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Wimbledon has reportedly paid $2 million a year for 17 years to be protected by something called pandemic insurance. So with the COVID-19 crisis hitting the world, the annual major tennis tournament has been canceled altogether, rather than postponed like many other major sporting events around the globe. Wimbledon's insurance policy for canceling its tournament is worth a cool $141 million in American dollars, according to a tweet from Darren Rovell, a sports business reporter with Action Network who has covered the story since Wimbledon announced its cancellation. Last week, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) mentioned the policy...

MUSC Health, an eight-hospital system based in Charleston, S.C., is laying off about 900 employees and reducing pay for salaried workers to help offset financial damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many other health systems across the U.S., MUSC Health is facing financial pressure from canceling elective procedures and other nonemergent care. As a result, the health system has experienced a significant decline in surgical volumes, inpatient visits and ambulatory encounters.

A Louisiana preacher insists on still holding services despite his state being a coronavirus hotspot and orders aimed at curbing the deadly outbreak because his congregants are ready to die for their faith. The Rev. Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle Church in Central City already faces six misdemeanor charges after he held Palm Sunday services last weekend that attracted hundreds to his church, including many who came in 26 packed buses. Spell was unapologetic when asked in an interview if he thought he would have blood on his hands if one of his congregants becomes infected and dies. 'Like any...

Before we explore the plot twists that lie ahead on the path to the November election, let’s settle one thing: Bernie Sanders had zero chance of securing the nomination. Voters were not going to loft him to some amazing comeback in the remaining primaries. That left only the prospect of the Democrat party power structure somehow rigging the process in his favor. That too carried zero plausibility, because say what you will about the DNC hierarchy, they had the clarity to know Donald Trump would have beaten Sanders in a landslide. As Sanders exits, the instant glib hot take is...

Democrats sense that people are open to stimulus spending, so they are taking advantage and proposing things they would never suggest under normal circumstances. The latest laughable proposal from Senator Amy Klobuchar and other Democrats, is a stimulus bill for their friends in the media. The Hill reports: Democratic senators call for funding for local media in coronavirus stimulus More than a dozen senators are calling for any future stimulus package addressing the economic fallout from the novel coronavirus to include funding for local journalism, saying that communities across the U.S. are at risk of losing their source of news...

Meghan and Harry have been mocked online after failing to register a website for their new Archewell charitable foundation which has instead been snapped up by cyber-squatters. Fans who type in www.archewellfoundation.com are unwittingly diverted to a YouTube video of Kanye West's 2005 Gold Digger hit featuring Jamie Foxx. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they are launching a new charitable foundation named Archewell earlier this week but apparently failed to register the likely domain name. A number of eagle-eyed social media users spotted the embarrassing blunder, with one writing on Twitter: 'Uh oh. As of 7 April, if...

On this date in 1868, on the eve of his rout at the hands of a British expeditionary force, the frustrated Emperor Tewodros II had hundreds of prisoners executed en masse. Our setting is the 1868 British Expedition to Abyssinia, “one of the most expensive affairs of honour in history.” And it all got started from a bad experience with technical support. Tewodros — generally known to the Europeans as Theodore — had risen from a humble station to the throne of Abyssinia, but by the 1860s held it but tenuously against various rival warlords. Tewodros lodged appeals for aid...

The true scale of a viral pneumonia outbreak in China is likely far bigger than officially reported, scientists have said, as countries ramp up measures to prevent the disease from spreading. Fears that the virus will spread are growing ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, when hundreds of millions of Chinese move around the country and visit extended family members living overseas. Authorities in China have said two people have died and at least 45 have been infected, with the outbreak centered around a seafood market in Wuhan, a central city of 11 million inhabitants that serves as a...

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Abstract Although several clinical trials are now underway to test possible therapies, the worldwide response to the COVID-19 outbreak has been largely limited to monitoring/containment. We report here that Ivermectin, an FDA-approved anti-parasitic previously shown to have broad-spectrum anti-viral activity in vitro, is an inhibitor of the causative virus (SARS-CoV-2), with a single addition to Vero-hSLAM cells 2 hours post infection with SARS-CoV-2 able to effect ∼5000-fold reduction in viral RNA at 48 h. Ivermectin therefore warrants further investigation for possible benefits in humans. Ivermectin is an FDA-approved broad spectrum anti-parasitic agent1 that in recent years we, along with other...

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday suspended his presidential campaign and acknowledged that “Vice President Biden will be the nominee.” But the populist firebrand from Vermont made it crystal clear that his name will remain on the Democratic primary ballot going forward. “I will stay on the ballot in all remaining states and continue to gather delegates,” the senator said while announcing the end of his presidential bid. “We must continue working to assemble as many delegates as possible at the Democratic convention where we will be able to exert significant influence over the party platform and other functions.” Sanders has...

Remember the heady days of six weeks ago when the earnest wailing of liberal sissies about some imagined thoughtcrime drew respectful attention? Well, it never did from us, because we always knew these people we idiots deserving only of mockery, but some people – nice, friendly people who could not imagine the malignancy in the hearts of these fascists dipwads – took them seriously and actually cared. And then a disease came along that is impoverishing the people it isn’t killing. It’s time to put away childish things, folks, and America seems to be doing that. Well, at least the...

President Trump's latest executive order may have some ready to brush off their "drill, baby, drill" memorabilia. On Monday, the president signed an executive order that encourages the United States to harvest minerals from the moon, Mars, and any other celestial bodies. The order allows both government and private companies to use resources gathered in space while directing the State Department to garner international support for the practice. This order shows the U.S. promoting a different path than the 18 nations who signed the 1979 Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, an international...

Several countries in Europe have announced plans to reopen at least parts of their economy and society. Sweden remains open and has kept its borders open as well as its preschools, grade schools, bars, restaurants, parks, and shops. Norway is planning to open kindergarten next week. The Danish Prime Minister announced that she expects to open day care and schools up to 5th grade on April 15th. And Austria is planning to lift its coronavirus lockdown while requiring citizens to wear face masks.

On Tuesday, the IHME estimated about 82,000 people will die from coronavirus disease by August. On Wednesday, that estimate was lowered to 60,415. ...Dr. Deborah Birx said at a White House news conference that models are based on what Americans are doing. “What has been so remarkable...Birx said, “is how important behavioral change is, and how amazing Americans are at adapting to and following through on these behavioral changes.” “That’s what’s changing the rate of new cases, and that’s what will change the rate of mortality going forward,” she said. [...] And the actual number of deaths could be higher...

My mother is a public school elementary teacher in a low-income neighborhood of Salinas, California, a modest suburban town fueled by the agriculture industry. Of all the schools nationwide, I would have expected her school to be one of the last to transition from the classroom to distance learning during the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Almost 85% of her students come from low-income households, and many are the children of migrant workers. Yet, to my pleasant surprise, my mother’s school has been online for two weeks now, only days after California’s statewide shelter-in-place order came into effect. Not only that, she...

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Mounds of harvested zucchini and yellow squash ripened and then rotted in the hot Florida sun. Juicy tomatoes were left to wither — unpicked — in farmers' fields. Thousands of acres of fruits and vegetables grown in Florida are being plowed over or left to rot because farmers can’t sell to restaurants, theme parks or schools nationwide that have closed because of the coronavirus.

This terrifying animation shows how coronavirus particles from a single cough can hang in the air "several minutes" and spread across two aisles of a supermarket. Scientists created a computer simulation to study how far the virus can travel indoors - and worryingly found how a cloud of droplets will infect others even after the sick person has walked away. “Extremely small particles of this size do not sink on the floor, but instead, move along in the air currents or remain floating in the same place."

President Trump said Tuesday that he did not learn of two memos written in January and February by his own economic adviser warning that a COVID-19 pandemic could kill as many as 2 million Americans until “maybe a day ago.” “I heard he wrote some memos talking about pandemic,” Trump said during a White House coronavirus task force briefing, “I didn’t see them. I didn’t look for them, either.” On Jan. 29, Peter Navarro warned his colleagues at the White House that if the administration did not mount an aggressive containment strategy for the coronavirus, it could kill more than...