COVID Stats Snapshot 1-27-21

The Florida Department of Health has reported another 8,408 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday.

Recommended Stories

  • Police chief says militia groups ‘want to blow up’ Capitol building at Biden State of the Union

    US Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman argued to maintain increased law enforcement presence at the Capitol ahead of Joe Biden’s first address to Congress, following warnings from militia groups that she says want to “blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible” in connection with the president’s upcoming State of the Union. “So based on that information, we think that it’s prudent that Capitol Police maintain its enhanced and robust security posture until we address those vulnerabilities going forward,” she said.

  • Boston native who moved to Texas pays it forward to women who helped her during crisis

    Amanda Pensack says she was desperate for food and water until two good Samaritans in Texas came to her rescue.

  • No breakthrough at UK-EU talks, says Northern Ireland's Foster

    There was no breakthrough at a "hugely disappointing" meeting between the European Commission and the British government on Wednesday over post-Brexit trade issues in Northern Ireland, the region's first minister, Arlene Foster, said on Wednesday. The British government is demanding concessions from the European Union to minimise disruption in trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom that have emerged since Britain left the bloc's trading orbit in January.

  • Hyundai to replace EV batteries over fire risk

    Hyundai Motor is set to replace the batteries in some 82,000 electric vehicles over risks they could catch fire. Combined with an earlier recall, the problem looks set to cost the automaker about $900 million. The latest move mainly applies to its best-selling EV, the Kona. It was first recalled in October for a software upgrade after a series of fires. But in January one of the upgraded cars then caught fire, prompting South Korean authorities to probe whether the first recall was adequate. The unit of LG Chem which makes the batteries said Hyundai had misapplied its suggestions regarding battery management. It said the batteries themselves were not the fire risk. There have been 15 cases of fires involving the Kona EV. Most were in South Korea, but there were two in Canada and one each in Finland and Austria. Hyundai Motor shares were down close to 4 percent in afternoon trade on Wednesday (February 24).

  • Experts say Dominion and Smartmatic could win their defamation lawsuits, but MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says they have 'zero' shot

    Trump-backers Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell, and Mike Lindell face defamation lawsuits from Dominion and Smartmatic that may succeed, experts say.

  • Rand Paul Launches Into Transphobic Rant Against Trans Nominee

    REUTERSDr. Rachel Levine, the first transgender person to be nominated for a Senate-confirmed position in the federal government, had been seated in her confirmation hearing to become the nation’s assistant secretary of health for a little less than an hour when she was grilled about “genital mutilation” of minor children by a Republican committee member.“American culture is down normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said on Thursday, likening standards of care for transgender minors to castration and female circumcision and blaming increasing rates of trans-identified youth on “the social pressure to conform and do what others do.”“Do you believe minors are capable of making such a life changing decision of changing one's sex?” Paul asked Levine,In response, Levine thanked Paul for his “interest” in the question of transgender medicine, calling it “a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed” by pediatricians.“If I’m fortunate enough to be confirmed, I will look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office to discuss the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine,” Levine said. Levine, who currently serves as Pennsylvania’s secretary of health, is a pediatrician and former state physician general whose handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Pennsylvania has drawn widespread praise, did not address the substance of the question, or attempt to correct Paul’s apparent misunderstanding of medical transition for transgender youth.Paul, a former self-certified ophthalmologist, repeated his question of whether Levine supported access to hormone blockers and “reconstruction of genitalia” for minors, before relaying the story of Keira Bell, a British citizen who was assigned female at birth before taking puberty blockers and supplemental testosterone as a teenager. Bell, who later de-transitioned when she was an adult, led a court case that effectively blocked transgender children under 16 from medical transition in the United Kingdom. It is not standard medical practice to perform gender confirmation surgery on minors in the United States, and Bell’s surgery was not performed until she was 20.“I’m alarmed that you’re not saying they should be prevented from making decisions to amputate their breasts or genitalia,” Paul said. “We have always said that minors do not have full rights—will you make a more firm decision on whether or not minors should be involved in these decisions?”Levine reiterated that transgender medicine is “a very complex and nuanced field,” as well as her offer to talk with Paul and his staff about the issue, upon which Paul asked the record to show that she refused to answer his question and likened trans men being given testosterone to hydroxychloroquine being used to treat COVID-19.Rachel Levine Picked by Biden for Assistant Health Secretary, Would Be First Ever Transgender Senate Confirmee“We should be outraged that someone is talking to a three-year-old about changing their sex,” Paul said.Levine was later defended by other members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, who called Paul’s line of questioning inappropriate and uninformed.“It is really critical to me that our nominees be treated with respect and that our questions focus on their qualifications,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said, “rather than ideological and harmful misrepresentations.”The LGBTQ Victory Institute, which works to elevate LGBTQ people in politics and government, called Paul’s remarks deeply offensive.“His remarks echo the talking points of the same organizations who said gay men deserved AIDS and that LGBTQ people should be criminalized,” Ruben Gonzales, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “He explicitly attacked vulnerable trans youth for his own perceived political gain and it was a disgrace.”Levine has been the subject of repeated misgendering by Republican lawmakers and staff since her nomination, particularly as the leadup to the Equality Act—set to be passed by the House of Representatives later on Thursday—has prompted opponents to fixate on trans children in school sports as a reason to defeat the legislation.Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), for example, hung an anti-transgender sign in the hallway outside her office on Wednesday in response to another lawmaker’s display of the transgender pride flag. That lawmaker, Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL), has a transgender daughter.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Phone Records Prove House Sergeant-at-Arms DID Ignore Pleas for Backup: Capitol Police Chief

    Erin Schaff/ReutersThe acting chief of the U.S. Capitol Police just came with the receipts.Testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee about the catastrophic breakdown that allowed thousands of MAGA rioters to breach the Capitol, Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman revealed that her predecessor called the House sergeant-at-arms, Paul Irving, at 12:58 p.m. to request the National Guard as rioters breaching the building and forced lawmakers into hiding.Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned after the riot, called Irving again seven minutes later, according to phone records pulled by Pittman—and then called him at least three more times until 1:45 p.m.“When there’s a breakdown you look for those commanders with boots on the ground to provide that instruction,” Pittman said. “That did not happen, primarily because those operational commanders at the time were so overwhelmed, they started to participate and assist the officers… versus providing that guidance and direction.”First Capitol Riot Hearing Only Raised More Questions About Jan. 6The receipts–which support the narrative that a series of unanswered calls, withheld information, and conflicting orders led to complete malfunction—directly contradicted Irving’s testimony.On Tuesday, Sund testified that he asked for National Guard backup just after 1 p.m. But Irving insisted that was wrong. He said he did not remember the conversation with Sund and claimed he didn’t get an official request until “shortly before 1:30 p.m.” Troops were not approved to help overwhelmed officers at the Capitol until 2:10 p.m.“Mr. Irving stated that he was concerned about the ‘optics’ of having the National Guard present and didn’t feel that the intelligence supported it,” Sund said Tuesday. Irving, who resigned in the wake of the riot, said that was “categorically false.”On Tuesday, Irving said that if Sund, Senate sergeant-at-arms Michael Stenger, or any other leaders concluded ahead of Jan. 6 that unarmed National Guardsmen were needed, he “would not have hesitated” to ensure the reinforcement was ready.Pittman’s testimony—and her insistence that Capitol Police did everything possible to contain the insurrection—was just the latest twist in a series of finger-pointing between the top law enforcers in charge of securing the Capitol. During hearings before lawmakers this week, officials have blamed one another for the widespread failures.One failure, Pittman conceded on Thursday, was that nobody in law enforcement knew the mob would be so violent.She told lawmakers that they were prepared for militia groups, white supremacists, and other extremists to be present, but the small organization was not prepared for thousands of “everyday” Americans “who took on a mob mentality.” (Acting D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee revealed on Tuesday that the FBI intel consisted merely of an email sent on Jan. 5.)Officials believe over 10,000 demonstrators were at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and that 800 breached the building. About 1,200 police officers responded, Pittman said.She also made the stunning admission that since Jan. 6, Capitol Police have maintained heightened security because they learned that militia groups have chatted about plans to “blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible” in connection with the State of the Union, which has no scheduled date yet. “We know that the insurrectionists that attacked the Capitol weren’t only interested in attacking members of Congress and officers. They wanted to send a symbolic message to the nation as [to] who was in charge of that legislative process,” Pittman said. On Tuesday, Irving insisted that Capitol Police were privy to intelligence provided by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security that “did not support” the likelihood of a coordinated assault at the Capitol.An NYPD Cop’s Road From Terror ‘Victim’ to Capitol Rioter“The department was not ignorant of intelligence indicating an attack of the size and scale we encountered on the sixth. There was no such intelligence,” Pittman said Thursday. “Although we knew the likelihood for violence by extremists, no credible threat indicated that tens of thousands would attack the U.S. Capitol. Nor did the intelligence received from the FBI or any other law enforcement partner indicate such a threat.”Pittman added that because officers at the Capitol were not prepared for a violent mob, lockdown procedure was not properly executed. She added that some officers were also not sure when to use lethal force, and that radio communications between law enforcers were not robust.Five individuals died during the violent riots. Four were pro-Trump protesters, including Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by a police officer after attempting to break into the Speaker’s Lobby. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died after allegedly clashing with rioters. In the days after the siege, at least two officers died by suicide.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene escalates LGBTQ rights debate with attack on colleague's transgender daughter

    A debate on the House floor over a bill that would extend civil rights protections to the LGBTQ community spilled over into the halls of Congress on Wednesday.

  • Pelosi mocks McConnell for criticizing commission on the Capitol insurrection: GOP Sen. 'Ron Johnson seems to be taking the lead'

    Pelosi also accidentally called the Wisconsin senator "Don" Johnson. "Not Miami Vice or anything like that?" she said, referencing a TV actor.

  • Acting Capitol Police chief: Phone logs show Jan. 6 National Guard approval was delayed

    Acting U.S. Capitol Police chief Yogananda Pittman testified on Thursday that cellphone records show former USCP chief Steven Sund requested National Guard support from the House sergeant-at-arms as early as 12:58pm on Jan. 6, but he did not receive approval until over an hour later.Why it matters: Sund and former House sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving clashed at a Senate hearing on Tuesday over a dispute in the timeline for when Capitol Police requested the National Guard during the Capitol insurrection.Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeIrving insisted that he has no recollection of receiving the request until after 2pm. Lawmakers are looking for accountability over that hour of lost time, when pro-Trump rioters were able to breach and ransack the Capitol."I did not get a request at 1:09 that I can remember," Irving, who resigned after the insurrection, testified. "The first conversation I had with chief Sund in that timeframe was 1:28, 1:30. In that conversation, he indicated that conditions were deteriorating and he might be looking for National Guard approval."Details: Pittman testified to a House subcommittee that Sund's phone records show the former chief first reached out for National Guard support to Irving at 12:58pm.Sund then spoke to former Senate sergeant-at-arms Michael Stenger to make the same request at 1:05pm, per Pittman.Pittman says Sund repeated his request to Irving at 1:28pm, then spoke to him again at 1:34pm, 1:39pm and 1:45pm.Go deeper: Pittman testifies officers were unsure of lethal force rules on Jan. 6Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

  • A Texas border patrol officer was charged after she used a coworker's login to bring her children's nanny into the US from Mexico

    Prosecutors allege that Rhonda Lee Walker, 40, used her coworker's computer to scan in a Mexican immigrant's paperwork to become her live-in nanny.

  • J&J's coronavirus shot could dramatically accelerate the US vaccine rollout. Here's your new vaccination timeline.

    The nation could now distribute 500 million doses by the end of June - enough to vaccinate all of its adult population.

  • Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump's migrant-family-separation scheme, called Biden's immigration policies 'cruel' and 'inhumane'

    The family-separation policy made Miller one of the most controversial Trump officials. He even put conservatives on edge.

  • Manhattan prosecutors reportedly obtain millions of pages of Trump's tax records

    The Manhattan district attorney is now in possession of millions of pages of former President Trump's tax and financial records, CNN first reported, following a Supreme Court ruling that allowed prosecutors to enforce a subpoena after a lengthy legal battle.Why it matters: Trump fought for years to keep his tax returns out of the public eye and away from prosecutors in New York, who are examining his business in a criminal investigation that was first sparked by hush-money payments made by Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen during the 2016 election.Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeThe New York Times reports that the investigation has intensified in recent months and that prosecutors are now examining potential tax and bank-related fraud.Trump has denied any wrongdoing, attacking the investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance as a political "witch hunt."Go deeper: Here’s What’s Next in the Trump Taxes Investigation (N.Y. Times)Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

  • A Texas woman is suing her electricity provider after she got a $9,000 power bill amid statewide power outages

    Lisa Khoury is at the forefront of a proposed class-action lawsuit against Griddy Energy that's seeking $1 billion dollars in damages.

  • Manhattan prosecutor gets Trump tax records after long fight

    The Manhattan district attorney’s office enforced a subpoena on Trump’s accounting firm within hours of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday.

  • New York prosecutors finally got a hold of Trump's taxes after a lengthy court battle

    Manhattan prosecutors now have access to a treasure trove of information about the complex world of Trump's finances.

  • Texas Lt. Gov. says that people getting huge energy bills 'gambled on a very, very low rate' - but suggests they won't have to pay the full amount

    Texans on variable-rate energy deals were faced with enormous bills as the wholesale price of electricity spiked 10,000% during the storms.

  • New Findings on 2 Ways Children Become Seriously Ill from the Coronavirus

    A large nationwide study has found important differences in the two major ways in which children have become seriously ill from the coronavirus, findings that may help doctors and parents better recognize the conditions and understand more about the children at risk for each one. The study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA, analyzed 1,116 cases of young people who were treated at 66 hospitals in 31 states. Slightly more than half the patients had acute COVID-19, the predominantly lung-related illness that afflicts most adults who get sick from the virus, while 539 patients had the inflammatory syndrome that has erupted in some children weeks after they have had a typically mild initial infection. The researchers found some similarities but also significant differences in the symptoms and characteristics of the patients, who ranged from infants to 20-year-olds and were hospitalized last year between March 15 and October 31. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Young people with the syndrome, called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, or MIS-C, were more likely to be between 6 and 12 years of age, while more than 80% of the patients with acute COVID-19 were either younger than 6 or older than 12. More than two-thirds of patients with either condition were Black or Hispanic, which experts say most likely reflects socioeconomic and other factors that have disproportionately exposed some communities to the virus. “It’s still shocking that the overwhelming majority of the patients are nonwhite, and that is true for MIS-C and for acute COVID,” said Dr. Jean Ballweg, medical director of pediatric heart transplant and advanced heart failure at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, who was not involved in the study. “There’s clearly racial disparity there.” For reasons that are unclear, while Hispanic young people seemed equally likely to be at risk for both conditions, Black children appeared to be at greater risk for developing the inflammatory syndrome than the acute illness, said Dr. Adrienne Randolph, senior author of the study and a pediatric critical care specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital. One potential clue mentioned by the authors is that with Kawasaki disease, a rare childhood inflammatory syndrome that has similarities with some aspects of MIS-C, Black children appear to have greater frequency of heart abnormalities and are less responsive to one of the standard treatments, intravenous immunoglobulin. The researchers found that young people with the inflammatory syndrome were significantly more likely to have had no underlying medical conditions than those with acute COVID-19. Still, more than a third of patients with acute COVID had no previous medical condition. “It’s not like previously healthy kids are completely scot-free here,” Randolph said. The study evaluated obesity separately from other underlying health conditions and only in patients who were age 2 or older, finding that a somewhat higher percentage of the young people with acute COVID-19 were obese. Dr. Srinivas Murthy, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of British Columbia, who was not involved in the study, said he was not convinced that the findings established that healthy children were at higher risk for MIS-C. It could be “mostly a numbers game, with the proportion of kids infected and the proportion of healthy kids out there, rather than saying that there’s something immune in healthy kids that puts them at a disproportionately higher risk,” he said. Overall, he said, the study’s documentation of the differences between the two conditions was useful, especially because it reflected “a reasonably representative set of hospitals across the U.S.” Young people with the inflammatory syndrome were more likely to need to be treated in intensive care units. Their symptoms were much more likely to include gastrointestinal problems, inflammation and to involve the skin and mucous membranes. They were also much more likely to have heart-related issues, although many of the acute COVID patients did not receive detailed cardiac assessments, the study noted. Roughly the same proportion of patients with each condition — more than half — needed respiratory support, with slightly less than a third of those needing mechanical ventilation. Roughly the same number of patients in each group died: 10 with MIS-C and eight with acute COVID-19. The data does not reflect a recent surge in cases of the inflammatory syndrome that followed a rise in overall COVID-19 infections across the country during the winter holiday season. Some hospitals have reported that there have been a greater number of seriously ill MIS-C patients in the current wave compared with previous waves. “I am going to be fascinated to see comparison from Nov. 1 forward versus this group, because I think we all felt that the kids with MIS-C have been even more sick recently,” Ballweg said. An optimistic sign from the study was that most of the severe cardiac problems in young people with the inflammatory syndrome improved to normal condition within 30 days. Still, Randolph said any residual effects remain unknown, which is why one of her co-authors, Dr. Jane Newburger, associate chief for academic affairs in Boston Children’s Hospital’s cardiology department, is leading a nationwide study to follow children with the inflammatory syndrome for up to five years. “We can’t say 100% for sure that everything’s going to be normal long term,” Randolph said. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company

  • Kaley Cuoco has a 'large pack of dogs' and won't say the exact number because she's worried it's illegal

    Riverside County, CA, where Kuoco lives, states that households with more than five dogs must obtain a special license.