coronabuzz

Wednesday CoronaBuzz, August 5, 2020: 38 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.

I set this up yesterday morning before I left for Granny’s AND I FORGOT TO SCHEDULE IT! I’m a ninny! There will be another one later today.

Please wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay at home if you can. Please be careful. I love you.

UPDATES

BBC: Europe lockdown: New coronavirus curbs country by country. “Restrictions to deal with new coronavirus outbreaks have been imposed in parts of Europe since lockdowns were eased. So what are these measures and how do they compare in different countries?”

Reuters: Brazilian President Bolsonaro says he has ‘mold’ in lungs. “Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday he was taking antibiotics for an infection that left him feeling weak, chuckling in an online video about ‘mold’ in his lungs, having spent weeks in isolation after catching the novel coronavirus.”

FACT CHECKS / MISINFORMATION

Stars and Stripes: Officials dispute Trump’s claim that military is preparing COVID-19 vaccine distribution. “President Donald Trump says the U.S. military has an elaborate plan to distribute a coronavirus vaccine across the country at rapid speed. But defense and administration officials say otherwise. It is unlikely the military will be involved, either in the distribution of a vaccine or in deciding who gets those precious initial deliveries, officials from both the White House and the Defense Department said.”

BBC: Coronavirus: Three Biden claims about Trump fact-checked. “Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has made several claims about President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. Mr Biden says the president has ordered a slowdown in coronavirus testing, is failing to provide enough protective equipment for healthcare workers, and has attempted to block public-health funding. We’ve taken a look at these claims.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

Mass Live: A ‘strange effect’ of the COVID-19 pandemic: Coin shortage leaving stores, banks begging for loose change. “When the cash registers ran dangerously low of quarters this month, the owners of Fruit Fair supermarket took the drastic step of raiding their gumball machines. They aren’t alone in seeing coin supplies run dry. With many businesses shut down for months and customers concerned about spreading the coronavirus through cash, people are using coins less frequently — leading to a shortage of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters in circulation.”

Bloomberg Government: Pandemic Is Changing the Military, From Boot Camp to Office Work. “The U.S. military is finding its footing and changing how it operates as cases of the coronavirus keep rising. The services have been forced to continue widespread use of quarantines and to rethink future training, deploying, and day-to-day work. The virus curve has shot up from 10,462 cumulative cases in early June to 37,824 total cases by late July, according to the Defense Department. The figure includes more than 14,300 current infections among active-duty troops, as well as total cases reported among civilian workers, dependents and contractors since the pandemic began.”

Business Insider: Champagne sales are plummeting as celebrations get canceled amid the pandemic. “Champagne is losing its fizz. For months, lockdown put the cork on weddings, dining out, parties and international travel — all key sales components for the French luxury wine marketed for decades as a sparkling must at any celebration. Producers in France’s eastern Champagne region, headquarters of the global industry, say they’ve lost an estimated 1.7 billion euros ($2 billion) in sales for this year, as turnover fell by a third — a hammering unmatched in living memory, and worse than the Great Depression.”

Associated Press: Rent’s due, again: Monthly anxieties deepen as aid falls off. “The Associated Press reconnected with renters first interviewed ahead of their April payments. Four months later, some have returned to work. One saw her church step in to cover her rent. Some found landlords willing to negotiate, while others are still looking for relief.”

BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS

Variety: ‘This Is a Real Kick in the Shorts’: Small-Town Theaters Owners React to AMC’s VOD Pact With Universal. “Jeff Logan, owner of Logan Luxury Theatres, has been struggling to make ends meet for most of 2020. After being closed for months due to coronavirus, he recently reopened the three movie theaters he runs in South Dakota, screening classics like Indiana Jones and Star Wars. But ticket sales are slow and Logan’s cinemas are not making enough to cover their rent. Now, he’s concerned a new deal struck between Universal Pictures and AMC Theaters could deliver a gut punch.”

Publishers Weekly: Penguin Random House Extends Temporary E-book, Digital Audio Terms for Libraries. “As the pandemic continues to impact the country, Penguin Random House has announced that it is extending its temporary digital license terms for libraries through December 31, 2020.”

GOVERNMENT

NBC News: Diplomats plead with State Department not to rush return to offices. “More than 500 State Department employees are privately pleading with the Trump administration to pull back its decision to send up to 80 percent of its staff members in Washington back to work in person after an employee who works near Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s office tested positive for the coronavirus this week.”

New York Times: Hong Kong Delays Election, Citing Coronavirus. The Opposition Isn’t Buying It.. “The Hong Kong government said on Friday that it would postpone the city’s September legislative election by one year because of the coronavirus pandemic, a decision seen by the pro-democracy opposition as a brazen attempt to thwart its electoral momentum and avoid the defeat of pro-Beijing candidates.”

NPR: COVID-19 Hospital Data System That Bypasses CDC Plagued By Delays, Inaccuracies. “Earlier this month, when the Trump administration told hospitals to send crucial data about coronavirus cases and intensive care capacity to a new online system, it promised the change would be worth it. The data would be more complete and transparent and an improvement over the old platform run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, administration officials said. Instead, the public data hub created under the new system is updated erratically and is rife with inconsistencies and errors, data analysts say.”

CNN: Wisconsin’s governor makes face coverings mandatory in indoor spaces. “Wisconsin is one of the latest states to require citizens to wear a face covering when they’re indoors in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus. On Thursday, Gov. Tony Evers declared a public health emergency and issued an emergency order mandating people wear a face covering when not in a private residence, according to a statement from his office.”

SPORTS

ESPN: Sources: MLB commissioner warns of shutdown if coronavirus isn’t better managed. “Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred told MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark on Friday that if the sport doesn’t do a better job of managing the coronavirus, it could shut down for the season, sources familiar with the conversation told ESPN.”

Florida Sun-Sentinel: At least two Miami Dolphins players donate plasma after recovering from COVID-19. “At least two Miami Dolphins players have recovered bouts of coronavirus and want to help others recover from the pandemic disease. Dolphins rookie running back Malcolm Perry and outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel have donated convalescent plasma to help patients still fighting the virus, the team and the health company OneBlood announced in a joint press release Thursday.”

CNN: Covering the weirdest basketball season ever from inside the NBA bubble. “Shortly before Joe Vardon started covering last year’s NBA playoffs, the sports journalist took his family to Walt Disney World. Now, more than a year later, Vardon is back in Orlando, Florida — staying at the same Disney (DIS) hotel, in fact — but it’s a whole new world. Everyone is wearing masks. There are temperature checks at the entrances. And oh yes, there’s a deadly pandemic tearing across Florida, one of the country’s coronavirus hotspots.”

EDUCATION

Urban Institute: Teaching Through the COVID-19 Crisis. “Teachers’ challenges will vary by region, district policy, years of teaching experience, demographics of students, and, especially, their age. Though much of the discussion about teacher challenges has focused on health concerns of teachers older than 50, midcareer teachers and younger teachers may face their own challenges as they continue to educate from a distance or plan for returning to school this fall.”

Washington Post: D.C. Public Schools will start the academic year with all-virtual learning. “D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) announced Thursday that schools in the nation’s capital would start the 2020-2021 academic year all-virtual, a scenario that the city’s leaders had been trying to avoid. The decision isn’t a surprise. Coronavirus infection numbers are on the rise in the D.C. region, and neighboring school districts in Maryland and Northern Virginia have already canceled plans for in-person classes in the fall, saying they will begin with distance learning.”

Bangor Daily News: All Maine schools get the green light to reopen full time. “School districts in all of Maine’s 16 counties have the green light to reopen full time for all students, based on new information from the state. But state education officials expect most districts to combine in-person with remote learning when they reopen this fall.”

NY1: Mayor: City Schools Won’t Reopen if Coronavirus Infection Rate Rises Above 3 Percent. “New York City’s tracking indicators have remained below 3 percent since June 10, but de Blasio said an increase, measured on a seven-day rolling average, would trigger a delay in public schools reopening. This standard is two points lower than the 5 percent baseline set by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.”

HEALTH

The Guardian: Baldness and rashes? Experts split over unusual Covid-19 risk factors and symptoms. “From hearing loss and rashes, to being tall and bald, as the Covid-19 pandemic develops, a host of new symptoms and risk factors are being linked to the virus. We take a look at the evidence.”

Business Insider: A healthy woman had no typical coronavirus symptoms. Then she suffered paralysis, lost her ability to speak, and almost died of COVID-19.. “When Rebecca Wrixon was admitted to the emergency department in mid-April with numbness in her right arm and foot, it didn’t occur to her that she might have COVID-19. She thought she was having a stroke. Her doctors at University Hospital Southampton, in England, thought the same, especially as she began to struggle with speech and vision shortly after her admission. But tests revealed no sign of stroke and Wrixon’s condition continued to deteriorate. The doctors ordered another test — a throat swab for COVID-19, which was becoming standard practice in hospitals since the pandemic was declared. Wrixon tested positive for the virus.”

Men’s Health: So, Uh, Is It Safe to Have Sex With People at This Point in the Coronavirus Pandemic?. “Now that parts of the country are re-opening, many of the nation’s singles are thinking about resuming their sex lives—but how safe is that, really? We talked to various medical experts, all of whom stressed that we still don’t know everything about how COVID-19 transmitted. Still, they recognize dating and sex are inevitable—so here’s their best advice.”

ProPublica: How Many People in the U.S. Are Hospitalized With COVID-19? Who Knows?. “The Trump administration told hospitals to stop reporting data to the CDC, and report it to HHS instead. Vice President Mike Pence said the information would continue to be released publicly. It hasn’t worked out as promised.”

Los Angeles Times: Fears grow that releasing thousands of California prisoners will spread COVID-19 into communities. “Missteps by corrections officials handling releases from state prisons are fueling fears in some California counties that thousands of inmates eligible for early release will spread the coronavirus in their communities. Across the state, county probation officials and others on the front lines of the release of as many as 8,000 inmates by the end of August have complained that prisoners were recently freed with little notice to local authorities and without appropriate transportation or quarantine housing — and in some cases, no clear indication they were virus-free.”

OUTBREAKS

Yahoo News: Miami-Dade ICUs at 146% capacity with coronavirus patients, according to federal document. “Hospitals in the Miami area have been so overwhelmed by coronavirus patients that intensive care units are now operating well beyond full capacity, according to a federal pandemic update obtained by Yahoo News. The information comes from the ‘senior leadership brief’ for July 27 prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, and distributed to federal agencies involved in the pandemic crisis. The document includes detailed analyses on various aspects of the crisis, from emerging hot spots to supply chain updates.”

NBC News: 260 children and staff at Georgia overnight camp test positive for coronavirus, CDC says. “A coronavirus outbreak was reported at an overnight summer camp in Georgia that did not require campers to wear face masks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study Friday on the outbreak that infected 260 campers and staff, saying that it shows children are susceptible to the virus and ‘play an important role in transmission.'”

BBC: Coronavirus: Queensland to close border to New South Wales. “Australia’s Queensland will extend its border closure to New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) to halt the spread of coronavirus from south-eastern states. It has already shut to Victoria – the centre of Australia’s second wave – amid an outbreak in Melbourne.”

TECHNOLOGY

CNET: How COVID-19 is impacting jobs in the tech industry. “COVID-19 has caused widespread economic damage to the tech sector, Indeed said in a report released Thursday. There are fewer tech job postings due to the coronavirus pandemic, while more people have been searching in the field, according to the job search website. Indeed, which looked through 564 tech-related job titles for the report, found data science was the hardest hit, with up to 51% fewer jobs advertised compared to a year ago for this role. Next was IT management, security and quality assurance, software development, system engineering, and IT operations and help desk.”

RESEARCH

Associated Press: Doctors try pressurized oxygen chambers in COVID fight. “As a New York University medical researcher who works once a week in an emergency room, Dr. David Lee had the luxury of time to think like a scientist while also treating coronavirus patients whose lungs kept giving out. In every case, he saw the same thing: Their blood was starved of oxygen. One day an idea hit him: Could hyperbaric oxygen therapy, best known for treating divers with the bends, help stave off the need for ventilators and perhaps reduce deaths?”

CNN: Researchers publish scathing critique of a hydroxychloroquine study touted by the White House. “Researchers on Wednesday published scathing critiques of a study President Trump repeatedly touted on Twitter. That study, published earlier this month in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, claimed to show that hydroxychloroquine saved lives. President Trump tweeted about it enthusiastically.”

CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL

Bloomberg Law: Zoom Courts Will Stick Around as Virus Forces Seismic Change. “Virtual court proceedings will probably outlive the Covid-19 pandemic, as even skeptical judges and lawyers say that they’ve made depositions, oral arguments, and jury selection much more efficient. Courts forced to accelerate years of innovation into weeks may never go back to how they did business before the pandemic, according to interviews with more than 30 state and federal judges, lawyers and court staff in 16 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The embrace of technology is a revolution for many courts that have historically resisted it.”

Detroit News: Oakland Co. girl jailed for not doing homework gets released. “A 15-year-old Oakland County girl whose monthslong detainment drew national condemnation because it was punishment for missed homework amid the pandemic was released Friday evening to the custody of her mother. The Michigan Court of Appeals ordered the girl’s release earlier Friday from Children’s Village, a juvenile detention facility in Pontiac, following outrage, marches and public pressure from former presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.”

OH THAT’S SO NICE

Washington Post: A woman was hospitalized with covid-19. One of her aides turned out to be her long-lost sister.. “It was a regular day at the Nebraska rehabilitation center last month when Bev Boro, a medication aide, looked over her patient list. Suddenly, a name on the list stopped her cold: Doris Crippen. ‘I kept saying, “Oh my God,”‘ said Boro, 53. ‘That must be her.’ She had not seen her older sister in more than 50 years, though the two had long been searching for each other.”

BBC: Letter from Africa: How African generosity dried a crying teacher’s tears. “In our series of letters from African journalists, Kenyan Joseph Warungu looks at the acts of generosity helping ordinary people through desperately trying times.”

OPINION

New York Times: A Cheap, Simple Way to Control the Coronavirus. “Simple at-home tests for the coronavirus, some that involve spitting into a small tube of solution, could be the key to expanding testing and impeding the spread of the pandemic. The Food and Drug Administration should encourage their development and then fast track approval.”

POLITICS

Politico: Pelosi and McConnell resist testing for lawmakers as anxiety spikes. “Congressional leaders are digging in on their refusal to mandate regular coronavirus testing for lawmakers, despite growing calls to do so from both inside and outside the Capitol. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected an offer from the administration to provide rapid tests to lawmakers in early May — citing concerns about logistics as well as the appearance of giving lawmakers preferential treatment.”

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