President Donald Trump stated during the White House coronavirus press briefing on Thursday that his administration may extend its national social distancing guidelines unto at least the early summer or possibly later.
"We're going to have to see where it is. I think people are going to know just out of common sense. At some point, we won't have to do that. But until we feel safe, we're going to be extending," Trump answered when asked about the extending guidelines. The White House coronavirus guidelines that were issued in March have already been extended once, expiring at the end of April unless otherwise updated.
Yet, many states are already pushing to reopen, with some ignoring the White House's guidelines on the gradual restart to public movements. At this time, 16 states have released formal reopening plans, according to Vice President Mike Pence.
"States are beginning to make those plans and we're encouraged to see so many states embracing the phased approach to reopening their economies that's contemplated in out guidelines for opening up America again," the vice president stated during the same press briefing.
The reopening guidelines were set by the Trump administration to help mitigate a second wave of the virus as the 50 states acting as 50 different countries with their own plans. Due to the mixed messages by the president and the immense economic pressure states feel as more and more residents apply for unemployment, some states like Georgia are choosing to restart sooner rather than later.
Total Global Cases: Over 2.8 Million
Total Deaths: At Least 197,000
Total Recovered: At Least 804,000
Remdesivir Confusion
Earlier on Thursday, The Financial Times reported that the potential COVID-19 treatment from Gilead Sciences
The potential treatment for the coronavirus had recently been praised in a Chicago study, showing positive early results in patients treated earlier in their infections, although the study has yet to be peer reviewed.
Gilead responded to the leaked study, warning that because the "study was terminated early due to low enrollment, it was underpowered to enable statistically meaningful conclusions. As such, the study results are inconclusive, though trends in the data suggest a potential benefit for remdesivir, particularly among patients treated early in disease."
"We regret that the W.H.O. prematurely posted information regarding the study, which has since been removed. The investigators in this study did not provide permission for publication of results," a Gilead spokesperson stated.
Spokesperson for the W.H.O. Daniela Bagozzi stated: "A draft document was provided by the authors [of the study] to W.H.O. and inadvertently posted on the website and taken down as soon as the mistake was noticed. The manuscript is undergoing peer review and we are waiting for a final version before W.H.O. comments on it."
New Studies
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new clinical trial at Columbia University on Thursday that will determine whether the plasma collected for COVID-19 survivors can effectively treat severely ill patients and give frontline health care workers immunity.
The study, funded by $2.5 million from Amazon
Also in New York, results of a state run COVID-19 antibody study estimated that 13.9% of residents have had the coronavirus. The state came to this conclusion through randomly testing 3,000 New Yorkers at grocery stores and various shopping locations across 19 counties in 40 localities.
"What we found so far is the the state-wide number is 13.9% tested positive for having the antibodies," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stated during the state's Thursday coronavirus press briefing. "What does that mean? It means there were people who were infected and who developed the antibodies to fight the infection."
However, global health officials, including the W.H.O. have questioned the reliability of antibody testing and whether it can accurately determine immunity. For now, it seems too early to tell.
