Month: March 2020

Enlarge / Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator, speaks during a Coronavirus Task Force news conference. (credit: Bloomberg/Getty Images)

On Thursday, the US passed a grim milestone: it surpassed China as the country with the largest number of confirmed Coronavirus cases. The milestone was reached during what appears to be a growing public tug-of-war between senior Trump administration officials, who wish to see restrictions lifted as quickly as possible, and public health experts, who argue they're clearly still required for the time being. That tension may end up playing out in the implementation of a new plan being developed to guide states through their response to the pandemic.

One casualty in this fight: the work of epidemiologists. As these researchers continue to test the impact of different restrictions on the spread of infections, their models are necessarily producing different numbers. Those differences are now being dragged into the intensely political arguments about how best to respond to the pandemic.

Grim numbers

As of this writing, the world has seen slightly under 560,000 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Of those, 86,000 (about 15 percent) are in the US. China, where the pandemic originated, is near 82,000 cases, followed by Italy with a bit over 80,000. All of the other countries with over 10,000 confirmed cases are European, with the exception of Iran.

Enlarge / Illustration of the SpaceX Dragon XL as it is deployed from the Falcon Heavy's second stage in high Earth orbit on its way to the Gateway in lunar orbit. (credit: SpaceX)

Last summer, NASA put out a call for companies who would be willing to deliver cargo to a proposed station in orbit around the Moon, called the Lunar Gateway. On Friday, NASA announced that the first award under this "Gateway Logistics" contract would go to SpaceX.

The company has proposed using its Falcon Heavy rocket to deliver a modified version of its Dragon spacecraft, called Dragon XL, to the Lunar Gateway. After delivering cargo, experiments and other supplies, the spacecraft would be required to remain docked at the Gateway for a year before "autonomous" disposal.

“This contract award is another critical piece of our plan to return to the Moon sustainably,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a news release. “The Gateway is the cornerstone of the long-term Artemis architecture, and this deep space commercial cargo capability integrates yet another American industry partner into our plans for human exploration at the Moon in preparation for a future mission to Mars.”

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | imaginima)

Home-Internet download speeds have fallen during the COVID-19 pandemic in dozens of the biggest US cities as millions of Americans stay home due to school and business closures. However, typical download speeds remain high enough to support normal broadband-usage patterns, with the vast majority of cities still above the Federal Communications Commission's 25Mbps standard.

In 88 of the 200 most populous US cities, Internet users "experienced some degree of network degradation over the past week compared to the 10 weeks prior," BroadbandNow said in a report released Wednesday. Of those, 27 cities suffered speed reductions of at least 20 percent.

New York City speeds fell by 24 percent, with median download speeds down to 51.93Mbps—still enough for bandwidth-intensive services like streaming video. While New York City has been hit hard by the spread of the novel coronavirus, the city's broadband experience isn't replicated everywhere. Seattle, where the virus is also rampant, hasn't suffered a drop in download speeds, though Seattle's speeds were already below New York City's. Seattle's most recent median-download speed was 27.1Mbps, while Seattle's median results ranged from 20.8Mbps to 29.1Mbps in the previous 10 weeks.

Enlarge / A man and a woman, properly socially distanced from the rest of Los Angeles, take in a view of the city on a low air quality day in November, 2019. (credit: Mario Tama | Getty Images)

2020 has a new motto: "Cancelled due to the coronavirus." Businesses, schools, sports, travel, film, and TV production, conferences, meetings, and basically any and all business as usual has been suspended in the US as individuals and institutions try to slow the spread of COVID-19. We have, at least, had outdoor space to go to—staying at least six feet away from others as we do—when we need a break from the four walls of our homes. But those spaces, along with the air we breathe and the water we drink, may get a whole lot less pleasant going forward, as the Trump administration is adding environmental protection regulations to the temporary cancellation list.

The Environmental Protection Agency is launching a "temporary enforcement discretion policy" due to the pandemic, it said late yesterday. The move comes as trade groups representing the oil and gas industry have been asking the White House and the EPA for compliance waivers.

Under the new policy, the agency will mostly not be investigating civil non-compliance with environmental regulations, although it "does not provide leniency for intentional criminal violations" of the law. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a written statement that the policy is designed to provide discretion "under the current, extraordinary conditions, while ensuring facility operations continue to protect human health and the environment."

Enlarge / Ah, for the carefree days when you could wander into a GameStop and not worry about keeping six feet from other shoppers...

You might think that GameStop being forced to close a majority of its global retail storefronts due to concerns about the novel coronavirus would be bad for business. But CEO George Sherman said in an earnings call last night that the retailer has "seen an increase in store and online traffic over the past few weeks" that might actually help its bottom line.

"Despite having most of our European stores closed for the last few weeks, the increased demand for our products across the world has led to a positive 2% comparable sales results for the March month-to-date period through Saturday," GameStop CFO Jim Bell said during the call. "As millions of consumers adapt to remote work, play, and learning, we're pleased to be able to serve their needs," Sherman added.

Though that's an impressive statistic at first blush, it looks a bit weaker when you put it in context. "Through Saturday," for instance, doesn't cover the time since GameStop finally decided to close all of its US stores (which make up the vast majority of its worldwide retail space) to regular foot traffic. "I think when this all began, there was a pretty good level of demand that we saw while our stores were fully opened and that is the sales period that Jim talks about when you talk about through Saturday of last week," Sherman noted.