There are over 3.7 million global cases. Cases have been growing consistently by about 600,000 each week. The US has over 1.2 million cases and over 72,000 deaths.
There’s promising work on a monoclonal antibody to help treat COVID-19. It targets the spike protein and it’s working in cell cultures. Animal and human trials are to follow.
A Colorado man and lockdown protester was arrested for planning a pipe bomb attack. He was charged with the possession of destructive devices.
Many Wendy’s restaurants are out of beef. The meat shortage we’ve been anticipating appears to be starting. Shoppers are seeing higher prices and limits on meat purchases.
Cybercrime is doing just fine. The illegal purchase and resale of items (often done with a stolen credit card number) is increasing. According to Interpol, cyberthreats to businesses in which employees working from home are targeted as also on the rise. Cybercrime is adapting to the times, with hospitals being increasingly targeted.
COVID-19 researcher dies in purported murder-suicide. His departments says he was on the brink of making significant findings. The man who is suspected of murdering him was known to him.
Previously undisclosed nursing home deaths added to tally in New York:
New York state reports an additional 1,700 deaths at nursing homes https://t.co/qw6XMDl3XW pic.twitter.com/vzrWvTgzts
— The Hill (@thehill) May 5, 2020
Cases are still on the rise in the US outside of the NY metro area:
Outside of the New York metro area, the number of U.S. cases still has not peaked. https://t.co/g4JqYrypDJ pic.twitter.com/Pb2GvVXd8Z
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) May 5, 2020
Ohio wants employers to report employees who don’t return to work to stop people from getting unemployment checks. The burden of demonstrating that work conditions are too unsafe to allow return to work is placed on the employees on a case-by-case basis.
Prisons in the Philippines are massively overcrowded and a perfect medium for COVID-19 catastrophe. The Philippines is responding with a plan to release 10,000 inmates.
Native American tribal governments in the US to get some relief: Treasury to release 4.8 billion to help tribes respond to the pandemic. Tribal groups have been hit hard both economically and in rates of infection.
Here’s an excellent thread on PCR and serology results in plasma donors which sheds some light on why we see a lot of noise in test positivity. For clarity, PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction and it’s used to amplify genetic material for detection in testing:
1) I wanted share some data from a manuscript that just wen online at https://t.co/hWZ9o1GII2. This was spearheaded by the fantastic Dr. Ania Wajnberg in collaboration with many parts of the Mount Sinai Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine.
— Florian Krammer (@florian_krammer) May 6, 2020
