First Edition: June 3, 2020
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Police Using Rubber Bullets On Protesters That Can Kill, Blind Or Maim For Life
In cities across the country, police departments have attempted to quell unrest spurred by the death of George Floyd by firing rubber bullets into crowds, even though five decades of evidence shows such weapons can disable, disfigure and even kill. In addition to rubber bullets — which often have a metal core — police have used tear gas, flash-bang grenades, pepper spray gas and projectiles to control crowds of demonstrators demanding justice for 46-year-old George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck, while other officers restrained his body. (Szabo, 6/3)
Kaiser Health News:
Hype Collides With Science As FDA Tries To Rein In ‘Wild West’ Of COVID Blood Tests
“Save your business while saving lives,” reads the website of Because Health, a Seattle tech startup selling two types of tests to employers willing to pay $350 a pop to learn whether their workers have been infected with COVID-19. The “Workplace Health” plan includes not only nasal swab tests to detect infection, but also blood tests aimed at indicating whether workers have developed antibodies to the virus — and, possibly, future protection. (Aleccia and Barry-Jester, 6/3)
Kaiser Health News:
ICUs Become A ‘Delirium Factory’ For COVID Patients
Doctors are fighting not only to save lives from COVID-19, but also to protect patients’ brains. Although COVID-19 is best known for damaging the lungs, it also increases the risk of life-threatening brain injuries — from mental confusion to hallucinations, seizures, coma, stroke and paralysis. The virus may invade the brain, as well as starve the organ of oxygen by damaging the lungs. To fight the infection, the immune system sometimes overreacts, battering the brain and other organs it normally protects. (Szabo, 6/3)
Kaiser Health News:
Open (Your Wallet) Wide: Dentists Charge Extra For Infection Control
After nearly two months at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Erica Schoenradt was making plans in May to see her dentist for a checkup. Then she received a notice from Swish Dental that the cost of her next visit would include a new $20 “infection control fee” that would likely not be covered by her insurer. “I was surprised and then annoyed,” said Schoenradt, 28, of Austin, Texas. She thought it made no sense for her dentist to charge her for keeping the office clean since the practice should be doing that anyway. She canceled the appointment for now. (Galewitz, 6/3)
Reuters:
U.S. CDC Reports Total Of 1.8 Million Coronavirus Cases
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday reported a total of 1,802,470 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 14,790 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 761 to 105,157. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 p.m. ET on June 1, versus its previous report released on Monday. (6/2)
The New York Times:
After Months Of Coronavirus Isolation, George Floyd Protests Draw Shoulder-To-Shoulder Crowds
For days, Kate Dixon, has been watching the videos of demonstrations from her home in a Denver suburb: the images of young people packed shoulder to shoulder, the crowds shouting in unison on downtown streets, the occasional détente between protester and police officer that ends in a hug. “You want that to be a wonderful moment,” said Ms. Dixon, a stay-at-home mother who has been sewing face masks in her spare time. “But your heart just hurts at all the illness this could be causing.” In the last week, the United States has abruptly shifted from one crippling crisis to the next. (Bosman and Harmon, 6/2)
The Associated Press:
Protests In Top 25 Virus Hot Spots Ignite Fears Of Contagion
As demonstrators flooded streets across America to decry the killing of George Floyd, public health experts watched in alarm — the close proximity of protesters and their failures in many cases to wear masks, along with the police using tear gas, could fuel new transmissions of the coronavirus. Many of the protests broke out in places where the virus is still circulating widely in the population. In fact, an Associated Press review found that demonstrations have taken place in every one of the 25 U.S. communities with the highest concentrations of new cases. Some have seen major protests over multiple days, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. (Smith and forster, 6/2)
ABC News:
Mass Protests Could Lead To A Another Wave Of Coronavirus Infections
As thousands of demonstrators continue to protest the killing of George Floyd, health experts are worried that a second wave of COVID-19 infections could be sparked by the mass gatherings. "What we have here is a very unfortunate experiment going on with COVID virus transmission," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. (Schumaker, 6/2)
The Associated Press:
The American Story, Splintered, And Those Vying To Tell It
The hard times that have befallen this nation in 2020 — a deadly pandemic, millions unemployed, political warfare, the upheaval after George Floyd’s death — have revealed an increasingly evident truth: The storylines that have long held the nation together are coming apart. “The United States is essentially a collage culture. And if you were a certain group, you had the comfort of the solidity of the great American story. It had a coherence,” says Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “And it’s now been broken apart into a million little pieces.” (Anthony, 6/3)
The Associated Press:
'Dangerous': Around World, Police Chokeholds Scrutinized
Three days after George Floyd died with a Minneapolis police officer choking off his air, another black man writhed on the tarmac of a street in Paris as a police officer pressed a knee to his neck during an arrest. Immobilization techniques where officers apply pressure with their knees on prone suspects are used in policing around the world and have long drawn criticism. One reason why Floyd’s death is sparking anger and touching nerves globally is that such techniques have been blamed for asphyxiations and other deaths in police custody beyond American shores, often involving non-white suspects. (Leicester, 6/3)
Los Angeles Times:
LAPD Will Limit Use Of Rubber Bullets On Protesters, Garcetti Says
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he has directed the LAPD to “minimize” its use of rubber bullets when dealing with peaceful protesters. “I think that we’ve seen less of any of those tactics and I hope that we can see the most minimal if not zero of those tactics,” he said.He mentioned that an officer suffered a fractured skull and that officers needed to make peaceful protesting possible. (Oreskes, 6/2)
The Hill:
Nurses, Still Fighting Coronavirus, Serve As Medics At George Floyd Protests
Nurses treating coronavirus patients have attended multiple protests over the killing of George Floyd to act as medics to protesters hit with tear gas and pepper spray. Clips have circulated on Twitter of nurses in numerous cities providing medical assistance to Black Lives Matter protesters, including in Minneapolis, where the demonstrations began after Floyd died in police custody last week. (Budryk, 6/2)
NPR:
Democrats Consider Police Reforms After George Floyd's Death
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has asked the Congressional Black Caucus to lead the process of drafting a legislative response to the protests that have swept the country following the death of George Floyd. House Democrats are sorting through dozens of proposals to address policing issues, including excessive use of force and racial profiling. "It is time, it is time for us to address the concerns that were being expressed by the protesters," Pelosi said at a press event at the Capitol Tuesday. "This is not a single incident. We know this is a pattern of behavior. and we also know the history that brings us to this sad place." (Snell and Grisales, 6/2)
The New York Times:
Was That A Firecracker Or A Gunshot? Unpredictability On America’s Streets
If one element binds the demonstrations that have roiled the cities and towns of America for the last week — beyond the full-throated cry for an end to racial and social injustice — it is the nerve-jangling unpredictability: the uneasy sense that everything could change in an instant. All that has been required is the firing of one rubber bullet. The spraying of one can of mace. The tossing of one lighted firecracker. One precipitating action. (Barry, 6/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Cause Of Death: COVID-19, Police Violence Or Racism?
Doctors and public health experts will tell you that, compared to white Americans, African American people die prematurely and disproportionately of many ills: heart disease, stroke, COVID-19, police violence. The proximate causes of these early deaths vary. But there is a sameness to the pattern, experts say, and a common source of the skewed statistics. Racism — not in its overt, name-calling form, but the kind woven deeply into the nation’s institutions — harms the 44 million Americans who identify as black and potentially shortens their lives, according to those who study racial inequities in health. (Healy, 6/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
For African-Americans, A Painful Economic Reversal Of Fortune
In the decade before Covid-19, African-Americans’ economic circumstances, crushed during the 2007-09 recession, had slowly but steadily improved. Then lockdowns crashed the economy, and last week the death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of police touched off a wave of angry and at times violent protests. The events have highlighted painful inequities that continue to weigh on African-Americans, in their health, their incomes and their treatment by the justice system. (Ip, 6/3)
Stat:
Many Black Men Fear Wearing A Mask More Than The Coronavirus
When the CDC issued guidelines in early March asking people to wear masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the question for many Black men was not where to get a mask or which kind. It was: How do I cover my face and not get shot? (McFarling, 6/3)
The New York Times:
Who’s Wearing A Face Mask? Women, Democrats And City Dwellers
As states continue to lift restrictions that were put in place to curb the coronavirus outbreak and as Americans start going out in public again, recent surveys suggest that gender, political affiliation and education level are factors that have a bearing on who is wearing a mask, and who isn’t. Public health officials have recommended wearing masks in public when social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, such as in grocery stores and pharmacies, and at least a dozen states have required them in those circumstances. And most businesses that are reopening are doing so with restrictions: fewer customers, social distancing and face masks. (Padilla, 6/2)
The New York Times:
The C.D.C. Waited ‘Its Entire Existence For This Moment.’ What Went Wrong?
Americans returning from China landed at U.S. airports by the thousands in early February, potential carriers of a deadly virus who had been diverted to a handful of cities for screening by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their arrival prompted a frantic scramble by local and state officials to press the travelers to self-quarantine, and to monitor whether anyone fell ill. It was one of the earliest tests of whether the public health system in the United States could contain the contagion. But the effort was frustrated as the C.D.C.’s decades-old notification system delivered information collected at the airports that was riddled with duplicative records, bad phone numbers and incomplete addresses. (Lipton, Goodnough, Shear, Twohey, Mandavilli, Fink and Walker, 6/3)
The New York Times:
‘They Let Us Down’: 5 Takeaways On The C.D.C.’s Coronavirus Response
Long considered the world’s premier public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has fallen short in its response to the most urgent public health emergency in its 74-year history — a pathogen that has penetrated much of the nation, killing more than 100,000 people. The agency made early missteps in testing and failed to provide timely counts of infections and deaths, hindered by aging technology across the U.S. health system. It hesitated in absorbing the lessons of other countries, and struggled to calibrate the need to move fast and its own imperative to be cautious. Its communications were sometimes confusing, sowing mistrust, even as it clashed with the White House and President Trump. (Shear, 6/3)
The New York Times:
Republican Convention Feud Escalates As Officials Weigh New Site
Republicans said Tuesday night that they were moving President Trump’s convention speech out of Charlotte, N.C., and to another city, after coming to a stalemate with Democratic officials in the state about safety and crowd size restrictions because of the coronavirus. Michael Ahrens, communications director of the Republican National Committee, said that “the celebration of the president’s acceptance of the Republican nomination will be held in another city.” But Republican officials also said they could still hold other convention business in Charlotte, so as not to break a formal contract they signed with the city more than two years ago. (Karni, 6/2)
The Associated Press:
Trump Says GOP Is Pulling Convention From North Carolina
Trump announced the news via tweet, complaining the state’s governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, and other officials “refuse to guarantee that we can have use of the Spectrum Arena” and were not “allowing us to occupy the arena as originally anticipated and promised.” “Because of @NC_Governor, we are now forced to seek another State to host the 2020 Republican National Convention,” he wrote. Trump and the Republican National Committee had been demanding that the convention be allowed to move forward with a full crowd and no face coverings — raising alarms in a state that is facing an upward trend in its virus cases, with about 29,900 cumulative cases and 900 deaths as of Tuesday. (Anderson, Robertson and Colvin, 6/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Trump Again Threatens To Move Republican Convention
The Democratic governor said in a letter to the RNC that uncertainty around the pandemic made it impossible to promise that a large convention could be held. “Planning for a scaled-down convention with fewer people, social distancing and face coverings is a necessity,” he wrote. Mr. Cooper cited May 30 correspondence from the RNC that he said demanded a “full convention,” including 19,000 delegates, alternative delegates, staff, volunteers, elected officials and guests. He also listed the party’s expectation of “full hotels and restaurants and bars at capacity” in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. (McCormick, 6/2)
Politico:
Trump Slams North Carolina And Says He's Moving GOP Convention Elsewhere
Republicans had already begun weighing other locations. Party officials are planning a visit to Nashville later this week. Other possibilities include Las Vegas; Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida; and Georgia. All of the prospective sites have directly expressed interest in hosting the convention, and party officials say it’s likely they will visit several of them in the coming days. Other states also are likely to make a play. Arizona, which has a Republican governor, is among the states voicing interest in recent days, according to two people briefed on the process. (King and Isenstadt, 6/2)
The New York Times:
Pandemic, Protests And Police: An Election Like No Other
On the biggest day of voting since the coronavirus disrupted public life, Americans cast ballots in extraordinary circumstances on Tuesday, heading to the polls during a national health and economic crisis and amid the widespread protests and police deployments that have disrupted communities across the nation. The most high-profile race of the day produced a surprising result when Representative Steve King, the Iowa Republican who was ostracized by his party after questioning why white nationalism was offensive, lost his primary to Randy Feenstra, a state senator who had the tacit support of much of the state’s G.O.P. establishment. (Epstein and Corasaniti, 6/2)
The Washington Post:
Primary Election Day In 8 State And D.C. Marked By Confusion
Voters in primaries around the country reported problems with mail-in ballots and confusion about where to turn out in person, as protests over the killing of George Floyd threatened to combine with the coronavirus pandemic to disrupt elections. Primaries were held Tuesday in eight states and the District of Columbia, with nearly every jurisdiction facing a surge of interest in voting by mail and accompanying logistical problems. In several places, the number of in-person voting places was significantly reduced, and cities including the District experienced long lines that grew into the early evening. (Gardner, Viebeck and Pompilio, 6/2)
Politico:
Mass Upheaval And Pandemic Spell Trouble For A Megaday Of Primaries
"We are particularly concerned about how the protests, and particularly the response to the protests, are going to affect voting," said Suzanne Almeida, the interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. She cited two particular stress points: curfews and an increased police presence. "If you look at the genesis of the protest that we saw over the weekend, it is police violence toward people of color," Almeida said. "Then asking people to walk through, or near, or around police or National Guard who are armed can feel dangerous. Particularly voters of color, but other voters as well." (Montellaro, 6/2)
The New York Times:
Scientists Question Medical Data Used In Second Coronavirus Study
Since the outbreak began, researchers have rushed to publish research about the new coronavirus spreading swiftly through the world. On Tuesday, for the second time in recent days, a group of scientists has questioned the data used in studies in two prominent medical journals. A group of scientists who raised questions last week about a study in The Lancet about the use of antimalarial drugs in coronavirus patients have now objected to another paper about blood pressure medicines in the New England Journal of Medicine, which was published by some of the same authors and relied on the same data registry. (Rabin, 6/2)
The Associated Press:
Concerns Mount About Two Studies On Drugs For Coronavirus
The New England Journal of Medicine issued an “ expression of concern ” Tuesday on a study it published May 1 that suggested widely used blood pressure medicines were not raising the risk of death for people with COVID-19. The study relied on a database with health records from hundreds of hospitals around the world. “Substantive concerns” have been raised about the quality of the information, and the journal has asked the authors to provide evidence it’s reliable, the editors wrote. (Marchione, 6/2)
Reuters:
Study Panning Anti-Malaria Drug Trump Took Against COVID Faces New Questions
Nearly 150 doctors signed an open letter to the Lancet last week calling the article’s conclusions into question and asking to make public the peer review comments that preceded publication. “This is not some sideshow or minor issue,” said Dr. Walid Gellad, a professor at University of Pittsburgh’s medical school, who was not a signatory of the letter but has been critical of the study. (Erman, 6/2)
Reuters:
Trump And Bolsonaro Discussed Research Effort On Using Hydroxychloroquine To Fight Coronavirus, White House Says
U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro discussed a joint research effort on using the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as both a prophylaxis and treatment for the coronavirus, the White House said on Tuesday. Trump and Bolsonaro “expressed their mutual appreciation for the longstanding collaboration on health issues between the two countries,” the White House said, discussing the U.S. delivery of 2 million doses of the controversial drug to Brazil and “a joint research effort to help further evaluate the safety and efficacy of hydroxychloroquine for both prophylaxis and the early treatment of the coronavirus.” (6/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Heart Drugs Show Promise With Covid-19 Complications
Spurred by promising early findings, researchers are investigating whether drugs currently approved to treat heart disease can also prevent or reduce complications from Covid-19 and help hospitalized patients recover sooner. Treatments being evaluated include blood-pressure drugs, blood thinners, statins, antiplatelets and a drug to lower triglycerides. Results from the studies, some of which could come as early as this summer, could offer doctors a new array of drugs to treat patients infected with the coronavirus. (Hopkins and McKay, 6/2)
Reuters:
Gilead's Next Step On Coronavirus: Inhaled Remdesivir, Other Easier-To-Use Versions
Gilead Sciences Inc is developing easier-to-administer versions of its antiviral treatment remdesivir for COVID-19 that could be used outside of hospitals, including ones that can be inhaled, after trials showed moderate effectiveness for the drug given by infusion. (Beasley, 6/2)
Reuters:
Reasonable To Expect Some Coronavirus Vaccine By Year-End, Pentagon Researcher Says
A senior U.S. Army vaccine researcher said on Tuesday it was reasonable to expect that some sort of coronavirus vaccine could be available to part of the U.S. population by the end of the year. Defense Secretary Mark Esper vowed on May 15 that the U.S. military and other parts of the government would, in collaboration with the private sector, produce a vaccine at scale to treat the American people and partners abroad by year-end. (Brunnstrom, O'Donnell and Steenhuysen, 6/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Fauci ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ About Coronavirus Vaccine
Anthony Fauci, a leading expert in the U.S. government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, expressed cautious optimism on Tuesday that several successful vaccine candidates would prove effective “within a reasonable period of time” to fight the novel pathogen. But how long the protection from an eventual vaccine might last is “a big unknown,” he said via remote video during The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Health Conference. A short duration of protection could create additional challenges, he said. (Abbott and Loftus, 6/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Can Operation Warp Speed Have A COVID-19 Vaccine This Year?
To capture the speed and audacity of its plan to field a coronavirus vaccine, the Trump administration reached into science fiction’s vault for an inspiring moniker: Operation Warp Speed. The vaccine initiative’s name challenges a mantra penned by an actual science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke: “Science demands patience.” Patience is essential for those who ply the science of vaccines. (Healy, 6/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Video: The Promise And Peril Of Fast-Tracking Coronavirus Vaccine Development
As the coronavirus continues to spread around the globe, companies and academic labs are racing to develop a vaccine that would help society get back to normal. But there could also be costs to moving too quickly. (Kammermann, 6/3)
The Washington Post:
7 In 10 Americans Would Be Likely To Get A Coronavirus Vaccine, Post-ABC Poll Finds
About 7 in 10 Americans say they would get a vaccine to protect against the novel coronavirus if immunizations were free and available to everyone, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The nationwide survey finds that a majority of people of all political affiliations are interested in receiving such a vaccine. But the extent of that interest varies along partisan lines, with slightly more than 8 in 10 Democrats saying they would definitely or probably get vaccinated, compared with slightly fewer than 6 in 10 Republicans. Independents fall in between. (Goldstein and Clement, 6/2)
The Associated Press:
Monkeys, Ferrets Offer Needed Clues In COVID-19 Vaccine Race
The global race for a COVID-19 vaccine boils down to some critical questions: How much must the shots rev up someone’s immune system to really work? And could revving it the wrong way cause harm? Even as companies recruit tens of thousands of people for larger vaccine studies this summer, behind the scenes scientists still are testing ferrets, monkeys and other animals in hopes of clues to those basic questions — steps that in a pre-pandemic era would have been finished first. (Neergaard, 6/3)
Reuters:
Exclusive: Lonza Sets New Goal To Make Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Ingredients
Lonza aims to speed completion of two commercial production lines for Moderna Inc’s trial COVID-19 vaccine so manufacturing could start four to six weeks earlier than planned if the project is successful, the Swiss drugmaker’s chairman said on Tuesday. (Miller, 6/2)
The New York Times:
Senate Confirms Inspector General To Oversee Virus Bailout Funds
A divided Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Brian D. Miller, a White House lawyer, to be the inspector general in charge of overseeing the Treasury Department’s $500 billion pandemic recovery fund. The confirmation, approved 51 to 40, almost entirely along party lines, puts Mr. Miller at the center of the politically charged effort to distribute government money to businesses that have been crippled by the coronavirus pandemic and comes at a time when President Trump’s management of the bailout is under intense scrutiny. (Rappeport, 6/2)
Politico:
Divided Senate Confirms Former Trump Counsel As Relief Watchdog
Miller worked for nearly a decade as the inspector general of the General Services Administration, overseeing major waste, fraud and abuse cases. But he more recently served in Trump's White House counsel office. Democrats were skeptical of whether he would act independently of Trump and his administration, after the president had removed other inspectors general and indicated he could limit information that federal watchdogs share with Congress. In his confirmation hearing last month, Miller pledged that he would not seek Trump's approval before reporting to lawmakers. (Warmbrodt, 6/2)
ProPublica:
This Treasury Official Is Running The Bailout. It’s Been Great For His Family.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have become the public faces of the $3 trillion federal coronavirus bailout. Behind the scenes, however, the Treasury’s responsibilities have fallen largely to the 42-year-old deputy secretary, Justin Muzinich. A major beneficiary of that bailout so far: Muzinich & Co., the asset manager founded by his father where Justin served as president before joining the administration. He reported owning a stake worth at least $60 million when he entered government in 2017. (Elliott, DePillis and Faturechi, 6/2)
The New York Times:
Government's Coronavirus Relief Plan Leaves Out Major Employers
One of the biggest questions surrounding the government’s efforts to help businesses struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic is whether the programs are constructed in a way that will prevent a wave of bankruptcies, keeping a short-term shock from turning into drawn-out economic pain. A new analysis from a group of Harvard University researchers suggests that the answer, should markets turn ugly again, might be no. (Smialek, 6/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Governors Warn Congressional Leaders Of Billion-Dollar Shortfalls Due To Coronavirus
Three governors testified to Congress in a virtual hearing Tuesday, giving updates on the tolls of coronavirus, plans for reopening and the projected billion-dollar impact of the pandemic on state finances. “COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on our budget,” Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told the House Committee on Commerce and Energy. The state faces a projected $6.2-billion drop in revenue in the next two years, and by some projections, over the next three years state budget shortfalls across the country are estimated to reach $765 billion. (Wailoo, 6/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
How Many U.S. Workers Have Lost Jobs During Coronavirus Pandemic? There Are Several Ways To Count
Friday’s U.S. jobs report from the Labor Department is expected to show U.S. employers shed nearly 30 million positions from payrolls this spring as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and related shutdowns—but that is just one of several varying estimates of job destruction. Other data suggest layoffs might have topped 40 million, while another count shows only about 20 million are tapping unemployment benefits. No matter the measure, job loss triggered by the pandemic is historically high and likely to leave a lasting mark on the U.S. economy. (Morath, 6/3)
ProPublica:
How Germany Saved Its Workforce From Unemployment While Spending Less Per Person Than The U.S.
The global coronavirus pandemic threw Petra Hamann’s job into peril faster than just about any other. She is a physical therapist, a profession that is all about close proximity to others, with a clientele that leans toward older people, exactly the population most vulnerable to the virus. In March, she and the rest of the 10-person therapy group that employed her lost virtually all of their clients, first as a result of clients’ fears about coming in for appointments, then as a result of government stay-at-home orders. But neither Hamann nor anyone else in her group lost their job. Instead, they were kept on and, even while having zero clients, received 60% of their normal pay. (MacGillis, 6/3)
Reuters:
Proteins In COVID-19 Patients' Blood Could Predict Severity Of Illness, Study Finds
Scientists have found 27 key proteins in the blood of people infected with COVID-19 which they say could act as predictive biomarkers for how ill a patient could become with the disease. In research published in the journal Cell Systems on Tuesday, scientists at Britain’s Francis Crick Institute and Germany’s Charite Universitaetsmedizin Berlin found the proteins are present in different levels in COVID-19 patients, depending on the severity of their symptoms. (Kelland, 6/2)
The New York Times:
Monster Or Machine? A Profile Of The Coronavirus At 6 Months
A virus, at heart, is information, a packet of data that benefits from being shared. The information at stake is genetic: instructions to make more virus. Unlike a truly living organism, a virus cannot replicate on its own; it cannot move, grow, persist or perpetuate. It needs a host. The viral code breaks into a living cell, hijacks the genetic machinery and instructs it to produce new code — new virus. President Trump has characterized the response to the pandemic as a “medical war,” and described the virus behind it as, by turns, “genius,” a “hidden enemy” and “a monster.” (Burdick, 6/2)
The Washington Post:
What Happens After You Recover From Covid-19
Francis Wilson survived a severe case of the coronavirus after 10 days on a ventilator, but the 29-year-old’s recovery has been slow. Doctors are still beginning to understand the long-term effects of the virus. (6/2)
The New York Times:
Red Cross Warns Of A ‘Staggering’ Drop In Blood Supplies
As protests and violence erupt in cities, the United States faces a new threat: The country is running out of blood. Several months of social distancing and stay-at-home orders have resulted in fewer people donating blood, according to health care workers, with collection drives at offices, schools and churches canceled en masse. For a while, the drop in donations was not critical because supply and demand fell in tandem as most surgeries were canceled and far fewer people were getting injured in car crashes and other accidents. (Flavelle, 6/2)
The New York Times:
Lawmakers Say Puff Bar Used Pandemic To Market To Teens
House lawmakers asked the Food and Drug Administration this week to ban Puff Bar, the fast-growing e-cigarette that has quickly replaced Juul as the vape of choice among young people. The disposable devices come in more than 20 flavors, among them piña colada, pink lemonade, watermelon and a mysterious blend called O.M.G. Although the Trump administration banned fruit, mint and dessert flavors in refillable cartridge-based e-cigarettes like Juul earlier this year, it carved out an exemption for brands that are used once and thrown away. (Kaplan, 6/2)
Reuters:
U.S. Temporarily To Allow Certain Impurities In Hand Sanitizer
The Trump administration said this week it will temporarily allow some impurities in alcohol-based hand sanitizer to ensure access to the product during the coronavirus pandemic, reversing course after having tightened restrictions in April. The move will provide clarity on impurity limits for a slew of fuel ethanol companies that had switched to producing hand sanitizer during the outbreak, after regulators discovered some of the impurities, including cancer-causing acetaldehyde, several weeks ago. (Kelly, 6/2)
The New York Times:
The Most Important Word In The Hospitality Industry? ‘Clean’
In February, news from the Wynn Las Vegas included plans for Valentine’s Day (among the offerings: a “Lover’s Menu for Two”) and National Margarita Day (four new cocktails). What a difference a pandemic makes. Three months later, the casino resort announced a much more sober initiative, the “Wynn Las Vegas Health & Disinfection Program.” The 28-page memo lays out how the 2,700-room property will address health and hygiene when it reopens. Out with mezcal and barhopping; in with thermal cameras, elevator capacity limits and disinfection protocols for the Chipper Champ, a chip-sorting machine. (Firshein, 6/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
From Disney To Michael Bay: Coronavirus TV And Movies Are Coming
Love, death and the coronavirus underpin “Songbird,” a thriller set in 2022 Los Angeles as a deadlier Covid-19 ravages the city. Action-movie veteran Michael Bay and former Paramount Pictures Film Group president Adam Goodman hope to sell world-wide rights to the forthcoming film at the virtual Cannes Film Festival later this month. They aim to release it later this year to an audience they believe will be ready for virus-themed entertainment. (Gamerman, 6/2)
NPR:
Gov. Cuomo Says New York Coronavirus Hospitalizations At An All-Time Low
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that the "number of new [coronavirus] cases walking in the door is at an all-time low." Cuomo said that the number of new coronavirus hospitalizations reported on June 1 was 154, which is the lowest number since the state started counting in mid-March. New York has been the state hit hardest in the U.S. by the coronavirus. (Horn, 6/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
China’s BYD Gets Extension On $1 Billion California Mask Deal
BYD Co., a Chinese electric-car maker turned mask producer, said it had secured a second reprieve on a troubled $1 billion deal to sell N95 masks to the state of California after missing a Sunday deadline to win a required federal certification. The Shenzhen, China-based company—which earlier in the coronavirus pandemic signed contracts to sell medical goods to high-profile customers, including multiple U.S. states and the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. —has faced delays in delivering hundreds of millions of masks. (Lin and Xiao, 6/2)
Reuters:
China Rejects Report That It Delayed COVID-19 Information Sharing With WHO
China said on Wednesday a news report that said it delayed sharing COVID-19 information with the World Health Organization (WHO) is totally untrue. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the remarks during a daily briefing in response to a question about the report by the Associated Press, which said the WHO was frustrated by significant delays in information sharing by Beijing as the coronavirus outbreak took hold in China in January. (6/3)
Reuters:
WHO Director For Americas Urges U.S. Help As Coronavirus Surges In Region
The World Health Organization’s regional director for the Americas urged the United States on Tuesday to keep helping countries in the region to fight the novel coronavirus even as the Trump administration leaves the U.N. agency. Coronavirus has infected almost 3 million people in the region that has massive inequalities, vulnerable indigenous groups in the Amazon and megacities where people live in close quarters and share public transportation, said the director, Carissa Etienne. (6/2)
Reuters:
Black And Asian People In England More Likely To Die From COVID-19, Says Report
Black and Asian people in England are up to 50% more likely to die after becoming infected with COVID-19, an official study said on Tuesday, putting pressure on the government to outline plans to protect the most at-risk communities. (Smout, 6/2)