The COVID-2019 Thread

[Dragonfly]

^ She was a doctor not a nurse. Pretty stressful job and she had just recovered from Covid.

nurses and doctors are going to be the first casualties in that war, a few here have already died after multiple exposure to the virus

there is so much the body can take,

like I said, I don't think global leaders are telling us everything they know, the R0 might be higher than expected, and the incubation period might up to 2 months for asymptotic patients

[harrybarracuda]

No it doesn't mean they have found a vaccine, just a little background information to keep you ticking over.

Scientists at Oxford University have taken a significant step towards developing a Covid-19 vaccine and remain on track to produce a “few million” doses by September if the inoculation proves effective.

Researchers at the university’s Jenner Institute are now considered to be among the most advanced in the global effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine, as dozens of teams race to produce a jab that will eventually bring the pandemic to a halt.

The Oxford vaccine has been able to leap ahead after the Jenner Institute’s previous work on inoculations for other diseases, including a close relative of Covid-19, confirmed the safety of the prototype and allowed it to move to tests to show that it is effective.

It has now emerged that tests of the vaccine on six rhesus macaque monkeys at a US laboratory in Montana have proved successful after the vaccinated animals remained healthy some 28 days after being exposed to heavy doses of Covid-19.

The New York Times reported that the results paved the way for initial human testing of the Oxford vaccine with a cohort of around 6,000 people to see if it provides immunity in communities facing the pandemic.

Dr Vincent Munster, who led the testing at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory of the National Institutes of Health, told the New York Times: “The rhesus macaque is pretty much the closest thing we have to humans.”

He added that achieving immunity in the monkeys was no guarantee that similar results will be achieved in humans. But even if the Oxford project fails, the tests will provide valuable data to other vaccine programmes about Covid-19 and its response to efforts to provide human immunity.

The results of the Montana testing, which will be shared with other scientists next week, mean that the Oxford vaccine could proceed to being manufactured at a scale of a “few million” doses by September if it is proven to work in human trials and is granted emergency approval by regulators.

The Oxford University team will now move to advanced testing of the vaccine - known as Phase II and Phase III trials - and are seeking an appropriate community where Covid-19 is still spreading.

Because ethical rules bar researchers from deliberately infecting anyone with the virus, they are reliant on locating areas where coronavirus is still moving through the population - a scenario made less likely in Britain by the success of social distancing measures in slowing the pandemic.

Professor Adrian Hill, who leads the Jenner Institute, said: “We’re the only people in the country who want the number of new infections to stay up for another few weeks, so we can test our vaccine.”

Dozens of teams around the world are currently pursuing vaccines for Covid-19 with several different types of inoculation being investigated. The Oxford project, based on previous work by Prof Hill and his colleagues to develop a malaria jab, will use a different virus from Covid-19 which has been modified to mimic the microbe causing the pandemic and safely trigger a response in the immune system.

In December, trials began in Saudi Arabia of a vaccine developed by the institute against MERS - another Coronavirus which has caused periodic outbreaks in the desert kingdom.

The urgency of developing a Covid-19 vaccine means the Oxford team, like several other competitors in China and America, is seeking to prepare for large-scale manufacturing even before the jab is proven.

The Jenner Institute has already signed manufacturing agreements with six drug companies across Britain, the Netherlands and Asia, including the world’s largest vaccine producer, the Serum Institute of India.

By having such deals in place, the British team hope to be able to rapidly scale up to the sort of bulk production that will be needed to meet global demand.

The researchers are preparing to have to set up testing elsewhere in the world, possibly in Africa or India, if the outbreak in Britain means there are no suitable areas for a trial.

Experts have said that several vaccines are likely to be needed for Covid-19 as inoculations are likely to be more or less effective in different populations and age groups.

Coronavirus vaccine: Oxford University researchers take significant step towards Covid-19 vaccination | inews

[misskit]

Case fatality rates rise as coronavirus runs deadly course

The percentage of people who die after testing positive for the coronavirus is rising even as thousands of new U.S. cases are identified each day, a troubling preview of the weeks and months that lie ahead.


Epidemiologists and experts say increased case fatality rates are a natural function of a deadly virus running its course: The people who succumb today were probably infected as long as a month ago, when the number of cases began accelerating.


"As the epidemic picks up and you see a sudden rise [in cases], deaths will be very low," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Prevention at the University of Minnesota. "It's just new onsets. And then as they work through the process, becoming severely ill, becoming hospitalized, being in the ICU and then dying, it's a long-term process of three or up to four weeks."

MORE Case fatality rates rise as coronavirus runs deadly course | TheHill

[Loy Toy]

Being stuck in lock down I have had the chance to listen to many doctors being interviewed explaining their angle about the present situation and only 1 doctor made sense to me.

This doctor was interviewed by CNN's Don Lemon and his view was the only way we can beat this is with a vaccine.

He alluded to his fear that the development of a vaccine was still years away and if in fact one will ever be successfully developed.

My personal solution to this epidemic is everyone re-enters society, they practice social distancing, wear a face mask when in close contact with groups of people and when exposed to high polution levels, lose weight and watch their sugar levels, give up smoking and other health detrimental activities and get ready to fight the disease when you evetually get it as this is inevitable.

Some will die, most will live and develop antibodies.

Just my 2 baht's worth.

[Klondyke]

And not forget on the e-cigarettes Mysterious pneumonia - in USA - that suddenly sprang up few months before the Chinese Pneumonia.

The e-cigarettes have been in using for some time, haven't been? And not only in USA... But the "Mysterious" pneumonia hasn't been reported elsewhere...

The Mysterious Vaping Illness That’s ‘Becoming an Epidemic’

A surge of severe lung ailments has baffled doctors and public health experts.

Published Aug. 31, 2019
Updated Sept. 11, 2019

An 18-year-old showed up in a Long Island emergency room, gasping for breath, vomiting and dizzy. When a doctor asked if the teenager had been vaping, he said no.

The patient’s older brother, a police officer, was suspicious. He rummaged through the youth’s room and found hidden vials of marijuana for vaping.

“I don’t know where he purchased it. He doesn’t know,” said Dr. Melodi Pirzada, chief pediatric pulmonologist at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., who treated the young man. “Luckily, he survived.”

Dr. Pirzada is one of the many physicians across the country treating patients — now totaling more than 215 — with mysterious and life-threatening vaping-related illnesses this summer. The outbreak is “becoming an epidemic,” she said. “Something is very wrong.”

Patients, mostly otherwise healthy and in their late teens and 20s, are showing up with severe shortness of breath, often after suffering for several days with vomiting, fever and fatigue. Some have wound up in the intensive care unit or on a ventilator for weeks. Treatment has been complicated by patients’ lack of knowledge — and sometimes outright denial — about the actual substances they might have used or inhaled.

Health investigators are now trying to determine whether a particular toxin or substance has sneaked into the supply of vaping products, whether some people reused cartridges containing contaminants, or whether the risk stems from a broader behavior, like heavy e-cigarette use, vaping marijuana or a combination.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning to teenagers and other consumers, telling them to stop buying bootleg and street cannabis and e-cigarette products, and to stop modifying devices to vape adulterated substances.

The illnesses have focused attention on a trend that has been overshadowed by the intense public concern about soaring teenage use of e-cigarettes, with its potential for hooking a new generation on nicotine: the rise of the vaping device itself. It has introduced a wholesale change in how people consume nicotine or marijuana, by inhaling vaporized ingredients.

The Mysterious Vaping Illness That’s ‘Becoming an Epidemic’ - The New York Times

[cyrille]

I've just been reading about how airlines in the US are going to insist that their passengers wear masks.

It made me wonder whether the French are going to keep their ban on Muslim women covering their faces in public places.

[Pragmatic]

It made me wonder whether the French are going to keep their ban on Muslim women covering their faces in public places.

And what about those countries where a greeting is treated with a kiss?

[Klondyke]

Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sources
"Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event," a source said.

(However, the world was informed from Wuhan much later)

One of the earliest Wuhan MHC notices about the pneumonia epidemic. It was first posted on Weibo on 30 December 2019 and was confirmed by Wuhan CDC the next day (31 December).

The first confirmed patient started experiencing symptoms on 1 December 2019,[96] though the South China Morning Post later reported that the first case may have been a 55-year-old patient from Hubei province as early as 17 November.[97][98][99] More recently, on 27 March 2020, news outlets citing a government document reported that a 57-year-old woman, who started having symptoms on 10 December 2019 and subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus disease, was described in The Wall Street Journal on 6 March 2020, may have been patient zero in the coronavirus pandemic.[100][101]

Although the first confirmed patient did not have any exposure to Huanan Seafood Market, an outbreak of the virus began among the people who had been exposed to the market nine days later.[102][103] On 26 December, Shanghai PHC received a sample of a patient with unknown pneumonia from Wuhan CDC and Wuhan Central Hospital and started an investigation to the sample which was later confirmed to contain a new coronavirus.[102]

The outbreak went unnoticed until a cluster of unknown pneumonia cases was observed by Zhang Jixian,[104] director of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine,[105] whose experience fighting SARS in 2003 kept her alerted about a public health emergency. On 26 December 2019, a couple of seniors who lived near Zhang's hospital came to her for their fever and cough. The CT scan results of the couple's thorax showed unusual changes in the lungs which were different from those in any known viral pneumonia. Zhang saw the couple's son and found similar conditions. On the same day, a patient from Huanan Seafood Market that Dr. Zhang saw also had the unusual conditions.[106]

On 27 December, the doctor reported her discovery to her hospital and the hospital soon informed Jianghan CDC, thinking that this might be an infectious disease as it was indicated by the familial cluster. As a precaution, she told her colleagues to wear protective gear and prepare a specialized area in the hospital to receive patients with similar conditions.[106]

On 28 and 29 December, three more patients who had visited the Huanan Seafood Market visited the clinic of the hospital. The hospital notified the provincial and municipal health commissions. The health commissions appointed Wuhan and Jianghan CDC and Jinyintan Hospital to undertake epidemiological research for the seven patients on 29 December. Six of them were transferred to Jinyintan, a specialized facility for infectious diseases. Only one patient refused the transfer.[104][106] Zhang's discovery was widely praised;[107] the Hubei government honored her and Zhang Dingyu, the president of Jinyintan, for their contribution to controlling the viral outbreak.[105]

2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in mainland China - Wikipedia

[Klondyke]

Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sources
"Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event," a source said.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect comment from the Pentagon.

As far back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials were warning that a contagion was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region, changing the patterns of life and business and posing a threat to the population, according to four sources briefed on the secret reporting.

Concerns about what is now known to be the novel coronavirus pandemic were detailed in a November intelligence report by the military's National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), according to two officials familiar with the document’s contents.

The report was the result of analysis of wire and computer intercepts, coupled with satellite images. It raised alarms because an out-of-control disease would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia -- forces that depend on the NCMI’s work. And it paints a picture of an American government that could have ramped up mitigation and containment efforts far earlier to prepare for a crisis poised to come home.

"Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event," one of the sources said of the NCMI’s report. "It was then briefed multiple times to" the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the White House. Wednesday night, the Pentagon issued a statement denying the "product/assessment" existed.

From that warning in November, the sources described repeated briefings through December for policy-makers and decision-makers across the federal government as well as the National Security Council at the White House. All of that culminated with a detailed explanation of the problem that appeared in the President’s Daily Brief of intelligence matters in early January, the sources said. For something to have appeared in the PDB, it would have had to go through weeks of vetting and analysis, according to people who have worked on presidential briefings in both Republican and Democratic administrations.

"The timeline of the intel side of this may be further back than we’re discussing," the source said of preliminary reports from Wuhan. "But this was definitely being briefed beginning at the end of November as something the military needed to take a posture on."

Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.

The NCMI report was made available widely to people authorized to access intelligence community alerts. Following the report’s release, other intelligence community bulletins began circulating through confidential channels across the government around Thanksgiving, the sources said. Those analyses said China’s leadership knew the epidemic was out of control even as it kept such crucial information from foreign governments and public health agencies.

"It would be a significant alarm that would have been set off by this," former Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Mick Mulroy, now an ABC News contributor, said of the NCMI report. "And it would have been something that would be followed up by literally every intelligence-collection agency."

Mulroy, who previously served as a senior official at the CIA, said NCMI does serious work that senior government leaders do not ignore.

"Medical intelligence takes into account all source information -- imagery intelligence, human intelligence, signals intelligence," said Mulroy, who hasn't seen the reporting. "Then there’s analysis by people who know those specific areas. So for something like this to have come out, it has been reviewed by experts in the field. They’re taking together what those pieces of information mean and then looking at the potential for an international health crisis."

NCMI is a component of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency. Together, the agencies’ core responsibilities are to ensure U.S. military forces have the information they need to carry out their missions -- both offensively and defensively. It is a critical priority for the Pentagon to keep American service members healthy on deployments.

Asked about the November warning last Sunday on ABC’s "This Week," Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos, "I can't recall, George. But we have many people who watch this closely. We have the premier infectious disease research institute in America, within the United States Army. So, our people who work these issues directly watch this all the time."

Pressing the secretary, Stephanopoulos asked, "So, you would have known if there was briefed to the National Security Council in December, wouldn't you?"

Esper said, "Yes. I'm not aware of that."


ABC News
✔
@ABC
.@Gstephanopoulos: “Did the Pentagon receive an intelligence assessment on COVID in China last November from the National Center for Medical Intelligence?”

Defense Sec. Mark Esper: “I can’t recall, George, but we have many people that watch this closely.” Pentagon announces new face mask guidance - ABC News

Embedded video
823
8:55 PM - Apr 5, 2020

The Pentagon did not comment Tuesday, but on Wednesday evening following the publication of this report, the Defense Department provided a statement from Col. R. Shane Day, Director of the NCMI.

"As a matter of practice the National Center for Medical Intelligence does not comment publicly on specific intelligence matters. However, in the interest of transparency during this current public health crisis, we can confirm that media reporting about the existence/release of a National Center for Medical Intelligence Coronavirus-related product/assessment in November of 2019 is not correct. No such NCMI product exists," the statement said.

The White House National Security Council and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.

Critics have charged the Trump administration with being flat-footed and late in its response to a pandemic that, after sweeping through Wuhan and then parts of Europe, has now killed more than 12,000 in the U.S.

For his part, President Donald Trump has alternated between taking credit for early action and claiming that the coronavirus was a surprise to him and everyone else. He has repeatedly touted his Jan. 31 decision to restrict air travel with China, but at the same time, he spent weeks telling the public and top administration officials that there was nothing for Americans to fear.

On Jan. 22, for instance, Trump made his first comments about the virus when asked in a CNBC interview, "Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?" The president responded, "No. Not at all. And we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine."

As late as Feb. 19, Trump was offering positive reviews for the way China’s leaders had handled the coronavirus.

"I'm confident that they're trying very hard," Trump told an interviewer from Fox 10 in Phoenix. "They're working it -- they built, they built a hospital in seven days, and now they're building another one. I think it's going to work out fine."

It was not until March 13 when Trump declared a national emergency and mobilized the vast resources of the federal government to help public-health agencies deal with the crisis that was poised to crash on to the homeland.

ABC News contributor John Cohen, who used to oversee intelligence operations at the Department of Homeland Security, said even the best information would be of no use if officials do not act on it.

"When responding to a public health crisis or any other serious security threat, it is critical that our leaders react quickly and take steps to address the threat identified in the intelligence reporting," said Cohen, the former acting undersecretary of DHS. "It’s not surprising to me that the intelligence community detected the outbreak; what is surprising and disappointing is that the White House ignored the clear warning signs, failed to follow established pandemic response protocols and were slow to put in place a government-wide effort to respond to this crisis."

ABC News' Katherine Faulders, Luis Martinez and Terrance Smith contributed to this report.

(Comments 1837)

Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sources - ABC News

[Dragonfly]

There is a nice MARS drama documentary on the Discovery Channel, that address the issue of Pandemic and how global commerce and industries are responsible for the spread of bacteria and deadly virus, and predictions they made then for Mars and pandemics, seems very appropriate for now on Earth, amazingly

we have been forewarned before and kept doing the same mistakes, SARS in 2003, then Russia with the Arthic Anthrax uncovered and waked up by the oil industry, and more recently that virus from Brazil

do you think we will remember any of it in 20 years? probably not and then we can start again the same mistakes

[Cujo]

what the fuck is Mars?

[harrybarracuda]

And what about those countries where a greeting is treated with a kiss?

Mate even handshakes are off the table. Permanently until there's a vaccine. Touching eyes and mouths is a two-way street.

[harrybarracuda]

what the fuck is Mars?

It's the fourth planet from the sun.

Or a confectionery bar.

[Loy Toy]

No-one said it was a Covid-19 death.

Absolute bollocks Harry.

Take a second and read through the previous posts.

I repeat that in my opinion, this doctor that committed suicide done so because she was not mentally prepared to undertake the job she chose to do.

Very sad for her family, friends and particularly for her patients who had put their trust in her.

[harrybarracuda]

Absolute bollocks Harry.

Take a second and read through the previous posts.

I repeat that in my opinion, this doctor that committed suicide done so because she was not mentally prepared to undertake the job she chose to do.

Very sad for her family, friends and particularly for her patients who had put their trust in her.

I'm a little bit baffled at how you form this opinion. She wasn't a first time rookie, she was a 49 year old ER Doctor and it would be safe to say that she had probably seen some harrowing things in her time.

If you read other front line medical workers' accounts of being inside hospitals, you can tell that it has a deep emotional impact on them. There is no doubt in my mind that seeing an endless succession of patients dying of suffocation pushed her over the edge, predisposed or not.

As the local police chief said:

"Police chief RaShall Brackney said in a statement: "Frontline healthcare professionals and first responders are not immune to the mental or physical effects of the current pandemic.
"On a daily basis," she added, "these professionals operate under the most stressful of circumstances, and the coronavirus has introduced additional stressors."

Add to this that she may have experienced first hand the painful and distressing symptoms of the disease while infected herself.

[harrybarracuda]

It seems NY Mayor Di Blasio has upset the somewhat stupid blue suede shoes. So it's not just the jesus wheezers who think their space fairy can protect them.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, frustrated by a crowd gathered for a rabbi's funeral in Brooklyn on Tuesday, ordered the New York Police Department to arrest citizens caught gathering in large groups amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of people turned up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn tonight to honor Rabbi Chaim Mertz who recently passed away due to coronavirus-related complications. The NYPD quickly arrived on the scene to break up the mourners who were flouting the city's social distancing guidelines.

After the incident, de Blasio warned the Jewish community against future large gatherings amid the pandemic.

"My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed," the mayor tweeted on Tuesday evening. "I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. This is about stopping this disease and saving lives. Period."

New York Mayor De Blasio, Frustrated by Rabbi's Funeral Crowds, Orders Arrests to Break up Large Gatherings

[Seekingasylum]

He alluded to his fear that the development of a vaccine was still years away and if in fact one will ever be successfully developed.

Some will die, most will live and develop antibodies.

Just my 2 baht's worth.

Unlike the HIV virus, COVID-19 does not mutate so quickly and is therefore a reasonable candidate for expecting a successful prophylaxis to emerge from the current research that is now being pursued by many key groups.

One shouldn't be too pessimistic but certainly if the vaccine is developed it will not be available until early 2021 at best.

Still one must accept failure as a possibility and prepare for a new society. The Brexit virus is just as damaging economically but in the end it can be tolerated once the odd few million bankrupts are cleared away.

[harrybarracuda]

Shit's getting real.

Britons could be limited to two or three drinks when pubs reopen, a government adviser has suggested.

UK pubs could limit drinkers to two or three pints when lockdown lifts, government adviser suggests | London Evening Standard

[harrybarracuda]

I hope other countries follow this lead, although it's nailed on that the Tories and Republicans will fight it tooth and nail at the behest of their sponsors.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government will not allow companies that use offshore tax havens to receive COVID-19 bailout funds.

During the House of Commons’ first virtual sitting Tuesday, Trudeau was pressed by the Bloc Québécois to prevent companies that don’t pay their fair share of tax from benefitting from government aid.

“We will continue to ensure that those who need help will get it, but those who evade or avoid tax will not receive aid,” he said.

Last week, under repeated questioning from both the BQ and NDP, Trudeau had refused to make the same commitment, saying that his government would not withhold wage subsidies from a worker just because of the behaviour of their employer.

Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet later tweeted: “The government seems to have finally accepted (to do this). But I doubt it. We will be watching.”

No COVID-19 bailouts for firms that use tax havens, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says | TheSpec.com

[Shutree]

Shit's getting real.



UK pubs could limit drinkers to two or three pints when lockdown lifts, government adviser suggests | London Evening Standard

I had a look at that link. It includes:

"One solution for keeping people out of bars would be to ration beer to two or three pints per person before politely asking punters to go home, he suggested.
The behavioural expert, ..."

Plenty of pubs I know where you don't need to be an expert to know what kind of behaviour you will see when you politely ask punters (does anyone use that word now?) to go home before they are ready.

[harrybarracuda]

I had no idea Pence was as fucking dumb as baldy orange cunto.

Asked why he didn't wear a mask in the Mayo Clinic, he said it was because he wanted to "Look them in the eye".



Pence Comments On Not Wearing Protective Masks : Coronavirus Live Updates : NPR

[misskit]

US could be in for 'a bad fall and a bad winter' if it's unprepared for a second wave of coronavirus, Fauci warns

(CNN)A second round of the coronavirus is 'inevitable,' the nation's leading epidemiologist says, but just how bad it is will depend on the progress the US makes in the coming months.


"If by that time we have put into place all of the countermeasures that you need to address this, we should do reasonably well," Dr. Anthony Fauci said. "If we don't do that successfully, we could be in for a bad fall and a bad winter."
If states begin lifting restrictions too early, Fauci says he predicts the country could see a rebound of the virus that would "get us right back in the same boat that we were a few weeks ago," adding that the country could see many more deaths than are currently predicted.


If US is unprepared for a second wave of coronavirus, Fauci warns country could be in for 'a bad fall and a bad winter' - CNN



Dozens of coronavirus cases connected to US primary election voting

At least 52 people in Wisconsin who said they voted in person or worked the polls for the US state's April 7 primary election have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.


Several of those people reported other possible exposures as well, said Jennifer Miller, a department spokeswoman.


The state's decision to hold in-person elections in the middle of a pandemic was roundly criticized by candidates and health experts, and turned into a bitter partisan battle.

US coronavirus update: Number of cases exceed 1 million - CNN

[harrybarracuda]

It's all going Pete Tong for Vlad. His bragging and the consequences is rather reminiscient of baldy orange cunto.

Looks awfully silly now getting RT to mock others for using Lockdown....

Russian authorities reported on Wednesday 108 more coronavirus-related deaths, the highest daily figure since the beginning of the outbreak in the country.

The death toll totaled 972, the emergency team said in a statement, while 5,841 people tested positive for COVID-19 over the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 99,399.

In addition, 199,000 people stay under medical surveillance with suspected infection.

Recoveries reached 10,286 after 1,830 people were discharged from hospitals.

The number of tests carried out in Russia mounts to approximately 3.3 million, an average of 150,000 per day, allowing to reveal contagion at an early stage.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday announced an extension of the country’s quarantine until May 11, aiming to nail down its progress in fighting the pandemic.

Russia records new highest virus-related death toll

[jabir]

^^
Would be interesting to see how they could run an election if as Fauci suggests they might be balls deep in bodies. But if it is postponed Trump cannot hold office until it takes place, because his term legally ends on 20 Jan.

Our Chinese friends have hit the jackpot with this one!

[HuangLao]

US could be in for 'a bad fall and a bad winter' if it's unprepared for a second wave of coronavirus, Fauci warns

(CNN)A second round of the coronavirus is 'inevitable,' the nation's leading epidemiologist says, but just how bad it is will depend on the progress the US makes in the coming months.


"If by that time we have put into place all of the countermeasures that you need to address this, we should do reasonably well," Dr. Anthony Fauci said. "If we don't do that successfully, we could be in for a bad fall and a bad winter."
If states begin lifting restrictions too early, Fauci says he predicts the country could see a rebound of the virus that would "get us right back in the same boat that we were a few weeks ago," adding that the country could see many more deaths than are currently predicted.


If US is unprepared for a second wave of coronavirus, Fauci warns country could be in for 'a bad fall and a bad winter' - CNN



Dozens of coronavirus cases connected to US primary election voting

At least 52 people in Wisconsin who said they voted in person or worked the polls for the US state's April 7 primary election have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.


Several of those people reported other possible exposures as well, said Jennifer Miller, a department spokeswoman.


The state's decision to hold in-person elections in the middle of a pandemic was roundly criticized by candidates and health experts, and turned into a bitter partisan battle.

US coronavirus update: Number of cases exceed 1 million - CNN

Never mind the supposed second/third waves, they're having an impossible time getting a handle on the initial wave...which appears to becoming a growing mess like nowhere else in the world.

Unfortunately, what's not recognized is that it's all politicalized -