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Coronavirus Live Updates: N.Y.C. Health Commissioner Resigns After Clashes with Mayor Over Response Coronavirus Live Updates: McConnell Signals Openness to Jobless Aid Extension
(32 minutes later)
Negotiators on Capitol Hill reported little progress on Tuesday toward reaching an agreement over an economic recovery package. But the top Senate Republican signaled that he might be willing to reverse course and accept the extension of $600-per-week jobless-aid payments that many in his party oppose if it would yield a compromise, and the White House and congressional Democrats agreed to an end-of-the-week deadline to seal a deal.
“The American people, in the end, need help,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, told reporters. “And wherever this thing settles between the president of the United States and his team that has to sign it into law and the Democrat not-insignificant minority in the Senate and majority in the House is something I am prepared to support, even if I have some problems with certain parts of it.”
Democrats have rejected narrow proposals extending the expired benefits, insisting that the problem must be dealt with in a broader package of relief measures. They also want aid for states and cities whose budgets have been crippled.
Mr. McConnell’s comments came after he and other Republicans huddled privately over lunch with Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary. Afterward, Republican senators who have largely sat out the talks sounded downbeat about striking a deal before they are scheduled to begin a monthlong recess on Friday.
But later, after a meeting with Mr. Meadows and Mr. Mnuchin, top Democrats indicated there had been progress.
“They made some concessions, which we appreciated; we made some concessions, which they appreciated,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said after the 90-minute meeting, which Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California hosted in her Capitol Hill suite. “We’re still far away on a lot of the important issues, but we’re continuing to go at it.”
Tens of millions of Americans have lost crucial unemployment benefits that formally expired on Friday, and economists warn that permanent damage could be wrought on the economy without action.
Republican leaders have put forward their own plan to extend the weekly benefit at a significantly lower level. But many of their own rank-and-file members oppose even that, giving them little leverage against the united Democrats.
At the White House, Mr. Trump continued to dangle the possibility that he could circumvent Congress and take executive action to halt evictions nationwide and suspend the payroll tax. It is far from clear that the president has the power to do either of these unilaterally, but his deputies appeared to be using the possibility as a negotiating tactic with Democrats — and to get around the objections even within Mr. Trump’s own party on the payroll-tax issue.
“We want to take care of the eviction problem,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference. “People are being evicted unfairly. It’s not their fault. It’s China’s fault.”
The president blamed the Democrats for rejecting White House offers to pass a short-term extension of the expired unemployment benefits and said the only thing Democrats “really want to do is bail out states that have been poorly managed by Democrats.”
Novavax, the little-known Maryland company that received a $1.6 billion deal from the federal government for its experimental coronavirus vaccine, announced encouraging results in two preliminary studies on Tuesday.
In one study, 56 volunteers produced a high level of antibodies against the virus without any dangerous side effects. In the other, researchers found that the vaccine strongly protected monkeys from coronavirus infections.
Although it’s not possible to directly compare the data from clinical trials of different coronavirus vaccines, John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine who was not involved in the studies, said the Novavax results were the most impressive he had seen so far.
“This is the first one I’m looking at and saying, ‘Yeah, I’d take that,’” Dr. Moore said.
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University who was not involved in the studies, called them “encouraging preliminary results,” but cautioned that it won’t be possible to say whether the vaccine is safe and effective until Novavax conducts a large-scale study — known as Phase III — comparing people who get vaccinated with people who get a placebo.
The company, which has never brought a vaccine to market in its 33-year history, has said that if its vaccine is shown to be effective, it can produce 100 million doses by the beginning of next year, or enough to give to 50 million people if administered in two doses. Under its deal with the federal government, the company will also receive money to undertake large-scale manufacturing of millions more doses if the vaccine is shown to work.
Novavax’s vaccine is one of more than two dozen products to have entered the first round of safety tests in people, known as Phase I trials. Five other coronavirus vaccines are already in Phase III trials, in which thousands of people are tested to see if a vaccine works.
U.S. roundup
In Mississippi, masks are now mandatory in public and retail spaces statewide, the governor announced Tuesday.
Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, said at a news conference that he was “implementing a statewide mask mandate today.” He also said that all students and teachers would be mandated to wear masks when schools open in the fall, unless they have a medical reason not to. And he said that he was pushing back the start of the school year in eight counties that have been hit hardest by the coronavirus.
“I know that I want to see college football in the fall,” he added. “The best way for that to occur is for us all to recognize that wearing a mask, as irritating as it can be — and I promise you, I hate it more than anybody watching today — it is critical.”
Previously, masks had been mandated in 37 of Mississippi’s 82 counties. At the news conference, Mr. Reeves noted that his “piecemeal approach” had been criticized “by an awful lot of people.”
Mr. Reeves has also been criticized for failing to encourage many businesses to shut down during the early months of the pandemic. And in the months that followed, he had been eager to lift restrictions that were stalling Mississippi’s economy, hoping to have the whole state open by July 1.
According to a New York Times database, at least 8 new coronavirus deaths and 572 new cases were reported in Mississippi on Monday. Over the past week, there have been an average of 1,167 cases per day, an increase of 13 percent from the average two weeks earlier.
On Monday, Mr. Reeves said the state was “starting to turn a corner.”
“Things are improving here,” he said. “But that does not mean that we can declare victory and take a step back.”
Elsewhere in the U.S:
Students in Ohio will also wear face coverings when they return to school in the fall, Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said Tuesday. The order will apply to students from kindergarten through Grade 12, with exemptions for children who have developmental delays or who cannot remove their masks without assistance. Mr. DeWine cited recommendations from the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association and the state’s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which said in a letter Tuesday that children returning to school should wear masks. “We are going to make that an order from the health department,” Mr. DeWine said. “I have great confidence that the teachers will work this out with kids.”
Public and private schools in Maryland are divided over in-person instruction. An emergency order issued Monday by Gov. Larry Hogan countermanded a Montgomery County Health Department directive instructing private schools to start the year teaching remotely, as every public school district in the Washington area has already decided to do. Mr. Hogan, a Republican, said that county health officers didn’t have the authority to stop private schools from reopening. A similar dynamic is playing out in some other parts of the country, where public schools are opening remotely while private schools are planning in-person or various hybrid models.
A rash of positive cases during the first week of school in some parts of the United States foreshadows a stop-and-start year in which students and staff members may have to bounce between instruction in the classroom and remotely at home because of infections and quarantines.
In his first report to Congress since being appointed by Mr. Trump in June, Brian D. Miller, the inspector general overseeing the Treasury Department’s $500 billion pandemic recovery fund, said some individuals and companies have been able to draw from multiple pots of federal pandemic relief money at the same time, a practice he warned could lead to an increase in fraud and abuse. Mr. Miller, a former White House lawyer, offered a broad overview of his responsibilities in his report on Tuesday and provided status updates on the lending programs that Treasury is managing as part of the $2.2 trillion law enacted in March.
Counting for the 2020 census will end on Sept. 30, a month earlier than previously scheduled, the Census Bureau said in a statement on Monday. In recent weeks, the Trump administration and Senate Republicans appeared to signal that they wanted the census finished well ahead of schedule.
Isaias pounded a large swath of the Atlantic Coast on Tuesday, unleashing heavy rains and winds as fast as 70 miles per hour as the storm swept through the Carolinas and into the Northeast. Shelters had prepared to deal with a dual threat from severe weather and the virus by screening for symptoms, socially distancing people and distributing protective gear. The storm has also closed testing centers from Florida to Maryland, which could complicate efforts to gauge virus transmission.
The United States’ top health official, Alex M. Azar II, will lead a delegation on a trip to Taiwan, a rare high-level visit by an American official to the island that has won praise for its success in battling the coronavirus.
Despite the likelihood that the visit will anger China and further fray ties between Beijing and Washington, officials billed it as an opportunity to strengthen economic and public health cooperation between the United States and Taiwan, a self-ruled territory that is claimed by Beijing.
As of Tuesday, the island of 23 million people just off the coast of southern China had reported 476 coronavirus cases and seven deaths. Officials in Taiwan have tried to turn their relative success in battling the coronavirus at home into a geopolitical victory. The island has sent millions of masks, emblazoned with the words “made in Taiwan,” to the United States, Italy and other countries devastated by the coronavirus.
No date was given for the visit. The trip by Mr. Azar, the secretary of health and human services, will be the first by a U.S. health secretary and the first in six years by a U.S. cabinet member, the department said in a statement on Tuesday. He is scheduled to meet with senior Taiwanese counterparts to discuss Taiwan’s role as a supplier of medical equipment and critical technology, among other issues, the health department said.
“Taiwan has been a model of transparency and cooperation in global health during the Covid-19 pandemic and long before it,” Mr. Azar said in the department’s statement. “I look forward to conveying President Trump’s support for Taiwan’s global health leadership and underscoring our shared belief that free and democratic societies are the best model for protecting and promoting health.”
The United Nations on Tuesday called for the world’s schools to make plans to reopen safely — but only after countries suppress transmission of the virus and control outbreaks.
“With the combined effect of the pandemic’s worldwide economic impact and the school closures, the learning crisis could turn into a generational catastrophe,” a U.N. policy brief from U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said.
The announcement argued that the adjustments made by schools worldwide to closing orders made in response to the coronavirus — providing lessons online, over radio, even on television in some places — highlighted inequalities among students and school districts and left many children behind, including those with disabilities.
“Parents, especially women, have been forced to assume heavy care burdens in the home,” the brief said.
In many countries around the world, including the United States, school districts planning to reopen are considering various measures, including holding classes in shifts or outdoors, mask wearing and so-called blended classes, in which students supplement in-person lessons with virtual ones.
Nearly every day, a crew at Starr County Memorial, a small rural hospital on the Mexican border, prepares a patient whom its doctors are unable to help, loads the gurney into a helicopter and stands back as the aircraft roars into the country sky.
“Very, very unfortunately, of all of the patients we have transferred, none have come back alive,” said Dr. Jose Vazquez, the health authority in Starr County, a remote section of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas that before the coronavirus outbreak did not have a single I.C.U. bed.
Starr County Memorial’s 45 beds were once sufficient for the roughly 65,000 people spread out along the border near Tamaulipas, Mexico. But the new wave of coronavirus infections has been merciless, with more than 2,110 cases in the county and nearly 70 deaths that are suspected of being linked to Covid-19, local officials said.
The surge was slow to arrive. After neighboring counties began reporting an explosion of infections in the spring, 21 days passed before a single case was detected in Starr County, Dr. Vazquez said.
But when the state reopened its economy in May, the virus began spreading rapidly through nearby Hidalgo and Cameron Counties, fueled by poverty and chronic disease. Large family outbreaks occurred as soon as people were allowed to leave their homes freely, health officials said.
Starr County, one of the poorest in the nation, is not alone. A study published this week in the journal Health Affairs, warning of stark disparities in the availability of critical care facilities, found that nearly half of the nation’s communities with a median income of $35,000 or less had no intensive care beds at all.
NEW YORK ROUNDUP
New York City’s health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, resigned on Tuesday in protest over her “deep disappointment” with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent efforts to keep the outbreak in check.New York City’s health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, resigned on Tuesday in protest over her “deep disappointment” with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent efforts to keep the outbreak in check.
Her departure came after escalating tensions between City Hall and top Health Department officials, which began at the start of the city’s outbreak in March, burst into public view. Her departure came after escalating tensions between City Hall and top city health department officials, which had begun at the start of the outbreak in March, burst into public view and raised concerns that the feuding was undermining crucial public health policies.
“I leave my post today with deep disappointment that during the most critical public health crisis in our lifetime, that the Health Department’s incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been,” she said in her resignation email sent to Mr. de Blasio, a copy of which was shared with The New York Times. “I leave my post today with deep disappointment that during the most critical public health crisis in our lifetime, that the health department’s incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been,” she said in her resignation email sent to Mr. de Blasio, a copy of which was shared with The New York Times.
“Our experts are world renowned for their epidemiology, surveillance and response work. The city would be well served by having them at the strategic center of the response not in the background.”“Our experts are world renowned for their epidemiology, surveillance and response work. The city would be well served by having them at the strategic center of the response not in the background.”
Dr. Barbot’s resignation could renew questions about Mr. de Blasio’s handling of the response to the outbreak, which devastated the city in the spring, killing more than 20,000 residents, even as it has largely subsided in recent weeks. And it comes at a pivotal moment: Public schools are scheduled to partially open next month, which could be crucial for the city’s recovery, and fears are growing that the outbreak could surge again when the weather cools. Mr. de Blasio reacted to her resignation by defending his handling of the outbreak, which devastated the city in the spring, killing more than 20,000 residents, even as it has largely subsided in recent weeks.
The mayor had been faulted by public health experts, including some within the Health Department, for not moving faster to close down schools and businesses in March, when New York emerged as an epicenter of the pandemic. Still, the turnover in the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene comes at a pivotal moment: Public schools are scheduled to partially open next month — which could be crucial for the city’s recovery — and fears are growing that the outbreak could surge again when the weather cools.
Public health officials have bristled at the mayor’s decision to strip the Health Department of its responsibility for contact tracing and give it instead to the public hospital system, known as Health + Hospitals. The Health Department has performed such tracing for decades; the public hospitals have not.
“It had been clear in recent days that it was time for a change,” Mr. de Blasio said in a hastily called news conference. “We need an atmosphere of unity. We need an atmosphere of common purpose.”“It had been clear in recent days that it was time for a change,” Mr. de Blasio said in a hastily called news conference. “We need an atmosphere of unity. We need an atmosphere of common purpose.”
The mayor moved quickly to replace Dr. Barbot, immediately announcing the appointment of a new health commissioner, Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, a former senior leader at Health + Hospitals. The mayor moved quickly to replace Dr. Barbot, immediately announcing the appointment of a new health commissioner, Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, a former senior leader at Health + Hospitals, the city’s public hospital system. The speed of the appointment and the robustness of the announcement — Mr. de Blasio had lined up a former surgeon general to speak highly of Dr. Chokshi — suggested that Dr. Barbot’s resignation had not occurred in a vacuum. One city official said she had done so on Tuesday because she believed she was going to be fired.
Negotiators on Tuesday are set to reconvene on Capitol Hill to continue hammering out differences over a coronavirus relief package, with top Trump administration officials scheduled to return for another meeting with congressional Democrats. Elsewhere in the New York area:
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, will meet with Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader. Mr. Mnuchin and Mr. Meadows will also join Senate Republicans for a closed-door policy lunch. The governors of New York and Connecticut said Tuesday their states would now require travelers from Rhode Island to quarantine for 14 days, an addition to a list of 33 other states and Puerto Rico. The weekly update also saw Delaware and Washington, D.C., removed from the list. The travelers can otherwise face fines, with some exceptions.
The Senate is scheduled to take a monthlong recess at the end of the week, but it is unclear if lawmakers will leave Washington without a deal. Tens of millions of Americans have lost crucial unemployment benefits as well as a federal moratorium on evictions, and economists warn that permanent damage could be wrought on the economy without action. New Jersey also said travelers from those 35 places were subject to a 14-day quarantine, though complying is voluntary. Many states across the country have added travel restrictions.
“I’ve never been a gambler,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, when asked about the prospect of a deal before the end of the week. “But if I were a gambler, I’d say we need to have some long days, long nights. Work hard.” In New York City, the 2020 holiday production of “Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes” has been canceled because of the pandemic, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which manages the show, announced on Tuesday. The Madison Square Garden Company plans to lay off 350 people, a spokeswoman said.
White House officials and Democratic leaders reported some progress over the weekend, but there are still substantial differences. Democrats are proposing a $3 trillion rescue plan that would include restoring $600-per-week jobless aid payments that expired on Friday and extending them through January, while Republicans are pushing a $1 trillion package that would reduce those payments substantially. Global Roundup
President Trump on Monday raised the idea of using an executive order to address the moratorium on evictions, while also hurling insults at Democratic leaders who were meeting with his top advisers in search of a compromise. But he has been notably absent from the negotiations themselves. More than 87 days have passed since Tanzania reported even a single new virus case — far longer than any other African country. Tanzania’s president has declared the scourge “absolutely finished” and encouraged tourists to come back.
Mr. Trump accused Democrats of being focused on getting “bailout money” for states controlled by Democrats, and unconcerned with extending unemployment benefits. But outside the country, people are skeptical, and inside, few dare stand up to the president, John Magufuli, who has become increasingly autocratic since he was elected. Mr. Magufuli has said that the power of prayer helped purge the virus from Tanzania, even as the African continent is expected this week to cross the threshold of one million reported cases.
Democrats have proposed providing more than $900 billion to strapped states and cities whose budgets have been decimated, but it is Republicans who have proposed slashing the jobless aid. Democrats have refused to do so, cementing the stalemate. The Tanzanian president has promoted an unproven herbal tea from Madagascar as a cure. He has disparaged social distancing and mask wearing. And his government has not disseminated any recent data to the World Health Organization. The group last heard from Tanzania on April 29, when the country reported 509 cases and 21 deaths from Covid-19.
Fueling an already complicated impasse, outside advisers are also trying to get the president to bypass Congress and unilaterally impose a temporary payroll tax cut, an idea that Mr. Trump has championed but that his negotiators dropped amid opposition from both parties. Mr. Magufuli’s handling of the pandemic “has been nothing short of an irresponsible disaster,” said Tundu Lissu, an opposition leader who fled the country in 2017 but recently returned to run for president. “His attitude has been Covid-19 will somehow go away if we all stop talking about it.”
Congressional staff and lobbyists who are engaged in discussions said on Monday that the talks between administration officials and Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer had essentially frozen negotiations between top Democrats and Republicans on key committees who would have to hammer out the details of any deal. In neighboring Kenya, lawmakers have also expressed concern about Tanzania’s virus response. The Kenyan authorities denied entry to dozens of Tanzanian truck drivers who had tested positive at border points.
That could leave the parties little time to flesh out any compromises over additional aid to businesses or individuals, yielding a plan that mostly consists of re-upping existing aid programs like the Paycheck Protection Program and direct payments to individuals. Health experts warn that Mr. Magufuli’s denial around the virus could be calamitous.
Education Roundup “With no testing data or clinical surveillance information, Tanzania will be late in detecting and dealing with a potentially delayed explosion of severe clinical cases,” said Frank Minja, a Tanzanian doctor who is an associate professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at the Yale School of Medicine.
As the United States and other countries anxiously consider how to reopen schools, Israel, one of the first countries to do so, illustrates the dangers of moving too precipitously. October could be a “make-or-break election” in Tanzania’s history, Mr. Lissu said. “We stand on the brink of disaster,” he added. “But we are also on the brink of a miracle.”
Confident that it had beaten the virus and desperate to reboot a devastated economy, the Israeli government invited the entire student body back in late May. Elsewhere around the world:
Within days, infections were reported at a Jerusalem high school, which quickly mushroomed into the largest outbreak in a single school in Israel, possibly the world. Many hospitals in Lebanon, already dealing with virus patients, are now overwhelmed after an immense explosion in Beirut injured thousands. The country has reported 5,062 cases and 65 deaths from the virus, while lockdown measures have aggravated an already dire economic crisis.
The virus rippled out to the students’ homes and then to other schools and neighborhoods, ultimately infecting hundreds of students, teachers and relatives. Other outbreaks forced hundreds of schools to close. Across the country, tens of thousands of students and teachers were quarantined. After Moscow announced that it would begin widespread vaccination of its population in October with a vaccine that had not yet been fully tested in clinical trials, the World Health Organization on Tuesday urged caution, recommending that the country follow established guidelines for producing safe vaccines. Russia is moving ahead with several vaccine prototypes, its officials said, and at least one effort, developed by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow, is in advanced stages of testing and has reportedly has been tested to some extent on soldiers.
Israel’s advice for other countries? Prime Minister Hubert Alexander Minnis of the Bahamas announced Monday that the country would resume a national lockdown “for a minimum of two weeks,” starting at 10 p.m. on Tuesday. “Nearing the end of this period, we will assess the health data and advise whether a further lockdown period is necessary,” he said. The Bahamas previously instituted a strict 24-hour lockdown for residents, which if broken could result in a $10,000 fine or 18 months in prison. Virus cases have skyrocketed there recently, with almost 44 percent of the total 679 cases being reported in the past seven days.
“They definitely should not do what we have done,” said Eli Waxman, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science and chairman of the team advising Israel’s National Security Council on the pandemic. “It was a major failure.” The state of Victoria in Australia, which has had a resurgence of the coronavirus and has enforced among the strictest lockdown measures in the world, reported 725 new cases and 15 deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday, the highest numbers since the pandemic began. New curfews and restrictions in the state mean essential workers must now carry a permit before leaving home.
The lesson, experts say, is that even communities that have gotten the spread of the virus under control need to take strict precautions when reopening schools. Smaller classes, mask wearing, keeping desks six feet apart and providing adequate ventilation, they say, are likely to be crucial until a vaccine is available.
“If there is a low number of cases, there is an illusion that the disease is over,” said Dr. Hagai Levine, a professor of epidemiology and the chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians. “But it’s a complete illusion.”
The United States is facing similar pressures to fully reopen schools, but is in a far worse position than Israel was in May: Israel had fewer than 100 new infections a day then. The United States is now averaging more than 60,000 new cases a day, and some states continue to set alarming records.
On Tuesday, the secretary general of the United Nations, António Guterres, said that over a billion children worldwide were affected by school closures last month, exacerbating what he called a “learning crisis” before the pandemic in which more than 250 million children had been out of school. “We are at a defining moment for the world’s children and young people,” Mr. Guterres said.
Other key education developments:
Students in Mexico will exclusively take classes broadcast on television or the radio when the school year begins later this month, in an effort to avoid further coronavirus outbreaks, the government announced on Monday. Schools will only reopen when authorities determine that new and active infections, which remain high across the nation, decline enough for a safe return to the classroom.Students in Mexico will exclusively take classes broadcast on television or the radio when the school year begins later this month, in an effort to avoid further coronavirus outbreaks, the government announced on Monday. Schools will only reopen when authorities determine that new and active infections, which remain high across the nation, decline enough for a safe return to the classroom.
A rash of positive cases during the first week of school in some parts of the United States foreshadows a stop-and-start year in which students and staff members may have to bounce between instruction in the classroom and remotely at home because of infections and quarantines. Israel reopened schools in May, and within days infections were reported at a Jerusalem high school. The virus rippled out to the students’ homes and then to other schools and neighborhoods, ultimately infecting hundreds of students, teachers and relatives. Other outbreaks forced hundreds of schools to close, and across the country, tens of thousands of students and teachers were quarantined. As countries consider back-to-school strategies for the fall, the outbreaks there illustrate the dangers of moving too precipitously.
Storm shelters in North Carolina, where Hurricane Isaias made landfall late Monday, prepared to deal with a dual threat from severe weather and the virus by screening for symptoms of the virus and socially distancing people who took shelter. A day before the United States surpassed 150,000 deaths from the coronavirus, Mr. Trump appeared resigned to the toll, saying in an interview, “It is what it is.”
“Our state has weathered our fair share of storms in recent years,” Gov. Roy Cooper said over the weekend. “We know how to plan, prepare and respond when it’s over. Nothing about that has changed, but this time, we’re going to have to do it with a mask on.”
The state’s Department of Public Safety also urged residents to bring their own blankets and bedding, and asked people to stay at motels or with relatives if possible. Shelters will serve meals in sealed containers rather than in typical serving lines.
Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey also urged residents to take shelter, but not to break social-distancing guidelines by staying with large groups of friends or relatives.
“I’m not a fan of hurricane parties,” Mr. Murphy said on Monday, referring to the events that became something of a tradition in Florida during minor storms. “If it’s a hurricane party, you’re inside. It just doesn’t make sense, folks. It doesn’t end well. And we know that.”
The storm made landfall on Monday night in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., as a Category 1 hurricane, but weakened as it pushed through North Carolina and into Virginia on Tuesday morning. Still, forecasters warn that Isaias will bring powerful winds and heavy rains as it continues moving north toward New York and New Jersey and into New England.
A day before the United States surpassed 150,000 deaths from the coronavirus, President Trump appeared resigned to the toll, saying in an interview, “It is what it is.”
“They are dying. That’s true,” Mr. Trump told Axios in an interview recorded on July 28 and released in its entirety on Monday. “It is what it is. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing everything we can. It’s under control as much as you can control it.”“They are dying. That’s true,” Mr. Trump told Axios in an interview recorded on July 28 and released in its entirety on Monday. “It is what it is. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing everything we can. It’s under control as much as you can control it.”
The president’s critics say he could have done much more to keep the virus from spreading to the extent it has, including encouraging states to be more cautious in reopening instead of encouraging them.The president’s critics say he could have done much more to keep the virus from spreading to the extent it has, including encouraging states to be more cautious in reopening instead of encouraging them.
The country’s death toll, currently nearly 156,000, is far from the total of “75, 80 to 100,000” deaths that Mr. Trump predicted in early May when he credited himself with preventing the toll from being worse.The country’s death toll, currently nearly 156,000, is far from the total of “75, 80 to 100,000” deaths that Mr. Trump predicted in early May when he credited himself with preventing the toll from being worse.
Even after his predictions proved wrong, Mr. Trump has continued to credit himself for the United States not being even worse off.Even after his predictions proved wrong, Mr. Trump has continued to credit himself for the United States not being even worse off.
“One person’s too much,” Mr. Trump told Axios. ”And those people that really understand it, that really understand it, they said it’s an incredible job that we’ve done.” “One person’s too much,” Mr. Trump told Axios. “And those people that really understand it, that really understand it, they said it’s an incredible job that we’ve done.”
The World Health Organization on Tuesday urged Russia to follow established guidelines for producing safe and effective vaccines, after Moscow announced that it would begin widespread vaccination of its population in October with a vaccine that had not yet been fully tested in clinical trials. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ROUNDUP
Amid a global race to develop the first effective coronavirus vaccine, experts have raised concerns about cutting corners in research and putting people at risk with an unsafe product. Last week Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the United States, warned Congress about programs like Russia’s that are not transparent. Governors of six states said on Tuesday that they were partnering to purchase millions of virus tests and expand their testing capability as many states continue to struggle to keep up with the demand for tests.
“I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing the vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone,” Dr. Fauci said at hearing. The governors of Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia are negotiating a purchase of three million antigen tests — 500,000 per state — as part of the new compact, which was created by Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican and the outgoing chair of the National Governors Association.
Russia is moving ahead with several prototypes, its officials said, and at least one effort, developed by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow, has reached advanced stages of testing. The vaccine candidate is similar to one developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, using modified viruses that typically cause mild colds in humans. Members of the compact hope that it will show companies that there is “significant demand” to create more tests, according to a statement from Mr. Hogan’s office, something made apparent by the long lines that continue to plague virus testing sites across the country. The governors — three Republicans and three Democrats — also hoped the compact would help states buy tests in a more “cost-effective manner.” More states and local governments may join the group.
Russia said it will start so-called Phase III trials of the vaccine this month. In Phase III, trials test for effectiveness in humans, after testing in animals. It is the last stage before approval, allowing widespread use. Antigen tests, the type the states would buy, can provide results in less than an hour, but scientists have said that they fear the tests will frequently miss infections. The governors are negotiating to purchase the three million tests from two medical companies — Becton, Dickinson & Company and the Quidel Corporation — whose tests could produce false negative results between 15 and 20 percent of the time. The companies were the first to receive emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for their coronavirus antigen tests.
The candidate vaccine reportedly has been tested to some extent on soldiers, and the Russian defense ministry said those soldiers all had volunteered. The institute’s director said on Russian television that he himself had also tried the vaccine before it finished testing in monkeys. The Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropic organization in New York, is also part of the compact between the governors and said it was ready to help find sources of funding for the testing operation.
The National Institutes of Health announced Tuesday the launch of a key second, phase of clinical trials for an antibody treatment to help patients early in the course of Covid-19. “With severe shortages and delays in testing and the federal administration attempting to cut funding for testing, the states are banding together to acquire millions of faster tests to help save lives and slow the spread of Covid-19,” Mr. Hogan said in a statement.
The two studies, which are now recruiting patients, are testing drugs called monoclonal antibodies produced by Eli Lilly and its partner, Abcellera Biologics in Vancouver. Researchers hope to have results in October or November. The National Institutes of Health is now recruiting patients for two studies to test possible antibody treatments for Covid-19. The studies, which are now in their second phase, are testing drugs called monoclonal antibodies produced by Eli Lilly and its partner, Abcellera Biologics in Vancouver. The process began in March, and has progressed at “record speed,” said Daniel Skovronsky, chief scientific officer at Eli Lilly. Researchers hope to have results in October or November.
The process began in March, and has progressed at “record speed,” said Daniel Skovronsky, chief scientific officer at Eli Lilly. Two and a half months later, the company began safety tests in humans, “surely a record speed,” he said. Researchers are studying why in certain patients, according to a flurry of recent studies, the virus appears to make the immune system go haywire. Unable to marshal the right cells and molecules to fight off the invader, the bodies of the infected instead launch an entire arsenal of weapons — a misguided barrage that can wreak havoc on healthy tissues, experts said. Researchers studying these unusual responses are finding patterns that distinguish patients on the path to recovery from those who fare far worse. Insights gleaned from the data might help tailor treatments to individuals, easing symptoms or perhaps even vanquishing the virus before it has a chance to push the immune system too far.
The first study, dubbed ACTIV 2, will start with 220 Covid-19 patients who are ill but not hospitalized. Half will receive the antibodies and half a placebo infusion. If there are signs the drug is helping, the trial will expand to a total of 2,000 patients with the hope that the drug reduces the duration of symptoms and speeds the time it takes for the virus to be undetectable in the patients’ upper respiratory tracts. Thousands of Covid-19 patients have been treated with blood plasma outside of rigorous clinical trials — hampering research that would have shown whether the therapy worked. Doctors and hospitals desperate to save the sickest patients have been eager to try a therapy that is safe and might work. Many patients and their doctors — knowing they could get the treatment under a government program — have been unwilling to join clinical trials that might provide them with a placebo instead of the plasma. The unexpected demand for plasma has inadvertently undercut the research that could prove that it works.
The second study, ACTIV 3, will begin with 300 patients who are hospitalized but not gravely ill who have had symptoms for 10 days or less, though patients with virus-caused organ damage are excluded. Half of the patients will receive a placebo infusion. If the drug appears helpful, the study will move on to 1,000 individuals. Reporting was contributed by Livia Albeck-Ripka, Pam Belluck, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Emma Bubola, Benedict Carey, Julia Carmel, Damien Cave, Emily Cochrane, Abdi Latif Dahir, Jacey Fortin, Nicholas Fandos, Michael Gold, J. David Goodman, Maggie Haberman, Mike Ives, Juliana Kim, Isabel Kershner, Gina Kolata, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, Emily Palmer, Amy Qin, Marc Stein, Eileen Sullivan, Jim Tankersley, Michael Wines, Will Wright and Karen Zraick.
The antibodies used in these trials were produced from serum from a Washington patient who was one of the first people to recover from Covid-19. Researchers at Abcellera selected this antibody from many in the patient’s blood because it was most effective at blocking the virus.
Without knowing if the drug will be beneficial, Eli Lilly is preparing to meet a goal of having 100,000 doses by the end of the year, Dr. Skovronsky said.
As these clinical trials progress, the researchers may add other treatments as well.
Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne has imposed some of the toughest restrictions in the world as it grapples with a spiraling coronavirus outbreak in a country that once thought it had the pandemic beat.
But as officials cast about for ways to break the chain of infections, the city has become a confounding matrix of hefty fines for disobedience, minor exceptions for everything from romantic partners to home building, and endless versions of the question: So, wait, can I ____?
Restaurant owners are wondering about food delivery after an 8 p.m. curfew began on Sunday. Teenagers are asking if their boyfriends and girlfriends count as essential partners. Can animal shelter volunteers walk dogs at night? Are house cleaners essential for those struggling with their mental health? Can the virus-tested exercise outside?
“This is such a weird, scary, bizarro time that we live in,” said Tessethia Von Tessle Roberts, 25, a student in Melbourne who admits to having hit a breaking point a few days ago, when her washing machine broke.
“Our health care workers are hustling around the clock to keep us alive,” she said. “Our politicians are as scared as we are, but they have to pretend like they have a better idea than we do of what’s going to happen next.”
Pandemic lockdowns, never easy, are getting ever more confusing and contentious as they evolve in the face of second and third rounds of outbreaks that have exhausted both officials and residents. With success against the virus as fleeting as the breeze, the new waves of restrictions feel to many like a bombing raid that just won’t end.
U.S. ROUNDUP
In rural Modoc County, Calif., population 8,800, social distancing was a way of life well before the virus. The county seat, Alturas, has just one blinking red traffic signal. And for five months, officials hoped that the county’s isolation in the northeastern corner of the state would spare it.
But the virus finally reached Modoc, the last county in the state without a confirmed case, when a couple in Alturas tested positive last week.
The county has not named the two people who contracted the virus, but Jodie Larranaga, an owner of the Brass Rail bar and restaurant, said it was a waitress who worked at the bar and her husband. She said the couple had recently returned from a family vacation in Fresno.
The county Health Department put out a request on Tuesday for anyone who had visited a bar in the previous two weeks to call a hotline. But Ms. Larranaga said that the department was not casting the net wide enough. “This couple has been all over the place,” she said. “They were all around town.”
Most people still go maskless when they shop in Alturas, despite a statewide order to wear masks in public places — an order that the county sheriff refuses to enforce.
Juan Ledezma, the owner of a thrift store in Alturas, estimated that 20 percent of customers come in with a mask on. “I don’t ask them to do it because they might get offended,” he said.
The pandemic has the nation’s caterers — roughly 12,000 individuals or companies with annual revenues of more than $60 billion — reeling. Many say they expect their business to be down between 80 and 90 percent this year.
Corporate cafeterias that they provide food and staff to remain closed. Events like graduation and anniversary parties, bar mitzvahs, charity dinners and weddings have been canceled or pushed into next year.
And the ones that took place were on a decidedly smaller scale. “We did one 50-person wedding,” said David Cingari of David’s Soundview Catering in Stamford, Conn. “It was a clambake in the backyard. That was supposed to be a 250-person wedding.”
On a recent Saturday, he was dashing about at a pop-up restaurant he opened in mid-June, serving lobster rolls, blackened mahi-mahi tacos and smashburgers alongside cocktails like the Painkiller to socially distanced diners.
He made about $600, far from the roughly $6,600 that a 210-person wedding (petite lobster rolls on toasted brioche, coconut shrimp with mango aioli) and a bar mitzvah party for 180 (torched s’mores and a chocolate fountain) planned for that day, pre-pandemic, would have brought in.
The collapse of the catering industry this year also directly affects bartenders, wait staff and others who typically work these events as part-time employees.
The industry — a collection of large corporations like Aramark and Compass Group and thousands of smaller companies owned by individuals — is not tracking how many caterers have permanently closed because of the pandemic, but they say it will happen.
And while caterers say they are taking a financial beating, many feel better situated than those in the restaurant business. Instead of paying often expensive rent in desirable locations like most restaurants, caterers typically pay less for large kitchens that can be off the beaten track.
Counting for the 2020 census will end on Sept. 30, a month earlier than previously scheduled, the Census Bureau said in a statement on Monday.
The census is constitutionally required to count all residents of the United States every 10 years, but the 2020 effort has faltered amid the pandemic. In recent weeks, the Trump administration and Senate Republicans appeared to signal that they wanted the census finished well ahead of schedule.
Census data is enormously important. It is used to reapportion all 435 House seats and thousands of state and local districts, as well as to divvy up trillions of dollars in federal aid.
“Under this plan, the Census Bureau intends to meet a similar level of household responses as collected in prior censuses, including outreach to hard-to-count communities,” the Census Bureau said in its statement.
Critics said the move was pushed by the White House and motivated by partisanship.
“We’re dealing with a census that’s been really challenged by Covid-19,” said Vanita Gupta, a former head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division who is now the president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “And in the middle of this pandemic, the administration has tried to sabotage the census for partisan gain, to move its anti-immigrant agenda and to silence communities of color.”
She added that rural communities could be badly hurt by an undercount.
On Monday night, the White House referred questions to the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Times’s Marc Stein has covered pro basketball for almost 30 years, but he says he has seen nothing like life inside the league’s so-called bubble at Walt Disney World in Florida:
Every day in the bubble starts the same for reporters. We record our temperature and oxygen saturation readings via a league-sanctioned app to receive access at checkpoints within the bubble.
Then we head to the testing room, with access set aside exclusively for reporters in the 9 a.m. hour, to receive three shallow throat swabs and one shallow swab of each nostril — daily.
There is no guarantee that the N.B.A. can continue to keep the coronavirus from infiltrating this first-of-a-kind village that houses 22 teams.
But it already seems clear that the bubble approach was the only approach that had any shot in 2020.
Reporting was contributed by Livia Albeck-Ripka, Pam Belluck, Emma Bubola, Ben Carey, Damien Cave, Emily Cochrane, Michael Gold, J. David Goodman, Maggie Haberman, Mike Ives, Isabel Kershner, Gina Kolata, Marc Stein, Eileen Sullivan, Jim Tankersley, Michael Wines, Will Wright and Karen Zraick.