Monthly Archives: June 2020

When Jennie Stejna tested positive for coronavirus in late April, her family began preparing for the worst, granddaughter Shelley Gunn said.

At one point, her family was told that Stejna had stopped eating and drinking and might not make it through the night. They called her for one last goodbye, Gunn said.

When Gunn's husband, a Navy retiree, asked Stejna if she was ready to pass away, she responded "Hell yeah," according to the family.

"She's always been a feisty woman," Gunn said.

But instead of a grim phone call from Stejna's nursing home, on May 8 they received the news that she had tested negative, and was symptom-free, the family said.

"The nurses came into her room, and she said, "I'm not sick anymore, Get the hell out,'" Gunn said.

The nursing home staff honored Stejna's perseverance with one of her favorite treats -- an ice-cold beer.

"I think it's given everyone a smile and some hope, while it's dark days for everybody," Gunn said.

Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.

Read the rest here:

103-year-old woman celebrates beating Covid-19 with a cold beer - CNN

Editors note: This is a live account of updates from Sunday, May 31, as the events unfolded. Click here to find the latest extended coverage of the outbreak of the coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2; the illness it causes, COVID-19; and its effects on the Seattle area, the Pacific Northwest and the world.

On Saturday, representatives with the Seattle parks and neighborhoods departments handed out hundreds of single-use use masks to people taking part in the days demonstrations.Several groups at the protests handed out masks, water and sanitizing wipes to participants.

Seattle Premium Outlets on the Tulalip Reservation reopened Saturday, with restrictions, after a two-month closure to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Snohomish County shopping centers 100-plus stores will limit how many customers can enter at one time, and face masks, sanitizing wipes and temperature testing will be available at the outlet malls entrances, owner Simon Property Group said Saturday in a news release. Some common areas will have signs directing traffic flow.

About 1% of kids who visited a Seattle hospital in April had been infected with the novel coronavirus, according to the first large-scale survey for antibodies in children. The study also found most of the youngsters developed a robust immune response, an encouraging sign for a future vaccine.Most of the children who tested positive for antibodies had no symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. That fits with widespread evidence that children are much less likely than adults to become ill or die.

Throughout Sunday, on this page, well post updates from Seattle Times journalists and others on the pandemic and its effects on the Seattle area, the Pacific Northwest and the world. Updates from Saturday can be found here, and all our coronavirus coverage can be found here.

The following graphic includes the most recent numbers from the Washington State Department of Health, released Sunday.

For many protesters in Seattle over the weekend, the outrage over racial injustices outweighed the risk of contracting COVID-19.

That calculus sent people streaming into the streets of downtown Seattle, where they shouted face to face with authorities andpushed into tight crowds, although many wore masks.

Now experts and public health officials are cautioning the large gatheringsthe first of this scale since the pandemic was declared could set back the regions recovery from the novel coronavirus epidemic.

We will need to watch COVID-19 activity closely in King County over the next several weeks, David Postman, Gov. Jay Inslees chief of staff, said in an email. The protests, though, would not affect the countyscurrent application to reopensome parts of the economy, he said.

Read more.

Mike Reicher

State health officials confirmed 353 new COVID-19 cases in Washington on Saturday, with no new deaths.

The update brings the states totals to 21,702 cases and 1,118 deaths, according the Department of Healths (DOH)data dashboard.

So far, 360,899 tests for the novel coronavirus have been conducted in the state, per DOH. Of those, 6% have come back positive.

King County, the state's most populous, has reported 8,092 total cases and 567 deaths, accounting for 50.7% of the state's death toll.

According to a Bloomberg article, small fitness clubs across Georgia and Oklahoma among the most aggressive U.S. states in reopening their economies are reporting that 75% or more of their customers have returned over past weeks. In most cases, gym owners say their clients are behaving, keeping distances and wiping down their equipment.

While some members are slower to return and other clubs are folding because their business is no longer viable, anecdotal evidence suggests that hardcore fitness addicts rushed to get back to their sweat-filled gyms as soon as they could.

Read more.

Michael Sasso, Olga Kharif and Emma Kinery

While most people desperately yearn for the moment its deemed safe for them to resume their former lives and all that goes with it even traffic jams and endless meetings are bathed in the rosy glow of nostalgia there are outliers who would like things to go on like this for a good long time. Not for them the mix of ennui and dread that characterizes sheltering in place.

They love sheltering in place.

They are, to a person, horrified by what the pandemic has wrought and are humbled by the sacrifices made by those on the front line. They do not, for a minute, minimize what it is going on. But they have, sometimes to their surprise, found contentment and peace in the situation that has been thrust upon them.

If Im honest I dont like leaving home anyway. I dont like crowds. I dont like going to the beach. Thats always been my personality, said New Jersey's Ethan Rasiel. Im Zooming with people and thats good enough for me.

To hear from more people like Rasiel, read the New York Times' "Loving the lockdown."

Joanne Kaufman, New York Times

The coronavirus pandemic that brought sports to a standstill for months has everyone wondering what games will be like when spectators are finally allowed back in.

The changes will be big and small, temporary and long-lasting.

Fans could have their every move scrutinized by cameras and lasers. There might be nobody in the next seat to high-five after a touchdown. The idea of passing cash to a beer vendor between innings will be a memory. Temperature screenings and medical checks could be mandatory to get in. By having virtual tickets scanned on their smart phones, fans could be acknowledging the health risk of attending a game while surrendering some of their personal privacy.

It all begs the question: Will fans be able to have any fun?

Learn more about all the changes under consideration and what they mean for sports fans.

Dave Skretta, Associated Press

Roughly16,000 DACA recipientsin Washington 650,000 in the U.S., as of December will be affected by a long-awaited decision from the U.S. Supreme Court onwhetherPresident Donald Trumps attempt to endthe Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was legal a decision that could come in June.

The pandemic has brought even more intensity to the debate and a new wrinkle for the court to consider.

Healthcare providers on the frontlines of our nations fight against COVID-19 rely significantly upon DACA recipients to perform essential work, reads an Aprilsupplemental plaintiffs brief,atypically acceptedby the court though oral arguments had happened months before.

Read the full story here.

Nina Shapiro

One of the first personal protective equipment drone drops in the U.S. took place this month.

The drone was launched by Novant Health, which operates 15 hospitals and close to 700 different facilities in the southeastern U.S. The health care system said it hopes to use regular flights to deliver masks, gowns, gloves and other protective gear.

In the future, the company hopes to use them for testing, drug trials and vaccine distribution.

The COVID-19 pandemic has tasked us with being even more nimble and innovative in how we solve complex challenges, said Angela Yochem, Novants chief digital and technology officer.

Read the full story here.

The Associated Press

Protests in cities across the U.S.over repeated racial injustices are raising fears of new coronavirus outbreaks, as thousands of people gather after weeks of social distancing efforts.

We have two crises that are sandwiched on top of one other, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.

Health experts fear that silent carriers of the virus could unwittingly infect others at protests where people are packed cheek to jowl, many without masks, many chanting, singing or shouting. The virus is dispersed by microscopic droplets in the air when people cough, sneeze, sing or talk.

Read the full story.

The Associated Press

The coronavirus pandemic's impact may even extend to orcas: With recreational boat traffic in the Salish Sea down due to stay-at-home orders, researchers are investigating how the orcas are responding.

The southern resident orcas hunt by sound, and disturbance and noise caused by boats and vessels form one ofthree main threats to their survival,in addition to lack of adequate chinook salmon (their preferred food)and pollution.

The Northwest whale watch industry is anticipating a restart at some point this summer, with retrofits for social distancing.

Read the full story.

Lynda V. Mapes

Seven new deaths and 278 additional COVID-19 cases were reported in Washington, bringing the state's total to 21,349 cases and 1,118 deaths.

Seattle City Council members are proposing that gig drivers for services like Instacart, Uber and Lyft should recieve paid sick days and an extra $5 in pay per trip until the pandemic subsides.

A new analysis shows that the U.S. likely reached the milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths three weeks ago.

Researchers continue to study the post-viral problems that patients suffer from after otherwise recovering from the virus. There have been reports ofdamage to lungs, kidneys and hearts, as well as fatigue, muscle pain, and cognitive problems.

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Coronavirus daily news updates, May 31: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state, and the world - Seattle Times

Traditional Din medicine practitioner Jeneda Benally, pictured here with her daughter Dahi, is trying to preserve cultural wisdom in danger of being lost during the pandemic. Laurel Morales/KJZZ hide caption

Traditional Din medicine practitioner Jeneda Benally, pictured here with her daughter Dahi, is trying to preserve cultural wisdom in danger of being lost during the pandemic.

In Navajo culture to speak of death is taboo. But since the tribe's coronavirus infection rate has become the highest in the country, they can't help but talk about it.

"It's killing every day," says medicine man Ty Davis, who knows at least five traditional practitioners who have died from COVID-19.

"It put me into shock," he says. "What do we do now? How do we retrieve that knowledge that these elders once knew now that they have died with those ceremonies? How do we get those back?"

Each medicine person specializes in different ceremonies. So when someone dies they take that knowledge with them. Over the last several decades the tribe has gone from a thousand Din or Navajo medicine people to just 300. The coronavirus threatens the few who remain.

Medicine man Avery Denny is attempting to change that trajectory by taking on apprentices where he teaches at Din College on the Navajo Nation.

Professor Avery Denny sings the the Journey Song to college graduates.

"I have great great concerns," Denny says.

Denny says he's up against centuries of colonialism when it comes to preserving Navajo culture and tradition. The federal government forced tribes to relocate, sent Native children to boarding schools where they were beaten for speaking their language for singing their songs.

"Young people are acculturated, assimilated, dominated. They're losing their language and their culture," Denny says.

Denny says white missionaries are also to blame for replacing Navajo religion.

"Christianity is the belief that our people turned to even our leadership so there's no guidance," Denny says. "There's no leader that says, 'OK we'll turn to Navajo values and Navajo Din medicine.'"

For instance, the Navajo president begins each meeting with a Christian prayer even though he also addresses his community in Navajo.

The loss of traditional practitioners is not just a cultural loss but also a personal one for people such as Jeneda Benally, whose aunt recently died from COVID-19.

"I am really emotional about this because it's so painful to lose so many loved ones," she says.

Benally is a traditional practitioner who works alongside her father who was the first medicine man to practice in a Western hospital.

"I felt very early on during this pandemic that I needed to protect my father so that way he can continue to help people in order to protect our future generations," Benally says.

One way she is doing that is working with her brother Clayson to produce youtube videos to share Navajo cultural practices like how to dry farm and how to shear sheep.

The Benallys hope their videos will encourage tribal members to reconnect with their culture, especially now while tribal members are spending a lot of time at home during during the coronavirus pandemic.

"We've got this technology," Jeneda Benally says. "How are we going to find hope in this technology? How are we going to find the continuation of our culture where we can connect our elders to our youth?"

The dilemma is figuring out what parts of Navajo culture they can share publicly and what parts are too sacred and can only be passed down from one Navajo to another.

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Navajo Nation Loses Elders And Tradition To COVID-19 - NPR

President Trump shared his positive outlook on COVID-19 treatment results and the recovering economy during a roundtable with business leaders. Wochit

WASHINGTON The Army has determined 16West Point cadets have tested positive for COVID-19 after returning to the campus for a commencement address by President Trump scheduled for June 13, according to sources on Capitol Hill.

The affected cadets, a fractionof the 850 who have returned to the campus since spring break in March, are receiving treatment but are not showing symptoms of the disease, Army Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, the West Point superintendent, said in an interview.

Williams, who declined to specify the number of cadets affected, said screening and safety procedures will allowthe ceremony to be held safely.

More: The next 100 days: How the coronavirus will continue to change your life at home, at work, at school and beyond

Sources on Capitol Hill, with access to information but not authorized to speak publicly, said that of the 16 affected cadets, 14 had tested positive for the antibody that indicates they had contracted the virus, recovered and had developed anti-bodies. In addition, 71 of the more than 5,000 faculty, staff and civilians at West Point have tested positive for COVID-19 since March. All but fourcivilians have recovered, and they are living off the post.

The COVID-19 pandemic has scrambled graduation plans for the nation's elite military schools. The Naval Academy held a virtual ceremony, and the Air Force Academy sequestered its senior class on campus, holding graduation with cadets spaced at safe distance from one another.

Critics have called Trump's decision to attend West Point graduation a political stunt that endangers the health of cadets and those with whom they have had contact on their return to campus.

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Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and an Army veteran, said in a statement last monththat Trump's commencement address puts the young officers, who have already received their commissions, at unnecessary risk "all to stroke his own ego."

Top Army officials have defended the decision, pointing out that the seniors had to return to the campus before heading to their first active-duty posts. The seniors need to pass physicals and retrieve their belongings, Williams said.

The cadets, who are surveyed for symptoms before returning,have been arriving in groups and are tested and quarantined on arrival. So far, a "very, very low" number of the 800 who have returned have tested positive, Williams said. The remaining 200seniors are scheduled to arrive Saturday.

The seniors have their temperatures checked daily, maintain social distancing and wear masks, Williams said.

Williams expressed confidence that commencement can be held safely and without putting the graduates or community at risk.

"I'm very, very confident in the resources we have here, both medical and administrative how we're taking care of them," Williams said. "These are my sons and daughters. That's the way I talk to them."

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/31/west-point-grads-test-covid-19-positive-before-trumps-speech/5290880002/

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At least 16 West Point cadets test COVID-19 positive before grad speech by President Trump - USA TODAY

IMMOKALEE

Testing people for the coronavirus is more important than ever as the state continues to reopen, so on Sunday in Immokalee, people can get tested without a doctors note.

Immokalee is among the hot spots for COVID-19 in Florida, with more than 400 confirmed cases in just the last month.

This is going to be a very, very hot spot here if we dont do something about it. Theres plenty of deaths already, we dont want the number to rise more, said Dr. Antonio Gonzalez, a family doctor in Immokalee.

I dont know if a letter to the governors office and or the emergency management services in Tallahassee would assist this or not, but I would love to see more testing as soon as possible, said Collier County Commissioner Bill McDaniel.

McDaniel said those words last week, and the state will be testing more people on Sunday.

The walk-up test site is at 419 N. First St., and is open from noon to 6 p.m.

Doctors Without Borders will also be doing tests at more targeted sites during the week.

The rest is here:

COVID-19 tests available Sunday in Immokalee - Wink News

Misinformation about the origins of Covid-19 is far more likely to be spread by pro-Trump, QAnon or Republican bots on Twitter than any other source, according to a study commissioned by the Australia Institutes Centre for Responsible Technology.

In late March, when the coronavirus pandemic was taking hold in the US and across much of the rest of the world, two researchers at Queensland University of Technology, Timothy Graham and Axel Bruns, analysed 2.6m tweets related to coronavirus, and 25.5m retweets of those tweets, over the course of 10 days.

They filtered out legitimate accounts from those accounts most likely to be bots, which can be identified when they retweet identical coronavirus-related content within one second of each other.

Through this methodology, the researchers found 5,752 accounts retweeted coronavirus-related material in a coordinated way 6,559 times.

The researchers identified 10 prominent bot-like networks that were attempting to push political agendas, separate from those bot networks pushing commercial sites by hitching on to trending topics like coronavirus.

The researchers found a coordinated effort to promote the conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was a bioweapon engineered by China.

The researchers identified a co-retweet network of 2,903 accounts with 4,125 links between them.

Within this network, the researchers found 28 to 30 clusters of accounts which identified themselves as pro-Trump, Republican or associated themselves with the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory.

There were 882 original tweets over the 10-day period pushing the bioweapon conspiracy theory, which were retweeted 18,498 times, and liked 31,783 times, with an estimated 5m impressions on Twitter.

The researchers said the effect of the bot networks was the amplification of the misinformation.

Whether the coordinated inauthentic behaviours we have observed for the bioweapon conspiracy are orchestrated by the hard core of participants in these groups themselves, or are designed by external operators to target and exploit the worldviews of such groups, the net effect is often the same: the themes and topics promoted by coordinated inauthentic activity are taken up by the wider fringe community, and thereby gain amplification and authenticity, the researchers said in the report.

The mis- and disinformation contained in the initial messages is no longer distributed solely by bots and other accounts that may be identified as acting in coordinated and inauthentic ways, but also and to a potentially greater extent by ordinary, authentic human users.

From there disinformation can easily garner broader public attention when media, or people with large numbers of followers on social media, engage with the conspiracy theory, even if to refute it, they said.

Official denials and corrections can perversely be exploited by the conspiracy theorists to claim that authorities are covering up the real truth, they said.

In Australia, for example, the effects of this vicious circle are now being observed in the sharp rise in concerns about 5G technology at least in part as a result of the circulation of the conspiracy theories about links between Covid-19 and 5G.

The report authors recommend that platform operators get better at detecting and mitigating bot activity on their platforms, and mainstream media should be encouraged to reduce clickbait conspiracy theory coverage that has the potential to introduce new audiences to the misinformation .

Such sites may frame the conspiracy theories as outlandish or laughable, but often present them without significant correction or fact-checking; as a result, such coverage puts substantial new audiences in contact with problematic content that they would not otherwise have encountered.

Tabloid media can therefore represent an important pathway for conspiracy theories to enter more mainstream public debate.

The US president, Donald Trump, signed an executive order last week seeking to make social media sites liable for what their users post on the platform in retaliation for Twitter factchecking a tweet he posted containing a false assertion about mail voter fraud.

Peter Lewis, director of the Centre for Responsible Technology, said it was a good start for Twitter to factcheck Trump, but more needed to be done on bot networks to stop the spread of misinformation.

Social media companies need to take greater responsibility for disinformation on their sites, particularly where coordinated and automated retweeting is promoting dangerous disinformation, he said.

While Twitter is starting to call out some of President Trumps more egregious tweets, social media companies have a long way to go to stem the flow of divisive and dangerous disinformation on their platforms.

The report authors noted that while the research had focused on Twitter, the bot-like activity is not limited to Twitter, and has been something other platforms like Facebook had been grappling with.

Facebook for its part has been factchecking select coronavirus claims, and banning some, including connecting 5G to the spread of coronavirus. But the companys chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said Facebook should not factcheck in a similar way to Twitter, saying it shouldnt be the arbiter of truth.

More here:

Covid-19 misinformation: pro-Trump and QAnon Twitter bots found to be worst culprits - The Guardian

Georgias Governor has let us down regarding the pandemic. He has tried to emulate the President and has had the same poor results. Governor Kemp obviously idolizes President Trump, previously saying: I was really taken by the Presidents coronavirus press briefing yesterday (3-31-20).

Thats an interesting Kemp statement, given the Presidents total lack of leadership in February and March regarding the Covid-19 outbreak. Due largely to Trump and administration incompetence, we have had an out of control spread of the virus in America, making us similar to disorganized Italy versus responsible Singapore, which has comparatively held the virus at bay.

Per a recent Columbia University study, Trumps delay caused an additional 36,000 unnecessary deaths (https://www.npr.org/2020/05/21/859991296/u-s-could-have-saved-thousands-of-lives-if-lockdown-started-earlier-study-finds). We now have more deaths and cases than any other nation, even though we are only 4% of the worlds population.

Anyone can review what other more aware states have done to identify and treat those infected, easily proving that Georgia has also been a laggard. But, like Trump, Kemp just makes it up as he goes along.

For example, the Governors statement at his 4-1-20 press briefing that after complaints from health authorities, cities and counties he was at long last finally issuing a shelter in place order. Kemp stated his action was directly due to finding out that this virus is now transmitting before people see signs; and that this finding had not become known until the last 24 hours.

This factually incorrect statement came after him indicating that the virus had already spread to 139 Georgia counties. At that time, COVID-19 had already killed 139 Georgians and infected 4,638. However, the number was rising daily, and is now at 42,846 cases and 1,827 deaths as of Memorial Day.

Governor, Im not an epidemiologist. But as a healthcare person, I knew that coronavirus spread without symptoms two months before you.

On 1-26-20, the BBC reported that Chinese Health minister Ma Xiaowei indicted that infected people without symptoms were spreading the virus in China. At that time, BBCs health correspondent correctly stated that stopping such symptomless spreaders will make the job of the Chinese authorities much harder.

Further, on 3-5-20, the respected New England Journal of Medicine issued an article entitled: Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from an Asymptomatic Contact in Germany. At the time Dr Anthony Fauci said: Theres no doubt after reading this paper that asymptomatic transmission is occurring.

On 4-1, Kemp also rather clumsily and inarticulately stated that: we had a stronger order as anybody in the country. Again, as is true with much of what his mentor Trump has said about the virus over the last few months, Kemp was factually incorrect. With Kemps completely voluntary suggestions on distancing, we were not only not stronger than other states, we were much weaker than most.

For example, why wasnt Kemps mandatory shelter in place order issued a month before? Were his advisors that incompetent? Or, much more likely, did Kemp resist due to pressure from special interests, business groups and his contributors? Is that why Georgia has the 11th most Covid-19 deaths among the 50 states?

Governor, contagious viruses are not something new. The world has successfully dealt with SARS and MERS viruses in the past decades. Earlier in January, the WHO (World Health Organization) sent out a press release about the coronavirus spreading in China and Thailand. Shortly after, the World Health Organization issued an emergency declaration and met with China to arrange for a team of international experts to immediately visit China to learn more.

Given Trumps many disparaging remarks about the UN, WHO and other international bodies, its strange that America chose not to ask the Chinese to let us go in directly to help them discover more about the virus early on. Its even stranger that no one in the NSA, CDC or the federal bureaucracy in general was able to get this President to even acknowledge the seriousness of the pandemic before mid-March when the sinking stock market awakened him.

Unfortunately for Georgians, Kemp has successfully imitated his mentor by conveniently making things up about the spread of the virus. Ive given up on Trump, and with Kemp rescinding the shelter in place order before we could get a firm handle on COVID-19 via tasting and contact racing, hes no better.

****

Jack Bernard, a retired SVP with a national corporation, was the first Director of Health Planning for Georgia. He was Chair of the Jasper County Commission and Republican Party. He Chaired the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia's Tax Committee. He is currently the Fayette County Vice-Chair of the Board of Health.

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Kemp-past time to get woke to the COVID-19 threat - Newnan Times-Herald

Temperatures in some California cities this week broke decades-old records. The heatwave that cooked Las Vegas over the past few days brought temperatures over 100F. And in Phoenix, highs this weekend are expected to approach or exceed 110F.

This year is on track to be one of the hottest on record, and public health officials worry that in cities across the US, summer heatwaves will collide with the coronavirus pandemic, with deadly consequences for poor, minority and older populations.

Even before the pandemic hit, heat was killing more Americans than all other natural disasters combined. People who live in cities are especially vulnerable to heatwaves because of a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect cities with populations of 1 million or more can be up to 5F hotter than surrounding areas due to high population density, a lack of greenery and shade, and because materials like steel, concrete and asphalt tend to absorb more heat.

Analyses have also found that cities poorest neighborhoods tend to be hotter, and that many low-income families have been struggling to cope for years. In some neighborhoods of Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, up to a third or more of households lack air conditioning. Due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, many more are unable to pay to run their ACs. And even as cities begin reopening after lockdown, many of the malls, public libraries and recreation centers where overheated Americans traditionally went to cool down remain risky, especially for older people and others with a heightened risk of dying from Covid-19.

Throughout the country, public health officials told the Guardian they were scrambling to find ways to protect the most vulnerable from the dual threats of heat and coronavirus. This summer is definitely not going to be like any other summer, said Deanne Criswell, the commissioner of New York City Emergency Management. Were not going to have the same level of facilities open that New Yorkers typically go to all the time to stay cool. Its a big concern.

New York is in the process of installing 74,000 air conditioners in the homes of low-income seniors, according to Criswell. The city is also seeking to help more people pay for electricity this summer, as the unemployment crisis leaves thousands of New Yorkers without the means to make rent and utilities. Other cities across the US have asked utility companies not to shut off service this summer, even if customers cant pay bills, so that they have access to water, cooling and refrigeration through the hottest days.

Every summer we worry about the heat when it ramps up especially in April and May before people have a chance to acclimatize, said Carolyn Levering, the emergency management administrator for Las Vegas.I think it just gives us extra concern this year because of the pandemic.

In Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles, officials are keeping some cooling centers designated public buildings where residents come for cold water and a respite from the heat open, at a reduced capacity so people can maintain social distancing while seeking relief from the heat. At five cooling centers in LA, anyone who enters has their temperature checked and is required to wear a mask and remain 6ft away from other people. In Nevadas Clark county, which includes Las Vegas, four cooling centers stayed open during the most recent heatwave.

But none of these solutions are broad enough to catch everyone at risk of dying from heatstroke, advocates say. Hell no, it isnt enough, said Jonathan Parfrey, the executive director of the LA-based non-profit Climate Resolve. This is just a staggering problem.

In South LA, where 64% of residents fall below the poverty line, more than 40% of households lack air conditioning, according to a study published this month by researchers at the University of Southern California who analyzed data from the electrical meters of nearly 180,500 households. Poverty was a better predictor of whether or not people had AC than even how hot or cool it was in a neighborhood, said Kelly Sanders, one of studys authors.

The vast majority of these heat-related deaths in cities occur inside homes that arent air-conditioned, said New Yorks Criswell.

That aint going to be me this year, said Collette McCoy-Douglas, 67, a retired nurse who lives in a public housing facility for seniors in Chicago. McCoy-Douglas said her building turned on the central air conditioning a day early, after residents complained during the heatwave over Memorial Day weekend. But the system, which only cools each apartments living room, felt warm when I touched it, she said. Her thermostat read 100F.So Ive poured ice on my head twice today it messed up my hair, but it helped, she laughed.

A spokesperson for Chicago Housing Authority said it was not aware of any air conditioning issues at senior housing facilities.

Although McCoy-Douglas considered looking for someplace cool she could go, she decided against it. Ive got an autoimmune disease, I have asthma, I have stents, she said. Im more skeptical against the coronavirus. Unable to cool down, she eventually picked up a neighbor, an older woman with cerebral palsy, and they drove around for a bit in McCoy-Douglass air-conditioned car. Chicagos infamous 1995 heatwave, which killed more than 700 people, was on the minds of both women.

You know, in my apartment, we have people with mental illness and disabilities. They cant even leave the building, said McCoy-Douglas, who also knew of two neighbors who had died of Covid-19. It just breaks my heart. Its just inhuman.

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'A summer unlike any other': heatwaves and Covid-19 are a deadly combination - The Guardian

Scientists claim to have found more clues about how the new coronavirus could have spread from bats through pangolins and into humans, as India reported its worst single-day rise in new cases, and the number of Covid-19 infections worldwide neared 6 million.

Writing in the journal Covid-19 Science Advances, researchers said an examination of the closest relative of the virus found that it was circulating in bats but lacked the protein needed to bind to human cells. They said this ability could have been acquired from a virus found in pangolins a scaly mammal that is one of the most illegally trafficked animals in the world.

DrElena Giorgi, of Los Alamos national laboratory, one of the studys lead authors, said people had already looked at the pangolin link but scientists were still divided about their role in the evolution of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

In our study, we demonstrated that indeed Sars-Cov-2 has a rich evolutionary history that included a reshuffling of genetic material between bat and pangolin coronavirus before it acquired its ability to jump to humans, she said, adding that close proximity of animals of different species in a wet market setting may increase the potential for cross-species spillover infections.

The study stilldoesnt confirm the pangolin as the animal that passed the virus to humans, but it adds weight to previous studies that have suggested it may have been involved.

However, Prof Edward Holmes, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sydney, in Australia, said more work on the subject was needed. There is a clear evolutionary gap between Sars-Cov-2 and its closest relatives found to date in bats and pangolins, he said. The only way this gap will be filled is through more wildlife sampling.

The findings came as Donald Trump announced that the United States was severing its ties with the World Health Organization because it had failed to reform.

In a speech at the White House devoted mainly to attacking China for its alleged shortcomings in tackling the initial outbreak of coronavirus, Trump said: We will be today terminating our relationship with theWorld Health Organizationand redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs.

The US is the biggest funder of the WHO, paying about $450m (365m) in membership dues and voluntary contributions for specific programmes.

Trumps declaration was condemned in the US and around the world, with Australianexperts joining counterparts in the UK and elsewhere in voicing their support for the WHO. Prof Peter Doherty, a Nobel laureate and patron of the Doherty Institute, which is part of global efforts to find a Covid-19 vaccine, said the WHO had the full support of the scientific community.

Deaths in the US have climbed to more than 102,000, with 1,747,000 infections. It is by far the biggest total in the world. On Friday it emerged that one person who attended the controversial pool parties in the Ozarks last weekend had tested positive for the virus.

In Brazil, there was another large rise in deaths. More than 27,000 people have died from the disease and the country has the worlds second highest number of cases, at 465,000.

There were also big surges in reported deaths in Russia, which identifiedmore coronavirus cases in a day than at any time since early April;2,819 more people tested positive on Friday.

Iran also recorded itsbiggest daily increase in deaths 232 in 24 hours bringing the total to 4,374. President Hassan Rouhani nevertheless said mosques were to resume daily prayers throughout the country, despite some areas reporting continuing high levels of infections. He added that physical distancing and other health protocols would be observed in mosques. He did not say when they were due to reopen.

India, meanwhile, reported a record daily jump of 7,964 new infections. With the latest tally, India has now reported 173,763 coronavirus cases and 4,971 deaths, making it the ninth most-affected country, according to Reuters. While the fatality rates in India have been lower than in worse-hit countries, experts fear the peak has not been reached. The latest numbers would appear to confirm that prediction.

Egypt registered 1,289 new cases and 34 deaths, the health ministry said, marking another record of daily increases on both counts despite stricter curfew rules.

Other developments across the world include:

A leading UK government adviser has warned that it is too early to lift lockdown restrictions as planned next month because the number of new infections is still too high. John Edmunds, a professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said he wanted the level of new cases to be driven down further before larger gatherings are allowed as the government has said it wants to do. Tory MPs are still being bombarded by constituents with calls for Boris Johnsons top adviser to quit after he appeared to breach lockdown rules.

Restrictions continue to be lifted to some degree across Europe, with thousands flocking to open-air cinemas to see films together for the first time in weeks.

In Australia, where states are expected to move to relax the rules to allow gatherings of more people from Monday, anti-vaccine protesters gathered in several cities to claim that they believed Covid-19 was a scam.

Also in Australia, scientists are examining the sewage waste in a town in Queensland where a 30-year-old man died this week from the virus. Nathan Turner is the youngest victim in the country so far and the case has baffled experts because he had not left the remote town of Blackwater.

The global death toll passed 365,000, according to data compiled byJohns Hopkins University, with the number of cases just short of 6 million. The true number of infections is likely to be much higher, however, given the vast number of unrecorded and asymptomatic cases.

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Global report: new clues about role of pangolins in Covid-19 as US severs ties with WHO - The Guardian

When Noopur Rajes husband fell critically ill with Covid-19 in mid-March, she did not suspect that she too was infected with the virus.

Raje, an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, had been caring for her sick husband for a week before driving him to an emergency centre with a persistently high fever. But after she herself had a diagnostic PCR test which looks for traces of the Sars-CoV-2 virus DNA in saliva she was astounded to find that the result was positive.

My husband ended up very sick, she says. He was in intensive care for a day, and in hospital for 10 days. But while I was also infected, I had no symptoms at all. I have no idea why we responded so differently.

It took two months for Rajes husband to recover. Repeated tests, done every five days, showed that Raje remained infected for the same length of time, all while remaining completely asymptomatic. In some ways it is unsurprising that the virus persisted in her body for so long, given that it appears her body did not even mount a detectable immune response against the infection.

When they both took an antibody test earlier this month, Rajes husband showed a high level of antibodies to the virus, while Raje appeared to have no response at all, something she found hard to comprehend.

Its mind-blowing, she says. Some people are able to be colonised with the virus and not be symptomatic, while others end up with pretty severe illness. I think its something to do with differences in immune regulation, but we still havent figured out exactly how this is happening.

Epidemiological studies are now revealing that the number of individuals who carry and can pass on the infection, yet remain completely asymptomatic, is larger than originally thought. Scientists believe these people have contributed to the spread of the virus in care homes, and they are central in the debate regarding face mask policies, as health officials attempt to avoid new waves of infections while societies reopen.

You dont need to be coughing to transmit a respiratory infection: talking, singing, even blowing a vuvuzela

But the realisation that asymptomatic people can spread an infection is not completely surprising. For starters, there is the famous early 20th century case of Typhoid Mary, a cook who infected 53 people in various households in the US with typhoid fever despite displaying no symptoms herself. In fact, all bacterial, viral and parasitic infections ranging from malaria to HIV have a certain proportion of asymptomatic carriers. Research has even shown that at any one time, all of us are infected with between eight and 12 viruses, without showing any symptoms.

From the microbes perspective, this makes perfect evolutionary sense. For any virus or bacteria, making people infectious but not ill is an excellent way to spread and persist in populations, says Rein Houben, an infectious diseases researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine.

However, when Covid-19 was identified at the start of the year, many public health officials both in the UK and around the world failed to account for the threat posed by asymptomatic transmission. This is largely because they were working on models based on influenza, where some estimates suggest that only 5% of people infected are asymptomatic. As a result, the large scale diagnostic testing regimes required to pick up asymptomatic Covid-19 cases were not in place until too late.

I warned on 24 January to consider asymptomatic cases as a transmission vehicle for Covid-19, but this was ignored at the time, says Bill Keevil, professor of environmental healthcare at the University of Southampton. Since then, many countries have reported asymptomatic cases, never showing obvious symptoms, but shedding virus.

The first identified case of asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 occurred in early January, when a traveller from Wuhan passed on the virus to five family members in different parts of the city of Anyang. After testing positive, she then remained asymptomatic for the entire 21-day follow-up period.

While scientists still dont know whether asymptomatic people are as contagious as those who display symptoms, there are still many ways in which they can pass on Covid-19. We know that you dont need to be coughing to transmit a respiratory infection like Sars-CoV-2, says Houben. Talking, singing, even blowing instruments like a vuvuzela in the past all of those have been shown to transmit respiratory viruses in some way.

Since January, the race has been on to try and identify just how many asymptomatic cases are out there, with varying findings. One study in the Italian town of Vo reported that 43% of the towns cases of Covid-19 were asymptomatic, while initial reports from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigation into the spread of Covid-19 on the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier in March, suggest that as many as 58% of cases were asymptomatic. Some 48% of the 1,046 cases of Covid-19 on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier proved to be asymptomatic while, of the 712 people who tested positive for Covid-19 on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, 46% had no symptoms.

Almost all evidence seems to point to a proportion of asymptomatic infections of around 40%, with a wide range, says Houben. The proportion is also highly variable with age. Nearly all infected children seem to remain asymptomatic, whereas the reverse seems to hold for the elderly.

Houben points out that, because most asymptomatic people have no idea they are infected, they are unlikely to be self-isolating, and studies have shown this has contributed to the rampant spread of the virus in facilities such as homeless shelters and care homes. He says this means there is a need for regular diagnostic testing of almost all people in such closed environments, including prisons and psychiatric facilities.

When it comes to controlling Covid-19, this really shows that we cannot rely on self-isolation of symptomatic cases only, he says. Going forwards we need trace and test approaches to account for individuals who are not reporting any symptoms.

Since February, the country that has arguably had the greatest success in suppressing asymptomatic spread of Covid-19 is South Korea. Armed with a rigorous contact tracing and diagnostic testing regime, which involved dozens of drive-through testing centres across major cities enabling tests to be carried out at a rate of one every 10 minutes, they put specific policies in place to offset the threat of asymptomatic carriers from the moment the virus began to spread out of control in Daegu.

Once identified, all asymptomatic people are asked to self quarantine in their house until they test negative, with health service officials checking on them twice daily, and monitoring their symptoms, says Eunha Shim, an epidemiologist at Soongsil University in Seoul.

As Korea attempts to prevent a second wave of infections while reopening schools and allowing people to return to offices, preventing asymptomatic spread is one of their main priorities. This is being done by a mass public health campaign advocating the wearing of masks at all times outside the home. In Seoul, it is not possible to access the subway without a mask.

Many scientists are increasingly calling for this policy to be officially introduced in the UK, especially as more and more people resume commuting in the coming months. Keevil says: There is a strong case to be made for the public wearing appropriate face covers in confined areas such as stations, trains, metro carriages and buses, where it is extremely difficult to maintain the two-metre gap, considered essential to allow respiratory droplets from infected people to fall down before making contact with other people.

The argument is that face covers may not protect the wearer, but might significantly reduce transmission of virus particles to adjacent people in the closed environment. If there is any benefit to be gained, then everyone should wear a mask, which is why some countries are fining people who do not wear a mask and preventing them travelling.

Some have argued that masks may pose a risk of harm to the wearer because of their potential to become an infectious surface, but Keevil says this can be avoided through proper cleaning.

There would need to be policies such as, when arriving at work, place the mask immediately in a plastic bag and wash your hands, he says. And then, when returning home, carefully take off the mask and place it immediately in a washing machine for a 60C wash and wash your hands.

It remains to be seen whether the UK government endorses this as an official recommendation, but a recent study across Barts NHS Trust hospitals in London has illustrated how regular testing and social distancing combined with use of facial protection in this case PPE can prevent asymptomatic spread of the virus. Researchers James Moon and Charlotte Manisty said they found that the rate of asymptomatic infection among hospital staff fell from 7% to 1% between the end of March and early May.

For Raje, understanding why asymptomatic patients like her respond the way they do to the virus, will have some critical implications for all of us over the coming months, for example in determining whether vaccines turn out to be effective.

The big question I have after my experience, is whether a vaccine will really work in all people, she says. The vaccination approach is to create an immune response, which then protects you. But if asymptomatic people are not producing a normal antibody response to the virus, what does that mean? Because its these people who are the vectors and the carriers of this virus, I think we cant get away from social distancing until we have some of these answers out there.

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Could nearly half of those with Covid-19 have no idea they are infected? - The Guardian