularly well-suited to dealing with the worries of fearful guests. Anything you can do to limit contact with other people but still have some sort of experience related to wellness is especially good in the immediate climate, Ms. Finkelstein said. Providing that safe space for relaxation thats one immediate way to solve some of these travel-related anxieties.

Ms. Finkelstein characterized the trend as an offshoot of the digitally enhanced in-room fitness offerings a number of hotel brands have started in recent years and connected it to the rising interest in wellness and self-care. A lot of these fitness brands have almost a cult following, if you will, she said. When people are traveling, what they dont want is for their routine to get disrupted.

Amenities promoting sleep also are an extension of the hotel industrys arms race in bedding goods like mattresses and pillows, said Phil Cordell, senior vice president of new brand development for Hilton Hotels & Resorts. The availability of meditation and sleep guides is the next logical step, he said. Its an extension-slash-evolution of how some of the thinking has been over the past few years.

Hilton is starting a new brand called Tempo that will offer in-room relaxation and sleep content via TV as well as printed literature when its hotels open starting next year. (Construction began earlier this month on the first one in Louisville, Ky.)

Mr. Cordell said that improving sleep hygiene was a major goal for the Tempo brand. We have a million demands on our time when we travel, he said. Its hard for us to disconnect the brain sometimes. Sleep shortfall is one of the biggest challenges we face today.

Read the original post:

Hotels Were Rolling Out Tools to Help Calm Travelers. Then Coronavirus Hit. - The New York Times

What if youre not in public health, but are thinking about your own personal chances and what your behavior should be?

If you imagine youve got a reproduction number of two, each persons infecting two others, on average. But some situations are more likely to spread infection than others. Weve found for things like Covid-19, its close-knit interactions that seem to be most important.

What we need to think about and what a lot of our modeling is certainly thinking about is not just how much transmission is happening, but where is that transmission happening. If youre going to change your behavior, think how to reduce those risky situations as much as possible.

If you were the average person, what would you pay attention to in terms of the news and the numbers?

One signal to watch out for is if the first case in an area is a death or a severe case, because that suggests you had a lot of community transmission already. As a back of the envelope calculation, suppose the fatality rate for cases is about 1 percent, which is plausible. If youve got a death, then that person probably became ill about three weeks ago. That means you probably had about 100 cases three weeks ago, in reality. In that subsequent three weeks, that number could well have doubled, then doubled, then doubled again. So youre currently looking at 500 cases, maybe a thousand cases.

I think the other thing that people do need to pay attention to is the risk of severe disease and fatality, particularly in older groups, in the over-70s, over-80s. Over all were seeing maybe 1 percent of symptomatic cases are fatal across all ages. Theres still some uncertainty on that, but whats also important is that 1 percent isnt evenly distributed. In younger groups, were talking perhaps 0.1 percent, which means that when you get into the older groups, youre potentially talking about 5 percent, 10 percent of cases being fatal.

In thinking about social behavior and thinking about your interactions, the question should be, How do we stop transmission getting into those groups where the impact could be really severe?

Read the rest here:

The Coronavirus, by the Numbers - The New York Times