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Testing Backlogs May Cloud the True Spread of the Coronavirus

Public health experts say delays in testing continue to hinder attempts to track and contain the spread of disease.

As demand for coronavirus testing surges around the nation, laboratories that process samples are again experiencing backlogs that have left anxious patients and their doctors waiting days — sometimes a week or more — for results.

At the city and state levels, testing delays could mask persistent rises in case numbers and could cloud ways to combat the coronavirus, as health officials continue to find themselves one step behind the virus’s rapid and often silent spread, experts said.

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Israeli doctor reinfected with coronavirus 3 months after recovering

JERUSALEM--A doctor from Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan (a suburb of Tel Aviv) has been confirmed as infected with the coronavirus, three months after she recovered from the virus, according to Channel 13.

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NYTimes Investigation: 5 Takeaways on Trump’s Effort to Shift Responsibility

President Trump and his top aides sharply shifted their pandemic strategy in mid-April after seizing on optimistic data suggesting the virus would disappear, a Times investigation found.

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Older Children Spread the Coronavirus Just as Much as Adults, Large Study Finds

The study of nearly 65,000 people in South Korea suggests that school reopenings will trigger more outbreaks.

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In the heated debate over reopening schools, one burning question has been whether and how efficiently children can spread the virus to others.

A large new study from South Korea offers an answer: Children younger than 10 transmit to others much less often than adults do, but the risk is not zero. And those between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults do.

The findings suggest that as schools reopen, communities will see clusters of infection take root that include children of all ages, several experts cautioned.

“I fear that there has been this sense that kids just won’t get infected or don’t get infected in the same way as adults and that, therefore, they’re almost like a bubbled population,” said Michael Osterholm, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Minnesota....

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NY Times: Did Exxon Deceive Its Investors on Climate Change?

In an OP-ED in the New York Times, the director of the Rockefeller Family Fund states that EXXON systematically lied to the public and to its stockholders about the risks of climate change and EXXON's major contributions to the catastrophic damage climate change will inflict on humanity and on biodiversity.  
 
 To read the complete article, see:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/opinion/exxon-climate-change.html

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Impasse Over Aid for Puerto Rico Stalls Billions in Federal Disaster Relief

           

A damaged home in Puerto Rico in September, a year after Hurricane Maria hit.  Credit Carlos Barria/Reuters

nytimes.com - by Emily Cochrane - April 1, 2019

The Senate on Monday blocked billions of dollars in disaster aid for states across the country as Republicans and Democrats clashed over President Trump’s opposition to sending more food and infrastructure help to Puerto Rico.

Opposition came from both parties for different reasons . . .

. . . It was unclear late Monday how lawmakers would overcome that impasse and end the delay in disbursing the disaster aid.

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ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLES WITHIN THE LINK BELOW . . .

CLICK HERE - Billions Of Dollars In Disaster Aid Stuck In Congress, As Both Parties Balk At Relief Legislation

 

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The Hidden Problems With Puerto Rico’s Water Supply

           

Flooding in San Juan after the storm. SGT. JOSE AHIRAM DIAZ-RAMOS/PRNG-PAO

CLICK HERE - NRDC - THREATS ON TAP: DRINKING WATER VIOLATIONS IN PUERTO RICO - May 2017 (7 page .PDF document)

atlasobscura.com - by Sarah Laskow - March 5, 2018

. . . For months after the hurricane, without electricity, surrounded by damaged infrastructure, Puerto Ricans struggled to find clean water after sewage, gasoline, and more was swept up in floodwaters. But the island’s underlying geography, along with a history of poor investment in the water system, have made contamination a long-standing problem in the island territory. Researchers are trying now to understand and measure just how much the storm exacerbated these issues.

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This woman was struggling to find fresh food. She never expected this solution.

                

Image via Upworthy

CLICK HERE - The GrowHaus

upworthy.com - by Sam Dylan Finch - August 31, 2018

How do you get healthy food on the table when you can't find any?

This is a question that Ortilia Lujan Flores had grappled with many times before.

She wanted affordable, nutritious food, but lived in a neighborhood that didn’t have an accessible grocery store.

Flores couldn't drive, which limited the few food options she had. "There was nowhere to go," she explains.

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Exiled in Florida: the Puerto Ricans Struggling to Build a New Life Off Island

           

Congressman Darren Soto and staff reach out to Puerto Rican evacuees in a lobby in a Florida Super 8 motel in Kissimmee, Florida, earlier this month. Photograph: Staff/Reuters

For the more than 300,000 people who fled after Hurricane Maria the Sunshine State proved to be no Disney World but they are poised to have an electoral impact in the midterms

theguardian.com - by Richard Luscombe - August 9, 2018

 . . . As of the end of June, more than 600 Puerto Rican families were still living in cramped, single-room accommodation in Florida hotels, two-thirds of them in central Florida’s Orange and Osceola counties and relying on the temporary shelter assistance program paid for by the federal emergency management agency (Fema).

And with the Orlando/Kissimmee/Sanford area third in the US for its dearth of affordable housing options, low-cost rentals are especially hard to come by, forcing even more to remain in $60-a-night hotel rooms in rundown areas, especially along the US 192 highway in Kissimmee . . . 

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