Tag: supreme-court

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Scientists are confident that, with a worldwide push, at least one Covid-19 vaccine can be developed and distributed in record time. And, as with the recent multinational efforts to combat Ebola, Zika and HIV, US expertise is likely to play an essential role. So why did Donald Trump suggest last week that the disease is gonna go away without a vaccine?

Tom McCarthy reports on how the US administrations apparent indifference to global efforts could slow the discovery of a vaccine and hinder Americans access to one when it eventually arrives. Trumps incompetent handling of the pandemic is not just endangering US lives, argues Michael H Fuchs, Americas abdication of global leadership is crippling the global response:

Trump does not seem to recognize that the only effective solution to the pandemic is to counter it everywhere. Without a universally administered vaccine, the virus could continue to cycle through country after country. And as desperate as the situation is in the US, other countries could fare far worse.

Trump brought his first press conference since 27 April to an abrupt end on Monday, after a fresh clash with reporters. At the Rose Garden briefing, the president was flanked by signs that proclaimed America leads the world in testing. But when the CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang asked why he had framed the issue as a global competition on a day when US Covid-19 deaths passed 80,000 Trump replied: Dont ask me. Ask China that question.

The president seemed more keen to focus on his never-ending feud with his predecessor, Barack Obama, who has reportedly expressed disquiet over the Department of Justice dropping its case against Michael Flynn, Trumps first national security adviser. Trump is exceedingly worked up over something he calls Obamagate but cant seem to come up with any details of Obamas alleged crimes.

With parts of New York state preparing to reopen from Friday, and infections back down to the same rate as in mid-March, the governor, Andrew Cuomo, has said he believes the state is now on the other side of the mountain in its struggle against the pandemic. But a CDC analysis has found that the true coronavirus death toll in New York City may be significantly higher than the official count.

Elsewhere in the US

Elon Musk has ordered production to resume at a Tesla factory in northern California, in defiance of the regions lockdown orders.

Volunteers in Florida are scrambling to find new homes for greyhounds after the pandemic shut down the states dog racing tracks.

The family of the first man to die of Covid-19 in Ice custody have spoken to Sam Levin. Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, who had lived in the US for 40 years, succumbed to the disease last week while in detention in San Diego.

The emergencies chief of the World Health Organization, Michael Ryan, has said the gradual lifting of lockdown restrictions in countries that appeared to have slowed their Covid-19 infection rates was a sign of hope, but warned that extreme vigilance will be required as parts of the world reopen.

The leading global cause of death is malnutrition. One in nine people is going hungry, or 820 million people worldwide, according to the Global Nutrition Report 2020. The report was written before the pandemic, and its authors say the crisis is likely to set back efforts to alleviate world hunger.

The US supreme court is tackling Trumps tax returns. The justices will hear arguments on Tuesday as to whether the presidents accountants should have to disclose details of his financial affairs, in cases originating in New York state and with Democrats in Congress.

Interpol issued a red notice for fugitive Anne Sacoolas, an American woman charged in the UK with causing the death by dangerous driving of a 19-year-old motorcyclist, Harry Dunn. Sacoolas fled the UK, claiming diplomatic immunity. The red notice means she risks arrest if she sets foot outside the US.

Emo rapper Yung Lean bares his soul

When he first emerged from his native Sweden, 23-year-old Jonatan Leandoer Hstad aka Yung Lean was considered little more than a novelty act. Nowadays, though, hes revered as an emo-rap pioneer. I was definitely ahead of my time, he tells Rachel Aroesti.

Rutger Bregmans tribute to our better nature

The Dutch historian Rutger Bregmans new book is a history of human nature, which argues that our pessimistic opinion of ourselves is misplaced. Its reassuring and thought-provoking, says Andrew Anthony, even if its view of humanity is incomplete.

The social anxiety of choosing a pandemic pod

Around the world, people are partnering up with other households to create pandemic pods who mix only with each other. It sounds like a lovely idea, writes Poppy Noor, but having only just moved to New York, would it leave her looking a bit too desperate for new friends?

During his basketball career, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar learned the power of a passionate pep talk. If Trump wants the US to come together as a team to fight the pandemic, he needs to deliver one.

It is the speech Trump should deliver, not because he wants to be re-elected, but because it would address the countrys major concerns, end the political squabbling, provide a reasonable plan going forward, and give Americans confidence that their government is working to protect their health and economic concerns. It needs to be the speech of a statesman not a, well, Trump.

If youre fortunate enough to have an outside space during the lockdown, however small, nows your chance to boost its biodiversity. Amy Fleming suggests a few tricks for creating an English-style cottage garden.

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First Thing: Is the US holding up the search for a coronavirus vaccine? - The Guardian

For a second straight day, there were fewer than 200 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus in Wisconsin, and Tuesday'supdate included another encouraging number: Fewer than 4% of all tests were positive for the virus.

Following Tuesday's results, Wisconsin had met five of six criteria set by Gov. Tony Evers to begin a phased reopening of the state.

Of more than 4,900 test results announced Tuesday, 193 returned positive, the lowest number of positive tests announced since April 27 and the lowest portion of new tests that were positive 3.9% since the state stopped including repeated tests of the same patients in its daily updateson March 30.

Nine more people had died of COVID-19, however, increasing the state's total to 418.

As of Tuesday morning, 326 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wisconsin, while 188 inpatients awaited test results, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association. Of the hospitals' 1,261 ventilators, 325 were in use.

For each category of personal protective equipment tracked by the WHA face shields, goggles, gowns and N95 and paper masksat least 30 hospitals reported that they had less than a week's worth remaining.

Total tests increased again after a brief Mother's Day dip, though the 4,900 new tests werestill far below the reported daily capacity of more than 50 active labs in the state, which verged on 14,000.

A Johns Hopkins University case tracker showed more than 4.2 million cases worldwide by early afternoon, with nearly a third of those coming in the U.S. Deaths in the U.S. accounted for nearly 82,000 of nearly 290,000 globally.

LIVE UPDATES:The latest on coronavirus in Wisconsin

DAILY DIGEST: What you need to know about coronavirus in Wisconsin

The state health department's dashboardfor Evers' Badger BounceBack plan showed green lights for downward trajectories in the percent of new tests that have been positive for coronavirus, number of cases with COVID-19 symptoms and cases among health care workers,as well as two measures that reflect hospital readiness.

Still showing as a red light: A statistically significant downward trends in flu-like illnesses. Flu-like illnesseshave trended downward but the number had yet to meet health officials' definition of statistical significance.

Evers announced Monday that retail stores could open their doors to up to five customers at a time, and drive-in theaters could resume operations with some restrictions.

Marquette University poll results released Tuesday showed that a majority of Wisconsin voters 56% were more concerned that the state would be reopened too soon, compared to 40% who worried more that it wouldn't be opened soon enough.

But compared to March,more voters felt Evers' measures were an overreaction 26% in the new poll, compared to 10% in March.

Evers' order has been challenged by Republican legislators in the state Supreme Court.

The state's count of confirmed cases by county stood as follows Tuesday:

Note that the state's totals are frozen once each day, and that some counties may have reported more up-to-date counts.

Contact Matt Piper at (920) 810-7164 or mpiper@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @matthew_piper.

Read or Share this story: https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/2020/05/12/wisconsin-coronavirus-193-new-cases-state-nears-reopening-goal/3114828001/

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Just 4% of new coronavirus tests in Wisconsin are positive as state meets five of six reopening goals - Appleton Post Crescent

The state Department of Health Services onSunday reported 304 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, and four more deaths in Wisconsin.

The new cases bring the statewide's total to 7,964 cases and 339 deaths as of Sunday. Almost 80,000 people have tested negative for the virus.

Burnett, Forest, Langlade, Pepin and Taylor counties remain the only counties with no confirmed cases, according to DHS.

Gov. Tony Evers announced Sunday that the Wisconsin National Guard willassist state and local health officials holdnew community testing eventsin northwestern Wisconsin counties that, to date, have had a lack of testing or high rates of COVID-19.

LIVE UPDATES: The latest on coronavirus in Wisconsin

DAILY DIGEST: What you need to know about coronavirus in Wisconsin

The breakdown of confirmed cases from DHS by county is as follows:

Note that the state's totals are frozen once each day and may not match up-to-date county figures.

The state Supreme Court is scheduled to decide whether or not to keep Evers' stay-at-order order in place after Republican lawmakers filed a lawsuit challenging the order last week.

Almost 3.5 million cases of the virus have been confirmed across the globe, according to the Johns Hopkins University globalcasedashboard.

Contact Benita Mathew at (920) 309-3428 or bmathew@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @benita_mathew.

Read or Share this story: https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2020/05/03/covid-19-wisconsin-state-reaches-8-000-coronavirus-cases-339-deaths/3074530001/

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Coronavirus in Wisconsin: State reaches nearly 8,000 cases, 339 deaths from COVID-19 - Green Bay Press Gazette

A family in Oxford, Wisconsin, is suing the local sheriff's department after a patrol sergeant threatened to arrest a teenage girl for disorderly conduct for posting on Instagram about being infected with COVID-19.

Amyiah Cohoon, 16, is a student at Westfield Area High School in Westfield, Wisconsin. According to this lawsuit, she and schoolmates went to Disney World and Universal Studios in Florida for a spring break trip in early March, right as the coronavirus was beginning to spread and businesses began to shut down. She and her classmates canceled the trip early and returned home.

Once home, Cohoon began developing symptoms associated with COVID-19. She sought medical assistance, but at the time they were unable to test her to see if she was infected. She was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection with "symptoms consistent with COVID-19," according to the lawsuit.

Cohoon went home and posted on Instagram letting people know that she had COVID-19 and was in self-quarantine. Her condition worsened and she was brought to the hospital for treatment. She posted again about the experience on Instagram. Finally, they were able to test her, but the test came back negative. According to the lawsuit, doctors told her it was likely she missed the window for testing positive, but she probably did have COVID-19, despite the test results. (False negative results have been an ongoing issue in accurately diagnosing infections.)

After she returned home from this visit, she posted again on Instagram and included a picture of herself at the hospital wearing an oxygen mask.

The very next day, Patrol Sergeant Cameron Klump from Marquette County Sheriff's Department showed up on the family's doorstep. He was there under orders from Sheriff Joseph Konrath to demand that Amyiah and her father, Richard Cohoon, remove Amyiah's Instagram posts. If they refused, Klump said the family faced charges for disorderly conduct and Klump told them he would "start taking people to jail," according to the suit.

Konrath's justification was that there had been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county. He found out about the Instagram post from Amyiah's high school. The Cohoon family had contacted the school to let them know about Amyiah's infection, but nobody ever contacted them back to get more information. It appears that instead the school contacted the police. Under the threat of arrest, Cohoon complied and deleted the allegedly illegal Instagram post.

That evening the family would discover that a school administrator sent out an alert to families accusing Cohoon of making it up and assuring families that any information of infection was just a rumor. "Let me assure you there is NO truth to this," the message read. "This was a foolish means to get attention and the source of the rumor has been addressed. This rumor had caught the attention of our Public Health Department and she was involved in putting a stop to this nonsense."

The family then connected with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, and the Institute sent a letter to Konrath warning him that he had violated Cohoon's First Amendment rights and demanded both an apology and the promise that there would be no further threats of criminal charges against the family for Amyiah's post.

Konrath refused, and now the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty is suing Konrath and Klump in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin for violating Cohoon's First and 14th Amendment rights. Her Instagram posts are protected speech, the Institute argues, and there was nothing about her posts that violated the county's disorderly conduct law, and even if they did, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that disorderly conduct statutes in the state cannot be applied to speech protected by the First Amendment.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty is asking the court to rule that Cohoon's posts were protected speech and order that the sheriff's department may not threaten or cite Cohoon or her family for these posts, plus paying "nominal damages."

The sheriff's department is not backing down or even acknowledging an overreaction. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, their position remains that the one negative test means that she did not have COVID-19, which simply isn't how it works. The Sentinel reports:

Sam Hall, an attorney for the sheriff, said the teenager "caused distress and panic" among other parents by claiming she had contracted the coronavirus despite getting a negative test result.

"This case is nothing more than a 2020 version of screaming fire in a crowded theater," he said, referring to speech that is not protected by the First Amendment.

That the sheriff's lawyer is misusing the much-maligned "fire in a crowded theater" argument from Schenck v. United States is a huge tell that these guys don't have a leg to stand on. It's a bad argument, a bad precedent (it was about censoring anti-war activism), and the Supreme Court has subsequently weakened that decision and broadened our free speech protections.

And even if that ruling remained relevant, Amyiah Cohoon was not engaging in the equivalent of "shouting fire in a crowded theater." Because of the significant number of false negative test results, it's appropriate for health staff to treat her as though she likely has COVID-19 based on her symptoms. It's also appropriate for the Cohoon family to attempt to warn families of the students who went with her to Florida that they might have been exposed, too.

It's the school officials and the police who behaved irresponsibly, not Amyiah or her family.

Read the complaint here.

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A Teenager Posted About Her COVID-19 Infection on Instagram. A Deputy Threatened To Arrest Her If She Didn't Delete It. - Reason

Alex Azar had sounded confident at the end of January. At a news conference in the hulking H.H.S. headquarters in Washington, he said he had the governments response to the new coronavirus under control, pointing out high-ranking jobs he had held in the department during the 2003 SARS outbreak and other infectious threats.

I know this playbook well, he told reporters.

A Yale-trained lawyer who once served as the top attorney at the health department, Mr. Azar had spent a decade as a top executive at Eli Lilly, one of the worlds largest drug companies. But he caught Mr. Trumps attention in part because of other credentials: After law school, Mr. Azar was a clerk for some of the nations most conservative judges, including Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court. And for two years, he worked as Ken Starrs deputy on the Clinton Whitewater investigation.

As Mr. Trumps second health secretary, confirmed at the beginning of 2018, Mr. Azar has been quick to compliment the president and focus on the issues he cares about: lowering drug prices and fighting opioid addiction. On Feb. 6 even as the W.H.O. announced that there were more than 28,000 coronavirus cases around the globe Mr. Azar was in the second row in the White Houses East Room, demonstrating his loyalty to the president as Mr. Trump claimed vindication from his impeachment acquittal the day before and lashed out at evil lawmakers and the F.B.I.s top scum.

As public attention on the virus threat intensified in January and February, Mr. Azar grew increasingly frustrated about the harsh spotlight on his department and the leaders of agencies who reported to him, according to people familiar with the response to the virus inside the agencies.

Described as a prickly boss by some administration officials, Mr. Azar has had a longstanding feud with Seema Verma, the Medicare and Medicaid chief, who recently became a regular presence at Mr. Trumps televised briefings on the pandemic. Mr. Azar did not include Dr. Hahn on the virus task force he led, though some of the F.D.A. commissioners aides participated in H.H.S. meetings on the subject.

And tensions grew between the secretary and Dr. Redfield as the testing issue persisted. Mr. Azar and Dr. Redfield have been on the phone as often as a half-dozen times a day. But throughout February, as the C.D.C. test faltered, Mr. Azar became convinced that Dr. Redfields agency was providing him with inaccurate information about testing that the secretary repeated publicly, according to several administration officials.

In one instance, Mr. Azar appeared on Sunday morning news programs and said that more than 3,600 people had been tested for the virus. In fact, the real number was much smaller because many patients were tested multiple times, an error the C.D.C. had to correct in congressional testimony that week. One health department official said Mr. Azar was repeatedly assured that the C.D.C.s test would be widely available within a week or 10 days, only to be given the same promise a week later.

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The Lost Month: How a Failure to Test Blinded the U.S. to Covid-19 - The New York Times