The coronavirus pandemic has families spending plenty of “quality time” together, but living under the same roof 24 hours a day can tax relationships, an expert in child development says. This is “a completely new and unique situation,” said Murray Krantz, a professor in the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University, in Tallahassee. Luckily, there are ways to reduce the risk of conflict, he noted. First, assess family members for resilience, which is “surprising strength in the face of adversity,” Krantz said, and encourage those people. For example, a person might show leadership by finding ways to make an ordinary recipe taste better, lightening the mood for everyone, or managing their emotions in a way that sets an example for others, he explained. “Don’t insist that it has to be you. You may not be the person who saves the day here,” Krantz said in a university news release. It’s also a good idea to maintain a family schedule for things such as sleeping and eating. Trouble can brew if some people are making noise while others are trying to sleep. “I think everybody should be reasonably expected to get up roughly at the same time, give or take a half-hour or maybe even an hour, but at least we’re all on our circadian rhythms here,” Krantz said. Eating together at least once…  read on >

The U.S. coronavirus death toll could reach 100,000, President Donald Trump predicted Sunday night. That number is far higher than the 60,000 lives lost that was predicted just a few weeks ago, but Trump continued to push states to reopen their economies. In a virtual town hall meeting on Fox News, Trump acknowledged that COVID-19 has proved more deadly than expected, but added that parks and beaches should begin reopening and schools should resume classes in the fall. “We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people,” he said. “That’s a horrible thing. We shouldn’t lose one person over this.” Even as the death toll predictions rose, a new analysis finds inadequate levels of testing for the coronavirus in 60% of states, many of which are reopening after weeks of lockdown. The analysis, conducted by the Associated Press, uses a 2% testing rate per month — a rate advised by federal officials that many public health experts still feel falls short. In a recent White House briefing, officials said each state would receive enough testing materials to test 2.6% of their populations in both May and June. Representatives of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also offered another number — 2% — without explaining the reason for the discrepancy between the two rates. But according to the AP analysis, right now…  read on >

As many states began to reopen their economies on Monday, a new internal report from the Trump administration predicts that will come at a cost: There will be 200,000 new coronavirus cases and 3,000 deaths every day by the end of May. Those projections, based on data collected by various government agencies, are way up from the current levels of 30,000 new cases and 1,750 deaths a day, The New York Times reported. Troubling predictions came from more than one source on Monday: A forecasting model from University of Washington researchers also raised its projections to more than 134,000 American deaths from COVID-19 by early August, the Times reported. That’s a doubling from the 60,000 total deaths that was previously predicted, an increase that the researchers said partly reflects “changes in mobility and social distancing policies,” the Times reported. All of the numbers illustrate a grim fact: Even though the country has essentially been in lockdown for the past seven weeks, the coronavirus prognosis hasn’t really changed. Still, 27 states had loosened at least some social distancing restrictions by Monday, a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis shows, the Times reported. But only 20 of those states meet the reopening criteria from the Trump administration. The remaining seven — Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska and Wyoming — are still showing increases in daily infections and…  read on >

As the U.S. coronavirus case count climbed past 1 million and the death toll neared 60,000, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that forces beleaguered meat processing plants to stay open so the country’s food supply isn’t threatened. The order used the Defense Production Act to classify meat processing as critical infrastructure, to try to keep chicken, pork and other meat flowing to supermarket coolers, the Associated Press reported. More than 20 meatpacking plants have been shuttered under pressure from local authorities and their own workers because of the virus. Others have slowed production as workers have fallen ill or stayed home to avoid getting sick, the wire service said. But unions representing workers in those plants quickly fired back at the order, saying the White House was prioritizing cold cuts over workers’ health, the AP reported. Meanwhile, a troubling study out of China found evidence that the novel coronavirus can spread through air. That had been demonstrated in lab experiments, but now Chinese scientists say they captured tiny droplets containing genetic markers for the virus in real-world conditions, The New York Times reported. “Those [droplets] are going to stay in the air floating around for at least two hours,” said Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech who was not involved with the Chinese study. “It…  read on >

Women under age 65 with coronary artery disease are more likely to die if they live in rural areas of the United States, and premature deaths among them have surged, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed nationwide data on premature deaths from coronary artery disease between 1999 and 2017. While premature deaths decreased overall, they remained consistently higher in rural areas — regardless of sex, race or age group. Roughly 20% of Americans live in rural areas. Deaths have not risen among men overall, but the rate in those 55 to 64 stopped improving in small to medium towns in 2011, and in rural areas in 2008, the study found. In rural areas, death rates due to coronary artery disease rose 11.2% for 55- to 64-year-old women between 2010 and 2017. They also rose 11.4% among 45- to 54-year-old women between 1999 and 2017. The study was published April 22 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. “Women living in rural areas of the United States have for the first time suffered an increase in premature deaths from coronary artery disease. This is in stark contrast to their urban counterparts, who have experienced a virtually uninterrupted reduction in premature coronary artery disease deaths,” said senior author Dr. Federico Moccetti. Moccetti, a former research fellow at Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, is now…  read on >

(HealthDay News) — Lawmakers were poised to pass a $484 billion deal on Thursday that would replenish a small business loan program that has run out of funding and direct more money to hospitals and COVID-19 testing. The Senate has already passed the measure, and the House is now expected to do the same, the Washington Post reported. The legislation would add $310 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, the Post reported. It would also boost a separate small business emergency grant and loan program by $60 billion, and direct $75 billion to hospitals and $25 billion to a new coronavirus testing program. Passage of the stimulus package might take some of the sting out of the latest unemployment numbers, with 4.4 million more Americans being added to jobless roles on Thursday. So far, more than 26 million Americans are out of work due to the coronavirus crisis. Despite the pain that battling the new coronavirus has exacted upon the economy of the United States, a new Associated Press poll finds Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of stay-at-home orders and other efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The survey, released Wednesday by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, also finds a majority of Americans say it won’t be safe to lift those measures anytime soon. Sixty-one percent of Americans said stay-at-home…  read on >

Dozens of drugs are being investigated for their value in treating COVID-19, as desperation drives doctors and researchers to look for something that could battle the virus and save lives. “There are really no FDA-approved medications for the treatment of COVID-19, unfortunately,” said Ashley Barlow, a pharmacy resident with the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. “We’re doing the best we can to try and ramp up studies, but since we’re doing it in such a quick period of time there are a lot of flaws we have to take into consideration.” The COVID-19 drugs being tried and tested fall into two general categories, explained Dr. Rajesh Gandhi, director of HIV clinical services and education at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston: Antivirals aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus inside the bodies of infected people. Immune system medications that limit the damage the body does to itself while fighting off the coronavirus. “There are drugs we believe can help pull people through the natural evolution of this infection and can really make a difference,” Gandhi said. “Right now, the jury is still out on some of these things that have been proposed. That’s why we need to have clinical trials that will provide an answer.” Remdesivir Many of the drugs proposed to treat COVID-19 are already approved for other conditions, and can be…  read on >

(HealthDay News) — The U.S. House passed a $484 billion deal on Thursday that would replenish a small business loan program that has run out of funding. The bill also directs more money to hospitals and COVID-19 testing. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into law on Friday, the Washington Post reported. As of Friday, U.S. coronavirus cases passed 867,000, including almost 45,000 deaths. The legislation passed Thursday would add $310 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, the Post reported. It would also boost a separate small business emergency grant and loan program by $60 billion, and direct $75 billion to hospitals and $25 billion to a new coronavirus testing program. Passage of the stimulus package might take some of the sting out of the latest unemployment numbers, with 4.4 million more Americans added to jobless rolls on Thursday. So far, more than 26 million Americans are out of work due to the coronavirus crisis. Despite the pain that battling the new coronavirus has exacted on the economy of the United States, a new Associated Press poll finds Americans remain overwhelmingly in favor of stay-at-home orders and other efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The survey, released Wednesday by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, also finds a majority of Americans say it won’t be safe to lift…  read on >