Date: 2024-04-28 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00019171
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The Washington Post ... Coronavirus Updates
The Washington Post ... Coronavirus Updates ... Jul 10, 2020
Peter Burgess
The latest Health experts are increasingly convinced that the only way to stop America's rapidly worsening coronavirus situation is to reimpose stay-at-home orders, effectively abandoning the country's two-month-long effort to resurrect public life. “Stay-at-home is a blunt instrument,” Farshad Fani Marvasti, director of public health at the University of Arizona College of Medicine at Phoenix, told The Post. “But when you’re leading the world in new cases and things don’t seem to be getting better, you may have to use that blunt instrument.”
Or as Harvard surgeon Thomas Tsai vividly put it: “We see the hurricane coming. In some places, it’s already here. The question is whether you’re going to evacuate your citizens from the path.”
The White House shows no sign of heeding this advice, and is instead pressuring federal health agencies to fall in line with President Trump's rosy outlook on the pandemic.
The Post obtained emails showing a senior Health and Human Services Department adviser accusing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of “undermining the President” by publishing a report on covid-19's potential risk to pregnant women — “as if the President and his administration can’t fix this and it is getting worse.” The administration has also resumed pushing people to take hydroxychloroquine — the drug Trump has called a covid-19 “game changer” despite several major studies that found it doesn't work against the disease. The Food and Drug Administration pulled hydroxychloroquine from covid-19 wards several weeks ago, but White House trade adviser Peter Navarro is now pushing the agency to reauthorize the drug, citing a new study that many scientists says is flawed. And school administrators are agonizing over the White House push to send 56.6 million K-12 students across the country back to class in several weeks. A lack of research on how the virus interacts with children isn't making the decision any easier. “Children are clearly at low risk of serious illness from covid-19,” our health desk wrote. “But it’s unclear to what extent they can still transmit it to each other and to vulnerable adults — such as their teachers or family members.” The nation's running total of U.S. infections climbed past 3.1 million this week, and Arizona, California, Montana and South Dakota all reported record averages of new covid-19 deaths. Despite the president's public assurances that the country is beating the pandemic, our political desk reports that Trump is privately sulking over bad news: “Callers on President Trump in recent weeks have come to expect what several allies and advisers describe as a ‘woe-is-me' preamble,” we wrote. “The president has cast himself in the starring role of the blameless victim — of a deadly pandemic, of a stalled economy, of deep-seated racial unrest, all of which happened to him rather than the country.” Other important news We've published a searchable database of businesses known to have received money from the federal government's economic rescue package. It includes elite private schools that got assistance, and more than $220 million that went to charter schools. An estimated $50 billion shortfall in transportation funding has halted efforts to repave rutted and pockmarked roads, maintain bridges and otherwise prop up an already shaky U.S. infrastructure. The college football season, a rite of autumn and revered American institution uninterrupted for 150 years, suddenly appears on the verge of vanishing. The financial consequences would be grave. Disney World is set to reopen Saturday, despite Florida's escalating outbreak. Amid new reports of protective equipment shortages, an Oregon company is trying to send a free mask to every American. With many fitting rooms sealed off, shoppers are experimenting with apps that let them virtually try on clothing, cosmetics, jewelry and hairdos. Live updates and more Track deaths and confirmed cases in the U.S. and across the world. See the restrictions in each reopened state and how many new cases have been reported. Post reporters are publishing live dispatches nearly 24 hours a day. Read the latest about what's happening in the D.C. area. Submit a question and we may answer it in a future story, live chat or newsletter. Your questions, answered “If we wanted to volunteer to be in vaccine test trials, how should we proceed?” — No name given Many readers have been interested in ways to sign up for vaccine trials. Over the past few months, tens of thousands of people have expressed their willingness to participate in an effort to end the pandemic as soon as possible. Now, a network of more than 100 clinical trial sites in the U.S. and around the world are accepting applications from volunteers. Post Health reporter Carolyn Y. Johnson wrote about this massive endeavor, and so the answer to this question comes from her reporting. Early clinical trials, some of which have reported encouraging results, have determined the proper dose and monitored for any safety concerns in dozens or a few hundred patients. But the ultimate test of these vaccines will be large-scale trials designed to test whether they are effective at preventing or reducing the severity of the disease. That's where the volunteers come in. The Covid-19 Prevention Network launched a website for volunteers to sign up to be considered when the first large trials begin in the second half of July. Thousands of people will be randomly assigned to receive either an experimental vaccine or a placebo. The trials will also test other preventive measures such as antibody drugs. Researchers are looking for volunteers who have not had covid-19. Volunteers will be screened for medical history and will also need to have a physical exam. They will be closely monitored for two years and will be asked to keep a diary of symptoms and be available for weekly check-in phone calls. You can read here about what to expect during the process. “Protecting the well-being of study volunteers is the greatest responsibility in every study, and the [Covid-19 Prevention Network] works to make sure that our studies follow the highest ethical standards,” the network says. More trials will probably follow the Moderna trial. You can sign up to volunteer on the Covid-19 Prevention Network's website. Today’s top reads Find more stories, analysis and op-eds about the outbreak on our coronavirus page, including: Britain has rolled back travel restrictions for visitors from dozens of countries — but U.S. arrivals still must self-isolate. How Major League Soccer, the first large-scale U.S. team sport to resume, is the calvary for the NBA and NHL. Tips on traveling with kids during the pandemic. The case against reopening schools during the pandemic — by a fifth-grade teacher We cannot get this 'right,' the author says. We can only get it less wrong. Perspective ● By Valerie Strauss ● Read more » Smart states have the edge in fighting covid-19. The United States isn’t one of them. Opinion ● By Fareed Zakaria ● Read more » Yes, balancing work and parenting is impossible. Here’s the data. Perspective ● By Suzanne Edwards and Larry Snyder ● Read more » The pandemic and the dawn of an ‘Asian Century’ Analysis ● By Ishaan Tharoor ● Read more » We think you’ll like this newsletter Check out Post Most for the most popular and interesting stories of the day, from politics to opinions to world news, to keep you in the know. In your inbox, every day. Sign up » The Washington Post Manage my email newsletters and alerts | Unsubscribe from Coronavirus Updates | Privacy Policy | Help You received this email because you signed up for Coronavirus Updates or because it is included in your subscription. ©2020 The Washington Post | 1301 K St NW, Washington DC 20071 Displaying THE NEW YORK BLESSING : 100 CHURCHES SINGING A BLESSING OVER NEW YORK CITY.