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[Misc] (HL-20200322~20200328) Weekly Headlines Review
최고관리자  |  20-03-20 23:42
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!!! Coronavirus Update !!!

(1) $10 toilet paper? Coronavirus gouging complaints surge in US

One store advertised hand sanitizer at $60 a bottle. Another was accused of hawking it at $1 a squirt. Chain stores offered $26 thermometers and face masks at the “everyday low price” of $39.95 a pair, while a convenience store touted toilet paper at $10 a roll next to a sign reading: “This is not a joke.” Across a country where lines are long, some shelves are empty and patience is thin, authorities are receiving a surge of reports about merchants trying to cash in on the coronavirus crisis with outrageous prices, phony cures and other scams. An Associated Press survey of attorneys general or consumer protection agencies nationwide found reports already exceeded 5,000, with hundreds more arriving daily. “Greed is a powerful motivator for some people,” said Josh Stein, the attorney general of North Carolina, where the number of reports jumped from 72 to 131 one day earlier this week. “It is inexcusable to prey on people in a vulnerable time to make a quick buck.” AP’s 50-state survey is the most comprehensive look so far at the emerging problem. In all, 41 states responded with numbers that included both tips and formally filed complaints against mom-and-pop stores and big-box retailers alike. AP’s count is certainly low also because it only includes cases in which someone went online or called to register a grievance. Many others went to the court of social media to vent their outrage.

(2) South Korea took rapid, intrusive measures against Covid-19 – and they worked

South Koreans are famously nonchalant about North Korean nuclear weapons. Bewilderingly to the rest of us, they “keep calm and carry on” whenever Pyongyang threatens to turn Seoul into a “sea of fire”. The South Korean approach to Covid-19 could not have been more different. On 16 January, the South Korean biotech executive Chun Jong-yoon grasped the reality unfolding in China and directed his lab to work to stem the virus’s inevitable spread; within days, his team developed detection kits now in high demand around the world. Meanwhile, the South Korean government assumed the virus would hit. Experience with the 2003 Sars epidemic proved useful: existing governmental units in the ministries of health, welfare and foreign affairs, regional municipalities and the president’s office were mobilised. As a result, South Korea has been effective in controlling the nation’s mortality rate not through travel bans but instead through widespread rigorous quarantine measures and testing, now even exporting domestically produced test kits – such as the 51,000 diagnostic products sent this week to the United Arab Emirates.

(3) Republican senator urged to resign after report he sold stocks before Covid-19 market plunge

Republican senator Richard Burr faced demands to resign on Friday after it was reported that he sold off millions of dollars worth of stocks just before the market dropped amid fears of the coronavirus pandemic. Burr, of North Carolina, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, denied he had kept the public in the dark about the scale of the threat as three other senators also came under scrutiny for selling major holdings in the same period. Burr and his wife sold between around $628,000 and $1.7m in more than 30 separate transactions in late January and mid-February, ProPublica and the Center for Responsive Politics reported. Several of the stocks were in companies that own hotels. It was reported that most of the sales took place on 13 February. Two weeks later on 27 February Burr made a speech in Washington in which he predicted dire consequences from the coronavirus, including school closures and cutbacks in company travel.

(4) Can a face mask protect me from coronavirus? Covid-19 myths busted

Claim: ‘Face masks don’t work’
Wearing a face mask is certainly not an iron-clad guarantee that you won’t get sick – viruses can also transmit through the eyes and tiny viral particles, known as aerosols, can penetrate masks. However, masks are effective at capturing droplets, which is a main transmission route of coronavirus, and some studies have estimated a roughly fivefold protection versus no barrier alone (although others have found lower levels of effectiveness). If you are likely to be in close contact with someone infected, a mask cuts the chance of the disease being passed on. If you’re showing symptoms of coronavirus, or have been diagnosed, wearing a mask can also protect others. So masks are crucial for health and social care workers looking after patients and are also recommended for family members who need to care for someone who is ill – ideally both the patient and carer should have a mask. However, masks will probably make little difference if you’re just walking around town or taking a bus so there is no need to bulk-buy a huge supply.

(5) Will the Tokyo Olympics open?

The Olympic flame has arrived in Japan from Greece. Next comes the torch relay around the country, which is scheduled to start Thursday in northern Japan. Organizers have asked crowds to be restrained, but have been imprecise about what that means. Greek officials last week stopped a relay on the second day and it did not resume because of crowd size. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Japanese organizers and IOC President Thomas Bach say that the games will open July 24 at the $1.43 billion national stadium in central Tokyo. Bach has insisted it’s too early to announce a final decision, saying he’s taking advice from a task force that includes the World Health Organization. But now there’s pushback, mostly from athletes and former Olympians who are complaining: They can’t train, qualifying events have been canceled and the chaos is sure to favor some over others. Then there’s the question of bringing 11,000 athletes and staff together in the Olympic Village, and 4,400 Paralympians a month later.

(6) 1st fed inmate tests positive for coronavirus

An inmate at a federal jail in New York City has tested positive for coronavirus, marking the first confirmed case in the federal prison system. The inmate, who is housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, complained of chest pains on Thursday, a few days after he arrived at the facility, the federal Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press. He was taken to a local hospital and was tested for COVID-19, officials said. The inmate was discharged from the hospital on Friday and returned to the jail, where he was immediately placed in isolation, the agency said. The Bureau of Prisons learned Saturday that he had tested positive for COVID-19. The confirmation of the first coronavirus case in the BOP system comes as jails and prisons across the country are taking precautions to slow the spread of coronavirus. Health officials have been warning for more than a decade about the dangers of outbreaks in jails and prisons, which are ideal environments for viruses: Inmates share small cells with total strangers, use toilets just a few feet from their beds, and are herded into day rooms where they spend hours at a time together.

(7) US students are being asked to work remotely. But 22% of homes don't have internet

What has followed has been a rash of thousands of school closures across the nation, district by district, state by state, university by university. More than half of the country’s students have been sent home to prevent the spread of disease and instructed to continue their education via video chats and message boards. But what about the students who don’t have broadband at home? If this had happened while I was still a student at Northshore, I would have been one of the lucky ones. My family always had broadband at home, and enough computer devices for me and my brother to do our homework while our mother teleworked downstairs. But nationwide, approximately 22% of households don’t have home internet, including more than 4m households with school-age children. Poor families and people of color are particularly affected – only 56% of households making less than $20,000 have home broadband, and black and Hispanic households lag behind their white counterparts even when we control for income differences. Even among students who theoretically have access, not all access is equal. According to census research, 8% of households who have internet rely exclusively on mobile broadband. Once again, low-income people and communities of color are disproportionately more likely to be mobile-only broadband adopters.

(8) Telegram Nth room suspect to stand in 'photo line'

The primary suspect of the so-called Nth room case, who allegedly operated an illegal content ring focused on humiliation and torture of women including underage victims on the Telegram messenger app, will be shown to the public in a press photo line, Wednesday, according to the police Tuesday. This will be the first time for law enforcement authorities to disclose the face of a sex offender. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, a committee consisting of three internal members and four outside members, including lawmakers, university professors, and psychiatrists, decided to disclose the identity of the suspect, Cho Ju-bin, 25, considering his malicious methods of producing and distributing sexually explicit and disturbingly abusive video content of women and minors. "The committee made the decision after reviewing fully the reasons for limiting disclosure of his identity, including the human rights of the suspect and secondary damage to the suspect's family and neighbors," the police said.

(9) How long does coronavirus survive on different surfaces?

Q: Does the cruise ship report imply that viruses survive up to 17 days on surfaces?
Dr Julia Marcus: A CDC investigation of the cruise ship found evidence of viral RNA in cabins that hadn’t yet been cleaned. But to be clear, that just means the virus was detectable – not that it was viable or that contact with those services would have been able to infect someone. (Editor’s note: RNA, or ribonucleic acid, carries the virus’s genetic information.)

Q: Have I already had coronavirus? How would I know and what should I do?
Dr Akiko Iwasaki: It just means that there are parts of the virus that still remain. The virus needs many other components to be intact. If you have bits and pieces of RNA, that’s not going to make a virus, you need an entire intact genome. Just because you had a little piece of RNA doesn’t mean that there’s an infection.

Q: How long can the virus survive on surfaces?
Marcus: The New England Journal of Medicine just published a study that tested how long the virus can remain stable on different kinds of surfaces within a controlled laboratory setting. They found that it was still detectable on copper for up to four hours, on cardboard for up to 24 hours, and on plastic and steel for up to 72 hours. But it’s important to note that the amount of virus decreased rapidly over time on each of those surfaces. And so the risk of infection from touching them would probably decrease over time as well.

Q: Could you become infected from just a single particle of Covid-19?
Iwasaki: There’s a certain amount of viral particle that you need to be exposed to become infected. If you just had one viral particle on your finger, it’s unlikely that you’re going to be infected. Some viruses are very potent, you only need like 10 particles to get infected, while others you [may] need millions. The fewer viral particles you’re exposed to, the less likely you’re going to get infected. That’s why the amount of virus on a surface is important.

Q: How many people are being contaminated via surfaces as opposed to airborne particles or direct contact with an infected person?

Marcus: As far as we know right now, people are much more likely to be infected by close contact with an infected person than by touching a contaminated surface. That said, it’s still important to be conscious of what we’re touching, especially high-touch surfaces, and be careful about cleaning our hands after touching things. For example, public transit or grocery stores and places where there tend to be a lot of people.

Iwasaki: The virus is pretty stable on [materials] like plastic and steel – they can persist for a few days. So it’s very possible that someone who’s sick will deposit the virus onto the surface and then somebody else will touch it and touch their face.