Vanity Fair: How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”. “Six months into the pandemic, the United States continues to suffer the worst outbreak of COVID-19 in the developed world. Considerable blame belongs to a federal response that offloaded responsibility for the crucial task of testing to the states. The irony is that, after assembling the team that came up with an aggressive and ambitious national testing plan, Kushner then appears to have decided, for reasons that remain murky, to scrap its proposal. Today, as governors and mayors scramble to stamp out epidemics plaguing their populations, philanthropists at the Rockefeller Foundation are working to fill the void and organize enough testing to bring the nationwide epidemic under control.”
public health
Coronavirus: Face covering use expanded in England and Scotland (BBC)
BBC: Coronavirus: Face covering use expanded in England and Scotland. “Face coverings have become mandatory in more indoor settings in England and Scotland following a recent spike in coronavirus cases. Places where coverings must now be worn in both countries include museums, places of worship and aquariums. Other new settings in England include cinemas and funeral homes, and in Scotland, banks and beauty salons.”
Coronavirus Vietnam: The mysterious resurgence of Covid-19 (BBC)
BBC: Coronavirus Vietnam: The mysterious resurgence of Covid-19. “The communist country acted fast and decisively where other nations faltered, closing its borders to almost all travellers except returning citizens as early as March. It quarantined and tested anyone who entered the country in government facilities, and conducted widespread contact-tracing and testing nationwide. So what went wrong?”
New York Times: A School Reopens, and the Coronavirus Creeps In
New York Times: A School Reopens, and the Coronavirus Creeps In. “One of the first school districts in the country to reopen its doors during the coronavirus pandemic did not even make it a day before being forced to grapple with the issue facing every system actively trying to get students into classrooms: What happens when someone comes to school infected?”
Chicago Will Check Social Media to Help Enforce Travel Order: CDPH Commissioner (NBC Chicago)
NBC Chicago: Chicago Will Check Social Media to Help Enforce Travel Order: CDPH Commissioner. “Chicago health officials could check your social media if they believe you may have violated the city’s travel order. The city’s top public health official said Tuesday that social media could be used as evidence to help enforce a quarantine requirement for anyone visiting or returning to the city from a list of states seeing a rise in coronavirus cases.”
NBC News: Latinos rely more on social media as a coronavirus lifeline, Nielsen report finds
NBC News: Latinos rely more on social media as a coronavirus lifeline, Nielsen report finds. “Latinos are using social media, mobile apps and other digital platforms at higher rates than the general U.S. population amid social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released Thursday by Nielsen.”
University of Texas at San Antonio: UTSA experts find bias in disease-tracking algorithms that analyze social media
University of Texas at San Antonio: UTSA experts find bias in disease-tracking algorithms that analyze social media. “Social media has become the latest method to monitor the spread of diseases such as influenza or coronavirus. However, machine learning algorithms used to train and classify tweets have an inherent bias because they do not account for how minority groups potentially communicate health information.”
The Tribune: Pair Of Businessmen Launch Website To Track Pandemic
The Tribune: Pair Of Businessmen Launch Website To Track Pandemic. “TWO local businessmen launched a new website this week to allow Bahamians to easily track the COVID-19 pandemic through customisable graphs.Seeing a need for comprehensive and easily-understood data on the virus, Ash Henderson and Ben Jamieson developed the website… to provide an interactive look at the virus throughout the country.”
Covid 19 coronavirus: Medics testing returnees struggled with poor information, new database to ‘streamline’ process (New Zealand Herald)
New Zealand Herald: Covid 19 coronavirus: Medics testing returnees struggled with poor information, new database to ‘streamline’ process. “Teams swabbing people in quarantine and managed isolation hotels have at times struggled with incorrect information including names, authorities admit – but a new database is expected to streamline the border defence.”
The faster a country required masks, the fewer coronavirus deaths it had: study (Global News)
Global News: The faster a country required masks, the fewer coronavirus deaths it had: study. “Some countries have been devastated by the novel coronavirus, and others have escaped lightly. Why the extreme differences? The main one is that countries that quickly resorted to widespread mask-wearing had far lower death rates and shorter outbreaks, a new study argues.”
New York Times: How Italy Turned Around Its Coronavirus Calamity
New York Times: How Italy Turned Around Its Coronavirus Calamity. “Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain on Friday announced a delay to a planned easing of measures in England as the infection rate there rose. Even Germany, lauded for its efficient response and rigorous contact tracing, has warned that lax behavior is prompting a surge in cases. And Italy? Its hospitals are basically empty of Covid-19 patients. Daily deaths attributed to the virus in Lombardy, the northern region that bore the brunt of the pandemic, hover around zero.”
Update: One of the first ships to resume cruising is having a COVID outbreak (The Points Guy)
The Points Guy: Update: One of the first ships to resume cruising is having a COVID outbreak. “On second thought, maybe it was too soon. One of the first cruise ships in the world to resume sailing since the coronavirus-caused worldwide halt to cruising in March is experiencing a significant outbreak of the illness that already has sent several people to the hospital.”
Mississippi Free Press: As Mississippi Schools Reopen, ‘Pediatric COVID Crisis’ Threatens Families, Teachers
Mississippi Free Press: As Mississippi Schools Reopen, ‘Pediatric COVID Crisis’ Threatens Families, Teachers. “As schools prepare to reopen for the 2020-2021 school year in Mississippi amid the current coronavirus pandemic, though, data have shown that, overall, children experience much milder symptoms from COVID-19 infections than adults. But Douglas Chambers, a historian at the University of Southern Mississippian who has followed COVID-19 data in scholarly fashion since the first case appeared in the state, told the Mississippi Free Press that he fears a little-noticed ‘pediatric COVID crisis’ will overwhelm schools and hospitals this fall—especially if K-12 schools push forward with resuming “traditional” face-to-face classroom settings.”
Politico: The congressional underclass erupts in fury after Gohmert gets Covid-19
Politico: The congressional underclass erupts in fury after Gohmert gets Covid-19. “The revelation Wednesday that Texas Republican Louie Gohmert, a renegade lawmaker known for stalking the halls of Congress without a mask, tested positive for Covid-19 has unleashed a fusillade of anger on Capitol Hill — a sudden release of built-up tension over how the institution has dealt with the coronavirus pandemic within the confines of its own workplace.”
Searchable Database: Tracking COVID-19 at central Indiana Schools (The Indy Channel)
The Indy Channel: Searchable Database: Tracking COVID-19 at central Indiana Schools. “The database below will be used to track confirmed COVID-19 cases reported by school districts in central Indiana. The database below will be regularly updated as new information is received and confirmed by our news team here at WRTV. As far as how quickly cases have been reported since schools opened their doors last week, the Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box says the numbers are not surprising and they had anticipated cases to come in quickly after schools began reopening.”
