CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

[Heliobas Disciple]

U.S. reports record single-day spike of 63,200 new cases of coronavirus

White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has urged officials in states where the outbreak is worsening to reconsider reopening plans.

www.cnbc.com

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U.S. reports record single-day spike of 63,200 new cases of coronavirus
Will Feuer
Published Fri, Jul 10 20208:42 AM EDTUpdated Fri, Jul 10 202010:39 AM EDT


Key Points

• It’s the second time this week the U.S. topped its record for coronavirus cases reported in a 24-hour period.
• Cases were growing, on average, by at least 5% in 36 states and the District of Columbia as of Thursday, according to a CNBC analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
• Coronavirus-related deaths are beginning to tick up in several hot spots.

The United States reported a daily record of 63,247 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

It’s the second time this week the U.S. topped its record for new infections reported in a 24-hour period as outbreaks expand across a number of states, mostly across the American South and West. California, Florida and Texas reported more than 30,400 new cases collectively on Tuesday, according to data from Hopkins, accounting for nearly half all new cases in the U.S.

The U.S. has reported about 53,699 new cases on average over the past seven days, a record high seven-day average, up nearly 17.6% compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins. The U.S. seven-day average has hit a new record every day for more than two weeks, according to CNBC’s analysis.

White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that the U.S. is “not in total control” of the coronavirus pandemic and daily new cases could surpass 100,000 new infections per day if the outbreak continues at its current pace.

“What we are seeing is exponential growth. It went from an average of about 20,000 to 40,000 and 50,000. That’s doubling. If you continue doubling, two times 50 is 100,” Fauci said Wednesday on a Wall Street Journal podcast. “Any state that is having a serious problem, that state should seriously look at shutting down.”

Fauci has urged officials in states where the outbreak is worsening to reconsider their reopening plans. Instead of totally shutting down or totally reopening, Fauci told lawmakers on Thursday, states should constantly update their restrictions, tailoring them to what is currently known about the virus.

Without aggressive action, Fauci previously told lawmakers, the outbreak is “going to be very disturbing.”

“We are now having 40-plus-thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around, and so I am very concerned,” Fauci said at a June 30 hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Cases were growing, on average, by at least 5% in 36 states and the District of Columbia as of Thursday, according to a CNBC analysis of data collected by Hopkins. CNBC uses a seven-day trailing average to smooth out spikes in data reporting to identify where cases are rising and falling.

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations are also up, on average, by at least 5% in 25 states, according to CNBC’s analysis of data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project, an independent volunteer organization launched by journalists at The Atlantic.

Some of the rise in total cases is likely due to increased testing. Nationally, the U.S. has ramped up screening from an average of just over 174,000 diagnostic tests per day through April to more than 650,000 tests per day in July, according to the analysis of data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project. However, the percent of tests coming back positive has also risen, which epidemiologists say is a sign of a virus that is spreading more rapidly.

While new cases have continued to soar, deaths caused by Covid-19 have remained relatively stable and comparatively low. Fauci and other health officials have attributed this better treatment strategies and clinical care for Covid-19 patients as well as to the comparatively low average age of people infected with the virus now. The average age of a Covid-19 patient has dropped by about 15 years compared with the beginning of the outbreak, and younger people have lower fatality rates.

However, coronavirus-related deaths are beginning to tick up in several hot spots. The seven-day average of newly reported deaths caused by Covid-19 hit record highs on Thursday in six states: California, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

However, Fauci has warned that Covid-19 deaths lag a few weeks behind diagnosis of new cases. It takes several weeks after someone develops symptoms to get sick enough to be hospitalized and die. As more young people get infected, the greater the risk they will pass the virus on to more vulnerable people who have a greater chance of dying. That includes the elderly and anyone, regardless of age, with underlying conditions like diabetes.

“There are more cases. There are more hospitalizations in some of those places, and soon you’ll be seeing more deaths,” Fauci said in an interview last month with CNBC’s Meg Tirrell that was aired by the Milken Institute. “Even though the deaths are coming down as a country, that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to start seeing them coming up now.”

Beyond the number of deaths, scientists are still researching the long-term health consequences of contracting the virus. Some research has indicated the potential to cause long-term respiratory harm and damage to other organs.

“It’s a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death,” Fauci said Tuesday during a livestream interview with Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala. “There’s so many other things that are very dangerous and bad about this virus. Don’t get yourself into false complacency.”

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[Heliobas Disciple]

Virus's daily death toll is on the rise again

The daily death toll from America's coronavirus crisis rose sharply this week amid a...

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Virus's daily death toll is on the rise again
Joel Achenbach, William Wan, Amy Goldstein and Joshua Partlow (The Washington Post)
Published 7:05 pm CDT, Friday, July 10, 2020

The daily death toll from America's coronavirus crisis rose sharply this week amid a dramatic surge in confirmed infections across the South and West that has inundated hospitals with ill patients and forced several states to pause or reverse plans to reopen businesses.

Texas, Arizona and South Carolina have all seen their death tolls rise by more than 100 percent in the past four weeks, according to an analysis of state and county health data by The Washington Post. Four more states - Mississippi, Tennessee, California and Louisiana - have seen at least a 10 percent jump in that time span.

"They're starting to tick up," said Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. "Deaths are a lagging indicator, so we always expected that if they were going to go up, it would take some time."

After mid-April, the daily death toll declined as shutdown orders took effect across the country and the virus curve began to flatten. The low point came July 5, with 217 recorded coronavirus deaths, the lowest toll since March 24, when the pandemic was in its initial upswing.

Since then, amid record-breaking case numbers in several states, the death count has begun to rise, surpassing 800 deaths each of the past four days. Although still below the highs in April and May, when more than 2,000 people per day were regularly dying from the virus, experts warn that the trend could continue to get worse.

"This is just the early wave of a lot of suffering and death. The longer we wait to act aggressively, the harder it's going to be for us to get out of the tailspin," said Ashish Jha, who directs the Harvard Global Health Institute.

The spike in deaths this week remains a small sample.

Nuzzo said she and other public health experts prefer to make judgments on trends that are consistent over one or two weeks, not just a few days.

"I would give it two weeks to know for sure," she said, but added, "I'm expecting to see that this trend will hold."

Nicholas Reich, a University of Massachusetts biostatistician who aggregates more than 30 epidemiological models to create a forecast of the coming weeks of the pandemic, on Wednesday predicted that by Aug. 1, the country would see its covid-19 death toll rise to 147,466, an increase of about 16,000 over 2 1/2 weeks.

"The model's best guess is that we will see a slow and steady increase in new #COVID19 deaths in the US over the next four weeks, between 3,800 and 5,000 per week. This captures declines in some states, and increases in others," Reich wrote on Twitter.

In an email to The Post, he said these models can be useful for things like planning hospital staffing and communicating to the public about the trajectory of the pandemic. But he cautioned that the models are not crystal balls.

The increase in testing rates, along with the fact that more young people are being tested, makes it challenging for modelers to create forecasts based on what happened earlier in the pandemic, when the testing rates were lower and the confirmed cases more often involved older people at greater risk of death, Reich said.

The surge in coronavirus cases in recent weeks has been driven by states that were first to loosen shutdown restrictions and begin reopening their economies. With the flood of new cases, more than a dozen states have now paused reopenings, and others have reimposed bans or limits on bars and indoor gatherings.

Nevada plans to shut down bars in counties where virus cases are increasing, including Clark County, home to Las Vegas. Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, said Thursday evening that the order, which goes into effect Saturday, will not apply to counties with only a small number of cases. For now, indoor dining is still allowed.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, issued an executive order Friday instructing businesses to refuse service to customers who aren't wearing masks or risk a suspension of their licenses.

Many of the problems that defined the country's first encounters with the coronavirus in the spring have reared up again in different areas as the virus has pushed into new territory. As patients pour into emergency rooms, hospitals have reported shortages in personal protective equipment for doctors and nurses and rushed to add more intensive care beds. There have also been fresh complaints about a lack of testing and slow results.

Even President Donald Trump's favorite possible remedy - the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which he has taken as a prophylactic and called a "game changer" - is being resurrected, although the Food and Drug Administration revoked its approval last month after safety warnings about potential cardiac problems.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has been leading a Trump administration effort to demand that the FDA renew its emergency authorization for the controversial drug.

"It feels like Groundhog Day. They're repeating same thing. And that's because there's only so many denial tactics you can employ," said Jha, of the Harvard Global Health Institute. "The federal government is just AWOL."

The public has grown increasingly critical of the government's pandemic response. Two-thirds of Americans now disapprove of Trump's handling of the coronavirus, his worst numbers to date, according to an ABC News-Ipsos poll released Friday.

The poll found that 67 percent disapprove of Trump's handling of the pandemic, while 33 percent approve. Trump's disapproval number has risen nine points since mid-June.

Federal health officials Friday made public the coronavirus testing plans prepared by each state, several major cities and U.S. territories. The Trump administration has chosen to rely on these individual plans, spurning a congressional requirement to adopt a uniform nationwide testing strategy.

The plans are designed to meet one of the few standards the administration has set: for states to test at least 2 percent of their populations.

Few of the plans mention how many days it should take for people to get test results - a particular concern now that testing times are lengthening again. One exception is the New York City report, which says that any private labs on city contracts must deliver results within two days.

A few plans, including Houston's, promise to test people with or without symptoms of covid-19. Public health officials have said that spikes in cases are being fueled in large part by younger adults who are less likely to become seriously ill when infected. But most states' plans focus on testing their most vulnerable residents - older adults, nursing home residents and health-care workers, among others.

Several state plans emphasize that they need federal help to secure enough testing supplies. "If the federal government reduces, or ceases to send, test kits to . . . Georgia, this could result in an [insurmountable] challenge and the state will not meet the 2% testing goal without additional private lab resources," that state's plan said. Louisiana's said, "The greatest threat to our test plan success is the inability to obtain the needed supplies and reagents to successfully execute the state testing plan."

At least two states' plans name specific local industries whose workers are particularly vulnerable to infection, with Nebraska mentioning its meatpacking plants and Delaware noting that it is home to a robust poultry industry.

Federal health officials also announced Friday that they will devote an additional $4 billion in relief funds to two sets of hospitals and other providers of care that are financially struggling because of the pandemic. The money is part of $175 billion in health-care relief that Congress included in laws in March and April - about $115 billion of which has been committed so far, officials said.

According to the officials, approximately $3 billion will be available to an estimated 215 hospitals, doctors or other providers that treat many poor patients and run on thin or negative profit margins. They did not qualify for $10 billion devoted last month to safety-net hospitals. The other $1 billion is for rural hospitals, or suburban facilities that treat many rural patients.

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[Heliobas Disciple]

Trump and Fauci not speaking as coronavirus pandemic worsens

For months, amid the worst pandemic in a century, President Donald Trump insisted all was well between him and the nation's top infectious disease specialist.

www.cnn.com

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Trump and Fauci not speaking as coronavirus pandemic worsens
By Kevin Liptak
Updated 2:13 PM ET, Fri July 10, 2020

For months, amid the worst pandemic in a century, President Donald Trump insisted all was well between him and the nation's top infectious disease specialist.

The pandemic is still around. The bonhomie with Dr. Anthony Fauci is not.

"Dr. Fauci is a nice man, but he's made a lot of mistakes," Trump said this week, undermining the public health expert Americans say in polls they trust more than the President.

With coronavirus raging, Trump and Fauci are no longer speaking. The President has taken to openly criticizing him on television. Fauci is expressing puzzlement at some of Trump's claims.

When the coronavirus task force convened at the Department of Education this week, Fauci was told to beam in over the phone instead of attending in person.

While he's conducted a flurry of newspaper and radio interviews, he has stopped appearing on major American television networks.

"I have a reputation, as you probably have figured out, of speaking the truth at all times and not sugar-coating things," Fauci told the Financial Times this week. "And that may be one of the reasons why I haven't been on television very much lately."

Trump has long chafed at Fauci's tacit rebukes and overt corrections of his misstatements. But at the start of the outbreak he generally remained quiet, understanding he gained little from undermining someone with widespread credibility among the American people.

Instead he declared the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases a "major television star for all the right reasons" -- an outward compliment that nonetheless signaled to some allies of Trump, who does not like being upstaged or undermined, of trouble brewing.

Those suspicions were confirmed by mid-April, when signs of discord began emerging more publicly. Trump retweeted a conservative activist who used the hashtag #FireFauci in complaining about the doctor, though the White House insisted afterward that Trump had no plans to dismiss him and that "Fauci has been and remains a trusted advisor to President Trump."

But a month later, as states began reopening -- often without meeting the parameters conceived by Fauci and other members of the task force and issued by the White House -- Trump began scaling up his public rebukes.

"He wants to play all sides of the equation," Trump said of Fauci in mid-May.

Still, even then, both men claimed their relationship was not contentious. Officials confirmed that was mostly accurate. They did not engage in huge shouting matches or sniping. But Trump's irritation at being publicly undermined was still evident in conversations with his friends and aides, when he complained that Fauci didn't seem to be on his side.

By early June, Trump and Fauci had largely stopped in-person engagements. Fauci -- who has advised every president since Ronald Reagan -- told the Financial Times this week that he last saw Trump on June 2 at the White House, and hasn't personally briefed him in at least two months.

Trump, meanwhile, has begun openly criticizing the doctor.

In June, he stated on multiple occasions that Fauci wasn't responsible for deciding the return of professional sports -- "Tony Fauci has nothing to do with NFL Football" he wrote on Twitter -- after Fauci questioned when leagues could begin play.

In recent interviews, he openly questioned the advice he'd received from Fauci at the start of the outbreak.

"I think we are in a good place. I disagree with him," Trump said in an interview Tuesday when questioned about Fauci's assertion the US is still "knee-deep in the first wave" of the pandemic.

Trump accused Fauci of waffling on early decisions in the crisis, saying he was better off ignoring experts and trusting his instincts.

"Dr. Fauci said don't wear masks and now he says wear them," he told Gray Television's Greta Van Susteren. "And he said numerous things. Don't close off China. Don't ban China. I did it anyway. I didn't listen to my experts and I banned China. We would have been in much worse shape. You wouldn't believe the number of deaths more we would have had if we didn't do the ban."

Trump's criticisms of Fauci don't hold up entirely; the decision to advise against wearing masks was due largely to a nationwide shortage of them, and Fauci publicly backed the ban on travel from China when it was announced.

Still, Trump's criticism reflects his conviction that the health experts who he assembled early in the pandemic have steered him wrong, a view that's been fanned by some in the conservative media who have accused Fauci and others in the administration as imposing draconian lockdown measures despite being unelected officials.

In some ways, Fauci's critics on Fox and in Congress have adjusted their complaints about him to reflect the type of criticism they know appeals to Trump. By casting him as an unelected bureaucrat who is attempting to undermine Trump, they're harkening back to the "deep state" conspiracies that have fueled Trump countless times before.

Once a near-constant presence on television, Fauci has been relegated in recent weeks to newspaper interviews, online webcasts and radio. While his comments still gain widespread coverage -- due both to his general credibility and a fascination with his relationship to Trump -- they haven't reached as wide an audience as a morning show or cable news interview.

In several this week, Fauci decried the politicization surrounding the federal coronavirus response, and said the nation would have been better served if leaders acted in unison.

"One of the problems we're facing, is that in the middle of trying to fight an unprecedented historic pandemic, there is still divisiveness -- there's divisiveness politically," he told The Hill. "We can see that when we look at the different viewpoints that people take towards this."

"So I think you'd have to make the assumption that if there wasn't such divisiveness, that we would have a more coordinated approach," he later told FiveThiryEight's podcast.

He didn't mention the President specifically in those interviews. But asked in a conversation with the Financial Times about Trump's false assertion that 99% of coronavirus cases are "totally harmless," he seemed perplexed.

"I'm trying to figure out where the President got that number," Fauci said. "What I think happened is that someone told him that the general mortality is about 1%. And he interpreted, therefore, that 99% is not a problem, when that's obviously not the case."

If he's looking to get clarity directly from the President, however, he may have to wait.

Trump himself hasn't attended a White House coronavirus task force meeting since April, according to administration officials. While the panel is meeting Friday at the White House, Trump is traveling to Florida on unrelated business. Fauci was seen arriving for the meeting mid-morning.

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[Heliobas Disciple]

How coronavirus affects the entire body | CNN

Coronavirus damages not only the lungs, but the kidneys, liver, heart, brain and nervous system, skin and gastrointestinal tract, doctors said Friday in a review of reports about Covid-19 patients.

www.cnn.com

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How coronavirus affects the entire body
By Maggie Fox
Updated 9:59 PM ET, Fri July 10, 2020

Coronavirus damages not only the lungs, but the kidneys, liver, heart, brain and nervous system, skin and gastrointestinal tract, doctors said Friday in a review of reports about Covid-19 patients.

The team at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City — one of the hospitals flooded with patients in the spring — went through their own experiences and collected reports from other medical teams around the world.

Their comprehensive picture shows the coronavirus attacks virtually every major system in the human body, directly damaging organs and causing the blood to clot, the heart to lose its healthy rhythm, the kidneys to shed blood and protein and the skin to erupt in rashes. It causes headaches, dizziness, muscle aches, stomach pain and other symptoms along with classic respiratory symptoms like coughing and fever.

"Physicians need to think of COVID-19 as a multisystem disease," said Dr. Aakriti Gupta, a cardiology fellow at Columbia who worked on the review, in a statement. "There's a lot of news about clotting but it's also important to understand that a substantial proportion of these patients suffer kidney, heart, and brain damage, and physicians need to treat those conditions along with the respiratory disease."

Much of the damage wrought by the virus appears to come because of its affinity for a receptor — a kind of molecular doorway into cells — called ACE2. Cells lining the blood vessels, in the kidneys, the liver ducts, the pancreas, in the intestinal tract and lining the respiratory tract all are covered with ACE2 receptors, which the virus can use to grapple and infect cells, the Columbia team wrote in their review, published in the journal Nature Medicine.

"These findings suggest that multiple-organ injury may occur at least in part due to direct viral tissue damage," the team wrote.

Coronavirus infection also activates the immune system. Part of that response includes the production of inflammatory proteins called cytokines. This inflammation can damage cells and organs and the so-called cytokine storm is one of the causes of severe symptoms.

"This virus is unusual and it's hard not to take a step back and not be impressed by how many manifestations it has on the human body," Dr. Mahesh Madhavan, another cardiology fellow who worked on the review, said in a statement.

Blood clotting effects appear to be caused by several different mechanisms: direct damage of the cells lining the blood vessels and interference with the various clotting mechanisms in the blood itself. Low blood oxygen caused by pneumonia can make the blood more likely to clot, the researchers said.

These clots can cause strokes and heart attacks or can lodge in the lungs or legs. They clog the kidneys and interfere with dialysis treatments needed for the sickest patients.

Damage to the pancreas can worsen diabetes, and patients with diabetes have been shown to be at the highest risk of severe illness and death from coronavirus.

The virus can directly damage the brain, but some of the neurological effects likely come from the treatment. "COVID-19 patients can be intubated for two to three weeks; a quarter require ventilators for 30 or more days," Gupta said.

"These are very prolonged intubations, and patients need a lot of sedation. 'ICU delirium' was a well-known condition before COVID, and the hallucinations may be less an effect of the virus and more an effect of the prolonged sedation."

The virus affects the immune system, depleting the T-cells the body usually deploys to fight off viral infections. "Lymphopenia, a marker of impaired cellular immunity, is a cardinal laboratory finding reported in 67-90% of patients with COVID-19," the researchers wrote.

Doctors need to treat all of these effects when coronavirus patients show up in the hospital, the Columbia team said.

There is some good news.

"Gastrointestinal symptoms may be associated with a longer duration of illness but have not been associated with increased mortality," the researchers wrote. Many of the skin effects, such as rashes and purplish, swollen "Covid toes," also clear up on their own.

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[Heliobas Disciple]

As COVID-19 cases pile up, Gov. Ron DeSantis follows Trump’s virus playbook. Will it cost the GOP in 2020?

President Donald Trump delivered his wishes on Twitter in all caps with three exclamation marks — “SCHOOLS MUST REOPEN IN THE FALL!!!” Just hours later, the Florida Department of …

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As COVID-19 cases pile up, Gov. Ron DeSantis follows Trump’s virus playbook. Will it cost the GOP in 2020?
Skyler Swisher
Jul 10, 2020 at 3:00 PM

President Donald Trump delivered his wishes on Twitter in all caps with three exclamation marks — “SCHOOLS MUST REOPEN IN THE FALL!!!”

Just hours later, the Florida Department of Education ordered school districts to prepare for in-person instruction five days a week.

The state’s announcement blindsided Fedrick Ingram, who leads the Florida Education Association. He said his union representing 150,000 school employees had no formal involvement or input into the order.

He doesn’t think it’s a coincidence the order to reopen schools signed on Monday came on the same day as the president’s tweet.

“Our governor has tied himself politically to the president,” Ingram said. “We have seen that time and time again in terms of the policies he has rolled out and how he has handled this pandemic. It is unfortunate in this country we do educational policy by tweet.”

It’s a frequent criticism leveled at Gov. Ron DeSantis as he leads Florida through the coronavirus pandemic: DeSantis is taking his cues from Trump instead of listening to people in his own state.

DeSantis’ deference to Trump hasn’t gone unnoticed by some voters in an election battleground that will play a pivotal role in the outcome of this year’s presidential contest.

Betty Anesh, 89, said she’s been cooped up in her Boynton Beach home for months, and she isn’t happy to see that her home state is now a global hotspot for coronavirus infections. DeSantis should be on the phone with scientists — not the White House, she said.

“He is not listening to the people in Florida who are so frightened,” said Anesh, a registered Democrat. “He does what Trump tells him to do. If you put both of their heads together, you wouldn’t get one brain.”

‘Lock step with President Trump'

A first-term governor, DeSantis owes his rise to the governor’s mansion to Trump’s endorsement. Now, his political fate hinges on how he handles the coronavirus emergency.

State Sen. Joe Gruters, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, has a far different view of DeSantis’ intelligence and leadership during the pandemic than the opinion held by the governor’s detractors.

“He has done an exceptional job,” Gruters said. “Florida lucked out having the smartest governor in the country. I am sure glad I am in Florida and not New York. We are much better off in every respect.”

New York was hit early and hard by the virus. Republicans highlight Florida’s lower death rate in nursing homes as an example of how they say DeSantis effectively handled the outbreak.

New York has recorded more than 6,400 deaths in long-term care facilities, while Florida’s death toll is just over 2,000. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has come under fire for a state directive that required nursing homes to accept COVID-19 positive patients with the goal of freeing up space in hospitals.

But cases are now surging in Florida, and the epidemic has slowed in New York. Florida announced a record 120 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, the highest single-day total since the outbreak started. Floridians traveling to New York now must quarantine for 14 days, a reversal from earlier this year.

That’s thrust DeSantis into a political firestorm with foes arguing he moved too quickly to restart the state’s economy.

“It is evident that the governor is in lock step with President Trump,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch said. “The White House’s approach to the virus is to just live with it. ... He needs to do what is necessary for our health — not what is necessary for his politics.”

DeSantis has followed the Trump playbook through the epidemic, downplaying the rise in new cases and bragging at times about how the state was faring.

Richard Corcoran, Florida’s commissioner of education, didn’t respond to an interview request made through a spokeswoman to explain the decision-making process on restarting in-person learning. DeSantis defended the state’s decision to reopen classrooms during a news conference Thursday with U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia, making his own headlines for comparing classrooms to Home Depot.

“If you can do Home Depot, if you can do Walmart, if you can do these things, we absolutely can do the schools,” DeSantis said Thursday. “I want our kids to be able to minimize this educational gap that I think has developed.”

DeSantis has taken direction from Trump at other times during the pandemic.

He hesitantly issued a stay-at-home order on April 1 after weeks of resisting such a move. He acted only when Trump-nominated surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams gave the green light by saying the White House’s recommendations amounted to a national stay-at-home order.

DeSantis purchased 1 million doses of the decades-old antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, an unproven COVID-19 treatment favored by Trump. In April, DeSantis invited a doctor and patient to provide testimonials about the drug during a media briefing in the Florida Cabinet room.

He also has taken a combative tone with reporters. He trumpeted that initial worst-case projections never came to fruition.

“We have succeeded, and I think that people just don’t want to recognize it because it challenges their narrative,” DeSantis said in May when Florida’s infections had plateaued. “It challenges their assumption.”

DeSantis pushed for sports leagues and the Republican National Convention to come to Florida on the grounds that Sunshine State had escaped the worst of the coronavirus epidemic. The NBA and Major League Soccer are planning to complete their seasons in Orlando. Disney World — the beating heart of Florida’s tourism sector — will reopen on Saturday, while California’s Disneyland will remain closed.

When cases started to rise in recent weeks, DeSantis attributed the increase to increased testing, particularly among younger people who were frequenting reopened bars. That echoed a talking point promoted by Vice President Mike Pence on a private call with governors that was obtained by The New York Times. Pence encouraged governors to attribute the rise to increased testing.

DeSantis cut off alcohol sales at bars to try to slow the spread, but he hasn’t embraced a statewide mask mandate or significantly rolled back the reopening.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott moved more assertively on masks than DeSantis as cases started to spike. Texas was one of the first states to reopen. When cases started rising there, Abbott issued a statewide mask mandate.

DeSantis said he preferred to give local leaders the flexibility to decide whether they wanted to require masks in their communities. South Florida counties opted to mandate masks.

White House alliance helps, supporters say

Trump’s support helped to propel DeSantis past establishment favorite Adam Putnam in the Republican primary. One of DeSantis’ campaign ads showed him building a wall and reading Trump’s “Art of the Deal” to his children.

DeSantis, a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, is seen as having presidential ambitions. He launched his political career as a congressman representing the Daytona Beach area.

Once in Tallahassee, DeSantis set to make his own mark, securing funding for the Everglades and the environment, lifting a ban on smoking medical marijuana and supporting pay raises for teachers. Those initiatives garnered praise from some Democrats, who welcomed the new governor as a positive change from his predecessor now-U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.

But DeSantis didn’t stop serving up red meat to his Trump base, pushing a ban on so-called sanctuary cities that offer protections to undocumented residents. At a campaign rally in Sunrise in November, DeSantis appeared next to Trump, who praised the governor’s “all muscle” physique.

That bond has helped Florida, Gruters said, by giving DeSantis a direct line to the White House. That’s helped secure badly needed federal stockpiles of protective equipment, he said.

State Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, rejected the notion that DeSantis hasn’t made his own hard choices on how to handle the coronavirus.

Rather, he listened to out-of-work Floridians who wanted to get back on the job, Brandes said.

“You can’t keep the economy shut down for six months,” he said. “Destroying the life savings of Floridians is a terrible option.”

The nation’s eyes will be on Florida next month when the Republican National Convention is held in Jacksonville. DeSantis lobbied to move the convention from Charlotte, N.C., to his state.

With COVID-19 a concern, there’s talk now of holding celebratory events in outdoor venues despite the withering Florida heat.

The hope is the disease is less likely to spread outdoors.

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[Heliobas Disciple]

Pandemic parties rage on across South Florida despite growing coronavirus crisis

Pulsing parties in swanky South Beach mansions. Raging raves in Miami warehouses. Backyard bashes in Palm Beach manors where teenagers drink late into the night. South Florida is a world epicenter …

www.sun-sentinel.com

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Pandemic parties rage on across South Florida despite growing coronavirus crisis
Mario Ariza
Jul 10, 2020 at 12:50 PM

Pulsing parties in swanky South Beach mansions. Raging raves in Miami warehouses. Backyard bashes in Palm Beach manors where teenagers drink late into the night.

South Florida is a world epicenter of coronavirus infections, but some irrepressible revelers insist on trying to live out the subtropical promise of fun, sin and sun — COVID-19 or not.

Experts say the pandemic parties could cost them their life.

A review of police records, social media accounts, and interviews with professional event planners who refuse to let COVID-19 kill the music shows that South Florida’s world-famous party culture is alive and well.

• Revelers often showed up to a $6 million waterfront mansion for festivities, drawing Miami Beach code enforcers 43 times and the police 18 times. Then gunfire at a party there Sunday wounded two people, sending them to the hospital, according to a city spokesman. One man was arrested, accused of violating city code by having the party, but the shooter vanished.
• The Miami Police Department has responded to 11 “pandemic parties” in recent months, including five in June. But the organizers of one July Fourth bash say they pulled off their warehouse rager without police interference, and some 250 attended.
• A large party delighted 50 teens in Royal Palm Beach, with officers finding them drinking at a home one late night in May. The man who opened the door refused to let the cops in, so they arrested him on the charge of resisting an officer. The cops shut the party down.
• There were parties aplenty across South Florida around the Fourth of July weekend. Broward dispatchers received more than 170 calls about parties and gatherings that were too large or loud, from July 1 to July 6. The city of Miami shut down seven venues and parties over the holiday weekend for not following social-distancing ordinances.

Eric Knott, a pulmonary and ICU medicine trainee on the front lines of treating coronavirus patients, likens pandemic partying to drunken driving. “It’s like hopping into a car drunk without a seat belt and airbag, and assuming you won’t get hit,” Knott said.

Those who’ve attended such parties bring up the uncertainty of how long the pandemic will last — while there’s a need to get out. “We have no idea how long this is going to last and that seemed like a good way to let loose with the measures they were offering,” says Ashley Davis, a Miami resident who attended the July Fourth warehouse bash. The event’s organizers allayed partygoers’ concerns with a disinfection machine that experts say is ineffective.

The median age of those infected by the virus in Florida has plummeted in recent months, going from 65 at the beginning of March to 39 this Wednesday, according to the Florida Department of Health. But younger, healthier people who stand a better chance of fighting it off can still easily transmit it to older, more vulnerable members of their households.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has singled out partygoers for accelerating the spread. “We saw a rapid rise in young people ... being positive to COVID-19 around mid-June,” he told CBS’ “Face The Nation.” “I think that that had a lot to do with probably socializing, young kids going to parties, maybe graduation parties at homes, because it’s been pretty locked down here for some time.”

Knott says that the intensive-care units at his hospital are getting full, and that the lack of medical resources could greatly increase the chances of death, even to young people who would normally be able to fight it off.

“Young people think they’re invincible, that the virus won’t kill them, because the mortality for them is super low,” he says. “But that’s assuming we have the resources. As soon as the numbers get high enough where we can’t give the 25-year-old oxygen, the mortality rate for that group goes up. So as soon as we’re full, that mortality rate argument goes out the window.”

The pandemic parties have taken place all across South Florida.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office responded to 13 calls about large, loud, parties or gatherings on July Fourth. Police records show officers responded to complaints about pool parties with more than 20 people, “large” parties where DJs set off fireworks, and large gatherings of 10 to 15 people setting off fireworks in the street. No one was arrested. Records for the other 157 complaints made between July 1 and July 6 were not immediately available.

On July Fourth, officers from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department responded to a noise complaint in the 1300 block of Citrus Isle. Police records show that cops found a group of 15 people gathered in the backyard. The police report notes that the house was a “Home Away vacation rental,” and that the renter of the residence was visiting from Massachusetts. Officers later returned to the scene to tell the party house to turn it down again. No arrests were made.

Broward County issued an order that took effect Friday, restricting the occupancy of vacation rental properties solely to the people who rented them. The order was passed, because the rentals are being used to host parties.

Pandemic parties have also been broken up in Palm Beach County.

According to police reports, when officers first arrived at a large house in village of Royal Palm Beach on May 22 and knocked on the door, they were met by a drunken, belligerent man who claimed to be of legal age. Inside the house, the reports state, officers could see some 10 teens drinking. After backup arrived and the man who answered the door was arrested, officers allowed the 40 to 50 teenagers who had been in the backyard — “consuming what appeared to be alcoholic beverages and yelling at each other”— to leave.

But some of the largest and most violent parties have occurred in Miami-Dade County.

Authorities in Miami Beach arrested the man accused of throwing the July 5 party that ended in a double shooting. Court records show that Anthony Shnayderman, the organizer of the festivities, was charged with using a residential property as a commercial venue and with a misdemeanor violation of the county’s emergency health ordinance. He was released on a $500 bond.

The shooting remains an open investigation, and details why violence erupted are unclear, but WSVN-Ch. 7 showed footage of partygoers fleeing the house in panic as shot after shot rang out.

In response, Miami Beach officials pulled the house’s occupancy permit, disconnected its utilities, and barred entry to the premises without a court order. The number of people present at the house when the shooting occurred is unclear.

Shnayderman couldn’t be reached for comment.

At least one big bash over the holiday weekend escaped the scrutiny of authorities.

The organizers of one July 4 event event say some 250 people attended their Miami warehouse party like it was still 2019. Video from the party shows about a hundred revelers dancing and carousing in close proximity without any masks on.

The organizers say the party went off without a hitch, while city officials and the Miami Police Department say they were unaware that the festivities even had taken place until the day after.

After learning of the party, Stephanie Severino, spokeswoman for the mayor of Miami, said “everybody needs to start doing their part.”

The party’s organizer said his company has been hired to put on several events during the pandemic, and it has done its part to keep revelers safe from the virus.

“Everybody wants to party, it’s Miami. Everybody is looking for the next party,” says Salomon Hilu, owner of MIA Entertainment Co, the outfit that organized the pandemic party, of his company’s approach.

Hilu declined to say who hired his company to throw the party, or the event’s exact location. He gave no specifics about prior events.

Hilu says partygoers were screened at the door by a “state-of-the-art” disinfection machine that checked temperatures, captured facial recognition data, and cleansed partygoers with a disinfecting spray. He said symptomatic individuals were turned away at the door, though it is unclear how many were denied entry, and that a list of all attendees was kept in order to inform everyone, should anyone later test positive.

Masks were not required indoors at the event.

Dr. Aileen Marty, a professor of infectious diseases at Florida International University, finds the company’s safety strategy lacking.

“That would clean your external surfaces, but the moment you start breathing you’re going to infect people again,” Marty said, after seeing a marketing pamphlet published by the makers of the disinfection machine that Hilu provided to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Marty notes that in Miami-Dade, about 23% of people were testing positive for the virus that weekend. “Which means roughly 1 in 4 people are positive. If you have 250 people and assume 1 in 4 is positive, that means 60 people were shedding virus in that event,” she says.

“That’s why it’s insane.”

Davis, the partygoer, says she went because the disinfection device made her feel secure, and because she was tired of being cooped up.

“They offered preventative measures that no one else did. To me, that seems innovative. They took our temperature at the door and we walked through a sanitizing machine. If there are ways to support our local economy while being safe, why wouldn’t we do that?” she wrote over Instagram messenger.

Hilu says his party wasn’t the only one that evening. He says he saw ads for more bashes over social media and heard of others through word of mouth.

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[Heliobas Disciple]

Inundated Houston hospitals issue grim advisory to ambulances: Go elsewhere

Officials in Houston warn of a potential replay of what happened in New York in the spring, when thousands of people died as hospitals struggled to keep up.

www.nbcnews.com

(fair use applies)

'All the hospitals are full': In Houston, overwhelmed ICUs leave COVID-19 patients waiting in ER
Officials in Houston warn of a potential replay of what happened in New York in the spring, when thousands of people died as hospitals struggled to keep up.
By Mike Hixenbaugh and Charles Ornstein
July 10, 2020, 2:15 PM EDT

Houston hospitals have been forced to treat hundreds of COVID-19 patients in their emergency rooms — sometimes for several hours or multiple days — as they scramble to open additional intensive care beds for the wave of seriously ill people streaming through their doors, according to internal numbers shared with NBC News and ProPublica.

At the same time, the region’s 12 busiest hospitals are increasingly telling emergency responders that they cannot safely accept new patients, at a rate nearly three times that of a year ago, according to data reviewed by reporters.

The increase in ambulance diversions, coupled with the spike in patients being held indefinitely in emergency rooms, are the latest indicators that Houston hospitals are straining to keep up with a surge of new coronavirus patients. ProPublica and NBC News have previously reported that a public hospital in Houston ran out of a medication to treat COVID-19 patients and that a spike in at-home deaths from cardiac arrest suggests that the death toll from the coronavirus may be higher than official statistics show.

On Thursday, 3,812 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the region, including more than 1,000 in intensive care units, a record since the pandemic began. At the same time, since Texas officials have not issued another stay-at-home order to slow the virus’s spread, hospitals are also still seeing a steady flow of patients in need of care as a result of car accidents, violent crime and heat-related medical emergencies.

Officials in Houston are warning that the situation could become a replay of what happened in New York City in March and April, when thousands of people died as hospitals struggled to keep up with the surge of patients, but without the same level of government intervention to stem the tide.

Typically when people arrive at a hospital emergency department, they’re evaluated and treated by the medical staff. Those sick or injured enough to require hospitalization are then moved to other areas of the hospital for specialized care. But increasingly in Houston, particularly for patients suffering from COVID-19, there’s nowhere for them to go.

“Normally that patient would just go to an ICU bed, but because there are no beds available, they continue to board in the emergency room,” said Harris Health System president and CEO Esmaeil Porsa, who oversees the city’s two public safety-net hospitals. “It is not an optimal level of care. This is not something we would choose to do. The only reason this is happening is because we are being forced to do it.”

Although hospital leaders say they are working to provide high-quality care for patients being held in emergency rooms — in part by bringing specialized medical staff and equipment to patients being treated there — studies done before the coronavirus pandemic show that the longer patients stay in ERs, the worse their outcomes.

ICUs and other hospital units are staffed with doctors, nurses and other support personnel who have specialized training and experience caring for critically ill patients in need of specific medical interventions, whereas the mission of emergency department medical workers is to quickly assess patients, stabilize them and get them to where they need to be.

“The problem is you can’t get them to where they need to be, and now it puts the ER doc in the position of having to function like the hospitalist or the intensive care doctor, and that’s not a role that we’re really supposed to be in,” said Dr. Cedric Dark, an emergency physician at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “The bad thing about having any patient boarded in the emergency department, regardless of the situation, is that it slows down the beginning of care for somebody who needs hospitalization, and the beginning of care for any medical condition is the most crucial period of time.”

The same scenario is playing out at hospitals across the Houston region.

A daily status report prepared Wednesday by the SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council, which coordinates the Houston region’s emergency medical response, showed multiple hospitals running out of immediately available nonsurgical ICU beds, including both of the city’s top-tier trauma centers, Ben Taub Hospital and Memorial Hermann’s flagship hospital in the Texas Medical Center.

As of Wednesday afternoon, about 145 patients were being held in emergency departments throughout the Memorial Hermann Health System, according to internal numbers provided separately by a Memorial Hermann physician and confirmed by a hospital executive. Several other Houston area hospitals have reported holding multiple patients in their ERs, including four with more than a dozen.

Dr. Jamie McCarthy, an executive vice president at Memorial Hermann Health System and an emergency room physician, acknowledged that the coronavirus crisis has forced his teams to hold more patients in ERs.

“All the hospitals are full,” McCarthy said. “All the hospitals in the city are boarding patients. We are expanding capacity, but we can’t turn those on immediately. It requires staffing. It requires nurses and doctors to come in. And so, as we’ve continued to expand our inpatient capacity, we’re just keeping up with the volume that’s coming in.”

It’s not unusual for a small number of patients to be held in ERs on busy days, especially during flu season, but three Houston ER physicians said they have never seen so many patients receiving prolonged care in emergency departments, or for such long periods of time.

Although treating patients in the ER for more than a few hours is “not ideal,” McCarthy said, Memorial Hermann has worked to mitigate the impact on patients by sending intensive care doctors and other specialists to emergency departments, to ensure patients are receiving quality care regardless of where they’re located.

But he warned that there’s a limit to what Houston hospitals can do to respond to the crisis.

“We are adding more capacity, but we are absolutely stretched now, and if it keeps going this way, we’re going to run out of room. We’re going to look like New York,” McCarthy said, emphasizing the need for Houston residents to stay home and avoid crowds to slow the virus’s spread.

One of Houston’s largest hospital systems, HCA Healthcare, also has been caring for dozens of COVID-19 patients in its emergency departments. In a statement, HCA spokeswoman Debra Burbridge said hospital officials have taken steps to reduce the impact on patients, including sending staff members who would normally be performing or assisting with elective surgeries — which have been suspended under an order by the governor — to treat patients with COVID-19.

Dr. Kusum Mathews, an assistant professor of critical care and emergency medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, said hospitals can take steps to reduce the risks of overcrowded ERs, including some of those described by Memorial Hermann and HCA officials.

Treating patients sickened by the virus “has outstripped every stretch of our imagination,” Mathews said. “We have had to put beds in hallways, double up patient rooms … just to allow for offloading the emergency department to get more patients in.”

While Houston’s top hospital executives have repeatedly said they can add hundreds of new intensive care beds to meet the demand, at least for the next couple of weeks, the number of patients being treated in emergency rooms demonstrates the difficulty of executing those plans in the midst of a rapidly growing crisis, officials say.

“Those things are not like a switch-key type of activity,” said Porsa, the Harris Health System CEO, noting that his hospitals have had to send patients to hospitals outside of Houston to make room. “The bottleneck to do that is really staffing. As you can imagine, ICU nurses are not a dime a dozen. They are very hard to come by, and it takes time to actually be able to do that.”

The logjam of patients being treated in ERs has also led to delayed emergency response times across the city, according to Houston Fire Department officials.

When hospitals get overloaded, they ask regional authorities to divert ambulances elsewhere. For example, Memorial Hermann’s northeast hospital was on diversion status just 2 percent of the time during an eight-day period in late June and early July last year; it was on diversion status 58 percent of the time during the same time period this year. At Houston’s busiest public hospital, Ben Taub, the number jumped to 81 percent from 58 percent.

The problem, said Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Matt White, is that when every hospital is maxed out, ambulance crews have no choice but to take patients to emergency departments that are too busy to quickly receive them. And by law, hospitals must screen and stabilize any patient who arrives.

“When everyone is on diversion,” White said, “nobody is on diversion.”

Earlier coronavirus outbreaks inundated emergency rooms in New York City and Detroit, but lockdown orders in those cities led to fewer car accidents and a reduction in violent crime, freeing more space in ERs for COVID patients.

With most Texas businesses still open and no mandatory stay-at-home order, hospitals in Houston and other COVID-19 hot spots face the added challenge of making room for COVID patients while still dealing with a steady flow of patients seeking care for other medical emergencies.

And across the country, people with chronic health problems who delayed seeking care earlier in the pandemic are now showing up for treatment, taking up beds, said Dr. Marc Eckstein, medical director of the Los Angeles Fire Department and a professor of emergency medicine at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Despite these challenges, McCarthy, the Memorial Hermann executive, said it’s essential that people continue to come to the hospital for medical emergencies. He pointed to an NBC News and ProPublica report this week that showed a growing number of people are dying suddenly at home, before emergency responders can reach them.

“If a patient believes they have a serious medical issue, they still need to come to the emergency department,” McCarthy said. “We will make the capacity to take care of them. Delaying care for time-sensitive emergencies is time we don’t get back. If they wait to call for help when they are having a heart attack, it will be worse than if they come in early."

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[Heliobas Disciple]

Phoenix Mayor: Maricopa County Medical Examiner at 96% capacity, adding refrigerated trucks

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego says Abrazo is requesting refrigerated trucks after hitting capacity in their morgue.

www.abc15.com

(fair use applies)

Phoenix Mayor: Maricopa County Medical Examiner at 96% capacity, adding refrigerated trucks
Ashley Loose
Posted at 11:24 AM, Jul 10, 2020 | last updated 10:06 PM, Jul 10, 2020

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego says one Abrazo location is nearing capacity in its morgue and may be requesting refrigerated trucks. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner's office is also reportedly near capacity.

ABC15 spoke with Mayor Gallego Friday morning when she said the Abrazo location, which was not identified, is "near capacity" in their morgue space and they are looking at options to prevent problems.

“It’s specific just to one area…this is not a statewide problem,” Mayor Gallego said. "Maricopa County... is looking at everything they can do..."

"We are losing too many Arizonans," Mayor Gallego said. She continued to urge Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to require mask usage throughout the state.

Mayor Gallego's office released an additional statement Friday, detailing information from the city's meetings with the "Maricopa County Unified Command Center."

The command center team shared that the Maricopa Office of the Medical Examiner is at 96% capacity and is working to "secure a contract for refrigerator trucks."

Read the latest statement from Mayor Gallego's office below:

“The City of Phoenix participates in meetings with the Maricopa County Unified Command Center. It was reported this week that morgue space is nearing capacity in some cases here in Arizona. An Abrazo liaison reported their morgue is at capacity.​

​

The command center has also reported that the Maricopa Office of the Medical Examiner is at 97% capacity and is working with the Maricopa Department of Emergency Management to secure a contract for refrigerator trucks. For further information contact Abrazo Health or the Maricopa Department of Emergency Management directly.”​

"I'm heartbroken...it's been a rough week for me," Mayor Gallego said to ABC15, citing that the White House officials have said everything is under control and that she has been asking for too much support amid the fight against coronavirus.

When Mayor Gallego spoke with ABC15 Friday morning, she shared that an unknown Abrazo location is "near capacity," but officials from Abrazo's hospitals later released a statement, saying they have "adequate morgue space."

Subsequently, in the latest statement from Mayor Gallego's office, it is stated that "an Abrazo liaison reported their morgue is at capacity."

Abrazo officials confirmed that they have ordered refrigerated storage space as part of their emergency plans, but say it is not yet needed.

Read the full statement from the Abrazo hospital network below:

​

"Abrazo hospitals currently have adequate morgue space. The state has requested that hospitals implement their emergency plans. Part of activating our plan includes the ability to handle overflow morgue capacity if needed. Abrazo has taken a proactive approach by ordering refrigerated storage in the event it may be needed during a surge of COVID patients. At this point it is not needed. We do agree with the Mayor’s points around promoting awareness around masking, continuing to practice social distancing and seeking medical care in the event of an emergency need."​

Additionally, Mayor Gallego mentioned that Phoenix is hoping to receive federal testing support by July 16.

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[Heliobas Disciple]

‘Worse Than New York’: How Coronavirus Exploded in South Carolina

South Carolina is besieged by the coronavirus, reporting more cases per capita than most countries. “We’ve completely lost control of the situation,” one doctor told the Beast.

www.thedailybeast.com

(fair use applies)

‘Worse Than New York’: How Coronavirus Exploded in South Carolina
South Carolina is besieged by the coronavirus, reporting more cases per capita than most countries. “We’ve completely lost control of the situation,” one doctor told the Beast.
Pilar Melendez, David Axe
Updated Jul. 10, 2020 3:57PM ET / Published Jul. 10, 2020 4:45AM ET

COLUMBIA, South Carolina—At one hospital in Charleston, emergency-room nurses are recycling used N95 masks as doctors in other departments pitch in to staff COVID-19 units. At another, shortages have forced health-care staffers to work unprecedented overtime. All told, more than 75 percent of hospital beds are already occupied across the Palmetto State—and the tidal wave of new coronavirus cases is only growing.

Simply put, South Carolina hospitals are under siege.

“We’re going to be worse than New York,” one Charleston ER nurse told The Daily Beast. “But at least in New York, people took the virus seriously. Here, we’re in a war zone that people refuse to accept.”

One of the earliest states to loosen coronavirus restrictions amid the pandemic, South Carolina is now struggling to address its brewing COVID-19 crisis. But while the growth rate of infected residents has exploded over the last week—making the state one of the newest hot spots for the deadly disease—many residents continue to ignore the problem.

Last week, thousands of boaters gathered at Lake Murray to declare their support for President Trump, while organizers of a motorcycle event in Myrtle Beach next week say they have no intention of modifying or canceling the annual tradition.

“Who is staying home? If you look at the roads here, nobody is staying home,” Sonny Copeland, the founder of Myrtle Beach Bike Week, which typically attracts thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts, told The Daily Beast. “Here in South Carolina, we’ve been acting normal since Day 1. We live in real life—this ain’t something politicians want us to do though.”

To date about 898 people have died and 50,548 others have been infected with the virus in South Carolina—with roughly one in five tests returning a positive result. Overnight, the state experienced a 20 percent increase in the number of new cases, with about 1,725 positive tests, while the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control on Thursday announced that more than 75 percent of its total hospital beds are occupied. Of the 7,991 hospital beds currently occupied statewide, about 1,433 of them are being used by COVID-19 patients. South Carolina’s majority-Black communities have been hit the hardest, according to media reports and statistics from the state health agency DHEC.

Anthony Alberg, an epidemiologist at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, told The Daily Beast he’s not surprised the state has failed to contain the pandemic—as its reopening occurred far too soon.

“Early on, South Carolina took the essential steps needed to flatten the curve,” Alberg said. “The problem has been reopening too soon, which has led to a very large upsurge in COVID-19 cases that cannot be accounted for solely due to the increased testing for active SARS-CoV-2 infections.”

South Carolina’s current surge of cases is so bad that it’s now one of the top three worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world. In a New York Times study of the number of daily infections between June 28 and July 5, Arizona and Florida are the two most impacted areas in the world—followed by South Carolina, the kingdom of Bahrain, and Louisiana. Hospitals are overwhelmed, understaffed, and short on supplies—unable to keep up with what researchers believe is the “tipping point” before the state loses control of the pandemic.

“We’ve completely lost control of the situation in South Carolina—and it’s completely embarrassing,” Helmut Albrecht, chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and Prisma Health, told The Daily Beast. “In the medical community, we feel like we are getting completely dumped on.”

Some doctors insist the surge was inevitable, given state officials’ response to the virus. Aside from closing schools, in the first month or so of the coronavirus’ spread in South Carolina, there was very little in the way of a statewide effort to slow the pathogen. As late as the end of March, the Republican-led state government was actively discouraging local public-health efforts. “We affirm that local governments cannot exercise the emergency powers delegated to the governor by the general assembly,” Attorney General Alan Wilson stated on March 27. The general assembly is South Carolina’s state legislature.

Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, a Democrat, brushed off Wilson’s memo and continued with local social-distancing measures. “The actions taken by the city are entirely within our authority,” Benjamin said. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster eventually caved and allowed cities to implement public-health measures, while also taking some modest steps to enforce social distancing on a statewide level—such as closing some businesses.

But many South Carolinians chafed under the restrictions. The first major public protest against social-distancing measures in South Carolina occurred in Columbia on April 24. A few hundred people, many of them from out of town, marched or demonstrated from their cars.

On April 24, McMaster was one of the first state officials to begin loosening coronavirus restrictions, announcing an executive order that allowed most retail and department stores to reopen with social distancing. The order came only after three weeks of “actual closure,” one Charleston ER doctor said.

“Nobody really had the time to take it seriously,” said the ER doctor, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of professional retaliation.

At the peak of social distancing in South Carolina in early April, DHEC estimated the population’s mobility to be down 42 percent compared to normal. By comparison, in New York City mobility dropped by more than an estimated 90 percent in late March, though metrics used to gauge mobility varied in the two appraisals.

“The mindset from the government was that the ongoing pandemic was not that big of a deal, and people continued to live life as normal,” the ER physician added. “People went to the beach, they traveled—all without proper social distancing and mask use. Now, our hospitals are paying the price.”

The ER doctor, who works at one of the largest hospitals in Charleston, a city that saw four deaths overnight and 325 new cases, also said that hospital staffers are being forced to treat patients without adequate protective equipment and work overtime.

“It’s only going to get worse here as summer goes on. People flock down here to go to lakes, to Myrtle Beach,” the Charleston doctor added. “We’re just all really unprepared.”

Myrtle Beach, a popular tourist destination along South Carolina’s coast, seems to be one of the biggest problem zones in the Palmetto State. A spring-break destination with a large elderly community, Myrtle Beach has contributed to increasing COVID-19 cases nationwide—including 50 cases around Philadelphia.

An internal state report obtained by ABC News foreshadows that South Carolina’s COVID-19 outbreak has no end in sight. The July 4 report, which warned of the state’s hot-spot status, particularly in coastal counties, said that in Horry County, where Myrtle Beach is located, “cases continue to sharply rise” with “widespread travel to the area contributing to cases.” In Charleston, there is “no sign of cases slowing down,” according to the report.

Locals, however, refuse to let the pandemic that has killed more than 133,000 people nationwide ruin their summer.

“We’re making no changes. Everything is going according to plan,” Copeland, 61, said about the 81st Annual Myrtle Beach Bike Week.

The bike rally, which was moved from May to July due to coronavirus concerns, will begin on July 13 and bring together thousands of motorcycle riders, residents, and out-of-town enthusiasts. Last May, Copeland said about 250,00 to 300,000 bikers came to the event. Even officials are not terribly concerned about the implications of such a large gathering, telling local news outlets that if residents are not comfortable they have the option of staying home.

“The way I look at it, we don’t need the damn government to tell us what to do,” Copeland said. “We are smart enough to look after ourselves. We’re smart enough to know how to take care of ourselves, distance when we ride, and we have common sense.”

“We’re not a bunch of teenagers who are going to hug and kiss on the beach,” he added. “This is about riding motorcycles, being in the wind. This is about enjoying life and riding. This is about common sense.”

Albrecht believes large events like Bike Week are actively contributing to the influx of hospitalizations in the state. Calling the carelessness in the community “concerning,” the doctor added that South Carolina’s biggest problem right now is “community spread” and “things open that shouldn’t be open.”

“Leadership is not only making certain good or bad decisions and they are leading by example,” Albrecht said, adding that he is “pro-opening” and believes it is a citizen’s personal responsibility now to ensure the state does not go into free-fall. “Right now, it’s all about regaining control over the spread of the infection. It’s not rocket science. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

To date, South Carolina does not have a mask mandate despite recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. McMaster’s office did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment about the COVID-19 increase in South Carolina, but the governor has previously bashed some preventative measures, calling mask mandates “impractical” and “ineffective.”

“There’s no power on Earth that can follow everyone in the state around to be sure that they are following the rules,” McMaster said in a June 26 press conference.

While the state government has all but surrendered to the virus, cities are continuing to fight. Columbia, Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and more than two dozen other municipalities have, since late June, passed ordinances requiring people to wear masks while indoors in public. The city-level rules include lots of exceptions—and enforcement on the street level is weak. Columbia delegated enforcement of the mask rule to fire marshals and parking-meter monitors instead of making it a policy priority.

For the Charleston ER nurse, the lack of strong government action is directly correlated to the dire ICU situation in her hospital.

“Asking people nicely to follow the CDC guidelines is not going to change anything,” she said. “At the end of the day, people don’t want to stay inside, wear a mask, or stop living their lives any longer. People can be selfish—and that choice is seen every day in my overflowed hospital.”

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[Heliobas Disciple]

Mississippi's five largest hospitals have run out of ICU beds

Mississippi's five largest hospitals reached ICU capacity midweek, four other hospitals have 5 percent or less ICU beds available and an additional three have less than 10 percent.

www.dailymail.co.uk

(fair use applies)

Mississippi's five largest hospitals have run out of ICU beds and four others have 5% or less as infections soar across the state and Gov. Reeves backpedals on reopening plans
By Rachel Sharp
Published: 13:59 EDT, 10 July 2020 | Updated: 19:00 EDT, 10 July 2020

• Mississippi's five largest hospitals reached ICU capacity midweek
• Four other hospitals have 5 percent or less ICU beds available and an additional three have less than 10 percent
• Mississippi has one of the fastest-growing rates of new coronavirus cases across the US, with another 1,031 new cases announced Friday
• Hospitalizations reached a record high of 711 patients
• An outbreak has struck the Mississippi Capitol with at least 26 legislators and 10 others who work there testing positive for the virus
• Among those infected in the heavily Republican body are GOP presiding officers House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann
• Gov. Reeves has backpedaled on reopening plans, reducing indoor gatherings from 50 to 10 people and outdoor from 100 to 20 in 13 hard-hit counties
• He also announced a new order Thursday mandating residents in these counties to wear masks in public places

Mississippi's five largest hospitals have run out of ICU beds and four others have 5 percent or less available as coronavirus cases continue to soar across the state and Governor Tate Reeves backpedals on reopening plans.

State health officials warned Thursday that the healthcare system is buckling under the weight of the pandemic, with the five largest facilities reaching their capacity for ICU patients by midweek.

Another four hospitals have 5 percent or less ICU beds available and an additional three less than 10 percent, as the state announced a new daily record for COVID-19 hospitalizations for the second day in a row Friday.

Infections have surged to 34,622 and the state governor is finally issuing a mask mandate for residents in the hardest-hit counties.

This comes after an outbreak at the state Capitol infected around one in seven Mississippi legislators and threatens to derail the seat of the state government.

Mississippi's state health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs gave a grave warning Thursday that patient care is at risk as ravaged hospitals can no longer keep up with the influx of patients pouring in.

'Yesterday, five of our biggest hospitals in the state had zero ICU beds. Zero,' he said.

'Our biggest medical institutions, who take care of our sickest patients, have no room to take care of additional folks.'

Dr. Alan Jones, assistant vice chancellor for clinical affairs of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said Thursday he was woken with the dire news.

'I was woken up by a phone call yesterday morning at 4 a.m. because we had so many patients at our hospital, we didn't know where to put them,' he said.

The state health department told DailyMail.com it is not naming the hospitals with ICU capacity issues at this time.

Mississippi has one of the fastest-growing rates of new coronavirus cases across the entire US, with another 1,031 new cases announced Friday.

This takes total infections to 34,622 while the death toll has climbed to 1,215 and counting after another 11 people were killed by the virus.

Hospitalizations continue to soar to record levels, with 711 patients reported Friday, surpassing the state's previous dismal high of 686 the previous day.

Fears are growing for the state, given Mississippi is known to already have some of the sparsest health care resources in the country.

Hospitals are being urged to activate their 'surge plans' to increase their capacity in preparation for the outbreak spreading further in the coming weeks.

The sudden surge in cases centers around 13 counties including Grenada, which has seen a 22 percent spike in cases this week compared to last week.

Cases in Simpson County have surged 18 percent in the same timeframe.

A staggering 109 outbreaks have been linked to long-term care facilities, where 586 have died and 2,927 have been infected.

The Mississippi Capitol has also not been immune to the virus, with officials Wednesday revealing that at least 26 legislators and 10 others who work at the statehouse have tested positive for the virus.

The outbreak, which has struck around one in seven Mississippi legislators, comes after lawmakers flocked to the building back in June for the historic vote to remove the Confederate emblem from the state flag.

Among those testing positive in the heavily Republican body are GOP presiding officers House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann.

None of the lawmakers have been hospitalized, according to state officials.

Fears that the worse is yet to come for the state have led the governor to backtrack on the state's reopening plans across the 13 hardest-hit counties.

Reeves announced Thursday a reduction to the limit on indoor gatherings from 50 to 10 people and outdoor from 100 to 20 in desperate efforts to slow the spread of the virus.

He also announced a new order mandating all residents to wear masks in public places.

Business owners in those counties will also be required to screen workers for the virus.

The governor has also hinted he could backpedal on the reopening of bars and other places if people don't stop congregating in large groups.

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[Heliobas Disciple]

Mayor orders rollback to Phase 1 reopening guidelines; governor calls it ‘unenforceable’

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has reinstated Phase 1 reopening guidelines after a steady surge in coronavirus cases.

www.ajc.com

(fair use applies)


Mayor orders rollback to Phase 1 reopening guidelines; governor calls it ‘unenforceable’
By Henri Hollis
7 hours ago

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has reinstated Phase 1 reopening guidelines after a steady surge in coronavirus cases.

In following Phase 1 guidelines, residents should wear face masks, restaurants should close dining rooms, non-essential city facilities should close and individuals are encouraged to leave home only for essential trips.

“Based upon the surge of COVID-19 cases and other data trends, pursuant to the recommendations of our Reopening Advisory Committee, Atlanta will return to Phase I of our reopening plan,” Bottoms said Friday in a statement. “Georgia reopened in a reckless manner and the people of our city and state are suffering the consequences.”

The rollback order comes as Georgia has set a series of record highs for new coronavirus cases this week. Nearly 5,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported Friday, which was another record.

Atlanta Mayor @KeishaBottoms' action today is merely guidance - both non-binding and legally unenforceable. As clearly stated in my executive orders, no local action can be more or less restrictive, and that rule applies statewide. (1/3) https://t.co/3pQdB0pI70​

— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) July 10, 2020​

The Phase 1 guidelines conflict with guidance from the state level, where Gov. Brian Kemp has encouraged mask-wearing but asked cities not to mandate it. According to the governor’s office, Bottoms’ Phase 1 guidelines are unenforceable. Kemp’s executive orders legally supersede the mayor’s guidelines.

Kemp released a statement critical of the mayor’s plans.

“Mayor Bottoms’ action today is merely guidance — both non-binding and legally unenforceable. As clearly stated in the Governor’s executive order, no local action can be more or less restrictive, and that rule applies statewide,” the governor said.

Bottoms announced Monday that she tested positive for COVID-19, then signed an executive order mandating face coverings in public Wednesday.

Critics of the mask mandate noted that it would be legally unenforceable as well.

“We are looking into what we can do to enforce it outside of our public facilities,” Bottoms said of the mandate. “But we’re just asking people to do the right thing.”

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[Heliobas Disciple]

Georgia governor reopens coronavirus field hospital at Atlanta convention center

Georgia plans to convert Atlanta's Georgia World Congress Center into a makeshift hospital again as the state struggles with a rise in Covid-19 hospitalizations.

www.cnbc.com

(fair use applies)

Georgia governor reopens coronavirus field hospital at Atlanta convention center
Noah Higgins-Dunn
Fri, Jul 10 2020 5:15 PM EDT

Key Points

• Georgia is planning to reactivate Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center into a makeshift hospital as the state struggles with increasing Covid-19 hospitalizations.
• The convention center first turned one of its exhibit halls into a 200-bed makeshift alternative care facility in April.
• The Georgia Department of Public Health reported 4,484 new cases Friday, a record-breaking daily tally.

Georgia is planning to reopen a field hospital at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center as the state struggles with increasing hospitalizations and record-breaking new Covid-19 cases, according to Gov. Brian Kemp’s office.

The convention center first turned one of its exhibit halls into a 200-bed makeshift alternative care facility in April, but officials closed the facility in May. The state has since reported record-breaking jumps in additional new Covid-19 cases since mid-June.

According to a release from Kemp’s office, the facility will utilize state-owned equipment, such as hospital beds and medical equipment, procured through the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency earlier this year.

The state first plans to “leverage a new contract for enhanced bed capacity with a metro-Atlanta area hospital” before using the center, according to the release.

“Over the past two weeks, we have experienced an increase in cases and hospitalizations, and following a drop-off in specimens collected over the holiday weekend, we now expect a trend of higher case numbers as new results arrive,” according to a release from Kemp’s office.

The need for additional space could be a sign of a worsening outbreak in Georgia, which was the first state to begin reopening its economy in late April.

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported 4,484 new cases Friday, a record-breaking daily tally. Most of the state’s cases are being reported in four counties in the greater Atlanta area.

There were more than 2,300 people in the state’s hospitals with Covid-19 as of Thursday, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project, an independent volunteer organization launched by journalists at The Atlantic.

The state has reported a 43% increase in its number of hospitalizations, based on a seven-day average, compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of the data.

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[Heliobas Disciple]

Experts not optimistic about herd immunity in Alabama

Reaching herd immunity may be difficult under any circumstances but would cost tens of thousands of lives in Alabama without a vaccine, experts say

www.al.com

(fair use applies)

Public health experts weigh in on herd immunity in Alabama; they are not optimistic.
By Sarah Whites-Koditschek
Updated Jul 10, 2020; Posted Jul 10, 2020

With coronavirus cases spreading rapidly, Alabama continues pushing for a return to normalcy. Businesses are reopening and campuses are preparing for a fall semester. But what will it take to get back to normal?

One possible answer is herd immunity. That might be attempted either through a vaccine or through mass infections. Disease experts welcome the first, but say the second is improbable and dangerous.

“We may not be able to wipe out this virus in a year, but it is possible to wipe it out over time (with a vaccine),” said Dr. Pamela Foster, University of Alabama professor of community medicine and population health.

Herd immunity is when the majority of a population is immune and is therefore unlikely to spread a disease. Dr. Walter Orenstein, associate director of the Emory Vaccine Center, says 60 to 70 percent of the population would need to be immune to COVID-19 to achieve herd immunity.

That’s unlikely without a vaccine, said Orenstein. “My feeling is that we shouldn’t be hopeful, in the absence of the vaccine, that we’re going to get a high enough infection rate that the virus will wipe itself out.”

Alabama added over 2,000 coronavirus cases Thursday, a new daily record, as the state’s hospitals are nearing capacity with staffing and ICU beds.

Some Alabamians told al.com this spring that they wanted to reach herd immunity so Alabama can get back to regular life, including the head of the state dental board and regular office workers. Even this week, Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh said he hopes more Alabamians would get sick so we could get to immunity.

But new research shows that widespread outbreaks in other parts of the world resulted in less than 10 percent of the population testing for antibodies for COVID-19.

Without a vaccine, attempting herd immunity is a deadly and unlikely proposition, experts say.

High cost of herd immunity

If the majority of Alabamians got coronavirus, that would mean tens of thousands of deaths, according to Dr. Amber D’Souza, an epidemiologist at John’s Hopkins University. She says the disease’s mortality rate is an estimated one percent.

“A number (like) that would be very difficult to imagine and nothing like those of us alive today can imagine,” said D’Souza.

“Taking it on the chin can be a pretty dangerous approach,” said Dr. Stephen Kissler, a research fellow at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health, who pointed to racial disparities in health outcomes.

“That burden of herd immunity will be paid for with the health and lives of least privileged members of society,” Kissler said.

And then there’s the possibility of hospitals being overrun and lacking room for patients with emergencies, such as heart attacks or injuries from car accidents.

Experts point to countries like Sweden, which tried to reach herd immunity without a vaccine and has seen a spike in deaths compared to neighboring nations. Studies show just 7.3 percent of Swedes had antibodies from the disease at the end of April. In Spain, the data was lower at close to 5 percent.

“Despite the high impact of COVID-19 in Spain, prevalence estimates remain low and are clearly insufficient to provide herd immunity,” researchers reported in The Lancet medical journal Monday.

Vaccine challenges

Further complicating Alabama’s prospects for herd immunity, it is not clear how long coronavirus immunity lasts, or whether people can be infected twice.

That may mean any vaccine, if and when one becomes available, would need to be administered multiple times.

Public health systems would decide who would take priority for getting a vaccine, such as health workers and immunocompromised people, but access could be an issue, experts worry.

And surveys reflect that only about half of Americans would be willing to get a vaccine, making vaccine-produced herd immunity, by scientific standards, impossible.

Tamping down transmission

Still, some immunity is better than none, said Orenstein, if people get it safely, through a vaccine.

“Even if we don’t achieve herd immunity, if we have higher immunity than we have right now, we will tamp down transmission,” he said.

When a larger percent of the population is immune, less people are likely to spread COVID, if they come into contact with it, breaking the chain of transmission.

“Herd immunity gives you an opportunity to at least manage the disease,” said Foster in Alabama.

“Right now we’re out of control (and) overwhelming our system,” she said, referring to hospital staffing and ICU bed shortages that could result in hospitals not having enough room to take new patients.

Foster hopes a vaccine could be ready as soon as this fall.

Dr. D’Souza is hopeful a vaccine might be available by 2021.

Next best option

Gov. Ivey has encouraged, but not mandated masks in Alabama, although many city and local officials have stepped in and ordered residents to wear masks in public.

If everyone in Alabama wore a mask, it would reduce deaths by more than half, saving about 1,700 lives by November, the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates.

Beyond that there is the lockdown, which is being tried again from Australia to Spain. Even Texas and Florida have recently restricted some businesses, such as bars, to battle summer surges.

“At the moment, the only tool in the tool chest is isolation,” said Orenstein.

Alabama’s numbers have been growing rapidly ever since Memorial Day and since people emerged from the lockdown. The New York Times reported Wednesday that if Alabama were a country, it would now have the world’s eighth highest rate of spread.

So what happens if Alabamians decide the best course is drop all precautions and let the fittest survive?

“You can quote me saying ‘no, no, no, no,” said Foster. She called the “natural” route to herd immunity, without a vaccine, a “selfish approach” by relatively healthy people, fraught with bioethical issues.

“When you’re talking about beds being tied up in an ICU, then you have to decide who gets an ICU bed and who doesn’t. Would you want to be in that position?”

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[Heliobas Disciple]

After the virus, Minnesota woman faces a hellish recovery

Hospitals are reporting better-than-expected survival rates but worse-than-expected complications even after patients have technically recovered.

www.startribune.com

(fair use applies)

After the virus, Minnesota woman has a hellish recovery
Hospitals are reporting better-than-expected survival rates but worse-than-expected complications even after patients have technically recovered. By Jeremy Olson
July 10, 2020 — 11:34pm

Patty Secrest woke from a three-week, medically induced coma in April, with her lungs taking back the role of breathing that had been left to a mechanical ventilator during her severe bout with COVID-19.
It meant survival, but it was only the beginning of the Stillwater woman’s recovery story.

Her first try at sitting up after regaining consciousness at Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul lasted 10 seconds, she said. “There were armrests, but I was so weak I couldn’t do it.”

After admitting and treating more than 4,300 patients with COVID-19, Minnesota hospitals are reporting better-than-expected survival rates but worse-than-expected complications even after patients have technically recovered from the infectious disease.

Major hospital systems in the Twin Cities have launched special rehabilitation programs in response to help patients regain memory, strength and energy. Secrest, 65, was one of the first patients discharged from Fairview’s post-acute COVID-19 rehab program, which offers four step-down therapy and exercise services to help people get back what they lost.

Continued breathing problems were expected, but the muscle loss and cognitive problems in patients coming off ventilators surprised caregivers at M Health Fairview, which includes the Bethesda Hospital that treats only COVID-19 patients.

“The patients that are coming to us have a lot of challenges and a long road in front of them,” said Liz Larsen, director of M Health Fairview’s acute rehab unit at the U medical center and the transitional care unit at Ebenezer Care Center in Minneapolis. “The fatigue and the lack of energy in doing what you want to do lasts longer than we would have guessed.”

Research is uncovering the long-term consequences of a viral infection that didn’t exist in humans until late 2019.

Doctors in hard-hit Italy reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association Thursday that they found problems in 87% of patients who were screened for post-acute care 60 days after their initial COVID-19 symptoms. More than half reported fatigue. Joint and chest pains also were common, along with labored breathing.

The virus attacks multiple organs and can have long-term consequences, but patients also can be affected by the paralyzing drugs that are often used during ventilation, said Dr. Farha Ikramuddin, chief of rehabilitation services at M Health Fairview. And then there is the overaggressive immune system response that is a key feature of severe COVID-19 cases.

“This immune response itself can impact a variety of organs, including the muscles and the nerves and our brains,” she said.

Good news at the moment is that hospitalizations for COVID-19 have declined in Minnesota from a single-day high of 606 patients on May 28 to 227 patients on Friday — including 124 patients needing intensive care.

State officials worry that an uptick in COVID-19 infections among young adults could lead to more cases among older adults at greater risk. The Minnesota Department of Health on Friday reported 609 new cases and five COVID-19 deaths, bringing the totals in the pandemic to 40,767 known infections and 1,495 deaths.

More than 19,000 test results were reported, exceeding levels seen before the July 4th holiday.

The percentage of tests that are coming back positive is rising — one sign that case counts are not increasing solely because of more testing. Over the past seven days, an average of 4.5% of tests found COVID-19 compared with 3.8% one week ago.

Everything was fuzzy when Secrest emerged from her coma, weeks after she was admitted for hospital care on March 28. The confusion of being surrounded by doctors and nurses in gowns and face shields didn’t help, and she experienced hallucinations — including that an air circulator near the window was a person.

When she was first moved from Bethesda to Fairviews’s inpatient rehab unit, she couldn’t remember her password to open her phone. The sign language that was fundamental to her work as an interpreter at Century College was a blur.

Secrest entered rehab 30 pounds lighter due to the loss of muscle and said her first steps in therapy exercises felt like a “dinosaur walk.”

“Every step was just clomp, clomp, clomp,” she recalled. “There was nothing normal about it at all.”

Grief hindered her recovery. Shortly after emerging from her coma, Secrest learned that her partner of 18 years, Donald Lydick, had died of COVID-19 on April 10 at age 60.

“That made it harder to deal with everything,” she said. “The hardest thing was knowing that I wasn’t there for him.”

Initial odds of surviving COVID-19 after placement on a ventilator appeared grim at the start of the pandemic, though perhaps overstated. High death rates reported in China and Italy were partly related to their hospitals being overwhelmed with patients and unable to provide usual levels of care and monitoring.

Northwell Health in New York raised fears in April with a report that 88% of COVID-19 patients on ventilators died. A week later, the health care network updated that report to stress that this included only discharged patients. When including all patients, including those still being treated in hospitals at the time, the death rate was 24%.

Even so, Minnesota hospital officials said they have improved outcomes. The Health Department reported a death rate in May of 42.8% of patients who had completed hospital care for COVID-19 and had been placed on a ventilator or a heart-lung bypass machine. In June, the death rate among such patients dropped to 30.6%.

Lessons learned since the early days of COVID-19 include earlier use of alternative and less-invasive forms of oxygen support such as nasal cannulas, said Dr. Alex Teeters, a critical care and pulmonary specialist at Allina Health’s United Hospital in St. Paul.

Doctors were initially encouraged to move patients quickly to ventilators and to avoid the use of cannulas that could blow the virus into the air and spread the infection, he said. That concern subsided, though, and early oxygen support with these alternatives proved helpful in treating patients and even helping them avoid ventilators, he said.

Doctors also have learned when to adjust ventilator pressure settings and how often to place patients in prone positions that support their lungs. Better data on drug therapies is helping — with early data from a British study last month showing that a steroid, dexamethasone, could improve survival for COVID-19 patients in intensive care.

Teeters said the social distancing and state-mandated stay-at-home order helped, because the hospitals never were overwhelmed to the point of having to ration care or draft doctors and nurses into the ICU who weren’t specialists in critical care.

“That is a big one — that we have the same standard of care now as we always have had,” he said.

Ikramuddin said she suspects that the length of time spent on ventilators correlates to the level of lingering health problems and need for rehab services.

“I’m so astonished to see these patients with severe muscle atrophy,” she said. “There is so much muscle dysfunction.”

Secrest found some rehab therapies to be silly — practicing putting dishes in a cupboard and operating a microwave — but realized they were helping in her slow recovery.

“I was thinking, ‘I know how to do this stuff,’ but when it came to actually doing it, it wasn’t really smooth,” she said.

Some of the guilt holding her back was lifted when a caregiver in the rehab unit showed her a TV news feature about the nurse who took care of her partner and kept him company in his hospital isolation when he died.

“At least I knew there was someone with him,” she said.

Secrest still couldn’t walk very far when she returned home — a hardship for someone who achieved 10,000 steps every day before her infection.

Relatives and friends have helped with meals and exercise outings to help her build strength. Rehab and a special diet helped her regain 10 of the 30 pounds she lost during her hospitalization.

Watching the interpreters during COVID-19 state news conferences has helped, but Secrest acknowledged she still isn’t as adept at sign language and can forget things. She hasn’t returned to work.

It’s been nearly four months since she was infected with the coronavirus, probably at a store. “I still to this day get tired very easily,” she said, “but it’s much, much better. When I first got home, I had to make it up two to three stairs and I’d just be breathing heavily.”

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[Hfcomms]

'I thought this was a hoax' | 30-year-old patient dies in local hospital after attending 'COVID Party'

Author: Holly Stouffer (KENS5)

"The thought is that people get together to see if the virus is real if anyone gets infected," a hospital official said.
SAN ANTONIO — A 30-year-old patient died after attending what's being called a "COVID Party," said Methodist Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jane Appleby.

"This is a party held by someone diagnosed with the COVID virus, and the thought is that people get together to see if the virus is real if anyone gets infected," Appleby said.

Appleby said she heard the heartbreaking story from a member of her staff this week.

"Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said, 'I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it's not,'" Appleby said.

Appleby said several of their critically ill coronavirus patients are in their twenties and thirties. It's a growing trend seen across San Antonio.

During Friday night's briefing, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said young adults made up 25% of positive cases in Bexar County.

"We're in a period of very high community transmission," Nirenberg said. "If you're having a party with people who aren't part of your social circle in your household, it has the potential to be a COVID party whether you like it or not."

Appleby said she's not trying to be an alarmist. She hopes this patient's case helps people realize the severity of what's going on around them.

"This is just one example of a potentially avoidable death in a young member of our community and I can't imagine the loss of the family," Appleby said. "We're here to help you, at the same time, we hope that you don't need our help. Please wear a mask, stay at home when you can, avoid groups of people and sanitize your hands."

'I thought this was a hoax' | 30-year-old patient dies in local hospital after attending 'COVID Party'

"The thought is that people get together to see if the virus is real if anyone gets infected," a hospital official said.

www.kens5.com

 

[frazbo]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD71ZElw5Go
2:14 min
Dr. Anthony Fauci Calls COVID-19 A Public Health Official’s ‘Worst Nightmare’ | NBC News NOW
•Jul 9, 2020


NBC News

The nations leading infectious disease doctor Dr. Anthony Fauci, called COVID-19 a public health official’s “worst nightmare.” Fauci criticized state’s reopening plans and said, “We went from shutting down to opening up in a way that essentially skipped over all the guide posts.”

Actually, Fauci, you idiot, YOU have been our worst nightmare in all of this. I'm gonna make a "Get well soon...NOT" card for him and send it to Gitmo ahead of time so that when he gets there he will know that WE knew he was behind this along with a boatload of others...and they'll be in cells all up and down the aisle where he is...for the rest of his life, I'm hoping.
Yeah, I'm pizzed today, does it show? lol

 

[naturallysweet]

WOW! NBC Guest Doctor Who Was Suffering from Coronavirus in Hospital in TV Interviews — NEVER HAD CORONAVIRUS! (VIDEO)
By Jim Hoft
Published July 10, 2020 at 3:03pm
686 Comments

View attachment 207920

Dr. Joseph Fair appeared on NBC and the Today Show nearly a dozen times in May during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

Dr. Fair appeared in a hospital bed fighting off the disease with oxygen tubes in his nose when he appeared on NBC.

In one segment Dr. Joseph Fair told the Today hosts, “If it can take me down, it can take anybody.”


But it was all a lie.
Dr. Joseph Fair did not have coronavirus.

Dr. Fair admitted it this week.
An NBC medical expert who was brought on air nearly a dozen times to detail his struggle with COVID-19 never had the virus, he revealed this week.

After believing he had the coronavirus in spite of getting negative tests, virologist and NBC News science contributor Dr. Joseph Fair tweeted Tuesday that he had tested negative for the antibodies and that the illness that hospitalized him in May “remains an undiagnosed mystery.” Steve Krakauer reported on the developments for his Fourth Watch newsletter.

WOW! NBC Guest Doctor Who Was Suffering from Coronavirus in Hospital in TV Interviews -- NEVER HAD CORONAVIRUS! (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft

Dr.

www.thegatewaypundit.com

he had covid. The tests have a very high false negative rate and many people never get antibodies. Really sad that doctors don't know this.

 

[Zagdid]

3 Arizona teachers test positive for COVID-19 after sharing summer school classroom, 1 passes away

Kimberly Chavez Lopez Byrd, a teacher, passed away from COVID-19 on June 26. Two other teachers, who shared the same classroom, tested positive for the virus.

www.fox10phoenix.com

3 Arizona teachers test positive for COVID-19 after sharing summer school classroom, 1 passes away
By Stephanie Weaver Published 11 hours ago

GILA COUNTY, Ariz. - Kimberly Chavez Lopez Byrd, who taught in the Hayden-Winkelman Unified School District for 38 years, passed away from COVID-19 on June 26, and two other teachers with whom she shared a classroom during summer school tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

“She was a wonderful teacher, respected by everyone that she worked with. She was one that would just go above and beyond to help anybody,” Jeff Gregorich, superintendent of the school district, said.

Byrd started feeling sick and developed symptoms while teaching virtual K-2 summer school classes with two other teachers, Angela Skillings and Jena Martinez-Inzunza.

Skillings shared that Byrd wasn’t feeling well. “She had a sinus infection the week that we were doing summer school.”

Soon after that, Skillings said Byrd was taken to the hospital. When the school’s staff found out Byrd tested positive for the virus, they were notified and were tested.

Despite following CDC guidelines, Skillings and Martinez-Inzunza both tested positive for COVID-19.

“We were following and doing everything we were supposed to be doing, and we were apart from one another. Didn’t even share pencils, pens, things, nothing,” Martinez-Inzunza said.

About one week after Byrd developed symptoms, Skillings said things took a turn for the worse. “That’s when our faith had to come in,” she said.

Byrd passed away on June 26.

 

[Zagdid]

Spike in coronavirus cases means some schools won’t open at all this fall

As coronavirus cases spike across California more school districts are making the decision to educate students online next school year.

edsource.org

Spike in coronavirus cases means some schools won’t open at all this fall
JULY 10, 2020
DIANA LAMBERT, MICHAEL BURKE,ANDALI TADAYON

As coronavirus cases spike across California, some school districts are making the decision to keep campuses closed to most students and to educate them online next school year.

Districts in Los Angeles County, which has more coronavirus cases than any county in the state, are preparing for the possibility of classes being completely online at the start of the school year. In neighboring San Bernardino County, its school district this week announced classes would resume next month online.

In Northern California, the region’s largest high school district, as well as a few others, have made similar calls. West Contra Costa Unified, which serves 32,000 students in the East Bay, announced this week it will allow only a limited number of special needs students to return to campuses when the semester begins August 17. As conditions allow for a safe return, buildings will be open to small groups of students with a support system of adults for each group to ensure social distancing. The hope is to eventually expand to full in-person instruction for all students when it is safer, said Superintendent Matthew Duffy in an email to parents.

Coronavirus numbers have peaked in recent weeks in California, reaching 304,297 cases of Covid-19 and 6,850 deaths as of July 9.

School districts are facing a complicated array of health considerations as they decide whether to reopen this fall. On one end are parents who fear their children — particularly those who are medically vulnerable — will become ill or contract the coronavirus and sicken other family members. On the other end, groups of pediatricians have recently urged districts to open schools to meet the needs of children, as it relates to their socialization, nutrition, physical activity and mental health.

Health concerns associated with the increased number of coronavirus cases have put school districts’ plans in flux, with many planning for different instructional models they can move between depending on the number of coronavirus infections in their communities or direction from county health officials.

One model being considered is a hybrid, or blended, model that has students in school a few days a week and learning from home the rest of the week. Some districts also are considering bringing students back to schools five days a week. For those planning to keep campuses closed, the risk of transmitting the disease is the primary factor.

“I want to be very clear, we want students at school,” Duffy wrote in his email. “We need students at school. Many students need to be at school for a variety of reasons: more engaging educational opportunities, socio-emotional support, access to meals and health care. However, with the rising number of Covid-19 cases in California since the easing of restrictions, it is clear that asymptomatic transmission in close quarters is a key concern. In all good conscience, the safety of students and staff must be our top priority.”

Oakland Unified announced Friday that the school year will start Aug. 10 with students learning from home. All students will work from home for up to a month while the district prepares school sites for safe operation during the pandemic. This also will allow staff to have additional safety training and other professional development, according to a press release from the district.

“You might think that with Covid, this decision would be easy, but it’s not,” said Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell in a statement. “We want to have our students back in class as soon as possible and welcoming them back to school has to be safe. But there is inherent tension between the ever-changing science, keeping students and staff safe, and providing the services that students need.”

East Side Union High School District in San Jose, the largest high school district in Northern California, is beginning the year with distance learning, with a full day of online instruction four days each week.

Schools will be open for counseling and in-person instruction for homeless and special needs students. Students without broadband access can study and use space in libraries to access the internet. There will be some opportunities for small group instruction, such as a music class.

Superintendent Chris Funk said that surveys showing between 40% and 48% of students, parents and staff didn’t feel comfortable returning to school guided the school board’s decision. The district serves four of the zip codes with the highest numbers of Covid-19 infections in Santa Clara County, where mainly low-income persons of color live, he said.

“High school kids are not that different from 21-to-25-year-olds who are raising the coronavirus rate,” he said. “They can transmit it to each other and expose teachers to the virus.”

Alum Rock Union School District, also in San Jose, will continue distance learning for about 90% of its students in the fall, with in-person instruction available for students who are homeless, in foster programs, have special needs, or who are recent immigrants who have little fluency in English and who need additional resources, officials said at a virtual presentation this week. The district will reassess in the spring whether more students can return to on-campus instruction.

San Bernardino City Unified, about 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles in San Bernardino County, has decided to start the school year with distance learning and no in-person classes.

Harold Vollkommer, interim superintendent of that district, wrote in a message to district parents that the school board unanimously approved that plan at a recent meeting. He also said that, at some point after the beginning of the school year, the district may begin offering “in-person check-in and support services for small groups of students” and could eventually transition to a hybrid model. But that’s “if and only when we can do so safely.”

“The date for this transition has not been determined and will be made in the context of our community’s needs in consultation with the department of public health and based on final approval by our board,” he added. “And for those families who desire distance learning for an extended period of time, we will offer that program as well.”

Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County’s public health director, told district superintendents in a private phone call this week that every district should “have plans in place to continue distance learning for 100% of the time,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Given where our numbers are, we would be irresponsible if we didn’t say to you that you have to have the backup plan ready,” she said.

Administrators at the county’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, have so far made no decision on whether to reopen campuses next month. But Superintendent Austin Beutner said this week in a televised address that it’s “reasonable to assume” that instruction will have at least some online components.

The union representing teachers in L.A. Unified, meanwhile, has gone a step further and called for campuses to remain closed when the school year begins Aug. 18.

“We all want to physically open schools and be back with our students, but lives hang in the balance. Safety has to be the priority. We need to get this right for our communities,” Cecily Myart-Cruz, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said in a statement.

In nearby Pasadena Unified, administrators were planning as recently as last week to reopen schools in August with a mix of in-person and virtual learning, Superintendent Brian McDonald said in a message to district families.

However, based on community feedback to that plan, Pasadena Unified is now surveying parents to determine their interest in going fully online rather than implementing a hybrid model, spokeswoman Hilda Ramirez Horvath said.

The California Teachers Association, which represents 310,000 of the state’s teachers, sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and other top state leaders this week, which expressed concern about whether school districts would be ready to return to school safely in the fall. CTA leaders said that many local districts don’t have the necessary resources or capacity to ensure that safety measures are in place to ensure students and teachers don’t get sick.

“Since schools closed in March, CTA has said that the health and safety of our students and educators must always be our top priority and our guiding principle during this crisis,” said the letter signed by CTA President E. Toby Boyd, Vice President David Goldberg and Secretary-Treasurer Leslie Littman. “Much is still being learned about the Covid-19 virus. The recent surge in the infection rate and the closure of indoor activities in 26 counties gives us pause around the state’s preparedness for safe in-person school instruction in a short six- to eight-week time frame.”

While some families are voicing safety concerns, others are urging districts to reopen five days a week to meet the needs of working parents.

Eureka Unified School District in Placer County’s Granite Bay community is planning to reopen its schools for in-person instruction five days a week, with other options for students with health concerns. Placer County, located east of Sacramento, had 982 cases of Covid-19 on July 9, a 70% increase over two weeks.

“Our parents want five days a week, which I think a lot of school districts have found out,” said Ginna Myers, director of curriculum and instruction for the Eureka Unified School District in Placer County. “They are concerned that their kids are losing out on the social emotional aspect of school, as well as concerned about learning loss.”

 

[TammyinWI]

he had covid. The tests have a very high false negative rate and many people never get antibodies. Really sad that doctors don't know this.

Ok, you would know, I guess. I am just reporting here what was reported by a news source, on this here covid thread.

Yeah.

But what about the clean swabs that some nurses sent in that came back positive. What about all the people who scheduled to go get a test, didn't show up for the test, and then got phone calls or letters stating that they tested positive?

Something is fishy in Denmark.

 

[naturallysweet]

Ok, you would know, I guess. I am just reporting here what was reported by a news source, on this here covid thread.

Yeah.

But what about the clean swabs that some nurses sent in that came back positive. What about all the people who scheduled to go get a test, didn't show up for the test, and then got phone calls or letters stating that they tested positive?

Something is fishy in Denmark.

You mean that rumor that is floating around the web that has different numbers and different people attached to it depending on who tells it? And it's always a friend of a friend. Never anyone who actually sent a swab in.

I prefer to deal in hard facts. there was a study done that showed that if the test was run a second time for symptomatic people, then 25% of those who tested negative would test positive. That's a hard fact for me.

 

[jward]

BNO Newsroom
@BNODesk

Over the past 24 hours, the U.S. reported a record 71,005 new cases of coronavirus and 804 new deaths. Records were broken in 9 states https://bnonews.com/index.php/2020

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1281803645852487680

View: https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1281803645852487680?s=20

 

[waterdog]

recent

ahh

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKfsnI4pllw
20:23 min
WHO and viruses from space
•Jul 11, 2020


Dr. John Campbell
WHO Africa, cases increase by 24% in past week https://www.theguardian.com/world/202... Origins of outbreak https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/...

Initiation of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) to evaluate the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Former prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark and former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf WHO team arriving in China Prepare scientific plans with their Chinese counterparts Identifying the zoonotic source of the disease. Develop the scope and terms of reference for a WHO-led international mission Advance the understanding of animal hosts for COVID-19 Ascertain how the disease jumped between animals and humans.

Chinese vaccine 20 labs supported by government Global response to HIV Access to HIV medicines has been curtailed Used by 25 m 73 countries, at risk of stock-outs of antiretroviral medicines (ARVs). New HIV infections stabilised at 1.7 million annually Do viruses come from space? RNA bases: adenine, cytosine, guanine, uracil DNA bases: adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine 30,000 bases in a single strand of RNA Same triplet code Same 20, L form amino acids Infectious spikes fit cell proteins

___________________________

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL-n0LWBEJQ
33:42 min
Increased blood clotting
•Jul 11, 2020


Dr. John Campbell
Coagulation disorder in COVID-19 (Lancet, 10th July) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/la... In severe COVID cases Severe acute respiratory syndrome Severe dyspnoea and hypoxaemia Sepsis or septic shock Life-threatening organ dysfunction Mild, moderate, severe, and critical COVID-19 infection

Increases blood clotting COVID-19 infection is associated with coagulopathy of varying degrees Similar to the changes observed in sepsis induced coagulopathy (SIC) or disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC). Severity of coagulopathy was associated with the severity of COVID-19 and mortality Coagulopathy is associated with an endotheliopathy that causes a thrombotic microangiopathy and microcirculatory impairment.

Post-mortem findings of microvascular platelet-rich thrombotic depositions in small vessels of the lungs and other organs Plausible explanation of sudden cerebrovascular complications Myocardial ischaemia Increasing reports of both micro-circulatory and macro-circulatory thromboembolic complications https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/a...

High incidence of VTE in hospitalized COVID‐19 patients Particularly those with severe illness Similar to the high VTE rates observed in patients with other viral pneumonias Including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS‐CoV) Implications for patient management Thrombosis prophylaxis

Scientific and Standardization Committee of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis “a change of anticoagulant regimen from prophylactic low molecular weight heparin or intermediate-dose to treatment-dose regimen can be considered in patients without established venous thromboembolism, but deteriorating pulmonary status or acute respiratory distress syndrome”

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwFx99VAqos
59:56 min
War Room Pandemic Ep 275 - Hong Kong, Will America Confront the CCP Pt. 1 (w/ Li)
•Streamed live 6 hours ago


Bannon WarRoom - Citizens of the American Republic
Jack Maxey and Greg Manz are joined by Steve Bannon and Miles Guo to bring you a special edition of War Room: Pandemic to discuss how the US should respond to the Chinese Communist Party's capture of Hong Kong.
_________________

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpteEmkCgao
1:00:55 min
War Room Pandemic Ep 276 - Hong Kong, Will America Confront the CCP Pt. 2
•Streamed live 5 hours ago


Bannon WarRoom - Citizens of the American Republic

Jack Maxey and Greg Manz are joined by Steve Bannon and Miles Guo to bring you a special edition of War Room: Pandemic to discuss how the US should respond to the Chinese Communist Party's capture of Hong Kong.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3aE2VXG2EY
3:28 min
Trump's former physician: People are 'trying to make the president look bad'
Jul 11, 2020


Fox News

Dr. Ronny Jackson, former physician to President Obama and President Trump, reacts.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY0VLgnQ59c
3:45 min
Dr. Richard Bartlett’s COVID ‘Silver Bullet' Budesonide Empties Hospital ICU
•Jul 11, 2020

One America News Network

Dr. Richard Bartlett shared exclusive news with OAN about how asthma medicine Budesonide emptied a hospital ICU after being used to treat coronavirus. One America's Amanda Brilhante has more.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJMxz4YgGo4
1:54 min
How threatening is COVID-19 if it's airborne? | COVID-19 Ask an expert
•Jul 11, 2020


CBC News Canada

CBC's medical contributor Dr. Peter Lin takes viewers' questions, including: How risky is it to go to a mall?

[COMMENT: Sunbelt air conditioning spreading this.]

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uus9jDWgHSQ
15:07 min
Inside An Overcrowded South Carolina ICU Where COVID-19 Patients Fear For Their Lives | NBC News NOW
•Jul 10, 2020


NBC News

NBC News gets an exclusive look inside a Lexington, S.C., medical center’s ICU as the state passes 50,000 coronavirus cases.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKr0aISgeQU
9:19 min
What’s next for the cruise industry? Passengers discuss how COVID-19 impacted them
•Jul 11, 2020


ABC News

Marlene and Fred Katrow say while they were cruising at the beginning of the outbreak, they were assured they were safe – but both got COVID-19. Class action lawsuit.

______________________

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IQ3JzauBFE
7:12 min
Small businesses on edge amid COVID-19 surge
•Jul 10, 2020


ABC News

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer reports on the Paycheck Protection Program and whether it’s doing enough to keep small businesses afloat through the pandemic.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5MY4NqEEWU
2:48 min
U.S. Sets Single Day Coronavirus Record, As Hospitals Near Capacity | TODAY
•Jul 11, 2020


TODAY

The U.S. broke a single day record with an astonishing 71,000 cases, making it the first time the country has crossed the 70,000 mark. Meanwhile some states, including Texas, are mulling lockdowns if residents do not follow a mask mandate. NBC’s Sam Brock reports for TODAY from Orlando, Florida

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9m7cS0QIh0
4:47 min
Coronavirus case continue to surge as hospitals fill up and testing proves difficult | GMA
•Jul 11, 2020


Good Morning America
Some states and cities paused reopening as COVID-19 rages across much of the U.S.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9eo6wxvbg0
3:50 min
Southern states grapple with coronavirus spike as U.S. surges past 3.1 million cases
•Jul 11, 2020


CBS This Morning

The U.S. has recorded more than 3.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases, with numbers surging to new highs in some states that have rolled back lockdown restrictions. In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster signed an executive order prohibiting the sale of alcohol after 11 p.m. In Tennessee's Shelby County, restaurants require customers to leave their contact information before being seated, so owners are able to contact them if someone there tests positive for the virus. Michael George reports from New York, which has just sent hard-hit Florida enough Remdesivir to treat 280 patients.

 

[TheSearcher]

BNO Newsroom
@BNODesk

Over the past 24 hours, the U.S. reported a record 71,005 new cases of coronavirus and 804 new deaths. Records were broken in 9 states https://bnonews.com/index.php/2020

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1281803645852487680

View: https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1281803645852487680?s=20

I wonder what 24 hours they picked? I go by the 1point3acres.com site, and they show 550 deaths since yesterday, not 804. If you straddle the time right, you can get "bonus points" in the death count. If they are gaming the numbers like that, damn them to Hell.

ETA: Oh, and about 43000 cases, not 71000.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLwAxqi9oFc
1:34 min
Latino community in Texas hit hard by virus outbreak
•Jul 9, 2020


CBS Evening News

The Latino community in Texas is being hit the hardest and account for nearly 29% of coronavirus deaths in the state. Mireya Villarreal reports.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m-i-YnUJXo
2:04 min
Analysis: Catholic Church wins $1.4B in virus aid
•Jul 10, 2020


Associated Press

The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid. (July 10)

 

[nebb]

Medical experts are like weather/climate change experts........blah blah blah

 

[danielboon]

Massachusetts Coronavirus: 8,095 deaths, 105,457 total confirmed cases Massachusetts Coronavirus: 8,095 deaths, 105,457 total confirmed cases 14 new deaths down from yesterday 167 new cases about the same as yesterday

 

[Samuel Adams]

 

[TorahTips]

I wonder what 24 hours they picked? I go by the 1point3acres.com site, and they show 550 deaths since yesterday, not 804. If you straddle the time right, you can get "bonus points" in the death count. If they are gaming the numbers like that, damn them to Hell.

ETA: Oh, and about 43000 cases, not 71000.

I wouldn't worry about the numbers and when the official cut off was. Here's what I look at.

Look at Bill "the asshole" Gates. He announced this at Event 201 on October 18 2019. Recently, with the most demonic face he said something similar to "wait til you see what's coming next" (rough quote). He had the most evil grin on his face.

Another one.... watch Fauci. He has been involved with infectious diseases -- and specifically coronas. I do believe that I read somewhere that he visited the lab in China. All these heathen are working together so that nobody is in the dark. If you wanna know what's coming listen to him. He knows. He's involved. A few days ago he said that what was coming in the Fall was going to be "vicious."

He knows. He had a hand in it. Listen to him. He knows what's coming and now he feels some bit of remorse or guilt or responsibility. He's been there, done that.