U.S. sets death record again as FDA advisers recommend Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

China’s transportation officials are recommending flight attendants wear disposable diapers and avoid restrooms at all costs on flights serving countries with high rates of coronavirus cases, according to documents from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

The recommendation to use diapers and avoid in-flight bathrooms altogether applies on flights to and from countries with infection rates exceeding 500 cases per million people. The United States’ coronavirus case rate exceeded that limit as of Dec. 10, at more than 660 cases per million.

The guidance is part of a lengthy document detailing technical guidelines for preventing the spread of the coronavirus in planes, which also states that flight and cabin crew should, on lower-risk flights, designate their own private lavatory and sanitize it before and after each use. The document was issued on Nov. 25, according to CNN.

A Republican member of Ohio’s House of Representatives is facing criticism for flouting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and returning to work despite twice testing positive for the coronavirus in one week, as the number of infected members of the Ohio Statehouse continues to climb.

State Rep. Stephen Hambley tested positive Nov. 22 and again Nov. 28, he told the Ohio Capital Journal. Days after his second positive test, Hambley attended a House Finance Committee meeting in person. Four lawmakers who attended that meeting have since tested positive.

Hambley announced his diagnosis in a Dec. 6 Facebook post and said he was exposed while at the Ohio Statehouse on Nov. 17, where he had worked with an aide who later tested positive.

“Upon being informed of an aide who tested positive and before I developed symptoms, I followed CDC and House recommended protocols and quarantined,” Hambley wrote. The 66-year-old lawmaker said he isolated 10 days after developing symptoms.

Despite his claims to have followed all necessary guidelines, he continued to work after he was alerted that he had been exposed to his covid-19-positive aide and after testing positive himself days later. He can be seen in footage of meetings and hearings not wearing a mask.

Oho House Democrats said they were kept in the dark about Hambley’s diagnosis.

“There continues to be no communication from the Speaker’s office and the majority leadership alerting members or staff to the situation or how it is being handled,” Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes (D) said in a Dec. 7 email.

Sykes condemned Hambley’s decision to continue working among his colleague while infected as “incomprehensible.” On Twitter on Thursday, she said such behavior “shows a complete lack of respect for every person who enters into the Peoples House.”

Early in the pandemic, Joo Park noticed a worrisome shift at the market he manages near downtown Washington: At least once a day, he’d spot someone slipping a package of meat, a bag of rice or other food into a shirt or under a jacket.

Since then, he said, thefts have more than doubled at Capitol Supermarket — even though he now stations more employees at the entrance, asks shoppers to leave backpacks up front.

“It’s become much harder during the pandemic,” he said. “People will say, ‘I was just hungry.’ And then what do you do?”

The coronavirus recession has been a relentless churn of high unemployment and economic uncertainty. The government stimulus that kept millions of Americans from falling into poverty earlier in the pandemic is long gone, and new aid is still a dot on the horizon after months of congressional inaction. Hunger is chronic, at levels not seen in decades.

New Hampshire state Rep. Dick Hinch (R) has died of covid-19 one week after being sworn in as House speaker.

Hinch, 71, was found dead in his home Wednesday. With the permission of Hinch’s family, New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald announced Thursday that the state’s chief medical examiner determined that the cause of death was covid-19.

Gov. Chris Sununu (R), in a statement issued after Hinch’s death, praised him as “a close friend, and a respected public servant.”

“His loss will be greatly felt by the people of this state, and I ask Granite Staters to join me in praying for his family during this incredibly difficult time,” Sununu said.

Several New Hampshire House Republicans had tested positive for the coronavirus in the days leading up to the Dec. 2 meeting of the full 400-member House — at which Hinch was sworn in to his new leadership role. He drew the ire of state Democrats for not disclosing before the event how many members of the Republican caucus were infected and in attendance.

At the time, Hinch was dismissive of their concerns, arguing that infections were inevitable among a group comprising mostly older retirees.

“We are experiencing higher than usual rates of infections in our state, and the Legislature and its members are not immune from that,” Hinch said at the time, according to the Concord Monitor. “We are a citizen legislature, and it can be expected that our legislators are at the same risk as the citizens we represent.”

After the attorney general announced the cause of death, Rep. William Marsh (R), a retired ophthalmologist, rebuked fellow Republicans who had opposed health guidelines such as mask-wearing.

“Those in our caucus who refused to take precautions are responsible for Dick Hinch’s death,” Marsh said via Twitter.

The daily death toll from the coronavirus in the United States for the next two to three months will be greater than the toll of terrorist attacks on 9/11, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield acknowledged Thursday.

The staggering loss of life anticipated this winter, roughly 180,000 to 270,000 additional deaths by that metric, will not be affected by the pending coronavirus vaccine approval, Redfield said in a virtual meeting with the Council on Foreign Relations. More than 291,000 people have died in the United States thus far.

“This is why we are really asking people to double down on the mitigation steps that we know work,” Redfield said, hinting at but not naming elected officials who have resisted calls to implement mask mandates. Transmission of the virus through gatherings in homes has surged, Redfield also said, warning that Americans should be more vigilant as the holidays loom.

The nation surpassed the toll from 9/11 — 2,977 deaths — Wednesday with 3,140 deaths related to the virus, according to Washington Post analysis.

Redfield said the nation’s lack of health equity and the population’s disproportionate comorbidities has contributed to the country’s grim death count. The United States is ranked No. 13 among countries with the highest mortality rates per capita.

Redfield had not previously compared the toll to 9/11 publicly but has forecast a brutal winter in the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic and flu season.

“The reality is, December and January and February are going to be rough times,” Redfield, said at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation event last week. “I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.”

Reis Thebault contributed to this report.