Month: August 2020

“… Biden … lead[s] … in the polls and has been known to fumble his words, so now TV debates are apparently passé. The Commission on Presidential Debates has scheduled three … for … Biden and … Trump …. But it’s becoming a theme in certain quarters—namely, the New York Times —that … Biden should skip out, or that the face-offs should be canceled …. What a terrible year to make this argument. The pandemic has put the usual political rallies on hold … conventions will be largely online. Press aides will shape … news coverage … picking friendly interviewers. … Biden [hypothetically] would take office at … 78 … the oldest President in history …. Trump is all but calling him senile … Biden’s verbal stumbles and memory lapses were obvious in … Democratic primaries. … Biden mistakenly referred to Britain’s leader as Margaret Thatcher, who resigned in 1990 … [H]e boasted of working on the Paris climate deal with Deng Xiaoping, who died in 1997 …. [I]f … [Biden’s] polling lead holds, liberal pressure not to debate will grow. …”

The CDC announced on Friday, July 31, that there was “efficient” spread of Covid-19 coronavirus at a Georgia overnight camp for children that had practiced some, but not all, recommended mitigating strategies. Notably the camp did not require campers to wear masks. …

“Russia said … it has completed clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine …. [Russian] Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said … Moscow-based Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology … completed trials …. [also saying,] ‘We plan wider [vaccination] for October … launch[ing] a new system of treatment gradually,’ Murashko …. [Meanwhile] Anthony Fauci … [told] Congress … he is ‘cautiously optimistic’ … a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine will be available before the end of the year. … [T]he British National Cyber Security Center said Russian computer hackers are targeting COVID-19 vaccine researchers in the United States, Britain and Canada ….'”

“… Even with adequate PPE, the risk of getting COVID-19 was almost 2.4 times greater for those caring for suspected COVID-19 patients … around five times greater for those caring for people with confirmed COVID-19 [] compared with those … not exposed to COVID-19 patients …. After accounting for pre-existing medical conditions, healthcare workers from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds were almost five times more likely to report a positive COVID-19 result than … the public …. White healthcare workers were around 3.5 times more likely to have COVID-19 than the public …. COVID-19 [prevalence] among U.S. healthcare workers — 461 per 100,000 app users — was almost twice that of … British counterparts, at 227 per 100,000 app users ….”