While competing for playoff positioning and advocating for social justice, the basketball players at the NBA campus bubble outside Orlando, Florida, have also been conducting an admittedly exclusive science experiment that could help improve diagnostic testing in the United States. The National Basketball Association, the National Basketball Players Association, and […]
Olivia Messer
18 posts
Between fiery exchanges and partisan monologues, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, testified on Capitol Hill on Friday that he wasn’t told until after a decision was made that hospitals would be directed to bypass his agency, sending COVID-19 data straight to another […]
During a meeting with governors on Monday, the White House Coronavirus Task Force trotted out decreased COVID-19 case counts in Arizona as proof that masks and social distancing work, encouraging other states to impose similar measures as a way to contain and prevent surges. “Masks, closing indoor bars, decreasing indoor […]
When 27-year-old Samantha Shader was first arrested for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at police, she told detectives that the supplies—including glass bottles—were given to her by a group of Black men and women, according to federal court records. But weeks later, on Friday, police arrested a white man who […]
In a call-back to simpler times—before the unprecedented global pandemic and nationwide civil unrest—supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden have co-opted a notorious joke made by President Trump four years ago on the campaign trail. The year was 2016, and there were just two weeks until the Iowa caucuses. […]
Democratic officials angry at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s handling of surging coronavirus numbers in the state this week had one lackluster place to voice their frustrations about the rapidly escalating public health crisis killing their constituents: a Zoom press conference. “While some states followed the advice of public health experts, […]
About an hour after the nation’s top public health officials denied to Congress that President Trump had ordered a slowdown in COVID-19 testing, news broke that the federal government was winding down support for local testing sites in states like Texas that continue to break daily case records. The Trump […]
In a new, massive federal survey of novel coronavirus cases in the United States, a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers an in-depth breakdown by gender, race, ethnicity, and health factors. Among 1,320,488 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases considered by the CDC between January 22 and May 30, […]
For months, New Yorkers saw their hospitals flood with COVID-19 patients and bodies pile up in refrigerated overflow morgue trucks. Meanwhile, other parts of the country never even implemented a statewide lockdown. For those hoping a slew of Southern and rural states might have avoided the worst of the pandemic […]
Twenty minutes after leaving his job at a Brooklyn hospital on Saturday night, 32-year-old Rayne Valentine was lying in the fetal position on the sidewalk. He’d been beaten and kicked by New York police officers, his hospital ID smeared with his own blood, he told The Daily Beast. Valentine, a […]
The word “unprecedented” has been used ad nauseam in recent months, but when public health authorities tried on Sunday to predict the potentially catastrophic effect of nationwide police brutality protests amid a deadly pandemic, it seemed hard to find a suitable alternative. After months of diligent social distancing to curb […]
Alex Kelley would have liked to go to prom. Or senior field day. Or at least a graduation ceremony. But the senior at the Montgomery Academy, a private K-12 school in Alabama’s capital city, began remote learning on Zoom in mid-March along with millions of other students throughout the country. […]
Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in the sprawling college admissions scandal, according to the Department of Justice. The couple was indicted for their alleged scheme to gain their two children admission into the University of Southern California as purported […]
“Just to be clear, we’re not COVID-deniers or anything.” Dustin Evans is nervous right now. But the 31-year-old general manager of Southern Roots Brewing Company in downtown Waco, Texas, is committed to reopening his bar at 25-percent capacity on Friday, even with small children and a pregnant wife at home. […]
As states decide how and when to reopen churches amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, a new federal report analyzing a cluster in Arkansas shows how easily the virus can spread in faith communities—even when they take precautions. The analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) details how […]
One morning two weeks ago, Megan Hunt woke up fearing the worst. The novel coronavirus pandemic was surging in Nebraska, and the 34-year-old midtown Omaha resident was winded, short of breath, sore, and had digestive issues, she told The Daily Beast. She continued to self-isolate, let her 10-year-old daughter help […]
New York City remains under seemingly interminable pandemic lockdown. But as researchers around the globe chase the promise of antibody tests—which have faced criticism for their mixed accuracy and dubious reputation as harbingers of COVID-19-immunity—a new wave of such testing in America’s largest city offered a glimmer of hope. Mayor […]
During a private call on Friday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott admitted that “every scientific and medical report shows” state reopenings “ipso facto” lead to an increase in novel coronavirus cases, even as he publicly announced plans that same week to end an executive stay-at-home order in the state. “How do […]