No need to wipe down food packaging during coronavirus pandemic, FDA says
Heads up, consumers: When running the essential errand that is grocery shopping during the coronavirus epidemic in the U.S., there’s no need to wipe down the food packaging after you’ve returned home, according to a federal agency.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) attempted to quell Americans’ fears that their food packaging may be contaminated with the novel coronavirus, as recent studies have suggested it can live on certain surfaces between hours and days.
But in a statement posted to its website on Thursday, the FDA said: “We want to reassure consumers that there is currently no evidence of human or animal food or food packaging being associated with transmission of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.”
“This particular coronavirus causes respiratory illness and is spread from person-to-person, unlike foodborne gastrointestinal or GI viruses, such as norovirus and hepatitis A that often make people ill through contaminated food,” it added, noting there are currently no nationwide shortages of food, though some stores may be out of certain products.
The FDA also provided tips on how to protect yourself, other shoppers and store employees when buying essential items. For instance, it advised to:
- Prepare a grocery list in advance
- Wear a face mask or covering while in the store (this is in line with recently updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] guidelines, and is now mandatory in hot spots like New York)
- Practice social distancing while shopping, make sure to stay at least 6 feet away from others
- Thoroughly wash your hands after returning home and again after putting the groceries away
“Again, there is no evidence of food packaging being associated with the transmission of COVID-19. However, if you wish, you can wipe down product packaging and allow it to air dry, as an extra precaution,” the FDA added.
Photo Credit: Taidgh Barron
Wisconsin sheriff threatened to arrest girl over coronavirus photo, lawsuit says
A Wisconsin teen who traveled to Florida for spring break was threatened with arrest for starting a “panic” when she posted on social media about having the coronavirus, a lawsuit alleges.
The legal battle for Amyiah Cohoon, 16, began when she posted a selfie in an oxygen mask while in the hospital for what doctors told her was likely COVID-19.
“I am still on breathing treatment but have beaten the coronavirus. Stay home and be safe,” she captioned the March 26 Instagram post.
The next day, Cameron Klump, a patrol sergeant with the sheriff’s office, visited Cohoon’s home and told her father that he had direct orders from Sheriff Joseph Konrath to demand that she delete the post or he would “start taking people to jail” for disorderly conduct.
“Sheriff Konrath advised me he wished for me to respond to the residence and have the post removed from her social media,” Klump wrote in his incident report, according to the lawsuit.
Samuel Hall, attorney for Konrath and the Marquette County Sheriff’s Department, told Fox News that his office acted “in good faith.”
“[Her messages] caused distress and panic within the school system and law enforcement acted at the request of school health officials in a good faith effort to avoid unfounded panic,” Hall said.
The sophomore became ill after she traveled to Disney World and Universal Studios with her Westfield Area High School band class on March 7, at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States.
The teen came down with a fever and dry cough five days after returning home on March 15, the lawsuit says. Her mother, Angela Cohoon, took her to the emergency room at Divine Savior Hospital on March 22, when she started having difficulty breathing.
Doctors who evaluated Cohoon said her symptoms were typical of COVID-19, but said she didn’t fit the criteria for one of the scarce tests, the lawsuit says. She was sent home with an inhaler and doctors told her and her parents to self-quarantine.
But the teen’s condition worsened and she was taken by ambulance March 25 to UW Children’s Hospital in Madison where she was tested for the coronavirus, according to the lawsuit.
The test came back negative, but doctors said she still likely had COVID-19 and had missed the window for testing positive, the lawsuit claims.
Cohoon was sent home from the hospital on March 26 and later posted the offending oxygen mask selfie.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Cohoon and her parents, Richard and Angela, seeks nominal damages and a declaration that the social media posts were protected free speech.
“The First Amendment’s protection of speech, especially online speech, is as vital as ever during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. … This case is about preserving the right to share our experiences with each other during this difficult time,” the lawsuit reads.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/17/sheriff-threatened-to-arrest-girl-over-coronavirus-photo-lawsuit-says/
Photo Credit: Court document
Mom saves toddler from crocodile by sticking fingers up reptile’s nose
Note to the wise: If you’re ever attacked by a crocodile — stick your fingers up its nose.
A mother in Zimbabwe rescued her toddler from a killer croc this week by jamming her fingers up the reptile’s nose.
Maurina Musisinyana, 30, had left her two children playing under an umbrella on the bank of the Runde River while she went fishing nearby when she heard a scream and saw her son Gideon being dragged away by the huge reptile.
Musisinyana jumped on the beast and used her fingers to block its nose, forcing it to release its grip on the boy, according to the Mirror. During the encounter, she was bitten on the hand.
“I pressed its nose hard, a tip I learnt from the elders long back, Musisinyana, from Chihosi village, told the paper.
“If you suffocate a crocodile from its nose, it loses its strength and that is exactly what I did. I used my other arm to free my baby’s head from its jaws. Even to this day, I still do not believe I rescued my son.”
Gideon was taken to a nearby hospital and has since made a full recovery.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/18/mom-saves-toddler-from-crocodile-by-sticking-fingers-up-reptiles-nose/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
After seeing teens near his car at 3 a.m., off-duty police officer opens fire, shooting 14-year-old in the head
A 14-year-old boy was in critical condition after being shot in the head by a homeowner in Metairie, who also happens to be an officer. Sheriff Joe Lopinto says it’s something that should have never happened and has a message for parents.
With a stay at home order in place, Lopinto said there’s no reason a group of teenagers should be roaming the streets.
“Good, bad or indifferent, no matter what, we had several juveniles that were out at 3:00 in the morning when they shouldn’t have been out,” said Lopinto.
Early Friday morning Lopinto said those juveniles were at the intersection of West Metairie and Grammar avenues. That’s when Lopinto said a homeowner, who’s an active officer with a law enforcement agency that’s not the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, woke up to sounds from outside.
“He was not in uniform, was woken up with no shirt on,” said Lopinto.
That’s when, Lopinto said, that off duty officer saw those juveniles around his vehicle and shot. A 14-year-old was shot once in the head and taken to University Medical Center in New Orleans. It’s a scene Lopinto said could have been avoided.
“It’s never a good call when you get a call that your child has been shot,” said Lopinto. “All that can be prevented if we keep our children home, especially at that time of night.”
A neighbor who didn’t want to go on camera said he heard what sounded like yelling before hearing a gunshot.
Lopinto said some of those juveniles have been identified and questioned and the homeowner was not acting as a police officer at the time of the shooting.
The sheriff said the homeowner will be treated as both a suspect and a victim. The sheriff didn’t say whether anyone has been arrested.
Photo Credit: wwltv.com
Kenya governor under fire after putting Hennessy bottles in coronavirus care packages
Nairobi, Kenya (CNN)Recipients of Nairobi politician Mike Sonko’s Covid-19 care packages can expect to receive the typical food staples except for one item — alcohol.Sonko, the governor of the Kenyan capital city, Nairobi, confirmed in a media briefing on Tuesday that his care packages include a few small bottles of the cognac, Hennessy.The governor justified the inclusion of alcohol as “throat sanitizer.””I think from the research conducted by the World Health Organization and various organizations, it has been believed that alcohol plays a major role in killing the coronavirus,” Sonko said in a video.
But the World Health Organization has explicitly stated that alcohol does not protect against coronavirus, and advises people to minimize its consumption.In a post released by the WHO on Tuesday, the organization said that alcohol can weaken the health of an individual and make them more vulnerable to viruses including coronavirus.Githinji Gitahi, the CEO of Amref Health Africa, a medical nonprofit, in a post on Twitter condemned Sonko’s claim and appealed to Kenyans to dump the alcohol.This isn’t the first time Sonko has been met with public scrutiny. The governor was arrested late last year on corruption charges, and was forced to surrender some of his duties to the national government.
Meanwhile, Hennessy has refuted through local media the claims by the Nairobi governor that its drink in particular or alcohol in general can ward off coronavirus contagion.”Hennessy would like to stress that the consumption of our brand or any other alcoholic beverage does not protect against the virus,” reads part of its statement to Nairobi News.CNN was unable to reach Sonko for comment.
via: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/17/africa/kenya-governor-alcohol-and-coronavirus/index.html
Photo Credit: cnn.com
Man breaks into restaurant, drinks liquor for 4 days before getting caught, CT cops say
A man in Connecticut faces a number of charges after police say he broke into a closed restaurant and feasted on food and alcohol for several days.
Police responded to a New Haven restaurant after a report of burglary-in-progress around 11:30 Tuesday morning, WVIT reported. The caller had found a man asleep in a closet, police said.
Officers arrived to find Louis Ortiz, 42, on a nearby street with a bottle of rum from the restaurant, according to the outlet.
Security footage showed that a man had entered through a side window several days before and that he’d been eating the restaurant’s food and drinking its liquor and beer for four days, WFSB reported.
Officials say the man had also taken other drinks out of the restaurant, according to the outlet.
The store had been closed for several days before the break-in, and the manager discovered the man during a routine building check, WFSB reported.
The restaurant estimated at least 70 bottles of liquor had been drunk or stolen and that the loss of food and beverages amounted to thousands of dollars, according to The Patch.
Ortiz is charged with several offenses including larceny, burglary and criminal mischief, the outlet reported. His bond was set at $12,500 with arraignment scheduled for Wednesday morning.
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/xandr/man-breaks-restaurant-drinks-liquor-193310289.html
Photo Credit: currently.att.yahoo.com
Louisiana pastor asks followers to send their stimulus checks to churches instead of buying food “……and if you don’t have a church, you can donate on MY website”
Tony Spell, the pastor at the Life Tabernacle Church in Central, Louisiana, believes his fellow pastors need your COVID-19 stimulus money more than you do.
TMZ reports that Spell has started a campaign called “#PastorSpellStimulusChallenge” in which followers are encouraged to send money they’ve received from the government as part of the federal stimulus package to evangelists and missionaries.
Spell claims that he and his wife are both donating their personal checks to churches in need instead of using it to pay for food, although he did not initially offer proof of doing so.
“His challenge also doesn’t seem to consider many people are in desperate need of their stimulus money for food, rent or bills,” notes TMZ.
Spell has become a lightning rod for controversy after he defied bans on large-scale gatherings by holding packed services in his church during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Spell also told his followers not to be afraid of dying from the virus, and even said that “death is a welcomed friend” for true believers.
Photo Credit: rawstory.com
Aussie Shopper Tries To Return 4,800 Rolls Of Toilet Paper And 150 Litres Of Hand Sanitizer
An Australian supermarket boss has revealed his brutal and blunt response after a shopper tried to return thousands of rolls of toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
The South Australian shopper went into one of the state’s Drake’s supermarkets and tried to make a deal.
Drakes supermarkets director John-Paul Drake revealed the shocking case of stockpiling in a YouTube video.
He said he was working in one of the stores when the receptionist called him, saying: “You have got to hear this.”
Mr Drake said he couldn’t believe his ears when the unidentified shopper wanted to return some of the items he had purchased.
“He said he wanted to get a refund on 150 32-packs of toilet paper and 150 units of one-litre sanitiser,” the supermarket director said.
“This sort of behaviour is disgraceful. He is the sort of person that’s causing the problem in the whole country.”
Unsurprisingly, John refused the deal.
But that didn’t stop the shopper from trying to hand the items over, coming in the next day to sweeten the deal.
Mr Drake continued: “He had all the receipts, he came back and offered me a 30 percent discount.
“We have only been selling these items one at a time. He would have had to have come in 150 times to buy them. That’s 150 (other) customers who have missed out.
“We’re all about supporting the local community. I want products bought here to stay here but this is ridiculous.”
The Drakes supermarket director alleged the man had been working with a team of shoppers to buy items while supply was in heavy demand to then sell it at an inflated price.
This shopper wasn’t the only one who tried this trick when things like toilet paper and hand sanitiser was in short supply.
Two brothers were stuck with 17,700 bottles of hand sanitiser after they bought in bulk to sell online as the coronavirus pandemic was getting started.
Matt and Noah Colvin of Hixson, Tenneseee, drove thousands of miles to pick up as many bottles of the handwash as they could after the first death was recorded in the US, earlier this year – spending between USD$10,000 and USD$15,000 on their haul.
They had hoped to flog the $1 bottles for an inflated price of $70 each, with people panicking over the spreading disease.
However, after Amazon put a block on accounts trying to make money from the crisis, the pair were left with thousands of bottles, unable to sell them.
They eventually donated all their products to a local church and first responders.
Photo Credit: ladbible.com
10-year-old boy battling leukemia now fighting coronavirus
(KNWA/CNN/Meredith) — A 10-year-old Arkansas boy already battling cancer is now fighting the coronavirus. He now has to delay life-saving cancer treatments.
Riley Duckworth was diagnosed with leukemia a couple of months ago, and now he’s been diagnosed with Covid-19.
Riley’s dad Jeremy Duckworth says the two are quarantined at Arkansas Children’s Northwest Hospital in Springdale. They will be stuck there until Riley’s blood counts recover.
“We cannot leave the room, not even to get food or anything,” Jeremy said. “We just take the news and do the best we can; we will be alright but it doesn’t make things easy.”
The father and son duo are spending time watching TV and playing games inside the hospital room.
Jeremy said with his son’s delayed cancer treatments, he doesn’t know what effect that will have on the cancer.
It’s a scary time for the family, but even with all they are going through, they keep positive.
“We know we’ll make it through, there are other people who have it a lot worse,” Jeremy said.
To keep their spirits up, Riley is thinking about all the things he will get to do when he gets better, like going camping.
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Brooklyn man allegedly disemboweled dad, cut off body parts
A Brooklyn man holed up in the house with his father during the coronavirus outbreak was arrested Wednesday for allegedly knifing and “badly mutilating” his dad, including by disemboweling him, police and sources said.
Following the gory murder, Khaled Ahmad, 26, allegedly left his family’s Dyker Heights home drenched in blood and went to a nearby bagel shop around 4:30 a.m., where he confessed to police officers.
“I killed my father,” Ahmad told them, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
The cops cuffed him and went to the tidy, two-family brick home on 84th Street near 14th Avenue, where they found 57-year-old Imad Ahmad dead with multiple stab wounds, police said.
“The body of the father was badly mutilated,” the spokesperson said.
Ahmad had allegedly cut off his father’s arms and part of his head, in addition to gutting him, police sources said. He had placed some of the body parts near the rest of the corpse.
He told officers that he and his dad had been trying to stay home during the pandemic, the sources said.
Cops found a large kitchen knife inside the house.
A neighbor told cops she’d heard screaming coming from the home overnight but did nothing because it was a “daily occurrence,” the sources said.
A female relative who answered the phone at the house on Wednesday evening told The Post she had no comment, before adding “This is heartbreaking.”
Ahmad was charged with murder and criminal possession of weapon. Police didn’t say what triggered the attack.
A neighbor said the father owned a supermarket in Queens and was “a very good man.”
“They were a very nice family. Very nice people. It is very strange. Very strange,” the 54-year-old said.
The murder was one of four to take place in the Big Apple over less than 12 hours beginning Tuesday afternoon.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/15/brooklyn-man-allegedly-disemboweled-dad-cut-off-body-parts/
Photo Credit: Gabriella Bass