The post WHO says the coronavirus is killing about 50,000 people a week: ‘That is not where we want to be’ appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The World Health Organization warned Friday that the coronavirus is “not going away,” noting that it’s still killing about 50,000 people a week.
“That is not where we want to be,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, said of Covid-19 deaths during a news conference at the agency’s Geneva headquarters. “It’s not where the Northern Hemisphere wants to be going into the winter season. It’s not where developing countries want to be with their health services under nine months of pressure.”
Ryan said the virus still has a “long way to burn.” WHO officials said they are beginning to see “worrying trends” in the number of Covid-19 cases, ICU admissions and hospitalizations in the Northern Hemisphere as it enters the colder seasons.
“It has not burned out, it is not burning out, it is not going away,” Ryan said, “and especially for those countries entering their winter season in terms of people coming together more indoors. There’s a lot of work to do in order to avoid amplification events, drive down transmission of this epidemic, protect the opening of schools, and protect the most vulnerable in our society from severe disease and death.”
European health officials have warned for weeks about a rising number of Covid-19 cases. More than half of European countries have reported a 10% or greater increase in cases in the past two weeks and, of those, seven have seen newly reported cases increase more than twofold, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, Dr. Hans Kluge, said Thursday in a news briefing.
In the U.S., health officials are reporting an average of about 39,000 new Covid-19 cases per day, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University data. Covid-19 cases were growing by 5% or more, based on a weekly average to smooth out daily reporting, in at least 34 states as well as Washington, D.C., as of Friday, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data, an increase from eight states at the same time last week.
“The energy has not gone out of this pandemic. There’s a lot of energy left in this spring and this can drive the pandemic forward,” Ryan said.
U.S. health officials fear the outbreak could get worse as the nation enters the fall and winter seasons. Health officials have repeatedly warned that they are preparing to battle two bad viruses circulating later this year as the Covid-19 outbreak runs into flu season. Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said daily new cases were “unacceptably high” in the U.S. this close to the fall.
“Once you get the level of infection down really, really low, it almost self-propagates itself to stay low, but you’ve got to get it low,” Fauci told The Wall Street Journal’s “The Journal” podcast published on Thursday.
“Once it’s way up there it’s tough to get it down,” he said. Fauci said that number for the U.S. would be “hundreds of cases, thousands, but not 20, 30, 40 thousand cases a day.”
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on the Covid-19 pandemic, noted Friday that global health officials have “literally hundreds” of seroepidemiology studies ongoing that examine the extent of coronavirus infection in different populations. The studies indicate that “a majority of the world’s population is susceptible to infection from this virus,” she said.
“That means the virus has a long way to go,” she said.
Van Kerkhove said it’s “absolutely critical” for countries to have a strong plan for when outbreaks arise. She told CNN’s “New Day” program earlier Friday that the rise in hospitalizations in some European countries, like the U.K. and France, are “worrying trends” because the Northern Hemisphere hasn’t “even started to hit the flu season yet,” which could add more strain to an already burdened health system.
“What’s really important right now is for countries in their response is that they break down the problem, they break down the outbreak into the lowest administrative level as possible as the data will allow,” she said. “It’s not just about case numbers. These are incredibly important and we need to be able to track these trends but we also need to look at hospitalizations, we need to look at ICU occupancy and how many people are being admitted into intensive care.”
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]]>The post ‘You can be killing people without knowing’ | Local officials beg Houstonians to get tested for COVID-19 as testing numbers decline appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>HOUSTON — Houston’s elected officials are begging people to get tested for COVID-19 as the city saw four consecutive days of increased daily new cases.
The Houston Health Department reported 1,456 new cases and 14 newly reported coronavirus deaths on Saturday, making it the fourth-straight day of at least 1,000 new cases.
From July 17 to July 23, the city was averaging 820 new reported cases a day.
Houston Health Authority Dr. David Persse said Friday that fewer people were going to get tested at the city’s testing sites at Delmar and Butler Stadiums.
He said bad weather was one factor, citing sites being completely closed or temporarily closed six times in July due to inclement weather. The other factor was the July 4 holiday weekend.
The city reported a 23 percent positivity rate on Friday, which means out of every five people tested for coronavirus, at least one person tests positive.
Houston reported more deaths and more new cases in July than in all other months of the pandemic combined.
I’m over at Delmar Stadium, one of the @HoustonHealth #COVID19 testing mega sites. Line appears short and moving quickly. Dr. Persse said yesterday he’s concerned about the lower numbers we’re seeing of people going to get tested. #coronavirus @KHOU #KHOU11 pic.twitter.com/FM27tyDPmJ
— Chris Costa (@ChrisCostaTV) August 1, 2020
In July, the city reported more deaths and more new cases than all the other months of the pandemic combined.
“We may be tired and bored of the virus, but the virus is not tired and bored of us,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner.
United Memorial Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Doctor Joseph Varon said UMMC sites are also showing a 1 in 5 positivity rate.
He said 50 percent of those positive tests show no symptoms, and can potentially infect dozens of others.
“In all honesty, you can be killing people without knowing,” said Dr. Varon.
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]]>The post This Is Why Coronavirus Is Killing More Men Than Women, New Study Says appeared first on Virus Reports.
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The “X factor” researchers have been looking for was the X chromosome all along.
As early as April, a strange pattern began to emerge in the data of coronavirus death rates: in some places, men appeared to be dying from COVID-19 at twice the rate of women. This fact has puzzled doctors and statisticians, inspiring research into the social and biological factors that might cause such a disparity. This week, a new study published in the medical journal JAMA suggests one possible explanation: men may be prone to more severe effects of COVID due to higher rates of genetic defects.
The study probed the cases of four coronavirus patients—two sets of brothers from unrelated families in the Netherlands—who were all admitted to the ICU with severe symptoms of the virus. According to the researchers, these subjects were selected because “in severely affected young men, and in particular in brother pairs (sharing half of their genomes, with an increased chance of identifying an X-linked disease), a unique genetic defect might be present that could indicate a genetic predisposition to contract coronavirus infections.”
Using genetic sequencing and immunological tests, the researchers indeed identified rare genetic defects on the X chromosomes of the subjects. They determined that these defects contributed to their severe cases by dramatically weakening the subjects’ immune responses (one of the four young men ultimately died of his condition).
Though the subjects’ particular defects are too rare to account for the broader sex-based disparity in patient outcomes, they do suggest that genetic variation may play a wider role in men’s higher COVID-related death rates. Notably, men have one copy of the X chromosome, while women have two. Many researchers have concluded that this gives women a genetic advantage over men by lowering a woman’s chances of serious illness if at least one of the two chromosomes is healthy.
Though a study of four cases is hardly exhaustive, it opens the door to further research on the subject of how genetic factors influence case severity and patient outcomes when it comes to coronavirus. Ultimately, this may help shed some light on why otherwise healthy young men are falling dangerously ill, and point to new treatments that could save countless lives. And for more factors that influence patient outcomes, read up on the 4 Coronavirus Symptoms Most Likely to Be Deadly.
The post This Is Why Coronavirus Is Killing More Men Than Women, New Study Says appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The post This Is Why Coronavirus Is Killing More Men Than Women, New Study Says appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>
The “X factor” researchers have been looking for was the X chromosome all along.
As early as April, a strange pattern began to emerge in the data of coronavirus death rates: in some places, men appeared to be dying from COVID-19 at twice the rate of women. This fact has puzzled doctors and statisticians, inspiring research into the social and biological factors that might cause such a disparity. This week, a new study published in the medical journal JAMA suggests one possible explanation: men may be prone to more severe effects of COVID due to higher rates of genetic defects.
The study probed the cases of four coronavirus patients—two sets of brothers from unrelated families in the Netherlands—who were all admitted to the ICU with severe symptoms of the virus. According to the researchers, these subjects were selected because “in severely affected young men, and in particular in brother pairs (sharing half of their genomes, with an increased chance of identifying an X-linked disease), a unique genetic defect might be present that could indicate a genetic predisposition to contract coronavirus infections.”
Using genetic sequencing and immunological tests, the researchers indeed identified rare genetic defects on the X chromosomes of the subjects. They determined that these defects contributed to their severe cases by dramatically weakening the subjects’ immune responses (one of the four young men ultimately died of his condition).
Though the subjects’ particular defects are too rare to account for the broader sex-based disparity in patient outcomes, they do suggest that genetic variation may play a wider role in men’s higher COVID-related death rates. Notably, men have one copy of the X chromosome, while women have two. Many researchers have concluded that this gives women a genetic advantage over men by lowering a woman’s chances of serious illness if at least one of the two chromosomes is healthy.
Though a study of four cases is hardly exhaustive, it opens the door to further research on the subject of how genetic factors influence case severity and patient outcomes when it comes to coronavirus. Ultimately, this may help shed some light on why otherwise healthy young men are falling dangerously ill, and point to new treatments that could save countless lives. And for more factors that influence patient outcomes, read up on the 4 Coronavirus Symptoms Most Likely to Be Deadly.
The post This Is Why Coronavirus Is Killing More Men Than Women, New Study Says appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The post This Is the Only Thing Killing More People Than COVID in This Hotspot appeared first on Virus Reports.
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Coronavirus deaths have skyrocketed here, placing it only behind this common killer.
Even though coronavirus has been in the United States since January, many states have seen significant spikes in transmission in just the past two months. The U.S. now has more than four million reported coronavirus cases, with rising death rates following hot on their heels. However, in one coronavirus hotspot, there’s still another ailment poised to outpace the virus’ death toll in 2020. According to experts, the only thing that may kill more people than COVID in Los Angeles County this year is coronary heart disease.
“COVID-19 appears to be on track to claim more lives in L.A. County than any other disease than coronary heart disease,” Los Angeles Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a press conference on July 22. The county reported 3,266 new COVID cases on July 22, pushing the area’s total to nearly 165,000; 64 new deaths were recorded in L.A. County the same day.
L.A. County has now recorded more than 4,200 total coronavirus deaths in a span of just four months since the virus’ first fatality within its borders on March 11. While those numbers are staggering, coronary heart disease claimed significantly more lives in a similar timeframe, according to CNN, with 6,000 deaths attributable to the disease in the first six months of 2019 alone.
Though coronavirus-related mortality may be dwarfed by heart disease fatalities in L.A. County, it’s still significantly exceeding the death toll for other common ailments in the area. In 2017, Alzheimer’s disease was the second-leading cause of death in L.A. County, accounting for 4,179 deaths—a death toll surpassed by COVID in just four months. Based on recent infection rates, coronavirus is now on track to kill more people in Los Angeles County this year than Alzheimer’s disease, other kinds of heart disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
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So, how does coronavirus’ body count in the county stack up against other common viruses, like influenza? Ferrer says the flu is nowhere near as deadly. Over just six months, COVID-19 killed twice as many people in the region as influenza did over the two previous 8-month flu seasons combined. And, as Ferrer reminded residents, “unlike the flu, there is no vaccine for COVID-19 at this time.”
“COVID-19 is on track to become the second leading cause of death in L.A. County and we need to take its strength and power seriously,” Ferrer urged residents. “A lax attitude to this virus can be deadly for someone you love.” Her recommendations to stem the spread? “Wear a face covering, maintain physical distancing, and practice hand hygiene. It can save lives.” And for more on the coronavirus’ rising presence in California and other states, check out these 11 COVID Hotspots That Need to Get “Aggressive.”
Kali Coleman
Kali is an assistant editor at Best Life. Read more
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]]>The post Why COVID-19 is killing U.S. diabetes patients at alarming rates appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>(Reuters) – Devon Brumfield could hear her father gasping for breath on the phone.
FILE PHOTO: Devon Brumfield holds a photo of her father Darrell Cager Sr., who died on March 31 from complications of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in this undated handout image. Devon Brumfield/Handout via REUTERS
Darrell Cager Sr., 64, had diabetes. So his youngest daughter urged him to seek care. The next day, he collapsed and died in his New Orleans home.
The daughter soon learned the cause: acute respiratory distress from COVID-19. His death certificate noted diabetes as an underlying condition. Brumfield, who lives in Texas and also has type 2 diabetes, is “terrified” she could be next.
“I’m thinking, Lord, this could happen to me,” she said of her father’s death in late March.
She has good reason to fear. As U.S. outbreaks surge, a new government study shows that nearly 40% of people who have died with COVID-19 had diabetes.
Among deaths of those under 65, half had the chronic condition. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed more than 10,000 deaths in 15 states and New York City from February to May.
Jonathan Wortham, a CDC epidemiologist who led the study, called the findings “extremely striking,” with serious implications for those with diabetes and their loved ones.
A separate Reuters survey of states found a similarly high rate of diabetes among people dying from COVID-19 in 12 states and the District of Columbia.
Ten states, including California, Arizona and Michigan, said they weren’t yet reporting diabetes and other underlying conditions, and the rest did not respond – rendering an incomplete picture for policymakers and clinicians struggling to protect those most at-risk.
America’s mortality rates from diabetes have been climbing since 2009 and exceed most other industrialized nations. Blacks and Latinos suffer from diabetes at higher rates than whites and have disproportionately suffered from COVID-19.
“Diabetes was already a slow-moving pandemic. Now COVID-19 has crashed through like a fast-moving wave,” said Elbert Huang, a professor of medicine and director of the University of Chicago’s Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy.
Keeping diabetes under control – among the best defenses against COVID-19 – has become difficult as the pandemic disrupts medical care, exercise and healthy eating routines.
The high price of insulin has also forced some people to keep working – risking virus exposure – to afford the essential medicine. And as the country grapples with an economic crisis, millions of Americans have lost their jobs and their employer-sponsored health insurance.
Much of this could have been anticipated and addressed with a more comprehensive, national response, said A. Enrique Caballero, a Harvard Medical School endocrinologist and diabetes researcher.
Top health officials should have done more to emphasize the threat to people with diabetes and assuage their fears of hospital visits, he said, while also focusing more on helping patients manage their condition at home.
Policymakers had ample warning that COVID-19 posed a high risk for diabetes patients. In 2003, during the coronavirus outbreak known as SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, more than 20% of people who died had diabetes.
In 2009, during the H1N1 flu pandemic, patients with diabetes faced triple the risk of hospitalization.
Most recently in 2012, when the coronavirus Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, emerged, one study found 60% of patients who entered intensive care or died had diabetes.
The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has unearthed previously unknown complications because it has lasted longer and infected many more people than earlier coronavirus epidemics, said Charles S. Dela Cruz, a Yale University physician-scientist and Director of the Center of Pulmonary Infection Research and Treatment.
Doctors warn that the coronavirus pandemic may indirectly lead to a spike in diabetes-related complications – more emergency-room visits, amputations, vision loss, kidney disease and dialysis.
“My fear is we will see a tsunami of problems once this is over,” said Andrew Boulton, president of the International Diabetes Federation and a medical professor at the University of Manchester in England.
‘ONE BIG PUZZLE’
Researchers have scrambled for months to unravel the connections between diabetes and the coronavirus, uncovering an array of vulnerabilities.
The virus targets the heart, lung and kidneys, organs already weakened in many diabetes patients. COVID-19 also kills more people who are elderly, obese or have high blood pressure, many of whom also have diabetes, studies show.
On the microscopic level, high glucose and lipid counts in diabetes patients can trigger a “cytokine storm,” when the immune system overreacts, attacking the body. Damaged endothelial cells, which provide a protective lining in blood vessels, can lead to inflammation as white blood cells rush to attack the virus and may cause lethal clots to form, emerging research suggests.
“It’s all one big puzzle,” said Yale’s Dela Cruz. “It’s all interrelated.”
Many of their vulnerabilities can be traced to high blood sugar, which can weaken the immune system or damage vital organs. COVID-19 appears not only to thrive in a high-sugar environment but to exacerbate it. Recent evidence suggests the virus may trigger new cases of diabetes.
David Thrasher, a pulmonologist in Montgomery, Alabama, said up to half of COVID-19 patients in his local hospital ICU have diabetes. “They are often my most challenging patients,” he said, and the immune system response may be a big reason why.
‘DIABETES BELT’
The pandemic has ripped through several southern states with some of the nation’s highest diabetes rates. A Reuters examination of state data found that nearly 40% of COVID-19 deaths were people with diabetes in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia. Much of this area lies within what the CDC calls the “diabetes belt.”
Alabama has the highest percentage of adults with diabetes at 13.2%, or more than 550,000 people, CDC data show. Diabetes patients accounted for 38% of the state’s COVID-related deaths through June, officials said. Karen Landers, Alabama’s assistant state health officer, said she is particularly heartbroken at the deaths of diabetes patients in their 30s and 40s.
Medical professionals in these states say they struggle to keep patients’ diabetes under control when regular in-person appointments are canceled or limited because of the pandemic.
Sarah Hunter Frazer, a nurse practitioner at the Medical Outreach Ministries clinic for low-income residents in Montgomery, Alabama, said diabetes is common among her COVID-19 patients. With clinic visits on hold, she stays in touch by phone or video chat. If a problem persists, she insists on an outdoors, face-to-face meeting. “We meet them under a shade tree behind the clinic,” Frazer said.
In similar fashion, doctors at the University of North Carolina stepped up their use of telemedicine to reach at-risk rural patients. Despite those efforts, John Buse, a physician and director of the university’s diabetes center, said he’s certain some foot ulcers and dangerously high blood sugars are being missed because people avoid health facilities for fear of the virus.
‘UNDER CONTROL’
Many diabetes patients with severe or deadly cases of COVID-19 were in good health before contracting the virus.
Clark Osojnicki, 56, of Stillwater, Minnesota, had heard early warnings about the risks of the coronavirus for people with diabetes, said his wife, Kris Osojnicki. But the couple didn’t think the admonitions applied to him because his glucose levels were in a healthy range.
“He was incredibly active,” she said.
On a Sunday in mid-March, Osojnicki jogged alongside his border collie, Sonic, on an agility course for dogs inside a suburban Minneapolis gym. Three days later, Osojnicki developed a fever, then body aches, a cough and shortness of breath. He was soon in the hospital, on a ventilator. Clark, a financial systems analyst, died April 6 from a blood clot in the lungs.
Osojnicki is among 255 recorded deaths in Minnesota of people with COVID-19 and diabetes mentioned on their death certificate as of mid-July, according to state data. The records describe people who died as young as 34.
WORKING FOR INSULIN
For years, the skyrocketing cost of insulin has fueled much of the national outrage over drug prices. Early in the pandemic, the American Diabetes Association asked states to eliminate out-of-pocket costs for insulin and other glucose-lowering medications through state-regulated insurance plans.
But no state has fully followed that advice, the ADA said. Vermont suspended deductibles for preventive medications, like insulin, starting in July. Other states ordered insurers to make prescription refills more available but didn’t address cost.
Robert Washington, 68, knew his diabetes put him at risk from COVID-19. When his employer, Gila River’s Lone Butte Casino in Chandler, Arizona, reopened in May, he decided to keep working as a security guard so he could afford insulin.
Washington’s supervisors had assured him he could patrol alone in a golf cart, said his daughter, Lina. But once back at work, he was stationed at the entrance, where long lines of gamblers waited, most without masks, Robert told his daughter.
“He was terrified at what he saw,” Lina said.
He tested positive for the virus in late May and was admitted to the hospital days later. He died from complications of COVID-19 on June 11, his daughter said.
A week after Washington’s death, the casino again closed as COVID-19 cases exploded in the state. The casino did not respond to a request for comment.
“It’s hard to accept he is gone. I have to stop myself from wanting to call him,” said Lina, a sports anchor and reporter at a Sacramento, California, TV station. “A lot of these deaths were in some way preventable.”
Reporting by Chad Terhune, Deborah J. Nelson and Robin Respaut; Editing by Brian Thevenot
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]]>The post China is killing America appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>ANALYSIS/OPINION:
A handful of leading conservative voices just penned a letter to President Donald Trump, asking him to keep in place a Roadless Rule that prevents loggers from tapping into much of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.
At first blush, this seems an environmental issue — a private property rights versus government preservation showdown that raises questions about the proper use of tax dollars, the Constitution, the Antiquities Act and even Founding Father intents.
But it’s really a question about China.
It’s really a matter of China’s long-running economic and cultural seepage onto America’s soil, of China’s long-reaching tentacles into America’s economy, of China’s decades-of-strategies of infiltrating and influencing America’s culture, politics and economy — and then, of the question that arises: At what point should America say, “Stop”?
This administration, thankfully, has been taking a hard look at China and saying just that.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, from Copenhagen, spoke of the “long challenge of the Chinese Communist Party stealing intellectual property” that has led to the loss of “hundreds of thousands of jobs” for Americans and Europeans. That was in explanation of this White House’s decision to close China’s consulate in Houston, a move aimed at protecting “American intellectual property,” he said.
And that’s after one-in-five companies headquartered in North America that serve on the CNBC Global CFO Council reported theft of intellectual properties by China sources within only a one-year time span, within the 12-month 2018 period.
“In all, 7 of the 23 companies surveyed,” CNBC reported in March of 2019, “say that Chinese firms have stolen from them over the past decade.”
China’s propensity for thieving is well-known.
“China theft of technology is biggest law enforcement threat to U.S., FBI says,” The Guardian wrote, just this February.
Director Christopher Wray estimated his FBI’s 56 regional offices were at that time busily investigating more than 1,000 cases of alleged Chinese thefts of technology; between 2019 and 2020, agents arrested more than 40 suspects tied to these cases.
“No country,” said FBI counterintelligence chief John Brown at a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies conference in Washington, “poses a greater threat than Communist China.”
They’re heavily invested in the West, that’s for sure.
The American Enterprise Institute, along with the Heritage Foundation, found the United States received more than $180 billion in Chinese investments between January 2005 and December 2019. The investments were varied. There was the $1.7 million sent from the China Academy of Sciences to IBM in early 2005; the $5 million from the China Investment Corp to Morgan Stanley in 2007; the nearly $2.4 million from the China National Offshore Oil Corporation to Chesapeake Energy in 2010. That’s just a drop in the bucket.
“‘American Soil’ Is Increasingly Foreign Owned,” NPR reported in May 2019, in a story about the 30 million acres of U.S. farmland owned by overseas’ investors, including China. A 2013 sale of Virginia-based Smithfield Foods to Shuanghui International Holdings Limited, for example, gave China ownership of 146,000 acres of farmland in the United States.
“Chinese investors have been the biggest purchasers of U.S. residential real estate for six consecutive years,” Market Watch reported in mid-2019.
Drip, drip. More drops in the bucket.
China and Chinese interests own, or have solicited to own, everything from the Chicago Stock Exchange, AMC — America’s largest movie theater chain — and GE appliances, to the iconic Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan.
China’s Tencent in recent times sent $150 million Reddit’s way; $3.4 billion to the California-based Universal Music Group record company — which owns rights to the likes of singing sensations Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and The Beatles — and $200 million to Warner Music, buying up a 1.6% stake in the company in the process.
And now, with the coronavirus-dampened economy, economists the world over are warning: Keep a check on China.
“Watch out for Chinese companies swooping in with buckets of cash to buy strategic stakes, or majority control in U.S. and European companies as asset prices fall due to the pandemic,” Forbes wrote in April.
China, if anything, is strategic.
“With Acquisition of California Port, China Broadens Influence on U.S. Commerce,” the Association of Mature American Citizens wrote in June 2018, of a Long Beach deal.
Then again, so is this administration.
“U.S. Forces China Out of Port of Long Beach Terminal Ownership,” Universal Cargo reported a year later, in October 2019.
But now the Trump Team needs to see the Tongass issue in similar light — in similar flashing red “Communist China Coming” warning lights.
A proposal from the U.S. Forest Service and Alaska authorities would lift Roadless Rule protections on 10 million acres of land, opening the door to more logging and exports of logged products. But between 2005 and 2011, China was the main buyer of Tongass timber, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in 2016.
Doesn’t America do enough for China already?
Way back in 2019, it was Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, who warned, “Stop buying Chinese products. That will have the biggest impact on their economy,” he said.
That should hold true for selling to China, too.
If we’re looking for a good stopping point to clamp China’s influence on America, and in America, Tongass could very well be it. And then after, maybe after, we can go and take back our hams, our movies, our entertainment companies, our lands and farms, and properties and businesses, and yes, our technology, both stolen and on the path to be stolen.
Communist China is killing America, and it’s time to say, conclusively and collectively, no more.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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]]>The post Suspect in killing at Louisville Breonna Taylor protest in custody appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The suspect arrested in the shooting death of a man during a Louisville protest over the police killing of Breonna Taylor had taken part in demonstrations but was disruptive and had been asked by other protesters to leave, authorities and protesters said Sunday.
The man, identified by an arrest citation as Steven Nelson Lopez, was hospitalized and being interviewed by homicide investigators about the shooting that happened late Saturday, interim Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder said at a news conference.
Lopez was wounded in the leg by gunfire from bystanders at the park who were defending themselves, the arrest citation said. He has been charged with murder and wanton endangerment.
Tyler Charles Gerth, 27, of Louisville, died after being shot at Jefferson Square Park in downtown Louisville, authorities said. The Courier Journal reported that Gerth was an avid photographer and a vocal supporter of the ongoing protests whose godfather is a columnist at the newspaper.
In a video of the shooting shown during the news conference, Lopez was surrounded by several people before shots were fired, and people scrambled for cover. Another video posted on social media later showed at least one person bleeding profusely on the ground.
Several other people fired gunshots after the suspect began firing, but no one else was hit, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said.
“Whether they were there at the time of the shooting or not, I know the sadness of those who have been organizing and participating in peaceful protests for racial justice. This is absolutely not what they wanted or any of us wanted,” Fischer said. “We cannot let one senseless act by one individual derail that dream, that vision that we have as a city.”
For nearly a month, protesters have been calling for the officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s death to be charged. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was killed in her Louisville home in March by police who were serving a no-knock warrant. One of the officers was recently fired.
Saturday’s shooting was at least the second during the protests. Seven people were wounded May 28 when gunfire erupted near City Hall, prompting Taylor’s mother to issue a statement asking people to demand justice “without hurting each other.”
Gerth’s family said he was ”incredibly kind, tenderhearted and generous, holding deep convictions and faith.”
“It was this sense of justice that drove Tyler to be part of the peaceful demonstrations advocating for the destruction of the systemic racism within our society’s systems,” the family said in a statement to the Courier Journal.
Protesters at the park Sunday said Lopez was a familiar face around the protests but sometimes caused trouble. Julie Sullivan, who was near the corner where the shooter fired, said Lopez was asked to leave earlier on Saturday.
Sullivan said she heard about eight gunshots that broke up an otherwise calm day of demonstrations. She saw some nearby children and yelled for them to crawl toward her.
“I’ve never been through anything like that, and I hope I never go through anything like that again,” Sullivan said.
Schroeder said the man had been participating in the protests since they began and had been arrested a few times. The arrest citation said Lopez was born in 1996, but it lists no driver’s license number or home address, other than Louisville.
Lopez “had been repeatedly asked by other members at the park to leave due to his disruptive behavior,” Schroeder said.
Protesters were allowed to continue gathering at the park Sunday, although police said overnight camping and cooking were banned. They also removed tents and told protesters they could pick them up at a separate location.
John Kriner knelt for nearly 30 minutes at the site to pray for peace. He said it was his first visit.
“I just want there to be peace and calm,” Kriner said.
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]]>The post How police killing of Rayshard Brooks could empower Atlanta’s Citizen Review Board appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The fatal police shooting of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta is changing how the city’s citizen watchdog group operates and, after years of criticism that it is a “toothless” body, could further empower it in investigating and recommending disciplinary action against officers.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced a series of administrative orders Monday related to de-escalation and police reform, one of which would send all cases of deadly force by officers to the Atlanta Citizen Review Board, a process that is normally triggered only when someone files a complaint.
An amended ordinance was also presented at a City Council meeting Monday that would, among several other changes, broaden the board’s authority to conduct investigations and hold public hearings; expand the board to include younger members, because their age group often comes into contact with police; and institute an independent “reviewer” who would essentially mediate and make binding rulings when the board and the police department fail to agree on investigations.
Samuel Lee Reid II, the board’s executive director, told NBC News on Tuesday that he supports the measures and believes they can strengthen the board’s guiding purpose, which is to field misconduct and civil rights abuse complaints against police and to open independent investigations. The panel also has subpoena power to interview officers, an important tool that was introduced in 2010, three years after the board was established.
According to the board’s latest data, the Atlanta Police Department has agreed with the board’s findings about 41 percent of the time, but Reid said he believes that should be far higher — at least 75 percent — to show “how serious the department is to address citizen complaints.” (The number was as low as 11 percent in 2015.)
The board received 153 complaints in 2019, a 13 percent increase from 2018. The complaints centered mostly on allegations that officers failed to follow protocol, used excessive force or exhibited questionable conduct. According to board data, the majority of complaints last year were made by Black men over 35, while the majority of law enforcement officers identified in the complaints were Black officers who had more than five years of policing experience.
While the board has four investigators who review complaints before they’re brought before all 13 members for hearings, Reid said, he’d also like the city to hire an analyst to perform audits and conduct studies on why officers might be disciplined only in some cases or not at all, as well as highlight other trends or gaps in reporting.
“We want to dig into that data,” Reid said, adding: “If you want to do this correctly, you need the power and the manpower to do it. We want to catch these issues before it happens again.”
There are about 150 civilian review boards nationwide, most of them associated with larger municipal police agencies and many formed either after high-profile incidents or as responses to patterns of complaints of police brutality or racial bias.
The death of Brooks, 27, during a police encounter Friday night has focused renewed scrutiny on the Atlanta Police Department, which has about 2,000 sworn officers. Chief Erika Shields resigned Saturday night, less than 24 hours after the shooting; Assistant Chief Rodney Bryant is serving as interim chief.
The city was also roiled by protests in recent weeks following the death last month of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody. On June 2, six Atlanta police officers were charged in connection with the protest-related detainment of a young Black man and woman and the use of stun guns on the man in an incident caught on police bodycam video.
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Brooks’ shooting in a Wendy’s parking lot was captured on security and bodycam video. Police responded to a report that a man had fallen asleep in his car in the drive-thru. Two officers encountered Brooks, and a struggle ensued after they administered a field sobriety test and tried to take Brooks into custody.
Video shows Brooks holding a stun gun as he runs away. He appears to turn around and point the weapon before an officer, Garrett Rolfe, fires at him, hitting him in the back, according to investigators. Rolfe, a six-year veteran of the department, was fired, while the second officer, Devin Brosnan, a veteran of nearly two years, was placed on administrative leave.
Neither officer has been charged. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the case.
Atlanta police released Rolfe’s disciplinary record, which shows that he was issued a written reprimand in 2016 related to a use-of-force incident involving a firearm. Details weren’t disclosed. In addition, Rolfe was the subject of four citizen complaints during his career, which didn’t result in any disciplinary action, and he was also involved in vehicle accidents, one of which led to a written reprimand and another to an oral admonishment.
There was also an incident involving the discharge of a firearm in 2015, although it’s unclear how it concluded.
Reid said it wouldn’t be surprising that officers with histories of complaints could remain employed in the Atlanta Police Department, particularly if they are cleared internally and aren’t seeking to be promoted.
But Xochitl Bervera, director of the Racial Justice Action Center, an Atlanta-based organization fighting the criminalizing of Black and brown communities, said that even though there’s an independent police oversight agency, it’s apparent that Atlanta officers with complaints can continue operating in communities and that residents may be left in the dark about how many complaints they have and for what, a disconnect she said she believes doesn’t engender trust.
“We need to rethink what community engagement and community control of policing looks like and how we make accountability of the police something transparent,” Bervera said, adding that there is a role for some form of a review board but that “we have to ask ourselves at this point, does this model work?”
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The Atlanta Citizen Review Board was established after the death of Kathryn Johnston, 92, a Black woman who was killed during a police raid on her home in 2006. Officers, dressed in plainclothes and wearing bulletproof vests, were executing a “no-knock” warrant in connection with a man who they claimed was selling drugs from Johnston’s home. After officers forced their way in, Johnston, a resident of one of Atlanta’s most crime-plagued neighborhoods, opened fire on them and was killed in a shootout, according to reports.
The disturbing case enraged residents after one of the officers admitted to having planted bags of marijuana inside the home after Johnston was killed, as well as having based the warrant on falsified records. Three officers were charged with federal crimes and sentenced, which also galvanized the community to demand police reform and paved the way for the Citizen Review Board.
Proposals to abolish the use of no-knock warrants have been revived in recent weeks as part of policing reform efforts in other cities and states following the death of Breonna Taylor, a young Black woman who was killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police in her home this year.
Vincent Fort, a former Democratic state senator in Georgia who tried unsuccessfully to get a no-knock bill passed, said subsequent police-involved killings and injuries of Atlantans over the years have resulted in board investigations that appeared only to languish for months without meaningful repercussions.
“The administration and City Council made the review board toothless,” Fort said. “The problem with it is, even as they acquired subpoena power over time, there’s a loophole the police use: If I’m on the board and I ask the police for data, documents or even for the officer to appear, all they say is ‘it’s an ongoing investigation.’ And the case just drags on and on.”
“I once told them: ‘You’re a paper tiger. You’re a joke in the community,'” Fort said of the board.
In 2015, the Citizen Review Board drew heat from activists who demanded an investigation into the death of Alexia Christian, a Black woman who was killed in police custody, and criticized the board’s “Don’t Run” campaign, meant to encourage residents not to flee from police. Bottoms, who was a City Council member at the time, had supported the idea of the campaign but said she also felt it was telling people not to exercise their constitutional rights.
Fort said that now that she’s mayor, Bottoms must go further.
“Right now, Black people believe that the police in their community are tantamount to an occupying force that’s designed to keep Black people and working-class people under control,” he said.
Atlanta police didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Bottoms said Tuesday on NBC’s “TODAY” show that more administrative orders involving the police are likely coming.
“We have to objectively look at de-escalation. That’s not very clear in our policies,” Bottoms said. “Shooting at moving vehicles and so many other things — that as we’re peeling back the layers of our standard operating procedures. Some of it’s ambiguous, and some of it is simply not laid out.”
Given the history of Atlanta, a majority-Black city, and its storied place in America’s civil rights movement, the police department has benefited from a reformist-type legacy in the past, with Black officers joining the force and pushing back at Jim Crow restrictions themselves, said Nirej Sekhon, a Georgia State University law professor who studies policing.
But that “hasn’t translated to particularly radical renovation in recent times,” he said. “We have to be careful about celebrating Atlanta’s civil rights history, not because there’s nothing to celebrate or because it’s all a lie, but because it’s still incomplete.”
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