The Analyzer News Roundup for May 21, 2020
The U.S. dragged its feet on imposing stricter preventative measures to fight the coronavirus and it cost tens of thousands of lives.
That’s the summary from a new study by Columbia University that suggests if social-distancing measures had been imposed even one week earlier in March, about 36,000 people that died from the virus would have been saved.
The Labor Department releases new unemployment data Thursday. A group of analysts cited by Bloomberg predict the figure for last week to reach around 2.25 million new claims, bringing the nine-week total to about 39 million.
A study released Wednesday by the Census Bureau found that nearly 50% of adults claimed either they or a member of their household had lost employment since mid-March.
And now jobless benefits may even be rolled back. Enhanced unemployment benefits, including $600 in weekly payments to out-of-work Americans, are fighting opposition from President Trump and top Republican lawmakers who claim that the payments deter people from returning to work. In some instances, lawmakers said, these people are receiving more money out-of-work than in their previous jobs. The benefits expire in July.
Wednesday, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University found that nearly half of the Twitter accounts discussing the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots. Since January, CMU researchers sifted through more than 200 million tweets and found that about 45% were sent by accounts that operated more like computerized robots than humans.
Meanwhile in Italy, the head of Sicily’s coronavirus response is now under house arrest and nine other healthcare officials are in police custody on suspicions of taking bribes from equipment and service contracts, according to Italian police.
The contracts go back as far as 2016 and total over $600 million. Along with the arrest of the officials came the seizure of seven companies based in Sicily and Lombardy.
Around the world, the total number of coronavirus cases has passed 5 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. That total includes 328,000 deaths.
