First Approved Treatment?, ‘Shark Tank’ for Testing & Virus-Sniffing Dogs

(+ Virologist Q&A)

All the news you need in less than 10 min:

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Story Summaries

All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want perusing the latest happenings...

Social Distancing Guidelines Expire:
The federal social distancing guidelines expire today and President Trump doesn’t plan to renew them. That signals a change in the White House message from “stay at home” to “reopen with caution.” The President has been at the White House for more than a month but now plans to resume out-of-state travel, starting with a trip to Arizona next week. Meanwhile, the U.S. death toll is still rising. As of early this morning, about 61,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S.
Death Toll, Case Count: Johns Hopkins
Social Distancing Guidelines Expire: AP, Politico

Second Wave “Inevitable”
The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the second wave of coronavirus is “inevitable” later this year. He says how we handle it will determine our fate. So if in the coming months, we can test for the virus, track cases, and isolate every American who was exposed, we should do well. Dr. Fauci says if we can’t do that, we’ll be in for a bad fall and winter.
Read More: CNN, The Hill, LA Times

Remdesivir Trial Positive Results
Early results from a new government study showed the antiviral drug remdesivir is effective against COVID-19. The research compared remdesivir to placebo in more than 1,000 patients. It turned out the remdesivir patients recovered faster. Specifically, it took the recovery time from 15 days to 11 days. Also, it seems the side effects didn’t cause any significant issues. The FDA hasn’t approved any drugs to treat COVID-19 yet, though it will reportedly approve remdesivir as soon as this week.
Read More: Stat, NIH, NBC News, NYT

‘Shark Tank’ for Testing
The National Institutes of Health is hoping to speed up the development of COVID-19 tests. So it’s putting $1.5 billion in federal relief money toward the effort. The goal is to create millions of quick tests every week by the end of the summer. The NIH will reportedly set up a Shark Tank-like process, awarding money to companies with promising ideas and helping their tests get quick regulatory approval.
Read More: Stat, Axios

U.S. Economy Shrinking
In the first three months of the year, the U.S. economy shrank at its fastest pace since the Great Recession in 2008. That’s true, even though the first two months saw growth, meaning the downturn in March was massive. Overall, the GDP declined by 4.8% in the first quarter of the year. So the Federal Reserve is taking unprecedented action. It’s holding its key interest rate near zero and vowing to keep taking steps to offset this economic downturn.
GDP First-Quarter Decline: WSJ, NPR
Fed Holds Rate Near Zero: USA Today, AP

Andrew Yang Sues New York
The state of New York is facing a lawsuit over canceling its Democratic presidential primary. Former candidate Andrew Yang and 7 other New Yorkers are suing the New York election board in federal court. They say by cutting the presidential primary, the state is hurting down-ballot candidates. The election is still set to happen in June for other candidates and ballot issues, but only in the districts with races.
Read More: Politico, CBS News

Training Dogs to Smell Coronavirus
Dogs are being trained to sniff out coronavirus cases. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are reportedly trying to teach 8 Labrador retrievers to detect an odor associated with COVID-19. If all goes well, dogs could eventually end up screening people at airports, businesses, and even hospitals.
Read More: WaPo, Philadelphia Inquirer

Technology Companies Surge
The video-sharing app, Tik Tok, has now been downloaded more than 2 billion times. It reportedly saw 315 million downloads, just in the first quarter of this year. That’s the highest for any app in any quarter. Facebook’s usage is up as well, with 1.7 billion users last month. That said, it saw a demand for advertising drop. Microsoft Teams is getting more popular too. The workplace video chat and collaboration platform saw usage jump 70% in the last 6 weeks.
TikTok Tops Two Billion Downloads: TechCrunch, The Verge
Facebook Sees Surge in Usage: Engadget, Facebook
Microsoft Teams Jumps 70 Percent: The Verge, VentureBeat

Big Companies Lay Off Workers
Executives at Uber are discussing plans to lay off about 20% of its staff, which would leave more than 5,000 people jobless. Rival Lyft is laying off 17% of its workforce. That’s about a thousand employees. Meanwhile, it’s even worse at aerospace companies. Boeing plans to cut 10% of its workforce, amounting to 16,000 jobs. Rival Airbus plans to furlough staff in France, Germany, and the UK.
Uber/Lyft Layoffs: Mashable, The Information, CNBC
Aerospace Layoffs: WSJ, NY Times

NFL Commissioner Taking $0 Salary
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says he’s giving up his $40 million/year salary, at least for now, while the league tries to scale back spending. He’s not alone. Anyone making more than $100,000/year will reportedly see a 5-15% cut in their salaries. Other staffers might be furloughed, starting next week. The NFL is hoping to bounce back though. It’s still planning for a regular season and will likely release the game schedule next week.
Read More: USA Today, AP

Parks & Rec Charity Episode
The hit comedy show, Parks and Recreation, is making its return tonight. The entire original cast, including Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, and Chris Pratt, will reunite for the 30-minute episode. The special is going to benefit the nonprofit “Feeding America,” which is a nationwide network of food banks. It airs on NBC tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Read More: CNN, Rolling Stone

Thing to Know Thursday:

Q&A with a virologist

Read more: Today, CNN, FOX News

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