centers for disease control – Page 5

Two Cats Are First US Pets To Test Positive For Coronavirus

The first pets in the United States, two cats from New York State, have tested positive for the virus that is causing the worldwide pandemic, the Agriculture Department and the Centers for Disease Control announced Wednesday. The New York Times reports: The cats, from different parts of the state, are showing only mild symptoms and are expected to be fine. Testing…

As Coronavirus Spreads, Poison Hotlines See Rise In Accidents With Cleaning Products

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: A study released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that calls to poison hotlines this year for cases involving cleaners and disinfectants rose significantly compared with the same period over the previous two years, and charts a dramatic spike in March for both categories. Some of…

Stanford Begins America’s First Large-Scale Test For Coronavirus Antibodies

“Crowds flock to Santa Clara County test sites to learn if they have antibodies to COVID-19,” reports the Bay Area Newsgroup, citing long lines of cars forming at three Stanford research sites for the drive-through tests:
The 2,500 test slots on Friday and Saturday filled up within hours, as news of the project — the first large scale study of its type…

The Story of The Doctor Who Ordered America’s First Covid-19 Lockdown

Long-time Slashdot reader bsharma shared the story of doctor/public health officer who “went first,” ordering America’s very first coronavirus lockdown in six counties on March 16th after the identification of only the 7th known case of Covid-19 in the United States. The Bay Area Newsgroup reports that on January 31st, Cody’s cellphone rang at 6:49 a.m. “You’ve got your first positive,”…

C.D.C. Weighs Advising Everyone To Wear a Mask

Widespread use of nonmedical masks could reduce community transmission. But recommending their broad use could also cause a run on the kind of masks that health care workers desperately need. From a report: Should healthy people be wearing masks when they’re outside to protect themselves and others? Both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have…

Social Distancing Is Slowing Not Only COVID-19, But Other Diseases Too

“As governments around the world have pushed their citizens away from populated places to slow the spread of Covid-19, they may not have realized that they were also combatting other infectious diseases, such as the seasonal flu,” reports Quartz. The data comes from Kinsa Health, a company that collects anonymized thermometer readings from its active user base to estimate the share…

Coronavirus Cases Have Dropped Sharply In South Korea. What’s Its Secret?

South Korea “has emerged as a sign of hope and a model to emulate,” reported Nature earlier on Tuesday. “The country of 50 million appears to have greatly slowed its epidemic; it reported only 74 new cases today, down from 909 at its peak on 29 February.”
And it has done so without locking down entire cities or taking some of the…

WSJ: Narrow Testing Guidelines By America’s CDC ‘Hid’ the Growing US Epidemic

The Wall Street Journal reports that as the coronavirus pandemic began, America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “provided restrictive guidance on who should be tested.” They’re basing that on archived pages on the CDC’s own web site. “While agencies in other countries were advising and conducting widespread testing, the CDC, charged with setting the U.S. standard for who should be…

CDC Launches Coronavirus Self-Checker Chatbot With the Help of Microsoft

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has collaborated with Microsoft to introduce the Coronavirus Self-Checker, a tool designed to better help you understand the disease which has caused over 10,000 confirmed cases in the United States and claimed at least 187 lives. From a report: The chatbot is another step Microsoft has taken to educate the public about the viral…