Modern Healthcare 2 dead of virus at US prison where executions are scheduled
8:26 PM CT on 9/15/20
(AP) Two inmates have died in as many days from coronavirus at the federal prison complex where the U.S. government plans to carry out two executions next week.
The virus deaths are likely to raise alarm with advocates and lawyers for the condemned men over the spread of coronavirus at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. As of Tuesday, more than 40 inmates had confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the agency’s statistics.
The executions of Christopher Andre Vialva and William Emmett LeCroy are scheduled to be carried out at the prison complex next week. The government carried out three executions in July and two executions in August.
The Bureau of Prisons said a 53-year-old inmate, Tim Hocutt, died Monday at the Terre Haute facility. Hocutt, who was serving a 13-year sentence for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, had reported that he was suffering from a “mild cough, congestion and nausea” and had previously tested negative for COVID-19, the Bureau of Prisons said. But Hocutt tested positive on Monday after he alerted medical staff to his condition and was pronounced dead the same day at the complex’s medium-security prison.
His death came a day after the death of another inmate, Byron Dale Bird, who was serving a sentence at the high-security penitentiary on the prison grounds.
The 65-year-old Bird was taken to a local hospital on Aug. 27 after testing positive for the virus and was admitted to an intensive care unit. He died at the hospital on Sunday. Bird was serving a 74-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexual abuse of a minor, witness tampering, failing to register as a sex offender and other charges.
Witnesses to the federal executions are required to undergo security screening at the high-security penitentiary, where Bird was housed. The witnesses are required to wear masks, and their temperatures are taken before they are permitted on the prison grounds.The spiritual advisers for two of the men who were executed in July and the family of one of the men’s victims had fought unsuccessfully to delay their executions over coronavirus concerns.
The federal prison system has struggled to combat the coronavirus pandemic behind bars, where social distancing is nearly impossible. As of Tuesday, 13,477 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19 at facilities across the U.S.; 11,623 had recovered. Officials said 120 inmates have died since late March.
Legislators decry slow spending of Indiana's federal virus aid
6:24 PM CT on 9/15/20
(AP) Indiana officials are still holding back on spending more than half of the $2.4 billion state government received in federal coronavirus relief funding.
Democrats on the State Budget Committee questioned Tuesday why there wasn’t more urgency in spending the money on the immediate needs of people around the state, while Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s top budget adviser blamed some of that on confusion over federal rules.
State Office of Management and Budget Director Cristopher Johnston presented a report to committee members showing that only $225 million, or less than 10%, of that money had been spent by the end of August. The report showed nearly $1.1 billion in total had been spent or committed toward programs or expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down much of Indiana’s economy through the spring and has killed nearly 3,500 people.
Congress approved $150 billion for states and local governments in March. That money was targeted to cover coronavirus-related costs by the end of this year, not to offset declining revenue resulting from the recession.
Holcomb is among some governors pushing for greater flexibility in spending the money on the state’s existing budget even though Congress and the Trump administration have been deadlocked on a new coronavirus relief package.
Holcomb has said his administration is being deliberate with spending decisions, while Johnston said Tuesday an unknown was whether states would gain any flexibility. “Based on last four months, I’m not going to predict anything,” Johnston said.
Democratic Rep. Carey Hamilton of Indianapolis said the state needed to address serious concerns for residents, including some 300,000 rental households facing possible evictions, widespread small business closings and people struggling to buy food and pay utility bills.
“We’re just kind of waiting to hear, waiting to hear — it’s now the middle of September,” Hamilton said. “The more we can help Hoosiers from falling behind significantly, the quicker our economy will be able to rebound from this crisis.”
Apple to study whether new smartwatch can detect signs of COVID-19, flu
4:09 PM CT on 9/15/20
Apple’s latest smartwatch, the Apple Watch Series 6, includes a sensor to measure wearers’ blood oxygen levels, the tech giant announced Tuesday.
Apple is planning to study whether the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen and heart rate measurements can detect early signs of respiratory conditions, such as COVID-19 or influenza.
The Seattle Flu Study at the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine and faculty from the University of Washington School of Medicine are working with Apple on the study.
Blood oxygen levels, typically measured with pulse oximeters, have been used by some hospitals to help COVID-19 patients monitor symptoms at home. Pulse oximeters aren’t used as a screening method for COVID-19; while COVID-19 has been linked with low oxygen levels, there are some patients who test positive for the disease without that symptom.
The new Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensor, for now, is only meant to be used to provide wearers with insight into “their overall wellness,” according to Apple.
The smartwatch will periodically take blood oxygen measurements in the background while a user is wearing it; users will also have the option to take on-demand measurements.
The Series 6 smartwatch retails starting at $399.
Apple also is partnering with the University of California, Irvine, and Anthem to study whether measuring blood oxygen can help users manage asthma. A third study from the company involves working with the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research and the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at the University Health Network to study whether blood oxygen levels can help with managing heart failure.
House to stay in session until COVID-19 rescue pact, Pelosi says
2:10 PM CT on 9/15/20
(AP) Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday the House will remain in session until lawmakers deliver another round of COVID-19 relief.
“We are committed to staying here until we have an agreement, an agreement that meets the needs of the American people,” Pelosi said on CNBC.
Pelosi told her Democratic colleagues on a morning conference call that “we have to stay here until we have a bill.” That’s according to a Democratic aide speaking on condition of anonymity but authorized to quote her remarks.
Pelosi’s comments came as moderate Democrats signed on to a $1.5 trillion rescue package endorsed by the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of about 50 lawmakers who seek common solutions to issues.
The plan contains many elements of COVID rescue packages devised by both House Democrats and Republicans controlling the Senate, including aid to schools, funding for state and local governments, and renewal of lapsed COVID-related jobless benefits.
The price tag is significantly less than the $2.2 trillion figure cited by Pelosi but it’s also well above an approximately $650 billion Senate GOP plan that failed last week due to Democratic opposition.
Talks between Pelosi and the Trump administration broke down last month and there had been little optimism they would rekindle before Election Day. And last week, Senate Democrats scuttled a scaled-back GOP coronavirus rescue package.
Pelosi has maintained a hard line in negotiations and has been at odds with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. She orchestrated passage of a $3.4 trillion COVID rescue package back in May, but the effort was immediately dismissed by Senate Republicans and the Trump administration.
Tuesday’s remarks, said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, don’t mean that the speaker is adopting a more flexible position. She instead seems to be signaling continued determination to press ahead and won’t adjourn the House without an agreement with the administration.
Success is by no means guaranteed and many people on Capitol Hill remain very skeptical that an agreement between the White House and Democrats is likely before the election.
“My sense is the clock is running out,” said Senate GOP Whip John Thune of South Dakota. “I don’t see any intention or desire on the part of the Democrat leadership at the moment — regardless of what their members are saying — to cooperate and to work together on a solution. I think they feel like they’ve got the issue and they want to try and ride it in November.”
Germany boosts own pharma companies in race for COVID-19 vaccine
12:06 PM CT on 9/15/20
(AP) Germany says it is providing up to 750 million euros ($892 million) to support three domestic pharmaceutical companies that are developing vaccines against the new coronavirus.
Science Minister Anja Karliczek said Tuesday that the government has already agreed to provide BioNTech and CureVac with 375 million euros and 230-million euros respectively to develop their mRNA-based vaccines.
Talks with a third company, IDT Biologika, are expected to conclude soon, she said. The company is developing a vector-based vaccine that delivers a coronavirus protein into cells to stimulate the body’s immune response.
The agreement with the three companies, which is tied to specific milestones, would guarantee Germany 40 million doses of vaccine. The amount comes on top of other vaccine supply agreements concluded through the European Union, of which Germany is a member.
Karliczek said Germany wouldn’t cut corners when it comes to testing vaccines, meaning most of the population may have to wait until mid-2021 to be inoculated.
“Safety is an absolute priority,” she said.
Health Minister Jens Spahn echoed that stance, saying that only vaccines which have been tested on “thousands, ideally many thousands of volunteers in phase 3” would be approved.
Spahn complained that reports from Russia and China about vaccines being developed in the two countries “aren’t always such that one feels there’s absolute transparency.”
Spahn dismissed suggestions that Germany might consider making COVID-19 vaccinations compulsory.
“We need 55-60% of the population to be vaccinated,” he said. “I’m firmly convinced we will achieve this voluntarily.”
Spahn added that Germany also doesn’t intend to hoard vaccines.
“I’m happy to give other countries in the world some of the vaccines we’re been contractually assured,” he said, “if we find in the end that we have more than we need.”
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR COVID-19 COVERAGE NEWSLETTER Email Address Shortage of virus tests in U.K. hurts effort to fight 2nd wave
9:34 AM CT on 9/15/20
(AP) Hospitals in England say a shortage of COVID-19 tests in the U.K. is jeopardizing medical staffing and preparations for a potential surge in coronavirus cases this winter.
Inadequate testing is leading to increased absences in the National Health Service as medical workers are forced to self-isolate while they and their family members wait for test results after possible exposures, according to NHS Providers, a group that represents hospitals. Last weekend hospital leaders in three different cities raised concerns about testing, said Chris Hopson, the group’s CEO.
“The problem is that NHS trusts are working in the dark — they don’t know why these shortages are occurring, how long they are likely to last, how geographically widespread they are likely to be and what priority will be given to healthcare workers and their families in accessing scarce tests,” Hopson said Tuesday.
The shortage comes amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across the U.K. that has pushed daily new infections to levels not seen since late May and has forced the Conservative government to impose new limits on public gatherings.
Widespread testing is seen as crucial to controlling the spread of coronavirus because it allows those who are infected to self-isolate while helping health officials to identify hot spots and trace those who are infected.
The problem is that the “second wave” of the virus is hitting Britain earlier than anticipated, said John Bell, a professor of medicine at the University of Oxford. Authorities have underestimated the speed at which more testing capacity is needed, Bell said, warning that the problem could get worse.
“I think what’s going wrong is the second wave,” Bell told the BBC. “A month ago, they had spare capacity in testing —significant spare capacity — but I think what has been underestimated was the speed at which the second wave would arrive.”
He also said new testing pressures are arising from children returning to school.
The government says it can process about 243,000 coronavirus tests a day, up from 220,000 at the end of August. Over the past week, many people have complained that they were being sent to testing centers far from their homes, sometimes hundreds of miles away.
Nevada city fines Trump rally venue $3,000 in COVID-19 flap
8:20 PM CT on 9/14/2020
(AP) The Nevada city where President Donald Trump held an indoor campaign rally said Monday the venue owner is being fined $3,000 for violating coronavirus prevention mandates imposed by the state’s Democratic governor.
Henderson officials told Xtreme Manufacturing owner Donald Ahern that the event that drew thousands of people to a warehouse in suburban Las Vegas violated Gov. Steve Sisolak’s coronavirus emergency directives.
State rules prohibit gatherings larger than 50 people, require “social distancing” of 6 feet (1.8 meters), and mandate masks or face coverings in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Ahern’s attorney, Michael Van, acknowledged receiving a notice from the city and said Ahern will decide whether to challenge it. He has 30 days.
“It’s interesting that if it’s a demonstration, it’s OK. If it’s a rally, it’s not OK,” Van said, casting the dispute as a First Amendment fight. “There’s just inconsistent application of that declaration.”
Ahern, a local heavy equipment rental mogul and hotel owner has a separate lawsuit pending against Sisolak after being fined more than $10,000 for hosting an “Evangelicals for Trump” rally and a separate beauty pageant last month at his renovated casino-turned-convention hall.
In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Sisolak accused Trump of knowingly violating coronavirus directives and endangering Nevada residents.
“He knew what the rules were. He chose to show callous disregard in a reckless, selfish, irresponsible way. There’s no other way to put it,” the governor said. He added that it was “absurd for him to think that the rules didn’t apply to him.”
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh on Monday called the rally crowd, “great Americans who supported their fellow citizens in wanting to hear from the president of the United States.”
Henderson city spokeswoman Kathleen Richards said that Ahern was warned verbally and in writing before the event. A business compliance officer observed six violations amounting to fines worth $500 each among the mostly maskless crowd.
During the rally, Trump derided Sisolak, with whom he has clashed in the past, as “a political hack,” and urged Nevada residents to “tell your governor to open up your state.”
Trump’s campaign is suing Nevada’s Republican secretary of state in federal court to try to block a new state law and prevent mail-in ballots from going to all active Nevada voters amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Nevada wants the court to throw out the lawsuit, arguing that vote-by-mail does not lead to election fraud and the virus could make voting in person dangerous.
Trump told his supporters the governor was “playing around” with ballots. He blamed Sisolak for forcing the Trump campaign to abandon plans to hold two outdoor rallies last weekend at a private air facility at McCarran International Airport and at an airport hangar at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
The northern Nevada event was moved to an outdoor airport venue in Minden, more than a one-hour drive from Reno, where Nevada GOP party Chairman Michael McDonald made a point of calling the event a protest. Trump told the crowd that Sisolak “tried very hard to stop us from having this event.”
“They can have riots and they can all sorts of things and that’s OK. You can burn up the house, that’s OK,” Trump said. “If you call it a protest, you’re allowed to have it. So, if anybody asks you outside, this is called a `friendly protest.’”
ouglas County, where Trump held that rally, could also face punishment.
Nevada agreed to allocate the county $8.9 million in federal relief dollars on the condition that safety directives be enforced. Nevada COVID-19 response chief Caleb Cage told reporters Monday he didn’t know whether the state would withhold or claw back relief given to Douglas County.
South Carolina's lieutenant governor contracts COVID-19
6:06 PM CT on 9/14/2020
(AP) South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Friday and is recovering in isolation with her family at home, officials said.
Evette had a sore throat and headache Thursday and was tested for the virus. She has stayed at her family’s home near Greenville since noting the symptoms, said Brian Symmes, the spokesman for Gov. Henry McMaster.
“She is feeling better now,” said Symmes, adding Evette plans to stay out of the public for two weeks.
Evette’s positive test prompted McMaster and his wife to get COVID-19 tests, which both came back negative Sunday. It was the fifth negative test since the pandemic began for the governor and the third for his wife, Symmes said.
Two members of Evette’s staff and some of her security detail are also isolating but have not tested positive for COVID-19, Symmes said.
South Carolina’s rate of COVID-19 infection has dropped significantly since it nearly led the country in July. The state is currently seeing an average of about 870 cases a day, down from the seven-day average peak of nearly 1,950 cases in mid-July.
But since students have returned to schools and colleges, the state has seen the decline in cases stop and begin rising again.
Evette joins a rising number of state officials across the U.S. to get COVID-19. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin St itt announced his positive test in July. Hawaii Lt. Gov. Josh Green said Saturday he had COVID-19. Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and House Speaker Philip Gunn tested positive in July along with a number of other lawmakers after a legislative session.
Evette released a statement Monday saying her infection shows how easily the virus is spread and asking people to keep wearing masks, social distancing and getting tested if they have any reason to think they might have COVID-19.
“I’m fortunate to have had only mild symptoms and I’m already feeling much better. David has taken GREAT care of me!” Evette wrote on social media, thanking her husband for his help.
MORE COVID-19 COVERAGE Coronavirus test tracker: Commercially available COVID-19 diagnostic tests 2020 healthcare events impacted by COVID-19 
COVID-19 could fill hospital beds, but how many are there? Michigan launches $5M ad campaign to urge mask use
4:14 PM CT on 9/14/20
(AP) Michigan on Monday launched a $5 million advertising campaign to urge people to wear a mask to fight the coronavirus, with a focus on appealing to those who believe the state’s requirement infringes on their rights.
The “spread hope, not COVID” message includes three public service announcements. Two feature military members saying they wear a face covering to protect their freedom and the freedom of others, saying it can reduce the chance of spreading COVID-19 by 70%. A sergeant shown in both ads puts on a mask showing the American flag.
“The more we wear masks, the sooner this is going to end, the sooner we can return to normal. Whether we wear masks is going to have a direct effect,” Robert Gordon, director of the state Department of Health and Human Services, said in an interview. “We want to speak to folks who are skeptical in a way that’s respectful, that honors their perspective and says, ‘Yes, freedom’s important. But wearing masks protects freedom and gets us close to day when this is over.'”
The ads are based on a survey of about 2,000 residents and are being funded with federal virus relief aid.
The goal, Gordon said, is to “reinforce in a hopeful way” the importance of social distancing and wearing a face covering even if it is a burden. The ad campaign is separate from one, known as “Rona,” that targets young adults and is funded primarily by businesses.
“This campaign is geared toward all Michiganders,” he said.
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order requires face coverings in enclosed public spaces and crowded outdoor places where distancing cannot be consistently maintained. Masks also are mandated in many organized sports.
In defiance of Nevada governor, Trump holds indoor rally
2:12 PM CT on 9/14/20
(AP) In open defiance of state regulations and his own administration’s pandemic health guidelines, President Donald Trump hosted his first indoor rally since June, telling a packed, nearly mask-less Nevada crowd that the nation was “making the last turn” in defeating the virus.
Eager to project a sense of normalcy in imagery, Trump soaked up the raucous cheers inside a warehouse Sunday night. Relatively few in the crowd wore masks, with a clear exception: Those in the stands directly behind Trump, whose images would end up on TV, were mandated to wear face coverings.
Not since a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was blamed for a surge of coronavirus infections has he gathered supporters indoors.
“We are not shutting the country again. A shutdown would destroy the lives and dreams of millions of Americans,” said Trump, before using his inflammatory moniker for the coronavirus. “We will very easily defeat the China virus.”
He didn’t mention the pandemic’s death toll — it’s killed nearly 200,000 Americans and is still claiming about 1,000 lives a day.
The rally in Tulsa, which was his first in three months after the coronavirus reached American shores, was a disaster for the campaign, a debacle that featured a sea of empty seats and a rise in COVID-19 cases, including on his own staff. One prominent Trump supporter at the rally, businessman and former presidential candidate Herman Cain, died of COVID-19 weeks later, though it was not clear if he contracted the virus in Tulsa.
Recognizing that many supporters were uncomfortable to gather in a large group indoors, where the virus spreads more easily, the Trump campaign shifted to holding smaller, outdoor rallies, usually at airplane hangers. But those rallies have grown in size in recent weeks, with little social distancing and few masks.
And on Sunday, they returned indoors, in part as a nod to the Las Vegas-area heat. Temperature checks were given to all upon entrance at the industrial site in Henderson and while masks were encouraged, few wore them.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, has limited in-person gatherings indoors and outdoors to 50 people since May, a recommendation based on White House reopening guidelines. In a statement released just before the rally began, Sisolak said Trump was “taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada.”
“To put it bluntly: he didn’t have the guts to make tough choices,” Sisolak said of Trump’s handling of the virus. “He left that to governors and the states. Now he’s decided he doesn’t have to respect our State’s laws. As usual, he doesn’t believe the rules apply to him.”
The city of Henderson informed Xtreme Manufacturing on Sunday that the event as planned was in direct violation of the governor’s COVID-19 emergency directives and that penalties would follow.
The Trump campaign pushed back against the restrictions with the president saying he would support those in attendance “if the governor came after you.”
Anti-inflammatory drug may shorten COVID-19 recovery time
11:55 AM CT on 9/14/20
(AP) A drug company says that adding an anti-inflammatory medicine to a drug already widely used for hospitalized COVID-19 patients shortens their time to recovery by an additional day.
Eli Lilly announced the results Monday from a 1,000-person study sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The results have not yet been published or reviewed by independent scientists.
The study tested baricitinib, a pill that Indianapolis-based Lilly already sells as Olumiant to treat rheumatoid arthritis, the less common form of arthritis that occurs when a mistaken or overreacting immune system attacks joints, causing inflammation. An overactive immune system also can lead to serious problems in coronavirus patients.
All study participants received remdesivir, a Gilead Sciences drug previously shown to reduce the time to recovery, defined as being well enough to leave the hospital, by four days on average. Those who also were given baricitinib recovered one day sooner than those given remdesivir alone, Lilly said.
Lilly said it planned to discuss with regulators the possible emergency use of baricitinib for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
It would be important to know how many study participants also received steroid drugs, which have been shown in other research to lower the risk of death for severely ill, hospitalized COVID-19 patients, said Dr. Jesse Goodman, former U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief scientist now at Georgetown University who had no role in the study.
Figuring out how to best use the various drugs shown to help “is something we’re going to have to work at,” he said.
Indonesia's capital under virus order, hospitals nearly full
9:40 AM CT on 9/14/20
(AP) Main streets were less crowded as Indonesia’s capital began two weeks of social restrictions Monday to curb a rise of coronavirus infections that has pushed its critical-care hospital capacity to unsafe levels.
Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan announced the restrictions Sunday, to last from Monday to Sept. 27, in what he described as an emergency decision to control a rapid expansion in coronavirus cases in Jakarta.
Social, economic, religious, cultural and academic activities will be restricted, with 11 essential sectors, like food, construction and banking, allowed to operate with health protocols and 50% of usual staffing levels.
Schools, parks, recreation sites and wedding reception venues must close entirely. Restaurants and cafes are limited to takeaway and delivery service. Shopping centers must limit the number of visitors and their hours. Only religious places at residential areas are able to open.
Jakarta previously imposed large-scale social restrictions from April to June, then eased them gradually with businesses reopening and using health protocols.
But the virus has spread significantly since June, and medical facilities are filling with sick patients. Seven of 67 COVID-19 referral hospitals in Jakarta are 100% occupied, while 46 are more than 60% occupied.
Baswedan said last week the hospital capacity for isolation and intensive-care rooms has exceeded the safe limit and is estimated to reach the maximum capacity on Thursday, after which Jakarta health facilities will collapse.
“From the death rate, the use of isolation beds, the use of the special ICU for COVID-19 shows that the outbreak situation in Jakarta is in an emergency situation,” he added.
Indonesia’s virus task force said more than 54,000 of the nation’s 218,000 cases of COVID-19 are in Jakarta. The city also has recorded 1,391 deaths of the nation’s toll of 8,723.
Nebraska loosens COVID-19 restrictions
8:37 PM CT on 9/13/2020
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts’ move to loosen COVID-19 restrictions across most of the state takes place this week.
Outdoor venues can operate at 100% occupancy while indoor venues can increase to 75% capacity.
Ricketts considers large events to be 500 or more people.
Those large-scale events will still need approval from their local health director.
State officials said they made the decision based on the availability of hospital beds and ventilators, in keeping with the Republican governor’s goal of not overwhelming medical facilities.
“The goal has always been to protect hospital capacity, and capacity remains stable,” said Ricketts spokesman Taylor Gage.
Nebraska’s hospitals have 36% of their regular beds, 31% of their intensive care unit beds and 81% of their ventilators available, according to the state’s online tracking portal. Those numbers have changed little in the last few months.
Birx ‘very encouraged’ by COVID-19 trends in Mid-South
6:08 PM CT on 9/13/2020
(WMC5) A top member of the White House Coronavirus task force visited the Mid-South this weekend and recognized progress the region is making in the fight against COVID-19.
“We have eyes on every city, every county, every town in every state in America and our territories, and we’re tracking that very closely,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, said.
Birx says while the battle against COVID-19 is not over, she’s “very encouraged” with how far the Mid-South has come.
She says Mississippi in particular has come a long way since her last visit several weeks ago and that social distancing and mask mandates are working.
“We see the trend lines in every county look quite good. You went from almost 60-plus red counties down to 23,” Birx said. “The numbers are important to us, but the trends are important to us also.”
Coronavirus pandemic takes harsh toll on young adults’ mental health, poll finds
3:21 PM CT on 9/13/2020
(AP) The coronavirus pandemic has taken a harsh toll on the mental health of young Americans, according to a new poll that finds adults under 35 especially likely to report negative feelings or experience physical or emotional symptoms associated with stress and anxiety.
A majority of Americans ages 18 through 34 — 56% — say they have at least sometimes felt isolated in the past month, compared with about 4 in 10 older Americans, according to the latest COVID Response Tracking Study conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. Twenty-five percent of young adults rate their mental health as fair or poor, compared with 13% of older adults, while 56% of older adults say their mental health is excellent or very good, compared with just 39% of young adults.
The study found that younger Americans also consistently show higher rates of psychosomatic symptoms, like having trouble sleeping, getting headaches or crying, compared to other age groups. The likelihood of experiencing such symptoms decreases with age.
The survey found 67% of young adults, but just 50% of those older, say they have at least sometimes felt that they were unable to control the important things in life. And 55% of 18 to 34 year olds say they have felt difficulties piling up too high to overcome, compared with 33% of older adults.
Federal regulators have issued only modest fines at U.S. meat plants
11:48 AM CT on 9/13/2020
(Washington Post) More than 200 meat plant workers in the U.S. have died of covid-19. Federal regulators just issued two modest fines, the Washington Post reports.
Federal regulators took six months to issue citations to two plants, despite knowing that dozens of the nation’s meat plants had become coronavirus hot spots this spring.
The fines leveled against a Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota and a JBS plant in Colorado last week total about $29,000.
Meat plant workers, union leaders and worker safety groups told the Washington Post that they were outraged that the two plants, with some of the most severe outbreaks in the nation, were only cited for a total of three safety violations and that hundreds of other meat plants have faced no fines.
S.C. public health officials roll out vaccine system upgrade
9:31 AM CT on 9/13/20202
(AP) As officials make plans for the future dissemination of a coronavirus vaccine, South Carolina’s public health department is rolling out a new network to help manage all of the state’s vaccine-related information.
In a release Sunday, the Department of Health and Environmental Control said that the Statewide Immunization Online Network would help immunization providers keep track of inventory and give state officials the ability to address coverage rates. Officials said the system would also provide patient reminders and a portal where patients can access their immunization records.
Interim public health director Dr. Brannon Traxler said the upgrade comes at a good time, given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, public health officials announced that a plan was in the works for distributing a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available, to prioritize high-risk individuals, frontline health care workers and critical infrastructure employees when limited doses of the vaccine first arrive.
Officials also stressed that there is no confirmed date for when such a vaccine will be available to the general public.
As of Saturday, state public health officials had reported more than 127,600 confirmed positive tests for coronavirus in South Carolina, and at least 2,891 deaths attributable to COVID-19.
Missouri has topped 100,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus
8:30 PM CT on 9/12/20
(AP) The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ coronavirus dashboard cited 1,974 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 101,134. The true number is likely much higher since many people with the virus go undiagnosed.
The state also added three new deaths. All told, 1,704 Missourians have died from COVID-19.
The number of cases in the state is growing at a rate faster than most places. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that over the seven-day period of Sept. 4-10, Missouri saw the nation’s sixth-highest number of new cases.
In other state news:
Arizona Department of Health Services officials on Saturday reported more than 600 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases and 27 additional deaths as the state’s coronavirus outbreak continues to slow. Nevada health officials on Saturday reported 414 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases and 10 additional deaths, increasing the statewide totals to 73,220 cases and 1,439 deaths. Health officials in Michigan are strongly recommending Michigan State University students living on or near the school’s East Lansing campus self-quarantine because of an outbreak of the coronavirus. Kentucky 'front line hero' dies of virus
6:23 PM CT on 9/12/20
(AP) A prominent Kentucky infectious disease specialist who was hailed by the governor as a “front line hero” has died after a nearly four-month battle against COVID-19.
Dr. Rebecca Shadowen, who tested positive for the virus on May 13, died on Friday night, Med Center Health in Bowling Green said. Gov. Andy Beshear tweeted Saturday that he was “heartbroken” to hear of her death and urged people to follow her advice and “wear a mask in her honor.”
Connie Smith, president and CEO of Med Center Health, said Shadowen “will forever be remembered as a nationally recognized expert who provided the very best care for our patients and community. She was a dear friend to many.”
Before contracting the virus, Shadowen led Med Center Health’s work in National Institute of Health trials of patients’ treatment for the virus, according to media reports.
Shadowen had said she believed she contracted the virus after an elderly family member received care at home from an infected caregiver.
“COVID-19 does not discriminate in its ability to penetrate our homes and communities,” Shadowen said when announcing in the spring that she had tested positive for the virus.
While battling the virus, she surprised members of the Bowling Green–Warren County Coronavirus Workgroup by joining in a conference call, telling the group: “It’s a great day to be alive.” She stressed the importance of wearing a mask in public.
In his social media tribute Saturday, Beshear referred to Shadowen as a “front line hero who worked tirelessly to protect the lives of others.”
Harshmallow: Virus prompts pause for Peeps holiday treats
3:23 PM CT on 9/12/20
(AP) Peeps treats are going on hiatus for several months — another consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.
Just Born Quality Confections said it won’t be producing the popular marshmallow sweets for Halloween, Christmas or Valentine’s Day as the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based company prepares for next Easter, PennLive.com reports.
Production of the holiday-shaped candies was suspended in the spring as the coronavirus spread across the state. Limited production resumed in mid-May with protocols in place to protect employees, Just Born said.
“This situation resulted in us having to make the difficult decision to forego production of our seasonal candies for Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day in order to focus on meeting the expected overwhelming demand for Peeps for next Easter season, as well as our everyday candies,” the company said.
For confectioners, Easter is one of their biggest and busiest times of the year as children — and adults — use the holiday as an excuse to indulge in candy eggs and chocolate bunnies.
Just Born, which has been in business since 1923, said its other seasonal confections are expected to return to store shelves by Halloween 2021.
Minnesota reports 929 new COVID-19 cases, 9 deaths
2:09 PM CT on 9/12/20
(AP) Minnesota heath officials reported 929 positive COVID-19 tests and nine additional deaths on Saturday.
The newly reported positive cases bring the statewide to 83,588. Health officials said 9,077 health care workers have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began.
More than 76,600 people were marked as no longer needing isolation.
Minnesota’s death toll from the coronavirus was 1,906 on Saturday. Officials report that 1,389 of deaths have been among residents of long-term care or assisted living facilities.
A total of 6,899 people have required hospitalization. Of those, 247 remain in those facilities, with 140 in intensive care.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
Dakotas lead US in virus growth as both reject mask rules
12:01 PM CT on 9/12/20
(AP) Coronavirus infections in the Dakotas are growing faster than anywhere else in the nation, fueling impassioned debates over masks and personal freedom after months in which the two states avoided the worst of the pandemic.
The argument over masks raged this week in Brookings, South Dakota, as the city council considered requiring face coverings in businesses. The city was forced to move its meeting to a local arena to accommodate intense interest, with many citizens speaking against it, before the mask requirement ultimately passed.
Amid the brute force of the pandemic, health experts warn that the infections must be contained before care systems are overwhelmed. North Dakota and South Dakota lead the country in new cases per capita over the last two weeks, ranking first and second respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.
The states have also posted some of the country’s highest positivity rates for COVID-19 tests in the last week — nearly 22 percent in North Dakota — an indication that there are more infections than tests are catching.
Infections have been spurred by schools and universities reopening and mass gatherings like the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which drew hundreds of thousands of people from across the country.
“It is not a surprise that South Dakota has one of the highest (COVID-19) reproduction rates in the country,” Brookings City Council member Nick Wendell said as he commented on the many people who forgo masks in public.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem have resisted mask requirements. Burgum promotes personal choice but tried to encourage masks with a social media campaign. Noem has discouraged mask requirements, saying she doubts a broad consensus in the medical community that they help prevent infections.
Texas reports nearly 3,500 new virus cases
9:52 AM CT on 9/12/20
(AP) The Texas Department of State Health Services reported 3,488 new coronavirus cases Friday and 144 deaths.
That brought the total confirmed cases to 653,356 and nearly 14,000 confirmed deaths, state health official say. However, 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.
Health officials estimated 71,292 cases are now active, with 3,475 requiring hospitalization. The number of hospitalizations has been decreasing since peaking in July at 10,893.
New Mexico rolls out new supplemental unemployment benefit
8:24 PM CT on 9/11/20
(AP) New Mexico labor officials say they have started paying out supplemental federal unemployment benefits of $300 a week.
The Workforce Solutions Department announced Friday that it has begun processing supplemental benefits for the five week period starting on July 26. That is when a larger $600 weekly federal supplement to unemployment benefits expired.
Recipients for the new payments must already qualify for state unemployment benefits of at least $100 a week. They could receive up to $1,500 in a separate payment from standard benefits.
New Mexico was among the first state’s to receive approval for the new unemployment benefits channeled through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Since March 15, the state Workforce Solutions Department has paid out more than $2 billion in assistance to more than 200,000 residents.
The statewide unemployment rate surged to 12.7% in July — a rate surpassed in just seven other states, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The tourism, hospitality, arts and energy sectors have been especially hard hit.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has taken an aggressive approach to reducing COVID-19 infections and positivity rates in testing with an active health order that mandates masks in public, limited occupancy at most businesses, a 10-person cap on public gatherings and quarantine provisions for travelers arriving from most states.
More than 26,500 people have tested positive for COVID-19 statewide since the start of the pandemic, with 818 related deaths as of Friday.
Out of 137 newly confirmed cases on Friday, 40 were in rural Chavez County where the return to classroom learning is on hold because of high positivity rates for the coronavirus.
Two new virus deaths included a woman in her 30s in Lea County with prior underlying health conditions who died after being hospitalized.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some — especially older adults and people with existing health problems — it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
UN General Assembly adopts pandemic resolution
6:31 PM CT on 9/11/20
(AP) The U.N. General Assembly has overwhelmingly approved a resolution on tackling the coronavirus pandemic over objections from the United States and Israel, which protested a successful last-minute Cuban amendment that strongly urges countries to oppose unilateral economic, financial or trade sanctions.
The world body adopted the resolution Friday by a vote of 169-2. It was a strong show of unity by the U.N.’s most representative body in addressing the coronavirus, though many countries had hoped for adoption by consensus.
The resolution is not legally binding. It “calls for intensified international cooperation and solidarity to contain, mitigate and overcome the pandemic” and it urges member states “to enable all countries to have unhindered timely access to quality, safe, efficacious and affordable diagnosis, therapeutics, medicines and vaccines.”
Study finds kids infected at day care spread virus at home
4:18 PM CT on 9/11/20
(AP) Children who caught the coronavirus at day cares and a day camp spread it to their relatives, according to a new report that underscores that kids can bring the germ home and infect others.
Scientists already know children can spread the virus. But the study published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “definitively indicates — in a way that previous studies have struggled to do — the potential for transmission to family members,” said William Hanage, a Harvard University infectious diseases researcher.
The findings don’t mean that schools and child-care programs need to close, but it does confirm that the virus can spread within those places and then be brought home by kids. So, masks, disinfection and social distancing are needed. And people who work in such facilities have to be careful and get tested if they think they may be infected, experts said.
Earlier research from the U.S., China and Europe has found that children are less likely than adults to be infected by the virus and are less likely to become seriously ill when they do get sick.
There also was data suggesting that young children don’t spread the virus very often, though older kids are believed to spread it as easily as adults.
In the new study, researchers from Utah and the CDC focused on three outbreaks in Salt Lake City child care facilities between April and July. Two were child-care programs for toddlers, and the other was a camp for older kids. The average age of kids at all three programs was about 7.
At two of the facilities, investigators were able to establish that an infected adult worker unknowingly introduced the virus.
The study concluded 12 children caught the coronavirus at the facilities, and spread it to at least 12 of the 46 parents or siblings that they came in contact with at home. Three of the infected children had no symptoms, and one of them spread it to a parent who was later hospitalized because of COVID-19, the researchers said.
That kind of rate of spread — about 25% — is on par with studies of spread in households that have included both children and adults. It also shows that children with no symptoms, or very mild symptoms, can spread the infection, just like adults can.
Hanage cautioned that it’s not clear whether the findings at the three programs are broadly applicable. Also, the study didn’t involve genetic analysis of individual infections that might have given a clearer picture of how the disease spread.
But many infected kids experience mild illnesses and testing of children has been very limited, so it’s likely that more than 25% of the outside contacts were infected, Hanage added.
The epidemic could get worse and more complicated this fall, said Dr. David Kimberlin, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“This should be another wake up call to all of us that we need to be diligent and all do our part,” he said.
Daily U.S. virus deaths decline, but trend may reverse in fall
2:03 PM CT on 9/11/20
(AP) The number of daily U.S. deaths from the coronavirus is declining again after peaking in early August, but scientists warn that a new bout with the disease this fall could claim more lives.
The arrival of cooler weather and the likelihood of more indoor gatherings will add to the importance of everyday safety precautions, experts say.
“We have to change the way we live until we have a vaccine,” said Ali Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. In other words: Wear a mask. Stay home. Wash your hands.
The U.S. has seen two distinct peaks in daily deaths. The nation’s summertime surge crested at about half the size of the first deadly wave in April.
Deaths first peaked on April 24 at an average of 2,240 each day as the disease romped through the dense cities of the Northeast. Then, over the summer, outbreaks in Texas, California and Florida drove daily deaths to a second peak of 1,138 on Aug. 1.
Some states — Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada and California — suffered more deaths during the summer wave than during their first milder run-in with the virus in the spring. Others — Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Colorado — definitely saw two spikes in infections but suffered fewer deaths the second time around.
Now about 700 Americans are dying of the virus each day. That’s down about 25% from two weeks ago but still not low enough to match the early July low of about 500 daily deaths, according to an Associated Press analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The number of people being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals in the summertime hot spots of Florida and Texas has been on a steady downward trend since July.
In Florida, the number of COVID-19 patients Thursday morning was less than 3,000 after peaking at more than 9,500 on July 23. Two weeks later, the state reached its highest seven-day average in daily reported deaths.
In Texas, about 3,500 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Thursday, a measure that’s been improving since peaking July 22 at 10,893.
Worryingly, a dozen states are bucking the national downward trend. Iowa, North Carolina, West Virginia and Kansas are among states still seeing increases in daily deaths, although none is anywhere near the death rates seen in the spring in the Northeast. Back then, the virus caught New York off guard and claimed 1,000 lives per day in that state alone, or five deaths per 100,000 people.
“Often, it’s hard to understand the trends when looking at the whole country,” said Alison Hill, an infectious disease researcher at Harvard University. She noted that daily deaths are still rising in some metro areas, including Memphis, Sacramento, San Francisco and San Jose.
“We’re at a really critical point right now,” Hill said. “Schools are reopening. The weather is getting colder, driving people indoors. All those things don’t bode particularly well.”
Poll: Pandemic takes toll on mental health of young adults
11:50 AM CT on 9/11/20
(AP) The coronavirus pandemic has taken a harsh toll on the mental health of young Americans, according to a new poll that finds adults under 35 especially likely to report negative feelings or experience physical or emotional symptoms associated with stress and anxiety.
A majority of Americans ages 18 through 34 — 56% — say they have at least sometimes felt isolated in the past month, compared with about 4 in 10 older Americans, according to the latest COVID Response Tracking Study conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. Twenty-five percent of young adults rate their mental health as fair or poor, compared with 13% of older adults, while 56% of older adults say their mental health is excellent or very good, compared with just 39% of young adults.
In the midst of the pandemic, young adults are navigating life transitions such as starting college and finding jobs, all without being able to experience normal social activities that might be especially essential for people who are less likely to have already married and started their own families. Some young people are just beginning their adult lives amid a recession, and older members of the group are already experiencing their second.
Christina Torres, 32, a middle school teacher in Honolulu, had to postpone her June wedding and was not able to travel to her grandmother’s funeral in California because of the pandemic. She misses being able to deal with stress by going to the gym and getting together with friends.
“And so it’s hard to not feel really hopeless sometimes, especially because the numbers keep going up,” she said.
The study found that younger Americans also consistently show higher rates of psychosomatic symptoms, like having trouble sleeping, getting headaches or crying, compared to other age groups. The likelihood of experiencing such symptoms decreases with age.
One possible explanation for the age gap could be that young adults have less experience dealing with a public health crisis, said Tom Smith, who has directed NORC’s General Social Survey since 1980. Smith, 71, says he grew up being told not to play in the dirt because of the risk of contracting polio.
“This experience facing a pandemic is completely new for most younger adults,” he said.
India adds 96K virus cases, orders some retests
9:27 AM CT on 9/11/20
India edged closer to recording nearly 100,000 coronavirus cases in 24 hours as it ordered retesting of many people whose first results were from the less reliable rapid antigen tests being widely used.
There were a total of 96,551 confirmed cases, taking the tally to over 4.56 million. The Health Ministry on Friday also reported another 1,209 deaths for a total of 76,271.
India has the second-highest caseload behind the United States, where more than 6.39 million people have been confirmed as infected.
The Health Ministry has asked states to allow testing on demand without a doctor’s prescription. It also said some negative rapid antigen tests should be redone through the more reliable RT-PCR method, the gold standard of coronavirus tests that looks for the genetic code of the virus.
The retesting order applied to people who had negative results but had fever, coughing or breathlessness, or those who developed the COVID-19 symptoms within three days of their negative test results.
The order was meant to ensure that infected people did not go undetected and to help check the spread the disease among their contacts.
Using the rapid antigen, or viral protein, tests has allowed India to dramatically increase its testing capacity to more than 1.1 million a day, but the quicker, cheaper test is less reliable and retesting is often recommended.
The directive came as 60% of India’s cases have been reported from only five of the country’s 28 states. However, experts caution that India’s outbreak is entering a more dangerous phase as the virus spreads to smaller towns and villages.
With the economy contracting by a record 23.9% in the April-June quarter leaving millions jobless, the Indian government is continuing with relaxing lockdown restrictions that were imposed in late March.
Trump revels in packed Michigan crowd amid book fallout
8:40 PM CT on 9/10/20
(AP) Reeling from another crisis of his own making, President Donald Trump tried to refocus attention on his Democratic rival at a rally in battleground Michigan Thursday as he pushed to move past revelations that he purposefully played down the danger of the coronavirus last winter.
But the virus controversy followed him as he faced new pushback from local officials worried about the growing size of his rallies and his campaign’s repeated flouting of public health guidelines intended to halt the COVID-19 spread. That includes Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who raised alarms about Thursday’s event, warning it would make recovery harder.
Trump, however, reveled in the crowd of several thousand, packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a cavernous airport hangar, mostly without masks — with Air Force One on display as his backdrop.
“This is not the crowd of a person who comes in second place,” Trump declared to cheers as he railed against Whitmer for current state restrictions.
“Tell your governor to open up your state!” he demanded, saying Michigan would be better if it “had a governor who knew what the hell she was doing.”
Before departing the White House, Trump denied he had lied to the nation as he continued to grapple with fallout from a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward. In a series of interviews with Woodward, the president spoke frankly about the dangers posed by the virus — even as he downplayed them publicly — and admitted he had tried to mislead the public.
US will end current health screening of some travelers
6:20 PM CT on 9/10/20
(AP) The United States plans to end enhanced health screening of travelers from certain countries next week, and those visitors will no longer be funneled through 15 large U.S. airports.
Those requirements were imposed in January to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the government will remove those edicts beginning Monday.
The CDC said the current screening, which includes temperature checks and questioning travelers about COVID-19 symptoms, “has limited effectiveness” because some infected people have no symptoms or only minor ones. Travelers go through customs only after the health screening.
The health agency said that of the 675,000 travelers who went through the process, fewer than 15 were found to have COVID-19 because of the extra screening.
The health agency said that instead it will focus on other measures, including a stronger response to reports of illness at airports, collecting passenger-contact electronically to avoid long lines, and “potential testing to reduce the risk of travel-related transmission” of the virus.
The extra health screening applies to people who have been in China, Iran, most countries in continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil. Most people coming from those countries who aren’t U.S. citizens have been barred entry to the country.
U.K.'s 'Moonshot' mass virus test plan met with skepticism
4:20 PM CT on 9/10/20
(AP) Health experts on Thursday expressed strong skepticism about the British government’s ambitious plans to carry out millions of coronavirus tests daily in a bid to help people resume normal lives in the absence of a vaccine.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday he wanted to roll out much simpler, faster mass testing “in the near future” to identify people who don’t have the virus so that they can “behave in a more normal way in the knowledge they can’t infect anyone else.” Johnson said people with such negative “passports” could then attend events at places like theaters, and he said he was “hopeful” that the plan will be widespread by springtime.
Health professionals were quick to question the mass testing claims, with one expert calling the strategy — known as “Operation Moonshot” — “fundamentally flawed.”
“It is being based on technology that does not, as yet, exist,” said Dr. David Strain, clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter. Johnson’s suggestion of new tests that can give rapid results like a pregnancy test is “unlikely if not impossible” by the spring, he said, and the technology is far from reliable.
“Existing technology has been demonstrated to miss up to one-third of people who have COVID-19 in early disease. After a second test 48 hours later, we still miss over a quarter of people,” he said.
Dr. Chaand Nagpaul, council chairman of the British Medical Association, echoed the concerns, particularly given the problems Britain is already experiencing with laboratory capacity to process tests.
“The notion of opening up society based on negative tests of those without symptoms needs to be approached with caution — both because of the high rate of ‘false negatives’ and the potential to miss those who are incubating the virus,” he said.
Jonathan Ashworth, the opposition Labour party’s health spokesman, said Thursday that many are “fed up of undelivered promises.” In response, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he’s “absolutely determined that we will get there.”
Officials say Britain currently has the capacity to process about 370,000 tests a day, and aim to ramp this up to 500,000 daily by the end of October. Government data show that about 176,000 tests are actually processed each day.
Vaccine trial stopped after neurological symptoms detected
2:03 PM CT on 9/10/20
(AP) A woman who received an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed severe neurological symptoms that prompted a pause in testing, a spokesman for drugmaker AstraZeneca said Thursday.
The study participant in late-stage testing reported symptoms consistent with transverse myelitis, a rare inflammation of the spinal cord, said company spokesman Matthew Kent.
“We don’t know if it is (transverse myelitis),” Kent said. “More tests are being done now as part of the follow-up.”
On Tuesday, AstraZeneca said its “standard review process triggered a pause to vaccination to allow review of safety data.” It did not provide any details other than to say a single participant had an “unexplained illness.” The vaccine was initially developed by Oxford University after the coronavirus pandemic began this year.
Kent said an independent committee was reviewing the study’s safety data before deciding if and when the research could continue.
The study was previously stopped in July for several days after a participant who got the vaccine developed neurological symptoms; it turned out to be an undiagnosed case of multiple sclerosis that was unrelated to the vaccine.
Late last month, AstraZeneca began recruiting 30,000 people in the U.S. for its largest study of the vaccine. It also is testing the vaccine in thousands of people in Britain, and in smaller studies in Brazil and South Africa. Several other COVID-19 vaccine candidates are in development.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, said the U.N. health agency wasn’t overly concerned by the pause in the Oxford and AstraZeneca vaccine trial, describing it as “a wake-up call” to the global community about the inevitable ups and downs of medical research.
Temporary holds of large medical studies aren’t unusual, and investigating any serious or unexpected reaction is a mandatory part of safety testing. AstraZeneca pointed out that it’s possible the problem could be a coincidence; illnesses of all sorts could arise in studies of thousands of people.
N.Y. eases restrictions on visits at assisted-living homes
11:55 AM CT on 9/10/20
(AP) New York is now allowing visitors to see loved ones at assisted living homes that are COVID-free for 14 days, up from 28 days under previous guidance.
Family members and friends of residents at the state’s nursing homes and assisted living home
