An informed guide to the global outbreak, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment. |
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Elected officials in the United States are beginning to acknowledge that the rush to reopen was a mistake, as many of the hardest-hit areas in recent weeks have been places that lifted lockdown restrictions fastest. And one factor seems to be playing an outsize role in the uptick: indoor transmission from businesses like bars and restaurants. |
Our colleague Donald G. McNeil Jr., who covers science for The Times, told The Daily podcast that when people talk or laugh, they create an “invisible mist” or a “droplet cloud” of tiny particles that floats around near their head. That fog can hold enough virus to transmit the disease; walking into it is akin to someone “spitting on your face.” |
Indoors, without a breeze, the cloud can drift across a room, like in a bar or at a cocktail party, at more or less head level, he said, to be inhaled by revelers until 20, 30 or 40 people are infected. |
Evidence is also mounting, Donald said, that Covid-19 is more of a blood vessel disease than a respiratory disease. While the virus enters the body through the lungs, it seems to do its damage by attaching to the insides of blood vessels, infecting organs, like the kidneys and the brain, with lots of fine blood vessels. |
“When they do autopsies, they find thousands of tiny little blood clots all over the body,” Donald said. That explains why some patients may experience strokes, dementia and disorientation — and why children and young adults have experienced so-called Covid toe. |
Ancient history meets modern disease. A gene segment inherited from Neanderthals around 60,000 years ago increases the risk of severe illness from the coronavirus, according to a new study. The variant is common in Bangladesh, which may explain why patients of Bangladeshi descent are dying at a higher rate in Britain. |
Partying on while the virus rages |
Florida has quickly become a cradle of infection in the U.S. On the Fourth of July, the state reported a record 11,458 new cases — more than a fifth of the nation’s total tally that day. As hospitals begin to fill up with coronavirus patients, some local officials are pointing the finger at over-the-top house parties. |
In Miami, where nightclubs were closed in March, some homes have turned into all-night venues with bouncers and maskless revelers who flout social-distancing guidelines. Cases among young people have increased, but cracking down on house parties is much harder than, for example, forcing restaurants and bars to scale back or to close. And partygoers have made the job even more challenging for overwhelmed contact tracers in Florida, often refusing to share information about whom they were with. |
Because of the skyrocketing infection rate, the mayor of Miami-Dade County signed an executive order today that would effectively shut down Miami’s social scene. Beginning on Wednesday, residents will be under a curfew and indoor dining at restaurants, gyms, banquet facilities and other entertainment venues will be shut down. |
The inequality of the virus |
The new numbers present the most thorough look yet at the disproportionate toll of the virus across urban, suburban and rural areas. The C.D.C. released the data only after The Times sued the agency to make it public. |
What else we’re following |
- A large-scale study published in The Lancet found that only 5 percent of the population in Spain had developed antibodies to the coronavirus, indicating that herd immunity is still far-off.
- As state bans on evictions end, millions of people are at risk of losing their homes, with unauthorized immigrants being among the most vulnerable.
- The pandemic and economic downturns have exacerbated the exploitation of domestic workers in Arab states, where many have been detained, abused and deprived of wages.
- China has laid the groundwork to dominate the medical supply market for years to come, making it difficult for other countries to set up new factories to cope with the pandemic.
- Some federal workers are heading back to their offices in the Washington area, against the wishes of many leaders in the nation’s capital.
- Harvard University plans to bring back only 40 percent of undergraduates to campus for the fall semester, and most other undergraduates will learn remotely from home.
- As hundreds of food workers contract the coronavirus nationwide, Buzzfeed investigated the human toll behind an average Fourth of July barbecue meal.
- Nick Cordero, a Broadway actor whose wife chronicled his battle with the coronavirus on social media, died on Sunday at 41.
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| My mother is 102 years old and lives at her home with 24/7 care. Social contact is vital to her mental and emotional health. Visitors, including great-grandchildren and friends, do driveway wave-bys while she sits on the front deck. Everyone is elated by the experience, knowing that she was born during an influenza pandemic in 1918 and still thriving through this one. She gives us hope. |
| — Rosemary Tralli, Glastonbury, Conn. |
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