| Trump says he has evidence coronavirus came from a Chinese lab, but he can't reveal it Posted: 30 Apr 2020 04:29 PM PDT  President Trump said Thursday that he had seen evidence to prove that the coronavirus pandemic had spread from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, but he declined to detail what that evidence was.
|
| China Refuses to Allow WHO Reps to Investigate Coronavirus Origins Posted: 01 May 2020 05:08 AM PDT  China has refused requests by the World Health Organization to take part in an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus."We know that some national investigation is happening but at this stage we have not been invited to join," Dr. Gauden Galea, WHO representative in China, told Sky News. "WHO is making requests of the health commission and of the authorities."The WHO and the U.S. intelligence community have concluded that the coronavirus is naturally-occurring and was not genetically engineered. However, U.S. officials suspect that the pathogen may have been accidentally from a lab, possibly the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the Wuhan Center for Disease Control.Laboratory logs "would need to be part of any full report, any full look at the story of the origins," Dr. Galea said. The WHO representative emphasized that "the origins of virus are very important, the animal-human interface is extremely important and needs to be studied. The priority is we need to know as much as possible to prevent the reoccurrence."U.S. officials and politicians have accused China of attempting to cover up the initial coronavirus outbreak. The White House has ordered intelligence agencies to compile evidence of a cover up.President Trump has also halted U.S. funding to the WHO after accusing the organization of mishandling the outbreak and parroting Chinese propaganda regarding the coronavirus. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have urged Democratic colleagues to investigate the WHO's ties to China.
|
| A US researcher who worked with a Wuhan virology lab gives 4 reasons why a coronavirus leak would be extremely unlikely Posted: 02 May 2020 05:11 AM PDT  A fringe theory posits that the coronavirus accidentally leaked from a Wuhan lab. But a US researcher says there's no evidence for that.
|
| Prominent Democratic women are standing by Joe Biden amid Tara Reade's sexual assault claim Posted: 01 May 2020 07:35 AM PDT  Some of Joe Biden's potential picks for a running mate have stood by him amid allegations of sexual assault by his former Senate staffer Tara Reade.
|
| Could These Rivals Stop Kim Jong Un’s Little Sister From Taking Power? Posted: 01 May 2020 01:43 AM PDT  SEOUL—Whatever the condition of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the moment—and supposedly informed speculation ranges from dead, to comatose, to just chilling at his personal resort in Wonsan—his absence from public view for more than two weeks now is a reminder that his demise could plunge his country and the region, maybe even the world, into a huge new geopolitical crisis. For now his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, looks like the understudy waiting in the wings to take the lead if her brother cannot function. He's positioned her for that role, and groomed her for it. But if Kim Jong Un dies, it's fair to say all hell could break loose.Many analysts believe China would move swiftly to consolidate control over North Korea if Kim Jong Un is no longer able to govern effectively. Chinese concerns, like those of the U.S. and just about every other country with a stake in the region, focus not only on who's in charge of North Korea but more specifically on what happens to North Korea's nukes. If there is a chaotic battle for succession, who will secure them?A Chinese medical team known to be in the North right now presumably is looking after Kim, and looking out for Beijing's interests. If Kim is indeed in grave condition, Chinese Leader Xi Jinping will be the first to know.And then what? "I'm very sure the Chinese will send their army into North Korea," says defector Ken Eom, who served 10 years in Pyongyang's military and is now a prominent analyst in the South. "They have already planned what they will do."Chinese concern about Korea goes deep into history, and was never more evident than in the Korean War, when half a million Chinese died driving U.S. and South Korean troops out of North Korea after they reached the Yalu River border between Korea and China in the early months of the war in 1950.It's not as though North Korea would threaten China, the source of all its oil and half its food, but the Chinese want to be sure the Americans don't get there first in the confusion of a power vacuum if Kim is no longer around, factions compete to succeed him, and the fate of his nuclear missile arsenal hangs in the balance.The results could be very bloody.Choi Jin-wook, former director of the Korea Institute of National Unification, believes it's "very unlikely" that North Korean authorities would invite the Chinese into their country as in the Korean War. "That is very dangerous," he says. "They will face a tough response from the North Korean side, probably an exchange of fire," he predicts, but if U.S. or South Korean troops enter North Korea, "that is a different story."It's been more than eight years since Kim Jong Un inherited the family dynasty, and North Korea's relations with China may never have been better since Kim first journeyed to Beijing—his first trip outside the country as North Korea's leader—in March of 2018. With sister Yo Jong always hovering nearby, he spent three days seeing President Xi Jinping and other top officials on a mission that set the course for future close ties.The encounter had much to do with Kim agreeing to see President Donald Trump for the first U.S.-North Korean summit in Singapore in June 2018. Xi hosted Kim again in May, a month before the summit, in the industrial port city of Dalian, agreeing to send him and his entourage to Singapore on a Chinese plane. And one week after the summit, as if reporting back to his patron, Kim again called on Xi in Beijing.The presence of Kim Yo Jong, present for many of these encounters, would seem to guarantee continuity. She could pick up where her brother left off, but it's likely that long-suppressed rivalries will explode if Kim Jong Un is not, in fact, on one of his yachts lying low during the COVID-19 pandemic, and really is at death's door, or through it."If factions face off, a vicious internal conflict is certain, and a civil war not unthinkable," writes Michael Auslin at Stanford University's Hoover Institution in the journal Foreign Policy. "With North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile sites potentially falling into the hands of whoever acts most quickly, Asia could face an unprecedented nuclear crisis."Kim Yo Jong now owes her role as number two to him and to the authority that she's believed to exert over the North's Organization and Guidance Department, the entity with life-or-death power over all aspects of North Korean society. She's the de facto leader of the OGD as well as Bureau 39, the office that controls the North's money, including counterfeit U.S. currency printed on a press imported from Switzerland."She's in charge," says Ken Eom, but "that doesn't mean she'll be in charge when her brother is no longer around."Assuming Kim Yo Jong will face trouble from powerful men who just can't accept the notion of a woman dominating them, at least two other figures are to be reckoned with.One is Kim Pyong Il, the much younger half brother of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. That makes him not only Yo Jong and Jong Un's uncle but also the son of Kim Il Sung, who founded the North Korean state after the Japanese surrender in 1945. At 65, he's still theoretically capable of carrying on the dynasty's bloodline.Kim Pyong Il faces, however, what may be insurmountable problems. He spent nearly 40 years in a kind of exile as ambassador to eastern European countries before he was summoned back to Pyongyang last November."Nobody knows him," says Shim Jae-hoon, who writes about Korea for Yale Global. "He's been away too long." But he still could serve as figurehead leader over restive, quarreling subordinates. "It's almost possible," says Ken Eom, "but he might not last long."And then there's the top non-family contender, Choe Ryong Hae, whose title as President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly makes him North Korea's titular head of state. Choe, who also is first vice chairman of the state affairs commission, through which Kim as chairman wields his power, has his own bloodline—his father fought with Kim Il Sung against Japanese rule as a guerilla in Manchuria.Choe, however, has had an up-and-down career, once having been forced out of the hierarchy for "reeducation" as a laborer for involvement in a scheme to sell scrap metal—a crime that sometimes merits execution. In his case, his father's old-time bond with Kim Il Sung saved him.On the plus side, Choe's son is rumored to have been married to Kim Yo Jong."Choe is next at the moment," says Choi Jin-wook, "but he is not a Kim, though from a guerrilla family." But would that lineage do the trick?"I cannot find any alternative to this Stalinist dynasty," says Choi. "This will lead to the end of the Kim dynasty. Enough is enough.There is no legitimate person, and it is going to be anybody's game. Maybe big chaos."Xi Jinping would like to stand above the fray, pressuring competing factions to get along.In that spirit Xi received Kim for the fourth time in extraordinary pomp and circumstance in Beijing in January last year, six weeks before Trump's second summit with Kim in Hanoi. Then, last June, after the failure of the Trump-Kim summit in February, Kim received Xi in Pyongyang—the first visit by a Chinese leader to the North Korean capital in 14 years.All those displays of mutual good-will, however, may have been for naught if Kim Jong Un is no longer around. "I do not think Kim is yet dead," says Ken Eom, but, "I think he's got a serious problem."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.
|
| A woman fell 115-feet to her death after posing for a cliffside photo to celebrate the end of a lockdown Posted: 02 May 2020 12:40 AM PDT  Tour guide Olesya Suspitsyna, from Kazakhstan, died after slipping on grass and falling off a cliff in the Duden Park in Antalya, Turkey.
|
| Protests mark growing unrest with California stay-home order Posted: 30 Apr 2020 10:08 PM PDT  Californians weary of stay-at-home orders that have left millions unemployed staged displays of defiance Friday, with hundreds of flag-waving protesters gathering at the Capitol and along a famed Southern California beach, while a sparsely populated county on the Oregon border allowed diners back in restaurants and reopened other businesses. While much of the state's population remained behind closed doors to deter the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged the building anxiety while repeatedly teasing the possibility the state could begin relaxing some aspects of the restrictions next week. Newsom noted the state just passed the grim marks of 50,000 confirmed infections and 2,000 deaths but that hospitalization statistics are heading in a better direction and that has him hopeful.
|
| Trump wants to deliver 300 million doses of coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year. Is that even possible? Posted: 01 May 2020 07:11 AM PDT  The expectation is the U.S. won't return to normal until there's an effective vaccine against COVID-19 — and almost everyone in the country has been vaccinated.
|
| Iran says Germany to face consequences over Hezbollah ban Posted: 01 May 2020 12:53 AM PDT  Iran has slammed Germany's ban on the activities of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement on its soil, saying it would face consequences for its decision to give in to Israeli and US pressure. Germany branded Hezbollah a "Shiite terrorist organisation" on Thursday, with dozens of police and special forces storming mosques and associations across the country linked to the Lebanese militant group. In a statement issued overnight, Iran's foreign ministry said the ban ignores "realities in West Asia".
|
| Bill Gates says the world would need as many as 14 billion doses of a coronavirus vaccine to stop the virus Posted: 01 May 2020 12:08 PM PDT  "We need to get them out to every part of the world, and we need all of this to happen as quickly as possible," Gates said of a coronavirus vaccine.
|
| New Yorkers cannot be evicted for not paying rent through June, says Cuomo Posted: 02 May 2020 07:35 AM PDT  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that no one in the state can be evicted for non-payment of rent through June.In his daily coronavirus response press briefing, the governor said: "A landlord cannot evict a person for non payment of rent ... that is a law in place through June."
|
| 30 Easy Side Dishes For Lasagna Posted: 30 Apr 2020 11:46 AM PDT |
| Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin tells tells President Vladimir Putin he has the coronavirus Posted: 01 May 2020 06:48 AM PDT  Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that he had been diagnosed with the coronavirus and was temporarily stepping down to recover.
|
| 80,000 cruise workers are still stuck aboard ships in US waters. Staff members say it's 'embarrassing' they're not allowed to disembark. Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:34 PM PDT  Up to 80,000 crew members are stuck on 120 cruise ships on US waters, and it's unclear when they'll touch land again.
|
| 'Once Upon a Virus': China mocks U.S. coronavirus response in Lego-like animation Posted: 02 May 2020 03:02 AM PDT |
| Ten soldiers killed in bomb attack in north Egypt Posted: 01 May 2020 11:07 AM PDT  Ten Egyptian soldiers, including an army officer, died in a bomb attack during the holy month of Ramadan in the volatile northern Sinai region of the country. The region is known for its jihadist insurrection and it is suspected this attack was carried out by Islamic State although no one immediately claimed responsibility. A spokesman for the army said the soldiers were targeted as they travelled in convoy near the town of Bir al-Abed on Thursday. The Egyptian army has been fighting an insurgency from the Sinai branch of IS since 2013. Fighting has intensified since the ousting of Mohamed Morsi that year. Since the Egyptian military moved into the region, official figures show that more than 845 jihadists and nearly 70 members of the security forces have lost their lives. However, it is impossible to verify these figures, as the region is cut off from media access. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised the fallen soldiers as "heroes" and "martyrs." Footballer Mohamed Salah was among those commenting on the incident, as he wrote on Twitter: "May God have mercy on the martyrs of the homeland in the Sinai and my wishes for a speedy recovery for all the injured."
|
| North Korea's Kim reappears after weeks of speculation Posted: 02 May 2020 01:36 AM PDT  State television showed Kim walking, smiling broadly and smoking a cigarette at what the North said was the opening of a fertiliser factory on Friday in Sunchon, north of Pyongyang. Rumours about Kim's health have been swirling since his conspicuous no-show at April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather, the North's founder -- the most important day in the country's political calendar. Kim's sudden death would have left Pyongyang facing an unplanned succession for the first time in its history and raised unanswered questions over who would succeed him and take over the North's nuclear arsenal.
|
| Unmasked Protesters Storm Huntington Beach After California Governor’s Closure Posted: 01 May 2020 05:18 PM PDT  Give them Vitamin D or give them death.Hundreds of demonstrators swarmed Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, on Friday to protest California Gov. Gavin Newsom's closure of the Golden State's sandy shores—an anti-lockdown display organized in part by the owner of a "health and wellness center."Reporters on the scene captured footage of banners for President Donald Trump's campaign, "Don't Tread on Me" flags, and homemade signs with slogans such as "Freedom is Essential." Overhead shots showed mounted cops corralling the demonstrators onto sidewalks and out of the road. It was clear that many protesters were not wearing masks that health officials say can help curb the spread of COVID-19.One of the organizers behind Friday's event is Vivienne Reign of an organization called "We Have Rights." She is also owner of the East Bay Health and Wellness Center and multiple companies marketing medical devices, corporate records show. Reign, however, refused to confirm her ties to the clinic, which specializes in chiropractic treatment and "regenerative medicine." In an interview hours before the protest began, Reign said she was not connected to Freedomworks, the right-of-center advocacy network which has backed other protests demanding shuttered states reopen, or to any groups bankrolled by libertarian billionaire Charles Koch, who has ties to Freedomworks.'Very, Very Scary': Officials Dumbfounded as Florida Beaches Reopen, 3 Days After Death SpikeShe claimed that We Have Rights had simply capitalized on the grassroots outrage Newsom provoked with his order, which he issued after crowds packed the coastline last weekend in defiance of the need for social distancing amid a global pandemic that has killed more than 2,000 Californians and another 60,000 Americans."'When that came out, people were pissed," she said, arguing the war with COVID-19 is effectively over, even though health experts say reopening could trigger a second wave. "The curve has essentially been beaten, so we decided we've gotta go do something about this."WeHaveRights.com, which calls itself without any backup "the biggest movement in California," was first registered just two weeks ago.Reign claimed her organization, which she characterized as an umbrella group encompassing multiple pro-reopening factions in California, has a wealthy benefactor—though she would not say who. "There's a lot of powerful people behind this, and we can get things done," she insisted.The East Bay Health and Wellness Center attracted criticism last year for marketing unproven stem cell injections as a treatment for joint pain.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.
|
| Former Green Beret led failed attempt to oust Venezuela's Maduro Posted: 02 May 2020 09:11 AM PDT  About 300 heavily armed volunteers had planned to sneak into Venezuela from South America. Along the way, they would raid military bases in the country and ignite a rebellion that would end in President Nicolás Maduro's arrest.
|
| ICE detainees clash with Massachusetts jail officials over coronavirus Posted: 02 May 2020 07:46 AM PDT  It is the ninth time since a national emergency was declared that staff at detention centers used pepper spray on protesting ICE detainees.
|
| U.K.s Johnson names new son with tribute to doctors who treated him for COVID-19 Posted: 02 May 2020 07:38 AM PDT  Nicholas was inspired by the names of two doctors who had treated Johnson in hospital, his fiancée Carrie Symonds said.
|
| The angst over Joe Biden's assault allegation has an easy resolution Posted: 02 May 2020 03:35 AM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden finally confronted the rape accusation against himself on Friday. He went on MSNBC's Morning Joe, where he categorically denied the events described by his accuser, Tara Reade, had happened and insisted that he would not release his Senate papers early so reporters could look at them. On the other hand, he also said "Women have a right to be heard and the press should rigorously investigate claims they make."All this is no doubt intensely frustrating for loyal Democratic voters. President Trump has been accused of worse than what Biden is alleged to have done, and on more than one occasion, yet largely skated from serious scrutiny. That is probably why when Chris Hayes did a segment on the story on his own MSNBC show, furious Democratic partisans made FireChrisHayes trend nationally on Twitter.But getting mad is not going to get Democrats out of their Biden fix. Only one thing can do that — pressuring Biden out of the race, and replacing him with someone else.As I have previously written, Reade's story about Biden is credible. It would never meet the courtroom standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt," but given that Reade is now known to have privately told at least five people what happened at the time or in the years following, it can't be dismissed out of hand. Biden has a track record of behaving creepily around women, and has a long history of ridiculous exaggeration and telling bald-faced lies. At bottom, it is quite similar to many other MeToo stories.The plain fact is that this accusation is going to dog Biden for the rest of the campaign. Trump has already started talking about it. The right-wing media will cover the story for purely political reasons. Fox News does not care about MeToo, but the story damages Biden, demoralizes Democrats, and makes liberals look like egregious hypocrites. The sight of nearly every Democratic-aligned women's rights group queasily keeping silent about the story is simply delicious for the likes of Sean Hannity (though a few have started speaking out).It's also hard to see how Biden could conclusively "address" the story, as some liberals have advocated. At bottom it is a case of he-said-she-said, and Biden does not have a record of scrupulous honesty.Many mainstream and lefty journalists will continue to cover it. The Reade accusation is unquestionably news, and outside of the right-wing press, there is still a broad ethic of covering stories even if they are politically inconvenient. It is not always honored, but it's still there. As The Intercept's Ryan Grim writes, "I decided early in my career that I would never suppress a story if the only reason I were doing so was concern about its political implications. If you do that, you're no longer a journalist."However, Biden still has not been officially nominated. The Democratic National Convention is not until August 17, and before then he could be pressured into dropping out. If Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, a critical mass of the rest of other Democratic elected officials, and all the various Democratic-aligned activists groups all said in unison that Biden was unfit to be president, and should drop out for the good of the party, he probably would withdraw. The primary rules regarding candidates who drop out are somewhat vague, saying that delegates cannot be "mandated" to vote for someone else, and "shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them." But this would seem to allow Biden to instruct his delegates to support another candidate, and in 11 states there are specific rules for doing so. Realistically, no unclear legal technicalities are going to prevent someone else from getting the nomination if Biden refuses to take it.Bernie Sanders would certainly be ruled out, despite the fact that he would have the second-most number of delegates. The entire point of the panicked scramble to endorse a clearly lousy candidate before Super Tuesday was to keep Sanders from winning. But it still could be somebody else — perhaps Washington Governor Jay Inslee, or California Governor Gavin Newsom, both of whom have handled the coronavirus pandemic relatively well (unlike New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose incompetent bungling created the worst outbreak in the world). Inslee or Newsom would not be my first choice, but at least they have no rape allegations against them and are in full possession of their faculties.Or simpler still, as Alex Pareene suggests, Democrats could simply re-start the primary and see who wins. There would surely be some controversy, but most Democratic voters would wind up happier in the end.Frankly, I cannot possibly believe this will happen. Democratic elites had no problem bending the rules to help Michael Bloomberg, or indeed sending their loyal voters out into the teeth of a viral pandemic to vote in person to put away Sanders. It is clearly within their power to send Biden packing. But they have neither the wisdom nor the foresight of the cynical party bosses of old, who would have thrown him out on his ear long ago.Biden could also still win. Given the appalling economic conditions likely to prevail in November, a random person picked off the street would have a good chance of beating Trump. But still, if you are already exhausted at the prospect of months of arguments about whose sexual assault allegations are worse, the escape hatch is still open.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Mike Pence's unmasked hospital visit The smoke-filled room that could oust Joe Biden Biden may have incidentally provided Trump campaign with a new point of attack
|
| After Decades of Service, Five Nuns Die as Virus Sweeps Through Convent Posted: 01 May 2020 05:26 AM PDT  CHICAGO -- Our Lady of the Angels Convent was designed as a haven of peace and prayer in a suburb of Milwaukee, a place where aging, frail nuns could rest after spending their lives taking care of others.Songbirds chirped in the sitting area. A courtyard invited morning prayers and strolls for the several dozen nuns who lived in the facility, a low-slung cream-colored building with a turret.The quiet convent has become the site of a deadly cluster of the coronavirus. Four staff members have tested positive, a health official said. Since April 6, five nuns have died from the virus.COVID-19, difficult to contain in any circumstance, has spread within Our Lady of the Angels with a particular invisibility. All five nuns who died were only discovered to have the virus after their deaths.The women had moved into the convent after decades of service in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. They worked in parishes, schools and universities, teaching English and music, ministering to the aged and the poor and nurturing their own passions for literature and the fine arts. Our Lady of the Angels, which specializes in caring for people with dementia, was meant to be their final home.Officials say that this week, as alarm has grown surrounding the outbreak in the convent, medical staff quickly increased testing, ensuring that every resident was tested for the coronavirus. Earlier in April, the facility had temporarily stopped testing nuns for the coronavirus, according to investigative reports by the Milwaukee County medical examiner.Records show that administrators at the convent had reasoned that the process of testing the nuns, by inserting a long nasal swab through a nostril into the back of the throat, was too difficult for them to endure.In early April, Sister Mary Regine Collins was several weeks away from her 96th birthday. She had retired to Our Lady of the Angels after a life filled with religious service and education, according to a biography provided by her ministry, the School Sisters of Notre Dame.She taught in Catholic schools and at a university in Milwaukee; she earned a master's degree in art at the University of Notre Dame in 1962 and was known for her wood carvings.On April 3, she developed a mild cough. The next day she was short of breath. On April 6, she died.The convent staff had attempted to test Collins for the virus, but she had dementia and was "too combative to tolerate" the process, an investigator's report from the medical examiner's office said."Staff is treating her death as if she had COVID," the report said.A post-mortem coronavirus test, conducted by the medical examiner's office, came back positive.There have been at least 6,854 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Wisconsin, according to a New York Times database, and as of Thursday, at least 316 people had died.Most of the deaths have occurred in Milwaukee County, the most populous county in the state. In March, local health officials hosted conference calls with administrators of nursing homes and long-term care facilities, warning them that their residents -- in advanced age, with underlying medical conditions -- would be especially vulnerable."The convent administrator and staff have been following, and continue to follow, all the guidelines and recommendations of the local health department, the facility's infection control coordinator, and the sisters' primary care physician," said Michael O'Loughlin, a spokesman for the School Sisters of St. Francis, a co-sponsor of the convent."They are very aware that the convent's residents, who are elderly and receive specialized memory care, are a vulnerable population, which is why the convent suspended all communal activities and enforced social distancing long before any of the residents tested positive for COVID-19."Darren Rausch, director and health officer for the Greenfield Health Department, said Our Lady of the Angels was among the facilities in the small suburb of Milwaukee that had kept in close touch with his office.From the beginning of the outbreak, the convent staff followed the advice of his department, he said. Isolate positive cases. Make sure staff members are wearing personal protective equipment. Monitor the temperatures and symptoms of residents."It's definitely very challenging," Rausch said, noting that it can be more difficult for medical staff to detect symptoms of the coronavirus in patients with dementia. "They can't always vocalize what's going on."Health officials say that monitoring for COVID-19 is especially crucial in a residential setting full of older, medically vulnerable patients; about one-fifth of coronavirus deaths in the United States have been linked to nursing facilities.Nursing homes and long-term care facilities, which struggled with a widespread lack of tests in the early days of the outbreak, have significantly ramped up testing in recent weeks, even for residents who are asymptomatic.The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has asked long-term care facilities with an outbreak to test residents who appear sick; the specimens can then be sent to a state lab for free COVID-19 testing.Many people who undergo coronavirus tests using the most common method -- swabbing through the nose -- find the test uncomfortable or even painful. Other methods, using a sample of saliva that is spit into a vial, are being introduced in a small number of states but are not widely available yet.O'Loughlin, a spokesman for the ministry, said that since testing at the convent resumed, all of the residents have now been tested, some multiple times.As the convent staff fought to contain the coronavirus outbreak in early April, it took steps to protect the women inside, locking down the facility to visitors and keeping patients who had tested positive for the virus away from others. Each sister has a private room and bathroom, an arrangement that has helped to isolate the sick.But it was too late to stop the spread. A day after the first coronavirus death, another nun died: Sister Marie June Skender, 83, a former elementary schoolteacher and musician whose symptoms had begun with a fever a few days earlier.Sister Mary Francele Sherburne, 99, died two days later. Before retirement, she was a full-time college professor, a music teacher to elementary students and a volunteer instructor for decades to Milwaukeeans learning English as a second language. "Sister Francele had a passion for kite flying," said a biography provided by her ministry.When a doctor at the convent called the medical examiner's office in Milwaukee to report the death, she noted that no COVID-19 test had been performed.The facility "stopped testing as the patients are mostly dementia patients and it was too traumatic," an investigator wrote in the report. "Several other patients had tested positive before they stopped testing."Sister Annelda Holtkamp, 102, the fourth nun at the convent to die of the coronavirus, had been exposed to three people who had already tested positive, records show.Even when testing was performed, it was sometimes difficult to understand which patients were at risk. Early in April, Sister Bernadette Kelter, 88, tested negative for the coronavirus.She later developed a cough, fever and body aches, and lost her appetite. On Sunday, Kelter, a teacher and home health aide before retirement, became the fifth nun at the convent to die of COVID-19.Jane Morgan, the administrator of the convent, said in a statement that she was cooperating with health authorities to prevent further spread of the virus."We welcome prayers for the health and comfort of our residents and staff as we grieve the loss of our sister," Morgan said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
|
| Coronavirus: Is there any evidence for lab release theory? Posted: 01 May 2020 11:13 AM PDT  BBC News examines allegations that the coronavirus was accidentally released from a lab.
|
| 2,800 Indians are trying to evacuate the US, but they can't get flights home because of India's strict coronavirus lockdown Posted: 01 May 2020 08:38 AM PDT  More than 2,800 people have joined a Facebook group called "USA TO INDIA EVACUATION FLIGHTS," to discuss how they'll return home.
|
| Wages Seized. Bank Accounts Frozen. The Poor Are Getting Poorer as Creditors Pursue Debts Posted: 01 May 2020 10:22 AM PDT  'Things were bad before the COVID emergency, they got worse with COVID, and they're going to get even worse.'
|
| President's 'So what?' as 5,000 die sparks fury in Brazil Posted: 01 May 2020 06:29 PM PDT  "So what?" said Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday when a journalist asked him about the fact that more than 5,000 Brazilians had died of the coronavirus. The far-right leader's off-the-cuff comment has been sparking anger ever since, with governors, politicians, healthcare professionals and media figures all weighing in to express their outrage at his lack of empathy. Bolsonaro is no stranger to controversy.
|
| California judge won't reopen Orange County beaches Posted: 01 May 2020 06:32 PM PDT  Friday's decision came down as hundreds of people in Huntington Beach flooded the streets to protest the governor's directive.
|
| Inside an ICE facility in Louisiana, detainees say ICE is depriving them of masks, under-testing for COVID-19, and moving migrants around the country Posted: 01 May 2020 10:49 AM PDT  About 48% of detainees tested for in ICE facilities are positive for COVID-19. Detainees told Business Insider they're not getting basic supplies.
|
| 'Like a new diagnosis': Cancer families struggle to continue treatment amid coronavirus pandemic Posted: 01 May 2020 11:51 AM PDT  Childhood cancer families face a new set of challenges during the coronavirus pandemic as they continue their fight.
|
| House Oversight Republicans Urge Democrats to Investigate China’s Influence over WHO Posted: 30 Apr 2020 12:20 PM PDT  Republicans on the House Oversight Committee on Thursday urged Democrats leading the committee to investigate the Chinese government's influence over the World Health Organization.Ranking member Jim Jordan along with five Republican ranking members on oversight subcommittees sent a letter to Democratic Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney calling on Democrats to investigate China's sway over the WHO."The potential misuse of taxpayer dollars is at the heart of the Committee's jurisdiction, and we owe it to the American people to evaluate how the WHO has been spending their hard-earned money," the letter read, noting that American taxpayers are "the single largest contributor to the WHO," contributing many times China's contribution."Notwithstanding this drastic imbalance in funding, the United States should not support organizations that promulgate communist propaganda instead of the facts. Our republic is not obligated to hand money to an entity that espouses ideals of international cooperation while furthering the Chinese government's machinations," the letter continued.The GOP committee members noted Maloney's own statement acknowledging that "the WHO has shortcomings that must be corrected," although she opposed the decision by the Trump administration to suspend U.S. funding of the organization until a review is conducted to assess the WHO's role in "severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.""In light of such an admission, coupled with multiple media reports of WHO's failures, we request immediate briefings, and hearings next month, on the WHO's relationship with the Community Party of China and its widely criticized response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis," the Republicans wrote.The WHO also attracted harsh criticism after it praised China for its transparency and willingness to share information regarding the nature and spread of the virus. The Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers have since cast doubt on China's good faith in sharing information about the outbreak and have criticized the WHO for apparently taking the communist country at its word.The GOP lawmakers also commended the president's decision to pause WHO funding temporarily, saying the organization's "inaction and delay undoubtedly cost American lives.""If Democrats were serious about oversight of American tax dollars, they'd investigate the WHO's ties to China. It's no secret that the WHO has been using American tax dollars to peddle Communist China's talking points about COVID-19 for months," A senior Republican aide told National Review. "This practice should offend every American, no matter the party. The United States Congress should lead the way in opposing such propaganda."As of Thursday afternoon, the U.S. has over a million positive cases of the coronavirus, and over 61,700 people have died after being infected.
|
| Top Admirals Under Scrutiny as Navy Investigates Handling of Carrier Coronavirus Outbreak Posted: 01 May 2020 01:58 PM PDT  The expanded investigation of the COVID outbreak on the carrier Roosevelt will focus on Capt. Brett Crozier's superiors.
|
| Russia's coronavirus cases hit new high, Moscow warns of clampdown Posted: 02 May 2020 01:47 AM PDT  Russia reported 9,623 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total to 124,054, mostly in the capital Moscow, where the mayor threatened to cut the number of travel permits. The death toll nationwide rose to 1,222 after 57 people died in the last 24 hours, Russia's coronavirus crisis response centre said, after revising the previous day's tally. Russia has been in partial lockdown, aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus, since the end of March.
|
| Accused embassy gunman said he feared Cuban organized crime Posted: 01 May 2020 02:44 PM PDT  A Cuban man who sought asylum in the U.S. opened fire with an AK-47 at the Cuban Embassy in Washington, spraying the front of the building with nearly three dozen rounds because he wanted to "get them before they could get him," according to court papers. Alexander Alazo, 42, of Aubrey, Texas, was taken into custody shortly after the shooting early Thursday morning in northwest Washington. Rounds from the gunman pierced the bronze statue of Jose Marti, the Cuban writer and national hero, as well as the columns and facade of the building on a busy street in the Adams-Morgan section of the city.
|
| Woman spots 12-foot-long alligator in South Carolina Posted: 01 May 2020 08:46 AM PDT  The woman was with her dog when she came across this giant beast.
|
| 5.4-magnitude earthquake hits near Puerto Rico Posted: 02 May 2020 07:59 AM PDT  The quake caused damage in the city of Ponce and other southern towns on Saturday morning.
|
| Trumplomacy: What's behind new US strategy on China? Posted: 01 May 2020 12:00 PM PDT  Tensions between US and China are longstanding but the virus and a US election have amplified the war of words.
|
| Seagulls in Rome take to killing rats and pigeons as lockdown deprives them of food scraps Posted: 01 May 2020 07:41 AM PDT  Deprived of the juicy scraps left by bars and restaurants that they normally gorge on, Rome's notoriously aggressive seagulls have become cold-blooded killers. Two months into Italy's lockdown and with trattorias and cafes all closed, the big gulls are now killing rats and pigeons on the mean streets of the capital. "They are going back to being predators," said Bruno Cignini, a zoologist from the capital's Rome University Tor Vergata. "They are catching mostly pigeons but also swallows and black birds. They're also going after fish in the Tiber. Luckily, they are also eating rats. Animals are changing their habits as we change ours," he told Corriere della Sera newspaper. Rome's sharp-beaked gulls developed a taste for pigeon and rat in the past but the prey was usually dead – road kill left by the city's chaotic traffic. The gulls are now switching from pecking at carrion to killing. The species is known in Italian as the Royal Gull but in English as the Yellow-Legged Gull. Their bold behaviour and beady eyes are the stuff of legend in the capital.
|
| Michael Santos went to the hospital to get checked out for the coronavirus. He wound up with a $1,689 bill. Posted: 02 May 2020 08:45 AM PDT  Michael Santos had coronavirus symptoms and was trying to be responsible by going to the hospital. After a $1,689.21 bill, he wishes he'd stayed home.
|
| Georgia businesses reopen to early success amid coronavirus pandemic Posted: 01 May 2020 08:51 AM PDT  Exactly one week since Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp began reopening the state's economy, small businesses shared early success stories as customers welcomed their return. But at what cost? Business owners say only time will tell.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment