CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: April 7th

Glenn gives the latest coronavirus numbers, updating YOU on everything needed to know as Americans and officials monitor China's new COVID-19 virus:

Daily Stats as of 5:30 AM CT (from John's Hopkins)

  • Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 1,359,010 (up from 1,284,805 yesterday)
  • Total Confirmed Deaths Worldwide: 75,906 (up from 70,906 yesterday)
  • Total Confirmed Recovered Worldwide: 293,454 (up from 271,782 yesterday)
  • Still Just 5% of Active Cases are considered serious (requiring hospitalization) Steady from 5% yesterday, and down from the 19% high back in February
  • Note that about 11% of US Confirmed Cases require Hospitalization, roughly on par with Italy at 12% requiring hospitalization but lower than Spain, where 17% of patients require hospitalization.
  • US has 367,650 Confirmed Cases and 10,943 Deaths, up from 336,851 cases and 9,620 cases yesterday
  • The US currently has 336,897 Active Cases of COVID-19, with about 1.2% of the US Population tested
Motor City Nightmare: More Than 700 Employees in One Detroit Hospital System Test Positivehttps://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/491484-more-than-700-employees-at-one-detroit-hospital-system-test-positive-for
  • Hundreds of staff at a Detroit-area hospital system have tested positive for coronavirus.
  • Dr. Adnan Munkarah of the Henry Ford Hospital Campus confirmed 731 cases of the coronavirus among employees at the hospital, accounting for 2 percent of the hospital system's 31,600 employees.
  • As many as 1,500 at another hospital in the state have reported symptoms similar to coronavirus, though those numbers are not confirmed cases.
  • "If we are to test the whole population, you are going to see large numbers of people who are testing positive...Testing positive is just a measure of how contagious this virus is." said the hospital director.
  • "Our team members are our greatest asset and their health and safety is a top priority as we continue to respond to this pandemic," Munkarah said in a separate statement Monday evening confirmed the total number of positive test results.
  • "We know we are not immune to potential exposure and we remain grateful for the courage and dedication of our entire team," he added.
  • Detroit, Michigan's largest city, has seen a surge of coronavirus cases in recent days while the state itself has seen just over 17,000 cases of the virus – the third-largest total of any state in the U.S. More than 5,000 of those cases were reported in Detroit, where hundreds have died.
The Invisible...Invisible Enemy: Can COVID-19 Hide In Cells?https://www.the-sun.com/news/645016/fears-coronavirus-hide-cells-reactivate-recovered-patients-test-positive/
  • COVID-19 may be able to remain in the body and "reactivate" later after 51 recovered patients tested positive again.
  • The patients, from the city of Daegu, South Korea, had all spent time in quarantine while recovering from the disease but were diagnosed again within days of being released.
  • The center said it did not believe the patients had been reinfected, but that the virus had remained at undetectable levels in their cells and later "reactivated".
  • The claim runs contrary to the bulk of current evidence about how the virus works.
  • Investigators said the most likely explanation was that the clearance samples for the patients were false negatives, a common issue with nasal swab tests.
  • "Still, we remain vigilant and open to the possibility that the virus can remain dormant for some time," Dr Leong Kwok, Director of Viral Epidemiology at the National Health Institute in Seoul said.
Maybe Don't Go To the Grocery Store After Allhttps://www.foxnews.com/health/los-angeles-braces-itself-more-coronavirus-deaths-warns-residents-not-go-shopping-warns-residents-not-to-go-out-shopping
  • With coronavirus related deaths spiking in Los Angeles County and "a critical week" ahead, health officials advised residents on Monday to stay at home and avoid shopping to limit the spread of the virus.
  • "If you have enough supplies in your home, this would be the week to skip shopping altogether," said public health department Director Barbara Ferrer, according to the Los Angeles Times.
  • Officials confirmed 420 new coronavirus cases in the county and 15 deaths on Monday.
  • Over 6,360 cases and 147 deaths have been reported since the outbreak started, per data from Johns Hopkins.
Mexico's Slow Response May Cause Problems for Texashttps://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/mexico-slow-response-coronavirus-texas-us-15181201.php
  • As recently as March 15, some 40,000 concert goers crowded into the Foro Sor venue for the popular Vive Latino music festival.
  • Tourists from Europe and the United States were able to enter the country without any restrictions until late last week.
  • Restaurants, airports, subways and grocery stores remain open in Mexico City, though churches and large markets have closed.
  • The rapid spread of the COVID-19, however, has begun to increase the urgency of the government's response. Mexican health authorities reported on March 16 that the country had 82 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Two weeks later, the number swelled to nearly 2439, including 125 deaths.
  • Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez Gatell, who two weeks ago dismissed US social distancing restrictions as "an extreme tactic" and "irresponsible" is now urging citizens to "stay at home, stay at home, stay at home."
  • "If you have food at home, stay home. There is no reason good enough to go out, period," he said.
  • Mexico is just one of many nations that reacted slowly to the coronavirus pandemic, in large part because government leaders failed to understand how contagious the virus is.
  • President Lopez Obrador spent the first half of March dismissing the gravity of the virus, encouraging Mexicans to frequent restaurants and posting videos of himself in crowds, kissing babies.
  • He said Mexico's spirituality would protect the country against the virus and made a public display of pulling out two religious amulets that he said would be his shield.
  • Mexico shares over 1,200 miles of border with the United States.
Hong Kong Closed to All Foreign Travelers, Indefinitelyhttps://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3078633/coronavirus-five-hong-kong-residents-flown-back
  • The city extends its ban on arrivals after most cases over past two weeks have come from overseas.
  • Only six of 24 newly infected yesterday are local transmissions, but all are linked to entertainment venues already closed.
  • All entertainment venues are closed until further notice.
  • Hong Kong recently issued a new state of emergency order revoking travel into the country from any outside nation, including China.
  • The order will prevent Hong Kong from 'opening up' it's economy through at least early May
Drug You Can't Pronounce May Be Saving Liveshttps://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/04/06/democrat-karen-whitsett-coronavirus-hydroxychloroquine-trump/2955430001/, https://abc7.com/coronavirus-drug-covid-19-malaria-hydroxychloroquine/6079864/
  • A Democratic state representative from Detroit is crediting hydroxychloroquine — and Republican President Donald Trump who touted the drug — for saving her in her battle with the coronavirus.
  • State Rep. Karen Whitsett, who learned Monday she has tested positive for COVID-19, said she started taking hydroxychloroquine on March 31, prescribed by her doctor, after both she and her husband sought treatment for a range of symptoms on March 18.
  • "It was less than two hours" before she started to feel relief, said Whitsett, who had experienced shortness of breath, swollen lymph nodes, and what felt like a sinus infection. She is still experiencing headaches, she said.
  • Elsewhere, a Los Angeles doctor said he is seeing significant success in prescribing hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc to treat patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19.
  • The drug has been touted as a possible treatment for COVID-19 by President Trump among others, but it remains controversial as some experts believe it is unproven and may not be effective.
  • The drug has long been used for treatment of malaria and conditions such as lupus and arthritis but is not technically approved by the FDA for COVID-19. The agency, however, is encouraging trials and has provided limited emergency authorization for its use to treat COVID-19 patients.
  • Dr. Anthony Cardillo said he has seen very promising results when prescribing hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc for the most severely-ill COVID-19 patients.
  • "Every patient I've prescribed it to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free," Cardillo told Eyewitness News. "So clinically I am seeing a resolution very consistently."
Belt and Road, COVID-19 Stylehttps://spectator.us/italy-china-ppe-sold-coronavirus/
  • After COVID-19 made its way to Italy, decimating the country's significant elderly population, China told the world it would donate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to help Italy stop its spread.
  • Reports later indicated that China had actually sold, not donated, the PPE to Italy. A senior Trump administration official tells The Spectator that it is much worse than that: China forced Italy to buy back the PPE supply that it gave to China during the initial coronavirus outbreak.
  • "Before the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE to China to help China protect its own population,' the administration official explained. 'China then has sent Italian PPE back to Italy — some of it, not even all of it … and charged them for it."
  • China also recently donated PPE to Sweden and Spain, with many doctors reporting that masks and respirators included in the shipment were defective or already used.
  • "Someone got very sloppy," said a senior health official in Spain. "It must have been a mistake."

Can Trump win THESE critical swing states?

Michael M. Santiago / Staff | Getty Images

The election is less than three weeks away! And if you are in a state with early voting, it may be even sooner than that!

Like most elections, the 2024 election victor will be determined largely by whichever candidate can win the most swing states, i.e. states that are nearly split 50/50 Democrat and Republican. If Trump is to win the election, he has to win a majority of the seven swing states, which are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

In order to keep you informed on how Trump is polling in these seven states, how he did against Biden in 2020 and what issues are important to the voters of each of the states, we compiled the relevant information for your convenance below:

Arizona

Michael M. Santiago / Staff | Getty Images

In 2020 Trump lost Arizona to Biden by just over 10,000 votes, or 0.4 percent of the state.

The border state is up in the air again for 2024 and unsurprisingly immigration and border security is the top issue for voters. After border security, long-term water supplies and education rank at the top of Arizona voter's concerns, with inflation and cost of living coming in at number four.

Polls currently place President Trump ahead of Kamala with 48.4 percent of the votes compared to her 46.8 percent.

Georgia

Kevin Dietsch / Staff | Getty Images

In 2020, Trump lost Georgia to Biden by just over 10,000 votes, or 0.3 percent of the state.

Georgia voters are most concerned with abortion access (for or against), followed by environment, climate change, and the economy.

Polls currently place President Trump ahead of Kamala with 48.7 percent of the votes compared to her 47 percent.

Michigan

Scott Olson / Staff | Getty Images

In 2020 Trump lost Michigan to Biden by approximately 150,000 votes, or 2.8 percent of the state.

In Michigan, like many Americans, voters are most concerned by the economy. The economy is trailed by renewable energy and abortion as top issues for Michigan voters this election.

Polls currently place Kamala Harris ahead of Trump with 47.7 percent of the votes compared to his 46.9 percent.

Nevada

Ethan Miller / Staff | Getty Images

In 2020 Trump lost Nevada to Biden by approximately 30,000 votes, or 2.4 percent of the state.

In Nevada, the top issue is for voters is the economy, which is followed by affordable housing. Following affordable housing, immigration ranks high among concerns of Nevada voters along with democracy and crime.

Polls currently place Kamala Harris ahead of Trump with 47.8 percent of the votes compared to his 47 percent.

North Carolina

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

In 2020 Trump won North Carolina against Biden by over 70,000 votes, or 1.4 percent of the state.

Like in many other state, the economy is the leading issue among voters. The economy and inflation is followed by abortion rights and illegal immigration in top concerns for North Caroling voters.

Polls currently place Donald Trump leading Kamala with 48 percent of the votes compared to her 47.6 percent.

Pennsylvania

JIM WATSON / Contributor | Getty Images

In 2020 Trump lost Pennsylvania to Biden by approximately 80,000 votes, or 1.2 percent of the state.

The people of Pennsylvania are the most concerned with jobs, wages and the economy. Behind the economy, Pennsylvanians are most concerned with the future of democracy, immigration, and gun policy.

Polls currently place Kamala leading Trump with 48.1 percent of the votes compared to his 47.4 percent.

Wisconsin

ALEX WROBLEWSKI / Contributor | Getty Images

In 2020 Trump lost Wisconsin to Biden by approximately 40,000 votes, or 0.7 percent of the state.

The primary concern of voters in Wisconsin is the current high cost of living. Behind the cost of living, healthcare and education are high among the concerns of Wisconsinites, with the economy as a whole coming in fourth.

Polls currently place Kamala leading Trump with 48.1 percent of the votes compared to his 47.5 percent.

Counting cookies? Here are the CRAZIEST ways people predict the election.

Jeff Swensen / Stringer | Getty Images

Every four years, America faces the same question: who will win the presidential election?

Top political scientists and media companies devise elaborate polls, complex formulas, and sophisticated projections to calculate who will win the election at any given moment. Even Stu has thrown his hat in the ring with Plusecast, a one-stop shop for all your polling questions. But these methods aren't the only ways to predict who will be the next commander-in-chief.

From cookies to football, here are some unorthodox ways to predict the next president:

The Cookie Poll

Jeff Swensen / Stringer | Getty Images

Can cookies really predict the next president? According to Busken Bakery, they are more accurate than you might think.

Busken Bakery, has been using cookies to predict the winner of presidential elections since Regan beat Mondale in 1984, and has only been wrong once. Their method is simple: they sell cookies with the faces of both candidates and tally the sales of each. Whoever sells the most cookies is predicted to win. The simplicity of this method is its strength, and the only time it was wrong was the 2020 election. Currently, President Trump is far outstripping VP Harris, selling 23,477 cookies compared to her 8,781 cookies (as of 8/15). Busken posts daily updates on their Instagram, here.

Busken isn't the only bakery to make presidential predictions. Lochel's Bakery in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania has gained popularity recently. Lochel's has correctly predicted three of the last four elections by selling red and blue cookies printed with the names of the candidates. The current count for Lochel's is 28,212 for Trump and 2,097 for Harris. Again, Lochel's posts daily updates on their Instagram, here.

According to the cookies, this election is looking pretty sweet for President Trump!

Vegas Odds

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

It's time to put your money where your mouth is.

It's not just political scientists who cook up election predictions. Casinos and sports betting services get in on the action. What could be a better way to predict an election than by asking people to put their hard-earned dollars on the line?

The big casinos and sports betting sites all have odds on the election, and Trump tends to be the favored candidate. If you are unfamiliar with betting odds in the U.S., the simple explanation of how they work is the smaller the number the better the odds. Here is the spread for three of the big betting sites:

bet365- Trump: -138, Harris: +110

BetMGM- Trump: -137, Harris: +110

Caesars- Trump: -145, Harris: +120

While you shouldn't take this as a sign to put all your money (or any) on President Trump, it is an optimistic sign!

The Redskins Rule

The Washington Post / Contributor | Getty Images

The Redskins Rule is a well-documented correlation between the outcome of the presidential election and the performance of the Washington D.C. football team, the Redskins (now The Commanders). The rule is that if the Redskins win their last home game before the election, the incumbent party will win the election. If the Redskins lose, the challenging party will win the election. This rule is surprisingly accurate and held true for every election between 1940 and 2000.

If this rule is to be believed, the determining game is on Sunday, October 27th when the Redskins/Commanders play the Chicago Bears in Washington D.C. If the Bears win, that should mean Trump will win the election. If the Redskins win, then Harris will win.

But there is the fact that the rule has been broken several times since 2000. Has the charm worn off? And does it even count anymore if the team is no longer called the Redskins? Only time will tell!

Glenn joined Trump for an eventful weekend in the Southwest

Rebecca Noble / Stringer | Getty Images

We are mere weeks away from the election, and President Trump has been making every day count.

This last weekend, Trump held two rallies back to back in the southwestern corner of our country—one just outside Coachella, California, and the other in Prescott Valley, Arizona. Glenn joined Trump in Arizona, along with thousands of other Americans, to support the former president in his final push towards election day. The polls still show a very tight race. Every vote matters, and with so much at stake, Trump has to finish strong.

Catch up with Trump and Glenn's busy weekend below:

Coachella

On Saturday the 12th, thousands of Donald Trump supporters flocked to Calhoun Ranch, an area not far from the famous Coachella fairgrounds, and braved the heat, drawn by Trump's promise to "Make America Great Again."

The headlining event of the rally was the alleged third assassination attempt on President Trump, although the Trump campaign doesn't see it that way. The action started when the alleged assassin, Vem Miller, was arrested while trying to enter the rally using allegedly fake press credentials and was charged with illegal possession of a handgun, a shotgun, and a high-capacity magazine. Miller has not admitted to an attempted assassination, and in fact, claims to have been a strong Trump supporter since 2018. Miller claims the firearms were purchased as a defensive measure after he received death threats linked to his work in the media. He also claims that the press credentials are not fake, and the mix-up was caused by the fact that he uses a different name on his press credentials as a safety precaution.

The Trump campaign, Secret Service, and FBI do not believe this was an assassination attempt, but in this heated political climate, one can never be too safe.

Prescott Valley

As soon as his rally in Cali was over, Trump hit the road to prepare for his next rally. On Sunday the 13th Trump held a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, where both Glenn and U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake gave opening remarks.

In Glenn's short, yet powerful speech, he emphasized the importance of this election and highlighted all that was at stake— this is a battle of good and evil. He brought up the Left's attempt to erase women through transgender ideology and how that ideology encourages the predation of children. Glenn furthered the case of good versus evil by citing the Left's obsession with abortion. Glenn called abortion the sacrifice of a child's body for the convenience of the parents, a perversion of Christ's sacrifice of His body for us. Glenn called for God's Army to stand up and fight back against evil, using our voices and most importantly, our vote.

Glenn also lambasted Kamala for a recent interview where she admitted she wouldn't have changed anything if she had a chance to do her term as VP over again. He laid into her for marketing herself as an agent of change, while simultaneously defending the status quo. Glenn pointed out that if anyone wants to change the country for the better, Trump is the man to do it: Trump is the candidate for change, not Kamala.

Glenn: What I saw on the ground in Asheville gave me hope

Melissa Sue Gerrits / Stringer | Getty Images

The government can’t save us. Washington is too slow and too bureaucratic, and quite frankly, the government doesn’t care.

I’ve seen a lot of destruction in my life. I’ve walked through war zones and cities torn apart by riots, and I've stood at the sites of natural disasters that leave communities devastated. But what I saw in Asheville, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene was unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed.

Houses were washed down rivers, upside down and crushed. Train tracks, strong enough to support locomotives, were left suspended in midair after the earth beneath them was eroded away. Semi-trucks, rolled by the force of the floodwaters, now lie like children’s toys, tossed and overturned hundreds of feet from the road. Whole towns have been uprooted and scattered — debris from homes miles away, stacking up like dominoes, bridges that stood for decades washed out by water so high that it flowed six feet over their tops.

'You tell everybody you know — even if they don’t care — we’ll take care of our own damn selves if nobody shows up.'

I stood there, looking at this idyllic small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and I thought, “This will take years to rebuild. Maybe even decades.” But I didn’t just see destruction. I saw something far more powerful than nature’s wrath: the resilience of the American spirit.

My expectations for the government’s assistance were low before I arrived in Asheville, given its failing track record in previous natural disasters, but its response to Hurricane Helene victims — or lack thereof — was a new category of negligence. But the people in Asheville weren’t waiting on FEMA or the federal government to swoop in. They knew no one was coming.

The bridges were out, roads were destroyed, and the mountains had isolated them from outside help. But instead of despair, I saw hope. Instead of panic, I saw action. People were taking care of each other, and that is the America I remember, like in the days after 9/11 when we came together regardless of political party, race, or background. We didn’t care about who voted for whom. We just saw our neighbors hurting, and we asked, “Are you OK? What can I do to help?”

I saw that again in North Carolina. I saw it in the man who turned his Harley-Davidson dealership into a helicopter landing zone, shoveling mud out of his showroom just so rescue teams could land. I saw it in the volunteers flying missions across treacherous terrain, getting the elderly and the injured out of danger. They weren’t asking for government permission. They were doing what needed to be done.

Adam Smith, a retired Special Forces veteran who is coordinating the landing of helicopters in Asheville, told me that the FAA is trying to shut down the operation because it isn’t federally regulated. He told the feds that they’re going to leave because he has a helicopter landing in a few minutes that will actually help people while they are barking orders from Washington.

One story stood out to me. We landed to help evacuate an elderly woman with a broken hip and a severe infection. She just had surgery, but because her family didn’t have insurance, the hospital pushed her out as fast as it could. Her wound became infected, and her leg was on fire. We helped airlift her to get her desperately needed antibiotics and treatment. There were no government resources to help her to an emergency room.

As we loaded the woman into the helicopter, her grandson turned to me and said, “You tell everybody you know — even if they don’t care — we’ll take care of our own damn selves if nobody shows up.” That hit me hard because it’s the truth. It’s the way America used to be, and it’s the way we need to be again.

As I flew through those mountains in the helicopter, I couldn’t help but think of Billy Graham. I’d visited Asheville about 10 years ago to see him, and I remember thinking how beautiful and peaceful the town was. Today, it’s unrecognizable. The destruction is overwhelming. But the people are stronger than ever.

The government can’t save us. Washington is too slow and too bureaucratic, and quite frankly, the government doesn’t care. I saw it firsthand. We found a FEMA truck parked under a tree, its workers sitting at a card table in the shade. They weren’t doing anything to help.

But we’re Americans. We can take care of ourselves. We don’t need Washington to save us. We need each other. This is the America that Billy Graham spoke to me about — the America that will rise again in times of trouble. And while the government might fail us, we will not fail each other. And that’s exactly what I saw in North Carolina — Americans stepping up, taking care of their neighbors, and rebuilding their communities.

This is what I told the people of Asheville: You are not forgotten. There are millions of Americans who love you, who are praying for you, and who are ready to help. Because that’s what we do. We don’t wait for permission. We roll up our sleeves and take care of our own.

And to the rest of America, I say this: It’s time to remember who we are. It’s time to stop looking to Washington for solutions and start looking at each other. Because when the chips are down, it’s not the government that’s going to save us. It’s you and me, and if we stand together, nothing — no hurricane, no flood, no disaster — can break us.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.