Ripped from the Headlines: April 2020: This Week In Words: April 26–May 2, 2020

As his poll numbers fell, aides tried to dissuade President Trump from continuing with his daily briefings, which some in the White House said were contributing to his growing unpopularity. After the briefing in which he suggested that injecting poisonous cleaning products might help against Covid-19 — which was quickly rejected by medical experts as dangerous, and even deadly — the President saw poll results that reportedly showed Joe Biden with a commanding lead in many swing states.

Reports out of the White House suggest that the delay in responding to the pandemic was due in part to the dynamic between the President and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. de facto is Latin, meaning "in fact;" its counterpart, de jure, means "by law." When something may not be legal but is the reality of a situation, like when a king is ill and the Prince rules from behind the scenes, the Prince is the de facto ruler of the kingdom.

Nearly 4 million more people in the U.S. applied for unemployment last week, and experts think that's probably lower than the number of people who actually lost their jobs. This report brings the official total number of unemployed people in the last six weeks to over 30 million. It's possible that another 15 million more may also have lost work but didn't or couldn't apply for benefits.

Slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants in the Midwest became hotspots in the pandemic since workers stand close together and many companies were slow to establish distance protocols or provide protective gear. As some plants shut down, the President issued an order declaring them essential businesses, but without clear guidelines for safe work practices experts say that workers will continue to get sick and there may be interruptions in the meat supply.

Most people stayed home on April 22, so planned public demonstrations for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day did not take place. Once the pandemic crisis fades, though, activists say the climate crisis needs immediate action. In Latin, filum and granum mean "thread" and "grain" respectively. Filigree is a combination of the two, via French, taken from the delicate ornamental metalwork done on some jewelry.

House Democrats are considering another $1 trillion aid package for state and local governments. As unemployment grows and tax revenues fall, more and more states, cities, and towns are suffering severe budget crunches and are having to make deep cuts and in some cases begin laying off essential workers like police, teachers, and paramedics. Liable probably comes from the Latin ligare, to tie up.

Remdesevir, an experimental antiviral drug, has been shown to be effective as a treatment for Covid-19, shortening the average illness of hospitalized patients by nearly a third. Its effectiveness in people with milder symptoms is unknown, though results from a study will be released soon.

Some homemade face masks can be nearly as effective as the N95 masks used by medical professionals at preventing the spread of the coronavirus. Most effective are multi-layer constructions with cotton on the outside and a layer of silk or polyester inside. The different materials, besides forming a physical filter, also generate an electrostatic charge that can attract and trap particles, including droplets containing the virus.

The Director of National Intelligence issued a report that the coronavirus was not manmade or genetically engineered. It said that U.S. intelligence agencies are continuing to investigate the virus's origin, whether from a wild animal or an accident at a research lab in Wuhan, China, where the first outbreak occurred. Rigor is Latin for "unbending," "inflexible," "hard," or "severe."

According to experts, the easiest way to ensure public safety during the November election is to make voting by mail as easy as possible nationwide. Democrats want to include provisions along these lines into pandemic relief legislation. There is no evidence that mail-in ballots favor one party over the other, but Republicans are resisting. To bind a wound so it stops bleeding is to staunch the flow of blood. It comes from the Old French estanche, meaning "watertight."