Coronavirus updates: Dr. Anthony Fauci says to ‘hunker down’ for the rest of the year; $300B relief bill fails in Senate; 191K US deaths

The Senate failed to advance a slimmed-down coronavirus relief bill Thursday that senators on both sides had acknowledged was unlikely to muster the votes to pass the chamber.

The bill was defeated in a 52-47 vote, and one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted with Democrats in opposing the bill.

The estimated $300 billion proposal, dubbed the Delivering Immediate Relief to America’s Families, Schools and Small Businesses Act, included bolstered unemployment benefits, funding for schools and liability protections for businesses and health care facilities. Its failure leaves little chance a stimulus bill will pass Congress before the November election.

Meanwhile, universities across the country also continue to contend with COVID-19 challenges. The University of Wyoming on Wednesday extended its fall return for the second time in a week, while the University of Wisconsin-Madison shifted to online education for two weeks.

Some significant developments:

California reached a bleak milestone, becoming the first state in the nation to reach 750,000 coronavirus cases. Los Angeles County claims a third of those cases, becoming the first county to surpass 250,000 cases.
More than 857,000 Americans filed first-time applications for unemployment insurance last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.
The race for a coronavirus vaccine to help end the pandemic has consumed the scientific community and created an escalating demand for an essential resource: monkeys.
Navajo Nation health officials on Wednesday reported zero deaths for the second time in three days. No deaths were reported on Monday for the first time since March.
President Donald Trump said he was publicly downplaying the coronavirus pandemic to not “create a panic,” according to an interview with veteran journalist Bob Woodward.
The U.S. government is halting its enhanced entry screening for certain international passengers at airports starting Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order mandating a face covering be worn at all times by athletes when they cannot maintain six feet of social distance.

Dr. Anthony Fauci: ‘We need to hunker down’ for the rest of the year

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, offered a word of warning to Americans as summer’s end approaches.

Speaking at a virtual panel with doctors from Harvard Medical School, per NBC News, Fauci said that the fight against the coronavirus pandemic will only get more strenuous as the year reaches its close. He also cautioned against downplaying the severity of the virus, knowing “what’s ahead” if preventative measures are not met.

“We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter, because it’s not going to be easy,” he said, adding that we cannot “look at the rosy side of things.”

Vice President Mike Pence heard early warning about seriousness of COVID

Vice President Mike Pence was at the January meeting at which President Donald Trump was warned about the severity of the novel coronavirus, he told Fox News Thursday.

“I was in the Oval Office the day that the team came in and briefed the president about what we perceived was happening in China,” Pence said, when asked if he had received the same briefing Trump had from National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien. “The team came in and laid the facts as we knew them on the table to the president.”

The Jan. 28 briefing included a “jarring” warning that the virus would be the “biggest national security threat” of Trump’s presidency, according to a new book written by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward.

– Maureen Groppe

Missouri chancellor blocks students tweeting about lack of COVID protections

University of Missouri students reported that they were blocked by the school’s chancellor on Twitter this week after complaining about the lack of COVID-19 precautions on campus.

After an attorney threatened a lawsuit, Chancellor Mun Choi unblocked students, according to local outlets and Twitter.

In a letter sent to Choi, Texas lawyer and Mizzou graduate Christopher Bennett said the university’s top official had violated the First Amendment by blocking students from seeing or interacting with his tweets and could face legal action in the U.S. District Court if he didn’t unblock every student on Twitter.

– Elinor Aspegren

New York City transit riders will face $50 fine for refusing mask

Riders who refuse to wear a mask while riding New York City’s public-transit system will face a $50 fine starting Monday. The fine applies to anyone riding New York City subway trains, buses or the Metro North and Long Island Rail Road commuter lines.

MTA President and CEO Patrick Foye announced the fine Thursday on a conference call with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Sarah Feinberg, interim president of the NYC Transit Authority, who said it is meant to bolster compliance with the state’s mask mandate. Under Cuomo’s executive order, all riders are required to wear a mask while riding public transit as a way to limit the spread of COVID-19.

– Jon Campbell, New York State Team

Time running for airline workers as they look to October layoffs

The days are quickly counting down for thousands of pilots, flight attendants, gate agents and other airline workers who face the prospect of being laid off at the end of the month if Congress doesn’t come through with a new stimulus agreement.

Why the urgency? The Department of Transportation barred airlines that accepted stimulus money from laying off employees until at least Oct. 1, when $25 billion in payroll support protection money from the CARES Act expires.

On Thursday, the Senate failed to pass a slimmed-down GOP coronavirus relief package that didn’t allocate any aid for the airline industry. That leaves open the chance that airline funds could be included in a compromise measure with the House.

– Chris Woodyard

15% of cats in study test positive for COVID-19 antibodies

Nearly 15% of cats included in a Wuhan-based study tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, providing further evidence that the virus can infect the animals.

Researchers in Wuhan sampled 102 cats from shelters, pet hospitals and COVID-19 patient households from January to March and found that 15 tested positive for antibodies, including four abandoned cats, four cats from pet hospitals and three cats with patient owners, according to the study published this month in the journal Emerging Microbes & Infections.

None of the cats showed symptoms or had an active infection. The three cats owned by COVID-19 patients who tested positive for antibodies had the highest level of neutralizing antibodies – or ability to successfully block the infection. Two of those cats had detectable antibodies for 110 days.

Researchers said that while there is no evidence of transmission from cats to humans, humans can transmit the virus to cats, and cats may transmit the virus to other cats via respiratory droplets.

Scotland joins England on social gathering limit of 6 people

Scotland has joined England in limiting social gatherings to six people after a recent spike in coronavirus cases.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told Scottish lawmakers the new regulations will start Monday, along with England, and apply to gatherings in and out of the home.

Scotland’s restriction is perhaps more onerous as it applies to a maximum of two households. In England, six individuals from six different households can meet.

FDA officials pledge to not rush COVID-19 vaccine amid political pressure

Senior members of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have joined a growing list of government officials, drug makers and public health experts who pledge they won’t compromise safety in the race for a coronavirus vaccine.

In a letter published Thursday in USA TODAY, eight top FDA officials and doctors affirmed the agency’s commitment that all “decisions will continue to be guided by the best science” and maintain independence from political forces.

The letter comes as the agency in recent weeks has faced criticism for approving convalescent plasma therapy for emergency use as a COVID-19 treatment based on flawed analysis.

– Adrianna Rodriguez

Another 857,000 workers file for unemployment as layoffs persist

Although the nation is partially recovering from its steepest-ever recession amid the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses continue to lay off hundreds of thousands of workers as they grapple with fewer sales and depleted federal aid.

More than 857,000 Americans filed first-time applications for unemployment insurance – a rough measure of layoffs – last week, up about 20,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Over 55 million workers have filed for benefits over the past six months. While the weekly figures have trended down since peaking at 6.2 million in early spring, here’s some perspective: The previous all-time high for weekly claims on a non-seasonally adjusted basis was about 1 million during a recession in 1982.