Days after President Donald Trump defended his administration’s “incredible” handling of the coronavirus outbreak in a widely noted interview, the country’s most sensible fitness officer called the country’s reaction “disparate” and “not so well adapted” to the dynamics of the pandemic.
“What happened when the rubber hit the road about it, and we got hit, we had the kind of reaction that didn’t adapt so well to the dynamics of this epidemic,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Forum on Wednesday. “What happened was that we had a different reaction.”
The country’s reaction has allowed the number of COVID-19 cases to be limited to an “unacceptable level,” Fauci said, warning that the United States will continue to “burn” without a unified effort to prevent the virus.
Here are some significant developments:
Figures Figures today: The United States has recorded more than 157,000 deaths and 4.8 million COVID-19 cases at Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been more than 703,000 deaths and 18.6 million instances.
? What we read: children are less likely to die of coronavirus. But some experts say that the lack of data on how COVID-19 contracts and transmits will leave the country unprepared when schools are reopened.
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No NBA player tested positive for COVID-19 for the third consecutive weekly control period, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association said in a joint press Wednesday.
In the latest round of precautionary measures, 343 players were tested inside the NBA’s bubble-like environment at the Disney campus near Orlando, Florida.
No player has tested positive for the bubble since the first tests between July 7 and 13.
Jeff Zillgitt
As many school districts prepare to reopen campuses, some experts are concerned that study rooms may be the next incubators for primary coronavirus outbreaks.
Supporters of consistently resuming school, adding to President Donald Trump, have consistently said that young people are less likely to broadcast COVID-19 and that the benefits outweigh the risks. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 6 out of 100,000 school-age youth are hospitalized for COVID-19, compared to an overall rate of another 130 people in line with another 100,000 people. However, a recent review estimated that the closure of schools in March reduced the rate of new COVID-19 instances by 66%.
“We show that it has made a difference in cases and deaths,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Katherine Auger, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine. “It was a very vital thing the company did.”
In an interview with Fox and his friends Wednesday morning, Trump said young people return to school because they are “almost immune” or “practically immune” to the disease.
The interview was posted on Trump’s non-public Facebook page and then deleted, the first time Facebook deleted a message from the president for violating his COVID-19 disinformation policies.
– Jayme Fraser and Dan Keemahill
The NCAA on Wednesday launched a set of needs for all schools wishing to complete an upcoming sporting competition. Although the NCAA left the resolve to organize fall sports to individual divisions, it said the divisions will have the prestige of the fall championships through August 21.
“The council has expressed serious considerations about the continued high degrees of COVID-19 infection in many parts of the country,” the NCAA said. “The Board of Directors has made the decision that it will only help the progress of the fall championships and other postseason games if they are met and meet strict situations.”
Two of the needs include coverage for players who choose to retire. First, the school is required to honor the scholarship of any retiring athlete, and each department will have to make a decision until August 14 on how the withdrawal or shortened season would be eligible and inform players of that decision.
– Aria Gerson
A large and fatal explosion that shook the Lebanese capital, Beirut, put more pressure on the country’s fitness system, which was already lacking a non-public protective apparatus and suffered from more than 5,200 cases of COVID-19.
Several hospitals were damaged in the explosion – which killed at least 135 people and wounded thousands – and those still working were overwhelmed with patients, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a series of tweets.
“After months of a spiraling economic crisis and battling the coronavirus pandemic, Lebanon was already in a fragile state,” the ICRC said. “The health system was already struggling to respond to the mounting health needs. Now it is totally overwhelmed.”
At Hôtel Dieu, a university hospital in Beirut, oncologist Hampig Kourieh was just finishing his shift when the explosion happened. He described “hundreds of people covered in blood arriving on foot, cars and bikes … the scene was apocalyptic.”
The smell of blood, Kourieh said, so strong that “the iron covered the emergency room.”
– Nadia Al Faour, USA TODAY special
Two suburban Atlanta school districts that started Monday’s face-to-face categories with optional mask policies face more questions about COVID-19 safety protocols after on-campus footage showed academics shoulder to shoulder.
In Cherokee County, dozens of seniors joined in two of the district’s top six schools to take classic photographs of seniors on the first day of school, with students crammed in in combination with black suits. In Paulding County, photographs of students taken Monday and Tuesday show crowded hallways at North Paulding High School in Dallas, Georgia. Less than part of the scholars depicted wear masks.
In Columbia County, the School District has already showed its first COVID-19 case.
– Miguel Legoas, The Augusta Chronicle; The Associated Press
Virginia on Wednesday became the first state to roll out a smartphone app to automatically notify people if they might have been exposed to the coronavirus. The new pandemic technology, created by Apple and Google, is available in Apple and Android app stores as of Wednesday. The app relies on Bluetooth wireless technology to detect when someone who downloaded the app has spent time near another app user who later tests positive for the virus. State officials said the app doesn’t track user location or collect personal information.
“We’re using every possible approach to fight this virus and keep Virginians healthy,” Virginia Gov. Northam said in a statement.
When Milwaukee landed the 2020 Democratic National Convention more than a year ago, city leaders hoped 50,000 people would flood into town for four non-stop days and nights of politics. Now even the party’s nominee isn’t going.
Officials announced that Joe Biden will accept the party’s nod from his home in Delaware – and the other convention speakers won’t travel to Wisconsin, either. Organizers cited the “worsening coronavirus pandemic.”
“This convention will look different than any previous convention in history,” said Joe Solmonese, the convention’s chief executive. “It will reach more people than ever before, and truly be a convention across America for all Americans, regardless of which party you belong to or who you’ve voted for in previous elections.”
– Bill Glauber, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Florida became the second state to confirm more than 500,000 cases of COVID-19. The state Department of Health on Wednesday reported 5,409 new cases, bringing the state’s total to 502,739. California leads the nation, with more than 526,000 cases, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Florida also announced an additional 225 deaths, bringing the state’s seven-day rolling average for reported deaths to a record 184.86. The state death toll now stands at 7,627.
– Cheryl McCloud, Treasure Coast Newspapers
Chicago Public Schools are joining a lengthening line of major school systems that will start the academic year fully online. The district, which had initially planned to launch a hybrid online and in-person model starting Sept. 8, said Wednesday the continued uptick in coronavirus cases and concerns from parents urged them to adjust the plan.
Tens of thousands of families said in a district survey that they did not aim to send their children to school. And the city’s teachers’ union has threatened to go on strike because of considerations about the face-to-face classes. The district said it would switch to a hybrid learning style in the quarter, which will begin on November 9.
Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Miami are among other major cities starting the school year online-only.
The cruise industry has voluntarily extended its pause on operations in U.S. waters until “at least” Oct. 31, a month past the date the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s “no-sail” order is set to expire. CLIA’s member lines carry 95% of the world’s ocean-going cruisers. The new order will apply to all CLIA member ships that can carry 250 or more passengers.
“It is prudent at this time to voluntarily expand the suspension of ocean cruise operations in the United States until October 31,” the International Cruise Line Association, the industry’s leading ocean cruise line organization, said in a statement.
– Morgan Hines
The University of Connecticut football team is the first bowl point program to cancel its 2020 season on Wednesday, posing an “unacceptable risk point” faced by student-athletes.
UConn, which plays as an independent, had games against Illinois, Indiana, Maine and Mississippi dropped from the schedule due to “conference-only” schedules being played by those schools. Games against North Carolina and Virginia might have faced the same fate. The players released a joint statement through the school citing “full support of the decision to not compete in 2020.”
Several schools in college football’s lower divisions, including the entire Ivy League, also have canceled their seasons.
– Chris Bumbaca
One of the first cruises to resume night sailing in U.S. waters since the end of the pandemic, the cruise industry reported a case of COVID-19. Passengers are quarantined aboard the UnCruise Adventures Wild Adventurer “until the state of Alaska believes it is safe to return home,” according to an alert posted on the cruise line website. The ship was able to circumvent the federal order not to board because its capacity is less than 250 passengers and team members.
“The guest is showing no symptoms and no other guests or crew are showing outward symptoms of any kind,” the cruise line said. “All guests have been informed and will quarantine until the state of Alaska deems it safe for them to return home.”
– Hannah Yasharoff and Morgan Hines
Johnson & Johnson announced a deal with the U.S. government for 100 million doses of its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2.S, for use in the United States – if and when the vaccine wins Food and Drug Administration approval. The government may also purchase an additional 200 million doses, the company said in announcing the $1 billion deal. A clinical trial is underway, and the company said it is evaluating one- and two-dose regimens. The plan is to provide more than 1 billion non-for-profit doses globally through the course of 2021.
“We are scaling up production in the U.S. and worldwide to deliver a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for emergency use,” said Dr. Paul Stoffels, Johnson & Johnson’s chief scientific officer.
More than 500 inmates at the Arizona State Prison Complex Tucson Whetstone Unit have tested positive for COVID-19, authorities said. The 517 inmates, almost half the unit’s population of 1,066, are being housed together in separate areas and receiving medical care, according to a statement released by the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry.
The department did not immediately respond to questions, including when tests were performed and whether every inmate there was tested. The tests came after inmates at the Whetstone Unit staged a peaceful walkout last week due to virus concerns.
– Audrey Jensen, Republic of Arizona
The modern biotechnology giant said Wednesday that it planned to fully enroll 30,000 volunteers in the Phase 3 exam of its COVID-19 vaccine next month. Last week, The Modern vaccine candidate, subsidized by nearly $1 billion in federal funds, has become the first in the country to start such a giant trial. It is being tested at many sites in the United States, and effects are expected in early October.
“We have started talks with several countries for agreements for mNR-1273 (vaccine candidate) and as of July 31, we have earned approximately $400 million in visitor deposits for a potential matrix,” Moderna said in a statement.
The announcement came a day after Novavax launched the promising effects of a small initial trial. AstraZeneca, Pfizer and an organization of Chinese researchers have launched promising initial test effects, and China has begun offering its candidate vaccine to members of its armed forces.
A USA TODAY research into Johns Hopkins’s knowledge through Tuesday night shows that a state set records for new instances in a week, while three states recorded a record number of deaths in a week. New case records have been established in Hawaii as well as Puerto Rico. A record number of deaths have been reported in California, Florida and Georgia. The United States reported 4,771,080 cases and 156,801 deaths.
Mike Stucka
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Contribute: The Associated Press