Today’s In Crisis headlines

(NEW YORK) — Here are today’s In Crisis headlines:

Kentucky AG granted 48-hour delay in releasing Breonna Taylor grand jury recordings
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron was granted a 48-hour delay in releasing the grand jury’s recordings in the Breonna Taylor shooting incident after asking for more time, just hours before he had been ordered by a judge to place the materials in the court record. Cameron had requested a week to redact names and personal information of witnesses and private citizens from the 20 hours of audio recordings a judge ordered him to place in the court record by noon on Wednesday. But Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Ann Bailey Smith only granted Cameron an extension until noon on Friday to release the recording. Smith’s revised order requires Cameron to immediately file an unredacted copy of the recording to be kept under court seal. Cameron was instructed by Smith on Monday to enter into the court record the recording of the grand jury hearing that produced a single charge of wanton endangerment against one of the officers involved in the March 13 shooting, but no indictments for Taylor’s death. Cameron had initially objected to releasing the audio recording, saying. “The grand jury is meant to be a secretive body.” Cameron said he would comply with the judge’s latest order.

Estimated 837,000 more Americans apply for unemployment
An additional 837,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits in the week ending September 26, according to U.S. Labor Department figures released Thursday morning. The figure is in keeping with expectations and marks the 28th consecutive week of record high unemployment and is a decrease of 36,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 873,000, though the numbers have stagnated somewhat the past five weeks. The report also shows that 26,529,810 people are currently receiving unemployment benefits under state and federal programs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday will release the monthly jobs report, which is expected to show the unemployment rate holding steady at about 8.4 percent. While this would be lower than the high seen during the current recession and the Great Recession, it would still be a historically high unemployment rate.

COVID-19 numbers
Here’s the latest data on COVID-19 coronavirus infections and deaths.

Latest reported numbers globally per Johns Hopkins University
Global diagnosed cases: 34,010,539
Global deaths: 1,014,958. The United States has the most deaths of any single country, with 206,963.
Number of countries/regions: at least 188
Total patients recovered globally: 23,671,237

Latest reported numbers in the United States per Johns Hopkins University
There are at least 7,234,257 reported cases in 50 states + the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. This is more than in any other country.
U.S. deaths: at least 206,963. New York State has the greatest number of reported deaths in the U.S., with 33,144.
U.S. total patients recovered: 2,840,688
U.S. total people tested: 103,939,667

The greatest number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is in California, with 819,646 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 39.51 million. That ranks third in the world after Maharashtra, India, which has 1,384,446 reported cases, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, which has 985,628 reported cases.

CDC halts updating website with new COVID-19 guidance
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped updating new health guidance and recommendations on its website, sources with direct knowledge of the change told ABC News. An ABC News review of the CDC website shows that from at least September 24 to 30, no new information was provided. The sources say the updates stopped after the CDC altered the procedure by which that information was being shared with the American people — information that has been vital to hospitals, health officials and local leaders on the front lines by providing updated guidance on how to treat, test and slow the spread of the illness, which has claimed over 200,000 American lives. A source told ABC News that includes additional “guidance on who should be tested and when,” adding, “That stuff won’t get updated.” A CDC source familiar with the COVID-19 response called the halt in information flow to the American public a “moratorium,” adding, “Scientists are prevented from updating the CDC website with new information, recommendations and policies surrounding COVID.” A separate source confirmed CDC guidance updates are not currently being published, but disagreed with the categorization of a “moratorium” and instead insisted “agency leadership is just ensuring the review process is being followed.” The development comes as COVID-19 cases are on the rise in 31 states, and global cases topped 34 million overnight.

President Trump is the world’s biggest source of COVID-19 misinformation, study finds
A new Cornell University study concludes that President Trump is the biggest driver of global misinformation about COVID-19. Researchers say they analyzed 38 million articles about the pandemic in English-language traditional and online media worldwide, and found mentions of the president were part of 38% of falsehoods about the coronavirus. The study identified 11 topics of misinformation, including various conspiracy theories, but the most prevalent misinformation topics pertained to unproven treatments and so-called cures for COVID-19, some of which, like the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, have been repeatedly touted by the president. Study lead author Sarah Evanega, the director of the Cornell Alliance for Science, tells The New York Times, “The biggest surprise was that the president of the United States was the single largest driver of misinformation around Covid,” adding, “That’s concerning in that there are real-world dire health implications.”

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By She 100.3 | October 1, 2020