Wash your hands and stay at home as much as you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES – MEDICAL/HEALTH

University of Minnesota: In new report, CIDRAP at the University of Minnesota outlines COVID-19 realities, advises on next steps. “Seeing a need for recommendations to help navigate the COVID-19 pandemic based on current realities and restrictions — not on technology we hope to one day have — the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota yesterday published the first report in a multipart series titled, ‘COVID-19: The CIDRAP Viewpoint.'”

Broadway World: Audible Announces Sleep & Meditation Focused Audio Collection Featuring Diddy, Nick Jonas, & More. “Created in part through a collaboration with Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global, Audible is introducing a free collection of new sleep, relaxation and meditation content. Performers such as Diddy and Nick Jonas join sleep, meditation and wellness experts and enthusiasts including Arianna Huffington, Gabby Bernstein, Sara Auster and Jesse Israel to lead these meditations, bedtime stories, sound baths, soundscapes, ASMR sessions and more.”

NEW RESOURCES – EDUCATION/ENTERTAINMENT

Herald and News: Film fests combine efforts for ‘We Are One’ global online festival. “With multiple film festivals having to either cancel outright or switch to an online platform amid COVID-19 lockdowns, several major festivals are instead partnering to offer a free global celebration named ‘We Are One: A Global Film Festival.’ Slated as a free 10-day film fest offered via YouTube, We Are One will offer both new and classic films from a variety of countries chosen as festival selections from prestigious events such as the Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival and more.”

Daily Sabah: Turkey’s biggest electronic music festival Big Burn Istanbul goes online. “Big Burn Istanbul, which has hosted more than 65,000 music lovers over the past three years and stands out as the city’s most anticipated electronic music event, will go online due to COVID-19 measures. Big Burn Istanbul Digital Festival, Turkey’s first-ever digital electronic music festival experience, will go live with 16 hours of performances on two different stages.”

NEW RESOURCES – OTHER

Hollywood Insider: Infotagion: Free Fact-Check Service To Stop Coronavirus Disinformation. “Infotagion is a free online-based, independent, fact-checking service for COVID-19. This ingenious new website examines information about COVID-19 that is shared on websites and other publishing platforms online. Users are encouraged to send a screenshot or link of an article to Infotagion’s website, where it will be disseminated by their fact-checking team. If the information cannot be unquestionably verified by official sources such as the World Health Organization or Center for Disease Control, Infotagion will post the article or viral thread on their website with a ‘Factcheck’ headline. Each article is marked with a tag clarifying the key information in the article. Tags include false, misleading, true, and unconfirmed.”

UPDATES

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia’s COVID-19 death toll increases to 1,165; cases nearly reach 27.5K. “In the past 24 hours, the Georgia Department of Public Health has recorded 33 COVID-19 deaths.In addition, the DPH confirmed 358 cases of COVID-19 since 11:30 a.m., bringing the state’s total to 27,492. Of those, more than 5,300 patients have been hospitalized at some point in Georgia, which is about 19.3% of all cases. At least 1,229 patients have been admitted into a hospital’s intensive care unit due to the virus.”

ABC News: Russia bills US $660K for aid that included gas masks, household cleaning gloves. “Russia billed the U.S. nearly $660,000 for its medical aid flight last month that included thousands of pieces of equipment not typically used by hospitals, including chemical warfare-style gas masks and household cleaning gloves, according to a government record of the shipment. The cargo also included 45 ventilators that were not immediately useable because of voltage-related issues, according to two U.S. officials. It was not immediately clear how useful the April 1 shipment to New York City’s John F. Kennedy airport has been for nearby hospitals. The federal government said it transferred the supplies to New York and New Jersey state officials, who did not immediately respond to questions about whether the cargo was provided to health care workers or remains in storage.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus shutdown pushes Bay Area LGBTQ community to reinvent. “The Bay Area’s shutdown, now nearly six weeks in, has affected everybody. But there are differing degrees of disruption, and the queer community has been hit hard in its own, unique way. Bartenders and promoters and DJs and drag performers and go-go dancers have all lost their jobs. And the broader community has lost refuge — places to feel free, connect, flirt and make art…. There’s also a strong history of resilience. So, as the community goes online in the short term, it’s also figuring out how to support those in nightlife and the spaces hit hardest, to make sure there’s something to go back to.”

News@Northeastern: How Will The Economy Bounce Back After Covid-19?. “The COVID-19 pandemic has wrought havoc on the United States economy, where stay-at-home measures have brought certain industries—such as restaurants, hotels, and salons—almost to a complete standstill. Economists predict that the economic downturn will be sharp, but short—a prediction that rests upon the choices that government officials make during this crucial period, says economist Alicia Sasser Modestino.”

New York Times: With Campuses Closed, College Tours Move Online. “Virtual coffees with college students for high school juniors. Zoom sessions between applicants and admissions officers. Student guides offering welcoming messages in video selfies and scenic views of university campuses captured by drones. This is what spring college tour season looks like across America, where universities are going to great lengths to show off lecture halls, green space, libraries and laboratories that have all been emptied out by the pandemic, albeit online.”

New York Times: A Young Doctor, Fighting for His Life. “Dr. Andres Maldonado normally bounded into the Emergency Department, fit and vigorous, but this time he had to be escorted in, pale and fighting for breath, with a patient bracelet on his right wrist. A nurse, seeing her colleague struggle, burst into tears.”

PressGazette: Shining a light: Best investigative journalism of the coronavirus crisis revealed. “Some of the best investigations are shown below as part of Press Gazette’s Journalism Matters: Excellence in Reporting Coronavirus survey. Press Gazette received more than 600 nominations after asking people to highlight the best reporting on the pandemic around the world.”

New York Daily News: MTA chairman says 98 transit workers dead from coronavirus. “Ninety-eight transit workers have died from coronavirus, MTA chairman Pat Foye announced Friday — but he noted that the rate of deaths seems to be slowing across the agency. ‘We mourn and grieve the loss of each one of those colleagues,’ Foye said on WCBS 880.”

Statesman: Austin artist memorializes COVID-19 victims with building projections. “The stories and faces of those who have died from the coronavirus illuminated the outside of the Texas Department of Licensing building in downtown Austin Saturday night. The digital archive, COVID Memorial, celebrates the lives of COVID-19 victims by projecting on buildings remembrances posted online by friends and family of victims.”

Meaww: Wine-tasting goes online: Wineries around world jump on Zoom bandwagon to set up virtual tasting rooms. “At a time where we have been forced to remain in the comfort of our homes, technology has come out to be one of the greatest boons to keep. While we’re in lockdown and attempting staunchly to practice the preventive measures imposed by the government to contain the epidemic, technology has proved to be extremely useful in enabling us to maintain our connections with our loved ones and more importantly, to work remotely. So, it should come as no surprise that the wine industry is also going digital with its operations.”

San Francisco Bay View: COVID-19 overtakes California’s federal prisons, infecting 1,534 prisoners, killing 31. “Newsweek reports that more than a third of federally incarcerated people with coronavirus are now in one institution, Terminal Island Prison in Southern California. The Federal Board of Prisons (BOP) recorded a staggering 900 percent increase in coronaviruses cases this week. Criminal justice advocates have pummeled state authorities with unprecedented campaigns for mass releases since early March, warning that California’s state prison system and any adjacent communities are only weeks away from widespread, deadly COVID-19 outbreaks if urgent action is not taken to reduce prison populations. ”

INSTITUTION / CORPORATE / GOVERNMENT

North Carolina Department of Transportation: NCDOT Helping in Effort to Use Drones in COVID-19 Relief Efforts. “State transportation officials announced today a public-private partnership that will use drones to deliver critical medical supplies and food during the COVID-19 response.”

RESEARCH

National Science Foundation: Researchers developing one-step COVID-19 diagnostic tool. “Synthetic biologists at Northwestern University have received funding to develop an easy-to-use, quick-screen technology that can test for infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Like a pregnancy test, the tool uses one sample to provide an easy-to-read negative or positive result. By simplifying testing, the researchers could put diagnostics into the hands of people everywhere — without the need for expensive laboratories or expertise — possibly providing the large-scale testing required for ending stay-at-home orders, reopening the economy or preparing for a predicted virus resurgence in the fall.”

Harvard Gazette: Hikma Health’s new software allows patients to be screened for COVID-19 symptoms in refugee camps. “When Senan Ebrahim was working in a Syrian refugee community in Jordan in 2017, he learned that one of doctors’ biggest needs was a way to collect and access patient health information. In 2018, the Ebrahim brothers founded Hikma Health, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that builds software for organizations providing health care to refugee populations.”

Sky News: Coronavirus: New tool will forecast how GP surgeries would cope with a second peak in cases. “The government will be able to test how GP surgeries might react to a second coronavirus peak or further PPE shortages thanks to a new forecasting tool being developed by the NHS, Sky News can reveal. The local forecasting system, which is being developed by NHS innovation unit NHSX, uses thousands of health and social data feeds to model the impact of different COVID-19 scenarios, according to a person familiar with the project.”

New York Times: With Pressure Growing, Global Race for a Vaccine Intensifies. “Governments, companies and academic labs are accelerating their efforts amid geopolitical crosscurrents, questions about safety and the challenges of producing enough doses for billions of people.”

San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF team has discovered drugs that block coronavirus, paving way for ‘a better drug sooner’. “A global team of scientists led by UCSF has discovered a range of existing drugs and experimental compounds that block the new coronavirus in lab tests, revealing some of the virus’ key weaknesses for the first time. Their findings point to possible treatments for COVID-19, according to a paper released Thursday in the journal Nature.”

Sky News: Coronavirus: Scientists conclude people cannot be infected twice. “A number of reported cases of coronavirus patients relapsing after overcoming the disease were actually due to testing failures, South Korean scientists say. Researchers at the South Korean centre for disease control and prevention (CDC) now say it is impossible for the COVID-19 virus to reactivate in human bodies.”

POLITICS AND SECURITY

Washington Post: Justice Dept. scrutinizes White House-connected doctor linked to disputed coronavirus treatment. “Federal prosecutors are examining the communications of a New York family doctor whose work has been discussed on Fox News and who has been in touch with the White House to tout an anti-malarial as a treatment for the novel coronavirus, according to people contacted as part of the inquiry. The examination of Vladimir ‘Zev’ Zelenko’s records began when an associate, conservative commentator Jerome Corsi, accidentally sent an email intended for Zelenko to another “Z” name in his address book — federal prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, who as a member of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team had spent months scrutinizing Corsi’s activities during the 2016 presidential election.”

MarketWatch: Michigan’s Republican-led House set to sue over governor’s shutdown orders, as armed protesters enter statehouse. “The Republican-led Michigan Legislature refused Thursday to extend the state’s coronavirus emergency declaration and voted to authorize a lawsuit challenging Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s authority and actions to combat the pandemic. The governor, unfazed, responded with orders stating under one law that an emergency still exists, while declaring a new 28-day state of emergency under another law.”

New York Times: Trump Officials Are Said to Press Spies to Link Virus and Wuhan Labs. “Senior Trump administration officials have pushed American spy agencies to hunt for evidence to support an unsubstantiated theory that a government laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, according to current and former American officials. The effort comes as President Trump escalates a public campaign to blame China for the pandemic.”

The Guardian: Whistleblower complaint set to lift lid on Trump pressure to push untried drug. “Donald Trump’s musing over whether cleaning people’s lungs with disinfectant might treat the coronavirus caused a furore but it may be the US president’s pushing of anti-malarial drugs that does far more lasting damage to his administration. There is building anticipation over the content of an upcoming whistleblower complaint by Dr Rick Bright, who last week was abruptly removed as the head of the federal government office working on a vaccine for Covid-19.”

Washington Post: 34 days of pandemic: Inside Trump’s desperate attempts to reopen America. “The epidemiological models under review in the White House Situation Room in late March were bracing. In a best-case scenario, they showed the novel coronavirus was likely to kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans. President Trump was apprehensive about so much carnage on his watch, yet also impatient to reopen the economy — and he wanted data to justify doing so. So the White House considered its own analysis. A small team led by Kevin Hassett — a former chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers with no background in infectious diseases — quietly built an econometric model to guide response operations. Many White House aides interpreted the analysis as predicting that the daily death count would peak in mid-April before dropping off substantially, and that there would be far fewer fatalities than initially foreseen, according to six people briefed on it.”

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