U.S. Coronavirus: House Passes Aid Bill; 26 Million Jobless

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The House of Representatives passed an estimated $484 billion relief package Thursday evening, overwhelmingly approving the stimulus aid 388-5.

The legislation is set to replenish the Paycheck Protection Program, add $75 billion to hospitals and $25 billion for more coronavirus testing.

Trump has already pledged to sign the bill, which the Senate passed on Wednesday.

$480 Billion Coronavirus Passed By House

The relief bill can't come soon enough, as five weeks of business closures and statewide shutdowns amid the coronavirus crisis have plunged the economy into levels of joblessness not seen since the Great Depression.

Around one in six U.S. workers have been laid off since March, and another 4.4 million Americans applied for unemployment aid last week, according to a government report Thursday.

The total jobless claims now stand at 26 million.

The economic health of the country has sparked protests outside multiple state capitols, while some governors have already declared dates for ending their stay-at-home orders. At the same time, new data on patient health is prompting renewed worry over the COVID-19 disease itself.

Coronavirus Unemployment Total Hits 26 Million

COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is bombarding patients with mysterious blood clots that defy doctors' expectations. "We are scared," one doctor warned Wednesday, noting that the clotting behavior is confounding even to medical experts who have treated the condition in other patients.

Scientists are further investigating how the coronavirus kills. In a study released Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA, researchers studying the New York City hospital system found that 88 percent of COVID-19 patients placed on ventilators died. According to the study's authors, the paper "represents the first large case series of sequentially hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 in the U.S."

Study Shows 88 Percent Of NY Ventilated Coronavirus Patients Died

The JAMA analysis examined 5,700 COVID-19 patients within the Northwell hospitals in New York City, Long Island and Westchester. A total of 320, or 12.2 percent, of patients received ventilation. The most common diseases documented among the COVID-19 patients were hypertension (57 percent), obesity (42 percent) and diabetes (34 percent).

Elizabeth Warren's Brother Dies Of Coronavirus

Numbers: Latest U.S. Confirmed Cases And Deaths

Coronavirus is affecting everyone, even the politically prominent. On Thursday, U.S Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced that her oldest brother, Don Reed, had died in Oklahoma after contracting the virus three weeks ago. Warren, a former Democratic presidential candidate who has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump's pandemic response, thanked the nurses and staff who cared for her brother when family could not be by his side.

"It's hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say 'I love you' one more time," Warren wrote in a tweet. "I'll miss you dearly my brother."

U.S. coronavirus deaths neared 48,000 as of late Thursday afternoon.

CDC Director Warns Of Possible Second Wave Of Coronavirus

The main model used by the White House to estimate the impact of the coronavirus in the United States recently upped its death toll prediction to 65,976 by August, an increase of more than 5,000 from its last projection, made on April 9.

Shortly after the University of Washington model updated its projection of fatalities, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave his own ominous assessment of the possibility of a second and more dire wave of the virus hitting in the winter.

"There's a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through," CDC Director Robert Redfield said in an interview Tuesday with the Washington Post. "We're going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time."

Redfield clarified those comments Wednesday, saying that the second wave "could be more difficult, more complicated" but not necessarily "worse," although he said he was not misquoted. He tweeted a link to the article Tuesday night.

"When I commented yesterday that there was a possibility of the fall or winter — next fall and winter it could be more difficult, more complicated," Redfield said at Wednesday's White House briefing. "When we have two respiratory illnesses circulating at the same time, influenza and the coronavirus, but I think it's really important to emphasize what I didn't say. I didn't say this was going to be more worse."

Shortly after Redfield made his comments, Trump said he signed his immigration executive order. The order is expected to put a halt on the issuance of new green card and work visas.

Trump said he signed the order to "protect our great American workers."

The president also added during Wednesday's White House briefing that he "strongly" disagreed with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to open up parts of the state's economy.

"I told governor of Georgia Brian Kemp that I disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities, which are in violation of the phase one guidelines for the incredible people of Georgia," Trump said, adding that Kemp "must do what he thinks is right."

Kemp spelled out a timeline for many types of businesses — from hair salons to restaurants and movie theaters — as well as churches to reopen to gatherings.

Beginning Friday, gyms fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians and massage therapists can reopen, while following social distancing guidelines.

Regarding reopenings, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, pleaded with elected officials to reopen their states in a "measured way."

"I plead with the American public, with the governors, with the mayors for the people with the responsibility, although I know one has the lead to leapfrog over thing things — don't do that. Do it in a measured way. This is a successful formula," Fauci told reporters Wednesday. "The problem is if we don't do that, there is a likelihood that we'll have a rebound. And the one way not to reopen the economy is to have a rebound that we can't take care of."

Meanwhile, a panel of experts organized by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has recommended against doctors using a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for treatment of patients with COVID-19.

The combination of the two drugs increases the risk of sudden cardiac death, according to the panel.

The warning against taking hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for COVID-19 comes as further studies are continuing.

Researchers funded by the National Institute of Health and the University of Virginia also published results showing hydrochloroquine had no benefits in a large analysis of its use in U.S. veterans hospitals.

There were more deaths among those given hydrochloroquine versus standard care, researchers reported.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn commented on the study during a recent White House briefing.

More Deaths, No Benefit From Drug In VA Virus Study

“This study is a small, retrospective study at the VA and … this is something that a doctor would need to consider as part of a decision in writing a prescription for hydroxychloroquine,” Hahn said.

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