Free Republic

Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s Executive Director of Health Emergencies, did not mince words when the organization was asked on Monday about the concept of herd immunity. "This idea that, 'well, maybe countries who had lax measures and haven't done anything will all of a sudden magically reach some herd immunity, and so what if we lose a few old people along the way?' This is a really dangerous, dangerous calculation," Ryan said..

After a month with much of the country locked down, sheltered in place, and healthy at home, some states have begun lifting restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Georgia has gotten the most attention, and for good reason. No governor has thrown open the doors to his state’s businesses as aggressively as Brian Kemp, whose decision to reopen the state first drew praise, and then criticism, from President Trump. But many other states have either started or announced plans to allow previously shuttered businesses to operate once again, despite the warnings of some public-health experts....

Mark Zuckerberg is worried the economy could “reopen” too soon. The Facebook founder and CEO said returning life to normal in areas where the coronavirus is still too prevalent could “almost guarantee future outbreaks” and cause the economic downturn to last even longer.

... "There was a lot of pressure in pretty much all of these American cities to reopen," said Navarro, whose research was done in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "When they removed those restrictions too soon, then many cities saw a resurgence in cases." The center's research found that cities that used "early, sustained and layered" practices such as social distancing, closing public events and stay-at-home orders "fared better than those that did not." ...

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed over 200,000 people worldwide. More than 2.89 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding the scope of their nations' outbreaks.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Demand for big-ticket manufactured goods plunged in August by the largest amount in seven months, with widespread weakness signaling a slowdown in the nation's industrial sector. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that orders for durable goods, everything from commercial jetliners to home appliances, fell by 4.9 percent in August, the biggest decline since a 6.1 percent fall in January. It was far larger than the 3.5 percent drop that economists had been expecting and resulted from across-the-board decreases in a number of categories. The concern is that the steep downturn in housing and turbulence in financial markets...