We study the impact of non-pharmaceutical policy interventions (NPIs) like “stay-at-home” orders on the spread of infectious disease. NPIs are associated with slower growth of Covid-19 cases. NPIs “spillover” into other jurisdictions. NPIs are not associated with significantly worse economic outcomes measured by job losses. Job losses have been no higher in US states that implemented “stay-at-home” during the Covid-19 pandemic than in states that did not have “stay-at-home”. All of these results demonstrate that the Covid-19 pandemic is a common economic and public health shock. The tradeoff between the economy and public health today depends strongly on what is happening elsewhere. This underscores the importance of coordinated economic and public health responses.

Ambient pollution is a byproduct of economic activity. It has been widely reported that COVID-19 and associated lockdowns have generated large improvements in air quality worldwide, including to China's notoriously-poor air quality. We analyze China's official pollution monitor data and account for the large, recurrent improvement in air quality following Lunar New Year (LNY), which essentially coincided with lockdowns in 2020. With the important exception of NO2, China's air quality improvements in 2020 are smaller than we should expect near the pandemic's epicenter: Hubei province. Compared with LNY improvements experienced in 2018 and 2019 in Hubei, we see smaller improvements in SO2 while ozone concentrations increased in both relative and absolute terms (roughly doubling). Similar patterns are found for the six provinces neighboring Hubei. We conclude that whether COVID-19 actually decreased pollution in China depends on the pollutant and reference period considered.

We conducted a large-scale survey covering 58 countries and over 100,000 respondents between late March and early April 2020 to study beliefs and attitudes towards citizens’ and governments’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most respondents reacted strongly to the crisis: they report engaging in social distancing and hygiene behaviors, and believe that strong policy measures, such as shop closures and curfews, are necessary. They also believe that their government and their country’s citizens are not doing enough and underestimate the degree to which others in their country support strong behavioral and policy responses to the pandemic. The perception of a weak government and public response is associated with higher levels of worries and depression. Using both cross-country panel data and an event-study, we additionally show that strong government reactions correct misperceptions, and reduce worries and depression. Our findings highlight that policy-makers not only need to consider how their decisions affect the spread of COVID-19, but also how such choices influence the mental health of their population.

We explored two measures of inequality that described the full income distribution in cities. One measure is an income gini based on family incomes in 1929 for 33 cities and in 1933 for up to 48 cities in 1933 were spread throughout the country. We also estimated gini coefficients that made use of contract rents for renters and implicit rents for home owners for up to 955 cities throughout the country. We were able to expand to all counties when looking at a top-end inequality measure, the number of taxpayers per family. All three measures varied substantially across the country. We show the correlations between the various measures and also estimate the relationship between the measures and various relief programs developed by governments at all levels during the period.

In the fight against COVID-19, doctors and health workers are testing drugs and treatments whose efficacy has been proven against other illnesses. We take a look at the most prominent ones and the early findings.

The semen of men infected with coronavirus revealed that the disease lingered in only a few patients, suggesting there is a small chance COVID-19 can be transmitted sexually, researchers said.

Over half a billion euro of prize bonds were sold last year, according to the latest report from the Prize Bond Company.

The Covid-19 outbreak is having a negative impact on personal relationships and well-being, while it has also led to an increase in the consumption of alcohol.

Four Sampdoria players, including one who had previously recovered, and three from Fiorentina have tested positive for coronavirus, the two Serie A clubs announced on Thursday.

The victim, identified in court papers as “Jane Roe” and now middle-aged, alleges tennis coach William Martire verbally assaulted, groped and forced her give him oral sex.

Rubin, now a genteel 72-year-old Staten Island resident, alleges in a newly-filed Child Victims Act lawsuit that he was sexually abused on a weekly basis between 1960-65 by a cabal of five predatory teachers at the prestigious school.

Christian Pacheco, 42, was wrongly convicted in the racially-motivated Latin Kings killing of Lemuel Cruz, who died in December 1995 at a Brooklyn club called El Sabor Latino. Pacheco was nabbed by cops as he was trying to save Cruz's life. “I don’t regret helping him — honestly, I don’t. That’s the kind of person that I am," Pacheco told reporters Thursday.

Mamadou Bah, 19, an immigrant from Senegal who dreamt of playing pro basketball, died after he stumbled into Gentlemen’s Quarters Salon on Church Ave. near Ocean Ave. in Flatbush just before 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Emmanuelle Cooper, 54, spent 27 years in prison for the 1992 murder of MTA employee Andres Barretto, who was fatally shot in an East New York subway station after two men forced their way into a booth and robbed the token clerks inside.

The author of “The New York Nobody Knows: Walking 6,000 Miles in the City,” was 74.

The COVID-19 deaths included 22 paraprofessionals, 21 teachers, two administrators, two central office staffers, a facilities employee, a guidance counselor and a school food worker.

Jacare Souza is out of UFC 249 after testing positive for coronavirus ahead of his bout at the controversial event.

The Department of Health has announced that a further 18 people who had been diagnosed with Covid-19 here have died, and has also announced an additional 219 confirmed cases of the virus.

Leitrim's historic 1994 Connacht championship success was the culmination of a building process initiated five years earlier

New tools, new features, new plans! RSS Ground is evolving and developing. We have a whole bunch of exacting updates released in June.

The post RSS Ground Changelog June 2019 appeared first on RSSground.com.

Our service is just like a living organism, with its own worries and joys. And hope you feel the pulse of our live. Find out what we were working on lately.

The post RSS Ground Changelog October 2019 appeared first on RSSground.com.

Shelter in place orders (SIPOs) require residents to remain home for all but essential activities such as purchasing food or medicine, caring for others, exercise, or traveling for employment deemed essential. Between March 19 and April 20, 2020, 40 states and the District of Columbia adopted SIPOs. This study explores the impact of SIPOs on health, with particular attention to heterogeneity in their impacts. First, using daily state-level social distancing data from SafeGraph and a difference-in-differences approach, we document that adoption of a SIPO was associated with a 5 to 10 percent increase in the rate at which state residents remained in their homes full-time. Then, using daily state-level coronavirus case data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we find that approximately three weeks following the adoption of a SIPO, cumulative COVID-19 cases fell by 44 percent. Event-study analyses confirm common COVID-19 case trends in the week prior to SIPO adoption and show that SIPO-induced case reductions grew larger over time. However, this average effect masks important heterogeneity across states — early adopters and high population density states appear to reap larger benefits from their SIPOs. Finally, we find that statewide SIPOs were associated with a reduction in coronavirus-related deaths, but estimated mortality effects were imprecisely estimated.

As devastating as the NYC numbers are, they represent a steady decrease from early April, when there were 533 new confirmed deaths on April 7 and 6,155 new cases on April 6.

In a telephone interview with "Fox & Friends," Trump said he would be willing to provide the former vice president with the same coronavirus tests he uses.

Brandt fled his native Germany for Norway after the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s. Returning after the war, he became involved in politics and, in 1969, was elected chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. As chancellor, he greatly improved relations with East Germany, the Soviet Union, and Poland, and in 1971 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1974, he was forced to resign after an embarrassing scandal in which one of his close aides was exposed as what?

For more than 150 years, only male cadets were allowed to attend the Citadel, an elite military college in South Carolina. The first female cadet gained the right to enroll after a legal battle in 1995, but she left after less than a week. The following year, Nancy Mace, the daughter of US Army Brigadier General Emory Mace, enrolled. She went on to become the first female graduate of the Citadel in 1999. How did early female cadets' barrack doors differ from those of male cadets?

Even forests that look green from space can show symptoms of impending decline.

Black holes, gene editing, and quantum computing wowed us—while new climate findings and racial bias in medicine brought renewed urgency.

We’ve counted down our ten most-read articles of 2019 and found that health and medicine, physics—and of course animals—were fan-favorite topics this year.

With the world in the throes of a global pandemic, bicycle retailers have come up with solutions to continue business and keep riders on their bikes as best they can.
( Photos: 10, Comments: 131 )

2019 was a rollercoaster of a year for downhill racing with an extremely close title fight in both the men's and the women racing.
( Comments: 1 )

Between 83,000 and 190,000 people could die of COVID-19 in Africa, with 29 million to 44 million infected, in the coronavirus pandemic’s first year if containment measures do not work, the African regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday.

Fógraíodh tráthnóna go bhfuil 37 duine eile básaithe leis an ngalar Covid-19 sa Stát. Fágann sin go bhfuil 1,375 duine ar fad básaithe leis an ngalar i bPoblacht na hÉireann.

Dhearbhaigh na húdaráis sláinte tráthnóna go bhfuil 29 duine eile básaithe leis an ngalar Covid-19 sa Stát. Fágann sin go bhfuil 1,403 duine ar fad básaithe leis an ngalar i bPoblacht na hÉireann.

Dúirt Príomh-Oifigeach Leighis na Roinne Sláinte an Dr Tony Holohan go bhfuil an ceann sprice a chuireamar romhainn bainte amach againn agus go bhfuil cosc curtha againn anois ar leathadh an ghalair Covid-19 inár measc.

Tá an coróinvíreas ag spreagadh fearg, fuath agus ciníochas i measc daoine a deir Ceannaire na Naisiún Aontaithe. Dúirt Antonio Guterrez an méid sin agus srianta san Eoraip agus san Astráil á maolú de réir a chéile.

Dhearbhaigh na húdaráis sláinte tráthnóna go bhfuil 27 duine eile básaithe leis an ngalar Covid-19 sa Stát. Fágann sin go bhfuil 1,429 duine ar fad básaithe leis an ngalar i bPoblacht na hÉireann.

President Trump and Congress should keep climate change in mind as they prepare economic aid packages for businesses and industries.

It's legitimate to worry that the steps we're taking to contain the coronavirus are causing unnecessary damage to the U.S. economy. But the damage that the disease would cause if it isn't contained would be far worse.