WTF Just Happened Today

Friday, April 17, 2020

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• ???? Daily Damage Report.

• ???? Global: Total confirmed cases ~2,215,000; Total deaths: ~151,000; Total recoveries: ~565,000. (Johns Hopkins University)

• ???????? U.S.: Total confirmed cases ~684,000; Total deaths: ~35,000; Total recoveries: ~57,100

• ???? Markets: Dow ????; S&P 500 ????; Nasdaq ????

• ✏️ Reported U.S. coronavirus deaths reach record 4,591 in 24 hours – nearly double the prior record. (Wall Street Journal)

• ✏️ The experimental coronavirus drug remdesivir has showed promise in a Chicago clinical trial. Patients in the trial have reportedly experienced rapid recoveries from fever and respiratory symptoms, with nearly all patients being discharged in less than a week. The University of Chicago Medicine recruited 125 people with COVID-19 into Gilead Sciences’ two Phase 3 clinical trials. Of those people, 113 had severe respiratory symptoms and fever. All the patients have been treated with daily infusions of remdesivir. (STAT News / CNN)

• ???? Live Blogs: Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News / CBS News / ABC News / Wall Street Journal / CNBC / The Guardian

1/ Trump issued broad guidelines for states to consider as they decide whether to relax social distancing measures, but left specific plans to governors days after insisting he had the “total authority” to unilaterally open the country. Trump said the guidance is based on “hard verifiable data” and that “benchmarks must be met at each phase.” The plan, however, is a vague set of recommendations for a three-phased reopening of businesses, schools, and other gathering places that satisfy broad criteria on symptoms, cases, and hospital loads. The guidelines also suggest that states resuming normal life should plan to “independently” secure protective gear and medical equipment. Businesses, meanwhile, are advised to come up with their own protocols for temperature checks, protective gear, sanitation, and testing. And, despite Trump’s goal for a May 1 reopening, the plan does not contain a date for implementation. “You’re going to call your own shots,” Trump told governors on a conference call Thursday before announcing his “Opening Up America Again” plan, which he described as “the next front in our war.” Trump predicted that there are 29 states were “in the ballgame” and would “be able to open relatively soon,” but didn’t name any. (