It is criminal and the last Flu epidemic...New York was sued. Didn't expect and criminal or lawsuits not to come from Covid-19 and many other states just as problematic. Many states have a healthcare policy problem and Covid-19 exposed the problems that have not been fixed for several decades. wrbtrader
Nearly all the current worse outbreaks are in college towns... These are the 10 worst coronavirus outbreaks in the US right now https://bgr.com/2020/09/03/coronavirus-school-reopenings-top-10-worst-outbreaks/ School reopenings during the coronavirus pandemic have been a disaster, as the latest data on the worst outbreaks in the US from The New York Times shows. According to the New York Times, 9 of the 10 worst outbreaks in the US are in college towns. Auburn University in Alabama is currently experiencing the country’s second-worst outbreak. According to the updated data from The New York Times, the number of daily new COVID-19 cases in the US has stalled out over the last week or so. After peaking in July at around 66,000 cases per day, the infection rate began to decline near the end of the month and throughout much of August, but on August 23rd, the rate plateaued, and it just so happens that K-12 schools, colleges, and universities all began to reopen around that time. We’ve seen outbreaks all over the country, from New York to Iowa to Alabama to California, and you probably won’t be surprised to learn that the parts of the country that are seeing the most significant surges in new cases are mostly college towns. In fact, as Best Life points out, 9 of the 10 cities that are experiencing the worst outbreaks in America have colleges or universities that have reopened and welcomed students back to campus. The New York Times has been keeping track of the metro areas with the greatest number of positive cases relative to their population for quite some time, but the updated list shows just how disastrous school reopenings have been. Of the top 10 metro areas, these 9 are all home to colleges or universities that have reopened: Auburn-Opelika, Alabama Auburn University is one of two major public universities in the state of Alabama, and according to the latest data, it is experiencing the second-worst outbreak in the United States with 7.7 per 1,000 people testing positive in the metro area surrounding the school. Statesboro, Georgia Georgia Southern University makes up a significant portion of the population of Statesboro, and over the last two weeks, 710 have tested positive for COVID-19, which puts the area’s rate just under Auburn’s at 7.4 per 1,000. Ames, Iowa Iowa actually appears on the list twice, with Ames — the home of Iowa State University — outpacing its neighbor to the east by a hair with 1,143 cases in the last two weeks, tying Statesboro, Georgia with a novel coronavirus infection rate of 7.4 per 1,000. Iowa City, Iowa Iowa City, the home of the University of Iowa, had significantly more cases over the past two weeks (1,919) than Ames, but with a much larger population, its rate is slightly lower at 7.2 per 1,000 people. Pullman, Washington Washington state was the epicenter of the pandemic before cases started popping up around the country, but that didn’t stop Washington State University from reopening, and now Pullman has seen 485 new cases over the last two weeks, which is a rate of 6.3 per 1,000. Oxford, Mississippi Mississippi has been making headlines for months as the state has been designing a new flag to replace the one that incorporated the Confederate battle flag. They will vote on a new flag in November. That’s encouraging news, but the bad news is that Oxford, Mississippi, which is where the University of Mississippi is located, has reported 422 COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks, good for a rate of 5.2 per 1,000. Bloomington, Illinois Bloomington, Illinois has been climbing up the list in recent days, reaching the eighth spot 1,197 cases over the last two weeks for a rate of 4.4 per 1,000 as Illinois State University pledges to stay open. Pine Bluff, Arkansas Somehow, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, with a student population of less than 2,600, has helped rocket the city of Pine Bluff, Arkansas into the top ten worst outbreaks in America, with 621 positive tests over the last two weeks, which brings the infection rate to 4.3 per 1,000. Greenville, North Carolina The 28,000+ Pirates of East Carolina University have dragged Greenville, North Carolina into the top ten, with 1,317 new infections over the last two weeks, which is an infection rate of 4.1 per 1,000. Although we only covered the top ten metro areas, the New York Times list shows the twenty worst outbreaks in the US, and several more are in other big college towns, including Stillwater, Oklahoma, and Grand Forks, North Dakota. Whether or not we needed any more evidence that it was virtually impossible to reopen schools without causing new outbreaks, we now have it, and the trend will likely continue in the weeks ahead.
Evidence slowly building for long-term heart problems post-COVID-19 While there are anecdotes aplenty, there's also some solid science behind the worries. https://arstechnica.com/science/202...g-for-long-term-heart-problems-post-covid-19/ Coronaviruses spread primarily through material released when we breathe, and they cause respiratory symptoms. And SARS-CoV-2, with part of its name coming from "severe acute respiratory syndrome," didn't appear to be an exception. But as time went on, additional symptoms became clear—loss of smell, digestive-tract issues—and these weren't likely to be due to infection of the respiratory tract. And over time, what also became apparent is that the symptoms didn't necessarily fade when the virus was cleared. As we've studied the virus more, we've learned that the protein it uses to latch on to cells is present in a lot of different tissues in the body, suggesting that a wide variety of different effects could be the direct product of infections of the cells there. This week, the effect that seems to be grabbing attention is heart problems, spurred by a Scientific American article that (among other things) considers the stories of professional and college athletes who have been infected. That was followed by a report that roughly 30 percent of college athletes who've contracted the virus end up with inflammation of the heart muscle, called myocarditis—a number that ESPN is now saying is an accidental exaggeration. Both reports are heavy on anecdote, but this is not a new thing; ESPN had reported on myocarditis in college athletes back in early August. And, more significantly, the scientific community has been looking into the issue for months. So far, its conclusion is that there are likely to be heart complications, even in patients who had mild COVID-19 symptoms. But the long-term implications of these problems aren't yet clear. Problems for the heart One of the first indications of a potential problem came all the way back in March, courtesy of researchers in Wuhan who had tracked some of the first COVID-19 patients. In their study, roughly 20 percent of a group of 416 hospitalized patients had some indications of cardiac problems. The researchers used a variety of blood tests to look for proteins that normally reside inside cardiac muscle cells but can be released into the blood when those cells get damaged. (For an example of one of the assays the Wuhan researchers used, see this description of the troponin test that's commonly used to check for heart problems.) The researchers only managed to hook 14 of the individuals up to an ECG to check the heart's electrical activity during the period when these assays were suggesting there could be problems. All 14 of them, however, showed abnormal heart rhythms. Although suggestive, that was largely where things stood for a number of months. That changed in July, when a German group reported MRI imaging of a cohort of 100 patients who had been diagnosed as having a SARS-CoV-2 infection. The median age of these patients was just 49 years, meaning they were far younger than the group that's considered to be high risk for COVID-19 complications. And the group had already recovered from the virus (two-thirds without requiring hospitalization), suggesting anything that turned up was due to a lingering problem rather than a direct impact of an ongoing infection. Yet there were still problems. Seventy-one percent of the patients showed signs of heart problems using the protein test linked above. And MRIs frequently showed problems with the heart tissue itself in 78 percent of them, with inflammation being the most common symptom. None of the problems correlated with time since diagnosis, suggesting that these issues might persist for a while after infections were cleared. What’s at fault? While evidence was building of some cardiac involvement, the reasons for the problem were far less clear. Breathing difficulties could cause the heart to work harder, which could exacerbate any underlying conditions. And COVID-19 appears to involve an inflammatory response, which could involve the heart even without the organ being directly infected. But the fact that younger people with mild symptoms also seemed to be having problems makes these explanations less likely. And a study from late July used heart tissue from autopsies of COVID-19 patients to confirm that the virus was detectable in the heart itself. But, on its own, this finding is not particularly informative. The heart is a complex organ that relies on a combination of muscle cells, blood vessels to keep them supplied with nutrients and oxygen, and specialized conductive cells that help coordinate the electrical impulses that drive its beating. Problems with any of those could conceivably produce some of the issues seen here. While details of what the virus might be doing hasn't yet hit the peer-reviewed literature, there is a draft paper that seems to fill in many of the details. To figure out what cells the virus might infect, the researchers directed stem cells to produce cardiac muscle cells, then exposed those to the virus. These could be infected by the virus, although it's relatively easy to infect cells in culture dishes. Still, the researchers identified key signs of the viral infection in these culture cells: alterations in the activity of specific genes, and disruption of some of the muscle structures. They then turned to samples of heart tissue from donors who had died of COVID-19 and used these to show that similar changes had occurred in this heart tissue. Combined, these results indicate that at least some of the issues seen in COVID-19 patients are likely to be the result of the infection of heart muscles by the virus. Too many unknowns So, there's definitely support for the possibility that some of the athletes mentioned in the recent news reports are seeing a direct impact of COVID-19 on heart function. But without the sort of data seen in these studies, establishing a direct connection is impossible at this point. The studies have identified what to look for using blood tests and MRIs; whether these tests have been done isn't clear based on public statements. A lot of follow-up work is needed to understand what's going on in the heart of COVID-19 patients. We still don't know when the cardiac symptoms arise, how long they persist, or what factors might make their occurrence more likely. The fact that they exist at all, however, should inform our management of the pandemic. Some suggested approaches involve allowing otherwise healthy, younger people to be put at elevated risk of infection. If cardiac complications occur at the rates seen in some of these studies, that approach could involve unacceptable risks.
Key model predicts 400,000 coronavirus deaths in US by January https://thehill.com/policy/healthca...ts-400000-coronavirus-deaths-in-us-by-january A key forecasting model often cited by experts and used by the White House has revised its prediction of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., now estimating a peak of 410,451 by Jan. 1. The model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington posted an update Friday predicting an additional 224,000 Americans will die by the beginning of next year. The model says that as many as 122,000 of those deaths could be avoided with safety measures, including near-universal mask use, but it warns that easing restrictions could cause the death toll to be more than 620,000. “We all must learn from those leaders of nations where the virus has been contained, or where second waves of infections have occurred, and where swift action has been taken to prevent loss of life,” IHME Director Christopher Murray said in a statement. Murray warned about governments pursuing herd immunity as a way to expedite the reopening economies. “This first global forecast represents an opportunity to underscore the problem with herd immunity, which, essentially, ignores science and ethics, and allows millions of avoidable deaths,” Murray said. “It is, quite simply, reprehensible.” The IHME model is more aggressive in its predictions than some other models. Their update comes just one day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established a new forecast predicting 211,000 U.S. deaths from COVID-19 by Sept. 26.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/trump-leftover-coronavirus-relief-second-stimulus-check Trump floats using extra $300B in coronavirus relief aid for second stimulus check The first $1,200 cash payments to U.S. households cost about $300 billion
Wait!? What!? But, they said France did such a better job and it just set a record for new cases? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...france-u-k-raise-specter-second-wave-n1239454 Coronavirus spikes in Spain, France and U.K. raise specter of second wave Increases are stoking concerns among doctors and policymakers in countries still reeling from the pandemic’s first surge. PARIS — Cases of the coronavirus are spiking in France, Spain and the United Kingdom even as social distancing restrictions ease, stoking concerns among doctors and policymakers about a “second wave” in countries still reeling from the pandemic’s first wave. France set a record Friday after health authorities reported 8,975 new cases, far higher than the previous record of 7,578, which the was set March 31 at the height of the pandemic.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/09/10/...ess/index.html?__twitter_impression=true&s=15 Adults with Covid-19 about 'twice as likely' to say they have dined at a restaurant, CDC study suggests (CNN)Adults who tested positive for Covid-19 were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant in the 14 days before becoming ill than those who tested negative, according to a new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "In addition to dining at a restaurant, case-patients were more likely to report going to a bar/coffee shop, but only when the analysis was restricted to participants without close contact with persons with known COVID-19 before illness onset," the researchers wrote. The study, published on Thursday, included data on 314 adults who were tested for Covid-19 in July because they were experiencing symptoms; 154 tested positive and 160 tested negative. The tests were administered at 11 different health care facilities across 10 US states: California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah and Washington. The researchers -- from the CDC and other institutions -- took a close look at how those patients responded to questions about wearing masks and various activities in the community, including whether they recently dined at a restaurant, hung out a bar or went to a gym, for instance. Forty-two percent of the adults who tested positive, the data showed, reported having close contact with at least one person known to have Covid-19, compared with 14% of those who tested negative -- and most of the close contacts, 51%, were family members.
Keep in mind we've blown past every other projection by the IHME; 400k dead by year's end and death count will surpass casualties of WWII shortly after. Mr. wartime president/commander in chief is overseeing the unnecessary death of tens if not hundreds of thousands of Americans. Aug 10th data Now 3rd leading cause of death: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/512427-covid-19-now-no-3-cause-of-death-in-us