Category: Covid-19

The last time the country faced an economic crisis, Congress saw broadband as a significant tool to jumpstart the recovery. Central to that effort was the 2010 National Broadband Plan, which addressed three fundamental questions: (1) How does our country get broadband networks everywhere, (2) how do we get everyone on those networks, and (3) how can we use broadband to improve the delivery of health care, education, public safety, economic opportunity, and other critical services?

The most important sentence in the plan, however, did not directly answer any of those questions. Rather, it addressed how to approach implementation. This plan is in beta and always will be, it read. As the country continues to struggle with persistent digital divides amid a new economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing need is clear.

However, the federal government has not reevaluated or updated the plan in nearly a decade. Fortunately, in early May, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced legislation that, if passed, would require the FCC to update the original plan.

An update is long overdue. As the executive director of the 2010 effort, I am proud of how the plan facilitated the development of the more robust broadband networks we now rely on. But our country is far from ensuring that abundant broadband is available and affordable to all, or that we are able to take full advantage of broadbands benefits for our economy and society.

By mandating that the FCC assess the United States progress against the goals of the original plan, Sen. Markeys legislation would accelerate our progress toward those goals. In addition, the legislation adds two more important requirements:

First, it tells the FCC to assess what COVID-19 has taught us about how Americans can use broadband to learn, work, receive medical information and treatment, and participate in civic communications. Right now, Americans are more dependent on broadband access than ever. The country is much better off in this regard than we would have been 10 years ago, but not as prepared as we need to be. Sen. Markeys legislation correctly obligates the FCC to analyze the gaps revealed by the pandemic and develop policies to close them.

Second, the proposed legislation imposes genuine, ongoing accountability by directing the FCC to provide annual reports on the progress of achieving the updated plans goals. The 2010 plan called on the FCC to publish a Broadband Performance Dashboard with metrics designed to track broadband plan goals, but the agency did not do so. A congressional mandate to provide tracking is a much better enforcement mechanism than an internal recommendation.

Our country is far from ensuring that abundant broadband is available and affordable to all, or that we are able to take full advantage of broadbands benefits for our economy and society.

Whoever takes on the task of writing an updated plan will, in some ways, operate in a more hospitable environment than a decade ago. When we were writing the original plan, there was no political consensus that universal broadband was an important policy priority. Now there isas The Wall Street Journal reported last month, the COVID-19 crisis is boosting momentum for major broadband legislation, highlighting the widespread lack of high-speed internet in U.S. homes at a time when it has become more essential than ever. Leading lawmakers of both parties say the long-delayed issue of closing the so-called digital divide is gaining new prominence, as Washington weighs initiatives to help speed economic recovery and improve U.S. competitiveness.

In other ways, however, the task will be harder for the next team. We wrote the 2010 plan in an environment in which nearly everyone thought ofbroadband as being largely positive. While we raised some potential downsides, we largely focused on incentives to do more, rather than constraints on negative activities. Any plan written today would have to reflect on the fact that while the upside of using broadband is greater than ever, those downsidessuch as the loss of privacy and risks related to cybersecuritymust be addressed.

Another challenge for an updated plan will be to address international competition and legal interconnectivity. In 2010, one could reasonably believe that when it came to technology, applications, and regulation, the United States was the dominant internet actor and would continue to be. That is no longer true. Any plan now must acknowledge the global popularity of non-U.S.-based applications, regulatory efforts such as the European Unions privacy law, the limited number of network equipment manufacturers for issues such as cybersecurity, and the potential ramifications of the bifurcation of the internet between China and America, among others.

One challenge from 2010 that I suspect will be shared by the next effort is whether Congress will have an appetite for new expenditures when the plan is completed. There are two big ticket items that would likely follow from any update. First, the new plan would have to address financing deployments in unserved rural areas. Second, the update should support governments at all levels in upgrading their IT facilities to assure the systems can handle surges in broadband demand, such as we have seen during the pandemic. All government services must be available online; waiting in line at an office or filling out paper forms should be historic relics, and not the way people in need obtain help from the government any longer.

Any plan written today would have to reflect on the fact that while the upside of using broadband is greater than ever, those downsidessuch as the loss of privacy and risks related to cybersecuritymust be addressed.

When we wrote the original broadband plan, we were advised not to consider options that required significant new congressional expenditures. That was good political advice, but limited the tools available to address the problems we saw. I hope the next plan will not be so constrained.

Regardless of the challenges, updating the National Broadband Plan and incorporating lessons from the COVID-19 stress test is worth doing. As then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said during the Obama administration, Plan beats no plan. It was true then, and it is true today.

I hope Congress passes Sen. Markeys legislation to give us the broadband plan we need now. And I hope the effort learns from similar initiatives in the states, such as the one New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has assigned former Google CEO Eric Schmidt to lead. As we knew 10 years ago, and as the COVID-19 situation has made painfully clear, our country must ensure that access to abundant, affordable bandwidth facilitatesand never constrainseconomic growth or social progress. We have made progress, but we need to update our thinking on how to keep moving forward. The beta test should continue.

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COVID-19 shows that Americas broadband plan is still in beta - Brookings Institution

WASHINGTON The Trump administration will announce on Tuesday that it has signed a $354 million four-year contract with a new company in Richmond, Va., to manufacture generic medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients that are needed to treat Covid-19 but are now made overseas, mostly in India and China.

The contract, awarded to Phlow Corp. by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, meshes President Trumps America First economic promises with concerns that coronavirus treatments be manufactured in the United States. It may be extended for a total of $812 million over 10 years, making it one of the largest awards in the authoritys history.

This is an historic turning point in Americas efforts to onshore its pharmaceutical production and supply chains, Peter Navarro, Mr. Trumps trade adviser, whose White House portfolio includes the global supply chain, said in a brief interview on Monday evening. The project, he said, will not only help bring our essential medicines home but actually do so in a way that is cost competitive with the sweatshops and pollution havens of the world.

It was unclear why the administration decided to award such a large contract to a new company when an entire industry exists known as contract manufacturing that makes drugs for other companies. However, manufacturers that operate in the United States generally make finished products using raw ingredients imported from elsewhere. They do not make the raw ingredients.

In an interview, Dr. Eric Edwards, the chief executive and president of Phlow, described the company as a public benefit corporation that was dedicated to having a social impact, and he said his firm also intended to create the nations first strategic active pharmaceutical ingredient reserve in essence, a stockpile for pharmaceutical ingredients to be used in the event of drug shortages or an emergency.

There are not a lot of people wanting to bring back generic medicine manufacturing to the United States that has been lost to India and China over decades, said Dr. Edwards, who described himself as a serial entrepreneur as well as a physician. You need someone like the federal government saying this is too important for us not to focus on.

In a statement that the Trump administration plans to release Tuesday morning, Mr. Trumps health secretary, Alex M. Azar II, called the initiative a significant step to rebuild our domestic ability to protect ourselves from health threats.

Phlow will lead a team of private sector entities that includes Civica Rx, a nonprofit created in 2018 by American hospitals to alleviate drug shortages; Ampac Fine Chemicals, a custom manufacturer of pharmaceutical ingredients; and the Medicines for All Institute, a nonprofit arm of the Virginia Commonwealth Universitys College of Engineering that also receives funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Frank Gupton, the founder and chief executive of Medicines for All, sits on Phlows board.

Martin van Trieste, the chief executive of Civica Rx, is also on Phlows board. And another board member, Rosemary Gibson, is a senior adviser at the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics institute, who has frequently written and testified about the dangers of the United States reliance on Chinese drug manufacturing.

Dr. Edwards said his company would focus on critical care medicines used to treat hospitalized patients with Covid-19, including medicines that are used for sedation to help patients requiring ventilator support, pain management and certain essential antibiotics. Production has already begun at an Ampac facility, he said, while Phlow builds new plants.

China is the main global supplier of the raw ingredients used in many common drugs, including antibiotics like penicillin and painkillers like ibuprofen and aspirin.

In recent years, observers like Ms. Gibson have warned about dependence on China for raw pharmaceutical ingredients, pointing to the widespread recalls in 2018 of the blood pressure drug valsartan that were traced to problems at a single Chinese factory that made the drugs active ingredient, which was contaminated with a possible carcinogen.

Dr. Edwards said Phlow was incorporated in January, though he began working on it last year, before the emergence of the coronavirus. The aim, he said, was strengthening Americas supply chain and manufacturing American generic medicines at risk of shortage. He planned at first to use advanced manufacturing technology to produce generic drugs for children. But he switched gears, he said, when the pandemic emerged, and responded to a request from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for proposals to use advanced manufacturing to assist in the Covid-19 response.

Dr. Edwards is also a founder of the pharmaceutical company Kalo, which he created along with his twin brother, Evan Edwards, to sell the Auvi-Q, a competitor to the EpiPen, the emergency allergy treatment. The Auvi-Q, a talking auto-injectable pen, hit the market in 2013 as part of a partnership with the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, but Dr. Edwardss company soon ran into roadblocks.

In 2015, the Auvi-Q was recalled after it turned out the product might not have been delivering the proper dosage of epinephrine, the medicine used to stop a dangerous allergic reaction. In 2016, Sanofi ended its relationship with Kalo and returned the licensing rights. Kalo relaunched the improved Auvi-Q in 2017.

In 2016, Kalo ran into a separate controversy with its other product, Evzio, which was similar to the Auvi-Q but delivered an injection of naloxone, which can stop a drug overdose. That year, Kalo quintupled the price of Evzio, prompting letters from members from Congress who wanted to know why the company had raised the price in the middle of an opioid epidemic. (The company said it did so to cover the cost of a patient assistance program that lowered the out-of-pocket costs for people who could not afford it.)

A spokesman for Phlow said Monday night that Dr. Edwards departed Kalo on good terms over one year ago and had no oversight of drug pricing during the end of his tenure.

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Trump to Tap New Company to Make Covid-19 Drugs in the U.S. - The New York Times

For the past four decades, globalization and urbanization have been two of the worlds most powerful drivers. Global trade increased from under 40% of the worlds GDP in 1980 to over 60% today. Over the same period, the number of people living in cities more than doubled to over 4 billion people today more than half the worlds population.

COVID-19 will reverse both of these trends, increasing the distance both between countries and among people. Some will laud these changes for increasing safety and resilience. But a world that is less global and less urban would also be less prosperous, less stable and less fulfilling.

Here are two core predictions about the world after COVID-19:

Less global, more isolated. Even before COVID-19, the decades-long trend toward ever-more globalization of trade, investment, supply chains and people flows was beginning to grind to a halt. We began to look closer to home in terms of the products we produce and consume, the people with whom we interact, and where we get our energy and our money.

In retrospect, we will come to view the years right before the 2008 financial crisis as peak globalization. Since then, the combination of recession, inequality and populism has created a growing anti-globalization and anti-immigration consensus in western countries, exemplified by the U.S. trade war with China.

The reaction of developed economies to the coronavirus will only strengthen this consensus, as all things international will be viewed as incurring unnecessary and dangerous risks. What was a growing anti-globalization consensus is poised to crystalize into a de-globalization reality.

We are being told this de-globalization will make us all more resilient. But it will also make us less prosperous with less choice and higher prices. It may also make us less secure, as international cooperation will decrease and the potential for international conflict will increase.

Less density, more distance. Urbanization is likely to be the other major casualty of the coronavirus. Unlike globalization, the trend of ever greater-urbanization was unaffected by the global financial crisis. Even America the land of all things suburban joined the global march into cities. People were attracted to cities not only for economic opportunity but also for the urban lifestyle.

After coronavirus, people will be more fearful of crowded trains and buses, cafes and restaurants, theaters and stadiums, supermarkets and offices. Crowded spaces are the lifeblood of cities. But now crowds are seen as major health risks. People who have the ability to exit the city will increasingly be tempted to do so. People who cannot leave will feel at increased risk, hunker down, and reduce their movements and contacts. It is hard to think about Manhattan without the subway and 10-deep pedestrians on Fifth Avenue. But that may be the increasing post-COVID reality.

De-urbanization would harm economic growth because cities generate enormous scale economies and have proved to be remarkably effective incubators of creativity and innovation. This could be particularly true in developing economies where the movement of people from rural areas to rapidly expanding cities has been perhaps the key driver of poverty reduction. But the shrinking of cities will have other adverse effects too, from reducing cultural vibrancy and cosmopolitanism to exacerbating climate change. In addition to being more productive, cities also tend to be more environmentally sustainable.

A world that is less global and less urban would be far less appealing to me, personally. But it is also a world that would hurt economic prosperity, reduce shared understanding among disparate people, and increase the prospect of conflict among them.

Our immediate reactions to COVID-19 will lead us to want both to de-globalize and to de-urbanize. But we must take fully into account the profound longer-term costs of doing so. Globalization and urbanization generate challenges we must confront, all the more so in a post-coronavirus world. The solution is to manage them, not to reverse them.

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World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with our Terms of Use.

Republished with permission from Knowledge@Wharton, the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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COVID-19: How will the pandemic change the world? - World Economic Forum

When San Mateo Countys Health Officer announced Wednesday that businesses would be allowed to open for curbside and delivery activities on May 18, government officials in other counties were puzzled. But hardly surprised.

As recently as April 28, San Mateo denizens, at their Health Officers insistence, were barred from traveling more than five miles for recreational purposes. But, just two weeks later, San Mateo was officially announcing itd be opening up and essentially decoupling from the six counties that joined to issue the March 17 shelter-in-place order.

Has the cohesion between the six counties come undone? It sure looks that way. This may lead to breakage among the six counties, San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa told us on Wednesday. We dont know yet.

What we do know is that on the day before San Mateo County announced it was loosening restrictions, it recorded nine deaths, its most in three weeks. The numbers in San Mateo are getting worse; theyre higher than in any other Bay Area county but San Francisco, noted a Bay Area government official.

Per the website CovidActNow which our Bay Area leaders do peruse San Mateos R0, its COVID growth rate, remains positive. Every sick person is, currently, infecting 1.06 more people. As of Friday, Santa Clara County, just to its south, had a negative growth rate of 0.86. San Francisco is at 1.08 (the citys health officials, however, peg us at a tally just below one down from 3.5 in March).

These differences, while apparently trivial, are far from that. This BBC chart indicates what even a slight difference in R0 means over time.

Officials I spoke to hailing from over bridges and across county lines saw San Mateos move to partially reopen as a concession to political and business pressure. And they predicted San Francisco would soon announce a similar plan to open up on May 18.

This actually occurred in the midst of one of our phone conversations.

Closing time at Pancho Villa.

Come Monday, some 95 percent of San Francisco businesses will be permitted to reopen, albeit with severe restrictions. Retail establishments will be operating on a curbside and/or delivery basis and warehouse-like facilities will do so in a reduced capacity.

What this means for the city is incredible, Mayor London Breed said at a Wednesday press conference. Its obviously great news for retailers, San Mateo Countys Canepa told Mission Local earlier in that day.

Well, hopefully. But that all depends it was incredible and great news for the Warriors when Kevin Durant suited up for Game 5. But it didnt end well.

The six counties and California writ large were supposed to re-open based on statistical measures; as Dr. Anthony Fauci has put it, the virus sets the timeline. But Breed has, for weeks, earmarked May 18 as the date to move things forward.

San Francisco health officials note that we have reached our goals of daily testing two people for every 1,000 city residents (thatd be about 1,600 tests per day). At a Friday UC San Francisco COVID-19 Town Hall, the expert panel spoke highly of the citys robust contact tracing program, our available hospital capacity, and our ramped-up testing and relatively low instance of positive tests.

But itd be harder to argue were adequately testing heavily enough among some of our most vulnerable populations nursing home residents and, especially, homeless people or SRO dwellers who would test positive, at a high clip, and throw off our citys numbers and narrative.

San Francisco has put the cart before the horse, said an out-of-county official. It has pre-judged the outcome.

But were far from the only ones.

A few weeks ago [Gov. Gavin] Newsom set up criteria for what it means to re-enter. And that criteria hasnt been completely followed, said Dr. John Swartzberg, a UC Berkeley clinical professor emeritus specializing in infectious diseases and vaccinology. I understand that theres tremendous political pressure on him, but when you set up criteria and dont follow it, it leads to confusion. And the last thing we want is confusion when dealing with a pandemic.

But we are a confused nation right now. And with county after California county pushing for variances to the state rules for re-opening, things are confusing here, too.

As for San Francisco, Swartzberg said that hes concerned: We may be taking a greater risk than we should be taking.

Dolores Park, March 16, 2020, 2:43 p.m. Photo by Emma Silvers

Swartzberg is an infectious disease specialist, but he knows that the commonality between death from COVID-19 and death from malnutrition is death.

If you dont have any money, that is dangerous to your health, too, he says. Its hard to be hypercritical of whats going on here. People are trying to do the best they can.

Thats along the lines of what Canepa said when asked if this was the time to open up San Mateo County.

Some people who are privileged can work from home. Others are not privileged. They have to work two or three jobs and unemployment is so high right now, he said. In my district, food lines are getting longer and people have trouble getting day-to-day necessities. Theres public health and economic health its chicken and egg, right?

Canepa is right. And San Francisco (and everywhere else) is facing a devastating budget shortfall, in part driven by vanishing sales tax revenue.

But balancing economic health vs. health from a deadly disease as an either-or is a false and destructive choice. And arbitrarily picking a date to re-open the economy is to use a highly technical term from Stanford School of Medicine assistant clinical professor and infectious disease specialist Dr. Jake Scott stupid.

In the past two months of sheltering-in-place, we havent yet developed a medical therapy thats effective against COVID-19, he says. The city has only just begun to engage in universal testing in skilled nursing facilities the driver for this states coronavirus casualties and has, markedly, not yet started systematic testing of congregate living facilities such as homeless shelters, let alone the citys burgeoning encampments.

As the Public Press reported last month, the city in fact pulled the plug on a plan to test its homeless shelter residents free of charge, in fact to instead focus on nursing facilities.

President Trump was rightly mocked for his rambling charge that COVID-19 testing was overrated because, when you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didnt do any testing, we would have very few cases.

But as long as San Francisco isnt testing aggressively among its most vulnerable populations, the citys prevalence count will be artificially tamped down.

Lights flicker from tent.

And testing is overrated if not coupled with aggressive contact tracing. It doesnt make sense to test someone and find out theyre positive if youre not going to find out who theyve had contact with and get them into quarantine, said Swartzberg. Gavin Newsom has asked for 20,000 people to be trained [as contact tracers] within a short period of time. Well, thats aspirational. I hope we can do it. But, in the long run, well probably need two to three times that many people.

San Francisco officials stressed that our growth rate has dropped to the point that a tentative re-opening was prudent. This is a meaningful step on the gradual path to the new normal, said Department of Public Health director Dr. Grant Colfax at Wednesdays press conference. And Breed insisted that now was the time to begin focusing on economic recovery.

But Scott insists that the good work weve done in the past two months has not tamped down the prevalence of the virus: It strikes me as naive to think that just because were tired of physical distancing and businesses being closed, okay, were done. We dont have efficacious medical therapies. We dont have a vaccine.

Due to the one- to two-week incubation period for COVID-19, it may be some time before we know whether Mondays move to loosen restrictions was prudent or merely wishful thinking masquerading as public policy.

Scott, for one, would only feel confident about re-opening the economy if we could test large swaths of the population and do contact tracing and isolation and ensure the most vulnerable populations were supported if there were outbreaks in long-term care facilities and among the homeless.

These populations, he notes, will be hit especially hard. What have we done to ensure theyll be safe? What do they get out of restaurants reopening?

He answers his own question: Theyre going to get sick.

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COVID-19: Reopening the San Francisco Bay Area smart policy or wishful thinking? - Mission Local

Decatur-based Italian-American restaurant The White Bull, owned by chef Pasquale Pat Pascarella, is undergoing a quick renovation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The restaurant announced the temporary closure on Facebook two weeks ago. It reopens in June.

Pascarella tells Eater Atlanta they plan to redo the kitchen and upgrade the equipment, add floor-to-ceiling glass windows in the front of the restaurant, and create a back patio, which is currently in permitting with the city of Decatur. The latter allows the restaurant to expand its outdoor dining space, beyond the few small tables out front on the sidewalk.

Recent studies indicate people may be more susceptible to contracting COVID-19 within enclosed spaces, such as restaurant dining rooms. The cities of Dunwoody and Brookhaven now offer restaurants a temporary outdoor dining permit. The permit expands outside seating into parking spaces and other nearby common areas.

The chef says a retail section is being added to the front of the White Bull in order to continue selling the restaurants pastas, sauces, and meatballs something Pascarella began doing during the dining room shutdown. Like the retail portion of the restaurant, takeout and delivery will also become a permanent addition once the White Bull reopens next month.

This is us getting real and understanding that the world isnt going out for foie gras anymore. They want to see value. Pascarella says of the renovation in an email. [Were] changing the menu when we [re]open to six to eight appetizers of vegetables from local farms and eight to 10 pastas every night, plus one entree special.

The chef estimates about 50 percent of the staff at the White Bull was laid off when the restaurant pivoted to takeout and retail only two months ago. Some employees were absorbed into Pascarellas new Neapolitan pizza and Italian restaurant Grana, which opened in late March for takeout on Piedmont Avenue in Piedmont Heights.

Pascarella just received funding from the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and plans to rehire the rest of the White Bulls staff over the next week in anticipation of the reopening in June. The PPP is part of the federal governments CARES Act, which allows small businesses to pay employee wages while closed due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Stay home if sick. Check the Georgia Department of Public Health website for guidance and updates on the latest number of reported COVID-19 cases. Numbers are now updated three times a day.

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Decatur Restaurant the White Bull Is Undergoing a COVID-19-Related Renovation and Reopening in June 2020 - Eater Atlanta

Podcast Addict, an Android podcast app with millions of users, was briefly suspended over the weekend because it lists COVID-19 content. The apps creator, Xavier Guillemane, tells The Verge that on Saturday, Google suspended and removed the ads from his nine-year-old app because it violated a new policy for developers that requires any app with a reference to COVID-19 to be published, commissioned, or authorized by official government entities or public health organizations.

After The Verge reached out, Google SVP of Platforms and Ecosystems Hiroshi Lockheimer clarified that Podcast Addict shouldnt have been removed, and the team is working to reinstate the app, a company spokesperson tells The Verge.

To ensure users of Google Play are getting authoritative and accurate health information, were continuing to take an intentionally cautious approach to apps with COVID-19 contentas outlined in our blog post for developers, the spokesperson said in an emailed comment. In this case weve reinstated the app and have communicated with the developer to ensure the app remains compliant with our policies.

Guillemanes app catalogs publicly available podcast RSS feeds, which he doesnt control. The content includes news shows, talk shows, and a variety of programming that mentions the pandemic and virus. He says Google told him hed need to address this problem and then republish his app under a different name to be reinstated. Guillemane says other podcasting apps, including Googles own, list these shows, as well, although he doesnt know what specific offending shows its algorithm flagged.

His app is free and relies on Google ads to make money, so when its demonetized, Guillemane also loses his income.

This is the way Im making my living, and already because of the current situation, our revenue has been really bad for the past few months, he says. Google originally said it could take seven days for him to hear back about his suspension appeal, which means lost money all that time. Its not easy to be at the mercy of just some algorithm banishing the application.

Listeners who already have the app on their phone could still access it, but they werent able to redownload it. New users also werent able to find it in Google Play. If Guillemane adjusted the app, and somehow removed all COVID content, hed have to change the name of the app and lose all its ratings and downloads. He tells The Verge he was almost to the 10 million download mark when Google suspended the app.

Google previously demonetized his app for linking out to explicit content, which Guillemane didnt host or create. The situation was similar in that the content is only cataloged by Podcast Addict, but Google punished the app and its creator for listing shows.

Of course, with the pandemic ongoing, people have rushed to make podcasts about the virus. Its timely and important. At the same time, some people have seized the attention to spread misinformation, which Google is attempting to quash with its new policy. Podcast app developers, however, are just surfacing the content, similarly to a search engine, so they cant necessarily filter out misinformation or individually screen every RSS feed and episode that populates. The policy might be well intentioned, but its hard to police.

Update 5/18, 10:29 PM ET: Updated to include Googles statement and its decision to reinstate the app.

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Google suspended a popular Android podcast app because it catalogs COVID-19 content - The Verge

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The just-passed HEROES Act is a massive relief package designed to alleviate the harm of a massive crisis. In it is the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, which would make it easier for Americans affected by COVID-19 to stay connected to the Internet. As the Senate takes up this legislation, it should make Internet access a priority, not a bargaining chip.

The Emergency Broadband Benefit program mandates that ISPs offer a broadband service for free to COVID-19 impacted people that the government will pay $50 per month to cover ($75 per month for tribal lands). Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will also be required to offer the discounted promotional packages they offered as of May 1, 2020, which means any special offers an ISP was providing for high-speed service at an affordable price (including any teaser prices), will be locked in place for the duration of the emergency. The legislation would also abolish long term contracts consumers would be forced to sign to obtain those lower rates by prohibiting early termination fees. In many cases, this arrangement, even in cable monopoly markets, would guarantee that a COVID-19 impacted person could obtain high-speed access for free.

The legislation envisions authorizing the program with up to $8.8 billion and would be operational until September 30, 2021. Eligible households would have to meet one of the several criteria designed to capture Americans who are going to be most negatively impacted by COVID-19, most notably households that had a substantial loss of income since February 29, 2020, a documented layoff, or an application for unemployment. In essence, it is a federal guarantee to broadband access during this extremely challenging time.

Healthcare, job hunting, communication, schooling--the Internet is vital for the U.S. to weather this crisis. This is even more true for people who have lost jobs, students of all ages who depend on their parents Internet, and those living in rural, low-income, and tribal lands, which ISPs have failed to invest resources in. Internet access is not just a footnote in any relief packages, it is a priority.

The inevitable process of negotiating between the House and Senate will force elected officials to make choices on what will and will not be law. If you have a friend or family member who is facing serious economic hardship as a result of COVID-19, you need to contact your Senators and tell them to include free broadband access to the unemployed in whatever final package is produced from Congress.

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The House Passed Legislation to Keep People Online Despite COVID-19, And the Senate Should Follow - EFF

Four out of five merchants at a major fruit market in Peru have tested positive for coronavirus, revealing shocking levels of infection and prompting fears that Latin Americas traditional trading centres may have helped spread Covid-19 across the region.

Seventy-nine per cent of stall-holders in Limas wholesale fruit market tested positive for Covid-19, while spot tests at five other large fresh food markets in the city revealed at least half were carrying the virus.

The results came as local authorities from Mexico City to Rio de Janeiro struggle to enforce social distancing and sanitary measures at wholesale and retail markets, which are mainstays of local economies.

Latin America is wrestling with a surging death toll from the pandemic: Mexico and Brazil whose presidents have been accused of downplaying the epidemic both saw record single-day mortalities last week.

But Peru also reported a peak in coronavirus deaths and new infections even after two months of one the regions strictest lockdowns.

Perus president, Martn Vizcarra, said the infected merchants in Lima would be replaced, but stopped short of shutting down the fruit market, arguing that such a move could create food shortages. Soldiers and police officers were deployed at the market to take the temperature of all traders and clients.

Markets were probably the biggest vector of infection which is why Perus quarantine did not work as it should have, said Eduardo Zegarra, the principal investigator for Grade, a development thinktank in Lima.

These figures are a bombshell, he said, calling on the government to shut down the markets and declare a sanitary emergency.

Authorities in Lima have left most of the citys 1,200-plus markets open, carrying out spot tests and sending infected vendors most of whom were asymptomatic to self-isolate at home or at government facilities.

But Zegarra worried Limas huge wholesale markets were already enormous hubs of infection, particularly Santa Anita, Limas largest, where some 30,000 merchants, porters and suppliers distribute and sell around 8,000 tonnes of food per day.

Dozens of infections and at least one death have been reported among the markets porters and fears were growing that the virus could already have spread; not only to thousands of retailers and customers but also to lorry drivers traveling between the city and the country.

I fear that could trigger a second wave of the pandemic, said Zegarra, a former deputy mayor of Lima. The contagion among merchants is terribly high and we dont know how long theyve had it or how many people theyve passed it on to.

Coronavirus cases in Peru rose to more than 88,000 on Saturday, with a death toll of 2,572, according to official figures. Only Brazil has a higher infection rate in Latin America, surging to fourth place in the world with 233,511 confirmed cases and sixth place for coronavirus deaths with 15,662, according to Johns Hopkins University.

So Paulos CEAGESP wholesale market one of the largest on the continent has already seen innumerable cases and around 30 deaths from Covid-19, according to the president of the market suppliers union.

We are very sad about the deaths of these people but if you consider 40,000 people who come here every day, it is quite low, said Cludio Furquim.

Media reports have shown crowds of shoppers and workers at Brazilian markets, most them without masks. In a report by TV Record, Diego Hiplito said his uncle, a driver, went to the market daily and kept working when he fell sick with coronavirus symptoms before eventually dying. I think he could have passed it on, Hiplito said.

Markets still occupy an important place in Latin American culture and economies even as retail giants such as Walmart expand into the region. But that has also tied them closely to the spread of the disease.

Colombias largest wholesale market, Corabastos, sits in the hardscrabble Kennedy neighbourhood of the capital Bogot currently centre of the countrys outbreak.

Last week, the citys mayor, Claudia Lpez, said the vast market would be operate at just 35% of capacity after 30 cases were detected there.

The citys health minister, Alejandro Gmez, admitted that local government could have done better but also stressed the importance of food supplies. We cannot allow Corabastos to become a risk to the health of Bogot, but neither can we allow food shortages, he said.

Jorge Colmenares, an opposition city councilman, tweeted: Thanks to Bogotas carelessness, the coronavirus has hit the food supply of millions of citizens.

At Mexico Citys mammoth Central de Abasto, which receives merchandise from around the country and in turn supplies markets throughout the capital, at least 25 cases of Covid-19 and two deaths have been reported, although local media suggested the true figure was much higher.

Manuel Cornejo Carrillo owns a laundry in the Mercado Coyoacn, where he says 60% of the stalls have closed and sales are down 90% in his business. Cornejo lamented that the few customers still coming to the market were still failing to keep their distance or wear masks.

After a brief lockdown, Mexico has already announced plans to re-open its economy, but while Cornejo was sympathetic with the urge to get back to work, he feared that the worst was still to come from the coronavirus.

Economically, its time to restart. But on the health side, Im worried I dont think weve hit bottom, he said.

Ive lived through the H1N1 outbreak and earthquakes, but Ive never experienced anything like this.

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'Hubs of infection': how Covid-19 spread through Latin America's markets - The Guardian

Decatur, GA The DeKalb County Board of Health will deploy two community testing teams to address health disparities and high numbers of COVID-19 cases in identified DeKalb County zip codes.

The board eventually wants to deploy a total of six testing teams.

Starting May 20, the teams will be stationed at the following locations from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Beulah Missionary Baptist Church, 2340 Clifton Springs Rd., Decatur, Ga. 30034

Rehoboth Baptist Church, 2997 Lawrenceville Hwy, Tucker, Ga. 30084

COVID-19 testing is free and open to everyone. But registration is required.To register online, visit dekalbhealth.net, or call the DeKalb County Board of Healths COVID-19 Call Center at (404) 294-3700, Option 1, the county Board of Health says.

Getting tested for COVID-19 is now more urgent than ever, and more available, DeKalb County District Health Director S. Elizabeth Ford said in the announcement. We must be accessible to those who dont have the resources to travel great distances for testing. By going into ZIP Codes with the greatest COVID-19 burden, we can identify cases and protect the community. We will also be looking at areas that may not have high burden because testing has not been made available.

Decaturish.com is working to keep your community informed about coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. All of our coverage on this topic can be found at Decaturishscrubs.com. If you appreciate our work on this story, please become a paying supporter. For as little as $3 a month, you can help us keep you in the loop about what your community is doing to stop the spread of COVID-19. To become a supporter, click here.

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DeKalb County Board of Health deploying COVID-19 testing teams - Decaturish.com