Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday addressed an interim report on the Michigan COVID-19 Task Force on Racial Disparities, but would not provide a direct answer to the question of whether she would extend the three-week pause on economic activity in the state.
More than two weeks after imposing a second lockdown of Michigan’s indoor dining facilities, theaters and bowling alleys, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services-imposed pause is due to expire next week.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discouraged Americans from Christmas travel due to the coronavirus pandemic during a telephone press conference Wednesday.
“We did put out a message to postpone and stay at home […] around Thanksgiving and we’re putting out the same message: The best thing for Americans to do in the upcoming holiday season is to stay at home and not travel,” Dr. Henry Walke, director of the Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections (DPEI) in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said in the briefing.
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A pilot program to collect DNA samples from individuals in Customs and Border Protection custody will be fully implemented on Dec. 31, officials announced Thursday.
The pilot program began in January of this year and was given three years to meet the legal requirements to implement national collection, according to CBP. The program was expanded in monthly phases and is on track to reach nationwide operation capacity by the end of this year.
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On February 18, the Oxford Mail published an article headlined “Scientists working on a coronavirus vaccine in Oxford.”
The article explained that Sarah Gilbert, a British vaccinologist and professor at the University of Oxford, was leading a team of scientists at Oxford’s Jenner Institute in rapid development of a vaccine.
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The U.S. economy added 245,000 jobs in November, far below economists’ expectations, while unemployment fell to 6.7%, according to Department of Labor data released Friday.
Total non-farm payroll employment rose by 245,000 in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, and the number of unemployed persons fell by 400,000 to 10.7 million. The U.S. added 638,000 jobs in October while the unemployment rate dropped to 6.9%.
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Many families took one look at their school district’s remote or hybrid learning offerings this fall and said “no, thank you.” That’s the message gleaned from national and state-specific data on the surging number of homeschooled students this academic year.
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Though some students have found learning at home relieves them of school’s social stresses, many others miss their teachers, classmates, and the routine of the school day. Some of the little ones have become more defiant and have reverted to bed-wetting, while many older students suffer from depression.
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The Centers for Disease Control is set to issue new guidelines shortening the advised quarantine for people exposed to COVID-19, according to multiple administration officials.
The new guidelines call for those exposed to the virus to quarantine for 10 days, down from the original 14-day recommendation. The officials added that people exposed can end their quarantine after one week if they test negative for the virus, according to Politico.
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As 2020 winds down, roughly 23 percent of households in the U.S. are struggling with food insecurity, a number that has doubled since last year.
Experts project over 50 million Americans will be food insecure in 2020, including roughly 17 million children, Craig Gundersen, a Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics professor at the University of Illinois, says.
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With nine session days left in 2020, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asked the Republican-led Legislature to pass a $100 million COVID-19 stimulus package as well as several other pieces of legislation.
“This is the most urgent public health emergency our state has faced in our lifetimes, and it demands our full, immediate, and unified attention,” Whitmer wrote in a letter.
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Pharmaceutical company Moderna announced Monday that it will submit its coronavirus vaccine to the federal government for emergency use authorization approval.
Moderna said it would ask the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval after its large-scale human trial concluded and showed the company’s vaccine to have an overall efficacy of 94.1%, according to NBC News. The vaccine was found to be 100% effective in preventing severe cases of coronavirus, according to Moderna.
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The group of medical and public health experts that develops recommendations for vaccine use for the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) will meet Tuesday.
CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) posted a notice for a meeting scheduled for Dec. 1 without any details, but officials confirmed Friday that COVID-19 vaccination would be on the agenda.
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Last week, Johns Hopkins University published a now-deleted article explaining a study examining the effects of the novel coronavirus on United States death totals using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Like much of the rest of the country, Michigan is witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases and a proportional increase in unemployment as drastic shut-down measures are taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Michigan experienced a 64.46% increase in new unemployment claims last week. According to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Labor, there was an increase of 15,843 initial claims filed between the weeks ending Nov. 14 (16,656) and Nov. 21 (32,499).
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An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.
Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.
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The owner of a restaurant in Sandusky, Michigan, says it is being “forced to terminate” its contract with the Big Boy franchise over its decision to stay open despite pandemic restrictions.
A recent order from the state of Michigan has closed indoor restaurant dining in the state from November 18 to December 8. It also closed in-person learning for college and high schools, movie theaters, bowling alleys and arcades. The order additionally cancels group fitness classes and organized sports.
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America could reach herd immunity by May of next year if a majority of citizens are vaccinated, a prominent health expert told CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday.
Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for President Donald Trump’s immunization program Operation Warp Speed, told Tapper on his show “State of the Union” that if 70% of the populace receives a coronavirus vaccine, the U.S. could reach herd immunity by May 2021.
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Disney is preparing to lay off 32,000 employees as the coronavirus pandemic continues to keep visitors away from theme parks.
Most of those layoffs would come from Disney’s parks, experiences and products division, according to a report Disney filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday. The company announced in September that it would lay off 28,000 layoffs, but those pertained largely to part-time employees.
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Death rates from the coronavirus are falling in the United States showing that treatments for the coronavirus are advancing, infectious-disease experts told the Wall Street Journal.
Data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (IHME) shows that the virus is only killing about 0.6% of those infected, the WSJ reported. This death rate has improved since April when the COVID death rate was at about 0.9%, the publication reported.
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Former Vice-President Joe Biden on Thursday said he would not implement a nationwide shutdown as part of his effort to combat the coronavirus.
“I’m not going to shut down the economy, period. I’m going to shut down the virus,” Biden said at a news conference in Wilmington, Delaware. “I’ll say it again. No national shutdown.”
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As officials in many areas impose new pandemic lockdowns and restrictions going into the holiday season, things can seem bleak. Depression rates are up, people are fleeing cities in droves, elected leaders regularly violate their own orders, and fraud is rampant in the government’s COVID-19 stimulus programs.
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Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be awarded the International Emmy Founder’s Award for his coronavirus daily briefings, a Friday press release said.
Cuomo will get the award “in recognition of his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic and his masterful use of television to inform and calm people around the world,” an International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences press release said. Cuomo will receive the award during the live awards show Monday morning.
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President Donald Trump and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a new drug payment model Friday that will significantly lower the cost of Medicare Part B drugs, in a move the president said was a threat to “Big Pharma.”
Beginning in early January, the Most Favored Nation Model will test an innovative way for Medicare to no longer pay high-cost, physician-administered Medicare Part B drugs than the lowest price charged in similar countries.
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said school “is one of the safest places” for children and data supports in-person learning.
Redfield stressed the importance of adhering to data during a White House press briefing Thursday. The CDC director also said “data-driven decisions” are what should lead discussions regarding “institutions or what we’re doing for commercial closures.”
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U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney on Friday denied a request for a temporary restraining order to block Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Robert Gordon’s orders that is shuttering indoor dining service for three weeks.
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An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.
Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.
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Six weeks after it was first published, the Great Barrington Declaration — an international pronouncement meant to shine light on what it calls the “damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies” — has garnered nearly 700,000 signatures from scientists, academics, doctors and citizens worldwide, with more signatories being added each day as a fresh spate of lockdowns continues across Europe and parts of the United States.
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16.4 million jobs have been recovered since April when labor markets bottomed amid the state-led Covid pandemic economic shutdowns, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But with Covid cases once again on the upswing as the cold and flu season kicks into higher gear — about 166,000 confirmed new cases daily, and then the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reports 255,000 probable new cases daily when projected asymptomatic cases are factored in — states appear ready to go right back into shutdown mode.
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At some point, when the election chaos is finally settled, Congress will likely turn to passing another COVID-19 stimulus/relief bill. (Despite the last one being plagued by rampant fraud and dysfunction). One starting point for negotiations will be the “HEROES Act,” a $2.2 trillion bill the House passed in October on a party-line vote by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats.
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Pfizer said Wednesday that new test results show its coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective, is safe and also protects older people most at risk of dying — the last data needed to seek emergency use of limited shot supplies as the catastrophic outbreak worsens across the globe.
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More Americans said that they would receive a coronavirus vaccine when available than they did a month ago, according to a new Gallup poll released Tuesday.
Fifty-eight percent of Americans indicated their willingness to take a vaccine in the poll, which surveyed Americans in late October. That number is up eight percent from Gallup’s previous September poll.
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More than 300,000 residents have fled New York City over the past eight months because of rising crime rates, school stress and the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from the New York Post.
Data obtained by The Post from the U.S. Postal Service under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, revealed residents filed 295,103 change of address requests from March 1 through Oct. 31.
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Most states aren’t adequately prepared to distribute the leading coronavirus vaccine, especially to rural areas, once it is approved for public use, according to a ProPublica analysis of state plans.
Pfizer announced Monday that the coronavirus vaccine it is developing was more than 90% effective and did not produce safety concerns during its large-scale trial. But, as the vaccine approached Food and Drug Administration approval, a ProPublica investigation found that states aren’t ready to administer the delivery of the vaccine to vast swaths of their populations.
“Early, when we don’t have lots of doses, I frankly do not anticipate that vaccine will be widely available in every rural community,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s V
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Walt Disney Co. reported fiscal fourth-quarter loss on Thursday thanks largely to changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its earnings were dragged by costs from restructuring related to its streaming services and lost revenue from its California theme parks, which remain closed amid surging coronavirus cases in the U.S.
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The governors of California, Oregon and Washington issued travel advisories Friday urging people entering or returning to their states to self-quarantine to slow the spread of the coronavirus as infections spike across the U.S.
The advisories stopped short of stricter rules imposed by other governors and instead said people should avoid non-essential out-of-state travel and quarantine for 14 days after arriving from another state or country.
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In April, several education groups, including two national teachers’ unions, urged Congressional leaders to allocate more than $200 billion to education in addition to the CARES Act and federal relief through which Congress had just allocated nearly $31 billion in March.
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An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.
Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer urgently stressed the need for social distancing, masking up and frequent hand washing during a news conference held Thursday afternoon,.
Once again, Whitmer assailed the state’s legislators for not codifying the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ mask mandates by passing a bipartisan law.
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The state’s largest school district will temporarily shift to online-only learning starting Monday through Jan. 11 because of a rising COVID-19 infection rate in Detroit.
Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) on Thursday announced the temporary suspension of all face to face in-school instruction after Friday.
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Republicans controlling the Senate unveiled a government-wide, $1.4 trillion spending bill on Tuesday, a largely bipartisan measure that faces uncertain odds during this period of post-election tumult in Washington.
The GOP-drafted measure contains funding for President Donald Trump’s border wall and other provisions opposed by Democrats, but top leaders in both parties want to try to mount a drive to enact the unfinished spending bills — which, along with a separate COVID-19 relief effort and annual defense policy bill, represent the bulk of Capitol Hill’s unfinished business for the year.
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Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson tested positive for the coronavirus Monday, becoming the latest member of the Trump administration to contract it.
Carson received his positive test at Walter Reed Hospital Monday morning and has since left, ABC News reported.
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Luxury fashion boutiques, jewelry shops and most of Milan’s flagship department stores were shuttered Friday, as the center of Italy’s vibrant financial capital fell into a gray quiet on the first day of a partial lockdown in four regions aimed at stopping the coronavirus’s resurgence.
The new restrictions — which led to closures of a patchwork of nonessential businesses — allow a great deal more freedom than Italy’s near-total 10-week lockdown that started in March, but nonetheless brought recriminations from regional governments that feel unfairly targeted. In particular, the south, which was largely spared in the spring, chafed the most, despite concerns that its weaker health care system was especially vulnerable.
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The U.S. economy added 638,000 jobs in October, while unemployment fell to 6.9%, according to Department of Labor data released Friday.
Total non-farm payroll employment rose by 638,000 in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, and the number of unemployed persons fell by 1.5 million to 11.1 million. The U.S. added 661,000 jobs in September while the unemployment rate dropped to 7.9%.
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Fact-checkers have ruled a viral video “partly false” after it alleged that Governor Gretchen Whitmer sent health officials to bar poll challengers. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) was present during ballot counting at TCF Center on Wednesday.
It is reported that Whitmer sent MDHHS because the 40,000 square foot building was at capacity for COVID-19 restrictions. In the video, the woman stood alone on the second floor of the building. On camera, MDHHS officials were removing and barring entry to poll challengers.
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An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.
Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.
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Right on schedule, the panic pornsters are shrieking in unison that COVID-19 cases in the United States are on the rise. Virtually overnight, dozens of stories have appeared in the press, on the internet, or broadcast on the nightly news about the renewed danger.
Not surprisingly, the New York Times was one of the first out of the gate, warning us that “The U.S. Just Recorded Its Worst Week Yet for Coronavirus Cases: Cases, hospitalizations and deaths across much of the country are the highest they have been during the pandemic.”
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An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.
Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.
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American aerospace giant Boeing announced a fresh round of job cuts during its earnings call on Wednesday morning as coronavirus cases continued to surge worldwide.
Boeing said it would cut 7,000 jobs by the end of 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal. The job cut, the latest in a series of coronavirus-related cuts, would take the company to 130,000 employees after starting 2020 with 160,000.
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The U.S. economy blew the barn doors off all other past recoveries with a record, inflation-adjusted 33.1 percent gain in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — more than any other quarter in economic history — in the last major economic report before the election in November.
That is great news for the American people, and it certainly bodes well for President Donald Trump in his bid for reelection against former Vice President Joe Biden as the race for 2020 comes down to the wire. It comes as more than 14 million jobs have been recovered since labor markets bottomed in April amid the Covid state-led lockdowns, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Wednesday morning on ABC’s The View, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a factually misleading explanation for the thousands of people who died with Covid-19 in NY nursing homes.
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