A couple of categories are getting bottlenecks so I’m doing some rearranging which you’ll see tomorrow. Wash your hands and stay at home as much as you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES – MEDICAL/HEALTH

United States of CARE: New Preparedness Handbook Details 5 Actions to Plan, Prepare and Prevent COVID-19 Surges. “As our nation’s wellbeing and economic success is intertwined with the ongoing public health challenge, state leaders have a pivotal role to play in crafting solutions that meet all people’s needs. Read about five actions that states should be taking to reopen safely.”

Thanks to “b3thv3” on Twitter for tipping me to this. Slate: We Have No Idea How Many People in Prison Actually Have COVID-19. “In March, [Maddie] deLone began watching facilities in New York take action to reduce their incarcerated populations through releases. She wondered if other facilities around the U.S. were doing the same—and whether any of it was being systematically tracked. When she found it wasn’t, she joined forces with [Sharon] Dolovich, who had started a collaborative spreadsheet to document criminal justice responses to COVID-19. The spreadsheet, which Dolovich first conceived in early March as a tool for personal research, quickly became the UCLA School of Law COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project.”

Medium: Covid-19 Superspreading Events Database. “SSEs appear to be the key driving force behind the current pandemic, so in order to have a better chance of containing the virus it is crucial to find out whether the many SSEs that took place around the world share certain characteristics. Knowing in what types of settings SSEs typically occur, may help prevent them from happening in the future. This database with 1,100+ SSEs from around the world may assist in this endeavour.”

UPDATES

NBC Los Angeles: Report: 40,000 Cruise Ship Workers Still Trapped at Sea. “More than 40,000 cruise ship workers are still stuck at sea because of concerns about the coronavirus. The Miami Herald reports that at least 42,000 workers remain trapped on cruise ships without paychecks, and some still are suffering from COVID-19, three months after the industry shut down.”

Texas Tribune: Texas coronavirus hospitalizations hit record highs for a full week. “Thursday marked the seventh consecutive day that Texas reported a record number of hospitalized coronavirus patients, with 2,947 people currently in hospitals being treated for COVID-19, according to data released Thursday by the Texas Department of State Health Services.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

Daily Mail: Sky will draw on 1,300 different chants, songs and crowd noise samples from EA Sports’ FIFA archive to enhance Premier League coverage as season resumes behind closed doors (and don’t worry, swearing HAS been filtered out!). “Sky Sports will take advantage of an archive of 1,300 chants and crowd noises recorded for the popular FIFA video game series to enhance their Premier League coverage. With top-flight action set to unfold without fans inside stadiums for at least the remainder of this season, efforts will be made to artificially replicate the atmosphere.”

FiveThirtyEight: Many White Americans Are Ready To Reopen The Economy. Black Americans Aren’t.. “….not all Americans are anxious for businesses to reopen. In fact, there is a fairly stark divide among white, black and Hispanic Americans in their responses to this question. Black Americans, in particular, still overwhelmingly favored keeping businesses closed. The AEI poll found that 82 percent of black Americans said it’s better for the government to take all necessary steps to ensure the public is safe, even if means keeping businesses closed for longer and hurting the economy, while only 16 percent said that businesses should be allowed to open back up if some are put at risk — a finding that was basically unchanged since March. A solid majority (65 percent) of Hispanic Americans also thought public health needs should come first, although that has fallen from 81 percent in March.”

CNBC: Powell warns of ‘significant uncertainty’ about the recovery and says small businesses are at risk. “Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned Tuesday about ‘significant uncertainty’ regarding the pace of the U.S. economic recovery and said small businesses and lower-income and minority Americans are particularly at risk.”

Counseling Today: Counseling Connoisseur: Death and bereavement during COVID-19. “The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has changed the way we do many things in our daily lives. The need for social distancing has resulted in virtual meetings replacing physical gatherings. Zoom conferencing can be awkward, and online happy hour isn’t as satisfying as hanging out with friends at your neighborhood bar. But, the loss of one particular kind of in-person gathering has been completely devastating: shared mourning rituals.”

BNN Bloomberg: Richest 25% of Americans cut spending the most during pandemic. “The richest quarter of Americans cut their consumer spending more than any other income group during the height of the pandemic, according to a study by a group of Harvard University researchers. As a result of high-income earners sharply reducing their expenditures, the revenues of businesses that cater to affluent households suffered, the study from Opportunity Insights, a Harvard research group led by Raj Chetty, John Friedman and Nathaniel Hendren, found.”

INSTITUTION / CORPORATE / GOVERNMENT

Getty Iris: 400 Artists and 80 Arts Organizations Receive $2.7 Million in COVID-19 Relief Grants. “Four hundred artists and 80 arts organizations received $2.7 million in total grants as part of a broad-based COVID-19 relief effort for the visual arts in the Los Angeles region. The emergency support was designed to reach individual artists throughout all areas of LA County and arts organizations that serve the region’s culturally diverse communities.”

ABC News: More than 1 out of 3 tested federal inmates were positive for coronavirus. “More than 35% of federal inmates who have tested for coronavirus were positive, according to data from The Bureau of Prisons. The agency says that of its 16,839 tested inmates, 6,060 have tested positive. In total, the BOP has tested more than 18,000 of its 163,441 federal inmates, with results pending in more than 2,300 cases.”

New York Times: As Meat Plants Stayed Open to Feed Americans, Exports to China Surged. “Smithfield Foods was the first company to warn in April that the coronavirus pandemic was pushing the United States ‘perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply.’ Tyson Foods also sounded the alarm, saying that ‘millions of pounds of meat will disappear’ from the nation’s supply chain as plants were being forced to close because of outbreaks. That same month, Smithfield sent China 9,170 tons of pork, one of its highest monthly export totals to that market in the past three years. Tyson exported 1,289 tons of pork to China, the most since January 2017.”

Montana Free Press: State will start tracking COVID-19 among nonresidents as cases emerge. “Amid a ‘concerning’ increase of positive COVID-19 cases this week, Gov. Steve Bullock on Wednesday said the state will begin publicly reporting case numbers among visitors and part-time residents.”

ABC 13: The Children’s Place expected to close 300 stores amid struggles during COVID-19 pandemic. “The Children’s Place is the latest retailer to close several stores soon. After releasing its financial report last week, the popular children’s clothing company said it would close an additional 300 stores by the end of fiscal year 2021. Of the closures, 200 are planned for this year, with the remaining 100 planned for 2021. Like many retailers, The Children’s Place said at least some of its problems were due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closures.”

Politico: House coronavirus task force launches probe into nursing homes. “The House committee overseeing the federal response to the coronavirus crisis is launching a sweeping investigation into the country’s five largest for-profit nursing home companies, demanding details about their structure, executive compensation and preparedness for the coronavirus crisis.”

Thanks to Wallace S. for bringing this to my attention. ForeignLobby .com: Ecuador hires Obama PR man to improve reputation battered by coronavirus. “Ecuador has hired a Florida public relations firm run by President Barack Obama‘s former Hispanic media director to try to improve the country’s image as it faces the twin blows of the coronavirus epidemic and a global loss of confidence.”

Omaha World-Herald: Ricketts tells local governments they won’t get federal COVID-19 money if they require masks. “At his regular coronavirus press conferences, Gov. Pete Ricketts makes a point of urging Nebraskans to wear a mask when they go to a store. But when it comes to the state’s 93 courthouses and other local government offices, he doesn’t want local officials to require masks. In fact, he’s told local governments that they won’t receive any of the $100 million in federal COVID-19 money if their “customers” are required to wear masks.”

ProPublica: The Trump Administration Paid Millions for Test Tubes — and Got Unusable Mini Soda Bottles . “Since May, the Trump administration has paid a fledgling Texas company $7.3 million for test tubes needed in tracking the spread of the coronavirus nationwide. But, instead of the standard vials, Fillakit LLC has supplied plastic tubes made for bottling soda, which state health officials say are unusable.”

Deadline: California Coronavirus Update: Governor Gavin Newsom Mandates Masks In Public Spaces, With Some Exceptions. “On Wednesday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that everyone in the state will now be required to wear face masks in public. The order seeks to prevent those infected with coronavirus — but not showing symptoms — from spreading it, according to the California Department of Public Health.”

HEALTH

Wall Street Journal: How Exactly Do You Catch Covid-19? There Is a Growing Consensus. “Six months into the coronavirus crisis, there’s a growing consensus about a central question: How do people become infected? It’s not common to contract Covid-19 from a contaminated surface, scientists say. And fleeting encounters with people outdoors are unlikely to spread the coronavirus. Instead, the major culprit is close-up, person-to-person interactions for extended periods. Crowded events, poorly ventilated areas and places where people are talking loudly—or singing, in one famous case—maximize the risk.”

New York Times: Slowing the Coronavirus Is Speeding the Spread of Other Diseases. “This spring, after the World Health Organization and UNICEF warned that the pandemic could spread swiftly when children gathered for shots, many countries suspended their inoculation programs. Even in countries that tried to keep them going, cargo flights with vaccine supplies were halted by the pandemic and health workers diverted to fight it. Now, diphtheria is appearing in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.”

ProPublica: The Prison Was Built to Hold 1,500 Inmates. It Had Over 2,000 Coronavirus Cases.. “Nationwide, Marion [Correctional Institution] ranked as the largest recorded coronavirus outbreak of any U.S. institution in a New York Times analysis. Three other prisons, including another packed one in Scotia Township, Ohio, were in the top five. The fifth is the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. With fears that a second wave of infection will erupt in the fall, some state corrections officials are realizing the coronavirus is a wake-up call, forcing them to confront the problem of prison overcrowding. They’re considering how to achieve social distancing in confined spaces, where inmates are unable to do the only thing that has proven effective in stopping the viral spread.”

AP: Church tied to Oregon’s largest coronavirus outbreak. “A church in rural northeastern Oregon is now the epicenter of the state’s largest coronavirus outbreak, as 236 people tested positive for the disease, authorities said Tuesday.”

Politico: Missing data veils coronavirus damage to minority communities. “The coronavirus’ brutal impact on African Americans and other minorities may never be fully known because of consistent gaps in gathering data on race and ethnicity that persist more than four months into the pandemic.”

ProPublica: How America’s Hospitals Survived the First Wave of the Coronavirus. “ProPublica deputy managing editor Charles Ornstein wanted to know why experts were wrong when they said U.S. hospitals would be overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. Here’s what he learned, including what hospitals can do before the next wave.”

TECHNOLOGY

Embry-Riddle: Graduate Student Launches Nonprofit to Produce 3D-Printed Face Shields for Florida Hospitals. “Andrew [McClary] is a maker, or a person skilled in coding, using embedded electronics, computer-aided design and all things software- and hardware-related. Like many makers, he has used this passion to create and experiment with his own designs and products — the most recent of which he hopes will make a positive impact in the lives of healthcare workers on the front lines of the Covid-19 global pandemic.”

RESEARCH

Financial Advisor: Volunteers Are Lining Up To Be Infected With The Coronavirus. “When Gavriel Kleinwaks was a child, she was captivated by the story of Jonas Salk, the vaccine pioneer who tested a potential polio shot on himself, his wife and children in 1953. Nationwide trials seen as the biggest public-health experiment ever later proved that it worked. Now Kleinwaks is signing up to take part in another high-stakes experiment. The doctoral student at the University of Colorado is one of almost 30,000 volunteers willing to deliberately expose themselves to the coronavirus to test a potential vaccine, should researchers decide to proceed.”

National Institute on Drug Abuse: NIDA Researchers Adapt Their Projects to Study COVID-19. “The U.S. is now facing two intersecting health crises, the ongoing opioid overdose epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. Regrettably, each has the potential to exacerbate the effects of the other. In March, NIDA released a Notice of Special Interest to alert researchers with existing grants to our interest in supporting applications for administrative supplements and urgent competitive revisions that could be used to investigate aspects of COVID-19 as they intersect with substance use and related areas in NIDA’s research portfolio, like HIV. These applications are being reviewed on a rolling timeline (and we will continue to update this blog as new supplements are awarded).”

SECURITY / LEGAL

Washington Post: Judge denies Oklahoma residents’ bid to block Trump’s rally because of coronavirus fears. “A Tulsa judge on Tuesday denied an effort by city residents and business owners to block President Trump from holding an indoor campaign rally this weekend that some fear could further the spread of the coronavirus. The lawsuit in the district court of Tulsa County sought a temporary injunction against the company that manages the 19,000-seat venue, the BOK Center, ‘to protect against a substantial, imminent, and deadly risk to the community,’ according to a copy of the complaint. Judge Rebecca Nightingale denied the request.”

Mother Jones: “Don’t Give Up”: A Woman’s Fight to Save Her Brother From a COVID-Plagued ICE Jail. “On April 13, Raúl Luna González told his sister Margarita Albarrán Luna that he was trying to hide symptoms of COVID-19 from the staff of the Louisiana immigration detention center where he was being held. People with fevers at the Richwood Correctional Center were being moved to solitary confinement while they awaited test results. Luna had survived too much to risk dying alone in a cell: colon cancer, a kidnapping in Mexico, and a year in detention, a grim milestone he’d just passed. When they spoke later that week, Luna was feeling worse. He said he’d call back the following day. Then he went silent. As Albarrán tried to find out what had happened to her brother, the number of COVID-19 cases at Richwood rose to 20, the most of any detention center in the country to that point.”

OPINION

Tulsa World: I’m a Tulsa emergency physician and conservative, and the Trump rally is a terrible idea. “As a practicing emergency physician in Tulsa for the past 10 years, I have great concerns about the ramifications of the planned campaign rally for President Donald Trump on Saturday.”

POLITICS

Reuters: Putin says Russia’s handling of coronavirus is superior to U.S.. “President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russia was emerging from the novel coronavirus epidemic with minimal losses, having handled it better than the United States where he said party political interests got in the way.”

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