- U.S.Yahoo News
Birx warns of coming coronavirus hot spots across the U.S.
Louisiana is poised to become the next epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, White House officials said Thursday, citing new data that shows that 26 percent of the tests for COVID-19 in that state in recent days have come back positive. The New York area remains a “very clear and important hot zone,” Dr. Deborah Birx said at Thursday's briefing of the White House coronavirus task force as she revealed testing statistics on specific states. “What we're seeing finally is testing improving,” said Birx, a renowned veteran of the HIV/AIDS fight who is now serving as the response coordinator for the coronavirus task force.
- U.S.Yahoo News
Coronavirus poses special risk to millions of Americans with diabetes
As the worsening coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the country, millions of Americans living with diabetes face heightened risks from COVID-19. Around 30 million Americans have diabetes, mostly of the type II (previously called “adult-onset”) variety. A quarter of U.S. adults with diabetes are over 65, an age that has been shown to delineate increased COVID-19 mortality rates.
- WorldNational Review
Provincial Communist Party Officials Are Concealing Extent of Coronavirus Outbreak from Beijing, According to U.S. Intelligence
The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that the Chinese government does not know the full extent of the coronavirus outbreak within the country, the New York Times reported on Thursday. China's government has encountered difficulties collecting accurate data on the spread of the coronavirus because mid-level bureaucrats in Wuhan and elsewhere in China have been lying about the number of cases, current and former intelligence officials told the Times. Local administration officials in China fear that their superiors will punish and even fire them if they report high numbers of cases.
- U.S.INSIDER
A California ER nurse told her family that if she gets COVID-19 she doesn't want a ventilator and to give it to someone else who needs it more
An emergency room nurse told Insider she wouldn't take a ventilator if she were to be infected with coronavirus and to save it for others who may need it more. An emergency room nurse working in Southern California told Insider, the pandemic had forced her to have some difficult conversations with her family. Paige, who asked to conceal her last name said while she's found it too difficult to have the conversation with her 86-year-old father, she's discussed how she wants her family to deal with her death if she were to be infected and die from the coronavirus with her sisters.
- U.S.Reuters
Airline refutes Mexican authority's account of spring break coronavirus outbreak
College students from Texas who tested positive for the novel coronavirus after spring break in Los Cabos traveled to the Mexican beach resort on Viva Aerobus, the airline said, and were there a week later than reported by the local tourist board. At least part of the Texas group stayed at the luxury Pueblo Bonito Los Cabos hotel, two people familiar with the arrangements told Reuters. So far 49 students among the group from University of Texas at Austin have tested positive for the coronavirus upon their return to the United States, according to the university.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Coronavirus and Hunter Biden: Congressional investigators prepare for war over 2020 election
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the United States, it has, for the moment, brought the partisan investigations taking shape on Capitol Hill that could swing the balance of the 2020 election to a screeching halt. Absent a vote from his Senate Homeland Security Committee, Chairman Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, can't issue a subpoena for Hunter Biden or any of his former associates at Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. In the House, Democratic chairmen and chairwomen can't call administration officials to testify before empty hearing rooms about the government's highly criticised response to the health crisis.
WorldAFPIsrael sends army to ultra-Orthodox city over coronavirus
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday gave the green light for soldiers to be deployed in a mostly ultra-Orthodox Jewish city considered the centre of Israel's novel coronavirus outbreak. "In light of the special situation in Bnei Brak following the restrictions due to the coronavirus, the IDF (army) will immediately present the necessary civil assistance to Bnei Brak municipality in fulfilling its responsibilities," Netanyahu's office said after talks with security and health officials. Authorities have enforced restrictions on access to Bnei Brak, a majority ultra-Orthodox city near Tel Aviv that is home to around 200,000 people.
- HealthNBC News
Stacey Abrams trends after Georgia governor said he didn't know about asymptomatic spread
Stacey Abrams began trending on U.S. Twitter on Thursday after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp admitted having only recently learned that asymptomatic individuals can spread the coronavirus — despite warnings from health experts as early as January. "This virus is now transmitting before people see signs," Kemp said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta, warned as early as Feb. 12 that the coronavirus could be spread by asymptomatic people.
PoliticsYahoo News Video3M pushes back at Trump over order to produce more face masks
Manufacturing giant 3M pushed back Friday against criticism from President Trump over production of face masks that are badly needed by American health care workers.
- BusinessBBC
Coronavirus: BA reaches deal to suspend thousands of workers
British Airways has reached a deal to temporarily suspend more than 30,000 of its cabin crew and ground staff. The airline, which has grounded most of its fleet due to the coronavirus, has been locked in talks with unions for more than a week. Explaining the decision, Mr Cruz said: "We need to act now to protect jobs and ensure that BA comes out the other side of this crisis in the best possible shape."
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
27 Best Home Office Decor Ideas to Keep You in the Zone
Work from home and keep your sanity with these decor ideas that will help Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- U.S.USA TODAY
More than 1,000 in US die in a single day from coronavirus, doubling the worst daily death toll of the flu
The U.S. topped 1,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day for the first time Wednesday, a daily death toll more than double that of two of America's most deadly illnesses – lung cancer and the flu. Death counts from the virus are difficult to keep up to date, but the Johns Hopkins coronavirus database – whose sources include the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the European CDC and the National Health Commission of China – shows that the U.S. hit 1,040 cases Wednesday at 10:25 p.m. EDT. Since the virus' first appearance in the U.S. in late January, 5,116 people have died and more than 215,000 have been infected.
- WorldThe Guardian
Mexico murder rate reaches new high as violence rages amid Covid-19 spread
Photograph: Sergio Maldonado/Reuters Mexico s homicide rate raced to a new record in March, as violence raged even as Covid-19 spread across the country and authorities urged the population to stay home and practise social distancing. Mexico registered 2,585 homicides in March – the highest monthly figure since records began in 1997 – putting 2020 on track to break last year's record total for murders. The surge in killings comes as federal and state officials put resources into containing the Covid-19 crisis and confront the prospect of an already sluggish economy falling even further – potentially deepening the misery for the more than 40% of the population living in poverty.
- U.S.Reuters
Senators urge formal probe of Navy carrier commander's firing over coronavirus plea
A group of prominent Democratic senators formally requested on Friday that the Pentagon's independent Inspector General investigate the Navy's firing of the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, who called for stronger measures to halt a coronavirus outbreak on board. Captain Brett Crozier was relieved of his command on Thursday after his scathing letter was leaked to the media. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland led the push and were joined by 15 other U.S. senators, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
Trump Sent Them to the Coronavirus Front Line but Denied Them Health Care
Thousands of National Guardsmen around the country are in contact with people who've contracted COVID-19. But while the federal government has called on them for frontline assistance in battling the pandemic, it's not giving them what they need to protect themselves: access to the military's health insurance. The approximately 20,000 guardsmen who have been called up to help states around the country deal with the spread of the coronavirus are federalized on what's called Title 32 status, which puts them in command of their various state governors but with the federal government paying costs.
HealthAFPPolitics aside, US relies on China supplies to fight virus
US politicians have voiced fury over Beijing's handling of the coronavirus crisis but they face a harsh truth -- the United States desperately needs China's supplies. China before the crisis produced nearly half of the face masks imported into the United States -- which in normal times cost less than a dollar but have disappeared from shelves amid growing calls for ordinary Americans wear them when outside. As China appears to have contained its own outbreak of SARS-CoV-1, which has infected more than one million people worldwide since first emerging late last year in Wuhan, it is now the first resort for protective gear sought across the world.
- U.S.Business Insider
'Not acceptable': Navy claims it fired the captain dealing with coronavirus outbreak for sending 'blast out' email to at least 20 people with 'unclassified' system
US Navy The Secretary of the Navy offered more details into his decision in relieving the commander of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier dealing with a coronavirus outbreak. Capt. Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt penned a letter to his superiors about the urgent situation aboard his ship, which was dealing with the spread of the coronavirus. "The letter was sent over non-secure, unclassified email even though that ship possesses some of the most sophisticated communications and encryption equipment in the fleet," the Navy Secretary said.
- WorldNBC News
Vietnam lodges protest against Beijing after fishing boat sunk in South China Sea
Vietnam has lodged an official protest with China following the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat it said had been rammed by a Chinese maritime surveillance vessel near islands in the disputed South China Sea. The Vietnamese fishing vessel, with eight fishermen onboard, was fishing near the Paracel Islands on Thursday when it was rammed and sunk by the Chinese vessel, Vietnam's foreign ministry said in a statement posted on a government website on Saturday. All the fishermen were picked up by the Chinese vessel alive and were transferred to two other Vietnamese fishing vessels operating nearby, the Vietnam Fisheries Society said in a statement posted to its website.
- BusinessBBC
Coronavirus: Google reveals travel habits during the pandemic
Google is to publicly track people's movements over the course of the coronavirus pandemic. The tech firm will publish details of the different types of places people are going to on a county-by-county basis in the UK, as well as similar data for 130 other countries. The plan is to issue a regular updates with the figures referring back to activity from two or three days prior.
- U.S.National Review
Republican Senator Calls on ‘Communist’ WHO Director to Resign
Senator Martha McSally on Thursday called on the director of the World Health Organization to step down, saying the organization covered up the extent of the spread of the coronavirus, which originated in China. The Arizona Republican called WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus a “communist” and accused him of helping China conceal its underreporting of coronavirus case numbers. “I've never trusted a communist,” McSally said in an interview with Fox Business.
- BusinessINSIDER
'We're not sacrificial lambs': A nurse describes to us what it's like working on the front line of the coronavirus outbreak and reusing her N95 mask
Healthcare workers across the United States are dealing with an influx of patients due to the novel coronavirus. Hospitals are facing shortages of critical supplies like ventilators and personal protective equipment for workers, yet one nurse volunteered to work on the front lines of the outbreak. Paige, who asked that her full name be concealed, told Insider she's been working with COVID-19 patients in a Southern California hospital.
- U.S.USA TODAY
FISA court orders FBI to review if wiretaps are invalid after errors found during investigation
The secretive court that approves sensitive government surveillance requests said Friday that a lack of confidence in the accuracy of FBI surveillance requests "appears well founded," and ordered the bureau to show whether errors in documents supporting 29 wiretap requests may have rendered the surveillance invalid. The directive from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Judge James Boasberg comes just days after an internal Justice Department review found new problems with the FBI's management of wiretap applications, concluding that the documents supporting the requests routinely contained errors or "inadequately supported facts." A DOJ inspector general's analysis of 29 surveillance requests from eight FBI field offices during the past five years concluded that "we do not have confidence" that the bureau followed standards to ensure their accuracy.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
10 Great Deals on Apparel From REI’s 25% off Sale
Act fast to score discounts on Patagonia, Nike, Smartwool, and more. From Popular Mechanics
BusinessYahoo News VideoBirx: Face masks not a substitute for handwashing, distancing to help prevent coronavirus spread
At a press briefing, Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said the use of face masks should not be a substitute for social distancing and washing hands to prevent contracting the coronavirus.
- U.S.Reuters
Dismissed U.S. carrier captain gets hero's ovation from crew
The captain of a U.S. aircraft carrier relieved of his command after seeking stronger measures in response to a coronavirus outbreak aboard his ship was given a hero's ovation by his crew when he left the vessel, video posted on Twitter showed. The removal of Crozier, first reported by Reuters, was announced by acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who said the captain of the nuclear-powered vessel of 5,000 crew members had exercised poor judgment in the way he "broadly" distributed a letter to superiors.
