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