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Stranger Than Fiction
A brief daily note of things you might find interesting or useful
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TOP NEWS
China undercounted coronavirus cases. China admitted it excluded people who were infected with COVID-19 but exhibited no symptoms. Chinese factories, while still not at pre-pandemic levels, are coming back online. Wuhan, the flashpoint of the epidemic, will reopen its airport next week.
Retired doctors are returning to work. In New York, 76,000 health-care workers, many of them retired and at a higher risk of death from COVID-19, had volunteered to help as of Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. Some medical schools are starting to graduate students early in order to meet the demand.
Cases world-wide are now over 800,000, the death toll is nearly 39,000. Total U.S. cases are nearly 160,000, the most of any country and nearly half of U.S. states report over 1,000 infections. The U.S. death toll is over 3,170.
The CDC may reverse an earlier statement about face coverings. In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, the CDC was recommending only those exhibiting symptoms should wear masks, in an attempt to ensure medical personnel had enough to use. They may soon recommend that people wear hand-made cloth masks, but still not endorse all people to wear medical-grade masks.
Oil prices rose following a call between Trump and Putin signaled a potential thaw in tensions between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Brent crude rose as much as 3.5% overnight, to $23.55
THE ELECTION
THE COMMENT
“Celebrities being clueless is nothing new, but it feels as if there has never been such anger levelled at the jet set. Far from being a “great equaliser”, coronavirus has made inequality impossible to ignore. That is not just wealth inequality, but inequality of access to healthcare. A new famous person seems to test positive for coronavirus every day while exhibiting mild symptoms at best. Meanwhile, our friends and family can be coughing up their lungs and still not get access to a test or a hospital bed.” - Arwa Mahdawi
THE STRANGEST
THE AV ROOM