Abbott COVID-19 test — used by White House — could be inaccurate, FDA warns
The Food and Drug Administration issued an alert Thursday warning that a common COVID-19 diagnostic test could be giving inaccurate results.
President Donald Trump recently touted Abbott Labs' ID NOW point-of-care test, which is used by hospitals across the country, as the test used to screen him and those around him.
USNS Mercy to leave Los Angeles, but some personnel will remain
The Navy hospital ship the USNS Mercy will leave Los Angeles on Friday, officials said, although some medical personnel will remain in the area to help amid the coronavirus epidemic, the military said.
The Mercy was one of two Navy hospital ships dispatched to help in the pandemic, which has been linked to more than 86,100 deaths in the country as of Thursday according to an NBC News count. The other ship, the USNS Comfort, was sent to New York City and left there late last month.
The Mercy's mission was not to treat patients suffering from COVID-19, but to handle other patients in order to ease the burden on hospital systems.
Around 60 medical staff from the Mercy will remain in the Los Angeles area to provide care at nursing facilities. The Mercy's home port is in San Diego.
Los Angeles County health officials on Thursday reported 925 newly identified cases of COVID-19 and an additional 51 deaths from the disease. There have been more than 35,300 cases and 1,700 deaths in the county, according to the health department.
TikTok cereal stunt on NYC subway amid pandemic is 'despicable,' transit authority says
A man dumping a large tub of cereal on a subway car for a TikTok stunt was called out by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for putting unnecessary strain on essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
The TikTok account “fckjoshy” posted a video on Tuesday to the account in which the man drops a large storage tub of milk and cereal on the floor of a subway train, presumably as a prank. The video gained 3.2 million views on the app before someone posted the clip to Twitter, where it received another 5 million views.
The MTA condemned the unidentified man’s stunt for the strain it put on essential workers amid the pandemic on Wednesday.
“A new low: Pulling a prank on essential workers in the middle of a global pandemic,” the MTA said on its official Twitter account. “And making essential workers clean up your mess. Despicable.”
CDC issues alert to doctors on rare COVID-19 'mystery illness' in kids
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health alert to physicians Thursday on what has emerged as a rare but potentially deadly condition linked to COVID-19 in children.
The illness, which the CDC calls "multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children," or MIS-C, has been reported in at least 19 states and Washington, D.C. It was previously referred to as pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome.
At least 110 cases have been reported in New York, and three young people — ages 5, 7 and 18 — have died. New Jersey has at least 17 cases, and California has six. Other states, such as Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Washington, have reported small numbers of cases.
Areas with no social distancing see 35 times the amount of coronavirus spread, study finds
Researchers found that social distancing policies can reduce the daily growth of new coronavirus cases by as much as 9 percent, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Health Affairs.
The study, which looked at confirmed cases in the United States between March 1 and April 27, found that the longer the social distancing policy was in effect, the slower the growth rate was of COVID-19, the disease associated with coronavirus. For policies that lasted 16 to 20 days, the rate plunged 9.1 percent.
No social distancing policies could lead to 35 times more cases, the study found.
The policies the researchers studied include bans on large events, shelter-in-place orders and the closure of gyms, bars, restaurants and other businesses.
The researchers, from the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and Georgia State University, found that by April 7, 95 percent of the U.S. had mandated social distancing measures. Most states have begun allowing businesses to reopen, those plans vary widely from state to state.
New York Stock Exchange will reopen on May 26, with temperature checks and masks for traders
The New York Stock Exchange will reopen on May 26, NYSE President Stacey Cunningham announced Thursday, allowing a "subset" of brokers — who will wear face masks — back onto the famed trading floor.
Even the biggest symbol of American capitalism proved in March it was not immune to the disease, switching to all-electronic trading as of March 23 after an employee and a trader tested positive, despite the introduction of social distancing protocols, restricted access, and temperature checks at entry points.
"Our reopening will bring a “new normal” for the NYSE, hopefully helping chart a path that other businesses in densely populated areas might follow," Cunningham said, announcing the news in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal.
No traders or employees will be required to come in, Cunningham said, "but the stream of calls and emails I’ve received suggests it will be hard to keep them away."
Berkeley, California, proposes using streets for outdoor dining
City leaders in Berkeley, California, are exploring the idea of using city streets, medians, parking areas, sidewalks and other public spaces for socially distanced dining.
The idea from Mayor Jesse Arreguín and Vice Mayor Sophie Hahn is scheduled to be considered by the City Council June 2. "This proposal will enable us to reopen an important part of our economy while minimizing the risk of new infections," Arreguín said in a statement.
It would direct the city manager to identify open spaces for dining and consider allowing eateries and business improvement districts to "apply for temporary use of streets," according to the recommendation the council will consider.
Berkeley is home to chef Alice Waters' celebrated restaurant Chez Panisse, which closed March 16 "in the interested of the well-being of our community," according to a statement. The restaurant did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for its reaction to the city's proposal.
Trump admin says long-awaited ethnicity-based coronavirus data expected "in coming weeks"
A Trump administration official tells NBC News it expects to release its long-promised race and ethnicity-based coronavirus data “in coming weeks.”
Last month, Seema Verma — administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) — told reporters the data would be available in “early May.” That was after President Donald Trump promised it would be publicly available in early April.
Public health experts say they desperately need the national data to pinpoint and address the disproportionately higher rates of coronavirus infection and death among communities of color.
As Dr. Stephen Thomas, director of the Maryland Center for Health Equity at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, told NBC News: “If you don’t break down the results by ethnicity, you’re flying color blind. We need to take the color blinds off, and we need to do so in a way that doesn’t stigmatize the very communities we’re talking about.”
Louisiana parents sue to get children out of juvenile detention as coronavirus spreads
I.B. told his mom he didn’t feel well during a phone call April 5.
The 17-year-old incarcerated at the Swanson Center for Youth in Monroe, Louisiana, had a nurse take his temperature during the call; it was over 100 degrees.
The next day, his mother called the Swanson Center several times to find out how her son was doing, but his case worker said she didn’t know and would call back in a week, according to a sworn declaration from I.B.’s mother, filed Thursday as part of a class-action lawsuit seeking the release of incarcerated children in Louisiana amid the spreading coronavirus pandemic.