Coronavirus Update: The New England Journal of Medicine Calls on Americans

Breaking with a nearly 200-year tradition of being apolitical, The New England Journal of Medicine, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, criticized U.S. politicians for their handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Editors of the journal called for Americans to vote out leaders who have mishandled the pandemic.

“When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent,” the editors wrote. “We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs.”

MORE ON THE PANDEMIC

An investigation by USA Today found that the coronavirus outbreak at the White House may have exposed hundreds, possibly thousands, of people across the country.

From a religious summit outside Atlanta to a campaign rally at a Pennsylvania airport and a private fundraiser in Minnesota, Trump and various political allies attended events with thousands of people, often failing to follow safety protocols like mask wearing and social distancing.

More than 120 people had physical contact or spent extended time in closed spaces with Trump and his aides during that week, the USA TODAY investigation found.

There is no government-led effort in place to determine how many people outside the official White House staff were exposed to the virus or to contact them.

In a signal of a slowly recovering economy, another 840,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, down from 849,000 in the previous week. [READ MORE]

About 11 million Americans filed for benefits for at least two weeks in a row.

On Wednesday, U.S. coronavirus cases exceeded 7.5 million. Thirty-nine states are seeing a rise in cases and nine states set seven-day records for infections.

Data from Johns Hopkins University through late Tuesday shows Alaska, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming all set state records in the seven-day period. Deaths were higher in 25 of the states.

According to a White House official, Crede Bailey, the top White House security official, is very ill with Covid-19 and has been in the hospital since September.

Bailey, who works closely with the Secret Service, leads the office in charge of granting credentials to people for access to the White House.

According to Bloomberg, Bailey became infected before the September 26 Rose Garden event, where Trump announced his Supreme Court pick.

Trump credits an experimental drug cocktail with aiding in his recovery from coronavirus and suggested his diagnosis could be a “blessing in disguise” for the U.S.’s fight against the pandemic.

In a video posted earlier this week, he promised to quickly get the drugs approved for use and made available for free. On Thursday, the company of the experimental drug cocktail, Regeneron, filed for emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use of the antibody treatment.

Trump also continued to downplay the threat of the virus, promising those who are ill that they will “get better fast just like I did.” More than 200,000 Americans have died from the disease so far.

Health and Human Services announced that all U.S. hospitals must begin reporting flu data to the federal government or face losing federal funding.

Currently, hospitals report positive and suspected cases of coronavirus, fatalities and admissions on a daily and weekly basis and will now be required to report the same numbers for the flu.

U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton has ruled that the IRS can’t continue withholding coronavirus relief payments from incarcerated people, allowing for at least 80,000 checks totaling more than $100 million to be sent to people behind bars nationwide.

The ruling gives the IRS until Oct. 24 to reconsider the payments for those who were denied or had their money intercepted solely because of their incarceration.

The NFL is investigating “several specific incidents” related to the Tennessee Titans’ COVID-19 outbreak, suggesting the team broke protocols put into place to stop the spread of the virus.

On Monday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell warned all 32 teams that breaking league protocols could lead to teams forfeiting games and possibly losing draft picks.

The Titans had two more players test positive Wednesday.

New England Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore, the 2019 Defensive Player of the Year, announced on social media he had tested positive and is asymptomatic. The team’s quarterback Cam Newton also tested positive this past weekend, as well as a defensive tackle from the practice squad on Tuesday.