Light News Dump Thurs

Dominion (2018)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5773402/

While we continue to wait for a coherent national plan to navigate this pandemic, states like Massachusetts are beginning to adopt their own public health plans to combat this virus––before it's too late.
https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1253046061091950593
https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/its-not-too-late-to-go-on-offense-against-the-coronavirus

If we don’t get Democrats back in the White House to implement a national plan for aggressively targeting corona, the pandemic will not end.

HHS head Alex Azar chose a former labradoodle breeder with minimal public health experience to lead the department's coronavirus response
https://www.businessinsider.com/labradoodle-breeder-brian-harrison-picked-as-hhs-coronavirus-leader-2020-4

China puts a city of 10 million 'on lockdown' after detecting new outbreak
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8248709/China-puts-city-10-million-lockdown-detecting-new-outbreak.html

If they're locking a city that big down, they probably have a massive outbreak and are lying about numbers, again.

Biden holds Earth Day town hall on climate change with Al Gore | “We need to speed things up by putting tens of millions of people to work in every community in this country” doing everything from installing solar panels and retrofitting buildings to overhauling agriculture practices, Gore said. “It will be the biggest boost to sustainable economic growth that we’ve ever had.” | Gore’s public profile, both during his long political career and since, has been defined by his advocacy on environmental issues and the climate crisis. As a young congressman in the early 1980s, he stood out for holding hearings on global warming before it was a routine part of public discourse. As vice president, Gore helped craft the Kyoto Treaty — a forerunner of the Paris Agreement of 2016 that Biden was involved in crafting — but watched the U.S. Senate refuse ratification, just as Trump has scoffed at the Paris deal. Since leaving the vice presidency in 2001, Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism and an Oscar for his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CshJOKtiMqo

Sweden exits coal two years early - the third European country to have waved goodbye to coal for power generation. Another 11 European states have made plans to follow suit over the next decade.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/04/22/sweden-exits-coal-two-years-early/
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/sweden-adds-name-to-growing-list-of-coal-free-states-in-europe/

https://www.salon.com/2020/04/21/states-smuggle-covid-19-medical-supplies-to-avoid-federal-seizures-as-house-probes-jared-kushner/

Biden makes end run around Trump as the president dominates the national stage | Homebound at his estate in Wilmington, Del., Biden’s quarantined campaign is adjusting to a new reality in which the prime-time TV slots that would carry his rallies and speeches under normal conditions are now largely dedicated to subjects other than the 2020 presidential campaign. Making matters worse for Biden, Trump dominates each evening with his coronavirus task force briefings, which mostly are carried live by cable and can have the feel of a daily campaign rally. That’s left Biden with little choice but to spread his message around — bracketing the president by offering himself to local newscasts in battleground states that run his interviews while viewers wait for Trump’s briefings and hamming it up on radio or late night (or late, late night) TV. Biden’s appearances tend toward relatable and soft, in contrast to Trump’s more contentious evening performances. But they also aim at groups of voters that Biden must attract to win in November, including suburbanites, younger voters and nonwhite voters. “Joe Biden is counterprogramming by finding precisely the local and demographic niches he needs to connect with,” said Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) who endorsed Biden this week after initially supporting Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “This is a contest in the electoral college. And it will come down to the handful of swing states, where Joe Biden is focused like a laser beam.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-makes-end-run-around-trump-as-the-president-dominates-the-national-stage/2020/04/22/1f1c47da-8356-11ea-ae26-989cfce1c7c7_story.html

China finds African swine fever in pigs in Sichuan province.
https://www.reuters.com/article/china-swinefever/china-finds-african-swine-fever-in-pigs-in-sichuan-province-idUSB9N2BX00W

Tyson Foods closes its largest U.S. pork plant indefinitely. .
https://reuters.com/video/watch/tyson-foods-closes-largest-us-pork-plant-idRCV0084PW

A rash of coronavirus outbreaks at dozens of meatpacking plants across the nation is far more extensive than previously thought, according to an exclusive review of cases by USA TODAY and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.  And it could get worse. More than 150 of America’s largest meat processing plants operate in counties where the rate of coronavirus infection is already among the nation’s highest, based on the media outlets’ analysis of slaughterhouse locations and county-level COVID-19 infection rates. These facilities represent more than 1 in 3 of the nation’s biggest beef, pork and poultry processing plants. Rates of infection around these plants are higher than those of 75% of other U.S. counties, the analysis found. And while experts say the industry has thus far maintained sufficient production despite infections in at least 2,200 workers at 48 plants, there are fears that the number of cases could continue to rise and that meatpacking plants will become the next disaster zones.
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2020/04/22/meat-packing-plants-covid-may-force-choice-worker-health-food/2995232001/

Georgia Republicans self-dupe: No candidate, however, was in a tougher spot than Loeffler. The governor defied Trump by tapping Loeffler over Collins to the coveted seat, and the former financial executive has raced to curry favor with Trump since taking office in January. In a quirk of timing, she joined the governor on a tele-town hall shortly before Trump’s press briefing where she spoke of Kemp’s approach as a needed step to help revive Georgia’s flagging economy. 
https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/trump-rebuke-kemp-coronavirus-plan-puts-georgia-republicans-bind/buz9WcnEOBRS7NikRG1Y4M/

Coronavirus Kills More Americans in One Month Than the Flu Kills in One Year
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-kills-more-americans-in-one-month-than-the-flu-kills-in-one-year/

Ocasio-Cortez says she will vote for Biden in November
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/494275-ocasio-cortez-says-she-will-vote-for-biden-in-november

Elizabeth Warren's oldest brother dies of coronavirus in Oklahoma
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/494301-elizabeth-warrens-oldest-brother-dies-of-covid-19-in-oklahoma

I’m grateful to the nurses and frontline staff who took care of him, but it’s hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say “I love you” one more time—and no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close. I'll miss you dearly my brother.
https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1253332680898310146

My oldest brother, Don Reed, died from coronavirus on Tuesday evening. He joined the Air Force at 19 and spent his career in the military, including five and a half years off and on in combat in Vietnam. He was charming and funny, a natural leader.
https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1253332675315724289

26 Million Jobs Lost In Just 5 Weeks | The number of people forced out of work during the coronavirus lockdown continues to soar to historic highs. Another 4.4 million people claimed unemployment benefits last week around the country, the Labor Department said. That brings the total of jobless claims in just five weeks to more than 26 million people. That's more than all the jobs added in the past 10 years since the Great Recession.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/23/841876464/26-million-jobs-lost-in-just-5-weeks
https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

Maybe—just maybe—the most essential people in our economy are not hedge fund managers. Could it be that they are doctors, nurses, EMTs, grocery store workers, workers in drug stores, farm workers, and truck drivers? Let us begin to rethink some of our priorities.

More Black and Latino people are dying from coronavirus because air pollution is worse in their communities. That is unconscionable. It is not a radical idea that clean air and water should be the right of all Americans regardless of income and skin color.
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/04/20/coronavirus-underscores-need-to-address-environmental-inequities-report-says-1278015

Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, join our virtual town hall with state attorneys general to discuss their response to the coronavirus pandemic and the effect of the crisis on the lives of working people. Watch live at http://live.berniesanders.com .
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1253324982106468352

Disney stops paying 100,000 workers, roughly half its workforce, even as it protects executive bonus schemes and a $1.5 billion dividend payment due in July.
https://www.ft.com/content/db574838-0f40-41ce-9bcd-75039f8cb288

Make no mistake: The climate crisis poses an existential threat to our future. But I know the American people have the spirit, power, and ingenuity to meet the challenge head-on. There’s nothing we’ve been unable to accomplish when we do it together.
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1253130216198639616

Why are OANN "journalists" allowed in that room every day when their presence breaks the rules of the White House Correspondent's Association? REGULAR MEMBERS: To qualify for regular membership, an applicant must be employed on the editorial staff of a newspaper, periodical, wire service, radio, TV, or other news-gathering organization that regularly reports on the White House. The applicant or the news-gathering organization with which the applicant is affiliated must be credentialed by a Congressional Standing Committee. The applicant’s principal journalistic assignments must involve White House coverage.

This includes legal immigrants (all of them pay taxes....) and legal foreign workers (all of them pay taxes....) and illegal immigrants (all of them pay taxes....): U.S. Citizens Married To Immigrants Are Blocked From Getting Stimulus Checks
https://news.yahoo.com/u-citizens-married-immigrants-blocked-145343198.html

"When Donald Trump suggests that the virus be taken as a 'hoax', that people gather in churches or that people protest for their own sacrifice, he is actually testing people's loyalty to the 'laws' of his mind over the laws of nature, or even impulse for survival. The more he abuses them, the greater their devotion grows, since the psychological cost of admitting their mistake is ever higher — and so it becomes easier to dig a well of unreality than to see the obvious truth.
https://www.salon.com/2020/04/23/yale-psychiatrist-bandy-lee-lockdown-protesters-resemble-child-soldiers-and-urban-gangs/

Kentucky lawyer arrested for allegedly threatening governor over lockdown | Attorney James Gregory Troutman allegedly said on Facebook that he hopes Gov. Andy Beshear would see the same fate as a former governor, William Goebel, who was assassinated in 1900. Troutman previously had his license suspended for shooting a crossbow through his neighbor's garage door. At the time, he blamed it on his allergy medication. Looks like it might be allergy season again.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kentucky-lawyer-arrested-allegedly-threatening-governor-over-lockdown-n1190281

Nearly 92% of Inmates Tested at Indiana Correctional Facility Positive for Coronavirus Amid Calls For Inmates To Be Released
https://www.newsweek.com/nearly-92-inmates-tested-indiana-correctional-facility-positive-coronavirus-amid-calls-inmates-1499848

Supreme Court hands environmentalists a win in water pollution case | The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with environmentalists by giving a broad reading to the types of water-borne pollution covered by the Clean Water Act. In a 6-3 decision, the justices held that a permit is required for either a direct discharge of pollutants into federally regulated rivers and oceans or its “functional equivalent.”
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/494298-supreme-court-hands-environmentalists-a-win-in-water-pollution-case

Too late, and publically-traded companies should have been excluded from the bailout to begin with: The Small Business Administration issued new guidance on Thursday that makes it “unlikely” that big publicly traded companies can access the next round of funding for the U.S. government’s small business relief program. Companies applying for coronavirus relief funds must certify that the loans are necessary and that they cannot tap other sources of funding, the SBA said. By definition, public companies have access to the capital markets. For instance, Shake Shack returned the $10 million it got through the PPP after it sold $150 million in new shares.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/23/us-issues-new-guidance-for-small-business-loans-to-make-it-harder-for-public-companies-to-get-funds.html

Seriously awesome: Boston Red Sox apologized to every MLB owner, including Dodgers and Yankees, for sign-stealing scandal
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/red-sox-apologized-to-every-mlb-owner-including-dodgers-and-yankees-for-sign-stealing-scandal/

The US really, really needs to work on its tools in addition to social distancing—meaning: testing, contact tracing, better protocols for handling sick individuals, etc. That's our way out of this in the medium term. We need the whole arsenal.

The Fed announces it will begin disclosing the names and details of all participants in CARES Act lending facilities. It will also include the amounts borrowed, interest rates, and more. The data dump will happen at least 1x/month "without redactions"
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20200423a.htm

The largest nationwide recipient of PPP funds hired its first-ever DC lobbying firms in March. Both are run by top Trump reelection fundraisers
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-top-covid-relief-recipient-hired-trump-tied-lobbyists-weeks-before-getting-aid

One tornado-producing storm traveled a staggering 350 miles
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/04/23/least-6-dead-severe-weather-tornadoes-oklahoma-mississippi-threat-moves-east/

This is what all Democrats should have been saying the entire time: Cuomo Reminds McConnell That KY Takes More Money Than NY: "Who's Getting Bailed Out Here?" | "Your state is living on the money that we generate." During his daily press conference, Cuomo pointed out that not only does New York chip in more money than Kentucky, the Empire State also takes less from the federal coffers than it contributes – unlike Kentucky. But in addition to New York, it's blue states like California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey that shell out more cash to the federal government than most Republican strongholds in the country.
https://www.money-rates.com/research-center/federal-income-taxes-by-state.htm
https://www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/budget/2018/federal-budget-fiscal-year-2017.pdf
https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article163555593.html

Let's talk about fairness, Mitch.
NYS puts $116 billion more into the federal pot than we take out.
Kentucky TAKES $148 billion more from the federal pot than they put in.
But we don't deserve help now because the 15,000 people who died here were predominately democrats?
https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1253358477415788548

(Their honest answer is yes)

Luxury Hotelier Worth Several Billion Dollars Who Backed Trump Wins Big in Small-Business Aid | A Dallas hotel executive and major donor to Donald Trump has emerged as the biggest winner from the coronavirus bailout for "small" businesses. A combined total of $59 million from the small business lending package went to three lodging companies chaired by Monty Bennett, according to regulatory filings. The money went to Braemar Hotels & Resorts, which owns luxury properties including the Ritz-Carlton in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc., which owns more than 100 hotels around the country, and the firm that manages both. | Another Trump supporter and hotelier -- Gordon Sondland -- was also a beneficiary of the small-business relief package. Provenance Hotels, the hotel chain he founded, received a PPP loan, according to a spokeswoman. Sondland is the former ambassador to the EU who played a starring role in the Trump impeachment proceedings. The group has more than a dozen properties, including three in Washington state, which has been hard-hit by the virus.
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-04-23/luxury-hotel-executive-biggest-winner-of-small-business-relief

A pro-gun Iowa family is helping to spur protests in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New York over state-imposed restrictions designed to slow the coronavirus pandemic. Using their state-specific Facebook group pages with a total of over 200,000 followers, Iowa's Dorr family has helped organize the protests against coronavirus restrictions and business closures in those states. Their protests have usually drawn hundreds of demonstrators, but the movement has drawn worldwide news coverage and support from key Republican groups. Now, the group may be expanding protests to other states over state-imposed restrictions designed to slow the spread of COVID-19, the potentially fatal disease caused by the new coronavirus. Public health officials have urged people to stay at home to prevent further spread of the virus — a measure that has also had dire economic impacts on Americans. Aaron Dorr, executive director of Iowa Gun Owners, and several of his brothers created Facebook groups to organize the protests in those states and elsewhere. The Dorr brothers — Chris, Ben, Aaron and Matthew — have made themselves known among conservatives for their profitable anti-establishment Facebook groups that are pro-gun and anti-abortion. Their anti-quarantine pages were developed with the same private registrar, according to an NBC analysis, and the brothers are reportedly listed as administrators on those state-specific anti-quarantine pages. The Dorrs' Facebook groups have functioned as a digital hub that has elevated misinformation, such as alleging that health officials are intentionally inflating COVID-19 death tallies and comparing the new virus to the flu, ABC and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. | That Facebook group description reads: "It's time to OPEN OUR STATE and STOP Gov Evers' Excessive Quarantine! Politicians are on a power trip, controlling our lives, destroying our businesses, passing laws behind the cover of darkness and forcing us to hand over our freedoms and our livelihood!"
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/22/iowa-family-behind-reopen-covid-19-protests-popping-up-across-country/3005696001/

We were in Tennessee. During the motorcade, he spotted some ugly racial epithets scrawled on signs. Late that night in the hotel, when the local dignitaries had finished the last bottles of bourbon and branch water and departed, he (Lyndon B. Johnson) started talking about those signs. "I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it," he said. "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1988/11/13/what-a-real-president-was-like/d483c1be-d0da-43b7-bde6-04e10106ff6c/

Most foresee a country forever changed after coronavirus
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-united-states-forever-changed-cbs-news-poll/

Nearly 40 percent of Kentucky’s state budget is federal funding from Washington, making it the 4th-most dependent state on outside funds according to a 2017 study.

Facing furor, Ruth's Chris high-end steak chain returns its $20M small business loan.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/facing-furor-ruth-s-chris-high-end-steak-chain-returns-n1190606?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

The insurrection was put down 155 years ago. Glad you boys finally got the word. It's the flag of people that took up arms to destroy the United States of America. How insane is it to want to fly it as a US Marine? The Confederate flag thing is so insane, even beyond the slavery issue - which alone should disqualify it with no discussion in the first place: In a letter, Gen. David H. Berger, the Marine commandant, said the symbol had “the power to inflame division.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/us/marine-corps-confederate-flag.html

Mother who contracted COVID-19 just before her due date dies without ever getting to hold her newborn baby
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-mother-covid-19-dies-before-meeting-newborn-baby/

Just five House members so far voting against the $484 billion small business package: Mentally Ill Shitstain Ocasio-Cortez and four Republicans (Massie, Hice, Buck, Biggs). Tell the people in her district in NY, that AOC voted against this bill. Hope they vote her out. She is a mistake.

John Redd, an FDNY EMT who gave first-aid instruction to panicked 911 callers waiting for an ambulance has died of complications from coronavirus.
https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-fdny-emt-dies-from-coronavirus-complications-20200421-uca7evkonzaxdfuvmx6etlswoq-story.html

Trump says "we're very close to a vaccine," then immediately says we're not very close on the testing of the vaccine, because you have to test it and it takes a long time. (Uhh...) (Fauci has floated a 12-to-18-month timeline; many are skeptical even it'll be that fast.)

Trump says "you won't even believe" how the virus reacts to sunlight. He says someone will come up and talk about this. He's right, most of us won't believe him.

.@NYGovCuomo on McConnell: "They want fund small business & the airlines and I understand that. But state and local government funds police, fire, teachers and schools. How do you not fund police, fire, teachers and schools in the midst of this crisis? It makes no sense to me."
https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1253356661986791425

Some small businesses that obtained a highly-coveted government loan say they won’t be able to use it to bring all their laid-off workers back, even though that is what the program was designed to do. The Paycheck Protection Program promises a business owner loan forgiveness if they retain or rehire all the workers they had in late February. But owners say the equation isn’t so simple, in part because of current economic conditions and partly due to the terms of the loans. As a result, the lending may not reduce unemployment as much as the Trump administration and Congress hope. | To get the loans forgiven, companies need to spend 75% on payroll within eight weeks of receiving the money. The other 25% can be spent on rent, utilities, and mortgage payments. Otherwise, the loan has generous terms: Only a 1% interest rate and six months before any principal is due. Many of the small companies that were able to obtain a loan are having second thoughts about rehiring all their workers and a few plan to return the money. Others will use what they can on rent and utilities, and will use some to rehire a portion of their laid-off staff. But most are unsure they will be able to reopen eight weeks from now. They see little point in rehiring all their workers, paying them to do little or nothing, and then potentially laying them off again if business remains weak two months from now.
https://apnews.com/380b07b9292ea7ae4d382f091d99bf10

An American leader actually concerned with facts and trying to understand - rather than fight - reality: Gov. Newsom Orders All California Counties To Review Autopsies Dating Back To December
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/newsom-orders-all-ca-counties-to-review-autopsies-dating-to-december

Trump suggests injecting people with "disinfectant" (and cancer-causing ultraviolet light and sunlight) to clean the lungs. No one would believe a president would say such assinine things if you put this in a movie script.

The Ammon Bundy Crime Family is a close match with the Trump Crime Family.

Great interview with a teacher about this challenging transition to forced homeschooling for both teachers and parents

These briefings are his campaign rallies and now a traveling medicine show

Nearly a month after the economic relief package was signed into law, just 1 in 10 schools that applied for funds for their students have been approved.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/universities-still-waiting-promised-emergency-aid-students-n1190306?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_np

Everything that "scientist" talked about from Homeland Security was incoherent, nonsensical, not supported by evidence and quite contrary to things we do know

Trump claimed Joe Biden doesn't want to debate him because of the coronavirus. The below Biden quote is from today: Zoom Debate? At fundraiser, @JoeBiden says, "I’m ready to debate him. Zoom or Skype or Slack or hangouts or in person, anytime anywhere he wants."
https://twitter.com/PhilipWegmann/status/1253424980873764865

The Victims Of COVID-19. Families and friends around the world are remembering people who have died during the coronavirus pandemic. Read their stories here.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/buzzfeednews/the-victims-of-covid-19

ICE Is Trying To Deport A Girl Who Fled Threats After She Reported Her Dad For Sexually Assaulting Her
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/ice-unaccompanied-immigrant-girl-deportation-honduras

Trump has issued contradictory advice to Americans and contradictory or inchoate directives to governors, mayors, Congress and the scientists who flank him at daily news briefings intended to showcase his leadership. Much of the confusion surrounds when and how to lift safety restrictions that have closed businesses, schools, parks and casinos as a means of slowing transmission of a virus that has killed more than 40,000 Americans. On Thursday, the day before barbershops, nail salons and other businesses were to reopen in Georgia over Trump’s objection and against the advice of the task force he empowered to guide the national response, Trump spoke glowingly about states that are reopening. “You see states are starting to open up now, and it’s very exciting to see,” Trump said at the day’s televised briefing. He did not mention Georgia, whose Republican governor he called out by name on Wednesday as moving too fast to reopen. reopen. “We’re coming out of this,” Trump said at the start of the briefing Thursday, where he pointed to preliminary research that sunlight helps kill the virus. Later on, under questioning, Trump said social distancing recommendations may be extended into the summer or beyond. “We may, we may go beyond that. We’ll see where it is,” Trump said. “At some point we won’t have to do that, but until we feel it’s safe, we’re going to be extending.” He later emphasized that he was “not happy” with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican ally who has attributed his election to Trump’s support, for the steps he is taking to open up his state, leaving murky what actions he thinks are appropriate and which he does not.

Relaxing social distancing restrictions too early could cost U.S. billions in medical care: Hurrying Out of Lockdown Could Raise Coronavirus Costs by Hundreds of Billions of Dollars | Gutting the theory that economic peril demands the immediate reopening of the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic, health policy experts published a study Thursday that says rushing the process could cost hundreds of billions of dollars in direct medical expenses. | If 20% of America were to become infected, “there would be a median of 11.2 million hospitalizations, 62.3 million hospital bed days, and 1.6 million ventilators used, costing $163.4 billion,” the study states. That number jumps to $654 billion in direct costs — including the use of 6.5 million ventilators and 249.5 million days in hospital beds — if the infection rate is 80%. | What the experience of treating the disease these last several months has shown, however, is that a Covid-19 diagnosis carries with it a range of major complications that require follow-up care and potentially rehospitalization. “It is important to remember that for a proportion of the people who get infected, health care costs don’t end when the active infection ends,” Bruce Lee, a public health professor and one of the study’s seven co-authors, said in a statement. “This pandemic will have its lasting effects and taking care of those who will suffer continuing problems is one of them.”
https://www.courthousenews.com/hurrying-out-of-lockdown-could-raise-virus-costs-by-hundreds-of-billions-of-dollars/
https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/covid-health-affairs.pdf

Immigrant Doctors Want to Help Fight COVID-19 but Are Stymied by State Licensing Laws
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/immigrant-doctors-want-to-help-fight-covid-19-but-are-stymied-by-state-licensing-laws

Tomorrow morning all the shows will spend hours on Trump telling people to inject Lysol and stick flashlights up their butts, totally ignoring the fact that the federal government is robbing states of PPE.

Michigan Gov. Whitmer signs an executive order forming a task force to investigate the disproportionate number of African Americans being infected and killed by the coronavirus.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/michigan-task-force-address-disproportionate-impact-coronavirus-black-communities-n1189121?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_np

Microplastics found in Antarctic ice core sample taken 10 years ago
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-22/microplastics-found-in-antarctic-sea-ice-for-first-time/12173386

Millions of animals are bred for research and experimentation every year in Germany and then killed without being utilized, according to a new government report. Federal Ministry of Agriculture estimated that 3.9 million animals died in this way in Germany in 2017, and 12.6 million across entire EU.
https://www.dw.com/en/millions-of-unused-research-animals-killed-in-germany/a-53219383

'It Is a Joke': AOC Uses 30-Second Floor Speech to Rip GOP Over Inadequate Covid-19 Relief Efforts - "If you had urgency, you would legislate like rent was due on May 1st and make sure that we include rent and mortgage relief for our constituents," said New York Democrat ahead of vote.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?471431-1/house-takes-484-billion-coronavirus-relief-package

After He Died Of The Coronavirus, She Opened Up His Phone And Found His Last Words To Her | Because Braedyn is considered high risk for the coronavirus, the entire family had been extremely cautious about quarantining. Katie and the two children stayed home, but Jon, who was considered an essential worker, still had to go to work. “My husband wore gloves, masks, he washed his hands,” Katie said. “He was so super vigilant because he was so afraid of what would happen to our son if he caught it.” But on March 24, he found out he’d been in contact with someone who’d tested positive for the virus. Jon didn’t feel very sick — just fatigue, a migraine, and no sense of smell — but he got tested, and it came back positive, so he quarantined himself in a separate part of the house. “Within 24 hours, he started coughing, and with the coughing fits, he wouldn’t be able to catch his breath in between,” Katie said. “The doctor told him to go to the hospital because he’d probably need nebulizer treatments.” For nearly a week, the doctors tried treating him with medications, but he was still struggling and had to be intubated. “I don’t know why I put my phone on vibrate that night, but I did,” Katie said. “And I slept through a 4 a.m. phone call from him that said his breathing got a little weird in the night, so they said they’re gonna have to let his body rest so he could come home to me and the kids, and that he loved us.” Even after Jon was put on the ventilator, the doctors expected him to make a full recovery, Katie said. But things quickly took a turn for the worse. “They tried to wake him up on day seven, and he was breathing way, way, way too hard,” she said. “They thought he was having a panic attack, so they FaceTimed me, and he just said, ‘I love you and I’m sorry,’ and then they had to re-intubate him.” After that, his kidneys started failing, and he ran a high fever for days. Jon had to be sedated because he would wake up delirious and panicked and try to rip out his ventilator tubes, she said. “He especially became agitated after talking to us, because he’d try to talk over the ventilator, and it would cause too much stress and his breathing would get out of whack,” she said. But over the course of a couple weeks, Jon showed signs of improvement. Doctors gradually started weaning him off the sedatives and began testing to see how he’d do off the ventilator. “They trialed him all day [Tuesday], and he did a really good job,” she said. “He would get nervous, but the nurses were able to talk him down, and he was responsive.” She spoke to a doctor that night around 9 p.m., and hung up feeling hopeful, she said. “The doctor I’d spoken to said, ‘We’re going to be able to wake your husband up in two days,’” she said. “And they started talking to me about recovery.” Hours later, though, Jon went into cardiac arrest and died. Katie said she and the doctors still don’t really know how or why it happened. The doctors took Jon off the ventilator Tuesday night, saying he was awake and responsive and the tubes were making him panic again, but he seemed mostly OK just hours before his death. “My son just got his adaptive communication device [Tuesday] night, and I sent [Jon] a video of our son saying, ‘Dad, you’re my best friend,’” Katie said. “They showed it to him, and out of nowhere, his heart just started freaking out.” The doctors called Katie, who rushed to the hospital. By the time she got there less than an hour later, he was gone. Katie is having trouble believing her husband will never come home alive from the hospital. He was young and healthy. He’d survived bouts of cancer at ages 8 and 16, but because he’d been in remission for so long, his doctor had said it wouldn’t cause complications.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/coronavirus-victim-jon-coelho-phone-note-wife-children
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