Rap pioneer Scarface reveals he has kidney failure following coronavirus diagnosis
Scarface is experiencing serious health issues resulting from his COVID-19 diagnosis last month.
The 49-year-old Houston rap legend, born Brad Terrence Jordan, has revealed he’s currently on dialysis due to kidney failure which he attributes to his recent coronavirus battle.
During a Zoom chat with his former Geto Boys cohort, Scarface gave a health update, saying he’s “glad to be alive” after getting out of the hospital April 20 — showing his dialysis report.
“I fought the COVID double bilateral pneumonia in both lungs and kidney failure in my house,” the hip-hop trailblazer detailed in the beginning of the video, which was uploaded two days later.
“I gotta change my entire diet,” Scarface shared. “I gotta do dialysis four times a week, three hours a day. That’s taking all of my blood out, cleaning it, and putting it back in my body. Before the COVID, I never had kidney problems before.”
The “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” lyricist also described some of the symptoms while fighting the virus, which was diagnosed March 26: “I couldn’t keep food down, I couldn’t get comfortable, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t stay woke, I could not breathe. It was the worst time of my life.”
“Hanging on that string of death makes you really appreciate life. I was inches away from death,” the former Def Jam South artist said, explaining that he didn’t want to be on a ventilator at a “quarantined hospital” alone, as opposed to being at home.
Scarface, who ran for Houston City Council last fall, optimistically closed the video by playing his guitar and mentioning future endeavors, such as a Geto Boys podcast and a grand finale tour.
He also talked about the virus’ impact on black communities, warning states like Georgia and Texas about reopening too early.
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New York City ER doctor, 48, commits suicide after telling her family about the trauma of witnessing her patients dying from coronavirus
A top emergency room doctor battling on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak in New York City died by suicide over the weekend, her family members have revealed.
Dr. Lorna M. Breen, the medical director of the emergency department at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, died in Charlottesville, Virginia on Sunday.
In the days leading up to her death, the 48-year-old reportedly recounted to family members a series of traumatic scenes she’d witnessed working in the Manhattan hospital, including an onslaught of patients dying in front of her before they could even be removed from ambulances.
Breen had recently contracted COVID-19 but had returned to work at Allen after a week-and-a-half of rest. After the hospital sent her home, she re-located to Charlottesville to recuperate under the instructions of her father, Dr. Philip C. Breen.
On Sunday, however, officers from the Charlottesville Police Department responded to a call seeking medical assistance after Breen made an attempt on her own life.
Just days before, Breen’s father recounted how she appeared troubled by the devastating scenes she had witnessed while working with coronavirus patients at Allen.
‘She tried to do her job, and it killed her,’ Phillip Breen told the Times. ‘She was truly in the trenches of the front line.’
The grieving 71-year-old father said Breen had no history of mental illness, but during their final conversation together he noticed his daughter seemed detached and began to suspect something might be wrong.
‘Make sure she’s praised as a hero, because she was,’ he urged. ‘She’s a casualty just as much as anyone else who has died.’
NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital has not yet returned request from DailyMail.com for comment.
According to the Times, Dr. Angela Mills, the head of emergency medical services for several NewYork-Presbyterian campuses, including Allen, informed staffers of Breen’s tragic death in an email on Sunday night.
‘A death presents us with many questions that we may not be able to answer,’ a segment of the email read, which made no mention as to the cause of Breen’s death.
Located in northern Manhattan, the 200-bed Allen Hospital has been regularly been overwhelmed since the outbreak began, housing as many as 170 COVID-19 patients at times.
Emergency medicine physician, Dr. Dara Kass, who worked with Breen at the facility said even when she was at home recovering from the virus, Breen still made sure to regularly contact her colleagues to check-in on how they were and if they had the medical equipment they needed.
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African American students at University of South Carolina ‘Zoom-bombed’ by racist images, language
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WVLT/WBTV/WIS) — An online social gathering meant for African American students at the University of South Carolina was seemingly hacked by people spewing racial slurs and using blackface and neo-Nazi symbols.
The Association of African American Students (AAAS) was hosting its annual spring cookout using the virutal meeting platform Zoom when the incident happened Friday night, students say.
This morning, UofSC President Bob Caslen called what happened “absolutely unacceptable and disgusting.”
“I can’t apologize enough to the UofSC students who witnessed such ignorance while gathering to fellowship with one another during this unprecedented time,” Caslen said on Twitter.
Caslen said university officials are investigating.
According to WIS, representatives of AAAS also tweeted about what happened saying, “during the cookout, unknown persons entered the Zoom chat and proceeded to post a plethora of images, videos and messages containing racist slurs and derogatory terms.”
USC’s student government also responded condemning what happened and said “those responsible for this hateful act will be held accountable.”
Zoom replied to the USC student who posted the video of what happened, asking for more details and saying they would “escalate to our trust and safety team.”
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Hasbro toy factory now making coronavirus face shields
MASSACHUSETTS — A Massachusetts factory that normally makes some of the nation’s most beloved board games, including Monopoly, Risk and Candyland, has pivoted to making personal protective equipment for heath care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Charlie Baker said Saturday.
The Cartamundi-owned Hasbro factory is making 50,000 face shields per week for hospitals in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the Republican said after a tour of the East Longmeadow facility.
Making games and making personal protective equipment have the same goal, President and COO John Frascotti said.
“It is our job to make the world a better place for children and their families,” he said.
Baker also said an investigation into the high number of COVID-19-related deaths at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home is progressing, but there is no timetable for completion.
Former federal prosecutor Mark Pearlstein has “free reign” to conduct his investigation, Baker said.
State health officials on Saturday announced an additional 174 coronavirus deaths, pushing the state’s total to more than 2,700.
The state also also reported nearly 2,400 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total number of reported cases to more than 53,000.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/26/hasbro-toy-factory-now-making-coronavirus-face-shields/
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New York clinical trial testing heartburn medication as coronavirus treatment
A clinical trial is underway at major New York hospitals to test the efficacy of heartburn medication, in combination with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, on coronavirus patients, The Post has learned.
More than 150 people so far are taking part in the study, which began earlier this month and is being conducted by the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the research arm of Northwell Health, according to a spokesman for the hospital system.
Researchers are trying to find out whether famotidine — the active compound in the over-the-counter heartburn drug Pepcid — acts as an inhibitor of COVID-19, similar to the way certain drugs block the replication of HIV/AIDS.
Patients in the study are being given the heartburn drug intravenously along with hydroxychloroquine at Northwell’s North Shore University Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center and Lenox Hill Hospital, said David Battinelli, vice president and chief medical officer of Northwell.
The researchers initially wanted to test famotidine on its own, but with so many patients now being treated with hydroxychloroquine, they wouldn’t have had enough test subjects, they told Science Magazine, which first reported the study.
Those taking the combination will be compared with a group taking only the anti-malarial and a control group.
Hydroxychloroquine has been touted as a promising treatment by President Trump and some doctors and patients, though the preliminary results of some local studies found no benefit.
Anecdotally, the heartburn drug shows promise, said Battinelli, adding that he hopes to recruit up to 1,250 patients for the trial.
This is the first known coronavirus-related study using the drug, the hospital spokesman said.
Five other clinical trials testing potential COVID-19 treatments are also underway at Northwell.
It’s unclear when the results will be made available.
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Louisiana pastor, while on house arrest, again defies coronavirus order with church service
A Louisiana pastor who defied state orders against large gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic has been placed under house arrest.
Tony Spell, of Life Tabernacle Church in the city of Central, has been fitted with an ankle bracelet and placed under house after he would not promise to maintain social distancing, his attorney confirmed Sunday. Spell has admitted to violating Louisiana’s mandate to avoid large gatherings by hosting church services.
Spell still showed up to the church’s Sunday service, where he was greeted with cheers, according to a livestream posted on Facebook. The pastor showed off his ankle monitor while standing in front of his congregation, claiming, “I’m not hiding anymore.”
“It’s a dirty, rotten, crying shame when you have to hide in America,” he said.
Joseph Long, Spell’s attorney, told NBC News in a statement that Spell lived 50 yards from his church, which still planned to host services Sunday. Long characterized the judge’s order as forcing Spell to stop “preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to his congregation.”
“The judge has found him in contempt of Court for refusing to promise,” Long said. “Obviously, we believe this is an illegal order in violation of the Constitution, and will litigate the issue.”
In late March, Spell was issued a summons for violating the governor’s executive order against gatherings of more than 50 people. He hosted a church service of about 500 worshippers.
The following week, Spell was accused of violating the order again. He told CNN that he hosted around 1,220 churchgoers for a Palm Sunday service at his church.
Spell was then arrested Tuesday and charged with assault for allegedly backing up his church bus dangerously close to a protester outside the church. He was met outside the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison by cheering supporters after he posted bail. The pastor insisted he would not give up his rights to worship.
“My right to have church and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ are endowed by my creator — not my district attorney, not my chief of police and not my Gov. John Bel Edwards,” Spell said.
Louisiana has been one of the harder hit states in the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 26,000 confirmed cases and at least 1,703 dead as of April 26.
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/louisiana-pastor-house-arrest-refusing-145723989.html
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Demi Lovato on cutting ties with her exes, including Wilmer Valderrama and Joe Jonas: I realized it ‘wasn’t healthy’
Demi Lovato is elaborating on her decision to narrow her inner circle.
The singer and actress recently revealed that she no longer speaks to Selena Gomez or exes Joe Jonas and Wilmer Valderrama — and her change in management team has been well documented. She says that trimming her circle was part of an effort to “set boundaries” as part of treatment for her 2018 near-fatal overdose. Since then she’s cut out ‘toxic people” from her life.
“I’ve had to cut a lot of toxic people out of my life over the last year,” Lovato admitted on Jameela Jamil’s I Weigh podcast. “I kind of used to have this mentality that if I had a negative experience with someone I always needed to mend it or I always needed to make things right.”
She continued, “The fact of the matter is, I’m not really friends with any of my exes today because I had to realize that that wasn’t healthy either. Trying to maintain close friendships with some of my exes just isn’t realistic. There’s actually a reason why people don’t do that.”
Lovato said, “For so long people would be like, ‘How are you still friends with your exes?’ I’d be like, ‘I don’t know! I just am.’ That was because I was afraid of fully letting go of people. Now that I’ve been able to fully let go of people, that is another thing I had to learn when it comes to cutting toxic people out of your life. If they’re an ex, it’s for a reason.”
She called “learning to set boundaries” the “steepest learning curve” she’s had. “I had to learn that by not setting boundaries, it put me in the position that I was in. Talking about every detail of every part of my life [in the press], whether it be a relationship or whether it be my recovery, nothing was sacred to me anymore.”
Lovato, who is now dating The Young and the Restless star Max Ehrich, depicted the Jonas Brothers — including ex Joe — as well as the newly engaged Valderrama in her music video for anthem “I Love Me” about moving forward. She seemed to have cordial relationships with both Joe and especially Valderrama, whom she split from in 2016 after six years together. Joe publicly wished her well after her overdose, but Valderrama visited her in the hospital and rehab as she recovered.
Lovato spoke about not being friends with Gomez, the Jonas Brothers and Valderrama in the May issue of Harper’s Bazaar. The comments about Gomez specifically — whom she said she loved but was no longer friends with — led to a call on social media for Lovato to be “canceled” with the hashtag “DemiLovatoIsOverParty.”
“I’ve been canceled so many times, I can’t even count,” Lovato told Jamil. “It just doesn’t even affect me anymore.”
She went on to ask, “Where is the forgiveness culture? I do, to a certain degree — there are some people, if you have used up your second and third chances … you should stay canceled. But if you mess up and you apologize and come forward and say I’ve learned from this, then let that be an example for other people so they can change too.”
She added, “Cancel culture will not work unless people have some sort of mercy. You have to be able to do that. I think if it’s somebody who refuses to learn, just has the entitlement of I can never do any wrong and I can get away with this, then yeah go ahead and cancel them.”
Lovato talked about quarantine — how she’s with family, including her mother, Dianna De La Garza, who has been obsessively cleaning the house to pass the time. She compared social isolation to a “luxurious” form of rehab — the luxury being she has a TV and phone, two things she wasn’t allowed in treatment, where her movements were also restricted.
As for her July 2018 overdose, Lovato said on the podcast that she is “still healing.” She said her “body survived something insane — a near-death experience” during the ordeal.
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Miami goes seven weeks without a homicide for first time since 1957
Crime rates in cities nationwide have dropped as stay-at-home orders keep people indoors in an effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic. In Miami, Florida, there were no homicides for seven weeks for the first time since 1957, according to the Miami Police Department.
There were also no homicides during a six-week period for the first time since 1960. “We can say that it’s due to our police high visibility, attributed with the pandemic and the Stay At Home order,” a Miami Police Department spokesperson told CBS News.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez declared a local state of emergency on March 12 to slow the spread of the coronavirus, and the order has since been extended six times in week-long increments.
From February 17 until April 12 of this year — a total of seven weeks and six days — Miami had no reported homicides, according to police. In 1957, the city went 9 weeks and 3 days without any reported homicides. In 1960, a period of 6 weeks and 5 days passed without a homicide.
According to the Miami police, other crimes have also decreased. The department said the decrease has extended to domestic violence calls. But Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina told The New York Times he is concerned incidents of domestic violence and child abuse may be underreported during the order.
Crime is also down in Baltimore since Maryland issued its own stay-at-home order, CBS Baltimore reports. Although criminal incidents in the city still continue on a daily basis, assault, carjacking, robbery and shootings have all gone down since the order was implemented.
When compared to the same time last year, common assaults in Baltimore went down 34%, aggravated assaults went down 17%, and shootings dropped by 8%.
Los Angeles similarly reported that violent crime and property crimes are down compared to last year, according to CBS Los Angeles. Within a 9.73% drop in violent crime overall, homicides in particular were down 21%.
The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of Chicago. Despite a stay-at-home order in the city, robberies and shootings were up in the last week, according to CBS Chicago. Police responded to 19 shootings Tuesday night, six of which were homicides. That means shootings were up 42% from the same week last year, according to data analyzed by the station.
“We’re fighting the pandemic, and we’re fighting the epidemic,” said Tony Raggs with the Alliance of Local Service Organizations. “The epidemic being violence.”
In Los Angeles, the drop in violent crime has been marred by an increase in domestic violence calls. According to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, deputies responded to about 8% more domestic violence calls between mid-March and mid-April, when compared to last year.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, intimate partner violence affects 12 million people a year. Since stay-at-home orders went into affect, some regions have reported spikes in domestic violence complaints, while others are seeing a drop-off in domestic violence calls, as victims holed up with their abusers become more isolated.
“Everyone living in confined quarters, with very few options or reliefs, it’s a concern,” Villanueva said.
via: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/miami-no-homicide-seven-weeks/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab6a&linkId=87287887
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DJ Jazzy Jeff says he has COVID-19, can’t get tested
LOS ANGELES (CNN/Meredith) — Grammy-winner DJ Jazzy Jeff says he’s suffering from COVID-19.
The recording artist thinks he contracted the virus while DJ-ing in Idaho. But he can’t get tested and now says he is terrified to leave the house.
Fly in, spin some music and create memories, that’s what the musician does.
“My whole life is playing for people in large crowds,” he said.
But when the famed turntablist left Ketchum in Idaho’s Sun Valley, he may have brought something with him from the skier’s paradise: the novel coronavirus.
“It spiraled downhill extremely fast,” he said. “I lost my sense of smell. I lost my sense of taste. … I started hallucinating.”
That was in early March, before the lockdowns, before most realized the outbreak was already spreading in the US.
Less than a week after his return home, it hit him while in the store with his wife Lynette.
“I looked at her and I said, you know what? I don’t feel well,” he said. “I can honestly say I had one or two times that my brain started going down a dark path. I cannot believe this is how I’m going to go out.”
He said he was never tested for the coronavirus.
“There was no doubt in my mind that I had COVID,” he said. “It was just trying to figure out where. I never thought Ketchum.”
DJ Jazzy Jeff’s Sun Valley Party on March 6 was open to all. Among those who attended were members of the national brotherhood of skiers.
“When I walked off stage, I might have given 3 high-fives before I went to the dressing room,” he said.
By week’s end, people headed out, all over the country and even abroad, the local health department said.
Eventually, Jeff’s wife got sick, and then her mother fell ill.
“Now I’m feeling absolutely terrible, who else did I get sick?,” Jeff said.
His family have all recovered, but sadly that’s not the case for the brotherhood.
Several of them, including Haymon Jahi and Charles Jackson Jr., died of COVID-19.
Dr. Broderick Franklin, an emergency medicine physician in Los Angeles, was also in Sun Valley for the ski summit.
“Within a week after I returned from the trip, at least 4 people who I knew personally … tested positive,” he said.
While he never developed symptoms, Dr. Franklin did test positive for antibodies for the virus.
“It absolutely changed the way I looked at a patient’s presentation,” he said.
He said Jazzy Jeff’s case highlights that more virus and antibody testing remains key.
The DJ also wants the antibody test, if he can get over his fear.
“I am absolutely terrified to go out of the house,” he said. “Because you know, the unknown if you can get it again, the unknown, if I’m still carrying.”
From early on, performing with Will Smith AKA The Fresh Prince in the mid-80s, DJ Jazzy Jeff has traveled the world to rock people.
He says these new developments change how he sees his future.
“But the funny thing is I don’t think its just my future, I believe that 60% of this is our new norm,” he said.
Photo Credit: kmov.com