By Maggie Fox @ CNN.com, May 27, 10:54 pm

Careful autopsies of 10 African-American victims of coronavirus show their lungs were clogged with blood clots, researchers reported Wednesday.

All 10 patients had underlying conditions that have been shown to worsen infection, including high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. But genetic factors could also be at play, the team at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine said.

The findings, published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine, may help explain why blacks are suffering so much more from Covid-19 in the US and in some other countries such as Britain, the researchers said.

"We found that the small vessels and capillaries in the lungs were obstructed by blood clots and associated hemorrhage that significantly contributed to decompensation and death in these patients," Dr. Richard Vander Heide, head of pathology at the medical school, said in a statement.

They also found blood markers called D-dimers, which are signs the body has been working to break down blood clots.

"I think obesity is important in our population," Vander Heide told CNN [....]

Helpful 1:53 minute video on ​Senate vs. House plans @ WSJ that I accessed without subscription

As the U.S. economy begins to reopen, Congress is grappling with millions of unemployed workers. WSJ's Gerald F. Seib looks at two approaches Congress has come up with to move workers back onto the payrolls. 

There goes a lot of my admiration for the NHS....

By Anthony Cuthbertson @ Independent.co.uk, May 26

The UK now has the highest rate of confirmed deaths from Covid-19 worldwide, averaging close to 5 in every million people per day.

Figures from the last seven days show that the average death rate in the UK is now more than that of France and Italy combined. The second highest death rate over the last seven days is in Sweden, where the government decided against imposing a lockdown to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

There were 118 deaths from coronavirus recorded on 25 May in the UK, bringing the total number of deaths to 36,793. Only the US has more confirmed deaths from the coronavirus, with a total of 99,805.

More than 500 in every million people in the UK have now died as a result of the pandemic.​

There have been no new deaths from coronavirus over the last week in New Zealand, where one of the quickest lockdowns was imposed.

Limited testing in countries like Brazil means the number of actual deaths caused by coronavirus is likely to be much higher than the official figure.

Since 20 May, the number of new deaths from coronavirus reported each day has fallen in both the UK and the US, as the impact of lockdowns and other containment measures begin to be realised. A similar trend can be seen with France and Italy, which were among the first countries in Europe to introduce lockdowns [....]

A COVID-19 Congressional Oversight Commission member sounds off on the real reasons that so little money has reached its intended recipients.

By Isaac Chotiner @ NewYorker.com, May 22

[....] I recently spoke by phone with Bharat Ramamurti, a lawyer and political adviser serving on the covid-19 Congressional Oversight Commission, which still does not have a chairperson, because Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell have not agreed on whom to appoint to the role. Ramamurti is also the managing director of the Corporate Power program at the Roosevelt Institute and a former economic adviser to Elizabeth Warren. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed why our economic system is best equipped to save bigger businesses, the real reasons that so little money has reached its intended recipients, and the next steps that Congress should be taking to help struggling workers [.....]

By Mariano Castillo @ CNN.com, May 25

Peru was one of the first nations in the Americas to take strict preventative coronavirus measures, like stay-at-home orders, curfews and border closings. So how did it become one of the hardest hit? As of Monday, Peru had more than 123,900 confirmed coronavirus cases and 3,600 deaths -- putting it second only to Brazil both in number of cases and deaths in Latin America.

The two countries had handled the epidemic entirely differently: While Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro downplayed the dangers posed by the coronavirus, Peru's President Martin Vizcarra declared on March 15 a nationwide state of emergency that included mandatory self-quarantine, and shuttered the country's borders.

But the virus surged all the same.

About 85% of Peru's ICU beds with ventilators are currently occupied, according to government figures, and overcrowding at hospitals is feared. "This situation is not just a health emergency, but a health catastrophe, defined as a situation where the pandemic has overtaken the response capacity of the health sector," Dr. Alfredo Celis of the Medical College of Peru told CNN en Español.

How did a country that responded assertively and seriously to the pandemic end up like this? [....]

The deep inequality in Peru is one reason, according to Dr. Elmer Huerta, a Peruvian doctor and contributor to CNN en Español. "What I have learned is that this virus lays bare the socio-economic conditions of a place," he said.  Many of Peru's poor have no choice but to venture outside their homes for work, food or even banking transactions. For example, only 49% of Peruvian households own a refrigerator or freezer (61% in urban areas), according to the country's 2017 Census. This translates to a need for many to visit markets daily for food because they can't stock up [....]

and I note the url to the story ends in "coronavirus-terrorism-nj."