| President Trump's top scientist, once sidelined, now faces a coronavirus test Posted: 20 Mar 2020 10:54 AM PDT  As one of President Trump's top scientific advisers, Kelvin Droegemeier is a key figure in the fight to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
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| As hospitals plead for supplies, FEMA director has no answers on mask shipments Posted: 22 Mar 2020 07:36 AM PDT  A day after he was unable to deliver specifics at a White House briefing, FEMA Director Peter Gaynor again had no answers during multiple Sunday morning interviews.
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| Strongest earthquake in 140 years rattles Croatia's capital, at least 1 dead Posted: 21 Mar 2020 11:41 PM PDT  The star marks the epicenter of a strong earthquake that rattled Croatia on Sunday morning, local time. (USGS) A strong earthquake rattled Zagreb on Sunday morning, local time, killing at least one person and littering the streets with debris.The temblor, which struck 5.7 miles (9.2 km) to the north of Zagreb and had a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km), was rated a magnitude 5.4, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).There has been at least one strong aftershock thus far with a magnitude of 4.6.> Zagreb hit by 5.3 magnitude earthquake ~30 minutes ago just as full lockdown started. Now everyone's outside grouped in front of their buildings. This won't help. pic.twitter.com/QPzAIqUSkM> > -- Filip Radelic (@fichek) March 22, 2020A teenage boy has reportedly died after a roof collapse in Zagreb."We received a report of the collapse of the building at Djordjiceva 13. An ambulance team took to the field and found a seriously injured child who showed no signs of life," said Zarko Rasic, director of the Zagreb Institute of Emergency Medicine, via a local news outlet. The boy's death was confirmed at a nearby hospital.People across the capital shared images on Twitter of debris from damaged buildings littering the streets, including the Croatian Parliament building. Vehicles were also seen nearly completely crumpled.The historic Zagreb Cathedral also suffered damage, with the top of one of the spires being broken off. The cathedral was severely damaged in 1880 when a significant earthquake shook the city.> Zagreb Cathedral tower is damaged pic.twitter.com/Pazq7ghNOp> > -- Ankica Zovko (@anacasey17) March 22, 2020"It felt like a train was coming through my apartment, in all my time in the city I have never felt anything like that before," a resident told The Dubrovnik Times.Electricity has been cut in parts of the capital, the news agency reported.All occupants at Zagreb's airport were evacuated from the building after the earthquake. No infrastructure or runway damage was found and the airport is now operating on a normal schedule.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPPrior to the earthquake, a lockdown was put in place in Zagreb and elsewhere across Croatia to combat the spread of coronavirus."Now everyone's outside grouped in front of their buildings. This won't help," wrote one person on Twitter after the earthquake struck."This was the strongest earthquake in Zagreb in the last 140 years, but there is no need to panic and go to gas stations in large numbers," government officials stated on Twitter. "Regardless of the situation, we emphasize once again the importance of keeping a distance and following the instructions to combat COVID ー 19!"By Sunday afternoon, local time, the Office of Emergency Management announced that they would provide meals and shelter for residents who cannot return to their homes.It was also announced that no major damage has been reported to the hospitals in Zagreb.For cleanup and recovery efforts in the coming days, AccuWeather meteorologists expect a storm to move into the area with snow by Tuesday.> Zagreb earthquake pic.twitter.com/vLaDbaAaNz> > -- Dante Buu (@DanteBuu) March 22, 2020> Ovo je jezivo u Zagrebu sa zemljotresom sta se desilo. Usred sranja sa koronom. zagreb zemljotres pic.twitter.com/qp9mapMpbV> > -- Sale (@SaleVieDub) March 22, 2020
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| Americans Coping With the Coronavirus Are Clogging Toilets Posted: 22 Mar 2020 08:48 AM PDT  Many Americans seem to be following the recommendations of public health officials to clean and sterilize countertops, doorknobs, faucets and other frequently touched surfaces in their homes.The problem? Many are then tossing the disinfectant wipes, paper towels and other paper products they used into the toilet.The result has been a coast-to-coast surge in backed-up sewer lines and overflowing toilets, according to plumbers and public officials, who have pleaded with Americans to spare the nation's pipes from further strain.Many say the woes besieging the nation's infrastructure have been compounded by the lack of toilet paper on store shelves, which is leading some to use paper towels, napkins or baby wipes instead.Across the country -- in Charleston, South Carolina; northeastern Ohio; Lexington, Kentucky; Austin, Texas; and Spokane, Washington -- wastewater treatment officials have beseeched residents not to flush wipes down the toilet using the hashtag WipesClogPipes."Flushable wipes are not truly flushable," said Jim Bunsey, chief operating officer of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. "They might go down the drain, but they do not break up like regular toilet paper."The plumbing repair company Roto-Rooter issued a similar plea to its customers, and said that substituting facial tissue for toilet paper was "another bad idea," unless it's used in small amounts and flushed frequently.The California State Water Resources Control Board warned this week that "even wipes labeled 'flushable' will clog pipes and interfere with sewage collection and treatment throughout the state.""Flushing wipes, paper towels and similar products down toilets will clog sewers and cause backups and overflows at wastewater treatment facilities, creating an additional public health risk in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic," it said.The agency said wastewater treatment plants across California were reporting problems.It noted that most urban sewage systems depend on gravity and water flow to move toilet paper and waste, and were not designed to accommodate disinfectant wipes and paper towels, which do not break down as easily and clog the system.The board noted that clogged sewer lines are more than just a headache for residents cooped up in their homes during a pandemic. Spills flow into lakes, rivers and oceans, where they can harm public health and the environment, it said.Plumbers said they were fielding an increase in calls from people working from home and self-quarantining."We have noticed an uptick in the amount of clogged main sewer lines and, when we dispatch our technicians, we are pulling baby wipes out of the line and we're seeing paper towels and Lysol wipes," Mark Russo, vice president of Russo Brothers & Co., a plumbing and heating service in East Hanover, New Jersey, said on Saturday."These items are things that should never be flushed down the toilet," he said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Arrival of virus in Gaza raises fears about vulnerable areas Posted: 22 Mar 2020 12:47 AM PDT  The arrival of the coronavirus in the Gaza Strip, an impoverished enclave where the health care system has been gutted by years of conflict, raised fears Sunday the pandemic may soon prey on some of the most vulnerable populations in the world. Authorities in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007, confirmed its first two cases overnight, in returnees who had come from Pakistan. An outbreak could wreak havoc on the Palestinian territory, which is home to over 2 million people, many living in cramped cities and refugee camps.
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| Italy's coronavirus deaths surge by 627 in a day, elderly at high risk Posted: 20 Mar 2020 10:16 AM PDT  The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has leapt by 627 to 4,032, officials said on Friday, an increase of 18.4% - by far the largest daily rise in absolute terms since the contagion emerged a month ago. On Thursday, Italy overtook China as the country to register most deaths from the highly contagious respiratory disease. The total number of cases in Italy rose to 47,021 from a previous 41,035, a rise of 14.6%, the Civil Protection Agency said.
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| Dozens test positive for coronavirus after attending wedding Posted: 21 Mar 2020 07:06 PM PDT  "It's a very serious situation and our main priority is the health and safety of our guests and the broader community," the bride, Emma Metcalf, said.
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| An infectious disease expert explains why herd immunity probably won't work in the fight against coronavirus Posted: 20 Mar 2020 02:59 PM PDT  The only safe way we'll achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus is with the help of a vaccine, which will be available in at least 18 months.
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| Dallas megachurch pastor Jeffress capitulates to coronavirus warnings, moves services online Posted: 20 Mar 2020 02:11 PM PDT  The pews will be empty this Sunday at First Baptist Dallas, the megachurch whose pastor, Robert Jeffress, is one of President Trump's most ardent supporters and a frequent guest on Fox News.
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| Sen. Lindsey Graham Says Government Could Underwrite ‘70 Percent’ of U.S. Payroll if Coronavirus Containment Continues Posted: 20 Mar 2020 12:20 PM PDT  Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Friday warned that federal and state governments could be forced to support a large segment of the American workforce if measures designed to contain the Wuhan coronavirus remain in place."I talked with [Treasury Secretary Steve] Mnuchin this morning. Here's the challenge, and we've just got to tell the public the truth: we're going to be floating probably 70 percent of the nation's payroll," Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill. "The federal government in some form, working with the states and the private sector, but mostly the federal government is going to underwrite 70 percent of the payroll in this country if the containment policies continue to be this aggressive."Graham said the economic stimulus currently being hashed out by senators in conjunction with the White House will be much more expensive than originally thought."It's going to be a hell of a lot more than $1 trillion," Graham said. Other Republican and Democratic senators have privately agreed that the stimulus will exceed the $1 trillion mark, CNN reported on Friday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said the body would be ready to vote on the stimulus by Monday."We expect to have an agreement by the end of today," McConnell told CNN. "The game plan remains the same. We will be voting on a final package in the Senate on Monday."The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has caused large swaths of the U.S. to implement closures of schools, theaters and other public venues, with New York and California ordering nonessential workers to stay at home and residents to remain home as much as possible. Jobless claims have surged by 281,000 since March 8, the highest rise since September 2017.
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| United Airlines reinstates some international flights to help displaced customers get home Posted: 21 Mar 2020 06:28 PM PDT  United Airlines is temporarily reinstating flights between Newark, Washington and San Francisco and Asia, Europe, Israel, Australia and Brazil.
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| Why is the coronavirus so much more deadly for men than for women? Posted: 21 Mar 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Italy announced that coronavirus deaths of men outnumbered those of women by a factor of 2 to 1. That mirrors the experience of China. What gives?
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| How do you do social distancing in a refugee camp? Posted: 20 Mar 2020 12:26 PM PDT |
| US raps France for prisoner swap with Iran Posted: 22 Mar 2020 05:50 AM PDT  The Trump administration on Sunday harshly criticized France for releasing an Iranian man wanted for prosecution by the United States in an apparent prisoner swap with Iran. The State Department said it "deeply regrets" the "unilateral" French decision to release Jalal Rohollahnejad, who was the subject of a U.S. extradition request on charges of violating American sanctions on Iran. Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement that France had failed to uphold its obligations under a joint extradition treaty and harmed the cause of justice.
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| Trump on China: ‘I just wish they could have told us earlier’ Posted: 21 Mar 2020 01:05 PM PDT  President Trump on Saturday said he wished that China would have notified the United States sooner about the coronavirus and its impact.
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| Democrats alarmed by Biden's young voter problem Posted: 21 Mar 2020 01:15 PM PDT  The party's presidential front-runner is taking the vulnerability seriously. Some say it reminds them of Clinton in 2016, and won't be easy to overcome.
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| Pope calls for world prayer to stop coronavirus, will deliver special blessing Posted: 22 Mar 2020 05:32 AM PDT  Pope Francis said on Sunday he will this week deliver an extraordinary "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) blessing - normally given only at Christmas and Easter - and called for worldwide prayer to respond to the coronavirus crisis. Francis made the surprise announcement in his weekly Angelus message, which he has been delivering from inside the Vatican over the internet and television instead of before crowds in St. Peter's Square. The square, which is part of the Vatican, has been closed as part of a lockdown in Italy to try to contain the spread of the virus.
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| Sean Spicer Makes His Surreal Debut as a White House Reporter Posted: 20 Mar 2020 03:22 PM PDT  Among all the bizarre and abnormal things that seem to happen regularly during Donald Trump's presidency, the spectacle of Sean Spicer grilling his former boss in the White House briefing room must be ranked as both memorable and peculiar.On Friday, when the president called on his former White House press secretary—who currently hosts a weeknight show on Newsmax—Spicer didn't press Trump about his actions regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic, as others did, but instead asked his reaction to the Republican senators who reportedly acted on non-public pandemic predictions to dump their stock holdings weeks before the market crash.Trump dodged, claiming ignorance. Weirdly, he neglected to call on Spicer by name, as if forgetting that the Dancing with the Stars contestant-turned-journalist served as his chief spokesman for the rocky first six months of his administration. Spicer resigned in protest after Trump appointed Anthony Scaramucci—now a severe critic of the president—as White House communications director, a job "The Mooch" held for all of two weeks until he, too, flamed out.Yet reporters in the room on Friday acknowledged both the validity of Spicer's question and the oddness of the questioner. "It obviously made for a surreal scene to have the former White House press secretary, best known for lying about Trump's inauguration crowd size, back in the briefing room and asking totally relevant questions," said a veteran member of the White House press corps who asked not to be further identified. "He had more credibility today asking questions than he did answering them."A second longtime White House correspondent told The Daily Beast: "I thought it was interesting that the president didn't call on him by name. That question had to be asked today. It was a legitimate question… I will say it felt very surreal."A third White House correspondent, however, was less than amused: "Spicer has a long way to go before he has the confidence of the rest of the White House press corps. His shameful record of repeatedly lying from the podium as press secretary helped usher in an era of gaslighting the public that won't soon be forgotten. One day in the briefing room doesn't erase that."Reached by The Daily Beast as he was about to tape Friday's installment of Spicer & Co., which he's been hosting since early March, Spicer agreed that interrogating Trump from the back row of the briefing room was something of an out-of-body experience."The funny part is that we were at least six or seven questions in before anyone asked about the stocks," Spicer said, "and that was probably the No. 1 story on the morning shows this morning and yet not one of the networks asked about it until I did." (A White House correspondent quibbled: "If Sean Spicer had not asked that question about the senators and their stock selloffs, someone else would have.")Spicer added: "I thought about this yesterday when I knew this [the briefing] was happening. You know, CNN sent Sanjay Gupta the other day to a briefing and no one had a problem with that. [Gupta, an M.D. and a surgeon, functions as CNN's medical correspondent.] The point is that I have a show. We were talking about these issues on the show today and I thought it would be great to get the president to respond to them."Spicer, who ran communications for the Republican National Committee before his White House stint, is not the first partisan operative to try his hand at journalism. Bill Moyers, Diane Sawyer, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert and George Stephanopoulos, for instance, all worked in politics before crossing over to the Fourth Estate. But Spicer is the first White House press secretary to do it so conspicuously during his ex-boss's first term. Since his departure from the White House, Spicer has been on the lecture circuit and did a stint last year as a special correspondent for Extra, interviewing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Spicer's successor as White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and covering the White House Correspondents Dinner after-parties. But he conceded that during his long career as a Republican operative, he's had zero experience as a working journalist."But I would also argue that I'm not trying to be a reporter," he insisted. "I went to ask questions for my show. I'm not claiming that I'm some sort of hard-hitting reporter. Newsmax has plenty of people who do that. We have a White House correspondent."Still, Spicer has a permanent White House media credential, a so-called "hard pass" reserved for members of the regular press corps. Spicer pointed out that when he was press secretary, he credentialed anybody from a "bonafide" news organization."It was definitely weird to be on the other side of the podium," Spicer said. "But sitting on the other side of the podium, I continue to feel sympathy for anyone who has to get up there and brief, because of the nature of the questions and also the tone and frankly the lack of respect that sometimes is afforded to the folks up there. No matter what some of those folks think, he still is the president of the United States…You can ask tough, hard-hitting questions and be respectful at the same time."Asked his reaction to Trump's angry eruption at NBC News' Peter Alexander, who pushed the president over his arguably unwarranted optimism about a possible coronavirus treatment regime, Spicer said: "I think part of this has come down to tone…I'm not necessarily judging Peter's question. I was worried about getting my question out."Trump accused Alexander of asking "a nasty question" and being "a terrible reporter.""Trump is going to push back," Spicer said. "This isn't anything new. It's not like this exchange is that novel. How many times has he gone after other reporters? He's used the word 'nasty' countless times. I'm not really sure why what happened today was unique."The beauty of this country is the media can ask whatever they want," Spicer went on. "They can hold every level of government to the highest accountability. And yet that same right gives anyone else the right to say what they want. And no one's gonna get jailed, and no one's gonna get reprimanded. And no one's gonna get punished."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Experts fear India will be the next coronavirus hotspot Posted: 21 Mar 2020 10:17 AM PDT  Experts question India's coronavirus preparedness in light of its crowds, weak public health system and prevalence of other respiratory illnesses.
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| U.S. to Iran: Coronavirus won't save you from sanctions; 'maximum pressure' still on Posted: 20 Mar 2020 10:43 AM PDT  The United States sent Iran a blunt message this week: The spread of the coronavirus will not save it from U.S. sanctions that are choking off its oil revenues and isolating its economy.
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| Imports of medical supplies plummet as demand in US soars Posted: 20 Mar 2020 02:51 PM PDT  The critical shortage of medical supplies across the U.S., including testing swabs, protective masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer, can be tied to a sudden drop in imports, mostly from China, The Associated Press has found. Trade data shows the decline in shipments started in mid-February after the spiraling coronavirus outbreak in China led the country to shutter factories and disrupted ports. Some emergency rooms, hospitals and clinics in the U.S. have now run out of key medical supplies, while others are rationing personal protective equipment like gloves and masks.
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| A Las Vegas strip club is offering drive-thru shows, nude hand sanitizer wrestling, and 'coronavirus-free' lap dances Posted: 20 Mar 2020 02:37 PM PDT  A representative for Deja Vu, which owns Little Darlings, told Insider that it's "business as usual" and the club is still offering lap dances.
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| California tests out strict limits on daily life previously unimaginable Posted: 20 Mar 2020 07:21 PM PDT  Residents prepared for a month-long stay-at-home order once thought unimaginable.
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| Iran's Khamenei rejects U.S. help offer, vows to defeat coronavirus Posted: 22 Mar 2020 12:57 AM PDT  The United States' offer to help Iran in its fight against the new coronavirus pandemic is strange, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech on Sunday, describing U.S. leaders as "charlatans and liars". Tensions between the two countries have been running high since 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.
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| US airlines warn of 'draconian' steps if Congress fails to help Posted: 21 Mar 2020 02:14 PM PDT  The chief executives of the largest US airline companies asked Congress Saturday for urgent help avoiding widespread layoffs among the industry's 750,000 employees. "Unless worker payroll protection grants are passed immediately, many of us will be forced to take draconian measures such as furloughs," the CEOs said in a letter to leaders of both houses of Congress distributed by the Airlines for America trade group. Airlines for America represents American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines as well as shippers FedEx and UPS.
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| Coronavirus: Trump claims ignorance about Burr stock scandal then attacks reporter who asks about it Posted: 20 Mar 2020 10:50 AM PDT  Donald Trump pleaded ignorance on Friday about a senior GOP senator dumping hotel stocks that since have lost value due to the coronavirus outbreak, but then immediately admitted to knowing a Democratic lawmaker also sold stocks before the virus his US soil."I'm not aware of it," the Republican president said when asked about Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr selling hotel stocks around the time lawmakers began getting classified briefings about the virus and its potential damaging blow to the US economy.
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| A mix-and-match coronavirus-testing strategy has allowed New York to screen 32,000 people — far more than any other state Posted: 20 Mar 2020 02:19 PM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state was now testing 10,000 people per day. That's about on par with the testing volume in South Korea.
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| 'A mess in America': Why Asia now looks safer than the U.S. in the coronavirus crisis Posted: 20 Mar 2020 04:14 PM PDT  In a clear sign that the U.S. botched its coronavirus response, some Americans are relieved they stayed in countries closest to the outbreak's origin.
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| Mexico navy copter down in police operation; 1 dead, 10 hurt Posted: 21 Mar 2020 07:01 PM PDT |
| 'He just needs more of everything': Biden campaign faces retool after primary surge Posted: 22 Mar 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Newly filed campaign finance reports show how Biden's campaign lagged behind rivals until he caught fire after the South Carolina primary.
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| China, South Korea, Taiwan sending masks and medical staff to other countries in need Posted: 21 Mar 2020 03:33 AM PDT  The Chinese Red Cross shipped 30 tons of medical equipment along with nine Chinese medical staff to assist with preventing and controlling the virus.
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| Trump Officials Warned of Coronavirus Economic Impact Before Senators Sold Off Their Stock Posted: 20 Mar 2020 03:52 PM PDT  On Jan. 21, senators gathered in their chamber on Capitol Hill to formally begin the impeachment trial for President Donald Trump. For hours on end, they were unable to leave their seats let alone check their electronic devices or speak with staff. Consumed with listening to hours-long arguments, they paid little attention to much else other than the trial.Then, three days later, in a private briefing, Trump administration officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the State Department told a group of senators that they were growing increasingly concerned about a virus spreading throughout China. The administration first learned of the outbreak Jan. 3, officials have now said. But by the time they convened with lawmakers for the briefing, the novel coronavirus had killed 41 people and infected more than 1,200.According to two individuals with knowledge of the briefing, officials stressed to senators that the coronavirus was contagious, deadly, and would eventually spread beyond China's borders to the U.S., at which point it would pose serious challenges for the political system and the economy."It was clear that there would be significant economic effects," an individual with knowledge of the all-senators briefing said, adding that during the briefing lawmakers pressed for the administration to come up with a plan to handle the economic fallout.The briefing served as a wake-up call for senators who were at the time engrossed in the impeachment trial, spending eight hours a day stuck on the Senate floor for historic and weighty constitutional arguments and even more time off the floor strategizing about the president's trial."For a lot of people it was like, 'why am I being asked to go to this thing?" said one Senate aide. "It was an insane time."The briefing was hosted by the Senate Health Committee. Afterwards, some members began to sound the alarm more about the spread of the virus. Others insisted that fears were overblown. And at least two—North Carolina's Richard Burr and Georgia's Kelly Loeffler—began selling hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars worth of equities. Sen. Kelly Loeffler Dumped Millions in Stock After Coronavirus BriefingThe sales of between $1.2 million and $3.1 million in stocks jointly owned by Loeffler and her husband began the very day of the briefing, The Daily Beast first reported Thursday. On Friday, she insisted that the trades were entirely the work of a third party investment advisor with whom she shared no information and had no conversations about the transactions. Loeffler's husband is Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.Burr acknowledged individually selling between $600,000 and $1.7 million in mid-February, but said the sales were prompted purely by public news reporting on the coronavirus, not by nonpublic information gleaned through his official duties.Sources who spoke with The Daily Beast about the Jan. 24 briefing, and other congressional briefings over the last six weeks, said it was clear from what the administration officials said about the coronavirus that the U.S. would suffer financially, especially if there was community spread."There was a general sense conveyed of a rising crisis and uncertainty that might lead to someone wanting to sell everything," one person with knowledge of the conversations in the briefing told The Daily Beast.Another individual with knowledge of the Senate-wide briefings said administration officials spoke with senators about how the coronavirus could potentially limit things like cargo shipments and severely restrict essential supply chains. Some aides told The Daily Beast that in other early closed-door briefings, the administration was not providing much information that had not been made public at the time through news reporting. Still, many on Capitol Hill feel that having those briefings—some of which were unclassified—in the open would have armed the public with the same information, coming directly from U.S. public health officials, that lawmakers were benefiting from at the time. Since the senators' stock trading was reported on Thursday, Democrats have been swift with condemnation. More notable, however, has been the blowback from the right. On Thursday night, Fox News' Tucker Carlson called for Burr's resignation, calling his action a "moral crime." On Friday morning, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a staunch ally of the president's, tweeted that "'Stock Selloff Senators' isn't exactly the most AmericaFirst caucus to be forming in this time of crisis." Fox News Grills Sen. Kelly Loeffler on Her Stock Dump: How Was This Not Insider Trading?Even Burr's fellow North Carolina Republican in the Senate—Sen. Thom Tillis, who faces a tough re-election fight this fall—tweeted on Friday that Burr "owes North Carolinians an explanation" and supported a "professional and bipartisan" inquiry into the matter. In a press briefing Friday morning, President Trump told reporters that lawmakers who had been singled out for their sell offs, including Burr and Loeffler, were "all honorable people.""They say they did nothing wrong," Trump said. But in a possible bid to get out in front of the backlash, Burr announced that he'd spoken with the GOP chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), and asked him to open a "full review" of his trading activity. Loeffler told CNBC on Friday afternoon that she'd submit to an Ethics review, too. But it's unclear when a review by the notoriously secretive Ethics panel will begin, or when it would end.The political ramifications of that probe are more acute for Loeffler than for Burr. The third-term North Carolina senator said his term, which expires in 2022, will be his last. Loeffler, who is expected to use a chunk of her estimated $500 million fortune to win the November special election for the seat she was appointed to on Jan. 6, has been constantly pummeled from both her right and her left over the trading news."People are losing their jobs, their businesses, their retirements, and even their lives and Kelly Loeffler is profiting off their pain?" asked Loeffler's primary opponent, Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), on Twitter. "I'm sickened just thinking about it." A Collins ally, the GOP Speaker of Georgia's House, openly fretted on Friday about broader fallout, telling the Atlanta Journal Constitution that "a lot of people are going to associate these activities with some very fine candidates running for the Georgia House and are going to hold that against us."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Peloton is temporarily halting sales and deliveries of its $4,295 treadmill because of the coronavirus, just as people are looking for new ways to work out at home Posted: 20 Mar 2020 09:58 AM PDT  Peloton is suspending delivery and sales of its treadmill, but it's still selling its bike and offering a free 90-day trial of its workout app.
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| Coronavirus in New York: 'Deluge' of Cases Begins Hitting Hospitals Posted: 21 Mar 2020 07:22 AM PDT  NEW YORK -- New York state's long-feared surge of coronavirus cases has begun, thrusting the medical system toward a crisis point.In a startlingly quick ascent, officials reported Friday that the state was closing in on 8,000 positive tests, about half the cases in the country. The number was 10 times higher than what was reported earlier in the week.In the Bronx, doctors at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center say they have only a few remaining ventilators for patients who need them to breathe. In Brooklyn, doctors at Kings County Hospital Center say they are so low on supplies that they are reusing masks for up to a week, slathering them with hand sanitizer between shifts.Some of the jump in New York's cases can be traced to significantly increased testing, which the state began this week. But the escalation, and the response, could offer other states a glimpse of what might be in store if the virus continues to spread. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday urged residents to stay indoors and ordered nonessential businesses to keep workers home.State officials have projected that the number of coronavirus cases in New York will peak in early May. Both the governor and Mayor Bill de Blasio have used wartime metaphors and analogies to paint a grim picture of what to expect. Officials have said the state would need to double its available hospital beds to 100,000 and could be short as many as 25,000 ventilators.As it prepares for the worst-case projections, the state is asking retired health care workers to volunteer to help. The city is considering trying to turn the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan into a makeshift hospital."The most striking part is the speed with which it has ramped up," said Ben McVane, an emergency room doctor at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens. "It went from a small trickle of patients to a deluge of patients in our departments."At Elmhurst, a 545-bed public hospital that serves a large population of immigrants living in the country without legal permission and low-income residents, coronavirus patients have begun to crowd out others. Protective gear is running low. Doctors are worried there will be a shortage of ventilators.Outside the facility, at a tent housing a new mobile-testing site, a line snaked around the building Friday, a sign of the demand on testing and how much worse the influx could become.Demetre Daskalakis, deputy commissioner of the city's Department of Health, estimated that hundreds of thousands or even millions of city residents would be infected in the outbreak. Officials, however, have said that most people will have mild to moderate symptoms, or none at all.Generally, about 20% of coronavirus patients require hospitalization, with about one-quarter of those needing to be put on a mechanical ventilator machine to help them breathe. Statewide, more than 1,200 people have been hospitalized with the virus, according to Cuomo's office. About 170 patients were in intensive care units in city hospitals, according to the city.But even those initial cases were straining the health care system, a worrying sign."There's no reference for this," said Daniel Singer, who has been an emergency room doctor for 14 years and now works at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center. "It's totally unprecedented."Lincoln administrators met Friday to discuss its dwindling supply of ventilators, according to another employee.Dr. Mitchell Katz, head of the Health and Hospitals Corp., which runs New York City's public hospitals, said there were 230 patients in the Elmhurst emergency room Thursday, about 50 more than any recent peak. Most were patients with the symptoms of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, he said.The system has received 100 more ventilators from its supplier and is expecting hundreds more, Katz said. At the same time, de Blasio has cast the equipment shortage in stark terms and has asked the federal government for help."I don't mean to be too dramatic here; it's just a fact," he said Friday in an interview with WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer. "It is a fact that a lot of people are going to die who don't need to die if this doesn't happen quickly."As of Friday, 35 people with the coronavirus had died in New York state -- the second-highest number in the nation behind Washington state, where the virus appeared to hit first.In addition to converting the Javits Center, officials have considered turning a variety of other places into temporary medical facilities, including Madison Square Garden and the student dorms at New York University. A military hospital ship with 1,000 beds is coming, but it will not arrive until April. The state is planning to waive regulations in order to urge hospitals to increase capacity.In the short term, hospital workers say their biggest worry is a severe shortage of the medical gear that protects them from sick patients.The state has three stockpiles of medical supplies, including millions of masks and gloves as well as more sophisticated equipment like ventilators. On Friday, the state health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, said those supplies had been tapped to help backfill shortages at some hospitals.Hospitals have been trying to find more of the N95 masks, which are most effective at preventing the virus's spread, as well as lighter surgical masks, goggles and gowns. But with suppliers running out across the world, hospital workers have improvised.At Kings County Hospital Center and the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, administrators have given doctors one N95 mask to last all week, according to employees at the facilities. At Kings County, emergency room doctors wipe down the masks with hand sanitizer between shifts and put the masks in brown paper bags labeled with their names, a doctor there said.The Health and Hospitals Corp., which runs Kings County, denied that workers were being told to reuse masks. A representative of Northwell Health, which includes Long Island Jewish, acknowledged that administrators were trying to preserve masks because the supply was limited.The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that N95 masks should be discarded after each interaction with an infected patient and should not be used for more than eight hours.At other hospitals across the city and beyond, workers have turned to social media to plead for masks.In a hospital affiliated with Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, administrators stowed their masks in a locked room after a fistfight broke out among workers and visitors over access to the dwindling stockpile. Several hospitals have sent emails warning workers that they can be fired for the "unauthorized use" of masks.Medical workers exposed to the coronavirus had been self-quarantining, but this week state and city health officials issued new guidance recommending that hospital workers stay on the job until they show symptoms of the virus. People with symptoms of the virus spread it most easily, but research has also indicated that asymptomatic transmission is possible."I'm worried because if we get it, everybody is going to get it," said Aretha Morgan, a pediatric emergency room nurse at Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan. "I might actually be exposing children in the ER."Katz, the head of New York City's public hospitals, said he understood fears about having to keep working after being exposed. He defended the policy by saying the virus was already widespread, so workers exposed in a hospital setting were not any more exposed than anybody on the subway.He also said that while more supplies were needed, workers at public hospitals had enough protective gear to last through the end of the month.The city's other efforts included reserving 1,500 hotel rooms to potentially use for people with mild coronavirus symptoms or other illnesses, said Deanne Criswell, the city's commissioner of emergency management.Some medical students have also volunteered to help respond to the crisis. For now, students are working in support roles, such as taking notes and managing materials, said David Muller, dean for medical education at the Icahn School of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Health System.But if the number of cases continues to rise, it is possible that graduating students could start seeing patients -- though not necessarily ones with the virus -- even before their residencies are scheduled to begin in July."It could be not even a week or two before we have to sweep away some of those restrictions," Muller said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Italy reports record-high single-day death toll from coronavirus Posted: 21 Mar 2020 04:26 AM PDT  Over 700 people died from coronavirus in Italy on Saturday.
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| What COVID-19 looks like inside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Posted: 20 Mar 2020 10:02 AM PDT  The coronavirus continues to affect communities across the globe. Yahoo News spoke with Jerry Allred and his daughter Rachel about how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is dealing with the pandemic.
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| Africa lockdowns begin as coronavirus cases above 1,000 Posted: 21 Mar 2020 06:57 AM PDT  Lockdowns have begun in Africa as coronavirus cases rise above 1,000, while Nigeria on Saturday announced it is closing airports to all incoming international flights for one month in the continent's most populous country. Rwanda said all unnecessary movements outside the home are banned for two weeks as of midnight except for essential services such as health care and shopping. The East African nation, which has 17 cases, told all public and private employees to work from home.
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| Airlines appear to come up short in bid to win cash grants in rescue package Posted: 21 Mar 2020 12:24 PM PDT  WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - A last-ditch effort by the chief executives of major U.S. airlines to try to win cash grants to weather the coronavirus crisis looked to be unsuccessful, four congressional aides and airline officials said late Saturday. Airlines had made a last ditch plea urging that $29 billion of $58 billion sought in assistance for airlines be in the form of cash grants. The CEOs of 10 U.S. passenger and cargo carriers had said in a letter that without direct cash assistance, "draconian measures" such as furloughs may be necessary.
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| Emirates Airlines suspends flights to dozens more cities Posted: 21 Mar 2020 11:57 AM PDT  Dubai carrier Emirates Airlines announced Saturday it would suspend flights to dozens more cities, taking its total route closures past 100, in a bid to forestall the spread of coronavirus. The United Arab Emirates on Friday announced its first two deaths from the disease. Total recorded infections in the UAE stood at 153, of which 38 have recovered.
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| 'No one is talking about this': Trump refused to say when everyone who needs a coronavirus test can get one Posted: 20 Mar 2020 01:20 PM PDT  Two weeks ago, Trump falsely said "anybody" who wants a coronavirus test can get one. Now he says "no one is talking" about the nationwide shortage.
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| Coronavirus: FAA briefly suspends all flights bound for NYC, Philadelphia airports Posted: 21 Mar 2020 12:02 PM PDT  The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a "ground stop" for all flights to New York City airports including John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark due to staffing issues related to Coronavirus.
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| One Mask Only: Coronavirus Docs and Nurses Forced to Make Terrifying Compromises Posted: 21 Mar 2020 02:30 AM PDT  In the passenger seat of her car, Rachael, a hospice nurse in South Carolina, carries a Ziploc bag with two surgical masks inside. Every day, she dons one of the masks and wears it into nursing homes, hospitals, and private homes across the area, caring for her elderly patients. Twelve hours later, she takes what is supposed to be a single-use mask off, sanitizes it, and puts it back in the bag. It is the only equipment her employer has provided to protect her and her patients from the coronavirus, she said. It is meant to last her "indefinitely.""I'm not worried about getting [the 2019 novel coronavirus.] I'm assuming that I will," said Rachael, who asked not to be named for fear of losing her job. But, she added, "I would feel terrible if I found out I was the person who brought it into three different nursing homes.""It feels like a Third World country," she said. "I never thought this would be the challenge we were up against." As has been previously reported, the exponential growth of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. has exacerbated an existing shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), leaving hospitals to ration gear at levels many providers said they had never seen. The situation has become so dire that the Journal of the American Medical Association recently put out a call for ideas on how to conserve the supply of PPE and identify new sources.Around the country, providers are now reusing single-use gear and fashioning new equipment out of protective material. Interviews with an array of doctors and nurses on the frontline of a national crisis revealed widespread astonishment at just how ill-supplied they were in what was supposed to be the wealthiest country in the world.Will Americans Actually Comply With a Long-Term Lockdown?Peter Chai, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where two providers have already tested positive for COVID-19, compared the measures to using dirty bath water for multiple baths."That's totally unheard of in America. Why would you ever have to do that?" he said. "Why would we ever run out of something so simple?"The Centers for Disease Control previously recommended using N95 masks—a respiratory protective device that filters disease-carrying particles from the air—when treating any patient suspected of having COVID-19. But the agency's recommendations have loosened as supplies dwindled. In guidance released this week, the CDC said providers should wear N95s only when performing procedures that might cause a patient to "aerosolize" the virus." In the latest guidance, the agency also suggested mask-strapped providers use bandanas or scarves as a "last resort."In an advisory Friday, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Health warned of the "rapidly diminishing supply of PPE." Providers were instructed to immediately stop testing most non-hospitalized patients for COVID-19 to preserve supplies. To stave off a complete shortfall, medical workers have resorted to creative measures, stapling plastic bands onto expired procedure masks and making splash shields out of plastic dividers and mounting tape, according to Twitter posts.Alli, an emergency nurse in Indiana who asked to be identified by her first name only, told The Daily Beast she used a single-use surgical mask so long it was wet from her breath when she took it off. When her mother heard about the shortage, she asked her quilting group to sew more masks for the hospital. While the masks likely don't meet medical standards, Alli said, "I want to have these on standby for when worse comes to worse. And I fear we will get there."An emergency physician in Tennessee, who asked not to be named for fear of professional retaliation, told The Daily Beast she brought leftover N95 masks from a home construction project into work with her. A good friend, who works for an alcohol distilling company, donated a box from her distilling plant as well. Her sister's neighbor donated more than a dozen masks he found in his garage.In Boston, Chai said all the major hospitals have banded together to conserve supplies, borrowing masks and goggles from shuttered research labs and experimenting with other protective materials. "The large institutions that usually don't talk to each other, there's all of a sudden all of this coordination and cross talk," she said. "It just took a virus to do it."Along with ingenuity, the situation has also spawned protests. Nurses at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco demonstrated outside the hospital Thursday, waving signs reading, "Protect nurse, patients, public health." More than 760,000 people have signed onto a Change.org petition asking hospital administrators for more protective equipment. Another group of physicians wrote an open letter to President Trump and Vice President Pence asking them to boost the supply and develop clear guidelines around sanitizing and reusing protective gear."The only institution with the power to require adequate production of protective equipment, to distribute the equipment effectively, and to create universal guidelines on its use, is the federal government," the physicians wrote. "The federal government needs to step up, right now."The federal government has taken some measure to increase the supply of protective gear. The Department of Health and Human Services tweeted Thursday they were deploying equipment from the Strategic National Stockpile—a repository of pharmaceuticals and medical products for use in a public health emergency. Trump this week invoked the Defense Production Act to accelerate production of supplies, and Pence noted that a coronavirus relief law would also protect manufacturers from lawsuits when selling protective gear to health care workers. The New York National Guard was also preparing to deliver a mix of protective gear, medication, and ventilators from two large warehouses in the state, a source there told The Daily Beast. "The scale of the supplies ordered is massive," the source said. "The quantities of PPE items are in the tens of millions per item."The National Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.But the interventions came too late for some. One travel nurse told The Daily Beast that he and his wife chose to terminate their contracts when their hospital ordered them to repurpose single-use masks. The two moved home and have enough in savings to survive without income for a while, he said.Others weren't so lucky. His roommate, a 53-year-old nurse, could not afford to stop working at the hospital. "We all cried when we left," he said. "She's scared."The equipment shortages are also taking a toll on other, non-virus-related hospital procedures. The emergency physician in Tennessee said she recently treated a gunshot victim whose chest had to be cracked open in the ER. The disposable gowns usually used for such a procedure were nowhere to be found, she said—they had been locked up in a separate room, stockpiled with the other protective gear."There was blood everywhere," the doctor said. "I don't think anyone got exposed, but it could have been a lot worse than it was."The same doctor said she had recently tried to order her own protective gear, for fear that her hospital would run out. When she went to check out, she learned the items were back-ordered until mid-April. She recently checked Amazon to see if they had any in stock, she said, and saw the same mask she'd been eyeing for $25 was now selling for $70.Ordering protective gear is even more difficult for small, rural clinics. Dr. Surinder Sra, the owner of a freestanding clinic in Cherokee Village, AR—population 4,600—said he had tried to order masks, goggles, and hand sanitizer to prepare for an outbreak in his town. The supplier cancelled his order, he said, telling him he did not order from them regularly enough to be prioritized. Sra told The Daily Beast his clinic was still getting by on the supplies they saved from last year. "But if they're not going to send us the new ones," he said, "how am I going to continue to protect myself, my staff and my patients?" Chai said the situation is causing many providers to have these kinds of life-altering questions. His wife is also a provider, and he said they have started thinking about the best way to change out of their clothes when they get home, to prevent spreading the virus to their child."It's stuff you never wanted to have to think about," Chai said. "But as an emergency physician this is my job. This is what I signed up to do. We're not going to run away from this."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| ‘There’s no playbook for this’: Biden trapped in campaign limbo Posted: 21 Mar 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Despite a series of smashing victories, the ex-veep is struggling to move forward.
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