We Can Protect the Economy From Pandemics. Why Didn't We? A virologist helped crack an impossible problem: how to insure against the economic fallout from devastating viral outbreaks. The plan was ingenious. Yet we're still in this mess. Evan Ratliff Wired

A virologist helped crack an impossible problem: how to insure against the economic fallout from devastating viral outbreaks. The plan was ingenious. Yet we're still in this mess.

USA Today   July 12, 2020

'No one is safe until everyone is safe': Vaccine nationalism threatens global coronavirus effort Instead of collaboration, coordination and sharing, vaccine nationalism pits nation against nation to get and keep enough doses for their citizens. Elizabeth Weise USA TODAY

PITTSBURGH — A little more than three weeks ago, officials in Pittsburgh announced a milestone enviable for almost any major city in America: A day had gone by without a single new confirmed case of the coronavirus. It was good news for a city that had seen only a modest outbreak all along, even as the virus raged through places like Philadelphia and New York.

As US grapples with virus, Florida hits record case increase ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — With the United States grappling with the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world, Florida hit a grim milestone Sunday, shattering the national record for a state's... AP NEWS

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — With the United States grappling with the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world, Florida hit a grim milestone Sunday, shattering the national record for a state’s largest single-day increase in positive cases.

The Guardian

Coronavirus pandemic prompts record drop in global emissions, study finds Lockdowns, travel bans and factory closures drive 4.6% reduction but dramatic decline falls short of efforts needed to limit global heating Valerie Yurk the Guardian

The Guardian, July 10, 2020

by Valerie York

How Coronavirus Cases Have Risen Since States Reopened Reported cases are rising fast in many states that opened early, while those that stayed shut down longer are largely seeing declines. nytimes

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/09/us/coronavirus-cases-reopening-trends.html?searchResultPosition=1

New York Times

Exclusive: Scientists examine whether this route enables infections at longer distances

Large virus-laden droplets from infected people’s coughs and sneezes fall to the ground within 1-2 metres. Photograph: Nick Gregory/Alamy

CLICK HERE - STUDY - medRxiv - The Potential role of Particulate Matter in the Spreading of COVID-19 in Northern Italy: First Evidence-based Research Hypotheses - April 17, 2020

theguardian.com - by Damian Carrington - April 24, 2020

Coronavirus has been detected on particles of air pollution by scientists investigating whether this could enable it to be carried over longer distances and increase the number of people infected.

The work is preliminary and it is not yet known if the virus remains viable on pollution particles and in sufficient quantity to cause disease.

A person in China scans a QR code with a smartphone to register their real name before getting off a bus in Wuhan, China. Zhang Chang/China News Service via Getty Images

The US is rolling out digital contact tracing. How has it been working in other countries?

vox.com - by Shirin Ghaffary - April 18, 2020

If and when lockdown restrictions are lifted in the US, would you agree to let the government anonymously track your interactions with people within a 6-foot radius to control the spread of Covid-19?

That’s an increasingly urgent question as President Trump and state governors debate how and when to safely reopen the US economy — and as technology is being touted as a solution that would help people reenter public life.

And tech giants are stepping up. Last week, Apple and Google announced a plan to turn phones into opt-in Covid-19 tracking machines that would, if all goes as planned, make it easier for health officials to identify and alert people if they’ve been exposed to the virus.

Battelle Memorial Institute's CCDS Critical Care Decontamination System uses a hydrogen peroxide vapor to decontaminate N95 respirators. The organization says that the process takes about 2½ and that masks can be cleaned and reused up to 20 times.Battelle Memorial Institute

nbcnews.com - by Didi Martinez, Brenda Breslauer and Stephanie Gosk - April 14, 2020

Late Monday, the Pentagon announced a $415 million contract to commission 60 decontamination systems that will allow millions of highly protective N95 face masks to be reused.

The system, which can process up to 80,000 masks per day, has been called a potential "game changer" for the front-line health care workers and first responders who rely on the masks, according to hospital officials concerned about a shortage of protective equipment to shield their staff from COVID-19.

But the story of how this system came to be is a testament to what can happen when a doctor and an engineer — who happen to be husband and wife — ask, "What if?"