On CNN Friday, reporter Randi Kaye noted how residents of Jacksonville, Florida reacted when the beach was reopened.
"It was a mad dash here for the ocean," said Kaye. "Once police gave the all-clear, all the people lined up flooded the area. Biking, running, swimming, surfing, fishing, some of them. Lot of people brought their dogs. As if they had been cooped up for years. That's how they were behaving, when it had been about a month, first closed this beach on March 20."
"This is what the mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, is saying, these are essential activities, all the recreational activities on the beach are essential and well in line with the Florida governor's executive order. He says it's okay. He is Limiting hours on the beach from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Just closed a short time ago here. And also from 6:00 to 11:00 in the morning. So the hours in between there, the beach will be shut down."
On Friday's edition of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) tore into President Donald Trump for his comments that Democratic states should be "liberated" from lockdown orders.
"Governor, you called the president's tweets saying liberate Minnesota, Michigan, Virginia, 'dangerous', 'unhinged,'" said Cooper. "You just heard him ... I'm wondering what your reaction is."
"Extreme disappointment, and frankly anger, because we've lost over 500 people in my state, and we know — there's saying in automobile safety, that speed kills. Well, words can be fatal too."
"When you have a president of the United States openly, willfully, maliciously trying to encourage people not to abide by the law in these states — these orders are the law of these states — president of the United States willfully trying to inspire people to disobey and violate the law with potentially fatal consequences, is irresponsible, no other way to look at it," continued Inslee. "And what is doubly enraging to us, both Republicans and Democrats, the day before this president put out very clear guidelines based on substantial epidemiological evidence of his experts Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx that had a lot of reason to it, saying we have to wrestle this virus down significantly before we let off pressure of social distancing."
"His own physicians saying this, his own guidelines that we're pretty consistent with in state approaches, Republicans and Democrats," added Inslee. "The next day, to say you should ignore that, is an outrage."
At Friday's coronavirus press briefing, President Donald Trump was asked about his series of tweets earlier in the day calling to "liberate" a number of Democratic states that have imposed public health lockdowns. The president doubled down.
"What they've done to some people is very unfair," said Trump. He singled out Virginia, saying that "they want to take away Second Amendment rights," and adding of Gov. Ralph Northam, "he'd be under seige" if he were a Republican. He also attacked Northam for "what he said about birth" — a reference to his repeated lie that Northam called for abortions after babies are born.
As right-wing protesters descended on Huntington Beach, California to demand an end to the coronavirus lockdown, one protester in particular caught the eye of social media: A man whose sign read "COVID-19 is a lie" — even as he marched in a mask and a full-body protective suit.
Commenters laughed at the apparent contradiction — and some California lawmakers weighed in on the protesters generally.
At Friday's White House coronavirus press briefing, President Donald Trump was asked what he thinks of the right-wing protesters demanding an end to public health lockdowns — and whether he is concerned that the ones who are not practicing social distancing will only spread the virus further.
The president's response was to stick up for them.
"They seem to be very responsible people," said Trump. He added that they appear to have it "rough" and it's okay because "these are people expressing their views."
At Friday's coronavirus task force press briefing, Vice President Mike Pence said that President Donald Trump is "reinventing testing in America" — a dubious notion given that the administration has cut off funding for testing sites.
Commenters on social media did not buy Pence's characterization.
Despite the United States leading the world in both COVID-19 infections and fatalities, President Donald Trump praised his response during his Friday coronavirus briefing.
Trump explained that world leaders agree that he is doing a great job, but nobody hears about it because they refuse to say it on the record.
"I wish I could tell you stories, what other countries, even powerful countries, say to me -- the leaders," Trump said.
"They say it quietly and they say it off the record, but they have great respect for what we can do," he argued.
"Why aren't any elected officials speaking out against this?"
Less than 24 hours after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis relaxed restrictions on social distancing in the state, clearing the way for beaches and parks in some areas to reopen, the city of Jacksonville announced Friday its beaches would reopen at 5pm.
Jen Perelman, a candidate for Congress in Florida's 23rd District, said the decision was guaranteed to make the outbreak in the state worse.
"Why aren't any elected officials speaking out against this?" wondered Perelman.
DeSantis made the decision to relax restrictions and allow "essential activities" at beaches after President Donald Trump announced Thursday he was leaving it up to states when to reopen their economies, a decision over which the president did not have any control.
As Miami reporter Brian Entin noted on Twitter, confirmed coronavirus cases in Florida spiked on Thursday as DeSantis issued his order.
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry cited what he considered encouraging signs from the area's infection rate as a reason to reopen area beaches, he said.
But the case rate in the county has been inconsistent, as the Daily Mail explained:
The number of new cases in 24 hours in Duval County dropped from 43 on April 13 to 17 on April 15, however hospitalizations remained the same with 63 each day over the last 48 hours. Neither have dropped consistently in two weeks and the total number of infections stands at 780.
There are also questions on how the state is counting numbers of deaths due to the disease.
Mayor Lenny Curry said Duval County beaches were reopening Friday afternoon with restricted hours, and they can only be used for walking, biking, hiking, fishing, running, swimming, taking care of pets, and surfing.
[...]
The beaches will be open from 6 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 8 p.m., Curry said in a video posted to social media.
Curry, a Republican, added that reopening the beaches "could be the beginning of the pathway back to normal life" but urged residents to stick to the restrictions.
"We'll get back to life as we know it, but we must be patient," said Curry.
As Common Dreamsreported in March, Florida's decision to not close beaches during spring break likely contributed to the spread of coronavirus around the country.
Italian health officials declared victory Friday over the coronavirus in the poorer southern regions, where hospitals had been stretched to breaking point under the strain of the pandemic.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had warned six weeks ago that Italy's ability to conquer COVID-19 depended on whether cases can stay largely contained to the richer north.
The disease has now officially claimed 22,745 lives in the Mediterranean country of 60 million people -- a toll second only to the United States.
But Italy has still counted itself relatively lucky because the outbreak erupted in provinces with the best equipped medical staff around the financial capital Milan.
Conte decided to gamble early by imposing the Western world's first peacetime national lockdown, in the first half of March.
His team argued that the short-term economic pain would pay off by saving the health care system and allowing the country to gradually reopen in the weeks to come.
Italy's top health officials said Friday that Conte's big bet had paid off.
"We have prevented the spread of contagions in southern regions," public health council chief Franco Locatelli told reporters.
"This is now a fact supported by figures."
Levelling off
The latest data from Italy's civil protection service offered new reasons for Conte not to extend some of the strictest restrictions when they expire on May 4.
They showed the number of people currently being treated for COVID-19 rising by only a few hundred for the first time since the outbreak began.
The current number of cases had been going up by at least 1,000 a day for over a month.
But they edged up by just 11 outside Milan's Lombardy region on Friday.
"In absolute terms, we have had had the highest number of recoveries since the start of the crisis," civil protection service chief Angelo Berrelli told reporters.
The generally improving picture prompted the civil protection service to announce that it was suspending daily briefings and moving to a twice-a-week format.
New tolls will still be issued daily.
Standoff
The leaders of Italy's northern industrial heartland are pushing Conte to take another gamble and open as many businesses and industries as possible in early May.
The shutdown has devastated once-booming factory towns and left millions furloughed or temporarily unemployed.
Italy's central bank said industrial production had declined by 15 percent in March and total economic output was set to contract by five percent in annual terms between January and March.
But a standoff is emerging between the northern leaders and those south of Rome.
Naples's Campania governor Vincenzo De Luca warned Friday that he may have to "close our borders" to people from the north should those regions' stay-at-home orders be lifted.
The scale of business reopening will be determined by the number of deaths and recoveries reported over the coming days.
Italy is still digging though data from individual regions to determine the true impact of its worst disaster since World War II.
Previously undisclosed figures from its public health institute revealed that nearly 17,000 medics have been infected with the virus since Italy's first COVID-19 death was recorded on February 21.
Several Italian doctors have expressed fears that infected health care workers may have been unwittingly spreading the disease to their patients in the early weeks of the outbreak.
A study released Thursday by the FNOMCeO medical association said COVID-19 has killed 125 doctors in Italy.
Police in Florida have arrested a man who threatened to go on a shooting rampage in his local supermarket because he thought too few shoppers were wearing protective masks against the coronavirus.
Robert Kovner, 62, was arrested after he posted on Facebook that he would "empty every clip I own" in his local Publix supermarket because not enough of the customers were wearing protective face coverings, police said.
"Will it take shooting a few of you selfish a-holes in the parking lot to get the message through?" Kovner was reported to have posted on social media.
"Trust me the virus is not the only thing that may cause your demise!"
Police in Sebring, some 85 miles (135 kilometers) south of Orlando, said that "these are stressful times, but there is no excuse for making threats like this."
"It's not a joke. It's not just a bad day. It's a crime. We will ALWAYS take them seriously and you will go to jail," they said.
Florida has some of the laxest gun laws in the United States, a country rife with mass shootings and where the right to possess guns is guaranteed by the constitution.
Gun shops have been listed as essential services during the pandemic and have racked up record sales since March.
Following federal guidelines, Florida recommends the use of masks in public spaces to prevent the spread of the disease, but face coverings are not obligatory outside of cities like Miami and Miami Beach, whose mayors have ordered them to be worn in enclosed spaces that are open to the public.
By Friday, Florida had recorded more than 24,000 cases of coronavirus, with 680 deaths.
Kovner was charged with threatening to carry out a mass shooting and slapped with a $30,000 bail, according to the Miami Herald newspaper.
On Friday, Fox News host Laura Ingraham made an eye-catching comparison, arguing that those who supported U.S. adventurism in the Middle East should similarly want to "liberate" states under coronavirus lockdowns.
Commenters on social media slammed Ingraham for the comparison.
Despite the growing death toll in the U.S. from the coronavirus, President Trump has shifted his rhetoric to advocating for the sooner-rather-than-later reopening of state economies, while shifting blame for the pandemic's spread on the media, China and what he says is the unpreparedness of governors and his predecessors.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal this Friday, Michael C. Bender and Rebecca Ballhaus report that Trump is bothered over the growing blame his administration of facing over the slow response to the outbreak in its early days, and is devising a strategy to paint the opposite impression.
"He has asked White House aides for economic response plans that would allow him to take credit for economic successes while providing enough flexibility to place the fault for any failures on others," they write. '"People have made clear to him that’s an impossible goal, just two completely contradictory goals,' said one person in contact with the president. 'But I’m not sure he’s convinced.'"
According to sources speaking to WSJ, Trump is starting to use his coronavirus press briefings to "get rid of pent-up energy."
“You can’t dismiss the impact these kinds of things have on him,” on source told WSJ. “He has enormous emotional reactions, and his view is he has to come out and fight every day, not to persuade the media or convince Democrats, but to talk directly to conservative media.”
Humans and animals share many diseases. And as dramatically shown by the tigers that tested positive in the Bronx Zoo, the coronavirus is one of them. As threeveterinaryepidemiologists who study infectious disease, we have been asked a lot questions about if and how the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 affects pets.
Can my pet get the coronavirus?
When talking about a virus, the words “get” or “catch” are vague. A more precise question is: Can my cat or dog become infected with SARS-CoV-2?
The answer is yes. There is evidence from real-world cases as well as laboratory experiments that both cats and dogs can become infected with coronavirus.
In Hong Kong, health officials have tested 17 dogs and eight cats living with COVID-19 patients for the coronavirus. They found evidence of the virus in two dogs: a Pomeranian and a German shepherd, though neither became sick.
None of the eight cats were infected or had been sick. However, there is a separate report of an infected cat from Hong Kong.
Another case of an infected cat was reported in Belgium. Again, the owner of the cat had COVID-19, but unlike the infected cat in Hong Kong, this one had become sick with respiratory problems as well as diarrhea and vomiting.
The final evidence comes from Wuhan, where researchers tested 102 cats and released a pre-print study of the results. Fifteen of those cats tested positive for the antibodies to the virus – meaning the cats been exposed in the past. As the researchers say in the paper, the coronavirus has “infected cat populations in Wuhan, implying that this risk could also occur at other outbreak regions.” This study tested cats from owners with COVID-19, veterinary hospitals and even some strays. Three of the infected cats were owned by COVID-19-affected patients which explains their exposure; for the other 12 it is unclear how they were infected.
If cats or dogs can spread the coronavirus, health agencies and the public would need to incorporate these animals into their planning to contain and slow the pandemic. It is very important to know how easily the coronavirus replicates in pets and whether they can transfer it to other animals. A group of researchers in China set out to answer these questions.
To do this, they inoculated – that is, directly exposed – a number of cats and dogs with the coronavirus by deliberately placing large doses of live SARS-CoV-2 into their noses. The scientists then put some of these inoculated animals next to uninfected control animals to see if the exposed animals got sick, could spread the virus to the uninfected animals, or both.
The researchers found that kittens and adolescent cats can become infected when given a large dose of the virus. All five of the kittens who were inoculated became sick and two died, but all of the adolescent cats were able to fight off the infection without becoming seriously ill.
They also found that cats can spread the coronavirus to other cats. After a week, one-third of the uninfected cats that were placed next to the inoculated cats tested positive for the coronavirus.
These results provide evidence that SARS-CoV-2 can replicate in cats and can make them sick. It also shows that cats can transfer the virus through the air to other cats.
The same researchers also looked at dogs and found them to be much more resistant to the virus and unable to transmit it to other animals.
This is important information, but the conditions of the experiment were very unnatural. There are no studies about transmission of the virus between cats and dogs in the real world so it remains unclear whether natural transmission is occurring. While this experiment shows that cats and dogs are not totally immune to the coronavirus, the lack of a pandemic among household pets provides some evidence that they are more resistant than people are.
Though cats can become infected, evidence suggests it is extremely unlikely they could pass it on to humans.
While we can’t say it would be impossible to catch the coronavirus from a cat or dog, the research suggests this is extremely unlikely. There are currently no reported cases of people catching the coronavirus from animals.
The World Health Organization says that “based on current evidence, human to human transmission remains the main driver” of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that “further evidence is needed to understand if animals and pets can spread the disease.”
While your cat can get infected, according to the science, it is extremely unlikely they could pass it to you. In fact, if your cat is infected, the chances are your cat caught the coronavirus from you.
Just to be safe, your pets should follow the same social distancing rules as everyone else.
Should I keep my cat inside or change my dog’s behavior?
Although the chances of your pet catching the coronavirus from another animal are low, if you take your dog or cat outside, have your pets follow the same rules as everyone else – keep them away from other people and animals.
If a dog approaches you, there is no need to be scared of getting sick from virus on the dog’s fur. But avoid approaching dogs on leashes – not because of the dog, but because there is usually a human on the other end.
If you become ill with COVID-19, the CDC recommends that you isolate yourself from your pets and have someone else care for them. If that isn’t possible, continue to wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your face.
Also remember: If your pet needs medical care, make sure you inform your veterinarian if you or a household member is ill with COVID-19. That information will allow your veterinarian to take adequate precautions.
The evidence around pets and the coronavirus is changing rapidly and our team is keeping an updated review about how cats, dogs, ferrets, other less common pets and livestock are affected by the new coronavirus. But where the science stands today, there is little to worry about with regards to your cat or dog. In rare cases, they might become infected with the virus, but the chances of them getting sick from the infection or passing it on to you or another animal are extremely low.
