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☆ Cuomo expresses sympathy for Covid-19 victims, criticizes Trump’s pandemic response in contentious hearing
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-10 | by ( Clare Foran | Gloria Pazmino | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

The hearing focused in on nursing home deaths and a controversial March 2020 directive from the New York State Department of Health on hospital discharges and nursing home admissions. “You own this,” Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, chairman of the subcommittee, told Cuomo at the outset of the hearing. The former governor has defended his handling of the pandemic, saying that the state followed federal guidelines. New York State Attorney General Letitia James issued a report in 2021 finding that the New York State Department of Health undercounted Covid-19 deaths among nursing home residents by approximately 50%. The New York health department undercounted the number of Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes by thousands during Cuomo’s time in office, an audit conducted by state officials found in 2022.

Persons: Andrew Cuomo, Donald Trump’s, Cuomo, ” Cuomo, Brad Wenstrup of, Raul Ruiz, “, Gov . Cuomo, Nicole Malliotakis, “ you’ve, you’ve, That’s, Wenstrup, Kathy Hochul’s, Hochul, ” Wenstrup, Avi Small, ”, Anthony Fauci, Azzopardi, Letitia James, New York State Department of Health undercounted, Critics, Kathy Hochul, James ’, CNN’s Paul LeBlanc, Annie Grayer, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn Organizations: CNN, Former New York Gov, GOP, Trump, Democrat, New York State Department of Health, Republicans, ” Republican, Gov, New, New York Republican, ”, Centers, Medicare, Services, US Centers for Disease Control, Department of Health, National Institute of Allergy, New York, Department of Justice, New York State Assembly, New York Gov Locations: Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, New York, New York City, York, Manhattan

☆ Covid casts long shadow over New Zealand paddler Jones
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Story Reuters | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The 35-year-old’s ambitions of reaching a fifth Olympics once seemed fanciful as she spent more than a year recovering after being diagnosed with long Covid in early 2022. “I’d get really tired from just going out and mowing the lawn or going for a walk,” she told Reuters in an interview. Jones speaks to the media at Vector Wero Whitewater Park in Auckland, New Zealand this week. Long Covid provided multiple reminders of how quickly things can unravel. “But I guess you just don’t know where you can get (Covid) from or when it’s going to hit.

Persons: Luuka Jones, Jones, “ I’d, “, Phil Walter, Valerie Adams, Barbara Kendall, I’ve, ”, Long Covid, I’m, ’ ”, Chris Froome, Jonathan Toews, Covid Organizations: Reuters, Paris, Beijing, Rio Games, Vector, Getty, Zealand, Olympic, British, de Locations: Tokyo, Zealand, Marne, Auckland , New Zealand, Beijing, New Zealand

But a big problem persists as long as the coronavirus continues to spread: long COVID. Long COVID is a condition involving new, returning or ongoing health problems four or more weeks after initial coronavirus infection. “The long COVID community and the COVID cautious community are pretty furious about it,” Hennessy says. And of the people who were aware of long COVID, more than 20% said they at least somewhat agreed with the statements “those with Long COVID may just be depressed” and “Long COVID symptoms are often just the normal aches and pains of life.”“They’re told that their brain fog or other symptoms are not real, and that’s demoralizing,” Rylance said. Young adults and children can also have long COVID, with more than 1% of kids ever having long COVID as of 2022, according to a national survey.

Persons: Long, Long COVID, –, Paul Hennessy, ” Hennessy, Mandy Cohen, didn’t, Hennessy, “, ” Jamie Rylance, hadn’t, ” “ They’re, that’s, ” Rylance, they’re, ”, it’s, Lynn Goldman Organizations: World Health Organization, Washington , D.C, Survey, Centers for Disease Control, CDC, PBS, COVID, CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, U.S . Research, New England, of Medicine, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University Locations: U.S, Washington, Washington ,

☆ The Fourth Anniversary of the Covid Pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Shortly after noon Eastern on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared Covid — or “the coronavirus,” then the more popular term — to be a global pandemic. The worst pandemic in a century had begun. Today, on the unofficial fourth anniversary, I’ll update you on where things stand. The true tollCovid’s confirmed death toll — more than seven million people worldwide — is horrific on its own, and the true toll is much worse. The Economist magazine keeps a running estimate of excess deaths, defined as the number of deaths above what was expected from pre-Covid trends.

Persons: Covid, ”, Stocks, Donald Trump, Tom Hanks Organizations: World Health Organization, Economist

☆ Covid’s Biggest Economic Winner Is Running Out of Steam
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Paul Hannon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

No other country grew as fast as Ireland between 2020 and 2022, other than Guyana, which saw an oil boom. Photo: paul faith/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesIt was one of very few economies to get a boost from the Covid-19 pandemic. That unusual dividend is now unraveling, in a fresh blow to Europe’s already weakened growth outlook. Home to large U.S. technology and pharmaceutical companies that saw their sales boom during the pandemic, tiny Ireland recorded annual growth of 10.5% on average between 2020 and 2022 while other economies contracted under the effect of lockdowns.

Persons: paul Organizations: Agence France Locations: Ireland, Guyana

☆ Five tips for living with long Covid
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Manav Tanneeru | Andrea Kane | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

They struggled to define and measure long Covid, to identify a cause for or a mechanism behind it. Long Covid is not somebody else’s problem: a 2022 National Center for Health Statistics survey estimated that almost 7% of US adults, and more than 1% of children, who reported having Covid have struggled with long Covid at some point. To hear more of Putrino’s conversation on the possible causes of long Covid and the search for biomarkers, listen to the full podcast episode here:What can you do to help yourself if you have long Covid? Mind your mast cellsSometimes, during both an acute Covid infection and in long Covid, a person experiences hyperinflammation across many body systems; researchers believe that this happens because mast cells are activated. Reach out for helpThis last tip is for caregivers and friends of people with long Covid, or anyone with a chronic disease.

Persons: Sanjay Gupta, —, Covid, David Putrino, “ We’re, ” Putrino, Putrino, ”, ‘, “, ’, ’ ” Putrino, dysautonomia Dysautonomia, they’re Organizations: CNN, National Institute of Health’s, for Health Statistics, Rehabilitation, Sinai Health, MCAS Locations: United States, New York City

☆ Opinion | The Secret of America’s Economic Success
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Paul Krugman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the United States, 20 million jobs suddenly disappeared. Indeed, as we approach Covid’s four-year mark, many of the world’s economies remain well short of full recovery. But not the United States. Not only have we had the strongest recovery in the advanced world, but the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook also points out that American growth since 2019 has actually exceeded pre-Covid projections. But let’s take a moment to celebrate this good economic news — and try to figure out what went right with the U.S. economy.

Persons: — Organizations: Monetary Locations: United States, U.S

Twelve manufacturers that employ hundreds of people in seven states have been awarded funding and will produce 200 million over-the-counter tests to replenish federal stockpiles for government use, in addition to producing enough tests to meet demand for tests ordered online, the department said. Federal officials said that will help guard against supply chain issues that sparked some shortages of at-home COVID tests made overseas during past surges in coronavirus cases. Political Cartoons View All 1171 ImagesThe tests are designed to detect COVID variants currently circulating, and are intended for use by the end of the year. Postal Service provided more than 755 million tests for free to homes nationwide. O’Connell said manufacturers would be able to spread out the 200 million tests they will produce for federal use over 18 months.

Persons: —, Dawn O’Connell, ” O'Connell, Grandma, O’Connell, “ We’ve, COVID’s, O'Connell, there’s, “ we’re, “, Xavier Becerra, Biden, Harris, Becerra Organizations: WASHINGTON, Biden, of Health, Human Services, United States Postal Service, Federal, HHS, U.S . Postal Service, Harris Administration Locations: U.S

☆ WHO chief pushes China for ‘full access’ to determine COVID’s origins, Financial Times reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

"We're pressing China to give full access, and we are asking countries to raise it during their bilateral meetings — to urge Beijing to co-operate," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the newspaper. The WHO chief's comments come as health authorities and pharmaceutical companies across the world have been racing to update vaccines to combat newer emerging coronavirus variants. Ghebreyesus has for long been pressing China to share its information about the origins of COVID-19, saying that until that happened all hypotheses remained on the table. The virus was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, with many suspecting it spread in a live animal market before fanning out around the world and killing nearly 7 million people. Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru Editing by Tomasz JanowskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Esa Alexander, Kanjyik Ghosh, Tomasz Janowski Organizations: World Health Organization, WHO, REUTERS, Financial Times, Thomson Locations: Cape Town , South Africa, Beijing, China, Wuhan, Bengaluru

The 43-page document paints a disturbing picture of failures at the homes in Menlo Park and Paramus where dozens of deaths occurred early in the outbreak. “Even by the standards of the pandemic’s difficult early days, the facilities were unprepared to keep their residents safe,” the report said. The facilities are operated by the state’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, each with just over 300 beds. Murphy’s administration came under harsh criticism for his handling of the pandemic in veterans homes, with Republicans calling for investigations into his management of the outbreak. But the actual number of residents who died of COVID-19 was much higher, the report said.

Persons: Phil Murphy, ”, Murphy, ‘ Organizations: U.S Justice Department, U.S . Veterans Affairs, state’s Department of Military, Veterans Affairs, Democratic, Veterans Homes, Justice, Justice Department, DOJ, Menlo, Facility, Paramus Locations: TRENTON, N.J, Menlo Park, Paramus

☆ UK economy: GDP records surprise growth in second quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Olesya Dmitracova | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —The UK economy grew in the three months to June 30, compared with the previous quarter, official data showed Friday. Unlike its G7 peers, the UK economy still has not returned to pre-pandemic levels of output. In the three years before Covid’s rapid spread in 2020, UK output expanded by an average of 0.5% per quarter. Survey data also suggests that Britain’s bout of feeble economic growth has continued beyond the second quarter. The preliminary reading of the Purchasing Managers’ Index for July showed hardly any growth in UK private sector output and the weakest rise in six months.

Persons: ”, Darren Morgan, Rishi Sunak Organizations: London CNN, Gross, National Statistics, Bank of England’s, Bank of England Locations: United Kingdom

☆ The Covid Origins Debate
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Did Covid jump from an animal to a person at a food market in Wuhan, China — or leak from a research lab there? — David LeonhardtIn the early days of the pandemic, I was speaking to a variety of U.S. intelligence officials who believed that China was hiding the truth of what happened with Covid. In the name of safety, Chinese officials ordered that coronavirus samples be destroyed. At best, this hampered the later investigation into Covid’s origins, and at worst it was a sign of a cover-up. In this context, some of those intelligence officials believed that people were not paying enough attention to the lab-leak theory.

Persons: David Quammen, Julian Barnes, — David Leonhardt, Covid Organizations: Times Magazine Locations: Wuhan, China, Washington

☆ The Ongoing Mystery of Covid’s Origin
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( David Quammen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

But as the researchers describe it, these apparent contradictions were simply a reflection of their fast-evolving views. It showed that such an RBD had evolved in the wild and might well have gotten into SARS-CoV-2 by recombination, the natural gene-swapping process. The genome was 96.2 percent identical to the SARS-CoV-2 genome as sampled from people during the early days of the pandemic. RaTG13 has attained renown, not just because it constituted strong evidence of SARS-CoV-2’s ancestry in bat viruses but also because the Mojiang mine figures in some of the more lurid scenarios for a lab-leak origin. The inference is that Shi’s team, a year after the mine workers died, may have taken the virus back to Wuhan.

Persons: Andersen, ”, Slack, Matt Wong, ” Andersen, Zhengli Shi, Shi, RaTG13 Organizations: Twitter, Nature, Wuhan Institute of Virology Locations: Houston, Yunnan Province, Wuhan, Tongguan, Mojiang, Yunnan

☆ A Positive Covid Milestone
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( David Leonhardt | More About David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Most immunocompromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. “I don’t know anybody who thinks we’re going to eradicate Covid,” Jha said. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately Republican and white.

Persons: —, we’re, ” Jha, Shira Doron, ” Organizations: Tufts Medicine Locations: Covid, Massachusetts

☆ Opinion | The Government Must Say What It Knows About Covid’s Origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

One of those named researchers, Ben Hu, is a leading scientist who has worked on bat coronaviruses related to SARS. In September 2021, DRASTIC also obtained a funding proposal that the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s U.S. collaborator, EcoHealth Alliance, submitted to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The proposal called for using genetic engineering to perform experiments with bat SARS-like coronaviruses and modify them by inserting features that can increase their ability to infect humans. The feature could also have evolved naturally, and many scientists dismissed its significance as evidence that research set off the pandemic origins. (Some of the scientists have said they later changed their minds).

Persons: Ben Hu, Yu Ping Organizations: U.S, U.S ., Waste, Wuhan Institute of Virology’s, EcoHealth Alliance, Pentagon’s Defense, Research Projects Agency, Wuhan Institute, Virology Locations: Wuhan, U.S, coronaviruses

☆ U.S. Intelligence Agencies May Never Find Covid’s Origins, Officials Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Julian E. Barnes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This week, intelligence agencies are expected to release declassified material on what they have learned about Covid’s origins, a subject of intense interest and scrutiny among American lawmakers. But people briefed on the material say there is no smoking gun, no body of evidence that sways the intelligence community as a whole, or top C.I.A. In fact, senior intelligence officials remain more convinced than ever that the agencies are not going to be able to collect a piece of evidence that solves the puzzle. Local and national authorities in China, U.S. officials say, destroyed some virus samples and used up others in research, all of which might have helped answer the questions over Covid’s origins. But those officials also caution against overstating the importance of the destroyed samples.

Organizations: Trump, Biden, Energy Department Locations: U.S, China

☆ Offices are turning into amenity-filled campuses to entice employees back to work
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Businesses are stuck with trillions of dollars of commercial real estate they need to use. But supply and demand are starting to even out: National demand for office space in May was up 13% from April. But are corporations downsizing the amount of office space they rent as they permanently shift some roles to work from home? Have you seen a shift in the commercial real estate market since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March? The commercial real estate market is largely a regional business, landlords are local.

Persons: That’s, Bell, Nick Romito, It’s, We’ve, hasn’t, Chris Isidore, Ella Nilsen, Ian, ’ We’ve, Anna Cooban, Greene King, Shepherd Neame, ” Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, US Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission, CBRE, Estate Services, Covid, Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, Farm, Allstate, State, Brewers, CNN, Heineken Locations: New York, United States, Silicon, Florida, California, California , Florida, Louisiana, United Kingdom

☆ What All the Single Ladies (and Men) Say About the Economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Jeanna Smialek | Jason Karaian | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Aftershocks from the coronavirus pandemic continue to rumble across the U.S. economy, and Signet Jewelers shared a surprising one this week: The company is selling fewer engagement rings this year because, it says, singles who were stuck at home during lockdowns failed to meet their would-be fiancés in 2020. Shares of Signet, the largest jewelry retailer in the United States, tumbled after the company cut its forecasts for sales and profit for the rest of the year. In a way, the engagement ring has become a sparkly microcosm of the American economy. The bridal jewelry business is being buffeted by the delayed effects of the pandemic, rapid inflation that is squeezing consumers and a growing sense of nervousness among shoppers. Some of the volatility is owed purely to the pandemic.

Persons: lockdowns, Kay Organizations: Signet Jewelers, Signet, Kay Jewelers, Zales Locations: U.S, Virginia, United States

Sixteen months after his infection, Mr. Muñoz’s lungs have recovered somewhat, but not completely. Tap to enableA 3-D visualization comparing a healthy set of lungs with Ms. Rodríguez’s lungs 14 months after her infection. Tilt your device to rotate lungs Slide to rotate lungs Slide to rotate lungsHealthy lungs are filled with millions of tiny air sacs called alveoli. Lung tissue with chronic damage shows scarred, thickened areas and collapsed sections with reduced airflow. Ms. Rodríguez has come closer to recovering, most likely helped by her youth and previous good health.

Persons: Andy Muñoz, Covid, ”, Howard Huang, It’s, Dr, Huang, Tom Kennedy, Kennedy, “, Marlene Rodríguez, Rodríguez, David Sayah, Sayah, “ She’s, ” Meridith Kohut, “ Covid, Mr, Muñoz, Meridith Kohut, ” Dr, Kennedy’s, Muñoz’s, Rodríguez’s, Melissa Raymundo, Ms, Raymundo, Gayle, Rodríguez didn’t, Vianney, José, it’s, “ We’re Organizations: New York Times, Houston Methodist Hospital, Covid, Medical Center, ”, The New York Times, USA Locations: La Porte , Texas, Houston, Atwater, Calif

☆ Opinion | Why Does Bad Science on Covid’s Origin Get Hyped?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

This pattern does not apply only to research purporting to show evidence of a natural origin. Perhaps, if you staked a lot on that initial raccoon-dog report, it does make sense to turn your dial a bit in the opposite direction. Across a pandemic in which the public was desperate for new information, we have probably gotten too used to treating hurriedly prepared reports as definitive science. “It is really important to try to understand the origin of Covid-19,” Bloom says. I think part of science, and part of critical thinking in general, is supposed to be a high level of comfort with uncertainty and unknowns.

☆ Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +55 min

Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’ In his most extensive interview yet, Anthony Fauci wrestles with the hard lessons of the pandemic — and the decisions that will define his legacy. But when people say, “Fauci shut down the economy” — it wasn’t Fauci. But somehow or other, the general public didn’t get that feeling that the vulnerable are really, really heavily weighted toward the elderly. We also had a public-health system that we thought was really, really good. But it was really, really antiquated.

The closed Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, the site of the first known Covid case cluster, in January 2020. Chinese authorities are withholding genetic evidence that could provide clues about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization said, pointing to data temporarily posted online by Chinese scientists, and then removed, that indicated the presence of wild animals at a Wuhan market. China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention in late January briefly published genetic sequences done in 2020 that appear to show the presence of raccoon dogs and other animals at China’s Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, site of the first known Covid case cluster, WHO officials said Friday.

☆ China Remains the World’s Pandemic Risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Holman W. Jenkins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Oh, good grief, whether Covid-19 emerged naturally or from a laboratory leak is not “beside the point” as even some scientists now argue. This comes as another U.S. intelligence agency—connected with the national labs run by the Energy Department—has joined the FBI in judging a lab leak to be the most likely source of the outbreak. In fact, Covid’s emergence remains so shrouded in mystery that we can’t know what lessons it teaches until we know the mechanism. But how Covid first infected a human being is probably the single most important question for preventing future pandemics given the difficulty of stopping a new respiratory virus once it’s spreading.

☆ China Rejects Energy Department’s Lab Leak Theory of Covid’s Origin
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Josh Chin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

China’s government rejected a U.S. Energy Department assessment that the Covid-19 pandemic likely originated with a lab leak, accusing the agency of engaging in a political smear. The Energy Department, which had previously been undecided on the origins of the pandemic, recently joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

☆ Rolling EU debt would boost investment and markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Rebecca Christie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

From 2009 to 2019, the EU sold just 78 billion euros’ worth of debt into global capital markets. As of January 2023, outstanding issuance stood at 344 billion euros, including more than 275 billion euros sold since 2020. EU debt is in the hands of more than 1,000 investors from more than 70 different countries, according to the bloc’s investor relations team. Contrary to what proponents of Teutonic austerity claim, more EU debt would be safer EU debt. EU debt is rated AAA by Moody’s, Fitch, Scope and DBRS.

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