< BACK TO COVID-19

COVID-19 News from Around the Web

U.S. economy gained 1.4 million jobs last month, unemployment rate falls to 8.4 percent
NBC News - September 4, 2020
The economy added around 1.4 million jobs last month, reflecting a slow return to labor market growth, according to data released on Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate fell into the single digits for the first time since the pandemic began, dropping from 10.2 percent to 8.4 percent, the monthly report showed. Before the coronavirus' stranglehold on the economy, the rate was at 3.5 percent, the lowest in five decades. The August data indicates a halting recovery of the more than 22 million jobs lost since March, with July's 1.76 million gains and June's addition of 4.8 million positions.
White House faces skepticism over prospects for a vaccine
AP - September 4, 2020
A letter from federal health officials instructing states to be ready to begin distributing a vaccine by Nov. 1 — two days before the election — has been met, not with exhilaration, but with suspicion among some public health experts, who wonder whether the Trump administration is hyping the possibility or intends to rush approval for political gain. The skepticism comes amid growing questions about the scientific credibility of the FDA and the CDC, and their vulnerability to political pressure from President Donald Trump. Dr. Anthony Fauci … told CNN on Thursday that it is unlikely but “not impossible” that a vaccine could win approval in October, instead of November or December, as many experts believe.
Top Adviser To Operation Warp Speed Calls An October Vaccine ‘Extremely Unlikely’
NPR - September 4, 2020
Dr. Moncef Slaoui is one of two men that President Trump has put in charge of Operation Warp Speed, which has a goal of developing a COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021. The former GlaxoSmithKline executive said having states prepared is "the right thing to do" in case a vaccine does become ready, but he acknowledged that having a vaccine by October or November was "extremely unlikely." "There is a very, very low chance that the trials that are running as we speak could read before the end of October," Slaoui said.
Widespread COVID-19 vaccinations not expected until mid-2021, WHO says
Reuters - September 4, 2020
The WHO does not expect widespread vaccinations against COVID-19 until the middle of next year, a spokeswoman said on Friday, stressing the importance of rigorous checks on their effectiveness and safety. None of the candidate vaccines in advanced clinical trials so far has demonstrated a “clear signal” of efficacy at the level of at least 50% sought by the WHO, spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.
Labor Day weekend travelers are heading to COVID-19 hot spots like Florida
NBC News - September 4, 2020
Millions of Americans, tired of being pinned down by the pandemic, are expected to hit the road this Labor Day weekend despite a coronavirus crisis that continues to generate more than 30,000 new cases per day and shows little sign of slowing down. And the destination of choice, according to the travel site TripIt, is a state where the coronavirus crisis continues unabated — Florida.
COVID-19 at colleges: Fauci warns not to send students home
NBC News - September 4, 2020
Only a few weeks into fall semester, colleges and universities across the country are urgently trying to control clusters of COVID-19 infections on their campuses. Thousands of cases have been reported nationwide, forcing universities to switch to virtual classes and either quarantine or, in some cases, send students back home whether or not they're sick. … "It's the worst thing you could do," he said Wednesday on NBC's "TODAY" show. "When you send them home, particularly when you're dealing with a university where people come from multiple different locations, you could be seeding the different places with infection," said Fauci.
The US coronavirus death toll is projected to reach 410,000 in the next four months
CNN - September 4, 2020
A new model often cited by top health officials raised its projections Friday, predicting over 410,000 coronavirus deaths nationwide by January 1. That would mean an additional 224,000 Americans lost in the next four months -- more than double the 186,000 deaths reported by Johns Hopkins University. The model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation points to declining mask use in some regions from a peak in usage in early August.
BU study finds depression symptoms on the rise during pandemic
Boston Globe - September 4, 2020
The percentage of US adults with depression symptoms more than tripled earlier this year as the coronavirus pandemic tightened its grip on the country, according to a new study led by researchers at Boston University. Researchers found that 27.8 percent of U.S. adults had depression symptoms as of mid-April, compared with 8.5 percent before the pandemic, the university said in a statement. The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, found that lower income and savings were factors associated with a greater likelihood of depression symptoms.
How chronic stress and Covid-19 might be linked
Vox - September 4, 2020
A CDC survey of 5,412 people in late June found that 31 percent were experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression, about three times the number of respondents who said the same in the first two quarters of 2019. Another 26 percent reported symptoms of a trauma- or stressor-related disorder. Eleven percent of people said they had seriously considered suicide in the previous 30 days. Now some researchers are asking if stress — especially chronic stress — might be another preexisting condition that makes Covid-19 infections worse.
For COVID-19 Survivors, Virus Test 1 Month Out May Be Needed
HealthDay - September 4, 2020
A new study shows it takes roughly a month to completely clear the coronavirus from your body. To be safe, COVID-19 patients should be retested after four weeks or more to be certain the virus isn't still active, Italian researchers say. Whether you are still infectious during the month after you are diagnosed is a roll of the dice: The test used in the study, an RT-PCR nasal swab, had a 20% false-negative rate. That means one in five results that are negative for COVID-19 are wrong and patients can still sicken others.
Dow Drops Over 800 Points As Hot Tech Stocks Reverse Course
NPR - September 4, 2020
Stocks experienced their worst day since June, with a sudden plunge Thursday in big tech shares such as Apple and Amazon driving the S&P 500 index down 3.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 2.8%. The dizzying drop in prices follows a string of record-high trading days, largely fueled by a few superstar tech stocks, such as Facebook, Apple and Amazon. It was those same high-flying tech companies that led the drop in the market, with Apple down by 8% and Microsoft losing more than 6%. The electric carmaker Tesla, which has become a favorite of day traders, lost 9%.