Tag: pandemic

Infectious diseases expert: COVID variants are a “whole new ballgame”

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The U.S. is playing a “whole new ballgame” in terms of controlling the coronavirus now that variants are spreading across the country, Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told CBS News on Friday.

Why it matters: Osterholm said the U.S. could face another surge from the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom and has since been detected throughout the U.S. Multiple studies have suggested that it likely spreads more easily than the original strain of the virus.

What they’re saying: “We are, I think for the moment, in the eye of a hurricane with regard to the good news, the vaccine’s coming, but the big challenge [is] with this new variant that has arrived here from Europe,” Osterholm told CBS News. Continue reading.

Mayors decry partisanship over covid relief, saying city needs are real

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Few provisions in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan have drawn as much partisan opposition as the $350 billion designated for state and local governments. Republicans denounced the funding as a giveaway to mismanaged blue states and cities. But many mayors strongly disagree with that criticism.

“I am a Republican,” said John Giles, mayor of Mesa, Ariz. “I hear what people are saying about the wisdom of borrowing money to finance the relief act. But I can tell you that the consequences of not doing that would be extreme and painful. So I’m disappointed to see this turn into a partisan conversation.”

Giles was speaking by telephone from Mesa and said he could see from his window a long line of cars waiting to receive a 50-pound package of food to help feed their families. He said this has been a weekly scene every Friday for most of the past year. Continue reading.

Why experts say it’s especially important for heart patients to get a coronavirus vaccine

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More than 30 million people in the United States have heart disease, which alone kills hundreds of thousands each year. It’s also a significant risk factor for developing serious complications from another major threat right now: covid-19.

That’s because the disease caused by the coronavirus often attacks the lungs, forcing the already injured heart to fight that much harder.

Both the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology are urging eligible individuals — including heart patients — to get vaccinated. The American College of Cardiology has even issued a health policy statement to provide guidance on how to prioritize certain cardiac patients for vaccination. Continue reading.

Covid-19 death rates higher in states with GOP governors: Study

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A new study shows that while states led by Democratic governors were overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic in the early months of the crisis, per-capita rates of Covid-19 cases and deaths eventually became most severe in states with Republican governors—a finding the researchers attribute to diverging approaches to public health policies that affected the spread of the virus.

“From March to early June, Republican-led states had lower Covid-19 incidence rates compared with Democratic-led states. On June 3, the association reversed, and Republican-led states had higher incidence,” reads the study, conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Medical University of South Carolina.

“For death rates,” the authors added, “Republican-led states had lower rates early in the pandemic, but higher rates from July 4 through mid-December.” Continue reading.

Biden in TV speech tells Americans, only we together can defeat the virus

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President Biden’s task Thursday night was daunting as he marked the first anniversary of the week when the coronavirus forced America to shut down. He needed to acknowledge the loss of more than 529,000 lives to the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying economic suffering, while offering a sense of optimism that the future can and will be brighter.

The first 50 days of Biden’s presidency have offered examples of his leadership style — and how it differs so dramatically from that of former president Donald Trump. Thursday’s speech from the White House provided another revealing glimpse. Instead of a president saying, “I alone can fix it,” Biden said he can only succeed with the help of others.

Leaning against the lectern and looking directly into the camera, he said, “I will not relent until we beat this virus. But I need you, the American people. I need you. I need every American to do their part.” That contrast in leadership styles underscored what the transition from the 45th president to the 46th has meant. Continue reading.

The $1,400 stimulus payments are already posting to some bank accounts, but others could face delays

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Some taxpayers reported a pending-payment notice in their bank accounts on Friday, saying the funds would be available on March 17. Look for ‘IRS TREAS 310 – TAXEIP3.’

Now that President Biden has signed the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill into law, millions of desperate Americans are wondering the same thing: When will I get my money?

Some people got their answer Friday. Just one day after Biden signed the legislation into law, a reader in Alexandria, Va., found a pending post in his bank account labeled “IRS TREAS 310 – TAXEIP3” for $6,892.90 for his family of five.

The IRS refers to the stimulus money as an economic impact payment, or EIP. Continue reading.

Fox & Friends whines about Biden ‘kicking’ Trump over COVID: ‘We don’t need to go over the 500,000 dead’

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“Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade on Friday bitterly complained that President Joe Biden didn’t give enough credit to former President Donald Trump for his response to the novel coronavirus.

While reviewing Biden’s address to the nation, Kilmeade said that the president should have credited Trump for the Operation Warp Speed program aimed at speeding up vaccine development.

Kilmeade also seemed upset that Biden mentioned the horrific toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the United States, as so far the disease has killed more than 525,000 Americans. Continue reading.

First sign of South African variant in Minnesota adds to COVID-19 concerns

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Mayo study offers new evidence that vaccine prevents asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, and resulting viral spread. 

Gov. Tim Walz on Friday will announce looser restrictions on group events in Minnesota, despite a sports-related COVID-19 outbreak in Carver County and the state’s first known infection involving a variant found in South Africa.

The governor on Thursday called the switch “probably our biggest turn” in response to improving statewide pandemic indicators, and he hinted that it could permit everything from high school proms to live Minnesota Twins baseball.

“Unless we see the variants come roaring back and something goes terribly wrong, I think those things will happen,” Walz said after a speech at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School to advocate for a summer learning funding plan. Continue reading.

Biden Tells Nation There Is Hope After a Devastating Year

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In his first prime-time address from the White House, the president said that he would order states to make all adults eligible for the vaccine by May 1 and that a return to normalcy was possible by July 4.

WASHINGTON — Seeking to comfort Americans bound together by a year of suffering but also by “hope and the possibilities,” President Biden made a case to the nation Thursday night that it could soon put the worst of the pandemic behind it and promised that all adults would be eligible for the vaccine by May 1.

During a 24-minute speech from the East Room, Mr. Biden laced his somber script with references to Hemingway and personal ruminations on loss as he reflected on a “collective suffering, a collective sacrifice, a year filled with the loss of life, and the loss of living, for all of us.”

Speaking on the anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring a pandemic and the moment at which the virus began tightening its grip, the president offered a turning point of sorts after one of the darkest years in recent history, one that would lead to more than half a million deaths in the country, the loss of millions of jobs and disruptions to nearly every aspect of society and politics. Continue reading.

Stimulus checks could hit some bank accounts as soon as this weekend, White House says

A year into the pandemic, more than 18 million people are still receiving some form of unemployment benefit.

The next batch of stimulus checks will be deposited into some bank accounts this weekend, the White House said Thursday.

“People can expect to start seeing direct deposits hit their bank accounts as early as this weekend,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a news briefing after President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law on Thursday afternoon.

Psaki said that the checks are “the first wave” and they will continue to flow over “the next several weeks.” Continue reading.