You are here

Tag: coronavirus outbreak

Headlines 

The toxic chemicals in our homes could increase Covid-19 threat | Leonardo Trasande and Akhgar Ghassabian

NewsEditor, ,

Everyday hormone-disrupting chemicals could affect our immune systems defenses against infections During the rare moments youve ventured outside these days, youve probably noticed clearer skies and the benefits of reductions in air pollution. Long-term exposure to air pollution the danger mortality risks: diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease and asthma. It also can make the immune system overreact, synthetic chemicals in non-stick pans, cosmetics and aluminum cans disrupting our hormones. The notion of endocrine-disrupting chemicals was only widely accepted about a decade ago, when scientific societies raised the alarm. The science…

Read More
Headlines 

Three months and 50,000 deaths: the defining Covid-19 moments in the US timeline

NewsEditor, , , , , ,

From grim milestones to record unemployment rates and protests against stay-at-home orders, the pandemic has upended life across the US In just three months, Covid-19 has upended life in the US, ravaging cities and businesses and overwhelming hospitals woefully unprepared. What started as a single infection in

Read More
Headlines 

Two states: one Democrat, one Republican. Two very different outcomes

NewsEditor, , , , ,

Kentucky governor Andy Beshear took early measures to halt the spread of Covid-19 while Tennessee limited government mandates Just last month, when he was still regularly wearing a suit and tie, Kentuckys rookie governor, Andy Beshear, told schools across the southern state that they needed to be prepared to close down with little notice to contain the spread of Covid-19. At the time, there were just a handful of cases in Kentucky. Bars and restaurants were still open, people shook hands and live sports was on TV. But on 11…

Read More
Headlines 

Trump plays misleading clips of ‘support’ from Cuomo at coronavirus briefing

NewsEditor, , , ,

US president accused of going into campaign mode after showing selectively edited videos containing praise by one of his most trenchant critics Donald Trump has been accused of using another White House coronavirus task force briefing to broadcast a campaign ad in which New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, one of his most trenchant critics, appeared to shower him with praise. The US president dimmed the lights and played two selectively edited videos on screens behind the briefing room podium featuring Cuomo, whose state has been hardest hit by the deadly…

Read More
Headlines 

‘No way food safety not compromised’: US regulation rollbacks during Covid-19 criticised

NewsEditor, , , , , , , ,

Major pork plant closed after hundreds of workers contract coronavirus, while speeding up of poultry production lines raises concerns over standards The US government is accelerating controversial regulatory rollbacks to speed up production at meat plants, as companies express growing alarm at the impact of Covid-19 on their operations. Last week Smithfield represents 45% of US pork production is said it was critical for the meat industry to continue to operate unabated. Now it has emerged that as a wave of plants announced by the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS)…

Read More
Headlines 

‘Being prepared for the worst’ is nothing new for immigrants during Covid-19

NewsEditor, , ,

For many immigrant and first-generation families who learned to be prepared for the worst, hunkering down to protect each other is nothing new Sio Massiahs Oakland neighborhood isnt as diverse as the one she grew up in in New York City. Ahead of California governor Gavin Newsoms March 16, 2020 Before, I never understood why [my family] bought so much rice. But kale isnt going to get me through a pandemic, she quipped. When I got there and rice, plantain and corned beef hash were already gone. I knew all…

Read More
Headlines 

Amazon sales of ‘non-essentials’ hit by French court ruling

NewsEditor, , , , , , , ,

Online supplier to appeal against staff virus safety plan in France which sought to limit orders to food and medicine Amazon must stop selling non-essential items or face a fine of 1m a day until it can come up with a safety plan to protect the health of its employees, a French court has ruled. The ruling, which has already been suspended pending appeal, required the company to only accept orders for groceries, toiletries and medical products as part of the wider lockdown imposed in France. The company was sued…

Read More
Headlines 

Bangkok’s water festival venue before and during coronavirus, in pictures

NewsEditor, , , , ,

Photographs taken in Bangkok before and since the coronavirus outbreak show the emptied locations of the citys annual Songkran water festival In Thailand the Songkran festival was cancelled nationwide to combat the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The water festival is normally held every year to celebrate the traditional Thai New Year on 13 April, when people splash water on each other and sprinkle powder on their faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins of the past year. The Central World shopping mall. The Central…

Read More
Headlines 

Sailor dies from Covid-19 and almost 600 test positive after outbreak on USS Theodore Roosevelt

NewsEditor, , , ,

Death of first US active duty military member comes 11 days after captain was fired for voicing concerns over safety of his crew on ship off Guam A member of the crew of the coronavirus-infected USS Theodore Roosevelt has died of complications related to the disease, 11 days after the aircraft carriers captain was Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/14/sailor-dies-from-covid-19-and-600-test-positive-after-outbreak-on-uss-theodore-roosevelt-guam

Read More
Headlines 

WHO looks into report of Covid patients testing positive after negative tests

NewsEditor, , ,

Reports from South Korea say some patients had tested positive while being considered for discharge The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is looking into reports of some Covid-19 patients testing positive again after initially testing negative for the disease while being considered for discharge. On Friday South Korean officials reported that 91 patients thought to have been cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again. Jeong Eun-kyeong, the director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a briefing that the virus may have been…

Read More
Headlines 

Small talk and ready-made sandwiches: things I don’t miss about normal life | Hadley Freeman

NewsEditor, , , ,

Ive been thinking about Nora Ephrons lists, not because Im dying, but because normal life has, for now, died for all of us Ive been reading a lot of breasts werent bigger. (Honestly, Nora, the breast thing? Its overrated.) When Ephron died in 2012, obituarists were spoiled for choice about which of her writings to quote: a pithy line from Heartburn, her novel about her divorce, or an irresistible bit from every journalist who covered her death quoted from I Remember Nothing, which she wrote when she and almost no…

Read More
Headlines 

US sees highest one-day death toll from coronavirus

NewsEditor, , ,

New peak in Covid-19 deaths was propelled by New York City, which recorded 806 fatalities on Tuesday The US suffered its highest daily death toll from 731 people were killed by Covid-19 across New York state, the previous highest daily jump. The US remains on top of the world league table for confirmed cases compiled A new CNN poll found that a majority of those sampled, some 55%, thought the federal government had done a poor job in handling the health emergency and slowing the spread of the virus across…

Read More
Headlines 

Coronavirus could push half a billion people into poverty, Oxfam warns

NewsEditor, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost without urgent action, says charity More than half a billion more people could be pushed into poverty unless urgent action is taken to bail out poor countries affected by the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, plans to offer debt relief to the worlds poorest countries and whether to increase the funds available to the IMF through the creation of special drawing rights (SDRs), a form of international currency that can be used to help struggling countries. The UN, which…

Read More
Headlines 

Amazon fires New York worker who led strike over coronavirus concerns

NewsEditor, , ,

Chris Smalls led workers who demanded protective gear and hazard pay while Bill de Blasio orders investigation into dismissal An told Vice News on Tuesday. To fire someone after five years for sticking up for people and trying to give them a voice. Strikers at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island demanded Amazon temporarily shut down the large facility for cleaning, after reports of multiple employees testing positive for killed more than 3,000, more than died in the 9/11 terror attacks. The workers also demanded more protective gear and hazard…

Read More
Headlines 

Coronavirus outliers: four nations with very different approaches to the crisis

NewsEditor, , , , , , , , , ,

Some nations have managed to maintain surprisingly low death rates even without swinging into lockdown Harrowing images of emergency workers struggling to cope with the onslaught of Covid-19 cases have made front pages around the world, highlighting the terrible impact the disease is having. Death tolls in Italy and Spain have been especially alarming. But not every nation has suffered to the same grim extent. Some have avoided lockdowns but have still not suffered huge leaps in case numbers. Others have introduced strict monitoring and contact tracing of infected individuals…

Read More