The author says he's been writing daily while isolating to avoid Covid-19, raising fans' hopes that he might complete *Winds of Winter*.
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Thursday, March 19, 2020
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Stop & Shop Supermarket To Set Aside Early Morning Hours For Elderly
Stop & Shop supermarkets have become the first chain in the U.S. to set aside specific hours for the elderly and those most vulnerable during the coronavirus outbreak.
According to Forbes, beginning Thursday, the chain will only allow customers ages 60 or older into its stores between 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. before any other customers and when the stores are at their cleanest. The supermarket chain added the move will help with social distancing.
“Now, more than ever, it’s important we come together as a community to support each other during challenging times,” Stop & Shop president Gordon Reid in a statement on Monday. “Part of that is showing compassion and care for some of our neighbors who are most vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus. According to the CDC, that is members of the population who are age 60 and older.”
Stop and Shop owns and operates more than 400 supermarkets in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey. The chain said these hours will be available every day and every supermarket will have a designated entrance for these times. Stores will not be requiring identification to enter, but said employees reserve the right to ask customers to leave if they are not a member of this age group.
Other national supermarket chains in the US including Walmart, Trader Joe’s, and Publix have had their hours cut or have been closed entirely due to the outbreak. The cuts in hours and store closures have led to an explosion of online orders. As a result, some retailers are looking to add employees.
On Monday, Amazon said it’s seeking to hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery employees to help meet increased online demand. Ordering online will only grow during the outbreak. Internet service providers Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon have all pledged not to cut internet service even if customers cannot pay their bills due to factors of coronavirus.
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Idris Elba slams conspiracy that COVID-19 doesn’t infect Black people
A day after revealing he tested positive for CORVID-19, Idris Elba has taken to Twitter to slam the theory that Black people can’t contract the coronavirus.
In a 2-part video update about his health status, the 47-year-old British actor asked fans to stop spreading the myth that Black folk are immune to the potentially deadly CORVID-19.
— Idris Elba (@idriselba) March 17, 2020
READ MORE: Idris Elba tests positive for coronavirus: ‘I have no symptoms‘
“Something that’s sort of scaring me when I read the comments and see some of the reactions is… My people, Black people, Black people: Please, please understand that coronavirus… you can get it, all right?” He said in a video. “There are so many stupid, ridiculous conspiracy theories about Black people not being able to get it. That’s dumb, stupid.”
Elba, who married Sabrina Dhowre last year, shared his positive test results on social media with a video on Monday.
“This morning I tested positive for Covid 19,” he wrote. “I feel ok, I have no symptoms so far but have been isolated since I found out about my possible exposure to the virus.”
In his latest update, Elba explained to concerned fans that his wife decided to self-isolate with him as she awaits her test results.
— Idris Elba (@idriselba) March 17, 2020
“Just for clarification, Sabrina wanted to be by my side,” he said. “As much as we talked about her not coming to where I am, she did. She wanted to. I love her even more for it and I would do the same thing for her.”
He also warned that “the quickest way to get more Black people killed” is by spreading disinformation about the virus.
“Wherever we are, please understand that you can get it. Stop sending out these stupid What’s App messages about Black people not getting it,” he said. “You’re making us all look stupid. Just know you have to be as vigilant as every other race. This disease does not discriminate …as a Black person who has contracted the virus, it needs to be said.”
READ MORE: Idris Elba’s coronavirus message praised by World Health Org as ‘brave and powerful’
As TheGrio previously reported… last week, Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, revealed they had been diagnosed in Australia and several NBA players have tested positive so far; including Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, and Kevin Durant.
TV and film productions have been shut down across the industry and several highly-anticipated films have pushed backed release dates for projects.
The post Idris Elba slams conspiracy that COVID-19 doesn’t infect Black people appeared first on TheGrio.
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Italians warn US about coronavirus in video: ‘Huge mess is about to happen’
Italians have issued a warning to Americans not taking the potentially deadly coronavirus seriously.
In a chilling new compilation clip, which has received over 3.7 million YouTube views, Italians in quarantine share messages talking to their past selves about the precautions they should have taken over a week ago to stop the spread of CORVID-19.
READ MORE: Trump called COVID-19 a ‘Chinese Virus,’ draws outrage
They are warning America that a “huge mess is about to happen” as more and more states roll out restrictions, such as closing schools, bars, restaurants, and other non-essential businesses, amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
The video was created by Milano-based creative collective called A THING BY, and co-founder Olmo Parenti admits to Yahoo Lifestyle that their city did not initially take seriously the impact of the disease. They have now made it their mission to better inform the public to prevent other nations from making the same mistake.
“When we were first informed by Italian media about the coronavirus reaching Italy my friend group and I (along with the majority of the country) really underestimated the issue; we were almost mocking the few people who believed the issue was serious from the get-go,” Parenti says. “But once we saw what was happening in Italy’s hospitals and we found ourselves stuck at home we decided we had to redeem ourselves in some way.”
Italy is now the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with nearly 30,000 cases and 2,158 dead, including 350 in a single day, government officials announced.
“We all realized how much our viewpoint had changed so quickly,” Parenti says, which inspired A THING BY’s latest video.
“We weren’t sure how people would react to our request; filming yourself talking in first person to yourself from 10 days ago directly into a camera isn’t the most comfortable thing to do (I know cause I tried). So we first asked our family and friends to do some tests and then — once we saw their videos — we also asked people on social media from all around Italy to send us their videos,” he explains. “The response was very surprising.”
READ MORE: Kevin Durant among 4 Nets players to test positive for coronavirus
“A huge mess is about to happen,” one woman says in the viral video, Today.com reports.
“The worst-case scenario? That’s exactly what will happen,” another woman adds.
“Hospitals are literally blowing up,” one man notes. “Lots of infections, even among young people.”
“We underestimated this,” one person admits. “You don’t have to do the same.”
The post Italians warn US about coronavirus in video: ‘Huge mess is about to happen’ appeared first on TheGrio.
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Report: Coronavirus Exposes America’s Internet Inequality Problem
The outbreak of COVID-19, known as the coronavirus has exposed problems the U.S has been sitting on for a long time. With the recent closures of schools across the country, educators are quickly learning that as they move toward a remote system to engage with their students during the quarantine, many do not have access to wireless internet at home.
It’s hard to imagine that in the age of popular platforms like TikTok and Instagram that there are young kids and adults with no internet access; for a large majority of low-income residents, that’s exactly the case. While the internet offers a lifeline for many to continue life as normal during this global pandemic, for others, it limits their movement even more. Depending on where you live, broadband may not be readily available to you. According to the FCC, more than 21 million Americans do not have access to high-speed Internet, according to the Federal Communications Commission’s latest data. The numbers have improved in recent years, though the gaps remain pervasive, despite heavy investment by government regulators and private companies.
“With coronavirus, we’re about to expose just how challenging our digital divide is, and just how unequal access to broadband is,” said Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission, to The Washington Post. “We’re going to have a reckoning.”
A 2018 Pew Research study found that nearly one in five students between kindergarten and 12th grade do not have computers or speedy web connections. The research illustrated what is called a “homework gap” which disproportionately affects low-income families and people of color.
“There are still some pretty big gaps when it comes to broadband adoption,” said Monica Anderson, Pew’s associate director of research on the internet and technology to The Washington Post.
The FCC plans to offer a digital lifeline in attempts to close that divide during this viral outbreak with commitments from AT&T, Verizon, and dozens of internet providers to help people stay online, even if they ultimately fall behind on their bills.
“As the coronavirus outbreak spreads and causes a series of disruptions to the economic, educational, medical, and civic life of our country, it is imperative that Americans stay connected,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement.
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Two ER Doctors In Critical Condition After Coronavirus Diagnosis
Two ER doctors, including one known to be in great shape and in their 40s, are in critical condition after contracting the coronavirus.
According to the Grio, Dr. James Pruden, a 70-year-old man from Paterson, New Jersey, is currently in isolation after contracting the virus. Due to his age, Pruden’s condition is no surprise. However, the other doctor, whose name is being withheld, has no pre-existing conditions and is considered by peers as being in great shape.
It’s unclear how Pruden, who works at St. Joseph’s, contracted the virus. However, he agreed to release his name and picture in the hopes that more Americans will take the coronavirus outbreak seriously and stay indoors.
“The point we want to make is we are all at risk of this,” St. Joseph’s Health President Kevin Slavin told reporters last week.
The unnamed doctor works at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland, Washington, where 40 people have already died due to the coronavirus and more deaths are expected.
“EvergreenHealth is providing care for one of our physicians who has a confirmed case of COVID-19,” a brief statement issued by the hospital on Sunday stated. “He is in critical condition but stable. Out of respect for our patient’s privacy and that of his family, there is nothing more we can share at this time.”
The risk for those who work in the medical community is exponentially higher than it is for others due to the close proximity doctors and nurses need to have with patients in order to treat them. Additionally, the spread of germs in a hospital even when cleaned constantly is significant.
Even the Center for Disease Control is not immune. One of the agency’s employees tested positive for the coronavirus Monday.
The coronavirus outbreak has changed everything from the internet to employment as cases continue to rise in the US. To date, there are more than 190,000 cases and more than 7,500 across the globe.
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New sensor could help prevent food waste
As flowers bloom and fruits ripen, they emit a colorless, sweet-smelling gas called ethylene. MIT chemists have now created a tiny sensor that can detect this gas in concentrations as low as 15 parts per billion, which they believe could be useful in preventing food spoilage.
The sensor, which is made from semiconducting cylinders called carbon nanotubes, could be used to monitor fruit and vegetables as they are shipped and stored, helping to reduce food waste, says Timothy Swager, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry at MIT.
“There is a persistent need for better food management and reduction of food waste,” says Swager. “People who transport fruit around would like to know how it’s doing during transit, and whether they need to take measures to keep ethylene down while they’re transporting it.”
In addition to its natural role as a plant hormone, ethylene is also the world’s most widely manufactured organic compound and is used to manufacture products such as plastics and clothing. A detector for ethylene could also be useful for monitoring this kind of industrial ethylene manufacturing, the researchers say.
Swager is the senior author of the study, which appears today in the journal ACS Central. MIT postdoc Darryl Fong is the lead author of the paper, and MIT graduate student Shao-Xiong (Lennon) Luo and visiting scholar Rafaela Da Silveira Andre are also authors.
Ripe or not
Ethylene is produced by most plants, which use it as a hormone to stimulate growth, ripening, and other key stages of their life cycle. Bananas, for instance, produce increasing amounts of ethylene as they ripen and turn brown, and flowers produce it as they get ready to bloom. Produce and flowers under stress can overproduce ethylene, leading them to ripen or wilt prematurely. It is estimated that every year U.S. supermarkets lose about 12 percent of their fruits and vegetables to spoilage, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In 2012, Swager’s lab developed an ethylene sensor containing arrays of tens of thousands of carbon nanotubes. These carbon cylinders allow electrons to flow along them, but the researchers added copper atoms that slow down the electron flow. When ethylene is present, it binds to the copper atoms and slows down electrons even more. Measuring this slowdown can reveal how much ethylene is present. However, this sensor can only detect ethylene levels down to 500 parts per billion, and because the sensors contain copper, they are likely to eventually become corroded by oxygen and stop working.
“There still is not a good commercial sensor for ethylene,” Swager says. “To manage any kind of produce that’s stored long-term, like apples or potatoes, people would like to be able to measure its ethylene to determine if it’s in a stasis mode or if it’s ripening.”
Swager and Fong created a new kind of ethylene sensor that is also based on carbon nanotubes but works by an entirely different mechanism, known as Wacker oxidation. Instead of incorporating a metal such as copper that binds directly to ethylene, they used a metal catalyst called palladium that adds oxygen to ethylene during a process called oxidation.
As the palladium catalyst performs this oxidation, the catalyst temporarily gains electrons. Palladium then passes these extra electrons to carbon nanotubes, making them more conductive. By measuring the resulting change in current flow, the researchers can detect the presence of ethylene.
The sensor responds to ethylene within a few seconds of exposure, and once the gas is gone, the sensor returns to its baseline conductivity within a few minutes.
“You’re toggling between two different states of the metal, and once ethylene is no longer there, it goes from that transient, electron-rich state back to its original state,” Fong says.
“The repurposing of the Wacker oxidation catalytic system for ethylene detection was an exceptionally clever and fundamentally interdisciplinary idea,” says Zachary Wickens, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, who was not involved in the study. “The research team drew upon recent modifications to the Wacker oxidation to provide a robust catalytic system and incorporated it into a carbon nanotube-based device to provide a remarkably selective and simple ethylene sensor.”
In bloom
To test the sensor’s capabilities, the researchers deposited the carbon nanotubes and other sensor components onto a glass slide. They then used it to monitor ethylene production in two types of flowers — carnations and purple lisianthus. They measured ethylene production over five days, allowing them to track the relationship between ethylene levels and the plants’ flowering.
In their studies of carnations, the researchers found that there was a rapid spike in ethylene concentration on the first day of the experiment, and the flowers bloomed shortly after that, all within a day or two.
Purple lisianthus flowers showed a more gradual increase in ethylene that started during the first day and lasted until the fourth day, when it started to decline. Correspondingly, the flowers’ blooming was spread out over several days, and some still hadn’t bloomed by the end of the experiment.
The researchers also studied whether the plant food packets that came with the flowers had any effect on ethylene production. They found that plants given the food showed slight delays in ethylene production and blooming, but the effect was not significant (only a few hours).
The MIT team has filed for a patent on the new sensor. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Environmental Quality Technology Program, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Sao Paulo Research Foundation.
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Black mom sues hospital for drug test after giving birth, child abuse probe
A Black mother filed a lawsuit against the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center after she said the hospital ran a drug test on her urine, without her permission, and then shared its false positive result with child protective services.
Cherell Harrington said she had just given birth at UPMC’s Women’s Hospital in November 2017, when medical staff collected her urine and had it tested. She said an unconfirmed positive result came back for marijuana.
When the hospital staff then ran a test on her newborn son, she said the results were negative, yet they still reported her false positive results to Allegheny County’s Office of Children, Youth and Families, who subsequently launched a child abuse investigation against her.
According to The Philadelphia Tribune, Harrington was then subjected to a home visit where a caseworker snapped pictures of her children and asked her then 11-year-old daughter about her mother’s “use of addictive substances.”
Ultimately the agency made a recommendation not to require Harrington to undergo treatment, yet still, the caseworker obtained her medical records, spoke with her dentist, the children’s pediatrician and officials at her daughter’s school.
Harrington said the agency threatened her with an extended mandatory drug testing process if she didn’t agree to allow them to investigate her and reach out to various medical and school contacts. In her lawsuit, Harrington says the hospital and Allegheny County violated her constitutional rights and her medical privacy, according to The Philadelphia Tribune.
Harrington and a second mother, Deserae Cook, are named in the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges Cook filled out an in-take questionnaire that asked her if she had smoked marijuana in the past, and she responded that she had but not while pregnant.
Still, her urine was collected without her consent and tested and Cook’s newborn daughter was drug tested. Although both tests came back negative, the hospital reportedly still reported her to Allegheny County’s Office of Children, Youth and Families, and a child abuse investigation was launched.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Maggie Coleman in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, marks the second lawsuit of its kind to be filed against the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center since 2014. The lawsuit claims that there are likely dozens of women with experiences like Harrington and Cook.
There have also been a number of other similar complaints filed around the country, in Maryland, New York, California, Alabama and elsewhere, after hospital staffers reported false positives on urine drug tests that launched child abuse investigations, reported The Tribune.
In some of these cases, mothers allege that the unconfirmed or false positive test results came from them eating poppy seed bagels, taking prescribed Valium or asthma inhalers.
This is why Marta Concheiro-Guisan, a professor of Toxicology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said these quick panel urine drug tests are not always reliable. They can be very sensitive and render incorrect readings.
READ MORE: T.I.’s sister, Precious, died after asthma attack triggered car accident, report
“I can understand using those kinds of quick screenings for medical purposes, to know if there needs to be an intervention on a baby suffering from withdrawal, but using these quick screenings to challenge the custody of a child is a big issue,” Concheiro-Guisan told The Philadelphia Tribune.
“If the test comes back negative, they’re very sensitive in general, so that’s the end of the road. But if it’s positive, you always have to run a confirmatory test with more sophisticated technology.”
“You would never testify in court based on that screening,” she added.
The newspaper reports it attempted to reach out to UPMC and Allegheny County for comment on the lawsuit.
The post Black mom sues hospital for drug test after giving birth, child abuse probe appeared first on TheGrio.
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Report: New York Suspends Evictions Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
In light of many companies being forced to close down their offices due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the outbreak has left many Americans in fear of how they are going to keep up with their bills. Many cities have had to take matters into their own hands and tell landlords to work with their tenants during this trying time. New York City has taken it a step further to protect its residents by offering an extra layer of protection.
Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Mark posted a memo to employees on the New York State Court website stating that starting this week it will be suspending all residential and commercial evictions until further notice. The move would effectively help low-income residents who are losing work as a result of the public health crisis with many fearing that it would drastically increase the already large homeless population in the city.
The New York City Housing Court had previously announced that it will be suspending evictions temporarily between March 16 through March 20 as they were being updated on the virus outbreak. Curbed New York reports that a coalition of 29 landlords based in the city pledged not to evict any of their tenants during this time.
“We’re worried about folks having trouble paying the rent,” Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed at a press conference last Thursday. “Our goal here is to not only avoid the kinds of evictions that would happen because people are losing their livelihood in this crisis, but actually freeze up evictions as much as humanly possible.” The mayor also mentioned that eligible residents would also receive support from the Human Resources Administration office. The Legal Services Staff Association, a union that represents court workers, praised the action as “a huge victory for tenants and the tenant movement.”
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