USA Today - 03.04.2020

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NATION’S HEALTH

USA TODAY | FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2020 | SECTION D

Debi Chalik listened in horror as

Vice President Mike Pence announced

at a news conference that 21 passen-

gers aboard the Grand Princess had

tested positive for coronavirus.

It was March 6, and her parents

were on the cruise. She knew that their

ages, 74 and 69, would make them par-

ticularly susceptible to the virus.

“I was very angry, given that there

was no doubt my parents’ lives were

placed at imminent risk of serious

harm,” Chalik said.

As an attorney, Chalik said she

thought the cruise line had breached

its duty to provide reasonable care for

Ronald and Eva Weissberger and the

rest of the ship’s 3,500-plus passen-

gers and crew by failing to take precau-

tions to stop the spread of the virus.

On March 9, five days after the

cruise ship announced that a man on a

previous voyage had died of the virus,

Chalik sued on their behalf. The

Weissbergers became the first cruise

passengers to file suit related to

coronavirus.

Experts and fellow attorneys said

they face an uphill battle against re-

strictive terms of service buried in

passengers’ paperwork and maritime

laws that predate the sinking of the Ti-

tanic by half a century.

Nearly all legal cases are limited to

losses related to physical injuries, not

emotional or psychological damage.

The Death on the High Seas Act, first

passed in the 1920s and updated only

once since, prevents survivors from

suing for their emotional distress or

pain and suffering even when a loved

one dies on a ship at sea.

A law from 1850 still lets vessel

owners limit their liability to the value

of the ship. Class actions aren’t al-

lowed. Statutes of limitations can be

as short as a year.

Chalik has signed 34 clients, includ-

Lawsuits

mount

vs. cruise

lines

Old laws may shield

industry from payouts

Cara Kelly

USA TODAY

A medical worker helps a passenger

from the Grand Princess cruise ship

March 10. JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

See CRUISE LINES, Page 4D

USA TODAY

INVESTIGATION

Corey Shepherd teaches fifth-graders
in rural Alaska in a school district the size
of Indiana. The terrain there is so rural
that only airplanes and snowmobiles
connect the district’s 11 tiny villages.
Shepherd is one of more than 7,000
teachers in his state trying to make the
most of teaching his students since the
governor closed schools to in-person
learning to stop the spread of the coro-

navirus. One method he isn’t relying on:

online learning.

“Around half of my students have ac-

cess to the internet on some device at

home,” Shepherd said. “Internet service

is very expensive in rural Alaska and

comes with data caps. Internet service

is also prone to interruptions due to

weather.”

For those who already have service,

there’s help: Across the nation, many

internet providers have agreed to waive

late fees and end disconnects for fam-

ilies in financial hardship. But millions

without high-speed internet at home

Worksheets and Wi-Fi

in school parking lots

Lee Brissette and his daughter, Wriglee, search for an envelope with the week's

assignments at Parkston (S.D.) Elementary School. ERIN BORMETT/USA TODAY NETWORK

Teachers in rural areas

hindered with no internet

Erin Mansfield and Shelly Conlon
USA TODAY NETWORK

See INTERNET, Page 2D

The U.S. topped 1,000 coronavirus
deaths in a single day for the first time
Wednesday, a daily death toll more than
double that of two of America’s most
deadly illnesses – lung cancer and the
flu.
Death counts from the virus are diffi-
cult to keep up to date, but the Johns
Hopkins coronavirus database – whose
sources include the World Health Or-
ganization, the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, the European
CDC and the National Health Commis-
sion of China – shows that the U.S. hit
1,040 cases Wednesday at 10:25 p.m.
EDT. Since the virus’ first appearance in
the U.S. in late January, 5,116 people
have died and more than 215,000 have
been infected.
The previous high mark for a single
day in the U.S. was Tuesday, with 504
deaths.
Some researchers say the daily death
toll could more than double – to 2,200 or
more – by mid-April. That figure would
eclipse heart disease, the nation’s No. 1
killer with about 1,772 deaths per day,
according to the CDC.
“Our country is in the midst of a great
national trial,” President Donald Trump
said in a White House briefing on the vi-
rus. “We’re going to go through a very
tough two weeks.”

Lung cancer kills 433 people each day

in the U.S. – that’s the same number of

seats on a Boeing 747 airplane, accord-

ing to the Lung Cancer Foundation of

America. Breast cancer kills about 116

Americans a day.

The flu, a chronic killer that the na-

tion has come to expect in yearly cycles

• and the reason millions of Americans
  get flu shots – killed an estimated 508

people per day in the U.S. during the

2017-18 flu season, the nation’s worst

in the last decade, according to the

CDC. This year’s flu season has record-

ed an average of 383 deaths per day,

CDC figures show.

While health officials say COVID-19

is considered a flash medical event in

that it is unlikely to maintain its deadly

hold for more than three or four

months, the 1,000 threshold is a sig-

nificant one because it shows just how

potent an unforeseen outbreak can be

on the U.S. medical system.

It also raises questions about CO-

VID-19’s possible deadly effects over

time. Anthony Fauci, a member of the

White House Coronavirus Task Force,

has cautioned that the virus could be-

come a recurring event, much like the

flu. He said that the U.S. needs to get

ready for the next cycle, possibly to oc-

cur in the fall of 2020.

“We really need to be prepared for

another cycle,” Fauci said.

Fauci, the director of the National

Institute of Allergy and Infectious Dis-

eases, emphasized the need to con-

tinue developing a vaccine and test it

quickly so it will be available “for that

next cycle.”

A University of Washington study

updated this week projects that if the

entire nation makes an all-out effort to

restrict contact, coronavirus deaths

will peak in the next two weeks and

patients will overwhelm hospitals in

most states.

Medical personnel wearing personal protective equipment remove bodies from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center on
Thursday in the Brooklyn borough of New York. MARY ALTAFFER/AP

US tops 1,000 COVID-19

deaths in a single day

Number doubles worst

daily total of the flu

Michael James
USA TODAY

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the

National Institute of Allergy and

Infectious Diseases, speaks about the

coronavirus Wednesday. AP

“We really need to be

prepared for another cycle.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci

director of the National Institute of Allergy and

Infectious Diseases

See DEATHS, Page 2D