A few days before the Nevada caucuses, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has taken a 12 percentage point lead in the Democratic presidential contest, according to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Tuesday morning. Sanders has the support of 31 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, up 9 points from the last Marist poll in December, but coming in at No. 2 is former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at 19 percent. That's a 15-point jump since December.
This poll qualifies Bloomberg to participate in Wednesday's Democratic debate, though Bloomberg won't be on the ballot in Saturday's caucuses. Bloomberg's campaign said he plans to participate if he qualifies. The billionaire media tycoon built up his poll numbers with the help of more than $400 million of his personal fortune and lots of advertising. He and the other candidates, especially Sanders, are going after each other with increasing vigor.
Former Vice President Joe Biden comes in third place in the poll at 15 percent, down 9 points since December, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 12 percent (a drop of 5 points), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) at 9 percent (down 4 points), and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 8 percent (down from 13 percent). Buttigieg narrowly leads in delegates after strong showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.
All of the candidates beat President Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head matchups, with Biden enjoying the biggest lead, followed by Bloomberg, Sanders, Klobuchar and Buttigieg, and Warren. Sanders leads among most categories except black voters — he's a close second to Biden — moderates, and voters over 45; Bloomberg gets the most support among those last two groups and is No. 3 with black voters.
Marist conducted the poll Feb. 13-16 among 1,416 U.S. adults, including 527 Democrats and leaners. The entire poll, including the head-to-heads with Trump, has a margin of error of ±3.7 percentage points; the Democratic rankings have a margin of error of ±5.4 points. Peter Weber
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield on Tuesday said if everyone in the United States wore face masks, the coronavirus could be "under control" within one to two months.
During a webinar with the Journal of the American Medical Association's Howard Bauchner, Redfield said he was "glad" President Trump wore a mask in public for the first time over the weekend, as this "set the example" for others. "The time is now" to wear face coverings, and he believes "if we could get everybody to wear a mask right now, I think in four, six, eight weeks we could bring this epidemic under control."
Redfield is concerned about this year's flu season coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic, and urged people to get their flu shots. "I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be probably one of the most difficult times that we experienced in American public health," he said. "Keeping the health care system from being overstretched I think is really important, and the degree we are able to do that will define how well we get through the fall and winter." Catherine Garcia
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized early Tuesday, after experiencing fever and chills, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said.
Ginsburg, 87, was evaluated at a hospital in Washington, D.C., on Monday night, before being admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg said Ginsburg "underwent an endoscopic procedure at Johns Hopkins this afternoon to clean out a bile duct stent that was placed last August. The justice is resting comfortably and will stay in the hospital for a few days to receive intravenous antibiotic treatment."
In May, Ginsburg received treatment at Johns Hopkins for a gallbladder condition. She has battled cancer four times, and last August, underwent radiation for a tumor on her pancreas. Catherine Garcia
The results from the first phase of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine trial are out, and the promising findings are in line with some early data from the study released in May.
The study, published Tuesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, found the experimental mRNA vaccine — which requires two doses a month apart — induced coronavirus immune responses in all 45 participants, just as scientists had hoped. There were some mild side effects, including fatigue, chills, and fevers, but The Associated Press notes those aren't uncommon with other vaccines, and there have been no major safety concerns.
Moderna will begin its final step at the end of July, a 30,000-person study to prove if the shots are strong enough to protect people from the virus. While the first phase does indicate the vaccine produces antibodies geared toward fighting off the virus, it's less clear if the levels of antibodies are enough to actually fend off infection. Read the full results of the study at The New England Journal of Medicine, as well as more context at The Associated Press. Tim O'Donnell
The creators of Glee are remembering Naya Rivera as a "joy to be around," and setting up a college fund for her young son, after her tragic death.
Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan released a tribute to Rivera on Tuesday after officials said they recovered her body at Lake Piru in California, where she went missing days earlier. The actress, who played Santana Lopez on Glee, was feared dead after her 4-year-old son was found alone in a boat she had rented. Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub said this week Rivera "mustered enough energy to get her son back onto the boat, but not enough to save herself," and an autopsy has since confirmed her cause of death as accidental drowning. She was 33.
"We are heartbroken over the loss of our friend Naya Rivera," Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennan said, per Variety. They described her as "one of the most talented, special stars we would ever have the pleasure of working with," someone who was "a joy to write for, a joy to direct and a joy to be around."
"She was warm and caring and fiercely protective of the rest of the cast," they go on to say. "She was tough and demanding. She was fun. She was kind. She was generous. ... Naya was more than just an actor on our show — she was our friend."
The statement ends with Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennan saying that their "hearts go out to her family" and that they are "in the process of creating a college fund for the beautiful son Naya loved most of all."
Among Rivera's former Glee colleagues who previously paid tribute this week were Jane Lynch, who remembered "what a force" she was, and Chris Colfer, who wrote, "Naya was truly one of a kind, and she always will be." Brendan Morrow
Florida is now leading much of the world in new coronavirus cases, and it's showing no signs of slowing down.
Florida reported 9,194 new coronavirus cases in the past day on Tuesday afternoon, bring its total case count to 291,629. A total of 132 new deaths were reported, bringing that count to 4,409, per the Miami Herald.
Miami-Dade County led the new case count at 2,090, leading one infectious disease expert to deem Miami the new "epicenter of the pandemic," CNN reports. "What we were seeing in Wuhan six months ago, five months ago — now we are there," said Lilian Abbo, of the Jackson Health System, during a Monday news conference held by the Miami-Dade County mayor.
The county has seen coronavirus hospitalizations grow by 68 percent and the number of ICU beds used go up by 69 percent in the past two weeks. The number of ventilators in use has also more than doubled during that time. Kathryn Krawczyk
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has announced a "return to the status quo" on international student visas.
Following several schools' decisions to go fully remote to stem COVID-19 spread, ICE announced foreign students could not access essential F and M visas they'd need to study in the U.S. But facing opposition from more than 50 colleges and universities, the Trump administration rescinded that rule change, a federal judge in Boston announced Tuesday.
ICE's initial decision came after Harvard University and other schools announced all their classes would be fully online in the fall, though most schools said they'd house students who could not learn effectively in their homes. That included students in countries wracked by civil unrest.
Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology specifically cited those students in suing ICE for its decision, and said it "would bar hundreds of thousands of international students at American universities from the United States." Dozens of universities joined the suit, which went to court Tuesday. That's where a judge announced ICE would "return to the status quo" and effectively drop its rule change. Kathryn Krawczyk