1232: GuangoCast

CCP controls people

Technology

Social Standing

Sets policy

Harvard School of Public Health

End game is Testing and vaccine

Trump is against

Wells Fargo: They are holding the PPP hostage to get their asset cap lifted.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 10:56

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Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 18:08

Replying to

@chrisbergPOVNOW @lee_ritz and

2 others I think if true, requires some explaining? Publish the documents here. If we are shutting down our country and using numbers to do it, we better trust our numbers. If when I was a resident I made up numbers and presented them as truth, I wouldn't be a surgeon today.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:56

Justin Trudeau I 'Moistly' Regret Saying This ... 'What A Terrible Image!!!' 4/7/2020 11:40 AM PT CTV NewsHere's Justin Trudeau putting a super-gross image in the minds of Canadians dealing with the coronavirus pandemic -- he says face coverings prevent you from "speaking moistly."

Canada's Prime Minister uttered the phrase Tuesday during his daily address on the virus ... and ya gotta see the video, because he's getting roasted online!!!

It's kinda hilarious, but mostly awkward ... Justin's talking about the benefits of protective face masks when he says "it prevents you from breathing or speaking moistly" on others.

The PM instantly knew he'd just stepped in it. He paused, then admitted he'd just given life to a "terrible image."

3/30/20 Fox NewsSee, America? It's not just our leaders who put their feet in their mouths during virus briefings. As they say, misery loves company.

Jump in, Canada ... the water's warm. Ya might even say moist. Ewww

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:55

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:40

Lawyer and legal commentator David Lat was hospitalized for 17 days with coronavirus, including a week on a ventilator, and chronicled his experience on social media. Joining TODAY from his home along with his husband, Zach Shemtob, he says that he's still hoarse from his time on the ventilator, but ''I'm glad to be on the road to recovery.'' He explains that exercise-induced asthma aggravated his condition. Shemtob says it was ''a terrifying ordeal.'' April 6, 2020

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:38

April 7, 2020 at 11:15 pmBRIGHTON, Colo. (CBS4) '' The city of Brighton apologized to a resident after police detained him while investigating a complaint at Donelson Park. Police responded on Sunday afternoon to 12-15 people playing softball.

The city says officers asked the group to leave because the park was closed, but city officials say that was not correct. The residents needed to disperse according to a state public health order which prohibits groups larger than 10 gathering.

''While the investigation sorts through the different versions of what took place by witnesses who were at the park, it is evident there was an overreach by our police officers,'' the city stated.

Acting City Manager Marv Falconburg apologized to Matt Mooney by phone and offered an in person meeting with himself and Brighton Police Commander Frank Acosta. Mooney reportedly declined.

Falconburg says officers are required to know state public health orders and other local closures. He says there may have been a misunderstanding about the park closure.

''We are deeply sorry for the events that took place on Sunday and the impact on Mr. Mooney, his family, and the community,'' he said.

An investigation into why officers detained the resident is ongoing. Details about any disciplinary action on the officer or officers were not released.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:22

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A Los Angeles doctor said he is seeing significant success in prescribing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc to treat patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19.

Hydroxychloroquine has been touted as a possible treatment for COVID-19 by President Trump among others, but it remains controversial as some experts believe it is unproven and may not be effective.

The drug has long been used for treatment of malaria and conditions such as lupus and arthritis but is not technically approved by the FDA for COVID-19. The agency, however, is encouraging trials and has provided

limited emergency authorization for its use to treat COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Anthony Cardillo said he has seen very promising results when prescribing hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc for the most severely-ill COVID-19 patients.

"Every patient I've prescribed it to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free," Cardillo told Eyewitness News. "So clinically I am seeing a resolution."

Cardillo is the CEO of Mend Urgent Care, which has locations in Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys and Burbank.

He said he has found it only works if combined with zinc. The drug, he said, opens a channel for the zinc to enter the cell and block virus replication.

He added that the drug should not be prescribed for those who are presenting only mild symptoms, as there are concerns about shortages for patients with other conditions who need to take the drug on a regular basis.

"We have to be cautious and mindful that we don't prescribe it for patients who have COVID who are well," Cardillo said. "It should be reserved for people who are really sick, in the hospital or at home very sick, who need that medication. Otherwise we're going to blow through our supply for patients that take it regularly for other disease processes."

Full interview: Dr. Anthony Cardillo of Mend Urgent Care in Los AngelesChloroquine, or hydroxychloroquine, has been approved to treat and prevent malaria since 1944. Because the drug is on the market, doctors can use it for off-label purposes.

President Trump has touted it as a possible cure, but the government's top coronavirus expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been much more cautious, saying there is only "anecdotal evidence" demonstrating its effectiveness.

Experts are also concerned about potential misuse. A man in Arizona died after taking what he thought was a similar substance, chloroquine phosphate, in an apparent attempt to self-medicate. The man did not take the pharmaceutical version of the drug, but a substance used at aquariums to clean fish tanks.

MORE: Chloroquine shortage concerns mount as Trump touts malaria drug as possible COVID-19 treatmentThe FDA advises against taking any form of chloroquine unless prescribed by a doctor and obtained from a legitimate source.

Another drug that has shown some potential for treating COVID-19 is remdesivir, a drug that was initially developed as a potential treatment for Ebola. A Palo Alto woman was accepted into a clinical trial for remdesivir and said it was effective in improving her condition.

Copyright (C) 2020 KABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 14:44

Log in Sign up Breaking911 @ Breaking911 After President Trump threatened to stop funding the WHO, director-general says you shouldn't politicize the virus unless you ''want more body bags.''"Please quarantine from politicizing COVID."

pic.twitter.com/kUzcQVewxW 11:23 AM - 8 Apr 2020 Twitter by: ABC News @ABC Mike D. @ luckymiked

1h Replying to

@Breaking911 pic.twitter.com/RamajkIFox View conversation · eagle11 @ EagleLand11

1h Replying to

@luckymiked @Breaking911 I don't know where you found this pic but I'm loving it right now !!ðŸ‚ðŸ‚

View conversation · wave function @ WebsiteAbuser

1h Replying to

@Breaking911 pic.twitter.com/n408kHVDX0 View conversation · Bonny Vickers @ BonnyTulo2

1h Replying to

@Breaking911 Hey mister WHO

pic.twitter.com/s77OdHYy12 View conversation · JitneyHuggins @ JitneyH

1h Replying to

@Breaking911 Is that a threat?

View conversation · Dawn 🇺🇸🎗🗽'''¸ðŸ @ Dawn30056007

1h Replying to

@JitneyH @Breaking911 SURE sounds like it....BRING IT ON!!!!

View conversation · Cell Saga was the Best Saga @ PrisciXa

1h Replying to

@Breaking911 This was a threat if I ever seen one.

View conversation · UncommonFaith '''🇺🇸 @ LibertyForUSA

1h Replying to

@Breaking911 It's time to cut them off.

View conversation · Magis @ MagisMusic

1h Replying to

@Breaking911 ''Fund me or die'' - WHO

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 10:33

If only Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had been wearing a mask at his coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, he might've been able to hide his look of instant regret after he said masks prevent people from speaking ''moistly'' on others.

Trudeau was touting the benefits of Canadians wearing masks during the COVID-19 crisis when he appeared to ad-lib some of those benefits in a not-so-slick way that triggered strong reactions on social media.

READ MORE:COVIDIOTS '-- New name for shaming ignorant, selfish coronavirus reactions

''[A mask] protects others more than it protects you,'' Trudeau said, before slowing down to search for the right words.

''It prevents you from breathing or speaking moistly on them,'' Trudeau said, then instantly regretted.

''What a terrible image,'' he immediately muttered after the misstep, shaking his head before plunging forward. ''But it actually is something that people can do in certain situations.''

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Trudeau was clearly kicking himself after the cringe-inducing comment, but that didn't earn him a pass on social media, where critics piled on to laugh at the bizarre comment.

''How many people are uncomfortable with 'moistly'?'' one user asked.

''This is why Trudeau ALWAYS reads from a script written for him,'' another user wrote. ''When he has to think on his own two feet, this is what comes out.''

Another user edited the video to present it as one of Canada's Heritage Minutes.

I've been waiting for Justin Trudeau to speak moistly since he was elected.

'-- smerobin (@smerobin) April 7, 2020

It's very important we listen to our government officials when practicing proper social distancing protocols. For example, when Justin Trudeau says that it's okay for people to wear non-medical masks because it protects you from "breathing or speaking moistly", you should listen. pic.twitter.com/K73hrRccu0

'-- Alissa Golob (@alissagolob) April 7, 2020

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Several were quick to add ''moistly'' to the list of Trudeau's most memorable verbal blunders, joining such comments as ''peoplekind'' and ''paper drink box water bottle.''

However, others saw the PM's comment as a real '-- albeit awkwardly phrased '-- annoyance that should be addressed.

[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]

''I don't like people breathing or 'speaking moistly' on me,'' one supporter said. ''I relate to this speech 100 per cent and I despise anybody who thinks it's okay to be speaking moistly on others.''

READ MORE: Turkmenistan bans use of the word 'coronavirus'

''Trudeau really knows how to lighten the mood,'' said another person.

''Trudeau has inadvertently created a horrible new phrase that I intend to immediately start using,'' added another user.

Justin Trudeau says not to be speaking moistly on anyone so y'all better listen

'-- áƒÓ¨á‚BY GЯΛDY (@gradycolby) April 7, 2020

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Trudeau just said in his national press conference that a mask ''will protect other people more than you, as it will prevent you from speaking moistly on others''. Please everyone out there try and avoid #speakingmoistly on others! 🤣

'-- Tbear #FinsUp (@Bigbeav72) April 7, 2020

Several people took the comment in a completely different direction, riffing off of a memorable quote from the film Aliens, in which a child says that the monsters ''mostly come out at night. Mostly.''

"They Moistly come out at night.. Moistly.. 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/rylKYIDCr3

'-- Rick McConnell (@RickMcConnell15) April 8, 2020

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Others suggested that Trudeau had come up with a new way of complaining about an old issue during the coronavirus pandemic.

''The perfect alternative to 'say it, don't spray it,''' user Melanie Putz tweeted.

Counter-terrorism expert Mubin Shaikh offered a more succinct way of summing up Trudeau's message via Twitter.

''We encourage all Canadians to .. say it, don't spray it,'' he wrote.

Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:

Health officials caution against all international travel. Returning travellers are legally obligated to self-isolate for 14 days, beginning March 26, in case they develop symptoms and to prevent spreading the virus to others. Some provinces and territories have also implemented additional recommendations or enforcement measures to ensure those returning to the area self-isolate.

Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing '-- very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.

To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out.

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For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News,

click here.

Follow @JoshKElliott(C) 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 06:58

Ian @ NYPlasticDoc

12h Replying to

@alexsalvinews Fell off building, shot to death, suicide, car wreck....COVID death. Quarantine New York like Escape from New York and slowly reopen USA. Any guess where quarantine zones will be located?

View conversation · Heidi Steinhauer @ HeidiSteinhauer

12h Replying to

@NYPlasticDoc @alexsalvinews MURDER??? Seems like the perfect time to get away with it! This is getting ridiculous! Has America been dumbed down this much?

View conversation · JenAlise @ abundantly_full

12h Replying to

@alexsalvinews @OANN Inaccurate numbers, fear mongering, Birx and Fauci should be ashamed!

View conversation · Chem Asi Hambal @ AsiHambal

12h Replying to

@alexsalvinews @OANN They're rushing to admit what they're doing because people are speaking the truth, so they are putting it out there so that they don't look like they're lying. Not working

View conversation · scorpionqueen @ scorpio66337894

12h Replying to

@alexsalvinews @OANN These two doctors need to go!

View conversation · chestychastain @ chestychastain

12h Replying to

@alexsalvinews @OANN pic.twitter.com/XhXhuXe3tx View conversation · Dex @ DexDeLaRosa

12h Replying to

@alexsalvinews @OANN WTF??? So what's the true number? 5,000? 4,000?

View conversation · Sunshine8 @ Sunshin19962036

11h Replying to

@DexDeLaRosa @alexsalvinews @OANN Probably less

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 06:54

Log in Sign up China in Focus - NTD @ ChinaInFocusNTD A funeral home director in Taiwan recently received an urgent order of 200,000 body bags from China. This comes as more countries question China's

#CCPVirus (

#coronavirus) number. Some Taiwanese funeral operators are also producing an alarming number of body bags for

#China.

pic.twitter.com/7EWMW0Z1so 5:00 AM - 7 Apr 2020 Twitter by: China in Focus - NTD @ChinaInFocusNTD JuanK1962 @ K1962Juan

22h Replying to

@ChinaInFocusNTD @PamelaGeller China is been lying since the beginning, they hide the epidemic denying it's existence, now china should pay to the rest of the world for this negligence

View conversation · kelvin Whitney @ Whitnkr

21h Replying to

@ChinaInFocusNTD Why request bodybags if cremation is their plan

View conversation · ''¤¸ @ PhyIis

21h Replying to

@Whitnkr @ChinaInFocusNTD The body bags are for transporting the bodies to the crematorium. How quickly the world forgets that the

#CCP locked many of the Chinese people into their homes and neighborhoods and left them to die.

twitter.com/phyiis/status/'... pic.twitter.com/HMhtIvvU4j View conversation · Optimistic Engineer @ NTDavis

23h Replying to

@ChinaInFocusNTD Shooting deaths are up.

pic.twitter.com/8VU2MwmElM View conversation · audrey strein @ audreys110

21h Replying to

@ChinaInFocusNTD @EpochTimes I believe everything that happens or doesn't happen in China is psyops China is intelligent, evil and demented and will manipulate anything to their advantage. I believe those videos of the severe lockdown was to influence us to start locking down our people

View conversation · Roger Grant @ RogerGr13218471

23h Replying to

@ChinaInFocusNTD I'm sure China must be getting these body bags so they can donate them to afflicted countries in an outreach humanitarian program. That must be it.

View conversation · IglOoO @ T_IglOoO

16h Replying to

@RogerGr13218471 @ChinaInFocusNTD Obviously, you're right sir.

View conversation · SRK @ sanjeevkasliwal

21h Replying to

@ChinaInFocusNTD @news_ntd Hoarding of body bags, so as to make panic in other countries

View conversation · audrey strein @ audreys110

21h Replying to

@sanjeevkasliwal @ChinaInFocusNTD @news_ntd Yes and that's why they did that lockdown and had all those propaganda videos out so all other countries would follow suit we are collapsing economically around the world and China will prosper and gobble everything up. This is not only a virus it's a psyop game

View conversation · Manish Mediratta @ ManishMediratta

23h Replying to

@ChinaInFocusNTD Or may be to Re-export ?? With stamp : Made in

#China 🤣

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 06:53

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 06:27

Published Wed, Apr 8 2020 2:21 AM EDT

Updated an hour ago

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Businesses activity has been put on hold across the region and that's pressured governments to take bold action to support companies and citizens.However, after 16 hours of talks, the finance ministers remain divided over how best to provide loans and whether to go as far as issuing joint EU debt.Euro zone finance ministers are used to pull all-nighters to reach an agreement, but their actions to address the ongoing pandemic are being closely monitored.Mario Centeno, Portugal's finance minister and head of the group of euro-area finance ministers, listens during a press conference following a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018.

Euro zone finance ministers failed to reach an agreement Wednesday on how to provide additional stimulus to weather the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 virus, which emerged in China in late 2019, has brought the major European economies to a halt. Businesses activity has been put on hold across the region and that's pressured governments to take bold action to support companies and citizens.

However, after 16 hours of talks, the finance ministers remain divided over how best to provide loans and whether to go as far as issuing joint EU debt.

"We came close to a deal but we are not there yet," Mario Centeno, who chairs the meetings among the 19 ministers, said on Twitter.

The group had been working on a new credit line to be provided by the European Stability Mechanism '-- an emergency fund that was set up in the wake of the sovereign debt crisis. A few of the countries '-- in particular, the Netherlands '--were pushing for some conditionality attached to the loans. However, other nations, such as Italy and Spain, did not want any fiscal targets in exchange for new funding.

Ministers were also divided over developing a new debt instrument. Italy, France, Spain, Ireland and Luxembourg were pushing for a written commitment to work towards joint debt issuance. However, opposition '-- again, mainly from the Netherlands '-- has blocked this idea so far.

Wopke Hoekstra, the Dutch finance minister, said Wednesday morning that his country "was and remains against the idea of euro bonds (an instrument that would combine European securities)."

"We think this will create more problems than solutions for the EU. We would have to guarantee debts of other countries which isn't reasonable," the minister said on Twitter.

Euro zone finance ministers are used to pulling all-night meetings to reach an agreement, but their actions to address the ongoing pandemic are being closely monitored.

"The lengthy delays and intense jostling will tarnish whatever measures are eventually agreed," Florian Hense, economist at Berenberg bank, said Wednesday in an email.

He warned that "in the long run, the way in which the EU and the euro zone are perceived to react to the unprecedented emergency of the Covid-19 pandemic can shape attitudes to European integration for decades to come."

Anti-EU parties have been quick to react to the ongoing stalemate.

Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-EU Lega party in Italy, said yesterday he doesn't trust loans coming from the EU and he doesn't want Italy to ask Berlin or Brussels for more money.

Meanwhile, in Germany, Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), which entered the German Parliament for the first time in 2017, has spoken out against corona bonds '-- another plan to address potential EU debt issuance to fund some of the costs of the pandemic. A spokesman for the AfD said neither the coronavirus nor the euro "justify that German taxpayers are bled for the debt of the whole EU."

European ministers will meet again Thursday as they seek to overcome these two differences.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 06:02

As the novel coronavirus sweeps across the United States, it appears to be infecting and killing black Americans at a disproportionately high rate, according to a Washington Post analysis of early data from jurisdictions across the country.

The emerging stark racial disparity led the surgeon general Tuesday to acknowledge in personal terms the increased risk for African Americans amid growing demands that public-health officials release more data on the race of those who are sick, hospitalized and dying of a contagion that has killed more than 12,000 people in the United States.

A Post analysis of available data and census demographics shows that counties that are majority-black have three times the rate of infections and almost six times the rate of deaths as counties where white residents are in the majority.

African Americans by percentage of population and share of coronavirus deaths Only a few jurisdictions publicly report coronavirus cases and deaths by race. In Milwaukee County, home to Wisconsin's largest city, African Americans account for about 70 percent of the dead but just 26 percent of the population. The disparity is similar in Louisiana, where 70 percent of the people who have died were black, although African Americans make up just 32 percent of the state's population.

In Michigan, where the state's 845 reported deaths outrank all but New York's and New Jersey's, African Americans account for 33 percent of cases and roughly 40 percent of deaths, despite comprising only 14 percent of the population. The state does not offer a breakdown of race by county or city, but more than a quarter of deaths occurred in Detroit, where African Americans make up 79 percent of the population.

And in Illinois, a disparity nearly identical to Michigan's exists at the state level, but the picture becomes far starker when looking at data just from Chicago, where black residents have died at a rate six times that of white residents. Of the city's 118 reported deaths, nearly 70 percent were black '-- a share 40 points greater than the percentage of African Americans living in Chicago.

[Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.]

County majority Counties Cases per 100k Deaths per 100k Asian 6 19.5 .4 Black 131 137.5 6.3 Hispanic 124 27.2 .6 White 2,879 39.8 1.1 Note: Data per 100k based on averages. Source: Johns Hopkins University and American Community Survey.President Trump publicly acknowledged for the first time the racial disparity at the White House task force briefing Tuesday.

''We are doing everything in our power to address this challenge, and it's a tremendous challenge,'' Trump said. ''It's terrible.'' He added that Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, ''is looking at it very strongly."

''Why is it three or four times more so for the black community as opposed to other people?'' Trump said. ''It doesn't make sense, and I don't like it, and we are going to have statistics over the next probably two to three days.''

Detailed data on the race of coronavirus patients has been reported publicly in fewer than a dozen states and several more counties.

African Americans' higher rates of diabetes, heart disease and lung disease are well-documented, and Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) noted that those health problems make people more vulnerable to the new respiratory disease. But there never has been a pandemic that brought the disparities so vividly into focus.

The crisis is ''shining a bright light on how unacceptable'' those disparities are, Fauci said at the briefing. ''There is nothing we can do about it right now except to try and give'' African Americans ''the best possible care to avoid complications.''

''I've shared myself personally that I have high blood pressure,'' said Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who is 45, ''that I have heart disease and spent a week in the [intensive care unit] due to a heart condition, that I actually have asthma and I'm prediabetic, and so I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in America.''

Adams added, ''It breaks my heart'' to hear about higher covid-19 death rates in the black community, emphasizing that recommendations to stay at home to slow the spread are for everyone to follow.

On Monday, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and hundreds of doctors joined a group of Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), in demanding that the federal government release daily race and ethnicity data on coronavirus testing, patients and their health outcomes.

To date, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has only released figures by age and gender.

[Covid-19 is ravaging black communities. A Milwaukee neighborhood is figuring out how to fight back.]

Legislators, civic advocates and medical professionals say the information is needed to ensure that African Americans and other people of color have equal access to testing and treatment, and also to help to develop a public-health strategy to protect those who are more vulnerable.

In its letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the Lawyers' Committee said the Trump administration's ''alarming lack of transparency and data is preventing public health officials from understanding the full impact of this pandemic on Black communities and other communities of color.''

As pressure mounted, a CDC spokesman said Tuesday that the agency plans to include covid-19 hospitalizations by race and ethnicity in its next Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, more than six weeks after the first American died of the disease.

Health departments nationwide report coronavirus cases to the CDC using a standardized form that asks for a range of demographic information, including race and ethnicity. However, fields are often left blank and those local agencies are ''under a tremendous amount of strain to collect and report case information,'' said Scott Pauley, a CDC spokesman.

As the disease has spread in the United States, information on age, gender and county of residence also has been reported inconsistently and sporadically.

In some regions, lawmakers are pushing to fill the data gap on their own. Virginia reports the racial breakdown of its cases but not of its deaths. In neighboring Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said Tuesday the state would begin to release data about race, a day after more than 80 members of the House of Delegates sent him a letter asking for the information.

Del. Nick Mosby, a Democrat who represents Baltimore, has pushed for the data for weeks after he started hearing from friends, colleagues and his Omega Psi Phi fraternity brothers about black men who were infected or were dying of covid-19.

''It was kind of frightening,'' Mosby said. ''I started receiving calls about people I knew personally.''

In Washington, D.C., this week, district officials released race data for the first time, showing that the disease has killed African Americans in disproportionately high numbers. Nearly 60 percent of the District's 22 fatalities were black, but African Americans make up about 46 percent of the city's population.

Like many other jurisdictions, the District's health officials don't know the race of many people who have tested positive. In an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said that the city lacked race data on half of all positive cases but that the existing data was enough for her to be ''very fearful of the impact that this virus is going to have disproportionately on African Americans in our country.''

''We know that underlying conditions, like hypertension and diabetes and heart disease, this virus is particularly hard on,'' Bowser said. ''And we know that African Americans are living with those underlying conditions every day, probably in larger proportions than most of our fellow Americans."

Although the disparities have garnered national attention in recent days, some predominantly black communities have been rocked by the outbreak for the past several weeks '-- and not just in the nation's urban cities.

Dougherty County and the city of Albany, in rural southwest Georgia, have recorded the highest number of deaths in Georgia. Dougherty, with a population of 90,000, had 973 positive cases and 56 deaths as of Tuesday.

By contrast, Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and has a population of more than 1 million, had 1,185 cases and 39 deaths. Black residents make up 70 percent of Dougherty's population and more than 90 percent of coronavirus deaths, said county coroner Michel Fowler.

''Historically, when America catches a cold, black America catches pneumonia,'' Albany City Commissioner Demetrius Young said last week.

Elected officials and public-health experts have pointed to generations of discrimination and distrust between black communities and the health-care system. African Americans are also more likely to be uninsured and live in communities with inadequate health-care facilities.

As a result, African Americans have historically been disproportionately diagnosed with chronic diseases such as asthma, hypertension and diabetes '-- underlying conditions that experts say make covid-19 more lethal.

Critics of the public-health response have cited confusing messaging about how the virus is transmitted, such as an early emphasis on overseas travel, and have noted that some public officials were slow to issue stay-at-home directives to encourage social distancing.

Even then, some activists argued, black people might have been more exposed because many held low-wage or essential jobs, such as food service, public transit and health care, that required them to continue to interact with the public.

''This outbreak is exposing the deep structural inequities that make communities pushed to the margins more vulnerable to health crises in good times and in bad,'' Dorianne Mason, the director of health equity at the National Women's Law Center, said in a statement. ''These structural inequities in our health care system do not ignore racial and gender disparities '-- and neither should our response to this pandemic.''

David Montgomery, Ovetta Wiggins, Samantha Pell and Darran Simon contributed to this report.

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 20:45

A Michigan state lawmaker infected with COVID-19 is crediting the controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine with saving her life '-- saying she felt better within a few hours of taking her prescription.

Democratic state Rep. Karen Whitsett of Detroit told FOX News' ''The Ingraham Angle'' Monday that she went into home quarantine on March 12, the day she last attended a session at the State House in Lansing, and her condition only got worse from there.

''It took the longest [time] for me to actually be able to get an appointment and getting with my doctor, which was the 18th of March, and then actually getting the COVID test,'' Whitsett said on the program.

She initially thought she'd contracted a bout of pneumonia and was prescribed the antibiotic amoxicillin.

But then on March 31, she tested positive for COVID-19. By then, she said, her condition had ''just plummeted.''

Michigan state Rep. Karen Whitsett of Detroit appears on ''The Ingraham Angle'' Monday. FOX''It went from the headaches being severe to fluid building up in my lungs, to sweats breaking out to the cough and my breathing being labored,'' Whitsett said. ''It all happened in a matter of hours.''

At the hospital, Whitsett learned that the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, under Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, had issued a state order prohibiting the use of hydroxychloroquine. Though that order was retracted several days later, at the time, Whitsett struggled to get her hands on the medication.

''I did have a difficult time, even that day, obtaining the medication because of an order that was put down in my state,'' she said on the program. ''And it was on that day, so you can imagine how terrified I was that I had to beg and plead and go through a whole lot to try to get the medication.''

Whitsett suffers from chronic Lyme disease '-- for which hydroxychloroquine is also used as a treatment '-- but she said she had never thought of it as a potential coronavirus treatment until President Trump touted the drug.

''If President Trump had not talked about this, it wouldn't have been something that would be accessible for anyone to be able to get right now,'' the lawmaker said.

Whitsett was feeling better within hours of her first dose, she said.

''It has a lot to do with the president '... bringing it up,'' the freshman lawmaker told the Detroit Free Press. ''He is the only person who has the power to make it a priority.''

Trump tweeted the Free Press' story Monday.

''Congratulations to State Representative Karen Whitsett of Michigan,'' he wrote. ''So glad you are getting better!''

Trump has repeatedly highlighted the drug's ability to fight COVID-19, especially when combined with the antibiotic azithromycin. But health professionals have argued it is unproven and carries multiple risks. They also say Trump's promotion of the drug could lead to a shortage of the medication of those who normally use it for other illnesses.

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 20:01

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel explains when he believes life will get back to normal after the coronavirus, predicting that "the crisis is not going to go away in a few weeks or after the 30-day plan comes to an end.""Realistically, COVID-19 will be here for the next 18 months or more. We will not be able to return to normalcy until we find a vaccine or effective medications," e said. "I know that's dreadful news to hear. How are people supposed to find work if this goes on in some form for a year and a half? Is all that economic pain worth trying to stop COVID-19? The truth is we have no choice."

EZEKIEL EMANUEL: No one is immune to the COVID-19 virus. It threatens all of us. But while we are all experiencing the same pandemic, we are not experiencing it in the same way. The first dividing line is whether you or someone you love has gotten sick. Many Americans have not yet seen firsthand what devastation a positive test can inflict. Another dividing line is whether you have a job that lets you stay at home, working as you juggle child care and video chats. 60 million Americans are still out there not sheltering in place and instead tirelessly working to keep everything going for the rest of us. You keep the electricity flowing and the internet running, food and groceries moving. You are putting your own health on the line to ensure the rest of us are living as normally as possible. And then there are the tens of millions of Americans who have lost jobs and businesses, or who fear that they're just about to. Your anxiety about the virus is coupled with worry over having a paycheck, covering the mortgage, keeping the lights on, and buying food. Realistically, COVID-19 will be here for the next 18 months or more. We will not be able to return to normalcy until we find a vaccine or effective medications. I know that's dreadful news to hear. How are people supposed to find work if this goes on in some form for a year and a half? Is all that economic pain worth trying to stop COVID-19? The truth is we have no choice. If we prematurely end that physical distancing and the other measures keeping it at bay, deaths could skyrocket into the hundreds of thousands if not a million. We cannot return to normal until there's a vaccine. Conferences, concerts, sporting events, religious services, dinner in a restaurant, none of that will resume until we find a vaccine, a treatment, or a cure. One thing I've learned as a cancer doctor is that it's wrong to paint an overly rosy picture in order to maintain a patient's hope. It's wrong because it fails. It's false. Biology and disease are formidable opponents that inevitably tell us the truth. We cannot relieve the oppression of this pandemic until we are realistic. We need to prepare ourselves for this to last 18 months or so and for the toll that it will take. We need to develop a long-term solution based on those facts. It has to account for what we are losing while this fight goes on, things like schooling and income and contact with our friends and extended family. The crisis is not going to go away in a few weeks or after the 30-day plan comes to an end. Although COVID-19 is affecting us in different ways, we have to be up to it and fight together.

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V.A. SHIVA: "Dr.SHIVA LIVE: CITiZEN SCIENCE vs. Scientific Establishment. The Path to Truth Freedom Health."Sorry, this site requires JavaScript for full functionality. Please enable JavaScript in your browser and reload the page.

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 11:20

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 10:59

''There has been anecdotal evidence that it is promising; that's why we're going ahead.''

The MSM will likely shove this news to the back page because God forbid they acknowledge they jumped the gun when it comes to anti-malarial medicine hydroxychloroquine. They did it last Friday!

Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during his daily briefing that he wants President Donald Trump's administration to increase the hydroxychloroquine because tests at New York hospitals show promise.

From The Hill:

Asked about the progress of the trials at his daily press briefing, Cuomo noted that state officials have allowed use of the drug in combination with the antibiotic Zithromax in hospitals ''at their discretion.'' He said the federal government would increase supplies to New York pharmacies, but that New York has imposed a 14-day limit to protect the supplies for people who rely on it to treat other medical conditions.

''The tests in the hospital, they're too short a period of time to get a scientific report,'' Cuomo said. ''Hospital administrators, doctors want to have a significant data set before they give a formal opinion. Anecdotally, you'll get suggestions that it has been effective. But we don't have any official data yet from a hospital or a quote-unquote study, which will take weeks if not months.''

''There has been anecdotal evidence that it is promising; that's why we're going ahead,'' he added, noting that some patients have a pre-existing condition or medication regimen that prevents them from taking it.

JUST THIS MORNING Mika Brzezinski pondered on Morning Joe if Trump has taken an interest in hydroxychloroquine because he has a ''financial tie'' to the medicine:

Co-host Joe Scarborough pondered aloud why Trump has ''pushed an unproven drug'' when Brzezinski made the claim.

''A lot of people would say, follow the money. There's got to be some sort of financial tie to someone, somewhere that has the president pushing this repeatedly,'' Brzezinski said.

These people never fail to blow my mind. They have to purposely ignore and delete any information that detracts from their narrative.

Studies in France have shown that hydroxychloroquine has helped people with coronavirus.

Last Friday a poll found that doctors rate hydroxychloroquine as the most effective drug to treat the

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 10:24

Radical Centrist @ smuggawd

14h Replying to

@mooncult Jesus Christ

View conversation · á--მÆ...ð'--áƒ"ðŸ'¤ @ mooncult

14h Replying to

@smuggawd B O D I E D

View conversation · jeff benzos @ HandsomeIncel

14h Replying to

@mooncult It's honestly awesome how much he beats the shit out of corporate journalists lmfao

View conversation · á--მÆ...ð'--áƒ"ðŸ'¤ @ mooncult

14h Replying to

@HandsomeIncel twitter.com/mooncult/statu'... View conversation · SpacePatrol @ patrol_space

14h Replying to

@mooncult pic.twitter.com/r1LG1ycWmF View conversation · Hoo Dat @ BobJimDl

14h Replying to

@mooncult Jesus christ, maybe we deserve Corona, at the very least trump deserves to get it.

View conversation · Numbers Mcgee @ Numbers_Mcgee

13h Replying to

@BobJimDl @mooncult Trump probably already had it and used hydroxychloroquine.

View conversation · Stefan Agapie #BernieOrBust @ stefan_agapie

14h Replying to

@mooncult This guy will demolish Biden. It's over.

View conversation · Vins @ Carolinaweeper

14h Replying to

@mooncult They have the same look that early Tyson opponents had after round 1.

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 10:18

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 00:46

Log in Sign up TheLastRefuge @ TheLastRefuge2

2h Fauci gives ABC's Jonathan Karl the "good job" signal.

twitter.com/i/status/12473'... View details · Kathy @ kayms99 Replying to @TheLastRefuge2 Here is a wider shot..

twitter.com/JenniferJJacob'... 9:17 PM - 6 Apr 2020 M-m-m-my Corona @ QuickOne76

1h Replying to

@kayms99 @TheLastRefuge2 Wonder if someone is going to get this to the WH?

View conversation · BeyondTheBanter @ BeyondTheBantr

1h Replying to

@kayms99 @TheLastRefuge2 The reporter saluted Fauci

View conversation · Staci Repka @ StaciRepka

1h Replying to

@kayms99 @TheLastRefuge2 Karl salutes Fauci and then Fauci gives him the wink and point. What in the hell is going on ?

View conversation · Brenda Gish @ BrendaGish

12m Replying to

@kayms99 @TheLastRefuge2 and

2 others @realDonaldTrump @DonaldJTrumpJr At end of the press conference FYI...Fauci and Jonathan Karl of ABCKarl gives a salute to FauciFauci gives Karl a wink, finger point, and smile. ????

View conversation · Fawn Stoner @ fawnie14

1h Replying to

@kayms99 @TheLastRefuge2 Looked some kind of a signal or gesture from John as well. ðŸ'

View conversation · Terri Go Win 🇺🇸'š'¸ðŸ–¤ðŸ'›ðŸ''🇮🇱 @ terri_gowin

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@kayms99 @TheLastRefuge2 Thanks!

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 00:42

Monday on Fox Business Network's ''Mornings with Maria,'' Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus said instead of impeaching President Donald Trump. Congress should have been investigating the coronavirus pandemic in China in January.

Marcus said, ''I think that look this president has been hit with something that no president has ever had to deal with. I just resent the people that are going after him now. They are already talking about another impeachment. I hate to tell you that, that Adam Schiff is already investigating this.''

Bartiromo said, ''You are hitting on something that is really important because, for three years, Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff were looking for ghosts of Russia collusion. In doing so in terms of getting the country all crazy over the potential of collusion between the president and the Russians, they completely missed the bigger, much more dangerous actor, and that is China. China has been eating our lunch. We've got all this stuff produced in China that we need right now, including our active ingredients from prescription drugs. So now they want to do another investigative process of this president and yet throughout the Ukraine impeachment trial as well as the Russian collusion for three years all that time they missed so much that actually impacted Americans.

''Most importantly, in my view, is China. That is the story of the day. They are continuing to eat our lunch, and downplay this virus from the get-go,'' she continued.

Marcus responded, ''I could tell you this; this whole country was tied up for two and a half months on the impeachment. Nobody Congress was doing what they had to do. Their eyes were not on where it should have been. They should have been investigating what was happening with this pandemic had started in China. They were not aware of it because so they were so focused '-- The New York Times, and The Washington Post and everybody else was so focused on the impeachment, and you know, I think that everybody including the president, his eyes were focused on it also. I think that we lost sight of what was really happening around the corner, now it caught up with us.''

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 00:10

Lady Gaga joined the WHO coronavirus briefing to announce the "One World: Together at Home" virtual benefit concert on April 18 "to serve as a source of unity and encouragement in the global fight to end Covid-19"

pic.twitter.com/D7hVsGaxNo

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 23:47

Log in Sign up CNN @ CNN .

@andersoncooper calls today's coronavirus briefing a ''hijacking of the task force press conference by a President determined to rewrite the history of his early and reprehensibly irresponsible response.''''This is not normal and it matters because this is life or death,'' he adds

pic.twitter.com/gMg4YfYeDH 5:14 PM - 6 Apr 2020 Twitter by: CNN @CNN len @ nanuk0509

4h Replying to

@CNN @andersoncooper Yea let's listen to Anderson Cooper

pic.twitter.com/OQX7faV4eq View conversation · Brooklyn Girl Tam @ TL81

4h Replying to

@nanuk0509 @CNN @andersoncooper The crew is standing on a platform to get a better shot. Oooh, fake news!

View conversation · Branson Wray @ BWray_

4h Replying to

@CNN @andersoncooper Trump was on fire this evening. Mowing down reporters. He is very confident right now. You could see his swagger.

View conversation · Carly Norman @ carlymnorman

5h Replying to

@CNN @andersoncooper It's time the networks start airing more responsible adults during this time. Schedule Cuomo or Newsom or Biden during them.Save lives instead.

View conversation · Soap beats sanitizer @ landshark805

3h Replying to

@carlymnorman @CNN @andersoncooper Absolutely agree, I want Biden to speak for an hour and be held to notes.

View conversation · FS Preston @ Bicycletourusa8

4h Replying to

@CNN @andersoncooper I actually do remember when CNN was news

View conversation · scott baine @ txtliner

2h Replying to

@Bicycletourusa8 @CNN @andersoncooper No you just remember when it was the only option.

View conversation · Progressive GOP @ NixonandIke

4h Replying to

@CNN @andersoncooper Friday April 3rd- it's like the every single night

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 19:32

Log in Sign up Daily Caller @ DailyCaller President Trump spars with

@jonkarl over an HHS IG report on medical supply shortage:"You are a third rate reporter and what you just said is a disgrace... you will never make it."The Admiral reiterates that the administration has been able to meet state ventilator requests.

pic.twitter.com/eHOGrgbhfz 3:46 PM - 6 Apr 2020 Twitter by: Daily Caller @DailyCaller GEAUXT @ DrAtlasShrugged

2h Replying to

@DailyCaller @jonkarl They're stuck on the gotcha questions.

View conversation · Anita M Jordan @ anitajordan1961

1h Replying to

@DailyCaller @jonkarl ''¤¸ my POTUS

pic.twitter.com/meX1y90ipa View conversation · Philip Lock @ drphiliplock

53m Replying to

@DailyCaller @jonkarl Third rate reporters are not and should not be allowed into the White House.

View conversation · #CCP BRIBES ARE TASTY. @ chowchow201180

2h Replying to

@DailyCaller @jonkarl All these Propaganda Army, aka, JourNO. JUST STIR THE POT to intensify the pandemic. WHAT A SHAME! The whole goal is to get all of us to VACCINES and the pandemic is over. This is the case.

View conversation · K.R. Lloyd Persaud @ Kayarel

2h Replying to

@DailyCaller @jonkarl After this crisis is over those reporters will still be asking questions about ventilators How many & how they are being used?

View conversation · Peter B. Webster @ peteywebster2

52m Replying to

@DailyCaller @jonkarl FYI -Pres Trump is awesome!

View conversation · vince langman @ LangmanVince

30m Replying to

@DailyCaller @jonkarl More of the Admiral less of Fauci please

View conversation · Jennine @ jenninejones

2h Replying to

@DailyCaller @jonkarl I kinda think he has already made it.

View conversation · 🇺🇸ðŸŽMAMADOXIE🤬🇺🇸 @ Mamadoxie

2h Replying to

@DailyCaller @jonkarl I second that kick to the curb!

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 19:26

CORONAVIRUS National experts are looking at Texas as one of the next COVID-19 hot spots.

AUSTIN, Texas '-- As New York, New Jersey and Louisiana are nearing their projected peak in COVID-19 cases, experts are looking at Texas as one of the next hot spots.

"I think Texas is going to be the next hot spot," Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital, told ABC News. "We can already see the cases starting to increase, it is the start of an exponential rise."

According to models released by the University of Texas, Austin is not projected to reach its peak until late April or early May, but that data is subject to change, Mayor Adler said.

"The peak may not come to us until the end of April or early May '-- that's what the old models showed," he said. "We are re-running that model and will get a new model out here in the next day or two and take a look at those numbers."

Mayor Adler said while New York and other cities that were hit hard by COVID-19 are anticipating to have their peak this week, cases in Austin will continue to rise.

"Austin is going to continue to climb ... we just hope we don't climb that fast, but this week is not going to be our peak week," Adler said.

Following recent CDC recommendations, Austin-Travis County announced on April 5 it was advising the of use fabric face coverings by the general public when conducting essential activities or essential business outside of their residence.

Mayor Adler said by taking steps such as this to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Austin can avoid a drastic rise in cases that would overwhelm hospitals.

"Austin has spread this out a little bit," Adler said. "It's not going to be as intense, we hope, if everyone maintains the discipline."

WATCH: Mayor Adler discusses wearing masks, Austin's peak coronavirus period

PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING:

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 19:08

Log in Sign up RNC Research @ RNCResearch Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo: asking federal government to increase hydroxychloroquine supply because there is some evidence that it appears to be working

youtu.be/2JFThng_2bs pic.twitter.com/oQXW00sA7t 10:46 AM - 6 Apr 2020 Twitter by: RNC Research @RNCResearch Andrew Follett @ AndrewCFollett

6h Replying to

@RNCResearch Watching CNN do a total flip flop on this is gonna be amazing...

View conversation · AMT007 @ realAMT007

6h Replying to

@AndrewCFollett @RNCResearch Seeing the FakerCNN crap in the pants too many times...

View conversation · Stacey M. Cox @ staceymcox_

6h Replying to

@RNCResearch @DineshDSouza You don't say . . .

#CoronavirusUSA pic.twitter.com/LEbXmVAVEx View conversation · Robert Ceculski @ ultradwc

6h Replying to

@RNCResearch @DineshDSouza So South Korea figured out in February or March that Chloroquine/Zinc stops Covid-19 while Dr Fauci and the FDA are still trying to figure out how to tie their shoes.

youtube.com/watch?v=U7F1cn'... View conversation · Frank Santamaria @ FrankSantamar15

6h Replying to

@RNCResearch @DineshDSouza Da! Didn't take the DO NOTHING GOVERNER CUOMO LONG! President Trump already has 29 million pills ready and waiting to be prescribed for Americans! THANK GOD FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP🇺🇸

View conversation · Jonathan Leatherberry @ JLeatherberry

6h Replying to

@RNCResearch @DineshDSouza @davidaxelrod Whoa, whoa, whoa.

@davidaxelrod is going to accuse him of practicing medicine without a license. ðŸðŸðŸ

View conversation · FREE as FLUK 🇺🇸 @ FREEasFLUK

6h Replying to

@RNCResearch @DineshDSouza How will MSM reconcile their deranged reporting over hydroxychloroquine when the 'science is settled' regarding its efficacy as a highly effective treatment option? What's more, how can Dems. EVER be trusted again following their disturbingly partisan actions during a pandemic?

View conversation · laurie duke @ BayBoater4Trump

6h Replying to

@RNCResearch @DineshDSouza FINALLY!! I get a 2nd opinion on LOTS of things. One that could save my life, I'd say HELL YES!!

#2ndOpinionToFauci"Trump aide Peter Navarro says 'second opinion' needed on Fauci's view of anti-malaria drug"

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 18:59

President Trump asked a reporter at his April 6th press event if she was working for the government of China, following a hostile question. She replied that her company '' Phoenix Media '' is ''privately'' owned.

She's lying.

Who do you work for, China? pic.twitter.com/dDeOKpHkhv

'-- The Mission is Great (@missionisgreat) April 6, 2020

The Hong Kong/Cayman Islands based Phoenix Media is actually owned in large part by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and by a former CCP propaganda officer.

As of 2018, Phoenix Satellite Holdings was owned by Liu Changle (37.1% of shares). Changle is a ''former PLA propaganda official who is close to senior Chinese government leaders''.

Changle previously worked as a propaganda officer for China National Radio (then known as the Central People's Broadcasting Station).

A further 20 percent of the company is owned by Extra Step Investments Limited, in turn owned by China Mobile Hong Kong, which itself is owned by the Chinese government-owned China Mobile.

Eight more percent of the company is owned by China Wise Investment Ltd, owned by the Bank of China.

This means at least 65 percent of the company is owned by the government of China.

For journalist Youyou Wang to claim she works for a private company is an outright lie.

The White House Correspondents Association must surely answer to why they are allowing a CCP propagandist a seat in the White House Press Briefing Room.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 18:36

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 16:12

By ABC7.com staff

Sunday, April 5, 2020 8:48PM PT

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A Los Angeles doctor said he is seeing significant success in prescribing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc to treat patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19.

Hydroxychloroquine has been touted as a possible treatment for COVID-19 by President Trump among others, but it remains controversial as some experts believe it is unproven and may not be effective.

The drug has long been used for treatment of malaria and conditions such as lupus and arthritis but is not technically approved by the FDA for COVID-19. The agency, however, is encouraging trials and has provided

limited emergency authorization for its use to treat COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Anthony Cardillo said he has seen very promising results when prescribing hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc for the most severely-ill COVID-19 patients.

"Every patient I've prescribed it to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free," Cardillo told Eyewitness News. "So clinically I am seeing a resolution."

Cardillo is the CEO of Mend Urgent Care, which has locations in Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys and Burbank.

He said he has found it only works if combined with zinc. The drug, he said, opens a channel for the zinc to enter the cell and block virus replication.

He added that the drug should not be prescribed for those who are presenting only mild symptoms, as there are concerns about shortages for patients with other conditions who need to take the drug on a regular basis.

"We have to be cautious and mindful that we don't prescribe it for patients who have COVID who are well," Cardillo said. "It should be reserved for people who are really sick, in the hospital or at home very sick, who need that medication. Otherwise we're going to blow through our supply for patients that take it regularly for other disease processes."

Full interview: Dr. Anthony Cardillo of Mend Urgent Care in Los AngelesLA doctor seeing success with hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19

Chloroquine, or hydroxychloroquine, has been approved to treat and prevent malaria since 1944. Because the drug is on the market, doctors can use it for off-label purposes.

President Trump has touted it as a possible cure, but the government's top coronavirus expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been much more cautious, saying there is only "anecdotal evidence" demonstrating its effectiveness.

Experts are also concerned about potential misuse. A man in Arizona died after taking a similar drug, chloroquine phosphate, in an apparent attempt to self-medicate. The man did not take the pharmaceutical version of the drug, but a version used at aquariums to clean fish tanks.

MORE: Chloroquine shortage concerns mount as Trump touts malaria drug as possible COVID-19 treatmentCoronavirus: Shortage concerns mount as malaria drug hits headlines as possible COVID-19 treatment

The FDA advises against taking any form of chloroquine unless prescribed by a doctor and obtained from a legitimate source.

Another drug that has shown some potential for treating COVID-19 is remdesivir, a drug that was initially developed as a potential treatment for Ebola. A Palo Alto woman was accepted into a clinical trial for remdesivir and said it was effective in improving her condition.

Copyright (C) 2020 KABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 16:12

Julia Marple @ MarpleJulia

7h We need to be careful here. Starlin wanted a new world order, but his idea of it is much different from that of the west's. What's been happening for 50 years-the United Nation's have been sweetly manipulating the political class with their propaganda. Not all mean ill, but good

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 12:43

Below is our list of twelve medical experts whose opinions on the Coronavirus outbreak contradict the official narratives of the MSM, and the memes so prevalent on social media.* * *

Dr Sucharit Bhakdi is a specialist in microbiology. He was a professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and head of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene and one of the most cited research scientists in German history.

What he says:

We are afraid that 1 million infections with the new virus will lead to 30 deaths per day over the next 100 days. But we do not realise that 20, 30, 40 or 100 patients positive for normal coronaviruses are already dying every day.

[The government's anti-COVID19 measures] are grotesque, absurd and very dangerous ['...] The life expectancy of millions is being shortened. The horrifying impact on the world economy threatens the existence of countless people. The consequences on medical care are profound. Already services to patients in need are reduced, operations cancelled, practices empty, hospital personnel dwindling. All this will impact profoundly on our whole society.

All these measures are leading to self-destruction and collective suicide based on nothing but a spook.

*

Dr Wolfgang Wodarg is a German physician specialising in Pulmonology, politician and former chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In 2009 he called for an inquiry into alleged conflicts of interest surrounding the EU response to the Swine Flu pandemic.

What he says:

Politicians are being courted by scientists'...scientists who want to be important to get money for their institutions. Scientists who just swim along in the mainstream and want their part of it ['...] And what is missing right now is a rational way of looking at things.

We should be asking questions like ''How did you find out this virus was dangerous?'', ''How was it before?'', ''Didn't we have the same thing last year?'', ''Is it even something new?''

That's missing.

*

Dr Joel Kettner s professor of Community Health Sciences and Surgery at Manitoba University, former Chief Public Health Officer for Manitoba province and Medical Director of the International Centre for Infectious Diseases.

What he says:

I have never seen anything like this, anything anywhere near like this. I'm not talking about the pandemic, because I've seen 30 of them, one every year. It is called influenza. And other respiratory illness viruses, we don't always know what they are. But I've never seen this reaction, and I'm trying to understand why.

['...]

I worry about the message to the public, about the fear of coming into contact with people, being in the same space as people, shaking their hands, having meetings with people. I worry about many, many consequences related to that.

['...]

In Hubei, in the province of Hubei, where there has been the most cases and deaths by far, the actual number of cases reported is 1 per 1000 people and the actual rate of deaths reported is 1 per 20,000. So maybe that would help to put things into perspective.

*

Dr John Ioannidis Professor of Medicine, of Health Research and Policy and of Biomedical Data Science, at Stanford University School of Medicine and a Professor of Statistics at Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences. He is director of the Stanford Prevention Research Center, and co-director of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS).

He is also the editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Clinical Investigation. He was chairman at the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine as well as adjunct professor at Tufts University School of Medicine.

As a physician, scientist and author he has made contributions to evidence-based medicine, epidemiology, data science and clinical research. In addition, he pioneered the field of meta-research. He has shown that much of the published research does not meet good scientific standards of evidence.

What he says:

Patients who have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 are disproportionately those with severe symptoms and bad outcomes. As most health systems have limited testing capacity, selection bias may even worsen in the near future.

The one situation where an entire, closed population was tested was the Diamond Princess cruise ship and its quarantine passengers. The case fatality rate there was 1.0%, but this was a largely elderly population, in which the death rate from Covid-19 is much higher.

['...]

Could the Covid-19 case fatality rate be that low? No, some say, pointing to the high rate in elderly people. However, even some so-called mild or common-cold-type coronaviruses that have been known for decades can have case fatality rates as high as 8% when they infect elderly people in nursing homes.

['...]

If we had not known about a new virus out there, and had not checked individuals with PCR tests, the number of total deaths due to ''influenza-like illness'' would not seem unusual this year. At most, we might have casually noted that flu this season seems to be a bit worse than average.

'' ''A fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data'', Stat News, 17th March 2020

*

Dr Yoram Lass is an Israeli physician, politician and former Director General of the Health Ministry. He also worked as Associate Dean of the Tel Aviv University Medical School and during the 1980s presented the science-based television show Tatzpit.

What he says:

Italy is known for its enormous morbidity in respiratory problems, more than three times any other European country. In the US about 40,000 people die in a regular flu season and so far 40-50 people have died of the coronavirus, most of them in a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington.

['...]

In every country, more people die from regular flu compared with those who die from the coronavirus.

['...]

'...there is a very good example that we all forget: the swine flu in 2009. That was a virus that reached the world from Mexico and until today there is no vaccination against it. But what? At that time there was no Facebook or there maybe was but it was still in its infancy. The coronavirus, in contrast, is a virus with public relations.

Whoever thinks that governments end viruses is wrong.

'' Interview in Globes, March 22nd 2020

*

Dr Pietro Vernazza is a Swiss physician specialising Infectious Diseases at the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen and Professor of Health Policy.

What he says:

We have reliable figures from Italy and a work by epidemiologists, which has been published in the renowned science journal '¹Science'º, which examined the spread in China. This makes it clear that around 85 percent of all infections have occurred without anyone noticing the infection. 90 percent of the deceased patients are verifiably over 70 years old, 50 percent over 80 years.

['...]

In Italy, one in ten people diagnosed die, according to the findings of the Science publication, that is statistically one of every 1,000 people infected. Each individual case is tragic, but often '' similar to the flu season '' it affects people who are at the end of their lives.

['...]

If we close the schools, we will prevent the children from quickly becoming immune.

['...]

We should better integrate the scientific facts into the political decisions.

'' Interview in St. Galler Tagblatt, 22nd March 2020

*

Frank Ulrich Montgomery is German radiologist, former President of the German Medical Association and Deputy Chairman of the World Medical Association.

What he says:

I'm not a fan of lockdown. Anyone who imposes something like this must also say when and how to pick it up again. Since we have to assume that the virus will be with us for a long time, I wonder when we will return to normal? You can't keep schools and daycare centers closed until the end of the year. Because it will take at least that long until we have a vaccine. Italy has imposed a lockdown and has the opposite effect. They quickly reached their capacity limits, but did not slow down the virus spread within the lockdown.

'' Interview in General Anzeiger, 18th March 2020

*

Prof. Hendrik Streeck is a German HIV researcher, epidemiologist and clinical trialist. He is professor of virology, and the director of the Institute of Virology and HIV Research, at Bonn University.

What he says:

The new pathogen is not that dangerous, it is even less dangerous than Sars-1. The special thing is that Sars-CoV-2 replicates in the upper throat area and is therefore much more infectious because the virus jumps from throat to throat, so to speak. But that is also an advantage: Because Sars-1 replicates in the deep lungs, it is not so infectious, but it definitely gets on the lungs, which makes it more dangerous.

['...]

You also have to take into account that the Sars-CoV-2 deaths in Germany were exclusively old people. In Heinsberg, for example, a 78-year-old man with previous illnesses died of heart failure, and that without Sars-2 lung involvement. Since he was infected, he naturally appears in the Covid 19 statistics. But the question is whether he would not have died anyway, even without Sars-2.

'' Interview in Frankfurter Allgemeine, 16th March 2020

*

Dr Yanis Roussel et. al. '' A team of researchers from the Institut Hospitalo-universitaire M(C)diterran(C)e Infection, Marseille and the Institut de Recherche pour le D(C)veloppement, Assistance Publique-H´pitaux de Marseille, conducting a peer-reviewed study on Coronavirus mortality for the government of France under the 'Investments for the Future' programme.

What they say:

The problem of SARS-CoV-2 is probably overestimated, as 2.6 million people die of respiratory infections each year compared with less than 4000 deaths for SARS-CoV-2 at the time of writing.

['...]

This study compared the mortality rate of SARS-CoV-2 in OECD countries (1.3%) with the mortality rate of common coronaviruses identified in AP-HM patients (0.8%) from 1 January 2013 to 2 March 2020. Chi-squared test was performed, and the P-value was 0.11 (not significant).

['...]

'...it should be noted that systematic studies of other coronaviruses (but not yet for SARS-CoV-2) have found that the percentage of asymptomatic carriers is equal to or even higher than the percentage of symptomatic patients. The same data for SARS-CoV-2 may soon be available, which will further reduce the relative risk associated with this specific pathology.

'' ''SARS-CoV-2: fear versus data'', International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, 19th March 2020

*

Dr. David Katz is an American physician and founding director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center

What he says:

I am deeply concerned that the social, economic and public health consequences of this near-total meltdown of normal life '-- schools and businesses closed, gatherings banned '-- will be long-lasting and calamitous, possibly graver than the direct toll of the virus itself. The stock market will bounce back in time, but many businesses never will. The unemployment, impoverishment and despair likely to result will be public health scourges of the first order.

'' ''Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease?'', New York Times 20th March 2020

*

Michael T. Osterholm is regents professor and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

What he says:

Consider the effect of shutting down offices, schools, transportation systems, restaurants, hotels, stores, theaters, concert halls, sporting events and other venues indefinitely and leaving all of their workers unemployed and on the public dole. The likely result would be not just a depression but a complete economic breakdown, with countless permanently lost jobs, long before a vaccine is ready or natural immunity takes hold.

['...]

[T]he best alternative will probably entail letting those at low risk for serious disease continue to work, keep business and manufacturing operating, and ''run'' society, while at the same time advising higher-risk individuals to protect themselves through physical distancing and ramping up our health-care capacity as aggressively as possible. With this battle plan, we could gradually build up immunity without destroying the financial structure on which our lives are based.

'' ''Facing covid-19 reality: A national lockdown is no cure'', Washington Post 21st March 2020

*

Dr Peter Goetzsche is Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis at the University of Copenhagen and founder of the Cochrane Medical Collaboration. He has written several books on corruption in the field of medicine and the power of big pharmaceutical companies.

What he says:

Our main problem is that no one will ever get in trouble for measures that are too draconian. They will only get in trouble if they do too little. So, our politicians and those working with public health do much more than they should do.

No such draconian measures were applied during the 2009 influenza pandemic, and they obviously cannot be applied every winter, which is all year round, as it is always winter somewhere. We cannot close down the whole world permanently.

Should it turn out that the epidemic wanes before long, there will be a queue of people wanting to take credit for this. And we can be damned sure draconian measures will be applied again next time. But remember the joke about tigers. ''Why do you blow the horn?'' ''To keep the tigers away.'' ''But there are no tigers here.'' ''There you see!''

'' ''Corona: an epidemic of mass panic'', blog post on Deadly Medicines 21st March 2020

*

If you can find any other examples of noteworthy experts deviating from the mainstream narrative, please post them below. As always, this list have been impossible to build without Swiss Propaganda Research. Follow their work and share widely. An indispensable resource.

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 10:30

20:20You can watch the full speech here if you missed it.

20:12PICTURED: The Queen delivering her historic address.

20:12What happens next?

The Queen has been staying at Windsor for the past two weeks.

She moved there from Buckingham Palace a week earlier than expected as a precautionary measure.

She normally stays in Windsor for Easter but it is anticipated she will remain there after the break at least.

20:11How was the speech recorded?

It was an unusual setup at Windsor Castle so that the Queen could record the message while adhering to social distancing.

The message was recorded in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, only after special advice was given by the royal household's medical team to protect the Queen and adhere to the current guidelines.

Only one cameraman was allowed in the room wearing gloves and a mask.

Other technical staff were made to work in a separate room using monitors and speakers.

20:07The Queen's message has come to an end - analysis from Sky's Royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills now on Sky News.

20:05"But for now, I send my thanks and warmest good wishes to you all."

20:05"While we have faced challenges before, this one is different.

"This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal.

"We will succeed - and that success will belong to every one of us.

"We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again."

20:04"It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made, in 1940, helped by my sister.

"We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety.

"Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones.

"But now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do."

20:04"Across the Commonwealth and around the world, we have seen heart-warming stories of people coming together to help others, be it through delivering food parcels and medicines, checking on neighbours, or converting businesses to help the relief effort.

"And though self-isolating may at times be hard, many people of all faiths, and of none, are discovering that it presents an opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect, in prayer or meditation."

20:03''The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future.

''The moments when the United Kingdom has come together to applaud its care and essential workers will be remembered as an expression of our national spirit; and its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children.''

20:03''Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it.

''We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.''

20:02''I want to thank everyone on the NHS front line, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles, who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all.

"I am sure the nation will join me in assuring you that what you do is appreciated and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times.''

20:01"I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time.

"A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all."

20:00The Queen's message is getting underway...

19:50Ten minutes until the Queen's message is broadcast - you can follow here and watch live on Sky News.

19:40Latest UK coronavirus headlines

Before the Queen's speech, a reminder of today's main UK coronavirus headlines.

Another 621 hospital patients have died after contracting coronavirus - taking the UK's total to 4,934. You can read more here.

And the government is warning that the UK lockdown may need to be strengthened if people keep ignoring social distancing measures, with many heading outside this weekend.

Read more here.

19:36When has the Queen done something like this before?

Apart from her annual Christmas message, the Queen has only made this kind of televised address on four other occasions during her 68-year reign.

Those were during the Gulf War, after the deaths of Princess Diana and of the Queen Mother, and to mark her Diamond Jubilee.

This one is more unusual because of the conditions under which it was filmed.

The white drawing room was chosen because it was large enough to allow sufficient distance between the Queen and the only cameraman who was in the room with her, wearing a face mask and gloves.

19:35What do we know about the Queen's address?

Sky News' Royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills has reported on some early details about the address.

In her message, the 93-year-old monarch will say: "I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time."

Describing how proud she has been to see Britain pull together, the Queen will also praise NHS staff and other key workers.

She will say: "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge.

"And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country."

19:31Good evening - what's coming up?

The Queen is to address the nation in a special pre-recorded message from Windsor Castle.

In what is a historic televised address, the monarch will say she hopes the coronavirus crisis will show that "Britons of this generation were as strong as any" as the country responds to the challenges it faces.

The message will be broadcast from 8pm on Sky News.

19:30Key points:

Queen addressing the nation about coronavirus from Windsor CastleMonarch to say she hopes crisis proves 'this generation as strong as any'Just the fifth time HM has recorded this kind of special messagePrevious addresses included deaths of Queen Mother and Princess Diana

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 10:25

Laurie LeClair @ LaurieLleclair

1h This is simple: Trump/Navarro need to restart the economy/trade to save this presidency. Vaccines, 2 years out. They're looking for a cheap, quick, PLACEBO fix that Trump can BRAND as a cure--until something better comes along, which won't be until post-elections.

View conversation ·

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 10:19

Joe ðŸ§... @ muntaba

2h Replying to

@LebaneseJokerYT I'm beginning to suspect that when elite people praise the skills and competence of other elite people it is just ass kissing and not based and actual observation or experience.I know it sounds way out there but I will investigate further

View conversation · ChihuahuasForBernie @ JohnKramarz

1h Replying to

@muntaba @LebaneseJokerYT After this clip, you can close that investigation!

View conversation · Glen Loren 🌹 @ glenlorenmusic

1h Replying to

@LebaneseJokerYT I also have a PhD and am therefore a doctor qualified to perform any kind of surgery.

View conversation · Stephanie Jing, Ph.D Candidate, #BernieSanders @ Stephaniejing2

26m Replying to

@glenlorenmusic @RachelLucca1 @LebaneseJokerYT I'm on my way to complete my Economics PhD. Once I'm done, I'll do my first surgery. You can't stop me

View conversation · 🌹George Carlin was right. @ jthomasfl

1h Replying to

@LebaneseJokerYT @lordjefury On a scale of 1 to 5, I give that 5 Karens.

View conversation · Biren Amin @ bigbiren

32m Replying to

@jthomasfl @LebaneseJokerYT @lordjefury Funny since that is Whoopi's real name (alt sp)

View conversation · ð'ð'­ð'šð'¨ð'ð'§ ð''ð'ð'ð''ð'¥ð'® @ Shrdlu

2h Replying to

@LebaneseJokerYT That used to be called an EdD, and education is the most academically lax discipline there is.

View conversation · Joe Black @ JosephB56541647

2h Replying to

@LebaneseJokerYT Hahahahahaha - amazing at educating the masses at going with a senile candidate. I feel bad for Whoopi as I have a ton of respect for her - she has overcome a lot. But she has just become a shill for the party.

View conversation · Lynda 'Œ› @ lyndastrait

1h Replying to

@LebaneseJokerYT @pppatticake Who listens to their drivel?

pic.twitter.com/nT7QdvKTbl View conversation ·

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 08:25

AUSTIN (KXAN) '-- Austin-Travis County is moving to adopt CDC recommendations about using face coverings in public, according to a release.

The county is adopting the guidelines for using fabric coverings when doing essential activities or doing essential business outside of a home to try to slow the COVID-19 spread. The CDC made the recommendations Friday.

''This is another piece of a complex process to slow the spread and flatten the curve in our community,'' said Dr. Escott. ''While you might otherwise feel well and healthy, we need everyone's help to prevent the potential asymptomatic spread to others who could face more severe symptoms.''

Qurrat Thakur is among those already making cloth masks.

''It was very personal to me because my sister in law works at UT health clinic,'' Thakur says.

Thakur, who co-owns a chemistry lab in Round Rock with her husband, quilted as a hobby.

But with the outbreak of COVID-19, she realized she could put those sewing skills to another use.

Her neighbor, Varsha, has helped her sew dozens for others.

''Even though we can't get together, we've been kind of dropping things off at each other's doors,'' Thakur says.

Melissa Hinnant is the owner of a local business called Grace and Lace who has shifted her entire business model over the last few weeks.

''We moved from, you know, the main part of our business, really of making women's apparel to now putting all of our efforts to getting masks here and getting them out as quickly as we can,'' Hinnant says.

When she realized that her clothing manufacturer could also ship masks, she posed a question on social media:

''I was like, 'Is this a real thing? Are there doctors really in need, this desperate for masks? And within hours, we were bombarded with over 500 emails,'' Hinnant says.

To date, she says they've been able to send out over 18,000 masks across the country'' including to doctors and first responders.

Hinnant was shipping KN95 masks and surgical masks and is now adding cloth masks, after CDC recommendations.

Thakur has also seen a spike in requests since those recommendations on Friday.

''Now I know with the CDC recommending that everyone should wear one, everyon'e scontacting me saying they're willing to pay for it,'' Thakur says.

Hinnant says Grace and Lace donated 2,500 masks and is now crowdfunding to keep shipping.

''Whatever you can with what resources you have is what's going to get us through this as a nation,'' Hinnant says.

Local support of the guidelines came from Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott, Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt and Austin Mayor Steve Adler to help prevent people who are asymptomatic from spreading the virus.

''Everybody should be using fabric face coverings as the next step in the fight against the spread of COVID-19,'' recommended Mayor Steve Adler. ''They're really easy to make and everybody has everything they need to make one lying around the house. It's important, though, to absolutely still follow the six foot rule.''

Coverings should go over the nose and mouth and attach behind the ears to be the most effective, and they should be washed after each use with hot water and detergent. Hands should be washed immediately after touching them.

It is important for the public to know that a covering does not mean social distancing of six feet and abiding by the stay-at-home order is not needed, the release said. Face coverings combined with the two may help lower the risk of spread.

The public should not put any coverings on children younger than two-years-old, anyone who has trouble breathing, is unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to take off the cover without help.

N95 and medical grade masks should still be reserved for healthcare workers and first responders.

It is vital that people experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, even mild ones, should not leave home for any reason except for medical care. Mild symptoms in COVID-19 positive patients include:

Sore throat

Body aches

Headaches

Change in the ability to smell and taste

Nasal congestion

Individuals experiencing COVID-19 symptoms should call their healthcare provider before walking into a clinic, urgent care center or hospital. People experiencing COVID-19 symptoms who are uninsured and do not have an established doctor can call the COVID-19 Hotline at 512-978-8775 for guidance.

The public can use scarves, bandanas or make their own. The city is making do-it-yourself plans available online with guidance from Austin Public Health and the CDC here.

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 08:20

WASHINGTON '' A reporter's question about hydroxychloroquine led to a testy moment at Sunday's White House briefing.

Anthony Fauci was asked his thoughts on the effectiveness of the anti-malaria drug in treating coronavirus patients, and President Donald Trump interrupted before the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases could answer.

''He's answered that question 15 times,'' said Trump, who had spent much of the news conference touting the drug's potential.

Earlier in the day, Fauci did answer a question about hydroxychloroquine when he was on CBS's "Face the Nation."

''The data are really, just, at best, suggestive,'' he said. ''There have been cases that show there may be an effect and there are others to show there's no effect. So, I think in terms of science, I don't think we could definitively say it works.''

Coronavirus live updates: US deaths near 10K ahead of 'hardest and saddest week'

The differing opinions aren't new.

Fauci and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro got in a heated argument Saturday over hydroxychloroquine, according to Axios and the New York Times.

According to the reports, Navarro brought in studies from trials overseas that show the drug, which is often used to treat malaria, was working to combat coronavirus.

Fauci maintained that there is still only anecdotal information and that more rigorous studies need to be done to see the true effect of the drug, according to the reports. Despite the two arguing about the drug as a treatment, the White House coronavirus task force has agreed to surge the supply of hydroxychloroquine to hot zones.

Fauci also conceded in an interview with Science magazine in mid-March that he and Trump "disagree on some things" but that the president listens and "goes his own way." Fauci at times has been absent from some of the briefings. When he's not present, that sometimes fuels speculation about his relationship with Trump.

Both Fauci and Trump have dismissed speculation that he does not attend some of the briefings because they are on bad terms.

In addition, Fauci now has security detail after receiving threats, according to media reports. The expert has drawn criticism from some of Trump's staunchest allies online who accuse him of contradicting the president.

Where's Fauci? Doctor's absence is noticed at White House coronavirus briefing

According to the CDC, ''There are no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs specifically for the treatment of patients with COVID-19.''

The FDA's website also has an answer for people who ask if they should take chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine to prevent or treat coronavirus.

''No,'' an answer on the FDA's FAQ about coronavirus says. ''Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are available in the United States by prescription only for the prevention or treatment of malaria and certain inflammatory conditions such as lupus. The FDA is working closely with other government agencies and academic centers to determine whether chloroquine can be used to prevent COVID-19 or treat patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19."

Contributing: Nicholas Wu and Deirdre Shesgreen

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 08:12

Former White House advisor Steve Bannon appears on Fox News to discuss his thoughts on how to mitigate and eliminate Coronavirus from the United States.

Among Comrade Bannon's proposals: Shut down all inbound international air travel. Shut down all domestic air travel. Forced federal shut down all ports of entry, allowing only commerce. Initiate forced quarantine zones around major metropolitian areas keeping people from leaving. A forced shut-down all vehicle travel on interstates, except supply chain transports. A federally enforced closing of states to cross border traffic. WATCH:

.

Yikes. Civil liberties? Meh, details'... details.

I'm just sharing information'....

Steve Bannon was, perhaps still is, well regarded by many people; and formerly held a position of influence in the White House.

I cannot even fathom the totalitarian nature of what Bannon is suggesting.

What America would even re-emerge from that type of action?

Your thoughts?

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 08:09

Ant"nio Guterres (UN Secretary-General) on Gender-Based Violence and COVID-19

5 Apr 2020 - The COVID-19 pandemic is causing untold human suffering and economic devastation around the world.I recently called for an immediate global ceasefire to focus on our shared struggle to overcome the pandemic.I appealed for an end to violence everywhere, now.But violence is not confined to the battlefield. For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest.In their own homes. And so I make a new appeal today for peace at home '-- and in homes '-- around the world. We know lockdowns and quarantines are essential to suppressing COVID-19. But they can trap women with abusive partners. Over the past weeks as economic and social pressures and fear have grown, we have seen a horrifying global surge in domestic violence. In some countries, the number of women calling support services has doubled. Meanwhile, healthcare providers and police are overwhelmed and understaffed.Local support groups are paralyzed or short of funds. Some domestic violence shelters are closed; others are full. I urge all governments to make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans for COVID-19. That means increasing investment in online services and civil society organizations.Making sure judicial systems continue to prosecute abusers. Setting up emergency warning systems in pharmacies and groceries.Declaring shelters as essential services. And creating safe ways for women to seek support, without alerting their abusers. Women's rights and freedoms are essential to strong, resilient societies.Together, we can and must prevent violence everywhere, from war zones to people's homes, as we work to beat COVID-19.

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 08:00

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 00:13

Joe Biden: ''We cannot let this, we've never allowed any crisis from the Civil War straight through to the pandemic of 17, all the way around, 16, we have never, never let our democracy sakes second fiddle, way they, we can both have a democracy and ... correct the public health.''

pic.twitter.com/Ymz8JtQvjH

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 00:11

"CHINA VIRUS GO BACK": Indian citizens stand together with flaming toilet plungers and chant to protest the coronavirus.

pic.twitter.com/L1AtSRQwRv

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 00:09

Trumpy Trumpy (parody) @ outofcontroljb

13h Replying to

@Acyn For those of you out there saying that Rudy Giuliani doesn't know what he's talking about, just remember that he graduated from Trump University Medical School at the top of his class

View conversation · Captain Oblivious @ phoneczar

13h Replying to

@outofcontroljb @Acyn Is Rudy the Medical Director at Trump General hospital?

View conversation · Norman Ornstein @ NormOrnstein

13h Replying to

@Acyn Why does this lying miscreant still have a law license? Why has he not been locked up?

View conversation · Brent O @ OnlineDetective

13h Replying to

@Acyn This goes beyond irresponsible journalism. It's recklessly DANGEROUS. Before this COVID-19 story is finished, I hope the propagandist promoting this kind of NON-MEDICAL ADVICE rhetoric like Fox and Giuliani are SUED INTO OBLIVION.

View conversation · chris smith @ chrissmithnymag

13h Replying to

@Acyn should be advocating for a comb.

View conversation · Susan @ lazygfilmmaker

13h Replying to

@chrissmithnymag @Acyn His hair looks bizarre.

View conversation · LynnZ @ ZemanLynnZ

10h Replying to

@Acyn @FoxNews omg

@FoxNews let the lawsuits begin!

View conversation · Adrian Oaks @ FriendOfTheYeti

13h Replying to

@Acyn Do all the Republicans own stock in some Hydroxychloroquine manufacturer? I don't get this weird advocacy from all of them.

View conversation · BarbiAnnA @ rudysmom66

13h Replying to

@FriendOfTheYeti @Acyn I read that it is a generic drug..very cheap..so THAT'S not it. But you just KNOW there's a ulterior motive behind this dangerous direction these ghouls have taken.

View conversation ·

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Archived Version

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 00:07

chris @ cbignell11

8h Replying to

@TimOBrien I'm in the UK and certainly no royalist but the Queen's address was what we needed. Hearing this should make people understand how incompetent both Trump and Johnson sound when they speak.

View conversation · Corinne Favero @ CorinneFavero

8h Replying to

@cbignell11 @TimOBrien While I can understand anti-royal sentiments, I am impressed by her message. I am also floored at the events Elizabeth II has overseen. I also listen to her measured words with envy & long for a time when the leadership in the US will be more steady.

View conversation · natashia halikowski @ intuitionwrks

8h Replying to

@TimOBrien She has been a class act her entire life, her purpose to be of service and at 93 she is an inspiration and a true leader. Proud to be a Canadian.🇨ðŸ‡...🇨ðŸ‡...

View conversation · Adam"Wash Your Hands" Smith @ Harperite1

7h Replying to

@intuitionwrks @TimOBrien In Britain and in commonwealth.....She doesn't forget the comman humanity that we all share in this fight.Brought tears to my eyes. 🇨ðŸ‡...🇨ðŸ‡...

View conversation · Eoin Higgins @ EoinHiggins_

6h Replying to

@TimOBrien She's a parasite on the British Public but you do you

View conversation · Andy K. @ andrew_k2019

5h Replying to

@EoinHiggins_ @TimOBrien It costs each Brit about $0.80 a year for the entire Royal family. That's a drop in the bucket compared to what we pay in golf trips for Mango Mussolini, and they actually do work of state.

View conversation · Cubby @ Cubby_James

8h Replying to

@TimOBrien pic.twitter.com/Rp69REw7Vb View conversation · Steve Collins @ stevecstny

8h Replying to

@TimOBrien Dignity. You can't buy it.

View conversation · Ibe @ EthanHiguain

8h Replying to

@stevecstny @TimOBrien At all.

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Sun, 05 Apr 2020 20:10

ALX 🇺🇸 @ alx

29m Replying to

@jhousevlogs Guest:

@jhousevlogs View conversation · Nick 🧴👐🏼ðŸ…ðŸ>>''‚¸ðŸ... 👏🏼 @ iamacritictoo

35m Replying to

@alx @bennyjohnson Correlation '‰ causation

View conversation · ALX 🇺🇸 @ alx

31m Replying to

@iamacritictoo @bennyjohnson nypost.com/2020/04/02/hyd'... View conversation · PlayTheTrumpCard 'š¸ Text TRUMP to 88022 @ PlaysTrumpCard

31m Replying to

@alx thanks for all the great work alx

View conversation · ALX 🇺🇸 @ alx

15m Replying to

@PlaysTrumpCard Thank you!

View conversation · The New Englander @ NewEnglandTruth

15m Replying to

@alx It's almost like there's been someone in the White House suggesting Hydroxychloroquine might be beneficial....Can't be Orange Man Bad...he's a dope, right?

View conversation · Jimmy Stix @ jimmystix_DJ

18m Replying to

@alx @PlaysTrumpCard Science Has Its Limitations

jw.org/en/library/mag'... LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE and meditate on this fact! Our 100% Public safety and Security depends on more than Science people!

pic.twitter.com/Jhm3bYWkff View conversation · Quarantine Pelosi! @ bvtucci

8m Replying to

@alx The left doesn't want to see a 'bending of the curve' with this virus.They don't want to see our country opening up.They don't want to see or hear that Hydroxychloroquine works.

View conversation · The John P. Arshon @ JohnParshon

26m Replying to

@alx ðŸ‘

View conversation ·

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Archived Version

Sun, 05 Apr 2020 15:56

Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace spoke with U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Jerome Adams Sunday morning about why there's no national stay-at-home order being issued.

Calls for such an order have grown in the past week. Most states have stay-at-home orders in place, but a few have yet to implement similar orders.

Wallace showed a clip of President Donald Trump saying he ''would leave it to the governors'' before asking, ''The Coronavirus is not a state issue, it doesn't follow or respect state borders. Dr. Fauci says he believes there should be a national stay-at-home order. Is he wrong?''

Adams emphasized that most people across the country are following the national CDC guidelines, including in those states, before talking about how ''we live in a country where we have a system of federalism.''

He pointed to different state laws with respect to opioids and tobacco, saying, ''More people will die even in the worst projections from cigarette smoking in this country than are going to die from coronavirus this year.''

Adams also said some of the states not doing shelter-in-place orders are ''struggling with issues concerning how they can provide for the rest of the country to be able to stay at home.''

''What I would say to those governors is if you can't give us a month, give us what you can. Give us a week. Give us whatever you can to stay at home during this particularly tough time,'' he added.

Wallace took issue with his comparison and said, ''There's a big difference between opioids and cigarettes, which are something that people decide to use or not to use, and the coronavirus, which people catch. It's not an individual choice. And you know, when President Trump says that he is a wartime president, during World War II, FDR didn't say, 'Well, it's up to each state to decide what to do,' he mobilized the nation. Again, why not a national stay-at-home order? The coronavirus doesn't recognize states' rights, so does the federal analogy really work here?''

Adams said he understands that governors are ''intensely protective of their right'' to do what's best for their states, before emphasizing he still wants every single state to ''give us what you can'' to slow the spread.

You can watch above, via Fox News Sunday.

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Thu, 09 Apr 2020 07:09

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner during a daily White House coronavirus briefing. | Win McNamee/Getty Images

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's task force has reached out to a range of health technology companies about creating a national coronavirus surveillance system to give the government a near real-time view of where patients are seeking treatment and for what, and whether hospitals can accommodate them, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions.

The proposed national network could help determine which areas of the country can safely relax social-distancing rules and which should remain vigilant. But it would also represent a significant expansion of government use of individual patient data, forcing a new reckoning over privacy limits amid a national crisis.

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Health privacy laws already grant broad exceptions for national security purposes. But the prospect of compiling a national database of potentially sensitive health information has prompted concerns about its impact on civil liberties well after the coronavirus threat recedes, with some critics comparing it to the Patriot Act enacted after the 9/11 attacks.

Already, the Trump administration has sought to ease data-sharing rules and assure health data companies they won't be penalized for sharing information with state and federal officials '-- a move driven in part by Kushner's push to assemble the national network, according to an individual with knowledge of the decision.

''This is a genuine crisis '-- we have to work through it and do our best to protect people's health,'' said Jessica Rich, a former director of the Federal Trade Commission's consumer protection bureau. ''But doing that doesn't mean we have to destroy privacy.''

Currently, the federal government plays only a limited role in handling health information, with its access restricted by various privacy laws and in many cases reliant on voluntary data-sharing agreements with individual states.

The project '-- based on interviews with seven tech executives, government officials and other people familiar with its contours '-- would draw on detailed information collected from multiple private-sector databases. It would allow federal officials to continuously track elements like hospitals' bed availability and the flow of patients into specific emergency rooms across the country '-- thereby enabling the government to rush resources to parts of the country before they're hit by a surge of coronavirus cases.

''It allows you to be much more targeted and precise in how you engage,'' said one person involved in the discussions. ''They need data to make the policy decisions, and so that's what we and others now have been asked to do.''

The White House declined to comment in response to detailed inquiries on Tuesday, but spokesman Avi Berkowitz said in a late Tuesday night statement after this article was published: "This story makes no sense and is completely false. The White House gets many unsolicited random proposals on a variety of topics, but Jared has no knowledge of this proposal or the people mentioned in this article who may have submitted it."

The creation of a national coronavirus database could help the nation get out in front of the fast-spreading virus, which officials anticipate will strain the health care systems of nearly every major city over the next few months and threaten to recur in pockets of the nation for some time after that.

Yet concerns about data sharing and patient privacy aren't the only obstacles to the plan '-- which was described by people familiar with it as one of a series of out-of-the-box initiatives sought by Kushner's team. That team is composed of a range of federal officials, friends and leaders from the private sector seeking to promote innovative responses to the coronavirus crisis.

The notion of a national surveillance network has also faced resistance internally from some health officials, who argue that the federal government should only go as far as setting broad standards for disease and resource tracking and leave it to individual states to stand up their own surveillance networks, according to two individuals with knowledge of the discussions.

Other officials contend that the administration should build any new monitoring system on its own, without the private sector's involvement '' a position that's gained steam following a series of articles about Kushner's team and its involvement of private companies and executives in efforts to fix problems dogging the nationwide response, according two people briefed on the matter.

Some public health experts, meanwhile, suggested that the administration might instead built out and reorient an existing surveillance system housed within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that aided the response to prior epidemics. The system, called the National Syndromic Surveillance Program, is a voluntary collaboration between the CDC and various state and local health departments that draws data from more than 4,000 health care facilities.

''In an emergency, what works best is scaling up existing robust systems, not trying to create a new system,'' said former CDC Director Tom Frieden. ''Use the systems you have.''

A Health and Human Services spokesperson said the department does not comment on internal deliberations.

Still, Kushner's teams has remained enthusiastic about the idea of a national surveillance system, which they see as a way to better understand how the virus is progressing throughout the country and where resources are needed amid severe shortages of protective gear and medical supplies.

Kushner, along with other administration officials including President Donald Trump, have questioned in recent weeks whether governors actually need the equipment that they're seeking from the federal government's Strategic National Stockpile.

''The goal here is not to have ventilators sitting in a warehouse where you have another state where you have people who need them,'' Kushner said during a press briefing last week. ''So, what we're trying to do is make informed, data-driven decisions.''

The administration's slow ramp-up of testing, meanwhile, has made it difficult for states to trace the virus' spread within their own borders '' forcing hospitals to empty their facilities in anticipation of a wave of coronavirus patients that may not come for weeks. The testing that is being done has been hampered by backlogs in processing the results, public health experts say, meaning official case counts could be weeks behind the reality on the ground.

''What we're seeing in the numbers is actually a two-to-three-week echo,'' Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development and former Obama-era foreign aid official, said in late March. ''We still mostly can't see the enemy.''

That's prompted a broad search within the administration for more up-to-date information, with Kushner's team discussing the prospect of creating a surveillance network that draws together all the pertinent data.

One memo submitted by a group of health technology companies to Kushner, Vice President Mike Pence and Health Secretary Alex Azar and circulated widely within the administration, predicted it could supply the government with information on where and how many patients are seeking care across 80 percent of the U.S. ''in short order.''

''No single organization in the United States today can currently meet this request,'' said the March 22 memo signed by three health care firms '' Collective Medical, PatientPing and Juvare '-- and submitted at the behest of administration officials, which was later obtained by POLITICO. ''However, we believe that collectively we can.''

PatientPing declined to comment. Juvare CEO Robert Watson told POLITICO that the memo was submitted in response to White House interest, and that the company has spoken with officials across several federal agencies including FEMA, HHS and the CDC about its various emergency preparedness and data tools.

Collective Medical CEO Chris Klomp declined to confirm the memo's existence or discuss its contents. But he told POLITICO that the company is already providing similar patient monitoring and hospital capacity services to some states for free, and has assembled a coalition of firms including PatientPing willing to aid the broader policy response.

Klomp emphasized that any work with federal or state governments to combat coronavirus would be done at no cost.

''We're not trying to make money from this,'' he said, adding that he worries officials are ''flying partially blind'' in managing the response. ''We all need this problem to be resolved as quickly as possible, and it's only going to happen if would-be competitors put down their swords, set aside politics, and work together.''

A separate memo submitted around the same time by health technology firm Audacious Inquiry proposed an alternative surveillance network that would use patient health records compiled by providers to monitor hospitals' bed availability and their use of medical supplies.

''We believe a viable technical specification can be developed within weeks and that deployment can begin in less than 60 days to hospitals and health systems in priority regions,'' said the memo sent to Kushner, Pence, Azar and other top health officials, and obtained by POLITICO.

Audacious Inquiry President Scott Afzal told POLITICO that the concept was put together in anticipation of a need to identify areas were the virus could re-emerge months for now, and that the company is also offering its services to state and federal officials for free.

''It's a thing that's going to be valuable months from now, not weeks from now,'' he said of the surveillance network proposal.

Any national surveillance system would rely on patient data that's been de-identified to protect people's identities, three individuals involved in the discussions said.

Still, the prospect of sharing medical data with the administration would likely prompt close scrutiny from consumer privacy advocates, who warn the government's response to prior crises has often opened the door to permanent erosions of privacy rights.

''We dealt with similar issues in 9/11,'' said Rich, who added that there would need to be strict guardrails around how patients information is collected and used, and measures taken to ensure the data is protected. ''One reason that the government doesn't have all of this data is there's a lot of concern about big brother maintaining large databases on every consumer on sensitive issues like health, and for good reason.''

Kushner in particular has attracted criticism over his involvement in prior planned policy changes designed to give patients greater control over their health records, yet that privacy hawks warn could grant tech companies access to a massive new trove of personal data.

''My biggest concern is that tech will emerge more powerful than it was,'' said Burcu Kilic, who leads a digital right program at consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. ''When things get back to normal, do you think they'll want to regulate them?''

Tech companies, in the meantime, are pushing ahead on their own efforts ahead of '-- and in some cases in anticipation of '' broader government action.

Both Facebook and Google have rolled out tools meant to help researchers track and predict the virus' spread using its access to location data, while a slew of smaller health technology firms have sought partnerships with states seeking to create their own networks.

''People are trying to figure out the most important things to do now,'' Audacious Inquiry's Afzal said. ''If you were to say to us and a couple of these other companies, 'We need you to get on the phone right now and start thinking through what parts of the country you can cover and how to star routing [information] inbound,' we could do that.''

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Thu, 09 Apr 2020 07:06

Taiwan has strongly protested accusations from the head of the World Health Organization that the self-governing island was linked to and condoned racist personal attacks on him

By

JOHNSON LAI Associated Press

April 9, 2020, 6:37 AM ET

3 min read

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), addresses a press conference about the update on COVID-19 at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP) The Associated PressTAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's foreign ministry on Thursday strongly protested accusations from the head of the World Health Organization that the self-governing island was linked to and condoned racist personal attacks on him.

A ministry statement expressed ''strong dissatisfaction and a high degree of regret'' with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' remarks at a press briefing in Geneva on Wednesday. It requested he ''immediately correct his unfounded allegations, immediately clarify, and apologize to our country.''

At the press briefing, Tedros vocally defended himself and the U.N. health agency's response to the coronavirus pandemic. He accused Taiwan's foreign ministry of being linked to a months-long campaign against him and said that since the emergence of the new coronavirus, he has been personally attacked, including receiving at times, death threats and racist abuse.

''This attack came from Taiwan,'' said Tedros, a former Ethiopian health and foreign minister and the WHO's first African leader.

He said Taiwanese diplomats were aware of the attacks but did not dissociate themselves from them. ''They even started criticizing me in the middle of all those insults and slurs,'' Tedros said. ''I say it today because it's enough.'' The basis of his allegations was unclear.

President Tsai Ing-wen also weighed in, saying on Facebook that Taiwan does not condone the use of racist remarks to attack those with different opinions.

''If Director-General Tedros could withstand pressure from China and come to Taiwan to see Taiwan's efforts to fight COVID-19 for himself, he would be able to see that the Taiwanese people are the true victims of unfair treatment,'' she wrote, referring to Taiwan's exclusion from the WHO at China's insistence. ''I believe that the WHO will only truly be complete if Taiwan is included."

Tedros was elected with the strong support of China, one of five permanent veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council and which claims Taiwan as its own territory. He has firmly backed Beijing's claims to have been open and transparent about the outbreak, despite strong evidence that it suppressed early reports on infections, while echoing its criticisms of the U.S.

Taiwan is barred from the U.N. and has been stripped of its observer status at the WHO's World Health Assembly. At the same time, it has one of the most robust public health systems in the world, and has won praise for its handling of the virus outbreak.

Despite its close proximity to China and the frequency of travel between the sides, Taiwan has reported just 379 cases and five deaths.

U.S. and Taiwanese officials met online last month to discuss ways of increasing the island's participation in the world health system, sparking fury from Beijing, which opposes all official contacts between Washington and Taipei.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian didn't give credence to Tedros' allegation, but said Thursday that ''we hope the Taiwan authorities will not politicize the epidemic situation or engage in political manipulation."

Also at Wednesday's briefing, Tedros sought to rise above sharp criticism and threats of funding cuts from President Donald Trump over the WHO's response to the outbreak.

The vocal defense came a day after Trump blasted the agency for being ''China-centric'' and alleging that it had ''criticized'' his ban of travel from China as the COVID-19 outbreak was spreading from the city of Wuhan.

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Thu, 09 Apr 2020 07:05

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an·'‹ti·'‹dot·'‹al | \ ˌan-ti-Ëdō-tᵊl \ : of, relating to, or acting as an antidote Other Words from antidotal antidotally \ ˌan-'‹ti-'‹Ëdō-'‹tᵊl-'‹Ä' \ adverb Examples of antidotal in a Sentence First Known Use of antidotal1646, in the meaning defined above

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''Antidotal.'' Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antidotal. Accessed 9 Apr. 2020.

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an·'‹ti·'‹dot·'‹al | \ ˌant-i-Ëdōt-ᵊl \ Medical Definition of antidotal : of, relating to, or acting as an antidote Other Words from antidotal

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Thu, 09 Apr 2020 07:00

Things to get used to in our new mask-wearing world: being trapped in our bad breath, telling people ''Hey! I'm smiling under here,'' and having phones that no longer recognize our faces. Punching in passwords? What is this, the Stone Age?

After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidance that we all wear masks to limit the spread of Covid-19, I suited up this weekend to heroically'...walk the dog. I quickly realized my iPhone 11's facial recognition'--aka Face ID'--no longer worked. That little padlock that usually quickly...

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Thu, 09 Apr 2020 06:46

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As hospitals scramble to obtain enough ventilators to treat coronavirus patients, a growing number of doctors are saying the machines may not be necessary for certain patients and, in some cases, could make their condition worse.

Their reasoning is based on multiple hospitals reporting unusually high death rates for coronavirus patients on ventilators, highlighting the fact that a definitive treatment for managing the virus that emerged only months ago may still be far off.

Healthcare workers assist a COVID-19 patient at a library that was turned into an intensive care unit (ICU) at Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain. (AP)

Mechanical ventilators push oxygen into patients whose lungs are failing. Using the machines involves sedating a patient and sticking a tube into the throat.

Of the patients with severe respiratory distress who are placed on ventilators, about 40 to 50 percent them die, experts say. In New York City, the deaths of coronavirus patients placed on the machines are closer to 80 percent.

Higher-than-normal death rates have also been reported elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad. A report from the U.K. put the figure at 66 percent, while a very small study in Wuhan '' the Chinese city where the disease first emerged '' said 86 percent died.

The reason is still not clear. It may have to do with the patients' health before they were infected. Or it could be related to how sick they had become by the time they were put on the machines, some experts said. But some health professionals have speculated that the ventilators may be making matters worse for some patients by igniting or worsening a harmful immune system reaction.

WHO DIRECTOR HITS BACK AT TRUMP THREAT TO DEFUND THE AGENCY

The high death rate has led some doctors to keep patients off ventilators for as long as possible and turn to other techniques instead.

Only a few weeks ago in New York City, coronavirus patients who came in quite sick were routinely placed on ventilators to keep them breathing. But physicians are increasingly trying other measures first.

"If we're able to make them better without intubating them, they are more likely to have a better outcome '-- we think," Habboushe said, adding that worries still persist of not having enough ventilators for those needing them.

There are widespread reports that coronavirus patients tend to be on ventilators much longer than other kinds of patients. Patients with bacterial pneumonia, for example, may be on a ventilator for no more than a day or two, while coronavirus patients have been on a ventilator for up to two weeks.

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COVID-19 is a member of the coronavirus family that can cause colds as well as more severe illnesses. Health officials say it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. There is no proven drug treatment or vaccine against it.

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in a few weeks. But roughly 20 percent '-- many of them older adults or people with other illnesses '-- can grow much sicker. They can have trouble breathing and suffer chest pain. Their lungs can become inflamed, causing a dangerous condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Archived Version

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 06:18

Retired engineers are coming to the rescue

Photo: H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images O ver the weekend, New Jersey governor, Phil Murphy, made an unusual public plea during his daily coronavirus briefing: The state was seeking volunteer programmers who know COBOL, a 60-year old programming language that the state's unemployment benefits system is built on. Like every state across the nation, New Jersey was being flooded with unemployment claims in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. And New Jersey's data processing systems were unprepared.

''We literally have a system that is 40-plus years old,'' Murphy said.

To COBOL programmers, it was a familiar ask. In times of bureaucratic crisis over the last 50 years, Americans have been faced time and time again with the dusty, dated systems that undergird much of our government, and economy. In response to Y2K, when it was unclear whether the date of the new millennium might cause cascading errors across the entire world's computing systems, legions of programmers fluent in largely forgotten languages like COBOL were specifically hired to fix government and enterprise code. As a result, Y2K was largely a nonissue.

The scarcity of COBOL programmers has led to increased interest in startups like COBOL Cowboys, made up of older, experienced programmers.

Over 20 years later, much of the state, federal, and banking systems still run on these very same programming languages.

New Jersey isn't the only state that depends on COBOL. Connecticut's computer systems for processing unemployment also runs on it, the state's governor said last week, which is causing weeks-long processing delays. Connecticut and four other states are creating a joint effort to recruit retired COBOL programmers who can update the state software.

The scarcity of COBOL programmers has led to increased interest in startups like COBOL Cowboys, made up of older, experienced programmers who have the know-how to operate these systems.

COBOL debuted in 1960 and was largely used on IBM mainframes for business tasks like accounting. IBM continues to sell mainframes compatible with COBOL.

The Government Accountability Office has repeatedly warned about the use of legacy programming languages for critical systems. In 2019, the GAO issued a report summarizing 10 federal computing systems that were in desperate need of an overhaul. For instance, the Department of Education's system for processing federal student aid applications was implemented in 1973. It takes 18 contractors to maintain the system, and since it's written in COBOL, it requires specific hardware and is difficult to integrate with newer software languages.

GAO considers COBOL a legacy language, which means agencies have trouble finding staff that knows how to write the code at all. And when they can, the specialist contractors charge a premium.

It also means that when a system breaks, there might not be somebody there to fix it. And that's where New Jersey finds itself now, with a sagging system and lack of qualified engineers.

Despite its age, and the fact that so many programmers have moved onto C and Java, COBOL is still a widely used programming language. It's tried and true, which is partly why it was so widely adopted by banks and governments in the second half of the 20th century.

''I show COBOL programs written in 1960 that you can still compile and run today.''

Today, nearly half the world's banking systems run on COBOL, according to Reuters, and more than 80% of card-based transactions use the code.

''I show COBOL programs written in 1960 that you can still compile and run today,'' says J. Ray Scott, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and one of the few professors who still teaches COBOL.

''I would hate to be a bank and have Python, and Python 3 came out and broke everything, and then we have to recompile all our code,'' he said.

Scott attributes the lack of COBOL programmers to a number of issues, from the absence of an open-source version of the software in the '80s and '90s to the simple appeal of newer databases that natively connect to the internet.

''There was a period of 20 years where people were sure COBOL was dead, so there was nobody teaching it, nobody learning it,'' he said. ''COBOL started before there were disc drives, let alone the internet.''

A sliver of hope, Scott says, is that COBOL isn't a particularly complex language to learn. When he was starting his career programming for steel mills in Pittsburgh, he says companies would perform aptitude tests for workers on the floors of the mills. If they passed, they were sent to a two-week COBOL class at IBM and then put onto the job in the IT department.

Bill Hinshaw, who runs COBOL Cowboys, says that the 60-year old programming language still has some life in it, especially in industries where it's inexorably linked to critical functions. In his experience, governments are simply working with older versions of software and hardware, compared to banks and other industries.

''We're dealing with more and more people who want to modernize COBOL,'' Hinshaw says. ''COBOL is not going away.''

Still, governments relying on a system too arcane for most working engineers can be perceived as a structural failure. Murphy's plea for COBOL engineers is also a sign that local, state, and federal governments have overwhelmingly failed to update their technologies to meet the needs of citizens.

''There will be lots of postmortems,'' after the coronavirus passes, Murphy said in his address to New Jersey. One of them on our list will be, 'How the heck did we get here where we literally needed COBOL programmers?'''

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Archived Version

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 06:15

Even as California sees glimmers of hope amid the coronavirus outbreak, authorities warn that the Golden State won't be getting back to normal anytime soon.

Officials expect months more of some social distancing policies and warn that lifting the strict rules too early could worsen the health crisis.

The public should realize that coronavirus cases are likely to rise when stay-at-home orders are eased, officials said.

''There will definitely be individuals who will get sick. And because there are individuals who get sick, there will be individuals who die after the order is released, unless we come up with a foolproof immunization, which is highly unlikely,'' said Dr. Jeffrey Smith, Santa Clara County executive officer.

Smith on Tuesday told that county's Board of Supervisors that he did not expect there would be ''any sports games until at least Thanksgiving, and we'd be lucky to have them by Thanksgiving. This is not something that's going to be easy to do.''

In fact, it's unlikely the new coronavirus will be completely eradicated, and the disease could become seasonal, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS this week.

That would make it unlike a different deadly coronavirus scare of the past, the virus that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, which killed 774 people worldwide and was fully contained within months.

Coronavirus cases in California

(LA Times)

On Monday, Fauci said getting back to normal would mean something different. There will be a gradual process by which society can begin to function again, he said during a news conference, but ''if you want to get to pre-coronavirus, that might not ever happen in the sense of the fact that the threat is there.''

Improving trendsSilicon Valley health officials are now expressing more confidence that the shelter-in-place order implemented March 16 is working to curb the spread of the virus. Instead of projecting 50,000 coronavirus cases by May 1, the stay-at-home order may limit the number of cases in Santa Clara County to 2,500 to 12,000, according to a new estimate.

In addition, Santa Clara County '-- the original epicenter of California's coronavirus outbreak, where more than 1,200 cases have been reported and more than 40 deaths '-- may now be on track to have enough hospital beds to handle more COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks, the county public health officer said Tuesday.

What's next?There are no easy answers about when state officials could begin to dial back the strict stay-at-home orders.

Public health officer Dr. Sara Cody said at a Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday there were four things that would need to be in place for stay-at-home orders to be eased:

1. Robust hospital capacity

Hospitals must be able to safely treat residents with the care they need when they need it. That also means hospitals must be able to protect healthcare workers, such as with adequate supplies of masks, gowns and gloves.

Hospitals across California are continuing to find more space to prepare for additional hospital cases. In Marin County, with a population of about 260,000, officials say models suggest a continuous increase in COVID-19 cases and a possible surge in the next two to six weeks. They have been able to increase staffed bed capacity from 239 to about 400.

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2. The ability to test for the virus broadly

Being able to test any patients who are showing symptoms is essential. The U.S. has been hobbled by a persistent shortage of tests.

3. The ability to rapidly investigate new cases and isolate the newly infected

Local health officials need to be able to investigate new cases, isolate the newly infected, and find those who may have had close contact with them and quarantine them to see if they show signs of illness.

''When we started back in the end of January, that's exactly what we were doing: We carefully investigated every case, we carefully traced every contact, but of course, with the counts that we have today, we are not able to do that, and neither is anyone else,'' Cody said.

4. Sustained reduction in new coronavirus cases

Finally, ''we really need to see the sustained reduction in cases,'' Cody said, and it would need to persist for at least one incubation period '-- the time it might take between infection and when a person shows signs of illness.

''We want to reassure ourselves that, for at least 14 days, we see that things have settled down,'' Cody said.

California, initially one of the hardest-hit states, is now seeing a fraction of the cases and deaths of other states. By Tuesday night, California had reported more than 17,600 coronavirus cases and over 400 deaths; New York has reported more than 139,000 cases and more than 5,400 fatalities.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom at a March 30 news conference.

(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

Caution in California's optimismGov. Gavin Newsom expressed optimism Tuesday, saying California has no longer been reporting double-digit increases in hospitalization rates. Still, he cautioned that tougher days are ahead and forecast a peak of sick patients in May.

One vulnerable populations that remains are those in nursing homes, where the virus can spread easily.

A long-term-care skilled nursing facility in a Seattle suburb was an early epicenter of the outbreak, where two-thirds of residents and 47 workers fell ill and 37 people died.

Of the 21 people who have died from COVID-19 in California's San Mateo County, 15 resided in congregate-care settings. The Los Angeles County public health director said Tuesday it would be ''perfectly appropriate'' for families to pull loved ones out of long-term-care facilities; as of Tuesday, 21% of L.A. County's 173 coronavirus deaths were among residents of nursing homes or assisted living centers.

Risk of ending social distancing too earlyDr. Howard Markel, a professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan, said deploying stay-at-home measures required a degree of patience not to pull back too early.

''If you pull the triggers off too early, not only is there a circulating virus to do what it naturally does, but you will have incurred all the economic and social disruptions of [stay-at-home orders] for nothing,'' Markel said in a webinar hosted by the American Public Health Assn. last month.

Markel said that during the 1918 flu pandemic, more than 20 U.S. cities that relaxed physical distancing orders too quickly '-- even as the flu virus was still circulating '-- soon saw a new rise in cases.

Exactly how officials might envision pulling back coronavirus stay-at-home orders, and to what extent people can return to their workplaces, is not yet known.

''It's very, very difficult to know what parts we can scale back without compromising the progress that we've made,'' Cody told the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.

Social distancing into 2022? Some say that periods of social distancing may need to continue over the next two years.

A mathematical model developed by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health suggested that a one-time effort at social distancing, as the U.S. is undertaking this spring, wouldn't be enough to keep coronavirus case levels low enough to prevent hospital systems from being overwhelmed.

If it's true that the coronavirus can spread more easily in the autumn and winter, there could be a resurgence of infections later this year.

A vendor sells masks for $2 to $10 at the corner of Rosecrans and Vermont avenues in Gardena on Tuesday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

As a result, we might need long periods of social distancing, ''perhaps with occasional periods of loosening,'' to keep only a fraction of the population infected with the coronavirus at any one time, until a point at which large future outbreaks would be avoided, the Harvard study said.

Under one plausible scenario, social distancing measures could be fully relaxed by early to mid-2021, with the epidemic concluding by July 2022, Harvard researchers said. At that point, the coronavirus is anticipated to circulate seasonally, peaking in the winter.

Increasing the capacity of intensive care units would permit for longer breaks between periods of social distancing, said one of the authors of the study, Marc Lipsitch, epidemiology professor and director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

''This is not an easy policy,'' Lipsitch said at the American Public Health Assn. webinar last month. ''I'm not under illusions that this would be easy to do.''

How Singapore fell behindThere will continue to be the threat of the coronavirus being reintroduced in areas where the outbreak has eased.

Singapore, which took early, effective action against the coronavirus, was forced last week to order the closure of schools and nonessential businesses for a month as the numbers of cases rose when residents who lived and studied abroad rushed back home.

Officials in Singapore now say it is important to find sustainable ways to slow the virus through the end of the year.

Cases will rise when stay-home orders ease The public should realize that coronavirus cases are likely to rise when stay-at-home orders are eased, said Smith, the Santa Clara County executive.

Children play in the streets while wearing face masks, in the Golden Hills neighborhood of north Redondo Beach, CA, during the coronavirus pandemic and current safer-at-home orders from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, April 05, 2020.

(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

Fauci said during Monday's news conference that he felt confident that over a period of time '-- likely 12 to 18 months '-- a good vaccine would emerge. Along with new therapies coming online, he said he was confident ''we will never have to get back to where we are right now. So if that means getting back to normal, then we'll get back to normal.''

Times staff writers Jack Dolan and Taryn Luna contributed to this report.

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Thu, 09 Apr 2020 06:12

Alex Berenson @ AlexBerenson

Apr 6 2/ This is likely to unwind fast now. We will all be told how wonderful it is that we've dodged a bullet, that the lockdowns worked. (But how we need them just a few weeks longer!) And there will every effort to count every

#COVID death, to get the number as high as possible...

View conversation · Alex Berenson @ AlexBerenson

Apr 6 4/ Remember what we've done to our economy, how we've put more than 10,000,000 Americans - probably closer to 20,000,000 - out of work. Remember the choices we've made, and why we made them. Demand answers. Demand accountability.Attention must be paid.

View conversation ·

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Thu, 09 Apr 2020 06:10

A patient at a US hospital in July or August last year may have had coronavirus, concluded a Chinese supercomputer given the task of diagnosing Covid-19. US doctors said the symptoms were possibly associated with vaping. Photo: Nora Tam

China's Tianhe-1 machine says white patches detected on lungs suggest probable Covid-19But North Carolina doctor says five patients with similar symptoms were not evidence of an earlier outbreakTopic | Coronavirus outbreak

Published: 11:00pm, 8 Apr, 2020

Updated: 4:23am, 9 Apr, 2020

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Thu, 09 Apr 2020 05:59

Image copyright PA Media Boris Johnson is "responding to treatment" for coronavirus as he approaches a fourth night in hospital.

The prime minister was being kept in St Thomas' Hospital in London "for close monitoring" and remained clinically stable, his official spokesman said.

Downing Street said he was not working but could contact those he needed to.

The number of people to die with the virus in UK hospitals has increased by a record 938 in a day, according to the latest Department of Health figures.

The total death toll now stands at 7,097.

It comes after No 10 said a review of lockdown rules would go ahead next week, but the public must "stick with" the measures at what was a "critical time".

A ban on public gatherings of more than two people and the closure of shops selling non-essential goods were among the series of restrictions announced by Mr Johnson on 23 March to tackle the spread of coronavirus.

Downing Street said a relaxation of the rules would be considered "on or around" the three-week mark on Monday.

According to the government's coronavirus legislation, the health secretary must review the need for restrictions at least once every 21 days, with the first review to be carried out by 16 April.

But health minister Edward Argar said the peak in cases must pass "before we can think about making changes", adding: "It's too early to say when we will reach that peak."

The lockdown in Wales will be extended and not lifted next week, First Minister Mark Drakeford has confirmed.

BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said it seemed "likely" the rest of the UK would follow suit.

The prime minister was admitted to St Thomas' on Sunday, on the advice of his doctor, after continuing to have a cough and high temperature 10 days after testing positive for the virus. The prime minister was given oxygen before being taken to intensive care on Monday.

Downing Street said Mr Johnson was in "good spirits" on Wednesday as he continued to receive standard oxygen treatment. He was breathing without any assistance, such as mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.

The Queen and other senior royals sent messages to Mr Johnson's family and his pregnant fiancee, Carrie Symonds, saying they were thinking of them, and wished the PM a full and speedy recovery.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputising for Mr Johnson, said on Tuesday he was "confident" the PM would recover from this illness, describing him as a "fighter".

In the latest figures across the UK:

The total number of people who have died with coronavirus in English hospitals is 6,483, a rise of 828 on the previous 24 hoursScottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said 70 people had died with the virus in Scotland in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 366. Scotland has changed the way it counts deaths to include deaths where the virus was a probable contributing factor - and people who were not in hospital when they diedIn Wales, 33 more people have died after testing positive for the virus, bringing the Welsh death toll to 245. Public Health Wales said case numbers would be "lower than usual" on Thursday as officials move back the time when they count new casesFive more deaths in Northern Ireland brings the NI total to 78The latest UK-wide figures - which use a different timeframe to those of individual nations - said the number of coronavirus hospital deaths rose to 7,097 on Wednesday- a record increase of 938 compared with 786 on Tuesday.

However, the government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told Tuesday's Downing Street briefing the number of coronavirus cases in the UK "could be moving in the right direction".

As of 9:00 BST on Wednesday, 232,708 people had been tested for coronavirus, of which 60,733 tested positive, the department said.

Spikes or dips in recorded cases and deaths may in part reflect bottlenecks in the reporting system, rather than real changes in the trend.

Image copyright PA Media Image caption A photo of the Queen and quotes from her Sunday speech are shown at Piccadilly Circus Image copyright Getty Images/MoD/Cpl Watson Image caption The armed forces are helping ambulance services, including the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust Ahead of a spell of sunny weather forecast in some parts of the UK later this week, Mr Argar urged people to stay at home "however lovely the weather this Easter weekend".

"If we are, as the statistics appear to show, making a little bit of progress, now's the time to hold to it," he told BBC Breakfast.

Regarding a review of lockdown measures, he said: "We need to start seeing the numbers coming down and that's when you're in the negative.

"That's when you have a sense when that's sustained over a period of time, that you can see it coming out of that. We're not there yet and I don't exactly know when we will be."

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think we're nowhere near lifting the lockdown.

"We think the peak - which is the worst part of the virus - is still probably a week and a half away."

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Workers are building the new NHS Louisa Jordan Hospital in the SEC in Glasgow Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media caption Manchester Central conference centre has been converted into a new hospitalMeanwhile, the first patients have been admitted to the NHS Nightingale Hospital in east London - a temporary facility set up at the ExCel conference centre.

The admissions come two weeks after the hospital with a planned capacity of 4,000 was formally announced - although an NHS spokesperson stressed limits had not been reached at other sites in London.

The second NHS Nightingale Hospital, at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, is to be opened on Friday, Downing Street said. It will have capacity for up to 2,000 patients if needed.

The prime minister's official spokesman added a third Nightingale Hospital was expected to open in "the next week or so" in Manchester.

The armed forces are working on plans to build a further five temporary hospitals to deal with the pandemic, BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said.

There are plans to build up to 17 temporary hospitals if needed.

In other developments:

Fifteen residents have died at a care home in Luton - five of whom had the virus while the 10 others were not tested. The local council leader said it was a "tragic situation"Documents have been held in place by windscreen wipers and signed on a car bonnet in a novel way for wills to be witnessed during social distancingFriends and family have been paying tribute to 29-year-old Rebecca Mack, a former children's cancer nurse at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, who died on Sunday after contracting the virus a few weeks agoCrimeStoppers has passed on more than 500 tip-offs to police across the UK about people breaking lockdown rules - including people with the virus being spotted outdoors, threats to infect or cough at people, and parties being planned on social mediaIn London, 14 public transport staff have died from the virus, including nine bus workers. The mayor said some buses were trialling allowing passengers to get on the bus only through the back doors to avoid going near the driverSupermarket Tesco said most food would still need to be bought in store as it was not able to meet home delivery demand, while Sainsbury's said it was removing restrictions on thousands of products as stock levels recoverThe months-long lockdown in the city of Wuhan in China's Hubei province - where the coronavirus pandemic started - has been liftedThe US recorded the most coronavirus deaths in a single day with 1,736 fatalities reported on Tuesday. Country music singer-songwriter John Prine was among those to have diedHow have you been affected by the issues relating to coronavirus? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk .

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

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Thu, 09 Apr 2020 07:11

Rosie O'Donnell, Amy Schumer, Miley Cyrus, and George Clooney are a bit of a gathering of famous people requiring an aggregate Hollywood strike ''until the purpose when Trump leaves''.

A gathering of liberal Hollywood superstars is undermining a ''huge, all-round Hollywood strike'' unless Donald Trump leaves. Portraying Hollywood as ''the base of the entire current American culture'', the gathering likewise claims to speak for the advantage of ''all of humankind.''

''It about time individuals comprehended that we are the ones with the facility which the president is there to serve us, not the special way'', for the gathering disclosed to The ny Times.

''We're requiring a general strike that might incorporate each and each individual related to making movies in Hollywood, beginning with the performing artists and famous people themselves and including organizations in charge of making props, movie memorabilia and even keepsake shops.''Spinzon reports: Rosie O'Donnell, Debra Messing, Ed Asner, and Michael Shannon are among the various specialists, performers, and activists who have joined their names to an exertion requiring a month-long dissent to prevent President-elect Donald Trump.

''No! For the sake of Humankind We Decline to Acknowledge a Rightist America!'' peruses a full-page advertisement put within the ny Times on Wednesday by the gathering Deny Bigotry. ''Donald Trump, the President-elect, is amassing an administration of grave risk,'' the promotion says.

''A sizable amount of people within the US and around the globe are loaded with profound uneasiness, dread and sicken. Our anguish is correct and just. Our outrage should now finish up gigantic protection '' before Donald Trump is initiated and has the complete gets control of control over his hands.

Rosie O'Donnell, Amy Schumer, Miley Cyrus, and George Clooney are a bit of a gathering of famous people requiring an aggregate Hollywood strike ''until the purpose when Trump leaves''.

A gathering of liberal Hollywood superstars is undermining a ''huge, all-round Hollywood strike'' unless Donald Trump leaves. Portraying Hollywood as ''the base of the entire current American culture'', the gathering likewise claims to speak for the advantage of ''all of humankind.''

''It about time individuals comprehended that we are the ones with the facility which the president is there to serve us, not the special way'', for the gathering disclosed to The ny Times.

''We're requiring a general strike that might incorporate each and each individual related to making movies in Hollywood, beginning with the performing artists and famous people themselves and including organizations in charge of making props, movie memorabilia and even keepsake shops.''Spinzon reports: Rosie O'Donnell, Debra Messing, Ed Asner, and Michael Shannon are among the various specialists, performers, and activists who have joined their names to an exertion requiring a month-long dissent to prevent President-elect Donald Trump.

''No! For the sake of Humankind We Decline to Acknowledge a Rightist America!'' peruses a full-page advertisement put within the ny Times on Wednesday by the gathering Deny Bigotry. ''Donald Trump, the President-elect, is amassing an administration of grave risk,'' the promotion says.

''A sizable amount of people within the US and around the globe are loaded with profound uneasiness, dread and sicken. Our anguish is correct and just. Our outrage should now finish up gigantic protection '' before Donald Trump is initiated and has the complete gets control of control over his hands.22

source: Facebook,Google,Twiter

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Thu, 09 Apr 2020 05:58

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As 93 of the nearly 5,000 sailors assigned to the USS Theodore Roosevelt, now docked in Guam, have tested positive for the coronavirus, the Navy is removing nearly 3,000 sailors aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier by Friday.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly made it clear that while several thousand will leave the ship, other sailors will remain on board in order to continue to protect the ship and run critical systems.

He also said the situation ''won't be resolved in the next couple of days.''

CLICK HERE FOR FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Navy officials said almost 1,273 sailors have been tested and, as of Wednesday, 593 of those tests came back negative. Officials are awaiting more results and more testing.

Testing of the crew has "accelerated," Modly said, adding that only 200 sailors could be tested each day.

The acting secretary said the aircraft carrier is the only known deployed warship with COVID-19 cases on board.

Of the 93 sailors who tested positive, 86 of the sailors exhibited symptoms for the virus while seven others didn't, Modly said.

As of Tuesday morning, the Navy said that a total of 334 personnel had tested positive for the virus, including 243 sailors. Of the 334, 19 have been hospitalized and 15 have recovered. None have died.

FILE - In this April 13, 2018, file photo the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier is anchored off Manila Bay west of Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

Modly told Fox News' Jennifer Griffin: ''We don't have any forensics if that would indicate that that was what caused or brought the virus onto the ship. As I mentioned, when the crew came back onto the ship, we tested certain members that we thought might have an issue. And none of those tests came back positive."

"As I said before, we also had members flying on and off the ship from the air wing. So we are not really sure where it could have come from. Someone could have brought [it] from San Diego when the ship actually deployed. We just don't know. Once the virus gets on a ship like that, it's going to spread. And it's hard to tell where it actually started.''

The carrier, like other Navy ships, is vulnerable to infectious disease spread given its close quarters. The ship is more than 1,000 feet long. Sailors are spread out across a labyrinth of decks linked by steep ladder-like stairs and narrow corridors. Enlisted sailors and officers have separate living areas, but most share rooms with multiple people, work in close quarters with other sailors, routinely grab their food from crowded buffet lines and eat at tables joined end to end.

Navy officials said they struggle to quarantine crew members in the face of an outbreak.

Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, the carrier's commander, raised warnings this week in a memo to his leaders. He said the ship was facing a growing outbreak of the coronavirus and he asked permission to isolate the bulk of his crew members onshore, an extraordinary move to take a carrier out of duty to save lives.

Crozier said the spread of the disease was accelerating and that removing all but 10 percent of the crew would be a ''necessary risk'' to stop the spread of the virus.

''We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset: our sailors,'' Crozier said.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Defense Secretary Mark Esper had said just the day before that he did not think the Navy ship would need to be evacuated.

Fox News' Griffin questioned Modly: ''When we asked about this last week, you said that you had no evidence that it was the port visit to Vietnam. Have you changed your assessment in light of the exponentially rising numbers? And was it the letter from the Captain that caused you to start to take -- move faster to remove people from the ship? And is the Captain going to be punished for having raised this in -- in very stark terms?''

Navy leaders were quick to praise the captain for bringing the dire nature of the matter to their attention. They brushed away suggestions that he could be punished because the issue became public so quickly.

"This is exactly what we want our commanding officers and medical professionals to do," Modly said.

"We're not looking to shoot the messenger," he added.

The letter from Crozier to top Navy brass was first obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Thu, 09 Apr 2020 05:57

12th March 2020

As the impact of the Corona Virus (Covid-19) continues to grow, nowhere in Europe has been more affected than Italy, and in particular northern Italy.

With a complete lockdown announced by the Italian Government, everyday life for Italians has ground to a halt as the rise in cases of Wuhan-Flu continues.

This has raised the question of why Italy has suffered more than other countries to date?

AltNewsMedia has a theory as to what may lie behind this.

Many Italians in Northern Italy have sold their leather goods and textiles companies to China. Italy then allowed 100,000 Chinese workers from Wuhan and Wenzhou to move to Italy to work in these factories, with direct flights between Wuhan and Northern Italy. This continued post outbreak, so is it mere coincidence that Northern Italy is now Europe's hotspot for Corona Virus?

The murky reality is that the EU turned a blind eye to vast numbers of illegal Chinese immigrants working in Italian factories. The 'Open Borders' EU will of course try to keep this under wraps, but reality is, the Chinese Mafia operate Italian textile factories with tens of thousands of illegal immigrants shipping 'made in Italy' goods into China and elsewhere.

Why didn't the EU act to stop corrupt Italians taking backhanders from the Chinese mafia?

Why is Boris and our Scientific community still happy to allow Italian flights into the UK?

This is an area that logically should be front and centre of investigations into how the virus spread into Europe, but we suspect it will overlooked.

The whole scenario is a disaster for the EU and their open borders narrative, but as the 4th biggest economy in the EU this whole situation with Italy could accelerate the collapse of the whole EU project.

Listen here as we discuss this further in our weekly podcast.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 18:20

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del·'‹e·'‹te·'‹ri·'‹ous | \ ˌde-lÉ-Ëtir-Ä'-És \ Definition of deleterious : harmful often in a subtle or unexpected way deleterious effects deleterious to health Other Words from deleterious deleteriously adverb

deleteriousness noun

Synonyms & Antonyms for deleteriousSynonyms

adverse, bad, baleful, baneful, damaging, dangerous, detrimental, evil, harmful, hurtful, ill, injurious, mischievous, nocuous, noxious, pernicious, prejudicial, wickedAntonyms

anodyne, benign, harmless, hurtless, innocent, innocuous, inoffensive, safe Visit the Thesaurus for More Choose the Right Synonym for deleteriouspernicious, baneful, noxious, deleterious, detrimental mean exceedingly harmful. pernicious implies irreparable harm done through evil or insidious corrupting or undermining. the claim that pornography has a pernicious effect on society baneful implies injury through poisoning or destroying. the baneful notion that discipline destroys creativity noxious applies to what is both offensive and injurious to the health of a body or mind. noxious chemical fumes deleterious applies to what has an often unsuspected harmful effect. a diet found to have deleterious effects detrimental implies obvious harmfulness to something specified. the detrimental effects of excessive drinking

Examples of deleterious in a Sentence In developing countries, the imposition of boundaries around national parks and protected areas has been deleterious for both people and wildlife. '-- Kristin B. Gunther , Association of American Geographers , 2002 Most everyone now knows the action of pressing mouse keys is far more deleterious to the tender structures of the wrist and hand than typing is. '-- Michael Finley , Albany (New York) Times-Union , 2 Sept. 1998 This skewed allocation of resources away from those most in need, in turn, insures that many young people from low-income families will continue to be shut out of the economy, with obvious deleterious family and social consequences. '-- Iris C. Rotberg , Education Week , 9 Mar. 1994 For as James Keirans pointed out to me, ticks are the world's most notorious carriers of the agents of diseases that strike animals, wild and domestic. And they rank second only to mosquitoes in their deleterious effect on humans. '-- Edwards Park , Smithsonian , January 1987 The chemical is deleterious to the environment. The drug has no deleterious effects on patients.

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Recent Examples on the Web These numbers obfuscate a darker reality: the deleterious effect of art fairs on small and medium-size galleries. '-- Brian P. Kelly, WSJ, "The High Cost of Art Fairs," 3 Mar. 2020 Like Facebook and Twitter, YouTube faces similar problems of balancing its enormous earnings and cultural influence with its clearly deleterious effects. '-- Navneet Alang, TheWeek, "Why YouTube is the true successor to TV," 7 Feb. 2020 Too often surgery and hospitalization, Dr. Aronson argues, are not the answer for older patients; and drugs that might be effective on younger adults can have deleterious effects on the elderly. '-- Joseph Epstein, WSJ, "'Elderhood' Review: The Way We Age Now," 17 Jan. 2020 Moving away from police response to quality-of life issues or having to leave lower-priority calls to attend to higher-priority calls may have a deleterious effect on police legitimacy. '-- David Squier Jones, Twin Cities, "David Squier Jones: To cure violence, St. Paul needs best practices, not just best politics," 10 Dec. 2019 The group wants the city council to declare a climate crisis and work with members of the indigenous and Pacific Islander communities, which students say are the first to feel the deleterious effects of such things as rising sea levels. '-- oregonlive, "'The sea is rising and so are we:' Portland students walk out of class, demand action on climate," 7 Dec. 2019 But in a cash-dependent country like India, the dearth of currency notes proved deleterious, resulting in long lines at bank branches and ATMs, and even some deaths. '-- Nupur Anand, Quartz, "A look into India's first digital village," 5 Nov. 2019 Some Republican donors and officials worried that Trump's decision would trap them in an untenable situation and have deleterious effects around the world. '-- Author: Seung Min Kim, Josh Dawsey, Anchorage Daily News, "Pullout order followed days of agitation by president," 14 Oct. 2019 But the case study amply demonstrates the importance of properly cleaning such homes, since trace contamination can have a deleterious effect on young children in particular. '-- Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "Home buyers, beware: Contamination from cooking meth can linger for years," 9 Oct. 2019 These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'deleterious.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

See More First Known Use of deleterious1643, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for deleterious Greek dÄ'lÄ'tÄ'rios, from dÄ'leisthai to hurt

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''Deleterious.'' Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deleterious. Accessed 8 Apr. 2020.

More Definitions for deleterious

del·'‹e·'‹te·'‹ri·'‹ous | \ ˌdel-É-Ëtir-Ä'-És \ Medical Definition of deleterious : harmful often in a subtle or an unexpected way the deleterious effects of radiation and chemotherapy on the marrow '-- Christine Gorman deleterious genes

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 17:21

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter on May 18, 1933, to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression. Senator George W. Norris (R-Nebraska) was a strong sponsor of this project. TVA was envisioned not only as a provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and rural electrification to help modernize the rural region's economy and society.[2]

TVA Towers, TVA's headquarters in downtown Knoxville, overlooking the Tennessee River

TVA's service area covers most of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small slices of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. It was the first large regional planning agency of the federal government and remains the largest. Under the leadership of David Lilienthal ("Mr. TVA"), the TVA became a model for the United States' later efforts to help modernize agrarian societies in the developing world.[3]

Overview Edit Wilson Dam, completed in 1924, was the first dam under the authority of TVA, created in 1933.

The Tennessee Valley Authority was initially founded as an agency to provide general economic development to the region through power generation, flood control, navigation assistance, fertilizer manufacturing, and agricultural development. Since the Depression years, it has developed primarily into a power utility. Despite its shares being owned by the federal government, TVA operates exactly like a private corporation, and receives no taxpayer funding.[4] The TVA Act authorizes the company to use eminent domain.[5]

TVA provides electricity to approximately ten million people through a diverse portfolio that includes nuclear, coal-fired, natural gas-fired, hydroelectric, and renewable generation. TVA sells its power to 154 local power utilities, 5 direct industrial and institutional customers, and 12 area utilities.[6] In addition to power generation, TVA provides flood control with 29 hydroelectric dams. Resulting lakes and other areas also allow for recreational activities. The TVA provides navigation and land management along rivers within its region of operation.[4] TVA also assists governments and private companies on economic development projects.[4]

TVA has a nine-member board of directors, each nominated by the United States President and confirmed by the United States Senate. The part-time members serve five-year terms and receive an annual stipend of $45,000 ($50,000 for the chairman). The board members choose the chief executive officer (CEO).[7]

The Tennessee Valley Authority Police are the primary law enforcement agency for the company. Initially part of the TVA, in 1994 the TVA Police was authorized as a federal law enforcement agency.

History Edit Background Edit During the 1920s and the 1930s Great Depression years, Americans began to support the idea of public ownership of utilities, particularly hydroelectric power facilities. The concept of government-owned generation facilities selling to publicly owned distribution utilities was controversial and remains so today.[8] Many believed privately owned power companies were charging too much for power, did not employ fair operating practices, and were subject to abuse by their owners (utility holding companies), at the expense of consumers.

During his presidential campaign, Franklin D. Roosevelt said that private utilities had "selfish purposes" and said, "Never shall the federal government part with its sovereignty or with its control of its power resources while I'm president of the United States." The private sector practice of forming utility holding companies had resulted in their controlling 94 percent of generation by 1921, and there were essentially unregulated. (In an effort to change this, Congress and Roosevelt enacted the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (P.U.H.C.A.)).

After Roosevelt was elected, the federal government bought many private utility companies in the Tennessee Valley as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority project. Others shut down, unable to compete with the TVA. The government passed regulations to prevent competition with TVA.

In 1920 Senator George Norris (R-Nebraska) blocked a proposal from industrialist Henry Ford to build a private dam and utility to modernize the valley. Norris deeply distrusted privately owned utility companies, which controlled 94% of power generation in 1921. He gained passage of the Muscle Shoals Bill, to build a federal dam in the valley, but it was vetoed as socialistic by President Herbert Hoover in 1931. The idea behind the Muscle Shoals project in 1933 became a core part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal Tennessee Valley Authority.[9]

Even by Depression standards, in 1933 the Tennessee Valley was in dire economic straits. Thirty percent of the population was affected by malaria. The average income in the rural area was $639 per year, with some families surviving on as little as $100 per year. Much of the land had been exhausted by poor farming practices, and the soil was eroded and depleted. Crop yields had fallen, reducing farm incomes. The best timber had been cut, and 10% of forests were lost to fires each year.[8]

Early history Edit President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act (ch. 32, Pub.L. 73''17, 48 Stat. 58, enacted May 18, 1933, codified as amended at 16 U.S.C. § 831, et seq.), creating the TVA. TVA was designed to modernize the region, using experts and electricity to combat human and economic problems.[10] TVA developed fertilizers, and taught farmers ways to improve crop yields. In addition, it helped replant forests, control forest fires, and improve habitat for fish and wildlife. The most dramatic change in Valley life came from TVA-generated electricity from the dams it constructed on area rivers. With electricity, farms could be provided with lights and modern home appliances, making the lives of residents easier and farms more productive. The available electricity attracted new industries to the region, providing desperately needed jobs.[11]

The development of the dams provided numerous construction jobs. At the same time, however, they required the displacement of more than 15,000 families. This created anti-TVA sentiment in some rural communities. In related projects, three towns had to be relocated, as were cemeteries. The TVA relocated and reinterred remains at new locations, together with replacing tombstones.

Many local landowners were suspicious of government agencies, but TVA successfully introduced new agricultural methods into traditional farming communities by blending in and finding local champions. Tennessee farmers would often reject advice from TVA officials, so the officials had to find leaders in the communities and convince them that crop rotation and the judicious application of fertilizers could restore soil fertility. Once they had convinced the leaders, the rest followed.[12]

At its inception, TVA was based in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, but later moved its headquarters to Knoxville, Tennessee. This is still its base. At one point, TVA's headquarters were housed in the Old Federal Customs House at the corner of Clinch Avenue and Market Street. The building is now operated as a museum and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[13] TVA was one of the first federal hydropower agencies. Today most of the nation's major hydropower systems are federally managed. But other attempts to create similar regional corporate agencies have failed, and the proposed Columbia Valley Authority for the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest did not gain approval.[citation needed ]

The Authority hired many of the area's unemployed for a variety of jobs: they conducted conservation, economic development, and social programs. For instance, a library service was instituted for this area. The professional staff at headquarters were generally composed of experts from outside the region. By 1934, TVA employed more than 9,000 people.[14]

The workers were classified by the usual racial and gender lines of the region, which limited opportunities for minorities and women. TVA hired a few African Americans, generally restricted for janitorial or other low-level positions. TVA recognized labor unions; its skilled and semi-skilled blue collar employees were unionized, a breakthrough in an area known for corporations hostile to miners' and textile workers' unions. Women were excluded from construction work. TVA's cheap electricity attracted textile mills to the area, and they hired mostly women as workers.[15]

During World War II, the U.S. needed greater aluminum supplies to build airplanes. Aluminum plants required large amounts of electricity. To provide the power, TVA engaged in one of the largest hydropower construction programs ever undertaken in the U.S. By early 1942, when the effort reached its peak, 12 hydroelectric plants and one steam plant were under construction at the same time, and design and construction employment reached a total of 28,000. In its first eleven years, TVA constructed a total of 16 hydroelectric dams.[14]

The largest project of this period was the Fontana Dam. After negotiations led by Vice-President Harry Truman, TVA purchased the land from Nantahala Power and Light, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alcoa, and built Fontana Dam. Also in 1942, TVA's first coal-fired plant, the 267-megawatt Watts Bar Steam Plant, began operation.[16]

The government originally intended the electricity generated from Fontana to be used by Alcoa factories.[citation needed ] By the time the dam generated power in early 1945, the electricity was directed to another purpose in addition to aluminum manufacturing. TVA also provided much of the electricity needed for uranium enrichment at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as required for the Manhattan Project and the making of the atomic bomb.

Increasing power demand Edit By the end of World War II, TVA had completed a 650-mile (1050-kilometer) navigation channel the length of the Tennessee River and had become the nation's largest electricity supplier.Even so, the demand for electricity was outstripping TVA's capacity to produce power from hydroelectric dams, and so TVA began to construct coal-fired plants. Political interference kept TVA from securing additional federal appropriations to do so, so it sought the authority to issue bonds.[citation needed ] Several of TVA's coal-fired plants, including Johnsonville, Widows Creek, Shawnee, Kingston, Gallatin, and John Sevier, began operations in the 1950s.[17] In 1955 coal surpassed hydroelectricity as TVA's top generating source.[18] On August 6, 1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law an amendment to the TVA act, making the agency self-financing.[19]

The 1960s were years of further unprecedented economic growth in the Tennessee Valley. Electric rates were among the nation's lowest and stayed low as TVA brought larger, more efficient generating units into service. Expecting the Valley's electric power needs to continue to grow, TVA began building nuclear reactors as a new source of cheap power.[20] During this decade (and the 1970s), TVA was engaged in what was up to that time its most controversial project '' the Tellico Dam Project.[citation needed ] The project was initially conceived in the 1940s but not completed until 1979.

1970s and 1980s Edit Significant changes occurred in the economy of the Tennessee Valley and the nation, prompted by an international oil embargo in 1973 and accelerating fuel costs later in the decade. The average cost of electricity in the Tennessee Valley increased fivefold from the early 1970s to the early 1980s.

TVA's first nuclear reactor, Browns Ferry Unit 1, began operation in 1974.[21] In the early 1970s, TVA set out to construct a total of 17 nuclear reactors, due to a projection of further increase in power demand.[22] However, in the 1980s ten of these reactors were cancelled. On August 6, 1981 the Tennessee Valley Authority Board voted to defer the Phipps Bend plant, as well as to slow down construction on all other projects.[23] The Hartsville and Yellow Creek plants were cancelled in 1984 and Bellefonte in 1988.[22]

Construction of the Tellico Dam became controversial for environmental reasons, as laws had changed since early development in the valley. Scientists and other people had become more aware of the massive environmental effects of the dams and new lakes, and worried about preserving habitat and species. The Tellico Dam project was initially delayed because of concern over the snail darter, a threatened species. A lawsuit was filed under the Endangered Species Act and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of protecting the snail darter in Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill.

Marvin T. Runyon became chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority in January 1988. He claimed to reduce management layers, cut overhead costs by more than 30%, and achieved cumulative savings and efficiency improvements of $1.8 billion. He said he revitalized the nuclear program and instituted a rate freeze that continued for ten years.[24]

Recent history Edit As the electric-utility industry moved toward restructuring and deregulation, TVA began preparing for competition. It cut operating costs by nearly $950 million a year, reduced its workforce by more than half, increased the generating capacity of its plants, and developed a plan to meet the energy needs of the Tennessee Valley through the year 2020.[citation needed ]

In 1996, Watts Bar Unit 1 began operation. This was the last commercial nuclear reactor in the United States to begin operation in the 20th century.

May 2005 map of TVA sites

In 2002, TVA began work to restart a previously mothballed nuclear reactor at Browns Ferry Unit 1, which was completed in May 2007. In 2004, TVA implemented recommendations from the Reservoir Operations Study (ROS) on how it operates the Tennessee River system (the nation's fifth largest). In 2005, the TVA announced its intention to construct an Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor at its Bellefonte site in Alabama (filing the necessary applications in November 2007). In 2007 it announced plans to complete the unfinished Unit 2 at Watts Bar.

On December 22, 2008, an earthen dike at TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant broke, spreading one billion gallons of wet coal ash across 300 acres (1.2 km2) of land and into the tributaries of the Tennessee River. This produced damage from high levels of metal in the river.[25] The TVA Office of the Inspector General's report, Inspection 2008-12283-02, Review of the Kingston Fossil Plant Ash Spill Cause Study and Observations About Ash Management, concluded that TVA culture had contributed to the spill.[26]

In 2009, to gain more access to sustainable, green energy, TVA signed 20-year power purchase agreements with Maryland-based CVP Renewable Energy Co. and Chicago-based Invenergy Wind LLC for electricity generated by wind farms.[27]

As of 2013, TVA carried $25 billion in debt, near the $30 billion debt limit imposed by Congress.[28][29]

In April 2011 TVA reached an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), four state governments, and three environmental groups to drastically reduce pollution and carbon emissions.[30] Under the terms of the agreement, TVA was required to retire at least 18 of its 59 coal-fired units by the end of 2018, and install scrubbers in several others or convert them to make them cleaner, at a cost of $25 billion by 2021.[30] As a result, TVA closed several of its coal-fired power plants in the 2010s, converting some of them to natural gas. These include John Sevier in 2012, Shawnee Unit 10 in 2014, Widows Creek in 2015, Colbert in 2016, Johnsonville and Paradise Units 1 and 2 in 2017, and Allen in 2018.[31]

In October 2016, Watts Bar Unit 2 began commercial operation. Watts Bar Unit 2 is the first, and so far only, new nuclear reactor to enter service in the United States in the 21st century.[32]

In 2018, TVA opened a new cybersecurity center in its downtown Chattanooga Office Complex. More than 20 IT specialists monitor emails, Twitter feeds and network activity for cybersecurity threats and threats to grid security. Across TVA's digital platform, 2 billion activities that occur each day. The center is manned 24 hours a day to spot any threats to TVA's 16,000 miles of transmission lines.[33]

Given continued economic pressure on the coal industry, the TVA board defied President Donald Trump and voted in February 2019 to close two aging coal plants, Paradise 3 and Bull Run. TVA chief executive Bill Johnson said the decision was not about coal per se, but rather "about keeping rates as low as feasible." The TVA stated that decommissioning the two plants would reduce its carbon output by about 4.4% annually.[34]

Facilities Edit Power stations Edit With a generating capacity of approximately 35 gigawatts (GW), TVA has the sixth highest generation capacity of any utility company.[35] TVA's power mix as of 2020 is five coal-fired power plants, 29 hydroelectric dams, three nuclear plants (with seven operating reactors), nine simple-cycle natural gas combustion turbine plants, nine combined cycle gas plants, 1 pumped storage hydroelectric plant, 1 wind energy site (plus contracts to purchase Midwest wind power), and 15 small solar energy sites.[36] In fiscal year 2018, nuclear generation made up about 40% of TVA's total, coal 26%, natural gas 20%, hydroelectric 10%, and wind and solar 3%.[36] TVA purchases about 15% of the power it sells from other power producers. It purchases power from natural gas combined cycles, coal, and wind, and other renewables. The cost of Purchased Power is part of the "Fuel Cost Adjustment" (FCA) charge that is separate from the TVA Rate. Watts Bar Nuclear Plant produces tritium as a byproduct for the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, which requires tritium for nuclear weapons (for "boosted" fission primaries and for fusion secondaries).

Dams and hydroelectric facilities Edit Fossil fuel plants Edit Coal-fired power plantsNatural gas dual-fuel combustion turbine (CT) and combined cycle (CC) plantsNameTypeUnitsCapacity (MWe)LocationYear of commissionAckerman[37]CC[37]3[37]705[37]Ackerman, Mississippi[37]2007[37]Allen[38]CC[38]3[38]1,100[38]Memphis, Tennessee[38]2018[38]Brownsville[39]CT[39]4[39]468[39]Brownsville, Tennessee[39]1999[39]Caledonia[40]CC[40]3[41]765[41]Steens, Mississippi[41]2003[41]Colbert[42]CT[42]8[42]392[43]Tuscumbia, Alabama[42]1972[43]Gallatin[44]CT[44]8[44]600[44]Gallatin, Tennessee[44]1975[44]Gleason[45]CT[45]3[45]465[45]Dresden, Tennessee[45]2000[45]John Sevier[46]CC[46]3[46]880[46]Rogersville, Tennessee[46]2012[46]Johnsonville[47]CT[47]20[47]1,133[47]New Johnsonville, Tennessee[47]1975[47]Kemper[48]CT[48]4[48]312[48]De Kalb, Mississippi[48]2002[48]Lagoon CreekDual[49]12 (CT)[49] 1 (CC)[50]904 (CT)[49]525 (CC)[50]Brownsville, Tennessee[51]2001 (CT)[49]2011 (CC)[51]Magnolia[40]CC[40]3[52]920[40]Ashland, Mississippi[40]2003[52]Marshall[53]CT[53]8[53]621[53]Calvert City, Kentucky[53]2002[53]Paradise[54]CC[55]3[54]1,130[54]Drakesboro, Kentucky[55]2017[55]Southaven[56]CC[56]3[57]774[57]Southaven, Mississippi[56]2003[57]Nuclear power plants Edit Joint facilities Edit TVA also assists ALCOA's Tapoco/APGI in regulating several facilities, including the Calderwood, Cheoah, Chilhowee, and Santeetlah dams.

Renewable generation Edit TVA operates several small-scale facilities that generate electricity from renewable sources other than hydropower. These include:[58][59][60][61][62]

Solar electric generationLovers Lane soccer complex, Bowling Green, Kentucky (36 kW capacity)Finley Stadium, Chattanooga, Tennessee (85 kW)Gibson County High School, Dyer, Tennessee (18 kW)Florence, Alabama water treatment facility (30 kW)Sci-Quest science museum, Huntsville, Alabama (27 kW)Ijams Nature Center, Knoxville, Tennessee (15 kW)Bridges Center, Memphis, Tennessee (25 kW)Adventure Science Center, Nashville, Tennessee (27 kW)Cocke County High School, Newport, Tennessee (9 kW)American Museum of Science and Energy, Oak Ridge, Tennessee (15 kW)Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee (7 kW)University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi (30 kW)Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (two 18 kW facilities)Duffield-Pattonsville Elementary School, Scott County, Virginia (9 kW)Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi (15 kW)Wind powerAt Buffalo Mountain in Oliver Springs, Tennessee, TVA operates three wind turbines with a combined generation capacity of 2 MW and purchases the output of 15 additional wind turbines owned by Invenergy that have a combined capacity of 27 MW. As of 2013, the agency had purchased agreements from power generated from wind farms outside its service area:

2012 '' Enel Green Power, LLC '' 201MW '' Caney River Wind Farm, Elk County, Kansas.2012 '' Invenergy '' 400MW '' Bishop Hill Wind Energy Center, Henry County, Illinois2012 '' 200MW '' California Ridge Wind Energy Center in Champaign County, Illinois2012 '' NextEra Energy Resources '' 150MW '' White Oak Energy Center, McLean County, Illinois2012 '' NextEra Energy Resources '' 165MW '' Cimarron Wind farm, Gray County, KansasA 2010 agreement with Iberdrola Renewables provides a potential 300MW future supply from Streator-Cayuga Ridge Wind Farm, Livingston County, Illinois[63]

Waste-derived methaneBiogas from the Maxson wastewater treatment plant in Memphis is burned in Allen Fossil Plant, accounting for a generating capacity of 4 MW.[citation needed ]

Former facilities Edit NameTypeCapacity (MW)LocationYears of operationHales Bar Dam[64]Hydroelectric[64]99.7[64]Haletown, Tennessee[64]1913-1952[64]Wilson Steam Plant[65]Coal[65]240[65]Muscle Shoals, Alabama[65]1919-1966[65]Watts Bar Steam Plant[66]Coal[65]267[65]Rhea County, Tennessee[66]1942-1982[66]John Sevier Fossil Plant[65]Coal[65]880[65]Hawkins County, Tennessee[65]1957-2012[65]Widows Creek Fossil Plant[67][68]Coal[65]1,800[65]Stevenson, Alabama[65]1952-2015[65]Colbert Fossil Plant[69]Coal[69]1,204[69]Tuscumbia, Alabama[69]1955-2016[69]Johnsonville Fossil Plant[70]Coal[70]1,500[70]New Johnsonville, Tennessee[70]1951-2017[71]Allen Fossil Plant[72]Coal[72]741[73]Memphis, Tennessee[72]1959-2018[72]Paradise Fossil PlantCoal2,379[74]Drakesboro, Kentucky1963-2020Cancelled facilities Edit Electric transmission Edit TVA is one of the largest operators of electric transmission in the US with an approximately 16,000-mile (26,000 km) corridor of transmission (13,000 miles (21,000 km) of which is greater than 161kv).[75]

Administration Edit TVA's headquarters are located in downtown Knoxville, with large administrative offices in Chattanooga (training/development; supplier relations; power generation and transmission) Nashville, Tennessee (economic development), and Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

Recreation Edit TVA has conveyed approximately 485,420 acres (1,964.4 km2) of property for recreation and preservation purposes including public parks; public access areas and roadside parks; wildlife refuges; national parks and forests; and other camps and recreation areas, which comprises approximately 759 different sites.[76]

Megasites Edit To qualify for a TVA Megasite certificate the qualifications are at least 1,000 acres, with interstate access, the potential for rail service, environmental impact study, and utility service capable of serving a major manufacturing facility. Seven TVA Megasites have been developed so far with capital investments of over $5 Billion.[77]

Locations:

Huntsville[78]ChattanoogaGolden Triangle (Mississippi) (2 sites)[79]Hopkinsville, KentuckyMemphis Regional MegasiteWest Kentucky MegasiteCriticism Edit Allegations of federal government overreach Edit TVA was heralded by New Dealers and the New Deal Coalition not only as a successful economic development program for a depressed area but also as a democratic nation-building effort overseas because of its alleged grassroots inclusiveness as articulated by director David Lilienthal. However, the TVA was controversial early on, as some believed its creation was an overreach by the federal government.

Supporters of TVA note that the agency's management of the Tennessee River system without appropriated federal funding saves federal taxpayers millions of dollars annually. Opponents, such as Dean Russell in The TVA Idea, in addition to condemning the project as being socialistic, argued that TVA created a "hidden loss" by preventing the creation of "factories and jobs that would have come into existence if the government had allowed the taxpayers to spend their money as they wished." Defenders note that TVA is overwhelmingly popular in Tennessee among conservatives and liberals alike, as Barry Goldwater discovered in 1964, when he proposed selling the agency.[80]Historian Thomas McCraw concludes that Roosevelt "rescued the [power] industry from its own abuses" but "he might have done this much with a great deal less agitation and ill will".[81] New Dealers hoped to build numerous other federal utility corporations around the country but were defeated by Wendell Willkie and the Conservative coalition in Congress. The valley authority model did not replace the limited-purpose water programs of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers. State-centered theorists hold that reformers are most likely to succeed during periods such as the New Deal era, when they are supported by a democratized polity and when they dominate Congress and the administration.[citation needed ]

However, it has been shown that in river policy, the strength of opposing interest groups also mattered.[82] The TVA bill was passed in 1933 because reformers like Norris skillfully coordinated action at potential choke points and weakened the already disorganized opponents among the electric power industry lobbyists.[8] In 1936, however, after regrouping, opposing river lobbyists and conservative coalition congressmen took advantage of the New Dealers' spending mood by expanding the Army Corps' flood control program. They also helped defeat further valley authorities, the most promising of the New Deal water policy reforms.[citation needed ]

When Democrats after 1945 proclaimed the Tennessee Valley Authority as a model for countries in the developing world to follow, conservative critics charged it was a top-heavy, centralized, technocratic venture that displaced locals and did so in insensitive ways. Thus, when the program was used as the basis for modernization programs in various parts of the third world during the Cold War, such as in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, its failure brought a backlash of cynicism toward modernization programs that has persisted.[3]

Then-movie star Ronald Reagan had moved to television as the host and a frequent performer for General Electric Theater during 1954. Reagan was later fired by General Electric in 1962 in response to his publicly referring to the TVA (TVA being a major customer for GE turbines) as one of the problems of "big government".[83] Some claim that Reagan was instead fired due to a criminal antitrust investigation involving him and the Screen Actors Guild.[84] However, Reagan was only interviewed; nobody was actually charged with anything in the investigation.[85][86]

In 1963, U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was quoted in a Saturday Evening Post article by Stewart Alsop as saying, "You know, I think we ought to sell TVA." He had called for the sale to private companies of particular parts of the Authority, including its fertilizer production and steam-generation facilities, because "it would be better operated and would be of more benefit for more people if it were part of private industry."[87] Goldwater's quotation was used against him in a TV ad by Doyle Dane Bernbach for President Lyndon Johnson's 1964 campaign, which depicted an auction taking place atop a dam. It was voiced over as follows: "In a Saturday Evening Post article dated August 31, 1963, Barry Goldwater said, 'You know, I think we ought to sell TVA.' This is a promise: President Johnson will not sell TVA. Vote for him on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home."[88]

Legal challenges Edit TVA faced multiple constitutional challenges. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled TVA to be constitutional in Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 297 U.S. 288 (1936).[89] The Court noted that regulating commerce among the states includes regulation of streams and that controlling floods is required for keeping streams navigable; it also upheld the constitutionality of the TVA under the War Powers Clause, seeing its activities as a means of assuring the electric supply for the manufacture of munitions in the event of war.[90] The argument before the court was that electricity generation was a by-product of navigation and flood control and therefore could be considered constitutional. The CEO of the Tennessee Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Jo Conn Guild, was vehemently opposed to the creation of TVA, and with the help of attorney Wendell Willkie, challenged the constitutionality of the TVA Act in federal court. The U.S. Supreme Court again upheld the TVA Act, however, in its 1939 decision Tennessee Electric Power Company v. TVA. On August 16, 1939, TEPCO was forced to sell its assets, including Hales Bar Dam, Ocoee Dams 1 and 2, Blue Ridge Dam and Great Falls Dam to TVA for $78 million.[91]

Discrimination Edit In 1981 the TVA Board of Directors broke with previous tradition and took a hard line against white-collar unions during contract negotiations. As a result, a class action suit was filed in 1984 in U.S. court charging the agency with sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act based on the large number of women in one of the pay grades negatively impacted by the new contract. An out-of-court settlement of the lawsuit was reached in 1987, in which TVA agreed to contract modifications and paid the group $5 million but admitted no wrongdoing.[citation needed ]

Eminent domain controversies Edit TVA has received criticism its entire history for what some have perceived as excessive use of their authority of eminent domain and an unwillingness to compromise with landowners. All of TVA's early hydroelectric projects were made possible through the use of eminent domain, and were controversial due to the large number of residents that were displaced.[92] Some residents who refused to sell their land were forced to by court orders.[92] Many of these projects also inundated historic Native American sites.[93][94] On some occasions, land that TVA had acquired through eminent domain that was expected to be flooded by reservoirs was not flooded, and was given away to private developers.[95]

In popular culture Edit In 2000's O Brother, Where Art Thou? , the TVA and flooding of a valley which contains the protagonist's (played by George Clooney) family home plays a central role in the pacing of the film and the broader depression-era Mississippi context of the narrative.

The 1960 film Wild River, directed by Elia Kazan, tells the story of a family forced to relocate from their land, which has been owned by their family for generations, after TVA plans to construct a dam which will flood their land. The film depicts the real-life experiences of many people forced to give up their land to TVA to make way for hydroelectric projects.[96]

"Song of the South" by Southern rock band Alabama features the lyrics "pappa got a job with the TVA" following the lyrics "Well momma got sick and daddy got down, The county got the farm and they moved to town" expressing the hardships and changes that southerners faced during the post recession era.

The TVA and its impact on the region are featured in the Drive-By Truckers' songs ''TVA'' and ''Uncle Frank.'' In ''TVA,'' the singer reflects on time spent with family members and a girlfriend at Wilson Dam. In ''Uncle Frank,'' the lyrics tell the story of an unnamed hydroelectric dam being built, and the effects on the community that would become flooded upon its completion.

See also Edit Title 18 of the Code of Federal RegulationsAppalachian Regional CommissionHelmand and Arghandab Valley Authority, modelled on the TVAJames Bay Energy Corporation, a Crown corporation of the Quebec government for developing the James Bay Project for building various dams on riversList of navigation authorities in the United StatesMuscle Shoals BillNashville Electric ServiceNew DealNew Madrid Seismic Zone1811''12 New Madrid earthquakesNorris, TennesseeTennessee Valley Authority PoliceTennessee Valley Authority v. HillReferences Edit ^ Gaines, Jim (February 14, 2019). "TVA names president of Canadian utility as new CEO to replace outgoing Bill Johnson". Knoxville News Sentinel. Knoxville, Tennessee . Retrieved 2019-12-05 . ^ Neuse, 2004. ^ a b Ekbladh, David (Summer 2002). " " Mr. TVA": Grass-Roots Development, David Lilienthal, and the Rise and Fall of the Tennessee Valley Authority as a Symbol for U.S. Overseas Development, 1933-1973". Diplomatic History. 26 (3): 335''374. doi:10.1111/1467-7709.00315. ISSN 1467-7709. OCLC 772657716. ^ a b c "About TVA". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority. 2018 . Retrieved 2018-01-07 . ^ "The TVA and the Relocation of Mattie Randolph". Archives.gov. National Archives and Records Administration . Retrieved 2019-03-04 . ^ "Public Power Partnerships". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority. 2018 . Retrieved 2019-01-07 . ^ "TVA Board Expanded To 9 Members". The Chattanoogan. Chattanooga, Tennessee. November 20, 2004 . Retrieved 2019-01-07 . ^ a b c Hubbard, Preston J. (1961). Origins of the TVA: The Muscle Shoals Controversy, 1920''1932. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. OCLC 600647072. ^ Wengert, Norman (1952). "Antecedents of TVA: The Legislative History of Muscle Shoals". Agricultural History. 26 (4): 141''147. ISSN 1533-8290. JSTOR 3740474. OCLC 971899953. ^ Schulman, Bruce J. (1991). From Cotton Belt to Sunbelt: Federal policy, economic development, and the transformation of the South, 1938-1980. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195363449. OCLC 300412389. ^ Neuse, 2004. ^ Philip Selznick, TVA and the Grass Roots: A study in the sociology of formal organization (1949). ^ "East Tennessee Historical Society". East-tennessee-history.org. Archived from the original on 2007-06-30 . Retrieved 2012-02-28 . ^ a b "TVA". History.com. The History Channel. August 7, 2017 . Retrieved 2019-01-08 . ^ Long, Jennifer (December 1999). "Government Job Creation Programs'--Lessons from the 1930s and 1940s". Journal of Economic Issues. 33 (4): 903''918. doi:10.1080/00213624.1999.11506220. ISSN 0021-3624. OCLC 5996637494. ^ "Plants of the Past". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2018-10-21 . ^ Gross, Daniel (October 2, 2015). "The Tennessee Valley Authority is closing coal plants, and that's huge". Slate Magazine . Retrieved 2019-01-07 . ^ "The 1950s". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority. 2018 . Retrieved 2019-01-07 . ^ "Snapshot of major events in TVA history". Knoxville News-Sentinel. Knoxville, Tennessee. May 11, 2008 . Retrieved 2019-01-20 . ^ "TVA timeline by year" (PDF) . Tennessee Valley Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2010 . Retrieved 5 August 2009 . ^ "Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Unit 1". www.nrc.gov. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 2017. Archived from the original on May 2, 2017 . Retrieved August 21, 2017 . ^ a b Wald, Matthew (August 19, 2011). "Alabama Nuclear Reactor, Partly Built, to Be Finished". The New York Times. p. A12. ^ Hayes, Hank (August 23, 2008). "Nuclear power option still alive at TVA despite Phipps Bend debacle". Kingsport Times-News . Retrieved 2017-12-31 . ^ Mansfield, Duncan (July 6, 1999). "TVA SHAPED VALLEY OVER COURSE OF DECADES NEW DEAL AGENCY TAMED A RIVER, CHANGED MANY LIVES IN IMPOVERISHED RURAL AREAS". Birmingham News. ^ Dewan, Shaila (January 1, 2009). "Metal Levels Found High in Tributary After Spill". The New York Times. p. A12. ^ "Review of Kingston Fossil Plant Ash Spill Root Cause Study and Observations About Ash Management - 2008-12283-02" (PDF) . TVA, Office of the Inspector General. July 23, 2009 . Retrieved March 19, 2018 . ^ "Dakota wind sites help TVA go green". Chattanooga Times Free Press. October 23, 2009 . Retrieved March 19, 2018 . ^ [1] [dead link ] ^ "Dammed if you don't: Barack Obama mulls privatising America's biggest public utility". The Economist. April 27, 2013 . Retrieved March 19, 2018 . ^ a b "Blockbuster Agreement Takes 18 Dirty TVA Coal-Fired Power Plant Units Offline". National Parks Conservation Association. April 14, 2011 . Retrieved 2019-01-07 . ^ Flessner, Dave (January 8, 2018). "TVA cuts coal use". Chattanooga Times Free Press. Chattanooga, Tennessee . Retrieved 2019-01-07 . ^ Blau, Max (2016-10-20). "First new US nuclear reactor in 20 years goes live". CNN.com. Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc . Retrieved 2016-10-20 . ^ "Protecting the power grid: TVA beefs up security as cyber threats grow". timesfreepress.com. 2018-08-12 . Retrieved 2018-12-29 . ^ Mufson, Steven (14 Feb 2019). "TVA defies Trump, votes to shut down two aging coal-fired power plants". The Washington Post . Retrieved 15 March 2019 . ^ "Factbox: Largest U.S. electric companies by megawatts, customers". Reuters. Reuters. 2014-04-29 . Retrieved 2019-01-07 . ^ a b "Our Power System". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority. 2018 . Retrieved 2019-01-07 . ^ a b c d e f "Ackerman Combined Cycle Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority. 2015 . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c d e f "Allen Combined-Cycle Power Plant, Tennessee". Power Technology . Retrieved April 4, 2018 . ^ a b c d e f "Brownsville Combustion Turbine Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c d e f "Going with gas". Chattanooga Times Free Press. Chattanooga, Tennessee. July 8, 2011 . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c d "Caledonia Combined Cycle Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c d Sherer, Dennis (February 3, 2003). "Fossil plants backbone of system". TimesDaily. Florence, Alabama . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b "Colbert Combustion Turbine Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c d e f "Gallatin Combustion Turbine Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c d e f "Gleason Combustion Turbine Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c d e f Sonal, Patel (June 1, 2012). "TVA Begins Operation of John Sevier CCGT Plant". POWER Magazine. Rockville, Maryland . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c d e f "Full steam ahead: TVA co-generation plant saves 1,100 Chemours jobs". Chattanooga Times Free Press. December 6, 2016 . Retrieved January 6, 2018 . ^ a b c d e f "Kemper Combustion Turbine Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c d "Lagoon Creek Combustion Turbine Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b "Lagoon Creek Combined Cycle Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b "TVA Lagoon Creek gas-fired power plant in service". Power Engineering. Tulsa, Oklahoma. June 13, 2011 . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b "Magnolia Combined Cycle Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c d e f "Marshall Combustion Turbine Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c "Paradise Combined Cycle Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c Schimmel, Becca (July 17, 2017). "TVA: Paradise Combined Cycle Gas Plant in Muhlenberg County is Model for Future Power Production". WKYU-FM. Bowling Green, Kentucky . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c "TVA buys Southaven power plant". Memphis Business Journal. Memphis, Tennessee. August 12, 2013 . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c "Southaven Combined Cycle Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ TVA in Kentucky Archived 2009-01-06 at the Wayback Machine, TVA website, accessed January 9, 2009 ^ TVA in Tennessee Archived 2009-01-06 at the Wayback Machine, TVA website, accessed January 9, 2009 ^ TVA in Alabama Archived 2009-01-05 at the Wayback Machine, TVA website, accessed January 9, 2009 ^ TVA in Mississippi Archived 2009-01-06 at the Wayback Machine, TVA website, accessed January 9, 2009 ^ TVA in Virginia Archived 2009-01-05 at the Wayback Machine, TVA website, accessed January 9, 2009 ^ "TVA: Energy Purchases from Wind Farms". tva.com. Archived from the original on 2015-07-31. ^ a b c d e Tennessee Valley Authority, The Nickajack Project: A Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, Initial Operations, and Costs, Technical Report No. 16 (Knoxville, Tenn.: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1972), pp. 1-3, 10-11, 17-19, 307-311. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Plants of the Past". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority. 2018 . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c "Watts Bar Fossil Plant" (PDF) . loc.gov. US Library of Congress. 2012 . Retrieved 2019-01-20 . ^ "Widows Creek Fossil Plant Celebrates 50 Years of Service" (Press release). Tennessee Valley Authority. September 12, 2002 . Retrieved January 9, 2007 . ^ "Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2006" (Excel) . Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy. 2006 . Retrieved July 14, 2008 . ^ a b c d e "TVA Decides to Demolish Colbert Fossil Plant". Power Engineering. Tulsa, Oklahoma. November 16, 2016 . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ a b c d "Johnsonville Fossil Plant". TVA. Archived from the original on January 12, 2016 . Retrieved January 6, 2018 . ^ Flessner, Dave (January 6, 2018). "TVA cuts coal use". Chattanooga Times Free Press . Retrieved January 6, 2018 . ^ a b c d "TVA Closes Allen Fossil Plant, Opens Gas Replacement". Associated Press. Power Engineering. May 1, 2018 . Retrieved October 27, 2018 . ^ "Allen Fossil Plant". tva.gov. Tennessee Valley Authority. 2018 . Retrieved 2019-02-01 . ^ "Paradise Fossil Plant". Tennessee Valley Authority . Retrieved 4 February 2020 . ^ "Vegetation Maintenance FAQ". TVA . Retrieved 2012-02-28 . ^ "Chapter 8 '' Recreation Management" (PDF) . Natural Resource Plan. Tennessee Valley Authority. July 2011. p. 113. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 November 2011 . Retrieved 22 March 2012 . ^ Mattson-Teig, Beth (Summer 2013). "Mega Sites Lure Big Fish". Area Development . Retrieved March 19, 2018 . ^ Underwood, Jerry (June 15, 2016). "TVA certification primes Huntsville Mega Site for development". Made in Alabama. Montgomery: Alabama Department of Commerce . Retrieved March 19, 2018 . ^ Smith, Slim (November 18, 2015). "Higgins: Lowndes shooting for third TVA megasite". The Commercial Dispatch. Columbus, MS . Retrieved March 19, 2018 . If it is certified, the 1,200-acre site near the Golden Triangle Regional Airport will be the third megasite in the area. ^ Perlstein, Rick (2001). Before the storm: Barry Goldwater and the unmaking of the American consensus. New York: Hill and Wang. p. 226. ISBN 978-0809028597. OCLC 801179619. ^ McCraw, Thomas K (1971). TVA and the power fight, 1933-1939 . Critical periods of history. Philadelphia: Lippincott. p. 157. OCLC 162313. ^ O'Neill, Karen M. (June 2002). "Why the TVA Remains Unique: Interest Groups and the Defeat of New Deal River Planning". Rural Sociology. 67 (2): 163''182. doi:10.1111/j.1549-0831.2002.tb00099.x. ISSN 0036-0112. ^ Harper, Liz. "Ronald Reagan -- In Memoriam: Biography". NewsHour with Jim Lehrer online. PBS. Archived from the original on February 27, 2012. In 1962, GE, concerned that Reagan's conservative politics made him a liability, fired him for criticizing the Tennessee Valley Authority as an example of "big government." ^ Weisberg, Jacob (January 8, 2016). "The Road to Reagandom: How Reagan's eight-year gig as the host of General Electric Theater sparked his conservative conversion and became the genesis of his political career". Slate. Archived from the original on July 18, 2017 . Retrieved March 19, 2018 . ^ Moldea, Dan E. (March 15, 1987). "Ronald Reagan and his 1962 grand jury testimony". The Washington Post . Retrieved March 19, 2018 . ^ Associated Press (September 21, 1986). "Inquiry Dealt With Suspected Payoffs by Conglomerate: Book Says Reagan Was Cleared in '60s Probe of MCA". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved March 19, 2018 . ^ Edwards, Lee (1995). Goldwater: The man who made a revolution. Washington, D.C.: Regnery. ISBN 978-0895264718. OCLC 624456231. ^ Mark, David (2007). Going dirty: The art of negative campaigning. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 46. ISBN 978-0742599826. OCLC 396994651. ^ Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 297 U.S. 288 (1936). ^ Rodgers, Paul (2011). United States Constitutional Law: An Introduction. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. p. 48. ISBN 9780786460175. OCLC 707092889. ^ Timothy Ezzell, "Jo Conn Guild." Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2009. Retrieved: 11 February 2013. ^ a b Onion, Rebecca (September 5, 2013). "The Tennessee Valley Authority vs. the Family That Just Wouldn't Leave". Slate Magazine . Retrieved 2019-03-04 . ^ Jefferson Chapman, Tellico Archaeology: 12,000 Years of Native American History (Tennessee Valley Authority, 1985). ^ Vicki Rozema, Footsteps of the Cherokees: A Guide to the Eastern Homelands of the Cherokee Nation (Winston-Salem: John F. Blair), 135. ^ Madden, Tom (July 2, 1981). "Private land TVA claimed for lake to be given away to developers". UPI. Boca Raton, Florida . Retrieved 2019-03-04 . ^ "Wild River 50th Anniversary Celebration Plans". The Chattanoogan. Chattanooga, Tennessee. April 29, 2010 . Retrieved 2019-02-03 . Bibliography Edit Colignon, Richard A. (1997). Power Plays: Critical Events in the Institutionalism of the Tennessee Valley Authority. SUNY series in the sociology of work. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0585077086. OCLC 42855981. Creese, Walter L. (1990). TVA's public planning: The vision, the reality. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-0870496387. OCLC 476873440. Culvahouse, Tim, ed. (2007). The Tennessee Valley Authority: Design and persuasion. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. OCLC 929309559. Hargrove, Erwin C.; Conkin, Paul K., eds. (1983). TVA: Fifty years of grass-roots bureaucracy. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252010866. OCLC 474377514. Hargrove, Erwin C. (1994). Prisoners of myth: the leadership of the Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933-1990. Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, International, and Comparative Perspectives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691034676. JSTOR j.ctt7rvbh. Kull, Donald C. (Winter 1949). "Decentralized Budget Administration in the Tennessee Valley Authority". Public Administration Review. 9 (1): 30''35. doi:10.2307/972660. ISSN 0033-3352. JSTOR 972660. OCLC 5544417850. Lilienthal, David E. (1953). TVA: Democracy on the march . New York: Harper & Row. McDonald, Michael J.; Muldowny, John (1982). TVA and the dispossessed: the resettlement of population in the Norris Dam area . Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-1572331648. OCLC 772665997. Morgan, Arthur E. (1974). The making of the TVA . Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-0879750343. OCLC 607606121. Neuse, Steven M. David E. Lilienthal: The Journey of an American Liberal (1996).Neuse, Steven M. "Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)." in Encyclopedia of the Great Depression, edited by Robert S. McElvaine, vol. 2, (Macmillan Reference USA, 2004), pp. 972''979. onlineNeuse, Steven M. (November''December 1983). "TVA at Age Fifty'--Reflections and Retrospect". Public Administration Review. 43 (6): 491''499. doi:10.2307/975916. ISSN 0033-3352. JSTOR 975916. OCLC 5550047671. Neuse, Steven M. (1996). David E. Lilienthal: the journey of an American liberal. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-0870499401. OCLC 243857932. Russell, Dean (1949). The TVA idea. Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education. OCLC 564022. Selznick, Philip (1949). TVA and the Grass Roots: A Study in the Sociology of Formal Organization. University of California Publications in Culture and Society. 3. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-1610278430. OCLC 1026647961. Shapiro, Edward (Winter 1970). "The Southern Agrarians and the Tennessee Valley Authority". American Quarterly. 22 (4): 791''806. doi:10.2307/2711870. ISSN 0003-0678. JSTOR 2711870. OCLC 5545493875. Talbert, Roy, Jr. FDR's Utopian: Arthur Morgan of the TVA (1987).External links Edit Official website Tennessee Valley Authority in the Federal RegisterTennessee Valley Authority (March 1950). Procedure for Making, Indexing and Filing Computations '' via Wikisource. WPA Photographs of TVA Archaeological Projects The New Deal and TVA on YouTubePapers of Arnold R. Jones (Member of the Board of Directors, Tennessee Valley Authority), Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential LibraryTHVA historyThe short film "Valley of the Tennessee (1944)" is available for free download at the Internet Archive

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1ROADMAP FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIONS BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION BASED ON THE COMMISSION COMMUNICATION AND THE COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION ON STRENGTHENING COOPERATION AGAINST VACCINE PREVENTABLE DISEASESACTIONS TIMELINES AND DELIVERABLESExamine the feasibility of developing a common vaccination card/passport for EU citizens (that takes into account potentially different national vaccination schedules and), that is compatible with electronic immunisation information systems and recognised for use across borders, without duplicating work at national level. Feasibility study for the development of a common EU vaccination card Commission proposal for a common vaccination card/passport for EU citizensProduce on a regular basis a Report on the State of Vaccine Confidence in the EU, to monitor attitudes to vaccination. Based on that report and taking into account related work by WHO, present guidance that can support Member States in countering vaccine hesitancy.State of Vaccine Confidence in the EU 2020Follow up of the study published in October 2018 https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/vaccination/docs/2018_vaccine_confidence_en.pdfGuidance on countering vaccine hesitancy tailored to specific needs id\entified by the Member States and/ or vaccine specific issuesSpecial Eurobarometer - Europeans' attitudes towards vaccination https://ec.europa.eu/ commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/ survey/getsurveydetail/ instruments/special/ surveyky/2223* Basis for action: CR for Council Recommendation and the number of the Recommendation in the le\gal text. CC for Commission CommunicationCR 16 and CC*CR 17 and CC20182019202020212022ROADMAP ON VACCINATIONLast update: Q3 2019

2ACTIONSTIMELINES AND DELIVERABLESConvene a Coalition for Vaccination to bring together European associations of healthcare workers as well as relevant students' associations in the field, to commit to delivering accurate information to the public, combating myths and exchanging best practice. Convened in March 2019, follow-up meeting in September 2019Annual meeting from 2020, to take note of compliance with commitments made by members of the Coalition for VaccinationStrengthen the impact of the annual European Immunisation Week by hosting an EU public awareness initiative and supporting Member States' own activities. EU public awareness initiative on vaccination during the European Immunisation WeekIdentify barriers to access and support interventions to increase access to vaccination for disadvantaged and socially excluded groups, including by promoting health mediators and grassroots community networks, in line with national recommendations. Guidance on increasing access to vaccination for disadvantaged and socially excluded groupsCountry reports on research-based determinants behind high and low vaccination coverageE-learning platform to share country reports, provide a database on structured country reportsSeries of webinars about specific cases, projects and initiatives deal\ing with vaccine hesitancy and uptake- related issues, involving broad range of stakeholdersCR 18 and CCCR 19CR 20 and CC20182019202020212022ROADMAP ON VACCINATIONLast update: Q3 2019

3ACTIONSTIMELINES AND DELIVERABLESDevelop EU guidance for establishing comprehensive electronic immunization information systems for effective monitoring of immunization programmes.Guidance on electronic immunization information systems: handbook to help countries upgrading current EIIS systems in place or set up new ones where these are not in place yet.https://ecdc.europa.eu/sites/portal/files/documents/designing- implementing-immunisation-information-system_0. pdfOutline of core functionalities for information sharing and vaccine coverage assessment pilot platform, based on input from stakeholdersProtocol for harmonized estimations of vaccination coverage of first and second dose with mumps- measles-rubella vaccine (MMR1 and MMR2)Open-source computer algorithm that can be shared and run by regions, countries with electronic immunisation information systems or other similar data source, completed by data on doses of measles containing vaccinesCommon pilot online platform where vaccine coverage estimations for cross-border vaccine coverage assessments can be shared publiclyReport on data collection procedures, datasets used and interoperability assessment of electronic immunisation information systems in the EU areaReport that describes existent reminder systems and provides recommendations for future systems Report that describes the feasibility of conducting coordinated cross-border measles vaccination campaignsCC20182019202020212022ROADMAP ON VACCINATIONLast update: Q3 2019

4ACTIONSTIMELINES AND DELIVERABLESDevelop guidance to overcome the legal and technical barriers impeding the interoperability of national immunisation information systems, having due regard to rules on personal data protection, as set out in the Commission Communication on enabling the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market, empowering citizens and building a healthier society. Guidance on overcoming legal (and technical) barriers to the interoperability of national immunisation information systemsContinue to support research and innovation through the EU framework programmes for Research and Innovation for the development of safe and effective new vaccines, and the optimisation of existing vaccines. Projects funded under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe (HE)Strengthen existing partnerships and collaboration with international actors and initiatives, such as the WHO and its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), the European Technical Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (ETAGE), the Global Health Security Initiative and Agenda processes (Global Health Security Initiative, Global Health Security Agenda), Unicef and financing and research initiatives like Gavi, CEPI, GloPID-R and JPIAMR (the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance).Global Vaccination Summit, taking place on 12 September 2019 organized by the European Commission in cooperation with the World Health Organization. https://ec.europa.eu/ health/vaccination/ev_20190912_enCR 21 and CCCR 22CR 23 and CC20182019202020212022ROADMAP ON VACCINATIONLast update: Q3 2019

5ACTIONSTIMELINES AND DELIVERABLESDevelop evidence-based tools and guidance at EU level in order to support countries to anticipate, pre-empt or respond to crisis situations. Report on previous experience about vaccine shortages and responses of E\U countriesGuidelines on procedures to estimate vaccine needs and procurement in the EUReport on the financial mechanism for joint procurement based on an evaluation of the financing mechanisms in different countriesEstablish a vaccine network with Member States to leverage the sustainability of activities of the joint action beyond the project. https://eu-jav.com/Develop an "integration of outcomes of the joint action into national po\licies & sustainability" plan to strive towards a converging vaccine agenda for the most commonly used vaccines at EU level. https://eu-jav.com/Overview of EU-level and national legal and technical frameworks and ope\rational criteria for decision- making on vaccination policies and available (EU and national) platformsSurvey on the range of attributable costs used for the most recent MS-National Immunisation Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) evaluations available Pilot of a technical collaboration to establish an active cooperation st\ructure across NITAGsPilots to provide an overview about the evidence-base of national immunisation programmesCounter online vaccine misinformation and develop evidence-based information tools and guidance to support Member States in responding to vaccine hesitancy, in line with the Commission Communication on tackling online disinformation. Countering online vaccine misinformation, taking into account the Commission Communication on tackling o\nline disinformation Online and offline promotion of the new information tools (through social media, search engine optimisation, specialised media) in particular towards the sectors of health care, education, social services, mediaCCCR 9c and CC20182019202020212022ROADMAP ON VACCINATIONLast update: Q3 2019

6ACTIONSTIMELINES AND DELIVERABLESEstablish a European Vaccination Information Sharing system. Launch of the key projects to establish a European Vaccination Information Sharing SystemExamine the feasibility of establishing, by 2020, guidelines for a core EU vaccination schedule taking into account WHO recommendations for routine immunisation, aiming to improve the compatibility of national schedules and promote equity in Union citizens' health protectionStrengthen consistency, transparency, and methodologies in the assessment of national and regional vaccination plans, by sharing scientific evidence and tools with the support of NITAGsDesign EU methodologies and guidance on data requirements for better monitoring of vaccination coverage rates across all age groups, including healthcare workers, in cooperation with the WHO and collect such data and share them at EU levelCollect vaccination coverage data and share them at EU levelEstablish, by 2019, a European vaccination information portal, with the support of the European Medicines Agency, to provide objective, transparent and updated evidence online on vaccination and vaccines, their benefits and safety, and the pharmacovigilance processCR 9 and CC20182019202020212022ROADMAP ON VACCINATIONLast update: Q3 2019

7ACTIONSTIMELINES AND DELIVERABLESContinuously monitor the benefits and risks of vaccines and vaccinations, at EU level, including through post-marketing surveillance studies. Create a sustainable and multi-stakeholder platform for EU post-marketing surveillance studies monitoring the safety, effectiveness, and impact of vaccinationWork towards developing common methodologies and strengthen the capacities to assess the relative effectiveness of vaccines and vaccination programmes. Guidance on methodologies to assess relative effectiveness of vaccines and vaccination programmesStrengthen the effective application of Union rules on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to biological agents at work, as laid down in Directive 2000/54/EC and Council Directive 2010/32/EU, taking into account national competences, in particular by supporting continuing education of healthcare workers, monitoring their immunisation status and actively offering vaccination where necessary, to ensure adequate levels of patient and healthcare-workers' safety. Evaluation of implementation of Directive 2000/54/EC in the various Member StatesProvide evidence and data, including through the European Schoolnet, to support Member States' efforts to strengthen the aspects related to vaccinology and immunisation in their national medical curricula and postgraduate education Development of e-learning training modules targeting GPs and primary healthcare providers focused on improving skills to address hesitant populations and promote behavioural changeCR 10 and CCCR 12 and CCCR 13 and CC20182019202020212022ROADMAP ON VACCINATIONLast update: Q3 2019

8ACTIONSTIMELINES AND DELIVERABLESConsider developing a virtual European data warehouse on vaccine needs and, if applicable, offerable stocks, to facilitate the voluntary exchange of information on available supplies, possible surpluses and global shortages of essential vaccines. Develop common principles for vaccine demand forecastingDevelopment of a concept for a regional or European data warehouse for (virtual stockpiling and vaccine management ) needs and stocksWork ongoing with the HSC and in the GHSI on exchange of medical countermeasures to considerDevelop a virtual European data warehouse on vaccine needs and, if applicable, offerable stocks, to facilitate the voluntary exchange of information on available supplies, possible surpluses and global shortages of essential vaccines Explore feasibility of physical stockpiling and engage in a dialogue with vaccine producing companies on a mechanism to facilitate the stockpiling and availability of vaccines in case of outbreaks, taking into account global shortages of essential vaccines. Study exploring the feasibility of and identifying options for physical stockpiling of vaccines Consider developing a concept for a mechanism for exchanging vaccine supplies from one Member State to another in case of an outbreak, improving the links between supply and demand for vaccines. Concept for a mechanism for exchanging vaccine supplies from one Member State to another in case of an outbreakCR 14a and CCCR 14 b and c and CC20182019202020212022ROADMAP ON VACCINATIONLast update: Q3 2019

9ACTIONSTIMELINES AND DELIVERABLESConsider, jointly with stakeholders, in particular with the vaccine-manufacturing industry, which has a key role in meeting these aims, possibilities for improving EU manufacturing capacity, ensuring continuity of supply and ensuring diversity of suppliers. Conference on improving EU manufacturing capacity and ensuring continuity of supplyExploit the possibilities of joint procurement of vaccines or antitoxins to be used in cases of pandemics, unexpected outbreaks and in case of small vaccine demand (small number of cases or very specific populations to be covered).Joint procurement of pandemic influenza vaccine Framework contracts signed in March 2019 https://europa.eu/rapid/midday-express-28-03-2019. htm#8Support the EU Official Medicines Control Laboratories network and its work to ensure that vaccines placed on the EU market are of high quality. Meeting with the EU Official Medicines Control Laboratories networkMonitor compliance with the obligation of continuous supply of medicines placed on marketing authorisation holders (Article 81 of Directive 2001/83/EC) and explore ways to enhance compliance with that obligation. Examination whether this article has been implemented in full in national legislationConsider facilitating ''together with EMA- early dialogue with developers, national policy-makers and regulators in order to support the authorisation of innovative vaccines, including for emerging health threats. Actions to facilitate early dialogue with developers, national policy-ma\kers and regulators in order to support the authorisation of innovative vaccines, including for emerging health threatsCR 14dCR 14eCR 14fCR 14gCR 14h20182019202020212022ROADMAP ON VACCINATIONLast update: Q3 2019

10ACTIONSTIMELINES AND DELIVERABLESReinforce existing partnerships and research infrastructures, and establish new ones, including for clinical trials. Establishment of research networks for clinical trials and fostering collaborative research infrastructures and/or programmes e.g. clinical trial network to be established, ECRIN, support to CEPI, EDCTP-2, etc.Seek consensus on unmet population needs and agreed priorities for vaccines that can be used to inform future vaccine research funding programmes at national and EU level, including leveraging the advantages of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious diseases Preparedness (GloPID-R). Roadmap of unmet population needs and agreed priorities for vaccinesAgree on a subset of vaccines as regards research prioritiesDefine a concept framework for decision-making on research priorities for an agreed subset of vaccines Define a proposal for an annual list of EU vaccine research prioritiesReport on a proposal for shared funding mechanisms based on an analysis of funding gaps and hu\rdles for cooperation among fundersConsider investing in behavioural and social science research on the determinants of vaccine hesitancy across different subgroups of the population and healthcare workers. Set of actions funded by Horizon 2020 and actions undertaken by ECDC to address low-vaccine uptake, andbehavioural study on vaccination to identify determinants of vaccine hesitancy across different subgroups of the population and health workers Report on a regular basis, on progress in implementing the Recommendation based on indicators agreed with Member States and on information from other relevant sources. Biannual progress report on the implementation of the Council RecommendationCR 15a and CCCR 15b and CCCR 15c and CCCR 2420182019202020212022ROADMAP ON VACCINATIONLast update: Q3 2019

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:47

The October Revolution,[a] officially known in Soviet historiography as the Great October Socialist Revolution[b] and commonly referred to as the October Uprising, the October Coup, the Bolshevik Revolution,[2] the Bolshevik Coup, or the Red October, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917''1923. It took place through an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October (Old Style, O.S.; 7 November, New Style or N.S.) 1917.

The October Revolution had followed and capitalized on the February Revolution earlier in the year. The February Revolution had overthrown the Tsarist autocracy, resulting in a provisional government. The provisional government had taken power after being proclaimed by Grand Duke Michael, Tsar Nicholas II's younger brother, declined to take power after the Tsar had stepped down.

During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils (soviets) wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and its actions. After the Congress of Soviets, the new governing body, had its second session it elected members of the Bolsheviks and other left-wing groups such as the Left Socialist Revolutionaries (Left SR) to important positions within the new state of affairs. This immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Soviet Republic. On 17 July 1918,[c] the Tsar and his family, including his five children aged 13 to 22, were executed.

The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces. Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military-Revolutionary Committee began the occupation of government buildings on 25 October (O.S.; 7 November, N.S.), 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace (the seat of the Provisional government located in Petrograd, then capital of Russia) was captured.

The slogan of the October revolution was All Power to the Soviets, meaning all power to grassroots democratically elected councils. For a time, this was observed, with the interim Bolshevik-only Sovnarkom or Soviet government replaced by a Bolshevik-Left SR coalition government with an All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets composed of all representatives of all factions who supported Soviet power and legally entrenching the peasant land seizures. Throughout 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which resulted in a Left SR walkout, and other policies disputed by both the other pro-soviet parties and minority factions of the Bolsheviks progressively dissipated until 1920, where there were no free elections, but delegates were appointed by a party state.

The long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November (O.S., 25 November, (N.S.)) 1917. In contrast to their majority in the Soviets, the Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary Party, which won 370 seats, although the SR Party no longer existed as a whole party by that time, as the Left SRs had gone into coalition with the Bolsheviks from October 1917 to March 1918 (a cause of dispute of the legitimacy of the returned seating of the Constituent Assembly, as the old lists, were drawn up by the old SR Party leadership, and thus represented mostly Right SRs, whereas the peasant soviet deputies had returned majorities for the pro-Bolshevik Left SRs). The Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November (O.S.) 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January (O.S.; 18 January, N.S.) 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the Constituent Assembly came into conflict with the Soviets, and it rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, resulting in the Constituent Assembly being dissolved the next day by order of the Congress of Soviets.[3]

As the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War (1917''22) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.

Etymology [ edit ] At first, the event was referred to as the "October coup" (ОктябÑьский ÐеÑевоÑот) or the "Uprising of the 3rd", as seen in contemporary documents (for example, in the first editions of Lenin's complete works). However, ÐеÑевоÑот has a meaning similar to "revolution" and also means "upheaval" or "overturn", so "coup" is not necessarily the correct translation. With time, the term "October Revolution" (ОктябÑьская ÑевоÐ>>юция) came into use. It is also known as the "November Revolution" having occurred in November, according to the Gregorian Calendar (for details, see Soviet calendar).

Background [ edit ] February Revolution [ edit ] The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and replaced his government with the Russian Provisional Government. However, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular. There was a nationwide crisis affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased. Gross industrial production in 1917 decreased by over 36% of what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises in the Urals, the Donbas, and other industrial centers were closed down, leading to mass unemployment. At the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell to about 50% of what they had been in 1913. By October 1917, Russia's national debt had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles. The country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy.

Unrest by workers, peasants, and soldiers [ edit ] Throughout June, July, and August 1917, it was common to hear working-class Russians speak about their lack of confidence in the Provisional Government. Factory workers around Russia felt unhappy with the growing shortages of food, supplies, and other materials. They blamed their managers or foremen and would even attack them in the factories. The workers blamed many rich and influential individuals for the overall shortage of food and poor living conditions. Workers saw these rich and powerful individuals as opponents of the Revolution, and called them "bourgeois", "capitalist", and "imperialist".[5]

In September and October 1917, there were mass strike actions by the Moscow and Petrograd workers, miners in the Donbas, metalworkers in the Urals, oil workers in Baku, textile workers in the Central Industrial Region, and railroad workers on 44 railway lines. In these months alone, more than a million workers took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution.[6] Workers organized these strikes through factory committees. The factory committees represented the workers and were able to negotiate better working conditions, pay, and hours. Even though workplace conditions may have been increasing in quality, the overall quality of life for workers was not improving. There were still shortages of food and the increased wages workers had obtained did little to provide for their families.[5]

By October 1917, peasant uprisings were common. By autumn the peasant movement against the landowners had spread to 482 of 624 counties, or 77% of the country. As 1917 progressed, the peasantry increasingly began to lose faith that the land would be distributed to them by the Social Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks. Refusing to continue living as before, they increasingly took measures into their own hands, as can be seen by the increase in the number and militancy of the peasant's actions. From the beginning of September to the October Revolution there were over a third as many peasant actions than since March. Over 42% of all the cases of destruction (usually burning down and seizing property from the landlord's estate) recorded between February and October occurred in October.[7] While the uprisings varied in severity, complete uprisings and seizures of the land were not uncommon. Less robust forms of protest included marches on landowner manors and government offices, as well as withholding and storing grains rather than selling them.[8] When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants. In September, the garrisons in Petrograd, Moscow, and other cities, the Northern and Western fronts, and the sailors of the Baltic Fleet declared through their elected representative body Tsentrobalt that they did not recognize the authority of the Provisional Government and would not carry out any of its commands.[9]

Soldiers' wives were key players in the unrest in the villages. From 1914 to 1917, almost 50% of healthy men were sent to war, and many were killed on the front, resulting in many females being head of the household. Often '' when government allowances were late and were not sufficient to match the rising costs of goods '' soldiers' wives sent masses of appeals to the government, which went largely unanswered. Frustration resulted, and these women were influential in inciting "subsistence riots" '' also referred to as "hunger riots", "pogroms", or "baba riots". In these riots, citizens seized food and resources from shop owners, who they believed to be charging unfair prices. Upon police intervention, protesters responded with "rakes, sticks, rocks, and fists".[10]

Antiwar demonstrations [ edit ] In a diplomatic note of 1 May, the minister of foreign affairs, Pavel Milyukov, expressed the Provisional Government's desire to continue the war against the Central Powers "to a victorious conclusion", arousing broad indignation. On 1''4 May, about 100,000 workers and soldiers of Petrograd, and, after them, the workers and soldiers of other cities, led by the Bolsheviks, demonstrated under banners reading "Down with the war!" and "all power to the soviets!" The mass demonstrations resulted in a crisis for the Provisional Government.[11] 1 July saw more demonstrations, as about 500,000 workers and soldiers in Petrograd demonstrated, again demanding "all power to the soviets", "down with the war", and "down with the ten capitalist ministers". The Provisional Government opened an offensive against the Central Powers on 1 July, which soon collapsed. The news of the offensive's failure intensified the struggle of the workers and the soldiers. A new crisis in the Provisional Government began on 15 July.[citation needed ]

July days [ edit ] A scene from the July Days. The army has just opened fire on street protesters.

On 16 July, spontaneous demonstrations of workers and soldiers began in Petrograd, demanding that power be turned over to the soviets. The Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party provided leadership to the spontaneous movements. On 17 July, over 500,000 people participated in what was intended to be a peaceful demonstration in Petrograd, the so-called July Days. The Provisional Government, with the support of Socialist-Revolutionary Party-Menshevik leaders of the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Soviets, ordered an armed attack against the demonstrators, killing hundreds.[12]

A period of repression followed. On 5''6 July, attacks were made on the editorial offices and printing presses of Pravda and on the Palace of Kshesinskaya, where the Central Committee and the Petrograd Committee of the Bolsheviks were located. On 7 July, the government ordered the arrest and trial of Vladimir Lenin, who was forced to go underground, as he had done under the Tsarist regime. Bolsheviks were arrested, workers were disarmed, and revolutionary military units in Petrograd were disbanded or sent to the war front. On 12 July, the Provisional Government published a law introducing the death penalty at the front. The second coalition government was formed on 24 July, chaired by Alexander Kerensky.[13]

In response to a Bolshevik appeal, Moscow's working class began a protest strike of 400,000 workers. They were supported by strikes and protest rallies by workers in Kiev, Kharkov, Nizhny Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, and other cities.

Kornilov affair [ edit ] In what became known as the Kornilov affair, General Lavr Kornilov, who had been Commander-in-Chief since 18 July, with Kerensky's agreement directed an army under Aleksandr Krymov to march toward Petrograd to restore order.[14] Details remain sketchy, but Kerensky appeared to become frightened by the possibility that the army would stage a coup, and reversed the order. By contrast, historian Richard Pipes has argued that the episode was engineered by Kerensky.[15] On 27 August, feeling betrayed by the government, Kornilov pushed on towards Petrograd. With few troops to spare at the front, Kerensky turned to the Petrograd Soviet for help. Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and Socialist Revolutionaries confronted the army and convinced them to stand down.[16] The Bolsheviks' influence over railroad and telegraph workers also proved vital in stopping the movement of troops. Right-wingers felt betrayed, and the left-wing was resurgent.

With Kornilov defeated, the Bolsheviks' popularity in the soviets grew significantly, both in the central and local areas. On 31 August, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies'--and, on 5 September, the Moscow Soviet Workers Deputies'--adopted the Bolshevik resolutions on the question of power. The Bolsheviks won a majority in the soviets of Briansk, Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Minsk, Kiev, Tashkent, and other cities.

German support [ edit ] Vladimir Lenin, who had been living in exile in Switzerland, with other dissidents organized a plan to negotiate a passage for them through Germany, with whom Russia was then at war. Recognizing that these dissidents could cause problems for their Russian enemies, the German government agreed to permit 32 Russian citizens, among them Lenin and his wife, to travel in a sealed train carriage through their territory. According to Deutsche Welle:

"On November 7, 1917, a coup d'(C)tat went down in history as the October Revolution. The interim government was toppled, the Soviets seized power, and Russia later terminated the Triple Entente military alliance with France and Britain. For Russia, it was effectively the end of the war. Kaiser Wilhelm II had spent around half a billion euros ($582 million) in today's money to weaken his wartime enemy."[17]

American support [ edit ] US bankers'--including those from the Federal Reserve, as well as JP Morgan's personal assistant'--provided revolutionaries much-needed capital and office space in downtown Manhattan, at 120 Broadway. Their idea was to support the revolutionaries and then have access to Russia's markets as monopolies. They created a false American Red Cross expedition, with doctors, as cover.[18]

Insurrection [ edit ] Planning [ edit ] Forward gun of

Aurora that fired the signal shot

On 10 October 1917 (O.S.; 23 October, N.S.), the Bolsheviks' Central Committee voted 10''2 for a resolution saying that "an armed uprising is inevitable, and that the time for it is fully ripe".[19] At the Committee meeting, Lenin discussed how the people of Russia had waited long enough for "an armed uprising", and it was the Bolsheviks' time to take power. Lenin expressed his confidence in the success of the planned insurrection. His confidence stemmed from months of Bolshevik buildup of power and successful elections to different committees and councils in major cities such as Petrograd and Moscow.[20]

The Bolsheviks created a revolutionary military committee within the Petrograd soviet, led by the soviet's president, Trotsky. The committee included armed workers, sailors, and soldiers, and assured the support or neutrality of the capital's garrison. The committee methodically planned to occupy strategic locations through the city, almost without concealing their preparations: the Provisional Government's president Kerensky was himself aware of them; and some details, leaked by Kamenev and Zinoviev, were published in newspapers.[21][22]

Onset [ edit ] In the early morning of 24 October (O.S.; 6 November N.S.), a group of soldiers loyal to Kerensky's government marched on the printing house of the Bolshevik newspaper, Rabochiy put (Worker's Path), seizing and destroying printing equipment and thousands of newspapers. Shortly thereafter, the government announced the immediate closure of not only Rabochiy put but also the left-wing Soldat, as well as the far-right newspapers Zhivoe slovo and Novaia Rus. The editors and contributors of these newspapers were seen to be calling for insurrection and were to be prosecuted on criminal charges.[23]

In response, at 9 a.m. the Bolshevik Military-Revolutionary Committee issued a statement denouncing the government's actions. At 10 a.m., Bolshevik-aligned soldiers successfully retook the Rabochiy put printing house. Kerensky responded at approximately 3 p.m. that afternoon by ordering the raising of all but one of Petrograd's bridges, a tactic used by the government several months earlier during the July Days. What followed was a series of sporadic clashes over control of the bridges, between Red Guard militias aligned with the Military-Revolutionary Committee and military units still loyal to the government. At approximately 5 p.m. the Military-Revolutionary Committee seized the Central Telegraph of Petrograd, giving the Bolsheviks control over communications through the city.[23][24]

On 25 October (O.S.; 7 November, N.S.) 1917, the Bolsheviks led their forces in the uprising in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg, then capital of Russia) against the Kerensky Provisional Government. The event coincided with the arrival of a pro-Bolshevik flotilla'--consisting primarily of five destroyers and their crews, as well as marines'--in Petrograd harbor. At Kronstadt, sailors announced their allegiance to the Bolshevik insurrection. In the early morning, from its heavily guarded and picketed headquarters in Smolny Palace, the Military-Revolutionary Committee designated the last of the locations to be assaulted or seized. The Red Guards systematically captured major government facilities, key communication installations, and vantage points with little opposition. The Petrograd Garrison and most of the city's military units joined the insurrection against the Provisional Government.[22] The insurrection was timed and organized to hand state power to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which began on this day.

Kerensky and the Provisional Government were virtually helpless to offer significant resistance. Railways and railway stations had been controlled by Soviet workers and soldiers for days, making rail travel to and from Petrograd impossible for Provisional Government officials. The Provisional Government was also unable to locate any serviceable vehicles. On the morning of the insurrection, Kerensky desperately searched for a means of reaching military forces he hoped would be friendly to the Provisional Government outside the city and ultimately borrowed a Renault car from the American embassy, which he drove from the Winter Palace, along with a Pierce Arrow. Kerensky was able to evade the pickets going up around the palace and to drive to meet approaching soldiers.[23]

As Kerensky left Petrograd, Lenin wrote a proclamation To the Citizens of Russia, stating that the Provisional Government had been overthrown by the Military-Revolutionary Committee. The proclamation was sent by telegraph throughout Russia, even as the pro-Soviet soldiers were seizing important control centers throughout the city. One of Lenin's intentions was to present members of the Soviet congress, who would assemble that afternoon, with a fait accompli and thus forestall further debate on the wisdom or legitimacy of taking power.[23]

Assault on the Winter Palace [ edit ] A final assault against the Winter Palace'--against 3,000 cadets, officers, cossacks, and female soldiers'--was bloodless.[23][25] The Bolsheviks delayed the assault because they could not find functioning artillery and acted with restraint to avoid needless violence.[26] At 6:15 p.m., a large group of artillery cadets abandoned the palace, taking their artillery with them. At 8:00 p.m., 200 cossacks left the palace and returned to their barracks.[23]

While the cabinet of the provisional government within the palace debated what action to take, the Bolsheviks issued an ultimatum to surrender. Workers and soldiers occupied the last of the telegraph stations, cutting off the cabinet's communications with loyal military forces outside the city. As the night progressed, crowds of insurgents surrounded the palace, and many infiltrated it.[23] At 9:45 p.m, the cruiser Aurora fired a blank shot from the harbor. Some of the revolutionaries entered the palace at 10:25 p.m. and there was a mass entry 3 hours later.

By 2:10 a.m. on 26 October Bolshevik forces had gained control. The Cadets and the 140 volunteers of the Women's Battalion surrendered rather than resist the 40,000 strong attacking force.[27][28] After sporadic gunfire throughout the building, the cabinet of the Provisional Government surrendered, and were imprisoned in Peter and Paul Fortress. The only member who was not arrested was Kerensky himself, who had already left the palace.[23][29]

With the Petrograd Soviet now in control of government, garrison, and proletariat, the Second All Russian Congress of Soviets held its opening session on the day, while Trotsky dismissed the opposing Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) from Congress.

Dybenko's disputed role [ edit ] Some sources contend that as the leader of Tsentrobalt, Pavlo Dybenko played a crucial role in the revolt and that the ten warships that arrived at the city with ten thousand Baltic Fleet mariners were the force that took the power in Petrograd and put down the Provisional Government. The same mariners then dispersed by force the elected parliament of Russia,[30] and used machine-gun fire against demonstrators in Petrograd,[citation needed ] killing about 100 demonstrators and wounding several hundred.[citation needed ] Dybenko in his memoirs mentioned this event as "several shots in the air". These are disputed by various sources, such as Louise Bryant,[31] who claims that news outlets in the West at the time reported that the unfortunate loss of life occurred in Moscow, not Petrograd, and the number was much less than suggested above. As for the "several shots in the air", there is little evidence suggesting otherwise.

Later Soviet portrayal [ edit ] While the seizure of the Winter Palace happened almost without resistance, Soviet historians and officials later tended to depict the event in dramatic and heroic terms.[22][32][33] The historical reenactment titled The Storming of the Winter Palace was staged in 1920. This reenactment, watched by 100,000 spectators, provided the model for official films made later, which showed fierce fighting during the storming of the Winter Palace,[34] although, in reality, the Bolshevik insurgents had faced little opposition.[25]

Later stories of the heroic "Storming of the Winter Palace" and "defense of the Winter Palace" were propaganda by Bolshevik publicists. Grandiose paintings depicting the "Women's Battalion" and photo stills taken from Sergei Eisenstein's staged film depicting the "politically correct" version of the October events in Petrograd came to be taken as truth.[35]

Outcome [ edit ] New government established [ edit ] The Second Congress of Soviets consisted of 670 elected delegates: 300 were Bolshevik and nearly 100 were Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who also supported the overthrow of the Alexander Kerensky government.[37] When the fall of the Winter Palace was announced, the Congress adopted a decree transferring power to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, thus ratifying the Revolution.

The transfer of power was not without disagreement. The center and right wings of the Socialist Revolutionaries, as well as the Mensheviks, believed that Lenin and the Bolsheviks had illegally seized power and they walked out before the resolution was passed. As they exited, they were taunted by Leon Trotsky who told them "You are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on '-- into the dustbin of history!"[38]

The following day, 26 October, the Congress elected a new cabinet of Bolsheviks, pending the convocation of a Constituent Assembly. This new Soviet government was known as the Council (Soviet) of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), with Lenin as a leader. Lenin allegedly approved of the name, reporting that it "smells of revolution".[39] The cabinet quickly passed the Decree on Peace and the Decree on Land. This new government was also officially called "provisional" until the Assembly was dissolved.

Anti-Bolshevik sentiment [ edit ] That same day, posters were pinned on walls and fences by the Right Socialist Revolutionaries, describing the takeover as a "crime against the motherland" and "revolution"; this signaled the next wave of anti-Bolshevik sentiment. The next day, the Mensheviks seized power in Georgia and declared it an independent republic; the Don Cossacks also claimed control of their government. The Bolshevik strongholds were in the cities, particularly Petrograd, with support much more mixed in rural areas. The peasant-dominated Left SR party was in coalition with the Bolsheviks. There were reports that the Provisional Government had not conceded defeat and were meeting with the army at the Front.

Anti-Bolshevik sentiment continued to grow as posters and newspapers started criticizing the actions of the Bolsheviks and refuted their authority. The Executive Committee of Peasants Soviets "[refuted] with indignation all participation of the organized peasantry in this criminal violation of the will of the working class".[40] This eventually developed into major counter-revolutionary action, as on the 30th (12 November, N.S) when cossacks, welcomed by church bells, entered Tsarskoye Selo on the outskirts of Petrograd with Kerensky riding on a white horse. Kerensky gave an ultimatum to the rifle garrison to lay down weapons, which was promptly refused. They were then fired upon by Kerensky's cossacks, which resulted in 8 deaths. This turned soldiers in Petrograd against Kerensky as being the Tsarist regime. Kerensky's failure to assume authority over troops was described by John Reed as a "fatal blunder" that signaled the final end of his government.[41] Over the following days, the battle against the anti-Bolsheviks continued. The Red Guard fought against cossacks at Tsarskoye Selo, with the cossacks breaking rank and fleeing, leaving their artillery behind. On 31 October 1917 (13 November, N.S), the Bolsheviks gained control of Moscow after a week of bitter street-fighting. Artillery had been freely used, with an estimated 700 casualties. However, there was continued support for Kerensky in some of the provinces.

After the fall of Moscow, there was only minor public anti-Bolshevik sentiment, such as the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, which criticized the Bolsheviks' lack of manpower and organization in running their party, let alone a government. Lenin confidently claimed that there is "not a shadow of hesitation in the masses of Petrograd, Moscow and the rest of Russia" in accepting Bolshevik rule.[42]

Governmental reforms [ edit ] On 10 November 1917 (23 November, N.S.), the government applied the term "citizens of the Russian Republic" to Russians, whom they sought to make equal in all possible respects, by the nullification of all "legal designations of civil inequality, such as estates, titles, and ranks."[43]

On 12 November (25 November, N.S.), a Constituent Assembly was elected. In these elections, 26 mandatory delegates were proposed by the Bolshevik Central Committee, and 58 were proposed by the Socialist Revolutionaries. The outcome of the election gave the majority to the Socialist Revolutionary Party, which no longer existed as a full party by that time, as the Left SR Party was in coalition with the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks dissolved the Constituent Assembly in January 1918, when it came into conflict with the Soviets.

On 16 December 1917 (29 December, N.S.), the government ventured to eliminate hierarchy in the army, removing all titles, ranks, and uniform decorations. The tradition of saluting was also eliminated.[43]

On 20 December 1917 (2 January 1918, N.S.), the Cheka was created by Lenin's decree.[44] These were the beginnings of the Bolsheviks' consolidation of power over their political opponents. The Red Terror began in September 1918, following a failed assassination attempt on Lenin. The French Jacobin Terror was an example for the Soviet Bolsheviks. Leon Trotsky had compared Lenin to Maximilien Robespierre as early as 1904.[45]

The Decree on Land ratified the actions of the peasants who throughout Russia had taken private land and redistributed it among themselves. The Bolsheviks viewed themselves as representing an alliance of workers and peasants signified by the Hammer and Sickle on the flag and the coat of arms of the Soviet Union.Other decrees:

All private property was nationalized by the government.All Russian banks were nationalized.Private bank accounts were expropriated.The properties of the Church (including bank accounts) were expropriated.All foreign debts were repudiated.Control of the factories was given to the soviets.Wages were fixed at higher rates than during the war, and a shorter, eight-hour working day was introduced.Not all private property was nationalized by the government in the days, weeks, and months that followed the revolution of 25 October. The government of the Bolshevik party and Left SR did not support the workers taking over large corporations and collectively organizing the economy. As chairman of the government, Lenin negotiated with factions of the upper bourgeoisie, so that the bourgeoisie would manage the corporations according to orders from the new government. This failed utterly, because it presupposed the masses would accept class cooperation in a revolutionary situation. In this context the Bolshevik party understood "workers' control" as checking and supervision by the employees to ensure that orders from the government were followed. Some factories continued in private hands because the masses either had no managerial competence or they hesitated to support the Bolshevik party. Other factories were taken over by the employees and some by the government, after pressure from below or by governmental initiative. There was a lack of class consciousness of the masses who put their hands in an authoritarian political party. Only a minority of the working-class population fought to establish a democratic rule over the main capitalist factories.

Dictatorial approach [ edit ] The Bolshevik party opposed the masses ruling the economy from below as it opposed political institutions being ruled from below. Through democratic elections to the soviets in autumn 1917, the Bolshevik party built its power to control the trade unions which became state institutions. Later the same year, the factory committees were subordinated to the trade unions. From this base it was not difficult to establish one-man-rule over the factories. One administrative and one technical manager had daily control, the technical manager having the last word relating to the economy, independent of what the employees wanted, based on orders from higher ups in the state. The system of one-man-management was fiercely defended by Lenin at a trade union congress in spring 1918, where he said that if the party is not in charge the whole point of a party ceased to exist and thereby the revolution itself would cease.

A system of appointment from above was established step by step. Local soviets resisting this policy were either met with armed Cheka troops and forced to submit, or the soviets were denied access to ration cards for food and fuel. The Bolshevik party blocked democratic elections to the soviets, factory committees, the trade unions, and other institutions, which made this transfer of power easier.

The October Revolution enabled a political revolution by taking down the old regime but failed to establish a democratic system. That the economy was not transferred to the masses reflected what happened in the political institutions. The political elite saw itself as crucial to world revolution but blocked power being exerted from below. When that same elite also got control of the economy, answering only it transformed itself into a ruling state capitalist class. Later the Bolshevik party went further by placing the working class under martial law to force obedience '' Sovnarkom. This development led to a totalitarian state where Stalin had even greater power than Lenin and Trotsky.

Timeline of the spread of Soviet power (Gregorian calendar dates) [ edit ] 5 November 1917: Tallinn.7 November 1917: Petrograd, Minsk, Novgorod, Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Tartu8 November 1917: Ufa, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, and Narva; (failed in Kyiv)9 November 1917: Vitebsk, Yaroslavl, Saratov, Samara, and Izhevsk10 November 1917: Rostov, Tver, and Nizhny Novgorod12 November 1917: Voronezh, Smolensk, and Gomel13 November 1917: Tambov14 November 1917: Orel and Perm15 November 1917: Pskov, Moscow, and Baku27 November 1917: Tsaritsyn1 December 1917: Mogilev8 December 1917: Vyatka10 December 1917: Kishinev11 December 1917: Kaluga14 December 1917: Novorossisk15 December 1917: Kostroma20 December 1917: Tula24 December 1917: Kharkiv (invasion of Ukraine by the Muravyov Red Guard forces, the establishment of Soviet Ukraine and hostilities in the region)29 December 1917: Sevastopol (invasion of Crimea by the Red Guard forces, the establishment of the Taurida Soviet republic)4 January 1918: Penza11 January 1918: Yekaterinoslav17 January 1918: Petrozavodsk19 January 1918: Poltava22 January 1918: Zhitomir26 January 1918: Simferopol27 January 1918: Nikolayev28 January 1918: Helsinki (the Reds overthrow the White Senate, the Finnish Civil War begins)29 January 1918: (failed again in Kyiv)31 January 1918: Odesa and Orenburg (establishment of the Odesa Soviet Republic)7 February 1918: Astrakhan8 February 1918: Kyiv and Vologda (defeat of the Ukrainian government)17 February 1918: Arkhangelsk25 February 1918: NovocherkasskRussian Civil War [ edit ] Bolshevik-led attempts to gain power in other parts of the Russian Empire were largely successful in Russia proper'--although the fighting in Moscow lasted for two weeks'--but they were less successful in ethnically non-Russian parts of the Empire, which had been clamoring for independence since the February Revolution. For example, the Ukrainian Rada, which had declared autonomy on 23 June 1917, created the Ukrainian People's Republic on 20 November, which was supported by the Ukrainian Congress of Soviets. This led to an armed conflict with the Bolshevik government in Petrograd and, eventually, a Ukrainian declaration of independence from Russia on 25 January 1918.[46] In Estonia, two rival governments emerged: the Estonian Provincial Assembly, established in April 1917, proclaimed itself the supreme legal authority of Estonia on 28 November 1917 and issued the Declaration of Independence on 24 February 1918;[47] but Soviet Russia recognized the Executive Committee of the Soviets of Estonia as the legal authority in the province, although the Soviets in Estonia controlled only the capital and a few other major towns.[48]

After the success of the October Revolution transformed the Russian state into a soviet republic, a coalition of anti-Bolshevik groups attempted to unseat the new government in the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1922. In an attempt to intervene in the civil war after the Bolsheviks' separate peace with the Central Powers, the Allied powers (United Kingdom, France, Italy, United States, and Japan) occupied parts of the Soviet Union for over two years before finally withdrawing.[49] The United States did not recognize the new Russian government until 1933. The European powers recognized the Soviet Union in the early 1920s and began to engage in business with it after the New Economic Policy (NEP) was implemented.[citation needed ]

Historiography [ edit ] Historical research into few events has been as influenced by the researcher's political outlook as that of the October Revolution.[50] The historiography of the Revolution generally divides into three camps: Soviet-Marxist, Western-Totalitarian, and Revisionist.[51]

Soviet historiography [ edit ] Soviet historiography of the October Revolution is intertwined with Soviet historical development. Many of the initial Soviet interpreters of the Revolution were themselves Bolshevik revolutionaries.[52] After the initial wave of revolutionary narratives, Soviet historians worked within "narrow guidelines" defined by the Soviet government. The rigidity of interpretive possibilities reached its height under Joseph Stalin.[53]

Soviet historians of the Revolution interpreted the October Revolution as being about establishing the legitimacy of Marxist ideology and the Bolshevik government. To establish the accuracy of Marxist ideology, Soviet historians generally described the Revolution as the product of class struggle and that itn was the supreme event in a world history governed by historical laws. The Bolshevik Party is placed at the center of the Revolution, as it exposes the errors of both the moderate Provisional Government and the spurious "socialist" Mensheviks in the Petrograd Soviet. Guided by Vladimir Lenin's leadership and his firm grasp of scientific Marxist theory, the Party led the "logically predetermined" events of the October Revolution from beginning to end. The events were, according to these historians, logically predetermined because of the socio-economic development of Russia, where monopolistic industrial capitalism had alienated the masses. In this view, the Bolshevik party took the leading role in organizing these alienated industrial workers, and thereby established the construction of the first socialist state.[54]

Although Soviet historiography of the October Revolution stayed relatively constant until 1991, it did undergo some changes. Following Stalin's death, historians such as E. N. Burdzhalov and P. V. Volobuev published historical research that deviated significantly from the party line in refining the doctrine that the Bolshevik victory "was predetermined by the state of Russia's socio-economic development".[55] These historians, who constituted the "New Directions Group", posited that the complex nature of the October Revolution "could only be explained by a multi-causal analysis, not by recourse to the mono-causality of monopoly capitalism".[56] For them, the central actor is still the Bolshevik party, but this party triumphed "because it alone could solve the preponderance of 'general democratic' tasks the country faced" (such as the struggle for peace and the exploitation of landlords).[57]

During the late Soviet period, the opening of select Soviet archives during glasnost sparked innovative research that broke away from some aspects of Marxism''Leninism, though the key features of the orthodox Soviet view remained intact.<, ref name="Acton, Critical Companion, 7"/>

Following the turn of the 21st century, some Soviet historians began to implement an "anthropological turn" in their historiographical analysis of the Russian Revolution. This method of analysis focuses on the average person's experience of day-to-day life during the revolution, and pulls the analytical focus away from larger events, notable revolutionaries, and overarching claims about party views.[58] In 2006, S. V. Iarov employed this methodology when he focused on citizen adjustment to the new Soviet system. Iarov explored the dwindling labor protests, evolving forms of debate, and varying forms of politicization as a result of the new Soviet rule from 1917 to 1920.[59] In 2010, O. S. Nagornaia took interest in the personal experiences of Russian prisoners-of-war taken by Germany, examining Russian soldiers and officers' ability to cooperate and implement varying degrees of autocracy despite being divided by class, political views, and race.[60] Other analyses following this "anthropological turn" have explored texts from soldiers and how they used personal war-experiences to further their political goals,[61] as well as how individual life-structure and psychology may have shaped major decisions in the civil war that followed the revolution.[62]

Western historiography [ edit ] During the Cold War, Western historiography of the October Revolution developed in direct response to the assertions of the Soviet view. As a result, Western historians exposed what they believed were flaws in the Soviet view, thereby undermining the Bolsheviks' original legitimacy, as well as the precepts of Marxism.[63]

These Western historians described the revolution as the result of a chain of contingent accidents. Examples of these accidental and contingent factors they say precipitated the Revolution included World War I's timing, chance, and the poor leadership of Tsar Nicholas II as well as that of liberal and moderate socialists.[53] According to Western historians, it was not popular support, but rather a manipulation of the masses, ruthlessness, and the party discipline of the Bolsheviks that enabled their triumph. For these historians, the Bolsheviks' defeat in the Constituent Assembly elections of November''December 1917 demonstrated popular opposition to the Bolsheviks' coup, as did the scale and breadth of the Civil War.[64]

Western historians saw the organization of the Bolshevik party as proto-totalitarian. Their interpretation of the October Revolution as a violent coup organized by a proto-totalitarian party reinforced for them the idea that totalitarianism was an inherent part of Soviet history. The democratic promise of the February Revolution came to an end with the forced dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.[65] Thus, Stalinist totalitarianism developed as a natural progression from Leninism and the Bolshevik party's tactics and organization.[66]

Effect of the dissolution of the USSR on historical research [ edit ] The dissolution of the USSR affected historical interpretations of the October Revolution. Since 1991, increasing access to large amounts of Soviet archival materials has made it possible to re'‘examine the October Revolution.[67] Though both Western and Russian historians now have access to many of these archives, the effect of the dissolution of the USSR can be seen most clearly in the work of the latter. While the disintegration essentially helped solidify the Western and Revisionist views, post-USSR Russian historians largely repudiated the former Soviet historical interpretation of the Revolution.[68] As Stephen Kotkin argues, 1991 prompted "a return to political history and the apparent resurrection of totalitarianism, the interpretive view that, in different ways'...revisionists sought to bury".[69]

Legacy [ edit ] Anniversary of October Revolution in

Riga, Soviet Union in 1988

The October Revolution marks the inception of the first communist government in Russia, and thus the first large-scale socialist state in world history. After this, Russia became the Russian SFSR and, later, part of the USSR, which dissolved in late 1991.

The October Revolution also made the ideology of communism influential on a global scale in the 20th century. Communist parties would start to form in certain countries after 1917.

Ten Days That Shook the World, a book written by American journalist John Reed and first published in 1919, gives a firsthand exposition of the events. Reed died in 1920, shortly after the book was finished.

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 2 in B major, Op. 14, and subtitled it To October, for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. The choral finale of the work, "To October", is set to a text by Alexander Bezymensky, which praises Lenin and the revolution. The Symphony No. 2 was first performed on 5 November 1927 by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy Capella Choir under the direction of Nikolai Malko.

Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov's film October: Ten Days That Shook the World, first released on 20 January 1928 in the USSR and on 2 November 1928 in New York City, describes and glorifies the revolution, having been commissioned to commemorate the event.

The term "Red October" (КÑасный ОктябÑь, Krasnyy Oktyabr) has been used to signify the October Revolution. "Red October" was given to a steel factory that was made notable by the Battle of Stalingrad,[70] a Moscow sweets factory that is well known in Russia, and a fictional Soviet submarine.

7 November, the anniversary of the October Revolution according to the Gregorian Calendar, was the official national day of the Soviet Union from 1918 onward and still is a public holiday in Belarus and the breakaway territory of Transnistria.

See also [ edit ] February RevolutionTen Days That Shook the WorldRevolutions of 1917''1923Russian Civil WarRussian Revolution (1917)Kiev Bolshevik UprisingDissolution of the Soviet Union (1991)October Revolution DayIndex of articles related to the Russian Revolution and Civil WarBibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil WarNotes [ edit ] Citations [ edit ] ^ History.com Staff. "Russian Revolution." History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/russian-revolution. ^ Samaan, A.E. (2 February 2013). From a "Race of Masters" to a "Master Race": 1948 to 1848. A.E. Samaan. p. 346. ISBN 978-0615747880 . Retrieved 9 February 2017 . ^ Jennifer Llewellyn, John Rae, and Steve Thompson (2014). "The Constituent Assembly". Alpha History. CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) ^ a b Steinberg, Mark (2017). The Russian Revolution 1905-1917. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 143''146. ISBN 978-0-19-922762-4. ^ David Mandel, The Petrograd workers and the seizure of soviet power, London, 1984 ^ Trotsky, Leon (1934). History of the Russian Revolution. London: The Camelot Press ltd. pp. 859''864. ^ "Steinberg, Mark (2017). The Russian Revolution 1905-1921. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 196''197. ISBN 978-0-19-922762-4." ^ Upton, Anthony F. (1980). The Finnish Revolution: 1917-1918. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. p. 89. ISBN 9781452912394. ^ Steinberg, Mark D. (2017). The Russian Revolution 1905-1921. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 191, 193''194. ISBN 9780199227624. ^ Richard Pipes (1990). The Russian Revolution. Knopf Doubleday. p. 407. ISBN 9780307788573. ^ The Soviet Colossus: History and Aftermath. Michael Kort. p. 104 ^ Michael C. Hickey (2010). Competing Voices from the Russian Revolution: Fighting Words: Fighting Words. ABC-CLIO. p. 559. ISBN 9780313385247. ^ Beckett 2007, p. 526 ^ Pipes, 1997. p. 51. "There is no evidence of a Kornilov plot, but there is plenty of evidence of Kerensky's duplicity." ^ Service 2005, p. 54 Harv error: no target: CITEREFService2005 (help) ^ "How Germany got the Russian Revolution off the ground". Deutsche Welle. 7 November 2017. ^ Antony C. Sutton (2012). Wall street and the bolshevik revolution. CLAIRVIEW BOOKS. p. 47. ISBN 9781905570614. ^ "Central Committee Meeting'--10 Oct 1917". ^ Steinberg, Mark (2001). Voices of the Revolution, 1917. Binghamton, New York: Yale University Press. p. 170. ISBN 0300090161. ^ "1917 '' La Revolution Russe". Arte TV. 16 September 2007. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016 . Retrieved 25 January 2016 . ^ a b c Suny, Ronald (2011). The Soviet Experiment. Oxford University Press. pp. 63''67. ^ a b c d e f g h Rabinowitch, Alexander (2004). The Bolsheviks Come to Power: The Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd. Pluto Press. pp. 273''305. ^ Bard College: Experimental Humanities and Eurasian Studies. "From Empire To Republic: October 24 '' November 1, 1917" . Retrieved 24 February 2018 . ^ a b Beckett, p. 528 Harv error: no target: CITEREFBeckett (help) ^ Alexander Rabinowitch, The Bolsheviks Come to Power: the Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd (Haymarket Books: Chicago Illinois 2004) ^ Michael Lynch, Access to History: Reaction and Revolution: Russia 1894-1924, Fourth Edition (Hodder Education: April 2015) ^ Raul Edward Chao, Damn the Revolution! (Dupont Circle Editions: Washington DC, London, Sydney, 2016) p.191 ^ "1917 Free History". Yandex Publishing . Retrieved 8 November 2017 . ^ "Ð'ОЕÐ'Ð'АЯ ЛÐÐЕРАÐУРА --[ Ð'емуаÑы ]-- Ð--ыбенко П.Е. Ðз Ð½ÐµÐ´Ñ Ñ†Ð°ÑскоÐ"о ÑÐ>>ота к Ð'еÐ>>икому ОктябÑю". ^ Louise Bryant, Six Red Months in Russia, pg 60''61 ^ Jonathan Schell, 2003. 'The Mass Minority in Action: France and Russia'. For example, in The Unconquerable World. London: Penguin, pp. 167''185. ^ (See a first-hand account by British General Knox.) ^ October (Ten Days that Shook the World) by Sergei M. Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov, First National Pictures, 1928, Classics and Drama ^ Argumenty i Fakty newspaper ^ "The Constituent Assembly". ^ Service, Robert (1998). A history of twentieth-century Russia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-40347-9 p 65 ^ Reed, John (1997) Ten Days that Shook the World. New York: St. Martin's Press. p 217 ^ Steinberg, Mark D. (2001). Voices of Revolution, 1917. Yale University. p. 251. ISBN 978-0300101690. ^ Reed, John (1997) Ten Days that Shook the World. New York: St. Martin's Press. p 369 ^ Reed, John (1997) Ten Days that Shook the World. New York: St. Martin's Press. p 410 ^ Reed, John (1997) Ten Days that Shook the World. New York: St. Martin's Press. p 565 ^ a b Steinberg, Mark D. (2001). Voices of Revolution. Yale University. p. 257. ^ Figes, 1996. ^ Richard Pipes: The Russian Revolution ^ See Encyclopedia of Ukraine online ^ Miljan, Toivo. "Historical Dictionary of Estonia." Historical Dictionary of Estonia, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, p. 169 ^ Raun, Toivo U. "The Emergence of Estonian Independence 1917-1920." Estonia and the Estonians, Hoover Inst. Press, 2002, p. 102 ^ Ward, John (2004). With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia. Dodo Press. p. 91. ISBN 1409906809. ^ Edward Acton, Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914''1921 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997), 5. ^ Acton, Critical Companion, 5''7. ^ Kotkin, Stephen, "1991 and the Russian Revolution: Sources, Conceptual Categories, Analytical Frameworks," The Journal of Modern History 70 (October 1998): 392. ^ a b Acton, Critical Companion, 7. ^ Acton, Critical Companion, 8. ^ Alter Litvin, Writing History in Twentieth-Century Russia, (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 49''50. ^ Roger Markwick, Rewriting History in Soviet Russia: The Politics of Revisionist Historiography, (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 97. ^ Markwick, Rewriting History, 102. ^ Smith, S. A. (2015). "The historiography of the Russian Revolution 100 Years On". Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. 16 (4): 733''749. doi:10.1353/kri.2015.0065. ^ Iarov, S.V. (2006). "Konformizm v Sovetskoi Rossii: Petrograd, 1917-20". Evropeiskii Dom. ^ Nagornaia, O. S. (2010). "Drugoi voennyi opyt: Rossiiskie voennoplennye Pervoi mirovoi voiny v Germanii (1914-1922)". Novyi Khronograf. ^ Morozova, O. M. (2010). "Dva akta dreamy: Boevoe proshloe I poslevoennaia povsednevnost ' veteran grazhdanskoi voiny". Rostov-on-Don: Iuzhnyi Nauchnyi Tsentr Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. ^ O. M., Morozova (2007). "Antropologiia grazhdanskoi voiny". Rostov-on-Don: Iuzhnyi Nauchnyi Tsentr RAN. ^ Acton, Critical Companion, 6''7. ^ Acton, Critical Companion, 7''9. ^ Norbert Francis, "Revolution in Russia and China: 100 Years," International Journal of Russian Studies 6 (July 2017): 130-143. ^ Stephen E. Hanson (1997). Time and Revolution: Marxism and the Design of Soviet Institutions. U of North Carolina Press. p. 130. ISBN 9780807846155. ^ Kotkin, Stephen, "1991 and the Russian Revolution", 385-86. ^ Litvin, Alter, Writing History, 47. ^ Kotkin, "1991 and the Russian Revolution," 385. ^ Ivanov, Mikhail (2007). Survival Russian. Montpelier, VT: Russian Information Service. p. 44 References [ edit ] Acton, Edward (1997). Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution. Ascher, Abraham (2014). The Russian Revolution: A Beginner's Guide. Oneworld Publications. Beckett, Ian F. W. (2007). The Great war (2 ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-1252-8. Bone, Ann (trans.) (1974). The Bolsheviks and the October Revolution: Central Committee Minutes of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) August 1917-February 1918. Pluto Press. ISBN 0-902818546. Bunyan, James; Fisher, Harold Henry (1934). The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917''1918: Documents and Materials. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. OCLC 253483096. Chamberlin, William Henry (1935). The Russian Revolution. I: 1917''1918: From the Overthrow of the Tsar to the Assumption of Power by the Bolsheviks. Old Classic. Figes, Orlando (1996). A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891''1924. Pimlico. ISBN 9780805091311. online free to borrowGuerman, Mikhail (1979). Art of the October Revolution. Kollontai, Alexandra (1971). "The Years of Revolution". The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman. New York: Herder and Herder. OCLC 577690073. Krupskaya, Nadezhda (1930). "The October Days". Reminiscences of Lenin. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 847091253. Luxemburg, Rosa (1940) [1918]. The Russian Revolution. Translated by Bertram Wolfe. New York City: Workers Age. OCLC 579589928. Mandel, David (1984). The Petrograd Workers and the Soviet seizure of power . London: MacMillan. Pipes, Richard (1997). Three "whys" of the Russian Revolution. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-679-77646-8. Rabinowitch, Alexander (2004). The Bolsheviks Come to Power: The Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd. Pluto Press. ISBN 9780745322681. Radek, Karl (1995) [First published 1922 as "Wege der Russischen Revolution"]. "The Paths of the Russian Revolution". In Bukharin, Nikolai; Richardson, Al (eds.). In Defence of the Russian Revolution: A Selection of Bolshevik Writings, 1917''1923. London: Porcupine Press. pp. 35''75. ISBN 1899438017. OCLC 33294798. Read, Christopher (1996). From Tsars to Soviets. Serge, Victor (1972) [1930]. Year One of the Russian Revolution. London: Penguin Press. OCLC 15612072. Service, Robert (1998). A history of twentieth-century Russia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-40347-9. Shukman, Harold, ed. (1998). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution. articles by over 40 specialists CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link) Swain, Geoffrey (2014). Trotsky and the Russian Revolution. Routledge. Trotsky, Leon (1930). "XXVI: FROM JULY TO OCTOBER". My Life. London: Thornton Butterworth. OCLC 181719733. Trotsky, Leon (1932). The History of the Russian Revolution. III. Translated by Max Eastman. London: Gollancz. OCLC 605191028. Wade, Rex A. "The Revolution at One Hundred: Issues and Trends in the English Language Historiography of the Russian Revolution of 1917." Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography 9.1 (2016): 9-38. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/22102388-00900003External links [ edit ] Read, Christopher: Revolutions (Russian Empire), in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.Peeling, Siobhan: July Crisis 1917 (Russian Empire), in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.The October Revolution ArchiveLet History Judge Russia's Revolutions, commentary by Roy Medvedev, Project Syndicate, 2007October Revolution and Logic of HistoryMaps of Europe and Russia at time of October Revolution at omniatlas.comHow the Bolshevik party elite crushed the democratically elected workers and popular councils - soviets - and established totalitarian state capitalism.

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Why a 100-year-old game is still spreading across our playgrounds The childhood game of "cooties" has endured among schoolchildren. (Bijou Karman)Of all the germs kids are exposed to on the playground, there's one they freak out about more than any other: cooties.

The word first appeared during World War I as soldiers' slang for the painful body lice that infested the trenches. It went mainstream in 1919 when a Chicago company incorporated the pest into the Cootie Game, in which a player maneuvered colored ''cootie'' capsules across a painted battlefield into a cage. The cooties concept has been evolving ever since.

The most familiar incarnation has features of a real infectious disease even as it says a good deal about what 6-year-olds think of the opposite sex. Every little girl knows that boys have cooties, and vice versa. One catches cooties by'--eww!'--touching. Shrieking games of cooties tag transmit the contagion rapidly. It can be treated with an origami ''cootie catcher,'' but it is better to be vaccinated.

This requires a friend and a retractable pen. Your friend clicks the pen onto your arm while chanting ''circle, circle, dot, dot, now you have your cootie shot.'' Folklore archives and internet forum threads show that regional variations of the therapeutic regimen have emerged. In Louisville, the charm is ''line, line, dot, dot, operation cootie shot''; in Los Angeles, kids ''pinch, pinch'' in lieu of the ''dot, dot''; in Hawaii, the process is known as an ''uku shot.''

This 1920s version of the game encouraged players of all ages to "capture the cooties." Doing so would be "good for your nerves," it promised. (Wiki Commons)To historians and social scientists, the cooties phenomenon isn't just child's play. Kids, after all, are their own ''semiliterate society'' with their own cultural touchstones, says Simon Bronner, a folklorist at Penn State Harrisburg who has studied children's traditions. The purpose of something like the cootie shot, passed down from generation to generation, ''must be profoundly important if all these kids are choosing to participate in it,'' says Tok Thompson, an anthropologist at the University of Southern California who studies modern folklore.

Play helps kids make sense of new ideas, experiences and emotions, not to mention traditional gender roles. The cootie shot itself is part teaching tool, part coping mechanism. Bronner has observed the emergence of this form of cooties in the 1950s, when the polio vaccine became ubiquitous, and a spike in its popularity in the 1980s, during the height of the AIDS epidemic.

Nowadays, cooties also reflect other concerns, particularly physical appearance; an obese child, for instance, might be said to have cooties. There's a greater emphasis on body shaming, Bronner says. Like a real virus, cooties mutate, and they'll likely be around for as long as children have insecurities to play out.

Cooties weren't just for kids. As early as 1921, a dice game called Cootie was a favorite at wedding showers. Women competed in teams of two to draw the very bug that had tormented many a husband-to-be during the war. One woman threw a die; the other was the artist. A six earned the team a cootie body; a five, the head; a four, one of six legs; and so on. The game was still popular among brides in 1949 when a Minnesota inventor created a 3-D version (below) in which players built cooties from colorful plastic pieces. It became a big hit with children and is still in production today.

(Alamy)

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:32

Europe18:54 GMT 03.04.2020(updated 20:10 GMT 03.04.2020) Get short URL

Belarus has been one of the few nations in the northern hemisphere to resist introducing nation-wide quarantines and other large-scale restrictions in its battle with the new coronavirus, instead preferring a targeted response.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has expressed concerns over how powerful nations and interests may try to use the coronavirus pandemic to reshape the world to their own advantage.

''I once asked the question: is this pandemic, this coronavirus, a man-made phenomenon? I don't know the answer yet, but I have my suspicions. Are politicians and others using this situation for their own purposes? You and I both know the answer to that question. You already see how it is used today'...Doesn't it seem to you that the powerful forces of the world would like to remake the world, without a 'war' (Emmanuel Macron has already called it a war), through this so-called 'corona-psychosis', or 'info-demic'? Many people are asking: 'what will happen after the pandemic?''' Lukashenko said, speaking to Mir TV in an interview airing Friday.Lukashenko has insisted that Belarus's economy continue to operate as normal, even if this means risks to his political popularity, saying he could imagine what would happen to the country after the pandemic is over if it were to shut down.

''What will happen to us? Other countries will survive. Russia has oil and gas which the world including China needs. China is a huge, powerful economy. America has the [dollar] printing press '' they've thrown in

$2 trillion and plan to spend

$2 trillion more. My friend [UN Secretary-General] Antonio Guterres, a sincere man, has proposed printing money

worth ten percent of global GDP. Even as things are the dollar is gradually losing its value, and here it will just drop, giving rise to inflation. Where we will come out of this with our [Belarusian] ruble we know,'' the president explained.

''Moreover, who will receive these $20 trillion? Where will this money end up? Will it not be a case of the rich getting richer, while the poor get poorer? I think it will. We've been pushed to shut down and sit and eat through the small reserves we have. Even in Russia it cannot be said that its currency reserves are so large," Lukashenko said.

"And then, having printed out this 10 percent of global GDP, those who stay on their feet will come to us and say 'here is a little for you, but now you will do what we say'. That's how the world can be reshaped,'' he warned.The president noted that he has no doubt that the world will be a different place when the pandemic ends. His main concern now is what place Belarus will have in this new world.

Belarus has 351 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection to date, as well as 4 fatalities. The country has rejected broad coercive restrictions to fighting the virus, preferring a strategy of pinpoint measures including quarantine for people with the virus and testing anyone coming into contact with them. Belarus's factories and farms remain open, as do educational institutions, shops, restaurants and other public amenities, and the country has not closed its borders with its Russian neighbor.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:26

After childbirth, she resumed researching the disease under Fauci's tutelage.

That disease would soon be known as HIV/AIDS. Birx and Fauci have worked together every year since on successful efforts to manage the illness and on a continuing search for a cure and vaccine.

Now, 37 years after they first worked together, the longtime allies often stand at the White House with President Trump to brief the nation about the novel coronavirus, while they privately join forces to try to convince the president that more economically painful measures are needed to stem the outbreak.

In doing so, and in walking a tightrope between their science-driven views and the president's reliance on gut feelings, they have drawn criticism from the left and the right. The story of how they walk that line is rooted in the way they have relied heavily on each other for decades and on the lessons they learned fighting another disease that initially had no treatment, they both said in separate interviews with The Washington Post.

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''No one will understand what it was like to be a fully trained physician at a time when you thought you were relatively knowledgeable and have patients dying and unable to stop it. And unable to know what it was,'' said Birx, 64, the U.S. global AIDS coordinator. ''And I think that drew both of us to conquering infectious disease .'‰.'‰. because once you had that devastating experience, you don't want to live that in any epidemic again.''

Fauci, 79, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, recalled it similarly.

''We've known each other so long, and we've been through so much, the good times and the bad times, the successes, the failures,'' he said. ''So we're kind of like two veterans that have been through a bunch of wars together.'' When they realized they were going to work together advising the White House on how to fight the coronavirus, Fauci said, they told each other: ''Well, here we go again, we're back together again.''

The two doctors and a number of their associates said that even though HIV/AIDS is a very different disease from covid-19, the disease the coronavirus caused, the lessons from their prior work are clear. In both cases, there was early misunderstanding about the seriousness of the illness, the government was slow to react, and the initial response relied on behavioral changes while a longer-term solution was sought.

Now their task is to apply those lessons, but their effort to work alongside Trump has led to some jarring statements, and there were some initial questions about whether they were entirely in sync. Fauci has been both hailed and pilloried for his blunt refutation of some of Trump's declarations, such as when he told Science magazine, ''I can't jump in front of the microphone and push him down'' when the president makes an incorrect statement.

Birx, meanwhile, recently told the Christian Broadcasting Network that the president ''has been so attentive to the details and the data,'' adding that he has been ''attentive to the scientific literature.''

Given Trump's well-documented aversion to reviewing written briefing materials, her comment was mocked by President Bill Clinton's former press secretary Joe Lockhart, who derided her on Twitter for having ''drunk the Kool Aid'' and urged that she tell the truth to Trump about the depth of the crisis.

Birx defended her comments, telling The Post her job as a public servant is to make sure Trump understands the data, and she said he has ''asked the right questions.''

By the time Birx and Fauci briefed Trump about what would happen if social distancing guidelines were lifted prematurely, they presented such a unified voice that the president dropped his desire to end restrictions in time for Easter Sunday and agreed with them that at least an additional 30 days was needed.

Can Deborah Birx save us from the coronavirus?

Birx, according to Fauci, is in a more difficult position because she is a political appointee who can be dismissed at any moment, while he is relatively protected in his role as an administrator in the NIH system. While they both have served presidents of both parties going back to the Reagan administration, he is used to speaking bluntly without fear of reprisal.

''She has to be a little bit more deferential because of the fact that she is a political appointee,'' Fauci said. ''But when it comes to presenting the science, we're really like, one unit, there's no separation between us at all.''

That has been the case since the two met in 1983.

Birx was an Army colonel working at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Maryland, and Fauci worked at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he would become director the following year.

After Birx gave birth to her eldest daughter in 1983 and rejected a blood transfusion because of safety concerns, she devoted herself to discovering a treatment for the disease killing so many around her. That work evolved as she served her fellowship in Fauci's laboratory, and the two then spent several decades working together to find a therapy or cure for HIV/AIDS.

''We were in the middle of it,'' Fauci said. ''We were both taking care of HIV-infected individuals, me here at NIH, her across town at Walter Reed. And it was dark years for both of us. We were taking care of patients, and they were all dying.''

Birx recalled that she would make rounds at the clinical center at NIH and then return to her post at Walter Reed, where hundreds of soldiers in their 20s and 30s suffered from a little-understood disease.

''You can't imagine the devastation,'' Birx said. ''And I think that's why both of us, when we see what's happening at the front lines with the health-care workers [caring for coronavirus patients], that's an experience we have both been in.''

Soldiers in combat

Nelson Michael, who worked with Fauci and Birx at the time, said the bonding experience of watching patients die was ''no different than combat veterans'' who saw their fellow soldiers killed.

Michael, who now is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, said he told Fauci recently that the fight against the coronavirus reminded him of their battle against HIV in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and he agreed. ''For those of us who grew up and fought the HIV war, and are still fighting it quite honestly, this pandemic hits us really hard,'' Michael said.

After a decade of research, scientists who received funding from Fauci's institute discovered that a combination of antiretroviral drugs could be used to manage, but not cure, the disease. ''That success changed both our lives at the same time,'' Fauci said of himself and Birx. They pivoted to how to help HIV patients around the world and to finding a cure.

Fauci and Birx soon pushed for one of the most difficult challenges in medicine: a vaccine to prevent HIV.

Unlike a vaccine against infections such as the coronavirus, which theoretically can be based on how a person's immune system fights back, an HIV vaccine would have to work differently and is considered far more difficult. Birx, in her role as the director of the HIV research program at Walter Reed, pushed for a vaccine trial in Thailand, working with that country's military.

The idea was criticized by some in the scientific community who doubted the test could be successful and thought funds could be better spent on managing the disease. Birx was far short of the needed funding. Then, in 2001, the Pentagon proposed eliminating her budget to fight HIV/AIDS.

Fauci came to the rescue. After meeting with Birx, he helped convince the Pentagon to keep its funding and then pledged his institute's money to bolster the vaccine budget. It was a defining moment in their relationship, he said.

''When I invested those tens of millions of dollars to support Deb's trial, people criticized me for that,'' Fauci said. ''People in the scientific community said, 'You are wasting money, you shouldn't be spending money on a trial that may not work.' But we forged ahead.''

Fauci was ready for this. America was not.

The trial started in Thailand and resulted in an efficacy rate of 31 percent, which Fauci considered ''one of the high points'' of his partnership with Birx, a modest success that was good enough to lead to larger trials in South Africa.

Birx, after serving as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Global HIV/AIDS, was named in 2014 by President Obama to be the U.S. ambassador on global efforts to combat HIV/AIDS. At her swearing-in ceremony, she praised Obama for ''his bold leadership'' and lauded her new boss, Secretary of State John F. Kerry, for his ''amazing, long-standing and unyielding commitment'' to fighting HIV/AIDS. She remains in her ambassadorial role during the Trump administration, making her an Obama holdover.

While she and Fauci spend ''every working hour'' on science related to infectious diseases, she said, they have often crossed paths personally. She said they both have daughters who participated in the same cross-country meets, and she has seen him ''cheering on his daughter like I cheered on mine. I've seen him as a father. I've seen him as a husband. .'‰.'‰. We've shared things on a scientific and a personal level. He's just been a fixture in my life for the entire time.''

Given their partnership, they have been together on countless panels, including a December 2017 appearance at an AIDS forum at The Washington Post, at which they expressed optimism about the vaccine trials in South Africa. In January, it was announced that one of the trials had failed, but Fauci stressed in the interview that others are continuing and hold promise.

A new battle

It was around that time that the seriousness of the coronavirus was becoming apparent in the United States. In late February, while Birx was attending an AIDS conference in Africa, Vice President Pence named her as White House coronavirus response coordinator. After an overnight flight from Africa, Birx arrived at the White House for a meeting of the virus task force, on which Fauci was already serving in his role as the government's leading infectious disease specialist.

A key challenge for Fauci and Birx has been to deliver realistic, science-driven assessments of the growing crisis to the public, even as the president sometimes gives conflicting and incorrect statements and espouses his own theories.

Over the past several months, Trump has said the virus ''miraculously goes away'' by April, that ''we have it totally under control'' and that anyone who wants a test can get one. A photo of Fauci at one briefing with Trump, in which he puts a hand to a lowered forehead as if in disbelief, has been widely published.

Washington Post Live: Fauci and Birx on the national and global HIV/AIDS outlook

Myron Cohen, who has known Fauci and Birx since the 1980s, said the pair are too driven by science and data to be subject to political pressure.

''They're scientists, and they're public health officials,'' said Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina's Department of Medicine. ''They're not politicians. They lay out the facts. .'‰.'‰. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and these are the right people.''

About a week ago, Fauci and Birx faced their greatest challenge so far in advising the president. Trump had said he wanted to end federal guidance on social distancing by April 12, which the two doctors argued would result in a massive death toll.

They traveled to the White House to persuade Trump to drop his idea.

Birx, the data expert, brought along charts. Fauci, who has excelled in communicating complex ideas in layman's terms, brought his blunt style and backed Birx.

Fauci and Birx stood in the Oval Office with their charts, leaned over the Resolute Desk and asked Trump to examine the data. The charts showed that if Trump's idea was pursued, more than 2 million people could die. But if social distancing and stay-at-home policies were followed nationally for 30 days, then there would be 100,000 to 240,000 deaths. ''I guess we got to do it,'' the president said.

Speaking at a White House briefing on Tuesday, Trump essentially said he had entrusted the nation's future to what he was told by the pair of doctors, whom he referred to as Tony and Deb. When a reporter asked Trump what he believed the death toll would be if the public followed social distancing restrictions, the president said, ''I'd rather them say the numbers.''

As crushing as the virus crisis has been, Fauci said he and Birx are confident this fight is winnable, in part because a vaccine against the coronavirus probably can be developed with known scientific strategies that should pay off within the next 18 months, much faster than their continuing efforts to eradicate HIV/AIDS.

''When you talk about how did the experience that we had back then inform what Deb and I do now, it's kind of like deja vu all over again,'' Fauci said. ''Here we are up on the stage in the press room in the White House. Turn back the clock 35 years, and that's us talking about HIV. So that's what we mean when we sort of look at each other and sort of say under our breath, 'Been there, done that.' ''

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:16

We are reminded daily that following the protocols of social distancing is a matter of life and death in this pandemic.

Thus, learning of Exelon's refusal to postpone a refueling project at the Limerick Generating Station is of deep concern.

The company brought between 950 and 1,400 workers from other localities to the tri-county area for its annual refueling project.

Montgomery County Commissioners asked the company to postpone the refueling before it began in March, and they refused, claiming it was necessary for power to the region through the summer and that it could be managed with proper precautions.

But in interviews with MediaNews Group reporter Carl Hessler Jr., workers say those precautions were not followed.

The workers interviewed claimed that social distancing measures of standing at least six-feet apart, which have repeatedly been recommended by health officials during the outbreak, were not in place at the plant as they initially reported for their jobs in March.

Refueling was scheduled to start March 30, according to officials, but workers arrived at the site for training before that date. By mid-March, cases of COVID-19 were already being reported in Montgomery County ahead of other areas in Pennsylvania. County officials were adamant in emphasizing the importance of social distancing. Schools were already closed.

''From the first day I got there, there were no less than 100 people in the training room being processed. I have pictures from that day of people literally sitting on top of each other, no one enforcing social distancing,'' one worker told MediaNews Group.

Montgomery County Commissioners' Chairman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh last week said county commissioners first learned about ''a long scheduled maintenance operation'' at the Limerick plant on March 16 and demanded to see Exelon's pandemic response site plan. County officials concluded the plan was not adequate for the COVID-19 pandemic and asked Exelon to postpone the refuel until such time when the disease burden from the virus was lower in Montgomery and Chester counties. She said they refused.

Dave Marcheskie, communications manager Exelon at the Limerick plant, released a statement last week saying the company is ''doing everything possible to keep our workers and host communities safe.'' He said the company did not have the luxury of postponing the outage because the plant's power is vital to the region's hospitals, emergency response centers and essential businesses.

Arkoosh said she was ''deeply concerned'' that contract workers were staying at AirBnBs, private homes, campsites, hotels and other rental units in the tri-county region.

'''... As we pointed out from the beginning, they were coming into an area of community spread here in Montgomery County. It puts at risk the people in our community, the workforce that is in Limerick every day, our critical workforce that keeps that very important plant running,'' Arkoosh said.

''I'm speaking about this publicly because not only do I believe that the people here in southeastern Pennsylvania have a right to know about this but I hope that this is a cautionary note to wherever they are going next,'' she added.

She also mentioned first responders who may get called to the plant. ''We have a lot of people who are sworn to run into the Limerick Generating Station if there's ever an accident. Many of those individuals are volunteer firefighters and I think our community deserves to be treated better than this.''

We agree that this community, where homes, businesses and hospitals are both dependent on and host to the massive nuclear power plant operation, deserves better. The refueling project brought workers into our region amidst dire warnings about the spread of the coronavirus, and Exelon has not provided adequate assurances that they are following the protocols to slow that spread.

Our immediate concerns are for the safety of workers and everyone '' from clerks at Wawa to other plant employees '' who have been around them during a time of potential exposure to COVID-19.

Our larger concern is directed at Exelon for refusing to postpone the refueling and then failing to provide Montgomery County officials with accurate and timely information and enforce social distancing.

''We're all in this together'' is not merely a slogan; it's the means to survive '' and together means Exelon working with county health department leaders to keep people safe.

To date, that hasn't happened. Our community, indeed, deserves to be treated better.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:14

Spain is to roll out a universal basic income (UBI) ''as soon as possible'' to mitigate the impact of coronavirus .

Minister for economic affairs Nadia Calvino told Spanish broadcaster La Sexta on Sunday night that the move was intended to help families during the pandemic.

But Ms Calvino, who is also deputy prime minister, said the government's ambition was that UBI could become something that ''stays forever, that becomes a structural instrument, a permanent instrument''.

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If the payments are successfully implemented, Spain would become the first country in Europe to introduce them nationwide on a long-term basis.

Spain is the second worst-hit country by the coronavirus pandemic, reporting a total of 135,032 positive cases and 13,055 deaths as of Monday.

The country's economy has nearly ground to a halt during a strict lockdown imposed on 14 March, with schools, shops and restaurants shuttered. People are only allowed out of their homes to get essential supplies, or to go to work if they cannot work from home.

Prime minister Pedro Sanchez said over the weekend the restrictions would remain in place until 26 April at the earliest.

UBI is an unconditional, regular payment made to every citizen. The amount of money paid to each person may differ based on demographic factors, such as age.

With the exception of Iran, which introduced a UBI programme in 2011 in the form of monthly cash transfers into individual family accounts, most other countries have only trialled the payments for relatively small groups of people or for short amounts of time.

The world's most prominent trial of UBI took place in Finland, ending in February 2019 after two years. During that period, unemployed Finns were given a monthly flat payment of '‚¬560 (£490). The researchers who led the experiment found recipients were happier and healthier, but no more likely to find employment.

Calls for UBI to be implemented in the UK to deal with the economic impact of Covid-19 have been rejected by chancellor Rishi Sunak, who said the government was ''not in favour'' of the policy.

Over 170 MPs urged the government to consider giving every British citizen an unconditional sum of money each week in a letter to Mr Sunak last month.

But Mr Sunak insisted the government has ''strengthened the safety net'' for vulnerable people and invested over £7bn ''in improving our welfare system''.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:06

'I'm so scared right now': Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Roberts, 36, tweets from her hospital bed as she is tested for coronavirus after 'having trouble breathing'Virginia Roberts has been admitted to hospital after displaying Covid symptomsShe is currently being tested for the virus, and tweeted: 'I'm so scared right now' The married mother-of-three now resides in Cairns, far north Queensland By Sophie Tanno For Dailymail.com

Published: 04:39 EDT, 7 April 2020 | Updated: 08:15 EDT, 7 April 2020

Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Roberts has revealed she has been admitted to hospital where she is being tested for coronavirus.

Roberts, who also goes by the name Giuffre, tweeted a picture of herself from a hospital bed after experiencing symptoms of the virus.

'I'm so scared right now', the 36-year-old admitted in the post on Tuesday.

Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Roberts has revealed she has been admitted to hospital where she is being tested for coronavirus

Roberts claims she was trafficked to the Duke of York at least three times in 2001, when she was aged 17.

It is not clear which hospital she has been admitted to, but the mother-of-three now resides in Cairns, far north Queensland, Australia.

She continued to describe her symptoms, saying she had been having trouble with breathing, as well as fever and a cough.

'Getting tested for Covid-19 praying it's not positive,' she said.

Ms Roberts claims she had sex with Prince Andrew at the behest of his friend Epstein three times: once at Epstein's New York apartment, once in the Caribbean, and once at the London home of Ghislane Maxwell, the American financier's alleged madam, in March 2001.

A photo that shows Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Maxwell in Ghislaine's apartment has been widely circulated since 2001

Ms Roberts holds up a picture of herself aged 16 when she says she was being abused by billionaire Jeffrey Epstein

Ms Roberts is pictured outside a shopping centre near her home in Cairns, far north Queensland

Speaking about her first alleged encounter with Prince Andrew in London, Ms Roberts said she was taken to Tramp Nightclub where she recalls dancing with the 'sweating' prince when she was 17.

After leaving the nightclub, Ms Roberts said: 'In the car Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey.' A photo that shows Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Maxwell in Ghislaine's apartment taken in 2001 has been widely circulated.

Prince Andrew has strenuously denied Ms Roberts' allegations that she was forced to have sex with him three times in 2001.

The prince says he doesn't even remember meeting her, despite the existence of a photograph showing him with his arm around the teenager's bare waist alongside Epstein's girlfriend and alleged 'madame' Ghislaine Maxwell, a friend of his.

A 'car crash' interview on the BBC's Newsnight programme saw him claim that, on the day Miss Roberts claims he had sex with her he had taken his daughter to Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey, for a party before spending the night at home.

He also dismissed claims he was sweating profusely during their encounter because he had a 'peculiar medical condition' meaning he cannot sweat, caused by his experiences in the Falklands War.

Virginia Roberts pictured on Plan Cover Beach, Cairns, above and below. The 36-year-old now lives in Cairns and is a married mother of three

She is protected in her far north Queensland bolthole by an intercom system and a 4 metre-high wall

Ms Roberts says she was used as a teenage sex slave by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after allegedly being procured by 'madame' Maxwell.

She alleges Maxwell recruited her to train as a masseuse while working as a locker-room attendant at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Maxwell has rejected allegations that she has acted as a procurer for Epstein.

Ms Roberts alleges she was forced by Epstein to take part in orgies with rich and powerful men in exotic locations as a teenager from the age of 16.

The 36-year-old now lives in Cairns and is a married mother of three. She is protected in her far north Queensland bolthole by an intercom system and a 4 metre-high wall.

The compound near lush bushland is covered by security cameras and floodlights and dotted with palms.

Ms Roberts pictured running errands with her husband Robert Giuffre in Cairns on November 19

Australia has suffered its deadliest day yet in the fight against coronavirus. Seven Australians died of Covid-19 on Tuesday, taking the nation's death toll to 48, with a total of 5,906 cases.

The latest casualties included an international traveller in his 70s who caught the deadly respiratory infection on the Arcadia cruise ship, and a woman in the same age bracket who is believed to have contracted the virus overseas.

The state of Queensland, where Roberts lives, has 934 confirmed cases of the virus.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:05

Andy Wong/AP Photo

POLITICO readers will see on our pages today something new and important: the first stories reflecting the publication's commitment to illuminating the U.S. relationship with China.

POLITICO, which began in 2007 as preeminently a Washington publication, in recent years has had a global focus. In Europe, we have the largest news operation covering the increasingly complex and consequential workings of the European Union. Including our growing coverage in the U.S., POLITICO's 250 reporters and editors are now in 15 cities spanning nine time zones. Increasingly, we have heard from our most engaged readers that the place to expand our focus is toward the Pacific, as the U.S. relationship with China '-- intensely competitive in some spheres, intertwined and mutually dependent in others '-- will hover over the political and policy debates of the next generation.

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One part of our expanding coverage involves a content partnership we are unveiling today with the South China Morning Post. SCMP, based in Hong Kong, is the oldest newspaper in Asia and is the only independent English-language publication in the region. SCMP has an editorial staff of 300 in Asia, with about 40 reporters stationed in mainland China. Like POLITICO, the publication has global ambitions. Under the partnership, SCMP editors will have access to POLITICO stories to share with their readers, and POLITICO editors can draw on the SCMP stories we believe our readers will find most relevant. Over time, editors in both newsrooms will look for opportunities to combine resources on original stories produced in combination with POLITICO and SCMP journalists.

Our experience shows often that the most important stories are best illuminated by being reported simultaneously from multiple perspectives. That's what we do every day in the United States and in Europe. In combination with SCMP, we will now be able to do the same on important subjects '-- trade, finance, technology and national security among them '-- at the heart of U.S. interests in China.

And you can expect POLITICO's growth to continue. As our readers' interests reflect a global perspective, so will our publication's journalistic focus and resources.

John F. HarrisEditor in chief

Carrie Budoff BrownEditor

This article tagged under:U.S.-China RelationsMissing out on the latest scoops? Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning '-- in your inbox.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:39

Rice bioengineer reveals dissolving microneedles that also embed fluorescent medical infoKeeping track of a child's shots could be so much easier with technology invented by a new Rice University professor and his colleagues.

Kevin McHugh, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice since this summer, and a team at his previous institution, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, report in a cover story in Science Translational Medicine on their development of quantum-dot tags that fluoresce with information after they're injected as part of a vaccination.

A pattern of 1.5-millimeter microneedles that contain vaccine and fluorescent quantum dots are applied as a patch. The needles dissolve under the skin, leaving the encapsulated quantum dots. Their pattern can be read to identify the vaccine that was administered. The project was co-led by Rice University bioengineer Kevin McHugh during his time at MIT. (Credit: Second Bay Studios)

The tags are incorporated in only some of the array of sugar-based microneedles on a patch. When the needles dissolve in about two minutes, they deliver the vaccine and leave the pattern of tags just under the skin, where they become something like a bar-code tattoo.

Instead of ink, this highly specific medical record consists of copper-based quantum dots embedded in biocompatible, micron-scale capsules. Their near-infrared dye is invisible, but the pattern they set can be read and interpreted by a customized smartphone.

The two-year project is aimed at the 1.5 million preventable deaths that result from a lack of vaccinations, primarily in developing nations.

Kevin McHugh

''The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation came to us and said, 'Hey, we have a real problem '-- knowing who's vaccinated,''' said McHugh, who was recruited to join Rice with funding from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. ''They said, 'We go on vaccination campaigns where people get into Hummers, drive to a rural village, set up a tent and start immunizing people, but they don't always know who's been immunized before and what vaccines are still needed.''

Parents often don't know their children's vaccination histories, McHugh said. ''So our idea was to put the record on the person,'' he said. ''This way, later on, people can scan over the area to see what vaccines have been administered and give only the ones still needed.

''There are two sides to this,'' he said. ''First, is that you don't administer unnecessary vaccines, which has a cost. But even bigger, you don't leave people underimmunized and at risk of getting an infectious disease.''

McHugh said the team worked with a bioethicist to be sure the patients' data remains protected. ''She said we're on solid ethical ground as long as people can opt out, like getting the patch with only the vaccine. Also, the patch with quantum dots only contains information about the vaccine received. It doesn't tell you anything else about the person.''

The square-centimeter patches hold up to 16 tiny needles. ''They don't go very deep, which makes them theoretically painless and a lot easier for kids,'' McHugh said. ''They're like putting on a bandage.''

Because the 1.5-millimeter needles disintegrate in the skin, no biohazardous sharps remain for disposal, he said. Testing in model skin in strong light showed the 4-nanometer dots should be readable for at least five years.

McHugh plans to continue his work on the technology at Rice. ''There are so many aspects to this particular project that we need nanotechnologists, bacteriologists, chemists and computer scientists,'' he said. ''So this is certainly something I'm thinking about for my lab here.''

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 15:25

E ven as hospitals and governors raise the alarm about a shortage of ventilators, some critical care physicians are questioning the widespread use of the breathing machines for Covid-19 patients, saying that large numbers of patients could instead be treated with less intensive respiratory support.

If the iconoclasts are right, putting coronavirus patients on ventilators could be of little benefit to many and even harmful to some.

What's driving this reassessment is a baffling observation about Covid-19: Many patients have blood oxygen levels so low they should be dead. But they're not gasping for air, their hearts aren't racing, and their brains show no signs of blinking off from lack of oxygen.

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That is making critical care physicians suspect that blood levels of oxygen, which for decades have driven decisions about breathing support for patients with pneumonia and acute respiratory distress, might be misleading them about how to care for those with Covid-19. In particular, more and more are concerned about the use of intubation and mechanical ventilators. They argue that more patients could receive simpler, noninvasive respiratory support, such as the breathing masks used in sleep apnea, at least to start with and maybe for the duration of the illness.

''I think we may indeed be able to support a subset of these patients'' with less invasive breathing support, said Sohan Japa, an internal medicine physician at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. ''I think we have to be more nuanced about who we intubate.''

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That would help relieve a shortage of ventilators so critical that states are scrambling to procure them and some hospitals are taking the unprecedented (and largely untested) step of using a single ventilator for more than one patient. And it would mean fewer Covid-19 patients, particularly elderly ones, would be at risk of suffering the long-term cognitive and physical effects of sedation and intubation while being on a ventilator.

None of this means that ventilators are not necessary in the Covid-19 crisis, or that hospitals are wrong to fear running out. But as doctors learn more about treating Covid-19, and question old dogma about blood oxygen and the need for ventilators, they might be able to substitute simpler and more widely available devices.

An oxygen saturation rate below 93% (normal is 95% to 100%) has long been taken as a sign of potential hypoxia and impending organ damage. Before Covid-19, when the oxygen level dropped below this threshold, physicians supported their patients' breathing with noninvasive devices such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP, the sleep apnea device) and bilevel positive airway pressure ventilators (BiPAP). Both work via a tube into a face mask.

In severe pneumonia or acute respiratory distress unrelated to Covid-19, or if the noninvasive devices don't boost oxygen levels enough, critical care doctors turn to mechanical ventilators that push oxygen into the lungs at a preset rate and force: A physician threads a 10-inch plastic tube down a patient's throat and into the lungs, attaches it to the ventilator, and administers heavy and long-lasting sedation so the patient can't fight the sensation of being unable to breathe on his own.

In this video, we look at how ventilators work, and how they are used to treat patients with Covid-19.But because in some patients with Covid-19, blood-oxygen levels fall to hardly-ever-seen levels, into the 70s and even lower, physicians are intubating them sooner. ''Data from China suggested that early intubation would keep Covid-19 patients' heart, liver, and kidneys from failing due to hypoxia,'' said a veteran emergency medicine physician. ''This has been the whole thing driving decisions about breathing support: Knock them out and put them on a ventilator.''

To be sure, many physicians are starting simple. ''Most hospitals, including ours, are using simpler, noninvasive strategies first,'' including the apnea devices and even nasal cannulas, said Greg Martin, a critical care physician at Emory University School of Medicine and president-elect of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. (Nasal cannulas are tubes whose two prongs, held beneath the nostrils by elastic, deliver air to the nose.) ''It doesn't require sedation and the patient [remains conscious and] can participate in his care. But if the oxygen saturation gets too low you can achieve more oxygen delivery with a mechanical ventilator.''

The question is whether ICU physicians are moving patients to mechanical ventilators too quickly. ''Almost the entire decision tree is driven by oxygen saturation levels,'' said the emergency medicine physician, who asked not to be named so as not to appear to be criticizing colleagues.

That's not unreasonable. In patients who are on ventilators due to non-Covid-19 pneumonia or acute respiratory distress, a blood oxygen level in the 80s can mean impending death, with no room to give noninvasive breathing support more time to work. Physicians are using their experience with ventilators in those situations to guide their care for Covid-19 patients. The problem, critical care physician Cameron Kyle-Sidell told Medscape this week, is that because U.S. physicians had never seen Covid-19 before February, they are basing clinical decisions on conditions that may not be good guides.

''It's hard to switch tracks when the train is going a million miles an hour,'' said Kyle-Sidell, who works at a New York City hospital. ''This may be an entirely new disease,'' making ventilator protocols developed for other conditions less than ideal.

As doctors learn more about the disease, however, both frontline experience and a few small studies are leading him and others to question how, and how often, mechanical ventilators are used for Covid-19.

The first batch of evidence relates to how often the machines fail to help. ''Contrary to the impression that if extremely ill patients with Covid-19 are treated with ventilators they will live and if they are not, they will die, the reality is far different,'' said geriatric and palliative care physician Muriel Gillick of Harvard Medical School.

Researchers in Wuhan, for instance, reported that, of 37 critically ill Covid-19 patients who were put on mechanical ventilators, 30 died within a month. In a U.S. study of patients in Seattle, only one of the seven patients older than 70 who were put on a ventilator survived; just 36% of those younger than 70 did. And in a study published by JAMA on Monday, physicians in Italy reported that nearly 90% of 1,300 critically ill patients with Covid-19 were intubated and put on a ventilator; only 11% received noninvasive ventilation. One-quarter died in the ICU; 58% were still in the ICU, and 16% had been discharged.

Older patients who do survive risk permanent cognitive and respiratory damage from being on heavy sedation for many days if not weeks and from the intubation, Gillick said.

To be sure, the mere need for ventilators in Covid-19 patients suggests many in the studies were so critically ill their chances of survival were poor no matter what care they received.

But one of the most severe consequences of Covid-19 suggests another reason the ventilators aren't more beneficial. In acute respiratory distress syndrome, which results from immune cells ravaging the lungs and kills many Covid-19 patients, the air sacs of the lungs become filled with a gummy yellow fluid. ''That limits oxygen transfer from the lungs to the blood even when a machine pumps in oxygen,'' Gillick said.

As patients go downhill, protocols developed for other respiratory conditions call for increasing the force with which a ventilator delivers oxygen, the amount of oxygen, or the rate of delivery, she explained. But if oxygen can't cross into the blood from the lungs in the first place, those measures, especially greater force, may prove harmful. High levels of oxygen impair the lung's air sacs, while high pressure to force in more oxygen damages the lungs.

In a letter last week in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, researchers in Germany and Italy said their Covid-19 patients were unlike any others with acute respiratory distress. Their lungs are relatively elastic (''compliant''), a sign of health ''in sharp contrast to expectations for severe ARDS.'' Their low blood oxygen might result from things that ventilators don't fix. Such patients need ''the lowest possible [air pressure] and gentle ventilation,'' they said, arguing against increasing the pressure even if blood oxygen levels remain low. ''We need to be patient.''

''We need to ask, are we using ventilators in a way that makes sense for other diseases but not for this one?'' Gillick said. ''Instead of asking how do we ration a scarce resource, we should be asking how do we best treat this disease?''

Researchers and clinicians on the front lines are trying. In a small study last week in Annals of Intensive Care, physicians who treated Covid-19 patients at two hospitals in China found that the majority of patients needed no more than a nasal cannula. Among the 41% who needed more intense breathing support, none was put on a ventilator right away. Instead, they were given noninvasive devices such as BiPAP; their blood oxygen levels ''significantly improved'' after an hour or two. (Eventually two of seven needed to be intubated.) The researchers concluded that the more comfortable nasal cannula is just as good as BiPAP and that a middle ground is as safe for Covid-19 patients as quicker use of a ventilator.

''Anecdotal experience from Italy [also suggests] that they were able to support a number of folks using these [non-invasive] methods,'' Japa said.

To be ''more nuanced about who we intubate,'' as she suggests, starts with questioning the significance of oxygen saturation levels. Those levels often ''look beyond awful,'' said Scott Weingart, a critical care physician in New York and host of the ''EMCrit'' podcast. But many can speak in full sentences, don't report shortness of breath, and have no signs of the heart or other organ abnormalities that hypoxia can cause.

''The patients in front of me are unlike any I've ever seen,'' Kyle-Sidell told Medscape about those he cared for in a hard-hit Brooklyn hospital. ''They looked a lot more like they had altitude sickness than pneumonia.''

Because U.S. data on treating Covid-19 patients are nearly nonexistent, health care workers are flying blind when it comes to caring for such confounding patients. But anecdotally, Weingart said, ''we've had a number of people who improved and got off CPAP or high flow [nasal cannulas] who would have been tubed 100 out of 100 times in the past.'' What he calls ''this knee-jerk response'' of putting people on ventilators if their blood oxygen levels remain low with noninvasive devices ''is really bad. '... I think these patients do much, much worse on the ventilator.''

That could be because the ones who get intubated are the sickest, he said, ''but that has not been my experience: It makes things worse as a direct result of the intubation.'' High levels of force and oxygen levels, both in quest of restoring oxygen saturation levels to normal, can injure the lungs. ''I would do everything in my power to avoid intubating patients,'' Weingart said.

One reason Covid-19 patients can have near-hypoxic levels of blood oxygen without the usual gasping and other signs of impairment is that their blood levels of carbon dioxide, which diffuses into air in the lungs and is then exhaled, remain low. That suggests the lungs are still accomplishing the critical job of removing carbon dioxide even if they're struggling to absorb oxygen. That, too, is reminiscent of altitude sickness more than pneumonia.

The noninvasive devices ''can provide some amount of support for breathing and oxygenation, without needing a ventilator,'' said ICU physician and pulmonologist Lakshman Swamy of Boston Medical Center.

One problem, though, is that CPAP and other positive-pressure machines pose a risk to health care workers, he said. The devices push aerosolized virus particles into the air, where anyone entering the patient's room can inhale them. The intubation required for mechanical ventilators can also aerosolize virus particles, but the machine is a contained system after that.

''If we had unlimited supply of protective equipment and if we had a better understanding of what this virus actually does in terms of aerosolizing, and if we had more negative pressure rooms, then we would be able to use more'' of the noninvasive breathing support devices, Swamy said.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 14:58

Last TUESDAY Coronavirus Task Force Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx pushed the talking point that by completely locking down the US economy and American public, the US government and Coronavirus task force ''experts'' were able to cut the total coronavirus deaths in the United States from 1 to 2.2 million deaths down to 100,000 to 200,000 deaths.

That was a stunning update. They revised their numbers down by around 90%!You'd think that would have made a few headlines?

This was based on ''models'' by her chosen scientific ''experts'' '-- Chris Murray and the IHME.

Here is the chart Dr. Birx discussed during the daily coronavirus press conference at the White House.

TRENDING: UPDATE: Dr. Birx Confirms Anyone Who Dies WITH Coronavirus, Regardless of Any Underlying Health Condition, is Being Counted as a COVID-19 Death (VIDEO)

It shows an estimated 2.2 million US deaths.Again '-- this was at the press conference 6 days ago!

There is not a single country in the world today with over 18,000 total coronavirus deaths.

On Sunday night the IMHE cut their numbers in half.

On Sunday the IMHE model used by the CDC and Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci estimated the total US coronavirus deaths to be 81,766 by August 4th.And 81,000 by May 21st.

The actual numbers are already below their current models. '-- by a huge margin!

Dr. Andrew Bostom published the actual numbers to the projected numbers earlier on Tuesday.

The actual number of US deaths due to coronavirus on Monday was: 10,068 deaths.The estimated IHME model number of deaths by Monday was: 12,539 (range of 11,256 '' 14,281)

The IHME numbers are already off by 20%!

On Wednesday '-- 3 days later '-- the updated their predictions AGAIN!The latest IHME predictions call for 60,000 deaths by August.

And the model predicts the peak will now be on EASTER and not on April 19th which was their previous prediction!

This is starting to look like a typical flu more and more by the day!

For the record, The Gateway Pundit predicted this:

After Updating Predictions on Sunday Latest IHME Predictions Already 20% Over Actual Numbers '-- May Be Looking at 46,000 Total US Coronavirus Deaths or Less

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 14:40

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 14:32

| April 06, 2020 07:14 PM

T he State Department declined to join former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's effort to convince an appeals court to let her dodge a judge-ordered sworn deposition about her use of a private email server and the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack.

''The Court agrees with Judicial Watch '-- it is time to hear directly from Secretary Clinton," U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled in March while also ordering former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills to be deposed by the conservative watchdog.

Clinton's legal team responded last month with an 83-page petition for a writ of mandamus, filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, calling the district court ruling outrageous and asking a higher court to order the lower court to correct what Clinton's lawyers saw as a deficient decision.

But the State Department, represented in court by Justice Department lawyers, declined to join Clinton's legal argument on Friday.

''The government did not seek and thus does not support the extraordinary relief of mandamus due to the unique circumstances of this case,'' DOJ appeals lawyer Mark Freeman told the higher court in a seven-page filing. ''This is the rare situation in which discovery of a former Cabinet Secretary was not authorized for the impermissible purpose of probing internal government decision-making regarding official policy, but rather to focus on the impact on FOIA compliance of a former official's unusual decision to use a private email server to systematically conduct large volumes of official business.''

Freeman said ''the government's decision not to seek mandamus here '-- after each of the discovery orders, not only the most recent '-- reflects the government's consideration of the totality of the circumstances in this unique case.''

The legal team for Clinton said in March that reversing the order ''is warranted because Judicial Watch's impending depositions of Secretary Clinton and Ms. Mills are inappropriate, unnecessary, and a clear abuse of discretion.''

Clinton's lead attorney, David Kendall, claimed, ''Judicial Watch could not possibly show the extraordinary circumstances required to depose (or re-depose) former high-ranking officials regarding their reasons for taking official actions, and the court abused its discretion in finding otherwise.''

But Judicial Watch defended its efforts to the appeals court.

''The question '... is whether Clinton purposefully routed the entire body of emails she sent and received during her four-year tenure at State, not just one email'... [and] whether she did so to circumvent all FOIA requests concerning her emails,'' Judicial Watch attorney Ramona Cotca said in a 63-page filing on Friday. ''The reasons the District Court gave for its decision to authorize Clinton's deposition '-- her state of mind when she decided to set up and use a private server, her awareness of her records management obligations, and her awareness of steps taken to prevent records managers and others from learning about her private server, among others '-- are directly related to answering these questions.''

Judicial Watch also said ''questioning Clinton about whether she used a private server to evade FOIA may help answer whether State's failure to disclose the Clinton email issue in 2014 or early 2015 harmed the district court's integrity or abused its process.''

The State Department did seem to push back on that Friday, saying, ''Assertions that the government acted in bad faith in litigating this FOIA request are wholly without basis.''

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said Monday that ''Hillary Clinton's desperate appeal to avoid testimony is even too much for her defenders at the State and Justice Department."

"The appellate court should quickly reject Mrs. Clinton's gambit," Fitton added.

The district court ruling in March was the latest twist in a nearly six-year-long case related to Clinton's reasons for setting up her unauthorized private email server and whether she was attempting to avoid Freedom of Information Act requests.

The FBI investigated Clinton's use of the server, hosted in the basement of her home in Chappaqua, New York, while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Although former FBI Director James Comey found Clinton was ''extremely careless'' in handling classified emails, no criminal charges were recommended against anyone following the bureau's "Midyear Exam" investigation.

''A bank robber who stuffs bills into a duffle bag during a robbery may own the bag, but has no 'claim of right' to the stolen cash. Is Clinton claiming a legal right to the agency records stored on the server?'' Cotca asked Friday, adding, ''While the server may have been Clinton's property, the agency records on the server plainly were not.''

Judge Lamberth said Clinton's written answers to questions in the case and related ones ''were either incomplete, unhelpful, or cursory at best,'' and ''her responses left many more questions than answers.''

A State Department review of email practices of dozens of former agency officials and aides to Clinton found 91 ''valid violations'' attributable to 38 individuals and another 497 violations that couldn't be tied to any specific person. The review found ''some instances'' of classified information being ''inappropriately introduced into an unclassified system.'' But investigators uncovered ''no persuasive evidence of systematic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.''

Nearly a dozen witnesses have been deposed as part of Judicial Watch's FOIA lawsuits stemming back to 2014. One main controversy is why 33,000 of her emails were deleted despite a congressional preservation order. The FBI was only able to recover about 5,000 of the scrubbed emails.

Clinton claimed she "never received nor sent any material that was marked classified," but Comey announced in July 2016 that 110 emails did contain classified information.

Judicial Watch also wants to question Clinton and Mills about the talking points for former United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice's appearances on television shows following the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Members of Ansar al Sharia launched a coordinated assault on Sept. 11, 2012, killing U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, foreign service officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Clinton, Rice, and others incorrectly blamed the attack on a YouTube video.

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Archived Version

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 11:34

China's western Xinjiang region has a long history of discord between China's authorities and the indigenous Uighur ethnic minority.

Who are the Uighurs? Image copyright AFP The Uighurs are Muslims. They regard themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations.

The region's economy has for centuries revolved around agriculture and trade, with towns such as Kashgar thriving as hubs along the famous Silk Road.

In the early part of the 20th Century, the Uighurs briefly declared independence. The region was brought under the complete control of communist China in 1949.

Xinjiang is officially designated an autonomous region within China, like Tibet to its south.

What are their grievances? Image copyright AFP Image caption Beijing accuses exiled Uighurs including Rebiya Kadeer of whipping up trouble Activists say central government policies have gradually curtailed the Uighurs' religious, commercial and cultural activities. Beijing is accused of intensifying a crackdown after street protests in Xinjiang in the 1990s, and again in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Over the past decade, many prominent Uighurs have been imprisoned or have sought asylum abroad after being accused of terrorism. Mass immigration of Han Chinese to Xinjiang had made Uighurs a minority in Xinjiang.

Beijing is accused of exaggerating the threat from Uighur separatists in order to justify repression in the region.

What is the view from Beijing? Image copyright AFP Image caption Beijing has poured investment into Xinjiang, but has also flooded the region with security personnel China's central government says Uighur militants are waging a violent campaign for an independent state by plotting bombings, sabotage and civic unrest.

Since the 9/11 attacks in the US, China has increasingly portrayed its Uighur separatists as auxiliaries of al-Qaeda, saying they have received training in Afghanistan. Little evidence has been produced in support of these claims.

More than 20 Uighurs were captured by the US military after its invasion of Afghanistan. They were imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for years without being charged with any offence and most have now been resettled elsewhere.

When was the last major outbreak of violence? Image copyright AFP Image caption Uighur women protested in a bid to discover the fate of their loved ones Almost 200 people died in ethnic riots in Urumqi, the administrative capital of Xinjiang, in July 2009. One of the sparks for the violence seems to have been the deaths of two Uighurs in clashes with Han Chinese at a factory thousands of miles away in southern China.

The authorities blame Xinjiang separatists based outside China for the unrest, and they singled out exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, saying she incited the violence. She denied any responsibility for the violence.

Uighur exiles say police fired indiscriminately on peaceful protests, leading to violence and deaths.

What is the current situation in Xinjiang? Image copyright AFP Image caption Xinjiang's reputation as an exotic outpost on the famed Silk Road still attracts Han Chinese tourists Xinjiang has received huge state investment in industrial and energy projects, and Beijing has been keen to highlight these as major steps forward. But many Uighurs complain that the Han are taking their jobs, and that their farmland has been confiscated for redevelopment.

The activities of local and foreign journalists are closely monitored by the state and there are few independent sources of news from the region.

However, occasional attacks on Chinese targets suggest Uighur separatism remains a potent and potentially violent force.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 10:56

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 10:05

'' Is it as dire as we see on television?'' asks Dennis Quaid.

The veteran all-American actor, who's starred in everything from The Right Stuff and The Parent Trap to Any Given Sunday, is phoning me from the Hollywood Hills, where he's holed up with his fianc(C)e Laura Savoie. He's curious about the situation in New York City, where I am, which has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with at least 74,601 cases and 3,544 deaths as of Tuesday morning.

Back in 2007, following the near-death of his 10-day-old twins, who were accidentally administered 1,000 times the regular dosage of the blood-thinner heparin at a hospital, the actor became an outspoken patient-safety advocate, testifying on Capitol Hill and producing a number of documentaries about the health-care system, so he finds the current crisis very troubling, though maintains that Donald Trump's been doing a ''good job'' handling it'--a point that we very much disagree on.

The reason for our chat is that Quaid is launching a new podcast. Dubbed The Dennissance, it will feature the actor chopping it up with his noteworthy pals'--upcoming guests include Billy Ray Cyrus, Billy Bush, Lance Armstrong, and Logan Paul'--and, hopefully, showing listeners a side of them that they don't normally see. The pod is part of Audio Up, a new podcast platform founded by Jared Gutstadt (Quaid is an investor), and launches on April 8.

During the course of our conversation we touched on a number of subjects, including his thoughts on how the Trump administration is handling the novel coronavirus outbreak, his hell-raising days, the age gap in his relationship (he is 65 and his fianc(C)e is 26), and much more.

These are pretty surreal times. How are you weathering things?

We're doing our best to make lemonade out of lemons here, making sure that everybody has very limited contact with the outside world, and stay home for five days in a row. When it first started, I got a nasty cut I got while cleaning out the garage, and had to go to the emergency room twice in two days. My doctor thought I had a kidney stone because I was in such agony. I got a view of what is going on down there, and those people that are working on the front lines in the ERs and hospitals, they're just incredible.

You've raised quite a bit of money for hospitals and are a big patient-safety advocate, so I'm curious how you feel the president and federal government are handling the current pandemic? It does look like hospitals are criminally undersupplied right now.

Well, to tell you the truth, I think the president is handling it in a good way. We see him on television every day, he's involved, and the travel ban early on was a great idea'--which he did in spite of protest about that. But I don't want to get into the protest. I'm an independent'--I've voted both ways throughout my life, swinging like a pendulum toward what the country needed at the time'--and I think this might be an opportunity for the country to come together again. World War II did that for that generation, and this might be our defining moment of a generation. It's going to be a different world, for sure, when all this is over, and hopefully we can all be a bit more unified.

But partisanship aside, when we talk about the lack of medical supplies and hospitals not having the gear and ventilators they need, in February, the Trump administration shipped 17.8 tons of medical supplies to China'--knowing full well that this pandemic was about to hit our shores. They'd been briefed on it. So that's a big reason why we're so depleted right now.

We were trying to defeat the virus at its source at that time, and as I heard yesterday, Arnold Schwarzenegger and a few other people are taking planes over there and shipping a lot of it back. The states are also responsible for having stockpiles of their own, according to their own needs. You know, New York, I really feel for those people and I think they're doing their best to get them everything they need. We'll figure that all out when it's over, as far as whether anybody died because they couldn't get a ventilator in a hospital. I haven't heard reports about that, have you?

'' I think Trump, no matter what anybody thinks of him, is doing a good job at trying to get these states'--and all of the American people'--what they need, and also trying to hold our economy together and be prepared for when this is all over. ''

Yeah. There have been reports about people dying because there aren't enough ventilators in New York, and they've been practicing ''ventilator-sharing,'' where they're putting two people on a single ventilator because they're short on them. And certain states, like Florida, are getting what they ask for as far as supplies go, while New York, which is the epicenter, isn't receiving anywhere near what they've asked for, which is puzzling on a number of levels.

Well, New York had a chance to buy thousands of ventilators at a very good price like two years ago, but I don't want to get into the finger-pointing, because Cuomo is doing a great job out there working for the people of his state. And I think Trump, no matter what anybody thinks of him, is doing a good job at trying to get these states'--and all of the American people'--what they need, and also trying to hold our economy together and be prepared for when this is all over. I don't want to get into petty arguments about it. There's a lot of talk about how South Korea handled the crisis, and the thing about South Korea is they're still in a state of war with North Korea and are always on the alert for all kinds of threats'--nuclear threats, biological threats'--so I would imagine that had something to do with how quickly they were able to respond to it.

That may be a part of it, but the government also took swift action. We, on the other hand'--

'--Oh, I think that we did too though. As soon as we found out what the threat was'... China wasn't really revealing to the rest of the world what was going on. Five million people I heard had fled the Wuhan province before they had quarantined it, and were all over the world and allowed to come to this country. There was no warning whatsoever. The virus probably started back in November, and we didn't learn about it until January.

Right. China has definitely not been above board here. But Congress was briefed that this pandemic was coming to our shores on Jan. 24, so the Trump administration knew before then, and the Army warned the Trump administration in early February that the virus could kill upward of 150,000 people, yet we didn't really get any stay-at-home orders or cautioning until mid-March, which is a long time to not really act on it.

But Trump did do the travel ban to China, and then to Europe very quickly afterward, and he was castigated by a lot of members of Congress, who were just getting out of the impeachment, that it was racist what he was doing. It's a good thing we had that travel ban at the time. You know, the world has never experienced this, and I don't think it's a time to be political. I think it's just time to get behind our government and have everybody do what they can. If you want to point blame after, that's another story, but right now I think we all just really need to come together on this. To get back to your original question, I do appreciate that Trump is giving the briefings and on television every day giving out the information, and I think they have great people handling it. Just one more thing out side of that: Despite presidents, Congress, and political parties, this is the United States of America, and we're a very adaptable people in situations like this, and I think we're all going to get through it. My heart goes out to everyone.

So what inspired you to launch a podcast'--The Dennissance'--now, and how did you arrive at that name?

[Laughs] Well, somebody else picked the name ''Dennissance,'' because I guess my career and my life has been going through a renaissance lately. Besides movies, I've been an executive producer on a number of things, have my music career going on. I've had a very lucky life. Because of acting, I've played a lot of real people. On The Right Stuff, I got my pilot's license on the film and fly planes now. Went around with the cops while I was doing The Big Easy. I've learned a little bit about everything and met some incredible people on the way, so that's what the show is about: people that I've known in my life, some of them famous and maybe some of them not'--actors, newsmakers, politicians, doctors'--and what makes them tick. I like to have people on that don't necessarily have something to sell, and everything is open for discussion. What are their other interests? What is their spiritual journey? What is something about them that we don't know?

I've led such a lucky life, really. I spent a weekend with Bill Clinton at the White House in 1999. It was a slow news weekend, Hillary was out of town, and I just got to roam the halls, play golf with the president. You just need to pinch yourself with some of this stuff. On The Right Stuff, Chuck Yeager was on set one day and I went flying with him, and really got to know him. I'm trying to stick to people I've known in my life so the relationship is already there when I go to do the podcast.

Speaking of experiences in film, who's the wildest co-star you've ever had?

[Laughs] It depends on what you mean by wild!

A hell-raiser?

A hell-raiser? I guess that would have to be me! I used to be kind of a hell-raiser in my day. We were all kind of hell-raisers back in the '80s, you know? It was kind of a contest.

We spoke years ago about how wild the film sets were in the '80s. And you said that sets were very different. There were plenty of drugs around.

Oh yeah. Back in the '70s and the '80s. And cocaine back then, you know, there was a whole edition of People magazine about how cocaine was not addictive and really kind of harmless. After John Belushi, everyone found out it was a very different case. But cocaine was really in the movie budget back then. It was recreational. We all paid the price eventually for all that. But it was a lot more freewheeling. Once it became more corporate, and I think that would be with Star Wars, which was the first movie where corporations realized how much money they could make making movies, then the corporate thinking took over film.

Which movie you were on had the biggest cocaine budget?

[Laughs] Um'... I think just about every one of them back in the early '80s. You always used to know who was the guy to go see.

Did you have a come-to-Jesus moment when it came to that?

Yeah, I did. I had a band at the time that was called The Eclectics, and I used to do cocaine and promise myself I wouldn't stay up late because I had work the next day, and invariably it would be 4 in the morning and I'd be awake in bed and I had to be up at 6 to go to work. I'd wind up screaming at God every night to please take this away from me. Then I'd get up the next day, the afternoon would come around, and the whole cycle would start again.

The night that we got our record deal with The Eclectics, we broke up in the dressing room right after the show, and we broke up because I was getting kind of messed up. I went home and had one of those white-light experiences. I was 36, and I saw myself in five years either being dead, in jail, or losing everything I had worked for all my life. I don't know why it was that particular night'--there had been so many nights like that'--but the next day I got up and been humbled by it finally, and checked myself into rehab. That was the year 1990. June 24th. It took me four years after that to get over the obsession of the mind of that drug. I do have a drink every now and again but cocaine, that obsession, has left my life.

I'm 35 and grew up watching not just your films but your brother Randy's. Do you guys still talk, and how is he doing? Because from an outsider's perspective, I find some of the social-media stuff to be pretty puzzling.

Yeah. I did too. To tell you the truth, Randy doesn't really want me to talk about his life or speak for him. I miss my brother. I have to love him from afar, but that's the relationship that I have with him. I find a lot of the social-media stuff very puzzling myself. I've even had to remove myself from that and just love him from afar. I'm still praying for him. He's one of my favorite actors ever, and I think he could still have a comeback. I really do. A great third act.

I read that your wedding's postponed because of coronavirus?

We were supposed to be married tomorrow [April 4] in Hawaii. We've postponed it. We haven't decided till when, because nobody knows when we'll be getting back to the new normal, so'... we try to make lemonade around here. I know something good is going to come of it.

The tabloids have been tracking you two a lot and there's been criticism of the age gap in the relationship.

I don't really feel it myself. As far as the photographers go, they're there in their usual places. There hasn't been too much heat about that. As far as the age difference, I didn't set out to have a relationship with a much younger person. But we met, we clicked, and we don't notice it. Her family is great about it and mine is too, so it's fine with us.

You were set to star in a Ronald Reagan biopic, as Reagan. Is that still happening?

Yeah, that's still happening. Hopefully we get to do it this year. We were going to be set to go in May, to shoot in Oklahoma. So we're on standby. I'm still doing a lot of research for it. I'm in the middle of reading Bob Spitz's book Reagan: An American Journey, which is really good. He was my favorite president growing up. I voted for him in 1980, and I had a roommate and when I came home and told him I voted for Reagan he said, ''You are kicked out of the hippies.'' [Laughs] I think he was, in my mind, definitely my favorite president in my lifetime. He was on a par with FDR and Lincoln too, I think. He really transformed our country.

Speaking of viruses though, I don't think he handled the AIDS pandemic well at all.

You're right about that. I think when it first came out, the whole country in general really considered that to be a ''gay disease'' and handled it badly from the start. You know in some way, I think we all get the president we deserve at the time. The presidency reflects society.

So what did we do to deserve Trump?

[Laughs] Well, I don't think we can answer that until after the fact'--until we have a little hindsight!

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Archived Version

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 09:43

T he rapid and frightening spread of the coronavirus has sparked a battle that's drawing on a host of emerging technologies. Government, industry and academic researchers are scrambling to improve our ability to diagnose, treat and contain a virus that's threatening to reach pandemic status.

This isn't the first time researchers have faced off against a dangerous member of this family of viruses. But it is the first time they've done it with a toolbox that includes the gene-editing tool CRISPR and the emerging field of synthetic biology.

Indeed, we've known about coronaviruses for nearly 60 years. But for several decades, they attracted little attention, causing symptoms similar to the common cold.

That changed in 2003, when a deadly member of the coronavirus family, SARS-COV, spread to 29 countries, killing 774 people. Suddenly, a coronavirus found previously in animals had managed to jump to humans, where it killed nearly 10 percent of those infected. The virus sparked fear across the globe, but was brought under control within a year. Only a small number of cases have been reported since 2004.

Then in 2012 came MERS-COV. The virus emerged in Saudi Arabia, jumping from camels to humans. The virus has never caused a sustained outbreak, but with a mortality rate of 35 percent, it has killed 858 people so far. Infections have been reported in 27 countries, with most in the Middle East. The virus is considered by the World Health Organization to be a potential epidemic threat.

Interestingly, neither of these previous coronavirus threats were stopped by a cure or a vaccine. MERS still lurks in the background, while SARS was contained by what amounts to old-school practices, according to a 2007 article in Harvard Magazine:

Ironically, in this age of high-tech medicine, the virus was eventually brought under control by public-health measures typically associated with the nineteenth century'--isolation of SARS patients themselves and quarantine of all their known and suspected contacts'--rather than a vaccine.

>>

Is a cure on the way?There currently is no cure for this new wave of coronavirus infections (the resulting disease is called Covid-19), even though some antiviral therapies are being tested '-- and one experimental vaccine is ready for testing in humans. The virus genome has been sequenced and its genetic code may shed light on how the disease starts and spreads, as well as inform on potential pharmaceutical targets for drug development. The Covid-19 virus similarity to the SARS-COV may mean that cures developed for one strain may prove effective for the other. The Canadian company AbCellera plans to test its antibody technology, already tried against MERS-COV, to neutralize the Covid-19 viral bodies.

What is really encouraging is the level of international collaboration aimed to fight this health emergency. Funding bodies, scientific societies and scientific journals have signed a joint statement, agreeing to openly share research findings with the global research community as soon as they are available. The very quick information dissemination gave scientists around the globe several RNA sequences of the virus genome. And these sequences can be used to better understand the epidemiology and origins of the virus. Moreover, the advancements in DNA technology let research groups in academia and industry synthesize the viral genetic material to use in the two areas of focus: detection of virus and vaccine development.

>>

Early DetectionOne of the trickiest things about the coronavirus is its speculated transmission by asymptomatic patients. This increases the number of infections and makes containment measures less effective, spreading fears that the virus may establish a permanent presence in some areas. There are also fears that many incidents lie undetected, spreading the virus under the radar. As of March 9, the virus has infected more than 110,000 people, killing nearly 4,000, in 97 countries.

Several biotech companies have scrambled to provide kits and resources for early and reliable detection of the new coronavirus. Mammoth Bioscience, a San Francisco-based startup, is already working on a detection assay using their CRISPR technology. The DNA technology companies IDT and Genscript already distribute PCR-based kits for detection for research purposes. The Chinese companies BGI and Liferiver Biotech use the same PCR technology for the kits they provide to their countries health authorities.

The French-British biotech Novacyt announced the launch of a diagnostic kit for clinical use in middle February. The kit will also use quantitative-PCR, developed by their sister company Primerdesign. Its high specificity will reduce the analysis time to less than two hours. The company's CEO Graham Mullis told Reuters that each kit will cost around $6.50, and that they have already received more than 33,000 orders.

There are 3 variations of our new nCoV-2019 kit, both our standard and advanced are open platform and can be used with any qPCR instrument and our easy kit is compatible with our q16 instrument.#COVID-19 #coronavirus #WHO @PrimerdesignLtd pic.twitter.com/rQI0DGDcVh

'-- Primerdesign (@PrimerdesignLtd) February 12, 2020

Vaccination to halt the disease from spreadingThe only way to effectively control and even eliminate the outbreak is to develop a vaccine. Unfortunately, the new outbreak hasn't attracted the attention of the lead vaccine manufacturers. Non-profit organizations, such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), have jumped in to fill the gap. But despite the emergency, a vaccine may be several years away from being available

The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, announced that they're working on a coronavirus vaccine which they hope to have ready within the next few months. The ''molecular clamp'' approach the Australian researchers have developed is designed to boost the immune system response and work against several viral infections. GlaxoSmithKline has offered its adjuvant technology '' adjuvants are added to vaccines to boost their efficiency '' to speed up the process.

The Cambridge, MA-based Moderna uses a different approach to make vaccines. Their mRNA technology is modular and very adaptable to use for a new disease or when the epitope (the vaccine's target) mutates. The company says its vaccine is ready for human trials.

Situation is concerning, but humanity is not at riskThe Covid-19 outbreak has rightly gained the attention of health authorities and the media. If the virus were to reach countries with weaker healthcare systems than China's, the number of deaths will rise significantly and containment will be even harder. Moreover, the long incubation time of the disease, combined with the asymptomatic spread, make quarantine and isolation measures less effective. The biggest risk is for the new coronavirus to become endemic in certain areas, where the disease is never truly extinct and displays seasonal outbreaks. We don't want the Covid-19 to become a new flu.

The health authorities of 2020, the biotech industry, and the society in general are better prepared for a coronavirus outbreak than a few years ago. The situation is less risky than MERS and SARS, though the new virus is harder to contain. This outbreak offers a chance for everyone to become more aware of viral infections, the appropriate precautions and get vaccinated according to the official recommendations. And keep in mind that the best way to stay informed is through official sources, such as the WHO and the CDC.

As for the biotech industry, are they playing their part? The answer is a partial yes; there are several companies that immediately scrambled to help the situation. But the big players within the field could be doing more.

Kostas Vavitsas, PhD, is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Athens, Greece. He is also a steering committee member of EUSynBioS. Follow him on Twitter @konvavitsas

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 09:00

An international team led by University of British Columbia researcher Dr. Josef Penninger has found a trial drug that effectively blocks the cellular door SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect its hosts.

The findings, published today in Cell, hold promise as a treatment capable of stopping early infection of the novel coronavirus that, as of April 2, has affected more than 981,000 people and claimed the lives of 50,000 people worldwide.

The study provides new insights into key aspects of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and its interactions on a cellular level, as well as how the virus can infect blood vessels and kidneys.

"We are hopeful our results have implications for the development of a novel drug for the treatment of this unprecedented pandemic," says Penninger, professor in UBC's faculty of medicine, director of the Life Sciences Institute and the Canada 150 Research Chair in Functional Genetics at UBC.

"This work stems from an amazing collaboration among academic researchers and companies, including Dr. Ryan Conder's gastrointestinal group at STEMCELL Technologies in Vancouver, Nuria Montserrat in Spain, Drs. Haibo Zhang and Art Slutsky from Toronto and especially Ali Mirazimi's infectious biology team in Sweden, who have been working tirelessly day and night for weeks to better understand the pathology of this disease and to provide breakthrough therapeutic options."

ACE2 -- a protein on the surface of the cell membrane -- is now at centre-stage in this outbreak as the key receptor for the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2. In earlier work, Penninger and colleagues at the University of Toronto and the Institute of Molecular Biology in Vienna first identified ACE2, and found that in living organisms, ACE2 is the key receptor for SARS, the viral respiratory illness recognized as a global threat in 2003. His laboratory also went on to link the protein to both cardiovascular disease and lung failure.

While the COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread around the globe, the absence of a clinically proven antiviral therapy or a treatment specifically targeting the critical SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 on a molecular level has meant an empty arsenal for health care providers struggling to treat severe cases of COVID-19.

"Our new study provides very much needed direct evidence that a drug -- called APN01 (human recombinant soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 -- hrsACE2) -- soon to be tested in clinical trials by the European biotech company Apeiron Biologics, is useful as an antiviral therapy for COVID-19," says Dr. Art Slutsky, a scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science of St. Michael's Hospital and professor at the University of Toronto who is a collaborator on the study.

In cell cultures analyzed in the current study, hrsACE2 inhibited the coronavirus load by a factor of 1,000-5,000. In engineered replicas of human blood vessel and kidneys -- organoids grown from human stem cells -- the researchers demonstrated that the virus can directly infect and duplicate itself in these tissues. This provides important information on the development of the disease and the fact that severe cases of COVID-19 present with multi-organ failure and evidence of cardiovascular damage. Clinical grade hrsACE2 also reduced the SARS-CoV-2 infection in these engineered human tissues.

"Using organoids allows us to test in a very agile way treatments that are already being used for other diseases, or that are close to being validated. In these moments in which time is short, human organoids save the time that we would spend to test a new drug in the human setting," says Nºria Montserrat, ICREA professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Spain.

"The virus causing COVID-19 is a close sibling to the first SARS virus," adds Penninger. "Our previous work has helped to rapidly identify ACE2 as the entry gate for SARS-CoV-2, which explains a lot about the disease. Now we know that a soluble form of ACE2 that catches the virus away, could be indeed a very rational therapy that specifically targets the gate the virus must take to infect us. There is hope for this horrible pandemic."

This research was supported in part by the Canadian federal government through emergency funding focused on accelerating the development, testing, and implementation of measures to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 08:56

WhatsApp is once again placing limits on message forwarding in an attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus-related misinformation.

The company announced in a blog post on Tuesday that users would only be able to forward a message one time after initially limiting the number to five last year.

The Facebook-owned messaging app noted that it has seen a significant increase in usage as millions around the globe rely on technology to communicate during the coronavirus outbreak.

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

The Daily Dot is committed to filtering the noise every day as COVID-19 seizes the internet's attention worldwide. We bring you stories on everything related to the viral pandemic, from the state response to social media fallout, and all the technical flubs, emerging social trends, and disinformation in between. READ MORE ->''We know many users forward helpful information, as well as funny videos, memes, and reflections or prayers they find meaningful,'' the blog post said. ''In recent weeks, people have also used WhatsApp to organize public moments of support for frontline health workers.''

WhatsApp went on to add that despite the many legitimate uses for messaging forwarding, the feature has also allowed misinformation related to the disease to spread unabated.

''However, we've seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation,'' the blog said. ''We believe it's important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation.''

The decision was made not long after numerous cell towers in the U.K. were set on fire after a viral conspiracy theory linked 5G communications technology to COVID-19.

While only time will tell what effect WhatsApp's new policy will have, the company says its previous limiting ''led to a 25% decrease in message forwards globally at the time.''

WhatsApp also states that it is ''working directly with NGOs and governments'' in an effort to provide accurate information to its users.

The new policy appears to be aimed specifically at preventing mass forwarding of messages.

''Last year we introduced users to the concept of messages that have been forwarded many times. These messages are labeled with double arrows to indicate they did not originate from a close contact. In effect, these messages are less personal compared to typical messages sent on WhatsApp. We are now introducing a limit so that these messages can only be forwarded to one chat at a time,'' the company wrote in its announcement.

The messaging app is not the first to take action against the spread of misinformation. Numerous social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have taken similar action to stop the spread of conspiracies.

READ MORE:

Senator calls for federal investigation into Zoom's 'deceptive' practicesCoronavirus is causing anti-vaxxers to question their beliefsOne of the biggest conspiracies about the coronavirus is going mainstreamH/T CNBC

*First Published: Apr 7, 2020, 12:58 pm

Mikael Thalen Mikael Thalen is a tech and security reporter based in Seattle, covering social media, data breaches, hackers, and more.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 07:23

Mephistopheles (, German pronunciation: [mefɪËstoːfɛlɛs] ; also Mephistophilus, Mephostopheles, Mephistophilis, Mephisto, Mephastophilis, and other variants) is a demon featured in German folklore. He originally appeared in literature as the demon in the Faust legend, and he has since appeared in other works as a stock character (see: Mephistopheles in the arts and popular culture).

Etymology Edit Traditional scholars of Germanic mythology commonly use the spelling "Mephistopholes," based on a transliteral understanding of the 15th century spelling of the character [1]. The word may derive from the Hebrew מֵפִ××¥ (mªp̮ṣ) which means "scatterer, disperser", and tophel, short for ×Öפֶ×' ×(C)ֶׁÖקֶר (tōpÌel Åeqer) which means "plasterer of lies".[2] The name can also be a combination of three Greek words: μή (mḗ) as a negation, φá¶Ï‚ (phō̃s) meaning "light", and φιÎ>>ις "philis" meaning "loving", making it mean "not-light-loving", possibly parodying the Latin "Lucifer" or "light-bearer".[3][4]

Inside the Faust legend Edit Further information:

Faust MEPHISTO_PHILES in the 1527

Praxis Magia Faustiana, attributed to Faust.

The name Mephistopheles is associated with the Faust legend of an ambitious scholar, based on the historical Johann Georg Faust. In the legend, Faust makes a deal with the Devil at the price of his soul, Mephistopheles acting as the Devil's agent.

The name appears in the late-16th-century Faust chapbooks. In the 1725 version, which Goethe read, Mephostophiles is a devil in the form of a greyfriar summoned by Faust in a wood outside Wittenberg.

From the chapbooks, the name entered Faustian literature. Many authors have used it, from Christopher Marlowe to Goethe. In the 1616 edition of Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Mephostophiles became Mephistophilis.

Mephistopheles in later treatments of the Faust material frequently figures as a title character: in Meyer Lutz' Mephistopheles, or Faust and Marguerite (1855), Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele (1868), Klaus Mann's Mephisto, and Franz Liszt's Mephisto Waltzes. There are also many parallels with the character of Mephistopheles and the character Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. [5]

Interpretations Edit Although Mephistopheles appears to Faustus as a demon '' a worker for Lucifer '' critics claim that he does not search for men to corrupt, but comes to serve and ultimately collect the souls of those who are already damned. Farnham explains, "Nor does Mephistophiles first appear to Faustus as a devil who walks up and down on earth to tempt and corrupt any man encountered. He appears because he senses in Faustus' magical summons that Faustus is already corrupt, that indeed he is already 'in danger to be damned'."[6]

Mephistopheles is already trapped in his own Hell by serving the Devil. He warns Faustus of the choice he is making by "selling his soul" to the devil: "Mephistophilis, an agent of Lucifer, appears and at first advises Faust not to forgo the promise of heaven to pursue his goals".[7] Farnham adds to his theory, "...[Faustus] enters an ever-present private hell like that of Mephistophiles".[8]

Outside the Faust legend Edit Shakespeare mentions "Mephistophilus" in the Merry Wives of Windsor (Act I, Scene I, line 128), and by the 17th century the name became independent of the Faust legend. According to Burton Russell,[9] "That the name is a purely modern invention of uncertain origins makes it an elegant symbol of the modern Devil with his many novel and diverse forms".

Mephistopheles is also featured as the lead antagonist in Goethe's Faust, and in the unpublished scenarios for die Walpurgis-Nacht (German for "the Walpurgis-Night"), he and Satan appear as two separate characters.

See also Edit BeelzebubDevil in ChristianityPrince of DarknessSatanBlue ExorcistFate/Grand OrderReferences Edit Bibliography Edit Russell, Jeffrey Burton (1986). Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World (1990 reprint ed.). Ithaca, New York: Cornell. ISBN 978-0-8014-9718-6. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von (2001). Hamlin, Cyrus (ed.). Faust: A Tragedy ; Interpretive Notes, Contexts, Modern Criticism (Norton Critical ed.). New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-97282-5. Ruickbie, Leo (2009). Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician. Stroud, UK: History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-5090-9. Notes Edit ^ https://signumuniversity.org/catalog/germanic-myths-and-legends/ ^ Online Etymology Dictionary. "Mephistopheles". Dictionary.com . Retrieved December 11, 2015 . ^ von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang (March 14, 2016). "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" (PDF) . In Black, Joseph; Conolly, Leonard; Flint, Kate (eds.). The Broadview Anthology of British Literature Volume 2: The Renaissance and Early Seventeenth Century, Second Edition (3rd ed.). Peterborough, Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press. p. 423. ISBN 978-1-55481-028-4. ^ Lewis, James R. (2001). Satanism Today (PDF) . Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 173. ISBN 978-1576072929. ^ https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/special/interdisciplinaryandcreativecollaboration/faustbooks/doriangray/ ^ Farnham, Willard (1969). Twentieth Century Interpretations of Doctor Faustus. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ^ Krstovic, J. O. and Lazzardi, Marie. "Plot and Major Themes". Rpt. in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic and Marie Lazzardi. Vol. 47. Farming Mills, MI: The Gale Group, 1999: 202 ^ Krstovic & Lazzardi 1999, p. 8 ^ Burton Russell 1992, p. 61 External links Edit Quotations related to Mephistopheles at Wikiquote The dictionary definition of Mephistophelean at Wiktionary

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 07:17

Models released last week showed the virus could kill 100,000-240,000 Americans.

April 7, 2020, 3:38 AM

6 min read

One of the nation's top public health officials suggested Monday that because Americans are taking social distancing recommendations ''to heart,'' the death toll from the novel coronavirus will be ''much, much, much lower'' than models have projected.

''If we just social distance, we will see this virus and this outbreak basically decline, decline, decline. And I think that's what you're seeing,'' said Robert Redfield, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control.

''I think you're going to see the numbers are, in fact, going to be much less than what would have been predicted by the models,'' he said.

Redfield's remarks on Monday to AM 1030 KVOI Radio in Tucson, Arizona, struck a rosier tone than some other recent predictions. On Monday morning, for example, the U.S. Surgeon General equated the coming week's fallout to the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

But officials on the White House task force have said they believe that even with a tough week ahead, the numbers in some places suggest that social distancing is working and could provide a reprieve eventually.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield sits after a meeting with nursing industry representatives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House about the COVID-19 pandemic, March 18, 2020, in Washington.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield sits after a meeting with nursing industry representatives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House about the COVID-19 pandemic, March 18, 2020, in Washington. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images, FILENational Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease Director Anthony Fauci said he was very interested in data in New York that the number of admissions to intensive care and intubations in the last three days had started to level off.

''We just got to realize that this is an indication despite all the suffering and the death that has occurred that what we have been doing has been working,'' he told reporters.

At the same time, Dr. John Brownstein, a Harvard epidemiologist and ABC News contributor, said that Redfield's comments could mislead Americans into feeling a sense that the disease's spread is under control.

''Projections and models across the board are accounting for a reduction in mobility because of social distancing, so it's way too soon to declare any kind of victory,'' he said. ''This is not a moment for people to relax because they feel the models are wrong.''

White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx listens to President Donald Trump speak to reporters at the White House on April 6, 2020, in Washington.

White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx listens to President Donald Trump speak to reporters at the White House on April 6, 2020, in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRedfield, for his part, downplayed the dire projections.

''Models are only as good as their assumptions, obviously there are a lot of unknowns about the virus'' he said. ''A model should never be used to assume that we have a number.''

Models released last week by the White House Coronavirus Task Force suggested that the virus is expected to kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans.

Redfield also said the CDC kept some early models to themselves, without divulging the timing or nature of those models.

''CDC had models early on -- we didn't really publicize the models,'' he said. ''We used them internally to understand mitigation strategies.''

Once a fixture of the administration's public response to the disease's spread, Redfield has taken a backseat in recent weeks. Others like Fauci and White House Task Force Chair Dr. Deborah Birx have taken on more outspoken roles.

What to know about the coronavirus: How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptomsTracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus mapTune 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.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 07:13

A new study into the finances of colleges and universities revealed that American institutions accepted approximately $10 billion from foreign governments between 2013 and 2018. During that time, China, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar traded funds in exchange for influence over campus discourse on foreign affairs.

According to a study by The Clarion Project, American colleges and universities have accepted billions of dollars in donations from foreign governments with almost $1 billion left unaccounted for. The report revealed that the United States Department is investigating relationships between American universities and foreign countries. Qatar, China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia are amongst the countries that have been tied to suspicious donations to American institutions. The report claims that American universities and colleges around the country failed to report almost $1 billion in funding from foreign governments.

In a press release that was published in February, the Department of Education Some of the foreign nations have been accused of infiltrating campus to steal proprietary research. Others, like China, have been accused of spreading propaganda on American campuses that portray their government in a positive light.

''These colleges and universities actively solicit foreign governments, corporations, and nationals for funds although some donors are known to be hostile to the United States and may be seeking to project 'soft power,' steal sensitive and proprietary research and development data and other intellectual property, and spread propaganda benefitting foreign governments,'' the Department of Education wrote.

The Department of Education claims that American colleges and universities regularly solicit funds from foreign governments. The institutions, which are required under the law to report these donations to the federal government, have reportedly failed to do so on numerous occasions.

In exchange for these funds, universities have agreed to open foreign campuses in the donor's country. Moreover, institutions that have partnered with the Confucius Institute have agreed to incorporate favorable coverage of China in their academic curriculum.

Our preliminary review suggests some American IHEs [Institutes of Higher Education] relentlessly pursue funds from autocracies such as China and Qatar, even opening foreign campuses in exchange for donations, without evidence systems in place to mitigate the identified risks, including the heightened insider threat risk, associated with such activities'....

The evidence we have reviewed to date tracks Congressional findings that American colleges and universities have provided unprecedented levels of access to foreign governments, corporations and persons without adequate oversight'...

The study noted that foreign governments primarily target America's largest and most prestigious institutions. Breitbart News reported in January that Professor Charles Lieber, the former chairman of Harvard University's chemistry department, was arrested after he failed to disclose his financial relationship with the Chinese government.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 07:10

It isn't really about hoarding. And there isn't an easy fix.

Stores have placed limits on purchases of toilet paper, yet they're still selling out, suggesting that hoarding isn't entirely to blame. Photo: Icon Sportswire/Getty Images A round the world, in countries afflicted with the coronavirus, stores are sold out of toilet paper. There have been shortages in Hong Kong, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. And we all know who to blame: hoarders and panic-buyers.

Well, not so fast.

Story after story explains the toilet paper outages as a sort of fluke of consumer irrationality. Unlike hand sanitizer, N95 masks, or hospital ventilators, they note, toilet paper serves no special function in a pandemic. Toilet paper manufacturers are cranking out the same supply as always. And it's not like people are using the bathroom more often, right?

U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar summed up the paradox in a March 13 New York Times story: ''Toilet paper is not an effective way to prevent getting the coronavirus, but they're selling out.'' The president of a paper manufacturer offered the consensus explanation: ''You are not using more of it. You are just filling up your closet with it.''

Faced with this mystifying phenomenon, media outlets have turned to psychologists to explain why people are cramming their shelves with a household good that has nothing to do with the pandemic. Read the coverage and you'll encounter all sorts of fascinating concepts, from ''zero risk bias'' to ''anticipatory anxiety.'' It's ''driven by fear'' and a ''herd mentality,'' the BBC scolded. The libertarian Mises Institute took the opportunity to blame anti-gouging laws. The Atlantic published a short documentary harking back to the great toilet paper scare of 1973, which was driven by misinformation.

Most outlets agreed that the spike in demand would be short-lived, subsiding as soon as the hoarders were satiated.

No doubt there's been some panic-buying, particularly once photos of empty store shelves began circulating on social media. There have also been a handful of documented cases of true hoarding. But you don't need to assume that most consumers are greedy or irrational to understand how coronavirus would spur a surge in demand. And you can stop wondering where in the world people are storing all that Quilted Northern.

There's another, entirely logical explanation for why stores have run out of toilet paper '-- one that has gone oddly overlooked in the vast majority of media coverage. It has nothing to do with psychology and everything to do with supply chains. It helps to explain why stores are still having trouble keeping it in stock, weeks after they started limiting how many a customer could purchase.

In short, the toilet paper industry is split into two, largely separate markets: commercial and consumer. The pandemic has shifted the lion's share of demand to the latter. People actually do need to buy significantly more toilet paper during the pandemic '-- not because they're making more trips to the bathroom, but because they're making more of them at home. With some 75% of the U.S. population under stay-at-home orders, Americans are no longer using the restrooms at their workplace, in schools, at restaurants, at hotels, or in airports.

Georgia-Pacific, a leading toilet paper manufacturer based in Atlanta, estimates that the average household will use 40% more toilet paper than usual if all of its members are staying home around the clock. That's a huge leap in demand for a product whose supply chain is predicated on the assumption that demand is essentially constant. It's one that won't fully subside even when people stop hoarding or panic-buying.

Boxes of Angel Soft toilet paper for the consumer market roll off the line at Georgia-Pacific's paper mill in Palatka, Florida. Credit: Image courtesy of Georgia-PacificIf you're looking for where all the toilet paper went, forget about people's attics or hall closets. Think instead of all the toilet paper that normally goes to the commercial market '-- those office buildings, college campuses, Starbucks, and airports that are now either mostly empty or closed. That's the toilet paper that's suddenly going unused.

So why can't we just send that toilet paper to Safeway or CVS? That's where supply chains and distribution channels come in.

Not only is it not the same product, but it often doesn't come from the same mills.

Talk to anyone in the industry, and they'll tell you the toilet paper made for the commercial market is a fundamentally different product from the toilet paper you buy in the store. It comes in huge rolls, too big to fit on most home dispensers. The paper itself is thinner and more utilitarian. It comes individually wrapped and is shipped on huge pallets, rather than in brightly branded packs of six or 12.

''Not only is it not the same product, but it often doesn't come from the same mills,'' added Jim Luke, a professor of economics at Lansing Community College, who once worked as head of planning for a wholesale paper distributor. ''So for instance, Procter & Gamble [which owns Charmin] is huge in the retail consumer market. But it doesn't play in the institutional market at all.''

Georgia-Pacific, which sells to both markets, told me its commercial products also use more recycled fiber, while the retail sheets for its consumer brands Angel Soft and Quilted Northern are typically 100% virgin fiber. Eric Abercrombie, a spokesman for the company, said it has seen demand rise on the retail side, while it expects a decline in the ''away-from-home activity'' that drives its business-to-business sales.

In theory, some of the mills that make commercial toilet paper could try to redirect some of that supply to the consumer market. People desperate for toilet paper probably wouldn't turn up their noses at it. But the industry can't just flip a switch. Shifting to retail channels would require new relationships and contracts between suppliers, distributors, and stores; different formats for packaging and shipping; new trucking routes '-- all for a bulky product with lean profit margins.

Because toilet paper is high volume but low value, the industry runs on extreme efficiency, with mills built to work at full capacity around the clock even in normal times. That works only because demand is typically so steady. If toilet paper manufacturers spend a bunch of money now to refocus on the retail channel, they'll face the same problem in reverse once people head back to work again.

''The normal distribution system is like a well-orchestrated ballet,'' said Willy Shih, a professor at Harvard Business School. ''If you make a delivery to a Walmart distribution center, they give you a half-hour window, and your truck has to show up then.'' The changes wrought by the coronavirus, he said, ''have thrown the whole thing out of balance, and everything has to readjust.''

While toilet paper is an extreme case, similar dynamics are likely to temporarily disrupt supplies of other goods, too '-- even if no one's hoarding or panic-buying. The CEO of a fruit and vegetable supplier told NPR's Weekend Edition that schools and restaurants are canceling their banana orders, while grocery stores are selling out and want more. The problem is that the bananas he sells to schools and restaurants are ''petite'' and sold loose in boxes of 150, whereas grocery store bananas are larger and sold in bunches. Beer companies face a similar challenge converting commercial keg sales to retail cans and bottles.

I'm absolutely convinced that very little was triggered by hoarding.

It's all happening, of course, against the backdrop of a pandemic that makes it hard enough for these producers to keep up business as usual, let alone remold their operations to keep up with radical shifts in demand.

If there's any good news, it's that we can stop blaming these shortages on the alleged idiocy of our fellow consumers. ''I'm absolutely convinced that very little was triggered by hoarding,'' Luke said. Even a modest, reasonable amount of stocking up by millions of people in preparation for stay-at-home orders would have been enough to deplete many store shelves. From there, the ripple effects of availability concerns, coupled with a genuine increase in demand due to people staying in, are sufficient to explain the ongoing supply problems.

In the long run, the industry is still optimistic that it can adapt. ''We've got fiber supply, we've got trees,'' said Georgia-Pacific's Abercrombie. ''It's just a matter of making the product and getting it out.''

In the meantime, some enterprising restaurateurs have begun selling their excess supplies of toilet paper, alcohol, and other basics. Last week I picked up takeout at a local restaurant with a side of toilet paper and bananas. The toilet paper was thin and individually wrapped. The bananas were puny. They'll do just fine.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 07:07

GETTY IMAGESFormer Executives from U.S. Broadcasting Company 21st Century Fox and Spanish Sports Media Company Imagina Media Audiovisual SL, along with Argentina-Based Sports Marketing Company Full Play Group S.A., Charged with Bribing Soccer OfficialsA 53-count third-superseding indictment (the ''Indictment'') was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging sports marketing executives Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez, formerly of 21st Century Fox, Inc. (''Fox''); Gerard Romy, former co-CEO of Spanish media company Imagina Media Audiovisual SL (''Imagina''); and Uruguayan sports marketing company Full Play Group S.A. (''Full Play'') (collectively, the ''New Defendants'') with wire fraud, money laundering and related offenses '' including, as to Romy and Full Play, racketeering conspiracy '' in connection with the government's long-running investigation and prosecution of corruption in organized soccer. The Indictment, returned under seal by a federal grand jury on March 18, 2020, includes additional charges against certain defendants located overseas who were previously indicted and have yet to be extradited to the United States.

Defendants Lopez, Martinez and Full Play are scheduled to be arraigned on April 9, 2020, before United States District Judge Pamela K. Chen in Brooklyn.

Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Ryan L. Korner, Special Agent-in-Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Los Angeles Field Office (IRS-CI), announced the charges.

''The charges unsealed today reflect this Office's ongoing commitment to rooting out corruption at the highest levels of international soccer and at the businesses engaged in promoting and broadcasting the sport,'' stated United States Attorney Donoghue. ''Companies and individuals alike should understand that, regardless of their wealth or power, they will be brought to justice if they use the U.S. financial system to further corrupt ends.'' Mr. Donoghue extended his thanks to the agents and other investigative personnel at the FBI New York Eurasian Joint Organized Crime Squad, the FBI's Integrity in Sport and Gaming Initiative and the IRS-CI Los Angeles Field Office, as well as their colleagues in the United States and abroad, for their continuing effort in this case.

''The profiteering and bribery in international soccer have been deep-seated and commonly known practices for decades. These men, along with the general public, have known the FBI New York and our many law enforcement partners are investigating the illicit handshakes and backroom deals hidden in the infrastructure of soccer events, venues and marketing contracts. The first public charges date back to 2015. This should illustrate to everyone still hoping to score millions corruptly, we're going to find you,'' stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney.

''As charged in the Indictment, over a period of many years, the defendants and their co-conspirators corrupted the governance and business of international soccer with bribes and kickbacks, and engaged in criminal fraudulent schemes that caused significant harm to the sport of soccer. Their schemes included the use of shell companies, sham consulting contracts and other concealment methods to disguise the bribes and kickback payments and make them appear legitimate. IRS-CI is proud to have worked alongside our partners at the FBI to unravel this trail of deception,'' stated IRS-CI Special Agent-in-Charge Korner.

As alleged in the Indictment, FIFA and its six continental confederations '' including the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (''CONCACAF''), headquartered in the United States, and the Confederaci"n Sudamericana de Fºtbol (''CONMEBOL''), the confederation governing soccer in South America '' together with affiliated regional federations, national member associations and sports marketing companies, constitute an enterprise of legal entities associated in fact for purposes of the federal racketeering laws. The principal '' and entirely legitimate '' purpose of the enterprise is to regulate and promote the sport of soccer worldwide. Consistent with previous indictments returned in the case, the Indictment alleges that over a period of more than two decades, the defendants and their co-conspirators corrupted the enterprise by engaging in various criminal activities, including fraud, bribery and money laundering.

As set forth in the Indictment, the New Defendants used their positions in the world of international soccer to engage in schemes involving the solicitation, offer, acceptance, payment and receipt of bribes and kickbacks, principally to obtain lucrative broadcast rights to various international soccer tournaments and events. For example, as alleged:

Lopez and Martinez, formerly high-ranking executives of Fox subsidiaries responsible for developing and carrying out Fox's sports broadcasting businesses in Latin America, joined Full Play and other co-conspirators in a scheme involving the annual payment of millions of dollars in bribes to officials of CONMEBOL in exchange for the lucrative broadcasting rights to the Copa Libertadores, the region's most popular club tournament, among other events. Lopez and Martinez also relied on loyalty secured through the payment of bribes to certain CONMEBOL officials to advance the business interests of Fox, including to obtain confidential bidding information for the rights to broadcast the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments in the United States, rights that Fox successfully obtained. Romy was a high-ranking executive and shareholder of Imagina, a privately held, multinational media conglomerate based in Barcelona, Spain, that owned various subsidiaries around the world, including in the United States. Romy participated in schemes to pay millions of dollars to high-ranking officials of the Caribbean Football Union (''CFU'') and of federations within the Central American Football Union (''UNCAF''), both regional soccer unions operating under the CONCACAF umbrella, to secure the media and marketing rights to FIFA World Cup qualifier matches organized by federations within the CFU and UNCAF. In connection with the CFU scheme, Romy and his co-conspirators agreed to pay Jeffrey Webb, a senior official of the CFU and the president of CONCACAF, a $3 million bribe in exchange for a share of a contract awarding the media and marketing rights to CFU members' home World Cup qualifier matches for the 2018 and 2022 qualification cycles. Full Play, a sports marketing company incorporated in Uruguay, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and owned by father-and-son defendants Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis, participated in numerous schemes to pay bribes to officials of CONMEBOL and CONCACAF in exchange for media and marketing rights to various soccer events, including World Cup qualifier and friendly matches, the Copa Libertadores, and multiple editions of the Copa Am(C)rica, a national team tournament administered by CONMEBOL. Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, charged in the first indictment in the case unsealed on May 27, 2015, are among the defendants charged in the Indictment and remain fugitives. In connection with the above schemes, the Indictment charges Romy and Full Play with RICO conspiracy and all four New Defendants with wire fraud and money laundering offenses. Each of the offenses carries a maximum of 20 years' imprisonment, and, if convicted, each defendant faces mandatory restitution, forfeiture and a fine.

Other schemes alleged in the Indictment relate to the payment and receipt of bribes and kickbacks in connection with, among other things, contracts for the media and marketing rights to additional soccer events and FIFA's selection of the countries to host various editions of the World Cup, including the World Cup hosted by Russia in 2018 and the World Cup scheduled to be hosted by Qatar in 2022.

The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Samuel P. Nitze, M. Kristin Mace, Keith D. Edelman, Patrick T. Hein, Kaitlin T. Farrell, David C. Pitluck and Brian D. Morris, with assistance provided by the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs and Organized Crime and Gang Section.

The New Defendants:

HERNAN LOPEZAge: 49Los Angeles, California

CARLOS MARTINEZAge: 51Doral, Florida

GERARD ROMYAge: 65Barcelona, Spain

FULL PLAY GROUP S.A.Buenos Aires, Argentina

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 07:05

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including title IV of the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (Public Law 114-90), it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. Space Policy Directive-1 of December 11, 2017 (Reinvigorating America's Human Space Exploration Program), provides that commercial partners will participate in an ''innovative and sustainable program'' headed by the United States to ''lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations.'' Successful long-term exploration and scientific discovery of the Moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies will require partnership with commercial entities to recover and use resources, including water and certain minerals, in outer space.

Uncertainty regarding the right to recover and use space resources, including the extension of the right to commercial recovery and use of lunar resources, however, has discouraged some commercial entities from participating in this enterprise. Questions as to whether the 1979 Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (the ''Moon Agreement'') establishes the legal framework for nation states concerning the recovery and use of space resources have deepened this uncertainty, particularly because the United States has neither signed nor ratified the Moon Agreement. In fact, only 18 countries have ratified the Moon Agreement, including just 17 of the 95 Member States of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Moreover, differences between the Moon Agreement and the 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies '-- which the United States and 108 other countries have joined '-- also contribute to uncertainty regarding the right to recover and use space resources.

Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law. Outer space is a legally and physically unique domain of human activity, and the United States does not view it as a global commons. Accordingly, it shall be the policy of the United States to encourage international support for the public and private recovery and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law.

Sec. 2. The Moon Agreement. The United States is not a party to the Moon Agreement. Further, the United States does not consider the Moon Agreement to be an effective or necessary instrument to guide nation states regarding the promotion of commercial participation in the long-term exploration, scientific discovery, and use of the Moon, Mars, or other celestial bodies. Accordingly, the Secretary of State shall object to any attempt by any other state or international organization to treat the Moon Agreement as reflecting or otherwise expressing customary international law.

Sec. 3. Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources. The Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Transportation, the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the head of any other executive department or agency the Secretary of State determines to be appropriate, shall take all appropriate actions to encourage international support for the public and private recovery and use of resources in outer space, consistent with the policy set forth in section 1 of this order. In carrying out this section, the Secretary of State shall seek to negotiate joint statements and bilateral and multilateral arrangements with foreign states regarding safe and sustainable operations for the public and private recovery and use of space resources.

Sec. 4. Report on Efforts to Encourage International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources. No later than 180 days after the date of this order, the Secretary of State shall report to the President, through the Chair of the National Space Council and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, regarding activities carried out under section 3 of this order.

Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,April 6, 2020.

ACCOMPANYING FACTSHEET

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 06:53

A reporter from a Hong Kong outlet aligned with the Communist Party of China is a member of the White House Foreign Press Group and has rotating access to White House press briefings.

That is how the Phoenix TV reporter was able to push pro-Beijing talking points, touting Chinese aid to other countries, during the White House coronavirus task force's press briefing on Monday. Her question prompted President Donald Trump to question if she was working for China.

WATCH:

China Wise International Limited, a subsidiary of a Chinese government-run bank, owns a minority stake in the media company, according to Phoenix TV's 2018 interim report.

The Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank at Stanford University, describes Phoenix TV as a ''quasi-official'' news outlet with links to China's Ministry of State Security.

Richard Latendresse, a Canadian journalist who serves as the White House Foreign Press Group's secretary, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an email that the Phoenix TV reporter is a member of the organization with rotating access to the foreign press's seat for press briefings.

''The Phoenix TV reporter in question is a member of the White House Correspondents Association. As a result, she became a member of the White House Foreign Press Group because she not only is a member of the WHCA, but also has a 'hard pass' to be in the White House Briefing Room that was granted to her by the current administration,'' Latendresse said.

''This reporter is therefore part of our regular rotation of members who have access to our seat during press briefings in the White House,'' he added. ''There are usually about two dozen of our members who have access to that one seat. During this time of social distancing, only nine are opting to physically attend the briefings.''

The White House declined to comment on whether it would revoke the Phoenix TV reporter's hard press pass. The Trump administration has previously been sued for revoking White House press passes.

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday said it's ''disgraceful and reckless'' that Phoenix TV is allowed into the press briefings amid China's propaganda campaign meant to absolve itself of responsibility for the virus's outbreak. (RELATED: WHO Chief Won Election With China's Help. Now He's Running Interference For China On Coronavirus)

The Hong Kong-based outlet is owned by a former Chinese military officer with close ties to Beijing officials, pro-democracy think tank Freedom House said in a 2017 report.

''Phoenix TV's coverage is typically favorable to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party],'' the report said.

''Moreover, over the past two years, it has been used as an outlet for airing televised confessions by various detained CCP critics, most notably all five Hong Kong booksellers abducted by Chinese security forces in late 2015.''

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 06:38

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 06:16

Senate Democrats unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would boost the pay of essential workers on the frontlines of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic by potentially tens of thousands of dollars.

As much as $25,000 in hazard pay would be afforded over a period of time to those deemed essential, including employees in health care, drug stores, grocery stores, sanitation workers, truck drivers, transportation workers and all federal employees with frontline positions, such as Postal Service workers.

"Not all heroes wear capes," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on a conference call Tuesday. "For these Americans, working from home is not an option. Social distancing is not an option."

The raise would be equivalent to $13 per hour and would apply retroactively from the start of the health crisis emergency on January 27 until the end of the year, Schumer said.

Health care workers also could receive a one-time premium of up to $15,000 as part of a program to recruit and retain certain medical employees in fields experiencing shortages. The benefits would be applied retroactively for those already working on the frontlines and to the families of health care workers who've died as a result of coronavirus.

"We are asking these workers to take on great risk. They should be compensated for it," Schumer said. "These Americans are the true heroes of this pandemic, and we need to make sure they are taken care of. They are there for us, so we must be there for them."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer leaves after speaking to the press prior to attending a meeting to discuss a potential economic bill in response to the coronavirus, COVID-19, in Washington, D.C., on March 20. Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyThe proposal, which Democrats have dubbed the "Heroes Fund," is being led by Senators Schumer, Patty Murray of Washington state, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tom Udall of New Mexico and Gary Peters of Michigan.

Essential workers not part of the health care recruitment program who earn less than $200,000 per year would receive a maximum premium pay of $25,000 while those who make more than $200,000 would get a maximum of $5,000. The extra pay would apply through December 31 or until the worker's salary-based maximum premium pay is reached.

The federal funds would be distributed to employers, who would need to apply for the money for its employees. The federal agency that would be responsible for distributing the resources is yet to be determined, Schumer said. A total price tag for the package is also unknown.

The proposition comes as Democrats in Congress are aggressively pushing for a fourth stimulus package in the coming weeks to combat the sharp economic downturn and increase in unemployment numbers.

The Heroes Fund would need significant buy-in from Republicans. Schumer sidestepped a question on whether he's spoken to his GOP counterpart, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). McConnell's office did not respond to Newsweek's inquiry.

"We hope that our Republican colleagues will join us in noting that this Heroes Fund and hazard pay proposal is so very needed," Schumer said. "I think it should get strong, bipartisan support."

Meanwhile, Democrats on the other side of the Capitol building in the House have changed course from advocating for a digital infrastructure-focused bill to pushing for an extension of the historic $2 trillion package recently passed, which would mean more individual checks, relief for small businesses and expanded unemployment benefits.

But Republicans will be a tougher sell, no matter the direction Democrats want to take for a fourth stimulus. GOP lawmakers have advocated to allow time for the third package to reach businesses and workers before doling out more federal money.

However, President Donald Trump has signaled he's on board with another round of direct relief for Americans. Trump said Monday that the idea of providing more checks is "absolutely under serious consideration."

The timeline for a fourth stimulus remains fluid, as Congress won't reconvene until the week of April 20, at the earliest. From there, it will take intense negotiations to reach a final deal that's able to get Democrats, Republicans and the White House on board.

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 06:15

Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt led the virtual commissioner's court meeting Tuesday. Since only one other commissioner was physically present and at least six feet away from her and the rest participated online, she removed her homemade mask.'–²

Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt says she's preparing a new shelter-in-place order that would extend the mandate for all residents to remain in their homes unless performing essential activities.

The original order, signed by Eckhardt, Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell, was announced March 24 and expires April 13.

Eckhardt expects the new order, based on updated information, to be active next week and include safety standards for essential businesses.

The new order, she told commissioners on Tuesday, will take into account Gov. Greg Abbott's order as well as latest University of Texas coronavirus model projections and other public health information. It's unclear when the new order will expire.

CORONAVIRUS IN TEXAS: What we know, latest updates

Eckhardt said that, according to UT forecasts, if city and county residents maintain a 50% reduction in activity, then a peak in cases will likely be seen in May. If a reduction of 75% in activity is achieved, then it would push back a peak until about June but the number of cases would be fewer.

Hospitalizations would be about 80,000, according to the UT model, if a 50% reduction is maintained. They would drop to about 17,000 hospitalizations if activity goes down 75%. A 90% reduction in activity would mean about 542 hospitalizations.

"We're looking at the difference between thousands of deaths and hundreds of deaths," Eckhardt said. "I know social distancing is painful and working from home can be problematic and impossible for some, but for a relatively small amount of effort we can reduce the number of hospitalizations and deaths."

In an update to commissioners, Dr. Mark Escott, Austin-Travis County interim health authority, said that hospitals in Travis County are currently at 50% capacity, which he said was encouraging news.

Austin public health officials are investigating a cluster of eight potential COVID-19 cases detected in Travis County, and the health authority expects to unveil this week an online portal that would offer a more direct way of testing that would remove the "potential barrier of going through a doctor or telehealth."

"I think the next two weeks in particular are going to be very telling as far as the impact of our policy-making, as well as social distancing and community engagement in that process," he said.

Escott said that the health authority, along with community partners, have formed a separate think tank to explore how to open businesses up in the future in a safe and moderated way to avoid a large spike later.

"There are still a lot of unknowns about this because we've only known about this virus for a few months," he said. "What we're seeing across the globe is different versions of trying things out."

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 06:11

March 27, 2020 The Honorable Alex M. Azar II Secretary U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 200 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20201 Dear Secretary Azar: We write to call on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its sub-agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and other relevant agencies, to monitor and address racial disparities in our nation's response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency. During this unprecedented global pandemic, affordable and equitable access to care and treatment is essential to saving lives and slowing the spread of the coronavirus. It is critical that the federal government make a concerted effort to account for existing racial disparities in health care access and how persistent inequities may exacerbate these disparities in the weeks and months to come as our nation responds to this global health pandemic. We urge HHS to work with states, localities, and private labs to better collect data on health disparities as we continue to respond to this pandemic. To start, the CDC is currently failing to collect and publicly report on the racial and ethnic demographic information of patients tested for and affected by COVID-19.1 Our concerns echo those from some physicians: that decisions to test individuals for the novel coronavirus may be ''more vulnerable to the implicit biases that every patient and medical professional carry around with them,'' potentially causing ''black communities and other underserved groups '...[to] disproportionately mis[s] out on getting tested for COVID-19.''2 Without demographic data, policy makers and researchers will have no way to identify and address ongoing disparities and health inequities that risk accelerating the impact of the novel coronavirus and the respiratory disease it causes. Although COVID-19 does not discriminate along racial or ethnic lines, existing racial disparities and inequities in health outcomes and health care access may mean that the nation's response to preventing and mitigating its harms will not be felt equally in every community. Low-income people are more likely to have many of the chronic health conditions that experts 1 Buzzfeed News, ''Doctors Are Concerned That Black Communities Might Not Be Getting Access To Coronavirus Tests,'' Nidhi Prakash, March 22, 2020, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhiprakash/coronavirus-tests-covid-19-black. 2 id.

2 have identified as risk factors for complications from COVID-19.3 For example, Black and Hispanic adults are more likely to suffer from obesity and diabetes than non-Hispanic white adults.4 Asthma is also more prevalent among Black and Hispanic adults and children.5 People of color and immigrants are also less likely to be insured,6 and many communities of color have shortages of quality health care providers, making it difficult to access appropriate and timely care.7 Furthermore, a history of discrimination and marginalization has left some people of color distrustful of the medical system, making them less likely to seek out timely care.8 In addition, socioeconomic factors may further contribute to racial disparities in COVID-19 outcomes. In the United States, Hispanic workers are less likely to have paid time off from work,9 which would allow them to stay home and seek appropriate medical care if they or a family member become ill. People of color are more likely to work in low-wage jobs that cannot be done remotely10 and to have fewer financial resources to draw on in the event of health problems or economic disruption.11 According to the Census Bureau, poverty is also concentrated in communities of color, particularly among people with disabilities and the elderly.12 Moreover, unemployment, food insecurity and unstable or substandard housing conditions may further perpetuate disparities in health outcomes for people infected by the coronavirus, most specifically among low-income communities of color.13 These factors may all combine to accelerate the effects of the outbreak in the most vulnerable communities. A CDC study found that hospitalizations for seasonal influenza were 3 New York Times, ''As Coronavirus Deepens Inequality, Inequality Worsens Its Spread,'' Max Fisher and Emma Bubola, March 16, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/world/europe/coronavirus-inequality.html; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ''Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): People Who are at a Higher Risk,'' https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/people-at-higher-risk.html. 4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ''Health, United States Spotlight: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Heart Disease,'' April 2019, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/spotlight/HeartDiseaseSpotlight_2019_0404.pdf. 5 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, ''Health Disparities in Asthma,'' Erik Forno, May 2012, https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/rccm.201202-0350ED. 6 Kaiser Family Foundation, ''Changes in Health Coverage by Race and Ethnicity Since the ACA, 2010-2018,'' Samantha Artiga, Kendal Orgera, and Anthony Damico, March 5, 2020, https://www.kff.org/disparities-policy/issue-brief/changes-in-health-coverage-by-race-and-ethnicity-since-the-aca-2010-2018/. 7 Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, ''Predictors of Primary Care Physician Practice Location in Underserved Urban or Rural Areas in the United States: A Systematic Literature Review,'' Amelia Goodfellow et al., 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5007145/. 8 Mother Jones, ''Big Outbreaks like the Coronavirus Actually Do Discriminate: Against the Poor and Most Needy,'' Kiera Butler, February 7, 2020, https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/02/these-groups-could-suffer-the-most-in-a-us-coronavirus-outbreak/. 9 Institute for Women's Policy Research, ''Paid Sick Days Access and Usage Rates Vary by Race/Ethnicity, Occupation, and Earnings,'' February 2016, https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/wpallimport/files/iwpr-export/publications/B356.pdf. 10 Pew Research Center, ''Before the coronavirus, telework was an optional benefit, mostly for the affluent few,'' Drew Desilver, March 20, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/20/before-the-coronavirus-telework-was-an-optional-benefit-mostly-for-the-affluent-few/. 11 Pew Research Center, ''Key findings on the rise in income inequality within America's racial and ethnic groups,'' Rakesh Kochhar and Anthony Cilluffo, July 12, 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/07/12/key-findings-on-the-rise-in-income-inequality-within-americas-racial-and-ethnic-groups/. 12 Health Affairs, Health Justice Strategies To Combat COVID-19: Protecting Vulnerable Communities During A Pandemic,'' March 16, 2020, https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200319.757883/full/. 13 id.

3 more common in high-poverty neighborhoods.14 Research on past infectious disease epidemics has found that inequality during a viral outbreak creates a vicious cycle: poverty is made worse by the health and economic consequences of the epidemic, but it can also accelerate the spread of the virus, by restricting access to health care and preventative measures.15 Any attempt to contain COVID-19 in the United States will have to address its potential spread in low-income communities of color, first and foremost to protect the lives of people in those communities, but also to slow the spread of the virus in the country as a whole. Despite the clear vulnerability of people of color in this public health emergency, comprehensive demographic data on the racial and ethnic characteristics of people who are tested or treated for COVID-19 does not exist.16 Health care providers have begun to express their concerns that Black and Hispanic people are less likely to have access to testing, which is crucial to tracking and containing the virus within a community.17 They are also concerned that the CDC's subjective criteria for which patients should receive a test could result in health care providers directing tests toward more affluent patients.18 Without demographic data on the race and ethnicity of patients being tested, the rate of positive test results, and outcomes for those with COVID-19, it will be impossible for practitioners and policy makers to address disparities in health outcomes and inequities in access to testing and treatment as they emerge. This lack of information will exacerbate existing health disparities and result in the loss of lives in vulnerable communities. It will also hamper the efforts of public health officials to track and contain the novel coronavirus in the areas that are at the highest risk of continued spread. As the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States continues to grow exponentially, we urge you not to delay collecting this vital information, and to take any additional necessary steps to ensure that all Americans have the access they need to COVID-19 testing and treatment. Thank you for your consideration of this urgent matter. Sincerely, Elizabeth Warren United States Senator Ayanna Pressley Member of Congress 14 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, ''Influenza-Related Hospitalizations and Poverty Levels, United States 2010-2012,'' James L. Hadler et al, February 12, 2016, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6505a1.htm#suggestedcitation. 15 New York Times, ''As Coronavirus Deepens Inequality, Inequality Worsens Its Spread,'' Max Fisher and Emma Bubola, March 16, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/world/europe/coronavirus-inequality.html. 16 Buzzfeed News, ''Doctors Are Concerned That Black Communities Might Not Be Getting Access To Coronavirus Tests,'' Nidhi Prakash, March 22, 2020, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhiprakash/coronavirus-tests-covid-19-black. 17 id. 18 id.

4 Robin L. Kelly Member of Congress Kamala D. Harris United States Senator Cory A. Booker United States Senator

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Wed, 08 Apr 2020 05:56

Wed Apr 8, 2020 / 5:33 AM EDT

Brenda Goh and Thomas Suen

WUHAN, China WUHAN, China (Reuters) - The Chinese city where the new coronavirus emerged ended its more-than two-month lockdown on Wednesday, even as a small northern city ordered restrictions on residents amid concern about a second wave of infections.

China sealed off Wuhan, a central city of 11 million people, on Jan. 23, a drastic step that came to symbolise its aggressive management of the virus.

More than 50,000 people in Wuhan were infected, and more than 2,500 of them died, about 80% of all deaths in China, according to official figures.

The virus has since spread around the world, infecting more than 1.4 million people, killing 82,000 of them and wreaking havoc on the global economy as governments imposed lockdowns to rein in its spread.

While China has managed to curb its coronavirus epidemic the measures to contain it have exacted a heavy economic and social toll, with many residents in recent days expressing relief as well as uncertainty and worry over the lingering danger of infection.

"I'm going to see my parents," Wang Wenshu told Reuters as she waited to check in at Wuhan's Tianhe airport, which reopened on Wednesday.

"Of course I miss them. Stop asking me about it or I'm going to cry."

Some travellers wore full protective suits, long raincoats or face shields.

Wuhan has slowly been returning towards normal, with people officially allowed to enter the city from March 28, although restrictions remain. Residents have been urged not to leave Wuhan or Hubei province, or even their neighbourhood, unless absolutely necessary.

"We are acutely aware that we must not relax as we have not claimed final victory," Hubei vice governor Cao Guangjin said at a news conference on Wednesday.

"We need to remain calm, and be just as cautious at the end as at the beginning."

Shopping malls and the city's biggest shopping belt, the Chu River and Han street, reopened on March 30. Long queues, thanks to requirements that customers stand a metre apart, have formed at supermarkets while some residents have taken advantage of the warmer weather to resume outdoor badminton games and dancing.

Wuhan has reported just three new confirmed infections in the past 21 days and only two in the past two weeks.

NORTHERN BORDER WORRY

But even as Wuhan came back to life, new imported cases in the far northern province of Heilongjiang surged to a daily high of 25, fuelled by an influx of infected travellers crossing the border from Russia.

On Wednesday, Suifenhe city announced restrictions on the movement of citizens similar to the measures Wuhan has endured.

People must stay in their residential compounds and only one person per family can leave once every three days to buy necessities, and must return on the same day, state-run CCTV reported.

"While the whole country is celebrating the unlocking of Wuhan, few noticed that Heilongjiang is under enormous pressure dealing with infections coming over the border," one person wrote on the Weibo social media platform.

"Suifenhe is a small city without any high-level hospitals, how can it handle the huge influx of patients?''

Some 55,000 people were expected to leave Wuhan by train on Wednesday. By early morning, more than 10,000 had left by plane, an airport official said. Flights to Beijing and international locations have not resumed.

"I'm very happy, I'm going home today," migrant worker Liu Xiaomin told Reuters as she stood with her suitcases in Wuhan's Hankou railway station, bound for Xiangyang city.

People from Wuhan arriving in Beijing must undergo two rounds of testing for the virus.

NEW CASES

China is maintaining strict screening protocols, concerned about any resurgence in infections by virus carriers who exhibit no symptoms and infected travellers arriving from abroad.

China's new coronavirus cases doubled on Tuesday as the number of infected travellers from overseas surged, while new asymptomatic infections more than quadrupled.

New confirmed cases rose to 62 on Tuesday from 32 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said, the most since March 25. New imported infections accounted for 59 of the cases.

The number of new asymptomatic cases rose to 137 from 30 a day earlier, the health authority said on Wednesday, with incoming travellers accounting for 102 of the latest batch.

Authorities do not count asymptomatic cases in their tally of confirmed infections until patients show symptoms such as a fever or a cough. As of Tuesday, 1,095 asymptomatic patients were under medical observation, with 358 of them travellers arriving from abroad.

To stem infections from outside its borders, China has slashed the number of international flights and denied entry to virtually all foreigners. It also started testing all international arrivals for the virus this month.

As of Tuesday, the total number of confirmed cases in mainland China stood at 81,802, including 3,333 fatalities, the National Health Commission said.

(Reporting by Brenda Goh in Wuhan and Ryan Woo, Lusha Zhang, Liangping Gao, Se Young Lee and Yawen Chen in Beijing; Writing by Engen Tham and Gabriel Crossley; Editing by Michael Perry, Richard Pullin and Giles Elgood)

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 22:37

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Note: Provisional death counts are based on death certificate data received and coded by the National Center for Health Statistics as of April 7, 2020. Death counts are delayed and may differ from other published sources (see Technical Notes). Counts will be updated periodically. Additional information will be added to this site as available.

The provisional counts for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) deaths are based on a current flow of mortality data in the National Vital Statistics System. National provisional counts include deaths occurring within the 50 states and the District of Columbia that have been received and coded as of the date specified. It is important to note that it can take several weeks for death records to be submitted to National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), processed, coded, and tabulated. Therefore, the data shown on this page may be incomplete, and will likely not include all deaths that occurred during a given time period, especially for the more recent time periods. Death counts for earlier weeks are continually revised and may increase or decrease as new and updated death certificate data are received from the states by NCHS. COVID-19 death counts shown here may differ from other published sources, as data currently are lagged by an average of 1''2 weeks.

The provisional data presented on this page include the weekly provisional count of deaths in the United States due to COVID-19, deaths from all causes and percent of expected deaths (i.e., number of deaths received over number of deaths expected based on data from previous years), pneumonia deaths (excluding pneumonia deaths involving influenza), and pneumonia deaths involving COVID-19; (a) by week ending date, (b) by age at death, and (c) by specific jurisdictions. Future updates to this release may include additional detail such as demographic characteristics (e.g., sex), additional causes of death (e.g., acute respiratory distress syndrome or other comorbidities), or estimates based on models that account for reporting delays to generate more accurate predicted provisional counts.

Pneumonia deaths are included to provide context for understanding the completeness of COVID-19 mortality data and related trends. Deaths due to COVID-19 may be misclassified as pneumonia deaths in the absence of positive test results, and pneumonia may appear on death certificates as a comorbid condition. Thus, increases in pneumonia deaths may be an indicator of excess COVID-19-related mortality. Additionally, estimates of completeness for pneumonia deaths may provide context for understanding the lag in reporting for COVID-19 deaths, as it is anticipated that these causes would have similar delays in reporting, processing, and coding. However, it is possible that reporting of COVID-19 mortality may be slower or faster than for other causes of death, and that the delay may change over time. Analyses to better understand and quantify reporting delays for COVID-19 deaths and related causes are underway. The list of causes provided in these tables may expand in future releases as more data are received, and other potentially comorbid conditions are determined.

Table 1. Deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and pneumonia reported to NCHS by week ending date, United States. Week ending 2/1/2020 to 4/4/2020.*Data as of April 7, 2020

NOTE: Number of deaths reported in this table are the total number of deaths received and coded as of the date of analysis and do not represent all deaths that occurred in that period.

*Data during this period are incomplete because of the lag in time between when the death occurred and when the death certificate is completed, submitted to NCHS and processed for reporting purposes. This delay can range from 1 week to 8 weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction, age, and cause of death.

1Deaths with confirmed or presumed COVID-19, coded to ICD''10 code U07.1

2Percent of expected deaths is the number of deaths for all causes for this week in 2020 compared to the average number across the same week in 2017''2019. Previous analyses of 2015''2016 provisional data completeness have found that completeness is lower in the first few weeks following the date of death (7).

3Pneumonia death counts exclude pneumonia deaths involving influenza.

Table 2. Deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and pneumonia reported to NCHS by age group, United States. Week ending 2/1/2020 to 4/4/2020.*Data as of April 7, 2020

NOTE: Number of deaths reported in this table are the total number of deaths received and coded as of the date of analysis and do not represent all deaths that occurred in that period.

*Data during this period are incomplete because of the lag in time between when the death occurred and when the death certificate is completed, submitted to NCHS and processed for reporting purposes. This delay can range from 1 week to 8 weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction, age, and cause of death.

1Deaths with confirmed or presumed COVID-19, coded to ICD''10 code U07.1.

2Percent of expected deaths is the number of deaths for all causes for this week in 2020 compared to the average number across the same week in 2017''2019.

3Pneumonia death counts exclude pneumonia deaths involving influenza.

Table 3. Deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and pneumonia reported to NCHS by jurisdiction of occurrence, United States. Week ending 2/1/2020 to 4/4/2020.*Data as of April 7, 2020

NOTE: Number of deaths reported in this table are the total number of deaths received and coded as of the date of analysis and do not represent all deaths that occurred in that period.

*Data during this period are incomplete because of the lag in time between when the death occurred and when the death certificate is completed, submitted to NCHS and processed for reporting purposes. This delay can range from 1 week to 8 weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction, age, and cause of death.

1Deaths with confirmed or presumed COVID-19, coded to ICD''10 code U07.1.

2Percent of expected deaths is the number of deaths for all causes for this week in 2020 compared to the average number across the same week in 2017''2019.

3Pneumonia death counts exclude pneumonia deaths involving influenza.

4Excludes New York City.

Technical NotesComparing data in this report to other sourcesProvisional death counts in this report will not match counts in other sources, such as media reports or numbers from county health departments. Death data, once received and processed by National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), are tabulated by the state or jurisdiction in which the death occurred. Death counts are not tabulated by the decedent's state of residence. COVID-19 deaths may also be classified or defined differently in various reporting and surveillance systems. Death counts in this report include laboratory confirmed COVID-19 deaths and clinically confirmed COVID-19 deaths. This includes deaths where COVID-19 is listed as a ''presumed'' or ''probable'' cause. Some local and state health departments only report laboratory-confirmed COVID deaths. This may partly account for differences between NCHS reported death counts and death counts reported in other sources. Provisional counts reported here track approximately 1''2 weeks behind other published data sources on the number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. (1,2,3).

Nature and sources of dataProvisional death counts are based on death records received and processed by NCHS as of a specified cutoff date. National provisional counts include deaths occurring within the 50 states and the District of Columbia. NCHS receives the death records from state vital registration offices through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Provisional data are based on available records that meet certain data quality criteria at the time of analysis and may not include all deaths that occurred during a given time period especially for more recent periods. Estimates of completeness are provided. Therefore, they should not be considered comparable with final data and are subject to change.

Cause-of-death classification and definition of deathsMortality statistics are compiled in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) regulations specifying that WHO member nations classify and code causes of death with the current revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD). ICD provides the basic guidance used in virtually all countries to code and classify causes of death. It provides not only disease, injury, and poisoning categories but also the rules used to select the single underlying cause of death for tabulation from the several diagnoses that may be reported on a single death certificate, as well as definitions, tabulation lists, the format of the death certificate, and regulations on use of the classification. Causes of death for data presented in this report were coded according to ICD guidelines described in annual issues of Part 2a of the NCHS Instruction Manual (4).

Coronavirus disease deaths are identified using the ICD''10 code U07.1. Deaths are coded to U07.1 when coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 are reported as a cause that contributed to death on the death certificate. These can include laboratory confirmed cases, as well as cases without laboratory confirmation. If the certifier suspects COVID-19 or determines it was likely (e.g., the circumstances were compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty), they can report COVID-19 as ''probable'' or ''presumed'' on the death certificate (5).

Pneumonia deaths are identified using underlying cause-of-death codes from the 10th Revision of ICD (ICD''10): J12''J18, excluding deaths that involve influenza (J08''J11).

Estimated completeness of dataProvisional data are incomplete, and the level of completeness varies by jurisdiction, week, decedent's age, and cause of death. Until data for a calendar year are finalized, typically in December of the following year, completeness of provisional data cannot be determined. However, completeness can be estimated in a variety of ways. Surveillance systems that rely on weekly monitoring of provisional mortality data, such as CDC's FluView Interactive mortality surveillance (6), estimate completeness by comparing the count of deaths in a given week of the current year to the average count of deaths in that same week of the previous 3 years. These estimates can be generated for specific causes of death, jurisdictions, and age groups, and updated on a weekly or daily basis. For the purposes of COVID-19 surveillance, completeness is approximated by comparing the provisional number of deaths received to the number of expected deaths based on prior years data. Percent of expected deaths provided in this data release are based on the total count of deaths in the most recent weeks of the current year, compared with an average across the same weeks of the three previous years (i.e., 2017''2019). These estimates of completeness are calculated by week, jurisdiction of occurrence, and age group.

It is important to note that the true levels of completeness are unknown, and the estimates provided here are only a proxy. In cases where mortality rates are increasing rapidly, particularly when excess deaths due to a novel cause are occurring, values for completeness for recent weeks may exceed 100% even when NCHS has yet to receive all available data. Conversely, if the number of deaths was elevated in prior years due to a severe flu season, for example, estimated completeness in the most recent weeks may be lower than the true value. To avoid relying too heavily on comparisons to a single week of a single prior year, estimates of completeness included in this release are based on the average counts in a given week across 3 prior years (e.g., the 12th week of 2017, 2018, and 2019).

Percent of expected deaths provided in this release are shown to provide context for interpreting provisional counts of COVID-19 deaths and deaths due to related causes. Where estimated values are high (e.g., greater than 100%), this suggests that mortality is higher in 2020 relative to the same weeks of prior years. Where estimated values of completeness are low, this could indicate that data are incomplete due to delayed reporting, or that mortality is lower in 2020 compared with prior years, or some combination of these factors.

Delays in reportingProvisional counts of deaths are underestimated relative to final counts. This is due to the many steps involved in reporting death certificate data. When a death occurs, a certifier (e.g. physician, medical examiner or coroner) will complete the death certificate with the underlying cause of death and any contributing causes of death. In some cases, laboratory tests or autopsy results may be required to determine the cause of death. Completed death certificate are sent to the state vital records office and then to NCHS for cause of death coding. At NCHS, about 80% of deaths are automatically processed and coded within seconds, but 20% of deaths need to manually coded, or coded by a person. Deaths involving certain conditions such as influenza and pneumonia are more likely to require manual coding than other causes of death. Furthermore, all deaths with COVID-19 are manually coded. Death certificates are typically manually coded within 7 days of receipt, although the coding delay can grow if there is a large increase in the number of deaths. As a result, underestimation of the number of deaths may be greater for certain causes of death than others.

Previous analyses of provisional data completeness from 2015 suggested that mortality data is approximately 27% complete within 2 weeks, 54% complete within 4 weeks, and at least 75% complete within 8 weeks of when the death occurred (7). Pneumonia deaths are 26% complete within 2 weeks, 52% complete within 4 weeks, and 72% complete within 8 weeks (unpublished). Data timeliness has improved in recent years, and current timeliness is likely higher than published rates.

Comparing deaths from different statesDeath counts should not be compared across states. Data timeliness varies by state. Some states report deaths on a daily basis, while other states report deaths weekly or monthly. Furthermore, health departments and state vital record offices may be affected by COVID-19 related response activities, which could further delay death certificate reporting. Currently, 63% of U.S. deaths are reported within 10 days of the date of death, but there is variation within states. Twenty states report over 75% of deaths within the first 10 days, while three states report fewer than 1% of deaths within 10 days.

Why are pneumonia deaths included in this report?Pneumonia deaths are included to provide context for understanding the completeness of COVID-19 mortality data and related trends. Deaths due to COVID-19 may be misclassified as pneumonia deaths in the absence of positive test results, and pneumonia may appear on death certificates as a comorbid condition. Thus, increases in pneumonia deaths may be an indicator of excess COVID-19-related mortality. Additionally, estimates of completeness for pneumonia deaths may provide context for understanding the lag in reporting for COVID-19 deaths, as it is anticipated that these causes would have similar delays in reporting, processing, and coding.

SourceNCHS, National Vital Statistics System. Estimates are based on provisional data.

ReferencesDong E, Du H, Gardner L. An interactive web-based dashboard to track COVID-19 in real time. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30120-1. external icon Wu J, McCann A, Collins K, Harris R, Huang J, Almukhtar S. Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest map and case count. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html. external icon National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), Division of Viral Diseases. Cases in the US. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2020.National Vital Statistics System. Instructions for classifying the underlying cause of death. In: NCHS instruction manual; Part 2a. Published annually.National Center for Health Statistics. Guidance for certifying deaths due to COVID''19. Hyattsville, MD. 2020. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/vsrg/vsrg03-508.pdf. pdf icon National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). CDC's FluView Interactive. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm.Spencer MR, Ahmad F. Timeliness of death certificate data for mortality surveillance and provisional estimates. National Center for Health Statistics. 2016.

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 18:25

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Tencent Pictures (Chinese: 腾讯影业 ; pinyin: t(C)ng x¹n yǐng y¨ ) is a Chinese film distributor and production company owned by Tencent. It has created films based on books, comic books, animated series and video games.[1][2] In 2015, Tencent set up Tencent Penguin Pictures (Shanghai), a new movie production unit, focusing on online drama and minority investments in feature films.[3]

Filmography Edit Undated films Edit 20,000 Miles Plan[20]Aura[20]Crazy Alien[21]Dark Side of the Moon[citation needed ]The Game of Antiques[20]Koseison[20]The Magic Blade remake[2]Pathfinder[citation needed ]Shanghai Fortress[citation needed ]The Treasure Map[1]The Tuzki 3D[20][22]References Edit ^ a b c d Kevin Ma (September 22, 2015). "Tencent forms film unit". Film Business Asia . Retrieved October 11, 2015 . [dead link ] ^ a b c Ali Jaafar (September 17, 2015). "China's Tencent Partners With Legendary And Wanda On 'Warcraft ' ". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on October 21, 2015 . Retrieved October 11, 2015 . ^ "China's Tencent Hatches Penguin Pictures". Variety. September 11, 2015. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019 . Retrieved December 20, 2018 . ^ 洛克王国4¼šå‡ºå‘¼å·¨äººè°·¼2015¼‰. cbooo.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on February 7, 2016 . Retrieved October 12, 2015 . ^ Warcraft at Box Office Mojo ^ 少年¼2016¼‰. cbooo.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on October 11, 2016 . Retrieved September 23, 2016 . ^ Kong: Skull Island at Box Office Mojo ^ a b Wang, Yue. "China's Tencent Has Quietly Built An Entertainment Empire That Western Tech Giants Can Only Envy". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2018-12-15 . Retrieved 2018-12-13 . ^ Wonder Woman at Box Office Mojo ^ Venom at Box Office Mojo ^ " ' Venom' Locks Down China Release Date (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2018-12-15 . Retrieved 2018-12-13 . ^ Bumblebee at Box Office Mojo ^ a b White, Peter (5 December 2018). "China's Tencent Pictures Inks Paramount Deal; Invests In 'Transformers' Spin-Off 'Bumblebee' & 'Top Gun' Sequel". Archived from the original on 6 December 2018 . Retrieved 2018-12-13 . ^ Men in Black International at Box Office Mojo ^ " ' Men in Black: International' Heads to China on June 14". Variety. 7 May 2019. Archived from the original on 25 July 2019 . Retrieved 25 July 2019 . ^ Terminator: Dark Fate at Box Office Mojo ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (23 April 2018). "Tencent To Co-Fi Skydance's 'Terminator' Reboot, Takes Chinese Distribution". Archived from the original on 16 December 2018 . Retrieved 2018-12-13 . ^ a b c "Tencent Pictures' Lineup Is a Mix of Hollywood Content and Chinese Propaganda". Variety. Archived from the original on June 18, 2019 . Retrieved July 9, 2019 . ^ Top Gun at Box Office Mojo ^ a b c d e Frater, Patrick (September 18, 2016). "David Goyer Strikes Deal With China's Tencent Pictures". Variety. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016 . Retrieved September 23, 2016 . ^ "Aliens on the big screen[2]- Chinadaily.com.cn". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Archived from the original on 2018-12-15 . Retrieved 2018-12-13 . ^ Perez, Bien (September 19, 2016). "China's Tencent Pictures teams up with Turner Asia-Pacific to develop Tuzki animated movie". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on September 27, 2016 . Retrieved September 24, 2016 . External links Edit Tencent Pictures at cbooo.cn (in Chinese)

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 16:04

As it continues to partner on international productions, China's Tencent Pictures today said it has boarded a pair of upcoming titles. They include Sony/TriStar's Mister Rogers pic A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood led by Tom Hanks as the children's TV host. It has also become an equity partner on Constantin Film's Monster Hunter, the fantasy action video game adaptation from the team behind Resident Evil.

Marielle Heller is directing A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood which sees a cynical journalist begrudgingly accept an assignment to write a profile piece on the beloved icon and finds his perspective on life transformed. Matthew Rhys also stars in the film that's inspired by the article Can You Say'...Hero? by Tom Junod. The domestic release is November 22.

Related StoryInternational Box Office: Top 10 Markets Fall 59% In "Disaster" First Quarter Amid Coronavirus; What's Next? - Charts ConstantinMonster Hunter stars Milla Jovovich and is written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Tencent will distribute in China, Toho has the movie in Japan and Constantin is releasing in German-speaking markets. Screen Gems will release in the U.S. and Sony Pictures Releasing International has the rest of the world. The domestic date is September 4, 2020.

Tencent confirmed the investments during a presentation at the Shanghai International Film Festival on Monday. Last week, Sony Pictures Animation unveiled that Tencent had boarded Wish Dragon, a tale about the power of friendship set in modern-day Shanghai that stars Jackie Chan and Constance Wu.

The above titles add to upcoming films in which Tencent is involved, Terminator: Dark Fate and Top Gun: Maverick. Its other studio investments include last week's Men In Black: International as well as last year's Bumblebee and Venom.

Edward Cheng, Vice President of Tencent Group and CEO of Tencent Pictures, said the company ''is able to build a thriving digital content ecosystem, which is well supported across Tencent platforms. Through our communications and social media platforms, we are able to better engage and reach out to the audience. Through our literature, comic, game, music and other content businesses, we are able to cultivate quality IPs and turn them into compelling stories on screens.''

At home, Tencent has recently been involved in Diao Yinan's The Wild Goose Lake which premiered in Cannes. In 2018, the pictures division established its own distribution arm.

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 15:59

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:17

by Katherine J. Igoe

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to spread across the United States and the world. It is an unprecedented time'--among other directives, people in affected areas have been asked to limit contact with others except when necessary (also known as social distancing), which has drastically impacted business, education, and daily life. The effects of the virus change every day, and some states have gone so far as to ask that residents shelter in place and not leave the house unless absolutely necessary.

The amount and nature of information available to the public is changing and evolving constantly. COVID-19 originated in China and has spread across the world, but data are still being collected about cases in the United States. The flood of information, both reliable and unreliable, has only served to make effective communication harder. So what needs to be done?

How the Coronavirus Pandemic Is DifferentCOVID-19 is unlike previous medical crises, in part because of our collective access to communication technologies. ''This is the first pandemic of its kind in the age of social media,'' explains K. Vish Viswanath, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication and director of the Applied Risk Communication for the 21st Century program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. ''We have proved, as a system, singularly unprepared to handle this aspect.''

''Because of the saturated information environment, we are getting overwhelmed, even though each medium is covering information in a careful and responsible way, especially the mainstream press,'' he explains. ''The collective exposure is causing stress. People are struggling with how to stem the tide of information flooding them.''

Unlike journalists, public health officials, and other ''gatekeepers'' of information, people on social media don't necessarily have to abide by strict standards of fact-finding. Viswanath says he's seeing both misinformation (drawing conclusions from wrong or impartial information) and disinformation (deliberately spreading falsehoods to further an agenda) about COVID-19.

This is the first pandemic of its kind in the age of social media. We have proved, as a system, singularly unprepared to handle this aspect.

COVID-19: Misinformation vs. DisinformationMisinformation can stem from our knowledge gaps: not yet having a full understanding of the virus and our seeming inability to act beyond staying at home. ''There's no cure, no vaccination'--people lose their sense of agency, so they try to fill that gap,'' explains Viswanath. Speculation may be rampant as a result, and it's not based in full factual analysis.

Disinformation is more insidious, with certain groups trying to sow seeds of distrust towards institutions. According to Viswanath, ''Public health communications operate on the principles of transparency, reliability, and trust. If you can do damage to any of the principles, it can have potentially devastating consequences.''

Spreading what amounts to conspiracy theories can have the impact of making people cynical and less likely to comply with official recommendations, which are especially necessary right now. Some politicians, according to Viswanath, are not helping matters. Spreading false or misleading information as truth will leave memory traces in an audience, even when the information is later proven to be false.

Public health communications operate on the principles of transparency, reliability, and trust.

What an Organization Can Do to Deliver COVID-19 Information''This won't be the last pandemic,'' says Viswanath. Thus, organizations need to have a robust communications surveillance strategy in place for future crises. Ultimately, there are a few ways professionals conveying formal recommendations can develop and maintain trust:

Understanding their audiences (class, age, risk, communication style) and tailoring the message to reach them. This might mean using platforms like social media to impart facts and resources.Communicating uncertainty clearly'--saying that not all information is available is more effective than speculating or making claims.Not over- or under-reassuring, but simply laying out risk and potential consequences with the appropriate tone.Providing numbers, context, history, and changes to procedure in a timely and straightforward fashion, which can help bolster trust.Telling people what they can do and how they can act to keep themselves and others safe.Watching social media: understanding what questions and knowledge gaps are coming up and strategizing how to counter myths and threats actively.In the case of COVID-19 specifically, more information needs to focus on the spread of the virus, the risks associated with contracting it, and why people should comply with the recommendations even if the number of cases are low where they are. Particularly with COVID-19, not enough people understand the reason for social distancing is to prevent disease spread even if the disease will be mild in their case or if their relative risk is low.

Additionally, the word ''pandemic'' is already a frightening concept that can make an audience feel powerless, so increasing their agency is another important strategy right now. ''People are already experiencing the crisis'--there's no point in sugar-coating the current situation,'' says Viswanath. ''What can you tell people to do so that they are not just recipients of information? Can they be an active participant in this process? Providing a sense of agency is very helpful.''

What can you tell people to do so that they are not just recipients of information? Can they be an active participant in this process? Providing a sense of agency is very helpful.

What an Individual Can Do to Stop Misinformation and DisinformationAside from abiding by CDC recommendations, there are ways for people to adapt to the situation and connect with others. Social media can also allow a person to stay in touch with family and friends, help out those who are in need during the pandemic, and have much-needed connection during a time when isolation and stress are high.

A need for accurate information (including well-reported journalism) is more important than ever, says Viswanath, as is an understanding attitude about formal recommendations that may sound extreme but clearly come from an interest in prevention. ''It's not just about you. Don't spread cynicism but encourage people to understand why compliance is important,'' he says.

People can also stop the spread of incorrect information when they see it. ''When you see something you doubt, hold off before you forward it. Wait for a day. That is in your hands'--you are a link in that chain. You can break that link,'' explains Viswanath.

In other words: social distancing prevents the spread of the disease. Distancing from misinformation and disinformation prevents the spread of falsehoods.

Dr. Viswanath directs Applied Risk Communication for the 21st Century at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:11

Gerald L. Chan (born 1953/1954) is an American billionaire and the brother of fellow billionaire Ronnie Chan.[2] They run the Hang Lung Group.

Gerald Chan

BornGerald Lok Chan

1953/1954 (age 65''66)Hong Kong

NationalityAmericanEducationUCLA Harvard UniversityOccupationBusinessmanNet worthUS$2.0 billion (jointly with brother, September 2018)[1] Spouse(s) Beryl W. ChanChildren2 sonsParent(s)T.H. ChanRelativesRonnie Chan (brother)Early life Edit Gerald Chan is the son of T.H. Chan. He earned BS and MS degrees in Engineering from UCLA as well as a master's degree in Medical Radiological Physics and doctorate in Radiation Biology from Harvard University.[3] In the 1970s, he became a US citizen.[4]

Career Edit In 1987, he co-founded Morningside Foundation, a private equity group.[3]

He is a director of Hang Lung Group, Stealth Peptides, Advanced Cell Diagnostics, Matrivax, Vaccine Technologies Inc, and Oxyrane.[5]

When his family gave the Harvard School of Public Health $350 million, the largest gift in Harvard's history at the time, the school was renamed the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for Chan's late father.[4][6]

As of 2015, he had invested $500 million in the Harvard Square district of Cambridge, where he reportedly lives.[4]

In September 2018, Chan opened a luxury hotel in Hampshire, UK - Heckfield Place, renovated 18th-century manor house and farm.[7]

Personal life Edit Chan is married to Beryl, and they have two sons, Ashley being the eldest.[4]

References Edit

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:08

As of January 16, 2015 the School is now officially the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. To view the new logo, please go to this link, which shows some of the ways in which the new name can be used visually.

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:07

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers,[4][5][6][7][8] the nation's first graduate training program in population health, which was founded in 1913 and then became the Harvard School of Public Health in 1922. Michelle Ann Williams became the school's dean in 2016 following the departure of former dean Julio Frenk.[9] She is the first African American to head a Harvard faculty.[10]

HSPH Courtyard Entrance from Harvard Medical School

Considered a preeminent school of public health in the United States, Chan is ranked as the 2nd best public health school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.[11]

History Edit The School traces its origins to the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, founded in 1913; Harvard calls it "the nation's first graduate training program in public health." In 1922, the School for Health Officers became the Harvard School of Public Health. In 1946, it was split off from the medical school and became a separate Harvard faculty.[12] It was renamed the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2014 in honor of a $350 million donation, the largest in Harvard's history at the time, from the Morningside Foundation,[13] run by Harvard School of Public Health alumnus Gerald Chan, SM '75, SD '79, and Ronnie Chan, the sons of T.H. Chan.[14][15]

Curriculum Edit The Master of Public Health program offers nine fields of study:

Clinical Effectiveness (CLE)Epidemiology (EPI)Global Health (GH)Health and Social Behavior (HSB)Health Management (HM)Health Policy (HP)Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH)Quantitative Methods (QM)Nutrition (NUT)[16]Degree programs offered by specific departments:

Biostatistics: SM, PhDEnvironmental Health (EH): SM, PhD, DrPHEpidemiology (EPI): SM, DrPHGenetics and Complex Diseases: PhDHealth Policy and Management: SM, PhDHealth Care Management: SMImmunology and Infectious Diseases: PhDNutrition (NUT): DrPH, PhDGlobal Health and Population (GHP): PhDSocial and Behavioral Sciences (SBS): SM, DrPHPopulation Health Sciences (Interdisciplinary PhD within departments of EH, EPI, GHP, NUT, and SBS)The Harvard Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) was launched in 2014 as a multidisciplinary degree providing advanced education in public health along with mastery of skills in management, leadership, communications, and innovation thinking. The program is a cohort-based program emphasizing small-group learning and collaboration. The program is designed for three years '' two years at Harvard, plus one year in a field-based doctoral project '' although some students may take up to four years to complete the program. Academic training in the DrPH covers the biological, social, and economic foundations of public health, as well as essential statistical, quantitative, and methodological skills in the first year, an individualized course of study in your second year, and a field-based, capstone project called the DELTA (Doctoral Engagement in Leadership and Translation for Action) in the final year(s) of the program.[17]

PhD programs are offered under the aegis of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Research projects Edit The Nurses' Health Study and Nurses' Health Study II, which have followed the health of over 100,000 nurses from 1976 to the present; its results have been used in hundreds of published papers.[18]The Health Professionals Follow-up Study, a similar study of over fifty thousand male health professionals seeking to connect diet, exercise, smoking, and medications taken to frequency of cancer and cardiovascular disease.[19]The International Health Systems Program, which has provided training or technical assistance to projects in 21 countries and conducts health policy research.[20]The Program in Health Care Financing, which studies the economics of national health care programs; evaluates the health care programs of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other countries; studies the effects of bringing HMO-like hospital reimbursement practices to developing countries; and applies hedonimetrics to health care.[21]The Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR),[22] which studies public health and humanitarian law and policy in the context of conflict-torn regions like the Gaza Strip and transnational issues like terrorism.[23]The Lung Cancer S.O.S. study, examining the risk factors for and prognosis of lung cancer in terms of genetics and environment.[24]The College Alcohol Study, which examines the causes of college binge drinking and approaches to prevention and harm reduction.[25]The Program on the Global Demography of Aging, which studies policy issues related to economics of aging with a focus on the developing world.[26]The Superfund Basic Research Program (see Superfund), studying toxic waste management.[27]The Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, to "help identify how positive aspects of living can lead to better health and a longer life"[28] and "coordinate research across many disciplines at Harvard University" and "understanding the complex interplay between positive psychological well-being and human health."[29][30][31][32][33][34] Notable faculty (and past faculty) Edit Katherine Baicker, economist, a former member of the Council of Economic AdvisersRobert Blendon, political strategy of health and public opinion expertBarry Bloom, immunologist and former deanDavid Bloom, economistDavid Canning, economistFrancesca Dominici senior associate dean for research, professor of biostatistics, data scientist, and air pollution expertArnold Epstein, department chair for health policy and managementMax Essex, HIV researcherJulio Frenk, former dean of school of public health and former Secretary of Health of MexicoAtul Gawande, general and endocrine surgeonSue Goldie, physician and decision scientist, MacArthur fellowship recipientJohn Graham, policy and decision scientist, former director of the Office of Information and Regulatory AffairsLaurie Glimcher, immunologistAlice Hamilton, occupational health and toxicology; first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University[35]David Hemenway, economist and injury prevention expertWilliam Hsiao, economistFrank Hu, epidemiologist and nutrition researcherDavid Hunter, epidemiologist, Acting Dean of the Faculty and former Dean for Academic Affairs at School of Public HealthCurtis Huttenhower, computational biologistIchiro Kawachi, social epidemiologistHoward Koh, public health researcher, the 14th Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Nan Laird, biostatistician, former head of departmentAlexander H. Leighton, psychiatric epidemiologistRichard Levins, ecologist and mathematical biologistXihong Lin, biostatistician and mathematician, 2006 COPPS presidents' award recipientJun S. Liu, biostatistician and mathematician, 2002 COPPS presidents' award recipientBernard Lown, co-founded the Nobel Prize-winning group Physicians for Social Responsibility; founder of the Lown Cardiovascular Research FoundationAdetokunbo Lucas, former director of Tropical Diseases Research at the World Health Organization (WHO)Brian MacMahon, cancer epidemiologistSezan Mahmud, Writer and university professorChristopher Murray, physician and health economistJoseph Newhouse, economist and director of the RAND Health Insurance ExperimentShuji Ogino, pioneer in molecular pathological epidemiologyEric Rubin, editor-in-chief of New England Journal of MedicineJames Robins, epidemiologist and biostatisticianPardis Sabeti, computational biologist, medical geneticist and evolutionary geneticistAmartya Sen, economist, Nobel laureate in EconomicsGita Sen, feminist scholar and specialist in international population policyAndrew Spielman, public health entomologistFrederick J. Stare, controversial chair of Nutrition InstituteJames H. Ware, biostatisticianThomas Huckle Weller, Nobel laureate in Physiology and MedicineGeorge C. Whipple, cofounder of School in 1922[36]Walter Willett, physician and nutrition researcherNotable alumni Edit Anthony Irvine Adams, 2001 Alumni Award of Merit for a distinguished service in public health practiceJames B. Aguayo-Martel, pioneer in ophthalmologyGro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, former Director-General of the World Health OrganizationEli Capilouto, twelfth president of the University of KentuckyWilliam Foege, MPH 1965, physician, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionHumayun Chaudhry, President and CEO of the Federation of State Medical BoardsWinston Dang, head of Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration from 2004 to 2008[37]Jonathan Fielding, Director Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, editor Annual Review of Public HealthJanina R. Galler, PI and Director of 45+-year Barbados Nutrition Study in the Lesser Antilles, in the Americas, a longitudinal study showING the intergenerational legacy of poverty and disadvantage that result from childhood malnutrition.Steven K. Galson, former Acting Surgeon General of the United StatesAtul Gawande, surgical safety pioneer, MacArthur Fellow, Rhodes ScholarSue Goldie, MacArthur Fellow and decision scientistTimothy Johnson, chief medical correspondent for ABC NewsKarl Lauterbach, German politician (SPD)John S. Marr, MD, MPH, epidemiologist and author.Jonathan Mann, former head of the World Health Organization global HIV/AIDS programJames O. Mason, former Acting Surgeon General of the United States, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionShuji Ogino, pioneer in molecular pathological epidemiologyEndang Rahayu Sedyaningsih, former Minister of Health of IndonesiaDavid J. Sencer, longest-serving Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention[38]See also Edit Hang Lung GroupReferences Edit ^ a b "Key Facts". About. Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health . Retrieved 26 January 2020 . ^ "Enrollment and Degrees". About. Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health . Retrieved 26 January 2020 . ^ "Alumni". About. Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health . Retrieved 26 January 2020 . ^ "Harvard School of Public Health celebrates 100 years of global health leadership". harvard.edu. 28 August 2013 . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Centennial". Centennial . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "History, from About HSPH, reprinted online from HCSPH Fast Facts booklet, accessed 1/19/2016" (PDF) . harvard.edu . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Who We Are". Admissions. May 15, 2015 . Retrieved Feb 4, 2019 . ^ [Who We Are, from HCSPH Admissions website, accessed 1/19/2016] ^ "Michelle Williams to lead Harvard Chan School". harvard.edu. 19 February 2016 . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Michelle A. Williams to Lead School of Public Health As First Black Harvard Faculty Dean - News - The Harvard Crimson". thecrimson.com . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ 2015 Ranking of Best schools of Public Health in US by U.S. News & World Report. ^ "HSPH Catalog - Harvard School of Public Health". harvard.edu . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Boston Orange æ"å£é '菊子: æ¨è基金捐三åäº-- å'佛公è›å­¸éå† åé"曾ç†". bostonorange.blogspot.com. 9 September 2014 . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "The story of T. H. Chan". harvard.edu. 19 July 2016 . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Hang Lung's Gerald Chan to Give $350M to Harvard". mingtiandi.com. 9 September 2014 . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Master of Public Health". Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Harvard University . Retrieved 26 January 2020 . ^ "Doctor of Public Health". Doctor of Public Health. Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. September 28, 2016 . Retrieved September 28, 2016 . ^ "Nurses' Health Study -". www.channing.harvard.edu . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Health Professionals Follow-Up Study". Health Professionals Follow-Up Study . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "International Health Systems Program at Harvard". harvard.edu . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Program in Health Care Financing". Program in Health Care Financing . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research". 21 May 2010. Archived from the original on 21 May 2010. ^ Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) Archived 2010-05-21 at the Wayback Machine ^ "Lung Cancer Study (LCS)". harvard.edu. 14 October 2012 . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "College Alcohol Study". www.hsph.harvard.edu . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Program on the Global Demography of Aging at Harvard University". Program on the Global Demography of Aging at Harvard University . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "The Superfund Basis Research Program at Harvard University". harvard.edu . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Family of Chinese oyster sauce empire gives $21 million to Harvard, Apr 25, 2016, 6:13am EDT". Bizjournals.com . Retrieved 2019-02-04 . ^ "About the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness - Health and Happiness". 29 April 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-04-29 . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "$21 Million Gift Launches Center for Health and Happiness - News - The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ Hamblin, James. "Harvard Just Launched a Center for Happiness". theatlantic.com . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "INTERVIEW: Harvard University explores happiness, health with gifted $21 million. Osler, C. Daily Free Press, Boston University. April 28, 2016". dailyfreepress.com . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "A quest for happiness". harvard.edu. 22 April 2016 . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness". harvard.edu. 25 April 2016 . Retrieved 1 April 2018 . ^ "Changing the Face of Medicine | AliceHamilton". Nlm.nih.gov. 2003-10-14 . Retrieved 2019-02-04 . ^ "George Chandler Whipple." (1925). Jour. American Water Works Association. 13:1, 93-4. ^ Galford, Hugh S. (August 2007). "The Over-Educated Garbage Man: Minister Winston Dang of Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration". Washington International. Archived from the original on 2014-03-02 . Retrieved 2013-02-13 . ^ "Magazine Archives". Harvard Public Health Review. Winter 2007 . Retrieved 30 September 2009 . External links Edit Media related to Harvard School of Public Health at Wikimedia Commons

Official website Professor Andrew Speilman, Professor Tropical Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health Freeview Issues programme on Malaria by the Vega Science Trust.Centers and Institutes Edit Jay Winsten Center for Health CommunicationFran§ois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human RightsHarvard Center for Cancer PreventionHarvard Center for Population and Development StudiesHarvard Injury Control Research CenterHarvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative (HSPH HAI)Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public HealthJohn B. Little Center for Radiation Sciences

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 11:34

US President Donald Trump slammed the World Health Organization for its ''faulty recommendation'' that the US '' which now has more coronavirus cases than China '' should keep its borders open during the early weeks of the epidemic.

The president warned he would be having a ''good look'' at why the WHO, chiefly funded by the US, was so ''China centric'' in a tweet on Tuesday.

Congratulating himself for not listening to the NGO's advice, Trump wondered aloud about its motivations.

The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?

'-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2020As the coronavirus epidemic has grown from a localized outbreak around Wuhan, China to a global pandemic, world leaders have rushed to point fingers, each accusing the others of ''getting it wrong'' early on. While Trump's early attempts to downplay the seriousness of the virus have gotten heaps of media attention, the WHO's early reports that there was no evidence of person-to-person transmission have been largely forgotten.

Also on rt.com WHO warns Covid-19 may reignite if restrictions lifted too early as Austria & Denmark announce gradual reopening The UN health organization's recommendations have shifted dramatically over the intervening weeks. As of Tuesday, a spokesman was warning countries eager to get back to work that lifting some of the sweeping restrictions that have pitched the world economy into a death spiral would trigger a resurgence of the epidemic, even in areas where it seems to be waning.

While Trump had previously expressed hope of getting Americans out of their lockdowns by Easter, he seemed more recently to have resigned himself and the nation to another month of quarantine. Meanwhile, the US economy continues to bleed out, with over 10 million workers filing unemployment claims in the last two weeks.

The US leads the world in number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with 368,533 as of Tuesday to China's 82,718. Some 11,018 people have died with the virus in the US, a good deal more than China's officially confirmed 3,335 deaths. The WHO praised China's strict quarantines and other sweeping control measures for slowing the spread of the virus. However, the US' own efforts to emulate Beijing with mass lockdowns were doomed by foot-dragging and false starts on testing.

Also on rt.com WHO can we trust? Just when coronavirus gave the World Health Organization its moment to shine, it bottled it Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 11:33

OverviewHigh blood pressure is a common condition in which the long-term force of the blood against your artery walls is high enough that it may eventually cause health problems, such as heart disease.

Blood pressure is determined both by the amount of blood your heart pumps and the amount of resistance to blood flow in your arteries. The more blood your heart pumps and the narrower your arteries, the higher your blood pressure.

You can have high blood pressure (hypertension) for years without any symptoms. Even without symptoms, damage to blood vessels and your heart continues and can be detected. Uncontrolled high blood pressure increases your risk of serious health problems, including heart attack and stroke.

High blood pressure generally develops over many years, and it affects nearly everyone eventually. Fortunately, high blood pressure can be easily detected. And once you know you have high blood pressure, you can work with your doctor to control it.

SymptomsMost people with high blood pressure have no signs or symptoms, even if blood pressure readings reach dangerously high levels.

A few people with high blood pressure may have headaches, shortness of breath or nosebleeds, but these signs and symptoms aren't specific and usually don't occur until high blood pressure has reached a severe or life-threatening stage.

When to see a doctorYou'll likely have your blood pressure taken as part of a routine doctor's appointment.

Ask your doctor for a blood pressure reading at least every two years starting at age 18. If you're age 40 or older, or you're 18 to 39 with a high risk of high blood pressure, ask your doctor for a blood pressure reading every year.

Blood pressure generally should be checked in both arms to determine if there's a difference. It's important to use an appropriate-sized arm cuff.

Your doctor will likely recommend more frequent readings if you've already been diagnosed with high blood pressure or have other risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Children age 3 and older will usually have blood pressure measured as a part of their yearly checkups.

If you don't regularly see your doctor, you may be able to get a free blood pressure screening at a health resource fair or other locations in your community. You can also find machines in some stores that will measure your blood pressure for free.

Public blood pressure machines, such as those found in pharmacies, may provide helpful information about your blood pressure, but they may have some limitations. The accuracy of these machines depends on several factors, such as a correct cuff size and proper use of the machines. Ask your doctor for advice on using public blood pressure machines.

CausesThere are two types of high blood pressure.

Primary (essential) hypertensionFor most adults, there's no identifiable cause of high blood pressure. This type of high blood pressure, called primary (essential) hypertension, tends to develop gradually over many years.

Secondary hypertensionSome people have high blood pressure caused by an underlying condition. This type of high blood pressure, called secondary hypertension, tends to appear suddenly and cause higher blood pressure than does primary hypertension. Various conditions and medications can lead to secondary hypertension, including:

Obstructive sleep apnea Kidney problems Adrenal gland tumors Thyroid problems Certain defects you're born with (congenital) in blood vessels Certain medications, such as birth control pills, cold remedies, decongestants, over-the-counter pain relievers and some prescription drugs Illegal drugs, such as cocaine and amphetamines Risk factorsHigh blood pressure has many risk factors, including:

Age. The risk of high blood pressure increases as you age. Until about age 64, high blood pressure is more common in men. Women are more likely to develop high blood pressure after age 65. Race. High blood pressure is particularly common among people of African heritage, often developing at an earlier age than it does in whites. Serious complications, such as stroke, heart attack and kidney failure, also are more common in people of African heritage. Family history. High blood pressure tends to run in families. Being overweight or obese. The more you weigh the more blood you need to supply oxygen and nutrients to your tissues. As the volume of blood circulated through your blood vessels increases, so does the pressure on your artery walls. Not being physically active. People who are inactive tend to have higher heart rates. The higher your heart rate, the harder your heart must work with each contraction and the stronger the force on your arteries. Lack of physical activity also increases the risk of being overweight. Using tobacco. Not only does smoking or chewing tobacco immediately raise your blood pressure temporarily, but the chemicals in tobacco can damage the lining of your artery walls. This can cause your arteries to narrow and increase your risk of heart disease. Secondhand smoke also can increase your heart disease risk. Too much salt (sodium) in your diet. Too much sodium in your diet can cause your body to retain fluid, which increases blood pressure. Too little potassium in your diet. Potassium helps balance the amount of sodium in your cells. If you don't get enough potassium in your diet or retain enough potassium, you may accumulate too much sodium in your blood. Drinking too much alcohol. Over time, heavy drinking can damage your heart. Having more than one drink a day for women and more than two drinks a day for men may affect your blood pressure.

If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation. For healthy adults, that means up to one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men. One drink equals 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor.

Stress. High levels of stress can lead to a temporary increase in blood pressure. If you try to relax by eating more, using tobacco or drinking alcohol, you may only increase problems with high blood pressure. Certain chronic conditions. Certain chronic conditions also may increase your risk of high blood pressure, such as kidney disease, diabetes and sleep apnea.Sometimes pregnancy contributes to high blood pressure, as well.

Although high blood pressure is most common in adults, children may be at risk, too. For some children, high blood pressure is caused by problems with the kidneys or heart. But for a growing number of kids, poor lifestyle habits, such as an unhealthy diet, obesity and lack of exercise, contribute to high blood pressure.

ComplicationsThe excessive pressure on your artery walls caused by high blood pressure can damage your blood vessels, as well as organs in your body. The higher your blood pressure and the longer it goes uncontrolled, the greater the damage.

Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to complications including:

Heart attack or stroke. High blood pressure can cause hardening and thickening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), which can lead to a heart attack, stroke or other complications. Aneurysm. Increased blood pressure can cause your blood vessels to weaken and bulge, forming an aneurysm. If an aneurysm ruptures, it can be life-threatening. Heart failure. To pump blood against the higher pressure in your vessels, the heart has to work harder. This causes the walls of the heart's pumping chamber to thicken (left ventricular hypertrophy). Eventually, the thickened muscle may have a hard time pumping enough blood to meet your body's needs, which can lead to heart failure. Weakened and narrowed blood vessels in your kidneys. This can prevent these organs from functioning normally. Thickened, narrowed or torn blood vessels in the eyes. This can result in vision loss. Metabolic syndrome. This syndrome is a cluster of disorders of your body's metabolism, including increased waist circumference; high triglycerides; low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol; high blood pressure and high insulin levels. These conditions make you more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Trouble with memory or understanding. Uncontrolled high blood pressure may also affect your ability to think, remember and learn. Trouble with memory or understanding concepts is more common in people with high blood pressure. Dementia. Narrowed or blocked arteries can limit blood flow to the brain, leading to a certain type of dementia (vascular dementia). A stroke that interrupts blood flow to the brain also can cause vascular dementia.

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Archived Version

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 11:32

ALBANY, N.Y. '' The majority of New York's more than 4,700 deaths due to coronavirus were among men, and 86% of all deaths were among people who had underlying illnesses, such as hypertension and diabetes, new state data shows.

The statistics released late Monday offered the latest glimpse into how the rapidly spreading virus has impacted New York and made it the epicenter for COVID-19 in the nation.

Of the 4,758 deaths in New York since the first on March 14, 61% were men and 39% were women, the state Department of Health reportedon its new data portal.

In addition, 63% of the deaths were among those age 70 and older, while 7% of the cases were those 49 and younger.

And 4,089 of those who died had at least one other chronic disease, the records showed:

The leading underlying illness was hypertension, which showed up in 55% of the deaths.Next was diabetes, which was diagnosed in 1,755 deaths, or about 37% of the cases.Other top illnesses found in those who died from coronavirus were hyperlipidemia; coronary artery disease; renal disease and dementia.US coronavirus map:Tracking the outbreak

More:New York City examines 'temporary burials' on Hart Island, official says

New data unveiled by New York on coronavirusNew York started to release more details about coronavirus cases just hours after a USA TODAY Network article on Friday sourced experts who said the state should release as many details as possible to help the public understand the virus and their risks.

The goal, state officials said, is to continue to add more data to the portal, including the race of those who died amid reports that people of color are being hit the hardest by the virus.

Health experts and government officials have long warned that the virus preys on the elderly and those with preexisting health conditions.

"The undeniable truth here is that this virus is a deadly enemy, and we will lose and we are losing people who are vulnerable to the virus," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.

"That can't be controlled, that can't be fixed. Why? That's Mother Nature, that's a question God can only answer. But, control what you can. Do what you can."

Cuomo said the state has tried to limit deaths by ensuring the sick have access to ventilators and medical equipment, even as the state runs perilously low of its inventory.

No work, no stimulus check:Anxiety for undocumented immigrant laborers

Number of cases, death continue to rise in New YorkOn Monday, New York had more than130,000 positive COVID-19 cases, with about 93% of those in New York City and its suburbs '-- in part due to the rapid spread of the illness there and aggressive testing.

Overall, the state has tested about 321,000 people, so about 59% have tested negative.

About 300 of the deaths occurred outside the city, Long Island and Westchester and Rockland counties, the statistics showed.

The death toll statewide jumped by 600 between Sunday and Monday, giving New York 46% of the roughly 10,250 fatalities in the nation.

But Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio indicated Monday that while the deaths are still rising, they may have begun to plateau as the rate has stayed consistent recent days and the number of hospitalizations have fallen.

"For the first time, I would say the city's seeing this, the state is seeing this, the beginning of some evidence that something's changing," de Blasio said Monday on NY1.

Follow Joseph Spector on Twitter: @GannettAlbany

Reports:Trump aide Peter Navarro warned 'as many as 1.2 million souls' could be lost to coronavirus: reports

Dr. Anthony Fauci:There are 'good signs' in US battle against coronavirus, but we're far from 'claiming victory'

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 11:27

Kayleigh McEnany is leaving President Trump Donald John TrumpOvernight Health Care: US hits 10,000 coronavirus deaths | Trump touts 'friendly' talk with Biden on response | Trump dismisses report on hospital shortages as 'just wrong' | Cuomo sees possible signs of curve flattening in NY We need to be 'One America,' the polling says '-- and the politicians should listen Barr tells prosecutors to consider coronavirus risk when determining bail: report MORE 's reelection campaign to serve as the new White House press secretary, a source confirmed on Tuesday.

The former Republican National Committee spokeswoman and the current spokeswoman for the Trump campaign will take over for outgoing press secretary Stephanie Grisham Stephanie GrishamTrump lashes out at NYT, WaPost amid criticism of coronavirus response OAN says it will attend briefing as White House guest after violating social distancing rules UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tests positive for coronavirus MORE .

McEnany, 31, has long been a fierce defender of the president in television interviews and through the campaign. She was a frequent presence on the campaign trail, appearing at Trump rallies and participating in events for the Women for Trump coalition.

A formal announcement is expected later Tuesday.

The New York Times first reported the news.

The addition of McEnany is part of a broader overhaul of the White House press shop under new chief of staff Mark Meadows Mark Randall MeadowsThe Hill's Coronavirus Report: Dybul interview; Boris Johnson update Schumer names coronavirus czar candidates in plea to White House The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Guidance on masks is coming MORE . The changes come at a critical moment for the administration as it works to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Her arrival also underscores the increasing focus on the president's reelection as one of his top campaign surrogates becomes the face of the White House press shop.

McEnany will be the fourth press secretary of the Trump administration. She follows Grisham, Sarah Huckabee Sarah Elizabeth SandersFox News's Hume rips Alexander over 'gotcha' question to Trump NBC's Alexander: I gave Trump 'a softball' question as opportunity to 'reassure' Americans Coronavirus puts new use to White House press briefing room MORE Sanders and Sean Spicer Sean Michael SpicerMisplaced outrage over who attends a White House press conference Trump-NBC battle highlights shortcomings of White House coronavirus briefings The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump triggers emergency powers to fight outbreak MORE . Both Grisham and Spicer lasted less than a year in the job.

The role of press secretary has been difficult for McEnany's predecessors, as Trump has long been viewed as his own spokesman. He has commandeered the daily coronavirus task force briefings in recent weeks, often taking questions from and sparring with reporters for up to two hours each evening.

The White House announced earlier Tuesday that Grisham would depart as press secretary to return to the East Wing as the first lady's chief of staff and spokeswoman.

Grisham's legacy as press secretary is largely defined by her lack of visibility. She did not hold a single press briefing, nor did she engage in gaggles with reporters on camera, something deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway Kellyanne Elizabeth ConwayBiden fights for attention in coronavirus news cycle Trump says he's open to speaking to Biden about coronavirus The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden offers to talk coronavirus response with Trump MORE and top economic adviser Larry Kudlow Lawrence (Larry) Alan KudlowMORE do regularly.

The outgoing press secretary did appear frequently on Fox News programs, where she was occasionally asked about the lack of briefings. She attributed the decision to Trump's accessibility and her belief that reporters used the briefings as ''theatre'' to boost their profiles.

--This report was updated at 12:03 p.m.

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Archived Version

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 11:03

By Kennedy Shelley

What if no one noticed that a new virus was spreading in China?

Would we have a worldwide panic and stock collapse, toilet paper shortages and draconian stay at home orders?

According to one of the top doctors of infectious disease on the planet, we would have done nothing, and we probably would not have noticed it.

According to Dr. John Ioannidis (MD and Ph.D.) of Stanford University School of Medicine we might have thought we had more flu than usual and that would have been it.

For the vast majority of people who get COVID-19 (over 80%), they just feel bad for a couple of days.

If you have heart or lung disease or diabetes, there is a small chance you could get a serious case of pneumonia requiring a ventilator.

According to Dr. Ioannidis maybe 10,000 people would have died. Almost all were high risk from flu complications, and no one would really notice.

No one would have noticed unless sensationalist, anti-Trump and irresponsible news outlets like the Drudge Report were not trying to scare the heck out of people to get more ad sales.

See this bombshell admission from one of the leading specialists in contagious disease tracking here:

When you listen to someone who is a doctor who is not affected by the news media induced panic talk about this it is tough to be worried, unless you have a pre-existing condition.

Two countries, Sweden and Holland are refusing to panic. They are advising people with health problems to stay at home and everyone else to just live their lives.

They are not panicking or dying in droves and everyone is keeping their jobs and able to pay their bills without a government handout.

While this is a new virus, we always have new viruses.

That is why when the flu happens every winter people still get it even though they have had the flu before, it is a new strain.

Every year new coronaviruses pop up and they are generally mild to most people and very rough on the older population who have other health conditions.

We just don't track all the coronaviruses all that carefully because they are so similar to so many flu strains and the coronaviruses mix in with them and there is no specific treatment.

Therefore, medicine treats those who are sick with ventilators and there is no media sensation.

What has happened with this is the media has either panicked or deliberately keep this story going in a cynical attempt to make money during a time of slumping viewership.

Take a look at the headlines on irresponsible sites like the Drudge Report '' it looks like the world is ending, but if they covered it like every other flu season, it would get the attention of ''a story of a game of two mediocre NBA teams'' according to Dr. Ioannidis.

While it is tempting to blame politicians, they are often reacting to panicked constituents who are being manipulated by panic mongering media outlets who are trying to get more viewers to sell more advertising.

If there is one real silver lining that might occur is that Americans will wake up to the very real need to take control of their own health so their immune system can withstand future viruses instead of having to shut down the entire country.

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Archived Version

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 11:00

A major model relied upon by White House medical experts was updated overnight and projects nearly 12,000 fewer deaths from COVID-19.

The new disease is caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. It emerged in China last year.

The major model now projects that between 49,431 and 136,401 (a mean of 81,765) deaths from COVID-19 will take place in the United States by June 19, when the deaths are predicted to hit zero per day. The previous version of the model projected 93,531 Americans would die by that time.

The model in question was published by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), which receives funding from the Gates Foundation. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, are among the top state and national officials who have cited it when talking about projected figures related to the virus outbreak.

The apex of daily deaths in the United States is still projected to occur on April 16. Modelers believe deaths that day will be somewhere between 1,282 to 7,703, a mean of 3,130. The previous mean was 2,644.

But the daily deaths are now projected to drop off faster than in the previous model, leading to the revised figure.

A ventilator is seen at the New York City Emergency Management Warehouse, where 400 ventilators arrived and before being shipped out for distribution, due to concerns over the rapid spread of the CCP virus, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on March 24, 2020. (Caitlin Ochs/Reuters)Fewer hospital beds, beds in intensive care units, and ventilators will be needed on the new projected peak hospitalization date, modelers also said.

The IHME model previously expected roughly 120,000 to 430,000 hospital beds would be needed on April 16, a mean of 262,092 beds, along with a mean of 39,727 ICU beds and 31,782 ventilators.

The new means are: 140,823 hospital beds, 29,210 ICU beds, and 24,828 ventilators. Total hospitalizations are also down in the new model.

Many COVID-19 patients who require intensive care are placed on ventilators, machines that help people breathe, and stay on them for weeks. Approximately 20 percent of patients in New York state, which has the most patients in intensive care, recover from the disease after being placed on a ventilator.

Even before the model was updated, hospitalizations in the United States were just a fraction of the projections. The updated model also appeared to be overestimating hospitalizations in some states. For instance, it said New York would require 14,947 to 37,576 hospital beds on April 5; the state had 16,479 in hospitals on Sunday. While as many as 9,277 ICU beds were in the projection, state officials reported 4,376 patients in intensive care units.

New York officials have projected needing up to 40,000 ventilators but the updated model projects needing no more than 10,606.

On the other hand, the IHME was accurately predicting the number of deaths on some days. For instance, it predicted 1,133 to 1,555 COVID-19 deaths for April 4. There were around 1,350 deaths reported that day.

A discarded surgical mask is seen on the sidewalk outside of Wyckoff Hospital in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York City, in a file photo. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)Model Reflects New DataDr. Christopher Murray, the IHME director, said in a statement that the revised model reflects ''a massive infusion of new data.''

Data from some states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Colorado, concerning the use of healthcare systems led modelers to revise down the estimated need of the system during the CCP virus outbreak.

''As we obtain more data and more precise data, the forecasts we at IHME created have become more accurate,'' Murray said. ''And these projections are vital to health planners, policymakers, and anyone else associated with caring for those affected by and infected with the coronavirus.''

Modelers said projections of the pandemic depend on the peak in each state and the peak being reached in seven European regions, including Madrid, Spain, and Lombardy, Italy, helped inform the revised figures.

Murray credited social distancing measures, which include remaining 6 feet away from non-household members, as contributing to the updated model but claimed that the trajectory of the pandemic would change ''dramatically for the worse'' if people ease up on such measures.

The model assumes that widespread social distancing measures remain in place until the end of May, he said.

President Donald Trump earlier this month extended federal social distancing recommendations to April 30. The advisory prompted a number of governors to either extend social distancing mandates or recommendations and others to announce stay at home orders for the first time.

Trump on Sunday told reporters that models overestimated the number of hospital beds needed in the United States.

''It's turning out that we need less hospital beds,'' Trump said at the task force's daily briefing. ''We may have models, but we've been sort of saying that. In New York, we were saying we think you're gonna need less.''

Petr Svab contributed to this report.

Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 10:51

By Hub staff report

/

Published April 3, 2020James Taylor, a professor of biology and computer science at Johns Hopkins University, died Thursday, April 2. He was 40.

Image caption: James Taylor

A trailblazer in computational biology and genomics research, Taylor made an impact as a scientist, teacher, and colleague, with appointments in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering. He helped develop the Galaxy platform for data analysis and worked with members of his lab to extend the platform to make large scale computational analysis more accessible and reproducible. His research also focused on understanding genomic and epigenomic regulation of gene transcription through integrated analysis, with the goal of achieving a complete understanding of the structure and function of genomes. He also developed a strategy to support the health of the Chesapeake Bay by detecting microorganisms in the Baltimore Harbor and monitoring their levels continuously using newly developed, portable, and rapid DNA sequencing technologies.

Vince Hilser, chair of the Biology Department, describes Taylor as a bedrock of the department. Taylor helped other faculty members uncover new insights by revealing similarities between the proteins they were studying and those in other organisms.

"He came in 2014, and it was transformational," Hilser says. "He was this catalyst for change, with a huge positive impact."

Rajiv McCoy, an assistant professor of biology, says he counted Taylor as a mentor and friend.

"He blazed a trail for computational research within the Department of Biology and is one of the main reasons that I came to Hopkins," McCoy says. "James was a selfless advocate for trainees and junior faculty, working tirelessly in the background on our behalf. James was also an outspoken proponent of reproducibility in computational research. His work to highlight this issue and develop tools for addressing it has been invaluable to the scientific community."

John Kim, an associate professor of biology, shared adjoining offices and labs with Taylor in the Undergraduate Teaching Labs.

"His office door was always wide open, inviting anyone to come in to talk," Kim says. "He furnished it sparsely, with just a small round table in the middle and speakers by the windows playing a broad and eclectic selection of music while he worked on his laptop. It was an open, inviting space where I and many others would stop in to talk about science or just to say hello. He was a great listener, so thoughtful and generous with his time. We have lost a brilliant scientist and a great friend to the many lives he touched and made better."

Taylor was "an exceptional scientist, colleague, mentor, and community builder," says Michael Schatz, Bloomberg Distinguished Associate Professor of computer science and biology.

"His impact is immeasurable, with thousands of scientists who have benefited from his leadership and contributions," Schatz says. "On a personal level, James was always kind, friendly, and generous, and we will miss him dearly."

Taylor earned his BS in computer science from the University of Vermont in 2000 and his PhD in computer science in 2006 from Penn State University, where he was involved in several vertebrate genome projects and the ENCODE project. Before arriving at Johns Hopkins, he was an associate professor in the departments of Biology and of Mathematics and Computer Science at Emory University from 2008 until 2013.

He was a member of the Science Gateways Institute Steering Committee, and had been a member of the National Center for Genome Analysis Scientific Advisory Board from 2014 to 2016; a member of the iPlant Scientific Advisory Board from 2013 to 2016; a member of the XSEDE Project User Advisory Committee from 2012 to 2014; and co-chair of the International Arabadopsis Informatics Consortium: Engineering, Architecture and Infrastructure Working Group in 2011.

He is survived by his wife, Meredith Greif, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology.

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 10:50

Log in Sign up David BakerTextTrump88022'­¸In'­¸Like'­¸Flynn @ IWasHrren Apotex, manufacturer of hydrochloroquine, owners were murdered in 2017. About the time Fauci predicted a surprise pandemic for Trump Administration. I found patent app for process to make extra pure version"2020-04-06Application status is Abandoned"

patents.google.com/patent/CA25619'... 12:54 AM - 6 Apr 2020 David BakerTextTrump88022'­¸In'­¸Like'­¸Flynn @ IWasHrren

Apr 6 Replying to

@IWasHrren High profile murder investigation badly botched by Toronto police. Initially blown off as murder suicide. Private investigation turned up evidence confirming murder. Toronto PD too busy to investigate.

nationalpost.com/news/canada/fa'... View conversation · David BakerTextTrump88022'­¸In'­¸Like'­¸Flynn @ IWasHrren

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@IWasHrren I can't blow this off as a coincidence, with no cause of death.

hub.jhu.edu/2020/04/03/jam'... View conversation · David BakerTextTrump88022'­¸In'­¸Like'­¸Flynn @ IWasHrren

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@IWasHrren It just keeps getting better

torontostnews.com/single-post/20'... View conversation · David BakerTextTrump88022'­¸In'­¸Like'­¸Flynn @ IWasHrren

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@IWasHrren Naturally, the murdered pharmaceutical magnate has direct ties to crimes by Clinton Foundation in Haiti. This is too much. I gotta go throw up

theduran.com/confirmed-toro'... View conversation · Candace @ ky_candace

Apr 6 Replying to

@IWasHrren I was thinking of Phillip Haney over the weekend. I don't believe he committed suicide. This is a stretch of my own opinion but find the timing all too coincidental.

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@ky_candace Who commits suicide anymore? All you have to do is cross the

#DemoNazis.

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@IWasHrren @martingeddes Drop 2217

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@IWasHrren @martingeddes google.com/amp/s/www.forb'... View conversation · Jordan Sather @ Jordan_Sather_

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@IWasHrren @Sun_Q_Tzu Chloroquine has been a generic since the 60s, there are many manufacturers. And on Google patents it will always show today's date with the current status - doesn't mean it expired today.

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2 others No money to be made on a drug that was approved in 1955 and used successfully over 60 years.

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 01:24

Two of Metro Detroit's largest hospital systems are reporting significant numbers of employees suffering from symptoms of COVID-19 infections.

Beaumont Health, the state's largest health care system, and Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System say they have at least 2,200 employees who have either tested positive or are home with symptoms of the novel coronavirus infection.

A total of 734 employees at the Henry Ford Health System have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Dr. Adnan Munkarah, the Detroit-based system's chief clinical officer.

The more than 700 workers testing positive are among a total of 2,500 employees who have been tested for the virus since the hospital began tracking March 12, Munkarah said during a Monday call with reporters. The number of infected workers represents about 2.1% of the five-hospital system's 31,600 employees.

It's not clear whether those employees contracted the virus while at work or through community spread. And the number does not reflect the number of employees currently in quarantine, according to the system.

Henry Ford strictly adheres to personal protection equipment usage during COVID-19 care, requires all employees and visitors to use masks and prioritizes testing for employees, Munkarah said.

"As a health system caring for a large majority of our region's COVID-19 patients, we know we are not immune to potential exposure, and we remain grateful for the courage and dedication of our entire team," he said.

Beaumont Health currently has 1,500 of its 38,000 employees staying home because they have COVID-19 symptoms, said Mark Geary, a spokesman for the health system. That's 3.9% of its workforce. The employees are required to stay home for seven days or until they are symptom-free for three days.

"During this period of time, we are not requiring employees to use their paid time off," Geary said.

The Metro Detroit health systems have been among the hardest hit by the virus as they deal with daily influxes of Detroit-area patients.

More than 80% of the state's more than 17,220 cases have been centered in the Metro Detroit counties of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb, taxing such hospital systems as Henry Ford, Beaumont Health and the Detroit Medical Center.

The numbers represent a growing concern among those in the industry because of the threat to health care workers and the depleted workforce left to care for the growing number of serious cases, said Ruthanne Sudderth, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association.

"That's why we've been really harping on getting adequate PPE (personal protection equipment) to our staff because getting them taken offline by illness hurts everybody," Sudderth said.

"We want to make sure at the very least we can protect them while they're at work."

The state, which provides daily reports on new confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths, is exploring how to capture data statewide on the number of health care workers who have tested positive for the virus, said Lynn Sutfin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services.

A spokesman for the eight-hospital DMC said he didn't have information on the number of employees who have tested positive for the virus.

As of Saturday, at least 3,768 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 across the state, 1,383 were on ventilators and 89% of those hospitalized are in Metro Detroit, Michigan Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun said.

As the patient burden at Metro Detroit hospitals grows, so do increasing concerns among employees who, at times, are having to reuse personal protection equipment because of expected shortages.

On Friday, Southfield-based Beaumont told employees that those wishing to avoid working with COVID-19 patients would have to voluntarily resign, making them ineligible for unemployment or future re-employment with the eight-hospital system. The policy made exceptions for those with medical conditions, including pregnancy.

On Sunday night, night shift emergency room nurses say they were told to leave DMC's Sinai-Grace hospital in Detroit after they staged a sit-in to demand more support to treat a surge of COVID-19 patients.

At Henry Ford Health, the number of patients has been steady, but the hospital system also has seen patients recovering to the point of discharge.

But roughly 8 in 10 of the COVID-19 patients in the health system's intensive care units are on ventilators, Munkarah said. On average, those patients have required ventilator support for eight to nine days.

Munkarah would not say Monday how many Henry Ford Health employees had died because of patient privacy. Last week, 53-year-old Lisa Ewald, a longtime registered nurse with Henry Ford Health System, died in her Dearborn home after testing positive for the virus.

The system's hospitals will need more ventilators if its numbers continue to increase and has already repurposed anesthesia equipment to meet some of its needs, he said.

Meeting personal protection equipment needs is a "daily battle," Henry Ford Health Chief Operating Officer Bob Riney said. But contributions from such companies as Ford Motor Co., DTE Energy Co. and General Motors Co. have "taken us from being in a catastrophic situation to one that just needs to be monitored."

The hospital has discharged roughly 770 patients who had been treated for COVID-19, Munkarah said.

"We are very happy to see that happening," he said.

eleblanc@detroitnews.com

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 01:11

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is "extremely sick" and it is very likely he will need a ventilator, according to a medical expert, Sky News reports.

Boris Johnson has spent the night in intensive care after his health deteriorated - 11 days after he initially tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Downing Street says Johnson has been suffering from "persistent" coronavirus symptoms - and Sky's Beth Rigby reports he had been struggling to breathe and needed oxygen on Monday.

Derek Hill, professor of medical imaging at University College London, said Jonson could be given a breathing aid known as continuous positive airway pressure.

This bridges the gap between an oxygen mask and full ventilation, sending a blend of air and oxygen into the mouth at a steady rate.

However, Prof Hill warned many patients eventually "progress to invasive ventilation", which is for people whose illness is so severe that they are struggling or unable to breathe for themselves.

A mechanical ventilator either does all the breathing for the patient or assists the patient's own breathing, and they are normally placed under heavy sedation.-Photo: Sky News

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 00:39

Log in Sign up Hillary Clinton @ HillaryClinton ''It took 70 days for Trump to treat the coronavirus not as a distant threat or harmless flu strain well under control, but as a lethal force poised to kill tens of thousands of citizens.''Replace this man in November.

washingtonpost.com/national-secur'... 8:04 AM - 6 Apr 2020 The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged From the White House to the CDC, political and institutional failures cascaded through the system and opportunities to mitigate the pandemic were lost. The Washington Post @washingtonpost Tim Young @ TimRunsHisMouth

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@HillaryClinton Your people said closing the border to China was racist and a war against immigrants... and told people to go out to dinner in Chinatown when this was spreading to combat Trump. Sit back down.

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@TimRunsHisMouth @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/6BhW6nHQIW View conversation · DeAnna Lorraine 🇺🇸 @ DeAnna4Congress

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@HillaryClinton You tried to blame Benghazi on a YouTube video. Cut it.

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@DeAnna4Congress @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/pVUcwwblkx View conversation · In Pursuit of Truth @ IPOT1776

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@HillaryClinton Like you never could.

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@HillaryClinton China lied, people died.

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@THECIBERKNIGHT @HillaryClinton And Clinton lied, people died.

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@cupton62 @HillaryClinton ðŸŒðŸðŸ­ðŸ­ðŸðŸ--ðŸ--

#WWG1WGA''¤¸'š–¸''¤¸ðŸ¤²ðŸðŸ¤²''¤¸'š--¸''¤¸ðŸŒªðŸŒ'¸ðŸ¤²'¸....The Time is Out for her !.

#QANON WW GOD WINS''¤¸'š--¸''¤¸'š–¸''¨''¨''¨ðŸðŸ

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Tue, 07 Apr 2020 00:34

Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned that glimmers of hope could continue only if New Yorkers maintain discipline and suppress an impulse to gather.

Gretchen Connelie wrote ''thank you'' in various languages near Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital in Manhattan. The number of daily coronavirus hospitalizations has stabilized, according to figures released on Monday. Credit... Todd Heisler/The New York Times New York, the epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak, has begun to show the first signs of controlling the crisis: Its staggering death and hospitalization rates have started to stabilize, according to figures released by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday.

But striking a note of optimistic caution, Mr. Cuomo warned that the state's progress could continue only if New Yorkers maintained a sense of discipline and suppressed their natural impulse to gather in the parks or on the streets, especially as the spring weather starts improving.

''We get reckless,'' Mr. Cuomo said at his daily news briefing, ''you will see these numbers go up again.''

The governor's mixed assessment came as the pandemic entered its second month and neared what federal officials called a crucial moment for determining its future. The seesawing nature of the crisis was apparent on Wall Street: The stock market had one of its biggest rallies of the year on Monday, with the S&P 500 closing up 7 percent, even as the death toll in the United States surpassed 10,000.

Even with the promising signs, the virus's overall toll in New York State was still astonishing: Nearly 5,000 people in the state have died, half of those in New York City. More than 120,000 residents have tested positive, and more than 16,000 are hospitalized.

And across the country, many states were reporting alarming increases in cases that were straining hospitals. Federal officials, who have cited projections indicating that the virus could ultimately kill more than 100,000 people nationwide, warned that the next few days could bring a ghastly uptick in the number of deaths and infections.

In Florida, Indiana and Louisiana, the number of fatalities attributed to the virus more than doubled in a week. But there were also signs that the situation was improving on the West Coast, where the virus first surged in the United States. The governors of California, Oregon and Washington said they would send ventilators to states that needed them more.

''We want every American to know that what they're doing is making a difference,'' Dr. Deborah Birx, the leader of the White House coronavirus task force, said Monday during the group's daily briefing. ''But we need to have solidarity of commitment from everyone.''

Outside the United States, Western Europe reached its own important turning point on Monday: While the total number of patients on the continent continued to climb, the rate of new infections was no longer rising.

The shift seemed clearest in Europe's two most battered countries, Italy and Spain, where the daily number of deaths has been running into the hundreds and where the number of infections is well above 100,000.

But in Britain, developments were grimmer: Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has contracted the virus, was moved into intensive care on Monday night, one day after being admitted to the hospital. Britain had reported more than 5,900 new infections on Sunday, its highest single-day total so far.

Mr. Cuomo's fatherly appeal to New Yorkers to stay the course '-- and to stay away from one another '-- came at one of his regular daily briefings, which have become a kind of touchstone for many Americans in the past few weeks.

As always, his presentations were filled with an array of detailed statistics. Though New York's daily death toll peaked at 630 on Saturday, it hovered around 600 on both Sunday and Monday, he said. That followed a long stretch in which hospitalizations in the state were growing at a rate of 20 to 30 percent a day, but are now increasing at a single-digit rate.

''While none of this is good news, the flattening '-- or possible flattening '-- is better than the increases we have seen,'' Mr. Cuomo said.

The continuing flood of patients into hospital emergency rooms has presented a daunting challenge to policymakers like Mr. Cuomo who are trying to predict on the fly not only where the crisis might be headed, but also when New York might be able to return to a semblance of normalcy. The governor said on Monday that schools and nonessential stores would remain closed at least through April 29.

The governor's staff, in attempting to divine the course of the outbreak, has been using statistical models created by the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington, which has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as predictions generated by McKinsey & Company and Weill Cornell Medicine.

Much of the uncertainty comes from the fact that the statistics themselves are far from solid indicators.

The number of hospitalizations, for instance, depends partly on admission standards. Some overwhelmed hospitals are sending home people who are in less dire shape, but whom they would admit in normal circumstances. There are also indications that Covid-19 deaths are being undercounted '-- especially those who die of the illness at home, rather than a hospital. And studies have shown that many people never even know they have been infected, one reason the governor spent much of his time in front of the camera scolding those New Yorkers who found the outdoors too inviting to resist.

''Frankly, there has been a laxness on social distancing, especially over this past weekend,'' he said. ''Now is not the time to be playing Frisbee with your friends in the park. Now's not the time to go to a funeral with 200 people.''

''I understand how the religious services can help with the grieving process,'' he said. ''But, as a society, the risk is too great.''

To ensure that downward trends continued, officials in New York City announced that they were closing all dog parks and dog runs because people using them were not practicing adequate social distancing. City officials also promised to crack down on funerals where people were ignoring separation measures.

On Sunday, after people complained about crowds, the police broke up a funeral for a prominent ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbi who died of the virus in Borough Park, Brooklyn. And the governor said the state was doubling the maximum fine for ignoring social distancing rules, to $1,000.

Mr. Cuomo has continued to shore up the state's battered hospital system, which, like those across the nation, is suffering from acute shortages of crucial medical supplies, according to a study released by a government watchdog.

On Monday, nursing unions in New York called for more protective equipment like N95 masks and increased staffing during the pandemic. Mr. Cuomo also announced that he was planning to move more than 800 ventilators to New York City and its suburbs from less-affected areas.

The governor said as well that President Trump had agreed to a change in policy that would allow the U.S.N.S. Comfort, a Navy hospital ship that arrived in New York City last week, to care for people infected with the virus. The ship had previously been reserved for non-Covid patients, but was being underused because hospitals had so few of them to send.

In another stark symbol of the crisis, officials of the Episcopal Diocese of New York announced on Monday that the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan would be turned into a field hospital.

With the number of city residents dying of the virus outpacing the system's capacity to handle them, officials were considering temporarily burying people in mass graves in a park, the chairman of the City Council's health committee said on Monday.

''It will be done in a dignified, orderly '-- and temporary '-- manner,'' the chairman, City Councilman Mark Levine, wrote on Twitter. ''But it will be tough for NYers to take.''

A spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio disputed Mr. Levine's remark, saying, ''There are no plans to bury anyone in local parks.''

Mr. Cuomo also stepped into the debate over the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, to treat virus patients, which the president has promoted even though the administration's health experts have noted a lack of conclusive evidence that it works.

Mr. Cuomo said that hospitals in New York were already using it, and that he planned to ask Mr. Trump to increase the federal supply of the drug to New York pharmacies.

''There has been anecdotal evidence that it is promising,'' he said. ''That's why we're going ahead.''

But the governor suggested that even though New York had reason to hope in recent days, the weeks and months ahead were likely to be grueling.

''This is an enemy that we have underestimated from Day 1, and we have paid the price dearly,'' he said.

Reporting was contributed by Joseph Goldstein, Sarah Mervosh, Andy Newman, Mitch Smith, Benjamin Weiser and Karen Yourish.

Updated April 4, 2020

Should I wear a mask?The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don't need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don't replace hand washing and social distancing.

What should I do if I feel sick?If you've been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

How do I get tested?If you're sick and you think you've been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there's a chance '-- because of a lack of testing kits or because you're asymptomatic, for instance '-- you won't be able to get tested.

How does coronavirus spread?It seems to spread very easily from person to person, especially in homes, hospitals and other confined spaces. The pathogen can be carried on tiny respiratory droplets that fall as they are coughed or sneezed out. It may also be transmitted when we touch a contaminated surface and then touch our face.

Is there a vaccine yet?No. The first testing in humans of an experimental vaccine began in mid-March. Such rapid development of a potential vaccine is unprecedented, but even if it is proved safe and effective, it probably will not be available for 12 to18 months.

What makes this outbreak so different?Unlike the flu, there is no known treatment or vaccine, and little is known about this particular virus so far. It seems to be more lethal than the flu, but the numbers are still uncertain. And it hits the elderly and those with underlying conditions '-- not just those with respiratory diseases '-- particularly hard.

What if somebody in my family gets sick?If the family member doesn't need hospitalization and can be cared for at home, you should help him or her with basic needs and monitor the symptoms, while also keeping as much distance as possible, according to guidelines issued by the C.D.C. If there's space, the sick family member should stay in a separate room and use a separate bathroom. If masks are available, both the sick person and the caregiver should wear them when the caregiver enters the room. Make sure not to share any dishes or other household items and to regularly clean surfaces like counters, doorknobs, toilets and tables. Don't forget to wash your hands frequently.

Should I stock up on groceries?Plan two weeks of meals if possible. But people should not hoard food or supplies. Despite the empty shelves, the supply chain remains strong. And remember to wipe the handle of the grocery cart with a disinfecting wipe and wash your hands as soon as you get home.

Can I go to the park?Yes, but make sure you keep six feet of distance between you and people who don't live in your home. Even if you just hang out in a park, rather than go for a jog or a walk, getting some fresh air, and hopefully sunshine, is a good idea.

Should I pull my money from the markets?That's not a good idea. Even if you're retired, having a balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds so that your money keeps up with inflation, or even grows, makes sense. But retirees may want to think about having enough cash set aside for a year's worth of living expenses and big payments needed over the next five years.

What should I do with my 401(k)?Watching your balance go up and down can be scary. You may be wondering if you should decrease your contributions '-- don't! If your employer matches any part of your contributions, make sure you're at least saving as much as you can to get that ''free money.''

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 22:14

You probably know about the Church of Scientology's courting of Hollywood celebrities, from Tom Cruise to John Travolta to the woman who's the voice of Bart Simpson, and perhaps you've caught wind of its cozy relationship with the Los Angeles Police Department.

But few are aware of its close partnership with the Nation of Islam, led by Minister Louis Farrakhan.

The approximately 20,000-strong black political and religious movement was formed in 1930 to improve the lives of black Americans, but in recent years has come under fire for its anti-gay, anti-white, and anti-Semitic views. Farrakhan, a vocal anti-Semite, found himself back in the news recently when he was cited as one of the reasons for the implosion of the Women's March, with some leaders of the movement accused of supporting Farrakhan and parroting his anti-Semitic talking points.

The alliance between the Nation of Islam, a black organization, and Scientology, an almost entirely white one, was hatched in the mid-Aughts, when the late Isaac Hayes, one of the only famous black Scientologists, approached Scientology leader David Miscavige and asked why the ''religion'' wasn't doing more to court black Americans. So Miscavige reached out to the Nation of Islam, and by 2010, they began promoting the ''benefits'' of Dianetics, the core set of ideas preached by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

During a sermon in Chicago on July 1, 2012, Farrakhan proclaimed to his acolytes, ''I found the tool that I know can help us. And I thank God for Mr. L. Ron Hubbard. And I thank God for his research and teaching.''

The latest episode of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, A&E's Emmy-winning docuseries, examines the ties between the Church of Scientology and the Nation of Islam. And who better to guide us through it than Remini, who says she was tasked with strengthening the partnership.

''I was approached by Scientology to bridge the gap between Scientology and the black community. And I wanted to do that. I had no idea what the Nation of Islam was,'' Remini says. ''I was a Scientologist and I wasn't questioning what my church was asking me to do.'' (The church, for its part, sent a letter less than 24 hours prior to the episode's airing, claiming that it ''supports religious freedom'' and comparing Remini's show to Nazism.)

The first guest joining Remini and her co-host Mike Rinder, a former Scientology executive, was Ishmael Bey, a decade-long member of the Nation of Islam who quit over its relationship with Scientology'--indeed a curious one, given that L. Ron Hubbard has said ''there was no Christ,'' and did not believe in the existence of Allah.

''We started to see that buildings were being made, that the Nation of Islam were having secret meetings with Scientology that the public had no idea about. It started going in a different direction than the core tenets of what Islam actually represented,'' Bey said.

According to Bey, the Nation of Islam began administering Self-Improvement Courses, or the introductory courses that people take to enter into Scientology that are disguised as innocuous self-help courses.

''The breaking point for me was when it started going in that direction with the self-improvement study guides. It started feeling very cult-like to me,'' Bey claims.

''They now call him 'The Honorable LRH,' they now meet in the Scientology buildings, they now are being bestowed with the Scientology awards, and within the Nation of Islam, it's now a celebrated thing that the first female went 'clear' recently, and in 2015 the first male went 'clear,''' Bey added, referring to one of the most advanced statuses (or states of mind, as they put it) in Scientology.

Scientology has a policy that any of its members who recruit someone into the religion get to receive 10 percent of whatever their recruit pays into it, which can equal tens of thousands of dollars over a period of time. And there have been whispers and reports over the years that Farrakhan has received similar kickbacks from Scientology for spreading their gospel.

But that's not all. Remini contends that, ''They were coming to people like me, and they were saying, 'Hey, we want you guys to sponsor Nation of Islam members to come in and do these [Scientology] seminars.''

She claims that one of the Nation of Islam members whose Scientology courses she sponsored was Tony Muhammad, the West Coast regional minister of the Nation of Islam who was also identified by Bey as introducing many Nation of Islam-ers to Scientology. Muhammad is plastered all over the Scientology website, and he was recently bestowed with the IAS Freedom Medal, Scientology's biggest award.

''I have become a better Muslim as a result of my relationship to the Church of Scientology,'' Muhammad says in a Scientology promotional video. ''The world should be grateful that in our lifetime, along came a being known as Mr. L. Ron Hubbard'... We say that when a man comes along like that, his name should be mentioned right along with the names of the saints.''

The next guest on the program was Hector Falu-Muhammad, a 26-year member of the Nation of Islam who worked closely with its senior officials.

Falu-Muhammad said that after he expressed his dissent against Dianetics to officials, he found himself ''singled out,'' and was subsequently accused by fellow Nation of Islam members of everything from stealing to committing indecent sex acts on his wife. This policy of attacking critics or ''enemies,'' Remini and Rinder note, is straight out of the Scientology handbook, and Falu-Muhammad claims that it was instituted after the two movements became bedfellows.

''There's been a command that came from a member of Minister Farrakhan's personal staff. He said, if anyone is critical of Minister Farrakhan, to 'attack him like a hornet's nest,''' Falu-Muhammad says.

''You're told, 'Hey, you better stop talking about Scientology, you're gonna get put out the mosque.' It's almost like Dianetics is the law now of the Nation of Islam,'' adds Bey.

''The one thing that infuriates me the most is you find pictures of children in the Nation holding Dianetics books,'' Falu-Muhammad offers. ''We have children that are in the Nation. I don't want my children studying Dianetics, or studying Scientology.'' (The Nation of Islam did not respond to requests for comment.)

In addition to its courtship of the Nation of Islam and some local black churches, the Church of Scientology has recently erected giant centers in Atlanta, Harlem, Inglewood, and other predominately black communities'--although as Tiponi Grey, who worked in the Inglewood organization of Scientology, says, she only witnessed ''at most 10 people'' inside the building on a given day.

And Farrakhan addressed Remini and her Scientology whistle-blowing in a recent speech to his congregants.

''I know that this is the time that they're making an all-out move to destroy Scientology,'' Farrakhan said. ''But what I'd ask Mrs. Renmie [sic], or whatever her name is, she's going in hard. She's hurt by something. I know a lot of Muslims that's hurt. Hurt because they came in looking for something, but didn't necessarily find what they were lookin' for, and walked away. And when you walked away, where did you go, what did you do, how did you gain, what did you lose?''

''Nobody's trying to take Scientology down for reasons that are unwarranted,'' Remini fired back. ''And once you're in Scientology for a good 35, 45 years, maybe then ask these kinds of questions. And you should ask these types of questions to the families who have been destroyed.''

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study of heritable DNA and histone modifications that affect the expression of a gene without a change in its nucleotide sequence.

In biology, epigenetics is the study of heritable phenotype changes that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence.[1] The Greek prefix epi- (ἐÏι- "over, outside of, around") in epigenetics implies features that are "on top of" or "in addition to" the traditional genetic basis for inheritance.[2] Epigenetics most often involves changes that affect gene activity and expression, but the term can also be used to describe any heritable phenotypic change. Such effects on cellular and physiological phenotypic traits may result from external or environmental factors, or be part of normal development. The standard definition of epigenetics requires these alterations to be heritable[3][4] in the progeny of either cells or organisms.

The term also refers to the changes themselves: functionally relevant changes to the genome that do not involve a change in the nucleotide sequence. Examples of mechanisms that produce such changes are DNA methylation and histone modification, each of which alters how genes are expressed without altering the underlying DNA sequence. Gene expression can be controlled through the action of repressor proteins that attach to silencer regions of the DNA. These epigenetic changes may last through cell divisions for the duration of the cell's life, and may also last for multiple generations, even though they do not involve changes in the underlying DNA sequence of the organism;[5] instead, non-genetic factors cause the organism's genes to behave (or "express themselves") differently.[6]

One example of an epigenetic change in eukaryotic biology is the process of cellular differentiation. During morphogenesis, totipotent stem cells become the various pluripotent cell lines of the embryo, which in turn become fully differentiated cells. In other words, as a single fertilized egg cell '' the zygote '' continues to divide, the resulting daughter cells change into all the different cell types in an organism, including neurons, muscle cells, epithelium, endothelium of blood vessels, etc., by activating some genes while inhibiting the expression of others.[7]

Historically, some phenomena not necessarily heritable have also been described as epigenetic. For example, the term "epigenetic" has been used to describe any modification of chromosomal regions, especially histone modifications, whether or not these changes are heritable or associated with a phenotype. The consensus definition now requires a trait to be heritable for it to be considered epigenetic.[4]

Definitions [ edit ] The term epigenetics in its contemporary usage emerged in the 1990s, but for some years has been used with somewhat variable meanings.[8] A consensus definition of the concept of epigenetic trait as a "stably heritable phenotype resulting from changes in a chromosome without alterations in the DNA sequence" was formulated at a Cold Spring Harbor meeting in 2008,[4] although alternate definitions that include non-heritable traits are still being used.[9]

The term epigenesis has a generic meaning of "extra growth", and has been used in English since the 17th century.[10]

Waddington's canalisation, 1940s [ edit ] From the generic meaning, and the associated adjective epigenetic, British embryologist C. H. Waddington coined the term epigenetics in 1942 as pertaining to epigenesis, in parallel to Valentin Haecker's 'phenogenetics' (Ph¤nogenetik).[11] Epigenesis in the context of the biology of that period referred to the differentiation of cells from their initial totipotent state during embryonic development.[12]

When Waddington coined the term, the physical nature of genes and their role in heredity was not known. He used it instead as a conceptual model of how genetic components might interact with their surroundings to produce a phenotype; he used the phrase "epigenetic landscape" as a metaphor for biological development. Waddington held that cell fates were established during development in a process he called canalisation much as a marble rolls down to the point of lowest local elevation.[13] Waddington suggested visualising increasing irreversibility of cell type differentiation as ridges rising between the valleys where the marbles (analogous to cells) are travelling.[14]

In recent times, Waddington's notion of the epigenetic landscape has been rigorously formalized in the context of the systems dynamics state approach to the study of cell-fate.[15][16] Cell-fate determination is predicted to exhibit certain dynamics, such as attractor-convergence (the attractor can be an equilibrium point, limit cycle or strange attractor) or oscillatory.[16]

Contemporary [ edit ] Robin Holliday defined epigenetics as "the study of the mechanisms of temporal and spatial control of gene activity during the development of complex organisms".[17] Thus, in its broadest sense, epigenetic can be used to describe anything other than DNA sequence that influences the development of an organism.

More recent usage of the word in biology follows stricter definitions. It is, as defined by Arthur Riggs and colleagues, "the study of mitotically and/or meiotically heritable changes in gene function that cannot be explained by changes in DNA sequence".[18]

The term has also been used, however, to describe processes which have not been demonstrated to be heritable, such as some forms of histone modification; there are therefore attempts to redefine "epigenetics" in broader terms that would avoid the constraints of requiring heritability. For example, Adrian Bird defined epigenetics as "the structural adaptation of chromosomal regions so as to register, signal or perpetuate altered activity states".[5] This definition would be inclusive of transient modifications associated with DNA repair or cell-cycle phases as well as stable changes maintained across multiple cell generations, but exclude others such as templating of membrane architecture and prions unless they impinge on chromosome function. Such redefinitions however are not universally accepted and are still subject to debate.[3] The NIH "Roadmap Epigenomics Project", ongoing as of 2016, uses the following definition: "For purposes of this program, epigenetics refers to both heritable changes in gene activity and expression (in the progeny of cells or of individuals) and also stable, long-term alterations in the transcriptional potential of a cell that are not necessarily heritable."[9] In 2008, a consensus definition of the epigenetic trait, a "stably heritable phenotype resulting from changes in a chromosome without alterations in the DNA sequence", was made at a Cold Spring Harbor meeting.[4]

The similarity of the word to "genetics" has generated many parallel usages. The "epigenome" is a parallel to the word "genome", referring to the overall epigenetic state of a cell, and epigenomics refers to global analyses of epigenetic changes across the entire genome.[9] The phrase "genetic code" has also been adapted '' the "epigenetic code" has been used to describe the set of epigenetic features that create different phenotypes in different cells from the same underlying DNA sequence. Taken to its extreme, the "epigenetic code" could represent the total state of the cell, with the position of each molecule accounted for in an epigenomic map, a diagrammatic representation of the gene expression, DNA methylation and histone modification status of a particular genomic region. More typically, the term is used in reference to systematic efforts to measure specific, relevant forms of epigenetic information such as the histone code or DNA methylation patterns.[citation needed ]

Developmental psychology [ edit ] In a sense somewhat unrelated to its use in biological disciplines, the term "epigenetic" has also been used in developmental psychology to describe psychological development as the result of an ongoing, bi-directional interchange between heredity and the environment.[19] Interactive ideas of development have been discussed in various forms and under various names throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. An early version was proposed, among the founding statements in embryology, by Karl Ernst von Baer and popularized by Ernst Haeckel. A radical epigenetic view (physiological epigenesis) was developed by Paul Wintrebert. Another variation, probabilistic epigenesis, was presented by Gilbert Gottlieb in 2003.[20] This view encompasses all of the possible developing factors on an organism and how they not only influence the organism and each other but how the organism also influences its own development.

The developmental psychologist Erik Erikson wrote of an epigenetic principle in his 1968 book Identity: Youth and Crisis, encompassing the notion that we develop through an unfolding of our personality in predetermined stages, and that our environment and surrounding culture influence how we progress through these stages. This biological unfolding in relation to our socio-cultural settings is done in stages of psychosocial development, where "progress through each stage is in part determined by our success, or lack of success, in all the previous stages."[21][22][23]

Although empirical studies have yielded discrepant results, epigenetic modifications are thought to be a biological mechanism for transgenerational trauma.

Molecular basis [ edit ] Epigenetic changes modify the activation of certain genes, but not the genetic code sequence of DNA. The microstructure (not code) of DNA itself or the associated chromatin proteins may be modified, causing activation or silencing. This mechanism enables differentiated cells in a multicellular organism to express only the genes that are necessary for their own activity. Epigenetic changes are preserved when cells divide. Most epigenetic changes only occur within the course of one individual organism's lifetime; however, these epigenetic changes can be transmitted to the organism's offspring through a process called transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Moreover, if gene inactivation occurs in a sperm or egg cell that results in fertilization, this epigenetic modification may also be transferred to the next generation.[24]

Specific epigenetic processes include paramutation, bookmarking, imprinting, gene silencing, X chromosome inactivation, position effect, DNA methylation reprogramming, transvection, maternal effects, the progress of carcinogenesis, many effects of teratogens, regulation of histone modifications and heterochromatin, and technical limitations affecting parthenogenesis and cloning.

DNA damage [ edit ] DNA damage can also cause epigenetic changes.[25][26][27] DNA damage is very frequent, occurring on average about 60,000 times a day per cell of the human body (see DNA damage (naturally occurring)). These damages are largely repaired, but at the site of a DNA repair, epigenetic changes can remain.[28] In particular, a double strand break in DNA can initiate unprogrammed epigenetic gene silencing both by causing DNA methylation as well as by promoting silencing types of histone modifications (chromatin remodeling - see next section).[29] In addition, the enzyme Parp1 (poly(ADP)-ribose polymerase) and its product poly(ADP)-ribose (PAR) accumulate at sites of DNA damage as part of a repair process.[30] This accumulation, in turn, directs recruitment and activation of the chromatin remodeling protein ALC1 that can cause nucleosome remodeling.[31] Nucleosome remodeling has been found to cause, for instance, epigenetic silencing of DNA repair gene MLH1.[18][32] DNA damaging chemicals, such as benzene, hydroquinone, styrene, carbon tetrachloride and trichloroethylene, cause considerable hypomethylation of DNA, some through the activation of oxidative stress pathways.[33]

Foods are known to alter the epigenetics of rats on different diets.[34] Some food components epigenetically increase the levels of DNA repair enzymes such as MGMT and MLH1[35] and p53.[36][37] Other food components can reduce DNA damage, such as soy isoflavones. In one study, markers for oxidative stress, such as modified nucleotides that can result from DNA damage, were decreased by a 3-week diet supplemented with soy.[38] A decrease in oxidative DNA damage was also observed 2 h after consumption of anthocyanin-rich bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillius L.) pomace extract.[39]

Techniques used to study epigenetics [ edit ] Epigenetic research uses a wide range of molecular biological techniques to further understanding of epigenetic phenomena, including chromatin immunoprecipitation (together with its large-scale variants ChIP-on-chip and ChIP-Seq), fluorescent in situ hybridization, methylation-sensitive restriction enzymes, DNA adenine methyltransferase identification (DamID) and bisulfite sequencing.[40] Furthermore, the use of bioinformatics methods has a role in computational epigenetics.[40]

Mechanisms [ edit ] Several types of epigenetic inheritance systems may play a role in what has become known as cell memory,[41] note however that not all of these are universally accepted to be examples of epigenetics.

Covalent modifications [ edit ] Covalent modifications of either DNA (e.g. cytosine methylation and hydroxymethylation) or of histone proteins (e.g. lysine acetylation, lysine and arginine methylation, serine and threonine phosphorylation, and lysine ubiquitination and sumoylation) play central roles in many types of epigenetic inheritance. Therefore, the word "epigenetics" is sometimes used as a synonym for these processes. However, this can be misleading. Chromatin remodeling is not always inherited, and not all epigenetic inheritance involves chromatin remodeling.[42] In 2019, a further lysine modification appeared in the scientific literature linking epigenetics modification to cell metabolism, i.e. Lactylation[43]

DNA associates with histone proteins to form chromatin.

Because the phenotype of a cell or individual is affected by which of its genes are transcribed, heritable transcription states can give rise to epigenetic effects. There are several layers of regulation of gene expression. One way that genes are regulated is through the remodeling of chromatin. Chromatin is the complex of DNA and the histone proteins with which it associates. If the way that DNA is wrapped around the histones changes, gene expression can change as well. Chromatin remodeling is accomplished through two main mechanisms:

The first way is post translational modification of the amino acids that make up histone proteins. Histone proteins are made up of long chains of amino acids. If the amino acids that are in the chain are changed, the shape of the histone might be modified. DNA is not completely unwound during replication. It is possible, then, that the modified histones may be carried into each new copy of the DNA. Once there, these histones may act as templates, initiating the surrounding new histones to be shaped in the new manner. By altering the shape of the histones around them, these modified histones would ensure that a lineage-specific transcription program is maintained after cell division.The second way is the addition of methyl groups to the DNA, mostly at CpG sites, to convert cytosine to 5-methylcytosine. 5-Methylcytosine performs much like a regular cytosine, pairing with a guanine in double-stranded DNA. However, some areas of the genome are methylated more heavily than others, and highly methylated areas tend to be less transcriptionally active, through a mechanism not fully understood. Methylation of cytosines can also persist from the germ line of one of the parents into the zygote, marking the chromosome as being inherited from one parent or the other (genetic imprinting).Mechanisms of heritability of histone state are not well understood; however, much is known about the mechanism of heritability of DNA methylation state during cell division and differentiation. Heritability of methylation state depends on certain enzymes (such as DNMT1) that have a higher affinity for 5-methylcytosine than for cytosine. If this enzyme reaches a "hemimethylated" portion of DNA (where 5-methylcytosine is in only one of the two DNA strands) the enzyme will methylate the other half.

Although histone modifications occur throughout the entire sequence, the unstructured N-termini of histones (called histone tails) are particularly highly modified. These modifications include acetylation, methylation, ubiquitylation, phosphorylation, sumoylation, ribosylation and citrullination. Acetylation is the most highly studied of these modifications. For example, acetylation of the K14 and K9 lysines of the tail of histone H3 by histone acetyltransferase enzymes (HATs) is known to regulate transcription in accordance with complementary histone deacetylases.[44]

One mode of thinking is that this tendency of acetylation to be associated with "active" transcription is biophysical in nature. Because it normally has a positively charged nitrogen at its end, lysine can bind the negatively charged phosphates of the DNA backbone. The acetylation event converts the positively charged amine group on the side chain into a neutral amide linkage. This removes the positive charge, thus loosening the DNA from the histone. When this occurs, complexes like SWI/SNF and other transcriptional factors can bind to the DNA and allow transcription to occur. This is the "cis" model of the epigenetic function. In other words, changes to the histone tails have a direct effect on the DNA itself.[citation needed ]

Another model of epigenetic function is the "trans" model. In this model, changes to the histone tails act indirectly on the DNA. For example, lysine acetylation may create a binding site for chromatin-modifying enzymes (or transcription machinery as well). This chromatin remodeler can then cause changes to the state of the chromatin. Indeed, a bromodomain '' a protein domain that specifically binds acetyl-lysine '' is found in many enzymes that help activate transcription, including the SWI/SNF complex. It may be that acetylation acts in this and the previous way to aid in transcriptional activation.

The idea that modifications act as docking modules for related factors is borne out by histone methylation as well. Methylation of lysine 9 of histone H3 has long been associated with constitutively transcriptionally silent chromatin (constitutive heterochromatin). It has been determined that a chromodomain (a domain that specifically binds methyl-lysine) in the transcriptionally repressive protein HP1 recruits HP1 to K9 methylated regions. One example that seems to refute this biophysical model for methylation is that tri-methylation of histone H3 at lysine 4 is strongly associated with (and required for full) transcriptional activation. Tri-methylation, in this case, would introduce a fixed positive charge on the tail.

It has been shown that the histone lysine methyltransferase (KMT) is responsible for this methylation activity in the pattern of histones H3 and H4. This enzyme utilizes a catalytically active site called the SET domain (Suppressor of variegation, Enhancer of zeste, Trithorax). The SET domain is a 130-amino acid sequence involved in modulating gene activities. This domain has been demonstrated to bind to the histone tail and causes the methylation of the histone.[45]

Differing histone modifications are likely to function in differing ways; acetylation at one position is likely to function differently from acetylation at another position. Also, multiple modifications may occur at the same time, and these modifications may work together to change the behavior of the nucleosome. The idea that multiple dynamic modifications regulate gene transcription in a systematic and reproducible way is called the histone code, although the idea that histone state can be read linearly as a digital information carrier has been largely debunked. One of the best-understood systems that orchestrate chromatin-based silencing is the SIR protein based silencing of the yeast hidden mating-type loci HML and HMR.

DNA methylation frequently occurs in repeated sequences, and helps to suppress the expression and mobility of 'transposable elements':[46] Because 5-methylcytosine can be spontaneously deaminated (replacing nitrogen by oxygen) to thymidine, CpG sites are frequently mutated and become rare in the genome, except at CpG islands where they remain unmethylated. Epigenetic changes of this type thus have the potential to direct increased frequencies of permanent genetic mutation. DNA methylation patterns are known to be established and modified in response to environmental factors by a complex interplay of at least three independent DNA methyltransferases, DNMT1, DNMT3a, and DNMT3B, the loss of any of which is lethal in mice.[47] DNMT1 is the most abundant methyltransferase in somatic cells,[48] localizes to replication foci,[49] has a 10''40-fold preference for hemimethylated DNA and interacts with the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA).[50]

By preferentially modifying hemimethylated DNA, DNMT1 transfers patterns of methylation to a newly synthesized strand after DNA replication, and therefore is often referred to as the 'maintenance' methyltransferase.[51] DNMT1 is essential for proper embryonic development, imprinting and X-inactivation.[47][52] To emphasize the difference of this molecular mechanism of inheritance from the canonical Watson-Crick base-pairing mechanism of transmission of genetic information, the term 'Epigenetic templating' was introduced.[53] Furthermore, in addition to the maintenance and transmission of methylated DNA states, the same principle could work in the maintenance and transmission of histone modifications and even cytoplasmic (structural) heritable states.[54]

Histones H3 and H4 can also be manipulated through demethylation using histone lysine demethylase (KDM). This recently identified enzyme has a catalytically active site called the Jumonji domain (JmjC). The demethylation occurs when JmjC utilizes multiple cofactors to hydroxylate the methyl group, thereby removing it. JmjC is capable of demethylating mono-, di-, and tri-methylated substrates.[55]

Chromosomal regions can adopt stable and heritable alternative states resulting in bistable gene expression without changes to the DNA sequence. Epigenetic control is often associated with alternative covalent modifications of histones.[56] The stability and heritability of states of larger chromosomal regions are suggested to involve positive feedback where modified nucleosomes recruit enzymes that similarly modify nearby nucleosomes.[57] A simplified stochastic model for this type of epigenetics is found here.[58][59]

It has been suggested that chromatin-based transcriptional regulation could be mediated by the effect of small RNAs. Small interfering RNAs can modulate transcriptional gene expression via epigenetic modulation of targeted promoters.[60]

RNA transcripts [ edit ] Sometimes a gene, after being turned on, transcribes a product that (directly or indirectly) maintains the activity of that gene. For example, Hnf4 and MyoD enhance the transcription of many liver-specific and muscle-specific genes, respectively, including their own, through the transcription factor activity of the proteins they encode. RNA signalling includes differential recruitment of a hierarchy of generic chromatin modifying complexes and DNA methyltransferases to specific loci by RNAs during differentiation and development.[61] Other epigenetic changes are mediated by the production of different splice forms of RNA, or by formation of double-stranded RNA (RNAi). Descendants of the cell in which the gene was turned on will inherit this activity, even if the original stimulus for gene-activation is no longer present. These genes are often turned on or off by signal transduction, although in some systems where syncytia or gap junctions are important, RNA may spread directly to other cells or nuclei by diffusion. A large amount of RNA and protein is contributed to the zygote by the mother during oogenesis or via nurse cells, resulting in maternal effect phenotypes. A smaller quantity of sperm RNA is transmitted from the father, but there is recent evidence that this epigenetic information can lead to visible changes in several generations of offspring.[62]

MicroRNAs [ edit ] MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are members of non-coding RNAs that range in size from 17 to 25 nucleotides. miRNAs regulate a large variety of biological functions in plants and animals.[63] So far, in 2013, about 2000 miRNAs have been discovered in humans and these can be found online in a miRNA database.[64] Each miRNA expressed in a cell may target about 100 to 200 messenger RNAs(mRNAs) that it downregulates.[65] Most of the downregulation of mRNAs occurs by causing the decay of the targeted mRNA, while some downregulation occurs at the level of translation into protein.[66]

It appears that about 60% of human protein coding genes are regulated by miRNAs.[67] Many miRNAs are epigenetically regulated. About 50% of miRNA genes are associated with CpG islands,[63] that may be repressed by epigenetic methylation. Transcription from methylated CpG islands is strongly and heritably repressed.[68] Other miRNAs are epigenetically regulated by either histone modifications or by combined DNA methylation and histone modification.[63]

mRNA [ edit ] In 2011, it was demonstrated that the methylation of mRNA plays a critical role in human energy homeostasis. The obesity-associated FTO gene is shown to be able to demethylate N6-methyladenosine in RNA.[69][70]

sRNAs [ edit ] sRNAs are small (50''250 nucleotides), highly structured, non-coding RNA fragments found in bacteria. They control gene expression including virulence genes in pathogens and are viewed as new targets in the fight against drug-resistant bacteria.[71] They play an important role in many biological processes, binding to mRNA and protein targets in prokaryotes. Their phylogenetic analyses, for example through sRNA''mRNA target interactions or protein binding properties, are used to build comprehensive databases.[72] sRNA-gene maps based on their targets in microbial genomes are also constructed.[73]

Prions [ edit ] Prions are infectious forms of proteins. In general, proteins fold into discrete units that perform distinct cellular functions, but some proteins are also capable of forming an infectious conformational state known as a prion. Although often viewed in the context of infectious disease, prions are more loosely defined by their ability to catalytically convert other native state versions of the same protein to an infectious conformational state. It is in this latter sense that they can be viewed as epigenetic agents capable of inducing a phenotypic change without a modification of the genome.[74]

Fungal prions are considered by some to be epigenetic because the infectious phenotype caused by the prion can be inherited without modification of the genome. PSI+ and URE3, discovered in yeast in 1965 and 1971, are the two best studied of this type of prion.[75][76] Prions can have a phenotypic effect through the sequestration of protein in aggregates, thereby reducing that protein's activity. In PSI+ cells, the loss of the Sup35 protein (which is involved in termination of translation) causes ribosomes to have a higher rate of read-through of stop codons, an effect that results in suppression of nonsense mutations in other genes.[77] The ability of Sup35 to form prions may be a conserved trait. It could confer an adaptive advantage by giving cells the ability to switch into a PSI+ state and express dormant genetic features normally terminated by stop codon mutations.[78][79][80][81]

Structural inheritance [ edit ] In ciliates such as Tetrahymena and Paramecium, genetically identical cells show heritable differences in the patterns of ciliary rows on their cell surface. Experimentally altered patterns can be transmitted to daughter cells. It seems existing structures act as templates for new structures. The mechanisms of such inheritance are unclear, but reasons exist to assume that multicellular organisms also use existing cell structures to assemble new ones.[82][83][84]

Nucleosome positioning [ edit ] Eukaryotic genomes have numerous nucleosomes. Nucleosome position is not random, and determine the accessibility of DNA to regulatory proteins. Promoters active in different tissues have been shown to have different nucleosome positioning features.[85] This determines differences in gene expression and cell differentiation. It has been shown that at least some nucleosomes are retained in sperm cells (where most but not all histones are replaced by protamines). Thus nucleosome positioning is to some degree inheritable. Recent studies have uncovered connections between nucleosome positioning and other epigenetic factors, such as DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation.[86]

Functions and consequences [ edit ] Development [ edit ] Developmental epigenetics can be divided into predetermined and probabilistic epigenesis. Predetermined epigenesis is a unidirectional movement from structural development in DNA to the functional maturation of the protein. "Predetermined" here means that development is scripted and predictable. Probabilistic epigenesis on the other hand is a bidirectional structure-function development with experiences and external molding development.[87]

Somatic epigenetic inheritance, particularly through DNA and histone covalent modifications and nucleosome repositioning, is very important in the development of multicellular eukaryotic organisms.[86] The genome sequence is static (with some notable exceptions), but cells differentiate into many different types, which perform different functions, and respond differently to the environment and intercellular signaling. Thus, as individuals develop, morphogens activate or silence genes in an epigenetically heritable fashion, giving cells a memory. In mammals, most cells terminally differentiate, with only stem cells retaining the ability to differentiate into several cell types ("totipotency" and "multipotency"). In mammals, some stem cells continue producing newly differentiated cells throughout life, such as in neurogenesis, but mammals are not able to respond to loss of some tissues, for example, the inability to regenerate limbs, which some other animals are capable of. Epigenetic modifications regulate the transition from neural stem cells to glial progenitor cells (for example, differentiation into oligodendrocytes is regulated by the deacetylation and methylation of histones.[88] Unlike animals, plant cells do not terminally differentiate, remaining totipotent with the ability to give rise to a new individual plant. While plants do utilize many of the same epigenetic mechanisms as animals, such as chromatin remodeling, it has been hypothesized that some kinds of plant cells do not use or require "cellular memories", resetting their gene expression patterns using positional information from the environment and surrounding cells to determine their fate.[89]

Epigenetic changes can occur in response to environmental exposure '' for example, maternal dietary supplementation with genistein (250 mg/kg) have epigenetic changes affecting expression of the agouti gene, which affects their fur color, weight, and propensity to develop cancer.[90][91][92]

Controversial results from one study suggested that traumatic experiences might produce an epigenetic signal that is capable of being passed to future generations. Mice were trained, using foot shocks, to fear a cherry blossom odor. The investigators reported that the mouse offspring had an increased aversion to this specific odor.[93][94] They suggested epigenetic changes that increase gene expression, rather than in DNA itself, in a gene, M71, that governs the functioning of an odor receptor in the nose that responds specifically to this cherry blossom smell. There were physical changes that correlated with olfactory (smell) function in the brains of the trained mice and their descendants. Several criticisms were reported, including the study's low statistical power as evidence of some irregularity such as bias in reporting results.[95] Due to limits of sample size, there is a probability that an effect will not be demonstrated to within statistical significance even if it exists. The criticism suggested that the probability that all the experiments reported would show positive results if an identical protocol was followed, assuming the claimed effects exist, is merely 0.4%. The authors also did not indicate which mice were siblings, and treated all of the mice as statistically independent.[96] The original researchers pointed out negative results in the paper's appendix that the criticism omitted in its calculations, and undertook to track which mice were siblings in the future.[97]

Transgenerational [ edit ] Epigenetic mechanisms were a necessary part of the evolutionary origin of cell differentiation.[98] Although epigenetics in multicellular organisms is generally thought to be a mechanism involved in differentiation, with epigenetic patterns "reset" when organisms reproduce, there have been some observations of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (e.g., the phenomenon of paramutation observed in maize). Although most of these multigenerational epigenetic traits are gradually lost over several generations, the possibility remains that multigenerational epigenetics could be another aspect to evolution and adaptation.As mentioned above, some define epigenetics as heritable.

A sequestered germ line or Weismann barrier is specific to animals, and epigenetic inheritance is more common in plants and microbes. Eva Jablonka, Marion J. Lamb and ‰tienne Danchin have argued that these effects may require enhancements to the standard conceptual framework of the modern synthesis and have called for an extended evolutionary synthesis.[99][100][101] Other evolutionary biologists, such as John Maynard Smith, have incorporated epigenetic inheritance into population genetics models[102] or are openly skeptical of the extended evolutionary synthesis (Michael Lynch).[103] Thomas Dickins and Qazi Rahman state that epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation and histone modification are genetically inherited under the control of natural selection and therefore fit under the earlier "modern synthesis".[104]

Two important ways in which epigenetic inheritance can be different from traditional genetic inheritance, with important consequences for evolution, are that rates of epimutation can be much faster than rates of mutation[105] and the epimutations are more easily reversible.[106] In plants, heritable DNA methylation mutations are 100,000 times more likely to occur compared to DNA mutations.[107] An epigenetically inherited element such as the PSI+ system can act as a "stop-gap", good enough for short-term adaptation that allows the lineage to survive for long enough for mutation and/or recombination to genetically assimilate the adaptive phenotypic change.[108] The existence of this possibility increases the evolvability of a species.

More than 100 cases of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance phenomena have been reported in a wide range of organisms, including prokaryotes, plants, and animals.[109] For instance, mourning cloak butterflies will change color through hormone changes in response to experimentation of varying temperatures.[110]

The filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa is a prominent model system for understanding the control and function of cytosine methylation. In this organism, DNA methylation is associated with relics of a genome defense system called RIP (repeat-induced point mutation) and silences gene expression by inhibiting transcription elongation.[111]

The yeast prion PSI is generated by a conformational change of a translation termination factor, which is then inherited by daughter cells. This can provide a survival advantage under adverse conditions. This is an example of epigenetic regulation enabling unicellular organisms to respond rapidly to environmental stress. Prions can be viewed as epigenetic agents capable of inducing a phenotypic change without modification of the genome.[112]

Direct detection of epigenetic marks in microorganisms is possible with single molecule real time sequencing, in which polymerase sensitivity allows for measuring methylation and other modifications as a DNA molecule is being sequenced.[113] Several projects have demonstrated the ability to collect genome-wide epigenetic data in bacteria.[114][115][116][117]

Epigenetics in bacteria [ edit ] Escherichia coli bacteria

While epigenetics is of fundamental importance in eukaryotes, especially metazoans, it plays a different role in bacteria. Most importantly, eukaryotes use epigenetic mechanisms primarily to regulate gene expression which bacteria rarely do. However, bacteria make widespread use of postreplicative DNA methylation for the epigenetic control of DNA-protein interactions. Bacteria also use DNA adenine methylation (rather than DNA cytosine methylation) as an epigenetic signal. DNA adenine methylation is important in bacteria virulence in organisms such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Vibrio, Yersinia, Haemophilus, and Brucella. In Alphaproteobacteria, methylation of adenine regulates the cell cycle and couples gene transcription to DNA replication. In Gammaproteobacteria, adenine methylation provides signals for DNA replication, chromosome segregation, mismatch repair, packaging of bacteriophage, transposase activity and regulation of gene expression.[112][118] There exists a genetic switch controlling Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) that allows the bacterium to randomly change its characteristics into six alternative states that could pave the way to improved vaccines. Each form is randomly generated by a phase variable methylation system. The ability of the pneumococcus to cause deadly infections is different in each of these six states. Similar systems exist in other bacterial genera.[119] In Firmicutes such as Clostridioides difficile, adenine methylation regulates sporulation, biofilm formation and host-adaptation.[120]

Medicine [ edit ] Epigenetics has many and varied potential medical applications.[121] In 2008, the National Institutes of Health announced that $190 million had been earmarked for epigenetics research over the next five years. In announcing the funding, government officials noted that epigenetics has the potential to explain mechanisms of aging, human development, and the origins of cancer, heart disease, mental illness, as well as several other conditions. Some investigators, like Randy Jirtle, Ph.D., of Duke University Medical Center, think epigenetics may ultimately turn out to have a greater role in disease than genetics.[122]

Twins [ edit ] Direct comparisons of identical twins constitute an optimal model for interrogating environmental epigenetics. In the case of humans with different environmental exposures, monozygotic (identical) twins were epigenetically indistinguishable during their early years, while older twins had remarkable differences in the overall content and genomic distribution of 5-methylcytosine DNA and histone acetylation.[8] The twin pairs who had spent less of their lifetime together and/or had greater differences in their medical histories were those who showed the largest differences in their levels of 5-methylcytosine DNA and acetylation of histones H3 and H4.[123]

Dizygotic (fraternal) and monozygotic (identical) twins show evidence of epigenetic influence in humans.[123][124][125] DNA sequence differences that would be abundant in a singleton-based study do not interfere with the analysis. Environmental differences can produce long-term epigenetic effects, and different developmental monozygotic twin subtypes may be different with respect to their susceptibility to be discordant from an epigenetic point of view.[126]

A high-throughput study, which denotes technology that looks at extensive genetic markers, focused on epigenetic differences between monozygotic twins to compare global and locus-specific changes in DNA methylation and histone modifications in a sample of 40 monozygotic twin pairs.[123] In this case, only healthy twin pairs were studied, but a wide range of ages was represented, between 3 and 74 years. One of the major conclusions from this study was that there is an age-dependent accumulation of epigenetic differences between the two siblings of twin pairs. This accumulation suggests the existence of epigenetic "drift". Epigenetic drift is the term given to epigenetic modifications as they occur as a direct function with age. While age is a known risk factor for many diseases, age-related methylationhas been found to occur differentially at specific sites along the genome. Over time, this can result in measurable differences between biological and chronological age. Epigenetic changes have been found to be reflective of lifestyle and may act as functional biomarkers of disease before clinical threshold is reached.[127]

A more recent study, where 114 monozygotic twins and 80 dizygotic twins were analyzed for the DNA methylation status of around 6000 unique genomic regions, concluded that epigenetic similarity at the time of blastocyst splitting may also contribute to phenotypic similarities in monozygotic co-twins. This supports the notion that microenvironment at early stages of embryonic development can be quite important for the establishment of epigenetic marks.[128]Congenital genetic disease is well understood and it is clear that epigenetics can play a role, for example, in the case of Angelman syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome. These are normal genetic diseases caused by gene deletions or inactivation of the genes but are unusually common because individuals are essentially hemizygous because of genomic imprinting, and therefore a single gene knock out is sufficient to cause the disease, where most cases would require both copies to be knocked out.[129]

Genomic imprinting [ edit ] Some human disorders are associated with genomic imprinting, a phenomenon in mammals where the father and mother contribute different epigenetic patterns for specific genomic loci in their germ cells.[130] The best-known case of imprinting in human disorders is that of Angelman syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome '' both can be produced by the same genetic mutation, chromosome 15q partial deletion, and the particular syndrome that will develop depends on whether the mutation is inherited from the child's mother or from their father.[131] This is due to the presence of genomic imprinting in the region. Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome is also associated with genomic imprinting, often caused by abnormalities in maternal genomic imprinting of a region on chromosome 11.

Rett syndrome is underlain by mutations in the MECP2 gene despite no large-scale changes in expression of MeCP2 being found in microarray analyses. BDNF is downregulated in the MECP2 mutant resulting in Rett syndrome.

In the –verkalix study, paternal (but not maternal) grandsons[132] of Swedish men who were exposed during preadolescence to famine in the 19th century were less likely to die of cardiovascular disease. If food was plentiful, then diabetes mortality in the grandchildren increased, suggesting that this was a transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.[133] The opposite effect was observed for females '' the paternal (but not maternal) granddaughters of women who experienced famine while in the womb (and therefore while their eggs were being formed) lived shorter lives on average.[134]

Cancer [ edit ] A variety of epigenetic mechanisms can be perturbed in different types of cancer. Epigenetic alterations of DNA repair genes or cell cycle control genes are very frequent in sporadic (non-germ line) cancers, being significantly more common than germ line (familial) mutations in these sporadic cancers.[135][136] Epigenetic alterations are important in cellular transformation to cancer, and their manipulation holds great promise for cancer prevention, detection, and therapy.[137][138] Several medications which have epigenetic impact are used in several of these diseases. These aspects of epigenetics are addressed in cancer epigenetics.

Diabetic wound healing [ edit ] Epigenetic modifications have given insight into the understanding of the pathophysiology of different disease conditions. Though, they are strongly associated with cancer, their role in other pathological conditions are of equal importance. It appears that the hyperglycaemic environment could imprint such changes at the genomic level, that macrophages are primed towards a pro-inflammatory state and could fail to exhibit any phenotypic alteration towards the pro-healing type. This phenomenon of altered Macrophage Polarization is mostly associated with all the diabetic complications in a clinical set-up. As of 2018, several reports reveal the relevance of different epigenetic modifications with respect to diabetic complications. Sooner or later, with the advancements in biomedical tools, the detection of such biomarkers as prognostic and diagnostic tools in patients could possibly emerge out as alternative approaches. It is noteworthy to mention here that the use of epigenetic modifications as therapeutic targets warrant extensive preclinical as well as clinical evaluation prior to use.[139]

Examples of drugs altering gene expression from epigenetic events [ edit ] The use of beta-lactam antibiotics can alter glutamate receptor activity and the action of cyclosporine on multiple transcription factors. Additionally, lithium can impact autophagy of aberrant proteins, and opioid drugs via chronic use can increase the expression of genes associated with addictive phenotypes.[140]

Psychology and psychiatry [ edit ] Early life stress [ edit ] In a groundbreaking 2003 report, Caspi and colleagues demonstrated that in a robust cohort of over one-thousand subjects assessed multiple times from preschool to adulthood, subjects who carried one or two copies of the short allele of the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism exhibited higher rates of adult depression and suicidality when exposed to childhood maltreatment when compared to long allele homozygotes with equal ELS exposure.[141]

Parental nutrition, in utero exposure to stress, male-induced maternal effects such as the attraction of differential mate quality, and maternal as well as paternal age, and offspring gender could all possibly influence whether a germline epimutation is ultimately expressed in offspring and the degree to which intergenerational inheritance remains stable throughout posterity.[142]

Addiction [ edit ] Addiction is a disorder of the brain's reward system which arises through transcriptional and neuroepigenetic mechanisms and occurs over time from chronically high levels of exposure to an addictive stimulus (e.g., morphine, cocaine, sexual intercourse, gambling, etc.).[143][144][145][146] Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of addictive phenotypes has been noted to occur in preclinical studies.[147][148]

Anxiety [ edit ] Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of anxiety-related phenotypes has been reported in a preclinical study using mice.[149] In this investigation, transmission of paternal stress-induced traits across generations involved small non-coding RNA signals transmitted via the male germline.

Depression [ edit ] Epigenetic inheritance of depression-related phenotypes has also been reported in a preclinical study.[149] Inheritance of paternal stress-induced traits across generations involved small non-coding RNA signals transmitted via the paternal germline.

Fear conditioning [ edit ] Studies on mice have shown that certain conditional fears can be inherited from either parent. In one example, mice were conditioned to fear a strong scent, acetophenone, by accompanying the smell with an electric shock. Consequently, the mice learned to fear the scent of acetophenone alone. It was discovered that this fear could be passed down to the mice offspring. Despite the offspring never experiencing the electric shock themselves the mice still displayed a fear of the acetophenone scent, because they inherited the fear epigenetically by site-specific DNA methylation. These epigenetic changes lasted up to two generations without reintroducing the shock.[150]

Research [ edit ] The two forms of heritable information, namely genetic and epigenetic, are collectively denoted as dual inheritance. Members of the APOBEC/AID family of cytosine deaminases may concurrently influence genetic and epigenetic inheritance using similar molecular mechanisms, and may be a point of crosstalk between these conceptually compartmentalized processes.[151]

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics induce epigenetic changes in mammalian cells through iron chelation. This leads to epigenetic effects through inhibition of α-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases that require iron as a co-factor.[152]

Various pharmacological agents are applied for the production of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) or maintain the embryonic stem cell (ESC) phenotypic via epigenetic approach. Adult stem cells like bone marrow stem cells have also shown a potential to differentiate into cardiac competent cells when treated with G9a histone methyltransferase inhibitor BIX01294.[153][154]

Pseudoscience [ edit ] Due to epigenetics being in the early stages of development as a science and the sensationalism surrounding it in the public media, David Gorski and geneticist Adam Rutherford advised caution against proliferation of false and pseudoscientific conclusions by new age authors who make unfounded suggestions that a person's genes and health can be manipulated by mind control. Misuse of the scientific term by quack authors has produced misinformation among the general public.[2][155][156]

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"The histone methyltransferase inhibitor BIX01294 enhances the cardiac potential of bone marrow cells". Stem Cells and Development. 22 (4): 654''67. doi:10.1089/scd.2012.0181. PMC 3564468 . PMID 22994322. ^ Yang J, Kaur K, Ong LL, Eisenberg CA, Eisenberg LM (2015). "Inhibition of G9a Histone Methyltransferase Converts Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Cardiac Competent Progenitors". Stem Cells International. 2015: 270428. doi:10.1155/2015/270428. PMC 4454756 . PMID 26089912. ^ Gorski, David (4 February 2013). "Epigenetics: It doesn't mean what quacks think it means". Science-Based Medicine. ^ Rutherford, Adam (19 July 2015). "Beware the pseudo gene genies". The Observer. Epigenetics is a real and important part of biology, but due to predictable quackery, it is threatening to become the new quantum. Further reading [ edit ] Haque FN, Gottesman II, Wong AH (May 2009). "Not really identical: epigenetic differences in monozygotic twins and implications for twin studies in psychiatry". American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part C, Seminars in Medical Genetics. 151C (2): 136''41. doi:10.1002/ajmg.c.30206. PMID 19378334. External links [ edit ] Look up epigenetics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary."Epigenetics & Inheritance". learn.genetics.utah.edu . Retrieved 17 April 2019 . The Human Epigenome Project (HEP)The Epigenome Network of Excellence (NoE)Canadian Epigenetics, Environment and Health Research Consortium (CEEHRC)The Epigenome Network of Excellence (NoE) '' public international site"DNA Is Not Destiny" '' Discover magazine cover story"The Ghost In Your Genes", Horizon (2005), BBCEpigenetics article at Hopkins MedicineTowards a global map of epigenetic variation

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Harmless substance that creates harmful effects in a patient who takes it

A nocebo effect is said to occur when negative expectations of the patient regarding a treatment cause the treatment to have a more negative effect than it otherwise would have. For example, when a patient anticipates a side effect of a medication, they can suffer that effect even if the "medication" is actually an inert substance. The complementary concept, the placebo effect, is said to occur when positive expectations improve an outcome. Both placebo and nocebo effects are presumably psychogenic, but they can induce measurable changes in the body. One article that reviewed 31 studies on nocebo effects reported a wide range of symptoms that could manifest as nocebo effects including nausea, stomach pains, itching, bloating, depression, sleep problems, loss of appetite, sexual dysfunction and severe hypotension.

Etymology and usage [ edit ] The term nocebo (Latin nocÄ'bō, "I shall harm", from noceō, "I harm")[3] was coined by Walter Kennedy in 1961 to denote the counterpart to the use of placebo (Latin placÄ'bō, "I shall please", from placeō, "I please";[4] a substance that may produce a beneficial, healthful, pleasant, or desirable effect). Kennedy emphasized that his use of the term "nocebo" refers strictly to a subject-centered response, a quality inherent in the patient rather than in the remedy". That is, Kennedy rejected the use of the term for pharmacologically induced negative side effects such as the ringing in the ears caused by quinine. That is not to say that the patient's psychologically induced response may not include physiological effects. For example, an expectation of pain may induce anxiety, which in turn causes the release of cholecystokinin, which facilitates pain transmission.

Response [ edit ] In the narrowest sense, a nocebo response occurs when a drug-trial subject's symptoms are worsened by the administration of an inert, sham, or dummy (simulator) treatment, called a placebo. According to current pharmacological knowledge and the current understanding of cause and effect, a placebo contains no chemical (or any other agent) that could possibly cause any of the observed worsening in the subject's symptoms. Thus, any change for the worse must be due to some subjective factor. Adverse expectations can also cause the analgesic effects of anesthetic medications to disappear.

The worsening of the subject's symptoms or reduction of beneficial effects is a direct consequence of their exposure to the placebo, but those symptoms have not been chemically generated by the placebo. Because this generation of symptoms entails a complex of "subject-internal" activities, in the strictest sense, we can never speak in terms of simulator-centered "nocebo effects", but only in terms of subject-centered "nocebo responses". Although some observers attribute nocebo responses (or placebo responses) to a subject's gullibility, there is no evidence that an individual who manifests a nocebo/placebo response to one treatment will manifest a nocebo/placebo response to any other treatment; i.e., there is no fixed nocebo/placebo-responding trait or propensity.[citation needed ]

McGlashan, Evans & Orne (1969, p. 319) found no evidence of what they termed a "placebo personality". Also, in a carefully designed study, Lasagna, Mosteller, von Felsinger and Beecher (1954), found that there was no way that any observer could determine, by testing or by interview, which subject would manifest a placebo reaction and which would not. Experiments have shown that no relationship exists between an individual's measured hypnotic susceptibility and their manifestation of nocebo or placebo responses.

Effects [ edit ] Side effects of drugs [ edit ] It has been shown that, due to the nocebo effect, warning patients about side effects of drugs can contribute to the causation of such effects, whether the drug is real or not. This effect has been observed in clinical trials: according to a 2013 review, the dropout rate among placebo-treated patients in a meta-analysis of 41 clinical trials of Parkinson's disease treatments was 8.8%. A 2013 review found that nearly 1 out of 20 patients receiving a placebo in clinical trials for depression dropped out due to adverse events, which were believed to have been caused by the nocebo effect. A 2018 review found that half of patients taking placebos in clinical trials report intervention-related adverse events.[16]

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity [ edit ] Evidence suggests that the symptoms of electromagnetic hypersensitivity are caused by the nocebo effect.[17][18]

Pain [ edit ] Verbal suggestion can cause hyperalgesia (increased sensitivity to pain) and allodynia (perception of a tactile stimulus as painful) as a result of the nocebo effect. Nocebo hyperalgesia is believed to involve the activation of cholecystokinin receptors.

Ambiguity of medical usage [ edit ] Stewart-Williams and Podd argue that using the contrasting terms "placebo" and "nocebo" to label inert agents that produce pleasant, health-improving, or desirable outcomes versus unpleasant, health-diminishing, or undesirable outcomes (respectively), is extremely counterproductive. For example, precisely the same inert agents can produce analgesia and hyperalgesia, the first of which, from this definition, would be a placebo, and the second a nocebo.

A second problem is that the same effect, such as immunosuppression, may be desirable for a subject with an autoimmune disorder, but be undesirable for most other subjects. Thus, in the first case, the effect would be a placebo, and in the second, a nocebo. A third problem is that the prescriber does not know whether the relevant subjects consider the effects that they experience to be desirable or undesirable until some time after the drugs have been administered. A fourth problem is that the same phenomena are being generated in all the subjects, and these are being generated by the same drug, which is acting in all of the subjects through the same mechanism. Yet because the phenomena in question have been subjectively considered to be desirable to one group but not the other, the phenomena are now being labelled in two mutually exclusive ways (i.e., placebo and nocebo); and this is giving the false impression that the drug in question has produced two different phenomena.

Ambiguity of anthropological usage [ edit ] Some people maintain that belief kills (e.g., "voodoo death": Cannon (1942) describes a number of instances from a variety of different cultures) and belief heals (e.g., faith healing). A "self-willed" death (due to voodoo hex, evil eye, pointing the bone procedure, etc.) is an extreme form of a culture-specific syndrome or mass psychogenic illness that produces a particular form of psychosomatic or psychophysiological disorder which results in a psychogenic death. Rubel (1964) spoke of "culture bound" syndromes, which were those "from which members of a particular group claim to suffer and for which their culture provides an etiology, diagnosis, preventive measures, and regimens of healing".

Certain anthropologists, such as Robert Hahn and Arthur Kleinman, have extended the placebo/nocebo distinction into this realm in order to allow a distinction to be made between rituals, like faith healing, that are performed in order to heal, cure, or bring benefit (placebo rituals) and others, like "pointing the bone", that are performed in order to kill, injure or bring harm (nocebo rituals). As the meaning of the two inter-related and opposing terms has extended, we now find anthropologists speaking, in various contexts, of nocebo or placebo (harmful or helpful) rituals:

that might entail nocebo or placebo (unpleasant or pleasant) procedures;about which subjects might have nocebo or placebo (harmful or beneficial) beliefs;that are delivered by operators that might have nocebo or placebo (pathogenic, disease-generating or salutogenic, health-promoting) expectations;that are delivered to subjects that might have nocebo or placebo (negative, fearful, despairing or positive, hopeful, confident) expectations about the ritual;which are delivered by operators who might have nocebo or placebo (malevolent or benevolent) intentions, in the hope that the rituals will generate nocebo or placebo (lethal, injurious, harmful or restorative, curative, healthy) outcomes; and, that all of this depends upon the operator's overall beliefs in the harmful nature of the nocebo ritual or the beneficial nature of the placebo ritual.Yet, it may become even more terminologically complex; for, as Hahn and Kleinman indicate, there can also be cases where there are paradoxical nocebo outcomes from placebo rituals (e.g. the TGN1412 drug trial[27][28]), as well as paradoxical placebo outcomes from nocebo rituals (see also unintended consequences). Writing from his extensive experience of treating cancer (including more than 1,000 melanoma cases) at Sydney Hospital, Milton (1973) warned of the impact of the delivery of a prognosis, and how many of his patients, upon receiving their prognosis, simply turned their face to the wall and died a premature death: "there is a small group of patients in whom the realization of impending death is a blow so terrible that they are quite unable to adjust to it, and they die rapidly before the malignancy seems to have developed enough to cause death. This problem of self-willed death is in some ways analogous to the death produced in primitive peoples by witchcraft ('pointing the bone')".

See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] References [ edit ] Barber, Theodore Xenophon (1961). "Death by suggestion. A critical note". Psychosomatic Medicine. 23: 153''5. doi:10.1097/00006842-196103000-00006. PMID 13686785. Barker, J.C. (1968). Scared to Death: An Examination of Fear, its Cause and Effects. London: Frederick Muller. Barrett, G. V.; Franke, R. H. (1970). " ' Psychogenic' Death: A Reappraisal". Science. 167 (3916): 304''306. Bibcode:1970Sci...167..304B. doi:10.1126/science.167.3916.304. Barsky, Arthur J.; Saintfort, R.; Rogers, M. P.; Borus, J. F. (2002). "Nonspecific Medication Side Effects and the Nocebo Phenomenon". JAMA. 287 (5): 622''7. doi:10.1001/jama.287.5.622. PMID 11829702. Benedetti, F.; Lanotte, M.; Lopiano, L.; Colloca, L. (2007). "When words are painful: Unraveling the mechanisms of the nocebo effect". Neuroscience. 147 (2): 260''271. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2007.02.020. PMID 17379417. Cannon, Walter B. (1942). " ' Voodoo' Death". American Anthropologist. 44 (2): 169''181. doi:10.1525/aa.1942.44.2.02a00010. Charcot, J.M. (January 1893). "The Faith-Cure". The New Review. 8 (44): 18''31. Cohen, Sanford I. (1985). "Psychosomatic death: Voodoo death in a modern perspective". Integrative Psychiatry. 3 (1): 46''51. Colloca, Luana; Miller, Franklin G. (2011). "The Nocebo Effect and its Relevance for Clinical Practice". Psychosomatic Medicine. 73 (7): 598''603. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e3182294a50. PMC 3167012 . PMID 21862825. Colloca, Luana; Benedetti, Fabrizio (2007). "Nocebo hyperalgesia: How anxiety is turned into pain". Current Opinion in Anesthesiology. 20 (5): 435''439. doi:10.1097/aco.0b013e3282b972fb. PMID 17873596. Dein, Simon (2003). "Psychogenic death: Individual effects of sorcery and taboo violation". Mental Health, Religion & Culture. 6 (3): 195''202. doi:10.1080/13674670310001633478. Blasi, Zelda Di; Harkness, Elaine; Ernst, Edzard; Georgiou, Amanda; Kleijnen, Jos (2001). "Influence of context effects on health outcomes: A systematic review". The Lancet. 357 (9258): 757''762. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04169-6. PMID 11253970. Enck, Paul; Benedetti, Fabrizio; Schedlowski, Manfred (2008). "New Insights into the Placebo and Nocebo Responses". Neuron. 59 (2): 195''206. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2008.06.030. PMID 18667148. Enck, Paul; H¤user, Winfried (10 August 2012). "Beware the Nocebo Effect". The New York Times. Goddard, Henry H. (1899). "The Effects of Mind on Body as Evidenced by Faith Cures". The American Journal of Psychology. 10 (3): 431''502. doi:10.2307/1412143. JSTOR 1412143. Hahn, Robert A. (1997). "The Nocebo Phenomenon: Concept, Evidence, and Implications for Public Health". Preventive Medicine. 26 (5): 607''611. doi:10.1006/pmed.1996.0124. PMID 9327466. Hahn, Robert A.; Kleinman, Arthur (1983). "Perspectives of the Placebo Phenomenon: Belief as Pathogen, Belief as Medicine: 'Voodoo Death' and the 'Placebo Phenomenon' in Anthropological Perspective". Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 14 (4): 3''19. doi:10.1525/maq.1983.14.4.02a00030. Harrington, E.R. (1998), The Nocebo Effect: A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Suggestion on Reports of Physical Symptoms (Ph.D. Dissertation), Temple University H¤user, Winfried; Hansen, Ernil; Enck, Paul (2012). "Nocebo Phenomena in Medicine". Deutsches Aerzteblatt Online. 109 (26): 459''65. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2012.0459. PMC 3401955 . PMID 22833756. Houston, W. R. (1938). "The Doctor Himself as a Therapeutic Agent". Annals of Internal Medicine. 11 (8): 1416. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-11-8-1416. Kennedy, WP (1961). "The nocebo reaction". Medical World. 95: 203''5. PMID 13752532. Kirsch, Irving (1985). "Response expectancy as a determinant of experience and behavior". American Psychologist. 40 (11): 1189''1202. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.40.11.1189. Kirsch, Irving (1997). "Response expectancy theory and application: A decennial review". Applied and Preventive Psychology. 6 (2): 69''79. doi:10.1016/S0962-1849(05)80012-5. Lasagna, Louis; Mosteller, Frederick; von Felsinger, John M.; Beecher, Henry K. (1954). "A study of the placebo response". The American Journal of Medicine. 16 (6): 770''779. doi:10.1016/0002-9343(54)90441-6. PMID 13158365. Lorenz, J¼rgen; Hauck, Michael; Paur, Robert C.; Nakamura, Yoko; Zimmermann, Roger; Bromm, Burkhart; Engel, Andreas K. (2005). "Cortical correlates of false expectations during pain intensity judgments'--a possible manifestation of placebo/nocebo cognitions". Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 19 (4): 283''295. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2005.03.010. PMID 15890494. McGlashan, Thomas; Evans, Frederick J.; Orne, Martin (May 1969). "The nature of hypnotic analgesia and placebo response to experimental pain". Psychosomatic Medicine. 31 (3): 227''46. doi:10.1097/00006842-196905000-00003. PMID 4892726. Merton, Robert K. (1936). "The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action". American Sociological Review. 1 (6): 894''904. doi:10.2307/2084615. JSTOR 2084615. Miller, Franklin G. (2005). "William James, Faith, and the Placebo Effect". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 48 (2): 273''281. doi:10.1353/pbm.2005.0059. PMID 15834199. Miller, Franklin G. (2003). "Sham Surgery: An Ethical Analysis". The American Journal of Bioethics. 3 (4): 41''48. doi:10.1162/152651603322614580. PMID 14744332. Milton, G.W. (1973). "Self-Willed Death or the Bone-Pointing Syndrome". The Lancet. 301 (7817): 1435''1436. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(73)91754-6. PMID 4122997. Mitsikostas, Dimos D.; Mantonakis, Leonidas; Chalarakis, Nikolaos (2014). "Nocebo in clinical trials for depression: A meta-analysis". Psychiatry Research. 215 (1): 82''86. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2013.10.019. PMID 24210741. Murray, Danielle; Stoessl, A. Jon (2013). "Mechanisms and therapeutic implications of the placebo effect in neurological and psychiatric conditions". Pharmacology & Therapeutics. 140 (3): 306''318. doi:10.1016/j.pharmthera.2013.07.009. PMID 23880289. Perlman, Lawrence M. (2001). "Nonspecific, unintended, and serendipitous effects in psychotherapy". Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 32 (3): 283''288. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.32.3.283. Phillips, D. P.; Liu, G. C.; Kwok, K.; Jarvinen, J. R.; Zhang, W.; Abramson, I. S. (2001). "The Hound of the Baskervilles effect: Natural experiment on the influence of psychological stress on timing of death". BMJ. 323 (7327): 1443''1446. doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7327.1443. PMC 61045 . PMID 11751347. Pyysiainen, Ilkka (2002). "Mind and Miracles". Zygon. 37 (3): 729''740. doi:10.1111/1467-9744.00449. Rief, Winfried; Avorn, Jerry; Barsky, Arthur J. (2006). "Medication-Attributed Adverse Effects in Placebo Groups". Archives of Internal Medicine. 166 (2): 155''60. doi:10.1001/archinte.166.2.155. PMID 16432082. Richter, Curt P. (1957). "On the Phenomenon of Sudden Death in Animals and Man". Psychosomatic Medicine. 19 (3): 191''198. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.536.1405 . doi:10.1097/00006842-195705000-00004. PMID 13432092. R"heim, G (1925). "The Pointing Bone". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 55: 90''114. doi:10.2307/2843694. JSTOR 2843694. Rubel, Authur J. (1964). "The Epidemiology of a Folk Illness: Susto in Hispanic America". Ethnology. 3 (3): 268''283. doi:10.2307/3772883. JSTOR 3772883. Rubin, G. James; Nieto-Hernandez, Rosa; Wessely, Simon (2009). "Idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (formerly 'electromagnetic hypersensitivity'): An updated systematic review of provocation studies". Bioelectromagnetics. 31 (1): 1''11. doi:10.1002/bem.20536. PMID 19681059. Shapiro, Arthur K. (2007). "A contribution to a history of the placebo effect". Behavioral Science. 5 (2): 109''135. doi:10.1002/bs.3830050202. Shapiro, Arthur K. (1968). "Semantics of the placebo". The Psychiatric Quarterly. 42 (4): 653''695. doi:10.1007/BF01564309. PMID 4891851. South, Robert (1727). "A Sermon Delivered at Christ-Church, Oxon., Before the University, Octob. 14. 1688: Prov.XII.22 Lying Lips are abomination to the Lord". Twelve Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions. I (6th ed.). London: J. Bettenham. pp. 458''500. Spiegel, Herbert (1997). "Nocebo: The Power of Suggestibility". Preventive Medicine. 26 (5): 616''621. doi:10.1006/pmed.1997.0229. PMID 9327468. Staats, Peter; Hekmat, Hamid; Staats, Arthur (1998). "Suggestion/Placebo Effects on Pain". Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. 15 (4): 235''243. doi:10.1016/S0885-3924(97)00363-1. PMID 9601159. Stam, Henderikus (1982). "Hypnotic analgesia and the placebo effect; controlling ischemic pain". doi:10.22215/etd/1982-00726. Stam, Henderikus J.; Spanos, Nicholas P. (1987). "Hypnotic analgesia, placebo analgesia, and ischemic pain: The effects of contextual variables". Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 96 (4): 313''320. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.96.4.313. Stathis, P.; Smpiliris, M.; Konitsiotis, S.; Mitsikostas, D. D. (2013). "Nocebo as a potential confounding factor in clinical trials for Parkinson's disease treatment: A meta-analysis". European Journal of Neurology. 20 (3): 527''533. doi:10.1111/ene.12014. PMID 23145482. Stewart-Williams, Steve; Podd, John (2004). "The Placebo Effect: Dissolving the Expectancy Versus Conditioning Debate". Psychological Bulletin. 130 (2): 324''340. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.2.324. PMID 14979775. Bingel, U.; Wanigasekera, V.; Wiech, K.; Ni Mhuircheartaigh, R.; Lee, M. C.; Ploner, M.; Tracey, I. (2011). "The Effect of Treatment Expectation on Drug Efficacy: Imaging the Analgesic Benefit of the Opioid Remifentanil". Science Translational Medicine. 3 (70): 70ra14. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.3001244. PMID 21325618. Wilson, Ian (1991). The Bleeding Mind: An Investigation into the Mysterious Phenomenon of Stigmata. London: Paladin. ISBN 978-0-586-09014-5. Zusne, L.; Jones, W.H. (1989). Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking (2nd ed.). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. External links [ edit ] Look up nocebo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.Nocebo and nocebo effectThe nocebo responseThe Nocebo Effect: Placebo's Evil TwinWhat modifies a healing responseThe science of voodoo: When mind attacks body, New ScientistThe Effect of Treatment Expectation on Drug Efficacy: Imaging the Analgesic Benefit of the Opioid RemifentanilThis Video Will Hurt (The Nocebo Effect) - Video LinkBBC Discovery program on the nocebo effectWhat is the Nocebo effect?

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Note the alternation between the two patterns in her quotes:

''People ask why I didn't leave after I was hit the first time. . . . But you feel such inner turmoil and confusion. You want it to be only one time.''

''And for three days after that incident I did the right thing. I said, 'Don't call me. I never want to see you again.' . . . . But then you start taking his phone calls. Then he asks to see you in person, and you say yes to that. Then you have a big giant man crying like a baby on your lap, and next thing you know, you're consoling him.''

The pronoun switching, typically unconscious, has the effect of priming the listener's forgiveness, by projecting the inclination for the same self-defeating behavior upon the listener. ''You might have done the same thing,'' the syntax implies; ''it wasn't my fault.'' This is a fairly typical psychosemantic maneuver of abdication'--surrendering the authority and responsibility to act in one's own self-interest.

Listen to people who have power in and over their lives, and compare the language they use to the language of those who, for whatever reason, may feel disempowered. You're likely to hear two subtly different narratives. One is the narrative of cause and effect. The other, figuratively, is the narrative of ''effect and cause.''

Getting behind the words for a moment, we can recognize two distinctly different mindsets, or mental states. When someone is at the place of ''cause,'' psychologically speaking, he or she acts from an intention, seeks an outcome, and has a plan, however elementary it might be.

And when one is at the place of ''effect,'' one perceives and conceives of himself or herself as on the receiving end of the intentions and actions of others. Things are done to this person, not by them.

Let's not over-generalize: Being ''at effect'' has its value at times. When someone is giving you a massage or some other pleasant sensory experience, ''effect'' is a great place to be. Being nurtured, comforted, and cared for can be a very satisfying experience.

The strategic choice, moment to moment, is whether to act from the place of cause or the place of effect. On average, you're more powerful in your life when you act and react from the place of cause. Conversely, you may be a victim in your life to the extent that you refuse to take responsibility for your behavior and its consequences. Language behavior is just as real and revealing as any other kind of behavior. It telegraphs its state of origin.

So can you really change your attitudes about life just by changing the words you use to frame your thoughts? It might sound a bit simplistic, but consider that the structure of your language is the software of your brain'--or, at least, one important kind of software.

Which comes first, a thought or the words that frame it? Many semanticists would claim that they arise simultaneously in the brain. When we habitually say something in a certain way, we're predisposed to think about it in terms of the subtle implications of the words we've chosen. Language evokes thought, and thought evokes language.

You might begin by listening more carefully for the subtle cues of cause and effect'--capacity and incapacity'--in the conversations around you. ''My girlfriend treats me like dirt"; ''My parents never let me do what I want to"; "Yes, he has a bad temper, but I can't leave him right now; he needs me"; "I was trying to lose weight, but I fell off the wagon"; "I can't afford that right now.''

The language of powerlessness seems to pervade much of the popular culture and its discourse, even its music. And not just today: Remember, one of Frank Sinatra's best-known songs was ''You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You.''

But today, too many political activists preach a victim narrative to their target audiences. ''Society,'' they tell their listeners, is somehow holding them back, keeping them down, preventing them from participating in the good life. But maybe it's really the speakers, and their disempowering narrative, holding them back.

There's a lot more to the psychology of cause and effect, but a good starting point for most of us would be to clean up our language. The famous motivational psychologist Norman Vincent Peale often said, ''Change your thoughts, and you change your world.'' Maybe it's time to update that advice: Change your words, and you change your world.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 21:16

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 20:59

Edit: Thanks for the Gold, makes me wanna puke!

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level 1Ah, spontaneous mass puking. So I'm in my preschool class of five year olds at the white board and Kevin stands up, heaves once, and projectile vomits about two feet onto the floor. Cue four other kids hurking in the next minute. We moved to another room and called the poor janitor. Classroom smelled like Satan's distilled ass juice for weeks. Thanks Kevin.

level 2Satans distilled ass juice. Wow

level 2Likewise, only his name was Jordan I think. He mumbled something about eating bad milk in his strawberry cereal before splashing said cereal down the aisle as he ran to the back of the room. To this day I cannot eat Special K cereal with the freeze dried strawberries. The smell is burned in my brain literally for life. It's been almost 15 years now.

level 2I remember in second grade lunch one of the boys hurked chocolate milk and mashed potatoes on his tray. He was sitting diagonal from me. Yellow snot was hanging from his nose and mouth, dripping viscously onto his ruined food and the lunch table.

I gagged several times typing this out on my phone. I'm sure I don't have to say that I hurked as I'd never had to hurk that day, but I just did.

level 2I feel your pain here. I was doing a half-day sub job with a 5th grade class. I arrived at the cafeteria to pick them up when I noticed that three of the boys were eating pickles and Red Hot Cheetos. I was informed that the boys in question were having a Hot Cheeto eating contest. I just rolled my eyes and marched the kids down the hall. We got about half way down when I heard the familiar hurking sound, I was about to yell at the offender to go to the bathroom but he projectile vomited Red Hot Cheetos and pickle all over the floor. This triggered the other two Cheeto bad-asses to hurk along with two girls. I ordered the hurkers to the nurse, hurried the rest of the kids to the classroom and then had to run to the office to get the janitor. It was not a good start to the day.

level 2As a Kevin who was a very I'll child I apologize. My puke was toxic waste.

level 2Why is it always a Kevin??

level 2It's times like these that I feel old, but this calls to mind the scene from "Stand By Me", the revenge of 'ol Lard-ass

level 2I was so scared of vomit in kindergarten and growing up. Have OCD and even then I had a ritual every morning to make sure nobody would puke that day.

level 2I didn't make it past the ''and Kevin stands up" before laughing hysterically.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 20:58

Last August, 16-year-old Lori Brownell passed out while head-banging at a concert. A month later, she lost consciousness again at her school’s homecoming dance in upstate Corinth, N.Y. Brownell says her doctors put her on Celexa, but she only developed more symptoms, including involuntary twitching and clapping. In videos she posted to YouTube, Brownell flutters her fingers, touches her hair, snorts through her nose and throat, and shouts “Hey, hey, hey,” seemingly without control. On Christmas Eve, doctors diagnosed her with Tourette’s Syndrome. Now, however, her symptoms have another name: conversion disorder, or mass hysteria.

Since Brownell first passed out last summer, 14 other upstate New York students—13 girls and a boy, most of them students at LeRoy Junior-Senior High School—have come down with similar symptoms. The young people and their parents seem baffled. The state department of health and a separate report commissioned by the school have found no problematic substances in the building. Environmental activist Erin Brockovich is launching her own investigation into the outbreak; she told USA Today that her prime suspect is a train derailment that dumped cyanide and an industrial solvent in LeRoy in 1970. On Saturday, Brockovich’s team was turned away by the school while trying to collect soil samples on the property.

However, a doctor treating many of the students is confident that they are suffering not from poisoning, but from mass hysteria, also called mass psychogenic illness and other variants. Typically, symptoms—which can include Brownell’s Tourette’s-like movements, along with nausea, dizziness, cramping, and more—start with one or two victims and spread when others see or hear about them. Victims are often accused of faking it, but more often they are suffering real physical symptoms that are psychological in origin. The phenomenon has been observed for centuries, with the blame shifting to whatever specific anxieties are culturally pervasive at the time. But one theme has remained consistent: The victims are overwhelmingly female.

The most famous American incident of mass hysteria remains the events surrounding the witch trials in Salem, Mass., which began when several girls began suffering mysterious fits and outbursts. In non-Western countries, demons and witchcraft are still sometimes blamed for outbreaks of fainting and fits [PDF]. Pollution, poisoning, chemical weapons, and other environmental concerns are dominant in the West (a fact that makes Brockovich something of a mass hysteria machine). Some bloggers are now claiming that the upstate New York girls fell ill because of the HPV vaccine or fracking.

As archetypes go, the Salem events hold up quite well, even from a distance of 320 years. Victims of mass hysteria are so often female that gender imbalance is one clue doctors use to differentiate hysteria from poisoning. Symptoms often start with older girls or women and spread to younger or lower-status girls. As girlhood guardian Caitlin Flanagan put it in the New York Times this weekend, “It is the cheerleaders and not the linebackers who come down with tics and stuttering.” But, as research has shown, it is also the cheerleaders and not the math-club girls who are likely to spread hysteria.

In a typical case in 1998, a teacher at a Tennessee high school noticed a gas-like odor in her classroom. The school was quickly evacuated, but the teacher’s symptoms spread to more than 180 teachers and students, who exhibited symptoms including headaches, nausea, and vomiting. By the end of the ordeal, the school had to be closed for two weeks and almost $100,000 was spent on emergency medical care. No toxins were ever found. A later study of the incident in the New England Journal of Medicine—one of surprisingly few on the phenomenon of mass hysteria—found that symptoms were “significantly associated with female sex, seeing another ill person, knowing that a classmate was ill, and reporting an unusual odor at the school.”

There’s no consensus about why women and girls are more vulnerable to episodes of mass hysteria. One professor speculated last year that “Stress, boredom, concern about their children and other factors among young females” could have triggered a recent fainting epidemic among female factory workers in Cambodia. Sociologist Robert Bartholomew noted in a 2001 book on mass hysteria that girls are trained to turn their anxieties inward, while anxious boys are likelier to act out. Women are also likelier to seek medical treatment than men.

Some scholars have also argued that hysterical episodes allow women to take a break from daily drudgeries, or to rage against patriarchal cultures within the safe bounds of demon possession or poisoning. If girls can find no outlet for reckless abandon, in other words, they’ll create one. Barbara Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Hess, and Gloria Jacobs put it this way in a 1992 essay: “To abandon control—to scream, faint, dash about in mobs—was, in form if not in conscious intent, to protest the sexual repressiveness, the rigid double standard of female teen culture.” They were writing about Beatlemania, as it turns out, but the description of the wildness that overcomes girls in adolescence is almost identical to much scholarly musing about mass hysteria.

There is also, it must be noted, a long history of medical professionals dismissing women’s health concerns as mere hysteria. This makes treatment thorny. Sufferers naturally want to be taken seriously, and are often offended by suggestions that their symptoms are “all in their heads.” Several of the upstate New York victims and their families told the Today show that they’re not satisfied with the new diagnosis. “Obviously all of us are not accepting that this is just a stress thing, and our kids didn’t all get sick by coincidence,” one father said. A few cases diagnosed as mass hysteria at the time have later proved to be poisoning after all; a 1990 outbreak of nausea at a British school that affected girls at almost twice the rate of boys turned out to be largely explained by pesticides used on cucumbers served at lunch. But almost always, symptoms disappear on their own over time and no physical causes are discovered.

Until more is known about mass hysteria, the treatment of a 1789 case in Northern England might point the way to a cure both effective and enjoyable. The outbreak at a textile factory started when one woman teased another by putting a mouse in her dress; the skittish prank victim fell into convulsions. Soon, however, a rumor spread that an open bag of imported cotton had somehow caused the reaction, and others quickly began falling ill. The factory had to temporarily shut down when 24 people (21 women, two young girls, and one man) experienced violent convulsions so severe they had to be restrained. The plague ended when authorities convinced the patients that symptoms were “merely nervous.” To further tamp down anxieties, sufferers were encouraged to “take a cheerful glass and join in a dance.” The day after the dance, almost all the victims went back to work, their convulsions having disappeared for good.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 20:52

(C) / Getty Images Coronavirus Pandemic Causes Climate Of Anxiety And Changing Routines In America A brand that has been in the public eye amid the coronavirus pandemic due to its name announced this week that it is temporarily halting operations. The production of Corona beer is now suspended as it is considered a "non-essential business."

Grupo Modelo, the company that produces Corona beer, announced on Twitter Thursday it will stop brewing its beverages starting Sunday after the Mexican government declared breweries non-essential businesses. The brewer, owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, said it is already in the process of decreasing production.

On Tuesday, the Mexican government declared a health emergency, ordering the suspension of all non-essential activities until April 30 to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country surpassed 1,600 Saturday, with at least 60 deaths, Johns Hopkins University reports.

In its announcement, Grupo Modelo appeared to argue that beer should be considered essential under the umbrella of agricultural businesses. The company said that more than 15,000 families benefit each year from the farming of malted barley and 800,000 grocers rely on the sale of beer for about 40% of their income.

Grupo Modelo said it has followed strict safety and hygiene measures and would be prepared to have 75% of its staff work from home to "guarantee the supply of beer" if the government changes its mind and confirms beer as an essential agro-industrial product.

The brewer also announced it is donating 300,000 antibacterial sanitizers produced from beer '-- a trend growing in popularity among distilleries . It plans to announce further actions to contribute to relief efforts in the coming days.

Early on in the pandemic, some consumers mistakenly associated Corona beer with the virus, with an increase in Google searches for "corona beer virus" and "beer virus." And according to one survey , 38% of American beer drinkers said in late February that they would not buy Corona "under any circumstances" at the moment '-- but among regular Corona drinkers, only 4% said the same.

Yet 14% of the Corona drinkers admitted they would not order the brand in a public place, according to the survey. 16% of beer drinkers surveyed were confused at the time about whether Corona beer is related to the virus.

However, Constellation Brands, which oversees the company's beer in the U.S. said that sales were unaffected by the virus, CNN reports. "We believe that consumers, by and large, understand there's no linkage between the virus and our beer/business," a spokesperson for Constellation Brands told CBS MoneyWatch in late January , well before the virus hit the U.S.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 20:35

Jim Henson once said, ''[kids] don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.'' Nowhere is that better applied than in science education, where we should strive to teach students what science is by immersing them in the scientific process as active participants. They will then leave the classroom better able to analyze, interpret, question and create."

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 20:31

What Is Martial Law? Martial law is a law administered by the military rather than a civilian government. Martial law may be declared in an emergency or response to a crisis, or to control occupied territory.

Key Takeaways:Martial law is law administered by the military rather than a civilian government, typically to restore order.Martial law is declared in an emergency, in a response to a crisis, or to control occupied territory.When martial law is declared, civil liberties, such as the right to free movement, free speech, protection from unreasonable searches, and habeas corpus laws may be suspended. Understanding Martial Law The declaration of martial law is a rare and momentous decision for a civilian government to make and for a good reason. When martial law is declared, civilian control of some or all aspects of government operations is ceded to the military. This means that, in the case of elected governments, the representatives chosen by the voting population are no longer in power. Civilians have thus ceded control of the country in exchange for the potential restoration of order with the possibility that control may not be reclaimed in the future.

When martial law is declared, civil liberties, such as the right to free movement, free speech or protection from unreasonable searches, can be suspended. The justice system that typically handles issues of criminal and civil law is replaced with a military justice system, such as a military tribunal. Civilians may be arrested for violating curfews or for offenses that, in normal times, would not be considered serious enough to warrant detention. Laws relating to habeas corpus that are designed to prevent unlawful detention may also be suspended, allowing the military to detain individuals indefinitely without the possibility of recourse.

Declaring Martial Law Considering the negative ramifications martial law can have on a country and its citizens, declaring martial law is a last resort reserved for situations where law and order is rapidly deteriorating. It may be declared to reign in protests, civil unrest, coup d'(C)tats, or insurrections. Martial law may also be declared when a country's military occupies foreign territory, such as at the end of a war. For example, in 1892, the governor of Idaho instituted martial law after a group of rebellious mine workers blew up a mill, which leveled a four-story building and killed one person.

Typically, the power to declare martial law rests with the president. The circumstances in which it may be declared and other limiting factors, such as the amount of time it may be left in effect, are enshrined in legislation or a country's constitution. For example, a president may be authorized to declare martial law during a time of violent civil unrest, but only for 60 days. International laws may also limit the scope and duration of martial law if a country has signed onto a multilateral treaty.

Special Considerations'--States of Emergency The use of martial law in the wake of natural disasters is less common. Rather than declare martial law and hand over power to the military in the case of a hurricane or earthquake, governments are much more likely to declare a state of emergency. When a state of emergency is declared, the government may expand its powers or limit the rights of its citizens. The government does not, however, have to hand power over to its military. In some cases, a government may invoke a state of emergency specifically to suppress dissent or opposition groups.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 20:01

Local television stations are experiencing a rare surge in viewership as more Americans tune in for coronavirus updates. But the stations are unlikely to benefit financially because of a cutback in advertising spending.

''We have more viewers than ever, but advertisers are unfortunately stuck in the same economic boat as many of us,'' said Patrick McCreery, president of the local media group of Meredith Corp., which owns 17 TV stations.

Local broadcast journalists are producing segments from their homes and on the street, as they are considered essential workers. Many viewers are leaning on local TV news for constant updates in their communities.

By mid-March, Meredith's afternoon and evening news viewership had risen by up to 30% since the beginning of the month. Nexstar Media Group Inc., which owns 196 stations in 114 U.S. markets, experienced ratings jumps of at least 35% during that stretch.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which has 191 TV stations in 89 markets, declined to provide its overall TV audience numbers but said viewership for its ad-supported streaming service STIRR nearly doubled in recent weeks. Scott Livingston, Sinclair's senior vice president of news, said the initial spike in news viewership was in Seattle, the first location of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.

Spikes in local-TV viewership aren't unusual when a specific market gets hit by a major disaster, such as Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Nexstar Chief Executive Perry Sook said. What's different this time, he said, is that the coronavirus pandemic ''is a disaster that's playing out across the entire nation.''

Local broadcasts aren't the only news stations experiencing surges in audience. Daytime cable news viewership for channels including CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Fox Business more than quadrupled from a year earlier, according to measurement firm Samba TV.

Charter Communications Inc.'s local Spectrum News, offered to traditional pay-TV subscribers, experienced a 71% increase in household viewership in mid-March compared with prior weeks.

The rise in viewership comes as companies pull back on advertising spending.

''It's a tale of two cities,'' said Kyle Evans, a media analyst at Stephens Inc. ''On one side your viewership has been teleported back to the 1950s, when people crowded around their TV at home and watched the news. On the other side, advertising is dropping off and not matching those viewership numbers.''

Advertising is often among the first things cut by companies looking to preserve cash in times of crisis, because it is seen as discretionary spending within many corporations, marketers said. Ad-buying giant Magna Global last week slashed its U.S. advertising forecast as economic conditions continue to worsen because of the coronavirus pandemic, whose impact it likened to ''a combination of the Great Recession and 9/11.''

The coronavirus outbreak's impact on sporting events also affected local channels. The canceled NCAA basketball tournament led to advertising cancellations at CBS network affiliates. The Olympics provide a boost in advertising revenue, according to the local TV broadcasters' public filings, but the Tokyo Olympics have been postponed until 2021.

Local TV broadcasters say the automobile industry makes up a key portion of advertising revenue, but auto sales are dropping. Political advertising is another large contributor to local TV stations' revenue, and the postponement of many primaries because of the virus means that advertising revenue is likely to be pushed to later in the year, company executives said.

Local TV broadcasters declined to disclose the extent of the advertising hit. Meredith's Mr. McCreery said the company has been in contact with advertisers.

''Net-net, there is a decline in advertising, and more cancellations than new orders,'' said Kevin Latek, executive vice president at Gray Television Inc., which owns and operates TV stations in 93 markets. However, he said, there have been some new advertisers taking advantage of the rise in viewership.

Advertising accounted for between 31% and 46% of total local TV revenue at Nexstar, Gray, Meredith and Sinclair for calendar year 2019, according to an analysis of the companies' financial statements. Much of the broadcast stations' revenue comes from fees paid by pay-TV distributors in return for carrying their channels, known as retransmission-consent fees. These are often lucrative fee deals that have increased in recent years.

Mr. Sook, Nexstar's CEO, said the company is ''less exposed to core advertising losses than we were in 2008, when 90% of our revenue was tied to ads.''

''That's the evolution of the company and the industry,'' Mr. Sook said.

Nexstar's digital advertising has held up ''surprisingly well,'' he said, thanks to the growth of its channels' websites. Similarly, Gray, Meredith and Sinclair's websites associated with news channels are seeing record visits.

The coronavirus crisis's impact on advertising revenue will be dependent on how long Americans are ordered to stay inside, executives said.

''Historically, when you see a pause on ads for a period of time there is pent-up demand for when things normalize,'' Mr. Sook said.

Write to Lillian Rizzo at Lillian.Rizzo@wsj.com

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 19:28

The water ice and other lunar resources that will help the United States establish a long-term human presence on the moon are there for the taking, the White House believes.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order today (April 6) establishing U.S. policy on the exploitation of off-Earth resources. That policy stresses that the current regulatory regime '-- notably, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty '-- allows the use of such resources.

This view has long held sway in U.S. government circles. For example, the United States, like the other major spacefaring nations, has not signed the 1979 Moon Treaty, which stipulates that non-scientific use of space resources be governed by an international regulatory framework. And in 2015, Congress passed a law explicitly allowing American companies and citizens to use moon and asteroid resources.

Related: The search for water on the moon (photos)

The new executive order makes things even more official, stressing that the United States does not view space as a "global commons" and sees a clear path to off-Earth mining, without the need for further international treaty-level agreements.

The executive order, called "Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources," has been in the works for about a year, a senior administration official said during a teleconference with reporters today. The order was prompted, at least in part, by a desire to clarify the United States' position as it negotiates with international partners to help advance NASA's Artemis program for crewed lunar exploration, the official added. (Engagement with international partners remains important, the official said.)

Artemis aims to land two astronauts on the moon in 2024 and to establish a sustainable human presence on and around Earth's nearest neighbor by 2028. Lunar resources, especially the water ice thought to be plentiful on the permanently shadowed floors of polar craters, are key to Artemis' grand ambitions, NASA officials have said.

The moon is not the final destination for these ambitions, by the way. Artemis is designed to help NASA and its partners learn how to support astronauts in deep space for long stretches, lessons that will be key to putting boots on Mars, which NASA wants to do in the 2030s.

"As America prepares to return humans to the moon and journey on to Mars, this executive order establishes U.S. policy toward the recovery and use of space resources, such as water and certain minerals, in order to encourage the commercial development of space," Scott Pace, deputy assistant to the president and executive secretary of the U.S. National Space Council, said in a statement today.

President Trump has shown considerable interest in shaping U.S. space policy. In December 2017, for example, he signed Space Policy Directive-1, which laid the groundwork for the Artemis campaign. Two other directives have aimed to streamline commercial space regulation and the protocols for space traffic control. And Space Policy Directive-4, which the president signed in February 2019, called for the creation of the Space Force, the first new U.S. military branch since the Air Force was stood up in 1947.

Home on the moon: how to build a lunar colony (infographic)Presidential visions for space: from Ike to TrumpNo digging required: space mining on the moon and beyond may be solar poweredMike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 18:58

In fact, Fox host Laura Ingraham and two doctors who are regular on-air guests in what she dubs her ''medical cabinet'' visited the White House last Friday for a private meeting with Trump to talk up the drug, according to two White House officials and another person familiar with the meeting.

Never mind that hydroxychloroquine is an unproven treatment for covid-19 and is still in the testing stages, or that it has dangerous side effects, or that medical professionals are divided on its capability. The infectious disease expert on Trump's own coronavirus task force, Anthony S. Fauci, has privately pleaded with the president to be more cautious.

But Trump '-- who famously has said he trusts his gut more than anything an expert could counsel him '-- is again letting his impulses guide what he tells a locked-down nation eager to return to normal.

The past several days he has been advocating thatpeople infected with the coronavirus consider taking hydroxychloroquine, in consultation with their doctors. He remarked Sunday that ''a lot of people are saying'' patients should take the drug and called it ''a very special thing.''

Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.

As the president has said repeatedly, ''What do you have to lose?''

Trump's swift embrace of hydroxychloroquine '-- as well as azithromycin, which he has hyped as ''one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine'' '-- illustrates the degree to which the president prioritizes anecdote and feeling over science and fact. It also has provoked an ugly divide within a White House already besieged as it struggles to make up for lost time in slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

The president has frequently clashed with or undercut scientists leading the effort against the virus, from equivocating on whether to wear masks in public to repeatedly pressing to reopen businesses sooner than advised by public health experts.

Hydroxychloroquine is still being studied for its effectiveness in treating covid-19, but the Food and Drug Administration already has approved it for malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. That means doctors can prescribe the drug for covid-19 or other ailments on an off-label basis. The agency also has authorized the emergency use of the drug from the Strategic National Stockpile for certain hospitalized patients.

Many doctors are reportedly taking the medication themselves as a potential preventive measure and are giving it to their patients, especially in New York, which has by far the largest number of coronavirus cases in the country.

Kenneth E. Raske, chief executive of the Greater New York Hospital Association, which represents all of New York City's hospitals, said clinicians have reported that ''the jury is still out'' on the drug. Still, he said he did not believe the side effects were so deleterious that it should be avoided.

''We're using those drugs extensively,'' Raske said. ''It's not as if this is a distant conversation. The drug has been around for a long time. I think everybody is going into this eyes wide open.''

Over the weekend, Trump's task force decided to rush-deliver hydroxychloroquine to hospitals and pharmacies in the New York area, Detroit, New Orleans and other coronavirus hot zones, provided that the medicine be administered to patients only on the advice of their doctors.

''In peacetime, the conservative approach would be correct,'' Peter Navarro, a trade adviser who recently was named the administration's Defense Production Act policy coordinator, said in an interview. ''In wartime, with the potential of mass casualties, you may have to be more forward-leaning and accept additional risk.''

The action came after Trump met with Ingraham, who has been enthusiastically promoting hydroxychloroquine on her 10 p.m. Fox News show. She brought along two guests of her program '-- Ramin Oskoui, a Washington-based cardiologist, and Stephen Smith, a New Jersey-based infectious disease specialist '-- and Trump asked that FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn attend as well.

Smith made a detailed presentation to Trump about his view on treatment, putting an emphasis on the benefits of hydroxychloroquine based on his own experiences and studies, according to two White House officials and a person familiar with the meeting.

Trump listened intently, they said, and emerged from that meeting seemingly determined to advocate for hydroxychloroquine to be more widely used.

Smith, who has known Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for decades and has treated more than 100 covid-19 patients, said in an interview Monday that he walked Trump through a spreadsheet and other documents about how hydroxchloroquine works and its uses during hospitalization.

''I'm a guy who looks at data,'' Smith said. ''I came as a scientist and physician. I trained under Dr. Fauci and respect him a lot.'' He described Hahn as ''supportive.''

The FDA declined to comment on the meeting. A senior administration official said that the session appeared to be an effort to press Trump to ratchet up his public support for the drug. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said Hahn has been flexible in handling the drug but wasn't comfortable endorsing it before trials are completed. Efforts to reach Oskoui by email and phone were not successful.

During Saturday's task force meeting, Navarro pushed hard for the drug. He showed up with a folder of statistics and papers to forcefully argue the case for using the drug and got into a fight with Fauci over its efficacy, as first reported by Axios.

Navarro said the disagreement ''isn't a real debate. It's Kabuki theater for political junkies.'' A couple hours earlier, however, Navarro sounded provocative during an appearance on ''Fox & Friends,'' a morning show Trump often watches.

''I think history will judge who's right on this debate, but I'd bet on President Trump's intuition on this one,'' he said.

The tension between Trump's faith in an unproven drug and the reticence of public health experts to endorse it was evident at Sunday's White House news conference, when CNN correspondent Jeremy Diamond asked Fauci for his opinion on hydroxychloroquine. Trump interrupted and said Fauci did not have to answer the question, and he scolded Diamond for asking. Fauci was silent.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley insisted ''there is no daylight'' between Trump and Fauci regarding the drug and accused the media of trying to create ''soap opera-like drama.''

Hydroxychloroquine has a number of serious side effects, chief among them its impact on the ''QT interval'' '-- the time it takes for the heart's electrical system to reset between contractions, which push blood into the vascular system and around the body, according to Mark Gladwin, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. This raises the risk of heart arrhythmias '-- irregular heartbeats '-- that can be fatal, he said.

With many covid-19 patients arriving at hospitals as emergencies, it is not always possible for doctors to know what other drugs a patient is taking or conduct an electrocardiogram, making use of the drug dangerous, Gladwin said.

Because hydroxychloroquine hasn't been studied in valid large-scale research, doctors can't know the appropriate dose for any patient. In addition, covid-19 is causing a heart infection, myocarditis, in some of the most seriously ill patients.

''The heart may already be involved in this virus,'' Gladwin said. ''And now we're adding a drug that prolongs the QT [interval]. We have no idea what that will do in the setting of patient with covid-19.''

Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA commissioner earlier in the Trump administration, said the data on hydroxychloroquine is ''very preliminary'' and the drug has been used widely in the United States and Europe without ''any obvious benefit.'' Clinical trial data is needed, he said. Meanwhile, he added, ''We should focus on the drugs that are most likely to be transformative,'' such as antibody drugs that are under study.

FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said, ''The FDA's role is to make independent, science-based decisions to bring new therapies to sick patients as quickly as possible, while at the same time supporting research to further evaluate whether these medical countermeasures are safe and effective for treating patients infected with this novel virus.''

Hydroxychloroquine had rarely come up in official task force meetings before Saturday's explosive Navarro-Fauci discussion, which ended only after Vice President Pence and senior adviser Jared Kushner stepped in, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions.

Trump's obsession with hydroxychloroquine stems from a place of desperation and an optimism that the drug will work, even if the science is not conclusive, allies said. As one person put it, ''The president lives in a world of wishes and hope.''

''It's the only thing anyone has held out as offering an immediate reprieve from what's become his greatest challenge '-- and political threat,'' said a former senior administration official who, like some other officials interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment. This official described the president's ''overwhelming desire for a silver bullet to make it all go away.''

Trump's aides are giving him reason to believe. White House officials compiled upbeat news articles about people who said they were helped by the experimental drug to give to the president. And on Monday, an email blast went out to administration aides with the subject: ''CORONAVIRUS FLAG: LA doctor seeing success with hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19,'' linking to a story from KABC in Los Angeles.

''The president is talking to so many people in New York '-- friends, Wall Street guys, real estate guys,'' one White House official said. ''He's hearing about this drug and he's seeing his own optimism repeated back to him on Fox News. It's all self-reinforcing. An echo chamber.''

Trump has pressured Hahn to make more favorable statements about hydroxychloroquine and has regularly raised it with him, according to two White House officials with knowledge of the discussions.

At times, Trump has grown frustrated because some of the doctors in his administration '-- including Hahn and Fauci '-- have conceded privately that there is some anecdotal evidence the drug may work, but will not state so publicly at the president's news conferences, these officials said.

Another regular on Fox News, New York-based oncologist William Grace, has suddenly emerged as an influential voice in Trump's orbit despite having no formal links to the government. Grace has appeared regularly on Ingraham's show touting hydroxychloroquine.

Grace said in an interview that as he has tracked the pandemic as a self-described ''interested physician,'' he has become convinced that the ''drugs are working, that fewer people are having to go to the respirators at places like Lenox Hill hospital.''

Grace is not a spokesman for the hospital or approved to speak about its use of hydroxychloroquine on patients. When Ingraham posted a tweet on March 20 about Grace's comments regarding the hospital, Twitter deleted it for violating the platform's policies, and the hospital said in a statement that ''his views are his own and do not represent the hospital.''

Grace has continued to speak out, and has been communicating with Navarro.

''I don't know of a single institution anywhere that's not treating inpatients with hydroxychloroquine,'' Grace said. ''It's being implemented very quickly all over. You've never seen such speed.''

Peter Lurie, a top FDA official in the Obama administration who is now president of Center for Science in the Public Interest, said he was concerned that Trump's campaign for hydroxychloroquine undercuts the FDA's fundamental philosophy on approving drugs.

''When the president says, 'What have you got to lose?' that is profoundly different than what the science-based agencies have been trying to communicate to the public for decades,'' Lurie said.

Lenny Bernstein contributed to this report.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 18:47

A fight broke out among the White House coronavirus task force over the weekend regarding the potential use of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients.

According to a report from Axios, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci objected to task force members' characterizations of the drug, saying that there was only anecdotal evidence of the drug's effectiveness and cautioning that much more data is needed.

Fauci's comments set off a heated exchange with Trump economic advisor Peter Navarro, who reportedly raised his voice and accused Fauci of being the only task force member who had objected to Trump's China travel ban. It was the first such confrontation among the task force, according to Axios' source.

Since late March, President Trump has repeatedly promoted the use of the drug, despite the limited testing that has been done on its effectiveness for treating COVID-19.

On Sunday, Trump reiterated his support for using it to treat coronavirus patients. ''What do you have to lose?,'' Trump asked, repeating his comments from Saturday. Trump also prevented Dr. Fauci from fielding a question on the use of hydroxychloroquine.

It's unclear why Trump has been such a proponent of hydroxychloroquine, but one answer may lie with the millions of dollars in political support he has received from the founder of a pharmaceutical industry-funded group that has been pushing him to make the drug available.

On March 26, Job Creators Network, a conservative dark money nonprofit, launched a petition, a series of Facebook ads, and a blast text message campaign calling on Trump to ''cut the red tape'' and immediately make hydroxychloroquine available to treat patients.

''There is clear and ever-mounting evidence that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine can significantly help patients who contract coronavirus,'' the petition states, despite the lack of rigorous clinical testing.

Some small clinical studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine may help to speed recovery from the coronavirus, while other small studies have found that the drug does not appear to help patients clear the virus. A much larger trial of 2,000 patients is currently being conducted by researchers at New York University, and results are expected in about eight weeks. The drug is currently being used in some hospitals and some anecdotal evidence of its effectiveness has been observed.

The Job Creators Network was founded in 2011 by billionaire Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, a major GOP donor who spent more than $7 million through outside groups to help elect Trump in 2016. Marcus has said that he plans to spend part of his fortune to help re-elect Trump in 2020.

Job Creators Network has been funded by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a drug industry trade that counts among its members leading hydroxychloroquine makers Novartis, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Bayer. According to tax documents, PhRMA donated $500,000 to Job Creators Network in 2017.

Novartis, Teva, and Bayer have all committed to providing millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine for clinical testing, and the companies potentially stand to profit if the drug becomes adopted as a common coronavirus treatment.

Sludge is 100% reader supported and ad-free. If you appreciate our independent journalism, Become a member today. ðŸ

Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan has said his company is searching for additional active ingredients in order to produce more hydroxychloroquine if it is needed.

Job Creator Network's hydroxychloroquine campaign has been run in partnership with a nonprofit called Physicians for Reform, which works with FreedomWorks to promote deregulatory health care policies. FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group that was founded by the Koch brothers, also receives money from PhRMA. According to tax documents PhRMA gave $100,000 to Freedomworks in 2018.

Since Trump began claiming that hydroxychloroquine may be a cure for the coronavirus, there has been a shortage of the drug, which besides being used for treating malaria is also approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating lupus and arthritis. The shortage of the drug has prompted the Lupus Foundation of America and other other medical groups to issue a joint statement to the White House coronavirus task force to work with them to help ensure the drug, and a related drug, chloroquine, would be available to patients who need it to stay alive. ''While we support rigorous clinical trials to investigate their potential use for COVID-19, it is imperative to preserve access to these medications for those patients whose lives and productivity depend on them,'' the groups wrote.

Read more from Sludge:

Biden Sides With Big Pharma Against Plan That Could Make Coronavirus Vaccine AffordableAfter Meeting With Pharma-Backed Rep, Trump Flip-Flops on Drug Price NegotiationsBig Pharma Keeps Bankrolling House Republicans' Dark Money Arm Every day, the reporters at Sludge are relentlessly following the money to reveal the hidden networks and conflicts of interest that drive political corruption. We are 100% ad-free and reader supported, so we're counting on our readers to help us continue calling out powerful politicians and lobbyists. If you appreciate the work we do, please consider becoming a member for $5 a month to support our investigative journalism. We can't do this work without your support.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 16:06

Published Mon, Apr 6 2020 2:43 PM EDT

Updated an hour ago

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Plaid, which is being acquired by Visa for $5.3 billion, is building a product that speeds the payroll portion of emergency loan applications from days to a matter of minutes.As part of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill signed last week, the U.S. government is facilitating at least $350 billion in loans to small businesses. Much of the payroll portion was being done manually. "Speeding up loan processing could mean the difference between a business and its employees surviving intact, or going bankrupt and adding to the skyrocketing unemployment," says Plaid CEO Zach Perret.Plaid co-founder and CEO Zach Perret.

Plaid

Start-up Plaid is looking to solve a pain point in the emergency loan process: Access to payroll data.

Small businesses looking to survive the coronavirus slowdown are rushing to apply for emergency government loans. But as a part of that process, they need to download their payroll data and share it with their bank, who then needs to verify and process the information and application. The process can take days or weeks, and is often done manually, according to Plaid.

Plaid, which is being acquired by Visa for $5.3 billion, is building a product that it says takes the payroll portion of applications down to a matter of minutes.

"Speeding up loan processing could mean the difference between a business and its employees surviving intact, or going bankrupt and adding to the skyrocketing unemployment," Plaid CEO Zach Perret told CNBC. "We are working to enable the quick and secure sharing of payroll data so critical data can be verified instantly so funds are distributed as quickly as possible."

As part of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill signed last week, the U.S. government is facilitating at least $350 billion in loans to small businesses. The lending is being done through banks, although many non-bank lenders like Square and PayPal have lobbied to be included. Plaid said it has at least 100 lenders interested in the product '-- ranging from banks to fintech lenders and is in talks with payroll providers such as ADP and Gusto.

Last week, major banks complained of a lack of guidance to get systems up and running in the hours before the Thursday evening deadline. As a result, many said they were prioritizing existing customers. Plaid said this payroll product could help banks add newer customers who otherwise might take days to get their payroll paperwork before being approved.

Plaid's software, often referred to as the "plumbing" behind fintech companies, lets users connect their bank accounts to consumer applications like Venmo, mobile investing app Robinhood and cryptocurrency exchanges including Coinbase and Gemini. As of December, Plaid said one in four people in the United States with bank accounts have connected to the company through an app. Visa and rival Mastercard were early investors in the start-up, along with the venture arms of Citi and American Express.

"People need solutions that will make the road to recovery as straightforward as possible" Perret said. "Fintech can, and should be able to help."

View the full site

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 16:04

from the good-to-see deptEarlier this week, we wrote about the sham orphan drug designation that the FDA gave to Gilead Sciences for remdesivir. As we explained, remdesivir was developed with mostly public funds, and Gilead Sciences already held three patents on it, with a fourth one pending. Orphan drugs designations are supposed to be extra incentives for drug makers to target rare diseases. The issue here was that part of the definition of a rare disease under the Orphan Drugs Act is that it has to affect fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. Ridiculously, the law does not take into account the rate at which the disease spreads -- just how many people have it at the time a drug maker requests the designation. Even worse, the law explicitly says that the FDA cannot remove the designation if the affected group later grows to over 200,000.

Over the last few days, anger continued to grow at Gilead and the FDA -- including with the news that the FDA won't even say when Gilead applied for Orphan Drug status, because that's apparently "a commercial secret." Either way, this morning a ton of public interest groups, organized by Public Citizen, sent a letter to Gilead asking it to renounce its claim for orphan drug status:

We were shocked to learn that your company sought a lucrative orphan drug designation from the Food & Drug Administration for remdesivir, one of relatively few medicines being explored as a possible treatment for COVID-19 this year.

This is an unconscionable abuse of a program designed to incentivize research and development for treatments for rare diseases. COVID-19 is anything but a rare disease. Some estimates suggest that half or more of all Americans may ultimately contract the disease.

We are writing to demand you reverse course and renounce your claim to orphan drug designation privileges for remdesivir.

As you know, Gilead was able receive an orphan drug designation only by rushing to file its application while there were fewer than 200,000 COVID-19 U.S. cases.

The United States most likely will surpass 200,000 COVID-19 reported cases in a matter of days. The real number of people suffering with the new coronavirus likely already has passed this mark. Calling COVID-19 a rare disease mocks people's suffering and exploits a loophole in the law to profiteer off a deadly pandemic.

And here's the crazy thing. It worked!

Almost immediately after that letter was sent, Gilead announced that it has asked the FDA to rescind the designation:

Gilead has submitted a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to rescind the orphan drugdesignation it was granted for the investigational antiviral remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19 andis waiving all benefits that accompany the designation. Gilead is confident that it can maintain an expeditedtimeline in seeking regulatory review of remdesivir, without the orphan drug designation. Recentengagement with regulatory agencies has demonstrated that submissions and review relating to remdesivirfor the treatment of COVID-19 are being expedited.

In early March, Gilead sought and was subsequently granted an orphan drug designation for the remdesiviras a potential treatment for COVID-19. Orphan drug designation is granted by the FDA in situations wherethe disease affects fewer than 200,000 patients in the United States.

The notice tries to give some justification for the orphan designation, suggesting that it would have made approval easier:

Among the benefits of orphan drug designation, this status results in a waiver of the requirement to providea pediatric study plan prior to the submission of a New Drug Application '' a process that can to take up to210 days to review.

Gilead recognizes the urgent public health needs posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The company isworking to advance the development of remdesivir as quickly as possible, and will provide updates as theybecome available

So, in the end, public pressure worked, and the right thing was done.

As a side note, I've seen some people point to this article to suggest that because the FDA had only designated remdesivir as an orphan drug for COVID-19, and not yet approved it, that this story was blown out of proportion. This is wrong. The designation almost certainly eventually leads to the approval, and the mere designation creates a massive chilling effect on others working in the space, as it effectively tells them not to go down that path at all. The designation was a big deal, and a terrible scam pulled off by the FDA and Gilead, and it's good to see that Gilead was realizing that it was being seen as a pandemic profiteer and has backed off.

Filed Under: covid-19, exclusivity, fda, greed, orphan drugs, pandemic, patents, public pressure, remdesivirCompanies: gilead sciences

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 15:58

Wells Fargo is bowing out of a new federal program aimed at helping small businesses retain workers and pay bills during the coronavirus pandemic. The bank announced late Sunday that it would no longer accept new loan applications under the government's Paycheck Protection Program , which launched last week as part of Washington's $2.2 trillion economic relief package.

Wells also said it planned to lend a maximum of $10 billion through the program and that it has already received more than enough applications to reach that threshold. Any requests for loans submitted after April 5 will not be considered, according to the bank.

Since the program launched on Friday, most U.S. banks are processing loans only for existing clients. Wells Fargo's exit could shut out some of its small business customers that have not yet applied for a loan. That's especially significant because Wells Fargo arranged more small business loans than any other lender in the country last year.

The Paycheck Protection Program offers 1% interest loans to business with fewer than 500 workers. Borrowers who don't lay off workers in the next eight weeks will have their loans forgiven, along with the interest. On Monday morning, the U.S. Small Business Administration said more than 100,000 loans had been approved and funded under the program, for a total value of $30 billion.

In an economy devastated by coronavirus, business owners and employees struggle with the loss of revenue and jobsThe government program is designed to limit the swelling number of workers applying for unemployment, with Congress aiming to distribute as much as $349 billion in aid through the small business initiative. Yet Wells Fargo's limited participation could hamper the program, which has had had a rocky start .

A number of the nation's largest lenders on Friday initially delayed taking loan applications, causing confusion among some small business owners. Many bankers blamed the hitch on the U.S. Treasury Department not finalizing rules for the program until less than a day before it was due to kick off.

As of Sunday evening, Citibank was still not accepting loan applications. But the bank said that once it began processing loans it planned to accept applications until June 30.

Wells Fargo on Saturday allowed borrowers to submit Paycheck Protection Program loan applications, but on Sunday it said customers and other businesses that hadn't yet applied would have to go elsewhere. The bank said it planned to especially target its lending under the the program to businesses with fewer than than 50 employees and to non-profits. Wells Fargo also said it will donate any profits it makes from the program to charity.

The Federal Reserve in 2018 capped the amount of loans Wells Fargo can make after the bank was earlier revealed to have created millions of phony accounts as well as committed a string of other consumer abuses.

Coronavirus' crushing impact on small business in AmericaA source close to Well Fargo said it has had discussions with the Fed to lift the cap so the to bank could be allowed to issue more loans during the coronavirus crisis, which has shut down many small businesses . But it appears the Fed has declined to change its stance.

"Today, the company continues to operate in compliance with an asset cap imposed by its regulator due to actions of past leadership," said Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf, who took the helm in September. "We are committed to helping our customers during these unprecedented and challenging times, but are restricted in our ability to serve as many customers as we would like under the PPP."

On Monday, Sheila Bair, who was the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission during the financial crisis, tweeted that Wells Fargo's lending cap should be lifted to allow it to make more small business loans under the stimulus program.

OK. I'll go out on a limb here. I think Wells Fargo should be given latitude to make CARES Act small business loans even if that expands its balance sheet beyond current regulatory limits.

'-- Sheila Bair (@SheilaBair2013) April 6, 2020Over the weekend, Bank of America said it had received 185,000 loan applications on the first day and a half of the program, seeking a total of $30 billion.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 15:31

CBS News posted a video of a nurse who claimed she quit her job after being asked to work in a coronavirus ICU without a face mask.

''America is not prepared, and nurses are not being protected,'' said the ICU nurse in the video. ''I quit my job today. I went into work and I was assigned to a COVID patient on an ICU unit that has been converted to a designated COVID unit. None of the nurses are wearing masks.''

The video now appears to be inaccurate. Instead of verifying the legitimacy of the video, CBS added background music and captions to highlight a woman who lied about her workplace situation. The woman, who goes by Imaris on social media, has a prominent following on Instagram.

So it turns out this video is entirely fraudulent. https://t.co/2axIrXK4LA

'-- Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) April 6, 2020

Prior to CBS picking up this video, Imaris posted on her public Facebook page that she has anxiety and bi-polar depression and had not been an employee at the hospital for over a year. She mentioned in her post that she was unsure if she was ready to return to her job.

Imaris also said the growing volume of information on coronavirus ''triggers'' her.

''The information overload can be hard for me to sift through as far as what is credible and what is not, it triggers me,'' she wrote in a Facebook post.

Four days into the job and 90% are dying and on ventilators. Notice she admits information TRIGGERS her. Ya, think? pic.twitter.com/ANbDCFOhiz

'-- Rosie memos (@almostjingo) April 6, 2020

Parroting the fraudulent video is 2020 Democratic contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. who quote tweeted the video and called on the Department of Labor to issue emergency workplace standards.

''It is insane that our nurses are being forced to are for the sick without masks and respirators. The Department of Labor must immediately issue emergency workplace standards to protect our health workers, their families, and their patients,'' Sanders said.

It is insane that our nurses are being forced to care for the sick without masks and respirators. The Department of Labor must immediately issue emergency workplace standards to protect our health workers, their families, and their patients. https://t.co/Z8dWqtxz5X

'-- Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 5, 2020

Nurses and medical workers are working tirelessly with inadequate protection gear, and they are the real heroes. For an Instagram ''influencer'' to deliberately misrepresent her career for the instant glorification of internet fame is sickening.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 12:45

A global broadcast & digital special to support frontline healthcare workers and the WHO.

Curated in Collaboration with Lady Gaga

Appearances By: Alanis Morissette ' Andrea Bocelli ' Billie Eilish ' Billie Joe Armstrong ' Burna Boy ' Chris Martin ' David Beckham ' Eddie Vedder ' Elton John ' FINNEAS ' Idris and Sabrina Elba ' J Balvin ' John Legend ' Kacey Musgraves ' Keith Urban ' Kerry Washington ' Lang Lang ' Lizzo ' Maluma ' Paul McCartney ' Priyanka Chopra Jonas ' Shah Rukh Khan ' Stevie Wonder

Hosted by Jimmy Fallon ' Jimmy Kimmel ' Stephen Colbert

Sign up to be a part of the event

Watch One World: Together At Home

Take the Pledge to Stay at Home

In the face of lockdowns and losses, it's easy to feel helpless -- but there are things we can all do to beat coronavirus. From taking care to wash our hands, to staying at home, to calling on governments, big business and billionaires to step up, it's on all of us to take action. Join us and we'll follow up with actions you can take to increase your impact.

The first step: stop the spread of the virus. That means keeping yourself and others safe by staying out of public as much as you can. Take the pledge: as a Global Citizen, I'm staying home!

Join us for #TogetherAtHome dailyTogether At Home is a series of virtual, no-contact concerts to inspire us all to stay inside and take action. We want you to be a part of this movement -- join us in supporting the World Health Organization's rapid response to coronavirus.

Follow us on social to see the daily lineup.

Q&A Sessions

Kerry Washington & Dr. Nadine Burke Harris Talk CoronavirusWatch Now

Priyanka Chopra Jonas hosts a Q&A with the World Health OrganizationWatch Now

Image: Michael Swan/Flickr Regional Response PartnersGlobal Citizen is partnering with organizations providing on-the-ground relief in the form of food, shelter, healthcare and more. See our list of regional partners doing critical work in their communities to help people affected by coronavirus.

Support a local organisation

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 12:34

Signaling just how cross-network the special will be, late-night rivals Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon have been set as co-hosts. Gaga, who is helping with the show's music curation, announced she and Global Citizen have raised $35 million in the last week.

Signaling just how cross-network the special will be, late-night rivals Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon have been set as co-hosts. Gaga, who is helping with the show's music curation, announced she and Global Citizen have raised $35 million in the last week.The music live-streams that Global Citizen has been webcasting on a daily basis to promote World Health Organization initiatives during the coronavirus pandemic now have a considerably more spectacular outgrowth. The two organizations have announced ''One World: Together at Home,'' a global special that will be seen and heard across major broadcast and cable networks and digital music providers April 18.

Underscoring the fact that the two-hour special will air, in rarely precedented fashion, simultaneously on ABC, CBS and NBC (among many other platforms), it will be hosted by those three networks' competing late night hosts: Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert.

The talent lineup is described as being ''curated in collaboration with'' Lady Gaga, who called in to a WHO press conference Monday morning to announce that she's helped raise $35 million in the last seven days for the org.

Artists joining Gaga on the music lineup include Paul McCartney, Elton John, Billie Eilish and Finneas, Lizzo, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Chris Martin, Eddie Vedder, Kacey Musgraves, J Balvin, Keith Urban, Alanis Morissette, Lang Lang, Andrea Bocelli, Billie Joe Armstrong, Burna Boy and Maluma.

The show, set for 8 p.m. ET/5 PT on April 18, will air not just on the three aforementioned broadcast networks but via iHeartMedia and a vast array of cable and international channels, as well as digitally on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Yahoo, Twitch, Amazon Prime Video, Apple Music, Alibaba, LiveXLive, Tencent, Tidal and TuneIn.

Popular on Variety

Celebrating health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic will be a crucial component of the special, said Hugh Evans, co-founder/CEO of Global Citizen. ''As we honor and support the heroic efforts of community health workers, 'One World: Together At Home' aims to serve as a source of unity and encouragement in the global fight to end COVID-19,'' Evans said in a statement. ''Through music, entertainment and impact, the global live-cast will celebrate those who risk their own health to safeguard everyone else's.''

The special is not being designed as a fundraising telethon, per se. In announcing the $35 million she and Global Citizen have already raised, Gaga said during the press conference that the hope was to raise money ahead of time and let the show focus more on entertainment and messages of solidarity.

Among the networks and platforms airing the special: NBCUniversal's NBC, Bravo, E!, MSNBC, NBCSN, NBC News, NBC News on YouTube, Peacock, SYFY and USA; Walt Disney Television's ABC, ABC News Live, Freeform and Nat Geo; ViacomCBS' CBS, Channel 5 in the UK, Network 10 in Australia, Telefe in Argentina, and BET, MTV, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV2, Paramount Network, Pop, TV Land and VH1. It will air on BBC One, the UK's most watched television program, the following night. Other international broadcasters include beIN Media Group, Bell Media platforms in Canada, MultiChoice and RTE.

''The World Health Organization is committed to defeating the coronavirus pandemic with science and public health measures, and supporting the health workers who are on the frontlines of the response,'' said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, in a statement. ''We may have to be apart physically for a little while, but we can still come together virtually to enjoy great music. The 'One World: Together at Home' concert represents a powerful show of solidarity against a common threat.''

The daily ''Together at Home'' webcasts under the Global Citizen aegis in the past few weeks have included appearances by the duo of Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello along with Legend, Martin, Jennifer Hudson, Common, H.E.R., Hozier, Miguel, Niall Horan, Brandy Clark and dozens of others. The series was created in support of the WHO's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 12:25

In an era when the government is using cell phone data to track our movements, drones to enforce compliance of lockdown orders, thermal imaging to monitor social distancing, pastors are getting arrested for hosting church, and ankle bracelets to ensure people stay quarantined, a Federal Reserve official proposed today yet another surveillance plan; daily coronavirus testing for every citizen, and we publicly display badges showing if we tested negative or positive.

James Bullard, CEO of the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve, was recently on CBS's Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan to talk about the state of the economy and what could be done to stem the outbreak of the virus. Toward the end of the interview, Bullard says,

''You know, I have good news for you, MARGARET, because we have a- there is a solution using available technology today to fix the economic part of this problem. The solution is universal testing. What you want is every single person to get tested every day. And then they would wear a badge like they would at a- after they voted or something like that to show that they've been tested. This would immediately sort out who's been infected and who hasn't been infected. That would help the health care sector. But it would also help the economy because we could interact with each other with a lot of confidence.''

TRENDING: HUGE! Official IMHE Model for Coronavirus Used by CDC Just Cut Their Numbers by Half!... They're Making It Up As they Go Along!

Here he is on video saying it, with Brennan's question leading in around the 5:30 mark (apparently the video production technicians at CBS couldn't figure out how to get the volume right, so you'll have to turn it up a bit):

Former FDA commission Scott Gottlieb also appeared on the show and spoke about how we need ''massive surveillance system'' to combat the virus.

What's next? Will they suggest that maybe those who are infected wear a badge that happens to be a yellow star? You know, to identify the undesirables.

The left has spent the last 4 years accusing Trump of being a xenophobic white nationalist neo-nazi. Now they are complaining that he hasn't closed the borders quick enough, hasn't declared martial law quick enough, and hasn't suspended the Constitution yet.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 12:23

Workers stand on the platform of a fracking rig in the Permian Basin oil field on January 21, 2016 in the oil town of Midland, Texas. That industry is suffering from the effects of the Saudi-Russian oil price war. Photo: AFP / Spencer Platt / Getty ImagesUS shale companies, faced with obliteration from the global market, are eyeing an unprecedented step: joining forces with Saudi Arabia and Russia on production cuts.

When OPEC and Russian-led producers meet for emergency talks on Monday, ''an invitation to US producers is a strong possibility,'' a Gulf-based economist told Asia Times on condition of anonymity.

''We'll invite them as the main oil producer in the world,'' a source involved in the planning of the meeting told Russia's TASS news agency.

TASS specified that the invitation to join the video conference would go to a ''US oil regulator''.

That regulator appears to be Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton, who on Thursday said he had spoken with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak on engaging in ''unprecedented'' cooperation.

Just had a great conversation with Russia's @novakav1. While we normally compete, we agreed that #COVID19 requires unprecedented level of int'l cooperation. Discussed 10mbpd out of global supply. Look forward to speaking with Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman soon.

'-- Ryan Sitton (@RyanSitton) April 2, 2020Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman would be his next call, Sitton said.

Should the three sides end up joining forces on global production cuts, it will be unprecedented.

''This is a first '... if it happens,'' the economist said.

OPEC+Uncle SamPresident Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with US oil executives on Friday at 3 pm EST at the White House to discuss options for salvaging the domestic oil sector.

Outreach to the Saudi-led cartel and Russia will no doubt be on the agenda of the closed-door meeting.

The US ended 2019 as the top oil producer in the world, followed by Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Trump has vacillated between referencing price drops as a ''tax cut'' for American consumers to engaging in phone and Twitter diplomacy with Saudi Arabia's crown prince and his counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Saudi and Russian-led producers have since 2017 coordinated to trim a market glut in a format nicknamed as OPEC+.

The alliance broke down only one month ago, when Moscow refused deeper cuts sought by the Saudis. Russia wished to compete with US shale, and production cuts were restricting Russian companies' ability to invest in the sector.

Now, with Covid-19 collapsing global demand and barrel prices bobbing below $20, they are eyeing a truce.

The Gulf-based economist notes that the shale industry was enjoying ''free rider privileges'' from OPEC+ production cuts over the past three years.

''The Russians and Saudis conveniently decided to have a brawl at the biggest demand shock to hit in a decade,'' he said.

That has ''swept the rug'' out from under US shale operators.

''The economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis puts the Saudis, Russians and Americans between a rock and a hard place. Neither can afford a price war and rock bottom prices, least of all US producers,'' said James H Dorsey, senior fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and Middle East Center

''The OPEC meeting could allow Saudi Arabia and Russia to call a time out,'' he told Asia Times.

That, he says, could throw US shale a lifeline.

Asia Times Financial is now live. Linking accurate news, insightful analysis and local knowledge with the ATF China Bond 50 Index, the world's first benchmark cross sector Chinese Bond Indices. Read ATF now.

Hong Kong's giant pandas mate for first time April 6, 2020 McGregor pummels China over 'inhumane behavior' April 6, 2020 Bitcoin is climbing once again April 6, 2020 Trump popularity boost isn't sustainable April 6, 2020 Great Depression II threatens the global economy April 6, 2020 HK media under fire over Taiwan and WHO membership April 6, 2020 Covid-19 gives peace a chance in South Thailand April 6, 2020 South Korea launches digital currency program April 6, 2020 Abe to declare Covid-19 state of emergency April 6, 2020 Indonesia's high Covid-19 kill rate hides hard facts April 6, 2020

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Source: Voltaire Network

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 10:43

The White House and the European Union planned to remove the presidents of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and of its Constituent Assembly, Nicols Maduro and Diosdado Cabello respectively, and then dismantle the constitutional institutions of the country, with the exception of the National Army.

On 26 March, Attorney General William Barr issued a wanted notice for Presidents Maduro and Cabello, charged with drug trafficking, and offering hefty rewards to anyone helping to bring the "criminals" to "Justice" (that is, in US courts). [1] The US Navy and DEA were to kidnap the two men and incarcerate them in the United States. Several warships, including a destroyer, had been prepositioned to assist SouthCom (US command for South America) with the operation.

On 31 March, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a Democratic Transition Framework for Venezuela. [2]

The idea was to clone Operation Just Cause which had enabled Washington to regain control of Panama in 1989.

Unexpectedly, the Pentagon fiercely opposed the operation, considering it inappropriate in the thick of the coronavirus pandemic.

Relations between President Donald Trump and his General Officers are increasingly strained. It is an open secret that NorthCom intends to sidestep him and seize power in order to manage the epidemic. [3] The military is expected to position itself as a neutral entity, above the political cleavage between Democrats and Republicans, acting only to protect the American people. A faction of the Military Intelligence is reportedly attempting to thwart the plan by threatening to arrest several general officers charged with sex crimes.

[1] ''Nicols Maduro Moros and 14 Current and Former Venezuelan Officials Charged with Narco-Terrorism, Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Criminal Charges'', US Department of Justice, March 26, 2020.

[2] ''Democratic Transition Framework for Venezuela'', Voltaire Network, 1 April 2020.

[3] ''Putchists in the Shadow of the Coronavirus'' , by Thierry Meyssan , Translation Roger Lagass(C) , Voltaire Network, 31 March 2020.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 10:32

Are Drones capable?The Tamil Nadu Health Ministry plans to effectively deploy hundreds of drones to sanitize hospital campuses and high risk zones.Video:

@bbctamil pic.twitter.com/MdcAEPXIX1

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 09:55

** Read our previous post from yesterday here.

This is quite stunning.The government models used to predict the extent of the coronavirus pandemic are off by huge margins in the latest coronavirus tracking numbers.

The government predictions reported by the IMHE Covid Tracking (https://covidtracking.com/data/ ) for Apr 5th were as follows:

'' All beds needed: 179,267'' ICU beds needed: 33,176'' Invasive ventilators: 26,544

TRENDING: UPDATE: SOUZA DELETES TWITTER ACCOUNT: Obama White House Photographer Pete Souza to President Trump: "F*** you potus"

These numbers were posted on their website on Sunday.

Those were the predictions.

The actual numbers as recorded at The Covid Tracking Project:

'' Actual hospitalizations: 22,158'' In ICU: 5,207'' On ventilator: 656

The actual numbers show:Via Dr. Ned Nikolov.

'' Overestimation of hospitalizations: 8 times'' Overestimation of of ICU beds needed: 6.4 times'' Overestimation of ventilators needed: 40.5 times

So overnight the IMHE '-- the official group Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx have been promoting cut their numbers by more than half!Here is what the IMHE NOW HAS for April 5th:

'' All beds needed: Was 179,267 '... Now is 90,353'' ICU beds needed: Was 33,176 '... Now is 17,589'' Invasive ventilators: Was 26,544 '... Now is 14,951

They cut their projections by almost HALF!'... And THEY'RE STILL TOO HIGH!

They're making it up as they go along!

This is completely unacceptable.At this time in history and with the technology in place it is absolutely shocking that this could happen!Millions of Americans will lose their jobs due to these panic-driven lockdowns.The first people to be fired should be the ones who drove this panic!

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 09:52

Millions of people worldwide are watching President Donald Trump's frequent press conferences on the global pandemic. (Better ratings than the Bachelor! Maybe better ratings than Monday Night Football!)

There are two striking things about these press conferences. The first is what they reveal about the media, and the second is what they show about Mr. Trump.

On the first point, the interactions between the president and the press show that the craven, absurdly biased, anti-Trump, pro-China media corps still have not changed their approach, despite an ongoing global crisis and their repeated efforts to cause him to fail.

The media corps have doubled and tripled down on their attacks against the Trump administration. There is no spirit of unity that pervaded the post-9/11 atmosphere. No coming together of national interest in the face of a modern-day plague.

A new strain of biased reporting has emerged: ''Live TV enables the President to lie to Americans about Covid-19,'' says the Washington Post. Add to that a new mutation of lazy coverage: ''Save time: Assume Trump is inept and lying.''

This is no surprise from the newspaper that publishes a rolling catalogue of so-called ''lies'' supposedly told by the president. ''President Trump made 16,241 false or misleading claims in his first three years''! A fictional number, but more manageable than tabulating the false or misleading claims of the Washington Post or the general phenomenon of ''opinion journalism pretending to some sort of heightened objectivity,'' as James Taranto has repeatedly said.

On and on it goes. The New York Times: ''Google gives cover to Trump's lies.'' The Atlantic: ''Trump's blatant coronavirus lies.'' The Daily Beast: ''Trump's coronavirus lies are an infection. This is the only cure'' (suggesting ''doses of truth'').

Here's another representative headline: ''Broadcasting Trump's Coronavirus Briefings Live Is a Danger to Public Health.'' A new twist? Not even close. This one is as old as his time in office: ''President Donald Trump Is a Threat to Public Health,'' claimed the Harvard Public Health Review in 2017. ''The first task of the doctor is political,'' said the laughably un-medical argument. ''The struggle against disease must begin with a war against bad government.'' (Nothing about undercooked bat meat.)

And, while corporate media attack Mr. Trump and brand him a liar, they uncritically republish Chinese communist propaganda in a manner reminiscent of Pravda's dissemination of USSR disinformation.

Lacking professional skepticism, and despite early evidence that the Chinese government covered up the catastrophe as it unfolded in Wuhan unimpeded while brave Chinese health experts risked their lives to spread the truth, the China-credulous media continue to parrot the Chinese government's official reports. Some of the US media's coverage even praised the Chinese government for ''helping Italy'' in its fight against the virus.

With all of these forces arrayed against the president, a fair-minded observer might wonder if this is a fair fight. It's not.

And that leads me to my second observation about the press conferences. Mr. Trump is winning.

The colloquies between Mr. Trump and media showcase his mastery of the press conference format and, let's face it, complete dominance over his adversaries known as White House media correspondents. The press conferences succeed so well that Mr. Trump's adversaries in the media even want to stop live broadcasting and straight-news reporting during a pandemic.

Once again Mr. Trump is disrupting the media narrative. Even with his campaign rallies cancelled and most Americans unable to engage in their regular daily lives, the president's disruptive ability as a communicator harken back to his 2016 presidential campaign, when virtually all forces of the mainstream media were unable to stop the steam-locomotive power of the Trump Train.

The press briefings are yet another medium in which Mr. Trump can speak directly and unfiltered to voters. Viewers who tune in and watch the briefings live can see firsthand Mr. Trump's mastery of the process. Media mendacity cannot stop him. Even with journalists' misleading snippets and their spliced-together fragments designed to deceive or isolate words from context, the president continues to win.

When a reporter tried to ambush Mr. Trump with a selectively misleading quote from an earlier press conference, the president forced the reporter to admit on live television that he had omitted the sentences in which Mr. Trump praised his team and the Army Corps of Engineers.

As a Bloomberg reporter readied an attempt at a gotcha question, Mr. Trump asked, ''How's Michael doing? Good?'' as the audience chuckled.

In a defining moment, and my own personal favorite, another reporter asked, ''How many deaths are acceptable?'' to which the president immediately responded, ''How many deaths are acceptable to me? None. Okay? None, if that's your question.''

To this gotcha question designed to elicit a gaffe, the president delivered a knockout punch. No deaths are acceptable. Pure and simple. The media continue to try to trip up the president during these press briefings. Having repeatedly failed, they now want to shut down live coverage.

The pandemic has not changed the mainstream media's war against Mr. Trump. As much as they try to leverage our current crisis to debilitate the president, their efforts continue to backfire.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 09:37

The European Union's Food Safety Authority has approved the sale of bugs as ''novel food,'' meaning that they are likely to be mass produced for human consumption throughout the continent by the end of the year.

Can't wait.

''These have a good chance of being given the green light in the coming few weeks,'' the secretary-general of the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed, Christophe Derrien, told The Guardian.

Since 1997, the EU has required a ''novel food'' classification to allow the sale of products that had no history of being consumed by humans, meaning that the sale of bugs has been banned in countries like Spain, France and Italy for over two decades.

However, with the new approval, mass production of bug-based food is set to ramp up later this year. This means that locusts, crickets, grasshoppers, and mealworms may all appear on supermarket shelves by the autumn.

Christophe Derrien is looking forward to the sale of bugs as both a stand alone food and incorporated into existing products, arguing that they are a great source of protein and the production of bug food doesn't harm the planet.

''The sort of foods ranges from whole insects as an aperitif or as snacks to processed insects in bars or pasta or burgers made out of insects,'' he said.

As we have previously highlighted, eating bugs has been heavily promoted by cultural institutions and the media in recent years because people are being readied to accept drastically lower standards of living under disastrous global 'Green New Deal' programs.

This will be exacerbated by the expected economic recession, or even depression, caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

This is why globalist publications like the Economist have been promoting the idea of eating bugs despite the fact that the kind of elitists who read it would never consider for a second munching on crickets or mealworms.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 08:57

Across the media landscape, advertising is disappearing, one more casualty of the global economic shutdown. New technology won't be a savior; this is an equal-opportunity problem across print, TV, digital, radio, and outdoor advertising. Advertisers are quickly slashing or pulling budgets, canceling or reducing campaigns, zapping billions in ad dollars from media income statements, and endangering the future of media businesses regardless of form.

The reason is simple: Even the most prominent ad buyers lack reasons, and often the means, to buy ads. Global travel is on hold; for airlines, hoteliers, cruise lines, casino operators, and car-rental firms, there are no products to promote. With auto factories shut, there is little need to push cars. With movie theaters closed, there are no film trailers. And aside from grocery stores, pharmacies, and large box-store chains, most retailers are shuttered. Meanwhile, many of the small and medium-size businesses that buy online ads are struggling to stay solvent.

In terms of comparable periods, history won't be much help. When the Spanish Flu hit in 1918, the first commercial TV broadcast was still more than two decades away. During the financial crisis, digital advertising was still in its infancy. J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth notes that in 2008, digital advertising was roughly 12% of the overall ad budget, so share gains helped to offset some of the overall weakness. Now, he says, digital advertising is 55% of overall budgets.

''The digital business has changed so much in 12 years,'' says David Cohen, president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, or IAB, an online-ad industry trade group. ''It's very hard to draw any clear connections between then and now.''

The industry is grasping for clues. Ad agency Magna now sees linear-TV spending dropping 12% in 2020, including a 20% drop in the first half, with a more modest 2.5% decline in the second half. The firm sees a relatively quick bounceback, with overall ad spending up 4% next year, when optimists are counting on a flood of delayed events like the Olympics to bring advertisers back into the fold.

IAB surveyed nearly 400 ad buyers about the state of the industry, and the results are grim. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed say the current ad downturn will be worse than the financial crisis in 2008. About a quarter of those surveyed by IAB have pulled all of their advertising through the second quarter. Another 46% are reducing their ad spend for the same period. Some of the respondents expect conditions to improve at least a little in the second half.

Digital spend for the March-to-June period will be down 33%, according to the IAB survey. Traditional media spend is expected to be off 39%.

Investors aren't waiting around for the actual numbers. They've already punished ad-supported businesses. Barron's analyzed more than two dozen publicly traded companies: digital media sites, ad agencies, publishers, radio broadcasters, TV businesses, and cable operators. Through this past Thursday's close, the average stock in the group was down 46% from the market's Feb. 19 peak, about twice the decline of the S&P 500 index. Nearly a third of the companies in the group have fallen by more than half.

Here's how the shutdown is affecting specific ad sectors:

Digital Advertising Michael Levine, an analyst with Pivotal Research, is particularly worried about how the shutdown is affecting small businesses, which he estimates account for 40% to 45% of Facebook 's (ticker: FB) revenue and 50% to 55% of Google's revenue. If the economy is locked down as long as two months, he thinks the failure rate of small businesses could be as high as 30%.

Both Facebook and Twitter (TWTR) have already warned that they will take a hit from the downturn. Alphabet 's Google (GOOGL) no doubt is seeing the same effects, but so far hasn't discussed the matter.

Facebook's disclosure was on the vague side. The social network said in a blog post that it has ''seen a weakening in our ads business in countries taking aggressive actions to reduce the spread of Covid-19.'' Traffic isn't an issue'--Facebook has seen record use almost every day, but it isn't monetizing much of the growth on platforms like Messenger and WhatsApp.

Twitter has been more specific and could serve as a guidepost for everyone else. After originally forecasting first-quarter revenue of $825 million to $885 million, or growth of 10.5% year over year, the company now sees revenue being ''down slightly.'' Like Facebook, Twitter has seen a spike in traffic, but the extra traffic is doing nothing to help revenue.

If we assume that Twitter suffered its entire revenue miss in the month of March, that would suggest ad volumes at Twitter are running close to 30% below what they were before the virus, not far off the numbers in IAB's report.

The comments from Twitter and Facebook indicate that Alphabet, Snap (SNAP), and Pinterest (PINS) will face similar issues. The vanishing market for local advertising is a particular problem for Yelp (YELP), the online recommendation engine.

Shares of Facebook and Alphabet have held up better than much of the ad-supported industry. As Barron's wrote in a recent Tech Trader column, both companies have piles of cash and little debt. They aren't insulated from the downturn, but the businesses will survive in the coming months, and will be in a strong position to thrive when conditions normalize. Basic Cable There's a triple-whammy of issues for ad-supported broadcast and cable networks such as those owned by AMC Networks (AMCX), whose shares are down 40% from the market's peak; ViacomCBS (VIAC), down 64%; and Discovery (DISCA), down 39%. As noted, advertising dollars are drying up, viewership of subscription services is spiking, and the lack of sports programming could set the stage for an acceleration in the long-running cord-cutting trend.

The Giants The largest U.S. media businesses'-- Comcast (CMCSA), AT&T (T), and Walt Disney (DIS)'--have actually held up better than most other ad-dependent businesses. All three are likely to survive the crisis more or less intact, but there are trouble spots. The three media giants have basic cable networks that will be hurt as advertisers slash budgets. AT&T, which owns TBS and TNT, and Disney, which owns ESPN, are struggling without professional and collegiate sports. Comcast, with Peacock, and AT&T, with HBO Max, are readying the launch of new streaming services under far different circumstances than they had imagined. Comcast, in particular, was counting on its 2020 Olympics broadcast to serve as a springboard for the Peacock launch. Meanwhile, Comcast, parent of NBCUniversal, and Disney are stuck with shuttered theme parks that could stay closed for months, meaning zero revenue despite ongoing costs.

But Comcast and AT&T have a crown jewel: massive broadband networks, which have become lifelines for the country's homebound population. And Disney has one of the world's best brands. A quarantine should also be a boon for the company's new Disney+ streaming service. AT&T's shares, down 25%, are buoyed by the stock's better-than-7% dividend yield, although the company has suspended its aggressive stock-buyback plan.

Newspapers The falloff in advertising adds new pressure to the beleaguered newspaper group. Shares of the New York Times (NYT) have tumbled 27% in the latest slide, which makes it the strongest performer of the print media stocks. News Corp (NWSA)'--owner of Dow Jones, the publisher of Barron's and The Wall Street Journal'--is down 43%, magazine publisher Meredith (MDP) is off 66%, and Gannett (GCI), which has announced job cuts at more than 100 newspapers across the country, is down 85%.

Radio and TV Stations The sudden disappearance of commutes is a problem for the already-troubled radio sector. Shares of iHeart Media (IHRT), which recently returned to the public market after emerging from bankruptcy, are down 69% from the market's peak. Cumulus Media (CMLS), which owns the sports-programming business Westwood One, is also off 69%.

Outdoor Billboards are built for a steady stream of drivers on the roads, another model that has been decimated by the suspension of commutes. Both Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings (CCO), off 77%, and Outfront Media (OUT), down 65%, have pulled their guidance and taken steps to cut costs and shore up their balance sheets. Avoiding Ads Altogether The best performing stocks in the media universe, not surprisingly, are those with no significant exposure to ads. Netflix (NFLX) is down just 4% from the February peak. The company has never sold advertising, and it is likely to emerge from the crisis with more subscribers.

Pure-play broadband providers like Charter Communications (CHTR) and Altice USA (ATUS) could also be winners. And the arrival this year of new gaming consoles'--the PlayStation 5 from Sony (SNE) and Xbox Series X from Microsoft (MSFT)'--comes at an opportune time, with many people probably still stuck at home and hungry for entertainment.

''This will be a defining moment in how consumers spend their time with media, and what technologies they use,'' says eMarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg. ''And some of those changes will be long-lasting.''

Write to Eric J. Savitz at eric.savitz@barrons.com

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 08:56

The leftist national media incessantly reports that the spread of the coronavirus is, well, President Trump's fault. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, always good for the most incendiary and least helpful comments in any difficult situation, said on Sunday, ''[T]he president '-- his denial at the beginning was deadly.''

Then in Joe Biden's latest effort to be relevant, his campaign has released an ad attacking President Trump for not being sufficiently responsive to the threats of the coronavirus from the ''beginning.''

Here is a key fact: In the beginning, China lied. People died. Although the first case of the coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China in early December 2019, the Chinese authorities continued through January 2020 to downplay the potential for the disease to spread.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reinforced China's falsehoods, saying on Jan. 14 that ''Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in Wuhan, China.'' This was five to six weeks after the opposite was confirmed to be the case in Wuhan.

Biden's supposed chronicle of Trump administration failures derides the president's statement on Jan. 22, saying, ''We have it totally under control, it is one person, coming in from China'...'' What was actually happening in the United States on Jan. 22? It was one person coming in from China. And the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had yet to confirm the human-to-human spread of the virus.

So, what did we know? When did we know it?

On Jan. 17, the CDC and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that American citizens returning from travel-restricted countries were being rerouted to specific airports, where they would be screened and isolated. CDC on that day also stated that, ''based on current information, the risk from 2019-nCoV to the American public is currently deemed to be low.''

Japan, South Korea, and Thailand reported their first cases of novel coronavirus on Jan. 20.

On Jan. 21, the first case of coronavirus in the United States was reported, of a man who had traveled from Wuhan, China. That is the case President Trump referred to the next day

The Biden ad skips from Jan. 22 to Feb. 27, ignoring crucial developments during that time period.

Jan. 24: The CDC confirmed the second U.S. case of coronavirus, adding again that ''based on what we know right now, the immediate risk to America remains low.''

Jan. 28: The WHO published another statement about the coronavirus, with a photograph and headline saying: ''WHO, China leaders discuss next steps in battle against coronavirus outbreak.'' Pictured are WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to the release, ''The WHO delegation highly appreciated the actions China has implemented in response to the outbreak, its speed in identifying the virus and openness to sharing information with WHO and other countries.''

Think about that: On Jan. 28, the WHO praised China for its ''speed and openness'' in dealing with the virus. The same day, President Trump expanded U.S. airport screenings to identify travelers showing symptoms and instituted mandatory quarantines.

On Jan. 30, the WHO declared a global health emergency of international concern.

On Jan. 30, the CDC confirmed publicly for the first time the person-to-person spread of Wuhan virus and applauded WHO's decision. That day, the president created the White House Coronavirus Task Force to coordinate efforts regarding this new disease.

The next day, Jan. 31, the president declared coronavirus a U.S. public health emergency and issued the ban on travel between the United States and China. On that same day, the Senate voted on the production of additional documents in the impeachment trial of President Trump. Campaigning in Iowa that day, Biden criticized President Trump's China travel ban, saying during an Iowa campaign event, ''This is no time for Donald Trump's record of hysteria and xenophobia.''

Feb. 4: The White House directed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to step up coronavirus diagnostic testing procedures.

Feb. 5: The CDC issued a public statement saying, ''While we continue to believe the immediate risk of 2019nCoV exposure to the general public is low, CDC is undertaking measures to help keep that risk low.''

Feb. 18: The CDC reaffirmed that the ''risk to Americans from coronavirus is low.''

Feb. 20: The administration raised travel warnings to their highest level for Japan and South Korea.

It was not until Feb. 26 that the first case of suspected local transmission in the United States was announced by the CDC. President Trump that day named Vice President Pence to lead the Coronavirus Task Force. The next day, Feb. 27, Pence named Dr. Deborah Birx to serve as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator.

On Feb. 29, the first death from the coronavirus was recorded in the United States. On that date, President Trump halted travel with Iran.

On March 11, the WHO declared coronavirus a worldwide pandemic. The next day, on March 12, President Trump imposed travel restrictions on Europe and elsewhere. Biden criticized that decision also.

Then, on March 13, President Trump declared a national emergency.

If Pelosi believes the president should have done something at the beginning, when exactly does she think was the 'beginning'? Was it during the impeachment proceedings that Pelosi instigated? Should Pelosi bear some responsibility for what she perceives as the president's failure to focus on the coronavirus back in January?

The single most important step taken by President Trump was his closing of U.S. travel with China, which happened on Jan. 31, something the president reminds us at every briefing.

He's right, but what he doesn't say is he made that decision at a time the CDC was assuring us the risk to America was low, the WHO was covering for China, Democrats were trying to impeach the president, and Biden was attacking the decision as xenophobic.

It is impossible to overestimate the number of American lives saved by that momentous decision by President Trump on January 31. And no media or Pelosi false narratives or phony Biden campaign ad can change the truth about the real chronology of the coronavirus.

Cleta Mitchell, Esq. is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Foley and Lardner, LLP. She represented numerous citizens groups targeted by the Internal Revenue Service during the Obama administration.

Copyright (C) 2020 The Federalist, a wholly independent division of FDRLST Media, All Rights Reserved.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 07:46

Ohio state Rep. Tavia Galonski (D) said that she will make a ''referral for crimes against humanity'' over President Trump Donald John TrumpCampaigns face attack ad dilemma amid coronavirus crisis Outgoing inspector general says Trump fired him for carrying out his 'legal obligations' Trump hits Illinois governor after criticism: 'I hear him complaining all the time' MORE 's promotion of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for novel coronavirus, despite its unproven benefits and lack of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.

''I can't take it anymore. I've been to The Hague. I'm making a referral for crimes against humanity tomorrow,'' Galonski tweeted late Sunday.

''Today's press conference was the last straw," Galonski added. "I know the need for a prosecution referral when I see one.''

I can't take it anymore. I've been to The Hague. I'm making a referral for crimes against humanity tomorrow. Today's press conference was the last straw. I know the need for a prosecution referral when I see one. https://t.co/XQin24gqY4

'-- Rep. Tavia Galonski (@RepGalonski) April 6, 2020Trump has repeatedly promoted hydroxychloroquine, which is approved to treat conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, as a potential treatment for the virus, which the FDA said last week has led to a shortage of the drug.

At a press briefing late Sunday, the president recommended the drug despite limited evidence of its efficacy in treating the virus, saying "What do you have to lose? I'm not looking at it one way or another. But we want to get out of this. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn't do it early."

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci Anthony FauciTrump, officials describe 'light at the end of the tunnel' as cases mount Trump promotes use of drug for coronavirus: 'I'm not a doctor. But I have common sense' Fauci, Navarro got into heated argument over unproven COVID-19 treatment: report MORE has reportedly been at odds with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro about promoting the drug, and said Sunday that its benefits remain largely unknown.

"The data are really just at best suggestive. There have been cases that show there may be an effect, and there are others to show there's no effect," Fauci said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "So I think in terms of science, I don't think we could definitively say it works."

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 07:41

A blister pack of Hydroxychloroquine sulfate pills is displayed on March 26, 2020, in London.

John Phillips/Getty ImagesUpdated: 3/31/20 at 7:45 p.m. PST

Topline : The Food and Drug Administration on Sunday issued an emergency authorization for experimental coronavirus treatments using chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, anti-malaria drugs touted by President Donald Trump despite inconclusive clinical proof of their efficacy.

The Department of Health and Human Services said Sunday hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine products can be distributed and prescribed by doctors through the Strategic National Stockpile ''to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible.'' HHS said Germany's Sandoz has already given 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to the Strategic National Stockpile, the federal government's inventory of medical supplies for public health emergencies, while Bayer has donated a million doses of chloroquine. The agency is fast-tracking a process that usually takes years while the FDA conducts clinical trials in New York, a hot spot for the virus. HHS said the emergency authorization was issued because the potential benefits of the product outweigh the risks and acknowledged that ''anecdotal reports suggest that these drugs may offer some benefit in the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients,'' but cautioned that ''clinical trials are needed to provide scientific evidence that these treatments are effective.'' Trump had falsely claimed that the FDA had approved the drugs for coronavirus treatment before Sunday. Confusion over their use has led some Americans to seek over-the-counter replacements, such as an Arizona man who bought a nonpharmaceutical form of chloroquine phosphate, a common chemical used to clean fish tanks, which killed him and landed his now-widow in intensive care. The CDC warns against taking nonpharmaceutical chloroquine phosphate without a prescription and the supervision of a healthcare provider because it ''can cause serious health consequences, including death.'' Chief critic: Some in the scientific community are concerned there hasn't been enough testing even though some small, early tests have shown promise.

''It's a difficult issue because it's an emotional issue. With people having no other options available, it's hard to say that if there's something that seems like it may work, they should be denied the option to try it. The part that makes this more complicated is that there was an irresponsible, in my opinion, expression that this actually is effective when there is no real scientific evidence that it is,'' Dr. Kenneth Kaitin, director of the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, told Forbes .

Key background : Trump continues to praise the anti-malarial drugs in daily press briefings, Fox News has devoted segments to the drugs' potential benefits, and others, including the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Turning Points USA founder Charlie Kirk , have promoted chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as coronavirus cures. Twitter eventually removed a Giuliani tweet that falsely said ''hydroxychloroquine has been shown to have a 100% effective rate treating COVID-19.'' There is no proven cure or vaccine for the coronavirus.

News peg : Scientists hope chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine'--decades-old drugs that are used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis'--may be used to treat the coronavirus, but early studies have provided mixed evidence proving their effectiveness and the drugs may entail risks such as vision problems or cardiac arrest. The frenzy surrounding the treatment has caused some doctors to hoard hydroxychloroquine'--which is sold under the brand name Plaquenil'--by writing prescriptions for themselves or for their families, raising concerns people who are prescribed the drug for other ailments will experience shortages. Some state pharmacy boards have issued rules limiting prescriptions, including Texas , Louisiana , Ohio and North Carolina .

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 07:36

A U.S. biotech company is donating 1.5 million doses of an experimental drug to treat COVID -19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus .

Daniel Day, CEO of Gilead, wrote on Saturday that the firm had 1.5 million individual doses of remdesivir in the final stages of production. Gilead is giving the whole of this existing supply to treat COVID-19 patients with the most severe symptoms, Day said.

Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug created for Ebola with promising results against MERS and SARS' , is among the experimental medicines which experts hope will be proven to be effective in treating COVID-19.

"The...doses are available for compassionate use, expanded access and clinical trials and will be donated for broader distribution following any potential future regulatory authorizations," he wrote.

However, Day acknowledged that " remdesivir is still an investigational medicine and has not been approved by regulatory authorities anywhere in the world.

"The safety and efficacy are not yet known so while we feel the greatest sense of urgency in our work with remdesivir , we must take the responsible, ethical approach of determining whether it is indeed a safe, effective treatment. This is why multiple clinical trials for remdesivir are underway, involving thousands of patients with COVID-19 across the world."

Gilead is yet to confirm how long the drug should be used in patients in clinical trials, but it is thought the stock of 1.5 million doses could amount to 140,000 treatment courses. Remdesivir is administered through daily intravenous infusions in a hospital setting, according to the firm.

"Over the course of the past week, Gilead has been working in consultation with regulatory authorities to establish additional expanded access programs for remdesivir , our investigational medicine for COVID -19. The programs enable hospitals or physicians to apply for emergency use of remdesivir for multiple severely ill patients at a time," Day said.

Gilead would continue to give the drug "on an individual compassionate use basis for children and pregnant women. More than 1,700 patients have now been treated through these programs," according to the update.

This comes after the company last week announced it would be changing how the experimental drug was distributed "due to an overwhelming demand." Gilead said in a statement that while clinical trials are the "primary way" to access remdesivir, severely ill patients cannot enrol.

The company had previously given "several hundred" patients in the U.S., Europe and Japan emergency access to the medicine. But due to an "exponential increase" in compassionate use requests as the virus spread in Europe and the U.S., the company decided to stop granting them on an individual basis. Instead hospitals or physicians have to apply for emergency use for "multiple severely ill patients at a time."

Gilead has started two phase 3 clinical trials to study how safe and effective remdesivir is in adults with COVID-19, which it hopes to complete in May, according to ClinicalTrials.gov, a registry of clinical trials run by the United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.

The company hopes to produce more than 500,000 treatment courses by October, and more than one million by the end of 2020, Day said.

There is currently no specific drug or vaccine approved for use to treat COVID-19. A ntimalarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are also being investigated by scientists around the world. And last month the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a multi-country clinical study of four potential combinations including remdesivir and chloroquine.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in China late last year, the new coronavius has spread to almost every continent and territory in the world, as shown by the Statista map below. More than 1.2 million cases have been confirmed, a total of 69,514 people have died, and almost 263,000 people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University.

A graphic provided by Statista shows the global spread of the new coronavirus as of early April 3. More than one million people have been afflicted, over 225,000 of whom have recovered and over 58,000 of whom have died. STATISTA Statista World Health Organization advice for avoiding spread of coronavirus disease ( COVID -19) Hygiene advice

Clean hands frequently with soap and water, or alcohol-based hand rub.Wash hands after coughing or sneezing; when caring for the sick; before, during and after food preparation; before eating; after using the toilet; when hands are visibly dirty; and after handling animals or waste.Maintain at least 1 meter (3 feet) distance from anyone who is coughing or sneezing.Avoid touching your hands, nose and mouth. Do not spit in public.Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or bent elbow when coughing or sneezing. Discard the tissue immediately and clean your hands.Medical advice

Avoid close contact with others if you have any symptoms.Stay at home if you feel unwell, even with mild symptoms such as headache and runny nose, to avoid potential spread of the disease to medical facilities and other people.If you develop serious symptoms (fever, cough, difficulty breathing) seek medical care early and contact local health authorities in advance.Note any recent contact with others and travel details to provide to authorities who can trace and prevent spread of the disease. Stay up to date on COVID -19 developments issued by health authorities and follow their guidance. Mask and glove usage

Healthy individuals only need to wear a mask if taking care of a sick person.Wear a mask if you are coughing or sneezing.Masks are effective when used in combination with frequent hand cleaning.Do not touch the mask while wearing it. Clean hands if you touch the mask.Learn how to properly put on, remove and dispose of masks. Clean hands after disposing of the mask.Do not reuse single-use masks. Regularly washing bare hands is more effective against catching COVID -19 than wearing rubber gloves. The COVID -19 virus can still be picked up on rubber gloves and transmitted by touching your face. Biologists unrelated to the donation work in a laboratory during the extraction of the virus genetic material on March 24, 2020 in Belo Horizonte , Brazil. Pedro Vilela/Getty Images

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 07:05

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New York state has seen its first drop in daily coronavirus deaths, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday -- as the U.S. Northern Command said it would deploy a combined total of 1,000 Air Force and Navy medical providers to the New York City area to support relief efforts in the next three days.

Cuomo said New York also experienced a slight drop in intensive care admissions and the number of patients who need breathing tubes inserted. The hospital discharge rate is "way up" he said, calling it "great news."

''You could argue that you are seeing a plateauing,'' Cuomo told reporters on Sunday, as he revealed that the state had reported 594 new coronavirus deaths -- down from the 630 reported on Saturday and the 562 on Friday. At least 4,159 people have died in the state so far, with approximately 122,000 total positive cases.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Pressed on whether the state was at an apex of coronavirus fatalities, Cuomo emphasized that he can't be sure.

"The statisticians will not give you a straight answer on anything," he responded. "At first, it was straight up and straight down, or a total V. Or maybe it's up with a plateau and we're somewhere on the plateau. They don't know."

"The number of beds doesn't really matter anymore," Cuomo went on. "We have the beds. It's the ventilators, and then it's the staff."

Cars pass the Jacob Javitz convention Center Friday, April 3, 2020, in New York. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City will be "converted to a COVID facility." The original plan was that non-COVID patients would go to the convention center and it would be an "overflow for hospitals." (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Separately, the military said in a statement that the 1,000 personnel would work in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). A total of 300 of these "uniformed medical providers will work from the Javits Center and the rest will deploy to other area locations to expand local medical capabilities in the war against COVID-19," U.S. Northern Command, which is leading coronavirus efforts for the Department of Defense, said.

Americans were bracing for what the nation's top doctor warned Sunday would be ''the hardest and saddest week'' of their lives while Britain assumed the unwelcome mantle of deadliest coronavirus hotspot in Europe after a record 24-hour jump in deaths that surpassed even hard-hit Italy.

As of Sunday, Britain has recorded 4,934 virus deaths overall among 47, 806 cases.

JOURNALISTS CHANGE TUNE AFTER MOCKING TRUMP OVER CHLOROQUINE CLAIMS

"This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment,'' U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told ''Fox News Sunday.''

"This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment."

'-- U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams

Efforts to combat the virus have been stepped up around the world.

In France, heat-seeking drones have been whizzing over Fontainebleau forest to identify rule-breakers after the former royal estate in the Paris suburbs was closed to the public. That high-tech measure has been coupled with more traditional police patrols on horseback and roadblocks that turn back the cars of those seeking to escape urban areas.

In Sweden, authorities have advised the public to practice social distancing, but schools, bars, and restaurants are still open.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis celebrated Mass and blessed palms for Palm Sunday in a near-empty St. Peter's Basilica. Usually tens of thousands of faithful would have crowded the square outside to attend a papal Mass.

Police officers speak to a woman during a nationwide confinement to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, in Biarritz, France, Saturday April 4, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

Holy Thursday and Easter services will be held the same way. In the pope's native Argentina, the faithful were using plants at home for a ''virtual'' blessing during a live stream of the Palm Sunday service.

Worldwide, more than 1.2 million people have been confirmed infected and more than 65,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are certainly much higher, due to limited testing, different ways nations count the dead and deliberate under-reporting by some governments.

BILL GATES SAYS 'NIGHTMARE SCENARIO' IN PROGRESS -- AND WORKS TO FIX IT

Almost 250,000 people have recovered from the virus, which is spread by microscopic droplets from coughs or sneezes. The virus causes mild to moderate symptoms in most but for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia and lead to death. The World Health Organization says 95 percent of the known coronavirus deaths in Europe have been in people over 60.

The number of people infected in the U.S. has soared to more than 312,000 as the fatalities climbed past 8,500.

Fox News' Kelly Burke and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 06:57

At the end of 1989, two years after we had started the highly controversial AIDS column in SPIN, we published an article by Celia Farber called ''Sins of Omission'' about the truly bad and corrupt science surrounding promoting AZT as a treatment for the syndrome of diseases.

Celia was the editor and frequent writer of the column and unearthed hard evidence of the cold-bloodedness of the AIDS establishment pushing a drug that was worse than the disease, and killed faster than the natural progression of AIDS left untreated. AZT had been an abandoned cancer drug, discarded because of it's fatal toxicity, resurrected in the cynical belief that AIDS patients were going to die anyway, so trying it out was sort of like playing with the house's money. Because the drug didn't require the usual massively expensive research and trial processes, having gone through that years earlier, it was insanely profitable for its maker, Burroughs Wellcome. It was a tragically perfect storm of windfall profits, something to pacify AIDS activists and the media, and a convenient boom to the patent holders for HIV testing.

Celia '-- who should get the Congressional Medal of Honor for her brave and relentless reporting, here and throughout the ten years we ran the column '-- exposed the worthlessness of the drug, the shady studies and deals to suppress the negative findings, and its awful and final consequences. This piece very literally changed the media's view of AIDS and sharpened their discerning and skeptical eye. And soon after, AZT was once again shelved, hopefully this time forever.

Many times over the years since, people have come up to me and said that reading this article saved their lives, that they either stopped taking the drug and their health improved vastly, or they never took it because of what we reported. Nothing ever made me prouder.

'-- Bob Guccione Jr., founder of SPIN, October 3, 2015

[This story was originally published in the November 1989 issue of SPIN. In honor of SPIN's 30th anniversary, we've republished this piece as part of our ongoing ''30 Years, 30 Stories'' series.]

On a cold January day in 1987, inside one of the brightly-lit meeting rooms of the monstrous FDA building, a panel of 11 top AIDS doctors pondered a very difficult decision. They had been asked by the FDA to consider giving lightning-quick approval to a highly toxic drug about which there was very little information. Clinically called Zidovudine, but nicknamed AZT after its components, the drug was said to have shown a dramatic effect on the survival of AIDS patients. The study that had brought the panel together had set the medical community abuzz. It was the first flicker of hope '-- people were dying much faster on the placebo than on the drug.

But there were tremendous concerns about the new drug. It had actually been developed a quarter of a century earlier as a cancer chemotherapy, but was shelved and forgotten because it was so toxic, very expensive to produce, and totally ineffective against cancer. Powerful, but unspecific, the drug was not selective in its cell destruction.

Drug companies around the world were sifting through hundreds of compounds in the race to find a cure, or at least a treatment, for AIDS. Burroughs Wellcome, a subsidiary of Wellcome, a British drug company, emerged as the winner. By chance, they sent the failed cancer drug, then known as Compound S, to the National Cancer Institute along with many others to see if it could slay the AIDS dragon, HIV. In the test tube at least, it did. At the meeting, there was a lot of uncertainty and discomfort with AZT. The doctors who had been consulted knew that the study was flawed and that the long-range effects were completely unknown. But the public was almost literally baying at the door. Understandably, there was immense pressure on the FDA to approve AZT, considering the climate of fear and anger all around.*

Everybody was worried about this one. To approve it, said Ellen Cooper, an FDA director, would represent a ''significant and potentially dangerous departure from our normal toxicology requirements.'' Just before approving the drug, one doctor on the panel, Calvin Kunin, summed up their dilemma. ''On the one hand,'' he said, ''to deny a drug which decreases mortality in a population such as this would be inappropriate. On the other hand, to use this drug widely, for areas where efficacy has not been demonstrated, with a potentially toxic agent, might be disastrous.''

''We do not know what will happen a year from now,'' said panel chairman Dr. Itzhak Brook. ''The data is just too premature, and the statistics are not really well done. The drug could actually be detrimental.'' A little later, he said he was also ''struck by the fact that AZT does not stop deaths. Even those who were switched to AZT still kept dying.''

''I agree with you,'' answered another panel member, ''there are so many unknowns. Once a drug is approved, there is no telling how it could be abused. There's no going back.'' Burroughs Wellcome reassured the panel that they would provide detailed two-year follow-up data, and that they would not let the drug get out of its intended parameters: as a stopgap measure for very sick patients.

Dr. Brook was not won over by the promise. ''If we approve it today, there will not be much data. There will be a promise of data,'' he predicted, ''but then the production of data will be hampered.'' Brook's vote was the only one cast against approval.

''There was not enough data, not enough follow-up,'' Brook recalls. ''Many of the questions we asked the company were answered by, 'We have not analyzed the data yet,' or, 'We do not know.' I felt that there was some promising data, but was very worried about the price being paid for it. The side effects were so very severe. It was chemotherapy. Patients were going to need blood transfusions, that's very serious.''

''The committee was tending to agree with me,'' says Brook, ''that we should wait a little bit, be more cautious. But once the FDA realized we were intending to reject it, they applied political pressure. At about 4 p.m., the head of the FDA's Center for Drugs and Biologics asked permission to speak, which is extremely unusual. Usually they leave us alone. But he said to us, 'Look, if you approve the drug, we can assure you that we will work together with Burroughs Wellcome and make sure the drug is given to the right people.' It was like saying 'please do it.'''

Brad Stone, FDA press officer, was at that meeting. He says he doesn't recall that particular speech, but that there is nothing ''unusual'' about FDA officials making such speeches at advisory meetings. ''There was no political pressure,'' he says. ''The people in that meeting approved the drug because the data the company had produced proved it was prolonging life. Sure it was toxic, but they concluded that the benefits clearly outweighed the risks.'' The meeting ended. AZT, which several members of the panel still felt uncomfortable with and feared could be a time bomb, was approved.

Flash forward: August 17, 1989. Newspapers across America banner-headlined that AZT had been ''proven to be effective in HIV antibody-positive, asymptomatic, and early ARC patients,'' even though one of the panel's main concerns was that the drug should only be used in a last-case scenario for critically-ill AIDS patients, due to the drug's extreme toxicity. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was now pushing to expand prescription.

The FDA's traditional concern had been thrown to the wind. Already the drug had spread to 60 countries and an estimated 20,000 people. Not only had no new evidence allayed the initial concerns of the panel, but the follow-up data, as Dr. Brook predicted, had fallen by the wayside. The beneficial effects of the drug had proven to be temporary. The toxicity, however, stayed the same.

The majority of those in the AIDS-afflicted and medical communities held the drug up as the first breakthrough on AIDS. For better or worse, AZT had been approved faster than any drug in FDA history, and activists considered it a victory. The price paid for the victory, however, was that almost all government drug trials, from then on, focused on AZT '-- while over 100 other promising drugs were left uninvestigated.

Burroughs Wellcome stock went through the roof when the announcement was made. At a price of $8.000 per patient per year (not including blood-work and transfusions), AZT is the most expensive drug ever marketed. Burroughs Wellcome's gross profits for next year are estimated at $230 million. Stock market analysts predict that Burroughs Wellcome may be selling as much as $2 billion worth of AZT, under the brand name Retrovir, each year by the mid-1990s '-- matching Burroughs Wellcome's total sales for all its products last year.

''Does AZT do anything? Yes, it does. But the evidence that it does something against HIV is really not there.''

AZT is the only antiretroviral drug that has received FDA approval for treatment of AIDS since the epidemic began ten years ago, and the decision to approve it was based on a single study that has long been declared invalid. The study was intended to be a ''double-blind placebo-controlled study,'' the only kind of study that can effectively prove whether or not a drug works. In such a study, neither patient nor doctor is supposed to know if the patient is getting the drug or a placebo. In the case of AZT, the study became unblinded on all sides, after just a few weeks.

Both sides contributed to the unblinding. It became obvious to doctors who was getting what because AZT causes such severe side effects that AIDS per se does not. Furthermore, a routine blood count known as a CMV, which clearly shows who is on the drug and who is not, wasn't whited out in the reports. Both of these facts were accepted and confirmed by both the FDA and Burroughs Wellcome, who conducted the study.

Many of the patients who were in the trial admitted that they had analyzed their capsules to find out whether they were getting the drug. If they weren't, some bought the drug on the underground market. Also, the pills were supposed to be indistinguishable by taste, but they were not. Although this was corrected early on, the damage was already done. There were also reports that patients were pooling pills out of solidarity to each other. The study was so severely flawed that its conclusions must be considered, by the most basic scientific standards, unproven.

The most serious problem with the original study, however, is that it was never completed. Seventeen weeks into the study, when more patients had died in the placebo group, the study was stopped, five months prematurely, for ''ethical'' reasons: It was considered unethical to keep giving people a placebo when the drug might keep them alive longer. Because the study was stopped short, and all subjects were put on AZT, no scientific study can ever be conducted to prove unequivocally whether AZT does prolong life.

Dr. Brook, who voted against approval, warned at the time that AZT, being the only drug available for doctors to prescribe to AIDS patients, would probably have a runaway effect. Approving it prematurely, he said, would be like ''letting the genie out of the bottle.''

Brook pointed out that since the drug is a form of chemotherapy, it should only be prescribed by doctors who have experience with chemotherapeutic drugs. Because of the most severe toxic effect of AZT '-- cell depletion of the bone marrow '--patients would need frequent blood transfusions. As it happened, AZT was rampantly prescribed as soon as it was released, way beyond its purported parameters. The worst-case scenario had come true: Doctors interviewed by the New York Times later in 1987 revealed that they were already giving AZT to healthy people who had tested positive for antibodies to HIV.

The FDA's function is to weigh a drug's efficacy against its potential hazards. The equation is simple and obvious: A drug must unquestionably repair more than it damages, otherwise the drug itself may cause more harm than the disease it is supposed to fight. Exactly what many doctors and scientists fear is happening with AZT.

''I personally do not prescribe AZT. I have continued to experience that people live longer who are not on it.''

AZT was singled out among hundreds of compounds when Dr. Sam Broder, the head of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), found that it ''inhibited HIV viral replication in vitro.'' AIDS is considered a condition of immune suppression caused by the HIV virus replicating and eating its way into T-4 cells, which are essential to the immune system. HIV is a retrovirus which contains an enzyme called reverse transcriptase that converts viral RNA to DNA. AZT was thought to work by interrupting this DNA synthesis, thus stopping further replication of the virus.

While it was always known that the drug was exceedingly toxic, the first study concluded that ''the risk/benefit ratio was in favor of the patient.''

In the study that won FDA approval for AZT, the one fact that swayed the panel of judges was that the AZT group outlived the placebo group by what appeared to be a landslide. The ace card of the study, the one that canceled out the issue of the drug's enormous toxicity, was that 19 persons had died in the placebo group and only one in the AZT group. The AZT recipients were also showing a lower incidence of opportunistic infections.

While this data staggered the panel that approved the drug, other scientists insisted that it meant nothing '-- because it was so shabbily gathered, and because of the unblinding. Shortly after the study was stopped, the death rate accelerated in the AZT group. ''There was no great difference after a while,'' says Dr. Brook, ''between the treated and the untreated group.''

''That study was so sloppily done that it really didn't mean much,'' says Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, a leading New York City AIDS doctor. Dr. Harvey Bialy, scientific editor of the journal Biotechnology, is stunned by the low quality of science surrounding AIDS research. When asked if he had seen any evidence of the claims made for AZT, that it ''prolongs life'' in AIDS patients, Bialy said, ''No, I have not seen a published study that is rigorously done, analyzed, and objectively reported.''

Bialy, who is also a molecular biologist, is horrified by the widespread use of AZT, not just because it is toxic, but because, he insists, the claims its widespread use are based upon are false. ''I can't see how this drug could be doing anything other than making people very sick,'' he says.

The scientific facts about AZT and AIDS are indeed astonishing. Most ironically, the drug has been found to accelerate the very process it was said to prevent: the loss of T-4 cells.

''Undeniably, AZT kills T-4 cells [white blood cells vital to the immune system],'' says Bialy. ''No one can argue with that. AZT is a chain-terminating nucleotide, which means that it stops DNA replication. It seeks out any cell that is engaged in DNA replication and kills it. The place where most of this replication is taking place is in the bone marrow. That's why the most common and severe side effect of the drug is bone marrow toxicity. That is why they [patients] need blood transfusions.''

AZT has been aggressively and repeatedly marketed as a drug that prolongs survival in AIDS patients because it stops the HIV virus from replicating and spreading to healthy cells. But, says Bialy: ''There is no good evidence that HIV actively replicates in a person with AIDS, and if there isn't much HIV replication to stop, it's mostly killing healthy cells.''

University of California at Berkeley scientist Dr. Peter Duesberg drew the same conclusion in a paper published in Proceedings, the journal of the National Academy of Sciences. Duesberg, whose paper addressed his contention that HIV is not a sufficient cause for AIDS, wrote: ''Even if HIV were to cause AIDS, it would hardly be a legitimate target for AZT therapy, because in 70 to 100 percent of antibody-positive persons, proviral DNA is not detectable'... and its biosynthesis has never been observed.''

As a chemotherapeutic drug, explained Duesberg, AZT ''kills dividing blood cells and other cells,'' and is thus ''directly immunosuppressive.''

''The cell is almost a million-fold bigger target than the virus, so the cell will be much, much more sensitive,'' says Duesberg. ''Only very few cells, about one in 10,000, are actively making the virus containing DNA, so you must kill incredibly large numbers of cells to inhibit the virus. This kind of treatment could only theoretically help if you have a massive infection, which is not the case with AIDS. Meanwhile, they're giving this drug that ends up killing millions of lymphocytes [white blood cells]. It's beyond me how that could possibly be beneficial.''

''It doesn't really kill them,'' Burroughs Wellcome scientist Sandra Lehrman argues. ''You don't necessarily have to destroy the cell, you can just change the function of it. Furthermore, while the early data said that only very few cells were infected, new data says that there may be more cells infected. We have more sensitive detection techniques now.''

''Changes their function? From what '-- functioning to not functioning? Another example of mediocre science,'' says Bialy. ''The 'sensitive detection technique' to which Dr. Lehrman refers, PCR, is a notoriously unreliable one upon which to base quantitative conclusions.''

When specific questions about the alleged mechanisms of AZT are asked, the answers are long, contradictory, and riddled with unknowns. Every scientific point raised about the drug is eventually answered with the blanket response, ''The drug is not perfect, but it's all we have right now.'' About the depletion of T-4 cells and other white cells, Lehrman says, ''We don't know why T-4 cells go up at first, and then go down. That is one of the drug mechanisms that we are trying to understand.''

When promoters of AZT are pressed on key scientific points, whether at the NIH, FDA, Burroughs Wellcome, or an AIDS organization, they often become angry. The idea that the drug is ''doing something,'' even though this is invariably followed with irritable admissions that there are ''mechanisms about the drug and disease we don't understand,'' is desperately clung to. It is as if, in the eye of the AIDS storm, the official, government-agency sanctioned position is immunized against critique. Skepticism and challenge, so essential to scientific progress and so prevalent in every other area of scientific endeavor, is not welcome in the AZT debate, where it is arguably needed more than anywhere else.

The results, finally and ironically, are what damns AZT.

The toxic effects of AZT, particularly bone marrow suppression and anemia, are so severe that up to 50 percent of all AIDS and ARC patients cannot tolerate it and have to be taken off it. In the approval letter that Burroughs Wellcome sent to the FDA, all of 50 additional side effects of AZT, aside from the most common ones, were listed. These included: loss of mental acuity, muscle spasms, rectal bleeding, and tremors.

Anemia, one of AZT's common side effects, is the depletion of red blood cells, and, according to Duesberg, ''Red blood cells are the one thing you cannot do without. Without red cells, you cannot pick up ???gen.''

Fred, a person with AIDS, was put on AZT and suffered such severe anemia from the drug he had to be taken off it. In an interview in the AIDS handbook Surviving and Thriving With AIDS, he described what anemia feels like to editor Michael Callen: ''I live in a studio and my bathroom is a mere five-step walk from my bed. I would just lie there for two hours; I couldn't get up to take those five steps. When I was taken to the hospital, I had to have someone come over to dress me. It's that kind of severe fatigue. The quality of my life was pitiful'... I've never felt so bad'... I stopped the AZT and the mental confusion, the headaches, the pains in the neck, the nausea, all disappeared within a 24-hour period.''

''I feel very good at this point,'' Fred went on. ''I feel like the quality of my life was a disaster two weeks ago. And it really was causing a great amount of fear in me, to the point where I was taking sleeping pills to calm down. I was so worried. I would totally lose track of what I was saying in the middle of a sentence. I would lose my directions on the street.''

''Many AIDS patients are anemic even before they receive the drug,'' says Burroughs Wellcome's Dr. Lehrman, ''because HIV itself can infect the bone marrow and cause anemia.''

This argument betrays a bizarre reasoning. If AIDS patients are already burdened with problems such as immune suppression, bone marrow toxicity, and anemia, is compounding these problems an improvement?

''Yes, AZT is a form of chemotherapy,'' says the man who invented the compound a quarter-century ago, Jerome Horwitz. ''It is cytotoxic, and as such, it causes bone marrow toxicity and anemia. There are problems with the drug. It's not perfect. But I don't think anybody would agree that AZT is of no use. People can holler from now until doomsday that it is toxic, but you have to go with the results.''

The results, finally and ironically, are what damns AZT. Several studies on the clinical effects of AZT '-- including the one that Burroughs Wellcome's approval was based on '-- have drawn the same conclusion: that AZT is effective for a few months, but that its effect drops off sharply after that. Even the original AZT study showed that T-4 cells went up for a while and then plummeted. HIV levels went down, and then came back up. This fact was well-known when the advisory panel voted for approval. As panel member Dr. Stanley Lemon said in the meeting, ''I am left with the nagging thought that after seeing several of these slides, that after 16 to 24 weeks '-- 12 to 16 weeks, I guess '-- the effect seems to be declining.''

A follow-up meeting, two weeks after the original Burroughs Wellcome study, was scheduled to discuss the long-range effects of AZT and the survival statistics. As one doctor present at that meeting in May 1988 recalls, ''They hadn't followed up the study. Anything that looked beneficial was gone within half a year. All they had were some survival statistics averaging 44 weeks. The p24 didn't pan out and there no persistent improvement in T-4 cells.''

HIV levels in the blood are measured by an antigen called p24. Burroughs Wellcome made the claim that AZT lowered this level, that is, lowered the amount of HIV in the blood. At the first FDA meeting, Burroughs-Welcome emphasized how the drug had ''lowered'' the p24 levels; at the follow-up meeting they didn't even mention it.

As that meeting was winding down, Dr. Michael Lange, head of the AIDS program at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York spoke up about this. ''The claim of AZT is made on the fact that it is supposed to have an antiviral effect,'' he said to Burroughs Wellcome, ''and on this we have seen no data at all'... Since there is a report in the Lancet [a leading British medical journal] that after 20 weeks or so, in many patients p24 came back, do you have any data on that?''

They didn't.

''What counts is the bottom line,'' one of the scientists representing Burroughs Wellcome summed up, ''the survival, the neurologic function, the absence of progression and the quality of life, all of which are better. Whether you call it better because of some antiviral effect, or some other antibacterial effect, they are still better.''

Dr. Lange suggested that the drug may be effective in the same way a simple anti-inflammatory, such as aspirin, is effective. An inexpensive, nontoxic drug called Indomecithin, he pointed out, might serve the same function, without the devastating side effects.

One leading AIDS researcher, who was part of the FDA approval process, says today: ''Does AZT do anything? Yes, it does. But the evidence that it does something against HIV is really not there.''

''There have always been drugs that we use without knowing exactly how they work,'' says Nobel Prize winner Walter Gilbert. ''The really important thing to look at is the clinical effect. Is the drug helping or isn't it?''

A physician with extensive experience with AIDS patients who asked to remain anonymous told SPIN, point blank: ''I personally do not prescribe AZT. I have continued to experience that people live longer who are not on it.''

''I'm living proof that AZT works,'' says one person with ARC on AZT. ''I've been on it for two years now, and I'm certainly healthier than I was two years ago. It's not a cure-all, it's not a perfect drug, but it's effective. It's slowing down the progression of the disease.''

''Sometimes I fee like I'm swallowing Drano,'' says another. ''I mean, sometimes I have problems swallowing. I just don't like the idea of taking something that foreign to my body. But every six hours, I've got to swallow it. Until something better comes along, this is what is available to me.''

''I am absolutely convinced that people enjoy a better quality of life and survive longer who do not take AZT,'' says Gene Fedorko, President of Health Education AIDS Liaison (HEAL). ''I think it's horrible the way people are bullied by their doctors to take this drug. We get people coming to us shaking and crying because their doctors said they'll die if they don't take AZT. That is an absolute lie.'' Fedorko has drawn his conclusion from years of listening to the stories of people struggling to survive AIDS at HEAL's weekly support group.

''I wouldn't take AZT if you paid me,'' says Michael Callen, cofounder of New York City's PWA coalition, Community Research Initiative, and editor of several AIDS journals. Callen has survived AIDS for over seven years without the help of AZT. ''I've gotten the s''t kicked out of me for saying this, but I think using AZT is like aiming a thermonuclear warhead at a mosquito. The overwhelming majority of long-term survivors I've known have chosen not to take AZT.''

''I'm convinced that if you gave AZT to a perfectly healthy athlete he would be dead in five years.''

The last surviving patient from the original AZT trial, according Burroughs Wellcome, died recently. When he died, he had been on AZT for three and one-half years. He was the longest surviving AZT recipient. The longest surviving AIDS patient overall, not on AZT, has lived for eight and one-half years.

An informal study of long-term survivors of AIDS followed 24 long-term survivors, all of whom had survived AIDS for more than six years. Only one of them had recently begun taking AZT.

In the early days, AZT was said to extend lives. In actual fact, there is simply no solid evidence that AZT prolongs life.

''I think AZT does prolong life in most people,'' says Dr. Bruce Montgomery of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who is completing a study on AZT. ''There are not very many long-term survivors, and we really don't know why they survive. It could be luck. But most people are not so lucky.''

''AZT does seem to help many patients,'' says Dr. Bernard Bahari, a New York City AIDS physician and researcher, ''but it's very hard to determine whether it actually prolongs life.''

''Many of the patients I see choose not to take AZT,'' says Dr. Don Abrams of San Francisco General Hospital. ''I've been impressed that survival and lifespan are increasing for all people with AIDS. I think it has a lot to do with aerosolized Pentamadine [a drug that treats pneumocystis carinii pneumonia]. There's also the so-called plague effect, the fact that people get stronger and stronger when a disease hits a population. The patients I see today are not as fragile as the early patients were.''

''Whether you live or die with AIDS is a function of how well your doctor treats you, not of AZT,'' says Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, one of New York City's first and most reputable AIDS doctors, whose patients include many long-term survivors, although he has never prescribed AZT. Sonnabend was one of the first to make the simple observation that AIDS patients should be treated for their diseases, not just for their HIV infection.

Several studies have concluded that AZT has no effect on the two most common opportunistic AIDS infections, Pneumocystic Carinii Pneumonia (PCP) and Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS). The overwhelming majority of AIDS patients die of PCP, for which there has been an effective treatment for decades. This year, the FDA finally approved aerosolized Pentamadine for AIDS. A recent Memorial Sloan Kettering study concluded the following: By 15 months, 80 percent of people on AZT not receiving Pentamadine had a recurrent episode of pneumocystis. Only 5 percent of those people who did get Pentamadine had a recurring episode. ''All those deaths in the AZT study were treatable,'' Sonnabend says. ''They weren't deaths from AIDS, they were deaths from treatable conditions. They didn't even do any autopsies for that study. What kind of faith can one have in these people?''

''If there's one resistance to AZT in the general public at all, it's within the gay community of New York,'' says the doctor close to the FDA approval, who asked to remain anonymous. ''The rest of this country has been brainwashed into thinking this drug really does that much. The data has all been manipulated by people who have a lot vested in AZT.''

''If AIDS were not the popular disease that it is '-- the money-making and career-making machine '-- these people could not get away with this kind of shoddy science,'' says Bialy. ''In all my years in science I have never seen anything this atrocious.'' When asked if he thought it was at all possible that people have been killed as a result of AZT poisoning rather than AIDS he answered: ''It's more than possible.''

August 17, 1989: The government has announced that 1.4 million healthy, HIV antibody-positive Americans could ''benefit'' from taking AZT, even though they show no symptoms of disease. New studies have ''proven'' that AZT is effective in stopping the progression of AIDS in asymptomatic and early ARC cases. Dr. Fauci, the head of NIH, proudly announced that a trial has been going on for ''two years'' had ''clearly shown'' that early intervention will keep AIDS at bay. Anyone who has antibodies to HIV and less than 500 T-4 cells should start taking AZT at once, he said. That is approximately 650,000 people. 1.4 million Americans are assumed HIV antibody-positive, and eventually all of them may need to take AZT so they don't get sick, Fauci contended.

The leading newspapers didn't seem to think it unusual that there was no existing copy of the study, but rather a breezy two-page press release from the NIH. When SPIN called the NIH asking for a copy of the study, we were told that it was ''still being written.''

We asked a few questions about the numbers. According to the press release, 3,200 early ARC and asymptomatic patients were divided into two groups, one AZT and one placebo, and followed for two years. The two groups were distinguished by T-4 cell counts; one group had less than 500, the other more than 500. These two were then divided into three groups each: high-dose AZT, low-dose AZT, and placebo. In the group with more than 500 T-4 cells, AZT had no effect. In the other group, it was concluded that low-dose AZT was the most effective, followed by high-dose. All in all, 36 out of 900 developed AIDS in the two AZT groups combined, and 38 out of 450 in the placebo group. ''HIV-positive are twice as likely to get AIDS if they don't take AZT,'' the press declared.

However, the figures are vastly misleading. When we asked how many patients were actually enrolled for a full two years, the NIH said they did not know, but that the average time of participation was one year, not two.

''It's terribly dishonest the way they portrayed those numbers,'' says Dr. Sonnabend. ''If there were 60 people in the trial those numbers would mean something, but if you calculate what the percentage is out of 3,200, the difference becomes minute between the two groups. It's nothing. It's hit or miss, and they make it look like it's terribly significant.''

The study boasted that AZT is much more effective and less toxic at one-third the dosage than has been used for three years now. That's the good news. The bad news is that thousands have already been walloped with 1,500 milligrams of AZT and possibly even died of toxic poisoning '-- and now we're hearing that one third of the dose would have done?

With all that remains so uncertain about the effects of AZT, it seems criminal to advocate expanding its usage to healthy people, particularly since only a minuscule percentage of the HIV-infected population have actually developed ARC or AIDS.

Burroughs Wellcome has already launched testing of AZT in asymptomatic hospital workers, pregnant women, and in children, who are getting liquid AZT. The liquid is left over from an aborted trial, and given to the children because they can mix it with water '-- children don't like to swallow pills. It has also been proposed that AZT be given to people who do not yet even test positive for HIV antibodies, but are ''at risk.''

''I'm convinced that if you gave AZT to a perfectly healthy athlete,'' says Fedorko, ''he would be dead in five years.''

''This is such shoddy science it's hard to believe nobody is protesting.''

In December 1988, the Lancet published a study that Burroughs Wellcome and the NIH do not include in their press kits. It was more expansive than the original AZT study and followed patients longer. It was not conducted in the United States, but in France, at the Claude Bernard Hospital in Paris, and concluded the same things about AZT that Burroughs Wellcome's study did, except Burroughs Wellcome called their results ''overwhelmingly positive,'' and the French doctors called theirs ''disappointing.'' The French study found, once again, that AZT was too toxic for most to tolerate, had no lasting effect on HIV blood levels, and left the patients with fewer T-4 cells than they started with. Although they noticed a clinical improvement at first, they concluded that ''by six months, these values had returned to their pretreatment levels, and several opportunistic infections, malignancies, and deaths occurred.''

''Thus the benefits of AZT are limited to a few months for ARC and AIDS patients,'' the French team concluded. After a few months, the study found, AZT was completely ineffective.

The news that AZT will soon be prescribed to asymptomatic people has left many leading AIDS doctors dumbfounded and furious. Every doctor and scientist I asked felt that it was highly unprofessional and reckless to announce a study with no data to look at, making recommendations with such drastic public health implications. ''This simply does not happen,'' says Bialy. ''The government is reporting scientific facts before they've been reviewed? It's unheard of.''

''It's beyond belief,'' says Dr. Sonnabend in a voice tinged with desperation. ''I don't know what to do. I have to go in and face an office full of people asking for AZT. I'm terrified. I don't know what to do as a responsible physician. The first study was ridiculous. Margaret Fischl, who has done both of these studies, obviously doesn't know the first thing about clinical trials. I don't trust her. Or the others. They're simply not good enough. We're being held hostage by second-rate scientists. We let them get away with the first disaster; now they're doing it again.''

''It's a momentous decision to say to people, 'If you're HIV-positive and your T-4 cells are below 500, start taking AZT,''' says the AIDS doctor who wished to remain anonymous. ''I know dozens of people that I've seen personally every few months for several years now who have been in that state for more than five years, and have not progressed to any disease.''

''I'm ashamed of my colleagues,'' Sonnabend laments. ''I'm embarrassed. This is such shoddy science it's hard to believe nobody is protesting. Damned cowards. The name of the game is to protect your grant, don't open your mouth. It's all about money'... it's grounds for just following the party line and not being critical, when there are obviously financial and political forces driving this.''

When Duesberg heard the latest announcement, he was partially stunned over the reaction of Gay Men's Health Crisis President Richard Dunne, who said that GMHC now urged ''everybody to get tested,'' and of course those who test positive to go on to AZT. ''These people are running into the gas chambers,'' says Duesberg. ''Himmler would have been so happy if only the Jews were this cooperative.''

* = This sentence was changed to correct an error in the original version of this article, which wrongly stated that the FDA had approved Thalidomide.

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 00:12

News Analysis

While tens of thousands are hospitalized across the United States due to COVID-19, the numbers are a fraction of what experts predicted just a few days ago.

The main reason appears to be that the projections were already off the day they were released.

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The model in question was published by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). It was repeatedly referenced by Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, during President Donald Trump's daily press briefings on the pandemic.

On March 30, the model's authors released a paper that warned that the country will need about 8,000 to 250,000 extra hospital beds to cope with the pandemic (pdf).

''Even with social distancing measures enacted and sustained, the peak demand for hospital services due to the COVID-19 pandemic is likely going to exceed capacity substantially,'' they said. ''Alongside the implementation and enforcement of social distancing measures, there is an urgent need to develop and implement plans to reduce non-COVID-19 demand for and temporarily increase capacity of health facilities.''

The CCP virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, broke out in Wuhan, China, around November and was allowed to spread around the world due to the coverup and mismanagement by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In the United States, more than 320,000 have tested positive for the virus and more than 9,000 have died, as of April 5.

Way OffThe interactive projections model on IHME's website was last updated on April 1.

But the numbers were already off. It said New York would need 41,000 to 58,000 hospital beds for COVID-19 patients on April 1. But even by April 3, the state had less than 16,000 hospitalized.

The model was supposed to be updated later on April 5, a spokesman for the institute, Dean Owen, told The Epoch Times. However, it was not updated by press time. He didn't explain why the predictions were off. ''Sorry, wish I had more to offer you right now,'' he said via email.

The lead author of the model, health metrics sciences professor Christopher Murray, didn't respond to a request for comment.

The model on IHME's website wasn't updated by press deadline.

How Many Are Currently Hospitalized?The model also was off about states other than New York, but exactly how far off is often hard to determine because many states don't make their daily CCP virus hospitalization data easily available.

Only 13 states list the day-by-day hospitalization count in a readily accessible form, such as on the virus information web page of their health department.

Another 28 states only provide the cumulative hospitalization count, which includes patients who have already been released, and the deceased. For these, the current hospitalization numbers can be estimated by subtracting the number of deceased from the cumulative hospitalization counts, assuming every deceased patient was first hospitalized. That doesn't account for hospitalized patients who have recovered.

For the nine remaining states and the District of Columbia, no hospitalization numbers were available by the time of publication.

Given that states with available data had a current hospitalization rate around 6 to 20 percent, if each of the no-data states had a rate of 20 percent, the hospitalizations for the whole country would add up to some 47,000 as of April 3 to 4.

The IHME model expected about 114,000 to 181,000 hospital beds would be needed nationwide on April 3, and roughly 120,000 to 430,000 on April 16.

State by StateAmong states with available data, the model was only accurate for one'--Missouri. It predicted the need for 282 to 431 hospital beds on April 4. Missouri had 413 hospitalized that day.

The model was the least accurate for Minnesota, which had 95 hospitalized, as of April 4. That's about 9 to 12 percent of the projected need of 790 to 1,117.

For the other 11 states, the data breaks down as follows:

Arkansas had 72 CCP virus patients hospitalized as of April 4. That's about 13 to 19 percent of the projected need of 378 to 571 hospital beds for that day.California had 2,300 hospitalized as of April 3'--about 33 to 57 percent of the projected 4,015 to 6,897.Delaware had 95 hospitalized as of April 4'--about 13 to 28 percent of the projected 334 to 757.Iowa had 85 hospitalized as of April 4'--about 14 to 18 percent of the projected 480 to 598.Louisiana had 1,726 hospitalized as of April 4'--about 18 to 56 percent of the projected 3,073 to 9,580.North Carolina had 271 hospitalized as of April 4'--about 21 to 29 percent of the projected 950 to 1,304.New Mexico had 41 hospitalized as of April 4'--about 9 to 19 percent of the projected 214 to 444.New York had 15,905 hospitalized as of April 3'--about 22 to 34 percent of the projected 46,211 to 71,568.Rhode Island had 93 hospitalized as of April 4'--about 22 to 43 percent of the projected 218 to 423.Vermont had 29 hospitalized as of April 4'--about 14 to 26 percent of the projected 110 to 202.At least in some other regards, the IHME model appears accurate. For instance, it predicted 1,133 to 1,555 COVID-19 deaths for April 4. There were around 1,350 deaths reported that day.

Update: The article has been updated with the name of the IHME spokesman.

Follow Petr on Twitter: @petrsvab

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Mon, 06 Apr 2020 00:04

The White House coronavirus task force had its biggest fight yet on Saturday, pitting economic adviser Peter Navarro against infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci. At issue: How enthusiastically should the White House tout the prospects of an antimalarial drug to fight COVID-19?

Behind the scenes: This drama erupted into an epic Situation Room showdown. Trump's coronavirus task force gathered in the White House Situation Room on Saturday at about 1:30pm, according to four sources familiar with the conversation. Vice President Mike Pence sat at the head of the table.

Numerous government officials were at the table, including Fauci, coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx, Jared Kushner, acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, and Commissioner of Food and Drugs Stephen Hahn.Behind them sat staff, including Peter Navarro, tapped by Trump to compel private companies to meet the government's coronavirus needs under the Defense Production Act.Toward the end of the meeting, Hahn began a discussion of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which Trump believes could be a "game-changer" against the coronavirus.

Hahn gave an update about the drug and what he was seeing in different trials and real-world results.Then Navarro got up. He brought over a stack of folders and dropped them on the table. People started passing them around. "And the first words out of his mouth are that the studies that he's seen, I believe they're mostly overseas, show 'clear therapeutic efficacy,'" said a source familiar with the conversation. "Those are the exact words out of his mouth."Navarro's comments set off a heated exchange about how the Trump administration and the president ought to talk about the malaria drug, which Fauci and other public health officials stress is unproven to combat COVID-19.

Fauci pushed back against Navarro, saying that there was only anecdotal evidence that hydroxychloroquine works against the coronavirus.Researchers have said studies out of France and China are inadequate because they did not include control groups.Fauci and others have said much more data is needed to prove that hydroxychloroquine is effective against the coronavirus.As part of his role, Navarro has been trying to source hydroxychloroquine from around the world. He's also been trying to ensure that there are enough domestic production capabilities inside the U.S.Fauci's mention of anecdotal evidence "just set Peter off," said one of the sources. Navarro pointed to the pile of folders on the desk, which included printouts of studies on hydroxychloroquine from around the world.

Navarro said to Fauci, "That's science, not anecdote," said another of the sources.Navarro started raising his voice, and at one point accused Fauci of objecting to Trump's travel restrictions, saying, "You were the one who early on objected to the travel restrictions with China," saying that travel restrictions don't work. (Navarro was one of the earliest to push the China travel ban.)

Fauci looked confused, according to a source in the room. After Trump imposed the travel restrictions, Fauci has publicly praised the president's restriction on travel from China.Pence was trying to moderate the heated discussion. "It was pretty clear that everyone was just trying to get Peter to sit down and stop being so confrontational," said one of the sources.Eventually, Kushner turned to Navarro and said, "Peter, take yes for an answer," because most everyone agreed, by that time, it was important to surge the supply of the drug to hot zones.The principals agreed that the administration's public stance should be that the decision to use the drug is between doctors and patients.Trump ended up announcing at his press conference that he had 29 million doses of hydroxychloroquine in the Strategic National Stockpile.Between the lines: "There has never been a confrontation in the task force meetings like the one yesterday," said a source familiar with the argument. "People speak up and there's robust debate, but there's never been a confrontation. Yesterday was the first confrontation."

In response to a request for comment on Axios' reporting, Katie Miller, a spokesperson for the vice president, said: "We don't comment on meetings in the Situation Room."The bottom line: The way to discuss the drug's potential has become a fraught issue within the Trump administration.

Most members of the task force support a cautious approach to discussing the drug until it's proven.Navarro, on the other hand, is convinced based on his reading that the drug works against the coronavirus and speaks about it enthusiastically. Some of Trump's favorite TV hosts, including Fox's Sean Hannity, and friends including Rudy Giuliani, have also been touting the malaria drug for the coronavirus. Trump has made no secret who he sides with."What do you have to lose? Take it," the president said in a White House briefing on Saturday. "I really think they should take it. But it's their choice. And it's their doctor's choice or the doctors in the hospital. But hydroxychloroquine. Try it, if you'd like."

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Archived Version

Sun, 05 Apr 2020 23:52

Uncategorized By Jim HoftPublished April 4, 2020 at 6:11pm

Via Dr. Andrew Bostom.

A Milan University study estimates up to 20 million Italians are covid-19 ''cases'' including mildly/asymptomatic persons. So case-fatality ratio may eventually be a maximum of 50,000-60,000 deaths/20 million, or 0.25% to 0.30% mortality rate.

Milan U study estimates up to 20 million (m) Italians are covid19 ''cases'' incl. mildly/asymptomatic persons, so case-fatality ratio may eventually (i.e., now 15.4K ''official'' deaths) be a max of 50-60K deaths/20m, or 0.25% to 0.30% https://t.co/uAv6ltu5dF

'-- Andrew Bostom (@andrewbostom) April 4, 2020

It also looks like the coronavirus pandemic in Italy has peaked.Via Alex Berenson.

TRENDING: UPDATE: SOUZA DELETES TWITTER ACCOUNT: Obama White House Photographer Pete Souza to President Trump: "F*** you potus"

2/ Here's a peer-reviewed paper in Italian flu mortality from 2014-2017 '' the numbers are pretty brutal. https://t.co/4KJkekW4zc pic.twitter.com/cQSDVwKzlS

'-- Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) April 4, 2020

As we reported earlier '-- Italy peaked in cases earlier this week.

Popular Right Now Kristinn Taylor April 4, 2020 at 8:26pm

Jim Hoft April 3, 2020 at 9:17pm

Jim Hoft April 2, 2020 at 10:36pm

Kristinn Taylor April 3, 2020 at 9:53pm

Jacob Engels April 3, 2020 at 7:30am

Jim Hoft April 4, 2020 at 5:06pm

Jim Hoft April 3, 2020 at 10:12am

Jim Hoft April 3, 2020 at 8:58am

Jim Hoft April 5, 2020 at 8:45am

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Sun, 05 Apr 2020 23:49

As Spain becomes Europe's most infected country, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has sent a forceful message to Brussels, warning that the European Union will fail if it gets its handling of the Covid-19 crisis wrong.

In a piece published in the Guardian on Sunday, the Spanish leader said that the outlook of his ''fervently'' pro-European government is being tested by the bloc's handling of the pandemic to date.

Sanchez called for solidarity between member states at this ''critical juncture'' of the outbreak, saying that the European project risks being ''severely damaged.''

He called on the union to go further than the European Central Bank's new temporary emergency purchase program and the European Commission's plan for people who have lost their jobs, saying the measures are not enough on their own.

Also on rt.com Spanish parking lot converted into huge makeshift morgue as Covid-19 deaths surge (VIDEO) ''Europe must build a wartime economy and promote European resistance, reconstruction and recovery. It must start doing so as soon as possible with measures to support the public debt that many states, including Spain, are taking on,'' he wrote.

If we continue to think small, we will fail.

The prime minister summoned the ghosts of recessions past, when southern European nations were at the sharp end of measures introduced by Brussels, and blasted the result of this approach.

''The United States responded to the recession of 2008 with a stimulus package, while Europe responded with austerity. We all know the outcome,'' he said.

''Today, when we are on the brink of a global economic crisis of an even greater magnitude than that of 2008, the US has implemented the greatest mobilization of public resources in its history.

Is Europe willing to be left behind?

Sanchez called on the 27-member union to create a debt mutualization mechanism to purchase essential medical supplies as a single bloc, establish coordinated cybersecurity strategies, and to create an emergency plan to ensure that the continent can bounce back from the pandemic.

''If the virus does not respect borders, then nor should financing mechanisms,'' he wrote.

The Spanish leader finished his comments with a call for solidarity that ensures that there are no gaps between north and south and no EU nation is left behind.

Also on rt.com Brussels to the rescue? Ursula von der Leyen pushes for Covid-19 'Marshall Plan' as bloc is far from united Like this story? Share it with a friend!

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Sun, 05 Apr 2020 23:46

On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic's economic impact may ''bring a recession that probably has no parallel in the recent past''.

CBS News has cited Movses Abelian, the UN Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, as saying in an email that the United Nations is facing a "dire" financial meltdown due to its additional expenses aimed to "respond to the global health crisis" over the coronavirus.

''In the first three months of the year, the Secretariat has utilised most of the cash balance carried over from 2019 which has dropped from about $200 million to $50 million at the beginning of 2020'', he noted.The email came as an explanation related to an 1 April memo on the matter that was issued by Catherine Pollard, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy, and Compliance.

In the memo, a copy of which was obtained by CBS News, Pollard warned of the ''immediate impact of the move to alternate working conditions in response to the COVID-19 outbreak'' which she said will result in ''reductions in travel, contractual services, and general operating expenses across all budgets''.She said that the UN also anticipates ''new demands upon our operations and services as we respond to the global health crisis'' regarding the coronavirus pandemic.

Pollard pointed out that due to the "deteriorating liquidity situation in both regular budget and peacekeeping operations, the Secretary-General has directed additional measures across all Secretariat entities to manage expenditures and liquidity''.

She cautioned that the UN's austerity measures may hamper its ability ''to carry out the work of the Organisation at a time when the world needs the United Nations more than ever''.According to Pollard, the UN plans to ''undertake unforeseen expenditures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic''.

She singled out a significant decline in contributions for regular budget assessments over the first quarter of this year, adding that the payment of assessments by UN members has led to ''a collection gap of more than $220 million''.

The official also noted that the UN will postpone ''all discretionary spending unless it is directly and immediately linked to ongoing mandated activities, which are not impacted by the restrictions caused by the pandemic''.

With peacekeeping operations currently facing ''increasing liquidity pressure", the current cash position worth $1.4 billion is "barely sufficient" for maintaining field operations until the end of June, Pollard underscored.

"There is no room for payments to troop and police contributing countries for the March and June quarterly cycles, which will require nearly $1.1 billion. I count on your cooperation, collaboration, and support to ensure that we can continue operations despite the gravity of the financial constraints we face'', she added.UN Chief Calls Coronavirus World's 'Greatest Test' Since World War IIPollard's memo came after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned that the organisation is in the grips of "increased financial constraints" due to the coronavirus, in addition to arrears by many countries.

According to Guterres, the UN ended 2019 ''with arrears of $711 million, the highest level for a decade and a 34% increase compared to the previous year''.

He also stressed that the coronavirus pandemic presents the worst danger to global peace that the world has seen since the end of the Second World War, also calling the outbreak ''a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations, one that is killing people, spreading human suffering, and upending people's lives''.

''But this is much more than a health crisis. It is a human crisis. The coronavirus disease is attacking societies at their core'', Guterres added.World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman Tarik Jasarevic has, meanwhile, told CBS News that the WHO has ''['...] launched a first-of-its-kind COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund to raise money from a wide range of donors and support the work of WHO and partners to help countries respond to the COVID-19''.

The developments come as the WHO's latest estimates indicate that there are 1,093,349 confirmed coronavirus cases globally, with the death toll standing at 58,620.

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Sun, 05 Apr 2020 23:44

Illegal aliens trying to cross the US-Mexican border are down to ''next to nothing'' amid the coronavirus pandemic.Apprehensions have been below 150 a day for almost a week, according to an unnamed high-ranking border official who spoke to the Washington Examiner.

''Only 79 people were encountered Sunday by Border Patrol agents nationwide after they had attempted to enter the country between ports of entry. If that rate continued over the course of a month, it would make for fewer than 2,500 apprehensions, a drop in the bucket compared to the 30,000 arrests that agents made just on the southern border in February and 132,000 at the peak of the border crisis last May,'' the Examiner reports.

The low amount of apprehensions reflects the number of people who are attempting to cross.

TRENDING: UPDATE: SOUZA DELETES TWITTER ACCOUNT: Obama White House Photographer Pete Souza to President Trump: "F*** you potus"

''It's like next to nothing. For almost a week, their apprehensions have been under 150,'' said their source. ''This is what happened on 9/11 '-- on steroids. Mexico has locked down a lot of their country '... and then they [migrants] think if they come to the U.S., they're going to catch the virus.''

Additionally, a border patrol agent from Texas told them that apprehensions have dropped ''tremendously'' to ''single-digit [apprehensions] per shift'' from hundreds per day earlier this year.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that they plan to send an additional 540 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Sun, 05 Apr 2020 20:16

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. The security, integrity, and availability of United States telecommunications networks are vital to United States national security and law enforcement interests.

Sec. 2. Definitions. For purposes of this order:

(a) ''License'' means any license, certificate of public interest, or other authorization issued or granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after referral of an application by the FCC to the Committee established by subsection 3(a) of this order or, if referred before the date of this order, to the group of executive departments and agencies involved in the review process that was previously in place.

(b) ''Application'' means any application, petition, or other request for a license or authorization, or the transfer of a license or authorization, that is referred by the FCC to the Committee established in subsection 3(a) of this order or that was referred by the FCC before the date of this order to the group of executive departments and agencies involved in the review process that was previously in place.(c) ''Intelligence Community'' shall have the meaning assigned to it in subsection 3.5(h) of Executive Order 12333 of December 4, 1981 (United States Intelligence Activities), as amended.

(d) ''Mitigation measures'' shall mean both standard and non-standard mitigation measures.

(e) ''Standard mitigation measures'' shall be those measures agreed upon by the Committee Members (as defined in subsection 3(b) of this order) and Committee Advisors (as defined in subsection 3(d) of this order).

Sec. 3. Establishment. (a) There is hereby established the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector (Committee), the primary objective of which shall be to assist the FCC in its public interest review of national security and law enforcement concerns that may be raised by foreign participation in the United States telecommunications services sector. The function of the Committee shall be:

(i) to review applications and licenses for risks to national security and law enforcement interests posed by such applications or licenses; and

(ii) to respond to any risks presented by applications or licenses by recommending to the FCC, as appropriate and consistent with the provisions of this order, that it dismiss an application, deny an application, condition the grant of an application upon compliance with mitigation measures, modify a license with a condition of compliance with mitigation measures, or revoke a license.

(b) The Committee shall be composed of the following members (Committee Members):

(i) the Secretary of Defense;

(ii) the Attorney General;

(iii) the Secretary of Homeland Security; and

(iv) the head of any other executive department or agency, or any Assistant to the President, as the President determines appropriate.

(c) The Attorney General shall serve as Chair of the Committee (Chair).

(d) The following officials shall be advisors to the Committee (Committee Advisors) with no role in the duties set forth in sections 4 through 11 of this order except as provided in subsections 6(c), 9(f), 9(g), 10(g), and 11(d) of this order:

(i) the Secretary of State;

(ii) the Secretary of the Treasury;

(iii) the Secretary of Commerce;

(iv) the Director of the Office of Management and Budget;

(v) the United States Trade Representative;

(vi) the Director of National Intelligence;

(vii) the Administrator of General Services;

(viii) the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs;

(ix) the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy;

(x) the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy;

(xi) the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers; and

(xii) any other Assistant to the President, as the President determines appropriate.

(e) The Committee Members and Committee Advisors may, subject to the limitations in this order, designate a senior executive from their entity to perform the functions described in this order on their behalf.

Sec. 4. Duties of Committee Chair and Members. (a) The Chair shall designate one or more Committee Members to serve as the lead for executing any function of the Committee (Lead Member). The Chair may assign to a Lead Member any or all of the following responsibilities as appropriate and consistent with their statutory authorities:

(i) submitting to applicants or licensees any questions or requests for information to establish facts about an application or license necessary to conduct the reviews and assessments described in sections 5 and 6 of this order;

(ii) identifying risks to national security or law enforcement interests of the United States raised by an application or license, in consultation, as appropriate, with other Committee Members;

(iii) coordinating with other Committee Members on the reviews and assessments described in sections 5 and 6 of this order;

(iv) proposing, in coordination with the Chair, any mitigation measures necessary to address any risk to national security or law enforcement interests of the United States identified through the risk-based analysis described in subsection 9(c) of this order;

(v) coordinating with other Committee Members and communicating with applicants or licensees regarding any mitigation measures necessary to address risks to national security and law enforcement interests of the United States;

(vi) monitoring compliance with, and coordinating with the Committee regarding, any mitigation measure the Committee recommends be imposed by the FCC as a condition on a license; or

(vii) any related responsibilities as specified by the Chair.

(b) Except as otherwise provided in this order, the Chair shall have the exclusive authority to act, or to authorize other Committee Members to act, on behalf of the Committee, including communicating with the FCC and with applicants or licensees on behalf of the Committee.

(c) In acting on behalf of the Committee, the Chair or a Lead Member, as applicable, shall keep the Committee fully informed of the Chair's or Lead Member's respective activities taken under this order and shall consult with the Committee before taking any material actions under this order.

Sec. 5. Committee Application Review Process. (a) The Committee shall review and assess applications to determine whether granting a license or the transfer of a license poses a risk to national security or law enforcement interests of the United States.

(b) Upon referral by the FCC of an application, the Committee shall conduct an initial review of the application to evaluate whether granting the requested license or transfer of license may pose a risk to national security or law enforcement interests of the United States.

(i) During the initial review, the Committee may determine:

(A) that granting an application for a license or the transfer of a license raises no current risk to national security or law enforcement interests;

(B) that any identified risk to national security or law enforcement interests raised by an application may be addressed through standard mitigation measures recommended by the Committee; or

(C) that a secondary assessment of an application is warranted because risk to national security or law enforcement interests cannot be mitigated by standard mitigation measures.

(ii) If the Committee determines that granting the application does not raise a current risk to national security or law enforcement interests or that standard mitigation measures would mitigate any risk to national security or law enforcement interests, such a determination and any recommendations shall be communicated to the FCC in a manner consistent with sections 9 and 10 of this order.

(iii) Except as provided in subsection 5(d) of this order, any initial review shall be completed before the end of the 120-day period beginning on the date the Chair determines that the applicant's responses to any questions and information requests from the Committee are complete.

(c) When the Committee has determined that a secondary assessment of an application is warranted, it shall conduct such an assessment to further evaluate the risk posed to national security and law enforcement interests of the United States and to determine whether to make any recommendations pursuant to section 9 of this order. Any secondary assessment of an application shall be completed no more than 90 days after the Committee's determination that a secondary assessment is warranted. The Chair shall notify the FCC of a determination that a secondary assessment is warranted.

(d) During an initial review under subsection 5(b) of this order or a secondary assessment under subsection 5(c) of this order, if an applicant fails to respond to any additional requests for information after the Chair determines the responses are complete, the Committee may either extend the initial review or secondary assessment period or make a recommendation to the FCC to dismiss the application without prejudice. The Chair shall notify the FCC of a determination that the applicant's responses are complete, of any extensions of the initial review period, or when the Committee recommends dismissal under this subsection.

Sec. 6. Committee License Review Process. (a) The Committee may review existing licenses to identify any additional or new risks to national security or law enforcement interests of the United States.

(b) The Committee shall determine whether to review an existing license by majority vote of the Committee Members.

(c) If the Committee conducts such a review, it shall promptly notify the Committee Advisors.

Sec. 7. Threat Analysis by the Director of National Intelligence. (a) For each license or application reviewed by the Committee, the Director of National Intelligence shall produce a written assessment of any threat to national security interests of the United States posed by granting the application or maintaining the license. The Director of National Intelligence shall solicit and incorporate the views of the Intelligence Community, as appropriate.

(b) The analysis required under subsection (a) of this section shall be provided to the Committee within the earlier of 30 days from the date on which the Chair determines that an applicant's or licensee's responses to any questions and requests for information from the Committee are complete or 30 days from the date on which the Chair requests such an analysis. Such an analysis may be supplemented or amended as appropriate or upon a request for additional information by the Chair.

(c) The Director of National Intelligence shall ensure that the Intelligence Community continues to analyze and disseminate to the Committee any additional relevant information that may become available during the course of a review or assessment conducted with respect to an application or license.

Sec. 8. Requests for Information. In furtherance of its reviews and assessments of applications and licenses as described in this section, the Committee may seek information from applicants, licensees, and any other entity as needed. Information submitted to the Committee pursuant to this subsection and analysis concerning such information shall not be disclosed beyond Committee Member entities and Committee Advisor entities, except as appropriate and consistent with procedures governing the handling of classified or otherwise privileged or protected information, under the following circumstances:

(a) to the extent required by law or for any administrative or judicial action or proceeding, or for law enforcement purposes;

(b) to other governmental entities at the discretion of the Chair, provided that such entities make adequate assurances to the Chair that they will not further disclose the shared information, including to members of the public; or

(c) to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States with respect to transactions reviewed by that Committee pursuant to 50 U.S.C. 4565, in which case this information and analysis shall be treated consistent with the disclosure protections of 50 U.S.C. 4565(c).

Sec. 9. Recommendations by the Committee Pursuant to the Committee Review Process. (a) With respect to applications that are reviewed or assessed pursuant to section 5 of this order, the Committee shall:

(i) advise the FCC that the Committee has no recommendation for the FCC on the application and no objection to the FCC granting the license or transfer of the license;

(ii) recommend that the FCC deny the application due to the risk to the national security or law enforcement interests of the United States; or

(iii) recommend that the FCC only grant the license or transfer of the license contingent on the applicant's compliance with mitigation measures, consistent with section 10 of this order.

(b) With respect to a license reviewed pursuant to section 6 of this order, the Committee may, when appropriate:

(i) recommend that the FCC modify the license to include a condition of compliance with mitigation measures negotiated by the Committee;

(ii) recommend that the FCC revoke the license due to the risk to national security or law enforcement interests of the United States; or

(iii) take no action with respect to the license.

(c) Any recommendation made by the Committee pursuant to subsections (a) and (b) of this section shall be based on a written risk-based analysis, conducted by the Committee Member entity or entities proposing the denial, mitigation measures, modification, revocation, or no action.

(d) The Committee shall make the recommendations described in subsections (a)(ii), (a)(iii), (b)(i), and (b)(ii) of this section if it determines that there is credible evidence that the application or license poses a risk to the national security or law enforcement interests of the United States.

(e) The Committee shall attempt to reach consensus on any recommendation authorized by this order. If senior executive Committee officials designated pursuant to subsection 3(e) of this order cannot reach consensus on a recommendation, the Chair shall present the issue to the Committee Members, who shall determine the Committee recommendation by majority vote. If the vote results in a tie, the Chair shall determine the recommendation.

(f) If the Committee's determination is a recommendation to deny an application, to grant an application contingent on compliance with non-standard mitigation measures, to modify a license to condition it upon compliance with non-standard mitigation measures, or to revoke a license, the Chair shall notify the Committee Advisors and, to the extent consistent with applicable law, provide them all available assessments, evaluations, or other analyses regarding such determination. Within 21 days of the notification, the Committee Advisors shall advise the Chair whether they oppose the recommendation.

(i) If one or more of the Committee Advisors opposes the recommendation, the senior executives designated by the Committee Members and Committee Advisors shall promptly confer in an effort to reach consensus on a recommendation. If consensus is reached, the recommendation shall be provided to the FCC consistent with subsection 9(h) of this order.

(ii) If the senior executives designated by the Committee Members and Committee Advisors do not reach consensus, the Chair shall present the issue to the Committee Members and the Committee Advisors to seek to resolve any objections within 30 days of the notification by the Chair of a recommendation to deny or to grant an application contingent on compliance with non-standard mitigation, or within 60 days in the case of a recommendation to modify a license to condition it upon compliance with non-standard mitigation measures or to revoke a license. Committee Members and Committee Advisors may consider any submissions by the Committee Advisors (e.g., a countervailing risk assessment), as appropriate.

(iii) If the Committee Members and Committee Advisors are unable to reach consensus through the foregoing process, the Committee Members identified in subsection 3(b) of this order shall determine a recommendation by majority vote. If the vote results in a tie, the Chair shall determine the recommendation.

(g) The Chair shall notify the President of any intended recommendation, and any opposition thereto by a Committee Member or Committee Advisor, within 7 days of a majority or tie vote held under subsection 9(e) or 9(f)(iii) of this order if either the recommendation or any opposition thereto by a Committee Member or Committee Advisor involves the denial of an application, granting an application contingent on non-standard mitigation measures, modifying a license to condition it upon compliance with non-standard mitigation measures, or revoking a license. The FCC will receive notice of the recommendation, consistent with subsection 9(h) of this order, not earlier than 15 days after the date on which the President is notified of the intended action.

(h) Except as provided in subsection (b)(iii) of this section, the Chair, on behalf of the Committee, shall notify the FCC through the Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of a final recommendation made pursuant to this section. The Administrator of NTIA shall notify the FCC of the recommendation within 7 days of the notification from the Chair.

(i) As necessary and in accordance with applicable law and policy, including procedures governing the handling of classified or otherwise privileged or protected information, the Committee may consider classified information and otherwise privileged or protected information in determining what recommendation to make to the FCC through the Administrator of NTIA under this section, and may provide such information to the FCC as necessary on an ex parte basis.

Sec. 10. Mitigation of Risk and Monitoring. (a) The Committee may recommend to the FCC, consistent with section 9 of this order, that the FCC condition the granting of a license or transfer of a license on compliance with any mitigation measures in order to mitigate a risk to the national security or law enforcement interests of the United States arising from the application.

(b) The Committee may recommend to the FCC, consistent with section 9 of this order, that the FCC modify a license to condition it upon compliance with any mitigation measures in order to mitigate a risk to national security or law enforcement interests of the United States arising from the license.

(c) Consistent with subsection 4(a)(v) of this order, the Chair or assigned Lead Member shall communicate any mitigation measures proposed by the Committee to the applicant or licensee.

(d) Any mitigation measures negotiated pursuant to this section shall be based on a written risk-based analysis.

(e) The Committee shall monitor any mitigation measures imposed by the FCC as a condition on a license.

(i) Committee Member entities, as appropriate, shall report to the Committee regarding any material noncompliance with any mitigation measures imposed by the FCC as a condition on a license as a result of the Committee's recommendation under subsections (a) through (d) of this section.

(ii) The Committee, in consultation with the FCC, as appropriate, and in a manner that does not unduly constrain Committee resources, shall develop methods for monitoring compliance with any mitigation measures imposed by the FCC as a condition on a license as a result of the Committee's recommendation under subsections (a) through (d) of this section.

(f) If the Committee determines that a licensee has not complied with a mitigation measure and has not cured any such noncompliance in a satisfactory manner, the Committee may recommend actions consistent with subsection 9(b) of this order.

(g) When requested by the Chair, the Director of National Intelligence shall provide analyses assessing threats related to risk mitigation, compliance monitoring, and enforcement to Committee Member entities and Committee Advisor entities that are monitoring compliance with mitigation measures imposed by the FCC as conditions on licenses as a result of Committee recommendations under subsections (a) through (d) of this section.

(h) This order does not constrain the discretion of executive departments or agencies, pursuant to any relevant authority not described in this order, to:

(i) conduct inquiries with respect to an application or license;

(ii) communicate with any applicant, licensee, or other necessary party; or

(iii) negotiate, enter into, impose, or enforce contractual provisions with an applicant or licensee.

Sec. 11. Implementation. (a) Executive departments and agencies shall take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement the provisions of this order.

(b) The Department of Justice shall provide such funding and administrative support for the Committee as the Committee may require. The heads of executive departments and agencies shall provide, as appropriate and to the extent permitted by law, such resources, information, and assistance as required to implement this order within their respective agencies, including the assignment of staff to perform the duties described in this order. An Intelligence Community liaison designated by the Director of National Intelligence shall support the Committee, consistent with applicable law.

(c) Within 90 days from the date of this order, the Committee Members shall enter into a Memorandum of Understanding among themselves and with the Director of National Intelligence (or the Director's designee) describing their plan to implement and execute this order. The Memorandum of Understanding shall, among other things, delineate questions and requests for applicants and licensees that may be needed to acquire information necessary to conduct the reviews and assessments described in sections 5 and 6 of this order, define the standard mitigation measures developed in accordance with section 2(e) of this order, and outline the process for designating a Lead Member as described in section 4 of this order.

(d) The Chair, in coordination with the Committee Members and the Committee Advisors, shall review the implementation of this order and provide a report to the President on an annual basis that identifies recommendations for relevant policy, administrative, or legislative proposals.

Sec. 12. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals;

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(d) If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstances, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this order and the application of any of its other provisions to any other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,April 4, 2020.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, seen on March 22, tested positive for the coronavirus 10 days ago. He's been admitted to a hospital for testing. Ian Vogler/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Ian Vogler/AFP via Getty Images British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, seen on March 22, tested positive for the coronavirus 10 days ago. He's been admitted to a hospital for testing.

Ian Vogler/AFP via Getty Images British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was diagnosed with the coronavirus last month, has been admitted to the hospital for testing on the advice of his doctor, his office said Sunday.

"This is a precautionary step, as the Prime Minister continues to have persistent symptoms of coronavirus 10 days after testing positive for the virus," a spokesperson said in a statement.

Johnson announced on March 27 that he had tested positive. He said at the time that he had "mild symptoms" of COVID-19, including a fever and "a persistent cough."

Johnson, 55, has not appeared on TV since his diagnosis, only issuing short video messages from his cellphone.

No. 10 Downing Street says Johnson remains in charge of the government. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who would step in for Johnson if he was unable to fulfill his duties as prime minister, will chair Monday morning's coronavirus meeting.

The U.K.'s health secretary, Matt Hancock, said Sunday that 195,524 people in the U.K. have been tested, with 47,806 testing positive. More than 16,000 have been admitted to hospital with coronavirus symptoms. Of those who have contracted the virus, at least 4,934 have died.

Frank Langfitt contributed to this report.

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Technocratic activists are full of solutions to the coronavirus crisis '' the same panaceas they've been pushing for years. What problem wouldn't be solved by abolishing the family, privacy, and other things we take for granted?!

Under the time-honored rubric of "never let a good crisis go to waste," the usual suspects have come out of the woodwork to tout their favored "solutions" as answers to the coronavirus pandemic and the attendant economic crisis. Of course, they've been pushing these initiatives for years, and there's a reason (or three) that they haven't been terribly popular '' they'd require completely upending current societal models, and few have the stomach for such fundamental change.

Also on rt.com Never let a crisis go to waste: US lawmakers bask in coronavirus panic while quietly building the police state of their dreams But desperate times call for desperate measures. Surely there's something of value in these revolutionary projects? Let's have a look, shall we'...

Abolish cash

On the surface, doing away with physical currency in the middle of an epidemic would seem to make sense. Common wisdom holds that banknotes are dirty, and it's logical to think that they might spread disease. Reports that China was "quarantining" shipments of cash, coupled with a World Health Organization advisory to use contactless payments wherever possible in order to avoid spreading coronavirus, have gone a long way toward manufacturing consent for the concept of dropping cash altogether.

However, MIT Tech Review found no real evidence that cash has been a vector for coronavirus, having queried several microbiologists to get to the bottom of the matter. That won't stop proponents of the cashless society from pushing the theory, of course, but it does take the wind out of their sails (and perhaps their sales). There's a lot of energy behind the movement to take the economy off cash '' technocratic heavyweights like the World Economic Forum, former Bank of England chief Mark Carney, and of course Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have all invested serious resources in such a project. The idea is already gaining mainstream currency (no pun intended): a "digital dollar" provision made its way into the US' must-pass coronavirus stimulus bill. While it was ultimately removed, cashless society proponents have continued championing it, reasoning that it's the quickest way of getting the stimulus money into Americans' hands. As the Federal Reserve pours trillions of dollars conjured out of thin air into the economy, it seems only fitting that Americans will increasingly embrace using imaginary money to represent imaginary value.

Abolish fossil fuels

The coronavirus pandemic has been seized upon by the climate-change industrial complex as proof that the world must transition away from fossil fuels. As the price of oil has plummeted alongside the generally-collapsing markets, promoters of renewable energy have shifted their appeals from pleading for the planet to pleading for investors' pocketbooks. Why pour money into volatile oil companies when you can have steady profits with wind and solar? Imperial College's Dr. Charles Donovan, one of the loudest voices calling for a coronavirus-inspired shift to renewables, admitted to Forbes that a renewable energy economy wouldn't prevent the next pandemic, or even speed recovery from the current one, but papered over that gap with platitudes about "resilience" and the "big picture."

There's certainly something to be said for taking stimulus money earmarked for shale drillers whose operations were already in the red pre-coronavirus and investing it in renewables, especially because it's very likely that air pollution has contributed to the high number of coronavirus deaths in areas like northern Italy and Hubei province. However, there's a dark side to Donovan's call for decarbonization. Making bailouts contingent on implementing "low-carbon transitions" is holding industry hostage to an agenda in a way that ensures rushed, poorly-thought-out decisions will be made in the name of expediency. Some climate campaigners have even hinted this is their desired outcome, frankly admitting that the dramatic changes ushered in overnight to fight the epidemic mean equally dramatic change is possible in the service of crafting their preferred green future. "Decarbonize in haste, repent in leisure" could save the planet, or destroy what remains of industry post-coronavirus '' either way, it's not something to be undertaken from a point of panic.

Abolish privacy

As coronavirus-related legislation peels back the privacy protections once enshrined in law, some activists believe we should dispense with this antiquated notion altogether and just embrace the microchip. Bill Gates has been an enthusiastic promoter of the idea, casually bringing it up during a Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' in response to an unrelated question. The Microsoft billionaire-turned-'philanthropist' responded to a question about how governments might decide what businesses are "essential" during a crisis by suggesting the use of "digital certificates to show who has recovered or been tested recently or when we have a vaccine who has received it." Whoa there, buddy. Gates has funded research into "quantum-dot tattoos" that simultaneously vaccinate and leave a record of the vaccination, allowing recipients of the shot to be identified as such after the fact. He also backs the ID2020 initiative, which late last year announced plans to implant biometric ID technology in babies born in Bangladesh and homeless people in Austin, Texas. Articles about the dystopian initiative recently had a disclaimer slapped on warning that the program is "not [intended] to track individuals, as claimed by some conspiracy theorists." Gee, that's a relief!

Meanwhile, multiple tech companies, including Google, the surveillance state cheerleaders at Palantir, and (reportedly) the global mobile phone industry itself are at various stages of rolling out programs to track the spread of coronavirus using location data collected from people's phones. The data is supposedly anonymized, but given tech companies' abysmal history of paying lip service to privacy while feeding users' data to government agencies '' to say nothing of catastrophic leaks '' I think we can be forgiven for urging caution before rushing headlong into this particular Brave New World.

Also on rt.com We cannot allow Facebook and Twitter to use Covid-19 to launch their own coup d'(C)tat Abolish the family

The coronavirus crisis is unprecedented in the amount of disruption it has caused, and outlandish manifestos are to be expected. But the call to abolish the family 'because coronavirus', published by OpenDemocracy, is in a class by itself. The writer, Sophie Lewis, seems appalled at the idea of families self-isolating together, because family homes are "fundamentally unsafe" spaces rife with inequality. The existence of abusive relationships is held up as proof that the family itself is an oppressive structure, while housework is likened to psychological torture. Instead, she calls on society to fling open the doors of prisons and detention centers and house the inhabitants in their "private palaces."

It may be easy to dismiss as extreme a view that "the private family qua mode of social reproduction still, frankly, sucks. It genders, nationalizes and races us. It norms us for productive work. It makes us believe we are 'individuals.'" But this isn't just a personal blog, or some antifa kid's Tumblr '' this is an outlet sponsored by some very influential organizations, including George Soros' Open Society Foundations. Clearly it had to go through some kind of editorial approval before being published. "Social distancing" aside, there's no logical reason coronavirus should make us put aside our family ties, and one has to wonder why an outlet like this is okay with calling on others to discard the parts of life that '' for most of us '' make it worth living.

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.