Joe Biden is inching his way toward a win, but Congress is on track to be more divided than ever. POLITICO's Dan Diamond explains how the coronavirus pandemic split the nation and how polarized views of President Trump's response shaped results up and down the ballot.
Coronavirus relief talks have stalled since the summertime, though Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have insisted they have made progress in recent months. Meanwhile, the virus has killed more than 230,000 Americans and millions remain unemployed with an even worse economic hit expected over the winter as more people are forced indoors.
In one sign of the enormous political hurdle ahead, Democrats and Republicans still cannot agree on a price tag for the stimulus package, and its unclear if a lame duck session will only contribute to the stalemate.
McConnell added that a coronavirus relief package and keeping the government funded past the December 11th deadline will be the top priorities for the Senate, which will come back to Washington Monday.
McConnell said that he and Pelosi have agreed on the need for an omnibus bill in December to fund the government instead of a continuing resolution that would push the budget fight to a later date potentially avoiding a disastrous government shutdown at the end of the year.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., holds a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) | AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Its a basic function of government that we havent handled very well in recent years and we need to do that, he said. So we have two big things to do before the end of the year.
Congress and the White House have been at sharp odds over trillions of dollars in coronavirus aid since the summer, with talks that ramped up ahead of Election Day as both parties sought a last-minute advantage. But negotiators couldnt agree to a deal.
In a last-ditch effort before Tuesdays election, the White House offered a $1.8 trillion deal to Pelosi, but the two sides couldn't agree on several outstanding issues, including testing. Meanwhile, many Senate Republicans are reluctant to support any package that exceeds $1 trillion.
State and local aid remains another obstacle to reaching an agreement, and McConnell acknowledged that Republicans may need to offer some concessions.
This is a big item for Democrats as you can imagine and theyre still going to control the House but well have to reach some kind of agreement ... its not something that my side is very fond of, McConnell said. Id like to see it done a little more skillfully than simply providing borrowed money for everyone regardless of their need.
Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.
Dr. Meyers said he hoped his team would undertake such studies soon, and noted that a handful of clinical trials had already begun investigating these questions.
The studys findings arent necessarily surprising, or even unprecedented. Other researchers have conducted similar experiments, including one that looked at the effects of mouthwash on the new coronavirus, with comparable results. And since the early days of the pandemic, scientists have stressed the effectiveness of hand-washing and disinfection with soap, alcohol and other similar chemicals that can bust through the new coronaviruss fragile outer layer, or envelope. (Not all mouthwashes or nasal rinses contain such potent ingredients, however.)
Dr. Valerie Fitzhugh, a pathologist at Rutgers University, pointed to a study from the 1990s, in which researchers in Texas inactivated a strain of flu virus by swirling it in Listerine for 30 seconds. But that study was never shown to be clinically relevant, she said.
Even if people did a very thorough job coating the inside of their mouths or noses with a coronavirus-killing chemical, a substantial amount of the virus would still remain in the body. The new coronavirus infiltrates not only the mouth and nose, but also the deep throat and lungs, where mouthwash and nasal washes hopefully never enter.
Viruses that have already hidden away inside cells will also be shielded from the fast-acting chemicals found in these products. Its not like your cells get infected and then they secrete a bunch of virus and theyre done, Dr. Rasmussen said. Infected cells are constantly making more virus. Its a timing issue.
Relying on mouthwash or a nasal rinse to rid the body of infectious virus would be about as futile as trimming the top of a cluster of weeds, paying the roots little mind, and expecting the garden pests to disappear.
Dr. Meyers acknowledged this limitation. After a quick swizzle of mouthwash, How long do you have? I dont know, he said. All were saying right now is, this could add an extra layer of protection, he explained, on top of proven protective measures like mask-wearing and physical distancing.
Students study and attend classes while distanced from each other. They can access more than one million books digitally. And in a recent development, theyve been able to request hardbound books for delivery, in accordance with public health guidelines.
Like so many other mainstays campus life, the Northeastern Library has adapted to the virtual realities of COVID-19.
It really is a rapid evolution of the library, says Dan Cohen, dean of libraries and vice provost for information collaboration at Northeastern. Every single service that you would get in Snell, pre-COVID, is available to you as a student or faculty member.
The library, which has been limited to 750 students at a time because of COVID-19 distancing rulescompared to its normal capacity of 2,000 before the pandemichas become an especially welcome sanctuary this semester.
I didnt really go to Snell that much last yearonly a handful of timesbut now Ive been going there more because theres limited space everywhere else, says Matt Blanco, a second-year student computer science and design. Everything is really spread out. The space between students is pretty large, so Ive been feeling safe.
Over the course of the semester, the library has adjusted its rules to accommodate students needs. The latest adaptation allows students to enter the library and study at a table without making a reservation. Earlier in the semester, students had been asked to reserve a spot at a table or desk in advance.
Because of a more limited seating capacity, we just wanted to be sure in the first few weeks of classes that every student could find a place to study, Cohen says. It is now clear that our traffic has naturally spread itself out and the reservation system simply isnt needed any longer. We want to be as accessible as possible.
The reconfigured third floor at Snell enables 300 distanced students to attend virtual classes.
I have some online classes that are back-to-back with in-person classes, and if I tried to take them from my dorm, I probably wouldnt make it to [the in-person] class, says Julia Denlinger, a third-year student in health science, who has been making use of Snells new third floor. Being able to go to the library and have a space where I can participate in the online classes is really nice, and I am able to get to class on time afterwards.
A simplified welcome page on the library website offers access to digital offerings as well as opportunities to request help from library staff around the clock.
We had been moving over the last several years to provide more and more services, and a lot of them were virtual, given that Northeastern has a global campus network, Cohen says. We have accelerated that natural process in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and what weve found is that all of the services are not only continuing but have multiplied by an order of magnitude.
Cohen says that the library has launched a delivery system for printed books that places each returned volume in a 72-hour quarantine, in accordance with the public health guidelines of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency. Hardbound books have been removed from the library shelves during the pandemic.
In addition, the library has substantially deepened its collection of digital materials, with more than 1.4 million ebooks (a 32 percent increase since March), 150,000 electronic journals, and 180,000 streaming videos. Some 267,000 hardbound books that are currently unavailable at Snell may now be accessed online because of the librarys association with HathiTrust, which provides temporary digitized access to printed materials that are owned by Northeastern.
Already this semester, students and faculty have had more than 1,000 online consultations with librarians who have provided help on research products and other academic work. The library also offers a collection of 46 online workshops and 20-minute webinars, which have been viewed by more than 1,000 students.
If a student wants to learn a new skillsuch as how to create a podcast, or how to start a search through a complicated databasewe have a variety of tutorials available, and were seeing a real surge in demand in them, Cohen says. Everyone should know that the library is here to help the Northeastern community.
For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) Nearly 2 million residents were infected with the coronavirus during the first wave of the pandemic in the spring.
Thats according to a new report that also found the virus is much more deadly than the flu, CBS2s Kiran Dhillon reported Tuesday.
Months after COVID-19 overwhelmed the Big Apple, were now learning new details about its impact on our community.
Initially, we did not have a lot of nucleic acid testing, a lot of PCR testing, and so the vast majority of initial cases were probably not captured, said Dr. Florian Krammer, a virologist with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
A new report by the Icahn School of Medicine has found that during the first wave of the pandemic, 1.7 million New York City residents, or about 22% of the citys population, were infected.
The fatality rate is sitting at around 0.97%, about 10 times more deadly than the flu, and a rate much higher than other places around the world.
We got hit by surprise that the medical facilities the health care system in the city was overwhelmed, Krammer said, and, you know, we were not very efficient in treating it initially.
The findings come after researchers checked for COVID-19 antibodies in plasma samples from more than 10,000 hospital patients between February and July. This technique allowed doctors to check for past infections that may have been undetected due to mild symptoms or asymptomatic patients.
Other takeaways from the report include:
The virus was already here, maybe, you know, two, three, four weeks before that, maybe at low prevalence, Krammer said. When a virus emerges in a new population, you dont necessarily see thousands of cases right away. The virus lingers around before it then takes up steam.
MORE FROM CBS NEW YORK
The report also found that after New York State implemented a stay-at-home order in late March, cases began to drop and eventually plateaued in the city.
Still, Krammer said the infection rate is far below whats necessary for herd immunity.
We need to keep going with social distancing. We have to be careful. The virus is likely more transmissible when the temperature is cold, Krammer said.
The report contains essential new information, since some say the second wave is already here.
You can get the latest news, sports and weather on our brand new CBS New York app. Download here.
Navajo voters casting their ballots after riding 10 miles on horseback through Navajo County, Ariz.
About a week before Election Day, as the Wind River Reservation was bracing for snow, Wyoming State Rep. Andi Clifford squeezed in some roadside campaigning outside of a community hall in Arapahoe.
"Normally we would've been inside," she said. "But we can't, so we're out here."
The reservation's public health orders prohibit large, indoor gatherings. So as Clifford seeks a second term representing Wind River, she and her team have been spending a lot of time outside in the cold.
"We think of our ancestors and what they've gone through under the elements," she said. "So it's a little bit of suffering for a couple of hours, but I don't care."
When two women pulled up in a pickup truck, campaign volunteers brought them bowls of stew and pieces of frybread. Clifford handed them a voting guide.
"Did you get to vote yet?" she asked. Both women shook their heads no.
Like most voters in Clifford's district, they're planning to wait until Election Day when they can vote in one of four polling places on the reservation. The only early voting center in Fremont County is the county clerk's office in Lander. Depending on where you live on Wind River and what the weather's like, that drive can take anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour.
"However I'm encouraging people to go because the coronavirus is at a spike here, and I don't want them to be quarantined and not be able to go and vote on Nov. 3," Clifford said.
A week before Election Day, data from the Wyoming Secretary of State's Office showed that Clifford's constituents had cast about a third as many early and mail-in ballots as voters in the neighboring house district.
Wind River voters are facing what the Native American Rights Fund, or NARF, calls the "tyranny of distance." Samantha Kelty, an attorney with the nonprofit law group, said it's a problem that the pandemic has only intensified.
"It's caused worsening economic conditions or loss of jobs, and so when it was hard enough to find enough money for a tank of gas to get to the county seat, now it's just impossible," Kelty said.
Distance isn't the only problem. In a 2018 report titled "Obstacles at Every Turn," NARF laid out how strict voter registration laws disproportionately affect Native people in some places. Poor postal access makes voting by mail a challenge, and a lack of broadband can prevent people from accessing voter information.
"It's just layered obstacle on top of obstacle on top of obstacle," Kelty said. "And all of these issues have been ongoing. They just have the spotlight on them now with COVID-19."
This year, NARF worked to secure satellite voting offices on reservations across Montana, where many Native people would otherwise travel two to three times farther than non-Natives to get to the polls.
NARF also helped secure the right of third-party organizations to collect ballots and deliver them to election officials on behalf of tribal members in Nevada and Montana.
But in other communities, there have been setbacks. The Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Arizona lost its court battle for an early voting center that it requested because of the pandemic. One county in South Dakota cited the virus as a reason not to provide early voting on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
And there's another persistent problem when it comes to voting in Indian Country distrust of the federal government, and the feeling that Native people and the issues they care about will be ignored no matter who's in office.
"I get it. You know, I hear that," said Allie Young, an organizer on the Navajo Nation.
She said struggles during the pandemic, including the slow rollout of federal coronavirus aid to tribal nations, has only intensified that distrust.
"But at the same time, this election is too important to sit out," she said. "And so I was trying to come up with ways of, 'How can we speak to our Native voters? How can we get them excited?'"
So, she organized a trail ride. Young and 15 other voters rode about 10 miles on horseback to cast their ballots early in Kayenta, Ariz.
"You know, our elders fought for our right to vote and they rode more miles and longer hours to get to the polls, so let's do this in honor of them," Young said.
She hopes pictures and videos of the ride on social media will inspire more Native people to get to the polls, even if it's not easy.
Local officials are grappling with their growing case counts as state government looks on, encouraging them to do what is best in their communities to slow the pandemic's rapid spread.
With the pandemic showing no signs of abatement, the North Dakota Department of Health on Tuesday, Nov. 3, announced another 15 COVID-19 deaths.
North Dakota's death rate is staggeringly higher than the rest of the nation, with 1.5 deaths per 100,000 in the last seven days. The nationwide average is 0.3 deaths per 100,000 in the last seven days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 230,800 Americans have died from COVID-19 throughout the pandemic as of Tuesday.
The deaths announced Tuesday were all men and women in their 50s to 90s and included three women from Burleigh County, two residents of Towner County and two Ward County men. The others each were from Benson, Cass, Dickey, LaMoure, Pierce, Rolette, Stark and Wells counties.
October was North Dakota's deadliest month by far with 275 deaths. More deaths are likely to be added to the state's official October toll as death investigations conclude. October has seen more than twice as many deaths as September so far.
At least 326 of the state's deaths have come in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, many of which have seen skyrocketing cases among residents and employees in the last month.
COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide remained at a high of 215 residents Tuesday, and there are approximately 11% of staffed hospital beds available statewide.
Hospital capacity in the state's largest cities remained tight on Tuesday, with both Essentia Health and Sanford Health in Fargo reporting zero available staffed in-patient beds. Among the city's three hospitals, three staffed ICU beds were available and eight in-patient beds were only available in Fargo's VA hospital.
Bismarck reported six available staffed in-patient beds and two staffed ICU beds among Bismarck's two hospitals, according to the latest numbers from the North Dakota Department of Health.
Statewide, there are 12 available staffed ICU beds and 195 available staffed in-patient beds, according to the latest numbers from the North Dakota Department of Health.
On Oct. 3, the state reported 3,055 residents known to be infected with COVID-19. As of Tuesday, at least 8,396 residents were infected by the virus. This is a 175% increase in active COVID-19 cases in one month.
Grand Forks County recently surpassed 1,000 active cases for the first time and local health officials are warning that the worst is yet to come and urging the government at all levels to enact more stringent policies to help curb COVID-19 spread. The county reported an additional 218 positive cases on Tuesday.
Steele County enacted a mask mandate to protect citizens in the county, Steele County Public Health announced Tuesday. The county as a population of around 1,900 and it reported a 16% rolling positivity state for all COVID-19 tests in the last 14 days, according to the Department of Health.
Ward County, which encompasses Minot, reported an additional 182 positive COVID-19 cases Tuesday and now has the third-highest number of active cases among North Dakota's counties with 1,222 residents known to be infected with the virus.
Cass County, which includes Fargo and West Fargo, has 1,229 residents known to be infected with the illness the most of the state's 53 counties. It announced an additional 176 cases Tuesday.
About 16% of the 7,615 residents tested as part of the latest batch received a positive result, but 24% of residents tested for the first time got a positive result.
North Dakota does not report a seven-day rolling average for positivity rate, but Forum News Service calculated the rate to be about 14% for all residents tested and about 24% for tests taken on previously untested residents.
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Readers can reach reporter Michelle Griffith, a Report for America corps member, at mgriffith@forumcomm.com.
Harry Higgs became the 16th PGA Tour player to test positive for COVID-19 and has withdrawn from this weeks Vivint Houston Open.
While I am disappointed to have to withdraw this week, I am grateful that I drove to Houston by myself and was alone as I awaited my pre-tournament screening results, said Higgs. I look forward to returning to competition when it is safe to do so.
Higgs, who lives in Dallas, must go through 10 days of self-isolation and he was replaced in the field by Kramer Hickock. Higgs is not in the field at the Masters.
Wood County Hospital gets new COVID-19 testing equipment with 24-hour turnaround WNWO NBC 24
Dr. Joshua Liao explains why pinning a full return to normalcy solely on vaccines could alter our risk perceptions, encourage unsafe behaviors, and ultimately prolong suffering from the pandemic.
It can also be dangerous to pin our hopes on vaccines.
The world eagerly awaits a Covid-19 vaccine. In the United States, one quarter of Americans are inclined to delay resuming normal activities until a vaccine is available. Public officials have used promising news about vaccine candidates to rally their bases. Vaccine topicswhen the first one will arrive, how to ensure it is safe, and who will get it firstdominate the news cycle.
All of this attention reflects a widespread expectation that Covid-19 vaccines will accelerate a return to normalcy, ending the need for measures like social distancing and masking. This optimism is understandable given both the incredible suffering that Covid-19 has caused, and the massive amount of time and resources that the world has committed to ending it.
But it can also be dangerous to pin our hopes on vaccines. As behavioral science teaches us, humans are highly susceptible to optimism biasthe tendency to overestimate the likelihood of experiencing positive events and underestimate the risk of negative ones. In the case of Covid-19, over-optimism about vaccines could distort our risk perceptions, encourage unsafe behaviors, and ultimately prolong suffering from the pandemic.
While vaccines can play a role in controlling the pandemic, they are not silver bullets.
The reason to worry is that optimism bias pervades life. College students can overestimate their test performance and post-graduation starting salaries. People tend to be unreasonably optimistic about marriage, underestimating the likelihood that they will experience a divorce. Small business owners are prone to unrealistic optimism about the chances of their new ventures succeeding. Financial advisors can be too positive in their forecasts, and clients in their willingness to take that advice.
This bias is not confined to pure self-assessment; it also occurs when people compare themselves to others. Nearly three-quarters of college students rate themselves as above-average in leadership ability compared to their peers, while only 6% consider themselves below average in athletic ability. In healthcare, we have observed comparative over-optimism for a number of different health conditions and behaviors. Hundreds of studies done in different settings affirm the same point: humans frequently view themselves through disproportionately rose-colored glasses.
It would be dangerous to view Covid-19 vaccination this way. While vaccines can play a role in controlling the pandemic, they are not silver bullets. But optimism bias can create a mismatch between belief and reality, causing people to overestimate vaccine effectiveness and the protection it gives them. Under a false sense of security, people who are vaccinated could be emboldened to stop masking, social distancing, and limiting the size of their gatheringsmeasures that would be burdensome and unnecessary under the assumption of immunity.
Premature choices would be even more alarming for several reasons. We still dont know how long immunity from a Covid-19 vaccine will last; if anything, coronavirus antibodies seem to wane rapidly after infection. We also dont know what exactly vaccines will prevent (getting infected versus our ability to infect others) and how effectively (partial versus full prevention). Given the time required to manufacture and distribute vaccines at scale, we also dont know exactly when vaccines will be available to everyone. These factors all increase the harm that could occur if those who get vaccinated prematurely abandon safe behaviors and precautions.
We can frame masking and social distancing as necessary behaviors even after Covid-19 vaccines ... [+] arrive.
How can we combat over-optimism about Covid vaccines? In both our public health messaging and social interactions, we can leverage framing effectsthe fact that peoples decisions are affected by how information about an issue is presentedand change how we talk about social distancing and masking.
So far, even if implicitly, these behaviors have been framed as stop-gap measures, things to tolerate until we get an effective vaccine. The problem is that this framing itself could increase the risk of over-optimism: months of pent-up anticipation about vaccines obviating social distancing and masking could further predispose people to overconfidence.
Instead, we can frame these behaviors as necessary parts of life, even after Covid-19 vaccines arrive. Because of optimism bias and gaps in vaccine knowledge, public officials could use this framing to convey a clear, even if unintuitive, message: that the arrival of Covid-19 vaccines should prompt us to make even greater commitments to behaviors like social distancing and maskingnot less.
To be fair, other factors can affect how individuals view Covid-19 vaccines. As a psychological phenomenon, optimism can also be protective, preserving self-esteem and building resilience in the face of adversity. Nonetheless, the problem with over-optimism about Covid-19 vaccines is that it can expose us to unnecessary risks at a time when we should be doing everything in our power to mitigate them.
Resisting optimism bias will help us meet that mark and use vaccines as a tool for achieving our ultimate goal: ending the pandemic as quickly as possible.
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The company recently announced it was in a phase 1 trial.
For those patients who might have anxiety about needles or hesitancy to take a vaccine, an oral COVID-19 tablet vaccine has been developed and is in a phase 1 trial.
South San Francisco-based Vaxart recently announced they had entered into a phase 1 trial for their VXA-CoV2-1 vaccine. Vaxartis a biotechnology company developing a range of oral recombinant vaccines based on its proprietary delivery platform.
The trial is an open-label, dose-ranging study and is expected to finish this month. The trial is going to examine the safety and immunogenicity of 2 doses of VXA-CoV2-1 in up to 48 healthy adult volunteers aged 18 to 54 years old.
All participants will be receiving the low or high dose of the VXA-CoV2-1 oral tablet at days 1 and 29. Safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity assessments will be performed at set times during the active phase.
Contagion recently spoke to Sean Tucker, PhD, chief scientific officer and founder of Vaxart.
I think one of the key things we are excited about is what is happening on the mucosal surface, Tucker said. We think having a mucosal vaccine at the site of infection could be extremely beneficial from a standpoint of efficacy. Imagine if you could block infection entirely?
Tucker also spoke about the vaccines platform, the advantages of taking a tablet as opposed to injecting a vaccine, and its potential place in the market.
