https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
https://covidtracking.com/data/
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
Hungry and in chains, Thailand's tourist elephants face crisis; Underfed and chained up for endless hours, many elephants working in Thailand's tourism sector may starve, be sold to zoos or be shifted into the illegal logging trade, campaigners warn, as the coronavirus decimates visitor numbers
https://www.afp.com/en/news/3954/hungry-and-chains-thailands-tourist-elephants-face-crisis-doc-1qa4pk2
Italy flattens curve as daily rise in coronavirus cases hits lowest rate
https://www.newsweek.com/italy-flattens-curve-daily-rise-coronavirus-cases-falls-lowest-rate-1495086
Germany is giving its citizens a coronavirus test and giving those with antibodies permission to reenter society
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/29/germany-will-issue-coronavirus-antibody-certificates-allow-quarantined/
The U.S. is proposing a pathway to resolving #Venezuela’s political crisis. We ask all Venezuelans to carefully consider this framework, which calls for a transitional government to organize free and fair elections and creates a path for lifting of U.S. sanctions.
https://twitter.com/statedeptspox/status/1245015817139425281
The FDA has issued an emergency approval for a testing kit than can detect coronavirus in two minutes.
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1245012371845853184
The Trump administration says it will defy congressional oversight of coronavirus response funds — and they already classified coronavirus meetings. This kind of secrecy is the opposite of what the public needs.
https://www.americanoversight.org/a-pandemic-is-no-time-for-secrecy
Trump admin. illegally rolls back Obama-era vehicle mileage standards, raising the ceiling on damaging fossil fuel emissions for years to come and gutting one of the US’ biggest efforts against climate change.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-rollback-mileage-standards-guts-climate-change-push-n1173026?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_np
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo diagnosed with coronavirus, he will continue working from home: In these difficult times that seem to get more difficult and complicated by the day, I just found out that I am positive for coronavirus
https://twitter.com/ChrisCuomo/status/1245011007711465478
Antarctica experiences first known heat wave | Scientists have recorded Antarctica's first documented heat wave, warning that animal and plant life on the isolated continent could be drastically affected by climate change. Australian Antarctic Program researchers recorded the heat wave event at Casey research station in East Antarctica during the 2019-2020 southern hemisphere summer. Findings by the team were published in the Global Change Biology journal on Tuesday, with authors warning that the changes could affect global weather patterns. Between January 23 and 26, a research team at Casey — directly south of Perth in western Australia — recorded the highest maximum and minimum temperatures ever seen at the base. | "Antarctica may be isolated from the rest of the continents by the Southern Ocean, but it has worldwide impacts," they said. "It drives the global ocean conveyor belt, a constant system of deep-ocean circulation which transfers oceanic heat around the planet, and its melting ice sheet adds to global sea-level rise." Co-author Dana Bergstrom said the hot summer could affect local populations positively at first, but could also lead to drought and heat stress on species adapted for the cold.
https://www.dw.com/en/antarctica-experiences-first-known-heat-wave/a-52963959
Report reveals ‘massive plastic pollution footprint’ of drinks firms: Plastic from Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé and Unilever products could cover 83 football pitches every day
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/31/report-reveals-massive-plastic-pollution-footprint-of-drinks-firms
New blood test can detect 50 types of cancer
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/mar/31/new-blood-test-can-detect-50-types-of-cancer
A California scientist and his team say they have found a potential cure for COVID-19. News 8 introduced you to Dr. Jacob Glanville of Distributed Bio a couple of weeks ago. He's one of the doctors featured in the Netflix show "Pandemic." His team in the Bay Area has been working around the clock trying to come up with a drug to treat COVID-19. Monday he announced he believes they've found one. | We took a series of five antibodies from around 2002 that were able to neutralize SARS. We were able to use technology in our laboratories to evolve those antibodies against SARS to adapt them to recognize COVID-19. We tried with five different antibodies because we weren’t sure which one would work the best. All five worked so we have a pretty powerful tool chest available to us right now to produce a final therapeutic. | We are sending [the antibodies] to the military for confirmation testing and to Charles River Laboratories for safety and tox characterization. We’ve partnered with two different companies that will help us scale up large batches of the antibody for production. We're in discussions to start humane phase one/two trials that would happen at the end of the summer. Pending good results - [if] we see the drug is safe and helpful means we could start releasing it for compassionate use in September.
https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/pandemic-scientist-says-his-team-has-discovered-a-potential-cure-for-covid-19-coronavirus-california/509-4a895be1-80f6-46b0-8812-e2d49d20bebf
Leaked memo from Delta reveals plans to cut worker hours and pay, despite protections in the coronavirus stimulus package. United and other airlines are doing the same.
https://www.businessinsider.com/airline-workers-hours-pay-cut-coronavirus-2020-3
Pentagon orders installations to stop reporting coronavirus cases as military-linked infections eclipse 1,000
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/pentagon-orders-installations-to-stop-reporting-coronavirus-cases-as-military-linked-infections-eclipse-1-000-1.624244
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham raised alarms with Donald Trump Monday about "incredible spikes" in coronavirus cases in Navajo Nation, warning that the virus could "wipe out" some tribal nations, according to a recording of a call between Trump and the nation's governors obtained by ABC News. "I'm very worried, Mr. President," Governor Lujan Grisham said, as she followed up on a request she made to the Department of Defense last Wednesday for a 248-bed U.S. Army combat support hospital (CSH) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Grisham told Trump she had not yet received a response.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/mexicos-governor-warns-tribal-nations-wiped-coronavirus/story?id=69884997
In just two weeks, three states have passed laws criminalizing protests against fossil fuel infrastructure. Between March 16 and March 25, the governors of Kentucky, South Dakota and West Virginia all signed laws designating oil and gas pipelines and facilities "critical" or "key" infrastructure and imposing new penalties for anyone caught tampering with them, HuffPost reported Friday. The laws came as much of the nation was absorbed by the spread of the new coronavirus, which has killed more than 2,000 people in the U.S. so far. "While we are all paying attention to COVID-19 and the congressional stimulus packages, state legislatures are quietly passing fossil-fuel-backed anti-protest laws," Greenpeace USA researcher Connor Gibson, who alerted HuffPost to the laws' passage, told the news site. "These laws do nothing new to protect communities. Instead they seek to crack down on the sort of nonviolent civil disobedience that has shaped much of our nation's greatest political and social victories." The push to criminalize anti-fossil fuel protests predates the coronavirus pandemic, however, and is part of a broader conservative movement to pass legislation that makes civil disobedience more difficult, as Greenpeace pointed out last year.
https://www.ecowatch.com/anti-pipeline-protest-bills-2645583954.html
https://www.ecowatch.com/anti-protest-legislation-2636409012.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1
Brazil, São Paulo Has 6 Times More Deaths from Coronavirus than China in The First 13 Days. Death toll likely to surpass Italy.
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/saopaulo/2020/03/sp-has-6-times-more-deaths-from-coronavirus-than-china-in-the-first-13-days.shtml
Another reason to go vegan: 20% of 'meat' in the UK was found to contain the DNA of 'unspecified animals.' 41% of mince meat; 31% of kebabs; 23% of curries and 20% of sausages were found to actually contain DNA from animals not on the official label.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45371852
Bill De Blasio is a pathetic manchild Bernie Bro who is getting upstaged by his own Governor
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/03/28/de-blasios-coronavirus-crisis-1269480
The stat I'm most interested in knowing is the day hospital discharges are greater than hospital admissions for the day. I feel like that's the day we can say things are starting to get better in terms of an overwhelmed healthcare system.
Cascadia Forever. Pickaxe - The Cascadia Free State Story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIQZY593YGw
I want to share some of the results of our new coronavirus survey, out today, because the impact on people's lives, across the country, is already staggering. Not just health; it's work, income, and how and where it's felt. (1/?) The full report is here: https://civiqs.com/reports/2020/3/31/report-coronavirus-has-far-reaching-effects-on-americans-lives-and-work-trump-federal-government-rated-poorly-on-response
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039361415995392
As of 3/30, 94% of Americans are practicing social distancing. That's good! It's also a huge number and highlights how widespread the awareness of the crisis is. I have been doing survey research for 20+ years and almost never see percentages this high on anything. (2/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039362686857216
The flip side of massive social distancing is that 67% of Americans right now are spending nearly every day at home, leaving only for exercise or essential items. Repeat: Two-thirds of the country right now is spending nearly every day locked at home. (3/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039363488010240
Americans increasingly know someone who is infected. In this survey (March 28-30), 13% say they know someone who has been infected or are infected themselves. So you don't think that's exaggerated, in our last survey 3 weeks ago, that number was 1%. (4/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039364238761984
The coronavirus outbreak is not an urban-only phenomenon. Not even close. Two-thirds of Americans living in urban areas (68%) have experienced an outbreak -- but so have 55% of people in suburban areas, and 43% of people in rural areas. (5/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039365706797056
Those statistics you've seen about jobless claims are all very real. Through 3/30, one in FIVE Americans who were working before the outbreak say that they have been laid off or furloughed from their position. Fully 39% (!) of households have lost income. (6/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039365706797056
In sum, more than half of US households (54%) have either lost work or had hours cut (26%), or are insecure/at risk: 28% are extremely or moderately concerned about the financial impact of coronavirus on their household. (7/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039366474313728
There is an education split on *where* people are working. 79% of employed Americans with post-graduate degrees are working from home, up from 15% pre-outbreak! In contrast, 60% of non-college graduates are still going into work. Big implications for public health & safety. (8/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039367174799360
Democrats, Republicans, and Independents agree: The coronavirus is a real threat, not blown out of proportion. Even so, there is still a big partisan divide.
Percent saying "real threat" by party:
Democrats: 94%
Republicans: 51%
Independents: 73%
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245045049219399681
(9/?)
More impacts on people's daily lives: 82% have recently experienced grocery shortages or had difficulty buying household items like toilet paper. Interestingly, these shortages have been felt most strongly in *rural* areas (86%) rather than urban areas (80%). (10/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245045050024660992
Americans don't see the coronavirus outbreak settling down anytime soon. There's an optimistic 20% who think things will be back to normal by the end of April. But 36% say it will take until the end of June, 30% say September, and 8% think we'll never get back to normal. (11/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245045050813198336
Meanwhile, people are concerned that they're going to get sick, and if they do, that they won't be able to get a test. Most Americans are extremely (19%) or somewhat (41%) worried about becoming ill. Only 11% are very confident they could get a test if they wanted one. (12/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245046901805682688
Let's look at policy responses. The new coronavirus stimulus bill receives 69% support. Going further -- most people support a total, national quarantine right now: 44% strongly, 25% somewhat. Even a majority of Republicans (52%) support a national stay-at-home quarantine. (13/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054428144496640
One of the big things that Democrats and Republicans disagree about is what's more worrisome: the health or economic impacts of the coronavirus. 77% of Democrats are more worried about health; 69% of Republicans are more worried about jobs & the economy. (14/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054429444759552
Democrats and Republicans are also divided on the news media. Democrats think the media is giving an accurate picture (64%) or even under-reporting the outbreak (15%). Republicans overwhelmingly believe (71%) that the media is making the outbreak sound worse than it is. (15/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054430589804544
Overall, the U.S. government receives poor marks on its response to the outbreak. 57% think the U.S. government acted too slowly to respond; 52% are not satisfied with the government's current response, and 51% disapprove of how President Trump is handling the response. (16/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054431558684672
State and local governments are earning higher ratings for their outbreak response, compared to the U.S. government. 70% of Americans are satisfied with their state/local governments, including 72% of both Democrats and Republicans. (17/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054432477188096
We'll keep watching this. Thanks for reading. Be safe, everyone. (18/18)
The complete questionnaire and crosstabs, @Civiqs national survey, March 28-30, 2020: https://civiqs.com/documents/Civiqs_DailyKos_monthly_banner_book_2020_03B_x2nf9sb.pdf
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054433358049286
The #EqualPayAct made it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women for equal work. Yet, the #PayGap persists: A typical woman earns only 82 cents for every dollar that a typical man makes. #EqualPayDay
https://twitter.com/JECDems/status/1245052909856993280
Interesting that the application for $32 Billion in airline grants is shorter than a SNAP (food stamp) application.
https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Guidelines%20and%20Procedures%20for%20Payroll%20Support%20to%20Air%20Carriers%20and%20Contractors.pdf
SNAP application forms: 12 pages plus 10 pages of instructions
https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Departments-and-Agencies/DSS/Common-Applications/W-1E.pdf
Democratic Rep. Max Rose announced he has been deployed to the front lines of the nation's coronavirus epicenter in New York as a member of the National Guard.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/31/max-rose-deployed-national-guard-157150
Trump spent almost two months denying that the virus was a serious problem and spreading incorrect information about it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/opinion/coronavirus-cases-united-states.html
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says a State Department official has died from the coronavirus, the first American fatality among the U.S. diplomatic corps from the pandemic. Pompeo didn’t give details about the official who passed away or where the person contracted the disease. He says about four to five dozen State Department employees had tested positive for the virus, including locally employed staffers at a handful of the 220 U.S. embassies and consulates abroad. | Those officials say they were tracking 105 confirmed cases among the agency’s global workforce of about 75,000. Of those, 75 are overseas and 30 are at State Department offices in the United States in nine cities.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/state-department-official-death-coronavirus
Climate-damaging products should come with smoking-style warnings | Graphic imagery should be used on petrol pumps and air tickets
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/31/climate-killing-products-should-come-with-smoking-style-warnings
Turkmenistan bans the word ‘coronavirus’ and wearing of masks
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/coronavirus-turkmenistan-ban-masks-word-a9438266.html
Just three ventilators to cope with Covid-19 in Central African Republic - a country with population of 4.7 million people.
https://www.nrc.no/news/2020/march/just-three-ventilators-to-cope-with-covid-19-in-central-african-republic/
MIT researcher says droplets carrying coronavirus can travel up to 27 feet.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/is-6-feet-enough-for-social-distancing-an-mit-researcher-says-droplets-carrying-coronavirus-can-travel-up-to-27-feet/ar-BB11Ww71
A huge sinkhole just made Ecuador's tallest waterfall disappear
https://www.newsweek.com/huge-sinkhole-ecuador-tallest-waterfall-1495294
Presidents don’t usually get involved in local tiffs over a planned 900-room casino hotel. And even though this president has a four-decade record of slamming American Indian casinos as scams that pose unfair competition to other gambling enterprises, notably his own, Trump’s decision to weigh in on a measure that had strong bipartisan support seemed unusual for a chief executive who doesn’t like to be bothered with the little stuff. But a closer look at House Resolution 312 and the favor it would do for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe reveals a sprawling network of Trump-related interests, from the National Enquirer to a Rhode Island casino company - a small but strikingly intricate example of the ways this president’s business dealings, personal bonds and political alliances can complicate and color the ordinary doings of government. On the surface, the matter is a simple dispute over who wants a casino and who doesn’t. The Mashpee Tribe seeks to build a casino in southeastern Massachusetts. If the federal government decreed the land to be the tribe’s sovereign property, the casino would be exempt from many taxes. But some residents of the town where the casino would be built sued over the project, and after the tribe broke ground, a federal judge sided with the residents, ruling that, because of the history of that parcel of land, the feds didn’t have the authority to guarantee it to the tribe. So far, no Trump connection. | Twin River has paid Schlapp’s company, Cove Strategies, $30,000 this year, according to federal records. Another lobbyist, Black Diamond Strategies, also got $30,000 from the casino firm to work on the Mashpee case, records show. One of Black Diamond’s lobbyists working for Twin River, Doug Davenport, was a delegate strategist for Trump’s 2016 campaign and formerly worked for ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s lobbying company, where he handled public affairs for clients, including Trump. | The intersections between Trump and entities involved with Twin River can be complex. Among Twin River’s major investors is a $4 billion New Jersey-based hedge fund called Chatham Asset Management and its founder, Anthony Melchiorre, according to SEC records. Chatham also owned about 80% of American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, the supermarket tabloid that took payments from Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, to make certain that no stories were published about two women’s allegations that they had affairs with Trump. A spokesman for Chatham declined to speak on the record about Twin River’s involvement in the Mashpee Indian matter, but Chatham and Twin River have been embroiled in a lawsuit in Delaware, where Chatham accused top executives at the casino company of self-dealing and “placing their personal financial interests above those of Twin River’s stockholders.” Twin River has denied the allegations. David Pecker, AMI’s CEO and a longtime Trump ally, has said that Chatham saved his company from financial collapse. Pecker last fall signed an agreement to cooperate with federal prosecutors in New York who were investigating the payments made to Trump’s accusers. As part of the agreement, Pecker and the Enquirer’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, admitted to paying the women to “influence the election.” According to the company’s website, AMI’s four-person board of directors consists of Pecker, two Chatham executives and a former CFO of Trump Entertainment Resorts, David Hughes. American Media agreed last month to sell the Enquirer to the CEO of Hudson News, a chain of airport newsstands, for $100 million. The sale was prompted by Melchiorre’s unhappiness with the Enquirer’s actions on Trump’s behalf, including the “catch and kill” gambit in which the tabloid bought the two accusers’ stories and then published nothing about them, and the Enquirer’s expose of an extramarital affair conducted by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post. American Media’s board and Melchiorre “didn’t want to deal with hassles like this anymore,” according to an individual familiar with the board’s deliberations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks. That individual said Trump “has been somewhat estranged from Pecker” since the Enquirer executive began talking to federal prosecutors.
https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190513/derailment-of-mass-casino-spotlights-trumps-ri-twin-river-connections
“If our apex is 14 to 21 days ... then have to come down the other side of the mountain once you hit the apex,” he said. “So calibrate yourself and your expectations so you’re not disappointed every morning you get up.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/31/gov-cuomo-says-coronavirus-is-more-dangerous-than-expected-as-new-york-cases-jump-14percent-overnight-to-75795.html
Trump blames past administrations for a flawed COVID-19 test. The test couldn’t have existed earlier because covid-19 did not exist earlier.
South Dakota Republicans block bill to temporarily expand absentee voting while conducting session remotely (absentee) due to coronavirus fears.
https://www.keloland.com/news/capitol-news-bureau/governor-wanted-and-legislators-gave-more-ways-for-south-dakota-to-out-wait-covid-19/
This makes my blood fucking boil: In 40 years, less than 10% of plastic has ever been recycled. PBS/NPR report reveals plastic industry lobbyists knew all along, but pushed recycling propaganda campaigns to sell more plastic. | In a joint investigation, NPR and the PBS series Frontline found that oil and gas companies — the makers of plastic — have known that all along, even as they spent millions of dollars telling the American public the opposite. | But their own internal records dating back to the 1970s show that industry officials long knew that recycling plastic on a large scale was unlikely to ever be economically viable. | "The feeling was the plastics industry was under fire, we got to do what it takes to take the heat off, because we want to continue to make plastic products," Thomas says. "If the public thinks the recycling is working, then they're not going to be as concerned about the environment." | But the more plastic is recycled, the less money the industry will make selling new plastic. And those profits have become increasingly important. Companies have told shareholders that profits from using oil and gas for transport are expected to decline in coming years with better fuel efficiency and the increasing use of electric cars. Industry analysts expect oil and gas demands from the chemicals industry will surpass the demand from the transport side in the coming decade. Plastic production overall is now expected to triple by 2050, and once again, the industry is spending money on ads and public relations to promote plastic and recycling. Plastic is now more prevalent than it's ever been and harder to recycle. Gas prices remain at historic lows, making new plastic cheaper than recycled plastic. And the industry now produces many more different — and more complex — kinds of plastics that are more costly to sort and in many cases can't be recycled at all. Efforts to reduce plastic consumption are mounting nationwide, but any plan to slow the growth of plastic will face an industry with billions of dollars of future profits at stake.
https://www.npr.org/2020/03/31/822597631/plastic-wars-three-takeaways-from-the-fight-over-the-future-of-plastics
https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jkUPahh7to
Plastic Wars, a documentary by Frontline and NPR, premieres March 31 at 10/9c on PBS stations and online.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/plastic-wars/
The virus has been found in the faeces of as many as 53%[55] of hospitalised people and more anal swab positives have been found than oral swab positives in the later stages of infection.[59] The virus was found in faeces from one to twelve days, and seventeen percent of patients continued to present the virus in faeces after no longer presenting them in respiratory samples, indicating that the viral gastrointestinal infection and the potential fecal-oral transmission can last even after viral clearance in the respiratory tract.[55] Reoccurrence of the virus has also been detected through anal swabs suggesting a shift from more oral positive during the early stages of the disease to more anal positive during later periods.[59]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_disease_2019#Cause
Louisiana Pastor Arrested for Violating Stay-at-Home Order
https://www.wwltv.com/mobile/article/news/health/coronavirus/louisiana-pastor-arrested-after-holding-services-despite-coronavirus-order-report-says/289-4394a314-3c13-4047-95d7-e4f65f517752
Reminder: Trump's Republican Administration Promised 27 Million Coronavirus Tests By End of March, But U.S. Just Hit 1 Million
https://www.newsweek.com/white-house-promised-27-million-coronavirus-tests-end-march-us-just-hit-1-million-1495356
Mitch McConnell blames delayed coronavirus response by President Trump on impeachment | Trump was too distracted by impeachment, Mitch says. But it didn't stop him from playing golf at least eight times
https://www.salon.com/2020/03/31/mitch-mcconnell-blames-delayed-coronavirus-response-by-president-trump-on-impeachment/
-------------------
Trump held rallies on:
Jan 9th
Jan 14th
Jan 28th
Jan 30th
Feb 10th
Feb 19th
Feb 20th
Feb 21st
Feb 28th
He golfed on:
Jan 18th
Jan 19th
Feb 1st
Feb 15th
Mar 7th
Mar 8th
But sure, impeachment (ended Feb 5th) is what stopped him from responding to the coronavirus.
-------------------
Federal Court Tosses Florida’s Poll Tax; Formerly Incarcerated People Can Vote in 2020
https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/federal-court-tosses-floridas-poll-tax-formerly-incarcerated-people-can-vote-in-2020/
Hard for folks to vote by mail (and pay their bills....) if there's no mail.....: USPS warns it might have to shutter by June as $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package provides no funding
https://fortune.com/2020/03/30/usps-postal-service-stimulus-package-no-funding-post-office-mail-delivery-could-shutter-june-coronavirus-relief-bill/
https://aflcio.org/2012/1/19/how-republicans-crippled-united-states-postal-service
https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/april-may-june-2019/congress-is-sabotaging-your-post-office/
https://fortune.com/2019/12/27/usps-privatization-postal-service-going-private/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Clause
Trump claimed he could “cause panic even better than you” to Acosta. But he says he doesn’t want to. Sort of a weird and scary statement.
The captain of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean has pleaded with the Pentagon for help as the coronavirus spreads aboard the warship, which has more than 4,000 crew on board. “We are not at war,” he wrote. “Sailors do not need to die." | In a four-page letter dated Monday, first reported by The San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday, Capt. Brett E. Crozier laid out the dire situation unfolding aboard the warship, the Theodore Roosevelt, which has more than 4,000 crew members. He described what he said were the Navy’s failures to provide him with the proper resources to combat the virus by moving sailors off the vessel. “We are not at war,” Captain Crozier wrote. “Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.” | Thomas B. Modly, the acting Navy secretary, told CNN in an interview that the Navy was working to move sailors off the ship — but that there were not enough beds in Guam to accommodate the entire crew.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/us/politics/coronavirus-aircraft-carrier-theodore-roosevelt.html
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Exclusive-Captain-of-aircraft-carrier-with-15167883.php#
https://twitter.com/CNNnewsroom/status/1245035254244671488
Verified Chinese government Twitter accounts, Chinese embassies and consulates, and some Chinese media outlets have promoted several different conspiracy theories about the origins of the coronavirus.
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-china-russia-disinformation-playbook-c49b6f3b-2a9a-47c1-9065-240121c9ceb2.html
Brooks Brothers will begin producing medical masks and gowns, as part of efforts to fill shortages. The company predicts it will produce up to 150,000 masks a day.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/brooks-brothers-to-produce-medical-gowns-and-masks-for-healthcare-workers
Gov. Ron DeSantis says the White House task force hasn't told him to issue a statewide stay-at-home-order: "The task force is not recommending this. If they do, that’s something that would carry a lot of weight with me."
https://twitter.com/SamanthaJoRoth/status/1245093605213114368
At least 42 States with statewide non-essential business closures, or announced closures AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MT, NV, NH, NM, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY + Wash DC via @ABC
https://twitter.com/ABCNewsHealth/status/1245096244847968256
Fuck this, I seriously hope this tanks bad, his character was shit and held Benson back, when Meloni left, Benson's character took flight and the series went from excellent-despite-Meloni to masterpiece: NBC has given a 13-episode series order to a new Dick Wolf crime drama series starring Christopher Meloni reprising his Law & Order: SVU role as Elliot Stabler. The SVU spinoff drama, which marks the actor’s return to Wolf World, revolves around the NYPD organized crime unit led by Stabler (Meloni). It is the first show to come out of the massive new five-year, nine-figure, multi-platform deal Wolf signed with Universal Television last month, which includes multiple series commitments. | On NBC, the new series will join the four existing Dick Wolf series, SVU and the three Chicago dramas, all of which received massive three-year renewals last month as part of Wolf’s new pact. The network also has been developing a Law & Order: Hate Crimes offshoot series.
https://deadline.com/2020/03/christopher-meloni-returns-new-dick-wolf-series-elliot-stabler-nbc-law-order-svu-1202896323/
By the metrics Trump himself chose to use to measure his coronavirus response, he’s doing poorly | It was literally one week ago when Trump’s comparison of the coronavirus epidemic to the number of deaths in car accidents each year prompted me to explain why that analogy made little sense. The argument came down to rate of change. Yes, nearly 40,000 people die in car accidents each year, far more than had died at that point from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. But the number of people dying from covid-19 was escalating quickly and was expected by some experts to pass the number of annual automobile deaths. We don’t shut down the economy for 40,000 annual vehicle fatalities — but we also don’t see the number of automobile fatalities increase by a factor of 10 every 10 days. One main point of that article (and another looking at Trump’s comparison of the coronavirus to the seasonal flu) was that we simply didn’t know how many deaths covid-19 would cause in the country. That was on March 24, when the number of deaths totaled 706. Since then, 2,710 more people have died. In the past four days, including incomplete data from Tuesday, an average of 459 people have died of covid-19 each day. The total just passed the number of deaths in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a significant marker for a variety of reasons. But it’s also a somewhat arbitrary comparison, given that the 3,400 deaths as of writing occurred over more than a month while the Sept. 11 deaths occurred on one day. These comparisons are necessarily a bit ghoulish, but it’s worth keeping in mind how the two differ. A better comparison at this moment might be the Vietnam War. Nearly 60,000 Americans were killed in that conflict, including nearly 17,000 in 1968 alone. Those figures are far higher than the number of coronavirus deaths. On a daily basis, though, the virus has exacted a larger toll. The deadliest day of 1968 came with the Tet Offensive that January, during which 246 Americans were killed. The rate at which covid-19 is killing Americans is nearly equivalent to two Tet offensives every day. These gory examples are still somewhat awkward fits since the nature of a virus is distinct from armed conflict and terrorism. Compared with other prominent causes of death each year, the number of covid-19 deaths is still relatively small. But, again, a comparison by day shows why the ongoing pandemic is so worrisome. As many Americans are dying of covid-19 on a daily basis at this moment as die from any sort of accident on an average day. More than four times as many are dying from the virus each day as die on average in car crashes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/31/by-metrics-trump-himself-chose-use-measure-his-coronavirus-response-hes-doing-poorly/
Republicans reject PPACA special enrollment period amid pandemic
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/31/trump-obamacare-coronavirus-157788
The FBI has arrested a New York man for hoarding enough medical supplies “to outfit an entire hospital.” The FBI raided a New Jersey warehouse that housed his "suspected stash of 80,000 masks"
https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/brooklyn-man-arrested-for-hoarding-masks-coughing-on-fbi-agents/
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Monday, March 30, 2020
Light News
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
https://covidtracking.com/data/
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krzysztof_Penderecki
Trump and Republicans illegally eliminate automobile emission laws: The new rule, written by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation, would allow vehicles on American roads to emit nearly a billion tons more carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the cars than they would have under the Obama standards and hundreds of millions of tons more than will be emitted under standards being implemented in Europe and Asia. | Even many large automakers, which had asked Republicans to slightly loosen the Obama-era rule, had urged him not to roll it back so aggressively, since that plan is certain to get bogged down in court for years, leaving their industry in regulatory limbo. | The new standard would lead to nearly a billion more tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide released and the consumption of about 80 billion more gallons of gasoline over the lifetime of the vehicles built during the terms of the rule, according to a recent draft of the plan. | For environmentalists, the tailpipe-emissions rule culminates the Republican party's quest to dismantle the United States’ efforts to fight climate change, which has so far included illegally pulling out of the global Paris climate change accord, illegally weakening rules to curb greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired electric plants, and illegally undermining the basic science that underpins environmental regulations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/climate/trump-fuel-economy.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/climate/trump-paris-agreement-climate.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/climate/epa-coal-emissions.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/climate/trump-administration-war-on-science.html
The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort arrives in New York, Monday, March 30, 2020 | The USNS Comfort arrived in New York on Monday, bringing a massive Navy hospital ship to help relieve city hospitals overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. The 1,000-bed floating hospital docked Monday at Pier 90 on Manhattan’s West Side, and is set to begin treating patients Tuesday. “Our nation has heard our plea for help here in New York City,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said as he greeted the ship at Pier 90. “There could not be a better example of all of America pulling for New York City than the arrival of the USNS Comfort.” The ship, emblazoned with red crosses on its white hull, will not treat coronavirus patients, but will take on other patients including trauma cases, freeing up beds at local hospitals focused on combating the pandemic. It will have 750 beds ready to treat patients immediately.
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/03/30/usns-comfort-arrives-in-new-york-city-1269589
Citgo is liable for a 2004 oil spill and must pay back cleanup costs, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday. In 2004, an oil tanker chartered by Citgo Asphalt Refining Company and others hit an anchor in the Delaware River, leading to the release of 264,000 gallons of heavy crude oil, according to court documents. At the time, Frescati Shipping Company, which owned the vessel, and the U.S. together paid a total of $133 million to clean up the spill. The court ruled 7-2 on Monday that Citgo and others are responsible for cleanup costs.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/490153-supreme-court-rules-citgo-responsible-for-2004-oil-spill
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-565_3d93.pdf
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Monday announced that he is issuing a stay-at-home order for the southern portion of the state as the number of positive coronavirus cases grows. The order will apply to Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe counties through the middle of May. | There are more than 5,000 positive coronavirus cases in Florida, with the state's department of health reporting 523 new positive cases on Sunday. The four counties included in the stay-at-home order make up over 58 percent of the cases in the Sunshine State, according to The Miami Herald.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/490159-governor-to-issue-stay-at-home-order-for-south-florida
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241609941.html
A commercial aircraft carrying 80 tons of gloves, masks, gowns and other medical supplies from Shanghai touched down in New York on Sunday, the first of 22 scheduled flights that White House officials say will funnel much-needed goods to the United States by early April as it battles the world’s largest coronavirus outbreak. The plane delivered 130,000 N95 masks, 1.8 million face masks and gowns, 10 million gloves and thousands of thermometers for distribution to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, said Lizzie Litzow, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ms. Litzow said that flights would be arriving in Chicago on Monday and in Ohio on Tuesday, and that supplies would be sent from there to other states using private-sector distribution networks. While the goods that arrived in New York on Sunday will be welcomed by hospitals and health care workers — some of whom have resorted to rationing protective gear or using homemade supplies — they represent just a tiny portion of what American hospitals need. The Department of Health and Human Services has estimated that the United States will require 3.5 billion masks if the pandemic lasts a year. That overwhelming demand has set off a race among foreign countries, American officials at all levels of government and private individuals to acquire protective gear, ventilators and other much-needed goods from China, where newly built factories are churning out supplies even as China’s own epidemic wanes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/business/economy/coronavirus-china-supplies.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/business/coronavirus-china-masks.html
The Justice Department is investigating actions by US lawmakers who dumped stocks before the market plunged over coronavirus fears
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/coronavirus-justice-department-investigates-lawmakers-who-dumped-stock-cnn-2020-3
Chinese squalid meat "wet markets" still operating despite COVID-19. Thousands of people have started to flood back into Chinese wet markets, with bats, rabbits and dogs still on offer despite the coronavirus outbreak.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/coronavirus-chinese-wet-markets-still-operation-despite-covid19/news-story/104a81601ff7b94fec6dae3e158ad0a1
Wuhan residents estimate region's coronavirus death toll much higher than reported - 42,000-47,000 deaths vs. 3,000 reported deaths
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/wuhan-residents-estimate-regions-coronavirus-death-toll-much-higher-than-reported
40,000 quarantined in India after single priest spread coronavirus
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/least-40-000-quarantined-india-after-single-priest-spread-coronavirus-n1171261
Keeping the Florida primary was a DNC plot. Delaying the New York primary is also a DNC plot.
https://twitter.com/ProgressiveG2/status/1244265591034298369?s=20
The U.S. State Department shipped 17.8 tons of donated coronavirus medical supplies to China seven weeks ago, when health experts and some American lawmakers were already seeking federal action to prepare the country for the disease. The massive shipment to China included medical masks, gowns and respirators, now in desperately short supply across America. The supplies were contributed by American companies and nonprofits, according to a U.S. Agency for International Development official. The State Department touted its aid to China in a press release Feb. 7, three weeks after the first COVID-19 case emerged in Washington state. The statement said the agency was prepared to spend $100 million on the fight against the disease in China and other foreign countries. That was the same day the World Health Organization sounded an alert that such supplies were in critically short supply around the globe. | Later that month, Trump compared COVID-19 to his impeachment and claimed it was Democrats’ “new hoax” to make him look bad. The previous month he boasted at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that it was “totally under control” in the U.S.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-china-coronavirus-shortage-governors_n_5e8179c6c5b66149226a0ff8
https://www.state.gov/briefing-with-usaid-deputy-administrator-bonnie-glick-and-director-of-u-s-foreign-assistance-resources-james-l-richardson-on-u-s-foreign-assistance-in-response-to-covid-19/
https://www.state.gov/the-united-states-announces-assistance-to-combat-the-novel-coronavirus/
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001191
https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/07/coronavirus-concerns-trigger-global-run-on-supplies-for-health-workers-causing-shortages/
https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1225836989393534976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/not-concerned-timeline-trump-coronavirus-164634365.html
Nearly 12,300 Spanish health workers have coronavirus
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-spain-workers/nearly-12300-spanish-health-workers-have-coronavirus-idUKKBN21H1HZ?il=0
AOC breaks with Bernie on how to lead the left: the congresswoman is declining to back primary challengers following in her footsteps — and working within the system in Congress | Of the half-dozen incumbent primary challengers Justice Democrats is backing this cycle, Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed just two. Neither was a particularly risky move: Both candidates — Jessica Cisneros in Texas and Marie Newman in Illinois — were taking on conservative Democrats who oppose abortion rights and later earned the support of several prominent national Democrats. Ocasio-Cortez’s reluctance marks a break with the outsider tactics of the activist left, represented by groups like Justice Democrats. This election cycle, the organization is trying to boot not just conservative Democrats but also some liberal Democrats and to replace them with members who are more left-wing. In other words, to replicate what it pulled off against Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018 by recruiting Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez’s shift coincides with turnover among top aides in her congressional office — replacing some outspoken radicals with more traditional political professionals — along with a broader reckoning on the left on how to expand Sanders’ coalition after his failure to significantly do so in the presidential primary. Some progressives have questioned whether Sanders should have softened his anti-establishment rhetoric and tried to build bridges with mainstream Democrats who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 rather than betting big on turning out disaffected and first-time voters. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement moves are not a fluke but part of a larger change over the past several months. After her disruptive, burn-it-down early months in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez, who colleagues say is often conflict-averse in person, has increasingly been trying to work more within the system. She is building coalitions with fellow Democratic members and picking her fights more selectively. | “The Democratic Party is the party of coalitions, not a cult,” said James Carville, a top strategist for Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign and vocal critic of Sanders during the primary. “I’ve observed her. I think she’s really talented, that she’s really smart. Maybe she is — I don’t speak for her — coming to the conclusion that she wants to be part of the coalition.” Neera Tanden, president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress and a longtime Hillary Clinton aide, called Ocasio-Cortez's shift "a sign of leadership." "There are some people on the left who thought that their views represented a strong majority, and the primary process has shown that voters diverged, that Sanders is winning a minority and smaller minority than he had four years ago,” Tanden said. Instead of supporting Justice Democrats' full slate of incumbent challengers, Ocasio-Cortez launched her own PAC earlier this year that's been more focused on electing progressives in Republican-held or open seats. Ocasio-Cortez declined to be interviewed, but her new communications director, Lauren Hitt, noted that Bush’s August 4 primary is still several months away and that the congresswoman is monitoring other primaries. "We don’t usually endorse so far out," Hitt said. Ocasio-Cortez, however, endorsed Newman six months before her primary and backed Cisneros more than four months before hers. | Other progressives said Ocasio-Cortez’s more accommodating stance is a smart long-term strategy for a movement looking for a path forward. “She’s speaking in a way to create a majority in a way that Bernie is not interested in doing,” said Max Berger, the former director of progressive outreach on Elizabeth Warren’s campaign who also worked for Justice Democrats.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/30/new-aoc-divides-the-left-150767
Fox News concerned about potential legal action over its misleading coronavirus coverage | When I've been talking to Fox insiders over the last few days, there's a real concern inside the network that their early downplaying of the coronavirus actually exposes Fox News to potential legal action by viewers who maybe were misled and actually have died from this. I've heard Trish Regan's being taken off the air is, you know, reflective of this concern that Fox News is in big trouble by downplaying this virus. ... I think this is a case where Fox's coverage, if it actually winds up being proved that people died because of it, this is a new terrain in terms of Fox being possibly held liable for their actions. [Gabriel Sherman, MSNBC]
https://theweek.com/speedreads/905601/fox-news-reportedly-fears-early-downplaying-covid19-leaves-open-lawsuits
A pastor in Florida has been arrested for violating coronavirus social distancing rules by holding two large services at his church over the weekend. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister confirmed on Monday afternoon that Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne had been arrested. “His reckless disregard for human life put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk and thousands of residents who may interact with them this week in danger,” the sheriff said. The River at Tampa Bay Church held two services on Sunday, despite a county order for residents to stay at home, and warnings from the sheriff's office to both Pastor Howard-Browne and church attorneys. Sheriff Chronister said that the church has the ability to livestream services but still encouraged people to show up in person, even laying on buses for some of the congregation. | “Because of the reckless disregard of public safety and after repeated requests and warnings, I worked with our state attorney, Andrew Warren, to obtain a warrant for unlawful assembly and violation of public health emergency rules, both of which are second degree misdemeanours,” Sheriff Chronister said.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-pastor-arrest-florida-church-services-tampa-bay-social-distancing-a9436741.html
DeSantis should be arrested and charged just like the Reverend. Let's talk about nerve. The thousands of spring breakers on those beaches, leave, go home to their respective states, and spread their germs. Meanwhile, DeSantis is checking license plates coming in from other states.
The River at Tampa Bay Church has a warning for visitors: ‘WE ARE HEAVILY ARMED — The Pastors’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/11/21/a-florida-church-has-a-warning-for-visitors-this-is-not-a-gun-free-zone-the-pastors/
Excellent. He should get at minimum a reckless-endangerment charge for each attendee, an attempted manslaughter charge for each confirmed covid case and a murder charge for each death.
Thirteen years ago, a group of U.S. public health officials came up with a plan to address what they regarded as one of the medical system’s crucial vulnerabilities: a shortage of ventilators. The breathing-assistance machines tended to be bulky, expensive and limited in number. The plan was to build a large fleet of inexpensive portable devices to deploy in a flu pandemic or another crisis.
Money was budgeted. A federal contract was signed. Work got underway. And then things suddenly veered off course. A multibillion-dollar maker of medical devices bought the small California company that had been hired to design the new machines. The project ultimately produced zero ventilators. That failure delayed the development of an affordable ventilator by at least half a decade, depriving hospitals, states and the federal government of the ability to stock up. The federal government started over with another company in 2014, whose ventilator was approved only last year and whose products have not yet been delivered. Today, with the coronavirus ravaging America’s health care system, the nation’s emergency-response stockpile is still waiting on its first shipment. The scarcity of ventilators has become an emergency, forcing doctors to make life-or-death decisions about who gets to breathe and who does not.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/business/coronavirus-us-ventilator-shortage.html
Elon Musk says Tesla's New York factory is making ventilators
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/elon-musk-says-teslas-new-york-factory-will-make-ventilators-as-soon-as-humanly-possible-medtronic/
Tesla donates hundreds of ventilators to New York
https://www.10tv.com/article/teslas-elon-musk-donating-hundreds-ventilators-new-york-2020-mar
A choir decided to go ahead with rehearsal. Now dozens of members have COVID-19 and two are dead | With the coronavirus quickly spreading in Washington state in early March, leaders of the Skagit Valley Chorale debated whether to go ahead with weekly rehearsal. The virus was already killing people in the Seattle area, about an hour’s drive to the south. But Skagit County hadn’t reported any cases, schools and businesses remained open, and prohibitions on large gatherings had yet to be announced. On March 6, Adam Burdick, the choir’s conductor, informed the 121 members in an email that amid the “stress and strain of concerns about the virus,” practice would proceed as scheduled at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church. | Sixty singers showed up. A greeter offered hand sanitizer at the door, and members refrained from the usual hugs and handshakes. “It seemed like a normal rehearsal, except that choirs are huggy places,” Burdick recalled. “We were making music and trying to keep a certain distance between each other.” After 2½ hours, the singers parted ways at 9 p.m. Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-29/coronavirus-choir-outbreak
For the new folks: Video from 1987 of Bernie claiming that the "astronomical cost" of universal health care would "bankrupt the nation". At the time he wanted an NHS, not M4A, and would go on to oppose Clinton's UHC push in the '90s even voting against SCHIP. Who got dragged where exactly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyIWpYDP-PQ
Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition
@DefendGlendale
In the last year, DGPHC has
1. Held 6 calls to action asking @IlhanMN to act against Section 18 & RAD
2. Met with her office twice asking them to act.
3. Attended her events and asked her to act.
4. Emailed/Wrote/Called her offices.
5. Organized Phone Zaps asking her to act.
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705496940122113
Public housing residents have called her office and asked her to act. Even her own party, @CD5DFL wrote an open letter to @IlhanMN asking her to stop Section 18 & stand with public housing residents. Despite this, she has refused to act, or even discuss this crisis publicly.
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705498257068038
Given this, it is clear that @IlhanMN doesn't care about the voices of public housing residents, despite her bill Homes for All. Her policy platform is completely insincere. How could it be genuine, considering the crisis in her district and her refusal to engage with it?
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705500106756098
During this pandemic, MPHA has harassed scattered site residents, announced Elliot Twins will be handed over to private ownership through RAD on June 1st & forced residents to sign documents they don't understand. MPHA's mistreatment has know bounds & are completely unaccountable
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705501562232834
We are asking voters to hold @IlhanMN accountable. City council, @Jacob_Frey & @Ilhan have had years to rectify this crisis, support public housing residents and protect a public good. They haven't. They don't care about poor people, and their base should know their record.
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705503214796800
We will continue to hold them accountable and expose their record and the wrongdoings of MPHA. As public housing residents, we will always have the backs of public housing residents, & protect our homes from privatization and displacement. We wish our electeds would do the same.
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705507614568451
Trump promises that more ventilators will produced than are needed in the US. He says we're going to be sending them to Italy, Spain and France. He says he's already told Italy we're now sending $100M worth of: "things. Surgical and medical and hospital things to Italy." The US medical/healthcare infrastructure lacks these things. He's mentally ill, a liar, and a terrorist.
If you live in CO, HI, OR, UT and WA👇 you win the #VoteByMail jackpot. Your ballot is mailed to you automatically. Think all states should offer vote-by-mail options in the wake of COVID-19? Sign this petition: http://change.org/votebymail
https://www.headcount.org/Vote-from-home/
An Idaho hospital CEO vacuumed his hospital to give maintenance a break. ER docs are working extra shifts to fill in as nurses. In Virginia, a call out to neighbors for more hand sanitizer.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/coronavirus-strains-rural-hospitals-absolute-limit-n1172416
The medical professionals on the front lines deserve our respect and admiration, but I think we tend to overlook the folks working to keep healthcare facilities clean. About 100K Americans die each year from healthcare acquired infections. The work by these folks save lives.
20 days ago, Pence said over a million tests had been distributed & 4 million more would be by the end of the week.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-03-10/millions-of-coronavirus-test-kits-available-soon-pence-says-as-us-cases-top-700
A coronavirus outbreak at the Marine Corps' Parris Island boot camp has infected dozens of recruits and staff members, possibly becoming the Pentagon's largest yet. Up to 50 likely infected, source says. Wave of testing occurred over the weekend.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/coronavirus-outbreak-at-marine-corps-boot-camp-infects-dozens-of-recruits-staff-members/2020/03/30/d7a1cdd2-72be-11ea-ae50-7148009252e3_story.html
New York is reporting fewer new cases than yesterday—and they reported fewer yesterday than Saturday—but their testing numbers have stagnated a bit and otherwise been a little weird lately. Mon: 6,984
Sun: 7,195
Sat: 7,683
Fri: 7,377
Thu: 6,447
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1244736568801333254
Nearly 10 minutes of today's coronavirus briefing was taken by six company executives who alternately gave shout outs to their own products, called for a return to the Bible, and praised Trump's leadership.
DeSantis order3e checkpoint at Florida-GA border to look for travelers from coronavirus hotspots like NY -- but I-95 checkpoint is forced to shut down after traffic backs up for miiiiiiles.
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2020/03/29/screening-checkpoint-at-florida-georgia-border-slows-traffic/
A federal judge has temporarily blocked an effort in Texas to stop almost all abortions during the pandemic - hearing on April 13
Dr. James T. Goodrich, the neurosurgeon who allowed CNN inside a remarkable operation to separate twins Jadon and Anias McDonald, died on Monday after complications related to Covid-19, according to the hospital where he worked.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/health/new-york-neurosurgeon-death-coronavirus-mcdonald-twins/index.html
To be clear, General Motors is not making ventilators yet. They must retool their factories. Yesterday a GM spokesman said they’re working “around the clock” to start doing so w/ Ventec Life Systems but "not making ventilators yet." Production expected next couple of weeks.
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1244744562393911298
As someone who recently spent almost a week hooked up to a ventilator (and probably wouldn't be alive today without one), I can attest to the importance of ventilators and the need for an adequate supply. #coronavirus #CoronavirusUSA #COVID19 #Covid_19
https://twitter.com/DavidLat/status/1244411822423318529
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/business/coronavirus-us-ventilator-shortage.html
A Texas judge appointed by George W. Bush just sided with abortion clinics who were challenging the state's order to halt abortions during the covid19 pandemic. The state is banned from enforcing the order for the next couple week while the lawsuit continues in court.
https://valleycentral.com/news/local/judge-blocks-texas-from-temporarily-closing-abortion-clinics-as-part-of-covid-19-response
MyPillow Lays Off 150 Workers After Praising Trump’s Tax Cuts, ‘Booming Economy
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mypillow-mike-lindell-layoffs-trump-tax-cuts_n_5cd5b3a0e4b0705e47dbd2e3
1918 data show that the places with tougher lockdowns had stronger economic recoveries once it was all over
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-03-27/tough-pandemic-shutdowns-work-for-the-economy-too
An MTA worker couldn't get treatment for coronavirus and died in her home. Then her body was left for 24 hours, while her scared family slept in a van.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/bronx-coronavirus-victims-body-left-in-home-for-24-hours-before-collected/
They Were Opposed To Government Surveillance. Then The Coronavirus Pandemic Began. As nations around the world take on sweeping new powers to fight the disease, critics aren't sure what's necessary and what's too far. The coronavirus pandemic, which has grown to over 740,000 cases and 35,000 deaths around the world, has been so singular an event that even some staunch advocates for civil liberties say they’re willing to accept previously unthinkable surveillance measures.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/they-were-opposed-to-government-surveillance-then-the
Ford and GE say they will produce 50,000 ventilators over the next 100 days, and that the simplified ventilator design, which has been cleared by the FDA, can meet the needs of most COVID-19 patients. It relies on air pressure without the need for electricity.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-ford-motor/ford-ge-to-produce-50000-ventilators-in-100-days-idUSKBN21H39F
Today:
-6,984 new cases, 253 deaths reported in New York
-3,250 new cases, 37 deaths in New Jersey
-1,120 new cases, 34 deaths in California
-1,012 new cases, 52 deaths in Michigan
-797 new cases, 8 deaths in Massachusetts
-693 new cases, 10 deaths in Pennsylvania
A federal judge obtained the full and unredacted report on election interference and obstruction of justice prepared by former special counsel Robert Mueller on Monday. A two-page filing submitted by U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia notified Judge Reggie Walton of the delivery of the documents in question. The filing also noted DOJ’s compliance with two court orders issued by Walton earlier this month demanding the law enforcement agency supply the full report.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/federal-judge-who-slammed-ag-barr-obtains-unredacted-version-of-mueller-report/
Social distancing means you should stay away from anyone and NOT have social interactions with them, because the more time you spend next to someone with Covid-19 the more likely you are to catch it too through air droplets.
Here's the part that worries me. They say that transferring the virus to your face with your hands is the most likely way you would get infected. More likely, they say, is being near someone coughing or sneezing. But then they say it's spreading mostly by asymptomatic individuals, who clearly wouldn't be coughing or sneezing. So how are they spreading it so effectively?? All the soap and sanitizer and 6-foot instructions start to sound more like a feel-good activity if that's true.
https://covidtracking.com/data/
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krzysztof_Penderecki
Trump and Republicans illegally eliminate automobile emission laws: The new rule, written by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation, would allow vehicles on American roads to emit nearly a billion tons more carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the cars than they would have under the Obama standards and hundreds of millions of tons more than will be emitted under standards being implemented in Europe and Asia. | Even many large automakers, which had asked Republicans to slightly loosen the Obama-era rule, had urged him not to roll it back so aggressively, since that plan is certain to get bogged down in court for years, leaving their industry in regulatory limbo. | The new standard would lead to nearly a billion more tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide released and the consumption of about 80 billion more gallons of gasoline over the lifetime of the vehicles built during the terms of the rule, according to a recent draft of the plan. | For environmentalists, the tailpipe-emissions rule culminates the Republican party's quest to dismantle the United States’ efforts to fight climate change, which has so far included illegally pulling out of the global Paris climate change accord, illegally weakening rules to curb greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired electric plants, and illegally undermining the basic science that underpins environmental regulations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/climate/trump-fuel-economy.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/climate/trump-paris-agreement-climate.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/climate/epa-coal-emissions.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/climate/trump-administration-war-on-science.html
The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort arrives in New York, Monday, March 30, 2020 | The USNS Comfort arrived in New York on Monday, bringing a massive Navy hospital ship to help relieve city hospitals overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. The 1,000-bed floating hospital docked Monday at Pier 90 on Manhattan’s West Side, and is set to begin treating patients Tuesday. “Our nation has heard our plea for help here in New York City,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said as he greeted the ship at Pier 90. “There could not be a better example of all of America pulling for New York City than the arrival of the USNS Comfort.” The ship, emblazoned with red crosses on its white hull, will not treat coronavirus patients, but will take on other patients including trauma cases, freeing up beds at local hospitals focused on combating the pandemic. It will have 750 beds ready to treat patients immediately.
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/03/30/usns-comfort-arrives-in-new-york-city-1269589
Citgo is liable for a 2004 oil spill and must pay back cleanup costs, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday. In 2004, an oil tanker chartered by Citgo Asphalt Refining Company and others hit an anchor in the Delaware River, leading to the release of 264,000 gallons of heavy crude oil, according to court documents. At the time, Frescati Shipping Company, which owned the vessel, and the U.S. together paid a total of $133 million to clean up the spill. The court ruled 7-2 on Monday that Citgo and others are responsible for cleanup costs.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/490153-supreme-court-rules-citgo-responsible-for-2004-oil-spill
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-565_3d93.pdf
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Monday announced that he is issuing a stay-at-home order for the southern portion of the state as the number of positive coronavirus cases grows. The order will apply to Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe counties through the middle of May. | There are more than 5,000 positive coronavirus cases in Florida, with the state's department of health reporting 523 new positive cases on Sunday. The four counties included in the stay-at-home order make up over 58 percent of the cases in the Sunshine State, according to The Miami Herald.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/490159-governor-to-issue-stay-at-home-order-for-south-florida
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241609941.html
A commercial aircraft carrying 80 tons of gloves, masks, gowns and other medical supplies from Shanghai touched down in New York on Sunday, the first of 22 scheduled flights that White House officials say will funnel much-needed goods to the United States by early April as it battles the world’s largest coronavirus outbreak. The plane delivered 130,000 N95 masks, 1.8 million face masks and gowns, 10 million gloves and thousands of thermometers for distribution to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, said Lizzie Litzow, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ms. Litzow said that flights would be arriving in Chicago on Monday and in Ohio on Tuesday, and that supplies would be sent from there to other states using private-sector distribution networks. While the goods that arrived in New York on Sunday will be welcomed by hospitals and health care workers — some of whom have resorted to rationing protective gear or using homemade supplies — they represent just a tiny portion of what American hospitals need. The Department of Health and Human Services has estimated that the United States will require 3.5 billion masks if the pandemic lasts a year. That overwhelming demand has set off a race among foreign countries, American officials at all levels of government and private individuals to acquire protective gear, ventilators and other much-needed goods from China, where newly built factories are churning out supplies even as China’s own epidemic wanes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/business/economy/coronavirus-china-supplies.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/business/coronavirus-china-masks.html
The Justice Department is investigating actions by US lawmakers who dumped stocks before the market plunged over coronavirus fears
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/coronavirus-justice-department-investigates-lawmakers-who-dumped-stock-cnn-2020-3
Chinese squalid meat "wet markets" still operating despite COVID-19. Thousands of people have started to flood back into Chinese wet markets, with bats, rabbits and dogs still on offer despite the coronavirus outbreak.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/coronavirus-chinese-wet-markets-still-operation-despite-covid19/news-story/104a81601ff7b94fec6dae3e158ad0a1
Wuhan residents estimate region's coronavirus death toll much higher than reported - 42,000-47,000 deaths vs. 3,000 reported deaths
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/wuhan-residents-estimate-regions-coronavirus-death-toll-much-higher-than-reported
40,000 quarantined in India after single priest spread coronavirus
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/least-40-000-quarantined-india-after-single-priest-spread-coronavirus-n1171261
Keeping the Florida primary was a DNC plot. Delaying the New York primary is also a DNC plot.
https://twitter.com/ProgressiveG2/status/1244265591034298369?s=20
The U.S. State Department shipped 17.8 tons of donated coronavirus medical supplies to China seven weeks ago, when health experts and some American lawmakers were already seeking federal action to prepare the country for the disease. The massive shipment to China included medical masks, gowns and respirators, now in desperately short supply across America. The supplies were contributed by American companies and nonprofits, according to a U.S. Agency for International Development official. The State Department touted its aid to China in a press release Feb. 7, three weeks after the first COVID-19 case emerged in Washington state. The statement said the agency was prepared to spend $100 million on the fight against the disease in China and other foreign countries. That was the same day the World Health Organization sounded an alert that such supplies were in critically short supply around the globe. | Later that month, Trump compared COVID-19 to his impeachment and claimed it was Democrats’ “new hoax” to make him look bad. The previous month he boasted at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that it was “totally under control” in the U.S.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-china-coronavirus-shortage-governors_n_5e8179c6c5b66149226a0ff8
https://www.state.gov/briefing-with-usaid-deputy-administrator-bonnie-glick-and-director-of-u-s-foreign-assistance-resources-james-l-richardson-on-u-s-foreign-assistance-in-response-to-covid-19/
https://www.state.gov/the-united-states-announces-assistance-to-combat-the-novel-coronavirus/
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001191
https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/07/coronavirus-concerns-trigger-global-run-on-supplies-for-health-workers-causing-shortages/
https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1225836989393534976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/not-concerned-timeline-trump-coronavirus-164634365.html
Nearly 12,300 Spanish health workers have coronavirus
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-spain-workers/nearly-12300-spanish-health-workers-have-coronavirus-idUKKBN21H1HZ?il=0
AOC breaks with Bernie on how to lead the left: the congresswoman is declining to back primary challengers following in her footsteps — and working within the system in Congress | Of the half-dozen incumbent primary challengers Justice Democrats is backing this cycle, Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed just two. Neither was a particularly risky move: Both candidates — Jessica Cisneros in Texas and Marie Newman in Illinois — were taking on conservative Democrats who oppose abortion rights and later earned the support of several prominent national Democrats. Ocasio-Cortez’s reluctance marks a break with the outsider tactics of the activist left, represented by groups like Justice Democrats. This election cycle, the organization is trying to boot not just conservative Democrats but also some liberal Democrats and to replace them with members who are more left-wing. In other words, to replicate what it pulled off against Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018 by recruiting Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez’s shift coincides with turnover among top aides in her congressional office — replacing some outspoken radicals with more traditional political professionals — along with a broader reckoning on the left on how to expand Sanders’ coalition after his failure to significantly do so in the presidential primary. Some progressives have questioned whether Sanders should have softened his anti-establishment rhetoric and tried to build bridges with mainstream Democrats who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 rather than betting big on turning out disaffected and first-time voters. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement moves are not a fluke but part of a larger change over the past several months. After her disruptive, burn-it-down early months in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez, who colleagues say is often conflict-averse in person, has increasingly been trying to work more within the system. She is building coalitions with fellow Democratic members and picking her fights more selectively. | “The Democratic Party is the party of coalitions, not a cult,” said James Carville, a top strategist for Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign and vocal critic of Sanders during the primary. “I’ve observed her. I think she’s really talented, that she’s really smart. Maybe she is — I don’t speak for her — coming to the conclusion that she wants to be part of the coalition.” Neera Tanden, president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress and a longtime Hillary Clinton aide, called Ocasio-Cortez's shift "a sign of leadership." "There are some people on the left who thought that their views represented a strong majority, and the primary process has shown that voters diverged, that Sanders is winning a minority and smaller minority than he had four years ago,” Tanden said. Instead of supporting Justice Democrats' full slate of incumbent challengers, Ocasio-Cortez launched her own PAC earlier this year that's been more focused on electing progressives in Republican-held or open seats. Ocasio-Cortez declined to be interviewed, but her new communications director, Lauren Hitt, noted that Bush’s August 4 primary is still several months away and that the congresswoman is monitoring other primaries. "We don’t usually endorse so far out," Hitt said. Ocasio-Cortez, however, endorsed Newman six months before her primary and backed Cisneros more than four months before hers. | Other progressives said Ocasio-Cortez’s more accommodating stance is a smart long-term strategy for a movement looking for a path forward. “She’s speaking in a way to create a majority in a way that Bernie is not interested in doing,” said Max Berger, the former director of progressive outreach on Elizabeth Warren’s campaign who also worked for Justice Democrats.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/30/new-aoc-divides-the-left-150767
Fox News concerned about potential legal action over its misleading coronavirus coverage | When I've been talking to Fox insiders over the last few days, there's a real concern inside the network that their early downplaying of the coronavirus actually exposes Fox News to potential legal action by viewers who maybe were misled and actually have died from this. I've heard Trish Regan's being taken off the air is, you know, reflective of this concern that Fox News is in big trouble by downplaying this virus. ... I think this is a case where Fox's coverage, if it actually winds up being proved that people died because of it, this is a new terrain in terms of Fox being possibly held liable for their actions. [Gabriel Sherman, MSNBC]
https://theweek.com/speedreads/905601/fox-news-reportedly-fears-early-downplaying-covid19-leaves-open-lawsuits
A pastor in Florida has been arrested for violating coronavirus social distancing rules by holding two large services at his church over the weekend. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister confirmed on Monday afternoon that Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne had been arrested. “His reckless disregard for human life put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk and thousands of residents who may interact with them this week in danger,” the sheriff said. The River at Tampa Bay Church held two services on Sunday, despite a county order for residents to stay at home, and warnings from the sheriff's office to both Pastor Howard-Browne and church attorneys. Sheriff Chronister said that the church has the ability to livestream services but still encouraged people to show up in person, even laying on buses for some of the congregation. | “Because of the reckless disregard of public safety and after repeated requests and warnings, I worked with our state attorney, Andrew Warren, to obtain a warrant for unlawful assembly and violation of public health emergency rules, both of which are second degree misdemeanours,” Sheriff Chronister said.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-pastor-arrest-florida-church-services-tampa-bay-social-distancing-a9436741.html
DeSantis should be arrested and charged just like the Reverend. Let's talk about nerve. The thousands of spring breakers on those beaches, leave, go home to their respective states, and spread their germs. Meanwhile, DeSantis is checking license plates coming in from other states.
The River at Tampa Bay Church has a warning for visitors: ‘WE ARE HEAVILY ARMED — The Pastors’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/11/21/a-florida-church-has-a-warning-for-visitors-this-is-not-a-gun-free-zone-the-pastors/
Excellent. He should get at minimum a reckless-endangerment charge for each attendee, an attempted manslaughter charge for each confirmed covid case and a murder charge for each death.
Thirteen years ago, a group of U.S. public health officials came up with a plan to address what they regarded as one of the medical system’s crucial vulnerabilities: a shortage of ventilators. The breathing-assistance machines tended to be bulky, expensive and limited in number. The plan was to build a large fleet of inexpensive portable devices to deploy in a flu pandemic or another crisis.
Money was budgeted. A federal contract was signed. Work got underway. And then things suddenly veered off course. A multibillion-dollar maker of medical devices bought the small California company that had been hired to design the new machines. The project ultimately produced zero ventilators. That failure delayed the development of an affordable ventilator by at least half a decade, depriving hospitals, states and the federal government of the ability to stock up. The federal government started over with another company in 2014, whose ventilator was approved only last year and whose products have not yet been delivered. Today, with the coronavirus ravaging America’s health care system, the nation’s emergency-response stockpile is still waiting on its first shipment. The scarcity of ventilators has become an emergency, forcing doctors to make life-or-death decisions about who gets to breathe and who does not.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/business/coronavirus-us-ventilator-shortage.html
Elon Musk says Tesla's New York factory is making ventilators
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/elon-musk-says-teslas-new-york-factory-will-make-ventilators-as-soon-as-humanly-possible-medtronic/
Tesla donates hundreds of ventilators to New York
https://www.10tv.com/article/teslas-elon-musk-donating-hundreds-ventilators-new-york-2020-mar
A choir decided to go ahead with rehearsal. Now dozens of members have COVID-19 and two are dead | With the coronavirus quickly spreading in Washington state in early March, leaders of the Skagit Valley Chorale debated whether to go ahead with weekly rehearsal. The virus was already killing people in the Seattle area, about an hour’s drive to the south. But Skagit County hadn’t reported any cases, schools and businesses remained open, and prohibitions on large gatherings had yet to be announced. On March 6, Adam Burdick, the choir’s conductor, informed the 121 members in an email that amid the “stress and strain of concerns about the virus,” practice would proceed as scheduled at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church. | Sixty singers showed up. A greeter offered hand sanitizer at the door, and members refrained from the usual hugs and handshakes. “It seemed like a normal rehearsal, except that choirs are huggy places,” Burdick recalled. “We were making music and trying to keep a certain distance between each other.” After 2½ hours, the singers parted ways at 9 p.m. Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-29/coronavirus-choir-outbreak
For the new folks: Video from 1987 of Bernie claiming that the "astronomical cost" of universal health care would "bankrupt the nation". At the time he wanted an NHS, not M4A, and would go on to oppose Clinton's UHC push in the '90s even voting against SCHIP. Who got dragged where exactly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyIWpYDP-PQ
Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition
@DefendGlendale
In the last year, DGPHC has
1. Held 6 calls to action asking @IlhanMN to act against Section 18 & RAD
2. Met with her office twice asking them to act.
3. Attended her events and asked her to act.
4. Emailed/Wrote/Called her offices.
5. Organized Phone Zaps asking her to act.
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705496940122113
Public housing residents have called her office and asked her to act. Even her own party, @CD5DFL wrote an open letter to @IlhanMN asking her to stop Section 18 & stand with public housing residents. Despite this, she has refused to act, or even discuss this crisis publicly.
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705498257068038
Given this, it is clear that @IlhanMN doesn't care about the voices of public housing residents, despite her bill Homes for All. Her policy platform is completely insincere. How could it be genuine, considering the crisis in her district and her refusal to engage with it?
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705500106756098
During this pandemic, MPHA has harassed scattered site residents, announced Elliot Twins will be handed over to private ownership through RAD on June 1st & forced residents to sign documents they don't understand. MPHA's mistreatment has know bounds & are completely unaccountable
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705501562232834
We are asking voters to hold @IlhanMN accountable. City council, @Jacob_Frey & @Ilhan have had years to rectify this crisis, support public housing residents and protect a public good. They haven't. They don't care about poor people, and their base should know their record.
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705503214796800
We will continue to hold them accountable and expose their record and the wrongdoings of MPHA. As public housing residents, we will always have the backs of public housing residents, & protect our homes from privatization and displacement. We wish our electeds would do the same.
https://twitter.com/DefendGlendale/status/1244705507614568451
Trump promises that more ventilators will produced than are needed in the US. He says we're going to be sending them to Italy, Spain and France. He says he's already told Italy we're now sending $100M worth of: "things. Surgical and medical and hospital things to Italy." The US medical/healthcare infrastructure lacks these things. He's mentally ill, a liar, and a terrorist.
If you live in CO, HI, OR, UT and WA👇 you win the #VoteByMail jackpot. Your ballot is mailed to you automatically. Think all states should offer vote-by-mail options in the wake of COVID-19? Sign this petition: http://change.org/votebymail
https://www.headcount.org/Vote-from-home/
An Idaho hospital CEO vacuumed his hospital to give maintenance a break. ER docs are working extra shifts to fill in as nurses. In Virginia, a call out to neighbors for more hand sanitizer.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/coronavirus-strains-rural-hospitals-absolute-limit-n1172416
The medical professionals on the front lines deserve our respect and admiration, but I think we tend to overlook the folks working to keep healthcare facilities clean. About 100K Americans die each year from healthcare acquired infections. The work by these folks save lives.
20 days ago, Pence said over a million tests had been distributed & 4 million more would be by the end of the week.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-03-10/millions-of-coronavirus-test-kits-available-soon-pence-says-as-us-cases-top-700
A coronavirus outbreak at the Marine Corps' Parris Island boot camp has infected dozens of recruits and staff members, possibly becoming the Pentagon's largest yet. Up to 50 likely infected, source says. Wave of testing occurred over the weekend.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/coronavirus-outbreak-at-marine-corps-boot-camp-infects-dozens-of-recruits-staff-members/2020/03/30/d7a1cdd2-72be-11ea-ae50-7148009252e3_story.html
New York is reporting fewer new cases than yesterday—and they reported fewer yesterday than Saturday—but their testing numbers have stagnated a bit and otherwise been a little weird lately. Mon: 6,984
Sun: 7,195
Sat: 7,683
Fri: 7,377
Thu: 6,447
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1244736568801333254
Nearly 10 minutes of today's coronavirus briefing was taken by six company executives who alternately gave shout outs to their own products, called for a return to the Bible, and praised Trump's leadership.
DeSantis order3e checkpoint at Florida-GA border to look for travelers from coronavirus hotspots like NY -- but I-95 checkpoint is forced to shut down after traffic backs up for miiiiiiles.
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2020/03/29/screening-checkpoint-at-florida-georgia-border-slows-traffic/
A federal judge has temporarily blocked an effort in Texas to stop almost all abortions during the pandemic - hearing on April 13
Dr. James T. Goodrich, the neurosurgeon who allowed CNN inside a remarkable operation to separate twins Jadon and Anias McDonald, died on Monday after complications related to Covid-19, according to the hospital where he worked.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/health/new-york-neurosurgeon-death-coronavirus-mcdonald-twins/index.html
To be clear, General Motors is not making ventilators yet. They must retool their factories. Yesterday a GM spokesman said they’re working “around the clock” to start doing so w/ Ventec Life Systems but "not making ventilators yet." Production expected next couple of weeks.
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1244744562393911298
As someone who recently spent almost a week hooked up to a ventilator (and probably wouldn't be alive today without one), I can attest to the importance of ventilators and the need for an adequate supply. #coronavirus #CoronavirusUSA #COVID19 #Covid_19
https://twitter.com/DavidLat/status/1244411822423318529
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/business/coronavirus-us-ventilator-shortage.html
A Texas judge appointed by George W. Bush just sided with abortion clinics who were challenging the state's order to halt abortions during the covid19 pandemic. The state is banned from enforcing the order for the next couple week while the lawsuit continues in court.
https://valleycentral.com/news/local/judge-blocks-texas-from-temporarily-closing-abortion-clinics-as-part-of-covid-19-response
MyPillow Lays Off 150 Workers After Praising Trump’s Tax Cuts, ‘Booming Economy
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mypillow-mike-lindell-layoffs-trump-tax-cuts_n_5cd5b3a0e4b0705e47dbd2e3
1918 data show that the places with tougher lockdowns had stronger economic recoveries once it was all over
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-03-27/tough-pandemic-shutdowns-work-for-the-economy-too
An MTA worker couldn't get treatment for coronavirus and died in her home. Then her body was left for 24 hours, while her scared family slept in a van.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/bronx-coronavirus-victims-body-left-in-home-for-24-hours-before-collected/
They Were Opposed To Government Surveillance. Then The Coronavirus Pandemic Began. As nations around the world take on sweeping new powers to fight the disease, critics aren't sure what's necessary and what's too far. The coronavirus pandemic, which has grown to over 740,000 cases and 35,000 deaths around the world, has been so singular an event that even some staunch advocates for civil liberties say they’re willing to accept previously unthinkable surveillance measures.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/they-were-opposed-to-government-surveillance-then-the
Ford and GE say they will produce 50,000 ventilators over the next 100 days, and that the simplified ventilator design, which has been cleared by the FDA, can meet the needs of most COVID-19 patients. It relies on air pressure without the need for electricity.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-ford-motor/ford-ge-to-produce-50000-ventilators-in-100-days-idUSKBN21H39F
Today:
-6,984 new cases, 253 deaths reported in New York
-3,250 new cases, 37 deaths in New Jersey
-1,120 new cases, 34 deaths in California
-1,012 new cases, 52 deaths in Michigan
-797 new cases, 8 deaths in Massachusetts
-693 new cases, 10 deaths in Pennsylvania
A federal judge obtained the full and unredacted report on election interference and obstruction of justice prepared by former special counsel Robert Mueller on Monday. A two-page filing submitted by U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia notified Judge Reggie Walton of the delivery of the documents in question. The filing also noted DOJ’s compliance with two court orders issued by Walton earlier this month demanding the law enforcement agency supply the full report.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/federal-judge-who-slammed-ag-barr-obtains-unredacted-version-of-mueller-report/
Social distancing means you should stay away from anyone and NOT have social interactions with them, because the more time you spend next to someone with Covid-19 the more likely you are to catch it too through air droplets.
Here's the part that worries me. They say that transferring the virus to your face with your hands is the most likely way you would get infected. More likely, they say, is being near someone coughing or sneezing. But then they say it's spreading mostly by asymptomatic individuals, who clearly wouldn't be coughing or sneezing. So how are they spreading it so effectively?? All the soap and sanitizer and 6-foot instructions start to sound more like a feel-good activity if that's true.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Light News Sat/Sun
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
https://covidtracking.com/data/
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
We’re launching a test that can detect COVID-19 in as little as 5 minutes—bringing rapid testing to the frontlines.
https://abbott.mediaroom.com/2020-03-27-Abbott-Launches-Molecular-Point-of-Care-Test-to-Detect-Novel-Coronavirus-in-as-Little-as-Five-Minutes
Hi Mitchell, thanks for asking. We will be able to produce about 50,000 ID NOW tests per day. With the combination of our ID NOW and m2000 COVID-19 testing capabilities, we will supply about 5 million tests per month.
https://twitter.com/AbbottNews/status/1243706614332473344
Every last photo in this is astonishing. And then imagine the great personal risk taken by a journalist for each shot. Like documenting a war. We Take the Dead From Morning Till Night.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/27/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-bergamo.html
We can't have 50 states all competing against each other for the same live-saving supplies. The competition hurts all of us by massively driving up prices. We need a nationwide buying consortium.
https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1243943483867627522
Wuhan, endless queues for ashes of coronavirus dead cast doubts on numbers
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Wuhan,-endless-queues-for-ashes-of-coronavirus-dead-cast-doubts-on-numbers-49673.html
Fears for indigenous tribes after doctor in Amazon tests positive. Many members of indigenous tribes have weaker immune systems and so are more vulnerable to diseases such as COVID-19.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-fears-for-indigenous-tribes-after-doctor-in-amazon-tests-positive-11964856
NRA Sues California Officials for Closing Gun Stores Amid Virus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-27/nra-sues-california-for-ordering-gun-stores-closed-amid-virus
Why is this needed for something that will be over by Easter?...: Trump issues order allowing Pentagon to bring former troops back to active duty to assist in coronavirus response
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/03/28/trump-approves-ordering-former-us-troops-active-duty-assist-coronavirus-response
So he thinks it’s bad enough that we need a mandatory quarantine, which is illegal, but not bad enough that we need more respirators: Trump says he is considering a quarantine on New York, parts of New Jersey and Connecticut
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2020/03/28/trump-says-he-is-considering-a-quarantine-on-new-york-parts-of-new-jersey-and-connecticut/
Announcing that you’re “considering” a quarantine without actually being prepared to doso (if he CAN even do it) sounds like a pretty good way to get people to panic and leave the city, which is kind of the opposite of the goal of a quarantine.
Governors and mayors, not the federal government, have the broadest quarantine and isolation authority, as the constitution leaves that kind of police power in the hands of the states. Supreme Court: United States v. Guest, 383 US 745: Although the Articles of Confederation provided that "the people of each State shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other State,"[14] that right finds no explicit mention in the Constitution. The reason, it has been suggested, is that a right so elementary was conceived from the beginning to be a necessary concomitant of the stronger Union the Constitution created.[15] In any event, freedom to travel throughout the United States has long been recognized as a basic right under the Constitution. See Williams v. Fears, 179 U. S. 270, 274; Twining v. New Jersey, 211 U. S. 78, 97; Edwards v. California, 314 U. S. 160, 177 (concurring opinion), 181 (concurring opinion); New York v. O'Neill, 359 U. S. 1, 6-8; 12-16 (dissenting opinion).
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12344349829991334923&hl=en&as_sdt=6,47&as_vis=1#p758
He already sounds like he’s building an exit ramp (quarantine states) for his Easter restart (which, again, not surprising.....). He needs to put a quarantine around the states that are refusing to enact or enforce mandatory stay at home orders. Those are the truly dangerous actors going forward. Florida, Missouri, Mississippi, etc.
So much has changed so quickly for Joseph Palma that he barely recognizes his life. On Tuesday last week, he was going to work, helping passengers in the customs area of the Miami airport. The next day, he was laid off without severance or benefits. Five days later, he moved back in with his 59-year-old mother, loading his bed and his clothes into the back of his friend’s pickup truck. Now he is staring at his bank account — totaling about $3,100 — and waiting on hold for hours at a time with the unemployment office, while cursing at its crashing website. “I’m feeling scared,” said Mr. Palma, who is 41 and nervous about the $15,000 in medical debt he has from two recent hospital stays. “I don’t know what’s the ending. But I know I’m not in good shape.” For the millions of Americans who found themselves without a job in recent weeks, the sharp and painful change brought a profound sense of disorientation. They were going about their lives, bartending, cleaning, managing events, waiting tables, loading luggage and teaching yoga. And then suddenly they were in free fall, grabbing at any financial help they could find, which in many states this week remained locked away behind crashing websites and overloaded phone lines. | In 17 interviews with people in eight states across the country, Americans who lost their jobs said they were in shock and struggling to grasp the magnitude of the economy’s shutdown, an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. Unlike the last economic earthquake, the financial crisis of 2008, this time there was no getting back out there to look for work, not when people were being told to stay inside. What is more, the layoffs affected not just them, but their spouses, their parents, their siblings and their roommates — even their bosses.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/us/coronavirus-unemployed.html
Joseph Lowery, the civil rights icon who helped Dr. King organize the Montgomery bus boycott and spent the rest of his life fighting for racial justice.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/us/joseph-lowery-dead.html
Republican nutjob Tom Coburn, the ‘Dr. No’ of Congress, Is Dead at 72
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/us/tom-coburn-dead.html
United States Postal Service workers, who are still delivering and sorting mail at distribution centers around the country even as millions of Americans telecommute, are worried that they may not have the protection -- or even the funding -- they will need to keep delivering mail for months longer. Just like hospitals, post offices are facing critical shortages of essential products to protect them from the coronavirus outbreak — one union for US Postal Service workers said this week it has heard thousands of concerns from its members related to coronavirus. | As millions shelter in place to wait out the coronavirus, the mail is a lifeline to distribute critical medicine and supplies to those who are homebound. It also will play a major role in helping distribute millions of checks to individuals and businesses who receive cash from the federal government as part of its historic stimulus program. | In a statement pushing for more funding, the House Oversight Committee argued that the system helped to deliver more than a billion prescription drug orders last year. In rural areas, the committee said the Postal Service may be one of the only ways that individuals can get the items they need. The committee also warned that more than a quarter of all US votes in recent elections were distributed through the mail, meaning a loss in funding could result in a disenfranchisement in voting for Americans.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/28/politics/usps-working-coronavirus/index.html
Yesterday, one New Yorker was dying every ten minutes from COVID-19. Today, it’s every *seven* minutes. Every. Seven. Minutes.
"Chloroquine phosphate, when used without a prescription and supervision of a healthcare provider, can cause serious health consequences, including death," the CDC warned in official guidance Saturday.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-warns-against-using-form-chloroquine-killed-man-sickened-his-n1171226
The temporary hospital in the Javits Center will fully open on MONDAY. I congratulate FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers for their work at Javits. I thank the Javits staff. I thank the National Guard. You built a hospital in a week. You are the best of us.
https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1243583774627168257
Native American present a serious challenge for coronavirus eradication | Lapses in federal health policy and reliance on fractured tribal structures raise fears the virus could hide on Native American reservations long after America goes back to work. | The federal health agency that serves more than 2.5 million Native Americans has only limited ability to monitor and investigate coronavirus cases across American Indian communities and reservations, slowing its ability to respond to outbreaks and raising fears that a lack of reliable data could compromise national efforts to eradicate the virus. The Indian Health Service is instead relying largely on Native organizations and health facilities to track the virus and self-report their findings to the Trump administration – an inconsistent practice further complicated by minimal testing capabilities, outdated health technology and provider shortages that Native groups warn could vastly understate the crisis across tribal lands. | “It’s so short-sighted to think that this isn’t going to get to tribal communities – and when it does, it’s going to be worse,” said Allison Barlow, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. “We know that this virus will occur in waves.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/28/native-americans-coronavirus-152579 …
Michigan health officials said 993 more people have tested positive for coronavirus, a 27 percent increase from Friday, increasing the state's total to 4,650. The death total is now 111.
https://www.crainsdetroit.com/health-care/michigan-sees-largest-one-day-jump-coronavirus-cases-dmc-says-it-nearly-full-and
The Governor of Florida is denying access to the Miami Herald to his press conference. Spread the word far and wide
https://twitter.com/DWUhlfelderLaw/status/1243981544705925120
.@GovRonDeSantis has well learned the thug methods of his mentor Donald Trump. He spread virus to half the country by refusing to act promptly to close his state's beaches; now tries to avoid accountability by breaking the law to shut down independent media.
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1243986762713763840
Watch @MaryEllenKlas who is representing @MiamiHerald and @TB_Times be excluded from the governor's COVID-19 press conference. Why? We requested social distancing when the briefings were being held in his crowded office. This is in a conference room. Other journalists present.
https://twitter.com/DaveWilson13/status/1243980127547113475
LDH says COVID-19 clusters in 11 nursing homes: Chateau De Notre Dame; Chateau D'Ville; Chateau St. James; Good Samaritan, New Orleans; Lambeth House; Luling Living Center; Nouveau Marc; River Palms Nursing and Rehab; St. James Place; St. Joseph of Harahan; Vista Shores. #lalege
https://twitter.com/MelindaDeslatte/status/1243984965592928257
“We put our family members in nursing homes in order for them to be cared for, because we may not be able to do it 24/7. And then when something like this happens, you know, it’s a setback for the community,” said Sullivan.
https://www.knoe.com/content/news/LDH-reports-COVID-19-clusters-at-8-nursing-homes-in-La-569166461.html
This would be a good time for nurses and doctors to go on strike. They're risking their lives for Republicans and Trumpsters that don't believe in democracy, won't provide protective equipment, and are playing games with people's lives.
Bill de Blasio is listening intently to public-health experts and then just doing the exact opposite of what they recommend...: the mayoral mansion Bill de Blasio lives in is literally next to a park in Manhattan, but made his way to Brooklyn to take a walk around:
https://twitter.com/IsaacDovere/status/1243971944468357122
Singapore is open sourcing its contact tracing app, Trace Together. Essentially, if you were within 6 feet of someone else with the app who becomes positive later, you will be notified.
https://twitter.com/johnrobb/status/1243686008824246272
After $25 million stimulus, stunned National Symphony Orchestra players receive one-week notice from Kennedy Center | The Kennedy Center — a performing arts center and memorial for President John F. Kennedy — canceled performances from March 12 to May 10 as government officials restrict large gatherings to combat the spread of the coronavirus. In a conference call Friday night, Rutter told orchestra leaders that the 96 musicians would receive their last paycheck on April 3 and that they will not be paid until the arts center reopens. In addition, she said their health-care benefits would stop at the end of May if the arts center is still closed at that time. The announcement was characterized by several NSO members as a shock. Ed Malaga, president of Local 161-710 of the American Federation of Musicians, described the decision as outrageous and said the union has filed a grievance challenging what it believes is an illegal action. “This decision, from an organization with an endowment of nearly $100 million, is not only outrageous — coming after the musicians had expressed their willingness to discuss ways to accommodate the Kennedy Center during this challenging time — it is also blatantly illegal under the parties’ collective bargaining agreement. That agreement specifically requires that the Center provide six weeks’ notice before it can stop paying musicians for economic reasons,” Malaga said in a statement.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/after-25-million-stimulus-stunned-nso-players-receive-one-week-notice-from-kennedy-center/2020/03/28/9c27603e-7118-11ea-aa80-c2470c6b2034_story.html
A joke and eye-opening unbelievably incredible bad thing to find out that Rutter the CEO for the centers her salary is $1.2 million to run a national theater??? the entire payroll for the orchestra is only $400,000 pales in comparison to her salary regardless of her cutting it
Why coronavirus antibody testing in one Colorado town could provide a way forward | United Biomedical is now working with San Miguel County, which includes the famous Rocky Mountain ski destination, to test all 8,000 residents for COVID-19 antibodies -- making it the first community in the country to do widespread antibody testing. The idea, officials said, is to learn from an individual’s blood whether there is evidence the person has already been exposed. With that information, officials can then make decisions about whether quarantines and restrictions would need to continue and whether they need to be as widespread as they are in states and cities across the country right now. "The goal of this is to show you can predictably get an entire county back to its new normal as quickly as possible by using testing," said Lou Reese, co-CEO of United Biomedical and its COVAXX subsidiary. Reese stressed that, if successful, the testing program could be expanded, "starting at the hot-spot areas right now to solve this problem, stop the panic and get people to their lives and back to work." | The science behind the testing concept is not complicated. Every person who contracts the coronavirus will develop antibodies in their blood, usually within 10 days, even if the individual has such a mild case that there are no symptoms. Antibodies are proteins that help the body fight off an intruding virus -- but they’re also unmistakable forensic evidence of where the virus has been. Because it is generally believed that someone who’s had an infection has at least a temporary immunity, a person who already had COVID-19 may not need to remain locked down the way millions of Americans -- in New York, California, Washington state and other places around the country -- are this weekend. What remains unknown is whether the immunity is long-lasting or whether someone who has coronavirus antibodies can continue carrying the virus, potentially posing a threat to others. For instance, people with a MERS infection -- a virus from the same family -- are unlikely to be reinfected shortly after recovery, but according to the CDC, "It is not yet known whether similar immune protection will be observed for patients with COVID-19." | Since the Food and Drug Administration announced an Emergency Use Authorization policy for antibody testing last week, laboratories across the U.S. have been rushing to develop their own antibody tests.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/antibody-testing-colorado-town-provide-forward/story?id=69856623
Something notable: Crime has dropped in a bunch of big cities since people began hunkering down. 911 calls are down in Seattle. The NYPD reported a 17% drop in major felony crimes. San Jose saw a bigger drop. But cops/experts worry domestic violence and child abuse will go up
https://twitter.com/markberman/status/1244007323523309568
Police keep getting the coronavirus, with at least 6 officers and staff dying from the virus this week. Depts trying to avoid extra exposure are asking 911 callers about symptoms, cutting arrests in some places and not responding to some calls in person
https://twitter.com/markberman/status/1244006584063270913
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/police-in-several-cities-test-positive-for-coronavirus-stirring-fears-of-spread-among-first-responders/2020/03/28/b88b17f4-6f9a-11ea-a3ec-70d7479d83f0_story.html
“A week later, Dr. Fauci — the administration’s most outspoken advocate of emergency measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak — has become the target of an online conspiracy theory that he is mobilizing to undermine the president.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/technology/coronavirus-fauci-trump-conspiracy-target.html
How can it be Cuomo’s fault? Trump didn’t share important COVID-19 information with any governors and the American people early on. He kept that a secret and downplayed the severity of the outbreak every chance he could. The captain at the helm of the ship decided to not tell the ship mates that a storm was coming. He ignored it all. New York City is the most populated city in the nation. Manhattan itself has a population density is 66,940 people per square mile. When the president doesn’t give key information about the spread of the virus to the very first person who should know about it, Trump is to blame. He failed to warn the governor of the largest city with many of the largest international airports with people coming in from all over the world. What was Cuomo expected to do with absolutely no information? Trump had all the scientific and medical experts from the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control screaming in his ear back in January alerting him of the dangers of this virus. It was up to Trump to disseminate this information first and foremost to Cuomo, the governor whose state and city would be impacted first and hardest in the entire United States along with all the other governors. Cuomo's response to this crisis has been exactly what a president's response should have been. On the other hand you have a clown that started shouting this whole thing was a hoax and now wants to play with people's lives because he's a terrorist.
DeSantis this week said he wouldn’t give a stay at home order or close most business. But has been all over saying New Yorkers, and others need to stay away or quarantine for two weeks. Because this isn’t about stoping the spread it's about blaming ‘others' for it.
Biden chokes up while addressing families planning funerals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwfytt3JyZs
More than 700 New Jersey police officers test positive for the coronavirus
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/live-blog/live-coronavirus-updates-u-s-first-top-100-000-cases-n1171011/ncrd1171296
The empathy/communications gap between Trump and Cuomo is so striking. Cuomo, not exactly a warm & fuzzy guy, talks about how special it's been to spend time on the phone with his mom lately. Trump couldn't answer when Hannity asked how he talks to Barron about what's happening.
MA received 17% of requested medical supplies from the Trump admin. ME: 5%. CO: 1 day's worth. FL got everything they requested. + an identical shipment the next week. oh, and a 3rd is on the way. Using disaster relief funds and equipment for campaign purposes is very clearly an abuse of his office and its power...Wasn’t he impeached for that?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/desperate-for-medical-equipment-states-encounter-a-beleaguered-national-stockpile/2020/03/28/1f4f9a0a-6f82-11ea-aa80-c2470c6b2034_story.html
At least seven people at FEMA—the agency leading America's coronavirus response—the have the virus themselves.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/climate/fema-coronavirus.html
Will they ever learn? Chinese markets are still selling bats and slaughtering rabbits on blood-soaked floors as Beijing celebrates non-existent 'victory' over the coronavirus.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8163761/Chinese-markets-selling-bats.html
It's really hard to imagine anything stupider than threatening a quarantine for 30 million people, letting it hang out there for 7 hours in order to produce panic and flight out of the hot zone, and then pull it back. It has the exact opposite effect of a quarantine.
800,000 Physicians Pen Letter Asking Trump Not to Lift Social Distancing Guidelines Too Early | The letter, drafted by the Council of Medical Speciality Societies (CMSS), was addressed to Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Deborah Birx. CMSS told the leaders of the coronavirus response that “we need your leadership in supporting science-based recommendations on social distancing that can slow the virus.” | Statewide efforts alone will not sufficiently control this public health crisis. A strong nationwide plan that supports and enforces social distancing—and recognizes that our health and our economy are inextricably linked—should remain in place until public health and medical experts indicate it can be lifted. Federal, state, and local governments should only set a date for lifting nationwide social distancing restrictions consistent with assessments by public health and medical experts. Lifting restrictions sooner will gravely jeopardize the health of all Americans and extend the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://cmss.org/statement_covid-19_restrictions/
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Saturday that 170 ventilators shipped by the federal government to help his state respond to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus were "not working" when they arrived. | Newsom said that the stockpile of ventilators had been sent to Los Angeles County by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He noted that a company called Bloom Energy was fixing the equipment.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/490033-newsom-170-ventilators-sent-from-federal-government-arrived-not-working
The U.S. Interior Department is rescinding the reservation status of a Native American tribe whose plan to build a casino on its Massachusetts land was attacked by Trump last year. The planned gaming operation would have competed for business with nearby Rhode Island casinos with strong ties to Trump, who once owned, then bankrupted, casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey. | The Bureau of Indian Affairs “informed me that the Secretary of the Interior has ordered that our reservation be disestablished and that our land be taken out of trust,” Cromwell said in a statement Friday. The crushing news came as the tribe “desperately” struggled with the “devastating pandemic” as the nation tallied a record 100,000 cases of COVID-19. The action was “cruel and unnecessary,” he added. It’s unclear what the next step will be.
https://mashpeewampanoagtribe-nsn.gov/news/2020/3/27/message-from-the-chairman-we-will-take-action-to-prevent-the-loss-of-our-land
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-riddle-in-new-england-a-casino-321-acres-of-indian-tribal-land-and-a-presidential-tweet/2019/05/13/dfcc6dd8-7354-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html
New York Knicks owner James Dolan has tested positive for coronavirus.
http://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1244083445732716546
Knicks say owner Jim Dolan has tested positive for coronavirus and is in self-isolation. He’s experiencing little to no symptoms and continues to oversee business operations.
https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/1244083631485669378
I could say something, but I'm not going to.....
All the Knicks’ fan base rn
https://twitter.com/SASBurnerAcct/status/1244083650448297984
1 - Get better
2 - Sell the team
The coronavirus has been banned from MSG.....
Check out the cellphone heat maps of people leaving Florida. Super irresponsible. We should have locked them down and kept them here. Not try to blame other states. The replies to that tweet will make you lose even more faith in humanity so read those with caution: Want to see the true potential impact of ignoring social distancing? Through a partnership with @xmodesocial, we analyzed secondary locations of anonymized mobile devices that were active at a single Ft. Lauderdale beach during spring break. This is where they went across the US:
https://twitter.com/TectonixGEO/status/1242628347034767361
A lot of people want to point their fingers at the politicians right now, but the biggest sore point with me is this: People are fully aware, and have been for quite some time now, of how this contagious this virus is. If in 7 days from now the new cases don’t go down in numbers, can we really keep blaming our governments? The increasing number of infected people would mean people are still disregarding their health and everyone else’s health, it would mean nobody really cares, it would mean everybody should go back to work and school and whoever dies, dies.
Everyone In Iceland Can Get Tested For The Coronavirus. Here's How The Results Could Help All Of Us. The small island nation’s large-scale testing strategy includes people who don’t have any symptoms. | Mass testing on the scale adopted in Iceland is unlikely to be feasible across larger countries. However, it has proved crucial in some of the other areas hardest hit by the novel coronavirus so far. The testing has provided evidence revealing that a significant portion of those who catch the disease do so with no or mild symptoms — and confirmed multiple pieces of research that have shown that asymptomatic individuals contribute to the transmission of the disease in great numbers. | A study published on Monday in the magazine Science found that for every confirmed case of the virus there are likely another five to 10 people with undetected infections in the community. The scientists, which based their model on data from China, reported that these often milder and less infectious cases are behind nearly 80% of new cases.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/coronavirus-testing-iceland
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/03/24/science.abb3221
A plane from Shanghai arrived at JFK this morning carrying an extraordinary load: 12 million gloves, 130,000 N-95 masks, 1.7 million surgical masks, 50,000 gowns, 130,000 hand sanitizer units, and 36,000 thermometers. | Rear Admiral John Polowczyk, who runs the coronavirus supply chain task force at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told Axios that he's already booked 22 similar flights over the next two weeks.
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-airlift-masks-medical-supplies-1d1913bf-744e-41cf-895c-d8934afa2c36.html
Everything is always two weeks away with this administration. They are already THREE MONTHS BEHIND. We should have started mass testing for coronavirus AT LEAST two months ago. We must start mass testing as soon as possible. We are flying blind.
Here is a distribution of recorded Covid-19 cases in Iceland (which tests broadly, even people with no symptoms) and the Netherlands (which tests narrowly, only those with severe symptoms)
https://twitter.com/alexandreafonso/status/1243557013759700997
In the next Coronavirus relief package that Congress passes, essential workers — first responders, hospital and medical workers, grocery store workers, farm workers, etc., should receive hazard pay from their government or their company.
https://twitter.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/1244090441659793414
And for those who lost their lives fighting on the front lines without adequate PPE, compensation for their families. Hazard pay and also top-drawer insurance. Statutory presumptions that covid or other conditions are work-related for workers comp and disability coverage purposes. (as has long been true, for eg, for firefighters/cops, in many states). Anyone who was deemed an Essential worker by state EO or federal action should receive all benefits of Hazard pay.
Powell's Books rehires over 100 employees after surge of online orders
https://twitter.com/PublishersWkly/status/1244278265805787136
"Art of Pandemic Cover-Up" selling out fast. First 1,000 were bought by RNC.
China and Vietnam are banning the wild animal trade after the coronavirus spread across the world killing thousands of people. China has now imposed a ban on farming and consumption of “terrestrial wildlife of important ecological, scientific and social value".
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11278310/china-vietnam-wildlife-ban-coronavirus/
Newborn endangered sea turtles throng Brazil's deserted beaches. Birth of hawksbill turtles is usually greeted by crowds of human onlookers – but thanks to coronavirus, only government workers witnessed this event
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/29/newborn-endangered-sea-turtles-throng-brazils-deserted-beaches
Zero-carbon water pumps turn Pakistan’s barren mountains green
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-water-climate-change/zero-carbon-water-pumps-turn-pakistans-barren-mountains-green-idUSKBN21G0KT
Netherlands recalls 600,000 face masks from China due to low quality, which comes after Spain earlier asking for Covid-19 rapid test kits imported from China to be replaced because they were unreliable
https://www.businessinsider.com/coroanvirus-holland-recalls-over-half-a-million-masks-imported-from-china-2020-3
Acquiescing to public health experts, Trump has relented and retreated from his idea for people to fill churches on Easter. "Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won," he says. Trump says he thinks we'll be well on our way to recovery "by June 1." Trump says US will be extending its social distancing guidelines until April 30, after explaining death rate for nation likely to hit peak in two weeks. Hopes situation is better by June 1st.
Virginia pastor dies from coronavirus after previously saying "media is pumping out fear" about pandemic
https://www.newsweek.com/virginia-pastor-dies-coronavirus-after-previously-saying-media-pumping-out-fear-about-pandemic-1494702
He schedules the briefings for 5pm Eastern to preempt the local news. Instead of seeing local news stories about the horrors in their cities, people in the eastern USA see trump vomiting out word salad.
—cases double every 3 days
—acceleration mirrors NY
—only 40,000 tested
—no stay at home order
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/03/28/florida-coronavirus-cases-are-growing-fast-heres-what-that-means/
Nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggest Covid-19 after Falwell called them back to campus. “Liberty will be notifying the community as deemed appropriate and required by law,” Falwell said when confronted with the numbers. | The decision by the school’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., to partly reopen his evangelical university enraged residents of Lynchburg, Va. Then students started getting sick. | So Mr. Falwell — a staunch ally of President Trump and an influential voice in the evangelical world — reopened the university last week, igniting a firestorm. As of Friday, Dr. Eppes said, nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggest Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Three were referred to local hospital centers for testing. Another eight were told to self-isolate. “Liberty will be notifying the community as deemed appropriate and required by law,” Mr. Falwell said in an interview on Sunday when confronted with the numbers. He added that any student returning now to campus would be required to self-quarantine for 14 days. “I can’t be sure what’s going on with individuals who are not being tested but who are advised to self-isolate,” said Kerry Gateley, the health director of the Central Virginia Health District, which covers Lynchburg. “I would assume that if clinicians were concerned enough about the possibility of Covid-19 disease to urge self-isolation that appropriate screening and testing would be arranged.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/us/politics/coronavirus-liberty-university-falwell.html
In the event of a hoax
1. Listen to FAUX news
2. Go to work, church, school...
3. Get covid19
4. Blame Democrats
5. Hopefully recover from the hoax
Pres announces quick FDA approval for transfusion of blood plasma from patients recovered from COVID-19 into severely ill patients with Coronavirus. Says it boosts their immune system. Also says FDA approval being sought for sterilization of face masks so they can be reused.
https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/1244382412882227200
I’m in Central Park - they’re building field hospitals for coronavirus patients
https://twitter.com/carolynryan/status/1244378858473893891
The alarm system was ready. Scarred by the SARS epidemic that erupted in 2002, China had created an infectious disease reporting system that officials said was world-class: fast, thorough and, just as important, immune from meddling. Hospitals could input patients’ details into a computer and instantly notify government health authorities in Beijing, where officers are trained to spot and smother contagious outbreaks before they spread. It didn’t work. After doctors in Wuhan began treating clusters of patients stricken with a mysterious pneumonia in December, the reporting was supposed to have been automatic. Instead, hospitals deferred to local health officials who, over a political aversion to sharing bad news, withheld information about cases from the national reporting system — keeping Beijing in the dark and delaying the response.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/world/asia/coronavirus-china.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/27/world/the-sars-epidemic-the-path-from-china-s-provinces-a-crafty-germ-breaks-out.html
Trump continues to dismiss covid19 as a hoax: One NY hospital that used 10,000-20,000 masks per week now using 2-300,000 per week. Trump's take: "How does that happen? Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door? "Something is going on and you ought to look into it as reporters. Are they going out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000?"
- "How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000 masks? Where are they going? Out the back door?"
- You go from 10,000 to 300,000 BY HAVING A FUCKING PANDEMIC
- ...it's like there's a pandemic or something
One month ago, Trump said there were only 15 coronavirus cases in the United States and in a few days it would be zero and that proves he is doing a good job. Today, Trump said that if 100,000 people die of coronavirus in the United States that proves he is doing a good job because studies show 2.2 million people could die
Trump now saying it’s better that he doesn’t talk to the governors because he won’t be able to talk to them because he doesn’t want to talk to failed presidential candidates. Now dumping all over CNN for its ratings. Like a gigantic toddler.
People are dying by the hundreds daily and Donald "I don't know what the ratings are" Trump is live-tweeting (see his tweets) - during a nationally-televised covid19 briefing - how his covid19 briefing ratings are higher than television ratings
Trump is literally talking about his ratings during a news conference that earlier referenced 2000k people dying.
There has been much nonsense and ground noise in this presser. But at least Trump listened to his medical advisors instead of his mentally ill sycophants. That decision to push beyond Easter, and possibly to early June, will save thousands of lives.
Experts believe the explosion of coronavirus cases in Italy and Spain can be traced to a champions league between Atalanta and Valencia. When fans returned home, both regions became the epicenters of the virus in their respective nations.
https://www.si.com/soccer/2020/03/25/atalanta-valencia-coronavirus-champions-league-san-siro-milan-italy
https://covidtracking.com/data/
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest
We’re launching a test that can detect COVID-19 in as little as 5 minutes—bringing rapid testing to the frontlines.
https://abbott.mediaroom.com/2020-03-27-Abbott-Launches-Molecular-Point-of-Care-Test-to-Detect-Novel-Coronavirus-in-as-Little-as-Five-Minutes
Hi Mitchell, thanks for asking. We will be able to produce about 50,000 ID NOW tests per day. With the combination of our ID NOW and m2000 COVID-19 testing capabilities, we will supply about 5 million tests per month.
https://twitter.com/AbbottNews/status/1243706614332473344
Every last photo in this is astonishing. And then imagine the great personal risk taken by a journalist for each shot. Like documenting a war. We Take the Dead From Morning Till Night.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/27/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-bergamo.html
We can't have 50 states all competing against each other for the same live-saving supplies. The competition hurts all of us by massively driving up prices. We need a nationwide buying consortium.
https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1243943483867627522
Wuhan, endless queues for ashes of coronavirus dead cast doubts on numbers
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Wuhan,-endless-queues-for-ashes-of-coronavirus-dead-cast-doubts-on-numbers-49673.html
Fears for indigenous tribes after doctor in Amazon tests positive. Many members of indigenous tribes have weaker immune systems and so are more vulnerable to diseases such as COVID-19.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-fears-for-indigenous-tribes-after-doctor-in-amazon-tests-positive-11964856
NRA Sues California Officials for Closing Gun Stores Amid Virus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-27/nra-sues-california-for-ordering-gun-stores-closed-amid-virus
Why is this needed for something that will be over by Easter?...: Trump issues order allowing Pentagon to bring former troops back to active duty to assist in coronavirus response
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/03/28/trump-approves-ordering-former-us-troops-active-duty-assist-coronavirus-response
So he thinks it’s bad enough that we need a mandatory quarantine, which is illegal, but not bad enough that we need more respirators: Trump says he is considering a quarantine on New York, parts of New Jersey and Connecticut
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2020/03/28/trump-says-he-is-considering-a-quarantine-on-new-york-parts-of-new-jersey-and-connecticut/
Announcing that you’re “considering” a quarantine without actually being prepared to doso (if he CAN even do it) sounds like a pretty good way to get people to panic and leave the city, which is kind of the opposite of the goal of a quarantine.
Governors and mayors, not the federal government, have the broadest quarantine and isolation authority, as the constitution leaves that kind of police power in the hands of the states. Supreme Court: United States v. Guest, 383 US 745: Although the Articles of Confederation provided that "the people of each State shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other State,"[14] that right finds no explicit mention in the Constitution. The reason, it has been suggested, is that a right so elementary was conceived from the beginning to be a necessary concomitant of the stronger Union the Constitution created.[15] In any event, freedom to travel throughout the United States has long been recognized as a basic right under the Constitution. See Williams v. Fears, 179 U. S. 270, 274; Twining v. New Jersey, 211 U. S. 78, 97; Edwards v. California, 314 U. S. 160, 177 (concurring opinion), 181 (concurring opinion); New York v. O'Neill, 359 U. S. 1, 6-8; 12-16 (dissenting opinion).
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12344349829991334923&hl=en&as_sdt=6,47&as_vis=1#p758
He already sounds like he’s building an exit ramp (quarantine states) for his Easter restart (which, again, not surprising.....). He needs to put a quarantine around the states that are refusing to enact or enforce mandatory stay at home orders. Those are the truly dangerous actors going forward. Florida, Missouri, Mississippi, etc.
So much has changed so quickly for Joseph Palma that he barely recognizes his life. On Tuesday last week, he was going to work, helping passengers in the customs area of the Miami airport. The next day, he was laid off without severance or benefits. Five days later, he moved back in with his 59-year-old mother, loading his bed and his clothes into the back of his friend’s pickup truck. Now he is staring at his bank account — totaling about $3,100 — and waiting on hold for hours at a time with the unemployment office, while cursing at its crashing website. “I’m feeling scared,” said Mr. Palma, who is 41 and nervous about the $15,000 in medical debt he has from two recent hospital stays. “I don’t know what’s the ending. But I know I’m not in good shape.” For the millions of Americans who found themselves without a job in recent weeks, the sharp and painful change brought a profound sense of disorientation. They were going about their lives, bartending, cleaning, managing events, waiting tables, loading luggage and teaching yoga. And then suddenly they were in free fall, grabbing at any financial help they could find, which in many states this week remained locked away behind crashing websites and overloaded phone lines. | In 17 interviews with people in eight states across the country, Americans who lost their jobs said they were in shock and struggling to grasp the magnitude of the economy’s shutdown, an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. Unlike the last economic earthquake, the financial crisis of 2008, this time there was no getting back out there to look for work, not when people were being told to stay inside. What is more, the layoffs affected not just them, but their spouses, their parents, their siblings and their roommates — even their bosses.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/us/coronavirus-unemployed.html
Joseph Lowery, the civil rights icon who helped Dr. King organize the Montgomery bus boycott and spent the rest of his life fighting for racial justice.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/us/joseph-lowery-dead.html
Republican nutjob Tom Coburn, the ‘Dr. No’ of Congress, Is Dead at 72
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/us/tom-coburn-dead.html
United States Postal Service workers, who are still delivering and sorting mail at distribution centers around the country even as millions of Americans telecommute, are worried that they may not have the protection -- or even the funding -- they will need to keep delivering mail for months longer. Just like hospitals, post offices are facing critical shortages of essential products to protect them from the coronavirus outbreak — one union for US Postal Service workers said this week it has heard thousands of concerns from its members related to coronavirus. | As millions shelter in place to wait out the coronavirus, the mail is a lifeline to distribute critical medicine and supplies to those who are homebound. It also will play a major role in helping distribute millions of checks to individuals and businesses who receive cash from the federal government as part of its historic stimulus program. | In a statement pushing for more funding, the House Oversight Committee argued that the system helped to deliver more than a billion prescription drug orders last year. In rural areas, the committee said the Postal Service may be one of the only ways that individuals can get the items they need. The committee also warned that more than a quarter of all US votes in recent elections were distributed through the mail, meaning a loss in funding could result in a disenfranchisement in voting for Americans.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/28/politics/usps-working-coronavirus/index.html
Yesterday, one New Yorker was dying every ten minutes from COVID-19. Today, it’s every *seven* minutes. Every. Seven. Minutes.
"Chloroquine phosphate, when used without a prescription and supervision of a healthcare provider, can cause serious health consequences, including death," the CDC warned in official guidance Saturday.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-warns-against-using-form-chloroquine-killed-man-sickened-his-n1171226
The temporary hospital in the Javits Center will fully open on MONDAY. I congratulate FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers for their work at Javits. I thank the Javits staff. I thank the National Guard. You built a hospital in a week. You are the best of us.
https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1243583774627168257
Native American present a serious challenge for coronavirus eradication | Lapses in federal health policy and reliance on fractured tribal structures raise fears the virus could hide on Native American reservations long after America goes back to work. | The federal health agency that serves more than 2.5 million Native Americans has only limited ability to monitor and investigate coronavirus cases across American Indian communities and reservations, slowing its ability to respond to outbreaks and raising fears that a lack of reliable data could compromise national efforts to eradicate the virus. The Indian Health Service is instead relying largely on Native organizations and health facilities to track the virus and self-report their findings to the Trump administration – an inconsistent practice further complicated by minimal testing capabilities, outdated health technology and provider shortages that Native groups warn could vastly understate the crisis across tribal lands. | “It’s so short-sighted to think that this isn’t going to get to tribal communities – and when it does, it’s going to be worse,” said Allison Barlow, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. “We know that this virus will occur in waves.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/28/native-americans-coronavirus-152579 …
Michigan health officials said 993 more people have tested positive for coronavirus, a 27 percent increase from Friday, increasing the state's total to 4,650. The death total is now 111.
https://www.crainsdetroit.com/health-care/michigan-sees-largest-one-day-jump-coronavirus-cases-dmc-says-it-nearly-full-and
The Governor of Florida is denying access to the Miami Herald to his press conference. Spread the word far and wide
https://twitter.com/DWUhlfelderLaw/status/1243981544705925120
.@GovRonDeSantis has well learned the thug methods of his mentor Donald Trump. He spread virus to half the country by refusing to act promptly to close his state's beaches; now tries to avoid accountability by breaking the law to shut down independent media.
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1243986762713763840
Watch @MaryEllenKlas who is representing @MiamiHerald and @TB_Times be excluded from the governor's COVID-19 press conference. Why? We requested social distancing when the briefings were being held in his crowded office. This is in a conference room. Other journalists present.
https://twitter.com/DaveWilson13/status/1243980127547113475
LDH says COVID-19 clusters in 11 nursing homes: Chateau De Notre Dame; Chateau D'Ville; Chateau St. James; Good Samaritan, New Orleans; Lambeth House; Luling Living Center; Nouveau Marc; River Palms Nursing and Rehab; St. James Place; St. Joseph of Harahan; Vista Shores. #lalege
https://twitter.com/MelindaDeslatte/status/1243984965592928257
“We put our family members in nursing homes in order for them to be cared for, because we may not be able to do it 24/7. And then when something like this happens, you know, it’s a setback for the community,” said Sullivan.
https://www.knoe.com/content/news/LDH-reports-COVID-19-clusters-at-8-nursing-homes-in-La-569166461.html
This would be a good time for nurses and doctors to go on strike. They're risking their lives for Republicans and Trumpsters that don't believe in democracy, won't provide protective equipment, and are playing games with people's lives.
Bill de Blasio is listening intently to public-health experts and then just doing the exact opposite of what they recommend...: the mayoral mansion Bill de Blasio lives in is literally next to a park in Manhattan, but made his way to Brooklyn to take a walk around:
https://twitter.com/IsaacDovere/status/1243971944468357122
Singapore is open sourcing its contact tracing app, Trace Together. Essentially, if you were within 6 feet of someone else with the app who becomes positive later, you will be notified.
https://twitter.com/johnrobb/status/1243686008824246272
After $25 million stimulus, stunned National Symphony Orchestra players receive one-week notice from Kennedy Center | The Kennedy Center — a performing arts center and memorial for President John F. Kennedy — canceled performances from March 12 to May 10 as government officials restrict large gatherings to combat the spread of the coronavirus. In a conference call Friday night, Rutter told orchestra leaders that the 96 musicians would receive their last paycheck on April 3 and that they will not be paid until the arts center reopens. In addition, she said their health-care benefits would stop at the end of May if the arts center is still closed at that time. The announcement was characterized by several NSO members as a shock. Ed Malaga, president of Local 161-710 of the American Federation of Musicians, described the decision as outrageous and said the union has filed a grievance challenging what it believes is an illegal action. “This decision, from an organization with an endowment of nearly $100 million, is not only outrageous — coming after the musicians had expressed their willingness to discuss ways to accommodate the Kennedy Center during this challenging time — it is also blatantly illegal under the parties’ collective bargaining agreement. That agreement specifically requires that the Center provide six weeks’ notice before it can stop paying musicians for economic reasons,” Malaga said in a statement.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/after-25-million-stimulus-stunned-nso-players-receive-one-week-notice-from-kennedy-center/2020/03/28/9c27603e-7118-11ea-aa80-c2470c6b2034_story.html
A joke and eye-opening unbelievably incredible bad thing to find out that Rutter the CEO for the centers her salary is $1.2 million to run a national theater??? the entire payroll for the orchestra is only $400,000 pales in comparison to her salary regardless of her cutting it
Why coronavirus antibody testing in one Colorado town could provide a way forward | United Biomedical is now working with San Miguel County, which includes the famous Rocky Mountain ski destination, to test all 8,000 residents for COVID-19 antibodies -- making it the first community in the country to do widespread antibody testing. The idea, officials said, is to learn from an individual’s blood whether there is evidence the person has already been exposed. With that information, officials can then make decisions about whether quarantines and restrictions would need to continue and whether they need to be as widespread as they are in states and cities across the country right now. "The goal of this is to show you can predictably get an entire county back to its new normal as quickly as possible by using testing," said Lou Reese, co-CEO of United Biomedical and its COVAXX subsidiary. Reese stressed that, if successful, the testing program could be expanded, "starting at the hot-spot areas right now to solve this problem, stop the panic and get people to their lives and back to work." | The science behind the testing concept is not complicated. Every person who contracts the coronavirus will develop antibodies in their blood, usually within 10 days, even if the individual has such a mild case that there are no symptoms. Antibodies are proteins that help the body fight off an intruding virus -- but they’re also unmistakable forensic evidence of where the virus has been. Because it is generally believed that someone who’s had an infection has at least a temporary immunity, a person who already had COVID-19 may not need to remain locked down the way millions of Americans -- in New York, California, Washington state and other places around the country -- are this weekend. What remains unknown is whether the immunity is long-lasting or whether someone who has coronavirus antibodies can continue carrying the virus, potentially posing a threat to others. For instance, people with a MERS infection -- a virus from the same family -- are unlikely to be reinfected shortly after recovery, but according to the CDC, "It is not yet known whether similar immune protection will be observed for patients with COVID-19." | Since the Food and Drug Administration announced an Emergency Use Authorization policy for antibody testing last week, laboratories across the U.S. have been rushing to develop their own antibody tests.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/antibody-testing-colorado-town-provide-forward/story?id=69856623
Something notable: Crime has dropped in a bunch of big cities since people began hunkering down. 911 calls are down in Seattle. The NYPD reported a 17% drop in major felony crimes. San Jose saw a bigger drop. But cops/experts worry domestic violence and child abuse will go up
https://twitter.com/markberman/status/1244007323523309568
Police keep getting the coronavirus, with at least 6 officers and staff dying from the virus this week. Depts trying to avoid extra exposure are asking 911 callers about symptoms, cutting arrests in some places and not responding to some calls in person
https://twitter.com/markberman/status/1244006584063270913
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/police-in-several-cities-test-positive-for-coronavirus-stirring-fears-of-spread-among-first-responders/2020/03/28/b88b17f4-6f9a-11ea-a3ec-70d7479d83f0_story.html
“A week later, Dr. Fauci — the administration’s most outspoken advocate of emergency measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak — has become the target of an online conspiracy theory that he is mobilizing to undermine the president.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/technology/coronavirus-fauci-trump-conspiracy-target.html
How can it be Cuomo’s fault? Trump didn’t share important COVID-19 information with any governors and the American people early on. He kept that a secret and downplayed the severity of the outbreak every chance he could. The captain at the helm of the ship decided to not tell the ship mates that a storm was coming. He ignored it all. New York City is the most populated city in the nation. Manhattan itself has a population density is 66,940 people per square mile. When the president doesn’t give key information about the spread of the virus to the very first person who should know about it, Trump is to blame. He failed to warn the governor of the largest city with many of the largest international airports with people coming in from all over the world. What was Cuomo expected to do with absolutely no information? Trump had all the scientific and medical experts from the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control screaming in his ear back in January alerting him of the dangers of this virus. It was up to Trump to disseminate this information first and foremost to Cuomo, the governor whose state and city would be impacted first and hardest in the entire United States along with all the other governors. Cuomo's response to this crisis has been exactly what a president's response should have been. On the other hand you have a clown that started shouting this whole thing was a hoax and now wants to play with people's lives because he's a terrorist.
DeSantis this week said he wouldn’t give a stay at home order or close most business. But has been all over saying New Yorkers, and others need to stay away or quarantine for two weeks. Because this isn’t about stoping the spread it's about blaming ‘others' for it.
Biden chokes up while addressing families planning funerals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwfytt3JyZs
More than 700 New Jersey police officers test positive for the coronavirus
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/live-blog/live-coronavirus-updates-u-s-first-top-100-000-cases-n1171011/ncrd1171296
The empathy/communications gap between Trump and Cuomo is so striking. Cuomo, not exactly a warm & fuzzy guy, talks about how special it's been to spend time on the phone with his mom lately. Trump couldn't answer when Hannity asked how he talks to Barron about what's happening.
MA received 17% of requested medical supplies from the Trump admin. ME: 5%. CO: 1 day's worth. FL got everything they requested. + an identical shipment the next week. oh, and a 3rd is on the way. Using disaster relief funds and equipment for campaign purposes is very clearly an abuse of his office and its power...Wasn’t he impeached for that?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/desperate-for-medical-equipment-states-encounter-a-beleaguered-national-stockpile/2020/03/28/1f4f9a0a-6f82-11ea-aa80-c2470c6b2034_story.html
At least seven people at FEMA—the agency leading America's coronavirus response—the have the virus themselves.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/climate/fema-coronavirus.html
Will they ever learn? Chinese markets are still selling bats and slaughtering rabbits on blood-soaked floors as Beijing celebrates non-existent 'victory' over the coronavirus.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8163761/Chinese-markets-selling-bats.html
It's really hard to imagine anything stupider than threatening a quarantine for 30 million people, letting it hang out there for 7 hours in order to produce panic and flight out of the hot zone, and then pull it back. It has the exact opposite effect of a quarantine.
800,000 Physicians Pen Letter Asking Trump Not to Lift Social Distancing Guidelines Too Early | The letter, drafted by the Council of Medical Speciality Societies (CMSS), was addressed to Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Deborah Birx. CMSS told the leaders of the coronavirus response that “we need your leadership in supporting science-based recommendations on social distancing that can slow the virus.” | Statewide efforts alone will not sufficiently control this public health crisis. A strong nationwide plan that supports and enforces social distancing—and recognizes that our health and our economy are inextricably linked—should remain in place until public health and medical experts indicate it can be lifted. Federal, state, and local governments should only set a date for lifting nationwide social distancing restrictions consistent with assessments by public health and medical experts. Lifting restrictions sooner will gravely jeopardize the health of all Americans and extend the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://cmss.org/statement_covid-19_restrictions/
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Saturday that 170 ventilators shipped by the federal government to help his state respond to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus were "not working" when they arrived. | Newsom said that the stockpile of ventilators had been sent to Los Angeles County by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He noted that a company called Bloom Energy was fixing the equipment.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/490033-newsom-170-ventilators-sent-from-federal-government-arrived-not-working
The U.S. Interior Department is rescinding the reservation status of a Native American tribe whose plan to build a casino on its Massachusetts land was attacked by Trump last year. The planned gaming operation would have competed for business with nearby Rhode Island casinos with strong ties to Trump, who once owned, then bankrupted, casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey. | The Bureau of Indian Affairs “informed me that the Secretary of the Interior has ordered that our reservation be disestablished and that our land be taken out of trust,” Cromwell said in a statement Friday. The crushing news came as the tribe “desperately” struggled with the “devastating pandemic” as the nation tallied a record 100,000 cases of COVID-19. The action was “cruel and unnecessary,” he added. It’s unclear what the next step will be.
https://mashpeewampanoagtribe-nsn.gov/news/2020/3/27/message-from-the-chairman-we-will-take-action-to-prevent-the-loss-of-our-land
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-riddle-in-new-england-a-casino-321-acres-of-indian-tribal-land-and-a-presidential-tweet/2019/05/13/dfcc6dd8-7354-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html
New York Knicks owner James Dolan has tested positive for coronavirus.
http://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1244083445732716546
Knicks say owner Jim Dolan has tested positive for coronavirus and is in self-isolation. He’s experiencing little to no symptoms and continues to oversee business operations.
https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/1244083631485669378
I could say something, but I'm not going to.....
All the Knicks’ fan base rn
https://twitter.com/SASBurnerAcct/status/1244083650448297984
1 - Get better
2 - Sell the team
The coronavirus has been banned from MSG.....
Check out the cellphone heat maps of people leaving Florida. Super irresponsible. We should have locked them down and kept them here. Not try to blame other states. The replies to that tweet will make you lose even more faith in humanity so read those with caution: Want to see the true potential impact of ignoring social distancing? Through a partnership with @xmodesocial, we analyzed secondary locations of anonymized mobile devices that were active at a single Ft. Lauderdale beach during spring break. This is where they went across the US:
https://twitter.com/TectonixGEO/status/1242628347034767361
A lot of people want to point their fingers at the politicians right now, but the biggest sore point with me is this: People are fully aware, and have been for quite some time now, of how this contagious this virus is. If in 7 days from now the new cases don’t go down in numbers, can we really keep blaming our governments? The increasing number of infected people would mean people are still disregarding their health and everyone else’s health, it would mean nobody really cares, it would mean everybody should go back to work and school and whoever dies, dies.
Everyone In Iceland Can Get Tested For The Coronavirus. Here's How The Results Could Help All Of Us. The small island nation’s large-scale testing strategy includes people who don’t have any symptoms. | Mass testing on the scale adopted in Iceland is unlikely to be feasible across larger countries. However, it has proved crucial in some of the other areas hardest hit by the novel coronavirus so far. The testing has provided evidence revealing that a significant portion of those who catch the disease do so with no or mild symptoms — and confirmed multiple pieces of research that have shown that asymptomatic individuals contribute to the transmission of the disease in great numbers. | A study published on Monday in the magazine Science found that for every confirmed case of the virus there are likely another five to 10 people with undetected infections in the community. The scientists, which based their model on data from China, reported that these often milder and less infectious cases are behind nearly 80% of new cases.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/coronavirus-testing-iceland
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/03/24/science.abb3221
A plane from Shanghai arrived at JFK this morning carrying an extraordinary load: 12 million gloves, 130,000 N-95 masks, 1.7 million surgical masks, 50,000 gowns, 130,000 hand sanitizer units, and 36,000 thermometers. | Rear Admiral John Polowczyk, who runs the coronavirus supply chain task force at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told Axios that he's already booked 22 similar flights over the next two weeks.
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-airlift-masks-medical-supplies-1d1913bf-744e-41cf-895c-d8934afa2c36.html
Everything is always two weeks away with this administration. They are already THREE MONTHS BEHIND. We should have started mass testing for coronavirus AT LEAST two months ago. We must start mass testing as soon as possible. We are flying blind.
Here is a distribution of recorded Covid-19 cases in Iceland (which tests broadly, even people with no symptoms) and the Netherlands (which tests narrowly, only those with severe symptoms)
https://twitter.com/alexandreafonso/status/1243557013759700997
In the next Coronavirus relief package that Congress passes, essential workers — first responders, hospital and medical workers, grocery store workers, farm workers, etc., should receive hazard pay from their government or their company.
https://twitter.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/1244090441659793414
And for those who lost their lives fighting on the front lines without adequate PPE, compensation for their families. Hazard pay and also top-drawer insurance. Statutory presumptions that covid or other conditions are work-related for workers comp and disability coverage purposes. (as has long been true, for eg, for firefighters/cops, in many states). Anyone who was deemed an Essential worker by state EO or federal action should receive all benefits of Hazard pay.
Powell's Books rehires over 100 employees after surge of online orders
https://twitter.com/PublishersWkly/status/1244278265805787136
"Art of Pandemic Cover-Up" selling out fast. First 1,000 were bought by RNC.
China and Vietnam are banning the wild animal trade after the coronavirus spread across the world killing thousands of people. China has now imposed a ban on farming and consumption of “terrestrial wildlife of important ecological, scientific and social value".
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11278310/china-vietnam-wildlife-ban-coronavirus/
Newborn endangered sea turtles throng Brazil's deserted beaches. Birth of hawksbill turtles is usually greeted by crowds of human onlookers – but thanks to coronavirus, only government workers witnessed this event
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/29/newborn-endangered-sea-turtles-throng-brazils-deserted-beaches
Zero-carbon water pumps turn Pakistan’s barren mountains green
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-water-climate-change/zero-carbon-water-pumps-turn-pakistans-barren-mountains-green-idUSKBN21G0KT
Netherlands recalls 600,000 face masks from China due to low quality, which comes after Spain earlier asking for Covid-19 rapid test kits imported from China to be replaced because they were unreliable
https://www.businessinsider.com/coroanvirus-holland-recalls-over-half-a-million-masks-imported-from-china-2020-3
Acquiescing to public health experts, Trump has relented and retreated from his idea for people to fill churches on Easter. "Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won," he says. Trump says he thinks we'll be well on our way to recovery "by June 1." Trump says US will be extending its social distancing guidelines until April 30, after explaining death rate for nation likely to hit peak in two weeks. Hopes situation is better by June 1st.
Virginia pastor dies from coronavirus after previously saying "media is pumping out fear" about pandemic
https://www.newsweek.com/virginia-pastor-dies-coronavirus-after-previously-saying-media-pumping-out-fear-about-pandemic-1494702
He schedules the briefings for 5pm Eastern to preempt the local news. Instead of seeing local news stories about the horrors in their cities, people in the eastern USA see trump vomiting out word salad.
—cases double every 3 days
—acceleration mirrors NY
—only 40,000 tested
—no stay at home order
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/03/28/florida-coronavirus-cases-are-growing-fast-heres-what-that-means/
Nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggest Covid-19 after Falwell called them back to campus. “Liberty will be notifying the community as deemed appropriate and required by law,” Falwell said when confronted with the numbers. | The decision by the school’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., to partly reopen his evangelical university enraged residents of Lynchburg, Va. Then students started getting sick. | So Mr. Falwell — a staunch ally of President Trump and an influential voice in the evangelical world — reopened the university last week, igniting a firestorm. As of Friday, Dr. Eppes said, nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggest Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Three were referred to local hospital centers for testing. Another eight were told to self-isolate. “Liberty will be notifying the community as deemed appropriate and required by law,” Mr. Falwell said in an interview on Sunday when confronted with the numbers. He added that any student returning now to campus would be required to self-quarantine for 14 days. “I can’t be sure what’s going on with individuals who are not being tested but who are advised to self-isolate,” said Kerry Gateley, the health director of the Central Virginia Health District, which covers Lynchburg. “I would assume that if clinicians were concerned enough about the possibility of Covid-19 disease to urge self-isolation that appropriate screening and testing would be arranged.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/us/politics/coronavirus-liberty-university-falwell.html
In the event of a hoax
1. Listen to FAUX news
2. Go to work, church, school...
3. Get covid19
4. Blame Democrats
5. Hopefully recover from the hoax
Pres announces quick FDA approval for transfusion of blood plasma from patients recovered from COVID-19 into severely ill patients with Coronavirus. Says it boosts their immune system. Also says FDA approval being sought for sterilization of face masks so they can be reused.
https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/1244382412882227200
I’m in Central Park - they’re building field hospitals for coronavirus patients
https://twitter.com/carolynryan/status/1244378858473893891
The alarm system was ready. Scarred by the SARS epidemic that erupted in 2002, China had created an infectious disease reporting system that officials said was world-class: fast, thorough and, just as important, immune from meddling. Hospitals could input patients’ details into a computer and instantly notify government health authorities in Beijing, where officers are trained to spot and smother contagious outbreaks before they spread. It didn’t work. After doctors in Wuhan began treating clusters of patients stricken with a mysterious pneumonia in December, the reporting was supposed to have been automatic. Instead, hospitals deferred to local health officials who, over a political aversion to sharing bad news, withheld information about cases from the national reporting system — keeping Beijing in the dark and delaying the response.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/world/asia/coronavirus-china.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/27/world/the-sars-epidemic-the-path-from-china-s-provinces-a-crafty-germ-breaks-out.html
Trump continues to dismiss covid19 as a hoax: One NY hospital that used 10,000-20,000 masks per week now using 2-300,000 per week. Trump's take: "How does that happen? Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door? "Something is going on and you ought to look into it as reporters. Are they going out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000?"
- "How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000 masks? Where are they going? Out the back door?"
- You go from 10,000 to 300,000 BY HAVING A FUCKING PANDEMIC
- ...it's like there's a pandemic or something
One month ago, Trump said there were only 15 coronavirus cases in the United States and in a few days it would be zero and that proves he is doing a good job. Today, Trump said that if 100,000 people die of coronavirus in the United States that proves he is doing a good job because studies show 2.2 million people could die
Trump now saying it’s better that he doesn’t talk to the governors because he won’t be able to talk to them because he doesn’t want to talk to failed presidential candidates. Now dumping all over CNN for its ratings. Like a gigantic toddler.
People are dying by the hundreds daily and Donald "I don't know what the ratings are" Trump is live-tweeting (see his tweets) - during a nationally-televised covid19 briefing - how his covid19 briefing ratings are higher than television ratings
Trump is literally talking about his ratings during a news conference that earlier referenced 2000k people dying.
There has been much nonsense and ground noise in this presser. But at least Trump listened to his medical advisors instead of his mentally ill sycophants. That decision to push beyond Easter, and possibly to early June, will save thousands of lives.
Experts believe the explosion of coronavirus cases in Italy and Spain can be traced to a champions league between Atalanta and Valencia. When fans returned home, both regions became the epicenters of the virus in their respective nations.
https://www.si.com/soccer/2020/03/25/atalanta-valencia-coronavirus-champions-league-san-siro-milan-italy
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