7 Things: Alabama’s spike in deaths explained, unemployment jumps again, Sewell for VP and more …

7. Investigations are about to start up again

• The U.S. House of Representatives has decided that U.S. Representative James Clyburn (D-SC) will chair a new committee that’s going to oversee all federal government responses to the coronavirus in a 212-182 vote. 
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that the committee will mainly focus on where federal funds are going during this time for economic recovery, and she insisted that “this isn’t about assigning blame.” Pelosi added, “It’s about taking responsibility.”

6. Alabama legislature is going back to work

• It’s been announced that the legislature will resume their session on May 4, which was supposed to happen on April 28, but House Speaker Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston) are going to move the date to a week later. 
• In a release by Marsh, the top priorities for the remainder of the legislative session will be the General Fund and Education Trust Fund budgets and local legislation. They’ll only have a couple of weeks as the latest meeting allowed for the regular session will be on May 18. 

5. Antibody test gives hope 

• A test of New Yorkers shows that the coronavirus may have spread far wider and earlier than previously thought. Preliminary results show one of every five New York City residents tested positive for antibodies to the coronavirus, while the first death in the nation is thought to have occurred in January in California.
• Antibody and coronavirus testing developed in Alabama by Webb Diagnostic Technologies is supposed to be safe, easy to manufacture and give results quickly. U.S. Representative Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) said that this kind of test could “allow us to reopen our economy in a safe manner and put an end to this pandemic.”

4. Auburn professors to develop coronavirus instant screening

• The National Science Foundation has granted Auburn University professors $200,000 to develop “an inexpensive, near-real-time, point-of-care diagnostic device that would meet the need to more quickly and more conveniently diagnose COVID-19 and understand its spread.”
• U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) commented that he’s happy the National Science Foundation is “investing in our efforts to combat this disease & prevent it from spreading.”

3. Terri Sewell named a “dark horse” for Biden’s running mate

• The National Review published a report where they called U.S. Representative Terri Sewell (D-Selma) a potential “proverbial ‘dark horse’ candidate nobody saw coming” to be former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate. 
• Dan McLaughlin of National Review said there “are at least ten reasons why she might be an attractive choice for Biden,” one thing being “identity politics.” The current front runners to be Biden’s VP are U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and former State Representative Stacey Abrams (D-GA).

2. Unemployed Alabamians will have to go back to work

• The Alabama Department of Labor released a statement Thursday reminding the people on unemployment that if their employer restarts work, they will have to go back or they will lose their unemployment benefits, saying, “It’s important for workers to know that if their employer reopens or otherwise calls them back to work, they must do so, unless they have a good work-related cause for not returning.”
• As 4.4 million more people filed for unemployment, there is growing concern that the $600 coronavirus payment will make it less likely that low-income workers will want to return to the workforce.

1. Alabama’s spike in COVID-19 deaths explained

• Earlier this week, there was a perceived spike in deaths because of the way Alabama was reporting deaths. Alabama public health officials have now changed that to prevent the spread of misinformation moving forward while some in the state believe we are in the containment phase.
• Jefferson County Department of Health’s Dr. David Hicks said, “Someone who had a positive test result now automatically classifies them as having a COVID-19 death. That is what changed. So, we had to go back in retrospectively go back and update our numbers.”