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Global Statistics

All countries
695,781,740
Confirmed
Updated on September 26, 2023 9:06 pm
All countries
627,110,498
Recovered
Updated on September 26, 2023 9:06 pm
All countries
6,919,573
Deaths
Updated on September 26, 2023 9:06 pm

Global Statistics

All countries
695,781,740
Confirmed
Updated on September 26, 2023 9:06 pm
All countries
627,110,498
Recovered
Updated on September 26, 2023 9:06 pm
All countries
6,919,573
Deaths
Updated on September 26, 2023 9:06 pm
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Twisters rip through United States south leaving path of destruction and killing dozens

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Twisters rip through United States south leaving path of destruction and killing dozens

  • More than two lots twisters reported in four states
  • Louisiana sheriff reports ‘extreme flooding’ seen hardly ever ‘if ever’




David Maynard sifts through the rubble searching for his wallet in Onalaska, Texas, on Thursday after a tornado destroyed his home the night before.







David Maynard sorts through the debris looking for his wallet in Onalaska, Texas, on Thursday after a tornado damaged his house the night prior to.
Photograph: Brett Coomer/AP.

A minimum of six people were killed after extreme storms tore through a variety of southern states late on Wednesday, adding to weeks of severe weather condition that had already killed more than two dozen people and damaged hundreds of homes.

More than 2 dozen tornadoes hit four states over night.

In Louisiana, a guy was discovered dead after he lost his footing and was swept away by floodwaters. A witness reported the male was trying to retrieve a trash can from water near a drain ditch.

Some locations in Louisiana had experienced “severe flooding” the similarity which Sheriff Jayson Richardson of DeSoto parish had not “seen in lots of, many years, if ever”.

” Essentially the water rose actually fast and we needed to save some individuals out of homes. I think we had about 20 approximately houses that people were flooded in,” he informed the Shreveport Times.

The Alexandria school of Louisiana State University verified “there [was] damage to DeWitt Livestock structure and a camper turned over,” leaving the school without power.

” All resident students safe,” the school tweeted.


LSUA
( @LSUAlexandria)

Thanks to #LSUA Facilities, cleanup is underway here on campus. Stay tuned for more images from last night’s storm. pic.twitter.com/n3Vnx76 Cnj

April 23,2020

Wednesday’s storms triggered havoc in lots of rural neighborhoods, causing damage to factories at multiple centers throughout the south. At least two factory workers have actually been killed.

In Louisiana, a worker’s body was discovered more than a quarter-mile away after an evident twister struck, significantly harming the factory and close-by town.

A twister in Marshall county, Oklahoma, killed a worker after a storm struck the Oklahoma Steel and Wire plant as workers were leaving for the day.

Robert Chaney, the county’s emergency situation management director, said the person’s body was found near J&I Manufacturing, a trailer factory about 6 miles south-west of Madill.

The tornado harmed a minimum of two other organisations.

Elsewhere, a minimum of 3 individuals were eliminated when an evident tornado touched down in south-east Texas near Onalaska, about 75 miles (120 km) north of Houston, the Polk county emergency situation management system said.

Royden Ogletree
( @roydenogletree)

Onalaska on Lake Livingston was entirely devastated by a prospective twister this night. This is video of Yaupon Cove from Lindsey Jones. More to come. pic.twitter.com/zg6bMj3Bhb

April 23,2020

According to Carrie Miller, a spokesperson for Polk county judge Sydney Murphy, the storm also caused extreme damage to houses and other structures in Seven Oaks.

” It took me 45 minutes to climb through the roof to go out,” Charles Stephens, an Onalaska homeowner, informed the Houston Chronicle after he and his wife attempted to shelter in their bathroom.

An evergreen fell through the Stephens’ roof during the storms. They used a hatchet to leave the debris.

A National Weather condition Service group will be dispatched across the south to study damage and to validate whether the storms were tornadoes. Poweroutage.us, which tracks energy reports, revealed more than 100,000 customers from Texas to Mississippi without power as of Thursday.

Throughout southern Mississippi and Alabama, trees and power lines were toppled as twister warnings sent out citizens rushing to take cover.

The AP added to this report

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Navy says entire USS Theodore Roosevelt crew has been tested for coronavirus | TheHill

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Navy says entire USS Theodore Roosevelt crew has been tested for coronavirus | TheHill

The Navy has tested the entire crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt for the coronavirus, the service said Thursday.

So far, 840 sailors have tested positive for the virus, but a “small number” of results are still pending, the Navy said in a news release.

Thursday’s report marked a jump from the 777 cases the Navy reported Wednesday when it said 99 percent of the crew had been tested.

Of the total positive cases, 88 sailors have since recovered, the Navy noted. Four sailors are in the hospital, down from six Wednesday; none are in intensive care.

One sailor from the Roosevelt died last week.

The coronavirus outbreak aboard the Roosevelt became a major scandal after the ship’s former commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, wrote a letter imploring the Navy for help with the outbreak.

After the letter leaked to the media, Crozier was fired by then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who later resigned himself after he gave a speech aboard the Roosevelt berating Crozier.

In the letter, Crozier asked for permission to offload all but 10 percent of the ship’s nearly 5,000-person crew.

As of Thursday, 4,234 sailors have moved ashore to Guam, where the Roosevelt is docked while the ship handles the outbreak.

The Navy conducted an investigation into the situation on the Roosevelt, and top officials have not ruled out reinstating Crozier when it wraps. The investigation results’s release is pending approval from Defense Secretary Mark EsperMark EsperForeign powers test US defenses amid coronavirus pandemic Pentagon to extend troop movement freeze to June 30 What analysts are missing about Trump’s Africa policy MORE.

“My understanding is the Navy completed its investigation last week. They’re coming to see me today, tomorrow, I believe, or the next day, and they will back-brief me on their findings, their recommendations,” Esper said Wednesday night on Fox News.

“I’m sure the Navy is going to make the right recommendations, and I will have to assess those, and we’ll move forward from there,” he added.

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Terrell Davis, Pro Football Hall of Famer, on how coronavirus has actually altered his everyday regular

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Terrell Davis, Pro Football Hall of Famer, on how coronavirus has actually altered his everyday regular

Get all the most recent news on coronavirus and more provided daily to your inbox. Register here.

Quarantine Regimen is a regular function that asks political, company, sports and entertainment power brokers how their every day lives have altered– and how they’re still doing their jobs– during the coronavirus crisis.

Former Denver Broncos running back and Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Davis is finding different ways to normalize life as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has put his profession and life on hold.

Davis played eight seasons with the Broncos where he won 2 Super Bowls and was called Super Bowl MVP in1998 He holds 56 Broncos’ group records, consisting of most points in a season (138), many goals in a season (23) and most total lawns from skirmish (2,225). He was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Popularity in 2017.

Davis has actually worked as an analyst for the NFL Network given that 2009 and regularly partakes in business speaking engagements.

Daivs spoke with Fox News Wednesday to talk about how his life has actually altered as an outcome of the coronavirus pandemic.

CLICK HERE TO GET MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Fox News: How has your everyday routine altered considering that social distancing measures began?

Davis: I would just go to the NFL (Network) studio once a week and after that I would take a trip a fair bit to do appearances and stuff like that. You know, business speaking engagements, so that’s obviously changed.

As far as the important things I do at home, I still get up at– I generally get up at 5 a.m., I get up a little later now. I get up at 5: 30 a.m. I like to get my workouts in before I start the day. I [used to] take the kids to school, whatever it is and then tackle my day, which is a lot of telephone call, it’s a great deal of studying. You understand with football you’re constantly researching stuff, taking a look at the games, players, transactions, all that things. So in some ways, a few of the things that I’ve been doing, I’m still doing, but I’m doing more of.

However it is various since the kids are home and so now it’s a lot of hanging out with them and despite the fact that I have work to do and I’m attempting to get ahead of a great deal of things, they see you and it resembles “Well, OK you can’t go anywhere so let’s play throughout the day.’ I’m investing a lot of time with kids.

I attempt to look at this time as a method to get ahead of whatever. So I went through my files and I cleared out all of my workplace files. From a business standpoint, I’m doing all this stuff– preparing yourself for when life returns to regular.

SUPER BOWL MVP TERRELL DAVIS DONATES $400 G WORTH OF PRODUCTS TO FEEDING AMERICA: ‘IT’S ABOUT LEADING BY EXAMPLE’

Fox News: What are the most significant obstacles in doing your task throughout this crisis?

Davis: Well the most significant obstacle is that I make the majority of my money taking a trip. If I do not take a trip, I do not make cash, so that’s certainly a big challenge. But it really is the human touch, you understand, the actual interactions of simply being out. Whatever [it] is, we like to just be out in society and I think that’s simply hard for anybody to cover their minds around not having the ability to do things as typical.

We are social animals and we much like to be around people. That’s simply tough for us to handle. The social component to it is just very various.

16 Dec 2001 : Terrell Davis #30 of the Denver Broncos is pressured by the defense of the Kansas City Chiefs during the game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. (Elsa/Allsport)

16 Dec 2001: Terrell Davis #30 of the Denver Broncos is pressed by the defense of the Kansas City Chiefs during the game at Arrowhead Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. (Elsa/Allsport).

Fox News: What do you miss the most about life before this began?

Davis: It just feels odd, and I make sure everybody can associate with, simply not having the easy things.

Even having our grandparents over, my kids’ grandparents. They can’t even come over so that is strange for everyone. And then if you have kids, we have three kids and people that have kids can relate– it is tough to tell them they can’t go anywhere therefore then you resemble “What are your options?” Now they’re home, you can only get them to do so much school work and math and reading. Now it’s films and it’s iPads and all these electronic devices and stuff you attempt to keep away from. So you’re trying to pass the time however you’re attempting to make good of it.

We will always remember how odd this feels. I do not understand if we’ll have the ability to inform somebody about this one day when we age. It’s so bizarre.

Fox News: What surprised you most about how your daily life has altered?

Davis: No one knows (when life will go back to regular) so you need to prepare your mind for … yeah, possibly there is some semblance of normalcy but I anticipate this thing to stick around quite deep. It simply feels like it needs to, at least from the mask stand point, a minimum of from the major events, however that effects everything we do. Our sports, that effects still, even at work, there are certain jobs where people still have to have a big quantity of individuals collected and they’re not going to have the ability to do that so this thing is going to be– it seems like it’s going to leave a pretty huge path of damage once it’s over with and I think we’re simply bracing to see how we’re going to deal with it.

I simply try to remain positive … I try to do things that I can put good energy towards and not think of it.

Fox News: How do you blow off steam?

Davis: Either I’m doing workouts and after that I do, which truly helps, is use this ball, which generally [helps with] muscle release … I utilize that an hour a day. It’s not actually– I do not really practice meditation, I used to, however it permits me to unwind with the amount of pressure it puts on my muscles. It injures so excellent, I’m telling you … you feel so great after you’ve done that.

If I’m working, you understand I’m a worker bee, so if I’m working towards developing a talk or in my office doing something that is positive, something that is trying to advance my talk, that’s always excellent.

And After That, when I’m with the kids, just having fun with them– playing basketball in the backyard, that’s a method to relieve the stress. There’s a lot of methods to ease stress. We’re most likely on our 3rd puzzle now that we’ve put together and I enjoy puzzles, so that’s been fun.

It’s been challenging however, I’ve said it previously, this time I have to value it since when things get back to normal, I do not believe we’re ever going to have this type of time with our families, ever again. Just to be with them and have our kids house this amount of time, simply attempting to make the most of that.

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Amazon used data from its own sellers to release competing products in violation of its policies: report

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Amazon used data from its own sellers to release competing products in violation of its policies: report

Amazon employees have used data about the huge variety of independent sellers on its platform to produce competing items– in infraction of its own policies and declarations to Congress, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The retail giant, which has actually felt a surge of goodwill for providing essential goods across the country amidst the coronavirus pandemic and for preparing to work with 175,000 brand-new workers, has actually long claimed that it does not use proprietary data gathered from the site’s third-party sellers in order to produce and sell its own items.

However, according to interviews with more than 20 former workers of the tech company’s private-label organisation and files examined by the Journal, the business did do that. This kind of details is really beneficial, as it can assist Amazon figure out how to price something, what functions of an item to copy or whether it’s worth getting in an item segment based upon consumer interest, sources discussed to the Journal.

DIFFICULTY OF TRACKING COVID-19’s STEALTHY SPREAD REVEALED IN NEW RESEARCH STUDY

The Journal cites one example of Amazon employees gaining access to documents and information about a bestselling car-trunk organizer sold by a third-party supplier. That data consisted of total sales, how much the vendor paid Amazon for marketing and shipping, and just how much Amazon made on each sale. Later, Amazon’s private-label arm presented its own car-trunk organizers.

” Like other merchants, we look at sales and store information to provide our clients with the best possible experience. Nevertheless, we strictly restrict our workers from utilizing non-public, seller-specific data to figure out which personal label items to release. While we do not think these claims are accurate, we take these allegations really seriously and have actually launched an internal examination,” an Amazon representative informed Fox News through e-mail.

In addition, the company’s representative pointed out that typical practices to name a few retailers with substantial personal brand name offerings include understanding the sales volume for products in their stores. The business also pointed out that third-party sellers now represent 58 percent of sales on the platform.

JEFF BEZOS SPENDS ANOTHER $16 MILLION TO BUILD New York City MEGA-MANSION

Although Amazon has stated it has constraints in place to avoid its private-label team from accessing data on specific sellers in its Marketplace, former employees and a present one told the Journal that those guidelines weren’t evenly imposed– and workers found methods around them.

The logo of Amazon is seen above. (Reuters)

The logo design of Amazon is seen above. (Reuters).

” We knew we should not,” stated one previous worker who accessed the data and explained a pattern of utilizing it to release and benefit Amazon items.

Amazon, which has actually been under a microscope for prospective antitrust offenses at the federal level since at least last summertime, is likewise being investigated by European authorities for its third-party selling practices.

The company is most likely to face intense pressure from lawmakers and Huge Tech guard dogs.

California hair salon, hair salon reopen after Newsom pushes to continue lockdown

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California hair salon, hair salon reopen after Newsom pushes to continue lockdown

Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more provided daily to your inbox. Sign up here.

A barbershop and a hair salon in the same northern California town chose to defy the statewide stay-at-home order by opening for company amidst the coronavirus public health crisis, according to a report Wednesday.

It comes the exact same day Gov. Gavin Newsom stated lockdown steps would continue up until California bolsters its screening capability.

The owners of Charm Bar Hair Salon and Clip Cage, both in Auburn, about 33 miles northeast of Sacramento, claim they do not receive unemployment and that their applications for the Income Protection Program were denied, Fox 40 Sacramento reported.

” Just how much longer am I supposed to decrease the rabbit hole prior to I just throw in the towel and go back to work?” Charm Bar Hair salon owner Tisha Fernhoff informed Fox 40.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Close-up photo of barber’s hands with scissors cutting hair

Close-up image of barber’s hands with scissors cutting hair.

” I need to do what I need to do. I’m fighting to provide for my kids and myself and my household right now. It’s been very hard. I’m pregnant. I have children in the house,” Clip Cage owner Breann Curtis said.

” They require to do something. They require to assist us to open. People are losing their beauty parlors,” Curtis continued. “People are losing their hair salons. People are losing their business. That’s going to affect the economy, extremely.”

Following the lead from numerous Bay-Area counties, Newsom provided a statewide stay-at-home order on March 19, successfully shutting down all inessential companies throughout the state. Though the guv has insisted the lockdown should continue until information reveals a stable decrease in infections statewide, several counties have actually started gradually lifting their local stay-at-home orders.

In his press conference Wednesday, Newsom, a Democrat, stated President Trump agreed to send out critically required specimens swabs to California to start antibody testing, putting the state on target to increase its daily capacity from 14,500 to 25,000 tests daily by the end of April, the Los Angeles Times reported.

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA COUNTY WANTS NEWSOM TO RAISE STAY-AT-HOME ORDER FOR THEM BEFORE OTHERS

Hundreds of people were ordered off beaches in northern California over the weekend for violating shelter-in-place orders. In Pacifica, police said that roughly 45 percent of the vehicles counted near beach and trail areas were from areas outside of five miles from which they were registered. 

Hundreds of people were bought off beaches in northern California over the weekend for breaking shelter-in-place orders. In Pacifica, police said that roughly 45 percent of the vehicles counted near beach and trail locations were from locations outside of 5 miles from which they were signed up..
( KTVU)

On The Other Hand, Ventura County allowed citizens to return to their beaches and public parks, offered they maintain appropriate social distancing measures.

Golf courses will likewise open, with staff members wearing individual protective equipment and connecting with visitors in a restricted capability, the Times reported.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The county declared it’s prepared to resume the economy and is prepared for a prospective new wave in cases after using the time in lockdown to increase its stockpile of individual protective devices, increase its testing capacity and invest in a brand-new website that might accommodate care for more than 900 ill clients

But San Luis Obispo, known for its wine tasting in Paso Robles and scenic traveler spots in Morro Bay and Pismo Beach, could end up being a magnet.

Rep fumes at hearing over small businesses locked out of stimulus loans: ‘They got tricked!’

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Rep fumes at hearing over small businesses locked out of stimulus loans: ‘They got tricked!’

Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.

The House Small Business Committee on Thursday examined the difficulties small businesses have faced during the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic — particularly how failures in the implementation of the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program led to many being unable to acquire forgivable loans before the pool of money ran out.

While restaurant chains such as Shake Shack were able to acquire millions of dollars in loans from the program, many small local businesses were left empty-handed. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., recalled speaking to constituents who hoped for assistance and received nothing, as he hammered the system and called for an investigation.

PELOSI ACCUSES MCCONNELL, GOP OF HOLDING UP CORONAVIRUS FUNDS

“They got tricked! They got led astray! They got bamboozled! And they are, respectfully, Madam Chair, mad as hell,” Espaillat said. “I am mad as hell!”

The New York Democrat who represents Upper Manhattan and part of the Bronx said he could “literally count on one hand” the small business owners who did get help under the CARES Act. He blamed this on improper use of the program and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

“This is a major problem. It is absolutely not how any of intended for this program to work,” he said. “The actors who perpetrated this must be investigated and they must face consequences.”

The meeting came ahead of a full House vote on another stimulus bill that would provide additional funds to keep the program going so more businesses could apply.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Espaillat suggested that moving forward, more local lenders should be allowed to participate so that business owners who do not have relationships with larger financial institutions can get help.

“We must do better,” he said. “We must bail out Main Street!”

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Covid-19 roundup: Harvard scientist who invested in Moderna early becomes a pandemic billionaire — and he’s giving much of the money away

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Covid-19 roundup: Harvard scientist who invested in Moderna early becomes a pandemic billionaire — and he’s giving much of the money away

Covid-19 has vault­ed a Har­vard pro­fes­sor in­to the glob­al ranks of bil­lion­aires.

Tim­o­thy Springer, the soft-spo­ken, gar­den-tend­ing, Chi­nese rock-col­lect­ing im­mu­nol­o­gist made some head­lines a cou­ple years ago when it got out that he was the 4th largest share­hold­er in Mod­er­na, a com­pa­ny that was launch­ing the largest IPO in biotech his­to­ry. Springer, who made his first for­tune from sell­ing his com­pa­ny LeukoSite to Mil­len­ni­um Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals for $100 mil­lion, had made an ear­ly $5 mil­lion in­vest­ment in the com­pa­ny in 2010 af­ter founder and fel­low Har­vard sci­en­tist Der­rick Rossi asked him for ad­vice on how to pitch to ven­ture cap­i­tal­ists, who had con­sis­tent­ly passed on his mR­NA-based idea. Even­tu­al­ly Rossi found a tak­er in Flag­ship, who want­ed to build not sim­ply a biotech but es­sen­tial­ly a new phar­ma gi­ant. Mod­er­na went pub­lic in 2018. Springer made $400 mil­lion overnight.

Tim­o­thy Springer

Then, this year, Mod­er­na emerged as the fron­trun­ner to build a vac­cine for Covid-19, quick­ly be­com­ing the first com­pa­ny to put their vac­cine in the clin­ic and re­cent­ly nab­bing a near­ly $500 mil­lion con­tract from BAR­DA. As the virus spread and shook the glob­al econ­o­my by its roots, in­vestors poured mon­ey in­to the biotech. The stock shot up 152% in three-and-a-half months. CEO Stéphane Ban­cel, with his stock op­tions, soon be­came a bil­lion­aire.

And yes­ter­day, Bloomberg re­port­ed, so did Springer. His in­vest­ment in a friend’s start­up is now worth over $800 mil­lion. That’s a 17,000% re­turn. With his oth­er funds, that puts him in­to the biotech bil­lion­aires club, along­side folks like Robert Dug­gan and Patrick Soon-Sh­iong.

It al­so puts him along­side Zoom founder Er­ic Yuan and Do­cuSign chair­man Kei­th Krach in the per­haps un­com­fort­able but cer­tain­ly en­vi­able po­si­tion of pas­sive­ly prof­it­ing off a pan­dem­ic that has shut down the glob­al econ­o­my and cost 20 mil­lion jobs in the US alone.

Springer said his mon­ey, though, won’t stay in pock­et. Most of it will go to the In­sti­tute for Pro­tein In­no­va­tion, an open source hub he and col­league An­drew Kruse found­ed sev­er­al years ago to de­sign an­ti­bod­ies and oth­er pro­teins as cures for in­tractable dis­eases.

@mod­er­na_tx is led by great team. Since I live a rel­a­tive­ly mod­est aca­d­e­m­ic lifestyle it’s go­ing to @IPI_Pro­tein. I like ac­tive phil­an­thropy even more than ac­tive in­vest­ing. https://t.co/ek­GrFTe8DI

— tim­o­thy springer (@tim­o­th­yspringer) April 23, 2020

It suits his aca­d­e­m­ic lifestyle, he said, one cen­tered on a sin­gle home in Chest­nut Hill, aca­d­e­mics, gar­den­ing and col­lect­ing gong­shi, or schol­ar’s rocks. Still, if Mod­er­na emerges with a vac­cine for this once-in-a-cen­tu­ry virus, part of the cred­it may be­long to Springer, and to some ad­vice — and $5 mil­lion — he gave to a younger col­league a decade ago. — Ja­son Mast 

Vol­un­teers in NIH tri­al get sec­ond shot of Mod­er­na’s vac­cine

Twen­ty eight days have passed since vol­un­teers in Seat­tle re­ceived their first shot of the first Covid-19 vac­cine to be test­ed in hu­mans. And in­ves­ti­ga­tors are now wel­com­ing them back for the sec­ond in­jec­tion.

The Phase I tri­al, con­duct­ed at Kaiser Per­ma­nente in Seat­tle and Emory Uni­ver­si­ty in At­lanta, Geor­gia, tests Mod­er­na’s mR­NA vac­cine can­di­date. As safe­ty is its main end­point, the fact that it’s still go­ing on is good news.

“The tri­al hasn’t been stopped. We know from the study pro­to­col that if ad­verse events had hap­pened, the pro­to­col would have re­quired that,” Lisa Jack­son, a se­nior in­ves­ti­ga­tor at Kaiser who is lead­ing the tri­al, told USA To­day. “There­fore we pre­sume those things haven’t hap­pened.”

The sec­ond shot that vol­un­teers will re­ceive is in­tend­ed to build on the im­muno­genic­i­ty giv­en by the first primer shot, so that the body can pro­duce an­ti­bod­ies more rapid­ly when it’s ex­posed to the re­al SARS-CoV-2.

Hav­ing en­rolled 45 par­tic­i­pants in the first round, the NIH is ex­pand­ing the tri­al to in­clude 60 more adults over the age of 56.

Mod­er­na — which re­cent­ly se­cured $483 mil­lion from BAR­DA to rapid­ly ramp up man­u­fac­tur­ing and re­cruit 150 more staffers — has in­di­cat­ed that it in­tends to con­tin­ue its break­neck de­vel­op­ment pace and launch a Phase II this quar­ter if the ini­tial re­sults come in pos­i­tive. — Am­ber Tong

Can Farx­i­ga pro­tect Covid-19 pa­tients from or­gan fail­ure and death? As­traZeneca launch­es PhI­II

As doc­tors be­gin to get a clear­er pic­ture of Covid-19’s clin­i­cal man­i­fes­ta­tions, the search for drugs to push back the most se­vere con­se­quences of SARS-CoV-2 in­fec­tion has turned up un­like­ly can­di­dates. In the lat­est ex­am­ple, As­traZeneca has launched a Phase III tri­al to test the abil­i­ty of Farx­i­ga, orig­i­nal­ly ap­proved for di­a­betes, to re­duce the risk of se­ri­ous com­pli­ca­tions and or­gan fail­ure.

Da­ta from its ex­ten­sive Farx­i­ga pro­gram have shown that it has a pro­tec­tive ef­fect in pa­tients with heart fail­ure with re­duced ejec­tion frac­tion (HFrEF), chron­ic kid­ney dis­ease (CKD) and type 2 di­a­betes, As­traZeneca point­ed out. Co­in­ci­den­tal­ly, “car­diac, re­nal and meta­bol­ic co­mor­bidi­ties have been as­so­ci­at­ed with poor out­comes and death in Covid-19 pa­tients.”

The phar­ma gi­ant is team­ing up with Saint Luke’s Mid Amer­i­ca Heart In­sti­tute on the place­bo-con­trolled tri­al, dubbed DARE-19. It will en­roll pa­tients who have a med­ical his­to­ry of hy­per­ten­sion, ath­er­o­scle­rot­ic CV dis­ease, HFrEF, CKD or T2D, and shoot for a di­rect mea­sure of ef­fi­ca­cy: time to first oc­cur­rence of death from any cause or new/wors­ened or­gan dys­func­tion.

All pa­tients will re­ceive stan­dard-of-care ther­a­py.

As­traZeneca has been ac­tive re­pur­pos­ing some of its biggest drugs for Covid-19, re­cent­ly kick­ing off a piv­otal tri­al for the BTK in­hibitor Calquence. That’s on top of ef­forts to dis­cov­er new an­ti­body-based treat­ments that could be de­ployed ear­li­er in dis­ease pro­gres­sion. — Am­ber Tong

Pan­dem­ic im­pacts close to two-thirds of one CRO’s clin­i­cal sites

We’ve all heard, through up­dates from bio­phar­ma com­pa­nies here and there, how the pan­dem­ic is weigh­ing on clin­i­cal tri­als. But what’s the sit­u­a­tion like from a bird’s eye view? A con­tract re­search or­ga­ni­za­tion has pro­vid­ed an­oth­er da­ta point.

ICON, which op­er­ates in 40 coun­tries, re­port­ed in its quar­ter­ly up­date that around 65% of its glob­al clin­i­cal sites were im­pact­ed in some way by the pan­dem­ic.

“Fur­ther­more, we are see­ing Site ID & en­roll­ment de­lays due to site clo­sures and move­ment re­stric­tions on pa­tients. We are proac­tive­ly re­view­ing and agree­ing to al­ter­na­tive ap­proach­es with cus­tomers on a study-by-study ba­sis, in­clud­ing re­mote and risk based mon­i­tor­ing and ‘at home’ ser­vices de­liv­ered through our Sym­pho­ny Clin­i­cal Re­search group,” the com­pa­ny wrote.

Ex­ecs are adopt­ing a cost con­tain­ment plan to weath­er the cri­sis, in­clud­ing salary re­duc­tions, a re­cruit­ment freeze, cut­ting con­trac­tors and oth­er ex­pen­di­tures.

The sil­ver lin­ing is that op­er­a­tions in Chi­na, which be­gan hav­ing is­sues in Feb­ru­ary, are see­ing con­di­tions im­prove since mid-March with sites re-open­ing and mon­i­tor­ing ac­tiv­i­ties re­sum­ing. — Am­ber Tong

UK out­lines na­tion­wide study to test for virus, an­ti­bod­ies and gauge the scale of the out­break

The UK will con­duct a large na­tion­al study to sur­vey the rate of Covid-19 in­fec­tion in its pop­u­la­tion — which should yield cru­cial num­bers to in­form when it can re­lax lock­down mea­sures.

Over 300,000 peo­ple will be test­ed reg­u­lar­ly for the coro­n­avirus over the next year for the virus via self-ad­min­is­tered swabs, 1,000 of whom will al­so be asked to pro­vide blood sam­ples to see if they’ve de­vel­oped an­ti­bod­ies against the virus. Sci­en­tists at Ox­ford are in the process of val­i­dat­ing an an­ti­body test for the tri­al af­ter find­ing that most of the kits the gov­ern­ment has pur­chased give in­ac­cu­rate re­sults.

Health sec­re­tary Matt Han­cock said the study should “con­tin­ue to build up our un­der­stand­ing of this new virus,” such as the ex­tent of com­mu­ni­ty trans­mis­sion and how long im­mu­ni­ty lasts. A pi­lot will be­gin short­ly in­volv­ing 20,000 house­holds.

IQVIA will dis­patch its nurs­es to con­duct home vis­its where they will ask the par­tic­i­pants ques­tions and, when an an­ti­body test is in­volved, draw blood sam­ples. — Am­ber Tong

Chi­nese vac­cine de­vel­op­er notch­es loan and land to scale up man­u­fac­tur­ing as hu­man study gets un­der­way

Sino­vac — one of two Chi­nese de­vel­op­ers to get IND clear­ance for a coro­n­avirus vac­cine tri­al in re­cent days — has quick­ly racked up new loans and land to man­u­fac­ture up to 100 mil­lion shots a year.

The Bank of Bei­jing pro­vid­ed an $8.5 mil­lion (RMB$60 mil­lion) cred­it line to match Sino­vac’s own in­vest­ment while the city gov­ern­ment gave it ac­cess to 70,000 square me­ters of land in the Dax­ing dis­trict. The biotech plans to build a large pro­duc­tion com­plex for mul­ti­ple prod­ucts, with one plant de­vot­ed to the coro­n­avirus vac­cine if it proves ef­fec­tive in tri­als.

“It took one, two weeks for the (lo­cal gov­ern­ment) de­ci­sion,” an anony­mous ex­ec told Reuters. “Pre­vi­ous­ly, two years wouldn’t have been long enough to com­plete ne­go­ti­a­tions.”

The speed un­der­scores the ur­gency for pro­tec­tion against a dead­ly dis­ease that’s killed thou­sands in Chi­na and more than 180,000 world­wide.

Sino­vac is a Nas­daq-list­ed com­pa­ny that mar­kets vac­cines for he­pati­tis A, he­pati­tis B and H1N1 in­fluen­za do­mes­ti­cal­ly. — Am­ber Tong

Azar re­lied on trust­ed aide and side­lined Hahn in ear­ly days of coro­n­avirus re­sponse — re­ports

FDA Com­mis­sion­er Stephen Hahn was ex­clud­ed from the coro­n­avirus task force ear­ly in the US out­break on HHS sec­re­tary Alex Azar’s or­der, Reuters re­port­ed. Rather, the for­mer in­dus­try ex­ec tapped his chief of staff, who had to co­or­di­nate his agency’s re­sponse.

Bri­an Har­ri­son had worked in the of­fice of the deputy HHS sec­re­tary in the George W. Bush ad­min­is­tra­tion — over­lap­ping with Azar’s ear­li­er HHS tenure — and held oth­er fed­er­al po­si­tions be­fore go­ing off to run busi­ness­es in Texas, in­clud­ing a stint breed­ing labradoo­dles, ac­cord­ing to the Wall Street Jour­nal. He was re­cruit­ed back to the HHS in 2018 and pro­mot­ed to chief of staff last June.

Be­fore Vice Pres­i­dent Pence took over from Azar as the head of the coro­n­avirus task force, he re­port­ed­ly served as the key man­ag­er through whom “every­one had to re­port up.” Some White House of­fi­cials ap­par­ent­ly called him “the dog breed­er,” sources told Reuters.

The new re­ports in­ten­si­fy some ap­par­ent in-fight­ing with­in the top de­part­ments tasked with tack­ling the biggest pub­lic health cri­sis the coun­try has seen in years. Rick Bright, un­til re­cent­ly the chief of Bio­med­ical Ad­vanced Re­search and De­vel­op­ment Au­thor­i­ty — an­oth­er HHS unit — said he was oust­ed be­cause he stood against “drugs, vac­cines and oth­er tech­nolo­gies that lack sci­en­tif­ic mer­it.” Specif­i­cal­ly, he cit­ed his cau­tious stance on chloro­quine and hy­drox­y­chloro­quine, which Pres­i­dent Trump tout­ed as po­ten­tial game-chang­ers with­out de­fin­i­tive ev­i­dence. — Am­ber Tong

So­cial im­age: Tim­o­thy Springer (Boston Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal)

For a look at all End­points News coro­n­avirus sto­ries, check out our spe­cial news chan­nel.

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Why did so lots of New Yorkers with COVID-19 wait till it was far too late to call an ambulance?

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Why did so lots of New Yorkers with COVID-19 wait till it was far too late to call an ambulance?

Considering that the start of the coronavirus break out, thousands of New York City citizens with signs of the disease it triggers have called for ambulances, just to die before or just after the EMTs showed up.

Why? The specialists and the information recommend the factors are linked to the clients’ house addresses– but likewise to results of the infection on the body that have actually entered into better focus only after six weeks of deaths. Numerous clients probably didn’t know how ill they actually were.

NBC News reviewed information from Emergency Medical Services, the department of the city’s fire department that handles 911 calls, showing that the number of heart calls– requires patients whose hearts have stopped or are near death– has actually increased since the start of the pandemic, as has the number of those calls that end in death. The rise is especially visible in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

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On March 23, EMS call volume started increasing to record levels, from 4,000 on an average day to more than 6,500 calls a day.

The fire department’s chief of emergency medical services, Lillian Bonsignore, stated at the time, “I have actually been in this occupation for about 30 years, and I have actually never seen anything like this in my whole profession– or in my life, for that matter.”

From March 1 to April 13, bad neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens tape-recorded 2 to 3 times the number of cardiac calls compared to the exact same duration in 2019, with three to five times as lots of patients passing away.

From March 1 to April 13, 2019, almost 60 percent of heart call patients in the borough of Queens made it through. This year throughout the exact same period, 70 percent passed away.

Professionals say that patients in those poor areas are more likely to have hidden conditions like heart disease and diabetes that can make coronavirus infection lethal and that they might be wary of seeking healthcare till an emergency situation occurs due to the fact that of the expense. The communities likewise have higher varieties of people per residence and lots of multigenerational households, assisting the spread of transmittable illness.

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A look at the city’s poverty rates by ZIP code and information from the fire department’s 911 dispatch system reveals the link. In the Bronx areas encompassing POSTAL CODE 10456, 10467 and 10468, 28 percent to 38 percent of citizens live below the hardship line, compared to a citywide rate of 18 percent. In those POSTAL CODE, there were 114 heart calls and 46 deaths a year earlier. This year, over the very same March 1-to-April 13 period, there were 346 cardiac calls and 223 deaths.

In the Rockaways, a location of Queens, the hardship rate is close to 20 percent, and 60 percent of the population recognizes as black or Hispanic, both groups hit hard by COVID-19, the illness associated with the coronavirus. There were 76 heart calls and 35 deaths a year ago. This year, the overalls were 204 heart calls and 151 deaths.

In Brooklyn’s East New york city, the poverty rate techniques 25 percent, and more than 90 percent of the population identifies as black or Hispanic. There were 79 cardiac calls with 34 deaths last year, compared to 168 cardiac calls and 114 deaths this year.

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The information dramatically contrast with the numbers from affluent lower Manhattan. In ZIP codes that cover the financial district, Tribeca and parts of SoHo, the hardship rate averages 8.8 percent and more than two-thirds of citizens are white. In 2015, there were 30 cardiac calls with 12 deaths, and this year there were 42 heart calls with 23 deaths. There were more calls and more deaths, but absolutely nothing like the uptick in poorer, nonwhite areas.

Dr. Ashwin Vasan, an assistant professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, called the information significant, saying, “This infection has entered our society and merely exposed the structural weak points and the inequities and the variations that were currently there.”

Lung capacity

However Vasan and Dr. Eili Klein, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency situation Medication, both stated other, non-demographic factors also fed the spike in heart calls.

They stated messaging to members of the public early in the break out about avoiding medical facilities unless they were very ill probably led individuals to stay at home with lesser signs.

As medical professionals’ understanding of the illness enhanced, they found that numerous patients had actually significantly reduced lung capacity long before they showed those severe symptoms that were expected to make them call 911.

Klein stated COVID-19 can cut lung capacity by as much as 50 percent prior to a client even knows it, like a kind of “cryptic” pneumonia. People can feel sick but not brief of breath.

” It’s attacking the lungs in such a way that’s not completely giving all the signals to your immune system that it’s assaulting the lungs, so the lungs are sort of acting frequently,” Klein stated.

Vasan said this concealed phenomenon can cause a sudden decline in a COVID-19 patient’s health, the kind that elicits a 911 call when it’s far too late. “Individuals are at home with these actually low oxygen levels,” he stated, “and then they hit that tipping point, and it just gets beyond the point of return– when it comes to this data, the point of heart attack.”

A doctor who has been dealing with patients at one of New York City’s busiest healthcare facilities, Richard Levitan, wrote in a New york city Times viewpoint piece about patients he treated who had symptoms for extended periods prior to they went to the health center.

” To my awe,” Levitan composed, “most patients I saw stated they had been sick for a week approximately with fever, cough, indigestion and tiredness, but they just became brief of breath the day they pertained to the hospital.”

” We are simply beginning to recognize that COVID pneumonia initially causes a form of oxygen deprivation we call ‘silent hypoxia’– ‘quiet’ since of its insidious, hard-to-detect nature,” he wrote.

Vasan and Klein both stated EMS did the best it could in March and April given the hand it was dealt.

” I believe our EMS operators are heroes, our FDNY are heroes,” Vasan said, “and they did the very best and they’ve been doing the very best with a very challenging set of situations.”

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Blood clotting seen as additional threat for coronavirus patients: report

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Blood clotting seen as additional threat for coronavirus patients: report

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Doctors are beginning to notice that blood clots could be another troubling complication for patients who are hospitalized with coronavirus.

The clots present the latest challenge for doctors working to understand the new virus that is known to cause respiratory disease. These clots are being found in younger patients and can result in sudden strokes, according to reports Wednesday.

“It’s very striking how much this disease causes clots to form,” Dr. J Mocco, a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital, in New York, told Reuters.

NEARLY ALL NY CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS SUFFERED UNDERLYING HEALTH ISSUE, STUDY FINDS

Resident doctor Kelvin Lou attends to a patient in a COVID suspect room in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at St. Paul's hospital in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia on April 21. <br data-cke-eol=
(Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP)” src=”https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2020/04/640/320/AP20113643137008.jpg?ve=1&tl=1″>

Resident doctor Kelvin Lou attends to a patient in a COVID suspect room in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at St. Paul’s hospital in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia on April 21. 

(Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP)

Mocco said he saw 32 stroke patients with large blood blockages in the brain, and at least half tested positive for the virus. Five of the patients had no risk factors for strokes and were under the age of 49, which he said was “Very, very atypical.”

Dr. Hooman Poor, a lung specialist at the hospital, noticed blood was not flowing well through the lungs of 14 patients on ventilators, which he determined was due to clotting.

“I feel like all these patients have blood clots in their lungs,’” Poor said, according to the news organization.

On April 13, a study published by researchers in the Netherlands found that 31 percent of intensive-care unit coronavirus patients they observed had a complication associated with clotting. The study described the findings as “remarkably high.”

NEW YORK STATE RESCINDS DNR ORDER FOR CARDIAC PATIENTS AMID CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

Michael Reagan, a 49-year-old COVID-19 patient in New York, was informed by a pulmonologist that he had dozens of blood clots throughout his lungs.

“It feels like a toxin is in my body,” Reagan told Business Insider. “I had no idea a blood clot could hurt so bad.”

Certain treatments could involve having patients take high doses of a blood-thinning drug to prevent the clotting from appearing, although they haven’t been proven, according to Reuters.

Tony Award-nominated actor Nick Cordero has had his right leg amputated after suffering complications from the coronavirus, including clotting, his wife said earlier this month.

“We took him off blood thinners but that again was going to cause some clotting in the right leg, so the right leg will be amputated today,” she added.

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Blood thinners on high-risk patients may also lead to bleeding in the brain or certain vital organs, health officials told the news organization.

While clotting can happen in anyone who stays idle on a ventilator for long periods of time, doctors said it appears to show up sooner in COVID-19 patients.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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Fit and healthy people wearing masks could make them more at risk of infection, says expert

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While wearing masks could help reduce the spread of coronavirus, there is some risk that fit and healthy people could find themselves at greater risk of infection by wearing them, a medic has warned.

Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said it would make sense to advise the public to wear masks on a voluntary basis to reduce the chance of the spread of coronavirus.

But he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there is a risk that fit and healthy people could be increasing their chance of infection by wearing a mask that encourages them to touch their face.

His comments come as the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) was expected to discuss the usage of masks in a meeting on Thursday.

“There’s no research evidence to support wearing masks if you are basically fit and well,” said Prof Marshall.

“Indeed if people wear masks there’s a risk they play around with it, they play with their eyes more and maybe you’re even at a higher risk of picking up an infection.

“However it is common sense that if they are coughing and spluttering then it makes complete sense to wear masks in order to protect other people.”

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He went on: “I think the guidance that we’re expecting to hear is that the wearing of face masks is a voluntary activity not mandated and it certainly makes a lot of sense to focus limited resources that we have at the moment on those who have greatest need and that’s the health professionals.

“This sophisticated kit is likely to be more rigorous, more useful, but actually it’s perfectly reasonable to wear a bandanna around your mouth or whatever, that will work, it won’t be quite as good but it will be good enough.”

Also on Thursday morning, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said no new decision had been made on wearing masks ahead of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) meeting.

He told BBC Breakfast: “Sage is meeting today but we haven’t yet had that advice as ministers yet.

“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and prejudge what will come out of Sage just yet. There’s no change at the moment.”

On Wednesday, health secretary Matt Hancock said he “can’t promise” that everyone across the UK will be given free protective masks if scientific advice dictates that they should be worn.

Hancock was responding to a question in the Commons from Labour former minister Hilary Benn, who asked whether members of the public would be expected to source their own masks if they are required to wear them in certain situations by government guidance.

The health secretary responded: “We’ll follow the advice, we’ll listen to what the Sage advisory group says on masks and then we will implement that.

“I can’t promise that we will give everybody free masks, I mean that would be an extraordinary undertaking, and we do have to make sure that we have supplies available especially for health and social care staff, where the scientific advice throughout has been that the wearing of masks is necessary in those circumstances and we’ve got to make sure the provision is there for them.”

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