Companies testing vaccines pledge safety, high standards
2:13 PM CT on 9/8/20
The top executives of nine drugmakers likely to produce the first vaccines against the new coronavirus signed an unprecedented pledge meant to boost public confidence in any approved vaccines.
The companies said Tuesday that they will stick to the highest ethical and scientific standards in testing and manufacturing and will make the well-being of those getting vaccinated their top priority.
The announcement comes amid worries that President Donald Trump will pressure the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve a vaccine before it's proven to be safe and effective.
The president has repeatedly said a vaccine could be ready by the end of the year, or even as early as October. His administration also is pressing ahead with what it calls "Operation Warp Speed," a program meant to accelerate the development and manufacture of vaccines.
Meanwhile, public health officials have expressed doubt that adequate data on vaccine safety and effectiveness would be available before November. They also worry if Americans stay away from the vaccine because they don't trust it, COVID-19 will be harder to control.
The pledge announced Tuesday was signed by the chief executive officers of American drugmakers Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer, and European companies AstraZeneca, BioNTech, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi. BioNTech has partnered with Pfizer on one of the three vaccines now in the final round of human testing.
The companies said they will seek approval or authorization for emergency use only after they have confirmed the vaccines work and are safe through a large, final round of human testing.
"We believe this pledge will help ensure public confidence in the rigorous scientific and regulatory process by which COVID-19 vaccines are evaluated and may ultimately be approved," the pledge states.
The CEOs also promised to "ensure a sufficient supply and range of vaccine options, including those suitable for global access." The statement noted the nine companies previously created more than 70 new vaccines against deadly diseases, helping to eradicate some of them.
Stress-related migraines rise in hard-hit states
12:00 PM CT on 9/8/20
Reports of stress-related migraines rose 30% to 50% compared to the holiday season in states with high numbers of coronavirus cases during the onset of the pandemic, according to data from Healint.
Researchers analyzed data from more than 300,000 users of a migraine tracking app between Dec. 20, 2019, and July 31, 2020. Sixty-one percent of those surveyed said their migraines had become more frequent since the start of the pandemic, and 44% said the severity of their migraines had worsened.
“As the United States faces the possibility of a potential second wave, the added responsibility of children at home, challenges to work life balance and a change in routine, migraine sufferers will need to be mindful of how to manage stress to prevent further attacks and lost productivity,” said said Healint CEO and co-founder Francois Cadiou in a prepared statement.
New York marks a month of fewer than 1% virus tests positive
5:42 PM CT on 9/7/2020
(AP) New York state marked a milestone of progress in fighting coronavirus infections on Monday, with a full month of fewer than 1% of virus tests coming back positive.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the 30-day stretch of good news while urging people to remain cautious during Labor Day weekend get-togethers. He attributed the state’s progress to its statewide mask mandate and an approach to reopening that’s been slower than in many other states.
“It took the work of all of us to get here, and to protect this progress we will need to all continue to wash our hands, wear our masks, remain socially distant and above all, stay New York tough,” Cuomo said in a statement.
There is concern that case counts could rise as schools, college campuses and more businesses reopen. The State University of New York at Oneonta canceled in-person instruction less than two weeks into the fall semester because more than 500 students tested positive for the virus after some large parties were held.
Throughout New York’s 64-campus state university system, more than 900 students and employees have tested positive on campuses over the last two weeks, and nearly 400 students are currently in precautionary or mandatory quarantine, according to a new online dashboard that the university system debuted Sunday.
New York was the epicenter of the nation’s COVID-19 pandemic in April, with nearly 800 people dying a day from the virus at one point. On Monday, the state recorded 413 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and two deaths.
More than 25,000 coronavirus deaths have been recorded in the state since March.
The Summer of COVID-19 ends with health officials worried
3:21 PM CT on 9/7/20
(AP) The Lost Summer of 2020 drew to a close Monday with many big Labor Day gatherings canceled across the U.S. and health authorities pleading with people to keep their distance from others so as not to cause another coronavirus surge like the one that followed Memorial Day.
Downtown Atlanta was quiet as the 85,000 or so people who come dressed as their favorite superheroes or sci-fi characters for the annual Dragon Con convention met online instead. Huge football stadiums at places like Ohio State and the University of Texas sat empty. Many Labor Day parades marking the unofficial end of summer were called off, and masks were usually required at the few that went on.
"Please, please do not make the same mistakes we all made on Memorial Day weekend. Wear your masks, watch your distance and wash your hands,” said Dr. Raul Pino, state health director in Orange County, Florida, which includes the Orlando area.
The U.S. had about 1.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases around Memorial Day, before backyard parties and other gatherings contributed to a summertime surge. It now has more than 6.2 million cases, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University. Deaths from the virus more than doubled over the summer to nearly 190,000.
In New Orleans, which had one of the largest outbreaks outside of New York City this spring, city officials reminded residents that COVID-19 doesn't take a holiday after they received 36 calls about large gatherings and 46 calls about businesses not following safety rules on Friday and Saturday.
"This is not who we are, and this is not how we — as a community — get back to where we want to be," the city said.
In South Carolina, which was a hot spot of contagion over the summer before cases started to decline in early August, 8,000 fans, including Gov. Henry McMaster, were allowed to attend the NASCAR race at the Darlington Raceway on Sunday. State officials approved a socially distant attendance plan at the track, which can hold 47,000 people.
It was the biggest gathering in the state since the outbreak started six months ago. Many rows and seats were kept empty to keep groups of fans apart, and people were asked to wear masks.
Debbie Katsanos drove down from New Hampshire with her husband, her father and a friend. It was their first trip out of state since COVID-19 started spreading. They had time off because the Labor Day weekend fair where they typically sell concessions canceled this year.
Katsanos said they wore masks at all times when they were away from their motor home, ate in a restaurant only once on the way down and tried to stay socially distant when visiting with other people at their campground.
“It's probably our only chance to get somewhere before the summer ends, ” Katsanos said Monday as she sat in traffic on Interstate 95 in North Carolina on the long trip home. “I saw it as the turning of the corner. We survived this. Let's live life a little.”
Spain reports half a million COVID-19 cases
12:56 PM CT on 9/7/20
(AP) Fueled by a sharp surge of coronavirus contagion just as the school year opens, Spain has now officially more than half a million confirmed coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
The health ministry on Monday reported 26,560 new infections since its last report on Friday — or an average of 8,800 daily_, bringing the total since February to 525,549. Most new cases show new symptoms and the spike is so far not overwhelming hospitals.
During the same period 29,516 people have died in Spain with the new coronavirus, although the real death toll is believed to be much higher given insufficient testing in March and April.
More than 8 million undergraduate students are heading to school starting from Monday under strict safety measures including mandatory masks, frequent hand-washing, classroom ventilation and smaller student groups.
India surges to world's 2nd-worst virus caseload
9:20 AM CT on 9/7/20
(AP) India’s coronavirus cases surged to 4.2 million, the second-highest total in the world, on Monday as urban metro trains partially resume service in the capital New Delhi and other states.
The 90,802 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India’s total to 4,204,614, passing Brazil, which has more than 4.1 million, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 6.2 million people in the United States have been infected.
India’s Health Ministry on Monday also reported 1,016 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, taking fatalities to 71,642, the third-highest national death toll.
Amid a surge in cases, India continues to reopen, except in high-risk areas, to heal the battered economy which is still reeling from the effects of a prolonged lockdown.
The Delhi Metro transit system that serves India’s sprawling capital New Delhi and adjoining areas resumed operations Monday after five months. Masks, social distancing and temperature checks were mandatory.
India says it is now conducting 1 million tests daily, but the virus is reaching cities and towns previously spared, offsetting marginal declines in some states.
India has been recording the world’s largest daily coronavirus caseload for almost a month even as the government pushes to open businesses to revive a contracting economy.
Texas reports 2,800 new coronavirus cases, 64 deaths
7:05 PM CT on 9/6/20
(AP) Texas health officials reported 2,800 new coronavirus cases Saturday and 64 additional deaths due to COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.
There have been 638,310 total confirmed cases in the state and 13,472 deaths, up from 635,315 cases and 13,408 deaths on Saturday, according to he Texas Department of State Health Services. The true number of cases in Texas is likely higher because many people haven’t been tested and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick.
The health department reported 81,426 estimated active cases and that an estimated 543,412 people have recovered.
As virus cases drop, governors may gamble on bars. Again.
4:40 PM CT on 9/6/20
(AP) A guy walks into a bar, which still isn't allowed in Texas.
But Jeff Brightwell owns this bar. Two months into an indefinite shutdown, he's just checking on the place — the tables six feet apart, the “Covid 19 House Rules” sign instructing drinkers not to mingle. All the safeguards that didn't keep the doors open because Dot's Hop House & Cocktail Courtyard is a bar under Texas law. And bars, in a pandemic? “Really not good," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's infectious disease expert, told Congress in June.
But some governors are warming up to good enough. Thousands of bars forced to close after massive virus outbreaks swept across the U.S. this summer could be starting to see an end in sight as cases drop off and the political will for continuing lockdowns fades. For some states, it is a gamble worth trying, only a few months after a rush to reopen bars in May and June ended in disaster.
“Our governor waved the magic wand, put us out of business and offered us nothing,” said Brightwell, whose Dallas bar typically employs around 50 people. He says his industry has been scapegoated.
Bars remain under full closure orders in more than a half-dozen states, including hard-hit ones like Texas but also Connecticut, which has one of the nation’s lowest positivity rates. And even in states already letting bars operate, restrictions vary from one county to the next and can tighten or loosen abruptly, reflecting the unease among governors even as reopening movie theaters and amusement parks create a look of getting over the hump.
Arkansas has one of the highest infection levels in the U.S. and is letting bars operate with partial capacity. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchison's defense: No spread has been linked to bars.
Experts say outbreaks nationwide have proven otherwise. Even in recent weeks, new outbreaks tied to college students returning to campus have resulted in bars shutting down again from Alabama to Iowa, undermining confidence that the time is right.
Still, governors are looking for a way. California began letting some bars in a few small counties reopen, though not where the vast majority of the population lives. Next might be Florida, where bars have been closed since June and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a top ally of President Donald Trump, has mused whether bar closings even work since restaurants are serving alcohol anyway. “Everything’s open except the nightclubs and the pubs, and that’s something we’re going to address,” DeSantis said this week.
In Texas, where three in four of the state’s 13,400 deaths blamed on COVID-19 have occurred since July, the infection rate has dipped below the 10% positivity rate that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has set as one criteria for letting bars back in business. He has teased that an another announcement about next steps in reopening could come early as this week, which won't come soon enough for the right wing of his party, which for months has blasted him over the lockdowns and a statewide mask mandate.
The decision is dicey for governors who, pressure from bar owners aside, have faced less blowback from keeping bars shut than other sectors. Polls showed about half of Americans favored requiring bars and restaurants to close when cases surged, and experts say the high risks of bars are by now proven — the combination of cozy spaces, loud music forcing people to lean in close and rounds of drinks relaxing even the best intentions to social distance.
Videos of crowded clubs have made bars avatars of rowdy rule-breakers, the ones ruining a return to normal for the rest of us.
“It’s way too soon. And it’s going to be too soon until we have a vaccine,” said Esmeralda Guajardo, the public health administrator in Cameron County on the Texas border, where hard-partying booze cruises on South Padre Island this summer drew fury from local officials.
Israel imposes overnight curfews as virus deaths pass 1,000
2:40 PM CT on 9/6/20
(AP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday announced overnight curfews on some 40 cities and towns hit hard by the coronavirus, but backed away from reported recommendations for full lockdowns after an uproar by politically powerful religious politicians.
The measures were announced late Sunday after hours of consultations with decision-makers. The government has been forced to take new action after failing to contain an outbreak that has claimed more than 1,000 lives and remains at record levels of new infections.
The curfews will go into effect Monday night at 7 p.m. and will last until 5 a.m. It was not known how long they will remain in place. People will not be allowed to venture more than 500 meters (yards) from their homes, and nonessential businesses will have to close.
The announcement came less than two weeks before the Jewish New Year. The outbreak has raised concerns that the country could be forced to declare a nationwide lockdown during the upcoming holiday period, a time of widespread travel and large family gatherings.
Under heavy public pressure, Netanyahu in July appointed Dr. Ronni Gamzu, a respected hospital director and former Health Ministry director, as the national “coronavirus project manager.”
Gamzu has been pushing for full lockdowns on areas that have the worst outbreaks. These “red” cities have been heavily concentrated in Israel’s Arab and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities.
But ultra-Orthodox leaders have strongly resisted calls for lockdowns and threatened not to obey new orders. Orthodox parties are key partners in Netanyahu's governing coalition.
In an apparent compromise, Netanyahu said these red areas would have nighttime curfews, schools would be closed and there would be restrictions on public gatherings — but a full lockdown was avoided.
“I know these measures are not easy, but in the current circumstances, there is no escaping them," he said. “We will continue to take responsible steps that are required to protect public health, lives and the economy.”
Israel had earned praise last spring for its early handling of the virus crisis, moving quickly to seal the country's borders and appearing to bring an outbreak under control.
Colleges combating coronavirus turn to stinky savior: sewage
11:10 AM CT on 9/6/20
(AP) Days after he crossed the country to start college, Ryan Schmutz received a text message from Utah State University: COVID-19 had been detected at his dorm.
Within 10 minutes, he dropped the crepes he was making and was whisked away by bus to a testing site.
“We didn’t even know they were testing,” said Schmutz, who is 18 and from Omaha, Nebraska. “It all really happened fast.”
Schmutz was one of about 300 students quarantined to their rooms last week, but not because of sickness reports or positive tests. Instead, the warning bells came from the sewage.
Colleges across the nation — from New Mexico to Tennessee, Michigan to New York — are turning tests of waste into a public health tool. The work comes as institutions hunt for ways to keep campuses open despite vulnerabilities like students' close living arrangements and drive to socialize. The virus has already left its mark with outbreaks that have forced changes to remote learning at colleges around the country.
The tests work by detecting genetic material from the virus, which can be recovered from the stools of about half of people with COVID-19, studies indicate. The concept has also been used to look for outbreaks of the polio virus.
Sewage testing is especially valuable because it can evaluate people even if they aren’t feeling sick and can detect a few cases out of thousands of people, experts say. Another wastewater-flagged quarantine of 300 students at Arizona State University, for example, turned up two cases. Both were students who were asymptomatic, but they could potentially still have spread the virus.
“That’s just tremendously valuable information when we think about the setting of a college dorm, and how quickly this disease can spread through that population,” said Peter Grevatt, CEO of The Water Research Foundation, which promotes studies of water and wastewater to ensure water quality and service.
Wastewater tests also flagged the possible presence of the virus at University of Colorado residence halls.
Utah has used the method more widely, including to track an outbreak at a meatpacking plant. The British, Italian and Dutch governments have also announced similar monitoring programs, and the Massachusetts-based company Biobot tests wastewater from cities around the country.
The method remains imprecise, though. It can spot infection trends, but it can’t yet pinpoint how many people have the virus or the stage of infection. That means it's not yet quite as useful on a larger scale in cities, which don’t always have a university’s scientific resources or ability to require people to get tested.
The technology is being closely studied, though, and it is evolving rapidly, Grevatt said, adding that it's best used along with other methods like contact tracing.
Nevada COVID-19 deaths rise
8:36 AM CT on 9/6/20
(AP) Nevada health officials on Saturday reported 390 additional COVID-19 cases and 13 new deaths, bringing the statewide totals to 71,102 confirmed cases and 1,388 deaths.
The vast majority of cases and deaths in Nevada have occurred in Clark County, which includes metro Las Vegas.
In other developments, Reno officials said a one-day closure of a small section of a downtown street for limited on-street food and drink service would be a test for helping restaurants whose operations are crimped by restrictions on mass gatherings.
Reno’s experiment Saturday follows the lead of other cities.
U.S. debt will soon exceed size of entire economy
9:31 PM CT on 9/5/20
(AP) The U.S. government's war against the coronavirus is imposing the heaviest strain on the Treasury since America's drive to defeat Nazi Germany and imperial Japan three-quarters of a century ago.
The Congressional Budget Office has warned that the government this year will run the largest budget deficit, as a share of the economy, since 1945, when World War II ended. Next year, the federal debt — the sum of the year-after-year gush of annual deficits — is forecast to exceed the size of the entire American economy for the first time since 1946. Within a few years, it's on track to set a new high.
It might be surprising to hear that most economists consider the money well-spent — or at least necessary. Few think it's wise to quibble with the amount of borrowing deemed necessary to sustain American households and businesses through the gravest public health crisis in more than 100 years. That's especially true, economists say, when the government's borrowing costs are super-low and investors still seem eager to buy its debt as fast as the Treasury issues it.
The annual deficit — the gap between what the government spends and what it collects in taxes — will hit $3.3 trillion in the budget year that ends Sept. 30, the CBO projects. That amounts to 16% of America’s gross domestic product, which is the broadest measure of economic output. Not in 75 years has a deficit been that wide.
The federal debt, reflecting the accumulated deficits and the occasional surplus, is forecast to reach 100% of GDP next year. Then it is predicted to keep climbing to $24.5 trillion — 107% of GDP — in 2023. That would snap the record of 106% of GDP set in 1946. (The percentage does not include debts that the government agencies owe one another, including the Social Security trust fund.)
Crowds pack beaches as California bakes in weekend heat wave
7:54 PM CT on 9/5/20
(AP) California is sweltering under a dangerous heat wave Labor Day weekend that was spreading triple-digit temperatures over much of the state, raising concerns about power outages and the spread of the coronavirus as throngs of people packed beaches and mountains for relief.
Officials urged people to conserve electricity to ease strain on the state's power grid and to follow distancing and mask requirements when they hit recreational areas.
Numerous parking lots to San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles County beaches closed after they filled to capacity and lifeguards reported seeing large crowds.
Because of the pandemic, L.A County beaches were closed during the Fourth of July weekend. But other counties kept their shores open. Holiday gatherings were blamed, in part, for COVID-19 spikes in some counties.
Health authorities warned that beaches could be closed if they become too crowded.
Campgrounds in the popular San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles were also full, and rangers were out in force on “marshmallow patrols" — keeping an especially close watch for campfires and barbecues outside of designated sites that pose a potential risk of setting a wildfire. They also were worried that the surge of people could overwhelm mountain roads.
Massachusetts reports 15 newly confirmed coronavirus deaths
5:26 PM CT on 9/5/20
(AP) — Massachusetts reported 15 newly confirmed coronavirus deaths and more than 400 newly confirmed cases Saturday, pushing the state’s confirmed COVID-19 death toll to more than 8,900 and its confirmed caseload to more than 120,000.
The seven-day weighted average of positive tests was less than 1%. The true number of cases is likely higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick.
There were more than 320 people reported hospitalized Wednesday because of COVID-19, and nearly 50 in intensive care units.
The number of confirmed and probable COVID-19 related deaths at long-term care homes rose to nearly 5,850 or about 64% of all confirmed and probable deaths in Massachusetts attributed to the disease.
India coronavirus caseload crosses 4M, stretching resources
2:28 PM CT on 9/5/20
(AP) India’s coronavirus caseload surpassed 4 million on Saturday, deepening misery in the country's vast hinterlands, where surges have crippled the underfunded health care system.
Initially, the virus ravaged India’s sprawling and densely populated cities. It has since stretched to almost every state, spreading through villages and small towns.
With a population of nearly 1.4 billion, India’s massive caseload isn’t surprising experts. The country’s delayed response to the virus forced the government to implement a strict lockdown in late March. For more than two months, the economy remained shuttered, buying time for health workers to prepare for the worst.
But with the cost of the restrictions also rising, authorities saw no choice but to reopen businesses and everyday activities.
Most of India’s cases are in western Maharashtra state and the four southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. But new surges are popping up elsewhere.
The 86,432 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India’s total to 4,023,179. Brazil has confirmed 4,091,801 infections, while the U.S. has had 6,200,186 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.
India's Health Ministry on Saturday also reported 1,089 deaths for a total of 69,561.
Even as testing in India has increased to over a million a day, a growing reliance on screening for antigens or viral proteins is creating more problems. These tests are cheaper and yield faster results but aren’t as accurate. The danger is that the tests may falsely clear many who are infected with the virus.
In Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with a limited health care system, the situation is already grim. With a total 253,175 cases and 3,762 deaths, the heartland state is staring at an inevitable surge and with the shortage of hospital beds and other health infrastructure.
Sujata Prakash, a nurse in the state capital, Lucknow, recently tested positive for the coronavirus. But the hospital ward where she worked diligently refused her admission because there was no empty bed. She waited for over 24 hours outside the surgical ward, sitting on patients’ chairs, before she was allotted one.
“The government can shower flower petals on the hospitals in the name of corona warriors, but can’t the administration provide a bed when the same warrior needs one?” said Prakash’s husband, Vivek Kumar.
Others haven’t been so lucky.
When journalist Amrit Mohan Dubey fell sick this past week, his friends called the local administration for an ambulance. It arrived two hours late and by the time Dubey was taken to the hospital, he died.
“Had the ambulance reached in time, we could have saved Amrit,” said Zafar Irshad, a colleague of the journalist.
In rural Maharashtra, the worst-affected state with 863,062 cases and 25,964 deaths, doctors said measures like wearing masks and washing hands had now largely been abandoned.
“There is a behavioral fatigue now setting in,” said Dr. S.P. Kalantri, the director of a hospital in the village of Sevagram.
He said that the past few weeks had driven home the point that the virus had moved from India’s cities to its villages.
“The worst is yet to come,” said Kalantri. “There is no light at the end of the tunnel.”
Colleges using COVID dorms, quarantines to keep virus at bay
12:07 PM CT on 9/5/20
(AP) With the coronavirus spreading through colleges at alarming rates, universities are scrambling to find quarantine locations in dormitory buildings and off-campus properties to isolate the thousands of students who have caught COVID-19 or been exposed to it.
Sacred Heart University has converted a 34-room guest house at the former Connecticut headquarters of General Electric to quarantine students. The University of South Carolina ran out of space at a dormitory for quarantined students and began sending them to rooms it rented in hotel-like quarters at a training center for prosecutors. The Air Force Academy sent 400 cadets to hotels to free up space on its Colorado base for quarantines.
The actions again demonstrate how the virus has uprooted traditional campus life amid a pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 people in the U.S. and proven to be especially problematic for universities since the start of the school year. Many colleges quickly scrapped in-person learning in favor of online after cases began to spike, bars have been shut down in college towns, and students, fraternities and sororities have been repeatedly disciplined for parties and large gatherings.
Health officials such as White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx have been urging colleges to keep students on campus to avoid them infecting members of their family and community.
Isolating students seems to be working in states like Connecticut, where the infection rate at UConn on Thursday was 1.34% among residential students tested for the virus.
But the results haven’t been as good elsewhere.
The University of Alabama recently informed students in half of a five-story complex that they had to move to other housing to make room for infected or potentially infected students, because two other quarantine-and-isolation facilities would reach capacity.
So far, more than 1,000 students on the Tuscaloosa campus have tested positive since mid-August. As of Thursday, the system’s online dashboard showed its quarantine housing was 36% full.
Medicaid enrollment climbs in New Mexico
9:32 AM CT on 9/5/20
(AP) New Mexico officials say enrollment in Medicaid has increased by nearly 7% in the state since the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, with employers shedding jobs and more families entering into poverty.
In a briefing Friday for state legislators, Human Services Secretary David Scrase praised federal legislation that increases the federal matching rate for Medicaid health care and allows the state to quickly extend no-cost coronavirus testing to the poor and undocumented immigrants.
At the same time, he says the current 6.2% boost in federal matching funds is inadequate to keep up with rebounding demand for medical services under Medicaid and could end abruptly at the discretion of federal health regulators.
Brazil leader rapped for stirring doubt on COVID-19 vaccine
8:18 PM CT on 9/4/20
(AP) Critics of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are again speaking out against the leader's stance on the coronavirus pandemic, this time rejecting his view that vaccination for the virus shouldn't be mandatory.
Bolsonaro's first such comments came Monday, when he told a supporter, "No one can force anyone to get a vaccine." He repeated it Thursday night during a live broadcast on Facebook, adding his opposition to administering vaccines that are yet to be proven on Brazilian soil.
"It has been proven in other countries, but not here in Brazil," he said, without specifying to which potential vaccine he was referring. "We cannot be irresponsible and put a vaccine into people's bodies. As I said, nobody can oblige someone to take a vacccine."The comments were swiftly rebuked by opponents on social media. Sao Paulo state Gov. João
Doria, a former Bolsonaro ally turned foe, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that immunization cannot be viewed as a personal decision. Sao Paulo, with 46 million residents, is the pandemic's epicenter in Brazil, with its more than 30,000 dead from COVID-19 accounting for about a fourth of the country's death toll from the illness.
"It is sad that once again Brazil's president is setting a denialist example," Doria said in a video call. "It should be obligatory, except in special cases or under health circumstances that justify not taking a vaccine. An infected person infects others, and makes possible the death of others."
Brazil's Workers' Party, an adversary of both Bolsonaro and Doria, said in a statement that the president's efforts to create an air of doubt about a future vaccine "ignores the importance of the shots to protect the health of the entire population."
The national health council, which is a branch of Bolsonaro's own health ministry, said in a statement that the government should not be talking about vaccination against COVID-19 not being mandatory.
Report: Hospital procedures may have worsened outbreak
6:24 PM CT on 9/4/20
(AP) Aerosol-generating procedures may have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus at a Bremerton, Wash., hospital, which has confirmed at least 70 infections, according to a new report from the state Department of Health.
According to the findings, the outbreak at St. Michael Medical Center — one of CHI Franciscan's 10 hospitals in Washington — could possibly be traced to procedures performed on asymptomatic COVID-19 patients, The Seattle Times reported.
The report, which said 54 cases had been confirmed when the findings were finalized, also said hospital staff were using personal protective equipment longer than recommended by current national guidelines.
The report also cites the timing of room turnover as another possible reason for exposure."Some staff present for (aerosol generating procedures) were not wearing N95s, only surgical masks and eye protection," the report said. "Shorter than recommended room turnover may have exposed patients and staff."
While it wasn't immediately clear what kinds of procedures were potentially at fault at St. Michael, aerosol-generating procedures often include intubation, extubation, transesophageal echocardiography or endoscopy, according to University of Washington Medicine. It was also not immediately clear from hospital officials Thursday why PPE had been used for longer periods than recommended.
The report, finalized over the past week, also identified several areas "requiring immediate action," including considering admitting oncology patients to hospitals without outbreaks, prioritizing testing staff members with the most vulnerable patients and providing additional staffing resources to assist with employee case investigations and infection prevention.
"We sincerely value our ongoing partnership with the Washington State Department of Health and Kitsap County Public Health as we continue to care for our patients and staff during the recent outbreak of COVID-19 at St. Michael Medical Center," wrote Cary Evans, CHI Franciscan vice president for communication and government affairs, in a statement Thursday. "We are working to address any concerns in implementing CDC and state guidelines."
Biden confirms virus test, says he'll be tested regularly
4:31 PM CT on 9/4/20
(AP) Joe Biden said Friday that he's been tested at least once for the COVID-19 virus and promised he will be tested regularly during his general election campaign against President Donald Trump.
The Democratic presidential nominee told reporters of his testing protocol during a wide-ranging news conference in which he blasted Trump for downplaying the coronavirus and thus ensuring that it will continue to kill Americans and ravage the economy.
For much of the summer, Biden's advisers deflected questions about whether the former vice president was being tested himself as he anchored his campaign almost exclusively from his Delaware home, traveling sparingly as a precaution.
"They're going to do it on a regular basis," Biden said of the testing.
He noted that the Secret Service agents assigned to protect him and "everyone" else who comes into his home are tested already. Biden said he didn't know specifically when his next test would be.
"I just, 'yes, sir,' show up and put my head back," Biden said. "I imagine it'll be sometime this week, but it will be on a regular basis."
Biden and Trump offer voters a sharp contrast on the pandemic and its economic fallout.
In the Oval Office on Friday, Trump hailed a new jobs report and repeated his optimism that a COVID-19 vaccine could be available even before the Nov. 3 election.
Hours later, during a fundraiser, Biden said, "I hope like hell they have a vaccine," but questioned Trump's timeline and ability to distribute it. "We've got to make sure they're not just hyping … that they actually finish all the testing," Biden said, adding that Trump's public questioning of scientists and medical experts will reduce confidence in a vaccine whenever it comes online.
"People don't trust a damn thing he says," Biden quipped.
Will long Labor Day weekend mean another coronavirus spike?
2:05 PM CT on 9/4/20
(AP) Americans headed into Labor Day weekend — the unofficial end to the Lost Summer of 2020 — amid warnings from public health experts that backyard parties, crowded bars and other gatherings could cause the coronavirus to come surging back.
"I look upon the Labor Day weekend really as a critical point," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious-disease expert. "Are we going to go in the right direction and continue the momentum downward, or are we going to have to step back a bit as we start another surge?"
The rise in infections, deaths and hospitalizations over the summer, primarily in the South and West, was blamed in part on Americans behaving heedlessly over Memorial Day and July Fourth.
The landscape has improved in recent weeks, with the numbers headed in the right direction in hard-hit states like Florida, Arizona and Texas, but there are certain risk factors that could combine with Labor Day: Children are going back to school, university campuses are seeing soaring case counts, college football is starting, more businesses are open, and flu season is around the corner.
And a few states are heading into the holiday with less room in hospitals than they had over Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Alabama, for example, had about 800 people hospitalized with the virus on July 1. This week, it has just under 1,000.
More beaches will be open on Labor Day than on Memorial Day, but Fauci said that is not cause in itself for concern, as long as people keep their distance.
"I would rather see someone on a beach, being physically separated enough, than someone crowded in an indoor bar," he said.
Americans, cooped up for months, appeared more than ready to venture out and socialize — though with some precautions.
In New York City, once of the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S., Jennifer Bolstad of Brooklyn picked up the keys to a rented minivan with plans to drive with her two children to Maryland this weekend to visit family she hasn't seen in a year.
"I monitored the quarantine list pathologically, and they are finally a place I can visit," she said, referring to the list of states that New York has advised are safe to travel to. "I think a lot of people are going stir-crazy and are going somewhere this weekend and possibly not be as cautious as they should about not bringing their germs back with them."
In Cicero, Indiana, 40-year-old Matt McInnis planned to continue with tradition by getting together with about 15 neighborhood friends for a barbecue. And forget wearing masks.
"With the picnic being outdoors, we feel that we can space enough, and with the fresh air that we are going to be safe with it being outdoors and in the wide open," McInnis said. He said they won't be asking the eight children at the picnic to socially distance either.
Dawn Love of Bolton, Connecticut, decided to host an outdoor breakfast Saturday for her running group, The Crazy Legs, at her cottage on a lake. The 20 members normally run the local roads together every weekend but haven't seen each other since March.
Love, 62, said she expects just a few people to show up, with some deciding it was still too risky and begging off.
"Everyone is bringing their own breakfast, their own beverage and a mask," she said. "We're going to meet and have the chairs 6 feet apart. Wearing the mask will depend on the comfort level with the person you're talking to. I have a bathroom inside the cottage, with paper towels and a basket, so there is no shared towels."
Drugmaker gets money from Germany for vaccine
12:06 PM CT on 9/4/20
German pharmaceutical company CureVac says it is receiving a further 252 million euros ($298 million) to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
The company says its request for additional funding has been approved by Germany’s Ministry for Education and Research, provided certain milestones are reached.
Germany’s state-owned KfW bank has already taken a 23% stake in CureVac for 300 million euros.
The company launched an initial public offering of shares, but its main shareholder remains Dietmar Hopp, the co-founder of German software giant SAP.
CureVac is among a small number of companies that aim to develop a COVID-19 vaccine using mRNA technology that experts say could allow rapid inoculation on a larger scale than traditional forms of vaccination.
Indiana urges caution as IU seeks fraternity closures
9:30 AM CT on 9/4/20
(AP) Indiana health officials are warning residents to take coronavirus precautions seriously over the Labor Day weekend, even as new statewide COVID-19 risk ratings show most counties have minimal or moderate virus spread.
Indiana University officials have asked all 40 fraternity and sorority houses on its Bloomington campus to shut down because of high rates of coronavirus infections, but say they have no authority to force them to close.
Testing at some Indiana University fraternity and sorority houses found infection rates above 50%, according to a statement released by the school, but university officials said Thursday that they were unaware of any infected students who needed hospitalization. The shared bathrooms and living spaces in those houses make preventing virus spread difficult.
The county health department has already ordered 30 of the 40 houses to quarantine due to the coronavirus. University officials said they can't order the houses to close because they're owned by the fraternity and sorority organizations, but they urged everyone living in them to move out.
"We do not consider, based on our best public health advice, these houses to be safe living environments at this point," campus Provost Lauren Robel said.
The North American Interfraternity Conference, a organization representing college fraternities, said the IU houses were following public health guidelines.
"Facilities should remain open with quarantine protocols in place to isolate members within chapter houses to minimize further coronavirus exposure," the group said in a statement. "We believe it is wrong to move students from their current quarantined locations and risk spreading infection to different places in the community."
About 2,600 students live in the houses or other forms of communal housing. Testing has not found significant coronavirus spread among students living in residence halls or linked to classrooms on the 42,000-student campus, officials said.
Tenn. governor won't say whether he would get COVID vaccination
8:10 PM CT on 9/3/20
(AP) Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday would not say whether he would be vaccinated against COVID-19 when a vaccine becomes available. His comments came during a news conference at which he also announced that the Education Department will provide information on COVID cases in public schools.
Public health departments are being told to prepare to distribute COVID-19 vaccines as early as Nov. 1. and Lee said the state is working to develop a distribution plan.
But the Republican also called a decision to vaccinate a personal choice and said he would do what he would want all Tennesseans to do. “I'll determine if I believe it is safe and effective and talk to my doctor," Lee said.
Tennessee Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey said at the news conference that the Nov. 1 date should be taken as a loose timeframe for when some of the first doses might be available. Piercey said she expects a phased rollout of the vaccine and has heard there may be two different vaccines distributed.
With regard to COVID cases in the public schools, Lee had initially said the state would not collect that data but he soon reversed course and said his administration was asking for federal guidance about what could be disclosed without violating student privacy laws.
Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn announced the plan on Thursday, saying the Department has developed a dashboard on its website where citizens can find information about COVID-19 cases in the public schools.
The dashboard will go live on Tuesday and will provide information about new COVID cases in students and staff at both the district level and the individual school level. New cases numbers will be uploaded by the close of business on Monday for the previous week.
In order to not violate student privacy, schools with fewer than 50 students will not be included on the dashboard, Schwinn said. Schools reporting fewer than five positive student or employee cases will be listed as having active cases but without specific numbers.
Also at the Thursday news conference, Health Commissioner Piercey said the department has made a change to how it counts active cases. Instead of assuming that cases are active for 21 days, the department is switching to a 14-day limit.
Because of the change, every county will show a drop in active case numbers and an increase in the number of inactive cases, Piercey said. The change was being rolled out Thursday afternoon. In addition, 1,700 cases that had been assigned to the wrong counties were being reassigned. Around two dozen counties will see their numbers rise or fall because of that change, Piercey said.
Texas surpasses 13K virus deaths; hospitalizations fall
5:36 PM CT on 9/3/20
(AP) Texas surpassed 13,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths Thursday as hospitalizations continued falling to the lowest levels since June.
State health officials reported nearly 3,900 new cases and 221 additional deaths blamed on COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Hospitalized patients were just over 4,000.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott hinted this week that looser restrictions may be coming as trends improve. On Twitter, Abbott singled out hospitalizations as the most important decline in numbers but has not elaborated on what steps may be next. Bars remain closed in Texas, and restaurants are still operating under partial capacity.
Milwaukee's health commissioner steps down
4:09 PM CT on 9/3/20
Milwaukee’s health commissioner is quitting to take a new job, citing the partisan battles management of the coronavirus.
Jeanette Kowalik is joining a national health policy think tank in Washington, D.C. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports Kowalik noted obstacles to testing, public health orders, mask messaging during the pandemic response.
Republican lawmakers brought a successful lawsuit before the state Supreme Court this spring ending Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ “safer at home” order designed to slow the spread of the virus. A conservative law firm has filed a lawsuit seeking to end the Evers mask mandate, which the Republican Senate majority leader has denounced.
Milwaukee has reported more than 17,700 positive cases and more than 275 deaths. Wisconsin has reported 1,142 deaths, according to the state Department of Health Services.
Can I get the coronavirus twice?
2:43 PM CT on 9/3/20
It seems possible, though how often it happens isn’t known.
Researchers in Hong Kong recently reported evidence of a person who got the coronavirus a second time, months after an initial infection.
The finding has not yet been published in a journal. But scientists said the 33-year-old man had mild symptoms the first time and none the second time, suggesting his immune system may have provided some protection against serious illness even if it could not prevent a reinfection. His more recent infection was detected through screening and testing at the Hong Kong airport, and researchers said genetic tests revealed different strains of the virus.
Several other possible cases have been reported, including a U.S. man who was sicker the second time than the first.
Even if people can get reinfected, the World Health Organization says it likely wouldn't happen regularly.
Health experts generally believe people who had COVID-19 will have some immunity against a repeat infection. But they don’t know how much protection, or how long it would last.
This is important because if immunity wears off, it could pose a challenge for vaccines. Some experts say booster shots may be needed.
It's also unclear whether reinfected people would be able to spread the virus to others. That's another reason scientists say people should continue to wear masks, social distance and practice good hygiene.
Critics say eviction ban may only delay wave of homelessness
11:55 AM CT on 9/3/20
(AP) Housing advocates say the Trump administration's surprise national moratorium on evictions only delays a wave of crushing debt and homelessness, and an attorney representing landlords questions whether the measure is aimed at voters ahead of the November election.
The White House announced Tuesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would act under its broad powers to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The measure would forbid landlords from evicting anyone for failure to pay rent, providing the renter meets four criteria.
Critics call it everything from an empty stall tactic to an outright political ploy.
"My first reaction was, 'Thank God,'" said Matthew Hill, an attorney with the Public Justice Center in Baltimore. But he noted that tenants will be expected to repay their rent when the moratorium expires on Jan. 1, and without some kind of rental assistance, "we are just going to be kicking the can down the road."
Richard Vetstein, the lead attorney representing landlords who are challenging an eviction moratorium in Massachusetts, called the CDC order "convoluted" and poorly drafted.
"It's a pretty blatant political play by Trump in an election year," Vetstein said. "It purports to apply nationwide to every residential situation for nonpayment of rent, so that would be many, many millions of rental properties."
The move is a good first step, said Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. But the order just "puts the problem on pause."
"In January, when this would cease to be in place, all of those tenants would still owe all of the rent they owed to start with," Faith said. "If they are covered by the moratorium and don't pay what rent they can pay, their hole is thousands of dollars deep."
Faith also said implementing the order could be "messy," since it would often fall to local judges to determine if a tenant qualifies. In Ohio alone, that would involve hundreds of housing courts.
The CDC order covers only people who:
— Have an income of $198,000 or less for couples filing jointly, or $99,000 for single filers.
— Demonstrate they have sought government assistance to make their rental payments.
— Are unable to pay rent because of COVID-19 hardships.
— Are likely to become homeless if they are evicted.
Nevada 'COVID Trace' should pair with Google-Apple, official says
9:39 AM CT on 9/3/20
(AP) A Nevada coronavirus contact tracing application called "COVID Trace" launched last week should work well with a similar tool that Google and Apple are rolling out to alert people who might have been exposed to COVID-19, officials said Wednesday.
"They actually run in parallel and complementary," Julia Peek, deputy Nevada health administrator, said after reporting 20,000 downloads since the state app debuted Aug. 24 for Apple and Android phones.
The free app is designed to let phones anonymously and automatically exchange data by Bluetooth and notify a phone user if they've been near someone who tested positive for COVID-19, if that person has granted permission and added their phone ID to a database of positive cases.
Officials say the system does not share names or user identification with other users or companies like Google and Apple. They also said that people who receive proximity alerts will be offered testing and health advice to prevent the potential spread of the virus.
Peek told reporters that widening the notification net should also help reach visitors to Nevada from states that don't have similar COVID-19 tracing technology.
COVID-19 seven times more prevalent in poor New Mexico areas
8:03 PM CT on 9/2/20
(AP) A top state health official is warning that COVID-19 infections are far more prevalent in low-income areas of the New Mexico, potentially straining Medicaid health care.
Human Services Secretary David Scrase said Wednesday that an analysis of infection rates by census tract shows that highly impoverished areas have infection rates seven times higher than the most affluent zones. Scrase and Children Youth and Families Secretary Brian Blalock gave a briefing on public health trends and the state's coronavirus response.
State health officials are wary that festivities over the Labor Day holiday weekend could lead to renewed surges in COVID-19 infections.
Iowa Gov. Reynolds: Wait to see if virus cases drop before new moves
6:08 PM CT on 9/2/20
(AP) — As Iowa sees some of the highest rates of coronavirus cases in the nation, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Wednesday that she will wait to determine whether her move to close bars in six counties slows the virus' spread before considering additional steps.
Reynolds said the soaring number of confirmed virus cases is largely due to infections among young people, especially those in the college towns of Iowa City and Ames. That trend prompted her last week to order the closure of bars in Johnson, Story and Black Hawk counties — home to the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa — as well as Dallas, Linn and Polk counties.
Now, it's best to wait to see if those moves will cause numbers to drop, Reynolds said. "If they don't, then we'll take additional steps," she said.
State data indicated 740 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours as of Wednesday morning, pushing the state past 66,000 known positive cases. Four additional deaths increased the fatality total to 1,125.
Florida announces it will lift ban on nursing home visits
4:30 PM CT on 9/2/20
(AP) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that he will lift the state's ban on visiting nursing homes that has cut off vulnerable seniors from family since mid-March over fears of spreading the new coronavirus.
With his voice cracking at times, he wondered aloud if his actions might have contributed to suffering in his state as he made his announcement during a round table in Jacksonville.
"Part of having a healthy society is understanding that human beings seek affection," DeSantis said. "Many of the folks understand that they have loved ones who are in the last stage of their life. They're not demanding a medical miracle. They're not having unrealistic expectations. They just would like to be able to say goodbye or to hug somebody."
The visibly emotional governor paused to collect himself, and silence filled the room for about 20 seconds.
DeSantis said he would lift the ban on visitations in an executive order later Tuesday, following recommendations from a nursing home task force.
The governor's order is expected to allow family members to visit their loved ones no more than two at a time, wearing protective gear including masks. Facilities would need to go 14 days without any new cases of COVID-19 among staff or residents to allow the visits. Children under the age of 18 are not yet allowed.
The task force appointed by the governor recommended a lengthy set of rules last week, giving wide leeway for wary nursing homes on how to implement them. Critics were quick to express concern over what will likely be a patchwork approach, varying greatly among facilities statewide.
In Florida, nearly two-thirds of facilities have not had new cases since Aug. 11, said Mary Mayhew, who led the task force and heads the state's Agency for Health Care Administration.
The biggest sticking point was over physical contact, with gut-wrenching debates between the task force's health experts and an advocate for families. The task force ultimately recommended that essential caregivers be allowed to touch and hug loved ones. But some members, including state Surgeon General Dr. Scott Rivkees, repeatedly expressed grave concerns during task force meetings.
"The more people that are coming in, that really increases the risk," Rivkees said last week.
Health officials worry nation not ready for COVID-19 vaccine
2:14 PM CT on 9/2/20
(AP and KHN) Millions of Americans are counting on a COVID-19 vaccine to curb the global pandemic and return life to normal.
While one or more options could be available toward the end of this year or early next, the path to delivering vaccines to 330 million people remains unclear for the local health officials expected to carry out the work.
"We haven't gotten a lot of information about how this is going to roll out," said Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Texas' Harris County Public Health department, which includes Houston.
In a four-page memo this summer, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told health departments across the country to draft vaccination plans by Oct. 1 "to coincide with the earliest possible release of COVID-19 vaccine."
But health departments that have been underfunded for decades say they currently lack the staff, money and tools to educate people about vaccines and then to distribute, administer and track hundreds of millions of doses. Nor do they know when, or if, they'll get federal aid to do that.
Dozens of doctors, nurses and health officials interviewed by Kaiser Health News and The Associated Press expressed concern about the country's readiness to conduct mass vaccinations, as well as frustration with months of inconsistent information from the federal government.
The gaps include figuring out how officials will keep track of who has gotten which doses and how they'll keep the workers who give the shots safe, with enough protective gear and syringes to do their jobs.
With only about half of Americans saying they would get vaccinated, according to a poll from AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, it also will be crucial to educate people about the benefits of vaccination, said Molly Howell, who manages the North Dakota Department of Health's immunization program.
The unprecedented pace of vaccine development has left many Americans skeptical about the safety of COVID-19 immunizations; others simply don't trust the federal government.
"We're in a very deep-red state," said Ann Lewis, CEO of CareSouth Carolina, a group of community health centers that serve mostly low-income people in five rural counties in South Carolina. "The message that is coming out is not a message of trust and confidence in medical or scientific evidence."
Task force makes 28 nursing home recommendations to Mich. governor
11:48 AM CT on 9/2/20
(AP) Michigan should modify a system in which nursing home residents infected with the coronavirus can be treated and isolated in those facilities and take steps to improve life for all long-term care residents amid the pandemic, a task force urged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a report released Tuesday.
The 20-member group was created by the governor to prepare for a potential second surge of COVID-19 after deaths and cases spiked in the spring. Nursing home residents account for 2,088, or 31%, of the state's 6,767 confirmed or probable deaths related to the virus.
Of the 28 recommendations, nearly half involve ways to better the quality of life inside 442 homes that have had to stop communal dining and restrict visits and other activities during the outbreak. To reduce the effects of isolation, the panel urged allowing outdoor and window visits, limited communal dining and optional "pod"-like arrangements in which residents could spend time together in small groups.
Other recommendations include prioritizing nursing homes for personal protective equipment and testing supplies, lessening data-reporting requirements and designating labs that give priority to specimens from the homes.
The task force said homes continue to face challenges finding qualified staff, especially in the pandemic. It recommended improving a state licensing website for people interested in becoming nursing assistants and making public service announcements about the shortage.
The group split on one recommendation, which involves the controversial issue of placing recovering individuals with COVID-19 in nursing homes. Whitmer, who has faced criticism for the policy, has let infected residents who are medically stable return to their facility if it has a dedicated coronavirus unit or go to a designated "hub" home — both of which have uninfected residents.
The panel said hospitals should, "whenever possible," not discharge patients with the COVID-19 virus to their nursing home if they have less than 72 hours in their overall isolation period. If that is not an option, then the hub program should be changed to ensure consideration is given to a home's quality and inspection history before it becomes a "care and recovery center" with a wing, unit or building to care for infected residents.
The group had some dissent over a recommendation that facilities not deemed as care and recovery centers still be able to admit people with the coronavirus in "exceptional circumstances" if they have experience caring for such residents. The state was urged to prioritize placing infected patients in hospitals and the special care centers.
It should continue exploring the possibility of creating dedicated facilities for such patients despite the Democratic governor's veto, a month ago, of a Republican-sponsored bill that would have required such places to be available by Tuesday, according to the report.
CDC directs halt to renter evictions to prevent virus spread
9:29 AM CT on 9/2/20
(AP) The Trump administration has issued a directive halting the eviction of certain renters though the end of 2020 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Federal, state and local governments have approved eviction moratoriums during the course of the pandemic for many renters, but those protections are expiring rapidly. A recent report from one think tank, the Aspen Institute, stated that more than 20 million renters live in households that have suffered COVID-19-related job loss and concluded that millions more are at risk of eviction in the next several months.
The administration's action stems from an executive order that President Donald Trump issued in early August. It instructed federal health officials to consider measures to temporarily halt evictions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention followed up Tuesday by declaring that any landlord shall not evict any "covered person" from any residential property for failure to pay rent.
Senior administration officials explained that the director of the CDC has broad authority to take actions deemed reasonably necessary to prevent the spread of a communicable disease.
Renters covered through the executive order must meet four criteria. They must:
— Have an income of $198,000 or less for couples filing jointly, or $99,000 for single filers.
— Demonstrate they have sought government assistance to make their rental payments.
— Affirmatively declare they are unable to pay rent because of COVID-19 hardships.
— Affirm they are likely to become homeless if they are evicted.
Officials said local courts would still resolve disputes between renters and landowners about whether the moratorium applies in a particular case.
HHS cancelling ventilator contracts, says stockpile is full
8:34 PM CT on 9/1/20
(AP) The Trump administration announced Tuesday it is canceling some of its remaining orders for ventilators, after rushing to sign nearly $3 billion in emergency contracts as the COVID-19 pandemic surged in the spring.
The Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement affirming that the national stockpile has now reached its maximum capacity for the life-saving breathing machines, with nearly 120,000 available for deployment to state and local health officials if need. Though billed as a cost-saving measure, Democrats said the cancellations show the White House vastly overspent in its quest to fulfill President Donald Trump’s pledge to make the United States the “King of Ventilators.”
The agency didn't have an estimate for how much taxpayers would save by canceling the contracts because the terms and potential penalties for the early terminations were still being negotiated with the companies involved.
HHS confirmed it was terminating contracts with ventilator manufacturers Hamilton Medical and Vyaire Medical, which will result in the reduction of 38,000 ventilators that had been scheduled for delivery to the National Strategic Stockpile by the end of 2020.
An agency spokesperson declined to comment on the status of its largest ventilator contract, a massive $647 million deal with Philips that is now the subject of an internal HHS investigation and legal review.
But Steve Klink, a spokesman for Philips at the company's headquarters in Amsterdam, confirmed that its contract had also been canceled and that it will not deliver the remaining 30,700 ventilators on its order to the U.S. stockpile.
Klink said HHS had not yet given the company any “formal reason” for the cancellation.
“Unlike typically in the private sector, the U.S. government does not need any reason to terminate an agreement,” Klink said. “We can confidently say that we have delivered on our commitments. While we are disappointed in light of our massive efforts, we will work with HHS to effectuate the partial termination of this contract.”
The Philips contract has been under scrutiny because the company had signed a 2019 agreement to deliver 10,000 basic emergency ventilators to the national stockpile by 2022 at a cost of about $3,280 each. But once the COVID pandemic hit, the company inked a new deal with the Trump administration to provide 43,000 of its more complicated and expensive hospital-grade models at an average cost of about $15,000 each.
The company has said it still plans to deliver the 10,000 low-cost ventilators over the next two years under its earlier contract.
House Democrats said they would expand their probe into the White House's handling of the Phillips contract, which they said was negotiated by Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro.
“American taxpayers deserve to have their money well spent," said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy. “Incompetent negotiations by top Trump Administration officials, like Peter Navarro, wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.”
As the virus took hold and began to spread widely across the U.S. in March, governors and mayors of big cities urged Trump to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to direct private companies to ramp up production of ventilators. At the time, the national stockpile had only about 16,660 ventilators ready to deploy.
Trump initially resisted calls to invoke the Korean War-era production act, but at the end of March he promised to deliver 100,000 new ventilators within 100 days. The president then tasked his son-in-law, White House adviser Jared Kushner, with leading the effort. During the month of April, HHS issued a flurry of emergency contracts to established ventilator companies, as well as U.S. automakers Ford and General Motors.
“We became the king of ventilators, thousands and thousands of ventilators,” Trump boasted in an April 29 speech.
Experts won't vouch for plasma therapy
6:19 PM CT on 9/1/20
(AP) A group of medical experts advising the National Institutes of Health says there is not enough evidence to recommend for or against the use of plasma therapy for patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
The non-endorsement by government advisers comes a week after the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization to the treatment. That decision followed threats from President Donald Trump about the slow pace of FDA’s review, raising concerns that the agency felt pressure to greenlight the therapy.
So-called convalescent plasma is taken from patients who have recovered from the coronavirus and is rich in disease-fighting antibodies. But its use against COVID-19 has not been studied in rigorous patient trials.
The NIH panel says the plasma shouldn’t be considered “standard of care” treatment, due to the lack of data confirming its safety and effectiveness.
The FDA granted its emergency use based on preliminary results gathered from tens of thousands of patients tracked by the Mayo Clinic. The decision merely means that the treatment’s potential benefits outweigh its risks.
But the Mayo study doesn’t have the type of controls needed to draw conclusions about clinical benefits, including overall survival. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn was forced to backtrack last week after he overstated the potential life-saving effect suggested by the data.
NIH’s experts urged doctors and patients to enroll in proper studies of the plasma.
HHS, FCC, USDA sign rural telehealth memorandum
4:25 PM CT on 9/1/20
HHS, the Federal Communications Commission and the Agriculture Department have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a program dubbed the Rural Telehealth Initiative.
The memorandum follows through on a directive President Donald Trump signed as part of an executive order in August, ordering the agencies to lead a rural healthcare taskforce that would "improve rural health by improving the physical and communications healthcare infrastructure available to rural Americans," according to the order.
The Rural Telehealth Initiative will collaborate and share information to address geographic health disparities and promote broadband services and technology in rural America. Rural areas, which already suffer from shortages of specialty physicians, also tend to lack access to wired broadband that meets the FCC's speed benchmark.
HHS, FCC and USDA plan to stand up an inter-agency Rural Telehealth Initiative Task Force, composed of representatives from the three groups, which will offer recommendations.
"Better access to telehealth in rural America means better health for some of our most vulnerable and greater resilience at times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic," HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. "We look forward to working with our colleagues at the FCC and USDA to expand access through telehealth to quality, affordable care for the 57 million Americans living in rural areas."
The Rural Telehealth Initiative builds on existing programs at the agencies.
FCC operates the Rural Health Care Program, which distributes millions of dollars each year to rural healthcare providers to offset costs associated with purchasing broadband and telecommunications services. USDA's Rural Broadband ReConnect program offers loans and grants to deploy high-speed broadband in rural communities.
Apple, Google offer states new option for COVID-19 alert system
2:10 PM CT on 9/1/20
Apple and Google on Tuesday said they're expanding their COVID-19 exposure notification program so that state public health agencies can use it without developing their own app.
Apple and Google in April announced plans to team up on a project using application programming interfaces, Bluetooth technology and smartphones to warn people who may have had contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19. The program, launched in May, required states to create their own custom apps that use the companies' software.
To date, just six states have created apps that link up to the companies’ COVID-19 exposure notification system.
Apple and Google officials on Tuesday said they think offering states the option to enable the exposure notification system, without having to develop their own app, could speed adoption of the technology, according to the Washington Post.
Pandemic brings hard times for farmers, worsening hunger
11:56 AM CT on 9/1/20
(AP) The coronavirus pandemic has brought hard times for many farmers and has imperiled food security for many millions both in the cities and the countryside.
United Nations experts are holding an online conference beginning Tuesday to brainstorm ways to help alleviate hunger and prevent the problems from worsening in the Asia-Pacific region — a challenge made doubly difficult by the loss of many millions of jobs due to the crisis.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization forecasts that the number of undernourished people will increase by up to 132 million in this year, while the number of acutely malnourished children will rise by 6.7 million worldwide due to the pandemic.
"We must come to terms with what is before us and recognize that the world and our region has changed," said Jong-Jin Kim, the FAO's assistant director-general and regional representative for Asia and the Pacific.
"We must find new ways to move forward and ensure sustainable food security in the face of these twin pandemics, as well as prepare for threats that can and will evolve in the future," Kim said.
Disruptions due to outbreaks of the illness and restrictions on businesses and travel to control them run the gamut, from crops going unharvested by migrant workers unable to reach their jobs to transport problems to farm families selling livestock and equipment to survive, the FAO said in a report prepared ahead of the meeting.
The combined impacts of COVID-19, natural disasters such as typhoons and drought, diseases and pests such as locusts have highlighted the need to build stronger capacity to "manage multiple risks to food systems," the report said.
The FAO is urging faster deployment of high-tech tools such as drones and smartphone apps to monitor crops, pests and other farming conditions as part of a transformation of food systems to make them more resilient and reduce risks, especially for the most vulnerable small farmers in poor countries.
Russia's virus cases exceed 1 million, globally 4th highest
9:32 AM CT on 9/1/20
(AP) Russia's tally of confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 1 million on Tuesday as authorities reported 4,729 new cases.
With a total of 1,000,048 reported cases, Russia has the fourth largest caseload in the world after the U.S., Brazil and India. Over 815,000 people have so far recovered, authorities said, and more than 17,000 have died.
Experts say the true toll of the pandemic is much higher than all reported figures, due to limited testing, missed mild cases and concealment of cases by some governments, among other factors.
As of Tuesday, Russia has lifted most lockdown restrictions in the majority of the country's regions.
Last month, Russian authorities announced approval of the first ever COVID-19 vaccine — a move that Western experts met with skepticism and unease as the shots were only tested on a few dozen people. Last week, officials announced starting advanced trials of the vaccine among 40,000 people.
It remains unclear whether vaccination of risk groups — such as doctors and teachers — announced earlier this year will be part of the trials or carried out in parallel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month one of his daughters had already been vaccinated.
