1. "Dr. Atlas on coronavirus lockdowns: 'The policy ... is killing people'
Coronavirus lockdowns may be "killing" just as many people as the virus because many people with serious conditions unrelated to the virus have been skipping treatment, Hoover Institution senior fellow Dr. Scott Atlas said Saturday on "Fox Report."
"Coronavirus lockdowns may be "killing" just as many people as the virus because many people with serious conditions unrelated to the virus have been skipping treatment, Hoover Institution senior fellow Dr. Scott Atlas said Saturday on "Fox Report."
"I think one thing that's not somehow receiving attention is the CDC just came out with their fatality rates," Atlas said. "And lo and behold, they verify what people have been saying for over a month now, including my Stanford epidemiology colleagues and everyone else in the world who's done this analysis -- and that is that the infection fatality rate is less than one-tenth of the original estimate."
Even White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci is acknowledging the harm caused by the lockdown, Atlas said.
"The policy itself is killing people. I mean, I think everyone's heard about 650,000 people on cancer, chemo, half of whom didn't come in. Two thirds of cancer screenings didn't come in. 40 percent of stroke patients urgently needing care didn't come in," Atlas said. "And now we have over half the people, children in the United States not getting vaccinations. This is really what [Fauci] said was irreparable harm."
"And I and my colleagues from other institutions have calculated the cost of the lockdown in terms of lives lost," Atlas said. "Every month is about equal to the entire cost of lives lost during the COVID infection itself. This is a tragic, misguided public policy to extend this lockdown, whether or not it was justifiable in the beginning."
The doctor also argued against keeping children out of schools, saying there's no reason they can't go back.
"There's no science whatsoever to keep K-through-12 schools closed, nor to have masks or social distancing on children, nor to keep summer programs closed," Atlas said. "What we know now is that the risk of death and the risk of even a serious illness is nearly zero in people under 18."
Read in Fox News: https://apple.news/ApQRtRt2BRpmGuNspT_mXcg
2. "Coronavirus: How scared should we be?
As lockdown restrictions begin to be eased across the UK, understanding risk will be crucial."
"The need to balance competing risks
So what should we do? Some have argued restrictions need to continue until safety can be guaranteed. But those arguments generally ignore the fact that continuing to do so carries risk in itself.
UK chief medical adviser Prof Chris Witty often describes these as the "indirect costs" of the pandemic. They include everything from poor access to healthcare for other conditions through to rises in mental illness, financial hardship and damage to education.
So as restrictions ease, society and individuals themselves are going to have to make decisions based on balancing competing sets of risks.
Why you should not expect to be 100% safe
Prof Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at Edinburgh University, says the question we should be asking is whether we are "safe enough".
"There will never be no risk. In a world where Covid-19 remains present in the community it's about how we reduce that risk, just as we do with other kinds of daily dangers, like driving and cycling."
She says part of that equation depends on the steps taken by government on things such as social distancing, the provision of protective equipment and the availability of testing and then tracing of contacts to contain local outbreaks. She has been critical of the way the government has handled all of them.
How much risk do individuals face?
But as more freedoms are returned, the role of individual decision-making will come more to the fore.
It is perhaps not about finding the right option, rather finding the least worst option.
Statistician Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, an expert in risk from Cambridge University and government adviser, says it has, in effect, become a game of "risk management" - and because of that we need to get a handle on the magnitude of risk we face.
There are two factors that influence the risk we face from coronavirus - our risk of becoming infected and, once infected, our risk of dying or becoming seriously ill.
If we are not in hospital or a care home our best guide to the risk of infection comes from the government's surveillance programme run by the Office for National Statistics.
The data published this week suggests around one in 400 people is currently infected.
For example, an average person aged 40 has around a one-in-1,000 risk of not making it to their next birthday and an almost identical risk of not surviving a coronavirus infection.
And that is the average risk - for most individuals the risk is actually lower than that as most of the risk is held by those who are in poor health in each age group."
Read in BBC News: https://apple.news/AQ5wUr35TSoi7bTw2-KN4Cg
3. "From near disaster to success story: How Japan has tackled coronavirus
Criticism of government reaction has given way to plaudits for public’s virus-challenging habits"
"On 7 April, the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, belatedly declared a state of emergency in the capital and other affected areas that was later expanded to include all 47 of the country’s prefectures."
"So far, Japan – a country of 126 million people with one of the biggest elderly populations in the world – has confirmed 16,433 infections and 784 deaths, out of a global death toll of more than 300,000 people.
In Tokyo, where almost 14 million people live, new cases have remained below 40 for more than a fortnight, with just five cases reported on two consecutive days this week. That compares with a peak of 206 new cases reported on 17 April.
But Japan’s version of “lockdown” – requests to avoid unnecessary outings, work from home and observe social distancing – came across as a timid response to a situation that risked spiraling out of control. The dispatch of two reusable masks to every household was met with derision,...
“I don’t think the falling number of infections is due to government policies,” said Ryuji Koike, the assistant director of Tokyo Medical and Dental university hospital. “I think it looks like Japan is doing well thanks to things that can’t be measured, like daily habits and ‘Japanese behaviour’.”
Personal habits and cultural traits, however, tell only part of the story. While Japan hesitated before imposing restrictions on overseas visitors, it was quick to recognise the dangers of mass gatherings.
Japan’s incremental exit from the state of emergency continues. Last week, Abe ended the measure in 39 prefectures, adding another three this week. Tokyo and four other prefectures could join them as early as Monday, according to media reports.
But experts are warning against complacency given that the low rates of testing may be distorting the extent of infections – a hazard recognised by the government’s own expert, Shigeru Omi, who admitted that nobody knows whether the true number of coronavirus cases “could be 10 times, 12 times or 20 times more than reported”.
As Tokyo’s backstreet bars and restaurants started filling up again this week – with some staying open beyond the 8pm closing time requested by the city’s governor – Abe sought to balance cautious optimism with a dose of post-pandemic reality."
Experts have pointed to universal healthcare, low obesity rates and expertise in treating pneumonia. "
Read in The Guardian: https://apple.news/AEttBi3DmQsqUbZsIw_LNag
4. "Making do: Arlee doing its best to cope with virus crisis"
"It’s going to be hard on everyone this Fourth of July to drive by an empty Arlee Powwow grounds. The celebration committee decided on May 5 to cancel this year’s five-day event due to COVID-19 concerns, breaking a streak of 122 consecutive powwow summers.
Another COVID-19 consequence: When the Weavers attend grand-daughter Malaia’s high-school graduation Sunday afternoon, they’ll be wearing guest wristbands and sitting at the Arlee football field.
Peyton Lammerding will be there too. She’ll climb the steps to the stage on her brother’s flatbed that she, her mother and a couple of senior classmates decorated and deliver her valedictorian address.
School superintendent Jim Baldwin said the outdoor ceremony at 3 p.m. for 31 Arlee High seniors will take place rain or shine, unless there’s lightning. It’ll be a memorable, unusual exit for the Class of 2020.
Grants totaling some $25,000 to purchase food were secured from the Headwaters Foundation of Missoula [This is the foundation that resulted from the sale proceeds of Missoula Community Hospital.], the Lower Flathead Valley Community Foundation in Ronan and the Bozeman-based Gianforte Family Foundation."
https://missoulian.com/content/tncms/live/
5. "Wuhan Lab: Yes, We Had Sick Bats But They Didn’t Have COVID-19
The lab in the city of Wuhan, where the pandemic started, said the coronavirus bat strains they were researching were not the same as COVID-19."
"The director of the virology lab in Wuhan, China, which members of the Trump administration have accused of starting the coronavirus pandemic, says they were working on three live strains of bat coronavirus, but that none of them matched the COVID-19 strain, according to the Guardian. Wang Yani made the remarks on Chinese broadcaster CGTN on Sunday, saying that the COVID-19 strain only had a match rate of 79.8 percent to the bat viruses they were working on last winter. “Our institute first received the clinical sample of the unknown pneumonia on December 30 last year,” she said. “We didn’t have any knowledge before that, nor had we ever encountered, researched or kept the virus. In fact, like everyone else, we didn’t even know the virus existed. How could it have leaked from our lab when we never had it?”
The attempt by the laboratory to refute the claims is nevertheless likely to add more fuel to theories that the coronavirus pandemic came from a lab in Wuhan.
The scientific community has largely rejected theories that the virus came from a lab but the origins of the illness have become increasingly political as questions of accountability have begun to strain China’s diplomatic relations."
Read in The Daily Beast: https://apple.news/AEZ4_6MdlQeSsggoK_5fDHA
6. "The Fragile Existence of Sex Workers During the Pandemic
"With each passing day, the strip club in downtown Manhattan grew a little emptier. Fewer customers were drinking premium liquor and eating steaks in the plush banquettes; fewer patrons were sitting at the edge of the blue-lit stage; fewer clients were throwing dollar bills at the dancers performing on poles or in their laps. “It felt weird. There was an air of desperation, almost,” Nico, a dancer at the club, told me. As the city slowly woke up to the spread of the coronavirus this spring, so, too, did the dancers at clubs across town, whose work necessitates being physically close to strangers: talking to them, consoling them, and entertaining them. By late March, most of New York’s strip clubs had shut down—clubs in much of the rest of the country did, too—and, now, like hundreds of thousands of other workers, at the very least, in the sex industry, dancers are facing not only a drop in employment but also discrimination and stigma as they search for relief. Nico, who describes stripping as her economic “safety net,” said, “This line of work has the word ‘independent’ built into the job description. The club was not going to take care of us. We were left to fend for ourselves.”
The experience of sex workers, who find the most stable work as independent contractors, is no different. (Some strip clubs offer workers employee status, but they are in the minority; in Nevada, where prostitution is legal in some counties, workers at brothels are considered independent contractors.) Like undocumented workers who are barred from getting government benefits in exchange for their labor, and prison laborers who receive little consideration of their rights as workers, sex workers have few places to turn for help. Federal law bars the issuance of disaster loans and grant assistance to applicants who “present live performances of a prurient sexual nature” or who earn income “through the sale of products or services, or the presentation of any depictions or displays, of a prurient sexual nature.” Strippers, pornography performers, and owners of sex-toy and other adult-entertainment businesses are ineligible. Sex workers who make their money on the street and cannot access public assistance are also wary of trying to access social services, for fear of being arrested.
Of the dozen or so sex workers whom I talked to, some qualified for unemployment if they had paid taxes as independent contractors, and they were still trying to apply for it. Others did not qualify but had savings or family to lean on. And still others were doing whatever they could to piece together a living. Most were also hoping for the generosity of past clients and mutual aid from within their communities.
OnlyFans [never heard of it] began in 2016, before sex workers began to face the aftermath of the SESTA-FOSTA bills, legislation passed in Congress which targeted Web sites on which sex workers advertised, such as Craigslist and Backpage. The sites were penalized for hosting content that was allegedly related to sex trafficking; Backpage shut down, and Craigslist eliminated its personals section. Many online sex workers turned to posting on OnlyFans. The coronavirus lockdown has given the platform unexpected cachet, a cult appeal. Social-media influencers and minor celebrities have proudly announced to their followers that they have started explicit pages on the site. Beyoncé recently rapped about the platform: sexuality seemingly empowered and coolly monetized. The impulse to glamorize OnlyFans is, at its core, a sign of the times: capitalistic even as our economy has failed many workers, and seductive as the rituals of sex and dating have been upended. But, for most sex workers on OnlyFans, the platform not only takes twenty per cent of their income, it also requires an enormous amount of labor to attract and keep followers happy and simply make a profit.
As life under quarantine took hold in the United States and around the world, global consumption of Internet pornography rose. Porn Web sites reported increased traffic; sex workers with already-popular fan pages saw an increase in new subscribers. Receding into our homes, we looked for distraction and titillation and intimacy through our computers and phones. A few sex workers told me that their labor should be classified as essential—and they were only partly joking."
Read in The New Yorker: https://apple.news/A3D2jeQqcTf2rHRe0qHjGuA
7. "University of Michigan Head: What School Decides for Fall Will Likely Stick for Year
The Wolverines football team won’t have a season unless students are back on campus, says university president, an immunologist by training"
"The University of Michigan won’t have a football season this fall unless all students are able to be back on campus for classes. And, according to President Mark Schlissel, that isn’t a sure thing.
Dr. Schlissel, an immunologist by training, said he expects to make a call in the coming weeks on what the new school year will look like for the prestigious public university, which has about 46,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a football program that is a perennial powerhouse.
“Any decision we make for this coming fall is likely going to be the case for the whole academic year. What’s going to be different in January?” he said, noting public health concerns could be even worse then as flu season ramps up during the cold-weather months.
Dr. Schlissel’s measured approach strikes a different tone than the rosy predictions made by many of his peers, both within the Big Ten athletic conference and across the country at major research institutions. Auburn University President Jay Gogue, for instance, promised incoming freshmen that the fall semester would hold football, fraternities and extracurricular activities as usual.
Michigan also has one of the biggest athletic-department budgets in the country. It generated over $190.7 million in revenue in the 2019 fiscal year. About $83 million of that, or 43%, came from football through ticket sales, television rights disbursements, concessions and parking. The Wolverines’ television deal with the Big Ten and Big Ten Network nets the university more than $50 million annually."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/university-of-michigan-president-takes-measured-approach-on-reopening-11590321600?mod=hp_lead_pos48
8. "The Pandemic Prom: Tuxedos, Corsages and Dancing at Home Alone
A high-school tradition gets a coronavirus-era makeover on computer screens and in living rooms across the country"
"My School Dance, a ticketing portal for school events, created a new concept called Virtual Prom Live after the pandemic caused all 75 of its proms scheduled since March to be canceled, says operations manager Taylor Buckley. Virtual Prom Live streams a party atmosphere—providing a free platform where DJs play music and offer giveaways. Students from all over the country can chat on the screen and send emojis.
As the pandemic ruled out traditional dances, schools got creative. Officials at Strawberry Crest High School in Dover, Fla., recently, put on a drive-through prom parade in lieu of a school dance, which was canceled last month.
“We formed a snake through our parking lot, set up traffic cones and made stops for the kids,” says principal Christie Raburn. The lot was festooned with balloons in student-selected prom colors of black and gold. At six stations marked by traffic cones, cars stopped for snacks such as cups of custard or cupcakes. They had Covid-themed pictures taken, with rolls of toilet paper and Lysol. A DJ played music and Ms. Raburn let parents of the 489 seniors decide how many people to have in their car for the drive-through.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pandemic-prom-tuxedos-corsages-and-dancing-at-home-alone-11590318001?mod=hp_lista_pos2