Category: Current Events

“…announcement came after weeks of him insisting that states had plenty of tests…”

“Trump, under growing pressure to expand coronavirus testing as states move to reopen their economies, unveiled a new plan on Monday to ramp up the federal government’s help to states, but his proposal runs far short of what most public health experts say is necessary.”

“Trump’s announcement in the Rose Garden came after weeks of him insisting, inaccurately, that the nation’s testing capability “is fully sufficient to begin opening up the country,” as he said on April 18. Numerous public health experts say that is untrue, and Trump’s plan may do little to fix it.

“An administration official said the federal government aimed to give states the ability to test at least 2 percent of their populations per month, though the president did not use that figure and it was not in his written plan.

Instead, Trump and other officials with him in the Rose Garden said the United States would “double” the number of tests it had been doing.”

“These were not complaining people. They had everything they needed. They had their ventilators; they had their testing,” Trump said on Monday after a call with governors. “We’re getting them what they need.”

“In fact, governors have been complaining that they do not have nearly enough tests to give them the kind of information they need to make difficult decisions about reopening. They say they are competing with one another — and other countries — for the components that make up the testing kits, including nasal swabs and chemicals that detect whether the virus is present in a specimen.”

“Rather than one coordinated federal response, the Trump administration has been engaging on an ad hoc basis as states take the lead.”

(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-testing.html)

“In most religions, mourning is a finite ritual. For Trump, it lasted just a few seconds Monday.

“We continue to mourn with thousands of families across the country whose loved ones have been stolen from us by the invisible enemy,” he said of the human toll of the coronavirus at a Rose Garden news conference as he glanced toward the spot behind his podium where prepared notes usually sit. “We grieve by their side.”

“It was a rare moment in which Trump talked about the aspect of the coronavirus he has been least interested in talking about in near-daily briefings: death.

“And then, in less time than it would have taken to read some of the recent reports about his neglect of the human toll of the pandemic and lack of empathy for victims, he praised several major corporations that are partnering with the government to ramp up production of testing for the virus.”

(https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-s-very-brief-period-coronavirus-mourning-n1193826)

“The Trump administration abruptly cut off funding for a project studying how coronaviruses spread from bats to people after reports linked the work to a lab in Wuhan, China, at the center of conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 pandemic’s origins.

“The National Institutes of Health on Friday told EcoHealth Alliance, the study’s sponsor for the past five years, that all future funding was cut. The agency also demanded that the New York-based research nonprofit stop spending the $369,819 remaining from its 2020 grant…”

“Meanwhile, the NIH’s strategic plan for studying the novel coronavirus, released Thursday, lays out four key priorities — including understanding its origin and transmission, in line with the EcoHealth alliance’s broader investigation of bat coronaviruses. The agency did not respond to a request for comment on its decision to terminate the group’s funding.”

(https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/27/trump-cuts-research-bat-human-virus-china-213076)

“…can cause dangerous abnormalities in heart rhythm in coronavirus patients and has resulted in some deaths…”

“There is no proof that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine help coronavirus patients.”

“Trump has advocated their use repeatedly, sometimes in combination with azithromycin, an antibiotic that is used to treat bacterial infections, not viral diseases. His repeated promotion of the use of the anti-malaria drugs is at odds with many of his top public health officials.”

Source (https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-cautions-against-use-hydroxychloroquine-or-chloroquine-covid-19-outside-hospital-setting-or)

Via (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/us/coronavirus-us-usa-updates.html)

“About 1,000 residents in the City of Boston will be invited to participate in a study to evaluate community exposure to COVID-19.”

(https://www.boston.gov/news/city-partners-massachusetts-general-hospital-randomized-antibody-testing-1000-residents)

“Tens of millions of pounds of American-grown produce is rotting in fields as food banks across the country scramble to meet a massive surge in demand, a two-pronged disaster that has deprived farmers of billions of dollars in revenue while millions of newly jobless Americans struggle to feed their families.

“While other federal agencies quickly adapted their programs to the coronavirus crisis, the Agriculture Department took more than a month to make its first significant move to buy up surplus fruits and vegetables — despite repeated entreaties.”

(https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/26/food-banks-coronavirus-agriculture-usda-207215)

“Doctors sound alarm about patients in their 30s and 40s left debilitated or dead. Some didn’t even know they were infected.”

“As the interventional neurologist began the procedure to remove the clot, he observed something he had never seen before. On the monitors, the brain typically shows up as a tangle of black squiggles — “like a can of spaghetti,” he said — that provide a map of blood vessels. A clot shows up as a blank spot.

“As he used a needlelike device to pull out the clot, he saw new clots forming in real-time around it.“

“Reports of strokes in the young and middle-aged — not just at Mount Sinai, but also in many other hospitals in communities hit hard by the novel coronavirus — are the latest twist in our evolving understanding of the disease it causes.”

“Even as it has infected nearly 2.8 million people worldwide and killed about 195,000 as of Friday, its biological mechanisms continue to elude top scientific minds.

“Once thought to be a pathogen that primarily attacks the lungs, it has turned out to be a much more formidable foe — impacting nearly every major organ system in the body.“

“The analyses suggest coronavirus patients are mostly experiencing the deadliest type of stroke.”

“Many doctors expressed worry that as the New York City Fire Department was picking up four times as many people who died at home as normal during the peak of infection that some of the dead had suffered sudden strokes.

“The truth may never be known because few autopsies were conducted.”

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/24/strokes-coronavirus-young-patients/)

“The cruise industry’s decision to keep sailing for weeks after the coronavirus was first detected on a ship helped carry the virus around the globe…”

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/cruise-ships-coronavirus/)

“The IRS has had trouble getting money to people quickly because millions of Americans pay for their tax preparation through a baroque system of middlemen.”

(https://www.propublica.org/article/millions-of-people-face-stimulus-check-delays-for-a-strange-reason-they-are-poor)

“Trump’s musings on whether injecting disinfectants might treat COVID-19 horrified medical professionals on Friday and raised fresh concerns that his stream-of-consciousness briefings could push frightened people to poison themselves with untested treatments.”

(https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-trump-disinfectant/trumps-covid-19-disinfectant-ideas-horrify-health-experts-idUSKCN2261N7)