The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will shift to remote learning after clusters of five or more coronavirus cases spread in three residence halls and within a fraternity, just one week after class began.
The big picture: Universities determined to reopen this fall boasted preventative measures that include smaller class sizes, cleaning protocols and even testing options, but problems still persist.
Sanofi agreed to buy Principia Biopharma, a South San Francisco-based developer of drugs for multiple sclerosis and pemphigus, for around $3.7 billion in cash.
Why it matters: It's the year's second-largest pharma merger so far, and is part of the same cash-reliant, bolt-on playbook that CEO Paul Hudson employed while helming Novartis' drugs division.
49% of parents said they would probably or definitely send their child to school this fall, according to a paper published in JAMA Pediatrics, while 31% were likely to keep their child home this fall even if schools opened for in-person instruction.
What they're saying: "Schools need to act soon to allay parental concerns," the authors write."It is also critical that structural barriers to families making the choice that works best for them are acknowledged and remedied where possible to minimize worsening disparities."
Dentists' offices are reopening and working overtime, and dental suppliers are optimistic things are close to returning to normal after the coronavirus put the industry on ice for almost two months.
Why it matters: Cleaning teeth and filling cavities, by their nature, require close contact with the vessel that spreads the virus. That has some experts worried, and the World Health Organization this month advised people to delay routine dental care until COVID-19 transmission rates decline further.
To the alarm of some government health officials, President Trump has expressed enthusiasm for the Food and Drug Administration to permit an extract from the oleander plant to be marketed as a dietary supplement or, alternatively, approved as a drug to cure COVID-19, despite lack of proof that it works.
Driving the news: The experimental botanical extract, oleandrin, was promoted to Trump during an Oval Office meeting in July. It's embraced by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell, a big Trump backer, who recently took a financial stake in the company that develops the product.
Cruise ship passengers were tested for the coronavirus on Sunday before setting sail for what is believed to be the first Mediterranean cruise since Italy's lockdown, AP reports.
Why it matters: Cruise ships were the source of some of the first coronavirus outbreaks in the world due to the high population density and close quarters that passengers live in. Over 600 passengers on the Diamond Princess were infected with the virus in February.
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner defended the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday, telling CBS News' "Face the Nation" that the current rate of deaths is "still below" the May peak of 2,500 per day and that "we know a lot more than we did five months ago."
Why it matters: The U.S. is one of the few wealthy countries that has failed to suppress the outbreak, reporting a total of over 5.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 170,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic — by far the highest death rate in the world, according to Johns Hopkins.
Over the past several weeks, the coronavirus has killed Americans at six times the average rate in other rich countries. And we’re recording about eight times more infections.
Why it matters: The virus burned through the rich world like wildfire in the spring, but this new data confirms that the U.S. is one of very few wealthy countries that have failed to suppress it since then.
