Big Time News Blog: 03/14/20

Saturday, March 14, 2020

Russia closes land border with Poland and Norway to foreigners over coronavirus fears

The Russian government said on Saturday it was closing the country's land border with Poland and Norway to foreigners from midnight as a precautionary measure to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. It said the closure would apply to all foreigners passing through those border points for tourism, study, work or private visits. Russian authorities, who have already taken a slew of measures to cancel flights and trains, impose quarantine rules, and partially close Russia's long land border with China, said on Saturday they had registered 14 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours.

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Official: Pentagon launches airstrikes targeting Iran-backed militia after rocket attack on U.S., British troops

The U.S. airstrikes came after the U.S. military confirmed three coalition personnel in Iraq were killed after rockets hit Iraq's Camp Taji base.

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Sasse Rips Pelosi for Trying to Smuggle Hyde Amendment Loophole into Coronavirus Package

Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Democrats for reportedly trying to ensure federal funding for abortion as part of the coronavirus economic stimulus plan.“While schools are closing and hospitals are gearing up, Speaker Pelosi is waging unnecessary culture wars. Speaker Pelosi should be fighting the coronavirus pandemic, not politicizing emergency funding by fighting against the bipartisan Hyde Amendment,” Sasse told National Review in a statement. “We need to be ramping up our diagnostic testing, not waging culture wars at the behest of Planned Parenthood. Good grief.”Pelosi attempted to secure a funding stream of up to $1 billion for reimbursing laboratory claims. According to White House officials who spoke with the Daily Caller, that provision would establish a precedent under which health claims for all procedures, including abortion, could be reimbursed with federal funds. That precedent would render the Hyde Amendment, which blocks taxpayer funding for abortion clinics, obsolete.Pelosi resisted efforts by Democrats to end the Hyde Amendment in recent months, with progressives being forced to abandon an attempt to “ensure” abortion coverage for people using federal health programs as part of a $190 billion budget bill passed in July.“It is the law of the land right now, and I don’t see that there’s an opportunity to get rid of it with the current occupant of the White House and this U.S. Senate,” Pelosi said at the time, adding that she does not support the Hyde Amendment herself.But Pelosi’s tactics were seemingly confirmed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), who claimed in an interview on Fox News Thursday night that “right now we are hearing that some of the fights and some of the gridlock is because people are trying to put pro-life provisions into this.”> .@AOC talking about the response to Coronavirus with @BretBaier pic.twitter.com/WcXWvI3g62> > -- Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 12, 2020Pelosi went back and forth with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Thursday, ultimately coming close to a deal, with the House set to vote on the package Friday after the Speaker reportedly dropped the matter.“We’ve resolved most of our differences, and [for] those we haven’t we’ll continue the conversation, because there will obviously be other bills,” Pelosi told reporters on Thursday.

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US hospitals are scrambling to prepare for a potential surge in coronavirus cases, as one in Washington already reports depleting supplies

Some patients could end up waiting on stretchers in the hallways of emergency rooms as they wait for an open bed, the Associated Press reported.

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Estonia to bar foreign travelers from March 17

Estonia will stop foreign traveler from entering the country from March 17, in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the country's government said in a statement on Sunday.

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Mainland China reports 20 new coronavirus cases on March 14

Mainland China had 20 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on March 14, the country's National Health Commission said on Sunday, up from 11 cases a day earlier.

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Europeans scramble across borders as coronavirus restricts travel

Tom Holmes, a 34-year-old British primary school teacher living in Poland, had expected to welcome home his twin babies and his wife in Warsaw on Monday upon their return from a holiday in Britain.

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British supermarkets' plea to shoppers - stop panic buying

Britain's food retailers appealed to shoppers on Sunday to stop panic buying during the coronavirus outbreak, saying purchasing more than they need would mean others will be left without.

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Congo Republic confirms first coronavirus case: government

Congo Republic on Saturday confirmed its first case of the coronavirus, a 50-year-old man who had traveled to the country on March 1 from Paris, the government said.

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Factbox: Spain's coronavirus state of emergency measures

Spain's government on Saturday announced a nationwide, 15-day state of emergency to fight the coronavirus, ordering bars, restaurants and most shops to close, as well as restricting transport.

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Corona absence? French voters set to shun local elections amid virus fears

France heads to the polls on Sunday for local elections, but the rapid acceleration of the coronavirus across the country has led to officials fearing the vote could see mass abstentions with some politicians demanding a last minute postponement.

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Biden, Looking to Attract Progressives, Endorses Warren Bankruptcy Plan

By BY KATIE GLUECK AND THOMAS KAPLAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3aUl0kt

The Coronavirus Is Forcing Hospitals to Cancel Surgeries

By BY KAREN WEISE, MIKE BAKER AND NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/38Qy9JZ

At a Los Angeles food bank, groceries are plentiful, but volunteers are scarce.

By BY TEJAL RAO from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Wd3zaX

Man Sentenced to 54 Years for Crash That Killed 3 Girl Scouts and a Mother

By BY MICHAEL LEVENSON from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3cZKyi3

Why don't viruses make their original hosts sick? 5 questions answered

Editor’s note: The coronavirus that has claimed more than 4,000 lives worldwide and sickened more than 113,000 most likely originated in bats, most experts believe. From bats, the virus “jumped” to another species, likely pangolins, and then to humans. Why didn’t the virus make bats or pangolins sick? As it turns out, viruses are complicated – in addition to sometimes being deadly. 1\. How does this new virus differ from other coronaviruses?The family Coronaviridae contains about 39 different species of coronaviruses. Of these, only seven coronaviruses have been reported to infect and cause disease in people. Four coronaviruses cause mild symptoms similar to the common cold, but three coronaviruses cause severe and possibly deadly infections: the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and now, SARS-CoV2, which is responsible for the current coronavirus disease COVID-19. SARS-CoV2 is a cousin of the coronavirus that caused SARS, having about 79% similarity in its genetic makeup. Though similar, these two viruses are not the same, and their disease manifestations are different. SARS was recognized at the end of February 2003 in China. Worldwide, 8,098 people became sick with SARS and 774 died, with the disease having a mortality rate of 10%. MERS-CoV was first identified in Saudi Arabia in September 2012. Globally, MERS-CoV was responsible for 2,494 MERS cases and 858 deaths, with a mortality rate of 37%.The ongoing SARS-CoV2 epidemic and the rate of infection and mortality seem different than both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. As of March 10, the U.S. has 866 COVID-19 cases with 28 deaths, while 45 cases have been reported in Canada. It seems that SARS-CoV2 is less deadly than the other two coronavirus strains, but it is more contagious. 2\. Some people are saying COVID might become endemic. What does this mean?Aggressive diseases like SARS give rise to epidemics – outbreaks where the number of new cases flares up rapidly in a region. Effective, evidence-based public health measures reduce the number of new patients infected, until these aggressive diseases are controlled. In contrast, an endemic disease is constantly present in a certain geographic region. A good example of an endemic disease is malaria, which is constantly present in tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The 2003 SARS epidemic was controlled by a combination of effective international surveillance methods and local, evidence-based public health measures. International surveillance systems alerted the authorities of the emergence of a novel disease, helping set up guidance for travelers, airlines and crew. It also set in motion a global response that prevented the spread of the disease, and helped the local public health efforts to identify and quarantine infected people. Effectively, this combined response prevented SARS from becoming endemic. By July 2003, four months from the onset of the outbreak, human-to-human transmission of SARS had stopped. 3\. How do these viruses jump to humans?The majority of new diseases affecting humans are zoonotic, meaning that they originate in wild animals (mostly mammals) and then cross over to people. Among mammals, bats have a higher number of zoonotic viruses. These viruses might cause mild to no symptoms in bats. People and animals interacting with bats (or their urine, feces or saliva) might catch these zoonotic viruses and then spread them to other animals or people. The trapping of wild animals for pets, food or medicinal purposes puts wild animals like bats in close contacts with other animals and people. That is what happened in the previous two coronavirus outbreaks. In the 2003 outbreak, the SARS coronavirus jumped from bats to civets being sold as food in a market, and then from civets to people. In the MERS outbreak, the MERS coronavirus jumped from bats to camels and from camels to people. As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, China placed a permanent ban on wild animal markets. 4\. Why don’t bats get sick from the virus?Bats are pretty incredible animals. They are the only mammals that fly. Scientists have linked the genetic modifications associated with flight with beneficial modifications to the bat’s immune system. For example, the bat’s immune system fights viral infections but does not overreact to them, preventing bats from falling ill from the many viruses they have. 5\. How do organisms reach a ‘truce’ with a virus?The outcome of a virus infecting an animal depends on two general factors: The first is how strong, or virulent, is the strain of the virus. The second is the effectiveness of the infected animal’s immune defenses. Initially, a virus might be highly lethal to animals. Rapidly killing its host is not beneficial to the virus because it limits the virus’s capacity to spread to other animals. Therefore, the virus become less virulent with time. On the other hand, animals sensitive to the virus die quickly, while animals with inherited resistance to the virus survive, passing that resistance to their offspring. This combination of events, over a large period of time, results in an equilibrium where the animal’s immune system is able to control a virus infection without completely eradicating it. In people, this type of equilibrium could be observed with herpes infections. [Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * What really works to keep coronavirus away? 4 questions answered by a public health professional * Why public health officials sound more worried about the coronavirus than the seasonal fluMarcos E. García-Ojeda does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Major U.S. internet firms agree not to cancel service over next 60 days

The U.S. telecoms regulator said Friday that major internet providers - including Comcast Corp, AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc - agreed not to terminate service for subscribers for the next 60 days if they are unable to pay their bills due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said after calls with more than 50 companies that they also agreed to waive any late fees residential or small business customers incur because of their economic circumstances related to the coronavirus pandemic. Others agreeing to take part include Alphabet Inc's Google Fiber, Charter Communications Inc, CenturyLink Inc, Cox Communications, Sprint Corp, T-Mobile US Inc.

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Coronavirus: Quebec leader asks seniors to stay in, 'snowbirds' to fly back to Canada

Quebec's premier told seniors Saturday to stay home to avoid contracting the new coronavirus, and urged "snowbirds" -- retired Canadians who spend winters in sunny US states -- to fly back to Canada now. "If I were them, I'd come home as soon as possible," Legault also said about more than 300,000 Canadian "snowbirds" who live up to six months each year in the United States. As of 1300 GMT Saturday, said Health Canada, 193 cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed in Canada, including one death.

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White House says Trump won’t be tested for virus after all

The White House on Friday night said President Trump will not be tested for coronavirus, even as it disclosed that another person he hosted at his Mar-a-Lago resort last weekend has since tested positive for the virus.

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Three U.S. troops wounded in renewed rocket attacks on Iraq's Taji base

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three American troops and several Iraqi forces were wounded on Saturday in the second major rocket attack in the past week on an Iraqi base north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials said, raising the stakes in an escalating cycle of attacks and reprisals. Iraq's Joint Operations Command said 33 Katyusha rockets were launched near a section of the Taji base which houses U.S.-led coalition troops. It said the military found seven rocket launchers and 24 unused rockets in the nearby Abu Izam area.

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South Korea is Beating the Coronavirus. Mass Testing is Key. But There’s More.

Americans would do well to look to South Korea for an example of how to contain and possibly defeat the fast-spreading coronavirus.After days of indecision in which President Moon Jae-in and his aides could not believe how quickly the disease was spreading from China, they woke up to the danger and instituted one of the most effective systems anywhere.South Korea’s Creepy Coronavirus Cellphone Alerts are Useful, But They May Be TMIIn one remarkable innovation, drive-by centers test those with symptoms without asking them to leave their vehicles. A quick temperature check, a rub inside the mouth and maybe the nose with a cotton swab, and it’s all over until the results are known a few hours later.Dr. Ogan Gurel, who got his medical degree from Columbia in New York and moved to Seoul 10 years ago, cites drive-by testing as one of “a panoply of measures” designed to stop the virus from overwhelming this country of 51 million people.“There is no silver bullet,” says Gurel, who teaches medicine and provides scientific advice. “Individually, people might suffer, but in aggregate they end up with qualitative stabilization.” That is to say, for the overall population the disease is brought under control.The proof is in the numbers showing new cases in South Korea decreasing steadily–just 110 on Thursday, the lowest in more than two weeks, while 177 were declared cured and sent home. All told, the number of cases totals 7,979, but the general feeling sense is the worst is over.“Korea is setting a good example for the U.S.,” said Jang Sung-eun, who still rides the subways to work every day while many of her colleagues try to work from home. “They say we Koreans are rather effective in dealing with the problem.”Such guarded optimism reflects a discernible shift in national mood from the near-panic that engulfed the country after the virus was discovered to be emanating from a church in the city of Daegu, 170 miles southeast of Seoul. The church was one of dozens run by the secretive Shincheonji sect, whose leader, Lee Man-hee, has proclaimed himself the embodiment of Jesus Christ.“There was some resistance among them to testing,” says Gurel, but by now almost all the sect’s 230,000 members have been checked. Most of those suffering from the disease were members of the church or caught the virus from members who may have passed it on through two or three others, who in turn transmitted it to still more contacts.Korean self-discipline and community cohesiveness explain much of the success in coming to terms with an illness that remains almost out of control elsewhere.“The rate of new cases is tapering much more than in Italy, Iran or the U.S.,” says Gurel. “They’ve been taking measures that are quite constructive. They’ve been isolating cluster areas but not in a totalitarian way.”Quite aside from the availability of quick, no-cost testing, Dr. Gurel cites the discipline of Koreans in heeding advice of all sorts. “There is a constant message about social hygiene,” he says. Avoidance of public spaces, frequent hand-washing, all that “eventually improved the situation.”Kim Ganglip, vice health minister, outlined the philosophy behind the campaign to halt the spread of the disease.“We consider two core values to be important,” he told journalists in Seoul. “First is that public participation must be secured through openness and transparency. Second is to respect creative thinking and use cutting-edge technology to develop the most effective means of response.” On that basis, he said, “the government is working on various ways to ensure that the information that citizens need to stay safe includes detailed explanations.”Once a patient is confirmed to have the disease, the words “emergency alert” on mobile phones show his or her “travel history,” said Kim. “The more transparently and quickly accurate information is provided, the more the people will trust the government.” If that approach seemed like an intrusion on privacy, Kim adopts that same argument in debunking what he called “the traditional response to an outbreak of contagious disease” that involved “locking down afflicted areas and isolating infected victims.” That approach, he said, has had only “modest effectiveness” while appearing “close-minded, coercive, and inflexible.” In fact, he said, “We have experienced harmful consequences with democracy being undermined and active public participation in the process being reduced.” As a democratic country and a pluralistic society, said Kim, “we must transcend the limitations of the conventional approach to fighting infectious diseases.” But how can South Korea manage to pull off the trick of sticking to democratic principles while trying to tell people what to do and how to behave? The answer, some believe, lies in Korea’s military history. “Having the large military and needing to remain in constant readiness for an outbreak of war is probably helpful,” says Steve Tharp, a retired U.S. army officer who’s lived on the peninsula for decades. ”The government was also able to quickly pull assets from the military, such as nurses and others, to assist in the effort. We see pictures of soldiers walking around in hazmat suits spraying different locations.” Then too, Tharp notes, geography helps. “South Korea is essentially an island with the water on three sides”–and the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea “blocking the hostile nation to the north.” Finally, he adds in an email, “The small geographical size of Korea and the great rail and road networks also mean that assets/resources needed to fight the virus can be redistributed quickly nationwide–in just a matter of hours.” Korea’s history of having battled, and defeated, previous epidemiological threats undoubtedly helped.While President Donald Trump’s people seemed oblivious to the danger of a pandemic, observes Tom Coyner, a long-time business consultant in Seoul, in South Korea “the national health program is relatively immune to political pressures.” Thus “precautionary measures, such as those pertaining to a possible pandemic, such as SARS, MERS, and now COVID-19, were being treated seriously and unlikely to face budgetary cutbacks. “Hank Morris, also a consultant in Seoul, agrees. “The Koreans must have developed viral infection testing capacities from the time of SARS and MERS, and also for swine flu, all of which were within the past 20 years,” he says. “They began developing large-scale testing years ago and have allocated some resources to testing capability every year.”Amazingly, even Korean conservatives, bitterly opposed to the liberal policies of President Moon, cannot deny that Korea’s approach to coronavirus actually appears to be working.“We’re very advanced,” says Maeng Joo-seok, a regular participant in right-wing protests before the government banned them. “We are very developed and reliable”–enough to imbue Koreans with confidence in their ability to defeat the odds as they have done so often since the country’s rise from the rubble of war.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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