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Gov. Janet Mills has continued to lift lockdown measures that have slowed the pandemic in Maine even though the state has failed to meet key reopening prerequisites and other essential benchmarks and guidelines established by public health experts. The missed targets include downward trends in new cases, minimum levels of daily tests performed, and the establishment of a regime to routinely test asymptomatic individuals in exposed roles such as health care providers, supermarket clerks, ambulance crews and factory employees. “If we are really going to bring our society back to normal and have a major reopening, we need to be...

The White House official in charge of coordinating the administration’s efforts to corral medical equipment in the fight against the coronavirus on Sunday blasted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for dropping the ball on early testing. “Early on in this virus, the CDC, which really had the most trusted brand around the world in this space, really let the country down with the testing because not only did they keep the testing within the bureaucracy, they had a bad test. And that did set us back,” Peter Navarro, the coordinator for the Defense Production Act, said Sunday on...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) halted a coronavirus testing program promoted by billionaire Bill Gates and Seattle health officials pending reviews. The program sought to send test kits to the homes of people both healthy and sick to try to bring the country to the level of testing officials say is necessary before states can begin safely reopening. The program, which had already gone through thousands of tests, found dozens of cases that had been previously undiagnosed. The Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network (SCAN) said on its website that the FDA had asked it to pause testing while it receives...

Abbott Laboratories is rolling out a new test that can tell whether people have had the novel coronavirus. The test detects antibodies that your body creates to fight off the virus, and Abbott said it'll be able to ship almost 1 million of the tests this week, according to a company announcement. They'll be shipped to laboratories across the country and used with Abbott equipment many of them already possess, according to the company. The machines can run 100-200 tests per hour. Abbott said it plans to be able to produce 4 million tests in April and 20 million in...

Antibody testing not available to the general public.

  James S. Brady Press Briefing Room   2:17 P.M. EDT  MS. MCENANY:  Hello, everyone.  I want to highlight three critical aspects of President Trump’s response to the coronavirus that have exceeded the media’s expectations and should inspire confidence in every American across this country.  Rest assured the Trump administration is working tirelessly to defeat the invisible enemy.First, contrary to some media pronouncements, the United States did not need the 1 million ventilators thus far that the media said we were in dire need of.  In fact, it’s encouraging to be able to say that every single American who has...

Rose Garden   4:15 P.M. EDT  THE PRESIDENT:  We’re here today to provide an update on the unprecedented testing capacity developed by the United States — the most advanced and robust testing system anywhere in the world, by far.  This afternoon, I’ll also announce new steps that we’re taking to make tests even more widely available.To battle a virus, my administration marshaled every resource at our nation’s disposal: public, private, military, economic, scientific, and industrial — all at your disposal.  We launched the largest manufacturing ramp-up since the Second World War.  There’s been nothing like it since.At the center...

116th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6666 To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to eligible entities to conduct diagnostic testing for COVID–19, and related activities such as contact tracing, through mobile health units and, as necessary, at individuals’ residences, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 1, 2020 Mr. Rush (for himself, Ms. Barragán, Ms. Bass, Mr. Beyer, Mr. Brown of Maryland, Mr. Butterfield, Mr. Cárdenas, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Correa, Mr. Cuellar, Ms. DeGette, Mrs. Demings, Mr. Gonzalez of Texas, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Hastings, Mrs. Hayes, Mr....

Last month, South Korean scientists made a very disturbing discovery. About 15 percent of patients who had recovered from the coronavirus was testing positive again. The same worrying phenomenon was discovered in China as well. The implications were disheartening. It meant that a large percentage of people may never become immune from the coronavirus, making an effective vaccine very difficult to create.But South Korean scientists kept investigating and have now found that it’s likely what the testing of coronavirus patients was detecting were “non-infectious” pieces of the virus that were causing the tests to register positive.South Korea uses a very...

Democrats have introduced a bill that would grant the government and other “entities” the authority to enter your home to conduct coronavirus testing, and even to remove Americans from their homes. House Resolution 6666, introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) last week, would authorize the “Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to eligible entities to conduct diagnostic testing for COVID–19, and related activities such as contact tracing, through mobile health units and, as necessary, at individuals’ residences, and for other purposes.” In other words, the government or other “eligible entities” will be authorized to conduct testing in...

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room 4:32 P.M. EDT MS. MCENANY: Good afternoon, everyone. I’d like to direct your attention to a very encouraging graph regarding test results. It’ll be over my shoulder and hopefully on the screen for those of you watching on television. As this chart shows, the United States has, to date, completed 7.5 million coronavirus tests. It’s an extraordinary number. And, as you can see, the United States leads the world in testing. This graph is no accident. In fact, this graph is a testament to American innovation, including the work of the Trump administration. For...

Many governments and academics around the world are calling for widespread or even universal testing for SARS-CoV-2, "the coronavirus."   Before endorsing, it's worthwhile becoming familiar with the clever stratagem of eighteenth-century Presbyterian minister Thomas Bayes.   It wouldn't be the first time his calculations will have come in handy: Alan Turing used Bayesian probabilities to help crack the Nazi Enigma Code. Reverend Bayes died without knowing the value his statistical speculation would bring to the world — but people, examining posthumous notebooks, realized he'd discovered a fascinating trick of statistics.   Simply put, he calculated that the likelihood of an outcome's...

The idea is as simple as it is apparently repulsive: allow human challenge trials (HCTs) under which “low risk” and healthy young adult volunteers in double-blind studies would be given trial vaccines (or a placebo) and then intentionally exposed to the novel coronavirus. This would accelerate the assessment of the trial vaccine’s safety and efficacy and more generally expand our understanding of this virus in a controlled setting. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 70 vaccines are currently under development, five of which are already moving to clinical trials. Notwithstanding these Herculean efforts, the earliest we can...

One of the less helpful aspects of our current quandary is the shrill argument between two closed-minded camps. One condemns those who wish to open up the economy as science-defying ghouls who care nothing for human life. The other depicts the stay-at-homes as economic saboteurs willing to destroy the national economy in the name of unobtainable safety. Neither reckons with the indispensable bridge -- the testing problem. Whatever mayors, governors, or presidents might say, we cannot restart the economy as long as people are too frightened to resume working, shopping, and socializing. An NPR/Marist poll found that 65 percent of...

The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic’s effects have been felt. The world economy has ground to a halt, 26 million Americans are unemployed, and the economy contracted by nearly 5 percent in the first quarter of 2020. Stay-at-home orders were issued to curb the spread and prevent hospitals from being overrun. The good news is that the curve has flattened, even in New York City, ground zero for the US-based outbreak. For most of the country, they can start looking to roadmaps to re-opening, which should occur as soon and as safely as possible. There will be setbacks, however, since we still...

During the questioning a Yahoo reporter asked President Trump why the US is lagging behind other countries in testing for the coronavirus. Dr. Birx told the reporter that the US testing is similar to the European countries who are suffering from the ongoing pandemic.Then later in the presser Dr. Birx interrupted the president to correct the Yahoo reporter.This was BRUTAL! Dr. Birx: To the Yahoo reporter I just want to make clear that South Korea’s testing was 11 per 100,000 and we’re at 17 per 100,000.That’s when President Trump jumped in: Are you going to apologize, Yahoo? That’s why you’re...

"In May, we are going to be doing more testing in this country," Admiral Brett Giroir promised at Monday's coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden. States with the least amount of testing will double the overall amount per capita that South Korea has done in four months, he said. That includes 20 million swabs scattered among the states. ABC's Jonathan Karl asked the task force about a promise they made on March 13 that the government would be drastically increasing drive up testing sites. By his count, he said, only 69 of those test sites had been set...

The next battleground in the fight to stop the coronavirus could be your living room. Starting today, health experts will visit randomly selected homes in Fulton and DeKalb counties to conduct antibody surveys. It’s a partnership with the Georgia Department of Public Health and Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The agencies will have teams visit randomly selected homes starting Tuesday through May 4. People will be asked to answer questions and provide a blood sample for antibodies tests. Only homes that are selected can participate and the survey and samples are strictly voluntary. “We encourage everyone who is...

SAFELY OPENING UP AMERICA AGAIN: President Donald J. Trump and his Administration are taking steps to ensure States have the testing system required to reopen our Nation. President Trump is releasing his Administration’s blueprint for State testing plans and rapid response programs. This follows the release of President Trump’s Opening Up America Again guidelines on April 16, 2020. The blueprint describes the roles and responsibilities, as well as core objectives, for the robust State testing plans and rapid response programs needed by States to safely reopen.To meet the country’s testing needs, the blueprint describes a partnership between Federal, State,...

FDA regulations block usage of a feature in Apple Watches that would help millions of users monitor their blood-oxygen levels. [Many Samsung cell phones have this capability, which is important for COVID-19.] Millions of Americans own an Apple Watch, which commands roughly a 50 percent share of the smartwatch market. Among its many features, the Apple Watch can take your pulse. It also contains hardware to measure your blood-oxygen levels, and it has been doing so since the watch was released—but the hardware is not operable by the watch’s wearer, who thus cannot obtain the results. Under current FDA regulation,...