Coronavirus pandemic in the US

The beaches in Bay County, Florida, are officially back open as of today with limitations during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The beaches reopened just one day after the Bay County Board of Commissioners approved an emergency order allowing recreational use of county beaches during the hours of 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET, according to the ordinance.

The commissioners said beachgoers should still follow all strict social distancing rules while enjoying the sun. 

Last week, beaches in Jacksonville, Florida, reopened with similar limitations.

Gov. Ron DeSantis supported the idea of reopening beaches, parks and other public spaces as long as social distancing is practiced, WJXT reported.

"You look at how this disease is transmitted, it's transmitted overwhelmingly when you are in close, sustained contact with people, usually in an indoor environment," DeSantis said. "Going forward, we got to be promoting people to get exercise, do it in a good way, to do it in a safe way."

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she feels like "we're living in the twilight zone" as she now has to advise people not only to stay at home but to also not inject themselves with Lysol. 

"In a normal world, we'd be able to look to our President and to the White House and receive sound guidance and advice, but instead we're now telling — having to tell people not to ingest and inject your body with household cleaners," she said on CNN's New Day this morning.

What this is about: Yesterday, President Trump suggested the possibility of injecting disinfectants to protect people from coronavirus.

Remember: The maker of Lysol issued a statement today clarifying that under no circumstances should its products be administered into the human body.

"As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)," the company said in a statement.

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Georgia is allowing some businesses, including gyms and salons, to reopen today, even as coronavirus deaths increase statewide.

But Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she's telling people to stay home despite Gov. Brian Kemp's orders.

"Nothing has changed. People are still getting infected. People are still dying. We don't have a cure to this virus," she said on CNN.

However, Bottoms said she still expects some people not to listen to the science.

"They will go into hair salons and go and get manicures and pedicures as if it is business as usual, and then in a couple of weeks we will see our numbers continue to rise is in this state," she said.

It's morning in the US, and the coronavirus death toll across the country nears 50,000, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally.

Here's the news you need to know to start the day:

Undeterred by a barrage of criticism, Georgia state officials moved ahead today with plans to allow some nonessential businesses to reopen, even as coronavirus deaths increase statewide.

Gov. Brian Kemp was one of the last state leaders to issue a stay-at-home order, effective April 3, to combat the spread of Covid-19.

These are some of the businesses allowed to reopen today:

What the experts are saying: Georgia should not even begin to reopen until June 22, according to the model by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which assumes states will implement aggressive testing, contact tracing, isolation and crowd-size limits to prevent more infections.

The maker of Lysol issued a statement Friday clarifying that under no circumstances should its products be administered into the human body, after US President Donald Trump suggested the possibility of injecting disinfectants to treat the coronavirus.

Manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser said that the range of disinfectants and cleaners must not enter the body "through injection, ingestion or any other route.”  

“We have a responsibility in providing consumers with access to accurate, up-to-date information as advised by leading public health experts,” the company said.

The statement followed remarks from President Trump on Thursday on the use of disinfectants.

"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in one minute. Is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning ... it would be interesting to check that," Trump said.  “It sounds interesting to me,” he added.

CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta was quick to point out that this is simply wrong.

“He also said it needs to be studied. Actually, it doesn’t. I mean we know the answer to this one,” he said on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Thursday. 

“I think everybody would know that that would be dangerous and counter-productive.”

The US Food and Drug Administration regularly warns the public against drinking bleach, or even inhaling fumes from bleach. It's also irritating to skin.

On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said calls about poisonings with cleaners and disinfectants had increased more than 20% in the first three months of 2020 -- as coronavirus cleaning increased -- than from the same period a year earlier. Among cleaners, bleaches accounted for the largest percentage increase in calls from 2019 to 2020.

The CDC recommends using soap and water or bleach on surfaces to kill the virus. Rubbing alcohol that's at least 70% alcohol will also kill it on surfaces; 60% for your hands.

Roll up for Donald Trump's old West traveling medicine show.

He's marketed steaks and real estate, board games and vodka, but nothing the incorrigible salesman has tried to hawk measures up to his latest routine as he speculated on a possible new cure for Covid-19.

For most of his life as a pitchman, Trump has only had his own reputation on the line. But now, in the middle of a generational health crisis, lives are at stake.

In an eye-popping moment, Trump doubled down on his claim that sunlight and the festering humidity of high summer could purge the virus in his latest grab for a game-changer therapy.

Then, he asked aides on camera whether zapping patients with light or injecting disinfectant into the lungs to clean sick patients from inside could cure them of the disease.

It's easy to mock Trump. But he also has the world's largest megaphone, appears to be openly mulling a treatment that could cause people to poison themselves if they adopted it and has a record of deflecting from the grave reality of the virus to peddle optimism that may not be matched by the facts.

He also seems to have little time for the rigorous clinical testing and factual deduction that is at the heart of generations of advances in clinical science and is the bedrock of ethical medicine.

Read the full analysis here: Trump, ever the salesman, is peddling dangerous cures for coronavirus

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that he was doubtful of the country's current testing capability, which is a key resource as several states and cities look to partially reopen their economies during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

During a Time 100 Talks interview, Fauci — the nation's top infectious disease expert and a White House coronavirus task force member — was asked how confident he was that the country currently has sufficient capability to handle the potential increased coronavirus testing needs in order to inform leaders looking to reopen hard-hit areas.

That way, he continued, "you don't have a situation where you have a test, but it can't be done because there's not a swab, or not an extraction media or not the right vial -- all of those things got to be in place."

"I am not overly confident right now at all, that we have what it takes to do that," Fauci added.

Some context: Fauci's comments run counter to President Donald Trump's regular assurances that American coronavirus testing is on solid footing, including on Wednesday when he told reporters "we're doing more testing, I think, than probably any of the governors want."

Trump and his political allies have touted the total number of coronavirus tests conducted in the US but the country still lags behind Italy in per capita tests performed.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, the chairwoman of the House’s Health subcommittee, told CNN she plans to call in Dr. Rick Bright to testify before her panel as she reviews the circumstances of his removal from a key position after he raised concerns about the safety of a drug that President Trump touted as a potential vaccine to coronavirus.

Eshoo said she also wants to call Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Bob Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response, to testify before her panel.

“I don’t know where this began, why, who where, when, why,” said Eshoo, whose subcommittee falls under the Energy and Commerce full committee. “But I think it deserves to be examined and the story told.”

Eshoo said she wants to have hearings as soon as it’s “feasible” and said she’s willing to return to Washington to probe the matter.

“I’m willing to come here, I think others will as well,” she said Thursday.

Eshoo appears to have backing from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Asked by CNN about the Bright situation, Pelosi directed an inquiry to Eshoo.

Some context: Bright had led BARDA, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, since 2016 until Tuesday, when he was reassigned to a narrower position.

"I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the Covid-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit," Bright said in a lengthy statement issued Wednesday. "I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way."