Today’s statistics:

• 4.8 million confirmed cases globally (up 1.3 million over last week)
• 1.5 million confirmed cases in the US (up 350,000 over last week)
• 320,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 (up 70,000 over last week)
• 90,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the US (up 10,000 over last week)

Todays headlines…

Cell-tower attacks by idiots who claim 5G spreads COVID-19 reportedly hit US

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/05/prepare-for-cell-tower-attacks-by-5g-covid-19-conspiracy-theorists-us-warns/

The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly issuing alerts to wireless telecom providers and law enforcement agencies about potential attacks on cell towers and telecommunications workers by 5G/coronavirus conspiracy theorists. The DHS warned that there have already been “arson and physical attacks against cell towers in several US states.”

The preposterous claim that 5G can spread the coronavirus, either by suppressing the immune system or by directly transmitting the virus over radio waves, led to dozens of tower burnings in the UK and mainland Europe. Now, the DHS “is preparing to advise the US telecom industry on steps it can take to prevent attacks on 5G cell towers following a rash of incidents in Western Europe fueled by the false claim that the technology spreads the pathogen causing COVID-19,” The Washington Post reported last week…

The warning to law enforcement agencies said that an April 22 Facebook post “encouraged individuals associated with anarchist extremist ideology to commit acts of sabotage by attacking buildings and 5G towers around the world… in furtherance of an ‘International Day of Sabotage'” and that videos have been posted online “showing people how to damage or destroy cell towers,” according to ABC.

“Violent extremists have drawn from misinformation campaigns online that claim wireless infrastructure is deleterious to human health and helps spread COVID-19, resulting in a global effort by like-minded individuals to share operational guidance and justification for conducting attacks against 5G infrastructure, some of which have already prompted arson and physical attacks against cell towers in several US states,” the DHS report said. The DHS report also warned of possible attacks against the electric grid.

US lockdown protests may have spread virus widely, cellphone data suggests

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/18/lockdown-protests-spread-coronavirus-cellphone-data

Cellphone location data suggests that demonstrators at anti-lockdown protests – some of which have been connected with Covid-19 cases – are often traveling hundreds of miles to events, returning to all parts of their states, and even crossing into neighboring ones.

The data, provided to the Guardian by the progressive campaign group the Committee to Protect Medicare, raises the prospect that the protests will play a role in spreading the coronavirus epidemic to areas which have, so far, experienced relatively few infections.

The anonymized location data was captured from opt-in cellphone apps, and data scientists at the firm VoteMap used it to determine the movements of devices present at protests in late April and early May in five states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado and Florida…

In Florida on 18 April, devices returned to all parts of the peninsula and up to the Georgia border. In Wisconsin on 24 April, devices returned to smaller towns like Green Bay and Wausau, and the borders of Minnesota and Illinois.

Trump says he’s taking hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19 despite FDA warnings

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/18/trump-taking-hydroxychloroquine-covid-19-fda-warnings

Donald Trump has told reporters at the White House that for “a couple weeks” he has been taking a malaria drug as a defense against Covid-19 – despite warnings from his administration that it is dangerous.

Trump said he was taking hydroxychloroquine – a drug approved to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis – in response to the coronavirus threat.

But the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been warning since April that the drug should not be used for that purpose because it could cause irregular heartbeats and other cardiac trauma.

The drug is not approved as a treatment for Covid-19 and Trump has not been diagnosed with the disease, to public knowledge.

Trump’s claim to be taking the drug was made as he attacked an administration whistleblower who went before Congress last week and described internal pressure to endorse the drug as an effective coronavirus treatment.