Pandemic job losses hit new high, antiviral tests disappoint

NEW YORK (AP) — Discouraging results from a study into a possible coronavirus treatment and fresh data showing one in six American workers have lost their jobs tempered relief Friday over the passage by Congress of a nearly $500 billion spending package to help embattled businesses and hospitals.

In a trend seen around the globe, roughly 26 million Americans — the population of the 10 biggest U.S. cities combined — have filed for jobless aid in five weeks, pushing unemployment to levels last seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s and raising the stakes over how and when to ease shutdowns of factories and other businesses.

Dampening hopes for discovery of an effective treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, results of a Chinese study on the antiviral drug remdesivir (rehm-DEHZ’-ih-veer), found no positive effect, though the sample size was too small to draw scientifically valid conclusions.

The data came from documents published accidentally by the World Health Organization and reported Thursday by the Financial Times. The Foster City, Calif.-based company behind the drug, Gilead Sciences, said the data represented “inappropriate characterizations” of the China study. It is conducting tests in several places around the world.

The news cut short a rally in share prices on Wall Street powered by near-unanimous approval by lawmakers, many in face masks and bandannas, of the latest coronavirus spending package. The law was sent to President Donald Trump in the evening.

Anchoring the bill is a $250 billion request by the Trump administration to replenish a fund to help small- and medium-size businesses with payroll, rent and other expenses. Trump said the bill “will help small businesses to keep millions of workers on the...