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Contents contributed and discussions participated by andrespardo

andrespardo

Thousands gather in London for George Floyd protest | US news | The Guardian - 0 views

  • Thousands gather in London for George Floyd protest
  • Thousands of mostly young protesters marched through central London in an overwhelmingly peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration that culminated in passionate crowds gathering at the heart of Westminster.
  • A few minutes later two demonstrators were arrested after bottles were thrown at the same group of officers, although the confrontation was short lived, and police mostly looked on as a vast crowd marched from Hyde Park to Parliament Square.
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  • They carried hundreds of handmade signs and called out the names of Floyd and others in the UK like Mark Duggan who had died at the hands of police or were victims of racial injustice such as the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.
  • Frankie Clarence, 28, one of the organisers of the protest, said: “I feel we are now in a period where voices don’t need to be voiceless anymore.” He was one of many who highlighted the case of Belly the black transport worker who died of coronavirus after being spat at at a train station
  • The demonstrator added: “The British Transport Police said any assault to staff would be prosecuted, fined, and arrested. After hearing the news of Belly Mujinga we found injustice and no action had been taken on her behalf. These guys are contradicting their words and there’s thus injustice not just in the US, but the UK. It’s literally everywhere in the world.”
andrespardo

US lets corporations delay paying environmental fines amid pandemic | Environment | The... - 0 views

  • US lets corporations delay paying environmental fines amid pandemic
  • Ten corporations that agreed to a total of $56m in civil penalties for allegedly breaking environmental laws are not being required to make payments under a pause granted by the US government during the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • They signed settlements with the government agreeing to pay fines without admitting liability but the justice department last month advised most of the companies of extensions in letters which were obtained by the government watchdog group Accountable.US via public records requests.
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  • Denver-based oil and gas company K P Kauffman allegedly violated air pollution laws, emitting volatile organic compounds that form smog in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, an area that wasn’t meeting smog standards. The company settled and agreed to pay $1m in eight installments over four years, but it has not been required to pay its second installment because of the freeze. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
  • Chris Saeger, director of strategic initiatives at Accountable.US, said: “This is exactly the time to make sure support is flowing to the federal, state and local governments that need a hand with responding to the coronavirus crisis and with the environmental problems that these special interests have caused.”
  • The companies will not be required to pay penalties before 1 June, although they have the option to do so and at least two companies told the Guardian they made payments despite the extension. The EPA would not respond to inquiries about its policy and or say which companies paid penalties.
  • One company, Virginia power provider Dominion Energy, settled and agreed to pay $1.4m for allegedly releasing 27.5m gallons of water from a coal ash impoundment that seeped into groundwater along the shore of the James River. Coal ash contains dangerous pollutants, including mercury, cadmium and arsenic, which can cause widespread environmental damage. The company said it plans to pay the settlement penalty once it is finalized.
  • Another alleged violator, one of the world’s largest steel companies, ArcelorMittal, decided to pay the $5m penalty it agreed to for air quality issues at steel plants in East Chicago, Indiana; Burns Harbor, Indiana; and Cleveland, Ohio, according to a spokesman.
  • BP was accused of emitting too much particle pollution, which is linked to asthma and heart attacks. The justice department’s assistant attorney general Brian Benczkowski represented BP in the past. BP employees have given $85,000 to Trump campaign groups.
andrespardo

Revealed: conservative group fighting to restrict voting tied to powerful dark money ne... - 0 views

  • Revealed: conservative group fighting to restrict voting tied to powerful dark money network
  • A powerful new conservative organization fighting to restrict voting in the 2020 presidential election is really just a rebranded group that is part of a dark money network already helping Donald Trump’s unprecedented effort to remake the US federal judiciary, the Guardian and OpenSecrets reveal.
  • $250,000 in advertisements in April, warning against voting by mail and accusing Democrats of cheating. It facilitated letters to election officials in Colorado, Florida and Michigan, using misleading data to accuse jurisdictions of having bloated voter rolls and threatening legal action.
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  • Despite appearing to be a free-standing new operation, the Honest Elections Project is just a legal alias for the Judicial Education Project, a well-financed nonprofit connected to a powerful network of dark money conservative groups, according to business records reviewed by the Guardian and OpenSecrets.
  • For nearly a decade, the organization has been almost entirely funded by DonorsTrust, known as a “dark money ATM” backed by the Koch network and other prominent conservative donors, according to data tracked by OpenSecrets. In 2018, more than 99% of the Judicial Education Project’s funding came from a single $7.8m donation from DonorsTrust.
  • The Honest Elections Project is merely a fictitious name – an alias – the fund legally adopted in February. The change was nearly indiscernible because The 85 Fund registered two other legal aliases on the same day, including the Judicial Education Project, its old name. The legal maneuver allows it to operate under four different names with little public disclosure that it is the same group.
  • There is a lot of overlap between the Honest Elections Project and the Judicial Crisis Network. Both groups share personnel, including Carrie Severino, the influential president of the Judicial Crisis Network.
  • The Honest Elections Project has become active as Republicans are scaling up their efforts to fight to keep voting restrictions in place ahead of the election. The Republican National Committee will spend at least $20m on litigation over voting rights and wants to recruit up to 50,000 people to help monitor the polls and other election activities.
  • “It isn’t any surprise to those of us that do work in both of these spaces that our opponents [who] want to constrict access to voting, access to the courts, who are seeking an anti-inclusive, anti-civil rights agenda are one in the same,” she said.
andrespardo

Republicans sense rich pickings in Biden archive - but will it be made public... - 0 views

  • The Biden senatorial papers comprise 1,875 boxes of “photographs, documents, videotapes and files” and 415 gigabytes of electronic records at the University of Delaware in his home state. They recently came to public attention when Biden was accused by Tara Reade, a former staffer, of sexually assaulting her in a Capitol Hill basement in 1993.
  • “The fact is that there’s a lot of things, of speeches I’ve made, positions I’ve taken, interviews that I did overseas with people, all of those things relating to my job, and the idea that they would all be made public in the fact while I was running for public office, they could be really taken out of context,” he told interviewer Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program.
  • “They’re papers or position papers, they are documents that existed and that – for example, when I met with [Vladimir] Putin or when I met with whomever, and all of that could be fodder in a campaign at this time.”
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  • Last week the Republican National Committee launched a digital advertising campaign, raising questions about whether the university is keeping documents under seal related to the Reade allegation. One of the ads alleges: “University of Delaware is complicit in sexual assault cover-up.”
  • Biden’s defenders argue he is merely following precedent: past senators who ran for president have not been required to disclose all their papers. But Fitton contended: “It’s not that they’re being required; the question is whether the records are available under law. If he had them at his house, maybe there’s an argument, but they’re not at his house. They’re at a university and subject to Foia [Freedom of Information Act].”
  • “curating the collection”, a process likely to continue well into 2021, and the papers will not be released until two years after Biden retires from public life.
  • Furthermore, critics on the progressive wing of the Democratic party would be eager to scrutinize Biden’s links to the financial services industry, a big player in Delaware. Conservatives might hunt for documents linking Biden’s son, Hunter, to overseas business interests. In a replay of the 2016 campaign, when he encouraged Russia to hack Clinton’s emails, Donald Trump may welcome a chance to make mischief by demanding “transparency”.
  • There are practical objections, Sabato added, but Republicans will seek to turn those to their advantage. “First of all, you couldn’t publish it all or even open it all. He had an incredibly long career, a 50-year political career, and there are some personal items in there as well, from what I understand. How could you even manage to make it available to researchers, much less the general public, just a few months ahead of an election? It’s not going to happen.
  • “His papers from the Senate were at the University of Tennessee and his opponents kept quacking about the fact that we had locked them up, literally, because we didn’t want to go through every morning having some 12-year-old take five words out of a 300-word essay and have to defend it all day.
  • “So we just said to hell with you, if that’s what the fight is going to be about, then the fight will be about not getting access to the papers as opposed to what’s in the papers. And it’s a little hard to make the case that Biden won’t give up the papers at the University of Delaware while Trump has been in federal court for 27 years to protect his financial records.”
andrespardo

Which kind of face mask will best protect you against coronavirus? | World news | The G... - 0 views

  • Which kind of face mask will best protect you against coronavirus?
  • Does it matter what sort of mask you wear? Yes. Different types of mask offer different levels of protection. Surgical grade N95 respirators offer the highest level of protection against Covid-19 infection, followed by surgical grade masks. However, these masks are costly, in limited supply, contribute to landfill waste and are uncomfortable to wear for long periods. So even countries that have required the public to wear face masks have generally suggested such masks should be reserved for health workers or those at particularly high risk.
  • but still suggests that face masks can contribute to reducing transmission of Covid-19. Analysis by the Royal Society said this included homemade cloth face masks.
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  • Are paper surgical single-use masks better or is a cloth mask OK? The evidence on any mask use, outside of surgical masks, is still emerging: there appears to be some benefit, but the exact parameters of which masks are the best and the extent to which they protect the wearer or those around them are still being figured out. A tighter fitting around the face is probably better, but the CDC suggests any covering, including a bandana, is better than none.
  • heavyweight “quilter’s cotton” or multiple layers of material. Scarves and bandana material were less effective, but still captured a fraction of particles.
  • Replace the mask when it is damp. To remove your mask, take it off using the elastic tags, without touching the front and discard immediately into a closed bin or, if the mask is reusable, directly into the washing machine.
  • How often do you need to wash masks? They should be washed after each use. The US Center for Disease Control suggests “routinely”.
  • if every person in the UK used one single-use mask each day for a year, an extra 66,000 tonnes of contaminated plastic waste would be created. The use of reusable masks by the general population would significantly reduce plastic waste and the climate change impact of any policy requirements for the wearing of face masks, according to the UCL team, led by Prof Mark Miodownik. They say that according to the best evidence, reusable masks perform most of the tasks of single-use masks without the associated waste stream.
andrespardo

Can you catch coronavirus twice? What we know about Covid-19 so far | World news | The ... - 0 views

  • But we do have some clues. “We know from ‘normal’ coronavirus studies done in the past you can infect people after about a year following an initial infection,” said Dr Ben Killingley, consultant in acute medicine and infectious diseases at University College London hospital.
  • “I have yet to see a definitive case of reinfection reported in the scientific literature [to date]. To truly prove reinfection, and discriminate from prolonged viral shedding related to the first infection, would require sequencing of both the first and second viruses and demonstration that the two viruses are genetically different,” he said, adding it will also be important to look at symptoms and how long reinfection lasts.
  • What happened in South Korea, where patients tested positive after having recovered from Covid-19?
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  • That’s because the PCR (or “have-you-got-it”) test is based on detecting genetic material from the virus – on its own it does not reveal whether that virus is active, and infectious, or not.
  • “In some persons they begin to feel well again and signs and symptoms including fever decrease, but some then go on to develop respiratory distress and must be provided oxygen in hospital,” said David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “It appears to be a delayed immune response that is more serious in some persons and that reacts to remaining virus in various organs.”
  • “[We are] at the beginning of describing what may be a complex picture of chronic disease that may ensue from the initial infection – coming and going in relapsing waves, sometimes almost like a kind of chronic fatigue syndrome,” he said. “[These cases] may reflect examples of virus not fully cleared, or alternatively, some kind of damaging post-hoc disturbance to immune or inflammatory function,” he said.
  • Experts say it is unlikely. “I know some have discussed ‘reactivation’ of virus, but this seems unhelpful and unsupported to me,” said Altmann. “It’s a term that’s borrowed from other viruses, especially the herpes virus family, that can hide in the body in a latent state to reactivate years later. [There is] no evidence of that at all for coronaviruses.”
  • How long are people with Covid-19 infectious for? A recent study of 60 coronavirus patients in China showed 10 patients tested positive for Covid-19 after discharge from hospital. However, once again, experts say this could be down to the test picking up genetic material from inactive virus, with other studies, including work in South Korea, suggesting those who test positive with Covid-19 after recovering from the disease are not infectious.
  • “It’s not uncommon to find virus in the nose or throat for up to four weeks after initial infection, but tests to establish whether this is live infectious virus – as opposed to just genetic material detection – are not normally positive for much longer than a week,” said Killingley, adding: “I haven’t come across relapse cases whereby the initial infection acquired weeks ago reignites itself into an infectious case.”
andrespardo

George Floyd killing: sister says police officers should be charged with murder | US ne... - 0 views

  • George Floyd killing: sister says police officers should be charged with murder
  • The sister of George Floyd, the black man killed by police in Minneapolis after an incident captured on video in which an officer knelt on his neck as he lay on the ground, has called for those involved in his death to be charged with murder.
  • The FBI and authorities in Minnesota have launched investigations into his death. The officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck is white.
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  • Bridget Floyd struggled to hold back tears as she spoke to NBC Today about the family’s shock and grief.
  • In the footage that emerged of Floyd’s violent detention, he can be heard to shout “I cannot breathe” and “Don’t kill me!” He then becomes motionless, eyes closed, face-first on the road.
  • I offer my deepest condolences to the Floyd family, and I stand with them in their fight to get justice for George.”
  • She said: “It’s painful but true that black lives continue to be destroyed by police officers in many communities across our country. They keep killing us. and it’s the same story again and again.”
  • Crump said that in some ways, the use of “violent, lethal and excessive force” on Floyd was more disturbing than the treatment of Garner, even, because the officer is seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck for up to nine minutes.
  • He said he hoped the killing would be a turning point for the justice system. “There cannot be two justice systems, one for black America and one for white America.”
  • She said: “I would like for these officers to be charged with murder, because that’s exactly what they did. They murdered my brother. He was crying for help.”
andrespardo

Coronavirus US live: cases still increasing in two dozen states amid push to reopen | U... - 0 views

  • Dr Anthony Fauci said he thought it was too soon to say whether the presidential nominating conventions will be able to safely take place in person this summer.
  • “I think we need to reserve judgment right now because we’re still a few months from there,”
  • The infectious disease expert said the country would have to see a signficant decline in cases in order to safely move forward with the conventions.
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  • “Hopefully we will see that diminution [of coronavirus cases],” Fauci said. “If we don’t, then as I’ve said before, I would have significant reservations about that.”
  • In contrast, Trump said Monday he wanted a “guarantee”
  • Republicans could hold their convention at full capacity in August.
  • Realistically, as Fauci’s comments indicate, no governor can actually make that guarantee right now
  • Republican governors of Georgia and Florida from offering up their states to replace North Carolina as the convention site.
andrespardo

First Thing: Twitter has started fact-checking Trump's tweets | US news | The Guardian - 0 views

  • Twitter has started fact-checking Trump's tweets
  • The president accused the social media platform of ‘stifling free speech’ after it labeled his false claims about voter fraud. Plus, why Republicans want to see the Biden archive
  • Trump had made false statements about the threat of voter fraud posed by the expansion of mail-in voting in California.
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  • Donald Trump raged against Twitter – on Twitter – on Tuesday, after the social media platform marked the president’s misleading posts with its new “get the facts” label for the first time since introducing the feature this month.
  • Twitter, which has long faced criticism for failing to censor the head of state’s most egregious statements, added the new labels after deciding Trump’s tweets violated its new “civic integrity policy”
  • Trump then repeated his false claims in a further series of tweets, accusing Twitter of “interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election” and “completely stifling FREE SPEECH”.
  • A widower asked Twitter to delete Trump’s ‘horrifying’ smears about his late wife.
andrespardo

Family values: why Trump's children are key to his re-election campaign | US news | The... - 0 views

  • It begins with dramatic music and slick graphics – skyscrapers, clouds, big screens, the roar of a helicopter and chants of “Four more years!” Then come clips of Donald Trump Jr mocking Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and hurling red “Keep America Great” caps into a crowd at a rally. A fireball darts across the screen, trailing the word “Triggered”.
  • Welcome to the virtual Trump campaign starring his three children, Don Jr, Eric and Ivanka, and their partners, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Lara Trump and Jared Kushner. The six are among the president’s most important surrogates and strategists, constantly pushing his cause, rallying his base, trashing his opponents and earning a reputation as a modern political mafia.
  • “And guess what?” he said on Fox News. “After 3 November [election day], coronavirus will magically all of a sudden go away and disappear and everybody will be able to reopen. They’re trying to deprive him of his greatest asset.”
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  • “The kids are completely aligned with this complete distortion and disregard for the truth, whether it’s a conspiracy theory with ‘Obamagate’ or this paedophile comment or the most ridiculous one, that this pandemic is a hoax.
  • rump’s children have been ever present since he announced his wildly improbable run for the presidency at Trump Tower in New York in June 2015. A year later, Don Jr and Ivanka’s husband, Kushner, were present at a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. It came to nought but raised questions about the methods of both men.
  • The children clocked up thousands of air miles campaigning while, behind the scenes, Kushner helped shape a crucial digital strategy. The family gathered with Trump on stage in New York when he stunned the world by winning. Since then, their influence has only grown.
  • ‘I learned it by watching you’ Don Jr and Eric stepped in to run the Trump Organization, the family business, where they have been forced to deny persistent allegations they are exploiting the presidency for profit. Both have also come into their own as bomb-throwers on their father’s behalf.
  • Two years ago, Don Jr separated from his wife, Vanessa, and began dating Guilfoyle, a lawyer, Fox News host and, incongruously, the ex-wife of Gavin Newsom, then the liberal Democratic mayor of San Francisco, now the governor of California. She joined the Trump campaign last year and has proved every bit as zealous as her boyfriend.
  • In the coronavirus pandemic, the children have hit the ground running in ways Trump and Biden have not. Trump’s re-election team broadcasts live programming online seven nights a week. This week it launched The Right View, including Guilfoyle and Lara Trump, as a riposte to the popular daytime show The View, which has an all-female panel.
  • “I’m an outdoorsman, shooter, hunter, and not just, ‘I do one weekend a year to talk about it at a cocktail party for the next two years,’” said Don Jr, who has frequently admitted the irony of the son of a New York billionaire speaking on behalf of blue-collar Americans. “This is the way I choose to live my life when I’m not doing my day job.”
  • Democrats such as Vela, the former Biden adviser, find the Trump children and their partners as offensive as the president himself. “You’ve got to sell your soul if you’re gonna be a part of it,” he said. “It’s almost like a mafioso operation, the mafia of hate. There is so much hate and hatred filled in their bones and in their hearts. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”
  • “It’s very disturbing, the extent to which they’re willing to go, and I guess the most chilling example was where Eric said that after the election we’ll find out that the whole Covid pandemic was cooked up by the Democrats. That’s the extent to which they’re willing to bend reality to stand up for their father. It’s also the tragedy of the Republican party that a lot of politicians are in this same position where in order to stay aligned with Trump, they have to bend reality.”
  • Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said: “There’s a lot of talk about that but I think the stark political reality that will hit them all, whether Donald Trump wins re-election or not, is that there are a whole lot of Republicans waiting in the wings for this administration’s transition to lame duck and they are not going to go quietly into that good night.
andrespardo

The US doctors taking Trump's lead on hydroxychloroquine - despite mixed results | US n... - 0 views

  • The US doctors taking Trump’s lead on hydroxychloroquine – despite mixed results
  • Among the most ardent proponents of these claims is the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a fringe group of less than 5,000 doctors. The group was recently cited by Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, to explain the president’s stunning announcement that he is taking the drug hydroxychloroquine in an attempt to protect himself against Covid-19 despite a lack of evidence of its effectiveness.
  • Yet Dr Jane Orient, executive director of AAPS, told the Guardian she believed the drug “should be prescribed more often”, and in a statement based on a flawed database claimed the drug offered “about 90% chance of helping Covid-19 patients”.
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  • This group is lobbying on behalf of what they believe to be right, but invariably experts would disagree on their stance on hydroxychloroquine John Ayers
  • “They’re aligned with the Trump administration, that doesn’t believe in science, doesn’t believe in fact. They’re completely compatible with the Trump White House.”
  • “I don’t want to have a target put on my back … which could result in somebody wanting to scrutinize my entire practice,” Orient said.
  • As far as the president’s pronouncements, Ayers said: “We don’t know if he’s actually even taking it.” Even as Trump said he was tak
  • Massachusetts general hospital, another world-renowned academic medical center, is giving priority to remdesivir, a drug developed by Gilead, although hydroxychloroquine is provided on a case-by-case basis.
  • But Orient argued that masks “are not free of side-effects” and that they “retard oxygen” to the brain. She later added: “I think one jogger even dropped dead.” One man in China reportedly suffered a collapsed lung while wearing a mask, though a doctor in the report said there was “no clear evidence” the mask caused the injury.
  • Orient also voiced her support for lifting stay-at-home orders. “They are destroying the economy, they are destroying people’s lives, there is really no evidence they work,” she said. The economic and social impacts of the lockdowns have been devastating.
  • The view of AAPS, he added, is “that doctors should be basically free to do whatever they want to do, regardless of the level of evidence, and that’s a dangerous perspective for medical practitioners to have in the 21st century”.
  • Nevertheless, Orient argues hydroxychloroquine should be available over the counter. Concerns from scientists have “nothing to do with concerns about safety and concerns about science”, she argued. Her view that lockdowns are “despotic, tyrannical and completely unwarranted”, and will probably also cause consternation in many circles.
andrespardo

Here comes the polar vortex: America's north-east braced for record May cold | US news ... - 0 views

  • : America's north-east braced for record May cold
  • The north-eastern US is about to get a cold spring farewell from winter’s bad boy, the polar vortex, which could bring rare May snowfall and record-low temperatures to some areas over the Mother’s Day weekend, forecasters say.
  • Around this time of year, the polar vortex usually breaks up, but this breakup is a bit different, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research, a commercial firm outside Boston.
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  • Forecasts called for perhaps as much as 2in of snow in the Berkshire mountains in western Massachusetts on Friday into Saturday; an inch or so on grassy areas of central Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire and western Connecticut; and rain with a few flakes possible in the Boston area, he said.
  • Temperatures may plummet to record lows. The 9 May record low in Boston is 35F, also in 1977. Freeze warnings are in place for parts of Pennsylvania, Tubbs said, with freeze watches stretching into New Jersey and as far south as Maryland.
  • Thursday after being forced closed by the state because of the coronavirus pandemic.
  • “We’re a weather-driven business,” she continued. “But to have this happen the minute we are open is quite unbelievable.”
andrespardo

The US recovery from the pandemic lags way behind Europe - even as states reopen | Worl... - 0 views

  • The US recovery from the pandemic lags way behind Europe – even as states reopen
  • The US may be moving to loosen social distancing restrictions around the same time as several European countries but it remains in a far different, and worse, stage of the coronavirus pandemic.
  • While infections and deaths from Covid-19 quickly raced to terrifying peaks in Italy and Spain, both countries have managed to arrest the increase and are now forcing the key trends downwards.
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  • where nearly 24,000 people have died from the virus, will return to a “new normality” by the end of June, according to the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez.
  • In the US, more than half of the states are also pushing ahead with plans to restart economic activity, urged on by Donald Trump, who has said that “we have to get our country open, and we have to get it open soon”.
  • Not only has the US suffered the most deaths worldwide, at more than 75,000 people so far, it has also failed so far to bend the curve of infections downwards.
  • Outside New York, a global hotspot for the pandemic that has managed to bend its curve downwards after weeks of societal restrictions, the rate of new cases is actually climbing in America.
  • Comparing the journey of the pandemic in the US with other nations is instructive – while new cases and deaths in Italy, Spain and France rocketed, they then plunged back down to more manageable levels ahead of plans to restart the patterns of normal life.
  • Public health experts have warned that the US is at risk of prematurely removing social distancing restrictions and encouraging a second, stronger wave of infections.
andrespardo

Black people four times more likely to die from Covid-19, ONS finds | Society | The Gua... - 0 views

  • Black people four times more likely to die from Covid-19, ONS finds
  • Black people are more than four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people, according to stark official figures exposing a dramatic divergence in the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in England and Wales. The Office of National Statistics found that the difference in the virus’s impact was caused not only by pre-existing differences in communities’ wealth, health, education and living arrangements.
  • after other pre-existing factors had been accounted for, and females from those ethnic groups were 1.6 times more likely to die from the virus than their white counterparts.
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  • The risk of Covid-19 death for people from Chinese and mixed ethnic groups was found to be similar to that for white people.
  • Guardian research last month confirmed suspicions that minority groups faced the greatest risk from the coronavirus and showed that areas with high ethnic minority populations in England and Wales tended to have higher mortality rates in the pandemic.
  • “We cannot ignore how important racial discrimination and racial inequalities, for example, in housing, are, even among poorer socio-economic groups,” she said. “These factors are important but are not taken into account in most statistical modelling of Covid-19 risk factors.”
  • These groups are more likely to work in frontline roles in the NHS in England: nearly 21% of staff are from ethnic minorities, compared with about 14% of the population of England and Wales. Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani populations have been shown to face higher levels of unemployment and child poverty than white groups.
  • The authors called for further research on the contribution of occupational risk and whether people from BAME backgrounds were placed at increased risk of exposure and infection.
  • “It doesn’t have to be like this. As a society that prides itself on justice and compassion, we can and must do better.”
  • After all these factors were accounted for, Indian men and women were less likely than people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani background to die from Covid-19, but were still 1.3 times and 1.4 times more vulnerable than white people.
  • The ONS also checked to see if, within ethnic groups, socio-economic class made a difference. They found that the differences in risk of Covid-19-related death across ethnic groups were of similar magnitudes within all three socio-economic classes.
  • Some groups may be over-represented in public-facing occupations and could be more likely to be infected by Covid-19 . About 12.8% of workers from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds work in public-facing transport jobs such as bus, coach and taxi driving, compared with 3.5% of white people. The ONS said it plans to conduct further work to identify occupations that are particularly at risk.
  • Like the ONS data, the study found that people of black and Asian backgrounds were at higher risk of death, and it ruled out the idea that this was largely due to higher rates of underlying medical problems in these groups.
  • To try to understand how much of the difference in Covid-19 morbidity was to do purely with ethnicity, the statisticians adjusted for age as well as region, rural and urban classification, area deprivation, household composition, socio-economic position, highest qualification held, household tenure, and health or disability as recorded in the 2011 census.
  • The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that people from deprived social backgrounds were also at a higher risk, and again this finding could not be explained by other risk factors.
  • The research accounts for health problems reported by people who filled in the 2011 census, but Hanif said differences in the extent of other underlying diseases in different ethnic groups in Britain – so-called co-morbidities – which have not been accounted for by the ONS, may be significant. For example, in the UK people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent are
  • “We have commissioned Public Health England to better understand the different factors, such as ethnicity, obesity and geographical location that may influence the effects of the virus.”
andrespardo

New Zealand 'halfway down Everest' as Ardern plans big easing of Covid lockdown | World... - 0 views

  • New Zealand 'halfway down Everest' as Ardern plans big easing of Covid lockdown
  • Under level two, the “bar” area of a bar would be off-limits because it has been identified as a transmission hotspot for the virus. This was evidenced by a cluster of dozens of people who went drinking at a pub in Matamata on St Patrick’s day in March.
  • Public spaces such as playgrounds and libraries would be reopened, bars and restaurants would be able to accept patrons, and domestic travel and competitive sport allowed to resume, including the professional leagues, but there will be no stadium crowds for now. Most workers would be allowed to head back to the office, though Ardern urged any who could stay home – or found it more productive – to do so. Widespread social-distancing rules would continue to apply, including patrons being seated two metres apart in public spaces, strangers keeping their distance from one another, and hairdressers, barbers and beauticians being required to wear PPE.
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  • Under the plans outlined by Ardern on Thursday, they would be permitted to see friends, family and even online dates – so long as they keep a log of their movements, and did not participate in indoor or outdoor gatherings of any more than 100. Weddings, funerals and anniversary celebrations would also be permitted.
  • The detailed description of life under level two was greeted with jubilation by Kiwis, many of whom have been desperate for a haircut and a change of company and scene.
  • Hairdressers, bars and competitive sport could be back on the agenda for New Zealanders from next week as the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the country was “halfway down Everest” in its fight against Covid-19. New Zealand has been under strict lockdown restrictions for more than five weeks, but the low number of cases this week – zero for two consecutive days – means restrictions will soon be lifted.
  • Kiwis should be proud of how quickly the country had got on top of the virus, compared with other countries. Less than 1,500 people have contracted the virus so far.
  • but
  • “Every alert level to fight Covid-19 is its own battle. When you win one, it doesn’t mean the war is over,” Ardern said.
  • “There is a much higher level of individual responsibly required at level two to prevent the spread of the virus. Even though the economy will be significantly opened up we still need everyone to remain vigilant and continue to act like you and those around you have the virus. “On Monday 11 May, we will make a decision on whether to move, taking into consideration the best data and advice we can, recognising the impact of restrictions, and ensuring we don’t put at risk all of the gains we have made. “We need to balance the risk of the virus bouncing back against the strong desire to get the economy moving again.”
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Ahmaud Arbery killing reignites debate over sharing graphic viral videos | US news | Th... - 0 views

  • Ahmaud Arbery killing reignites debate over sharing graphic viral videos
  • The outrage surrounding the viral video of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery being shot just outside Brunswick, Georgia, is what prompted prosecutors to request a grand jury to consider charges, according to many social justice activists.
  • The footage released this week shows Arbery jogging down a narrow two-lane road. A white law enforcement officer and his son, whose truck is stopped nearby, shoot Arbery within seconds of confronting him.
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  • “I am trembling with anger over what I just witnessed,” wrote the activist Shaun King, who first posted the video on Twitter on Tuesday.
  • Beyond the calls for justice, however, the manner by which King released the footage to the public has prompted a backlash. Although he prefaced the release of the video with a separate tweet, King drew immediate anger for sharing the graphic depiction of Arbery’s death without an explicit warning of its contents.
  • n a statement to the Guardian, King said he “loathes”, the videos, calling them “damaging to anyone who sees them”.
  • “We know what happened,” tweeted the cultural critic April Reign. “Those who need video evidence to believe what we know aren’t going to be swayed by a video.”
  • “In the same way that we do not show the lethal executions of prisoners, one wonders how the media justifies depicting the death of non-imprisoned citizens at the hands of the same system,” she wrote.
  • “Media attention can be created without causing traumatic stress to millions of people who see the video,” one user replied. “Seeing someone murdered is something that shouldn’t be made normal to see.”
  • “It’s graphic, but must be shared,” wrote Benjamin Crump, attorney for Arbery’s father Marcus. “As we seek justice in this modern-day lynching, everyone must know the truth!”
  • for many people of color, frequent exposure to “clips on the nightly news featuring unarmed African Americans being killed on the street, in a holding cell, or even in a church” can have long-term mental health effects.
  • According to Monnica Williams, clinical psychologist and director of the Center for Mental Health Disparities at the University of Louisville, social media and viral videos can worsen trauma and stress.
  • In a 2018 report published in the Lancet, researchers determined that when police officers in the US kill unarmed black people, it damages the mental health of black Americans living in the same states.
  • As in the cases of Arbery, Castile, and others, proponents of widely sharing video note that the footage can often spur action in the justice system, where it might not otherwise had been taken.
  • “They will now intentionally undermine the process so as to result in no charges,” she added.”
andrespardo

First Thing: The climate can't take a return to 'business as usual' | US news | The Gua... - 0 views

  • The climate can't take a return to 'business as usual'
  • Mayors from 33 leading global cities have published a ‘statement of principles’ for a climate-friendly post-Covid world. Plus, why 2020 feels a lot like 1945
  • Can the world really return to “business as usual” after the coronavirus lockdowns – and even if it can, does that mean it should? Mayors representing 33 cities that are home to more than 750 million people have signed a “statement of principles”, published on Thursday, which commits their communities to a more climate-friendly and less unequal future.
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  • The New York mayor, Bill de Blasio, a member of the newly formed C40 economic taskforce of city leaders from across the US, Europe and Africa, said it was crucial to map out a low-carbon, sustainable recovery from the crisis:
  • Half-measures that maintain the status quo won’t move the needle or protect us from the next crisis. We need a new deal for these times – a massive transformation that rebuilds lives, promotes equality and prevents the next economic, health or climate crisis.
  • deaths are the price for reopening the economy
  • At least one person is impatient for a return to business as usual, and that’s Donald Trump, who has again suggested that a growing coronavirus death toll is simply the price that must be paid for reopening the economy. “We have to be warriors,” he told Fox News. “We can’t keep our country closed down for years.” As infections continue to mount around the US, public health experts said the president’s desire to end the lockdown prematurely represented a “death sentence” for many Americans.
  • Nevertheless, Trump seems to have reversed his plan to disband the White House coronavirus taskforce, saying the group would remain in place indefinitely, but with a switch in focus and some changes in personnel.
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African Americans bear the brunt of Covid-19's economic impact | US news | The Guardian - 0 views

  • African Americans bear the brunt of Covid-19's economic impact
  • Donald Trump once again praised his job creation record. “Black people right now are having the best, statistically, the best numbers that you’ve ever had, and it’s really an honor,” he said. “Nobody has done more for black people than I have. Nobody has done more.”
  • That was 27 February and Trump was also still claiming he had done an “incredible job” with the looming coronavirus pandemic. Now the virus has led 26 million Americans to file for unemployment. While the US Bureau of Labor Statistics will not release unemployment figures broken down by race until the beginning of next month, economists are certain that black Americans are suffering the brunt of Covid-19’s economic impact and will probably suffer the most dramatic consequences of the looming recession.
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  • 3.5%, a 50-year-low, the black unemployment rate was 5.8%. The white unemployment rate was 3.1%.
  • “Whatever is being projected for the national unemployment rate, in most instances, we expect to see something close to twice that for black Americans.”
  • For Yolanda Murray of Detroit, Michigan, not having savings meant weeks of panic trying to figure out how she was going to pay the bills that came on 1 April after she was furloughed from her job at a hotel.
  • last hired, first fired” phenomenon dramatically affects black Americans more than any other group in the US due to the country’s history of racism and segregation of black Americans in the work sector.
  • Working in these fields leads to lower wages – black Americans have the lowest median wage of any racial group in the US – and the jobs are often seen as the most expendable during an economic downturn.
  • Even with a low unemployment rate, wage growth for low-wage workers, especially for black workers, has been slow. Black Americans have seen the slowest wage growth compared with other groups of Americans, reaching a growth rate that was four times slower at certain wage distribution levels, according to a 2018 Economic Policy Institute report.
  • The reason why African Americans bear the brunt of downturns more is that when firing decisions start to occur the least educated and those with the least experience tend to be let go first. There is also continued discrimination in the workplace,” Rodgers said.
  • t’s like how am I going to maintain all of this?” Murray said. Weeks after she filed her application for unemployment insurance, payments started coming in and Murray was able to pay her bills again.
  • Murray and her unionized co-workers spent 28 days striking for higher wages and better healthcare. At the time, workers at the hotel had not had wage rises since before the last recession, and healthcare costs were so expensive that Murray could only afford to cover herself, leaving her two children out of her plan.
  • Trump’s repeated claims that he has been the best president for African Americans was repeatedly pegged to falling unemployment numbers. But those numbers only tell a partial story, as work by Rodgers and others has shown. Black families are especially vulnerable to economic downturns because they lack the savings that can act as a buffer against unexpected layoffs or lost wages. And during the last recovery they lost ground against their white peers.
  • compared with 9%, respectively. And the black homeownership rate is the lowest of any racial group in the US and has consistently been about 30% lower than the white homeownership rate over the years, even as the economy was getting stronger.
  • “Wealth allows you to respond to that unexpected health emergency, that broken hole in the tire you have to replace. It also allows you to buy a home, put your kids through school,” said Danyelle Solomon, vice-president of the race and ethnicity program at the Center for American Progress.
  • Experts agree that being poor has costly effects on a person’s health: for adults living in extreme poverty, being poor can cost up to 15 years of life expectancy.
  • ave seen higher death rates due to Covid-19 compared with any other group in the US. Black Americans made up 25% of deaths from Covid-19 in the US though they make up a little under 13% of the US population.
  • “National emergencies, pandemics, epidemics, what they do is they spotlight inequality,” Solomon said. “What we see in Covid-19 is no different. It’s highlighting racial disparities at every single level that have been with our society for a very long time.”
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Coronavirus mask guidance is endangering US health workers, experts say | US news | The... - 0 views

  • Coronavirus mask guidance is endangering US health workers, experts say
  • With crucial protective gear in short supply, federal authorities are saying health workers can wear lower-grade surgical masks while treating Covid-19 patients – but growing evidence suggests the practice is putting workers in jeopardy.
  • But scholars, not-for-profit leaders and former regulators in the specialized field of occupational safety say relying on surgical masks – which are considerably less protective than N95 respirators – is almost certainly fueling illness among frontline health workers, who probably make up about 11% of all known Covid-19 cases.
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  • The allowance for surgical masks made more sense when scientists initially thought the virus was spread by large droplets. But a growing body of research shows that it is spread by minuscule viral particles that can linger in the air as long as 16 hours.
  • A properly fitted N95 respirator will block 95% of tiny air particles – down to 0.3 micron in diameter, which are the hardest to catch – from reaching the wearer’s face. But surgical masks, designed to protect patients from a surgeon’s respiratory droplets, aren’t effective at blocking particles smaller than 100 microns, according to the mask maker 3M. A Covid-19 particle is smaller than 0.1 micron, according to South Korean researchers, and can pass through a surgical mask.
  • The CDC’s recent advice on surgical masks contrasts with another CDC web page that says surgical masks do “NOT provide the wearer with a reliable level of protection from inhaling smaller airborne particles and is not considered respiratory protection”.
  • A 2013 Chinese study found that twice as many health workers, 17%, contracted a respiratory illness if they wore only a surgical mask while treating sick patients, compared to 7% who continuously used an N95, per a study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
  • Earlier this month, the national Teamsters Union reported that 64% of its healthcare worker membership – which includes people working in nursing homes, hospitals and other medical facilities – could not get N95 masks.
  • said Katie Scott, an RN at the hospital and vice-president of the Michigan Nurses Association. Employees who otherwise treat Covid-19 patients receive surgical masks.
  • That matches CDC protocol, but leaves nurses like Scott – who has read the research on surgical masks versus N95s – feeling exposed.
  • At Michigan Medicine, employees are not allowed to bring in their own protective equipment, according to a complaint the nurses’ union filed with the Michigan Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration. Scott said friends and family have mailed her personal protective equipment (PPE), including N95 masks. It sits at home while she cares for patients.
  • “To think I’m going to work and am leaving this mask at home on my kitchen table, because the employer won’t let me wear it,”
  • News reports from Kentucky to Florida to California have documented nurses facing retaliation or pressure to step down when they’ve brought their own N95 respirators.
  • In New York, the center of the US’s outbreak, nurses across the state report receiving surgical masks, not N95s, to wear when treating Covid-19 patients, according to a court affidavit submitted by Lisa Baum, the lead occupational health and safety representative for the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA).
  • White House to invoke the Defense Production Act, a Korean war-era law that allows the federal government, in an emergency, to direct private business in the production and distribution of goods.
  • provide health care workers with protective equipment, including N95s masks, when they interact with patients suspected to have Covid-19.
  • “Nurses are not afraid to care for our patients if we have the right protections,” said Bonnie Castillo, the executive director of National Nurses United, “but we’re not martyrs sacrificing our lives because our government and our employers didn’t do their job.”
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Spanish official apologises for spraying beach with bleach | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

  • Spanish official apologises for spraying beach with bleach
  • Spain has apologised for spraying the local beach with diluted bleach in an attempt to protect residents from Covid-19.
  • The picturesque fishing village of Zahara de los Atunes sent tractors equipped with sprayers along part of its beach last week as officials readied for the release of the country’s children after six weeks of confinement.
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  • The government imposed lockdown measures in mid-March, and this week the measures were loosened to allow children under the age of 14 daily outings of up to an hour.
  • “The beach is a living ecosystem. And when you spray it down with bleach, you’re killing everything you come across.”
  • ith humans barred from the beach for the past six weeks, she had hoped the number of nests in the area would double this year. “Now I’m worried that the tractors crushed the eggs,” she said.
  • “Fumigating beaches with bleach in the middle of bird-breeding season or during the development of the invertebrate network that will support coastal fishing … is not one of [Donald] Trump’s ideas. It is happening in Zahara de los Atunes,” Greenpeace Spain wrote on Twitter, in reference to the US president’s recent musing on whether the injection of cleaning products could combat Covid-19.
  • ne municipal official, Agustín Conejo, said his actions had been motivated solely by a desire to protect children. “I recognise it was an error,” he told the broadcaster Canal Sur. “But it was done with the best of intentions.”
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    " Spanish official apologises for spraying beach with bleach Tractors were sent along beach of Zahara de los Atunes in effort to tackle coronavirus"
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