Longer Looks: HIV; Coronavirus; Police; Ice Cream; Buffets; And More
Each week, KHN finds interesting reads from around the Web.
The New York Times:
Patient Is Reported Free Of H.I.V., But Scientists Urge Caution
A 36-year-old man in Brazil may be the first to experience long-term remission from H.I.V. after treatment with only a specially designed cocktail of antiviral drugs, researchers said on Tuesday. Just two people have been confirmed cured of H.I.V. so far, both after risky treatments involving bone-marrow transplants for their cancers. (Mandavilli, 7/7)
The New York Times:
Can An Algorithm Predict The Pandemic’s Next Moves?
Judging when to tighten, or loosen, the local economy has become the world’s most consequential guessing game, and each policymaker has his or her own instincts and benchmarks. The point when hospitals reach 70 percent capacity is a red flag, for instance; so are upticks in coronavirus case counts and deaths. But as the governors of states like Florida, California and Texas have learned in recent days, such benchmarks make for a poor alarm system. Once the coronavirus finds an opening in the population, it gains a two-week head start on health officials, circulating and multiplying swiftly before its re-emergence becomes apparent at hospitals, testing clinics and elsewhere. (Carey, 7/2)
The New York Times:
The Pandemic’s Big Mystery: How Deadly Is The Coronavirus?
More than six months into the pandemic, the coronavirus has infected more than 11 million people worldwide, killing more than 525,000. But despite the increasing toll, scientists still do not have a definitive answer to one of the most fundamental questions about the virus: How deadly is it? (McNeil Jr., 7/4)
AP:
Window Into Virus Surge: Death, Recovery At Houston Hospital
A few weeks after more than 100 people attended her husband’s funeral, the widow herself was on the brink of death. Her oxygen levels had fallen deadly low due to complications from COVID-19, and her heart stopped. Ten people, each in two layers of protective equipment, surrounded her hospital bed. Two climbed on opposite sides of the bed — one pressing on her chest, the other on her abdomen. (Merchant, 7/8)
The Washington Post:
At The Southeastern Veterans’ Center Outside Philadelphia, Nurses And Families Decry The Experimental Use Of Anti-Malarial Drug After Trump Touted The Treatment
They wrapped the dead in body bags and raced back to treat the living, crammed into a nursing home that, day after day, played the somber sound of taps over the speaker system so the veterans who lived there had the chance to say goodbye. The nurses and aides at the Southeastern Veterans’ Center in the suburbs of Philadelphia had watched so much go wrong since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The communal dining that lasted into April, the nights that feverish patients were left to sleep beside roommates who weren’t sick yet. “Merry Christmas,” one nurse told another when they finally got N95 masks, weeks into the crisis and just before administrators stopped staffing the isolation rooms because too many people were feared infected. (Cenziper and Mulcahy, 7/7)
Los Angeles Times:
As COVID Cases Surge, California Sheriff Changes Tune On Stay-At-Home
In mid-May, Merced County Sheriff Vernon Warnke had a lot to say about California’s stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus, none of it good. He posted a defiant message to Facebook saying he refused to enforce the state’s orders because they meant “economic slaughter” and he believed government had no right to tell him or anyone else it was too risky to get a haircut or dental checkup. (Branson-Potts, 7/7)
Politico:
The City That Actually Got Rid Of The Police
It was the moment that America needed.Days after George Floyd died at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, a different scene was playing out in what was once the most dangerous city in the United States. Joseph D. Wysocki was marching in the streets of Camden alongside residents in “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts. He found the organizer of the protest: Yolanda Deaver. Wysocki introduced himself and asked if he could join her. Absolutely, she said, and the two started marching together, holding up a sign reading STANDING IN SOLIDARITY. And then they posed for a now-viral photo. (Landergan, 6/12)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. Ice Cream Vendor Adapts To Life In A COVID-19 World
For the past 16 years, Mauro Rios Parra has ridden his bike to a warehouse on Washington Boulevard to start his day as a paletero. And every day for 16 years, he’s stuffed the same pushcart with more than 300 ice creams and fruit bars, or paletas: coconut, tamarindo, pineapple, hibiscus, coffee, lemon, mamey sapote, nance and his personal favorites, vanilla and strawberry. Then there’s the ice cream cups and sandwiches, the Choco Tacos, the Tweedy and Spider-Man and Ninja Turtle bars with gumball eyes. (Pineda, 7/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Buffets And Salad Bars, Closed By The Pandemic, Remain Roped Off
Bad news for fans of buffet meals: It might be a long time until your next one. Pizza Hut, Ponderosa & Bonanza Steakhouses and other restaurant chains have roped off their buffets to prevent contamination and crowding as they seek to reopen dining rooms during the Covid-19 pandemic. And grocery stores such as Whole Foods Market and Wegmans Food Markets Inc. have kept hot-food bars closed since March, until lately a growing part of the business and a draw for customers. Now, those sales have plummeted given the risk of self-service food. (Haddon and Kang, 7/7)
