The Daily Moth 3-19-2020
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth. It is Thursday, March 19. Here are updates on the coronavirus pandemic.
The federal government is telling Americans to not travel aboard at all. They issued a Level 4 advisory for all international travel. Those who are in other countries are encouraged to arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period. It seems like the United States is heading towards a broad travel ban against international travel, but none has been officially issued yet.
As of 6:00 this afternoon, there are over 242,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the world. Almost 10,000 people have died while almost 85,000 have recovered.
The U.S. has over 13,000 cases. Canada has 800 while Mexico has 118. The numbers in the U.S. has more than doubled since yesterday because there is more testings available and because the coronavirus has continued to spread.
Italy announced the number of fatalities from COVID-19 has reached past 3,405, which surpasses China’s death toll. The New York Times reported that Italian officials said most of those who died had serious pre-existing conditions. There are over 41,000 reported infections in Italy and officials hope that the national quarantine imposed ten days ago means that they at a peak and will see their numbers go down in the coming days and weeks.
In Wuhan, China — there are no new cases reported in the past 24 hours. This should give the world hope that this virus can be contained, but it also tells us that it will require extreme measures to do so.
President Trump signed into law an emergency coronavirus relief package.
The Trump administration in today’s briefing said the F.D.A. has approved a treatment for patients with COVID-19 that uses prescription drugs that are typically used for malaria.
The F.D.A. Commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn, said he is considering using blood from people who have recovered from the infection as a treatment for others to fight the virus.
President Trump said he would direct the F.D.A. to eliminate rules and red tape so there can be rapid development for drugs to treat the virus.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said the Trump administration wants to send two waves of $1,000 checks to each American and another $500 per child. The first wave would be in April and the second in May. The New York Times reported that Senate Republicans are proposing that $1,200 be sent to individual taxpayers while families would get $2,400 with an additional $500 per child. Those who earn more than $99,000 or families that earn more than $198,000 would not be eligible for the checks.
The CDC issued a report that said out of 508 coronavirus patients who are known to have been admitted to hospitals, 38% of them were between 20 to 54 years old. So it means that all ages could be at risk of serious illness from the coronavirus.
President Trump said that he hopes young people who are celebrating spring break on beaches, restaurants, and bars will heed the advice to not gather in large groups because although they might feel invincible, they might be bringing bad things home to their grandmother and grandfather and even their parents.
Two members of Congress, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Florida) and Rep. Ben McAdams (D-Utah) announced they tested positive for coronavirus. Now there are multiple lawmakers who have gone into voluntary self-quarantine.
The entire Georgia Senate has been told to self-quarantine because a state senator tested positive for coronavirus.
NFL head coach Sean Payton of the New Orleans Saints announced he tested positive for coronavirus.
That’s all the updates on coronavirus for today.
https://travel.state.gov/.../travel-advisory-alert-global...
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-latest-news-quick...
https://www.axios.com/
https://www.nytimes.com/.../coronavirus-update-cases.html...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../coronavirus-latest-news/
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The coronavirus pandemic has brought interesting results for the environment as people scale back from human traffic.
NBC News reported that canals in Venice, Italy — which are usually populated with boats and tourists — are now so clear that you can see fish and the bottom of the canals. Italy is under a national lockdown so boat traffic has significantly reduced. There are dolphins and swans in the canals, which is rare.
NASA showed images that analyzed nitrogen dioxide over China significantly dropping because of quarantines and a slowdown in output from factories. You can see nitrogen levels in the yellow/red areas on January 1 to 20 and then that it’s almost completely gone during February 10-25. Big difference.
In Wuhan, the top three images are the increase in pollution levels in the air from January to February 2019, indicated by the yellowish hues. The bottom is the same time period, but in 2020. That is a big difference.
Scientists and environmental activists are sure to point to the above examples on what humans can do to reduce the spread of pollution that can contribute to health issues or climate change.
https://www.nbcnews.com/.../coronavirus-shutdowns-have...
https://www.yahoo.com/.../venices-canals-beautifully...
https://twitter.com/NASAEarth/status/1235330706827554817...
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Here are four top news briefs that not related to the coronavirus pandemic.
The first — there was a strong 5.7 magnitude earthquake yesterday in the Salt Lake City, Utah area that struck in the morning. The last time there was an earthquake of this strength was in 1962. There was a 4.6 magnitude aftershock at 1:12 pm. The Salt Lake Tribune said there are no reports of serious injuries, but there were damage to downtown buildings. The Salt Lake Temple’s statue of the Angel Moroni had its trumpet missing. Utah Gov. Herbert said “all things considered, we’ve been very fortunate.”
“The Daily Moth” viewer Itzel Garcia sent me two videos from outside of her home that recorded the moment the earthquake struck.
[Videos]
Garcia said the video blacked out when it started shaking. Thank you for sharing.
The second news — Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) announced she is ending her presidential campaign and would endorse Joe Biden. She said after the election on Tuesday, it is clear that Democrat voters have chosen Biden to be the person who will take on President Trump in the general election. Gabbard endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2016.
The third news — an immigration advocacy group, RAICES, said a man died of an apparent suicide at an ICE family detention center in south Texas. ABC News reported that it is a 27-year-old man from Honduras. RAICES said ICE should immediately release all detentions at that center and across the country because of concerns with coronavirus, citing cramped and dirty conditions in detention centers.
ICE said they will reduce their enforcement efforts and that there are hand soap dispensers at the Texas ICE facility.
The fourth news — SpaceX is planning to send astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time this May. NASA made this announcement. A Falcon 9 rocket will be used to send two NASA astronauts.
https://www.sltrib.com/.../2020/03/18/earthquake-hits-utahs/
https://www.usatoday.com/.../tulsi-gabbard.../2009989001/
https://www.theguardian.com/.../texas-ice-suicide-karnes...
https://abcnews.go.com/.../man-dies-apparent-suicide-ice...
https://phys.org/.../2020-03-spacex-flight-space-station...
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That is all for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!