August 11 coronavirus news

President Trump insisted once again that colleges should play football and made the very dubious claim that student athletes are strong enough to withstand coronavirus, even though several major conferences have postponed or are considering postponing their football seasons.

“Hopefully we can watch colleges play football. We want to get football in colleges. These are young, strong people. They won’t have a big problem with the China virus. So, we want to see college football start and hopefully a lot of great people are going to be out there, they’re going to be playing football and they’ll be able to fight it off,” Trump said Tuesday at a news conference at the White House.

Despite Trump’s assertions that college football players are somehow unlikely to get coronavirus or experience its severe effects, several colleges and universities have already seen a growing number of student athletes testing positive for the virus.

And though Trump insists that college football players are less likely to be severely impacted from the coronavirus because they’re “young, strong people,” research shows that 1 in 3 young adults (ages 18 to 25) are at risk of severe Covid-19, with smoking playing a big part in their level of risk.

And though earlier in the outbreak health experts underscored that older adults were most vulnerable to coronavirus, the proportion of cases in teens and young adults has gone up sixfold, according to the World Health Organization.

CNN reported earlier Tuesday that the Pac-12 has postponed all sports including football through the calendar year and the Big Ten conference has postponed the 2020 football season. Other universities and conferences have also announce a pause on college sports.

The President concluded by telling players to stand for the American flag and the national anthem, claiming that the NBA and NFL had had poor ratings for allowing players to protest during the song.

Following Tuesday’s announcements from the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences on postponing their fall sports seasons, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC) say they are continuing to monitor coronavirus developments.

The ACC said it will continue to make decisions based on medical advice and local and state health guidelines.

“We understand the need to stay flexible and be prepared to adjust as medical information and the landscape evolves," the statement added.

Commissioner Greg Sankey said the SEC looks forward "to learning more about the factors that led the Big Ten and Pac-12 leadership to take these actions today."

"I remain comfortable with the thorough and deliberate approach that the SEC and our 14 members are taking to support a healthy environment for our student-athletes. We will continue to further refine our policies and protocols for a safe return to sports as we monitor developments around COVID-19 in a continued effort to support, educate and care for our student-athletes every day," Sankey added.

The American Medical Association and other health organizations urged US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to update Covid-19 testing prioritization guidelines, as resources are still limited and many patients are still waiting over a week to receive their results.

In an open letter on Tuesday, the organizations say that they are “increasingly concerned about the serious strains” being placed on testing services and the impacts of those strains on their ability to provide medical care and contain Covid-19. 

Along with significant surges in cases, there is also an increase in demand for testing of asymptomatic individuals who wish to return to activities such as going to work or returning to college. 

They urged the administration to consider using new testing prioritization guidelines, as without improvement in supply availability, “we simply do not have the resources to meet the huge demand for testing by asymptomatic individuals without exposure to Covid-19.”

The letter also said that they recognize the need for a surveillance strategy, and recommend that updated testing guidelines “include a well-designed surveillance strategy that achieves public health goals while appropriately managing testing resources.”  

Rapid screening tests could play a significant role in asymptomatic screening and surveillance efforts and help to reopen, the letter said.

Laboratories are struggling with supply chain shortages, access to personal protective equipment and staffing issues in many places, the organizations said. These are impacting both Covid-19 care and non Covid-19 care. 

Other associations that signed the letter include The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, American Society for Clinical Pathology, Association for Molecular Pathology, Association of Pathology Chairs, College of American Pathologists and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Anyone attending a gathering of more than 100 people in New Hampshire will be required to wear a face covering, Gov. Chris Sununu announced Tuesday.

“Effective immediately any scheduled gathering of over 100 people in the state of New Hampshire will require attendees to wear masks,” said Sununu during a news conference.

“New Hampshire citizens have been diligent. They’ve been doing a great job at social distancing and wearing masks and we continue to see very positive numbers," Sununu added.

The latest numbers: The state announced at least 21 new cases of coronavirus during the briefing.  Thus far, approximately 6,861 New Hampshire residents have tested positive. The state is reporting no new deaths today.  

Note: These numbers were released by the state of New Hampshire public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont pushed for schools to reopen for in-person learning during a news conference Tuesday, saying he knows the state can bring students back safely.

"If Connecticut can't get their kids back into the classroom safely, no state can," the governor said, citing the state's hard work in wearing masks and social distancing.

Lamont appeared alongside Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona and other educators from the Winchester school district, which is offering full in-person learning to students when the school year starts August 31. There is an option for full remote learning for those families who choose it.

Lamont said he believes students can be brought back safely based on the current public health conditions in the state.

"I wouldn't be opening my school in southern Florida. I wouldn't be opening school in Texas or Phoenix or South Central LA. But I would do it in Connecticut. I would do it right here," Lamont said.

Winchester Schools Superintendent Melony Brady-Shanley said most parents want their children to return for in-person classes, based on the results of a survey the district conducted. According to Brady-Shanley, 76% of families are opting for in-person learning, 22% for temporary distance learning and 2% for homeschooling.

"We expect that education is going to look different. However, different isn't necessarily a negative," Brady-Shanley said. "[Kids] need and benefit from in-person instruction." 

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is reporting their first case of SARS-CoV-2 in a dog in the state. 

On Aug. 3, an owner took their pet to the NC State Veterinary Hospital. The dog had signs of respiratory distress and died from his illness, a news release said.

The owner told the hospital that a family member had previously tested positive for Covid-19. 

The dog was tested and was positive for SARS-COV-2, the agency said.  

“There is no indication at this time that dogs can transmit the virus to other animals, so there is no justification in taking measures against companion animals that may compromise their welfare,” said State Veterinarian Dr. Doug Meckes.  

A necropsy was performed and the state is investigating any contributing factors to the dog’s death.  

The state did not provide any additional information on the dog and its owners.

The Pac-12 conference CEO Group unanimously voted on Tuesday to cancel the fall sports season including football. 

The conference says it would consider a “return to competition for impacted sports after January 1, 2021.”

In a statement, the Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said in part, “Unlike professional sports, college sports cannot operate in a bubble... Our athletic programs are a part of broader campuses in communities where in many cases the prevalence of COVID-19 is significant."

The statement also notes that student-athletes impacted by the decision will keep their scholarships.

Some context: This comes just hours after the Big Ten conference also voted to postpone fall sports on Tuesday. The Mid-American Conference made a similar move on Sunday.

Some government decisions about school and workplace closures, event cancellations, travel restrictions and other lockdown measures that emerged early in the coronavirus pandemic were based on what other nearby countries were doing, a new study suggests.

The study, published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, examined those "nonpharmaceutical interventions" that countries adopted to respond to the pandemic, using models related to the timing of implementing such measures between January 15 and March 30.  

The researchers – from various universities in Sweden – specifically focused on nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

"We focus on the OECD, since it represents a group of countries that are relatively homogeneous from an economic and democratic perspective, which means that the alternative cost of policy adoption will be similar across these countries and they have similarly developed democratic systems and healthcare systems," the researchers wrote.

The researchers found that almost 80% of the OECD countries adopted the same Covid-19 nonpharmaceutical interventions or NPIs around the same time, within a span of two weeks.

The researchers also found that countries with more health care capacity, such as hospital beds, were slower to adopt restrictions and the more densely populated a country was, the faster it was to adopt restrictions. Countries with stronger democracies were found to be slower to react.

The study has some limitations, including that some of its findings are based on assumptions from models. The researchers wrote that their findings can help "inform the social view of the world as interconnected."

The World Health Organization has been in touch with Russian scientists and authorities, and "looks forward to reviewing details of the trials," WHO confirmed to CNN in an emailed statement on Tuesday, following news of a Covid-19 vaccine being registered in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the approval of a coronavirus vaccine for use on Tuesday, claiming it as a "world first," amid continued global concern and unanswered questions about its safety and effectiveness. 

"WHO welcomes all advances in COVID-19 vaccine research and development. At the global level, WHO has been involved in guiding and accelerating R&D efforts since January 2020," WHO's emailed statement said.