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Monthly Archives: April 2020
Cartoon – U.S Health System Readying for Coronavirus
Cartoon – The Coronavirus Spreads
Coronavirus Dashboard
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-west-virginia-first-case-ac32ce6d-5523-4310-a219-7d1d1dcb6b44.html
- Global: Total confirmed cases as of 12:30 p.m. ET: 1,724,736 — Total deaths: 104,938 — Total recoveries: 390,335 — Map.
- U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 12:30 p.m. ET: 503,594 — Total deaths: 18,860 — Total recoveries: 29,223 — Map.
- Public health latest: Chronic health conditions and inequality put people of color at heightened risk for coronavirus — New FDA guidelines focus on protecting food service workers.
- 2020 latest: Maryland’s June 2 primary will be “primarily through mail-in ballots” — Republicans worried about Trump’s daily briefings, eventual plan to restart economy.
- Business latest: Some smaller airlines won’t have to provide federal government with collateral.
- Federal government update: Most of U.S. won’t be able to reopen by May 1— Efforts to increase work requirements for food stamps paused — Tech companies are stepping into the void.
- 🌷🐇 Easter weekend: America’s biggest test yet on social distancing.
- 1 Gen Z thing: The coronavirus may be a defining experience.
- What should I do? Hydroxychloroquine questions answered — Pets, moving and personal health — Answers about the virus from Axios experts — What to know about social distancing — Q&A: Minimizing your coronavirus risk.
- Other resources: CDC on how to avoid the virus, what to do if you get it.
U.S. coronavirus updates: U.S. passes Italy on reported deaths
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-west-virginia-first-case-ac32ce6d-5523-4310-a219-7d1d1dcb6b44.html
The U.S. passed Italy for recorded coronavirus deaths on Saturday, per Johns Hopkins data. 18,860 Americans have died.
Where it stands: Government projections show lifting social distancing restrictions after just 30 days will lead to a dramatic infection spike this summer and death tolls would rival doing nothing, the New York Times reports.
The big picture: The coronavirus has killed more than 1,000 people every day in the U.S. since April 1, and infected over 501,000 others. New York’s death toll sits at 8,627 as of Saturday after 783 people died in 24 hours — a slight uptick from the day prior.
- Public health officials warned this would be a deadly week for America, even as New York began to see declining trends of hospitalizations and ICU admissions.
- All but eight states have issued stay-at-home orders.
What’s happening: New York hospitalizations appears to have plateaued as the state flattens the coronavirus curve, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said on Saturday. Intubations are also down, a good sign for fatalities in the state.
- Surgeon General Jerome Adams disagreed Friday that the federal government’s 30-day campaign will provide enough time for all Americans to resume their work and lifestyles.
- Smaller airlines receiving bailouts of up to $100 million won’t have to provide the federal government with compensation, the Treasury Department said.
- This Easter Sunday will be America’s biggest test yet for whether people can social distance long enough to flatten the coronavirus curve.
- Apple and Google announced a joint effort to notify people via smartphone — on an opt-in basis — if they’ve come into contact with someone with the coronavirus, without having to share users’ location information with government authorities.
- Roughly 16 million Americans have filed for jobless benefits over the past three weeks due to the pandemic’s growing economic repercussions. Trump is preparing to launch a second coronavirus task force focused on economic recovery.
- President Trump has been increasingly frustrated with the pandemic’s impact on the economy and pushed for a May 1 reopening.
- 20 cruise ships at port or anchorage in the U.S. have reported “known or suspected COVID-19 infection” among their crews, the CDC says.
- The pandemic will likely drop global carbon dioxide emissions more than any prior crisis or war.
- The U.S. expelled more than 6,000 migrants under new powers invoked by the CDC’s emergency public health order. The number of people coming into the U.S. has plummeted due to coronavirus travel bans.
- Hospitals, doctors’ offices, suppliers and other health care facilities have now received $51 billion in “advance payments” from Medicare.
- The federal government is deploying 90% of stockpiled medical equipment to fight the pandemic. These shipments aren’t enough to meet current demands from states.
Between the lines: Data on fatalities generally lag a couple of weeks behind what’s fueling the outbreak, which is mainly the number of new cases and hospitalizations, NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci told Fox News on Wednesday.
- State officials have stressed that lockdowns must continue even if cities begin to see slight improvements from social distancing.
- Coronavirus testing capacity is still far enough behind demand that the U.S. continues to only test the sickest patients, which allowed the coronavirus outbreak to spread without detection, almost certainly making it worse than it would have been otherwise.
Go deeper: In photos: Life in the era of coronavirus across the U.S.
Timeline: How the U.S. fell behind on the coronavirus
Early missteps allowed the new coronavirus to spread throughout the U.S for weeks before state and local officials implemented strict lockdowns designed to keep the pandemic from spinning further out of control.
Why it matters: The U.S. missed the boat on the kind of swift, early response that would have been most effective, and has been scrambling to catch up ever since. This timeline, compiled from official sources as well as media reports, shows how that all-important time was lost.
Dec. 31, 2019: China reports the novel coronavirus to the World Health Organization.
Jan. 6: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel notice for Wuhan, China.
Jan. 15: The first U.S. case is confirmed, in a man who traveled from Wuhan.
Jan. 17: The World Health Organization publishes a protocol for manufacturing coronavirus tests.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opts to develop its own test instead of using the WHO’s.
Jan. 30: The WHO declares global health emergency.
- The CDC confirms person-to-person spread of COVID-19 within the U.S.
Jan. 31: The Trump Administration suspended entry into the U.S. for most foreign nationals who had traveled to China in the past 14 days.
- The WHO reports 11,950 coronavirus cases worldwide.
Feb. 5: The CDC begins shipping its diagnostic tests to state and local health agencies.
Feb. 8: Labs report problems with the CDC’s tests.
Feb. 24: President Trump tweets: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
Feb. 29: Washington state reports the first COVID-19 death in the U.S.
- The Food and Drug Administration allows academic labs to develop and begin testing coronavirus testing kits while reviewing pending applications.
- The WHO reports 86,604 coronavirus cases worldwide.
March 5: LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics launch coronavirus test for commercial use.
March 9: Trump tweets: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”
- The WHO reports 114,381 coronavirus cases worldwide.
March 13: Trump declares a national emergency, freeing up $50 billion in federal funds for states and territories.
March 15: 33 states and the District of Columbia closed public schools, according to Education Week. This included the New York City school system, the largest in the country.
March 16: Trump advises Americans to self-isolate for 15 days.
March 19: Trump signed into law an emergency coronavirus relief package for paid sick leave and free testing.
March 23: 9 states had stay-at-home orders.
- Washington, Oregon, California, Louisiana, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
March 26: The U.S. now leads world in coronavirus cases.
- 12 more states issue stay-at-home orders, totaling 21: Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Hawaii, Connecticut, Vermont and Delaware
March 29: Trump extends social distancing measures to April 30.
March 30: Nine more states issue stay-at-home orders, bringing the total to 30.
- Governors say testing is still lacking in many states.
March 31: Trump warns of the potential for 100,000 to 240,000 deaths.
April 6: Twelve more states issue stay-at-home orders, bringing the total to 42.
U.S. surpasses Italy for most confirmed covid-19 deaths in the world
The United States’ covid-19 death tally is now the highest in the world, eclipsing Italy’s toll on Saturday, despite experts calling the U.S. figure “an underestimation.”
The U.S. toll is now 19,424, with nearly half a million confirmed cases, surpassing Italy’s total of 18,849. Italy has 147,577 infected with the virus.
Despite the country’s large elderly population, experts had previously forecast that Italy’s staggering toll wasn’t an outlier so much as a preview of what other countries could expect. The steady climb of cases has slowed, and the Mediterranean country is now preparing to reopen.
Friday marked the highest single-day total yet with at least 2,056 people reported dead from complications related to covid-19 in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to a Washington Post tally. The virus claimed about 1,900 lives in the United States each of the past three days.
The country’s first death from the virus was reported on Feb. 29 in Washington state. Less than a month later, 1,000 people coronavirus-related deaths had been recorded across the nation.
Experts and government leaders predict the apex is still looming and may come mid-April.
Experts fear the toll is worse than the numbers provided by Johns Hopkins University, given a lack of transparency in China and elsewhere, and the difficulty of confirming cause of death, especially outside hospitals.
In addition, a lack of widespread testing has likely contributed to an undercount of U.S. deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts only deaths in which the virus is confirmed in a laboratory test. It’s not known how accurate testing is.
White House reverses position after blocking health officials from appearing on CNN
Vice President Mike Pence’s office reversed course on Thursday afternoon, after declining for days to allow the nation’s top health officials to appear on CNN and discuss the coronavirus pandemic, in what was an attempt to pressure the network into carrying the White House’s lengthy daily briefings in full.
After this story was published, Pence’s office allowed for the booking of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield for CNN’s Thursday night coronavirus town hall. Dr. Anthony Fauci was also booked for Friday on “New Day.”
Previously, Pence’s office, which is responsible for booking the officials on networks during the pandemic, said it would only allow experts such as Fauci or Dr. Deborah Birx to appear on CNN if the network televised the portion of the White House briefings that includes the vice president and other coronavirus task force members.
CNN often only broadcasts President Donald Trump’s question and answer session, which sometimes includes the health care officials, live on-air.
After Trump leaves the podium, CNN frequently cuts out of the White House briefing to discuss and fact-check what the President has said. A CNN executive said that the network usually returns to such programming because of the extensive length of the full briefing that includes Pence, which can run in excess of two hours.
CNN did, however, air the vice president’s portion of the briefing Wednesday night.
Regardless, Pence’s office for several days declined to make the nation’s top health care officials available to CNN for the last seven days.
“When you guys cover the briefings with the health officials then you can expect them back on your air,” a Pence spokesperson told CNN Thursday morning.
Fauci, Birx, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Surgeon General Jerome Adams have all appeared on NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox during the last week, despite the fact that the broadcast networks have generally not covered the briefings that have included the vice president and health officials.
But the Vice President’s office had blocked all CNN appearances since last Thursday night.
Fauci appeared on the last five weekly CNN Town Halls, with Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Until this story was published, Vice President’s office has refused to make him, or anyone, available for Thursday’s town hall.
The White House has made two non health care officials available to CNN in the last week. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper appeared on “State of the Union” on Sunday and Peter Navarro appeared on Anderson Cooper’s show on Friday and “New Day” on Monday.
Trump has declined CNN’s repeated requests for an interview, instead appearing only on Fox News for softball interviews multiple times during the national emergency.
A CNN spokesperson declined to comment for this story.
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HENRY KOTULA 