Robert Durst Has Covid, His Lawyer Says, and Is On A Ventilator

Robert Durst has Covid, his lawyer says, and is on a ventilator.
- The New York Times 10/17/21, 10:17 AM
Oct. 16, 2021, 10:39 p.m. ET

Oct. 16, 2021 Updated 5 hours ago
Daily Covid Briefing

The 78-year-old millionaire and former real estate mogul was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for the murder of a friend in 2000.
Minnesota’s governor calls up the National Guard to ease crowding in hospitals.
An F.D.A. panel explores mixing and matching vaccine doses.
New Zealand tries to set a record with a ‘vaxathon.’
The Yukon Territory imposes a vaccine mandate as cases surge in northern Canada.
Lawsuits multiply seeking to force hospitals to use ivermectin, a drug unproven against Covid.
Here’s why some New Yorkers changed their minds and finally got the Covid vaccine.
Airlines in Japan and South Korea get creative to revive pandemic-dampened demand.
Robert Durst, 78, in a Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday as he was sentenced to life
in prison without chance of parole for a murder 21 years ago. Pool photo by Myung J.
Chun
By Charles V. Bagli
The millionaire and former real estate mogul Robert A. Durst, 78, is on a ventilator in a Los Angeles hospital after testing
positive for Covid-19, days after being sentenced to life in prison for the 2000 murder of his confidante.
“We were notified that he tested positive for Covid,” his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said on Saturday.
Mr. Durst was admitted Friday night to LAC+USC Medical Center, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s
inmate locator. The district attorney’s office said it could not comment because of medical privacy laws.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/10/16/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine Page 1 of 11
Robert Durst has Covid, his lawyer says, and is on a ventilator. - The New York Times 10/17/21, 10:17 AM
At a sentencing hearing on Thursday, Mr. Durst sat slumped in a wheelchair. He wore a brown prison jumper and a mask. At
times, his breathing appeared labored. He pulled down his mask, only to raise it again moments later.
“His health deteriorated over the weeks of the trial,” Mr. DeGuerin said. “On Thursday, he looked like death warmed over.”
Read more
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New cases 83,703 –23% 389,050 –13%

New deaths 1,570 –17% 6,508 –17%
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Minnesota’s governor calls up the National Guard to ease crowding in hospitals.
Gov. Tim Walz announced that he’ll call on the Minnesota National Guard to alleviate
staffing shortages at health care facilities hit hard by the COVID-19 surge, in
Robbinsdale, Minn., on Friday. Grant Schulte/Associated Press
By Lauren McCarthy
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said on Friday that he would call upon the state’s National Guard to help ease staffing shortages
that have kept hospitals from transferring Covid-19 patients for stepped-down care at long-term care facilities.
Mr. Walz called the transfers a “very typical thing in our medical system” and said they had been bottlenecked by capacity at
those facilities. He said the National Guard will be given the training necessary to provide long-term care. He did not say how
many soldiers will provide that relief, but said it will be “a fairly large contingent.”
The governor traveled to North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, just outside Minneapolis, to announce the plan.
Minnesota Covid-19 Hospitalizations ›
All time Last 90 days
7–day
2,000 hospitalized average
1,500
1,000
500
Apr. 2020 Jul. Oct. Jan. 2021 Apr. Jul. Oct.
About this data
North Memorial’s chief executive, Dr. Kevin Croston, said his organization was struggling with staff shortages it did not have a
year ago. “Our teams are now more stressed than they’ve ever been,” he said, adding that the “roller coaster” his employees
are experiencing is happening all over Minnesota.
Read more
An F.D.A. panel explores mixing and matching vaccine doses.
Vials of Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. David W. Cerny/Reuters
By Noah Weiland, Carl Zimmer and Sharon LaFraniere
When an advisory panel to federal regulators endorsed boosters for Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose Covid-19 vaccine on Friday,
the scientists on the committee discussed a question many people are asking: Is it a good idea to mix and match vaccines?
The question came up after the panel heard a presentation about a study showing that the mix-and-match approach gives
patients who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine a stronger antibody response.
Dr. Peter Marks, a top Food and Drug Administration official, told the panel that the agency might consider allowing Johnson &
Johnson recipients to receive a booster shot of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. But Dr. Marks, who oversees the
F.D.A.’s vaccine division, gave no timetable for that decision, saying only that authorization of a different vaccine as a booster
for Johnson & Johnson recipients was “possible.”
The panel heard from Dr. Kirsten Lyke of the University of Maryland School of Medicine about the study, in which she and her
colleagues found that Johnson & Johnson recipients may benefit more from a Moderna or Pfizer booster. The study, conducted
by the National Institutes of Health, examined different combinations of the three vaccines.
“It’s a real-world, practical question that people want to know — is it safe to do that?” she said at the meeting.
Read more
New Zealand tries to set a record with a ‘vaxathon.’
Getting vaccinated for Covid-19 in the Manurewa suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, on Saturday. Phil Walter/Getty Images
By Natasha Frost
Since New Zealand closed its borders in March 2020, setting the stage for one of the world’s most successful Covid-19
responses, the wide-body jets that once ferried its citizens to every corner of the globe have mostly been redeployed for
shipping freight.
On Saturday, some 300 residents of Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, boarded an Air New Zealand Boeing 787 at the city’s
international airport to sit in a business-class seat and receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech.
The doses were kept cool with dry ice on the meal trolleys that typically carry a choice of chicken or beef.
“It’s one of a kind,” said Johan Rickus, 30, as he proffered his left arm for his second dose. After receiving the vaccine from a
health care worker, he was ushered back to economy class by an uniformed member of the cabin crew to wait out his 15-minute
post-vaccination period in a slightly less cushy seat.
The event was one of dozens of pop-ups held around the country for “Super Saturday,” a single-day vaccination effort organized
by New Zealand’s Ministry of Health. The goal was to break the country’s record for the most doses delivered in 24 hours —
previously 93,000. About 350,000 vaccinations slots were available, which could reach about 8.3 percent of New Zealand’s
eligible population. The country had already given out nearly 120,000 doses by 4:30 p.m., with hours yet to go.
Read more
Short on staff, some U.S. hospices are asking new patients to wait.
Dr. Helen Kao, geriatrician and palliative care doctor, adjusted 89-year-old Anne Cotton’s oxygen during a check-up in Cotton’s
apartment in Corvallis, Ore. Alisha Jucevic for The New York Times
By Paula Span
Anne Cotton had enjoyed her years at an assisted living facility in Corvallis, Ore. But at 89, her health problems began to
mount: heart failure, weakness from post-polio syndrome, a 30-pound weight loss in a year.
“I’m in a wheelchair,” she said. “I’m getting weaker. I’m having trouble breathing.” On Sept. 30, Dr. Helen Kao, her palliative
care doctor and a medical director at Lumina Hospice & Palliative Care, determined that she qualified for hospice services — in
which a team of nurses, aides, social workers, a doctor and a chaplain help patients through their final weeks and months,
usually at home.
Ms. Cotton, a retired accountant and real estate broker, embraced the idea. “I’ve lived a very full life,” she said. “I’m hoping I’m
near the end. I need the help hospice gives.” Her sister died in Lumina’s care; she wants the same support. For older patients,
Medicare pays the cost.
But Lumina and other hospices that serve Benton County, Ore., are grappling with pandemic-fueled staff shortages, which have
forced them at times to turn away new patients or delay their enrollment — as it did with Ms. Cotton. “It’s devastating,” Dr. Kao
said.
Another of her palliative care patients, Ruth Ann McCracken, 91, has declined physically and cognitively since suffering two
strokes last year. Last month, her family made an appointment for hospice enrollment.
Read more
The Yukon Territory imposes a vaccine mandate as cases surge in northern Canada.
Yukon Premier Sandy Silver plans to require vaccinations for a wide range of workers
to slow the spread of the Delta variant. Carlos Osorio/Reuters
By Vjosa Isai
Coronavirus vaccinations will soon be mandatory for public service and health care workers in the Yukon Territory,
government authorities there announced on Friday, as the territory’s next-door neighbors grappled with a spike in cases.
The state of Alaska and the Northwest Territories, the province to the east of the Yukon, have “each dealt with widespread
resurgence” of cases, the Yukon’s premier, Sandy Silver, said during a Covid-19 briefing on Friday. The Northwest Territories
has the highest rate of active Covid-19 cases in Canada, according to national public health data.
In the Yukon, vaccination will also be mandatory for teachers and the staff of some nongovernmental organizations that receive
government funding, such as those that serve prisons and other congregate living settings.
Workers must receive both doses by Nov. 30. Starting that day, the territory will also require residents to show proof of
vaccination to attend public events like theater performances or to enter recreational facilities like gyms and community
centers. However, access to grocery stores, banks and other places that provide essential services will not be dependent on
vaccination status.
The Yukon had 109 active Covid cases per 100,000 residents as of Friday, which is above the provincial average of 92, according
to national public health data. At least 72 percent of the territory’s population was fully vaccinated as of Oct. 2, the latest data
available from the Public Health Agency of Canada shows.
Read more
Lawsuits multiply seeking to force hospitals to use ivermectin, a drug unproven against Covid.
A box of ivermectin at a pharmacy in Georgia. Mike Stewart/Associated Press
By The Associated Press
Mask rules, vaccination mandates and business shutdowns have all landed in the courts during the Covid-19 outbreak,
confronting judges with questions of science and government authority. Now they are increasingly being asked to weigh in on
the deworming drug ivermectin.
At least two dozen lawsuits have been filed around the U.S., many in recent weeks, by people seeking to force hospitals to give
their Covid-stricken loved ones ivermectin, a drug for parasites that has been promoted by conservative commentators as a
treatment despite a lack of conclusive evidence that it helps people with the virus.
Interest in the drug started around the beginning of the year, after studies — some later withdrawn, in other countries —
seemed to suggest ivermectin had some potential and it became a hot topic of conversation among conservatives on social
media.
The lawsuits, several of them filed by the same western New York lawyer, Ralph Lorigo, cover similar ground. The families
have gotten prescriptions for ivermectin, but hospitals have refused to use it on their loved ones, who are often on ventilators
and facing death.
There has been a mix of results in state courts. Some judges have refused to order hospitals to give ivermectin. Others have
ordered medical providers to give the medication, despite concerns it could be harmful. In some cases, an initial order to give
the drug has been reversed.
Read more
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
F.D.A. advisers recommend boosters for J.& J. and Moderna vaccines: The week in Covid news.
A Safeway pharmacist administered a dose of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 booster

to Chen Knifsend at a clinic in San Rafael, Calif., this month. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
By Lauren McCarthy
Over 100 million fully vaccinated people will be eligible for booster shots for Covid-19 if the latest recommendation from a
federal panel of health experts is adopted by Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
The committee voted unanimously Friday to recommend Johnson & Johnson booster shots, most likely clearing the way for the
15 million people who got the company’s one-dose coronavirus vaccine to receive a second shot. If the F.D.A. and C.D.C. accept
the recommendation, as expected, boosters could be offered by late next week.
Many committee members made clear that they believed Johnson & Johnson recipients might benefit from the option of a
booster of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, which were the findings in the preliminary data from a federal clinical trial
published on Wednesday.
Separately, an advisory panel to the F.D.A. on Thursday unanimously recommended Moderna booster shots for many of those
who had received the company’s coronavirus vaccine, paving the way to sharply expand the number of people eligible for an
additional shot in the United States.
Those eligible for the extra Moderna shot would include people over 65 and other adults considered at high risk — the same
groups now eligible for a Pfizer-BioNTech booster.
Read more
Here’s why some New Yorkers changed their minds and finally got the Covid vaccine.
Emely Paez, 33, a nonprofit executive, received her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on October 1st. James Estrin/The
New York Times
By Joseph Goldstein
With a mixture of nervousness, resentment and, sometimes, relief, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers overcame their
resistance and finally got a dose of coronavirus vaccine in recent weeks.
The New York Times interviewed 10 New Yorkers to find out why they waited so long. They cited a range of reasons for finally
taking the shots, including employer mandates, a fear of the virus and a desire to help in the fight against the pandemic.
Some said they grew comfortable with the idea of getting the vaccinations after others got the shots, but they also were
concerned about the effects of restrictions on those resisting vaccinations.
Several said they had been biding their time to quell their doubts.
“The feeling was that you’d be some sort of guinea pig in this experiment,” Emely Paez, director of government affairs and civic
engagement at the Hispanic Federation nonprofit, said of her concerns. “It was the ‘We don’t know’” that bothered her.
Read more
Airlines in Japan and South Korea get creative to revive pandemic-dampened demand.
A Peach Aviation plane from Japan on the runway at Taoyuan International Airport in
northern Taiwan, in May. David Chang/EPA, via Shutterstock
By John Yoon
Border restrictions that are part of the pandemic response in Japan have deterred most tourists from visiting the country. So
one airline is taking an unusual approach to generate revenue by offering extreme discounts on domestic flights.
Peach Aviation said this week that it would sell 150 unlimited passes to passengers 12 and older with valid photo identification
giving a month of access to the budget carrier’s 33 domestic flights. It said it was catering especially to digital nomads in Japan
who are working remotely and looking for “workcations” in places they haven’t been after months of coronavirus restrictions
on travel.
On Tuesday, the first 30 buyers would be able to buy a pass for as little as $173. (In comparison, a 21-day Japan Rail Pass costs
$583.) For $87 more, they would get to reserve their seats and bring along a checked bag. Fares for the remaining 120 passes
would cost $87 more.
The airline is hoping to tap into a demand for domestic flights after the restrictions grounded most airplanes.
“There have been signs of recovery in passenger demand, a trend that is expected to increase going forward as vaccinations
progress,” the airline said in a statement in August.
Read more

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Robert Durst has Covid, his lawyer says, and is on a ventilator.

- The New York Times 10/17/21, 10:17 AM

Oct. 16, 2021, 10:39 p.m. ET