A vaccine trial currently being performed by the FDA is expected to take "12 months" according to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn. This came right after President Donald Trump suggested that the drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) showed "very encouraging results" with COVID-19, and that "we're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately."
NASA announced the SpaceX Demo-2 flight test date and additional details on how they'll be running a world's first since the final "space shuttle" mission on July 8, 2011. This will be the "return of human spaceflight launch capabilities to the United States" in full effect. It'll also be the first launch of American astronauts aboard an American rocket and spacecraft since that 2011 date, the date of NASA's final space shuttle mission.
We often hear about tech stores being closed in countries like China and Italy because of the widespread cases of confirmed COVID-19 infections there. It was really only a matter of time before such scenarios reach the US and it finally has happened. Samsung has announced the immediate and temporary shutdown of all its stores in the US, a much-needed move but at a very inopportune time for the company.
The Trump administration is reportedly exploring ways to use Americans' smartphone location data to track the coronavirus outbreak. Sources claim the administration has been in talks with some major tech and telecom companies, including Google and Facebook, about potentially get access to location data for disease tracking purposes. One source claims the interest could expand beyond anonymized and enter into the realm of privacy issues.
COVID-19 in the USA was the reason for President Donald Trump's invoking of the Defense Production Act (DPA). This act was originally put in place by President Truman during the Korean War, and has been changed significantly since then. As laid out in the last major change of provisions in the act, in a CRS (Congressional Research Service) Report for Congress by Daniel H. Else, Specialist in National Defense, on May 14, 2009, "DPA authorities are not permanent."
As early as February, the threat of the novel coronavirus, which would be officially named COVID-19 eventually, put many large events and organizations to uncertainty. MWC 2020 in late February was canceled out of those concerns and things started downhill from there. Some organizers and individuals are still unsure whether to push through with plans or incur the costs of postponing or even canceling mass events. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC not only recommends that you do but also that you hold off until after 8 weeks.
Today we're taking a peek at what Verizon will and will not likely do in light of the global pandemic and national emergency that is COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) here in the USA. Verizon's released some information on how they'll respond for certain customers, and have given assurances that they're doing everything in their power to keep people connected in this time of increased network traffic. What's important here - at the moment - is the ease with which the "help" Verizon can/will give will be used by the average everyday consumer.
This morning the USD/BTC Bitcoin pairing crashed in a significant way, showing that even the digital currency is not immune to COVID-19 panic*. COVID-19 is the official name of novel coronavirus, the disease that's spread from the Wuhan province of China across the planet over the past several weeks and months. Bitcoin crashed from around $8k to under $6k in the past 24 hours.
Today stocks fell significantly today at a rapid pace, causing certain "circuit breakers" to activate. As the S&P fell more than 7% after the starting bell. This is "limit down", the first of the day, that starting trading below the set level for 15 minutes. Trading resumed at 9:49 am ET, and it was clear that fears of oil barrel prices falling and reaction to coronavirus (COVID-19) continued to spread.
On Saturday, both Stanford University and train transportation company Amtrak announced big changes to their classes and services in light of the coronavirus outbreak. The changes were made as a precaution to reduce exposure to the virus and help prevent its spread, as well as changes in demand due to the outbreaks. The announcements follow a bunch of cancellations last week, the most recent including the cancellation of SXSW in Texas and some EA gaming events originally planned for this month and April.
The Office of the Surgeon General recently published a tweet reading, "Seriously people -- STOP BUYING MASKS!" The agency reiterates that face masks won't help protect someone from contracting the new novel coronavirus, which has spread into multiple countries and has popped up in various places around the United States. These masks, the Surgeon General states, should be reserved for healthcare workers.
Sources alleging to have knowledge of the matter claim that public health officials in California have identified a second case of coronavirus of unknown origin. This second alleged case reportedly involves a 65-year-old individual who lives in Santa Clara County; the patient, the leak claims, didn't have contact with anyone who had traveled to any countries currently dealing with a coronavirus outbreak.