COVID-19 News from Around the Web

The number of individuals filing new unemployment insurance claims unexpectedly rose back above 1 million last week, reflecting a still-elevated level of joblessness in the US. …The report reflected the first increase in new jobless claims in three weeks. And new unemployment claims jumped back above their lowest level since the escalation of the pandemic in the US in March during the week ended August 8.

After adjusting for population, US states in the South and West continue to report the most daily coronavirus cases even after declines over the past few weeks. Per capita, Georgia has reported the most cases per day over a seven-day average of any state, followed by Texas and Florida. The states are led by governors who pushed to reopen during the spring, saw major summer surges of cases and are currently pushing to reopen schools. Texas has issued a mandate requiring face masks, while Florida and Georgia have not. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has gone so far as to keep cities from making stricter rules and has sued the city of Atlanta for trying to require face masks. Georgia has allowed restaurants, bars and gyms to open at limited capacity.

The American Academy of Pediatrics on Wednesday released expanded guidance for reopening schools that "strongly advocates for additional federal assistance to schools" whether classes are in person or virtual. The expanded guidance comes as the debate over if and how to reopen schools in the pandemic -- and in some cases, whether to close them back down again -- continues across the country. In a statement about the update, the AAP noted that, in places with high levels of coronavirus infections, schools will need additional federal help to support remote learning, pointing to a Pew Research Center study that found one in five teens are not able to complete schoolwork at home due to a lack of a computer or internet connection.

America's parents are going through a year of tough choices, and it isn't getting any easier. With the school year starting, many have to choose between their jobs and staying home to take care of their kids. More often than not, this burden falls on mothers. One in five working-age adults is unemployed because Covid-19 upended their child care arrangements, according to new research from the Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve. And of those not working, women are nearly three times more likely than men to remain home for the kids.

In 23 states with adequate race/ethnicity data, the cumulative incidence of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 among AI/AN persons was 3.5 times that among non-Hispanic white persons. A large percentage of missing data precluded analysis of some characteristics and outcomes. … Historical trauma and persisting racial inequity have contributed to disparities in health and socioeconomic factors between AI/AN and white populations that have adversely affected AI/AN communities; these factors likely contribute to the observed elevated incidence of COVID-19 among the AI/AN population.

A doctor checking comatose COVID-19 patients for signs of a stroke instead stumbled onto a new clue about how the virus may harm the lungs -- thanks to a test that used tiny air bubbles and a robot. Dr. Alexandra Reynolds, a neurologist at New York’s Mount Sinai Health System, initially was baffled as she tracked “the cacophony of sound” made by those harmless bubbles passing through the bloodstream of patient after patient. Yet the weird finding excited lung specialists who now are studying if it helps explain why often, the sickest coronavirus patients don’t get enough oxygen despite being on ventilators.

Loss of smell and taste is more severe in Covid-19 patients than in patients with common colds and that could be due to the effect the coronavirus has on the brain and nervous system, British researchers reported on Wednesday. … Philpott and his colleagues studied smell and taste function in 10 Covid-19 patients, 10 acute cold patients and 10 healthy people who served as a control group. The researchers not only found that the smell and taste function of Covid-19 patients was significantly worse than in both the cold patients and the healthy individuals -- but also the ability to detect sweet and bitter tastes was particularly impaired in Covid-19 patients.

Sitting and standing shoulder to shoulder, some without face masks, hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump jammed into an airplane hangar for an Arizona campaign event this week, ignoring the advice of Trump’s own health experts. Like his boss, Vice President Mike Pence went mask-less in Iowa last week as he reached across a barrier to autograph a half-dozen familiar red Trump campaign hats, literally crossing the line of vulnerability outlined by the coronavirus task force he heads. The episodes, along with similar ones in New Jersey, Florida and Wisconsin, project a confusing message to the public even as Trump and Pence are trying to secure the confidence of Americans during a global pandemic and in the lead-up to the November election.

It's been four months since most of the federal government's $1,200 stimulus checks went out. The $600 a week federal boost to unemployment benefits expired three weeks ago, along with a moratorium on evictions. Many small businesses have already spent the money from their federal emergency loans. While President Donald Trump has attempted to fill in some of the gap via executive action, discussions in Congress over reinstating any of those programs or creating new ones have stalled, with no progress expected until September at the earliest -- even as the economy continues to stagger.

People with diabetes face a higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19, but a new survey reports they have also suffered more economic fallout from the pandemic. In June, 18% of people with diabetes were out of work compared to 12% of the general population. And one-third of people with diabetes have lost at least some income since the pandemic began versus about 29% of the general population, the survey released by the American Diabetes Association and dQ&A found. That loss of work and income can have immediate and serious consequences for people with diabetes. Nearly one in four people with diabetes -- and half of those who'd lost income since the pandemic began -- said they had to dip into savings, take out a loan or use their stimulus money to get their diabetes supplies.