Reports of strokes in the young and middle-aged — not just at Mount Sinai but in many other hospitals in communities hard hit by coronavirus— are the latest twist in our evolving understanding of covid-19. .. Once thought to be a pathogen that primarily attacks the lungs, it has turned out to be a much more formidable foe — impacting nearly every major organ system in the body.
On March 13, 2020, Louisiana’s Governor invoked emergency powers to announce that the state’s
presidential primary election, previously scheduled for April 4, would be postponed for more than two
months as part of the state’s response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Other
states soon began exploring similar changes, prompting election officials, candidates, and voters to
prepare for disruptions that could persist through November’s general election.
This Sidebar reviews the legal provisions that would constrain any efforts to delay or cancel federal
elections during a public health crisis or other national emergency. The first part reviews laws pertaining
to presidential elections, and the second part reviews laws relevant to congressional elections.
Singer, rapper and entrepreneur Pharrell has just bought a $30 million home in Miami, Gimme Shelter can reveal exclusively. “He had been looking for a while, but he made a move quickly because he wanted to be quarantined there,” a source tells us. The property, at 700 Casuarina Concourse in Coral Gables, is known as El Palmar. It was originally listed for $45 million in 2018 [....]
By The Editorial Board @ The Miami Herald, April 24
[....] 1 million coveted N95 face masks, the gold standard in protecting people who come in contact with the infected and that were destined for Miami-Dade County were “taken” by the federal government. Frank Rollason, Miami-Dade County’s head of emergency management, had another word for it, “hijacked” — “because that’s what happened.”
OUTRAGEOUS SEIZURE [....]
By Julie Pace & Hannah Fingerhut @ APNews.com, April 23
[....] few Americans regularly look to or trust Trump as a source of information on the pandemic, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Just 28% of Americans say they’re regularly getting information from Trump about the coronavirus and only 23% say they have high levels of trust in what the president is telling the public. Another 21% trust him a moderate amount.
Confidence in Trump is higher among his supporters, though only about half of Republicans say they have a lot of trust in Trump’s information on the pandemic — and 22% say they have little or no trust in what he says about the COVID-19 outbreak.
But even as many Republicans question Trump’s credibility during the pandemic, the overwhelming majority — 82% — say they still approve of how he’s doing. That’s helped keep the president’s overall approval rating steady at 42%, about where it’s been for the past few months.
Lynn Sanchez of Jacksonville, Texas, is among those who backs Trump despite reservations about his credibility. Sanchez, who identifies as a political independent, said she trusts “only a little” of what the president says about the crisis, but believes he’s “doing the best he can. He’s contradicted his own health experts a couple of times. I believe he gets carried away and doesn’t sit down and think things through,” said Sanchez, a 66-year-old retired truck stop manager [....]
to Track Temporal Trends in Small Business and Households During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Extensive, with lots of links, charts and graphs, some interactive, no paywall.
By Quoctrung Bui, Josh Katz, Alicia Parlapiano and Margot Sanger-Katz @ NYTimes.com, April 22, 2020
In the last few weeks, we’ve all become a little more familiar with epidemiological models. These calculations, which make estimates about how many people are likely to get sick, need a hospital bed or die from coronavirus, are guiding public policy — and our expectations about what the future holds.
But if you look at the models, they really don't agree [....]
USA - no masks, no sanitizer, just malaria pill hoarders. Not even our healthcare workers or front line workers can get masks so easily.
WARSAW (Reuters) - Vending machines selling face masks, gloves and sanitizers appeared on the streets of Poland’s two biggest cities this week, as the country stepped up social distancing rules to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
So far two vending machines have been installed in Warsaw and five in Krakow and there are plans to install several dozen or maybe even several hundred more in the next two weeks, according to the Polish Vending Association, which launched the initiative.
From April 16, all Poles will be required to cover their mouth and nose in public spaces,
Governments must act now to stop 265 million starving, warns World Food Programme boss
By Fiona Harvey @ TheGuardian.com, April 21
The world is facing widespread famine “of biblical proportions” because of the coronavirus pandemic, the chief of the UN’s food relief agency has warned, with a short time to act before hundreds of millions starve.
More than 30 countries in the developing world could experience widespread famine, and in 10 of those countries there are already more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation, said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme.
“We are not talking about people going to bed hungry,” he told the Guardian in an interview. “We are talking about extreme conditions, emergency status – people literally marching to the brink of starvation. If we don’t get food to people, people will die [....]
Even before the coronavirus swept through care facilities, many were struggling with thin profit margins. Now they could be wiped out.
By Matthew Goldstein, Robert Gebeloff & Jessica Silver-Greenberg @ NYTimes.com/Business, April 21
Even before they became deadly petri dishes for the worst pandemic in generations, many nursing homes were struggling to stay afloat and provide quality care. But since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, nursing home operators have had to spend more money on protective equipment for staff and technology to connect residents with relatives who are no longer allowed to visit. Their revenues have shrunk because they are admitting fewer new residents in hopes of reducing the risk of infection.
The result is that some nursing homes, which often run on razor-thin profit margins, may be unable to pay their rent and other bills without government help. “It could be a huge economic mess,” said Charlene Harrington, a professor emerita of nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. “It is possible that many nursing home chains could go bankrupt with the virus.” [....]
Nursing homes care for about 1.5 million people in the United States, and 70 percent of the 15,400 facilities are run for profit. While the financial picture for the industry, which also includes homes run by government agencies and nonprofits, was hardly rosy before the virus struck, it was especially precarious for many for-profit nursing homes.
Reimbursements from government programs like Medicaid are a main source of revenue for nursing homes, but operators have long complained those payments have not kept pace with the cost of care.
The industry is increasingly relying on the government for another form of support: The Department of Housing and Urban Development guarantees $20 billion in mortgages to more than 2,300 nursing homes — about 15 percent of the country’s total, up from about 5 percent a quarter-century ago. (Last year, the $146 million collapse of Rosewood Care Centers was the biggest default in the history of the mortgage-guarantee program.)
It can by pricey just to keep the doors open.For-profit nursing homes often rent their properties under long-term leases from real estate investment trusts, known as REITs; investment firms; or private equity shops. A review of regulatory filings found that [....]
Shipping in the U.S. started April 16; from the horse's mouth, their p.r.:
