Beloved Asian American photographer Corky Lee dies after bout with Covid-19
Acclaimed New York photographer Corky Lee, who passionately chronicled the Asian American experience through his lens, died Wednesday following a brief bout with Covid-19, his family said.
He was 73.
“He did what he loved and we loved him for it,” according to a family statement. “His passion was to rediscover, document and champion through his images the plight of all Americans but most especially that of Asian and Pacific Islanders.”
One of his most famous shots was snapped at the site of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, where America was finally united, coast-to-coast via the transcontinental railroad a century and a half earlier.
In Florida, with its large Brazilian community, worries over Covid variant
MIAMI — Even though Teresa Frade was infected with Covid-19 over the summer and already got both doses of the vaccination, she is still apprehensive about visiting her family in Brazil.
The last time she was there was in late February last year, and she returned just before Florida went into lockdown.
Frade, 54, a health care worker in South Florida is not sure if she has can get reinfected with the Brazilian variant that has ravaged parts of the South American country and worries whether it can spread here.
Florida leads the country with the highest number of cases caused by the more transmissible and possibly more deadly Covid-19 variant from the United Kingdom, but new concerns are emerging over the potential spread of the Brazilian variant, also more contagious.
Peru mourns its 'pandemic soldiers,' doctors who died treating Covid
LIMA, Peru — Black-and-white pictures of dozens of men and women, some in their 30s and others much older, line the perimeter of a bright yellow building overlooking the Pacific, a two-story-tall black ribbon covering part of the facade and a Peruvian flag at a half-staff near the door.
The makeshift memorial is for fallen “pandemic soldiers” — doctors who have died since the coronavirus struck this South American nation last year and unraveled the public health care system.
“Our country, like the other countries in the world, is not prepared for this pandemic. Even more so, the most affected are developing countries like ours,” said Dr. Gerardo Campos, a spokesman for the Medical College of Peru.
The college represents physicians and its headquarters is the site of the memorial, where a cleaning worker wearing a face mask recently dusted off each photo and placed flowers in front of them.
Several hundred doses of Moderna vaccine may have spoiled at Vermont hospital
Several hundred doses of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine may have spoiled at a Springfield, Vermont, hospital after being stored at the wrong temperature.
The doses were distributed to Springfield Hospital. The state health department said on Wednesday that it was monitoring the situation and was looking into whether the doses were still viable.
"They have not been discarded as yet," the agency said in a statement. "At this time, we’re still seeking final guidance from the manufacturer on the potential loss of doses due to a temperature excursion."
Department spokesman Ben Truman told NBC News on Thursday that officials were still in talks with Moderna about how to handle the situation.
Covid death toll at N.Y. state nursing homes 50 percent higher than reported, AG says
The New York state health department underreported the Covid-19 death toll in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent, the state’s attorney general charged Thursday.
More nursing home residents died from the coronavirus than the department's "published nursing home data reflected and may have been undercounted by as much as 50 percent,” Attorney General Letitia James' investigators concluded in the report.
“As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate,” she said in a statement.
New York leads the nation in the number of Covid-19 deaths with 43,734, according to the latest NBC News tally, most of which occurred in the early days of the pandemic when public health officials were trying to figure out how the disease was spreading.
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First U.S. cases of South African Covid-19 variant found in South Carolina
South Carolina health officials announced on Thursday the detection of two cases associated with the Covid-19 variant discovered in South Africa — the first recorded cases of this variant in the United States.
The state Department of Health and Environmental Control said experts agreed that existing vaccines would work against this variant. While this variant does appear to spread easier and quicker, the department said there was "no evidence to suggest that the B.1.351 variant causes more severe illness."
The DHEC added that there was no known travel history or connection between the two adults who tested positive for the variant — one was from the Lowcountry region of South Carolina and the other from the Pee Dee region.
Late Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified state health officials that one sample contained the Covid-19 variant first found in South Africa, according to NBC affiliate WIS. The other case was discovered at the DHEC’s Public Health Laboratory, the station reported.
The variant has been detected in 30 other countries, according to the station.
The CDC said in a statement on Thursday that the agency would continue to monitor the Covid-19 variant and recommended that people avoid travel at this time.
Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC's interim public health director, said in a statement that the variant was an "important reminder to all South Carolinians that the fight against this deadly virus is far from over."
“While more COVID-19 vaccines are on the way, supplies are still limited. Every one of us must recommit to the fight by recognizing that we are all on the front lines now. We are all in this together,” she said.
Can the U.S. keep Covid variants in check? Here's what it takes.
The Covid-19 variants that have emerged in the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa and now Southern California are eliciting two notably distinct responses from U.S. public health officials.
First, broad concern. A variant that wreaked havoc in the U.K., leading to a spike in case numbers and hospitalizations, is surfacing in more places in the U.S. This week, another worrisome variant seen in Brazil surfaced in Minnesota. If these or other strains significantly change the way the virus transmits and attacks the body, as scientists fear they might, they could cause yet another prolonged surge in illnesses and deaths in the U.S., even as case numbers have begun to plateau and vaccines are rolling out.
On the other hand, variants aren't novel or even uncommon in viral illnesses. The viruses that trigger common colds and flus regularly evolve. Even if a mutated strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, makes it more contagious or makes people sicker, the basic public health response stays the same: monitor the virus and any mutations as they move across communities. Use masking, testing, physical distancing and quarantine to contain the spread.
2 children die at Texas hospital in the same week
Covid-19 claimed the lives of two children at a pediatric hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, this week.
Cook Children's Medical Center, a leading pediatric hospital, said in a statement that a 9-year-old and a child under the age of 1 who both had the virus died this week. The baby's death was announced Monday, and local media reports suggested the 9-year-old passed away sometime Tuesday.
The hospital did not release other information about the children due to HIPAA rules.