In Other News: ‘Tired to the bone’: Hospitals overwhelmed with virus cases; Will social distancing weaken my immune system?

Published 12:50 pm Thursday, November 19, 2020

Editor’s note: “In Other News” is a list of state, national and global headlines compiled by Daily Citizen-News staff from Associated Press stories. Click on the headlines below to read the full stories.

‘Tired to the bone’: Hospitals overwhelmed with virus cases

Overwhelmed hospitals are converting chapels, cafeterias, waiting rooms, hallways, even a parking garage into patient treatment areas. Staff members are desperately calling around to other medical centers in search of open beds. Fatigue and frustration are setting in among front-line workers. Conditions inside the nation’s hospitals are deteriorating by the day as the coronavirus rages across the U.S. at an unrelenting pace and the confirmed death toll surpasses 250,000. “We are depressed, disheartened and tired to the bone,” said Alison Johnson, director of critical care at Johnson City Medical Center in Tennessee, adding that she drives to and from work some days in tears.

Explainer: A look at Trump’s long-shot legal challenges

As President Donald Trump continues to push falsehoods about the election, his legal team has so far failed to gain any traction in court without evidence of widespread fraud, which experts widely agree doesn’t exist. Despite that, Trump and his Republican allies are pressing forward with several cases aimed at blocking or delaying the certification of election results in key battleground states won by President-elect Joe Biden. Republicans are complaining that, among other things, their observers weren’t allowed to properly review the processing of ballots.

Will social distancing weaken my immune system?

In short, no. Some worry a lack of contact with others will weaken their immune system by reducing its active contact with germs. But even when we’re staying 6 feet from others or spending most of our time at home, our bodies are continuously responding to plenty of bacteria and other germs that inhabit indoor and outdoor environments. “We’re constantly exposed to microbes,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immune system researcher at Yale University. “Our immune system is always being triggered.”

Carol Burnett puts variety, and music, back in her show

LOS ANGELES — Carol Burnett is so glad we had this time together, as she sang in her signature song. Now, she’s added a lot more time, and a lot more songs, to be glad about. Since its original run from 1967 to 1978, most viewers have only seen heavily chopped versions of “The Carol Burnett Show,” and many fans had no idea that singing and dancing were an essential part of a series that was actually more classic variety show than modern comedy sketch show.