Good morning. I'm James Holman from the Washington Post and this is the Daily

202 for Thursday, April 30. In today's news, hopes rise for an experimental drug therapy for COVID-19.

One in six nursing homes acknowledged the contagion has infected residents or staff.

And dogs are being trained to... has infected residents or staff.

And dogs are being trained to sniff out the coronavirus.

But first, the big idea.

During the first week she had COVID-19, Morgan Blue felt weak with a severe backache and a fever,

but the symptoms didn't alarm doctors at her local

emergency room. They sent her home after she showed up at the hospital. But

then on day eight she abruptly felt like she was choking.

The 26-year-old customer service representative from Flint, Michigan

said suddenly she couldn't breathe.

An ambulance took her to the hospital, where she spent eight days, four of them in intensive care, before she recovered and was able to go home.

For people who suffer the most severe reactions to this novel coronavirus and their caregivers,

the second week can become a time of sudden peril and heightened concern

when some of those who seem stable or on the mend suddenly

become critically ill. There is little consensus among doctors and experts about

why the fifth through tenth days,

or thereabouts, seem to be so dangerous for some people.

But critical care specialists and EMTs alike are aware of this frightening aspect of the disease.

Learning on the fly as they confront the virus, clinicians speculate about the influence of an individual's genes.

The virus's effect on lung tissue, overactive immune responses, blood clodding,

...