With the Coronavirus pandemic in full swing, millions of families have been left with caretakers and breadwinners who have lost their jobs. People have bills to pay and now, they are unable to because of the circumstances. This is leaving millions of Americans with tough decisions to make as to how they will pay for their food. Many people are going to go hungry because of the pandemic and numerous celebrities are now banding together to shift their resources to those in desperate need.

Today, Tom Brady announced what he will be doing to help those impacted by the virus. As he explained in the tweet below, Brady will be teaming up with the good folks over at Wheels Up to help provide 10 million meals to Feeding America. This pledge will help millions of people who are struggling to make ends meet and don't know where their next meal will come from.

"Social Distancing" has become the new thing everyone is talking about and rightfully so. We are currently going through a horrible pandemic and we are all being told to isolate ourselves as a means to slow down the spread of the Coronavirus. When we do have to leave the house, we must remain at least two meters apart from everyone as a means to make sure we don't come in contact with germs and potentially, the virus.

Stephen A. Smith and numerous ESPN reporters came through with a PSA the other day about staying home and helping to flatten the curve. Now, Smith is giving a PSA all on his own where he angrily ripped those who are still leaving their houses despite being told to do otherwise. You can tell Smith is passionate about this and doesn't seem impressed that after all this time, he still has to give such lofty warnings.

Kooda B, an associate of 6ix9ine who had his own part to play in the unraveling of Tekashi and the rapper’s highly-publicized trial, was granted release from prison yesterday because he was deemed a high-risk for the COVID-19 virus.

We reported yesterday how Judge Engelmayer granted Kintea “Kooda B” McKenzie’s temporary release from the MCCC, following a letter from Kooda’s lawyer, Lisa Scolari. However, it looks like Engelmayer is now questioning his decision.

Following his release, Kooda B went on Instagram Live to celebrate, and apparently, Engelmayer caught wind of the video. As reported by Complex, the judge wrote in response, that the video “appears to reflect Mr. McKenzie partying in very close proximity to numerous others.” This is a problem, considering “that his high-risk medical condition required his separation from others to minimize the risk of his contracting COVID-19.”

The judge continued, “[T]he conduct depicted on the video suggests a complete lack of concern by Mr. McKenzie for avoidance of contagion of himself and others.” Not only this, but Kooda is potentially celebrating with gang members in the video in question, which means it “may reflect one or more violation(s) of the defendant’s terms of temporary release.” 

Judge Engelmayer is demanding that Kooda B’s attorney, Lisa Scolari, and the government send him letters by 5 PM on Friday to explain their side of the story. We’ll keep you posted on any new developments in Kooda B’s situation.

In the meantime, we await the possible release of 6ix9ine. 

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Back in February, which seems like forever ago now, the Super Bowl took place in Florida. Florida has been very lackadaisical in their response to the Coronavirus and now, it appears as though they are making some admissions about how the whole thing has been handled. Recently, Governor Ron DeSantis spoke about COVID-19 and how the Miami Super Bowl was most likely the cause of numerous infections. 

There are 62,000 seats in the Hard Rock Stadium which means numerous people could have been infected. At the time, the state wasn’t testing people which ultimately could have led to some people going under the radar, especially if they were asymptomatic.

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This is proving to be a problem now as the United States has over 200,000 confirmed cases of the disease. Florida has 6,000 and they are expected to get a whole lot more after the March Break fiasco that recently went down. With this in mind, it’s clear that the Super Bowl has proven to be cause for concern for the state although there isn’t very much they can do about it now.

The next few weeks will prove to be crucial as states across America, as well as countries around the world, fight to stop the spread of COVID-19. For now, these are uncertain times but hopefully, we can all stand united and prevail.

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R. Kelly has been working with his legal team for the last several weeks to be granted an early release from prison as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Unfortunately for him, his appeals have been unsuccessful to date. Other famed recording artists, like Tekashi 6ix9ine, are expected to be released any day now because of the virus but Kelly will likely continue to fear for his life behind bars. 

50 Cent has been a central station for R. Kelly memes as the disgraced singer fights for his freedom, and his most recent April Fool’s Day joke was possibly the most savage one yet.

Sharing a fake tweet headline from TMZ, 50 Cent laughed that R. Kelly had contracted a spin-off version of COVID-19.

Cook County Sheriff’s Office Getty Images

“BREAKING: R Kelly has tested positive for SHEWASNT-19,” writes the meme shared by 50 Cent. 

Digging at the singer over the countless allegations that he’s sexually abused underaged girls, this probably could not have gotten any more disrespectful.

Fif added his own comments in the caption.

“Damn boy, if it wasn’t for bad luck, you wouldn’t have luck,” chuckled the rapper, making fun of the current state of R. Kelly’s life.

April Fool’s Day was celebrated on a more minor scale this year, but people like Lil Nas X still turned it out with a hilarious prank on his fanbase. Check out how he welcomed April 1 here.

Musicians from all backgrounds, worldwide, recognize the last name "Marsalis." Ellis Marsalis Jr. was an accomplished jazz pianist and musician who had four sons who followed in his footsteps—Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason—albeit, they chose varying instruments of their own liking. The Marsalises have toured the world, won awards, and have added their touches to the history of music, and now they mourn the death of their patriarch.

Variety reports that 85-year-old New Orleans legend Ellis Marsalis Jr. passed away from complications connected to his COVID-19 diagnosis. His son Brandford Marsalis issued a statement about his father's passing. “My dad was a giant of a musician and teacher, but an even greater father. He poured everything he had into making us the best of what we could be," Brandford said. "And to quote my friend and Harvard Law professor David Wilkins, who just sent me the following text, ‘We can all marvel at the sheer audacity of a man who believed he could teach his black boys to be excellent in a world that denied that very possibility, and then watch them go on to redefine what excellence means for all time.'"

The mayor of New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, tweeted a tribute to the late music icon. "Ellis Marsalis was a legend. He was the prototype of what we mean when we talk about New Orleans jazz. The love and the prayers of all of our people go out to his family, and to all of those whose lives he touched," she wrote. "Ellis Marsalis was an icon — and words aren’t sufficient to describe the art, the joy & the wonder he showed the world. May we wrap his family in our love & our gratitude, & may we honor his memory by coming together in spirit— even as the outbreak keeps us apart, for a time." We send our condolences to the Marsalis family.

Joe Rogan is keeping the podcasts going right now, and we couldn’t be more grateful for that fact. The comedian and renowned podcast host of The Joe Rogan Experience has been keeping us entertained and keeping our minds off Coronavirus (more or less) thanks to sit-down conversations with his pool of BFFs– that is to say, fellow comedians like Tom Segura, Bert Kreisher, Bryan Callen and Joey Diaz. However today he’s bringing us a Coronavirus-focused episode, with guest Dr. Peter Hotez. Dr. Hotez is the Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine.

The episode is recorded Skype, with Dr. Hotez sharing current facts on COVID-19 and trying to clear the air when it comes to Coronavirus misconceptions and misleading information out there. He also reinforces some of the facts we probably all know by now, including the fact that this virus and disease is “highly transmissible.”

The one thing Dr. Hotez wanted to ensure everyone is aware of, which has been debunked more and more each day, is the fact that young adults are susceptible, even though children are not as much. “There’s a rough correlation with age, so younger people seem to do better, and kids seem to do really well.” He continued, “A third of the very sick people in the hospital are under the age of 44, between 20 and 44, are getting very sick.”

As far as any information surrounding Ibuprofen being good or bad for COVID-19, Dr. Hotez debunks that: “There’s been a lot of buzz on the internet about Ibuprofen, and the World Health Organization came out with a statement that those are rumors.”

Dr. Hotez also explained how come smoking makes you worse-off for this particular virus, while the effects of vaping are unknown but speculated. “Smoking actually up-regulates the receptor in the lungs that the virus binds to,” Dr. Hotez explained, “So it seems to make more copies of the receptor for the virus to bind to, so that may worse the disease, so I think you’re right, I think smoking is a factor. The one question we don’t know is what does vaping do? Is vaping also doing that? Could that be linked someone to all the young adults that we’re seeing in the United States who are getting hospitalized. They actually don’t have higher mortality, but they’re getting very sick, and their lives are getting saved because they’re getting put on the vent.” The fact is, though, that there are not enough ventilators for everyone who is suffering, and if that is the only way these young people are able to survive– well, that is a disturbing reality to think about. 

“Without a vaccine, or other technologies, we have to go back to the 14th century– that’s when quarantine was invented. It was when ships would come into the harbour on Croatia, coming from Asia Minor, and they were fearful they were bringing the plague and they kept the ships for 40 days– that’s where the word quarantine came from. And that’s all we’ve got right now,” Dr. Hotez continued. “We know social distancing is our only hope– real, serious social distancing, not going to restaurants and things.” He goes on to explain how the longer you allow the virus to circulate without intervention, the worse things get. He also stated that we will see the case numbers continue to increase in places like Los Angeles and Texas– they won’t hit their peak in cases until May–  with numbers only going down around June. Yeesh.

Even so, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the situation since we don’t actually know where the virus is headed and we’ve never dealt with it before– “hopefully by the summer, this is not going to be a huge problem,” Dr. Hotez told Rogan, “But even if it goes down in the summer, will it come back in the fall?” He goes on to explain why this might be.

“84,000 Americans will die in that peak season going from April, May June,” Dr. Peter Hotez told Rogan, sharing numbers estimated by the Institute for Health, as opposed to the White House numbers, which had been estimated around 100,000-200,000 people dying from COVID-19.

Catch the hour-long episode in full below.

Coronavirus has quickly become the worst on a variety of levels, having a profound impact on everything from health to the economy to our day to day life. While millions are left contending with the changes wrought by the ongoing pandemic, the music festival industry has been halted in its tracks. Rolling Loud is no exception, and while they initially hoped to weather the storm, the organizational team have officially decided to postpone the sixth installment until next year. 

“Since our last update, we have been monitoring the spread of COVID-19, hopeful that it would slow and allow us to proceed with producing the festival in May,” reads the official statement from Rolling Loud. “At the same time, we were working around the clock on a contingency plan in case we had to postpone. It was important for us to not make the decision too soon, without having all of the facts. We wanted nothing more than to turn up with you all at the 6th year of our sold-out show. However, as the spread of COVID-19 increased to tragic levels, it became clear that we cannot proceed with the May 8-10 dates.”

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“To make sure that fans get the same experience that they signed up for in May, we’ve worked extremely hard with all of the artists, vendors, city and county officials, and the venue to make that happen. Rolling Loud Miami 2020 will be postponed to President’s Day Weekend (3 days), February 12-14, 2021 at Hard Rock Stadium. Same lineup. Same rage. Ain’t nothin’ changed but the dates. All purchased tickets will be honored for the rescheduled dates. If you need a refund, don’t worry, we got you.” 

For those curious, the 2020 lineup originally included A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott, and Post Malone as the headliners. Gucci Mane, Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage, Playboi Carti, Lil Yachty, Young Thug, Rick Ross, Big Sean, Tyga, Gunna, Roddy Ricch, YG, and many more. For now, the lineup is set to remain the same, though one has to wonder if new releases will play a role in altering that — especially if a few key heavy hitters drop as expected. 

Coughing on a FBI agent during a time of pandemic apparently equates to jail time.

The 43-year old Brooklyn man, Baruch Feldheim, had an incident with the FBI that took place Monday where he claimed to have the coronavirus. 

FBI agents reportedly went to Feldheim’s property to discuss his alleged business of selling much-needed medical equipment such as disinfectants, surgical masks, and medical gowns to healthcare workers at extremely inflated prices. The FBI informed Feldheim about an alleged transaction that took place on March 18 where Feldheim supposedly sold 1,000 masks for $12,000 to a New Jersey doctor. The doctor, who chooses to remain unidentified, met with Feldheim at an auto repair shop in Irvington, NJ to make the transaction where he claims to have seen the suspect with a large quantity of medical supplies that could “outfit an entire hospital.”

Authorities also claim that on March 25, Feldheim received a large shipment of face masks from Canada and found an empty box of N95 masks outside of his home two days later. Continuing to investigate the suspect, authorities reported to have seen multiple “buyers” go into Feldheim’s residence and leave full-handed with boxes, which appeared to be full of medical supplies. Finally, the agents approached the man on March 29, taking the necessary precautions of keeping their distance, due to the Coronavirus. 

The U.S. Attorney’s office provided a vivid description of what happened during the incident. “When the agents were within four to five feet of him, Feldheim allegedly coughed in their direction without covering his mouth. The agents then told him that they were looking for certain PPE materials and that they had information that Feldheim was in possession of large quantities of such materials. At that point, Feldheim told the FBI agents that he had the coronavirus.”

Feldheim denied having large loads of PPE and stated he never sold medical supplies to individuals. Claiming that he worked for a company that purchased and sold personal protective equipment, Feldheim was charged with assault and making false statements to law enforcement. A maximum prison sentence of five years comes with the charges.

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According to Alex Schiffer, a beat writer for the Brooklyn Nets, all four of the Nets players that previously tested positive for COVID-19 have fully recovered and are no longer showing symptoms of the virus.

The general manager of the Brooklyn Nets organization, Sean Marks, announced that all team personnel, including the four players that tested positive for the coronavirus, are all symptom-free on a conference call.