Manufacturing, mining, and delivery firms, among others, are exploring building their own high-speed wireless networks with the new standard.
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Thursday, November 5, 2020
How to Manage Containers Using Podman and Skopeo in RHEL 8
One of the challenges developers faced in the past is getting applications to run reliably across multiple computing environments. Oftentimes, applications didn’t run as expected or encountered errors and failed altogether. And that’s where
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Wednesday, November 4, 2020
BpyTop – Resource Monitoring Tool for Linux
BpyTOP is another Linux command-line utility for resource monitoring among many other utilities like a top, Htop, Bashtop, etc. bashtop users can expect similar features in bpytop since bpytop is ported from bashtop and
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Using machine learning to track the pandemic’s impact on mental health
Dealing with a global pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health of millions of people. A team of MIT and Harvard University researchers has shown that they can measure those effects by analyzing the language that people use to express their anxiety online.
Using machine learning to analyze the text of more than 800,000 Reddit posts, the researchers were able to identify changes in the tone and content of language that people used as the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic progressed, from January to April of 2020. Their analysis revealed several key changes in conversations about mental health, including an overall increase in discussion about anxiety and suicide.
“We found that there were these natural clusters that emerged related to suicidality and loneliness, and the amount of posts in these clusters more than doubled during the pandemic as compared to the same months of the preceding year, which is a grave concern,” says Daniel Low, a graduate student in the Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology at Harvard and MIT and the lead author of the study.
The analysis also revealed varying impacts on people who already suffer from different types of mental illness. The findings could help psychiatrists, or potentially moderators of the Reddit forums that were studied, to better identify and help people whose mental health is suffering, the researchers say.
“When the mental health needs of so many in our society are inadequately met, even at baseline, we wanted to bring attention to the ways that many people are suffering during this time, in order to amplify and inform the allocation of resources to support them,” says Laurie Rumker, a graduate student in the Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics PhD Program at Harvard and one of the authors of the study.
Satrajit Ghosh, a principal research scientist at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, is the senior author of the study, which appears in the Journal of Internet Medical Research. Other authors of the paper include Tanya Talkar, a graduate student in the Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology at Harvard and MIT; John Torous, director of the digital psychiatry division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; and Guillermo Cecchi, a principal research staff member at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center.
A wave of anxiety
The new study grew out of the MIT class 6.897/HST.956 (Machine Learning for Healthcare), in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Low, Rumker, and Talkar, who were all taking the course last spring, had done some previous research on using machine learning to detect mental health disorders based on how people speak and what they say. After the Covid-19 pandemic began, they decided to focus their class project on analyzing Reddit forums devoted to different types of mental illness.
“When Covid hit, we were all curious whether it was affecting certain communities more than others,” Low says. “Reddit gives us the opportunity to look at all these subreddits that are specialized support groups. It’s a really unique opportunity to see how these different communities were affected differently as the wave was happening, in real-time.”
The researchers analyzed posts from 15 subreddit groups devoted to a variety of mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. They also included a handful of groups devoted to topics not specifically related to mental health, such as personal finance, fitness, and parenting.
Using several types of natural language processing algorithms, the researchers measured the frequency of words associated with topics such as anxiety, death, isolation, and substance abuse, and grouped posts together based on similarities in the language used. These approaches allowed the researchers to identify similarities between each group’s posts after the onset of the pandemic, as well as distinctive differences between groups.
The researchers found that while people in most of the support groups began posting about Covid-19 in March, the group devoted to health anxiety started much earlier, in January. However, as the pandemic progressed, the other mental health groups began to closely resemble the health anxiety group, in terms of the language that was most often used. At the same time, the group devoted to personal finance showed the most negative semantic change from January to April 2020, and significantly increased the use of words related to economic stress and negative sentiment.
They also discovered that the mental health groups affected the most negatively early in the pandemic were those related to ADHD and eating disorders. The researchers hypothesize that without their usual social support systems in place, due to lockdowns, people suffering from those disorders found it much more difficult to manage their conditions. In those groups, the researchers found posts about hyperfocusing on the news and relapsing back into anorexia-type behaviors since meals were not being monitored by others due to quarantine.
Using another algorithm, the researchers grouped posts into clusters such as loneliness or substance use, and then tracked how those groups changed as the pandemic progressed. Posts related to suicide more than doubled from pre-pandemic levels, and the groups that became significantly associated with the suicidality cluster during the pandemic were the support groups for borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The researchers also found the introduction of new topics specifically seeking mental health help or social interaction. “The topics within these subreddit support groups were shifting a bit, as people were trying to adapt to a new life and focus on how they can go about getting more help if needed,” Talkar says.
While the authors emphasize that they cannot implicate the pandemic as the sole cause of the observed linguistic changes, they note that there was much more significant change during the period from January to April in 2020 than in the same months in 2019 and 2018, indicating the changes cannot be explained by normal annual trends.
Mental health resources
This type of analysis could help mental health care providers identify segments of the population that are most vulnerable to declines in mental health caused by not only the Covid-19 pandemic but other mental health stressors such as controversial elections or natural disasters, the researchers say.
Additionally, if applied to Reddit or other social media posts in real-time, this analysis could be used to offer users additional resources, such as guidance to a different support group, information on how to find mental health treatment, or the number for a suicide hotline.
“Reddit is a very valuable source of support for a lot of people who are suffering from mental health challenges, many of whom may not have formal access to other kinds of mental health support, so there are implications of this work for ways that support within Reddit could be provided,” Rumker says.
The researchers now plan to apply this approach to study whether posts on Reddit and other social media sites can be used to detect mental health disorders. One current project involves screening posts in a social media site for veterans for suicide risk and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the McGovern Institute.
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Netflix docu-series ‘Trial 4’ tells story of wrongfully convicted Boston man who served 22 years
Sean K. Ellis went to prison for the murder of a Boston police detective in 1993.
Netflix has released the trailer for its upcoming docs-series Trial 4 and the facts of the real-life case are more than troubling.
Read More: Netflix unveils trailer and photos for Shondaland series ‘Bridgerton’
The eight-episode series directed by Rémy Burkel chronicles the life of Sean K. Ellis, a man who spent 22 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
At the age of 19, Ellis was convicted for the murder of Boston Police detective John Mulligan in 1993. He was put on trial three times before being found guilty.
Years later, the police conspiracy that sent Ellis to prison was uncovered, leading to three officers involved in the investigation being convicted on federal extortion charges. It turns out they were guilty of robbing people at gunpoint and falsifying warrants.
Even after Ellis was released in 2015 due to the evidence showing his case was mishandled, he faced a possible fourth trial. The docu-series covers the entire ordeal and includes interviews with Ellis and nearly everyone involved with the shocking true story.
Here’s the official synopsis:
The eight-episode docuseries TRIAL 4 delves into the story of Sean Ellis, a man who served 22 years in prison after being found guilty of killing Boston Police Detective John Mulligan in 1993. Though law enforcement presented evidence linking Ellis to the murder, further investigation revealed corrupt police officers, questionable witnesses and enormous pressure within the department to solve the case. Ellis’s story, while devastating, sheds light on timely issues of systemic racism, police corruption and criminal justice reform while offering hope that, ultimately, people have the power to change the system.
Read More: Netflix prepping ‘My Dad the Bounty Hunter’ from ‘Hair Love’ director
Trial 4 premieres on Netflix on Nov. 11.
Check out the trailer:
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Baltimore to pay $2 million settlement for police hiring discrimination
The DOJ claimed that a written test given to recruits was intentionally biased against Black applicants.
The Baltimore County Police Department has reached a $2 million dollar settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a discrimination lawsuit against Black American applicants.
theGRIO previously reported, the DOJ sued the Baltimore County government last August claiming that a written test given to police recruits was intentionally biased against Black applicants, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The agency believes the ploy worked because Blacks failed the test at a much greater rate than white counterparts, resulting in fewer Black police officers making it into the force. The lawsuit noted that the difference was “statistically significant.”
Read More: Baltimore illegally took partial police settlement from woman, judge says
The suit alleged that applicants were tested on “reading, grammar, logic and other skills’ not related to the job of a Baltimore police officer or cadet, the report states.
The lawsuit accused the Baltimore County Police Department of a “pattern or practice of discrimination” against Black applicants and demanded that the county “make remedial relief to those who suffered discrimination and adopt appropriate nondiscriminatory measures to correct the discrimination.”
Julian Jones, the lone Black person on the Baltimore County Council, said last year that he was “taken aback” by the allegations, telling the Baltimore Sun, “I’m confident that the current administration is going to do any and everything necessary to make sure we’re not discriminating against people.”
Under the settlement, Baltimore County must pay $2 million in back pay to eligible claimants, and make 20 priority hires of individuals who previously failed the written exam.
Read More: DOJ accuses Baltimore County Police of racial discrimination in hiring; files suit
“Our Police Department should look like the communities it serves and, even prior to this lawsuit, I joined Chief Hyatt to begin efforts that increase the diversity of our police force,” Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski said in a news release. “This settlement will help hold Baltimore County accountable as we continue working toward that critical goal — while also helping to further ensure our Police Department can best serve all of Baltimore County’s residents.”
As part of the settlement agreement, Baltimore County must also ditch the allegedly unlawful written examinations.
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McConnell: New virus relief bill will now be top priority
We may have a new stimulus bill before the end of the year.
Americans could have another $1200 stimulus check on the way.
According to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Senate will focus on a new stimulus bill as soon as they return to work on Monday. On Wednesday, he also announced the plan could include local aid, per The Washington Post.
Read More: Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell reelected to 7th term
“It’s a possibility we will do more for state and local governments,” said McConnell. “We need another rescue package. The Senate goes back into session next Monday. Hopefully, the partisan passions that prevented us from doing another rescue package will subside with the election. And I think we need to do it and I think we need to do it before the end of the year.”
The idea of a new relief bill has been on the table for a while now. But McConnell and Senate Republicans have complained about the $2 trillion proposed package, calling it too costly. McConnell did try to push through a smaller bill that was rejected by Democrats because it did not include local and state aid or another stimulus check.
“We need to sit down and talk to each other like we did back in March and April and address the problem, and I’m confident we will no matter who ends up running the government, no matter who’s in the White House, no matter who’s — I think we know the Democrats are going to run the House — no matter who runs the Senate, it’s time to overcome all that and get results,” said McConnell.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have been the main drivers of a new package, spending hours trying to come up with one that both parties could agree on. But according to McConnell, there is another important issue on the agenda in regards to COVID-19.
Read More: McConnell says ‘no concerns’ about health while badly bruised and bandaged
“Until we kill it, so that’s job one. We’ve already allocated an enormous amount of money toward testing, treatment and vaccines. We may need to do more in the next rescue package, because ultimately you got to kill the [virus] before we get back to normal because there’s no other way to get back to normal.”
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Chris Christie slams Trump for baseless election ‘fraud’ claims
Though the former governor of New Jersey is a known Trump ally, even he’s criticizing the president’s latest actions
Possibly outgoing President Trump has drawn criticism throughout his presidency over his words and actions, but now it’s coming from those who have shown support for him in the past. On Tuesday night, Trump declared he won the election despite millions of votes that have yet to be counted. While on the air doing election coverage for ABC News last night, Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey says the president made a “bad strategic decision,” as recounted by People.
Read More: Trump ally Chris Christie tests positive for COVID-19
“There’s just no basis to make that argument tonight. There just isn’t,” Christie said. “All these votes have to be counted that are in now. Tonight, this was not the time to make this argument.”
Christie, who is a Republican, says he was speaking as a former U.S. attorney in regards to Trump’s allegations, though he has worked with the president in the past and was even one of his advisors for the presidential debates.
Host George Stephanopoulos pushed back on Christie’s comments, saying Trump was “preparing the battlefield.”
“I disagree with what he did tonight,” said Christie.“There comes a point where you have to let the process play itself out before you judge it to have been flawed. And I think by prematurely doing things – if there is a flaw in it later, he has undercut his own credibility in calling attention to that flaw.”
Christie, the governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018 endorsed Trump in 2016. He told ABC anchors that considering Trump’s position, his comments were off-base.
Read More: Whoopi takes on Chris Christie on COVID-19: ‘Who are you willing to sacrifice?’
“It’s a bad political decision, and it’s not the kind of decision you would expect someone to make tonight who holds the position he holds.”
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Trump ally Angela Stanton-King loses Georgia House race with less than 15% of the vote
Nikema Williams defeated Angela Stanton-King with almost 85% of the vote for the seat once held by the late Rep. John Lewis
Nikema Williams defeated Angela Stanton-King in a landslide victory in the race for the late Congressman John Lewis’ seat in Georgia.
Williams won the seat with 85.1% of votes to Stanton’s 14.9%, The New York Times reports. The landslide victory was by a margin of 71%. It wasn’t a close contest despite the oversized importance it had after Lewis‘s death in July from pancreatic cancer at the age of 80. The Georgia lawmaker had served in the House of Representatives since 1987.
Democrats chose Williams to run for the 5th Congressional district after Lewis passed. Georgia’s 39th district senator campaigned on a platform of “good trouble,” invoking Lewis’ creed and promising to “protect his legacy.” She vowed to fight for Medicare for All, universal family care, and against rampant voter suppression tactics.
Read More: Cori Bush elected as first Black female congresswoman from Missouri
“I’m committed to fighting for you and I’m committed to bringing your voices with me to the halls of Congress,” she said in a campaign ad she tweeted to supporters last month.
Stanton-King, a staunch Republican and founder of the American King Foundation, blasted the Democrats for what she believed was poor leadership. She pilloried the party for fostering an environment of lawlessness and accused Williams of feeling “entitled” to the seat. Stanton-King’s platform prioritized a pro-life agenda and her support of President Donald Trump.
Both women were less than impressed with the other, resulting in no debates taking place between them. Williams said she wouldn’t agree to one as she believed that Stanton-King was spreading lies on social media.
“I’m not going to give her a platform,” Williams said in October. “I’m not going to legitimize her candidacy.”
Stanton-King blasted Williams for being “afraid to face me.”
Ultimately, voters resonated more with Williams’ message and helped her rout Stanton-King on Election Day.
“WE DID IT! Thank you for your support — I would have never been able to do it without you,” the Georgia state senator tweeted Wednesday.
“This seat does not belong to me, it belongs to the people. And I’m ready to fight #OutLoudAndOnPurpose for the people of #GA5! Now let’s get in some #GoodTrouble y’all!”
Read More: Mauree Turner to be 1st non-binary lawmaker in US, 1st Muslim legislator in Oklahoma
Stanton-King acknowledged her loss but cast blame on the media and possible cheating for her defeat.
“I’m grateful for the love & support shown to me on this campaign Woman running I was in an uphill battle from the start. But even w/ bias media, an opponent refusing to debate, & a water main break in the only room that holds the ballots, the world still knows my name! The fight continues,” she tweeted.
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Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters wins reelection, beats John James
The 61-year-old Peters continued Democrats’ dominance of Senate elections in the battleground presidential state
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democratic Michigan Sen. Gary Peters won reelection Wednesday, defeating Republican challenger John James in a tight race.
The 61-year-old Peters continued Democrats’ dominance of Senate elections in the battleground presidential state. Republicans have won just once there since the 1970s, despite having spent heavily to try to unseat Peters in one of their few pickup opportunities.
Read More: Some Democrats floating Hakeem Jeffries for House Speaker: report
Peters is a former congressman, state lawmaker, lottery commissioner and investment adviser who served in the Navy Reserve. He ran by emphasizing his bipartisan work, his ranking as one of the most effective senators and James’ support for President Donald Trump.
“I am sincerely honored that the voters of Michigan have once again put their trust and confidence in me to represent them in the United States Senate,” Peters said in a statement. “As we look ahead, I am energized to keep working to move our state forward and continue putting Michigan first.”
Earlier in the day, James retweeted his campaign consultant’s claim that he had “won this race” — despite Peters later taking and building his lead — drawing criticism from Democrats. James’ campaign could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
Peters, 61, was one of two incumbent Democrats running for reelection in a state Donald Trump won in 2016 — a presidential battleground no less and a rare place on the Senate map for Republicans to play offense in 2020. James, a 39-year-old Black businessman and Iraq War veteran, was waging a stiff challenge as he aimed to become the first Michigan Republican to win a U.S. Senate seat in a quarter-century.
Peters, a former congressman, state senator, lottery commissioner and investment adviser, emphasized his bipartisanship and ranking as an effective senator, saying more of his bills were into law by Trump than any other Senate Democrat. He also criticized James’ opposition to the federal health care overhaul and noted James backed Trump “2,000%” during his first campaign — a 2018 loss to Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
James, who would become Michigan’s first African American senator, highlighted his leadership of his family’s automotive logistics company in Detroit and his service in combat after graduating from West Point. His campaign gave 5% of donations to charity.
Read More: Trump sues in 3 states, laying ground for contesting outcome
He called Peters a “do-nothing” career politician and questioned his bipartisan credentials, noting he voted against confirming all three of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees.
Republicans have taken just one of Michigan’s last 15 Senate races, in 1994, when Spencer Abraham won an open seat.
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Some Democrats floating Hakeem Jeffries for House Speaker: report
Despite the suggestion, Jeffries says he is fine in his current role.
Some are rallying for House Democratic caucus chairman Hakeem Jeffries of New York to become House Speaker, but he doesn’t even want the job.
Read More: New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries quotes Biggie Smalls in speech during Trump’s impeachment trial
Two moderate House Democrats who are upset about the Democratic losses this election cycle said on Wednesday they are working to get support for Jeffries to challenge Speaker Nancy Pelosi, per The Hill.
“He’s the only one prepared and positioned,” said one of the centrist Democratic lawmakers. “He bridges moderates and progressives better than anyone. And most importantly, he’s not Nancy Pelosi.”
According to his spokesman, despite the ongoing discussion, Jeffries is focused on his current spot and leaning into another important topic.
“As we wait for every vote to be counted in the most pivotal election in our lifetime, keeping the House Democratic Caucus unified on behalf of the American people has never been more important. Representative Jeffries is running to serve a second term as Chairman of the vibrant House Democratic Caucus in the 117th Congress.”
Jeffries was elected to his position in November of 2018. The Brooklyn-bred New Yorker is a graduate of New York University and the fifth highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. He is an advocate for economic and social justice per his website, Jeffries.house.gov.
Many are frustrated with the senior Democratic leadership which is why Pelosi is becoming a target.
Read More: Hakeem Jeffries delivers a lesson in diversity with new senior leadership
“It’s time for Democrats to elevate a new generation of leadership in both the House and the Senate,” said one of the Democrats for Jefferies. “Americans are clearly afraid of ‘socialism,’ want safe streets and neighborhoods and to vote for people who they believe will help put more money in their pockets. While Democratic policies can adequately address those issues, our messaging mechanism clearly cannot.”
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Philadelphia police release bodycam footage of Walter Wallace Jr. shooting
The victim received mental health care at a crisis center three days before he was killed.
The Philadelphia Police Department has released the 911 calls and bodycam footage showing the fatal encounter with 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr..
As theGrio previously reported, law enforcement had responded to three disturbance calls from Wallace Jr.’s home and the last visit on Oct. 26 resulted in him being fatally shot.
He died after two police officers claimed he “advanced” on them with a knife, and they shot Wallace Jr. “several times.” He later died at the hospital.
Read More: Walter Wallace Jr. received mental health care days before shooting
In a press conference on Wednesday, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said police video of the incident “may be intense and traumatic for many people to watch.”
“With this release, the world will see we are engaging in an open process, a process that acknowledges the harm our actions have caused,” he added. “We will learn from our failings and we will do better.”
The officers involved in the shooting have been identified as Sean Matarazzo, 25, who has worked for the department since 2018, and Thomas Munz, 26, who joined the force in 2017, per Buzzfeed News.
Wallace Jr. received mental health care at a crisis center three days before he was killed by Philadelphia police.
An earlier report on theGRIO noted that he regularly used the outpatient services at the West Philadelphia Consortium, a mental health crisis response center, and had recently resumed treatment, according to executive director John White, per Inquirer.com.
“His mother told me that when he came home Friday and she asked him how it went, he told her that he was doing much better and that we had gotten him ready to start looking for a job,” said White of Wallace Jr.’s last visit to the center.
But for whatever reason, Wallace became triggered and began to spiral out of control on that fateful night. Family members called 911 requesting medical assistance for him, but instead, police showed up.
White believes if the family or the police had called a crisis team from the center to the scene, Wallace Jr. might still be alive.
Read More: Walter Wallace Jr.’s family does not want officers charged, lawyer says
The bodycam footage supports previously released cellphone videos showing Wallace exiting the house holding a knife. The officers demand that he drop the weapon before one cop yells “shoot him.” Several shots are fired and Wallace collapses.
“The ambulance never made it,” said attorney Shaka Johnson at a press conference shortly after his death. “[Officers] didn’t have the training and the tools to do the job effectively and, as such, a man was murdered.”
Release of the bodycam footage reportedly marks the first time the Philadelphia Police Department has publicly made available video of a police shooting.
“What you will not see…and mark my words on this, you will not see a man with a knife lunging at police,” Johnson said of the video.
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US sets record for cases amid election battle over virus
The surging cases and hospitalizations reflect the challenge that either President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden will face in the coming months over the pandemic
The United States set another record for daily confirmed coronavirus cases as states around the country posted all-time highs, underscoring the vexing issue that confronts the winner of the presidential race.
The surging cases and hospitalizations reflect the challenge that either President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden will face in the coming months over the pandemic, with winter and the holidays approaching.
Public health experts fear potentially dire consequences, at least in the short term.
Read More: North Dakota candidate who died from COVID-19 wins election
Trump’s current term doesn’t end until Jan. 20. In the 86 days until then, 100,000 more Americans will likely die from the virus if the nation doesn’t shift course, said Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, echoing estimates from other public health experts.
Daily new confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. have surged 45% over the past two weeks, to a record 7-day average of 86,352, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Deaths are also on the rise, up 15 percent to an average of 846 deaths every day. The total U.S. death toll is already more than 232,000, and total confirmed U.S. cases have surpassed 9 million. Those are the highest totals in the world, and new infections are increasing in nearly every state.
Several states on Wednesday reported grim numbers that are fueling the national trends. Texas reported 9,048 new cases and 126 deaths, and the number of coronavirus patients in Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma hospitals also set records. About a third of the new cases in Texas happened in hard-hit El Paso, where a top health officials said hospitals are at a “breaking point.”
“Where we are is in an extremely dire place as a country. Every metric that we have is trending in the wrong direction. This is a virus that will continue to escalate at an accelerated speed and that is not going to stop on its own,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a public health expert at George Washington University.
Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the American Medical Association, said there are things Americans can do now to help change the trajectory.
“Regardless of the outcome of the election, everyone in America needs to buckle down,″ Bailey said.
“A lot of us have gotten kind of relaxed about physically distancing, not washing our hands quite as often as we used to, maybe not wearing our masks quite as faithfully. We all need to realize that things are escalating and we’ve got to be more careful than ever,” she said.
Polls showed the public health crisis and the economy were top concerns for many Americans.
They are competing issues that Trump and Biden view through drastically different lenses.
Trump has ignored the advice of his top health advisors, who have issued increasingly urgent warnings in recent days about the need for preventive measures, instead holding rallies where face coverings were rare and falsely suggesting that the pandemic is waning.
By contrast, Biden has rarely been seen in public without a mask and made public health a key issue. Whether his voice will carry much influence if Trump is declared the winner is uncertain.
“President Trump has already made clear what his strategy is for COVID-19, which is to pretend that there is not a contagious virus all around us,” Wen said. Trump has been touting treatments and vaccines, which won’t be widely available to all Americans until at least mid-2021, she noted.
“There’s a lot of suffering that is going to happen before then, which could have been prevented,” Wen said.
Federal health officials have said they believe a vaccine could get emergency use authorization before the end of the year. The first limited supplies of doses would then be immediately distributed to the most vulnerable populations, which is likely to include frontline health care workers. Doses would then gradually become more widely available.
The timeline hinges on having a vaccine that’s shown to be safe and effective, which experts note is not yet a certainty. “The vaccine has to move at the speed of science,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice at Johns Hopkins University and former Maryland state health department chief.
On the treatment front, the makers of two experimental antibody drugs have asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow emergency use of them for people with mild to moderate COVID-19, and Trump, who received one when he was sickened last month, has said he wanted them available right away.
So far, the FDA has granted full approval to only one drug — the antiviral remdesivir — for hospitalized patients. Dexamethasone or similar steroids are recommended for certain severely ill patients under federal treatment guidelines.
The government continues to sponsor many studies testing other treatments alone and in combination with remdesivir.
But the development of treatments could be affected if Trump makes good on threats to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease doctor, or other top health officials Trump has clashed with.
Most Americans support mandating mask-wearing in public and think preventing the virus from spreading is a higher priority than protecting the economy, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of over 133,000 voters and nonvoters conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
While several European countries have imposed or proposed new lockdowns and other restrictions to control surging cases, Trump has resisted those approaches and has focused on rebuilding the economy.
Absent a national pandemic strategy, curbing virus spread in the U.S. will depend on more Americans taking necessary precautions and the upcoming holiday season will make that a challenge, said Dr. Cedric Dark, an emergency physician in Houston.
Read More: Karl-Anthony Towns speaks on ‘toughest year of my life’ following mom’s death from COVID-19
“It’s going to be Thanksgiving, winter break for college students, Christmas time and Hannukah,” but families may have to resist close get-togethers this year, he said. Outbreaks on college campuses mean many students may be bringing the virus home and spreading it to parents and grandparents, he said.
Dark, who hasn’t seen his parents in over a year, has had to adjust his own holiday plans. This year, Thanksgiving will be in his parents’ garage, with the door up, chairs at least 6 feet apart, and a space heater if needed.
“We can at least see each other, from a distance,” Dark said.
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Detroit pastor says Black people have gone from ‘picking cotton to picking presidents’
A viral clip from Detroit clergyman Dr. Steven Bland illustrates the power of the Black vote
While the fate of the nation hangs in the balance as the presidency of the United States has yet to be definitively decided, protesters in Detroit tried to stop votes from being counted.
They stormed the TCF Center in Detroit to try to challenge the votes that as of this evening had swung Michigan to Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
Read More: Trump sues in 3 states, laying ground for contesting outcome
According to the Detroit Free Press, Republican protesters were stopped at the doors as they sought to gain entry at the arena now being used to count votes in the already contested presidential election. Both Democrats and Republicans were denied entry as officials said the venue was over capacity. There were also representatives from the Michigan ACLU, the League of Women Voters, and non-partisan challengers, all of whom are allowed to challenge votes. Michigan election law allows for 134 challenges per organization.
At issue were 25,000 uncounted ballots as of 6 p.m., mostly from Detroiters who are expected to vote Democratic and thus pulling closer to a Biden victory.
That the blue-collar, predominantly Black inner city was likely the area that could help ensure Biden’s arrival in the Oval Office was not lost on Rev. Steve Bland, the senior pastor of Detroit’s Liberty Baptist Church. He was interviewed outside of the venue and what he said immediately went viral.
Read More: If Trump were to be reelected, that’s on white people
“We are in the process of getting all the votes counted,” he told an MSNBC reporter on Wednesday. “The road of victory of any side is going to come through Michigan and through Detroit. And to stop the votes is to stop the very democracy that these persons are running to elect to uphold. So we want every vote to count because our vote is our voice and it will be counted, and the election process will be done.”
He continued: “Things are secure on the inside, but of course we have intimidating efforts on the outside but we’re not deterred. As goes Detroit will go Michigan. And Michigan will join the force of others to be able to say we are voting. And if you want to have record turnout and if you want to represent Michigan and Detroit you ought to want every vote counted.”
The interviewer then asked Bland, “Who do you think these people are?”
He answered: “These are persons who are passionate and they are consistent. They’ve been saying all along they’re going to suggest that’s its rigged, it’s flawed or fake, they’ve been saying that before now. We just need to be persistent, to make sure our voice gets counted because as goes Detroit, will be done so. And I will say, the Black vote in Detroit is higher than it’s ever been, and we will determine the outcome because we’ve gone from picking cotton to picking presidents.”
Read More: Cori Bush elected as first Black female congresswoman from Missouri
The pastor was part of a group of “poll chaplains” whose presence was to ensure and encourage voters and to help make sure the votes were counted.
As it turned out, Bland was correct as the inner city and close suburbs near Detroit helped carry the state, according to numbers reported by the New York Times. Wayne County, which includes metro Detroit and the close suburbs of Oakland County, combined for almost 2 million largely Democratic votes despite a slew of counties voting Republican in the state.
Despite any protests, as it stands now, the state of Michigan has gone to Biden, swinging the state back to blue after President Donald Trump‘s victory there in 2016. It’s one of three states, with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, that Biden declared as part of the “blue wall” that would take him to the presidency.
Biden is now inching closer to a victory by winning two of three with the outcome in Pennsylvania still unclear as they complete their count of mail-in ballots. However, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania were still in play as of Wednesday night and could still provide a victory, most likely for Biden, though Trump is already challenging counts in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia.
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