Just 27% of Americans think the US is doing better than other countries at containing the coronavirus

John Haltiwanger,Business Insider•April 13, 2020

FILE - In this Friday, April 10, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump answers questions during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in Washington. More people have died of COVID-19 in the United States than any other country in the world. And the nation is not yet at the pandemic's peak. Presidential politics are a long way from getting back to normal, but the steps that Trump takes in the coming weeks will define his reelection and much more. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Associated Press

Only about 27% of Americans said they think the US is doing a better job at containing coronavirus than other developed countries, a new Insider poll found.


And about 46% of Americans think the US is doing worse than other countries in fighting the virus.


The US is currently the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with the most reported cases and fatalities from the virus in the world.
Americans do not appear to be overwhelmingly confident in how their country has handled the coronavirus pandemic compared to the rest of the globe.

Only 27% of Americans said they think the US is doing a better job at containing coronavirus than other developed countries, a new Insider poll found, and about one in five said the US is "much worse" at containing coronavirus than other developed countries.

Overall, about 46% of Americans think the US is doing worse than other developed countries in fighting the virus.

The US is currently the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with the most reported cases in the world.

Poll participants were asked: How would you describe the US coronavirus response compared to that of other developed countries?

Just 11% said they think the US is "much better at containing coronavirus than other countries," while 16% said the US is "somewhat better."

Here's a full breakdown of how Americans responded when asked to characterize the US's handling of the coronavirus pandemic compared to the rest of the developed world:

11% said they think the US is much better at containing coronavirus than other countries.

16% said they think the US is somewhat better at containing coronavirus than other countries.

0% said they think the US is containing coronavirus about the same as other countries.

26% said they think the US is somewhat worse at containing coronavirus than other countries.

20% said they think the US is much worse at containing coronavirus than other countries.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the US especially hard — it has the highest number of reported fatalities from the virus in the world. As of Monday afternoon, there were over 572,000 reported cases of the virus in the US, and more than 23,000 confirmed deaths.

The US government has been widely criticized over its handling of the pandemic, particularly in terms of its struggles to set up a robust system of testing for it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out faulty testing kits for coronavirus in February, and the US has been behind the curve ever since. Testing capacity has improved, but the US still does not have a comprehensive picture of the scale of the outbreak within its borders.

Comparatively, South Korea, which saw its first reported case of coronavirus the same day as the US in January, set up a strong testing system early on and has seen far fewer confirmed cases of the virus (10,537) and reported deaths (217). While the US was initially performing fewer than 100 tests daily on average, South Korea and other countries were conducting tens of thousands of tests per day.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has faced broad criticism over his approach to the pandemic, particularly given he downplayed the threat of the virus for weeks.

SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weigh its sample based on race or income. A total of 1,107 respondents were collected on April 10-11 with a margin of error plus or minus 3 percentage points and a 95% confidence level.


Read the original article on Business Insider

Coronavirus Virus did NOT originate in Wuhan seafood market, claims CHINESE study

CORONAVIRUS cases now number more than 245,967 

the virus continuing to spread around the world. Now a shocking study suggests novel coronavirus did not originate in Wuhan seafood market as first thought.

By TOM FISH PUBLISHED Fri, Mar 20, 2020

Coronavirus has claimed the lives of at least 10,748 victims, leading scientist to race to learn about the source of the deadly disease. Now a new study by a team of Chinese scientists indicates coronavirus did not actually originate at a seafood market in the central China city of Wuhan as widely reported.

Consequently the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was instead imported from elsewhere, researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Institute for Brain Research have reported.

The crowded market then boosted SARS-CoV-2 circulation and spread it to the whole city in early December 2019

Dr Yu Wenbin


The team, led by Dr Yu Wenbin, sequenced the genomic data of 93 SARS-CoV-2 samples provided by 12 countries in an attempt to hunt the source of the infection and understand how it spreads.

They discovered while the virus had spread rapidly within the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, there had also been had two major population expansions on December 8 and January 6.

According to the study, published on the institute’s website late last week, analysis indicates the coronavirus was actually introduced from outside the market.


READ NOW: Flood warning: Nearly HALF of UK homes don’t know they live in flood [NEWS]

Coronavirus: Chinese scientists now believe coronavirus didn't originate at a Wuhan seafood market (Image: Getty)


Coronavirus news: Cases of coronavirus now number more than 79,800 (Image: Express)


The authors wrote: “The crowded market then boosted SARS-CoV-2 circulation and spread it to the whole city in early December 2019.”

Earlier studies by Chinese health authorities and the World Health Organisation (WHO) claimed the first known patient showed symptoms on December 8.

They also reported most of the subsequent cases had links to the Huanan seafood market, which was closed on January 1.

The researchers now believe it was possible the virus began spreading from person to person as early as late November, following analysis of genome data.

They wrote: “The study concerning whether Huanan market is the only birthplace of SARS-CoV-2 is of great significance for finding its source and determining the intermediate host, so as to control the epidemic and prevent it from spreading again.”

The scientists added although China’s National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 2 emergency warning about the new coronavirus on January 6, the information was not widely shared.

The authors wrote: “If the warning had attracted more attention, the number of cases both nationally and globally in mid-to-late January would have been reduced.

Meanwhile, Xiang Nijuan, a researcher at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, yesterday warned in an interview with state broadcaster CCTV people infected with the new coronavirus were contagious two days before they showed any symptoms.

Coronavirus news: The virus has claimed the lives of at least 2,468 victims (Image: Express)

Coronavirus news: There have been worrying coronavirus developments in South Korea, Italy and Iran (Image: Express)


Coronavirus news: The virus began spreading from person to person as early as late November last year (Image: Express)

He said anyone who had been in close contact with someone within 48 hours of them being confirmed as infected should put themselves in isolation for a fortnight.

The development coincided with worrying coronavirus developments in South Korea, Italy and Iran.

South Korea has raised its coronavirus alert to the “highest level” as confirmed case numbers keep rising.

President Moon Jae-in said the country faced “a grave turning point”, and the next few days would be crucial in the battle to contain the outbreak.

Six people have died from the virus in South Korea and more than 600 have been infected.

Meanwhile, Italy and Iran have announced steps to try to contain worrying outbreaks of the virus.

Shocking Study Theorizes Compelling Mutated Coronavirus Origins

New studies suggest that while some coronavirus cases emerged from the wet market, earlier cases likely emerged from somewhere else.

 

Joseph Young @iamjosephyoung

The study also conclusively states the COVID-19 strain 

was not engineered in a laboratory. | 

Source: Handout / Daegu Metropolitan City Namgu / AFP)

A biotech firm’s study suggests that coronavirus may have mutated within the human body, then spread to other humans.
It also suggests there is not enough data to conclusively state the virus came from bats and pangolins.
Recent studies show that scientists are still in the process of understanding the real origin of the virus.

Many scientists have pointed towards the Wuhan seafood market as the origin of the Coronavirus (CODIV-19) outbreak in early 2020. New studies and findings suggest that while some cases emerged from the wet market, earlier cases likely emerged from somewhere else.

A study from The Scripps Research Institute found two possible sources of coronavirus, which may explain the emergence of the initial wave of COVID-19 cases in November 2019, prior to the cluster of cases that emerged in the Wuhan seafood market.Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the COVID-19 coronavirus first emerged last year, partly reopened on March 28 after more than two months of near total isolation for its population of 11 million. | Source: NOEL CELIS / AFP

The researchers identified the two origins to be: natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer and natural selection in humans following zoonotic (animal-to-human) transfer.
Coronavirus Could Have Mutated Within The Human Body

The first origin—mutation in an animal host—would mean that a form of virus mutated within wild animals in the likes of bats and pangolins before spreading to humans.


In this scenario, humans got in direct contact with animals that had mutated viruses within them, causing the first animal to human transmission to occur.

Researchers say that it is difficult to conclusively state that the Wuhan wet market is the origin of coronavirus because of the undersampled nature of studies that made the link between the market and the virus outbreak.

Prior to the batch of cases that were reported from the Wuhan seafood market, individuals reported coronavirus symptoms by as early as November 2019, which indicates that the coronavirus outbreak began before the wet market reported new cases.

The study read:

Neither the bat betacoronaviruses nor the pangolin betacoronaviruses sampled thus far have polybasic cleavage sites. Although no animal coronavirus has been identified that is sufficiently similar to have served as the direct progenitor of SARS-CoV-2, the diversity of coronaviruses in bats and other species is massively undersampled.

While the focus of the studies focused on the structure of the virus contained in bats, specifically Chinese Horseshoe bats, the study also emphasized that Malayan pangolins exhibit similarities to coronavirus.

The researchers explained:
Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) illegally imported into Guangdong province contain coronaviruses similar to SARSCoV-221. Although the RaTG13 bat virus remains the closest to SARS-CoV-2 across the genome , some pangolin coronaviruses exhibit strong similarity to SARS-CoV-2 in the RBD, including all six key RBD residues.Breakdown of how potential sources of coronavirus bound with the human body (source: The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2)

The second scenario—natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer—suggests that a lesser form of coronavirus may have transferred from a bat or a pangolin to a human body, and the virus mutated within humans afterward.

As the virus started to mutate, it also began to transmit from humans to humans, causing the outbreak to start.

Recent research papers show that scientists are still discovering new data about coronavirus, and as time passes, scientists are becoming increasingly skeptical towards the initial understanding of the origin of the virus.
No Laboratory Manipulation, Though

The study eliminates the popular theory that the coronavirus emerged from a virus spill at the Wuhan laboratory. It said that the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of coronavirus is uniquely “optimized for binding to human ACE2,” which makes it highly unlikely for it to be a case of laboratory manipulation.

The study added:


Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.

It essentially makes the claim that the speed of the spread of coronavirus and its effectiveness in penetrating into the human body is far greater than any prediction that was made in the past.


This article was edited by Samburaj Das.

Now Watch: CCN TV




Joseph Young @iamjosephyoung

Financial analyst based in Seoul, South Korea. Contributing regularly to CCN and Forbes. I have covered the stock market and bitcoin since 2013.

Coronavirus: Domestic livestock strains are commonplace

by Texas A&M University

Strains of coronavirus can occur annually in domestic cattle herds. Credit: Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Kay Ledbetter

Many people are hearing about coronavirus for the first time as COVID-19 affecting humans causes concern all across the world. But coronaviruses are not new to livestock and poultry producers, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife veterinary epidemiologist.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, common human coronaviruses usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold. Most people get infected with one or more of these viruses at some point in their lives.

But the CDC is now responding to an outbreak of respiratory disease caused by a novel or new coronavirus that was first detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.

"Coronavirus is a common virus in livestock herds and poultry flocks seen routinely worldwide," said Heather Simmons, DVM, Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases, IIAD, associate director as well as Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service's associate department head and extension program leader for Veterinary Medical Extension. IIAD is a member of the Texas A&M University System and Texas A&M AgriLife Research.

Wildlife in China may be human strain carriers

"In wildlife, bats are known to carry over 100 different strains of coronavirus, and wild civets are the source of the coronavirus that causes SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), first reported in China in 2002-2003," Simmons said. "Although our understanding is still limited, wild pangolins (a scaly anteater) sold at live markets may be associated with the recently reported coronavirus outbreak in China."

Bats, civets and pangolins are all commonly sold at live markets in China, she said. Coronaviruses from wildlife are dangerous since they have the potential to mutate, adapt and spill over to new species, including humans.

"That is the concern now, this new strain of coronavirus has emerged to cause disease in humans," Simmons said. "It is important to create an understanding of the difference between coronaviruses occurring in domestic livestock and poultry compared to coronaviruses that spill over from wildlife to humans."

Coronavirus in domestic livestock doesn't jump to humans

Simmons said, to date, the coronaviruses in livestock are not considered reportable diseases because their main effect is as an economic burden to livestock producers.

They are known to occur worldwide annually, with some of the most common coronaviruses found in production animals to include the scours and winter dysentery in beef and dairy cattle, porcine respiratory coronavirus in swine and avian infectious bronchitis in poultry.

The World Health Organization has reported that while another coronavirus, MERS-CoV, is known to be transmitted from dromedary camels to humans, other coronaviruses circulating in domestic animals have not yet infected humans.

"That's what is very important to understand at this time," Simmons said. "We have been dealing with these diseases for a long time but as of yet, we have not seen cases worldwide transmitted from livestock to humans or vice versa."

What does coronavirus look like in livestock?

While coronaviruses have a high morbidity, or rate of illness, in livestock and poultry they are generally considered to have low mortality, rate of death, Simmons said. Coronaviruses will affect either the respiratory system or the gastrointestinal system, depending on the species and the age of the animal.

Coronavirus in cattle

In calves, diarrhea commonly occurs in animals under three weeks of age due to a lack of obtaining antibodies when the calf does not get enough colostrum from the mother in order to build up immunity. Clinical signs include severe dehydration and diarrhea. The severity of the clinical signs depends on the age of the calf and their immune status. This is often seen by producers in the winter months as the virus is more stable in cold weather. The second clinical syndrome, winter dysentery is found in adult cattle. Clinical signs include bloody diarrhea with decreased mild production, loss of appetite with some respiratory signs. Bovine coronaviruses can also cause mild respiratory disease or pneumonia in calves up to six months. The virus is shed in the environment through nasal secretions and through feces.

Coronavirus in swine

There are multiple coronaviruses that affect swine. Like cattle, they affect the respiratory or gastrointestinal tract. In sows and piglets, porcine respiratory coronavirus usually presents with no clinical signs. If clinical signs do occur, it may be a transient cough within the herd and spread of this disease occurs through aerosolized methods.

Coronavirus in poultry

Infectious bronchitis virus, or IBV, is a rapidly spreading respiratory disease in young chicks. Clinical signs in laying hens include reduced production, eggshell abnormalities and decreased internal egg quality.

How to treat

Livestock producers should consult with a veterinarian for treatment, Simmons said. Treatment in livestock herds and poultry flocks typically includes supportive therapy of fluids. Antibiotics are not indicated for viral infections but may be used if a secondary bacterial infection occurs.

More information can be found through the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Disaster Education Network.

Are you in danger of catching the coronavirus? 5 questions answered

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Provided by Texas A&M University 

Coronavirus myths, debunked: A cattle vaccine, bioweapons and a $3,000 test

Grace Hauck, USA TODAY•March 13, 2020

We've all heard some outlandish rumors about the new coronavirus.

Fake stories circulated on WhatsApp have falsely stated that the virus has killed millions of people worldwide. Social media posts have claimed that drinking garlic water cures the deadly disease. Conspiracy theories that the virus is a bioweapon engineered in a Chinese lab have been voiced by TV pundits and even an American lawmaker.

There's a lot of misinformation out there, and it's transmitting faster than the virus itself. We're setting the record straight.

A cattle virus we've known about for years is the real cause of coronavirus

Absolutely not. Users on Facebook are spreading a photo of a vaccine used on cattle to falsely imply that the new coronavirus infecting humans globally has been known about "for years." That suggestion is false.

When we say "the coronavirus," we're referring to a new strain of virus that emerged from a family of coronaviruses. Coronaviruses can infect animals and people, and we've known about other coronaviruses for years. The novel coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, was first publicly reported in late 2019.

The vaccine pictured is used to combat bovine coronavirus, which is a virus that infects cattle. ScourGuard 4K is a vaccine for "pregnant cows and heifers" to help prevent diarrhea in their calves. The bovine coronavirus did not cause the current outbreak in humans.

– Angelo Fichera, FactCheck.org

The coronavirus will be gone by AprilWe've received many questions from you about whether the virus will be gone by spring as the weather gets warmer, but health officials say that's "premature" thinking.

In a press briefing last month, Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, cast doubt on this rumor. "I’m happy to hope that it goes down as the weather warms up, but I think it’s premature to assume that, and we’re certainly not using that to sit back and expect it to go away," Messonnier said.

Like the common cold and flu, COVID-19 spreads through respiratory droplets, and most viral respiratory diseases have seasons. They spread more during the colder months, but you can still get sick from them during the warmer months, too.
The coronavirus comes from Corona beer

Funny, but no. In January, the alcoholic beverage from Mexico showed a surge in Google searches, along with the term "corona beer virus" and "beer virus."

In the United States, Google Trends calculated that 57% of the people that searched one of those terms searched for "beer virus," and the remaining 43% searched for "corona beer virus." States like Hawaii, New Mexico and Kansas searched "beer virus" more, whereas states like South Carolina, Colorado and Arizona searched "corona beer virus" more.

– Adrianna Rodriguez

The virus escaped from a Chinese lab

Once again, no, the new coronavirus is not a bioweapon engineered by scientists in China. Early last month, bloggers began to circulate a theory on social media and other websites that the virus was man-made. Health officials debunked the claim, but Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., repeated the theory at least three times on Fox News. Right wing media outlets defended Cotton's comments.

Opinion: How Fox News and other right-wing media endanger our health

Scientists are still researching how COVID-19 emerged but say it is not man-made. The first infection, reported in December 2019, was linked to a market in Wuhan, China. It's still unclear how transmission unfolded, but there are several theories. Some researchers believe that someone bought contaminated meat at the market, ate it, got sick and infected others. Others say the virus originated in bats, spread to an intermediary animal and then to humans.

A coronavirus test costs $3,000

Nope. Actually, it's free. A claim that it costs patients in the U.S. more than $3,000 to test for COVID-19 originated on Twitter, where it amassed more than 250,000 likes and retweets. It became a meme that spread on Facebook.

The CDC, U.S. public health labs and private companies are running tests. As of March 11, 81 state and local public health laboratories in 50 states and the District of Columbia have successfully verified COVID-19 diagnostic tests and are offering testing, according to the CDC.

– Saranac Hale Spencer, FactCheck.org

You should start wearing a face mask

No, you should only wear a face mask if you are sick or if a doctor recommends it, according to the CDC. The best way to prevent infection is to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water, avoid close contact with people who are sick, cover your cough or sneeze, clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces, and avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

First defense against COVID-19: 20 seconds - yes, a full 20 - of proper hand-washing

Gouge much? Coronavirus price hikes are making everyone mad

Lysol 'knew' of the virus before the outbreak happened

Yes, Lysol products have labels that say they disinfect against "human coronavirus." But those labels aren't referring to the new coronavirus, in particular.

The labels are referring to coronavirus, in general, which is a broader family of viruses. The COVID-19 virus is one of many in that family. Certain Lysol products have demonstrated effectiveness against coronaviruses on hard, non-porous surfaces, according to the company's website.

Pope Francis has the coronavirus

A story circulating on social media falsely claims that the Vatican has confirmed that the pope and two of his aides tested positive for the virus. Several Italian news outlets also reported that the Pope was tested for the virus.

The Vatican has not verified any of these claims, nor has it disclosed whether or not the pope was tested for the coronavirus. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a statement saying, "The cold the Holy Father was diagnosed with recently is running its course, with no symptoms related to other pathologies."

– Isabella Fertel, FactCheck.org

The CDC recommends shaving beards to protect against the virus

This 2017 image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health shows the kinds of facial hairstyles which will work with a tight-sealing respirator.

Social media users sharing a CDC infographic showing various styles of facial hair have suggested that the agency is instructing people to shave beards and mustaches to prevent the coronavirus. To beard or not to beard?

The infographic actually has nothing to do with the new virus. The CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health first published the image in 2017 to show workers what types of facial hairstyles work with a tight-sealing respirator. Facial hair that lies along the sealing area of a respirator, such as beards, sideburns or some mustaches, interferes with respirators that rely on a tight facepiece seal to achieve maximum protection, according to the CDC.

AND THOSE INCLUDE THE N95 RESPIRATOR

The flu vaccine prevents coronavirus

While you should definitely get your flu vaccine, it won't protect you from the new coronavirus. Instead, take the common sense health precautions outlined above.

Why get the flu vaccine? In the U.S., influenza has caused 12,000 to 61,000 deaths annually since 2010, according to the CDC. So far this season, there have been at least 32 million flu illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations and 18,000 deaths from flu.
African Americans can't get the coronavirus

Rumors about African Americans having a special immunity or resistance to COVID-19 have circulated on social media, and they can be traced to misleading online accounts of the recovery of a young black man from Cameroon who got the virus while studying in China.

The debunked claim even turned up on "Saturday Night Live" when cast member Chris Redd repeated it at the end of his "Weekend Update" segment. After finishing a comedy bit about COVID-19 stealing the spotlight from Black History Month, Redd yelled over the applause, "Black people can't get the coronavirus!"

The CDC rejects this rumor in no uncertain terms. "Diseases can make anyone sick regardless of their race or ethnicity," the CDC writes on its website. "People of Asian descent, including Chinese Americans, are not more likely to get COVID-19 than any other American. Help stop fear by letting people know that being of Asian descent does not increase the chance of getting or spreading COVID-19."

– Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus facts, debunking myths: China bioweapon, seasonal, cattle

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Dubious coconut and kale cures, rip-off masks and malicious emails. 
Beware of these coronavirus scams.


Published: March 10, 2020 By Lina Saigol

Eating Kale and Lemon are some of the fake coronavirus cures being touted by scammers

Coconut water and kale cures, rip-off surgical masks and suspicious emails.

These are some of the scams and hoaxes duping panicked consumers as they race to protect themselves from fears of a looming global health crisis.

Two British companies were last week banned from using “misleading, irresponsible and scaremongering” adverts seen via the Taboola network and for face masks which made false claims about the product’s ability to prevent the spread of the virus.

The industry watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that one of the ads from Novads OU for its Oxybreath Pro masks was likely to cause fear “without justifiable reason” and highlighted the use of “alarmist language,” such as referring to the spread of the virus as being “barely controllable” and “this terrifying time.”

Facebook FB, +10.23% and Amazon have also clamped down on false advertising and price gouging.

Rob Leathern, director of product management of Facebook, tweeted on March 7: “We’re monitoring COVID19 closely and will make necessary updates to our policies if we see people trying to exploit this public health emergency. We’ll start rolling out this change in the days ahead.”

Amazon AMZN, +6.46% said it had pulled more than 1 million products for price gouging or falsely advertising effectiveness against the coronavirus

Consumers are also being warned to watch-out for coranvirus-themed emails being sent to businesses which have been infected with malaware.

Cyber-criminals are also sending phishing emails and malware deployment schemes in a bid to tap into people’s desperation for information about the virus.

There have been 4,000 coronavirus-related domains, which contain words like “corona” or “covid,” have been registered since the beginning of 2020, according to cybersecurity firm Check Point. Of those, 3% were considered malicious and 5% were deemed suspicious. That means that there were about 320 sketchy websites lurking online, ready to take advantage of people’s fears.

“Concerns about COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, seem to have become as contagious as the virus itself,” Check Point noted in its report, adding that cyber-criminals are “quick to take advantage of these concerns for their own gain.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) put out a statement this week warning consumers that some criminals are “disguising themselves as WHO to steal money or sensitive information.”

Meanwhile the major tech groups are also clamping down on profiteers.

“We’re banning ads and commerce listings selling medical face masks. We’re monitoring COVID19 closely and will make necessary updates to our policies if we see people trying to exploit this public health emergency,” Rob Leathern, director of product management, tweeted on March 7.

He added: “We are rolling this out in the coming days, and anticipate profiteers will evolve their approach as we enforce on these ads.”

Amazon last week said it had pulled more than 1 million products for price gouging or falsely advertising effectiveness against the coronavirus. It said third-party sellers must follow its Fair Pricing Policy, which states companies can’t set a price “significantly higher” then seen in other places or sell an item that “misleads customers.”

The proliferation of scams appears particularly acute in mainland China.

Shanghai police last week arrested three suspects for a fraud case related to the COVID-19 outbreak that involves over 13 million yuan (1.86 million U.S. dollars). The suspects sold nearly 1,000 bottles of disinfectants which they marketed as effective in preventing virus and earned more than 70,000 yuan of illegal profits, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

In Malaysia, unsubstantiated claims that kale, coconuts and lemon could be ward of the virus prompted panic buying of the items after a self-proclaimed wellness coach said that eating them would prevent infection.

Malaysian health minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad urged Malaysians concerned about the Wuhan virus to put their trust in science and medicine instead of quackery, according to a report in the Malay Mail.

JIM BAKKER RELIGIOUS FAKIR IS BAAAACK
Televangelist ordered by New York attorney general to stop promoting ‘cure’ for coronavirus

SNAKE OIL SALESMAN

Danielle Zoellner, The Independent•March 8, 2020

Wikimedia Commons

A Christian televangelist has been ordered by New York's attorney general to stop promoting a "cure" for the coronavirus to the public.

The cease-and-desist letter was sent to the Jim Bakker Show after it had naturopathic doctor Sherrill Sellman as a guest on 12 February.

During the show, the doctor was asked if her $125 "Silver Solution" sold online would work against the coronavirus.

"Let's say it hasn't been tested on this strain of the coronavirus," Ms Sellman said, "but it's been tested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours."

Mr Bakker went on to promote the Silver Solution on his own website.

Lisa Landau, the chief of the state Attorney General's Health Care Bureau, sent the cease-and-desist letter on 3 March, giving Mr Bakker 10 days to comply or potentially face a $5,000 fine per violation.

"Your show's segment may mislead consumers as to the effectiveness of the Silver Solution product in protecting against the current outbreak," Ms Landau wrote.

"Therefore, any representation on the Jim Bakker Show that its Silver Solution products are effective at combating and/or treating the 2019 novel coronavirus violates New York law," she added.

The World Health Organisation says there is no FDA-approved drug or vaccine currently on the market to help treat or prevent the coronavirus for patients. Researchers are working on a vaccine, but it isn't anticipated for public use for another 18 months to two years at the earliest.

In a statement, Attorney General Letitia James warned the public against believing advertising for products that claim they provide protection against the virus.

"As we experience more cases of coronavirus, it is imperative that New Yorkers remain calm, but stay vigilant," she said.

"In addition to being mindful about our health, we must also beware of unscrupulous actors who attempt to take advantage of this fear and anxiety to scam or deceive consumers. I encourage anyone who believes they are the victim of a scam or predatory action to contact my office and file a complaint," she added.

The televangelist was previously convicted of fraud and served five years in federal prison after his illicit fundraising activities connected with his show Praise The Lord Club.

New York cracking down on false advertising relating to the coronavirus comes after the state declared a state of emergency on Saturday. Positive cases of the coronavirus continue to rise, and Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed on Sunday there were 105 cases in the state.

Televangelist Jim Bakker Ordered By Attorney General To Stop Selling Fake Cure For Coronavirus

Whatever televangelist Jim Bakker is selling, the New York Attorney General ain’t buying.

Lisa Landau, Chief of the Health Care Bureau, gave The Jim Bakker Show 10 days to comply with a cease-and-desist letter that tells him to stop touting an alleged cure for the coronavirus. The letter was sent Thursday to Bakker’s office and cited a Feb. 12 episode of his show that claimed a Silver Solution sold on his website would be a preventative against the coronavirus.

John Oliver covered the claims on his HBO Last Week Tonight show (see video below at the 17-minute mark).

Bakker was previously convicted of fraud and served time in federal prison related to his activities connected to his popular Praise The Lord (PTL) Club show, a religious version of mainstream talk shows featuring Jim and wife Tammy Faye Bakker. The couple later divorced in 1992 in the wake of a scandal that saw Bakker pay hush money to cover up an affair with church secretary Jessica Hahn. But at one point in the 1980s, he was arguably the most prominent televangelist in America.

He now has a new show and a new wife.

On the Feb. 12 show in question, Bakker asked guest Sherill Sellman if the solution she was talking about would work against the coronavirus.

“Let’s say it hasn’t been tested on this strain of the coronavirus, but it’s been rested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours,” she replied.

“The World Heath Organization (‘WHO’) has noted that there is no specific medicine to prevent or treat this disease,” Landau said in her letter to Bakker. “Therefore, any representation on the Jim Bakker Show that its Silver Solution products are effective at combating and/or treating the 2019 novel coronavirus violates New York law.”

Landau also said a disclaimer had to be listed on the website denying any claims on its efficacy. “These statement have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease,” the disclaimer reads.

The Silver Solution products were on sale for more than $125.

Watch a segment from Bakker’s new show above. The John Oliver show that revealed the scandal is below.

Here's our piece from last night on coronavirus:https://t.co/gpIkmJy5Uz

— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) March 2, 2020

People of color account for majority of coronavirus infections, new CDC study says

Alexander Nazaryan National Correspondent,Yahoo News•June 16, 2020

WASHINGTON — African-Americans and Latinos are vastly overrepresented when it comes to coronavirus infections, according to an analysis released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday morning.

The findings provide additional confirmation that, as the CDC’s own report says, black and brown communities have been “disproportionately affected” by the pandemic. African-Americans account for only 13.4 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Census Bureau, but the CDC says they accounted for 22 percent of coronavirus infections studied in the new analysis. (A little more than half of all coronavirus cases in the U.S. do not include racial data, making a complete picture of the pandemic’s racial outcomes effectively impossible.)

At a mobile COVID-19 testing station in Compton, Calif. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Latinos represent 18.3 percent of the population, according to the last census of the American population, conducted a decade ago. But the CDC found that they suffered 33 percent of the coronavirus infections in the cohort covered by the study.

Native Americans account for 1.3 percent of infections across the nation, which is just slightly more than their share of the general population (1.2 percent). The coronavirus has affected the Navajo Nation, a reservation across three Southwestern states, with exceptional force.

White Americans accounted for 36 percent of coronavirus infections, while they make up 76.5 percent of the nation’s population. Asian-Americans, people of Hawaiian-Pacific Islander background and people who identified as biracial or multiracial represented much smaller shares of the infected population.

The new data, the first from the federal government to fully describe the pandemic’s racial impact, comes amid continuing protests against police killings of black men. Those protests have highlighted broader inequalities in American society, including those pertaining to how widely different communities can access proper health care.

“The disproportionate impact that COVID-19 has had on people of color is staggering,” Sen. Kamala Harris, D.-Calif., told Yahoo News. Harris is the author of the COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force Act, which would focus federal attention on how race has factored into the nation’s response to the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 120,000 Americans.

Harris explained that poor health outcomes for people of color were “due in large part to disparities in access to health care, systemic barriers to affordable housing, and environmental injustice that existed long before the pandemic. The federal government must be proactive in righting these historical wrongs,” added the junior senator from California, who is also a potential Democratic vice presidential nominee.

Sen. Kamala Harris. (Carolyn Kaster/AP via Getty Images)

Former Vice President Joe Biden, whose prospects during the Democratic primary were bolstered by African-Americans in South Carolina and other states, has spoken in recent weeks more boldly than he has before on issues of racial justice. Writing recently on Medium, Biden said “structural racism” was to blame for the worse health outcomes experienced by people of color in the coronavirus pandemic. He deemed the situation “unconscionable” and, like Harris, called for better data to understand the scope of the problem.

Though health researchers and journalistic outlets have tried to address the lack of data, the CDC’s case surveillance study appears to be the most complete effort to address that shortfall. The report also discusses comorbidities that exacerbate the effect of the coronavirus, such as lung disease and diabetes. It also analyzes coronavirus infections by gender and age.

This trove of new information, including the racial breakdown, comes in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, commonly used to address and bring attention to emerging matters of public health concern. The report released on Monday was titled “Coronavirus Disease 2019 Case Surveillance — United States, January 22–May 30, 2020.” The survey was conducted by Erin Stokes, a surveillance epidemiologist at the Atlanta-based public health agency.

Stokes and her co-author surveyed the 599,636 coronavirus cases between January 22 and May 30 for which racial data was available. Those cases represent only 45 percent of all coronavirus cases, as discrepancies in reporting mean that racial data were not always disclosed by laboratories or public health offices.

“There are a number of challenges that come up with capturing race and ethnicity data,” Stokes explained to Yahoo News in a telephone interview following her report’s publication. Some people are reluctant to provide such information, and some hospitals and clinics simply may not report it. She did note that she was seeing “really big improvements” in the breadth of data being shared with the CDC.

Among the provisions in the CARES Act, which provided a $2 trillion stimulus fund for small businesses, corporations and people who met income requirements, was a stipulation that laboratories conducting coronavirus tests report ethnic, racial and other data to the federal government. But a recent guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services says that such reporting does not have to begin until Aug. 1.

Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)
Testifying on Capitol Hill last week, the White House’s coronavirus testing czar, Adm. Brett Giroir, acknowledged the existence of racial disparities. He also said that trying to address those disparities without a complete picture of who was getting coronavirus tests was tantamount to “flying blind.”

“We can’t develop a national strategy to reach the underserved, or know how well we’re doing, till we have the data that shows us whether we’re reaching them or not,” Giroir said.

A spokesperson for the federal health department told Yahoo News that the agency has “made sure that the majority of federally associated community-based COVID-19 testing sites are located in sites of high social vulnerabilities, as well as relied on increasing testing at federally qualified health centers,” which the spokesperson said treat a total of 30 million people annually.

The spokesperson pointed out that the Office of Minority Health at the Department of Health and Human Service was investing $40 million to create a “strategic network of national, state, territorial, tribal and local organizations to deliver important COVID-19-related information to racial and ethnic minority, rural and socially vulnerable communities hardest hit by the pandemic.”

Critics say that such efforts should have been undertaken months if not years ago. In another congressional hearing, this one conducted before the House Ways and Means Committee last month, antiracism scholar Ibram X. Kendi described a “racial pandemic” in which the devastation of the coronavirus was compounded by racial prejudice and governmental indifference to communities of color.

Kendi has worked with the COVID Tracking Project, a data-collection initiative started by the Atlantic magazine, to create the COVID Racial Data Tracker. According to the data displayed there, the coronavirus has killed 24,427 people of African-American background.

The new CDC case surveillance data seems to confirm what was apparent to anyone who has watched the havoc wreaked by the coronavirus in African-American communities like the seventh and eighth wards of Washington, D.C., as well as the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York City. The coronavirus has also ravaged the Latino population in Chicago, as well as meatpacking plants across the Midwest, where many immigrants from Latin America work.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a Democrat who represents a heavily Latino section of upper Manhattan, told Yahoo News that “metabolic health disparities in the Hispanic community” only worsened the impact of the coronavirus. He said ailments like diabetes and asthma are especially prevalent in his district, which also includes parts of the Bronx.

Espaillat, a leader in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, explained that the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies have made some of his constituents hesitant to cooperate with public health authorities because of deportation fears. He said that was especially the case with contact tracing, in which “disease detectives” try to figure out how a pathogen is spreading through a community. Epidemiologists believe contact tracing is critical to breaking the chain of disease transmission.

“I know many members of the Hispanic community in my district are in mixed-status multigenerational households,” Espaillat told Yahoo News. People living in such arrangements “may be reticent to share information with a public health worker or volunteer who in absolute earnest wants to help. It is incumbent on myself and other Hispanic leaders to communicate that these tracing efforts are part of a larger public health intervention and assuage the fears that this information may be used in some way to harm or break up a family.”

For many elected officials in Washington who represent communities of color, the new CDC study only confirms what they have known for months. Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, told Yahoo News that, in her view, it was “absolutely shameful” that black and brown communities were bearing the brunt of the pandemic. She added that the CDC’s statistics put “health disparities in this country on full display.”

Bass called for “concentrated testing in communities that are being disproportionately impacted by this pandemic.”

Some communities have decided not to wait for the federal government’s help. African-American churches in Dallas set up test sites of their own, and the Bilingual Christian Church in Baltimore, which caters to a Latino population, offered coronavirus testing earlier this week. Echoing the concerns voiced by Espaillat, the church’s pastor promised that nobody who came in for a coronavirus test would be reported to immigration authorities.

U.S.

CDC tested only 77 people this week; coronavirus testing slow around the nation

Alexander Nazaryan

National Correspondent

,

Yahoo News•March 12, 2020

1:15

1:51

Trump announces that U.S. will suspend all travel from Europe, excluding U.K.

 These restrictions will also not apply to the United Kingdom. 

WASHINGTON — Despite insistent promises from the Trump administration, coronavirus testing in the United States appears to be proceeding with a marked lack of urgency. An examination of state and federal records by Yahoo News finds that American states are, on average, testing fewer than 100 people per day — while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had tested fewer than 100 people total in the first two days of this week.

Meanwhile, a single private lab is performing tests, according to a trade group representing such facilities. The administration has repeatedly said that private enterprise would play a critical role in making sure that all Americans who need a coronavirus test receive one.

U.S. officials on Tuesday were faced with an onslaught of questions from members of Congress, amid reports of South Korea’s drive-through coronavirus testing locations.

“This is not a problem we can test our way out of,” said Stephen Redd, MD, head of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, in testimony on Wednesday. It was an admission that, in a nation of 320 million, testing every person will be impossible. 

Redd also revealed in his testimony that the total number of people tested for the coronavirus by the CDC was 1,784. That means that, as of Wednesday morning, the CDC had tested only 77 people for the coronavirus since Sunday. According to a CDC spokesman, the number that had been tested as of Sunday was 1,707.

A medical technologist tests a respiratory panel at Northwell Health Labs in Lake Success, N.Y., where the same test will be used on COVID-19. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Speaking at a different hearing on Wednesday, CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, said public health labs — that is, labs run by individual states — were ready to “test up to 75,000 people,” presumably because they had received test kits from the CDC.

Redfield also said on Wednesday morning that 75 public labs were ready to perform tests across the United States. In fact, the number is even higher — 81, according to Michelle Forman, a spokesperson for the Association of Public Health Laboratories. Those labs each have the capacity to perform 100 tests per day.

So far, however, only 7,617 people have been tested in state laboratories, according to the COVID Tracking Project, a database that updates the test statistics from states and the federal government. (Some of those statistics don’t include negative tests, which means the number tested could be higher.) On Tuesday, the 50 states cumulatively had tested only 2,728 people, meaning an average of 55 people tested per state.

Administration officials have repeatedly said that private industry would step in and meet the deficit. But it was because of an administration directive that private laboratories could not prepare for a coronavirus surge until earlier this month. “We just haven’t been getting information about how to get those kits,” Mark Birenbaum of the National Independent Laboratory Association told Yahoo News last week. 

CDC Director Robert Redfield at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

As a result, Birenbaum said in a subsequent conversation, only a single private lab in the United States is performing coronavirus tests. He said he was aware of “one that will begin testing on March 16, and seven to 10 that are still setting up.” He later added that the total number of labs preparing to test for the coronavirus was actually 15.

More testing will inevitably reveal more coronavirus cases. The United States now has 1,300 cases, with 38 deaths. Trump admitted last Friday that he was hesitant to have coronavirus-infected passengers disembark the Grand Princess cruise ship on U.S. shores because, as he explained, “I like the numbers being where they are.”

The numbers where they are as of today are not especially troubling, but likely not because the coronavirus has failed to take hold. “Low case counts so far may reflect not an absence of the pathogen but a woeful lack of testing,” explained former Department of Homeland Security official Juliette Kayyem in an article for the Atlantic. 

CDC tested only 77 people this week; coronavirus testing slow around America

WASHINGTON — Despite insistent promises from the Trump administration, coronavirus testing in the United States appears to be proceeding with a marked lack of urgency. An examination of state and federal records by Yahoo News finds that American states are, on average, testing fewer than 100 people per day — while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had tested fewer than 100 people total in the first two days of this week.

Meanwhile, a single private lab is performing tests, according to a trade group representing such facilities. The administration has repeatedly said that private enterprise would play a critical role in making sure that all Americans who need a coronavirus test receive one.

U.S. officials on Tuesday were faced with an onslaught of questions from members of Congress, amid reports of South Korea’s drive-through coronavirus testing locations.

“This is not a problem we can test our way out of,” said Stephen Redd, MD, head of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, in testimony on Wednesday. It was an admission that, in a nation of 320 million, testing every person will be impossible.

Redd also revealed in his testimony that the total number of people tested for the coronavirus by the CDC was 1,784. That means that, as of Wednesday morning, the CDC had tested only 77 people for the coronavirus since Sunday. According to a CDC spokesman, the number that had been tested as of Sunday was 1,707.
A medical technologist tests a respiratory panel at Northwell Health Labs in Lake Success, N.Y., where the same test will be used on COVID-19. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Speaking at a different hearing on Wednesday, CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, said public health labs — that is, labs run by individual states — were ready to “test up to 75,000 people,” presumably because they had received test kits from the CDC.

Redfield also said on Wednesday morning that 75 public labs were ready to perform tests across the United States. In fact, the number is even higher — 81, according to Michelle Forman, a spokesperson for the Association of Public Health Laboratories. Those labs each have the capacity to perform 100 tests per day.

So far, however, only 7,617 people have been tested in state laboratories, according to the COVID Tracking Project, a database that updates the test statistics from states and the federal government. (Some of those statistics don’t include negative tests, which means the number tested could be higher.) On Tuesday, the 50 states cumulatively had tested only 2,728 people, meaning an average of 55 people tested per state.

Administration officials have repeatedly said that private industry would step in and meet the deficit. But it was because of an administration directive that private laboratories could not prepare for a coronavirus surge until earlier this month. “We just haven’t been getting information about how to get those kits,” Mark Birenbaum of the National Independent Laboratory Association told Yahoo News last week.
CDC Director Robert Redfield at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

As a result, Birenbaum said in a subsequent conversation, only a single private lab in the United States is performing coronavirus tests. He said he was aware of “one that will begin testing on March 16, and seven to 10 that are still setting up.” He later added that the total number of labs preparing to test for the coronavirus was actually 15.

More testing will inevitably reveal more coronavirus cases. The United States now has 1,300 cases, with 38 deaths. Trump admitted last Friday that he was hesitant to have coronavirus-infected passengers disembark the Grand Princess cruise ship on U.S. shores because, as he explained, “I like the numbers being where they are.”

The numbers where they are as of today are not especially troubling, but likely not because the coronavirus has failed to take hold. “Low case counts so far may reflect not an absence of the pathogen but a woeful lack of testing,” explained former Department of Homeland Security official Juliette Kayyem in an article for the Atlantic.

That could lull Americans into a false sense of security about the severity of the disease, and the disruptions that the disease could cause. “If Americans conclude that life will continue mostly as normal,” Kayyem writes, “they may be wrong.”