The Wørd: Truthiness In Action
March 21, 2020 9:31 AM Subscribe

At the beginning of 2020, reports of a 'pneumonia outbreak' spurred the CDC to action. When asked, Trump implied everything was under control and downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus threat while US intelligence reports warned of a likely pandemic. Those reports and other warnings spurred some to action (Sen. Richard Burr, R-NC; Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-GA). Trump downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus, and implied that the Trump administration had things well in hand.

As COVID-19 escalated into a world wide pandemic in March 2020, Trump claimed his administration always took COVID-19 seriously, while stonewalling those who actually took it seriously. Fox News is reinforcing Trump with stories doubling down on bigotry and racism (for free), while the Trump administration is deflecting attention from how Fox News endangered the public with misinformation. The gaslighting is becoming so blatant that it's getting called out more and more explicitly (Chuck Todd, Don Lemon, Rachel Maddow).

Some countries took it very seriously when it first appeared (e.g. South Korea), and are doing relatively well. In the US local leaders and states are acting on their own as the economy deteriorates into recession due to severe but needed public health measures. Meanwhile, Trump is positioning himself for reelection with increasingly less effective actions, finding the usual enemies to blame while continuing the GOP's long war on government. He's trying to rewrite the history of his response to Coronavirus, but reality shows a laser-like focus on getting reelected amid a galling display of inaction.

And, with all due respect to Stephen Colbert, that's the Wørd.

posted by ZeusHumms (2198 comments total) 127 users marked this as a favorite

The always excellent Money Stuff has a good take on the congressional insider trading.
posted by daniel striped tiger at 9:46 AM on March 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

Spain has nationalized all private hospitals and healthcare providers

Germany will decide this weekend if the government will enforce a total lockdown, based on citizens' behavior today

[Thanks, ZeusHumms, for the collection of news links. I hope Mefites keep the high signal-to-noise ratio going in the comments. There are plenty of other coronavirus threads for venting, commiserating, opinions and the rest; it would be great if we could grab this one for just links to ongoing news stories about the pandemic.]
posted by mediareport at 9:47 AM on March 21, 2020 [17 favorites]

[Didn't mean to discount discussion, of course, apologies if it came across that way. Just hoping for a thread with mostly useful updates.]

WSJ: Israel is using cellphone location tracking data to send text message to folks who've been near those known to be infected, telling them to self-quarantine; the Supreme Court has ordered a halt to the process unless the now-shut-down Parliament forms "relevant oversight committees" by next Tuesday.
posted by mediareport at 10:06 AM on March 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

The next President should call in an emergency broadcast, and force Fox to show the archive footage of how they changed their tune.
posted by ocschwar at 10:07 AM on March 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Vietnam is 100 cases. Still.
posted by ocschwar at 10:08 AM on March 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

Case curves for the last five days. US hospitals are going to be hit very hard very soon, probably within the week.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:17 AM on March 21, 2020 [14 favorites]

This is the speech we've needed to hear from somebody at the highest levels of the federal government in the US. [YouTube link] Dr. Emily Landon, professor of infectious disease at the University of Chicago, appeared yesterday with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot at a COVID-19 press conference. Here is a transcript.

She spoke with urgency and concision about the actions we all need to be taking right now, not just by those living in hot zones like Seattle and NYC.

She explained clearly why these actions are necessary and how they will benefit society as a whole.

And she expressed empathy for those who are afraid and those who don't understand how staying home can be of any use.

"In short, without taking drastic measures, the healthy and optimistic among us will doom the vulnerable. We have to fight this fire before it grows too high. These extreme restrictions may seem, in the end, a little anticlimactic. Because it's really hard to feel like you're saving the world when you're watching Netflix from your couch.

But if we do this right, nothing happens. Yeah. A successful shelter in place means that you're going to feel like it was all for nothing. And you'd be right. Because nothing means that nothing happened to your family. And that's what we're going for here.

Even starting now, we can't stop the cases from coming fast and furious, at least for the next couple of weeks and in the short term. But with a real commitment to sheltering in place and a whole lot of patients, we can help protect our critical workers who need to use public transportation in order to safely get from where they need to go.

We can give our factories time to ramp up production of all that PPE, so that we have enough masks to last. And we can make more medications and learn more about how we could use them to help save more lives. Even a little time makes a huge difference."

posted by theory at 10:21 AM on March 21, 2020 [118 favorites]

Smash and grab, baby!

My brother runs a health department and my friend is CEO of a hospital and they... are not optimistic. Stay indoors when you can, practice excellent hygiene, etc etc this is not going away. I watched the news last night and let out a mournful and caustic howl of rage when they showed Florida beaches. When this is over, I bet no one will admit they went on spring break in 2020... fucking assholes doesn’t even cover it.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 10:22 AM on March 21, 2020 [35 favorites]

This is the speech we've needed to hear from somebody

just posted a link to that on my Facebook about three minutes ago. I really like this less dramatic part:

“It’s really hard to feel like you’re saving the world when you’re watching Netflix from your couch. But if we do this right, nothing happens. A successful shelter-in-place means you’re going to feel like it was all for nothing, and you’d be right: Because nothing means that nothing happened to your family. And that’s what we’re going for here.”
posted by philip-random at 10:31 AM on March 21, 2020 [45 favorites]

MIT Technology Review looks at the paper from Imperial College model of 18 months of two months on isolation, one month off : we are not going back to normal, and a mass centralized surrevilence state is much more likely.
posted by The Whelk at 10:31 AM on March 21, 2020 [22 favorites]

I watched the news last night and let out a mournful and caustic howl of rage when they showed Florida beaches.

Our Trumpy local sheriff is pissed the beaches are closed. He thinks it's too hard to determine what's private property and what's public. He's also mad at CNN for daring to show footage of all the dumbass spring breakers who were crammed into Clearwater beach this week. No mention of Fox reporting live from Clearwater on Thursday. SAD!
posted by photoslob at 10:31 AM on March 21, 2020 [11 favorites]

You might not be able to hang the virus itself on him, but encouraging people to go to work when sick is a pretty easy thing to criticize.
posted by Scattercat at 10:32 AM on March 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

This was posted yesterday by the New England Journal of Medicine*

Covid-19 and the Stiff Upper Lip — The Pandemic Response in the United Kingdom:

Throughout the past few weeks, the U.K. mantra has been “we will act at the appropriate time according to the science.” Many clinicians and scientists have been pushing the panic button, but the alarm, if heard, was not acted on publicly until the third week of March. Everyone is hoping that their gut instincts, the experience of other countries, and now the models are wrong. What is not in doubt is that barring a miracle, a treatment, and ultimately a vaccine, the NHS in the United Kingdom is about to experience a challenge unlike any other in its 70 years of existence.

* "All Journal content related to the Covid-19 pandemic is freely available."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:36 AM on March 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s Proposal for relief : This includes the Treasury using its legal authority to create a new mint program to fund:

✅Direct payments via preloaded $2,000 cash cards to everyone.
✅Recharging with $1,000/month until a year after the economy recovers.

This includes depends to, citizens and non citizens, read it all here
posted by The Whelk at 10:37 AM on March 21, 2020 [82 favorites]

But with a real commitment to sheltering in place and a whole lot of patients

I'm pretty sure that's supposed to read "patience".
posted by hippybear at 10:42 AM on March 21, 2020 [19 favorites]

For folks who can handle truly horrifying details, ProPublica talked to a respiratory therapist who's been running ventilators for patients ("Many are relatively young, in their 40s and 50s, and have minimal, if any, preexisting conditions in their charts") in hard-hit New Orleans (which "held Mardi Gras celebrations just two weeks before its first patient, with more than a million revelers on its streets.")

A Medical Worker Describes Terrifying Lung Failure From COVID-19 — Even in His Young Patients

ProPublica isn't exactly known for its wild-headedness, so while this is clearly anecdata, it's pretty shocking anecdata, especially if you haven't been reading hospital workers' reports. Skip the rest of this comment if you're feeling fragile today:

I have patients in their early 40s and, yeah, I was kind of shocked. I’m seeing people who look relatively healthy with a minimal health history, and they are completely wiped out, like they’ve been hit by a truck. This is knocking out what should be perfectly fit, healthy people. Patients will be on minimal support, on a little bit of oxygen, and then all of a sudden, they go into complete respiratory arrest, shut down and can’t breathe at all...That seems to be what happens to a lot of these patients: They suddenly become unresponsive or go into respiratory failure...

Normally, [Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome] is something that happens over time as the lungs get more and more inflamed. But with this virus, it seems like it happens overnight...In my experience, this severity of ARDS is usually more typical of someone who has a near drowning experience — they have a bunch of dirty water in their lungs — or people who inhale caustic gas. Especially for it to have such an acute onset like that. I’ve never seen a microorganism or an infectious process cause such acute damage to the lungs so rapidly. That was what really shocked me.

I keep wanting to quote; the whole thing is horrifying. By the time I got to "Your risk of mortality increases every day that you spend on a ventilator" I was already solidifying my resolve to take precautions. (Then the mailperson came, handed me the mail and I scratched my itchy, spring allergy-ridden eye before running to wash my hands, and you know, laughter *is* the best medicine, they say.)
posted by mediareport at 10:48 AM on March 21, 2020 [35 favorites]

(Thr Tlaib proposal also includes language for postal banking and national banking/credit/debt system with no fees that ive been screaming about for ...five? Six? Years?)
posted by The Whelk at 10:48 AM on March 21, 2020 [52 favorites]

The news here (Berlin, Germany) is dire as hell - yet we just went out for a bike ride and the streets were as packed as ever. Grocery markets are still open and from talking to people here and there, people are taking it seriously but ... many seem to have a 'can't happen here.' attitude which is going to lead to the country being shut-down a la Italy.

It's a real slow-motion car wreck feeling.

from the Frankfurter Allegemeine a (German) report about how not optimistic doctors are.

I honestly wish there was an effective way to hang this on Trump's neck. I know it's not really realistic but still...

What happens in Germany is hardly Trump's fault? But otherwise, I agree.
The Danish police have warned yesterday that if people gather in crowds over ten people they will start handing out fines of 1500 kr. pr person - about 300 dollars. Which is enough that you can feel it if you are a student. The first fines have been given, and a few businesses have been shut down. People are reporting offenses all over the country. Normally I wouldn't like that, but in this case I think it is civic-mindedness. Where does this end? I don't know. These laws can obviously be abused as I see they are in some places.
The news tell me that the police are sending text messages to all cell phone owners, alerting them to the rules. I haven't received one yet, maybe because my number is not listed.
posted by mumimor at 10:50 AM on March 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

mefi mods: at last, an end to the megathreads, we can rest now
global pandemic: bonjour bitches
posted by poffin boffin at 10:53 AM on March 21, 2020 [218 favorites]

Downtown toronto streets are less than 10% as packed as they usually are. Maybe even less. Mid-day Saturday (we walked down Yonge for take-out) sidewalks are usually crush packed; today it was easy to maintain 2 metre separation even from the clueless. I think most Canadians Get It.

Interestingly, the blithest people were the old white ones. I wonder why that might be.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:54 AM on March 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

A successful shelter-in-place means you’re going to feel like it was all for nothing,

Probably not. The first 5k worldwide deaths was about a week ago (aprox 5/13) took less than a week (aprox thurs hit 10k) to double and looks like there will be another doubling in about a week. If that's the rate, all caveats about increased testing aside it'll start looking like that old math problem about the chessboard with on grain of sand on each square then two, then four, and before the end the king owes all the grain in the kingdom.

On a grosser note, read some warnings about not flushing TP alternatives in some areas as it will break sanitation systems, Imagine not being able to flush for a few weeks...
posted by sammyo at 10:56 AM on March 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

A Burmese boy (7 y/o?) was slashed across the face with a knife in CA a few days ago. This is where Trump's deflections are going.
posted by ocschwar at 10:59 AM on March 21, 2020 [17 favorites]

everybody: look through your cellar/garage to see if you have n95s. find out if someone in your area needs them.

I found 2 still in the box, and now an X-ray tech has them.
posted by ocschwar at 11:01 AM on March 21, 2020 [30 favorites]

Russia is spreading disinformation about the virus.
Because of course they are?

I’m pretty sure I saw this “in the wild” on Facebook, though I’m not sure. It was a whole site dedicated to downplaying the seriousness of the virus and the website just felt exactly like the kind of fake sites that were popping up prior to the 2016 election.

I can’t swear that it was, but it prompted me to google “Russian disinformation coronavirus” and sure enough.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:02 AM on March 21, 2020 [12 favorites]

Trump's lies have gone from rage-inducing to out and out deadly. And no matter how serious the consequences he just can't stop lying.
posted by tommasz at 11:09 AM on March 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

A Burmese boy (7 y/o?) was slashed across the face with a knife in CA a few days ago. This is where Trump's deflections are going.

U.S. Racism and Coronavirus, previously
posted by filthy light thief at 11:22 AM on March 21, 2020 [12 favorites]

As the Chernobyl series asked, What is the cost of lies?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:23 AM on March 21, 2020 [11 favorites]

When the lock down lifts, it will take a major pushback by all of us to force an end to the gas lighting. I'm going to call this measured incivility.

I groused in an earlier comment that when it's time to eat out again, I will prefer to eat in a restaurant that pledges not to serve republicans. Well, I'm serious. We need public shaming. And as hard as it is for restaurant owners, it needs to be harder for republicans. They should face shame everywhere. I will immediately buy a gift certificate from the first restaurant owner in my area that pledges to put a sign on the door "No republicans served."

And that should just be a start.
posted by ocschwar at 11:31 AM on March 21, 2020 [37 favorites]

I live in a pretty liberal bubble, and almost everyone I know is taking this extremely seriously (some friends going to much greater lengths than me). But it occurred to me that for conservatives, this is a fundamental challenge to their "got mine, fuck you" worldview. They must be experiencing serious cognitive dissonance. The idea that their fate relies on collective action—that they're not OK unless approximately everyone is OK—must be like poison.
posted by adamrice at 11:45 AM on March 21, 2020 [132 favorites]

The Kroger grocery chain announced this morning that it was dropping its previous requirement for a positive test for the COVID-19 virus or a formal order to self-quarantine before offering paid sick leave, after a week of bad publicity about its terrible sick leave policy sparked by the sharp indie journalist Judd Legum (and his report of the $25 gift cards Kroger management offered to workers instead of paid sick leave). Legum also notes that 3 employees of Kroger/Fred Meyer stores have now tested positive for the virus.
posted by mediareport at 11:45 AM on March 21, 2020 [30 favorites]

This is the speech we've needed to hear from somebody

There are very few roles in global society where someone can make a big, immediate difference with what they say. The Presidency of the United States is one such role. And when given an easy question, one which seemed to obviously call for reassurance in the face of overwhelming odds, Trump disappoints.

Trump’s eruption at an NBC reporter says it all about his alternate reality on coronavirus (Aaron Blake, Washington Post)

[NBC’s Peter Alexander:] “What do you say to Americans who are scared, though? Nearly 200 dead. Fourteen thousand are sick. Millions, as you witness, who are scared right now. What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?”

Trump erupted.

“I say that you’re a terrible reporter; that’s what I say,” Trump said. “I think it’s a very nasty question. And I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people. The American people are looking for answers, and they’re looking for hope. And you’re doing sensationalism."

He added: “Let me just say something: That’s really bad reporting. And you want to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism. Let’s see if it works. It might and it might not. I happen to feel good about it, but who knows? I’ve been right a lot."

But here’s the thing: Alexander rightly noted that Trump was saying something that medical experts like Fauci have strained to avoid — that this drug could be a kind of “game-changer.” Trump actually volunteered that he disagreed with that and said it might be. There is a real difference in what they are saying, and it’s completely fair for a reporter to ask Trump to account for that.

There’s also the backstory here. Trump has, in fact, repeatedly made statements about things that lay ahead in the fight against the coronavirus, and they often haven’t panned out. To wit:

- He said of the malaria drug, “We’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. That’s where the FDA has been so great. They’ve gone through the approval process. It’s been approved. … So we’re going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or states.” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn later clarified that the drug was only approved for malaria.
- He has said health industry leaders agreed to waive all costs of coronavirus treatments, when in fact they only agree to waive co-payments.
- He has said Google was developing a website for the coronavirus and had 1,700 people working on it, but that was apparently news to Google.
- He has oversold the ability to deliver masks and ventilators to health-care professionals, relative to other officials.
- He said two hospital ships were being dispatched to help, but we later learned they were weeks away and wouldn’t be helping with the coronavirus, but rather other illnesses.

While Trump may not be downplaying the coronavirus as much as he used to, he sure is overplaying some of the measures that can be used to combat it. Alexander was right to press him on that point, and Trump’s eruption at him for pointing out the mixed messages between Trump and Fauci really says it all.

posted by ZeusHumms at 11:49 AM on March 21, 2020 [35 favorites]

Yuval Noah Harari has a new article in FT (Mirror here) The world after coronavirus.

Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. We should also take into account the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives, we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. Yes, the storm will pass, humankind will survive, most of us will still be alive — but we will inhabit a different world.

Many short-term emergency measures will become a fixture of life. That is the nature of emergencies. They fast-forward historical processes. Decisions that in normal times could take years of deliberation are passed in a matter of hours. Immature and even dangerous technologies are pressed into service, because the risks of doing nothing are bigger. Entire countries serve as guinea-pigs in large-scale social experiments. What happens when everybody works from home and communicates only at a distance? What happens when entire schools and universities go online? In normal times, governments, businesses and educational boards would never agree to conduct such experiments. But these aren’t normal times.

In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity.
posted by growabrain at 11:56 AM on March 21, 2020 [51 favorites]

everybody: look through your cellar/garage to see if you have n95s. find out if someone in your area needs them.

On that note, a chapter of Habitat for Humanity did this: Twin Cities Habitat Donates 7,500 Respirator Masks in Wake of Coronavirus Pandemic
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:56 AM on March 21, 2020 [17 favorites]

I groused in an earlier comment that when it's time to eat out again, I will prefer to eat in a restaurant that pledges not to serve republicans. Well, I'm serious. We need public shaming. And as hard as it is for restaurant owners, it needs to be harder for republicans. They should face shame everywhere. I will immediately buy a gift certificate from the first restaurant owner in my area that pledges to put a sign on the door "No republicans served."

The ruling class has no party allegiance, only class solidarity.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:03 PM on March 21, 2020 [35 favorites]

Forbes opinion piece about location tracking measures in Italy, which until now have used anonymized data to report news that "40% of residents in Milan still moved every day beyond a 300 to 500 meters range from their home," but are now poised to move towards more invasive and targeted monitoring of individuals similar to the South Korean model:

The model is South Korea, which was able to successfully limit the spreading of the contagion (and above all, the deaths) by extensive testing of citizens and by publicly sharing detailed information on the movements of those infected. [emphasis added]

...The president of the Italian Data Protection Authority, Antonello Soro, in an interview with Tiscali News, also stressed that Italian authorities should resist the temptation to simply replicating Chinese or South Korean solutions to the Coronavirus emergency. Rather, they should adapt them to a Western democracy, where the attention to and the need for privacy is very different from Chinese authoritarianism. The South Korean legal and cultural environment is also significantly different from that of Italy.

Essentially, this means putting in place safeguards that ensure that more invasive measures will be put in place gradually, for well-identified and specific needs and a limited period only. Authorities should also make sure that the data collected is not unnecessarily transferred to third parties and that the Italian Constitution remains the benchmark and the main inspiration for any new regulation.
posted by mediareport at 12:03 PM on March 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

Trump's eruption at the NBC reporter was one of those moments where I remembered, "Oh, right, he's a fucking psycho." It reminded me of the Joe Pesci scene from "Goodfellas" - everything's normal, if tense, but normal and then precipitously, it is very much not.

Guy is a fucking criminal, a mid-level boss, a psycho the real bosses use as a cudgel to keep the rank and file in line. And, to the mis-fortune of all of us, the leader of the largest economy in the world.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:13 PM on March 21, 2020 [81 favorites]

Trump's eruption at the NBC reporter was one of those moments where I remembered, "Oh, right, he's a fucking psycho."

I'm honestly waiting for the moment a reporter just gets so-effing-fed-up with Trump's constant, psychotic, abuse and just ups and tells him to go fuck himself, live on national tv. Maybe shout "Fake President" as the SS manhandles them away, too.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:20 PM on March 21, 2020 [51 favorites]

Wow, mumimor, if this article is accurate, that Danish law goes much further than other Western countries have been willing to go (so far):

Trine Maria Ilsøe, DR's court correspondent, said that Danish citizens could face prosecution under the new law if they refused to comply with health authorities' demands. "It means that you could be sentenced to a punishment if you, for example, refuse to allow yourself to be tested for coronavirus," she said...

As well as enforcing quarantine measures, the law also allows the authorities to force people to be vaccinated, even though there is currently no vaccination for the virus. It also empowers them to prohibit access to public institutions, supermarkets and shops, public and private nursing homes and hospitals, and also to impose restrictions on access to public transport.

Initially, the government wanted to the law to give the police the right to enter private homes without a court order if there is a suspicion of coronavirus infection. But this was dropped after opposition from parties in the parliament.
posted by mediareport at 12:29 PM on March 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Scattercat: You might not be able to hang the virus itself on him, but encouraging people to go to work when sick is a pretty easy thing to criticize.

I was just visited by door-to-door Kirby salesmen, who said he had to come in to demo their carpet washing vacuum to get paid for the day.

This is not how you do social distancing.

Back to Trump: As COVID-19 escalated into a world wide pandemic in March 2020, Trump claimed his administration always took COVID-19 seriously, while stonewalling those who actually took it seriously.

March 2020 was too late to be taking the disease seriously, especially when the outbreak was recognized in December 2019 (World Health Organization timeline of events). 2018 was too late to be taking a future pandemic seriously. Larry Brilliant, who participated, as a medical officer, in the World Health Organization (WHO) smallpox eradication program, spoke to Wired recently:

The whole epidemiological community has been warning everybody for the past 10 or 15 years that it wasn't a question of whether we were going to have a pandemic like this. It was simply when. It's really hard to get people to listen. I mean, Trump pushed out the admiral (Washington Post, May 2018) on the National Security Council, who was the only person at that level who's responsible for pandemic defense. With him went his entire downline of employees and staff and relationships. And then Trump removed the [early warning] funding for countries around the world.

You don't start preparing for the worst when it starts happening, especially as a country. People can delay and prioritize personal concerns, but at the national level, there are people who should be planning for every serious "What If" scenario.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:33 PM on March 21, 2020 [22 favorites]

The speculation I saw that hat seemed truthy to me was that what set Trump off was the reporter citing large numbers of cases and deaths in his softball question. Trump doesn’t like the numbers.
posted by thelonius at 12:36 PM on March 21, 2020 [16 favorites]

Downtown toronto streets are less than 10% as packed as they usually are. Maybe even less. Mid-day Saturday (we walked down Yonge for take-out) sidewalks are usually crush packed; today it was easy to maintain 2 metre separation even from the clueless. I think most Canadians Get It.

I was very heartened by the news that our former federal Minister of Health is again practicing medicine and is doing Covid-19 screening at Markham-Stouffville Hospital.

All hands on deck.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:37 PM on March 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

Many hospitals are short on face masks, and some have started using cloth masks, which need to be cleaned between uses but were standard before disposable paper masks were common. Instructions, made in partnership with one hospital (which now has plenty of donations) -- if you can sew, you can contact your local health-care orgs and ask if they could use cloth masks.

(The recipe's simple: 2 pieces of 6" x 9" tightly-woven cotton fabric + 2 7" strips of elastic per adult mask, slightly smaller for child masks.)
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 12:40 PM on March 21, 2020 [14 favorites]

mefi mods: at last, an end to the megathreads, we can rest now
global pandemic: bonjour bitches

Don’t make cortex limit participation in threads to 10 members or less with at least 6 lines between comments....
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:40 PM on March 21, 2020 [81 favorites]

And then Trump removed the [early warning] funding for countries around the world.

is this not murder?
posted by Mrs Potato at 12:41 PM on March 21, 2020 [19 favorites]

Wow, mumimor, if this article is accurate, that Danish law goes much further than other Western countries have been willing to go
Yup, and I'm a bit surprised that they were voted in with no opposition. What those who normally would vote against are saying is that there is a sundown clause (I don't remember if it's for September or October), and that it is absolutely necessary to protect the public health. I've mentioned a few times that we are close to South Korean measures and I am not exaggerating.
Is has to be said that the vast majority of the population supports this. You have to remember that the law is backed by extensive and very generous relief packages for every part of society, from big business to gig workers and students. And a lot of people see the few who don't respect the restrictions as antisocial and dangerous. We've seen that curve-flattening diagram like a billion times on tv, and there are signs everywhere and warnings on the radio every 30 minutes. Also, about half of the Danish workforce are in welfare-related jobs: healthcare, childcare, social work etc. That means everyone has a family member on the front line.
posted by mumimor at 12:43 PM on March 21, 2020 [25 favorites]

I honestly wish there was an effective way to hang this on Trump's neck. I know it's not really realistic but still...

No, but my fear is Trump will find a way to hang the virus on the neck of China -- and Asian Americans will suffer.
posted by Borborygmus at 12:47 PM on March 21, 2020 [14 favorites]

There is now a 3D printer open source file available for creating reusable N95 masks that I hope is not too good to be true (or practical, though if we’re resorting to cloth masks at this point, just a half dozen reusable N95s per hospital might have significant impact):

https://techthelead.com/enhanced-open-source-n95-mask-design-released-for-3d-printing/
posted by blue suede stockings at 12:51 PM on March 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

@matthewstoller

1. Here's a list of what's been floated, either publicly or privately, for the #CoronavirusCoup. I am told that Pelosi will take whatever McConnell negotiates in the Senate on the corporate side. $50 billion for airlines. $150 billion for anyone Mnuchin wants, likely Boeing. 2. Speeding up of payments to defense contractors. Lifting of Other Transaction Authority caps for the Pentagon to shovel money to defense contractors without restrictions. 3. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos want "$5 billion in grants or loans to keep commercial space company employees on the job and launch facilities open." They also want the IRS to give them cash for R&D tax credits. 4. "The hotel industry wants $150 billion. The restaurant industry wants $145 billion. The National Association of Manufacturers wants $1.4 trillion. The International Council of Shopping Centers wants a guarantee of up to $1 trillion."
[...etc...]
12. We have to support industry in a moment of crisis. But the key here is the conditions, and what is likely to happen by allowing Mnuchin to set the terms of all aid is a consolidation of power in the hands of a few. No more small business. America will be unrecognizable.

posted by Rust Moranis at 12:56 PM on March 21, 2020 [27 favorites]

my fear is Trump will find a way to hang the virus on the neck of China

Y'all, filthy light thief mentioned above there's a whole thread about Trump's racist approach to the virus from a couple of days ago.
posted by mediareport at 12:57 PM on March 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

The 3d printed mask is a good thing if it works as advertised, but its usefulness will be pretty limited to adding a small number of masks in areas with serious supply chain issues. Remember that for mass production, 3d printing is pretty much the slowest, most expensive option. Every little bit helps, but 3d printing masks won't tip the scales; ramped up standard manufacturing which has longer lead times but much, much higher volume will still be needed.
posted by biogeo at 12:59 PM on March 21, 2020 [11 favorites]

Wow, mumimor, if this article is accurate, that Danish law goes much further than other Western countries have been willing to go (so far):

French measures are also fairly strict: (but expire March 31 pending developments)

All people leaving their homes must carry a signed form, or attestation, explaining where they are headed and why. A different form is needed for each outing. Failure to produce one will result in a fine.
posted by dmh at 1:00 PM on March 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

In Boston, a city councilor who owns a sewing store has organized a virtual sewing circle for tomorrow for people with sewing machines to make masks. And a local hospital has put up a YouTube video on how other hospitals can make respirator masks out of things they might already have lying around. It's both cool and tremendously frustrating at the same time.
posted by adamg at 1:03 PM on March 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Re: 3D printing: this NPR article on what it takes to make an N-95 mask suggests there are specialized manufacturing processes needed for the critical filter material.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:05 PM on March 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

French measures are also fairly strict:

All people leaving their homes must carry a signed form, or attestation, explaining where they are headed and why. A different form is needed for each outing. Failure to produce one will result in a fine.

I watched a news piece about the French lockdown and laughed out loud when I realized that flowershops are considered essential. And then when I came down to the village today, it turned out it is the same here. Isn't that nice? 🌷
posted by mumimor at 1:10 PM on March 21, 2020 [18 favorites]

@mumimor, that's fascinating, and has me wondering how many other vestiges of Plagues past are still kicking around...
posted by runehog at 1:19 PM on March 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Here is the pdf tutorial for DIY fabric face masks that adamg linked to.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:19 PM on March 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

WaPo: Hospitals warn of shortages, closures without emergency aid

U.S. hospitals are warning that they are so strapped for cash that without some financial relief, they will be unable to meet their payrolls in a matter of weeks and some could be forced to close just as coronavirus cases are surging.

The American Hospital Association and three hospital chief executives spanning the country said in a conference call Saturday that a federal directive this week to cancel elective procedures — to conserve scarce resources for patients with covid19 — is halting the type of services that produce the most revenue.

And their ability to buy critically needed supplies — from protective gear to more hospital beds — is being stymied by the fact that private vendors are requiring hospitals to pay cash upon delivery, which they say they lack the money to do...

[One hospital system] is racing to set up tents for testing and screening, has hired additional staff as others are isolated or home caring for children, and needs somehow to fulfill a new order by New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) to increase hospital bed capacity by 50 percent.

“We literally need to buy the beds,” Brown said. But with vendors insisting on being paid at the time they are delivered, she said, “we can’t buy the equipment...if we don’t have the immediate cash.”
posted by mediareport at 1:30 PM on March 21, 2020 [12 favorites]

Well, here's what happens to the pundits when the bar gets set really, really low: Strangely competent Mike Pence finds his 9/11 moment in coronavirus crisis
No need to quote from it. It's an article that quotes a bunch of people who claim to be critical of Trump who now believe Pence is just fine. Just as much as there should be a reckoning for the entire Republican Party, there should be one for the commentariat and the editors and owners of the press. But there won't be either. It's depressing.
posted by mumimor at 1:32 PM on March 21, 2020 [23 favorites]

Nothing like a young earth creationist evolution denier at the top of the Pandemic response. It’s real handy to have a Religious zealot who doesn’t believe in the foundational principals of modern medicine and biology in charge. Super comforting. The anti-vaccine President also gives me great confidence.
posted by Everyone Expects The Spanish Influenza at 1:42 PM on March 21, 2020 [31 favorites]

"The upper bound for undiagnosed HIV infections in Scott County peaked around January 10, 2015 at 126 undiagnosed cases, over two months before Governor Pence declared a public health emergency on March 26, 2015."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:46 PM on March 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

The US response is a fucking joke, it really is. this is the Irish Taoiseach addressing the country on St. Patricks Day*. They set up a volunteer effort and 50,000 people signed up in two days, they'll be onboarding about 6K of those a week starting with medical staff, lab staff, production staff, childcare and working outwards. They have redirected 1,000 civil servants to the contact tracking and database efforts, many volunteers signed up for that too. They have drive thru testing set up all over. The police set up an emergency number to bring food and medicine to seniors, the disabled and anyone else who needs it and the army have been mobilized to distribute fresh food. The country is food secure and the supply chain for other goods is a priority. They have set up an emergency unemployment benefits that benefit people who lost jobs or hours (not corporations) that pays people weekly. They plan to DOUBLE the number of hospital beds in a month and companies are making respirators and PPE. One group has setup an international effort to design low cost respirators that can be made by anyone, patent free. And the Irish govt is generally regarded as not-that-great-at-stuff and the HSE (health service) is regarded as the worst in Europe. I'm genuinely shocked and gladdened at how seriously they've taken this. At the same time the US is telling their nurses to hand sew their own masks- is this a fucking joke?

This has been a massive wake up call to the expat community in the US.

*Keep in mind his party lost an election last month and he's essentially a lame duck here, although everyone is slowly agreeing to keep him in place till the epidemic passes as he's a doctor by training and no one else thinks they could do better. Also they aren't doing great with social distancing at all, but that's cultural. It'll be much harder there. They're serious though.
posted by fshgrl at 1:48 PM on March 21, 2020 [36 favorites]

Strangely competent Mike Pence

nothing strange about it. everybody looks competent compared to Trump.
posted by philip-random at 1:49 PM on March 21, 2020 [38 favorites]

Pence praying with the coronavirus task force

285 Americans have died of coronavirus since this picture was taken
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:49 PM on March 21, 2020 [20 favorites]

When the history of this time is written, there will be plenty of blame to go around.

Even though the US spends more on health care than any other country, it seems like the system was unprepared for anything like this. It's a huge failure, maybe not as huge as the ongoing lack of universal coverage, or the inability to contain costs, but huge nevertheless.

If health care here were not-for-profit, instead of paying millions of dollars to the CEOs of for-profit hospitals, insurance companies, etc, the system could have been stockpiling supplies, building excess capacity, etc.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 1:57 PM on March 21, 2020 [11 favorites]

everybody: look through your cellar/garage to see if you have n95s. find out if someone in your area needs them.

Burning Man pays off in unexpected ways . . . a bit of digging yesterday unearthed a slightly dusty but otherwise good N95 in my bin. I'm going to keep looking this weekend because I think I might have more, plus some other non-N95 type masks. Healthcare workers are going to need ALL the kinds of masks we can get, not just N95s. Where I work we have now enacted a policy of masking ourselves during ALL patient encounters (not COVID cases/ suspected COVID cases) due to community spread. Although we've swiftly canceled, postponed, and made remote nearly every patient encounter possible, there are still certain patients with non-COVID medical issues who need to be seen for procedures and other things. And due to community spread (and to prevent spread among our skeleton crew) we're going to all now be masking, at a minimum with patients, but if we can tolerate it for the entire day just around each other as well.

There just are not going to be enough N95s for the providers working directly with COVID patients. So any and all masks that can get into the healthcare system are going to be important. For providers caring for COVID patients that don't have enough N95s. For those of us who aren't caring for COVID patients yet but due to our jobs are still having to get close to our patients and still need to do what we can given that community spread is happening. And the plan for everyone involves re-using masks as long as possible, so every last one counts. I've even seen pleas on Twitter for sewing-inclined people to help with sewing masks.

Sorry if I'm repeating things mentioned above, this thread is growing faster than I can type and preview. Hang in there everyone.
posted by robotdevil at 2:02 PM on March 21, 2020 [14 favorites]

is this a fucking joke?

No, but they are sure acting like it is. The US has vast resources, but instead of mobilizing those resources the incompetents in the administration are shrugging and leaving it to the locals to handle as best as they can (including, like you say, having to sew their own masks). Every time I think about it I get angrier.

When the history of this time is written, there will be plenty of blame to go around.

The blame for why we have a system that is underfunded, based on profits, and so on, yes, that can be spread far and wide. But the specific blame for not taking this particular outbreak seriously starting with the first case belongs directly to the Trump administration and their cronies. They had plenty of warning, but used it only for a bit of insider trading. And they continue to dither and lie, rather than stepping up and doing what a government is meant to do.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:03 PM on March 21, 2020 [24 favorites]

Some good advice from Dr. John Campbell about drugs to avoid if you get COVID 19
Allowing a fever to run helps your body to fight the infection, OTC medications that reduce the fever also increase the chance of complications.
posted by Lanark at 2:03 PM on March 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

When the history of this time is written, there will be plenty of blame to go around.

People need to just stand up to Trump. He has no real power anymore, no one in his government respects him. We need Governors, members of Congress and other people n power to just go on TV and say that Trump and McConnell are wrong, that we should be carrying out Actions A, Band C and just get on with it. If enough of them do it, it'll become the truth, god knows we've learned that the past few years.

Hospitals and production lines need to forget about working with the feds and work with the Association of Governors and the National Guards instead. Set up a shadow federation that gets shit done and bypass the Trump and Pence clownshow. They've shaken hands with enough infected people I expect them both to be out of play in a week as it is.
posted by fshgrl at 2:04 PM on March 21, 2020 [46 favorites]

This is an unsurprising response from a hospital near me (and at which myself and other family members have received excellent care) that was slammed by SARS in 2003:

“We envisioned the whole thing as a conveyor belt”: How St. Mike’s doctors created a Covid-19 assessment centre from scratch

But we’re not just a testing facility. We also provide information to everyone we’re assessing; that’s probably our most important function. If people don’t meet the criteria to be tested but still have symptoms, we educate them on how to self-isolate and for how long. In general, people should only leave their homes for important reasons, like getting food or picking up prescriptions, and that’s only if they can’t make other arrangements with family or friends.

But by all means, right-wing relatives, talk to me some more about how our public health care system is "inefficient."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:15 PM on March 21, 2020 [36 favorites]

This is an unsurprising response from a hospital near me (and at which myself and other family members have received excellent care) that was slammed by SARS in 2003:

That's brilliant and a good example of what people can do if you give them the resources and let them do their thing they are trained to do.
posted by fshgrl at 2:20 PM on March 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

If health care here were not-for-profit, instead of paying millions of dollars to the CEOs of for-profit hospitals, insurance companies, etc, the system could have been stockpiling supplies, building excess capacity, etc.

It's worse than that, the CEO is not just a money/resource vampire; the CEO's job in many cases is to get rid of any excess capacity since it is wasted money. Why would you stockpile anything if you are focused on quarterly results?
posted by benzenedream at 2:24 PM on March 21, 2020 [56 favorites]

Alberta health official inspires others to donate to good causes and to cope with CORVID-19, all while providing accurate, useful medical information and a certain type of fashion influence.
posted by sardonyx at 2:24 PM on March 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

Solidarity not charity: mutual aid organizing in the age of coronavirus
posted by The Whelk at 2:56 PM on March 21, 2020 [18 favorites]

I freaked out about H1N1 back in 2009 and bought a pile of N95 masks. They fortunately ended up in the garage of my relative who is an ER nurse. Win!
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:04 PM on March 21, 2020 [20 favorites]

I started reading the Money Stuff column, but bailed shortly after reading, "Like I generally assume that corporate executives are generally upstanding people trying to do right by shareholders, and that they have better longer-term ways to get rich than insider trading". I'm sure the author knows a lot about the mechanics of business and finance that I don't, but I know that this assumption is, at best, extremely naïve. I also feel he didn't really hit on the real issue at the heart of this, which is that one or more U.S. Senators appear to have used knowledge that they gained from secret briefing to enrich themselves. It's not that they took money out of my pocket, for example, but that they engaged in ethically problematic behavior in the first place.
posted by wintermind at 3:12 PM on March 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

Just wanted to clarify that my saying there will be plenty of blame to go around was not meant to exonerate Trump.

He deserves plenty of blame, I was just trying to make the point that the way the US health care system is set up also is a contributing factor in the poor response to the crisis.

(Also, many thanks to any MeFi-ites who work in health care & are on the front lines of this thing. I know you're doing the best you can in a flawed system, even if some of your bosses suck.)
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 3:27 PM on March 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Smartphones could help us track the coronavirus – but at what cost?
posted by adamvasco at 3:29 PM on March 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

i'm in a country where they've been using time-based lockdowns, such as only being allowed to go out from 6am-1pm. we had to switch to this because asking people to not congregate wasn't working. this time based thing isn't working either.

i don't know how we get the population at large to take it seriously. we're very close to Italy and many here are either italian or have italian friends/colleagues. it's not like we don't know what's going on.

if we tried the france system of needing a paper/phone document, i think there would be actual riots.

after today's venture to get the week's groceries, i'm switching to delivery only. i will only leave for the pharmacy across the street if needed. people and staff at stores and on the street for the most part do not take care to maintain any distance. i came into in close contact with so many people today despite my best efforts to stay away including actually asking people to move away. multiple store staff insisted on crowding me to bag my groceries despite me being the only customer in the store at the time and no line outside. (i've written to the company to thank them for being open but please please advise their staff on this.) i asked them to move away and they just stood there confused, like i was insane for asking. i had to ask a woman in a line at a different store to please stop standing so close to me and she actually argued with me that it was ok. i left and did not get what i wanted bc i was too fearful for my safety.

i'm terrified that i will have caught this thing today with these irresponsible people. i feel absolutely insane for saying it but i don't plan on leaving my flat (except for the pharmacy or to receive a delivery) until things are much different.
posted by affectionateborg at 3:35 PM on March 21, 2020 [22 favorites]

No healthcare system in the world is set up to handle a situation like now. Italy and Spain have systems that provide healthcare to all of their citizens, and those two countries are being devastated by COVID-19. Germany might soon find itself similarly overwhelmed.

The problem there (and here in the US) is that governments did not act quickly enough to implement social distancing to prevent stealth transmission of the virus by people who showed no symptoms or very mild ones. Those that did (e.g. South Korea) have fared better. The uneven access to healthcare in the US is a moral crime, but neither it nor private hospitals are the reason for the catastrophe evolving around us.

In the US the situation is compounded by not mobilizing to produce the tests and the protective equipment needed by healthcare professionals and by ordinary citizens. The responsibility for wasted time and continuing disorganized federal response falls squarely on the Trump Administration. The Administration could not have prevented the pandemic, but its incompetence is making it much worse.

While in the long run I am optimistic about a more equitable healthcare system and a wider safety net emerging as the COVID-19 pandemic shows their need for the health of our people and of our economy, the nation is going to see many thousands of lives lost and suffer enormous economic losses. We are in for a very rough ride in the coming months.
posted by haiku warrior at 3:49 PM on March 21, 2020 [18 favorites]

to cope with CORVID-19

I think I would be comforted by the arrival of an enormous cybernetic crow, tbh
posted by schadenfrau at 4:12 PM on March 21, 2020 [85 favorites]

Also, it remains to be seen how bad different countries have it. If it turns out that France and Germany have far fewer deaths and quicker economic recoveries while the US becomes mired in Great Depression 2 with an order of magnitude more deaths per capita...well that’s not exactly par, is it? The only countries that seem to have quelled it so far are countries with experience with SARS — and with socialized healthcare.

There will be needless suffering here, for a very long time, because of the way our society is structured.
posted by schadenfrau at 4:18 PM on March 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

The National DSA has been putting together regular bulletins of the CV-19 situation as it develops and how it relates to politics, organizing, workers rights, etc
posted by The Whelk at 4:23 PM on March 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

I think I would be comforted by the arrival of an enormous cybernetic crow, tbh

At least you'd know it would be for a good caws.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 4:30 PM on March 21, 2020 [57 favorites]

I think I would be comforted by the arrival of an enormous cybernetic crow, tbh

Feel comforted.
posted by hippybear at 4:35 PM on March 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

to cope with CORVID-19

I think I would be comforted by the arrival of an enormous cybernetic crow, tbh
posted by schadenfrau at 4:12 PM on March 21

Grrrrr!!!! I was just bitching elsewhere that it would have made life so much easier if they had settled on a different name for this virus specifically because of the problem demonstrated above.

Corvid is a word to me. COVID isn't. It's natural for me to type or say corvid without thought (in large part I blame MetaFilter and its fascination with this bird family, but that's another issue). I know I'm prone to making this error, and I try to catch myself and prevent myself from doing so, but I'm significantly less than 100 per cent successful, which I know is going to cause problems at some point down the line. Phooey!
posted by sardonyx at 4:43 PM on March 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Fwiw, no healthcare system on Earth can deal with 33% daily increases in cases.- in one month that equates to around a 5000x increase. That's why ring quarantine and surveillance testing are the only ways to keep it out of an area. Which means we need to do 700 million tests or so in the next few months (for the US).
posted by benzenedream at 4:47 PM on March 21, 2020 [11 favorites]

We must clear our jails and end bail as the prison system becomes hotspots of CV infections - Cynthia Nixon
posted by The Whelk at 4:54 PM on March 21, 2020 [18 favorites]

Decarceral Guidelines from the Justice Collaborative: These guidelines are intended to reduce the spread of COVID-19 both within jails and prisons and the communities where they are located by providing mechanisms for release and stopping the flow of new admissions to either facility.
posted by spamandkimchi at 5:00 PM on March 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

my fear is Trump will find a way to hang the virus on the neck of China

the White House is launching a communications plan across multiple federal agencies that focuses on accusing Beijing of orchestrating a “cover-up” and creating a global pandemic, according to two U.S. officials and a government cable obtained by The Daily Beast.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:05 PM on March 21, 2020 [15 favorites]

Yes, it will be interesting to see how well countries with different health systems and social safety nets recover from the pandemic. It would make sense that that those with better ones would recover faster, but several of those showed slower or negative growth recently before the pandemic. (Of course their citizens were better insulated from the negative effects that US citizens are.) So who knows?

Italy (pop. ~60 million with ~54,000 cases ~4800 deaths so far, ~8.3% fatality rate) and Spain (pop. ~47 million with ~25,000 cases and ~1300 deaths so far, ~5.2% fatality rate) are two of those countries. Germany (pop. ~84 million ~14,000 cases and only 31 deaths so far ~0.22%(!) fatality rate) also had slow growth but is a better economic analog to the US. However, Germany is handling the outbreak much better thanks to aggressive testing, even though there is a lot of economic disruption. Unfortunately, medically the US is likely to be more like Italy and Spain in terms of cases and fatalities due at least to the dearth of testing.
posted by haiku warrior at 5:13 PM on March 21, 2020

Yeah but the constituency that A) buy into this propaganda and B) wouldn’t vote for Trump even if he personally murdered their family right before their eyes has to be pretty small.
posted by sideshow at 5:13 PM on March 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Corvid is a word to me. COVID isn't.

I have taken to referring to suddenly-virtual interactions with coworkers as “covideo conferences.”

I’m having my own frustrations with being at home like everyone else. My wife, though, has it tough. She’s a primary care doc. She is certain she’s going to get the virus and give it to me and the kids.
posted by nickmark at 5:20 PM on March 21, 2020 [14 favorites]

Grrrrr!!!! I was just bitching elsewhere that it would have made life so much easier if they had settled on a different name for this virus specifically because of the problem demonstrated above.

Corvid is a word to me.

"CORVID-19" wasn't used because it's too narratively perfect for a work of apocalyptic fiction, and none of us really want to own up to being in one.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:29 PM on March 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

"CORVID-19" wasn't used because it's too narratively perfect for a work of apocalyptic fiction, and none of us really want to own up to being in one.

Here's a book about a domesticated crow navigating reality after an apocalyptic plague. Hollow Kingdom. I read it -- it's gigantically entertaining.
posted by hippybear at 5:32 PM on March 21, 2020 [12 favorites]

accusing Beijing of orchestrating a “cover-up”

Because further alienating the one and only country with huge manufacturing and medical research capacity and that is returning to normal activity is a truly genius move. Clearly, I am tired of so much winning.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:36 PM on March 21, 2020 [31 favorites]

No future predicting, please.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 6:05 PM on March 21, 2020 [12 favorites]

285 Americans have died of coronavirus since this picture was taken
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:49 PM

Now 307. Current rate of about one murder every ten minutes.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:05 PM on March 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

technically, they're negligent homicides.
posted by philip-random at 6:09 PM on March 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Guys, I use gallows humor to cope too, but it needs to not happen on mefi because it's super-triggering for a lot of people.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 6:17 PM on March 21, 2020 [34 favorites]

I wish there could be some agreement on the wearing of masks. The WHO is still saying not to wear them unless you’re caring for a sick person or symptomatic yourself.

Whereas in this article from the CBC, it seems that Taiwan has kept infection rates very low (despite having a high population density) by having as many people wearing them as possible:

The Taiwanese government took over production of surgical masks early on, banning exportation and eventually bringing in soldiers to help with increased production. It allocated certain amounts to retailers and lowered prices to the equivalent of about 24 cents Cdn.

"Right now, we still need to go to the pharmacy to buy masks," said Chang. "We take a kind of ticket, a numbered ticket, and they tell you what time you pick up the masks."

In early February, the government announced a mask rationing system where everyone gets a certain number of masks per week. That number per person was bumped up in early March to three per adult per week, and five per child under 13 per week. People can pick up their masks on designated days of the week, depending on their health card number.
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:20 PM on March 21, 2020 [15 favorites]

According to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 map, the US has now surpassed all countries other than Italy and China in number of cases. (Screencap from ~1.5 hours ago: 25,493 cases.)

Italy started serious lockdowns when they had fewer than 6,000 cases. The US is so far behind, it's frightening.

In Florida, Spring Break festivals are going on, although most (all, maybe?) of the beaches are now closed. (Bars are closed; restaurants are allowed to operate at half capacity.) Texas finally shut down restaurants and bars two days ago. Some cities in Oklahoma have done the same.

Basically: West and east coast states have started taking strong measures to limit exposure and spread, but the entire south and middle of the country has politicians who "don't want to scare people" and seem to think that a "foreign" virus can't possibly hurt American people.

US is going to quickly surpass China in number of cases and number of deaths, because we're not nationally activating the medical infrastructure to do otherwise, and the places where people are being most careless are the ones with the worst medical coverage and the most high-risk populations.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 6:23 PM on March 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

A friend of mine in emergency prep said they didn’t call it Corvid because they didn’t want people shooting birds. IDK.
posted by kerf at 6:29 PM on March 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

CORVID-19.
posted by adamg at 6:33 PM on March 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

People are continuing on their routines and it's going to get millions killed.

Example: Trump keeps promoting an unproven coronavirus treatment — despite his experts’ advice (Riley Beggin, Vox)

President Donald Trump continued to play up an unproven treatment as a promising remedy for the coronavirus, contradicting the advice of his top public health officials at a press conference Saturday — one in which he also rebutted reports that he knew about the dangers of the pandemic well before taking action.

In recent days, Trump has been promoting the potential of a drug called hydroxychloroquine — a common anti-malaria drug — as a treatment for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The off-the-shelf drug is easy to produce and has been anecdotally effective in China and South Korea.

Its effectiveness has yet to be conclusively proven.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:38 PM on March 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Strangely competent Mike Pence

nothing strange about it. everybody looks competent compared to Trump.

It's like judging people based on the size of their hand.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:40 PM on March 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Ordinary face masks help prevent infected people from making others sick by reducing the number of contaminated ejected droplets into the air and onto surfaces. They don’t provide much protection against getting sick from droplets already in the air, since air leaks and droplets around the masks on inhalation.

Having everyone wear masks could reduce transmission rates by making sure who infected without knowing it are wearing masks.
posted by haiku warrior at 6:41 PM on March 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

Trending hashtag: #DKE19

You can stop its spread!
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:41 PM on March 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

"Basically: West and east coast states have started taking strong measures to limit exposure and spread, but the entire south and middle of the country has politicians who "don't want to scare people" and seem to think that a "foreign" virus can't possibly hurt American people."

This is not correct. Illinois shut schools before New York, and Illinois is sheltering in place while many northern coastal states are not; our shelter-in-place order was issued one day after California's, despite a much lower rate of infection. Illinois shut schools and ordered shelter-in-place with the LOWEST per capita infection rate in the US at the time a closure order was issued. Many other midwestern states closed schools before NYC. In general, Great Lakes states such as Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, and Minnesota are seeing similar restrictions to Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington, and Michigan in particular closed schools VERY early. Michigan, with very few infections at the time, closed schools three days before Washington, one of the epicenters of US infection -- whose governor is still assuring everyone they will not have to shelter-in-place.

There are some states fucking shit up, no question. But the "entire" south and middle of the country is categorically NOT doing this, and please don't suggest that we are. Many "flyover" states have taken faster and more stringent measures than many coastal blue states. We are not your enemy, and many of us have strong, functioning public health departments and governors acting decisively and in conversation with scientists and experts in public health. Please don't discount the very hard work that many "flyover" politicians and health professionals are doing because it doesn't fit a false narrative that the flyover states are backwards and ignorant.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:43 PM on March 21, 2020 [125 favorites]

DOJ seeks new emergency powers amid coronavirus pandemic (Politico)

The Justice Department has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies — part of a push for new powers that comes as the coronavirus spreads through the United States. Documents reviewed by POLITICO detail the department’s requests to lawmakers on a host of topics, including the statute of limitations, asylum and the way court hearings are conducted.

[...] The move has tapped into a broader fear among civil liberties advocates and Donald Trump’s critics — that the president will use a moment of crisis to push for controversial policy changes. [...] And even without policy changes, Trump has vast emergency powers that he could legally deploy right now to try and slow the coronavirus outbreak.

[...] In one of the documents, the department proposed that Congress grant the attorney general power to ask the chief judge of any district court to pause court proceedings “whenever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation.” The proposal would also grant those top judges broad authority to pause court proceedings during emergencies. It would apply to “any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest, post-arrest, pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures in criminal and juvenile proceedings and all civil process and proceedings,” according to draft legislative language the department shared with Congress. In making the case for the change, the DOJ document wrote that individual judges can currently pause proceedings during emergencies, but that their proposal would make sure all judges in any particular district could handle emergencies “in a consistent manner.”

The request raised eyebrows because of its potential implications for habeas corpus –– the constitutional right to appear before a judge after arrest and seek release. “Not only would it be a violation of that, but it says ‘affecting pre-arrest,’” said Norman L. Reimer, the executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “So that means you could be arrested and never brought before a judge until they decide that the emergency or the civil disobedience is over. I find it absolutely terrifying. Especially in a time of emergency, we should be very careful about granting new powers to the government.” Reimer said the possibility of chief judges suspending all court rules during an emergency without a clear end in sight was deeply disturbing. “That is something that should not happen in a democracy,” he said.

posted by katra at 6:49 PM on March 21, 2020 [15 favorites]

presumably the moron-in-chief is promoting that drug bc he plans to personally profit from it somehow
posted by poffin boffin at 6:52 PM on March 21, 2020 [13 favorites]

Partial list of states in “lockdown” here and here. Here are all the ones I could find.

California
Connecticut
Illinois
Louisiana
Minnesota
Nevada
New York
New Jersey
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Texas
Washington
posted by haiku warrior at 7:04 PM on March 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

We must clear our jails and end bail as the prison system becomes hotspots of CV infections - Cynthia Nixon

Uh no. Maybe for minor crimes but let's not let all the violent felons, domestic abusers and con artists out at once at a time when people are vulnerable
posted by fshgrl at 7:05 PM on March 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Short twitter thread about what's happening in Iran:

2. Iranian authorities have begged Iranians to stay home except for work but the truth is still far too many Iranians have ignored this advice, maybe at least half of Tehran residents according to some estimates and Tehran is leading the way with deaths and new cases.

3. Regarding a quarantine Tehran mayor said recently they are not in an economic position to force a quarantine. They cannot provide basic services to 9 million residents under lockdown. They may change their mind but they need people to work or face a collapse far worse....

5. Sanctions are killing Iranians. Everyone knows this. They prevent Iran from selling their oil and accessing international banks. And medical goods are technically exempt but Iran has no way to purchase them without access to banks. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this out.
posted by mediareport at 7:07 PM on March 21, 2020 [21 favorites]

There's a lot to criticize about the ways in which governments all over the world have and are handling this crisis. China appears to have quelled the spread, but only after first covering it up and "disappearing" several whistleblowers. Germany never even made an effort to contain the virus, and to my knowledge hasn't enacted any measures on a federal level beyond closing the borders, but so far reports few fatalities. The Netherlands took a wait-and-see approach not dissimilar to the US and the UK, until public pressure forced the government to close schools, bars and restaurants about a week ago. France dithered for a while, then enacted a strict country-wide lockdown and mobilized the army. South Korea managed to get the infection rate down around the beginning of March, but only after 1 million people signed a petition calling for the resignation of President Moon and at the cost of far-reaching infringements of privacy and the freedom movement, while the number of daily new cases has risen since then.

I don't think there are any easy answers here. We're all in this together. Look out for one another.
posted by dmh at 7:10 PM on March 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

Basically: West and east coast states have started taking strong measures to limit exposure and spread, but the entire south and middle of the country has politicians who "don't want to scare people" and seem to think that a "foreign" virus can't possibly hurt American people.

Hi, I live in Ohio and this is bullshit. Schools are closed here for three weeks. Restaurants and bars are closed to patrons, only delivery and carryout service (and we expect more winnowing down of that availability soon). Hair salons, day spas, nail salons, barber shops, tattoo parlors, body piercing locations, tanning facilities, massage therapy locations, movie theaters, indoor family entertainment centers, dance studios, adult day services for developmentally disabled people... all closed. More closures expected in tomorrow's update from the governor and state health director, possibly even a full lockdown.
posted by palomar at 7:12 PM on March 21, 2020 [19 favorites]

Lock down in Ohio is a very real possibility. We're already fairly locked down, more so than several other states, as palomar says. Ohio universities were among the first to close and send their students home.

Please stop with the flyover country bullshit. I've begged and begged in the past and now it's just really insulting. Do some research before you unilaterally tell us how we're doing things wrong.
posted by cooker girl at 7:15 PM on March 21, 2020 [29 favorites]

And while I'm not thrilled with the way DeWine handled postponing the primary election this past Tuesday, I've got to give him credit, he's taking serious action right now in the face of a lot of whining and grousing from his deeply red supporters. But I'm not hearing any anti-Asian racist dogwhistling out of him. He's handling this shitstorm VERY well.
posted by palomar at 7:16 PM on March 21, 2020 [8 favorites]

p.s. My circle of friends are calling Dr. Amy Acton (Ohio's Health Director) DR. AMY ACTION.

Because she ROCKS. Seriously, she's incredibly soothing to watch and I feel better with her in charge.
posted by cooker girl at 7:18 PM on March 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

... the entire south and middle of the country has politicians who "don't want to scare people" and seem to think that a "foreign" virus can't possibly hurt American people
Dude. They closed the bars in Wisconsin. In Wisconsin! They didn't even do that during Prohibition!
posted by Floydd at 7:19 PM on March 21, 2020 [45 favorites]

Oh, and re: the schools being closed here -- I don't know that official word has come down but the rumblings among the parents I know here is that schools likely won't reopen until September.

And hell yes, Dr. Acton is incredible. TONS of respect for her.
posted by palomar at 7:19 PM on March 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

the entire south and middle of the country has politicians who "don't want to scare people" and seem to think that a "foreign" virus can't possibly hurt American people."

Yeah, joining others here in giving the lie to this. Kentucky very rarely gives me pride in its handling of... well, anything, really, but Governor Beshear's honestly doing a good job of establishing clear leadership and sensible restrictions.
posted by jackbishop at 7:20 PM on March 21, 2020 [11 favorites]

*ahem* DR. ACTION
posted by cooker girl at 7:21 PM on March 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

Here's a relatively detailed look at the numbers coming out of Russia. The country has a surprisingly low ratio of cases per tests performed, and showed an unusual spike in pneumonia cases in January that the government has since said was incorrect. Russia also is using a test that is significantly less sensitive than tests used in other countries:

Why is Russia reporting so few COVID-19 cases? Some say it's a cover-up

According to the count released by its health ministry, Russia currently has only 253 confirmed cases of the virus. That is vastly lower than in other major countries in Western Europe, where there are already thousands of cases. What really makes Russia an outlier, however, is the number of tests it is carrying out compared to its number of positive cases. Russia has done 133,101 tests, putting it behind only China, Italy and South Korea.

But with just 306 cases of the virus, Russia’s ratio of positive cases to the number of tests is the second lowest in the world, at 0.21%. That number is puzzling, not least for a country of Russia’s vast size, with a population of 144 million and a long border with China. For example, the U.K. has done 64,600 tests and has over 3,000 cases. In Norway, 44,000 tests have turned up 1,700 cases...

And

There are indications that Russia's test is far less sensitive than those in other countries...the Russian test, PCR News wrote, only detects the virus when there are over 100,000 copies of it per milliliter in a sample. That is far more than in other countries’ tests. A test in use in the U.S., for example, will pick up the virus with just 6,250 copies.

“That would mean it’s about 10-16 times less sensitive than what’s available in the U.S.,” Carmen Wiley, president of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry, told ABC News by a phone. At such a level, she said there was a risk the Russians were missing cases, in particular where people were asymptomatic.

The Russian government is aware of the issue and is preparing to launch a second test to act as a control for the first, Kurinny, the lawmaker, told ABC News. He said he was also worried Russia is only testing a "very narrow" group, confined largely to those arriving from countries deemed as hotspots for the virus and who show symptoms.
posted by mediareport at 7:25 PM on March 21, 2020 [8 favorites]

Excellent summary palomar. Apologies for leaving out Ohio.

So far the German approach seems to be the most effective. The number of confirmed German cases is may be close to the true number of infections there, thanks to widespread testing. Whereas in Italy, Spain, and US, largely only those with symptoms or known exposure have been tested—the true number of infections is likely much higher in those countries than the number of confirmed cases.

My hypothesis is the testing in Germany has allowed for isolating those who test positive (reducing transmission) and monitoring )leading to early treatment if the person’s condition deteriorates). A worry is that the low fatality rate has led Germans to become complacent about social distancing, and they still could be inundated. Time will tell.
posted by haiku warrior at 7:42 PM on March 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Missouri's governor is a tool. Not as bad as Greitens who he replaced, but he's a tool.

But St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and for the most part, neighboring counties are way ahead of him. In fact, the current St. Louis County Executive and his wife are both medical doctors.

We're going on lockdown starting Monday morning at 12:01 AM. Other social distancing measures have been in place about on pace with Illinois (sometimes a little later, sometimes a little earlier). A week ago a drive-through testing center was opened.
posted by Foosnark at 8:00 PM on March 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Israel is using cellphone location tracking data to send text message to folks who've been near those known to be infected, telling them to self-quarantine; the Supreme Court has ordered a halt to the process unless the now-shut-down Parliament forms "relevant oversight committees" by next Tuesday.

Context: Forming a government in Israel requires the support of 61 of the 100 MKs (Members of Knesset). Israel has had three national elections so far without being able to form a government. The present medical crisis has compounded the difficulty because of the need for social distancing. To make it worse, four MKs are presently quarantined. The caretaker Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been indicted for a bunch of corrupt-looking stuff, but Israel's Supreme Court has put off hearings for at least two months because of COVID 19.

The anti-Netanyahu forces have a majority but it's extremely fragile: it includes the mostly-Arab Joint List as well as the secular-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu. I don't know if they can form a government, but it's a moot point unless the Knesset sits. And the Knesset apparently can't sit because of the crisis. This works pretty damn well for Netanyahu, because he remains Prime Minister until the Knesset says otherwise.

So this plan to track cellphones (which I understand has worked well in other countries) might be the thing that gets the Knesset out of its Catch-22. Or not. Things will not actually be better if Netanyahu backs down on the cellphone tracking proposal: the Knesset (or at least its subcommittees) should be meeting. It's a real constitutional crisis and unless Reuven Rivlin (Israel's president, its Head of State) has some reserve powers to resolve it, it may start to look like a coup.

I would be very surprised if other legislatures don't fall into similar crises. We are in uncharted waters here. I don't think any democracy has a plan for circumstances in which the legislature could meet, but shouldn't, and would be missing some random percentage of legislators if it did.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:11 PM on March 21, 2020 [8 favorites]

At the same time the US is telling their nurses to hand sew their own masks- is this a fucking joke?

It gets worse.

"I have to tell you, the throwing away of the masks, being in private business, the throwing away of the mask right away, they're throwing it away," Trump said during Saturday's White House coronavirus briefing. ""We have very good liquids for doing this, sanitizing the masks."

As a businessman, Trump is disturbed that healthcare workers are disposing of their disposable masks. He wants them to reuse their contaminated paper masks.
posted by JackFlash at 8:20 PM on March 21, 2020 [17 favorites]

Uh no. Maybe for minor crimes but let's not let all the violent felons, domestic abusers and con artists out at once at a time when people are vulnerable

JAIL is where people who have been accused but not tried are held. Bail is just a way to make sure that only the poor people sit in cages waiting for their trials away from their homes and families. The fact that all of the sudden, everyone thinks it's common sense to send these people home, just shows how bullshit the bail system is.
posted by bradbane at 8:26 PM on March 21, 2020 [76 favorites]

being in private business

Which is, you orange asshole, exactly the opposite of the business you're in now.
posted by Rykey at 8:29 PM on March 21, 2020 [17 favorites]

Rhode Island has a team of women leaders who are moving swiftly to try to slow the epidemic here.

The governor's press conferences start after the president's each day but now local news just cuts away to her. :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 8:56 PM on March 21, 2020 [13 favorites]

"At the same time the US is telling their nurses to hand sew their own masks- is this a fucking joke?"

A hospital in Indiana having very bad shortages released a pattern that meets the CDC requirements for fabric masks (allowable in a crisis), and it's been spreading through church groups and sewing circles in the Midwest and basically every woman I know with a sewing machine and a fabric stash is mass-producing and organizing within their towns to do touchless pickups and drop them at whatever local medical center has the most need. (Someone calls around and finds out which facilities want them, which is the ones with capacity for laundry that are also short on masks. They're not dumping them on random hospitals that don't want/can't use them.)

The feds can't figure out how to put us on a wartime production footing, but -- as always -- women's community connections rapidly organize to produce and provide necessary emergency supplies when they can't otherwise be gotten.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:08 PM on March 21, 2020 [104 favorites]

everybody: look through your cellar/garage to see if you have n95s.

i found one. still in package. leftover from abortive years-ago effort to abate basement cinderblock mold.

how do i find out how to direct it to where it is most needed?
have asked family with contacts in local medical community, but don't expect prompt response.
should i just carry it into the nearest hospital?
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:44 PM on March 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

5. Sanctions are killing Iranians. Everyone knows this. They prevent Iran from selling their oil and accessing international banks. And medical goods are technically exempt but Iran has no way to purchase them without access to banks. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this out.

There is a group of private US citizens associated with the GOP threatening medical supply companies that sell to Iran. The US, in many ways, is murdering people each and every day across the globe.
posted by fshgrl at 9:55 PM on March 21, 2020 [22 favorites]

You do this in the US and people are going to get shot.
That literally applies to anything anyone could ever do in the US.

just shows how bullshit the bail system is.
And almost every other system.

I can think of no more searing indictment of the predominant neoliberal system, than that almost everyone seems to take it for granted that making all the humans stay home for a month could make it all collapse.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:14 PM on March 21, 2020 [13 favorites]

The media must stop live-broadcasting Trump’s dangerous, destructive coronavirus briefings (Margaret Sullivan, WaPo Perspective)

Trump is doing harm and spreading misinformation while working for his own partisan political benefit — a naked attempt to portray himself as a wartime president bravely leading the nation through a tumultuous time, the FDR of the 21st century. [...]

Business as usual simply doesn’t cut it. Minor accommodations, like fact-checking the president’s statements afterward, don’t go nearly far enough to counter the serious damage this man is doing to the public’s well-being. Radical change is necessary: The cable networks and other news organizations that are taking the president’s briefings as live feeds should stop doing so.

Should they cover the news that’s produced in them? Of course. Thoroughly and relentlessly — with context and fact-checking built in to every step and at every stage. “There is a very real possibility that in broadcasting these press conferences live or in quickly publishing and blasting out his words in mobile alerts, we are actively misinforming our audience,” Alex Koppelman, managing editor of CNN Business, wrote in an email for the network’s Reliable Sources newsletter.

Koppelman stopped short of overtly calling for the radical solution. That’s not so for Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University who wrote on his PressThink blog that the media needs to switch into “emergency mode”for covering Trump and clearly communicate that change to its readers and viewers.

“We are not obliged to assist him in misinforming the American public about the spread of the virus, and what is actually being done by his government,” Rosen wrote. Rather than covering Trump live, he recommended, among other things, that the media should “attend carefully to what he says” and subject it to verification before blasting it out to the public.

posted by katra at 10:16 PM on March 21, 2020 [46 favorites]

The media must stop live-broadcasting Trump’s dangerous, destructive coronavirus briefings

they used to say (optimistically) They Started A War And Nobody Came.

I was thinking the other day, we need an upgrade. They Called A Press Conference And Nobody Came.

It's easy if you try.
posted by philip-random at 10:25 PM on March 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

I have to tell you, the throwing away of the masks, being in private business, the throwing away of the mask right away, they're throwing it away

Disposable masks: disposed of
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 10:30 PM on March 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

^^^everybody: look through your cellar/garage to see if you have n95s.

i found one. still in package. leftover from abortive years-ago effort to abate basement cinderblock mold.

how do i find out how to direct it to where it is most needed?

20 year lurk, this Health Magazine article includes links to volunteer-compiled lists of groups and institutions that are accepting donated gear.

Doctors Are Pleading for People to Donate PPE Gear -- Here's How You Can Help
posted by virago at 10:38 PM on March 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

crossposting covidactnow.org modeling tool from "modeling" thread, where i requested mefites' insights, and got a more measured read than my own from Homeboy Trouble. (thanks!)

also thanks, virago, for above pointer.
posted by 20 year lurk at 10:48 PM on March 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Russia is spreading disinformation about the virus. Because of course they are?

Two of my friends have forwarded messages that contained such advice as "hot fluids neutralize the virus, so avoid drinking ice water" and "drinking water every 15 to 20 minutes will flush the virus to your stomach where it will be killed by acid" which have already been debunked. (Worth noting that one of said friends almost immediately afterward forwarded a CNN item about said messages being fake as an "er, nevermind").

Don't know if these messages are originating from Russia, trolls, or whatnot, but yeah disinformation is out there and spreading.
posted by gtrwolf at 10:54 PM on March 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

findthemasks.com, from the health magazine article virago provided above, seems to be pretty organized. see also social media hashtag #GetMePPE, and PPE Link.

will give local contacts a chance to respond and state/county institutions a chance to register on donation sites list, and then go with the closest listed site.
posted by 20 year lurk at 11:12 PM on March 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Don't know if these messages are originating from Russia, trolls, or whatnot, but yeah disinformation is out there and spreading.

US authorities battle surge in coronavirus scams, from phishing to fake treatments (Guardian, Mar. 19, 2020)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general across the US are increasing efforts to crack down on an explosion of scams related to the coronavirus outbreak. The agencies have reported a rise in fraudulent activity exploiting confusion around Covid-19, which has infected more than 190,000 people worldwide and has prompted numerous cities to be placed on lockdown indefinitely. The rise in scams has come in the form of email phishing campaigns, fraudulent goods, and disinformation campaigns, according to a report released this week from Digital Shadows, a San Francisco cybersecurity company.

[...] There has been an upswing in the registration of domains related to coronavirus in the past few weeks, a report released on Thursday from security firm Check Point said. The report also found that sites on the darknet, the part of the internet that is not indexed by Google or other search engines, are advertising hacking tools capitalizing on coronavirus fears.

[...] Alex Jones, a noted rightwing conspiracy theorist, was issued a cease-and-desist order by the New York state attorney general over false claims that diet supplements and toothpaste sold on his website could be used to fight the coronavirus.

[...] The FDA says there are no approved vaccines, drugs or investigational products currently available to treat or prevent the virus and all products advertised as such will be targeted.

posted by katra at 11:13 PM on March 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

US authorities battle surge in coronavirus scams, from phishing to fake treatments

Let's not forget our ol' pal Jim Bakker.

Yep, grifters gonna grift....
posted by gtrwolf at 11:45 PM on March 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Wider and not all doom and gloom views of some likely and possible changes to our societies and ways of life in the aftermath of the pandemic, including, hopefully, good ones.
posted by blue shadows at 11:48 PM on March 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

The FDA says there are no approved vaccines, drugs or investigational products currently available to treat or prevent the virus and all products advertised as such will be targeted.

And what are they going to do about Trump pushing chloroquine as a cure, or whatever factoid next enters his brain?
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:49 PM on March 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Corvid 19- Gang of crows that hang out in the McDonald's parking lot selling stale french fries to pigeons and seagulls.
posted by calamari kid at 11:55 PM on March 21, 2020 [12 favorites]

Here in Japan, pretty much every store that had masks at one point just has signs on windows saying they don’t have them, and aren’t getting them anytime soon.

Meanwhile, it’s cherry blossom viewing season, and parks are full of people. Trains are still pretty full, people are out shopping as if nothing is happening. Schools are set to open for the beginning of the school year in April, and a lot of businesses are already opening again. And the official stats say that Japan has just broken the 1000 infected barrier, but tests are almost impossible to get. The guideline seems to be that first, you have to go to your local doctor with a fever, and then the same doctor has to see that you have a fever over four consecutive days (so, yes, if you think you’re sick, you have to go to your local clinic and sit in the crowded waiting room on four consecutive days) before they can prescribe a test.

There hasn’t been any sort of lockdown here, other than the schools closing with very little planning in place. Sports are all on hold, most concerts and conventions have been cancelled, but from what I’m seeing posted on Facebook and twitter, most bars are still busy. I’m very, very nervous about what’s coming next. Given that most schools will reopen around the second weekend of April, I wouldn’t be shocked if we’re told to shut everything down again by the middle of the month.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:14 AM on March 22, 2020 [22 favorites]

Germany never even made an effort to contain the virus, and to my knowledge hasn't enacted any measures on a federal level beyond closing the borders, but so far reports few fatalities.

In the initial phase, there was a strong focus on contact tracing, testing of the contacts and precautionary home quarantines. This has ramped up now to social distancing and partial lock downs, which seems to be adhered to better and better. The constitutional structure of Germany makes the individual states responsible for public health emergencies, policing etc. These are structural safeguards against too much power being concentrated in a single point, born from the experiences of the Nazi time. But the states talk to each other and while this can result in some friction, it looks like they mostly figured out ways to coordinate. As probably everywhere in Europe and the US, the initial response was too slow, but the news from Italy from around 2 weeks ago definitely woke up a lot of people and politicians.

Meanwhile, the federal government is looking at the economic side as well. One important part of the social safety net is "Kurzarbeitergeld", which is designed to allow companies to avoid layoffs when there are seasonal or recession-related slumps in demand for a company's services, e.g., the construction industry in winter. There, people get 60% of their normal salary, paid by the government. This has been ramped up and there are additional measures for free-lance/self-employed workers in the works, etc. Other measures include a prohibition of terminations for tenants who cannot pay their rent in the next few months.
posted by ltl at 12:15 AM on March 22, 2020 [13 favorites]

The number of confirmed German cases is may be close to the true number of infections there, thanks to widespread testing.

I’m not sure where people are getting the impression that Germany is doing widespread testing. At least here in Hessen, they’re not. The national guidelines (in German) still say that you need to have symptoms and one of the following:
- contact with a confirmed case
- been in one of the areas classified as high risk in the last 14 days
- have serious symptoms
- work or volunteer somewhere like a hospital where you are in contact with people at risk

This was also confirmed by our company doctor, who said he could arrange a test, but only if we fell under category 1 or 2. I’ve even seen reports that some Kreisen (counties) in Hessen are considering stopping testing (possibly already stopped) as it is “wasting" medical staff.
posted by scorbet at 12:24 AM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

Yes, indeed. The actual number of infections in Germany is likely much higher. It looks like wider testing probably started earlier and caught a lot of the asymptomatic contact persons you don't see if you only test when people arrive at the hospital or doctor with symptoms.
posted by ltl at 12:47 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

That bit about seeing your doctor in person in Japan is wild. Here in New Zealand, as of Monday, the default for people with respiratory symptoms will be phone consults or waiting outside the clinic. Not just to protect the staff, but all the other people in the waiting room.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:48 AM on March 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

Again, I recommend this tracker, where you can toggle the categories, allowing you to realize daily trends before they become obvious.

For example, just from right now, you can see that:

- There are now only FIVE countries/territories in the world that are virus-free, so it's truly worldwide now.

- The US is now the the country with the THIRD highest number of cases, 26,892, having passed Spain, Germany, Iran & France yesterday. US will probably pass Italy within 3-4 days to be # 2, and within a week will have the highest number in the world (That is one wrong "We're No. 1" claim...)

- Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and especially UK are going to be hit hard next

- The US has the highest number of NEW cases (2,685) today. Australia, Thailand & The Philippines are growing the fastest next

- Right now the US has only 348 dead, but it will surely bypass France in a couple of days, and Spain / Iran within a week

- The US is also No. 1 in New Deaths (46) today

- This whole list is probably severely under-reported: Surely there are many, many cases that we don't know about yet, for a variety of reasons.
posted by growabrain at 3:58 AM on March 22, 2020 [15 favorites]

Got my info about testing in Germany from this iNews article discussing why German fatality rate has been so low. Perhaps this info is no longer accurate, as Germany is on a steep ascending curve, now over 18,000 confirmed cases. One reason for low fatality rate might be many early cases were among young people returning from ski vacations in Italy.
posted by haiku warrior at 5:39 AM on March 22, 2020

Interesting article from the UK about how covid-19 has lit a fire under so many political orthodoxies championed by the Conservative Party. Boris Johnson, who has always been proponent of minimal and laissez faire government, is finding himself in charge of a government that is being compelled to lay down strong laws, offer widespread welfare support and intervene to try to save businesses and jobs. I guess this could apply for many other right wing governments around the world.
posted by rongorongo at 5:47 AM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

"hot fluids neutralize the virus, so avoid drinking ice water" and "drinking water every 15 to 20 minutes will flush the virus to your stomach where it will be killed by acid"

At least both of those are actually safe if kept within reason - hell, the second one is probably an excellent idea, however ineffective it may be against the actual virus.

There's much worse misinformation out there, is all I'm saying. I'm always so profoundly disturbed when I see people buying more than like a gallon of bleach at a time. You know you're supposed to dilute it, right!?
posted by aspersioncast at 6:03 AM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Dr John Campbell summarises some studies about how long the Covid 19 virus can survive on surfaces as well as in aerosols. TLDR: In aerosols it can linger for at least 3 hours, on plastic or stainless steel it is viable for up to 72 hours, cardboard 24 hours, copper just 4 hours.
posted by rongorongo at 6:05 AM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

In aerosols it can linger for at least 3 hours

Only rarely or under limited laboratory conditions, according to this detailed article from March 16th examining the current scientific understanding of the possible aerosolization of the coronavirus (haven't watched rongorongo's 15-minute video link so don't know how much it matches the article). I found the article thoughtful, measured and interesting, acknowledging the possibility of aerosol spread but calling it unlikely in real-world settings.

Excerpts:

In droplet form, the coronavirus is airborne for a few seconds after someone sneezes or coughs. It’s able to travel only a short distance before gravitational forces pull it down. Someone close enough for the virus particles to reach in that brief period can therefore be infected....An aerosol is a wholly different physical state...The suspended particles remain for hours or more, depending on factors such as heat and humidity. If virus particles, probably on droplets of mucus or saliva, can be suspended in air for more than a few seconds, as the measles virus can, then anyone passing through that pathogenic cloud could become infected.

There are strong reasons to doubt that the new coronavirus has anything close to that capability. [emphasis added]

“If it could easily exist as an aerosol, we would be seeing much greater levels of transmission,” said epidemiologist Michael LeVasseur of Drexel University. “And we would be seeing a different pattern in who’s getting infected."

...Even if the virus infects only a small fraction of those who come into contact with it, the extremely low rate among close contacts and the absence of infections in some household members of patients suggests that it rarely exists as an aerosol in most real-world situations.
posted by mediareport at 6:34 AM on March 22, 2020 [18 favorites]

And then you get the bill:
Total Cost of Her COVID-19 Treatment: $34,927.43
("We still need to make money, right?")
posted by growabrain at 6:42 AM on March 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

And the official stats say that Japan has just broken the 1000 infected barrier, but tests are almost impossible to get...I’m very, very nervous about what’s coming next.

Yeah, if I was in Japan I would be too. This WaPo article from Feb 28 leaves the impression Abe's response has been very similar to Trump's. Gotta keep those summer Olympics from being cancelled, I guess.

Given that most schools will reopen around the second weekend of April, I wouldn’t be shocked if we’re told to shut everything down again by the middle of the month.

I've been telling my parent friends that a re-opening of schools and subsequent re-closing if cases rise again is a definite possibility they should keep in mind.
posted by mediareport at 6:43 AM on March 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

- The US is also No. 1 in New Deaths (46) today

Just to be clear, the data from today ("Now") are incomplete. Yesterday Italy had 6557 new cases and 793 deaths, and will certainly have many more new deaths that the US does today, as will other countries.

Right now that "Now" information has a blank for Italy, and many other countries -- that does not necessarily mean zero, it just means they haven't added today's data to the table for that country (yet, presumably). In fact, at the moment, Iran and Spain are now showing data in the "Now" table with many more new deaths that the US, and the US count has been increased to 47, meaning the data has been updated already since growabrain posted 46.
posted by judgement day at 7:10 AM on March 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

The US is also now the #2 country in “Active Cases,” just ahead of Germany and Spain but still well behind Italy. If testing in the US continues to accelerate and Italy’s quarantine measures begin taking effect soon, then it won’t be long before the US has the highest number of known active cases.
posted by mbrubeck at 7:20 AM on March 22, 2020

Got my info about testing in Germany from this iNews article discussing why German fatality rate has been so low.

Thanks, that article might explain why I keep getting seeing the “Germany is doing lots of tests” factoid everywhere. It’s true that they were pretty quick at getting testing organized, and it’s still easier to get tested here than in the UK or the US, from what I can see. (Which up to now, at least, has seemed like a very low bar.) But, it keeps being spun into what sounds more like South Korean style testing, which is definitely not the case. This line "people can be tested if they show mild symptoms or have had contact with an infected person, which has been the case for over a month" from the article doesn’t match my experience either - you need to have both mild symptoms and contact from what I’ve understood.

The other part is that as ltl mentioned above, Germany is federalised, and some of these types of decisions are being made at a much more local level. It’s possible that in some areas it is easier to get tested, particularly those areas with a very high rate of community transmission. But not in most of the country as far as I can tell.
posted by scorbet at 7:26 AM on March 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

It's inevitable that the US will become no. 1 on all counts very soon (if Russia doesn't suddenly sprint ahead). It's a much bigger country than Italy or Iran or Spain, and the measures taken are even less efficient than when the virus arrived in those countries. Wether it happens today or tomorrow or on Wednesday is not really important.
Please stay safe everyone, and I hope you can convince your families to do so as well. (For the record, I have family in the US, and I am mortified).
posted by mumimor at 7:27 AM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

about how covid-19 has lit a fire under so many political orthodoxies championed by the Conservative Party

Same with Republicans/conservatives in the US. I think they’re in so much denial about the severity of the oncoming catastrophe because it is a catastrophe that demonstrates, irrefutably, that their approach to society, government, and the rest of humanity is fundamentally fucking wrong.

You need a government. You need experts. You need to consider the public good.

Admitting all that would mean admitting that they’re wrong and that they’ve been wrong all along, and apparently many of them would rather risk their lives and the lives of everyone around them rather than suffer the indignity.

I can’t be the only one on the left who is just fucking done.
posted by schadenfrau at 7:55 AM on March 22, 2020 [93 favorites]

growabrain - This whole list is probably severely under-reported: Surely there are many, many cases that we don't know about yet, for a variety of reasons.

I can guarantee you the number of cases in the US are under-reported. The hospital I work at actually has the ability to test (rather than to send to a lab) and we are beyond capacity of our testing abilities. With that in mind, our deaths to reported cases ratio is way over represented, as only people with severe symptoms are being tested.

Rust MoranisThe restaurant industry wants $145 billion.

Amongst all the other big industries that are proposed to being bailed out, this one really upsets me. I think most MeFis know that in the US, minimum wage for food service workers who receive tips is $2.13/hr.

How much of that $145 billion is going to "trickle down" to those making 2.13? When I was in food service and the government promised direct relief for us during multiple hurricanes, I have seen exactly zero relief. If the gov is going to give it to "the industry", I don't imagine the money going downhill at all.

*sigh* I just know too many people in service industries in general that depend on their tips, and I have been there. As I am typing, a thunderstorm just came through. In years past, that may have meant "I'll have to work lunch and dinner shift, since I won't make tips today to pay the bills." (sometimes past due bills). Now, that thunderstorm doesn't matter, because our state has closed all restaurants for the next three weeks. That's like a thunderstorm every day for 21 days.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 8:02 AM on March 22, 2020 [24 favorites]

There are now reports that they are starting to transfer ICU patients from France across the border to Germany. At last, we might see some solidarity after the initial nationalist, everyone-on-their-own reflexes...
posted by ltl at 8:09 AM on March 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

Admitting all that would mean admitting that they’re wrong and that they’ve been wrong all along, and apparently many of them would rather risk their lives and the lives of everyone around them rather than suffer the indignity.

I think this actually explains some of the "blame it on China" talk happening; it's a lot less cognitive dissonance if you can recast this as a more-traditional national security issue.
posted by Slothrup at 8:21 AM on March 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

At least 4 attendees of the annual Miami Winter Party, a key event of the gay circuit party season, have been diagnosed with Covid-19. The weeklong event ran from March 4 - 10, attracted 10,000 revelers, and is a big fundraiser for the National LGBTQ Task Force, which ran a gushing press release after the event but now says it “made the most informed decision at the time, following all official guidance available at the time,” although others have noted "the CDC was already asking event organizers to take aggressive action to stop the spread of the virus well before then."

Daily Beast reports "most, if not all" circuit parties for the rest of the season have now been canceled.
posted by mediareport at 8:48 AM on March 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

Before you get too critical BC managed to infect a load of dentists by having a 15,000 person dental convention in March 5-7. Nothing but emergency dental work all over for a while.

And they won't test or even take information until you have a known close contact or need a hospital at the moment because they too are overwhelmed.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 8:53 AM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

Same with Republicans/conservatives in the US. I think they’re in so much denial about the severity of the oncoming catastrophe because it is a catastrophe that demonstrates, irrefutably, that their approach to society, government, and the rest of humanity is fundamentally fucking wrong.

The denial or misapprehension of the severity of Covid-19 isn't limited to the US and/or Republicans/conservatives.
posted by dmh at 8:54 AM on March 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

Before you get too critical BC managed to infect a load of dentists by having a 15,000 person dental convention in March 5-7.

Oh god yes, I saw an article that said 90% of the dentists in British Columbia attended the event, and now almost all the dentists in the province are self-quarantined. This isn't the exact piece but same idea:

"Traditionally, attendance there is probably about, oh, just about 90 per cent of the dentists in the province," Ciriani said from his home, where he is now in self-isolation. Ciriani and many of his colleagues are shutting down their offices, suspending elective procedures and trying to find alternatives — namely any dental staff who didn't attend the conference — for patients who are dealing with severe pain or infection.

"The degree of dental services available across the province is going to be really curtailed," he said. "This is uncharted territory for all of us."

That said, I think the LGBTQ Task Force's responsibility to the many, many attendees it knew would be immunocompromised takes this to another level. I mean, all my queer life I've had something of a mistrust of the major LGBTQ orgs, but this moment seems particularly worth criticizing.
posted by mediareport at 9:01 AM on March 22, 2020 [11 favorites]

There are now only FIVE countries/territories in the world that are virus-free, so it's truly worldwide now.

Omilord, it's reached Madagascar.

I'm in San Diego, which is in shelter-in-place mode. I'm happy to report that panic buying appears to have slowed, possibly because the panic-buyers are sated, but more likely, I think, because people are now approaching the problem calmly and rationally. I have seen no altercations at the market, but instead a certain in-the-underground-during-the-Blitz cheeriness pervades. I'm pretty pleased with my fellow Californians today.
posted by SPrintF at 9:10 AM on March 22, 2020 [10 favorites]

denial or misapprehension of the severity of Covid-19 isn't limited to the US and/or Republicans/conservatives

yes. anecdotally, i noticed a striking amount of evasion/resistance among the older guys, say 55+, in my milieu around the time schools were closing. kinda small sample set skewed liberal or at least apolitically cynical. understand that a long habit of antiauthoritarian attitude and a diet of mainstream pablum is hard to puncture. for the most part they've now stopped sending me ill-considered, dismissive jokes.
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:22 AM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

You need a government. You need experts. You need to consider the public good.

Admitting all that would mean admitting that they’re wrong and that they’ve been wrong all along, and apparently many of them would rather risk their lives and the lives of everyone around them rather than suffer the indignity.

Measured incivility. We need it.
posted by ocschwar at 9:46 AM on March 22, 2020 [5 favorites]

Amongst all the other big industries that are proposed to being bailed out, this one really upsets me. I think most MeFis know that in the US, minimum wage for food service workers who receive tips is $2.13/hr.

With a couple of notable exceptions, all of the restaurateurs that I've worked for have been selfish psychopaths that will definitely keep every penny for themselves because in their twisted minds, they deserve it. With very few exceptions, this isn't going to trickle down to the people who really need it which is typical all US bailouts. Shovel more money to the rich who don't need it so that they can stash it offshore and not pay taxes on it. Great. Thanks.
posted by ensign_ricky at 9:50 AM on March 22, 2020 [15 favorites]

In pro-Trump West Virginia, a fight to convince residents a pandemic is coming (WaPo)
A story about healthcare professionals who stick to science, regardless of policy

And in the comments to that story, there was this link to CNN:
How one woman fought to get her husband tested while her state was applauded for having no coronavirus
Which is kind of the opposite, though there is the heroic wife
posted by mumimor at 9:51 AM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

I have seen no altercations at the market

There haven't been prolonged shortages yet, either.....I mean, I have seen some empty shelves, but the trucks are still coming. I hope it stays that way. I have been stocking up on supplies for about two weeks now, and even on the second dedicated trip I made to buy some supplies ,right at the opening of the grocery store, which was several days before the majority of people decided to do the same, there was this kind of unpleasant raw energy in the place. A feeling of pre-panic. I never, never want to see a food riot, it must be horrible. I really don't think this will come to that.
posted by thelonius at 9:55 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the little grocery store near my house had empty paper products shelves and empty bread shelves for a couple of days but they've been restocked in the meantime. The supplies are still rolling in. It's not a supply problem, it's a hoarding problem. I've been buying a bit extra every trip to the store, but not doing a giant stock-up because we already have food here. Just trying to flesh out the pantry a tad more, not stock up for end times.
posted by hippybear at 9:59 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

They're not N95s, but surgical masks and homemade masks are better than nothing. Homemade masks seem like a decent strategy at the moment for people when they have to go out in public, eg the grocery store, and is arguably better than wearing no mask at all. While allowing N95s and surgical masks to be saved for healthcare workers.
posted by robotdevil at 10:00 AM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Desperate and angry state leaders push back on Trump admin claims of mass mask shipments (Politico)

Governors, mayors and front-line health care workers confronting rising numbers of critically ill coronavirus patients said Sunday they have not received meaningful amounts of federal aid, including the shipments of desperately needed masks and other emergency equipment that administration officials say they have already dispatched.

As the crisis spreads, Congress was planning a rare Sunday procedural vote as it moved toward a deal on a third coronavirus aid package. Containing both broad economic stimulus measures and direct help for American families, it could pass the Senate as early as Monday.

[...] The shortages have forced hospitals to adopt risky practices like reusing masks and having staff wear bandanas when no mask is available. [...] “We’ve got to have those masks,” Whitmer said. “Had the federal government really started focusing when it became clear that the whole world was going to be confronting this, we would be in a stronger position right now ... Lives will be lost because we weren’t prepared.” [...] Governors, congressional lawmakers and mayors continued to plead with the White House over the weekend to use the powers of the Defense Production Act to speed up manufacture of masks, ventilators and other scarce supplies as many hospitals say they’re set to run out within days.

[...] “We've gotten no indication of any factory on 24/7 shifts. We've gotten no shipments,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on NBC. “I can’t be blunt enough: If the president does not act, people will die who could have lived otherwise.”

posted by katra at 10:20 AM on March 22, 2020 [10 favorites]

“We are desperate”: Trump’s inaction has created a crisis in protective medical gear (Caroline Hopkins, Vox)

A long foreseen shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) — including masks, N95 respirators, and gowns — is crippling health workers’ ability to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. And as doctors and nurses are forced to reuse gear in ways that put themselves and patients at risk of infection, they’re begging the Trump administration to use readily available legal tools to solve the crisis.

In a joint March 21 letter to President Trump, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, and the American Nurses Association called on the administration to “immediately use the Defense Production Act to increase the domestic production of medical supplies and equipment that hospitals, health, health systems, physicians, nurses and all front line providers so desperately need.” [...]

Although Trump tweeted March 18 that he had signed the DPA, he said he would only be using it in a “worst case scenario in the future.”

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:46 AM on March 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

FEMA chief says Trump still hasn't used Defense Production Act to get critical supplies for coronavirus fight (Ryan Pickrell, Business Insider)

- President Donald Trump has not yet made use of the Defense Production Act to get critical supplies to the front lines of the coronavirus fight, FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

- Trump said Friday that he was using the act and had directed "a lot" of companies to produce key supplies like masks and ventilators.

- On Saturday, the president suggested that he had not done that because private companies were stepping up on their own.

- Gaynor told CNN that donations and voluntary offers of assistance were presently sufficient. "If it comes to a point we have to pull the lever, we will," he said.

- "We cannot wait until people start really dying in large numbers to start production," New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday, warning that medical facilities in her hard-hit state do not have enough of the supplies they need.

This probably needs active coordination to make sure that the right items are produced in the right amounts by the designated companies.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:51 AM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

Where are the tests??? This should be the first question to Trump at every press conference, before he has a chance to climb back into his clown car and escape. Strategic deployment of tests could play a major role in flattening the curve. We should be on wartime production for tests (and reagents, etc.), along with ventilators. Only testing people who show symptoms and meet strict criteria will not curb transmission by asymptomatic or mild carriers. We need regular testing of the people on the front lines: medical workers and essential service industry personnel, especially those who come into contact with many others, e.g., supermarket cashiers. I’m not an epidemiologist, but I did my PhD dissertation on epidemic protocols (a computer science appropriation of epidemiology to describe epidemic-like propagation mechanisms of information through networks), and I’m flabbergasted that the discussion of testing I’m seeing in the media is so focused on testing those that already have symptoms. We’re at or near the saturation point where we should assume anyone with symptoms is contagious with Covid-19, and you don’t need a test to tell you someone is having difficulty breathing and needs emergency medical treatment.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 11:00 AM on March 22, 2020 [13 favorites]

Rand Paul, who delayed a coronavirus relief bill in the Senate, has tested positive for COVID-19.

Angela Merkel is in quarantine after a doctor who treated her tested positive.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:03 AM on March 22, 2020 [14 favorites]

Last week: Senate coronavirus bill delayed after Rand Paul pushes doomed amendment (NBC); Rand Paul votes against emergency stimulus package amid coronavirus outbreak (Louisville Courier-Journal)
posted by box at 11:06 AM on March 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

My partner in crime for life works at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. (She is working from home since Friday 13 March.) The new rules instituted Friday or yesterday are that ALL personnel, not just those seeing patients, must wear masks at ALL times. The assumption is that anyone could be infected. It would be impossible to test everyone in a timely way.
posted by haiku warrior at 11:08 AM on March 22, 2020 [10 favorites]

I have seen it suggested and I think it's plausible that a lot of the supermarket problems aren't hoarding so much as just in time supply chains meeting people buying a little bit extra.

We've been hearing the message for several weeks now. If we don't go out for food, we cook more at home. It's not unlikely that lots of people getting one or two extra things can empty shelves. They're full the next day, and they'll be full every day. Doesn't mean there's mass hoarding, just that daily deliveries are tuned for a certain level and 5% more is enough for them to be all wrong. Modern supermarkets don't have a huge buffer to store more than what their normal delivery schedule delivers. Maybe.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 11:18 AM on March 22, 2020 [18 favorites]

I fully expect Paul's stance against helping others to harden now that he's contracted the virus. He'll be able to say it's just a little flu, and that there's nothing to fear -- meaning nothing for him to fear. If the elderly want more government help, they should have used their daddy's name to become a Senator like he did.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:20 AM on March 22, 2020 [13 favorites]

As coronavirus leads to lockdowns across the world, capitalism will be forced to face its Achilles heel: the vast mountain of global debt. The Coming Debt Deluge

Beauty 2 Streets, a service that provides personal hygiene , grooming, and makeup to the homeless in LA is practicing social distancing

At 3pm today a group of libertarian (read: Anarchist) socialists will be hosting a Zoom call for instructions and group sewing of face masks.

In tourism-heavy cities (I used Nashville, Honolulu, New Orleans, and Savannah) the rental market is exploding, as AirBnB owners are suddenly forced to put their houses on the market. This surge in supply is going to dramatically cut the rates of monthly rentals.
posted by The Whelk at 11:30 AM on March 22, 2020 [11 favorites]

Nantucket, an hour by ferry from the mainland, is one of those places where you might expect the rich to flee at a time like this, and you'd be right. But it didn't help. Nantucket Cottage Hospital announced the island's first Covid-19 case today. The island is now under the state's first shelter-in-place order and the hospital itself, with just one ICU bed, is continuing to plead with off-islanders to stay away:

We are also advising anyone traveling to the island, or anyone who has come here to shelter from other cities or towns, that Nantucket has limited medical resources and a surge of cases could quickly overwhelm our hospital. If you have a choice to be on Nantucket or not, we are requesting that you make the decision to stay off the island to avoid a potentially dire scenario for our community and our hospital.

posted by adamg at 11:30 AM on March 22, 2020 [12 favorites]

Martha's Vineyard, the other hidey-hole place for the rich and fabulous off Cape Cod, reported its first case a couple days ago. Martha's Vineyard Hospital has three ICU beds.
posted by adamg at 11:35 AM on March 22, 2020 [9 favorites]

Yeah, the media push of “masks don’t help the healthy” has been a massive, massive misstep. The fact that we weren’t prepared to have the entire population mask up doesn’t mean it wasn’t one of the best courses of action, and now we have millions that have absorbed the message that widespread mask usage would be counterproductive.

I would be good if they distinguished between N95 respirators and regular surgical masks as shown in this CDC graphic.

The cheap surgical mask should be sufficient for most people going about their daily business. It keeps coughing people from spraying around and surrounding people from too easily inhaling those droplets. Not perfect but much better than nothing. That's the mask that most people are wearing in China and Japan. The N95 respirator, which is in dire shortage, should be reserved for medical workers or others in close contact with infected people.
posted by JackFlash at 11:38 AM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

Few comments removed. We. Do. Not. Wish. For. Others. To. Die.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:46 AM on March 22, 2020 [41 favorites]

I've said this elsewhere and even asked my congresswoman to get this done:

The virus has literally made it to the floors of the House and the Senate. Trump and Pence are both exposed. Pelosi has not engaged in any irresponsible behavior, but she has been exposed to it, and if she comes down with the virus, she is certain to need sedation and intensive care. For the sake of government continuity, the Democratic caucus needs to elect a new speaker, who will appoint Pelosi as acting speaker and leave for seclusion, along with a shadow cabinet. This person should be as young as possible over 35.
posted by ocschwar at 11:48 AM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

this person should be aoc
posted by entropicamericana at 11:52 AM on March 22, 2020 [17 favorites]

“Amazon is knowingly putting thier customers at risk.”
posted by The Whelk at 11:53 AM on March 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

this person should be aoc

AOC is 28. Otherwise I'd agree. She could fight off a bout with coronavirus and still be compos mentis.
posted by ocschwar at 11:55 AM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

This Atul Gawande New Yorker Piece about lessons learned about keeping COVID-19 from infecting health care workers has heartening information about reducing transmission (as seen in places like Singapore). We all could use a little heartening. Although, of course, masks are a huge part of the successful strategy, and workers need more masks.
posted by ldthomps at 12:02 PM on March 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

> if she comes down with the virus, she is certain to need sedation and intensive care

There are a wide range of outcomes for people of all ages. Some elderly people have mild or no symptoms. Some young people end up in critical condition. It does make sense to take extra precautions for the most vulnerable people, but we shouldn’t pretend these things are anywhere close to certain.
posted by mbrubeck at 12:05 PM on March 22, 2020 [18 favorites]

There is a wide range of outcomes. But continuity of government, or better yet, a distinct discontinuity of government, requires that we look at the prevalent odds.
posted by ocschwar at 12:16 PM on March 22, 2020

What’s the point of any political conversation among non-elites then?

With the nys PAUSE act about to go into effect at 8, I’m going to take a long walk (away from people) outside while I still can.
posted by The Whelk at 12:25 PM on March 22, 2020 [8 favorites]

The cheap surgical mask should be sufficient for most people going about their daily business. It keeps coughing people from spraying around and surrounding people from too easily inhaling those droplets. Not perfect but much better than nothing.

Yeah, if folks haven't read Zeynep Tufecki's NYT column from March 17, Why Telling People They Don't Need Masks Backfired, she makes seven good arguments for citizens wearing masks. My take on the mask bottom line: all of the countries that have managed to slow the spread of the virus have many citizens who mask their faces with *something* when they go outside. Even a partial blockage of virus particles among mouths and noses helps. I'm looking for a bandana in my closet (I know there's one somewhere) before the next grocery store trip.
posted by mediareport at 12:27 PM on March 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

Gotta keep those summer Olympics from being cancelled, I guess.

The Olympics are defacto cancelled regardless of what the committee decides. Ain't no sane country or sport agency going to allow their athletes to travel internationally at this time.

You need a government. You need experts. You need to consider the public good.

Admitting all that would mean admitting that they’re wrong and that they’ve been wrong all along, and apparently many of them would rather risk their lives and the lives of everyone around them rather than suffer the indignity.

I'm going to be hammering on "Bailouts are Socialism, and that's OK" to all the MAGA-lites in my social circle here in Canada. Also that taxes pay for all the response. Between $30 oil and the virus Alberta is going to be in a bad way and examples will abound for why "we don't need no government"/"all taxes are bad" is poor policy and counter productive. A lot of people are going to be beneficiaries of funding policy they previously (and will in the future, hypocrisy knows no bounds) were against.
posted by Mitheral at 12:34 PM on March 22, 2020 [9 favorites]

Rand Paul, who delayed a coronavirus relief bill in the Senate, has tested positive for COVID-19.

Worth noting that Rand can stay home in quarantine while collecting his government paycheck. Just a few days two days ago he voted against the bill that would provide that same benefit to ordinary citizens.
posted by JackFlash at 12:40 PM on March 22, 2020 [33 favorites]

Comment removed. Folks, if you don't want to participate in the discussion, you don't have to.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:46 PM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Just now: 10 activists with Never Again Action (@NeverAgainSFbay) brought the fight to @GavinNewsom's front door -- protesting outside his house, they are demanding Gov. Newsom release all detained immigrants in CA and avert a deadly catastrophe with the spread of COVID-19.

The “Anne Frank Died Of Typhoid How Many Will Die Of Covid-19.” sign is pretty striking.

Later today at 7pm Senator Sanders will host a Coronavirus response livestream with Reps Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and Tlaib
posted by The Whelk at 12:46 PM on March 22, 2020 [18 favorites]

Amazon is knowingly putting their customers at risk

I just want to take a minute to put this in perspective.

Per the article, a lot of Amazon's employees have been asking for masks / respirators for a long time, but they've been told repeatedly that they're too expensive, and that's what they're being told now. Despite the fact that they're handling shipments from all over the world, working in close proximity in dirty conditions, masks are too expensive.

When I bought a box of N95 respirators a couple of years ago (on Amazon, no less), I got a box of 10 for about $20. So let's figure, when insane price gouging is not in effect, about $2 per mask at retail prices. Certainly less at wholesale, especially in bulk, but let's go with $2.

Google says that Amazon has about 750,000 employees. A lot of those are nowhere near the front lines, handling packages and running around warehouses, but let's just assume every single one of these folks needs a respirator, a fresh one every day. That's $1.5 million in masks per day, or about $550 million every year.

The most recent estimate I can find of Jeff Bezos' income (here) puts him at about $9 million per hour. With just the wealth that he gains in two and a half days, Jeff Bezos could ensure that every single one of his employees, front line or not, has a fresh N95 respirator every day of the year.

But he has not done that, and he will not do that, because it seems keeping that $550 million for himself is more important to the richest man on earth than the health and well being of his employees or his customers.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 12:46 PM on March 22, 2020 [49 favorites]

I work as a consultant (non-emerg doc) in the emergency department at a teaching hospital in Canada. Regarding mask types, our health authority directs us to only wear N95 masks when either an aerosol-generating procedure (intubation, bag-valve-mask use, airway suction, etc.) is being done around the time of encounter, or in rooms where that might happen routinely. Collecting the NP swab does not require an N95 in our protocol. We are fortunate here to have private rooms for most possible cases at this point, but give it a day or two.... When an N95 is not needed, a surgical mask is used. However, and this is crucial, the rest of the PPE is needed, including eye shield, gown, and gloves. Not only that, but there are very specific and tedious details that are required for how equipment is put on and especially how it is taken off. PPE removal is a very high-risk time for exposure. Whatever you do, don't touch your face with contaminated hands/gloves, and never touch the front of your mask once you have been exposed. Patients on precautions (symptomatic or with risk factors) must wear a mask. Currently, we are advised no mask is needed for most other situations. I do suspect widespread mask use could possibly reduce asymptomatic transmission, but supplies are not sufficient for everyone to wear masks everywhere all the time. We are (I hope) nowhere near the point of sewing our own masks for the recommended uses.

If I had to pick a resource-intensive escalation of current practice, I would have every single person in the country swabbed twice 24h apart, and isolate based on that.

Now, regarding the clustercuss demonstrated in the FPP links above, wow. The administrative problems I have seen here are absolutely inconsequential compared to the bonfire of murderous irresponsibility being fed by Trump and associates. I wish the best for my neighbours down south. Are there any recommended organizations accepting monetary donations to help with the response and associated crisis?
posted by sillyman at 12:47 PM on March 22, 2020 [13 favorites]

Ohio governor issued a stay at home order today. Orders also included restrictions on dispensing of the medications our "president" is pushing as a miracle cure.
posted by palomar at 12:55 PM on March 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

CNN: “GOP senators told CNN [Rand] Paul was in the gym with colleagues Sunday morning, and several pointed out how close Paul had sat to others during Senate lunches in recent days. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said he saw Paul in the Senate swimming pool Sunday, according to a source in the GOP lunch.”

That’s right, just hours before his positive test result came back from the lab, Rand Paul was swimming, working out, and lunching with his fellow US senators. More than one in four senators is over 70 years old. More than two thirds are over 60.

“To illustrate this on the altruists’ favorite example: the issue of saving a drowning person. If the person to be saved is a stranger, it is morally proper to save him only when the danger to one’s own life is minimal; when the danger is great, it would be immoral to attempt it: only a lack of self-esteem could permit one to value one’s life no higher than that of any random stranger. (And, conversely, if one is drowning, one cannot expect a stranger to risk his life for one’s sake, remembering that one’s life cannot be as valuable to him as his own.)”

—Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

posted by mbrubeck at 1:28 PM on March 22, 2020 [21 favorites]

Every patient, colleague, learner, family member, and other person is a peer of mine. We each have exactly the same inherent worth. I struggle to apply that all (most? some?) of the time. But "any random stranger" is my neighbour, my brother/sister/nonbinary sibling. Even Rand Fucking Paul.
posted by sillyman at 1:55 PM on March 22, 2020 [12 favorites]

But "any random stranger" is my neighbour, my brother/sister/nonbinary sibling. Even Rand Fucking Paul.

I mean, even Rand Paul's neighbor beat his ass, so we've got a lot of leeway on this one
posted by Think_Long at 2:19 PM on March 22, 2020 [22 favorites]

Reporting from northeastern Massachusetts:

I have self-quarantined in my bedroom upstairs from the three others at my home for the last three days. Exactly four days (apparent minimum COVID 19 incubation period) following some consulting work in Boston, I came down with a sore throat last Thursday.

My poor PICU (Partner In Crime Until death do us part--we are not legally married) has been leaving food at the door. She also is taking care of both my mother, who is nearly 90 with quite a bit of short term memory loss and who lives with us, and her mother who is 85 and is visiting after leaving rehab following a knee replacement three weeks ago. The scenario is a complete reversal of what we had planned, as PICU was supposed to have her own elective surgery last Wednesday, and I was to be the caretaker for the three of them. PICU's procedure was canceled, fortunately.

I’m hoping I do have the COVID 19 virus, as now I would then immune to it, but I don't infect anyone else. Without a test, we just don’t know, though. My symptoms are very mild—sore throat is gone, fever is mild to non-existent, minor achiness, and I am just extra tired. Energy seems to be slowly returning: I collected the trash today with mask on--a job that avoids touching surfaces that other handle. I hope I am not fooling myself.

Feeling pretty useless while PICU has to tend to domestic burdens that I ordinarily handle, especially making Mom's breakfast and dinner, giving meds, laying out clothes, bedtime routines, etc., and to her own mother's needs. Very stressful for PICU especially given the situation in the outside world--I owe her a lot!
posted by haiku warrior at 2:26 PM on March 22, 2020 [12 favorites]

Portland, OR going on lockdown soon, according to tweets from Mayor Ted Wheeler.
posted by gucci mane at 2:26 PM on March 22, 2020

With just the wealth that he gains in two and a half days, Jeff Bezos could ensure that every single one of his employees, front line or not, has a fresh N95 respirator every day of the year.

Except that we don't live in that world anymore (well... right now).

It doesn't really matter how much money you have, it cannot conjure up masks, hospitals, ventilators, out of thin air. We've been brought up with the idea that in a capitalist society, money can solve all problems, but we need to reexamine that belief.
posted by meowzilla at 2:28 PM on March 22, 2020 [10 favorites]

I'm hoping I do have the COVID 19 virus, as now I would then immune to it
I thought it wasn't a given that getting it confers any immunity. Please stay safe.
posted by tiny frying pan at 2:28 PM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Antibody tests are coming. If you're immune, you'll soon know.
posted by ocschwar at 2:31 PM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

If I had to pick a resource-intensive escalation of current practice, I would have every single person in the country swabbed twice 24h apart, and isolate based on that.

This is what we should be doing, except with all the positives isolated in facilities and dedicated hospitals so we are not mixing positive and negative in the hospitals and can also keep as many medical staff healthy as long as possible. And repeat testing a week later. It is the ONLY thing that will shut this down. This is what they did in Wuhan , people focus on the quarantine and forget that they tested extensively and completely isolated the positive population both well and sick.
posted by fshgrl at 2:38 PM on March 22, 2020 [10 favorites]

There are some isolated instances where people may have been reinfected, but it is likely that recovering from COVID 19 provides some immunity for a time after that, as with other corona viruses. Since I don't even known what I really have, I'm just hoping for the best case. :)

Thanks for your well wishes, everyone.
posted by haiku warrior at 2:46 PM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

From yesterday, Univ of Washington biology prof Carl Bergstrom just demolished another hot take (now taken down from Medium, but reposted elsewhere apparently). I'm pasting my favorite parts.

4. *Information gets lost in translation.* The author claims to be an expert in making products go viral. I suppose that field has borrowed some ideas from epidemiology. Now he's trying to back-infer how epi works from what he knows about that area. It doesn't work that way.

9. Disaggregating data is essential to provide context, especially for transmission processes. That the virus can cross national boundaries does nothing to negate the importance of spatial structure and within-country analysis. Aggregating data obscures critical patterns.

25. This single piece of bait-and-switch should be more than enough to discredit the entire article.
@Aginnt claims that only 1% of cases are severe, and then shows a data graphic suggesting that 19% are severe or worse (critical).
How on earth does he draw that conclusion?

28. Lastly on this point, I hate to go all MS-PAINT on you, but....
(image shows a screencap of the article with the subheading "1% of cases will be severe" circled and then another statistic "2.3% of all cases died" circled in red below.)

posted by spamandkimchi at 2:49 PM on March 22, 2020 [8 favorites]

Okay, since you all now know that my mother lives with me, may I inject a little levity into this very serious thread with an actual incident from October 2019?

While Mom has a lot of short term memory loss (e.g. can't remember she brushing her teeth a few minutes later), she is still very witty, and is quite good at the NY Times Crossword, on which she and I often collaborate.

TRUE STORY
To get a tax form for my father’s pension that now goes to my mother as his survivor, here is what transpired between the Human Resources representative on the phone, my mother, and me.
Rep: This is your mother’s account, and so I need her permission for us to work on this. Is your mother there?

Me: Sure, here she is. (Hands phone to Mom.)

Rep (to Mom): Can you verify your name?

Mom: (Says name)

Rep: Is it okay if your son speaks to me on your behalf?

Mom: HE'S BEEN NOTHING BUT TROUBLE SINCE THE DAY HE WAS BORN!

Me: MOM! Just say "yes!"

Rep: (Laughter)

Mom: Sorry. Couldn't resist.

My mother, sit-down comedian.

posted by haiku warrior at 3:18 PM on March 22, 2020 [70 favorites]

Trump Urges Car Companies To Make Ventilators Without Imposing Defense Production Act (Gabriela Saldivia, NPR)

Why is he so hesitant? Is it because the Defense Production Act requires effort?
posted by ZeusHumms at 3:19 PM on March 22, 2020 [5 favorites]

Probably because he doesn't know how to invoke it if he can't tweet it and neither does Kushner and no one else is still in there jobs to help him.

How much longer before people remember this isn't a monarchy and we don't ahve to tolerate a mad king?
posted by fshgrl at 3:23 PM on March 22, 2020 [17 favorites]

Harvey Weinstein has tested positive for Covid-19 and is in medical isolation in prison.

...Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:28 PM on March 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

> “To illustrate this on the altruists’ favorite example: the issue of saving a drowning person.

meanwhile:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Albert_Harper

Henry Albert Harper (December 9, 1873 - December 6, 1901) was a Canadian journalist and civil servant. He may be best known as a friend of future Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. Harper is commemorated by a statue on Parliament Hill after his death while trying to save someone from drowning.

...

On December 6, 1901, Harper was attending a skating party held on the frozen Ottawa River by the Governor General, the Earl of Minto. Andrew George Blair's daughter Bessie, and Alex Creelman, fell through a patch of weak ice - though Creelman pulled himself to safety, Harper dove into the river to save Blair, and both ultimately drowned. His last words were reportedly "What else can I do?" when their companions tried to dissuade his rescue attempt, another telling says that he quoted Galahad's famous "If I lose myself, I save myself" before jumping into the water.[1] Their bodies were recovered the following day and Harper was buried in Cookstown on December 9.

posted by sebastienbailard at 3:29 PM on March 22, 2020 [8 favorites]

I am a pessimist. Trump is not invoking the Defense Production Act because it would make the negotiations public and doesn't involve overpaying so you can grift.
posted by benzenedream at 3:36 PM on March 22, 2020 [28 favorites]

I will say, as far as not being able to meet the need for homemade masks: remember how many hats we knit for the women's march?
posted by nonasuch at 4:02 PM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

fshgrl is right -

As federal emergency efforts collapse, Trump tells state governors they're on their own ('Hunter', Daily Kos Staff)

The Trump White House has faced an avalanche of criticism by experts and political figures baffled as to why, even now, the administration is stalling on invoking the powers of the Defense Protection Act to produce urgently-needed medical supplies as hospitals prepare for an inevitable surge of COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker voiced those same concerns this morning on CNN's State of the Union, telling host Jake Tapper that due to the dire shortages, states were now "competing with each other" for equipment. [...]

The speculation as to just why Trump, Mike Pence, Jared Kushner and whoever else has been wedged into the decision-making loop have not, even now, invoked the Defense Protection Act to retool factories to make masks and other medical equipment already being rationed in hospitals, even before the main "wave" of coronavirus cases reaches their emergency rooms, continues to run rampant. My own suspicion is that they do not know how. Literally, they do not know how to begin or organize the effort: Which factories can produce what? What supplies do they need to do it? How should the results be distributed?

They are therefore stalling, waiting for someone, somewhere to bring them a plan that they can sign their names to. It's the legwork that's killing them; after purging the government of experts, ignoring pandemic response drills and plans, and ridding the administration of anyone who would disagree with Trump's invented facts and out-of-nowhere pronouncements, there is no team left that can handle the daunting logistics of "wartime" procurement.

A Politico report from earlier this weekend gives ample evidence for that theory. Anonymous officials say Trump's weird declarations have created an internal "need to make good on half-baked promises," a clear distraction from more urgent tasks. The "national strategy for obtaining and distributing the necessary supplies" still has not happened yet, reports Politico, months after COVID-19 preparations should have begun. And Trump continues to bluff and bluster, relentlessly, about why he and his staff don't take more urgent actions to save lives:

“If California can get a mask sooner than we can get it for them, through all of the things we're able to do, we'll end up with a big over-supply. At some point this is going away.”

So. The hell. What? Is the premise that having too many masks on hand would be worse than the current status of not having enough, endangering the very healthcare workers expected to care for victims the pandemic? That having a warehouse full of government-owned emergency equipment would be worse than Americans dying from a lack of those supplies?

Of course not. He's an idiot, and he's simply stalling to avoid doing something that his team cannot figure out how to competently do, no matter how urgent it may be.

And the administration is too prideful to ask for help.
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:03 PM on March 22, 2020 [31 favorites]

Ohio orders abortion clinics to stop 'nonessential abortions' because of coronavirus
posted by tiny frying pan at 4:09 PM on March 22, 2020

Like there are ever recreational abortions.
posted by Mitheral at 4:26 PM on March 22, 2020 [50 favorites]

have not, even now, invoked the Defense Protection Act to retool factories to make masks and other medical equipment already being rationed in hospitals

Is this sort of thing even possible? Sure in 1940 before robots were a thing and tool & die makers were employed in house we could convert from stamping out cars to stamping out airplanes. But I would have thought that something like disposable masks are made by a disposable mask machine and it's not something a napkin maker or something can retool for short of installing a paper mask machine.
posted by Mitheral at 4:33 PM on March 22, 2020

I would have thought that something like disposable masks are made by a disposable mask machine

Yes. And the materials are specialised; you can't just tell paper companies to start making mask material.

On the other hand, cloth masks and gowns are something people can make at home, and garment makers could make them even more easily. But there needs to be some level of coordination even there, to know what's wanted and to deliver it to the right places.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:44 PM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Credit where due (to the speechwriter), he did mention Hanes, for whom it would seem like a reasonable shift.
posted by rhizome at 4:47 PM on March 22, 2020

Grim report with 5-minute video from inside the hardest hit hospital in Bergamo in Lombardy, Italy. It's "one of the most advanced hospitals in Europe," and it's completely swamped.
posted by mediareport at 5:21 PM on March 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

How do even rich celebrities in jail get tested when it's still so our if reach for just of the population?

They're seeing up childcare centers in NYC for children of emergency service workers, and as far as I can tell there is zero testing whatsoever planned. This is a high risk environment for spreading where a one kid or adult bringing it in could take many medical professionals out of the field. And I have heard nothing about masks or testing. But Weinstein gets tested?!
posted by Salamandrous at 5:21 PM on March 22, 2020 [10 favorites]

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see any link to Tomas Pueyo's latest analysis and recommendations, so here it is.

In a nutshell, learn from China and South Korea: imposing stronger actions now will save lives and get us through this faster. As with his earlier arguments, I find it compelling.
posted by brambleboy at 5:21 PM on March 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

And to answer my question I guess for some thing like chemical processes it is possible:

Labatt [large Canadian Brewer] to switch production from beer to hand sanitizer

posted by Mitheral at 5:30 PM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

We have a few local distilleries in Vermont that are making sanitizer. I went to pick some up a few days ago (on a rare solo trip out of town) and marveled that there was no line. VPR did a story about it, there are a few small places doing it, but Labatt? That's big news.
posted by jessamyn at 5:37 PM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Yeah, huh! That was our good college macro brew in MA (vs. Natty's Light, which was the local shitty college macro brew).

In related news a close friend in MA is maybe gonna convert their small-batch distillery over to sanitizer production after a conversation with the governor's office.
posted by cortex at 5:43 PM on March 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

Producing hand sanitizer in bulk seems like the sort of thing that could be done via a government requisition: there are lots of ways of producing alcohol, and lots of ways of producing the additives (e.g., glycerol) that turn it into good liquid or gel hand sanitizer. I don't know whether we actually need that much of it, but it absolutely could be done.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:04 PM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Mecklenburg County, NC, which contains Charlotte, released new figures for positive tests today. "About half of reported cases were adults ages 20-39."
posted by mediareport at 6:20 PM on March 22, 2020 [5 favorites]

Trump Urges Car Companies To Make Ventilators Without Imposing Defense Production Act

Having car companies make ventilators is just dumb. It would take weeks to get them up to speed on quite technical devices. We already have companies that have all the tools and machines and supply chains and processes necessary to build them. Just give them the resources to ramp up production.

You could send some over some laid off car company employees to the ventilator company so they can run three shifts seven days a week. You could use federal coordination to make sure the ventilator companies get first priority on any critical supplies they need to build ventilators. They could take an inventory of every ventilator and its location in the U.S. and transport them to where they are most needed. There are lots of things the feds could do to help ramp up production but this would require someone in the administration with more of a brain than dunce-in-law Jared.

But, no, using car companies is stupid.
posted by JackFlash at 6:29 PM on March 22, 2020 [17 favorites]

It's a very calibrated level of stupid though. Like his Middle East plan, it makes enough sense for a Trumpist to think Something Has Been Done while actually being a complete non-starter. I mean, suppose Trump did use emergency powers to compel production of ventilators by car manufacturers. Can you imagine what a complete circus that would be? So that's not going to happen. But if Trump had advocated something more plausible then it might go ahead, which would mean him being responsible for its success or failure. I don't expect any practical plans to emanate from the White House unless they come from someone other than Trump.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:52 PM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

One piece of good news: 3M has ramped up its production to 35 million respirators per month, 500,000 of which are on their way to New York and Seattle tonight, with delivery expected tomorrow. There are a few things to note:

3M did this themselves, outside of any federal directives; the production increase started in January in anticipation of the need.
The use of "respirators" in this context can be confusing: 3M is making masks, not ventilators.
The recent amendments to the US PREP Act shields 3M from legal liability for the masks. I suspect at least some of the respirators, traditionally medical-grade N95 masks, may be re-purposed P100 industrial masks. If quality control suffers or the masks prove insufficient, we could be in a similar situation to the suffering endured by the post-9/11 cleanup crew... except these will be medical staff who are sick and infectious. 3M is a very well-run company, but I worry when regulations and laws are loosened in response to an emergency.

posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 6:56 PM on March 22, 2020 [27 favorites]

> Having car companies make ventilators is just dumb. It would take weeks to get them up to speed on quite technical devices. We already have companies that have all the tools and machines and supply chains and processes necessary to build them. Just give them the resources to ramp up production.

Yeah. Here's a small manufacturer trying to volunteer. Using imgur, out of desperation. Ideally they'd be quickly connecting with the feds in some capacity after a president invoked the Defense Protection Act.
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:22 PM on March 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern has given an address announcing the full lockdown of the country in 48 hours. Some really good political communication, leadership there.

Hand sanitiser is super easy: ethanol and glycerol and you're away. Many small booze companies in my country have voluntarily tooled up to make it.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:28 PM on March 22, 2020 [8 favorites]

Also, word from my mother in my usual nightly call: New Zealand is going into total lockdown in 48 hours. All schools and places of public congregation will be closed, including pools, museums, libraries, and playgrounds. All indoor and outdoor events are cancelled. There's also a ban on food delivery services. The lockdown is expected to last for four weeks.

In a population of just under five million people, New Zealand has 102 known cases, and no deaths yet, thankfully. Four weeks should hopefully be enough to find, isolate and treat any remaining cases.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 7:38 PM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) expressed his concerns following the news that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tested positive for the coronavirus earlier Sunday.

Mitt really only has one gear, doesn't he. Like Chatty Cathy, you just pull the string on the back of his neck.
posted by JackFlash at 7:39 PM on March 22, 2020 [8 favorites]

Oh, good lord:
Quarantined Nurse’s Scorching Anti-CDC Rant Goes Viral: ‘I’m Appalled at the Level of Bureaucracy’ on Coronavirus Testing

National Nurses Union President Deborah Burger released a scathing statement from a quarantined nurse criticizing the CDC for its purported refusal to test her for coronavirus even though she had been exposed to the pathogen.
[...]

“The national CDC would not initiate the test,” the statement continued, claiming that the health agency justified its decision by effectively blamed the nurse for exposing herself to the virus. “They said they would not test me because if I were wearing the recommended protective equipment then I wouldn’t have the coronavirus. What kind of science-based answer is that? What a ridiculous and uneducated response from the department that is in charge of the health of this country.”

posted by Joe in Australia at 7:40 PM on March 22, 2020 [17 favorites]

I’m still agog that we haven’t worked to ramp testing way, way up. Like, what are we even doing here? Are we just supposed to be on lockdown until everyone is unemployed and the economy has reached depths not seen in almost a hundred years?
posted by Automocar at 7:50 PM on March 22, 2020 [13 favorites]

Joe in Australia, that video is nearly three weeks old (not that things have improved).
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 7:54 PM on March 22, 2020

~~MetaFilter~~ All Of Life: That is nearly three weeks old (not that things have improved).
posted by hippybear at 7:58 PM on March 22, 2020 [9 favorites]

Two of my friends have forwarded messages that contained such advice as "hot fluids neutralize the virus, so avoid drinking ice water" and "drinking water every 15 to 20 minutes will flush the virus to your stomach where it will be killed by acid" ... Don't know if these messages are originating from Russia, trolls, or whatnot, but yeah disinformation is out there and spreading.

Got two copies in 12 hours of the same or very similar audio recording from two Facebook friends whose accounts were hacked and hijacked to broadcast it. That's not just wooly-headed hippies, that's a a malign actor. Another statement it made was that sunlight kills the virus, so put items in the sun to sanitize them.

Misinformation that could kill the elderly, injected into the biggest elderly disinformation system ever created.
posted by Andrew Galarneau at 7:58 PM on March 22, 2020 [17 favorites]

Reuters March 22, 2020: Exclusive: U.S. axed CDC expert job in China months before virus outbreak:

Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned.

posted by jedicus at 8:33 PM on March 22, 2020 [35 favorites]

the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing

The hits just keep on rolling. It's a shame that the majority of Americans will never see this story, believe it, or make a judgement call based upon it.

Thanks to everyone who is staying at home.
posted by valkane at 8:49 PM on March 22, 2020 [10 favorites]

Coronavirus Capitalism — and How to Beat It (Naomi Klein & The Intercept on YouTube):

This video is about the ways the still-unfolding Covid-19 crisis is already remaking our sense of the possible. The Trump administration and other governments around the world are busily exploiting the crisis to push for no-strings-attached corporate bailouts and regulatory rollbacks. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is moving to repeal financial regulations that were introduced after the last major financial meltdown, as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. China, for its part, is indicating that it will relax environmental standards to stimulate its economy, which would wipe out the one major benefit the crisis has produced so far: a marked drop in that country’s lethal air pollution.

But this is not the whole story. In the United States, we have also seen organizing at the city and state levels win important victories to suspend evictions during the pandemic. Ireland has announced six weeks of emergency unemployment payments for all workers who suddenly find themselves out of work, including self-employed workers. And despite U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden’s claims during the recent debate that the pandemic has nothing to do with Medicare for All, many Americans are suddenly realizing that the absence of a functioning safety net exacerbates vulnerabilities to the virus on many fronts.

posted by Ouverture at 8:55 PM on March 22, 2020 [12 favorites]

I’m still agog that we haven’t worked to ramp testing way, way up. Like, what are we even doing here?

Medical lab scientist checking in. We're working our asses off trying to get shit off the ground and have been for weeks. (despite what all the 'Thank you Doctors and Nurses' pictures are portraying, scientists are still the ones handling and analyzing the damn specimens) Labs are ridiculously short staffed in the best times; we retire three for every one new grad.

We worked around the clock to get our testing validated. Then the analyzer company pulled back on the test. Now our sister hospital is going live with their testing tomorrow. They ordered a conservative 300 test kits to start out. They received 3. But the national players, Quest and LabCorp, are getting what they need. Despite not being in the communities they serve, extended turn around times and reputations of poor quality control. But they have purchasing power and the ears of more important people than individual hospitals do.

It's been a terrible week of having providers yelling at us, the public yelling at us, the media calling us at all odd hours hoping to get somebody who is willing to talk to them. Plus, we got shorted on PPE because "people in the front line need then more." So you want me to take a vial of liquid full of the pathogen and designed to keep the virus viable, open it and analyze it without a mask? And that doesn't count as being on the front line? Then the HHS secretary goes on about how lab people don't understand the situation. No. I think we understand the testing situation better than almost anybody else. Grrr....

I'm tired and frustrated and this is probably a case where I should step back and keep my mouth shut for a while but fuck.
posted by MaritaCov at 8:58 PM on March 22, 2020 [141 favorites]

Of course not. He's an idiot, and he's simply stalling to avoid doing something that his team cannot figure out how to competently do, no matter how urgent it may be.

Yep. I'm a project manager and I guarantee all of you that the federal response is much worse than it seems. They've done nothing because they don't know how to do anything. Instead they have a room full of white boys trying to solve parts of the problem in a disorganized fashion based on first principles and sulking when anyone tells them it's not going to work. We are SO screwed, it's not even funny and it will not change till management does. The best thing they could do now is set up a situatuon room and stock it with the countries most experienced logistics and project management professionals. Call on the military and industry and give them what they need for support. Let another group deal with the economic issues. If I were a governor I'd have done that the first day.

As it is I would like to quit being part of this project now. It raises all the red flags that make me walk away.
posted by fshgrl at 9:16 PM on March 22, 2020 [37 favorites]

The Olympics are defacto cancelled regardless of what the committee decides. Ain't no sane country or sport agency going to allow their athletes to travel internationally at this time.

Canada and Australia have pulled out today - between them and the existing severe limits on Russian participation - it’s over.

I feel desperately sorry for Tokyo and all the athletes who will miss out on competing, but it was always going to be a long drawn out process to postpone/cancel if left to the organizing committee and IOC, and I’m glad a few of the bigger participating countries stood up and made the decision for them.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 9:31 PM on March 22, 2020 [15 favorites]

everybody: look through your cellar/garage to see if you have n95s. find out if someone in your area needs them.

I found 2 still in the box, and now an X-ray tech has them.
Yep, I found two Home Depot N95 masks still in a sealed package, for a house project I never did. A pediatrician and her husband, also a physician, now have them. The woman had been reusing one mask for the last two weeks.
posted by etaoin at 9:41 PM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

I would like to quit being part of this project now. It raises all the red flags that make me walk away.

Standard IT industry parlance for an activity that makes everybody but the C suite feel that way is a "death march project".

Difficult to express just how hollow the laughter is right now.
posted by flabdablet at 9:43 PM on March 22, 2020 [12 favorites]

that mask this thread prompted me to find in the basement will be en route to an acquaintance-chained emergency room doctor in kissimmee, florida, via usps tomorrow, if all goes well at the post office; hope it helps. serendipitously, i also happened to have a large-enough bubble-mailer and $4 in odd old stamps available. in the interim some institutions from my state have registered with findthemasks.com.
posted by 20 year lurk at 10:38 PM on March 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

How Civic Technology Can Help Stop a Pandemic

One of the most celebrated examples is the Face Mask Map, a collaboration initiated by an entrepreneur working with g0v. To prevent the panicked buying of facemasks, which hindered Taiwan’s response to SARS in 2003, the government instituted a national rationing scheme of two facemasks per week per citizen. Anticipating that this national policy would be insufficient to avoid local runs on pharmacies, the government (via its prestigious digital ministry) released an application programming interface (API) that provided real-time, location-specific data to the public on mask availability.

Digital Minister Audrey Tang then proceeded to work closely with entrepreneurs and g0v hacktivists in a digital chatroom to rapidly produce a range of maps and applications. These tools showed where masks were available, but they did more than that. Citizens were able to reallocate rations through intertemporal trades and donations to those who most needed them, which helped prevent the rise of a black market. As often happens in the world of hacking, the initial deployment crashed after being overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of queries in the first hours of operation, but the effort was not wasted. The broad interest stimulated the government to provide the necessary computational resources and bandwidth to allow a version of this service that could serve the whole population. The result has not just facilitated a more effective distribution of masks but also reduced panic and generated widespread, and justified, pride.

A second example is a platform that helps citizens work together to reduce exposure to the virus. The work on this platform (which again grew out of a collaboration between a group of entrepreneurs, the digital ministry, and the g0v movement) was motivated in part by the arrival of passengers from a cruise ship with a high rate of infection. Individuals used the platform to share reports, voluntarily and in real time, about symptoms using a variety of media (such as a call-in line and smartphones); this information was quickly verified and collated. The result was then combined with more community-created apps that allowed users to download their smartphone location history to determine if they may have been exposed. It was a common-sense design that encouraged proactive behavior. Users who worried about exposure limited their subsequent interactions to protect others.

The guiding principle was not top-down control but mutual respect and cooperation. Privacy was carefully protected, and the movements of an individual were not visible to others. This approach supported an astonishing degree of social coordination, which reduced transmission. And despite being an open, participatory system, the platform did not spur the spread of disinformation or panic. By ensuring reported histories of movement corresponded to plausible patterns, without recording their details, trolls were excluded, thereby avoiding the dysfunctions that degrade commercial social media in times of crisis. The availability of this information dramatically reduced the economic burden of achieving containment by avoiding uniform and extreme social-distancing policies. Instead, citizens were able to avoid or disinfect compromised locations; those who had visited them could self-quarantine.

also btw...
10-minute coronavirus test from nagasaki university and canon? ('team japan')
posted by kliuless at 10:49 PM on March 22, 2020 [9 favorites]

When Trump was elected, I commented that I had not expected to see the American hegemony dismantled in my lifetime. I could not see how the disrespect and dismantling that he applied to every institution possessing any critical or global perspective, was going to allow the US a seat at any table.

Trying to remember which saint had a vision of hell as a fabulous feast, with long-handled forks as the only means of eating any of the food, and those seated at the table scuffling to try and eat, while heaven was the same table, with those seated feeding those around them.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 10:49 PM on March 22, 2020 [22 favorites]

If anybody wants to read more about the lab perspective in a slightly calmer tone, here is a letter from the ASCLS to congress. PDF warning but it nicely outlines the underlying problems medical labs have been experiencing as well as problems with how the testing situation is being communicated to the public.
posted by MaritaCov at 11:10 PM on March 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

Trying to remember which saint had a vision...

heil broner and thurow (1978)* :P

We live in a period in which much of the conventional wisdom of the past has been tried and found wanting. Economics is in a state of self-scrutiny, dissatisfied with its established premises, not yet ready to formulate new ones. Indeed, perhaps the search for a new vision of economics, a vision that will highlight new elements of reality and suggest new modes of analysis, is the most pressing economic task of our time... Perhaps in a different society of the future, another hypothesis about behavior would have us serve as our starting point. People might be driven by the desire to better the condition of others rather than themselves. A story about heaven and hell is to the point. Hell has been described as a place where people sit at tables laden with sumptuous food, unable to eat because they have three-foot long forks and spoons strapped to their hands. Heaven is described as the very same place. There, people feed one another.

Revisiting the Sci-Fi Tragedy of 'V: The Series' - "Johnson based the story on Sinclair Lewis' 1935 anti-fascist novel, It Can't Happen Here, which follows radical authoritarian Berzelius 'Buzz' Windrip, who rises to power in the U.S. by declaring his allegiance to traditional American values and promising a return to American greatness. Buzz defeats Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the presidential election and immediately sets about making himself into a dictator, putting people who disagree with his politics into concentration camps, abolishing Congress and establishing a paramilitary force that cements his control over the populace."*
posted by kliuless at 11:26 PM on March 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

Oooomph - guess who bought "It Can't Happen Here" early in 2017.

History is also giving me some interesting echoes - England lost the US due to the problems it had with Mad King George (III?) in charge of a court unwilling to acknowledge its Stockholm Syndrome status.

Yet it still retained its empire.

France never had an acknowledged mad king - but the narcissism and cronyism cultivated by monarchs, meant not only the loss of its territories, but a cultural loss. And if we include the egregious extortion inflicted on the successful slave revolutionaries in Haiti - a moral loss.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 12:08 AM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Never mind Mad Kings, at risk of doing the Brit-thing and making everything all about WW2, it's worth noting that when the shit hit the fan we had to sell ourselves and all our remaining illegitimate holdings to the coming Empire. Dunno whether that's directly transferable or applicable to this situation.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 1:36 AM on March 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

I wish I could post Rick Wilson's latest DB's article in full:

Trump and his fans are learning that karmic externalities are a bitch. They're learning that you can get away with a chain of scams, business failures, bankruptcies, and branding disasters and win the presidency but still fail utterly as a president and a person.

It took a global pandemic, the bursting of the Fed-fueled stock market bubble, and an opponent Trump can't face. It doesn't read Twitter, watch Fox, or respond to derisive nicknames. It took a plague to peel back the scales from his eyes finally, and even now, too many Trumpist Republicans insist this is fine. Heckuva job, Trumpie...
posted by growabrain at 2:23 AM on March 23, 2020 [15 favorites]

It appears Hong Kong relaxed too soon: The number of confirmed cases is rising
posted by tilde at 3:49 AM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

It appears Hong Kong relaxed too soon: The number of confirmed cases is rising

Anecdata, but I expect to see similar in South Korea soon. The past two weekends I have seen tons of people out and about enjoying themselves. As the weather gets nicer and the quasi-quarantine gets longer it is going to be even harder to keep people inside.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:14 AM on March 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

The Atlantic has recently switched to a limit of 5 free articles per month if you don't subscribe — but they are providing free access to their COVID-19 articles.
posted by rochrobbb at 5:17 AM on March 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

I should have posted this here.
posted by mumimor at 5:22 AM on March 23, 2020

OH, the Allegory of the Spoons! I saw an animated short something like that as a child and it had a huge impression on me.

"Attributed to Rabbi Haim of Romshishok as well as other sources."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_long_spoons
posted by allthinky at 5:22 AM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

A tweet from Trump last night:

"I watch and listen to the Fake News, CNN, MSDNC, ABC, NBC, CBS, some of FOX (desperately & foolishly pleading to be politically correct), the @nytimes, & the @washingtonpost, and all I see is hatred of me at any cost..."

If every journalist you see is an asshole, and all the people who work for you are assholes, and everybody who did your job before you is an asshole, and all your business colleagues are assholes, and your ghost writer is an asshole, and all your ex-wives are assholes, and half the nation are assholes...

...you're the asshole.

Also, if you get on especially well with people who have their enemies and critics assassinated, that's a clue.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:38 AM on March 23, 2020 [57 favorites]

It appears Hong Kong relaxed too soon: The number of confirmed cases is rising
Anecdata, but I expect to see similar in South Korea soon.

Here is a Twitter thread by Lukas Hensel - who describes his recent trip back home to China from London last week. He describes how all the arriving passengers went through multiple health checks and screenings, they had their luggage disinfected and then they were put into quarantine for 14 days in their community. He and his partner we allowed to quarantine at home - but they had to sign a document saying they would not go out - and a seal was placed on their door to make sure people could see if that had done so.

Until we have an effective vaccine then that is the level of vigilance that countries will need to show towards arriving travellers - once their own outbreaks have been contained.We are looking to an immediate future where communities will be very wary of outsiders who do not bear with a certificate of quarantine or one saying they have covid-19 antibodies. The world's travel industry should bear that in mind as they contemplate how things will recover.
posted by rongorongo at 6:37 AM on March 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

The Prime Minister of Norway held a press conference specifically for children, during which she answered questions submitted by children across the country and told them "It's ok to feel scared."
posted by mediareport at 6:51 AM on March 23, 2020 [15 favorites]

. He and his partner we allowed to quarantine at home - but they had to sign a document saying they would not go out - and a seal was placed on their door to make sure people could see if that had done so.

Part of the HK issues aside from “letting everyone go back to work” were idiots who cut off their quarantine bracelets.

I really wish Florida had shut the eff down.
posted by tilde at 7:23 AM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

Hey so the Covid-19 relief bill put out by the house is *really good* it’s led by Maxine Waters snd includes far ranging help and support including universal payouts and debt moratoria. Call/postcard your reps and get them to vote for it. If it passes the house that sends a huge message.
posted by The Whelk at 7:29 AM on March 23, 2020 [26 favorites]

Whelk, you know that thing from Maxine Waters is a few days old? Is that still the current House bill?
posted by NotLost at 7:49 AM on March 23, 2020

‪In case you missed it last night, here’s the Sanders Coronavirus lifesteam with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and Tlailb‬
posted by The Whelk at 7:49 AM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

The Prime Minister of Norway held a press conference specifically for children, during which she answered questions submitted by children across the country and told them "It's ok to feel scared."

The thing that is, I think, most upsetting to children is when they can tell that the adults are scared and don't know what is going to happen. I can remember that feeling from the energy crisis/inflation era of the 70's and it was quite unpleasant. So good for her, and I hope this helps those kids feel safer.
posted by thelonius at 7:52 AM on March 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

Correct link for livestream with Bernie, et al., is here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/22/watch-bernie-sanders-holds-roundtable-coronavirus-response-alexandria-ocasio-cortez
posted by NotLost at 7:55 AM on March 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

The right wing seems to be latching on to this post from Oxford University's Center for Evidence-Based Medicine which is citing a much lower infection fatality rate (0.20%) than earlier estimates. The methodology seems very crude to my non-expert eyes, which is understandable given the sparse data we have, but isn't putting out an estimate like this without giant disclaimers at the top irresponsible?

Also, the page was updated several times over the weekend with the term "infection fatality rate" replacing "case fatality rate" despite no change to the methodology.

I'm in no position to criticize the expertise of the authors, but the way this data is being used to dismiss concerns about COVID is going to get even more people killed.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:58 AM on March 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

0.2% fatality rate! Nothing to worry about then. Just 7 million people dying instead of 70 million. Peanuts.
posted by saturday_morning at 8:00 AM on March 23, 2020 [9 favorites]

And of course that completely ignores the entire reason for flattening the curve, that allowing all the infections to happen over a short period of time means more people die — not just of COVID, of all causes — because hospitals and healthcare systems are completely overwhelmed, and then that 0.2% is meaningless. Idiots.
posted by saturday_morning at 8:02 AM on March 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

Trump signals growing weariness with ‘social distancing’ and other steps advocated by health officials (John Wagner, WaPo)

President Trump is signaling interest in scaling back “social distancing” and other steps promoted by health officials to contain the novel coronavirus as a growing number of conservatives argue that impact on the U.S. economy has become too severe.

“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” Trump said in a late-night tweet Sunday written in capital letters. “AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!” [...]

Trump’s tweet appeared to reflect impatience with the economic toll of such moves, and a series of retweets by the president early Monday added to doubts about whether he is committed to staying the course beyond March if necessary. [...]

A growing number of conservatives are arguing [...] that the current course is not economically sustainable, as more business close, workers are laid off and financial markets sink.

A Wall Street Journal editorial last week, for example, said the country “urgently needs a pandemic strategy that is more economically and socially sustainable than the current national lockdown.”

The White House has already been showing some signs of loosening its response to the pandemic. On Sunday, Vice President Pence, who leads the coronavirus task force, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will soon issue guidance allowing people exposed to the coronavirus to return to work sooner by wearing a mask for a period of time.

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:03 AM on March 23, 2020 [11 favorites]

A Wall Street Journal editorial last week, for example, said the country “urgently needs a pandemic strategy that is more economically and socially sustainable than the current national lockdown.”

They're going to kill four million Americans to keep the stock market up.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:15 AM on March 23, 2020 [40 favorites]

Back when Trump was elected I started telling people that I was taking a page from the Sedevacantist Catholics when it came to the Oval Office - that as far as I was concerned, the Oval Office simply had no occupant, and we were for all intents and purposes on our own.

At the time I was joking. Now I think that it's the only thing that can save us - for each of our governors and mayors to step up and fill the gap that our Federal government is leaving behind.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:20 AM on March 23, 2020 [22 favorites]

For the US: Does anyone know if anyone in Congress is working on a vote by mail at scale program? I have no idea how that would work within the federal system, but it seems...important.

I mean if we’re doomed to be run into another depression for the next 10 months, but with an extra couple of million dead or disabled, it seems vital that we vote these catastrophically incompetent vampiric ghouls out before we can start a meaningful recovery.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:38 AM on March 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

Trump's main focus is to grift using his hotels... which have no occupants due to social distancing. He would be fine with 4 million dying if his hotels don't go bankrupt.
posted by benzenedream at 8:40 AM on March 23, 2020 [8 favorites]

I know Ron Wyden (one of my senators from Oregon) has been pushing on the idea of federal vote by mail for a long time, and very hard lately, but I don't know what uptake it's gotten at the level of either legislative viability or actual implementational preparation. Oregon's been vote-by-mail for years now and it works well; he's a good voice to advocate for it, if anybody ends up listening.
posted by cortex at 8:41 AM on March 23, 2020 [7 favorites]

for each of our governors and mayors to step up and fill the gap that our Federal government is leaving behind.

Thr NY AG is calling for universal voting by mail ASAP
posted by The Whelk at 8:46 AM on March 23, 2020 [7 favorites]

Now I think that it's the only thing that can save us - for each of our governors and mayors to step up and fill the gap

Maybe not all local officials.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 8:50 AM on March 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

In the anecdotal font, my sister is an ICU nurse and they've been reusing N95 masks for the past week or so.

She emphasized how quickly symptoms can escalate. They had a patient not thought to have COVID come in, the patient had a chest x ray showing no pneumonia, and 24 hours later the patient had severe double pneumonia and needed ventilating. No test results for the patient yet, but the hospital is assuming they are COVID positive.

Three are about 200,000 ventilators in the USA. There is the expectation that we will probably need around 900,000 if tends continue as they are.

My mother is over 70, my partner is over 60 and has a history of respiratory problems. I've been living in a state of low grade terror for the past week or two.
posted by sotonohito at 8:51 AM on March 23, 2020 [15 favorites]

Good thing for us that it's not actually Trump that gets to decide what public health measures are taken in terms of shutting down businesses, schools, etc. That power resides with the states.

One benefit of the federal system is that when the national government refuses to govern, states still have the power to do so. (and vice versa, as has been more relevant in recent times) Trump may be willing to watch several hundred thousand or more die, but will state governors? Most won't countenance the obvious carnage. No matter how he tries to massage the numbers, a week or two from now we will have a clear message about what inaction gets us. There is a wave coming, I just hope it isn't too big.
posted by wierdo at 8:55 AM on March 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

About these greedy conservatives: I'm surprised it doesn't have any effect that the disease till now hits well-off middle-aged to older men disproportionately. I'd have thunk that would help them focus. On the other hand, from when I did hospital design I know that they are a demographic who literally can't imagine they will ever get sick until they do.
posted by mumimor at 8:59 AM on March 23, 2020 [10 favorites]

These are the same people who look at our fractally inequal wealth distribution and support policies that benefit the wealthy on the assumption that they'll reach the top 0.1% some day. By that same "logic", they and the ones they care about will be healthy while others perish.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:01 AM on March 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

They're going to kill four million Americans to keep the stock market up.

And shoot themselves in the foot electorally. You would think the Republicans would be doing everything in their power to stop a pandemic that primarily kills men and the elderly, groups that skew heavily Republican.
posted by jedicus at 9:01 AM on March 23, 2020 [8 favorites]

Fundamentally childish mentality. We DID THE THING. For a WHOLE WEEK. It is not FAIR that we are not being REWARDED!
posted by thelonius at 9:06 AM on March 23, 2020 [41 favorites]

This Crisis Will Change the World – for Better, or Worse

posted by The Whelk at 9:10 AM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

It appears Hong Kong relaxed too soon: The number of confirmed cases is rising.

Increased case counts in South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore ect. are somewhat expected because of infected citizens returning from other countries. That being said, case counts in east Asia, particularly China and South Korea, will be extremely interesting to watch over the coming weeks as an indicator of the effect of relaxing social distancing measures after an initial flattening of the case curve.

It may very well come to pass that we will need to go through successive stages of tightening and relaxation of social distancing measures over the next 18 to 24 months to keep caseloads below health system capacities while preventing catastrophic economic damage.
posted by eagles123 at 9:20 AM on March 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

Sure, but it's kind of weird that they aren't seeing the overlap between the most at risk population and the political base that allows them to remain in power.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:27 AM on March 23, 2020

Sure, but it's kind of weird that they aren't seeing the overlap between the most at risk population and the political base that allows them to remain in power.

They've learned from the last several decades that they will remain in power no matter which political party controls the government.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:28 AM on March 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

They believe power comes from $$$$$
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:29 AM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

They believe power comes from $$$$$

They would be largely correct in that belief.
posted by eagles123 at 9:32 AM on March 23, 2020 [11 favorites]

Folks, very seriously, in order to keep this thread viable and available for the most people, it needs to not turn into a doomsaying thread. Reload it and readjust please. Thank you.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:32 AM on March 23, 2020 [21 favorites]

Sure, but it's kind of weird that they aren't seeing the overlap between the most at risk population and the political base that allows them to remain in power.

A couple people have said as much, but it seems to me that urban areas are going to more severely affected. My coworkers in NYC can't so much as step a foot outside of their apartments before running into a bunch people. There is no where to go. I'm fortunate enough to have open space nearby . I could probably spend all day outside and never see another soul, if I wanted to.
posted by scottatdrake at 9:33 AM on March 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

Trump's main focus is to grift using his hotels... which have no occupants due to social distancing. He would be fine with 4 million dying if his hotels don't go bankrupt.

I just assume, without any factual basis for this and off the top of my head, that Plan A is massive economic stimulus including to failing hotels, Plan B will be for federal government to lease the Trump US hotels (at commercial rates) as health care quarantine facilities (possibly for Senators etc given the US hotels will have been “vetted and cleared by the secret service” or some such nonsense). Plan C will be they are sold to the Federal Government at inflated cost for some hand-waving reason (Mar-a-Lago as a remote Whitehouse - Doral National as a permanently international crisis meeting location - remember it was the “only” facility that could host the G7 etc.). A rider on Plan C will be Trump gets first right to repurchase them - minus “expected renovation costs to return them to commercial operation” of approx 100% purchase price
posted by inflatablekiwi at 9:34 AM on March 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

Thanks to jessamyn, and if I can hijack: Y'all, there's an open thread from just 4 days ago called "The Politics of the Pandemic" if you need a place to post opinions and one-liners about that. I know it's a long shot, I'm risking being seen as a jerk, and tilting against windmills besides, but dang it sure would be great if we could have at least one coronavirus thread with a very high info:opinion ratio. One info-dense, opinion-light thread about the pandemic isn't too much to ask, is it?
posted by mediareport at 9:36 AM on March 23, 2020 [19 favorites]

it should be incumbent on the part of those now saying "the cure mustn't be worse than the disease" to first make reasonable efforts to clearly establish the scope of the threat of the disease at a minimum.

you can't compare [looks worriedly at portfolio] with [disinterested shrug]
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:44 AM on March 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

Venezuelan president Maduro suspends rent payments for 6 months, among other measures:

Maduro announced that for six months banks must put the collection of credit payments on hold, telecommunications services would not be cut off, and rent payments for homes and businesses would be suspended, accompanied by compensation for property owners, but without specifying details.

He added that the government would offer a plan to help cover the payroll of small and medium sized businesses, in the local Bolivares currency, for six months. He also banned companies from laying off employees through December 2020, a measure that was decreed in 2015 and has been extended every year since. Maduro did not suspend tax collection, nor did he offer tax incentives to companies, contrary to what some other governments in the region have done.
posted by mediareport at 9:46 AM on March 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

ProPublica: Lupus Patients Can’t Get Crucial Medication After President Trump Pushes Unproven Coronavirus Treatment

Stat News notes the drug is already approved for off-label use, which is why doctors can freely prescribe it to patients worried about the rona: Why President Trump is at odds with his medical experts over using malaria drugs against Covid-19

I've been pleasantly surprised at how useful Stat has been as a source; the article about aerosolization linked above was very thoughtful popular science, as was the piece yesterday about Gilead Sciences restricting access to remdesivir: Gilead pauses access to experimental Covid-19 drug due to ‘overwhelming demand.’
posted by mediareport at 9:58 AM on March 23, 2020 [11 favorites]

As a lupus patient, the run on hydroxychloroquine fills me with terror. Doctors are not only prescribing it for themselves and family members, they are doing so with doses wildly outside the ranges used for covid-19 testing.
posted by 8dot3 at 10:01 AM on March 23, 2020 [9 favorites]

That said, 4 states how now passed legislation limiting the amount of and reasons that hydroxychloroquine can be prescribed.
All states need to do this, stat.
posted by 8dot3 at 10:06 AM on March 23, 2020 [14 favorites]

Does anyone have a template email/ script for contacting our senators about all the pork and zero accountability in the coronavirus stimulus bill? I don't even know where to start but everything I've read about McConnell’s bill looks terrible. The last thing I want to see is another bailout like in 2008 where banks and financial institutions were saved while working folks got screwed.
posted by photoslob at 10:22 AM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

On Sunday, Vice President Pence, who leads the coronavirus task force, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will soon issue guidance allowing people exposed to the coronavirus to return to work sooner by wearing a mask for a period of time.

What masks? The imaginary Trump everything is under control masks?
posted by JackFlash at 10:37 AM on March 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

Producing hand sanitizer in bulk seems like the sort of thing that could be done via a government requisition: there are lots of ways of producing alcohol

There is no lack of alcohol for sanitizer. Alcohol is produced for blending with fuel at such an immense scale that you could take all you need for sanitizer and not even notice that any was missing.

The problem is building plants to mix and bottle the product at scale. The small batch distilleries are able to do that by hand at small scale, and that's great as far as it goes. But you can't just wish a bottling plant into existence.

Maybe you could truck some of that ethanol over to a shampoo bottling plant and rig something up. They might already even have aloe in stock.
posted by sjswitzer at 10:43 AM on March 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

Why is there any focus on hand sanitizer at all when regular hand washing is more effective?
posted by tiny frying pan at 10:45 AM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Because when you are out of the house or have contact with surfaces and need to touch other surfaces and don't have access to running water and/or soap, hand sanitizer is what you need.
posted by jessamyn at 10:46 AM on March 23, 2020 [23 favorites]

I can't put my sink in my pocket.
posted by cmfletcher at 10:47 AM on March 23, 2020 [8 favorites]

Governor Baker has ordered the closing of non-essential businesses doing business with the public in Massachusetts starting at noon tomorrow 24 March through noon 7 April. Gatherings of more than ten people are also forbidden. Bars and restaurants serving takeout or delivery may remain open.

List of essential businesses here.
posted by haiku warrior at 10:55 AM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Governor Bill Lee continues to be a shameful and cowardly leader, but Tennessee cities are doing what they can. Nashville and Memphis are shuttering all non-essential businesses for two weeks.
posted by absalom at 11:04 AM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Michigan shuts down for three weeks starting at midnight.
posted by LionIndex at 11:08 AM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

I can't put my sink in my pocket.

I have a ziploc bag containing a damp soapy rag around a small cake of hand soap in mine. There is running water available in lots of places; I'm finding that as long as I have my soap I can reliably get my hands clean before they need to go near my face.
posted by flabdablet at 11:12 AM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

governor hogan has ordered something but the order isn't on the governor's website or the state department of health website. closest i could come was an "interpretive guidance" of the order from his office of legal counsel linked from wbaltv.com. long and short appears to be that he ordered the closure of all non-essential businesses. also the washington post aired the press conference of the governor of new york, but not the press conference of the governor of maryland. i have grumbled at the governor and the newspaper on social media.
posted by 20 year lurk at 11:21 AM on March 23, 2020

The Jack Ma foundation has just donated a planefull of PPEs to Denmark, after donating to a number of other countries. I don't do twitter, you can see more there, but here is a Bloomberg article.
Denmark hasn't received any donations from another country since the Marshall Aid program.
posted by mumimor at 12:03 PM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

aha. the press release has been posted. and the order prohibiting gatherings larger than 10 persons, closing non-essential businesses at 5 pm today, and sundry other things, in maryland. ask and ye shall receive.

see also federal "identifying critical infrastructure"
posted by 20 year lurk at 12:05 PM on March 23, 2020

Indiana has also finally issued a stay-home order, although it doesn't take effect until midnight Tuesday. I guess even the Midwest's, hm, slower learners are slowly getting with the program at last. (I am from Indiana.)
posted by Not A Thing at 12:19 PM on March 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

But if hand sanitizer doesn't protect against the virus then what is the point? I don't understand.
posted by tiny frying pan at 12:21 PM on March 23, 2020

It does protect, as long as it's more than 60% alcohol. It's just not as effective as hand washing, so if you have the option, you should wash your hands. If you don't, and only have hand sanitizer, use hand sanitizer.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:23 PM on March 23, 2020 [11 favorites]

In addition to individuals having the occasional N95 mask, there are businesses which routinely have them-- painters, automotive, and construction.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 12:26 PM on March 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

I will be staying grumpy at Hogan for some things (lookin' at you, 'rain tax') but he's handling this about as well as I could possibly hope for. As a Maryland small business owner whose storefront has been closed for a week, it's definitely a relief to hear that we'll have grants and loans available to make up for lost sales.
posted by nonasuch at 12:26 PM on March 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

Bandana Gramma on what to do if you have no hand sanitizer or no toilet paper. Good advice.
posted by haiku warrior at 12:30 PM on March 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

Five more governors announce new restrictions to curb coronavirus (Politico)

The flurry of measures announced Monday follow in the footsteps of eight other state leaders who have issued similar mandatory orders: Ohio, Louisiana and Delaware issued stay at home orders on Sunday, joining California, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut. Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered all non-essential workers to stay home.

The new action in recent days comes amid reluctance by President Donald Trump to mandate social distancing measures at the federal level, despite a number of state leaders pleading for the president to order fixes to what they've complained is a patchwork pattern of restrictions across the country.

Trump said Friday he would not be ordering any kind of shelter in place restrictions at the federal level, citing an unevenness in infections in different parts of the country. Rather than push for further social distancing, the president has begun to signal a growing skepticism to en-mass lockdowns the economic devastation they have caused throughout the country.

The Virus Can Be Stopped, but Only With Harsh Steps, Experts Say (NYT)

Americans must be persuaded to stay home, they said, and a system put in place to isolate the infected and care for them outside the home. Travel restrictions should be extended, they said; productions of masks and ventilators must be accelerated, and testing problems must be resolved.

[...] The microphone should not even be at the White House, scientists said, so that briefings of historic importance do not dissolve into angry, politically charged exchanges with the press corps, as happened again on Friday.

posted by katra at 12:42 PM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

PA Gov. Tom Wolf has ratcheted up restrictions in the hardest hit counties from closing businesses to a full "stay at home" order.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:46 PM on March 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

nonasuch, I'm not a fan of Hogan's political philosophy, and I'm grateful everyday that the State House majorities needed to keep him in check have been there during his time in office, but I think he's actually been doing a pretty good job with COVID-19. I'm glad that you're going to get some help for your business, too, our small businesses in Maryland are really important!
posted by wintermind at 1:08 PM on March 23, 2020

Austinites: my source says Travis county is drafting a shelter in place order, could be as early as today that it comes out, maybe later this week.
posted by emjaybee at 1:10 PM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

I'm hearing the same. Also, all research at UT will be shut down by tomorrow at 5p.

My boss is not handling this well.
posted by sciatrix at 1:23 PM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

What masks? The imaginary Trump everything is under control masks?

I just had a vision of 1,000s of MAGA-branded masks made from old hats.
posted by emjaybee at 1:28 PM on March 23, 2020 [7 favorites]

posted by 8dot3: As a lupus patient, the run on hydroxychloroquine fills me with terror. Doctors are not only prescribing it for themselves and family members, they are doing so with doses wildly outside the ranges used for covid-19 testing.

Yep, I can't get mine refilled. I've called every pharmacy in a 10 mile radius. I don't know who these doctors are that suddenly decided to write prescriptions for a drug with radical side effects at dosages so high that pharmacies have run out, but what the everloving fuck, you assholes?
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 1:48 PM on March 23, 2020 [31 favorites]

From The Lancet: Investigation of three clusters of COVID-19 in Singapore: implications for surveillance and response measures
I'm tired now, and haven't read it, but I'm putting it up because maybe som MeFi doctors can tell us what it means.
posted by mumimor at 1:52 PM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

and that rumor is: correct! Austin will shelter in place starting tomorrow.
posted by sciatrix at 1:55 PM on March 23, 2020

Nobel Laureate Predicts a Quicker Coronavirus Recovery (LA Times)

I don't know anything about Michael Levitt except that he's a chemist and not a public health expert. I'm mentally and physically preparing for several months of shelter-in-place, but I sure hope that the Professor is correct in his prediction here.
posted by Fritzle at 2:09 PM on March 23, 2020

Academics need to stay in our goddamn fucking lanes, here. Jesus.

Levitt is talking out of his asshole. He's noticing differences in diagnosis rates with COVID-19, in the full knowledge that asymptomatic carriers are extremely common, testing rates are extremely low, and diagnosis is proceeding along a "well maybe! shrug emoji!" direction. His best explanation for this discrepancy is "well there's gotta be something there even if the data is messy!" which makes no sense.

The man is a biophysicist and has zero expertise in infectious disease spread, and giving him a platform is journalistic malpractice.
posted by sciatrix at 2:14 PM on March 23, 2020 [47 favorites]

Nobel Laureates opining on things outside their expertise is one of the best arguments against the Nobel prize.
posted by sjswitzer at 2:18 PM on March 23, 2020 [36 favorites]

My father is a physicist and along with a lot of other people in his field -- I believe one or two Nobel laureates among them -- he signed onto some document in the 90s saying that global warming is a hoax. That strongly informs how I feel about Levitt's prediction.
posted by Slothrup at 2:20 PM on March 23, 2020 [19 favorites]

I put together a post on my blog regarding pharmacology and SARS-CoV-2 infections in part to share with my pharmacology students.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:54 PM on March 23, 2020 [8 favorites]

Man dies after self-medicating with chloroquine phosphate to treat coronavirus (WaPo, March 23, 2020 3:11 pm) A man died in Phoenix after self-medicating with chloroquine phosphate to treat covid-19, Banner Health announced in a statement Monday. The man’s wife, who also self-medicated with chloroquine phosphate, is in critical care, according to Banner Health. The man was in his 60s, as is his wife. Banner Health did not identify either of them by name.

This came just two days after President Trump suggested, in a tweet, that a mix of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin could be an effective treatment for covid-19. Neither drug had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration or World Health Organization as a treatment for the coronavirus, and has not been in the time since.
--
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:01 PM on March 23, 2020 [13 favorites]

The Utah Governor has declared schools closed till May 1st (they were already closed for two weeks and re-evaluation was to occur by this Friday, but he made the call today).

Martha's Vineyard, the other hidey-hole place for the rich and fabulous off Cape Cod, reported its first case a couple days ago.

I live in Park City, UT which is a playground for wealthy skiers coming to Deer Valley or Park City Resort - which are all closed along with all the other ski resorts (and of course its pounding snow outside this evening....). I live in a fairly quiet less densely populated area about 20 minutes from the resorts. Anyway I've noticed *a lot* of New York, Pennsylvania, and other East Coast licence plates sitting in driveways around my neighborhood all of a sudden - often 3 or 4 cars from a state in one driveway (way more then the random one or two I'd see if the resorts were open), presumably because people see being in the mountains at 7000 feet and with some space as safer. Yet we are the second most impacted county in Utah by total cases (behind Salt Lake County), and blow all the other counties away in cases per capita with about 1 in 550 (behind - but not that far off - NYC levels) as opposed to around 1 in 9000 for SLC. So yeah...not sure that isolation plan is working out for them.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 4:04 PM on March 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

i think president horrorshow just said fda has approved trials for chloroquine in new york: great amounts of them will be delivered there and will start to be distributed tomorrow, he said. the fda shows no press release about that. the orange horror might also have said that it's doing wonders administered with z-pack.

[copied from c-span transcript] i'm pleased to report that clinical trials in new york will begin existing for existing drugs that may prove effective against the virus. at my direction, the federal government is working to help obtain large quantities of the medicine. you can look from any standpoint tomorrow in new york. we think tomorrow pretty early. the hydroxy chloroquine and z-pac. it's a combination probably is looking very good. it's going to be distrib uted. we got 10,000 units going. it will be distributed tomorrow. it will be available and is now, they already have it. they will distribute it tomorrow morning to lot of people in new york citry and new york. we're studying it closely. [anecdote]...he's happy for this particular drug that we got approved in record-setting time. never been anything even close to it. i want to thank the fda, which has been incredible....

washingtonpost (re?)posts story from friday about lupus and rheumatoid arthritis patients unable to obtain that medicine as a result of his intemperate statements. without a hint of self-awareness he then announced a plan to prosecute hoarders and gougers, introducing the attorney general. there was no further mention of those medicines.

also he said the cure can't be worse than the disease. and then compared deaths to those from flu and car accidents. we've gotta get the country open again. he said we'll see at the end of the 15 days but also "i'm not looking at months, i'll tell you right now."

wish someone would ask him when he'll start stadium rallies again.
posted by 20 year lurk at 4:05 PM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Christ, what an asshole — Sen. Rand Paul kept working for six days after [his positive corona] virus test
posted by thedward at 4:39 PM on March 23, 2020 [11 favorites]

What masks? The imaginary Trump everything is under control masks?

Yeah, the powers that be at work are already talking about what day we're going to recall all the people self-isolating with orders to work. Critical national security; we will be exempt from shelter-in-place orders. BUT! We're going to have them wear PPE at work! They didn't have an answer to when we will be visited by the PPE Fairy, will that be before or after all the hospitals get what they need?

On the bright side, our accredited lab is making hand sanitizer like crazy.
posted by ctmf at 5:10 PM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Also being considered: making people stay at work. Like, we'll give you a room in the barracks or a bunk on one of the ship's force living barges. No word yet on how they'll pay people for that, how they would take care of their families, or how to keep the barges from turning into a petri dish, without testing people on the way in.
posted by ctmf at 5:17 PM on March 23, 2020

It takes a Senator six days to get test results for coronavirus?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:18 PM on March 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

Would you rush for Rand Paul? Hell, he's probably not even positive, just some lab tech being spiteful. I bet the nasal swab wasn't gentle.
posted by ctmf at 5:20 PM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

I have found COVID-19.direct to be a good interface to current US infection and testing rate data, which is easy to break down at federal, state, and county levels.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:30 PM on March 23, 2020 [11 favorites]

The problem is building plants to mix and bottle the product at scale. The small batch distilleries are able to do that by hand at small scale, and that's great as far as it goes. But you can't just wish a bottling plant into existence.

Labatts in Canada has geared up to produce hand sanitizer and they ain't no craft brewery; anyone bottling beer can make this shift.
posted by Mitheral at 5:47 PM on March 23, 2020 [7 favorites]

in my small and isolated community, the guy with a still has just announced that he'll be focusing exclusively on making hand sanitizer for the time being. Now the issue is bottles
posted by philip-random at 6:07 PM on March 23, 2020 [9 favorites]

OK, this is the wrong part of the article to focus on but the reason Rand Paul bothered to get a COVID-19 test at all is that he was concerned about his lung which had been "damaged in a 2017 assault by a neighbor who attacked him over a long-standing landscaping dispute."
posted by selfmedicating at 6:14 PM on March 23, 2020 [16 favorites]

On the bright side, our accredited lab is making hand sanitizer like crazy.

Way more than we can possibly use. Please don't steal it and take it home with you *wink wink*
posted by ctmf at 6:18 PM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

60+ stories abiut NYC dealing with Coronavirus as the new epicenter
posted by The Whelk at 6:38 PM on March 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

Well, that and he was at an event where a couple of people tested positive. He said that's not why, but the timing says otherwise.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 6:39 PM on March 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

anyone bottling beer can make this shift

Making sanitizer gel is rather harder. You can't just mix alcohol with an existing gel(e.g., aloe vera): you need a gelling agent and the ability to make it bloom and then mix it without aeration. It's not that hard, but you need to know what you're doing and be able to control temperature and Ph levels.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:43 PM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

60+ stories abiut NYC dealing with Coronavirus as the new epicenter

Wow, one of those stories: NYC Hospitals Send Homeless Who Have Coronavirus to Shelters

The city-run hospital system is transferring patients who’ve tested positive for the virus into the shelter system if the person has no known address and isn’t deemed to require acute medical care.

It's so unbelievable that anyone is talking about easing social isolation restrictions right now. More, from the NYT:

Nearly 1 in 1,000 people in the region have contracted the virus, an “attack rate” five times that of other areas...Dr. Birx added that 28 percent of tests for coronavirus in the region were coming up positive, while the rate is less than 8 percent in the rest of the country...

New York State is now virtually tied with Italy in the rate of confirmed cases — both stand at around 105 per 100,000 residents — even though New York State is less densely populated than Italy, and Italy’s outbreak has about a two-week head start on New York’s.
posted by mediareport at 6:47 PM on March 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

thank you, mediareport. I had wondered if the huge number of cases in NY were a sign of increased testing or a sign of a bad outbreak. I'm sadden to learn its the latter.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 7:26 PM on March 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

We're not going back to normal
posted by EarnestDeer at 7:28 PM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Aluacha county has a 2 year old with coronavirus. The county leaders are declaring shelter in place. This needs to be done for the whole state but it's not going to happen until more people die.
posted by tilde at 7:40 PM on March 23, 2020

Dan Kaminsky @dakami "You need to watch this video. This, in three minutes, is more competence than you’ve heard all day. Maybe any day. Send this video to people."

Security Under Swift Law @SwiftOnSecurity "Holy shit imagine hearing this level of sheer competence every day in briefings and how much better we’d be. This is the only encouraging thing I’ve heard from a podium in months. Let’s do this.

U.S. Army @USArmy · Mar 20
Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, Chief of the @USACEHQ, provides a 'simple' solution to the complicated problem of building temporary medical facilities to assist states with responding to #COVID19. This clip is from a press conference by Army senior leader on March 20, 2020.

posted by katra at 8:04 PM on March 23, 2020 [17 favorites]

Gabriel Sherman, Vanity Fair:

Trump’s view that he can ignore Fauci’s opinion may be influenced by advice he’s getting from Jared Kushner, whose outside-the-box efforts have often rankled those in charge of managing the crisis. According to two sources, Kushner has told Trump about experimental treatments he’s heard about from executives in Silicon Valley. “Jared is bringing conspiracy theories to Trump about potential treatments,” a Republican briefed on the conversations told me. Another former West Wing official told me: “Trump is like an 11-year-old boy waiting for the fairy godmother to bring him a magic pill.”

Throughout the crisis, Kushner has counseled Trump that the crisis isn’t as bad as the media is portraying. Two sources said Vice President Mike Pence has complained to Trump about Kushner’s meddling in the work of the coronavirus task force.

posted by mbrubeck at 8:56 PM on March 23, 2020 [17 favorites]

My point above is that I don't believe Paul took six days to receive his result. A CNN article from March 4 says results can be ready in 24 hours. I can imagine bureaucracy and a high number of tests delaying that for most, but not a U.S. Senator.
I believe he sat on the information.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:03 PM on March 23, 2020 [12 favorites]

Two sources said Vice President Mike Pence has complained to Trump about Kushner’s meddling in the work of the coronavirus task force.

The "task force" that is doing what now? I frankly don't believe that Pence told Trump that he shouldn't be listening to Kushner. That would imply that Trump is wrong. It does sound like the knives are out for Kushner, but that's not going to help anyone hoping for a coherent US policy: the fundamental problem is that Trump is making decisions.
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:09 PM on March 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

We're so starved for competence that "stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night" levels seem like Captain Sully levels.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:17 PM on March 23, 2020 [12 favorites]

Breaking news ... literally.

Networks face decision: How long to stick with Trump?

ABC, CBS and NBC all covered Trump at the beginning of Monday’s briefing, which began about 6:10 p.m. Eastern. After 20 minutes, they switched to the network evening newscasts, never to return to Trump. The president spoke until shortly after 8 p.m.

The cable news networks have given Trump blanket coverage for his briefings, but CNN cut away Monday at around 7:20 p.m. MSNBC followed within five minutes.

Of its own decision to stop showing Trump live, CNN said that “if the White House wants to ask for time on the network, they should make an official request. Otherwise we will make our own editorial decisions.”

MSNBC, through a spokesperson, said that “we cut away because the information no longer appeared to be valuable to the important ongoing discussion around public health.”
posted by philip-random at 9:22 PM on March 23, 2020 [51 favorites]

The media will keep giving Trump as much free airtime as he wants. People tune into that idiotic asshole. He's good for ad revenue, just as Les Moonves admitted.

What this pandemic has shown time and again is that the media will pretend to inform the public, but only up to the point where it makes them money. They have shareholders to answer to.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:34 PM on March 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

The networks should just give Cuomo nationwide live coverage.
posted by ocschwar at 9:37 PM on March 23, 2020 [12 favorites]

The media will keep giving Trump as much free airtime as he wants

except they're not. Not today anyway.

What this pandemic has shown time and again is that the media will pretend to inform the public, but only up to the point where it makes them money. They have shareholders to answer to.

and now maybe the shareholders are getting sick
posted by philip-random at 9:42 PM on March 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

you can look from any standpoint tomorrow in new york. we think tomorrow pretty early. the hydroxy chloroquine and z-pac. it's a combination probably is looking very good. it's going to be distributed. we got 10,000 units going. it will be distributed tomorrow. it will be available and is now, they already have it

digging in comments to another emptywheel.net post from contributor rayne, came across someone else's searches at clinicaltrials.gov. why didn't i think of that?

looking from that standpoint i found

remdesivir (n=6: 4 recruiting - california et al. 3, paris 1, 1 "available", 1 "not yet recruiting");
hydroxychloroquine (n=7: 3 recruiting - seoul, shanghai, minnesota, and 4 "not yet recruiting"), and
chloroquine (n=7: 2 recruiting - huaian, china [comparing antivirals including chloroquine with unspecified traditional chinese medicine], paris, and 5 "not yet recruiting").

one of the not yet recruiting hydroxychloroquine studies was first posted march 23; the "Chemoprophylaxis With Hydroxychloroquine in Healthcare Personnel in Contact With COVID-19 Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial (PHYDRA Trial)," sponsored by sanofi and the mexican national institute of infectious diseases will compare high and low doses with placebo.

no lised trial involves azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine.

sorry that's all so rough; i lack the time -- and maybe the requisite breadth of knowledge -- to usefully dig in there just now. also i'm kicking myself for spinning my wheels trying to consult actual authority in an effort to make sense of or rebut president horrorshow's patent nonsense when i ought to know better. mea culpa. anyway: don't forget clinicaltrials.gov is there.
posted by 20 year lurk at 10:24 PM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

no lised trial involves azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine

Perhaps because this is a known dangerous combination of drugs that can cause heart irregularities -- ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest.

That's the combination that Trump has been pushing. He's an ignorant idiot who is going to get people killed.
posted by JackFlash at 10:44 PM on March 23, 2020 [15 favorites]

The French study had 36 people in it (and only 26 actually received hydroxychloroquine).

And yet: Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine: what to know about the potential coronavirus drugs (CNN, March 24, 2020, 12:32 a.m. ET) As the world's heath experts race to find treatments -- and eventually, a cure -- for the novel coronavirus, two drugs have jumped to the front of the conversation: chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.

President Donald Trump has called the drugs, which are used to treat malaria and other conditions, game changers, and a rush to procure the pharmaceuticals spurred several US states to take measures to prevent shortages amid the Covid-19 pandemic.[...]

Perhaps demonstrating why health officials are urging caution -- saying chloroquine requires further clinical study and might not be the panacea it's billed to be -- officials in Nigeria's Lagos state have reported three overdoses in the days since the drug entered the conversation surrounding the pandemic.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:48 PM on March 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

oh. there are three covid trials in new york. one of those remdesivirs above described as california et al., and a sarilumab v. placebo. also one not yet recruiting to study aviptadil. i think the president referred to this one in some recent rallybriefing. i recalled today that he had referred to some drug starting with an "a" with a louche winking aside about how we know that's a good one and tried to track it down in recent days events, but gave up as the rage overtook me. at the time when it pinged my subtext-o-meter, i assumed it probably treated some venereal disease, but on examination, aviptadil - a vasoactive intestinal peptide - may be an erectile dysfunction drug in new zealand, denmark and the UK. it appears in 2016 the vasoactive intestinal peptide review team of FDA's pharmacy compounding advisory committee (see at 95/144 et seq.) recommended against including it "on the list of bulk drug substances that can be used to compound drug products..."on inadequate data.
posted by 20 year lurk at 10:49 PM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

They're going to kill four million Americans to keep the stock market up

I don't think this can be done.

Anything on the order of a million dead will be both a demand crater that will drive a recession and a giant productivity shock.

That would just be the deaths. Cases that fall ill for weeks at a time would probably be an order of magnitude larger would also be a productivity shock, even assuming full recovery vs some number of chronic or recurring cases.

That's just the deaths and illnesses, the first order effects. The second order effects of people's reactions as grief and fear spread along with peaking infections would be... probably similar to the social distancing being recommended, but half-assed and improvised, so likely not as effective, but with lots of the same economic impacts.

Unless by some chance the asymptomatic spread has already gone farther and wider than we might suspect (and immunity in its wake), I don't think there's any getting around serious economic impacts. We either bear the economic impacts of the distancing tools we have, and keep more people alive, or we bear the economic impacts that would be consequences of an unmanaged epidemic.

Though it is possible the Trump administration might be able to strike a balance where we get the worst of both options.
posted by weston at 10:53 PM on March 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

‘Like Standing on the Shore and Watching a Tsunami Approach’ (Dr. Sandra Simons, Politico Magazine)

I work nights in a small community emergency department, and as the only physician in the entire hospital, it’s up to me to handle whatever comes through the door. I’m scared. And the reason isn’t just this disease, it’s the equipment we need—and don’t have—to fight this fight.

[...] The dwindling supplies of personal protective equipment in front-line hospitals like mine isn’t scaring just me—it’s scaring my physician friends around the country, with shortages of N95 masks, gowns, goggles and gloves being reported in states from New York to Washington.

[...] This week, we received the same warning that emergency department teams everywhere are hearing: Once this disease arrives in force, our PPE supply will not last. [...] The demoralizing reality I face is that more PPE might not be coming. So last week I went to my local hardware store and bought myself a face shield. I’m posting on social media, along with other doctors and nurses on the front lines, using the hashtag #GetMePPE. It’s crazy to be a physician shopping in a hardware store for medical equipment.

Meanwhile, I’m losing sleep over the predicament of having no good course of action. Do I use masks with every patient to protect myself from asymptomatic spread and risk running out of masks entirely? When the PPE runs out, do I keep going in, like a firefighter charging into a burning building in a Speedo and flip-flops? The deaths of Italian doctors Robert Stella and Marcello Natali, who valiantly kept working without PPE, are a terrifying warning.

[...] Without more serious action to provide the armor we need on your front line—not just now, but for months, maybe years, as long as this virus is sweeping through an unimmunized population—this disease will be picking off health care workers one by one.

posted by katra at 11:20 PM on March 23, 2020 [15 favorites]

Austin will shelter in place starting tomorrow.

Introverts have been training for this moment their entire lives.
posted by JackFlash at 11:37 PM on March 23, 2020 [11 favorites]

Old news on this thread, but a cousin (very good guy who is part of our Sunday NY Times Crossword five-some, but leans who leans right) sent me a link to that LA Times article with prediction Nobel Chemistry Laureate, Michael Levitt. I spent a lot of time composing a response that I have reproduced here. Apologies for its length. You might skip to the last paragraph, which I think is actually the most important with respect what we will see with this pandemic in the US and possibly through most of the world.

Thanks for sending link. I had heard about this article, and now I have read it.

I get that the editors at the LA Times would like some contrast to the doom and gloom stories, but I think it was a big mistake for the LA Times to print it. Would the LA Times have printed an article on a new chemical reaction or compound by an expert in infectious disease because she/he correctly predicted a chemical structure without consulting with a chemist?

Levitt *might* be right, and I sure hope he is, but I doubt it. While he is clearly a very smart guy with Nobel in Chemistry, but he is way out of his field here. Of course, he's either right ("I'm a genius!") or he's wrong ("Oh well, I'm not an expert in infectious disease").

I do think he is right about two things. (1) Very strong social distancing is essential to keep the rate of new cases manageable, but this is only possible with the shutdowns we have now that he thinks might be too costly. (2) It is not the end of the world--we will get through it, but after a VERY rough ride both in loss of life and economic activity.

(You can skip the rest of the rant below.)

Has Levitt successfully predicted the course of epidemics in the past? From what I can see, he got one prediction right in back in February with respect to the Chinese outbreak, which occurred because of the massive shutdown of the economy that advocates avoiding. The data from Iran are suspect--they have not been honest. Satellites have spotted trenches for mass graves outside of the city of Qom, for example. He's extrapolating from small samples, like the cruise ship, and without accounting for the actions to mitigate spread. He admits the data are messy.

Levitt's comparison to the flu is stupid. Yes, there are tens thousands of deaths due to the flu each year, and so far in this country does not have that magnitude of deaths with COVID-19 (but I expect that is a matter of not a very long time). Were the 9/11 attacks not a big deal because more people die from flu every year or from car accidents every month?

With the flu we have vaccines. Flu is not nearly so easily transmitted nor transmitted by people with few or no symptoms. Until now, hospitals were not running out of ICU units, ventilators, gowns, and masks due to the flu. (Levitt should volunteer at hospital.) Fatality rates are not 1% (up to 8% in Italy and 4% in Spain) for flu. Spain had 15,000 deaths from flu last year. It had 3% of that total in one day yesterday from COVID-19. Cases and fatalities were not doubling every three days with the flu, as they are now in this country, even with the significant amount of social distancing was already undertaken in this country.

Levitt states that the media have sensationalized the pandemic, causing panic. Panic has not been my observation, except with respect to runs on hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, paper towels, toilet paper, and tissues. If anything the outbreak has been underplayed, because not enough people are taking it seriously by restricting their activities.

Levitt advocates testing, tracing individuals' contacts, and quarantining them. That's what Korea did, but even there, that's not the end of the outbreak. As Korea relents as cases are climbing there again--it is an unending battle. Unfortunately, the testing and horse has already left the barn here--two months of warning wasted by "It's a Democratic hoax" and "Everything is under control." There simply aren't enough tests available (nor masks, gowns, ventilators, hand sanitizer).

How does Levitt propose to go back to more normal activity to avoid the economic consequences of the shutdown and keep fatality rates to *only* 1%? The only way to keep fatality rates down is to avoid overwhelming the medical system by flattening the curve, which means keeping people apart by these severe restrictions. Since up to 20% of those infected have severe cases, a large fraction those people would die without advance medical care. Losing 10% of your populations will do a number on your economy, too. Is he willing to risk being one of those fatalities, since he is about 73 years old?

Unfortunately, until there is sufficient herd immunity due to enough people (millions) becoming infected and recovering (with perhaps 1% dying) or enough people being inoculated with a vaccine that has yet to be developed, we are going to be dealing with managing the rate at which new cases appear by social distancing through shutting large portions of the service portions of our economy, perhaps interrupted by periods of more normal activity, when the virus might not spread as rapidly, like summer. This situation could be what we see over the next couple of years.

posted by haiku warrior at 11:45 PM on March 23, 2020 [19 favorites]

Disability activist Ari Ne'eman in the NYT:
‘I Will Not Apologize for My Needs’
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:56 PM on March 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

Dan Kaminsky @dakami "You need to watch this video. This, in three minutes, is more competence than you’ve heard all day. Maybe any day. Send this video to people."

That's..... normal. That's a normal construction or engineering project manager. Thats the level of competence at 90% of the professional meetings and construction projects I have ever worked on. I guarantee this man and many like him have been coming up with plans since January and have been waiting by the phone to be called in.

There ate literally tens of thousands of people in this country that could be running facilities conversions competently. I assume there are just as many in manufacturing. I KNOW there are just as many in logistics becuase I work with them too. Lab managers and hospital administration is a smaller field but I'm sure they have thousands at least. There are military staff that only do field hospitals or only logistics. There are people trained in everything we need, ready to go.

Why. The. Fuck. Are. We. Not. Already. Doing. This.
posted by fshgrl at 12:42 AM on March 24, 2020 [59 favorites]

Older people would rather die than let Covid-19 harm US economy – Texas official
Lieutenant governor Dan Patrick tells Fox News: ‘Do we have to shut down the entire country for this? I think we can get back to work’

May I translate this for you: old white man doesn't mind other people dying if he can keep his money. He doesn't think he will die because he is white and privileged. Data doesn't work for him, they are liberal.
posted by mumimor at 2:52 AM on March 24, 2020 [16 favorites]

More on the rich as disease vectors: Party Zero: How a Soirée in Connecticut Became a ‘Super Spreader’ About 50 people gathered this month for a party in the upscale suburb of Westport, then scattered across the region and the world, taking the coronavirus with them.
posted by mumimor at 4:05 AM on March 24, 2020 [9 favorites]

There ate literally tens of thousands of people in this country that could be running facilities conversions competently. I assume there are just as many in manufacturing. I KNOW there are just as many in logistics becuase I work with them too. Lab managers and hospital administration is a smaller field but I'm sure they have thousands at least. There are military staff that only do field hospitals or only logistics. There are people trained in everything we need, ready to go.

It's a bit of a joke, but there's a meme that's started going around my theater friends that "maybe we should let stage managers work on fixing on this." I joked that we could probably all dump out the contents of our various SM kits and we could hack together an entire field hospital in about three hours.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:09 AM on March 24, 2020 [18 favorites]

US Digital Response, organized by many folks involved in the US Digital Service, 18F, and Code For America. If you have experience as a project manager, developer, IT specialist, public health professional, disaster response team member, UX researcher or data scientist, can volunteer full time, and want to help state and local governments with:

Making it easier to collect and collate data from private and public testing facilities

Keeping websites and systems that are under unprecedented strain from going down (i.e. benefit application systems for unemployment insurance, etc.)

Building a digital product for the public to self-assess before driving to a testing center

Building/implementing a system to better collect and track data from hospitals about their bed and ventilator capacity

Re-imaging and distributing laptops to EOCs

From data scientists with modeling and mapping infection data

With project & general operational management, as well as supply chain and procurement expertise

Then you can sign up with them and they will pair you with a government agency that needs your help.
posted by bl1nk at 4:41 AM on March 24, 2020 [15 favorites]

the fundamental problem is that Trump is making decisions.

I have seen very little evidence that Trump is even making decisions. Mostly he seems to be focused making indecisions.
posted by srboisvert at 5:30 AM on March 24, 2020 [10 favorites]

More on the rich as disease vectors: Party Zero: How a Soirée in Connecticut Became a ‘Super Spreader’

As the disease spread, many residents kept mum, worried about being ostracized by their neighbors and that their children would be kicked off coveted sports teams or miss school events.

One local woman compared going public with a Covid-19 diagnosis to “having an S.T.D.”

“I don’t think that’s a crazy comparison,” said Will Haskell, the state senator who represents Westport. He has been fielding frantic phone calls from constituents.

Most residents were exercising recommended vigilance, Mr. Haskell said, but one call that stuck out to him was from a woman awaiting test results whose entire family had been exposed to the virus. “She wanted to know whether or not to tell her friends and social network,” he said, because she was worried about “social stigma.”

Mr. Haskell, who has been delivering his grandparents’ medication to their Westport doorstep and leaving it outside, was incredulous. “This is life or death,” he said in an interview. “Westport really is a cautionary tale of what we’re soon to see.”

posted by ZeusHumms at 5:51 AM on March 24, 2020 [15 favorites]

Eat the rich, but sterilize them first?
posted by tavella at 5:53 AM on March 24, 2020 [8 favorites]

The corporate media is still letting Trump set its agenda (Dan Froomkin, Press Watch)

Over the last week, I’ve written about how Trump’s spell on the corporate media finally seemed to be breaking: His weeks of downplaying the crisis and talking about it inaccurately and incoherently had finally led many leading journalists to declare him ill-equipped to lead. They had recognized, at long last, that the power vacuum Trump had created was being filed by more competent people, and that his insistence that he had always taken the coronavirus seriously was the quintessential proof that he was delusional, trying to gaslight America or both.

What I neglected to take into account was that even though they are more willing than ever to point out Trump’s flaws and lack of credibility, elite Washington and New York journalists still can’t take their eyes off him. [...]

Why fall all over themselves making it look like they were covering something real, rather than just more empty promises?

I’ll tell you why. Because, apparently, a president declaring himself a “wartime president” and calling for “sacrifices” is like some sort of deep, irresistible hypnotic suggestion to the elite media that, rather than making them bark like a dog, compels them to stand up straight and pay undivided attention.[...]

When it comes to efforts to stimulate the economy, there’s more than just reporting out little mini-scoops from the White House and the Hill. The coverage should be constantly questioning the decision-making of people who have repeatedly proven themselves too clueless and corrupt to govern fairly. [...]

As I wrote 10 days ago, in the absence of Trump’s leadership, our elite newsrooms need to step up. This is a time for our nation’s best journalists to enable our nation’s smartest people to set the agenda, rather than waiting for the White House to do it.

And let me add: If certain newsroom leaders are incapable of adjusting to the new reality, it’s time for them to get them out of the way.

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:07 AM on March 24, 2020 [12 favorites]

Arizona Man Dies From Chloroquine Overdose After Listening to Trump Coronavirus Press Conference
posted by Burhanistan at 6:33 AM on March 24 [1 favorite −] Favorite added! [!]

From the article:

Asked if she had a message for the American people, the Arizona woman was blunt. “Don’t believe anything the president says,” she warned. “And his people. Because they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Shout that from the roofs
posted by mumimor at 6:56 AM on March 24, 2020 [45 favorites]

My hometown (Ft. Worth) just issued a shelter-in-place; Dallas has done so; Austin has done so; San Antonio has done so. Looks like only Houston has not, though there are new rumors every day. And of course it's a patchwork for all the little towns/suburbs in between.

The reason we have to do this city-by-city is of course because our idiot Governor refused to issue a statewide order.
posted by emjaybee at 7:28 AM on March 24, 2020 [7 favorites]

Were the 9/11 attacks not a big deal because more people die from flu every year or from car accidents every month?

I'm not sure this is good framing, or you would get the answer you think.

But I'll say that I wish we treated deaths from this and deaths from car accidents and flu deaths equally, which I consider both being good public responses, rather than blaming them for their own death or getting buried in long-standing statistics models.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:36 AM on March 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

White House officials looking for way to 'open' economy without health catastrophe

The hardest thing so far for me during this time is still, STILL trying to wrap my head around how we have a President who not only is this stupid, but that this article is following aides who are desperate to try to make him choose the least harmful option out of his range of bad choices he wants, and they are telling the press their options before they even speak to him. My mind hurts.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:47 AM on March 24, 2020 [10 favorites]

Pod Save America has been focusing on the epidemic more and more lately. It's still focused on the political aspects, but they have been playing voice mails from listeners about the impact of the virus on their lives. They tend to be health care workers and I found last night's affecting and scary. Two different nurses/PAs were in health care facilities where they have already been told to reuse masks. Like put it in a plastic bag with your name on it and use it 5 times before discarding. Wash hands thoroughly, open bag and put mask on, wash thoroughly again, then later wash hands, take mask off and put in bag, wash hands a 4th time. That and downgrading to surgical masks from N95 masks. Not great.

I'm married to a nurse and while that sequence of hand washing seems time consuming if you are doing it many times a day, it's nothing compared to PPE procedures. Those have their own extended training and in practice are "a whole thing" as they say. Not too bad with one infectious patient, but very hard to scale.
posted by freecellwizard at 7:49 AM on March 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

It's not just Trump with the chloroquine quackery, it's the entire right-wing media apparatus using it to own the libs by alleging a conspiracy involving Dr. Fauci, the WHO, and I assume Hillary Clinton and George Soros at some point. The gist of it as far as I can understand it (CW for links: wingnutopshere) is that there are drugs hiding in plain sight that will treat COVID-19, but (((globalists))) want to make money with newer drugs. I'm not sure how they're supposed to do all of this buckraking while the world economy craters, but that probably just makes me a collectivist stooge.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:50 AM on March 24, 2020 [12 favorites]

> He doesn't think he will die because he is white and privileged.

A lot of Trump supporters voted for him because they wanted other people to die, but that’s the thing about sowing the wind...
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:56 AM on March 24, 2020 [8 favorites]

is that there are drugs hiding in plain sight that will treat COVID-19

amazing china didn't figure that out. and italy. and spain. &c
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:07 AM on March 24, 2020 [9 favorites]

Two different nurses/PAs were in health care facilities where they have already been told to reuse masks. Like put it in a plastic bag with your name on it and use it 5 times before discarding. Wash hands thoroughly, open bag and put mask on, wash thoroughly again, then later wash hands, take mask off and put in bag, wash hands a 4th time. That and downgrading to surgical masks from N95 masks. Not great.

I can confirm this. At my husbands hospital, nurses only even get an N95 for COVID-19 patients if they are doing procedures with a risk of aerosolization like vents. He only gets surgical masks otherwise. As the worst hasn't hit us yet in Arizona, they have enough of those not to reuse yet, but that situation is changing rapidly. As of next week he will likely only have one disposable surgical mask a day. This is on his hospital's designated Covid ward.

So - today I'm sewing reusable surgical masks.
posted by Lapin at 8:09 AM on March 24, 2020 [25 favorites]

amazing china didn't figure that out. and italy. and spain. &c
My first thought too, but then I realized that to these people, there is no world outside of Verona/The USA.
posted by mumimor at 8:48 AM on March 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure how they're supposed to do all of this buckraking while the world economy craters, but that probably just makes me a collectivist stooge.

Eh, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories (and, yes, anything about "globalists" or the like is a repurposed anti-Jewish line) have for upwards of a century simultaneously embraced the notion that Jews are the fat-cat malefactors who are reaping the benefits of capitalism and that Jews are the Bolshevik bomb-throwers who seek no less than the utter destruction of capitalism. This is nothing new.
posted by jackbishop at 8:48 AM on March 24, 2020 [11 favorites]

From the article:

Asked if she had a message for the American people, the Arizona woman was blunt. “Don’t believe anything the president says,” she warned. “And his people. Because they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Shout that from the roofs

problem is, the faithful will just shrug it off as more FAKE NEWS. More and more, it seems to me that the way forward is to mute the orange fool. Twitter needs to disable his account. The news networks and the like need to either stop broadcasting his speeches altogether or at least run them on time delay, with an epidemiology expert sitting in the edit room, able to push mute whenever he veers into factually WRONG territory.

TRUMP IS OVER ... if you want it.
posted by philip-random at 9:03 AM on March 24, 2020 [9 favorites]

Dr. Fauci Says That Nothing in Current Coronavirus Data Causes Optimism As Trump Pushes to Reopen Country (Tommy Christopher, Mediaite)

White House Coronavirus Task Force infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said that nothing in the current data is cause for “optimism” even as President Donald Trump pushes to reopen the economy as early as next week.

In an interview on WMAL’s Mornings on the Mall radio program Tuesday morning, Dr. Fauci did his best not to contradict Trump, and pushed back on the idea that there is tension between the two, but Fauci’s assessment of the pandemic did not seem to be in line with Trump’s push to ease precautions beginning as early as next week.

Biden Torches Trump for Suggesting an End to Lockdown: ‘I Don’t Agree’ That ‘Somehow It’s Okay to Let the People Die’ (Ken Meyer, Mediaite)

Appearing on The View Tuesday [remotely], Biden was asked about how Trump hinted that at the end of the month, he’ll call for a national rollback on the safety guidelines which have been enacted to stop the spread of COVID-19. Biden emphasized that country needs to remain focused on treating the virus, despite economic consequences.

The former vice president went on to say that Americans are losing confidence because of Trump’s untruths, then pivoted to talk about how the president and others have suggested that the country needs to re-open businesses and get the economy moving again — ignoring the warnings of health officials who say that people will be put at risk if the country stops adhering to social distancing policies.

posted by ZeusHumms at 9:34 AM on March 24, 2020 [7 favorites]

Thr plague has come to Rikers and people inside are fighting for their lives
posted by The Whelk at 9:35 AM on March 24, 2020 [9 favorites]

Prisons and jails are going to be charnel houses.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:38 AM on March 24, 2020 [10 favorites]

Republicans, 2010: A national health care system would totally involve the creation of "death panels" that would decide it's too expensive to keep your grandparents alive.

Republicans, 2020: It's too expensive to keep your grandparents alive.
posted by LionIndex at 9:45 AM on March 24, 2020 [118 favorites]

Prisons and jails are going to be charnel houses.

...and Republicans will be laughing about it on TV in six weeks or less, leading to a four-point bump in the polls.
posted by aramaic at 9:45 AM on March 24, 2020 [5 favorites]

well framed LionIndex! bit it for twitter.
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:50 AM on March 24, 2020

Prisons and jails are going to be charnel houses.

At this point I'm just so amazed how well Stephen King pre-conceived all this in The Stand.
posted by valkane at 9:51 AM on March 24, 2020 [4 favorites]

Harvard's president just announced he and his wife have tested positive.

We started experiencing symptoms on Sunday—first coughs then fevers, chills, and muscle aches—and contacted our doctors on Monday. We were tested yesterday and just received the results a few minutes ago.

posted by adamg at 10:05 AM on March 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

Couple comments deleted; let's not throw open "here are my bona fides as a person with money" because (a) there is only one way that can go, namely people flaming you and (b) sharing details of other people's intimate traumas is always a little dicey and probably better avoided in this context.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 10:13 AM on March 24, 2020 [11 favorites]

I don't know who the Harvard president is but I have been following the university's decision to not pay workers who are subcontracted.

Dear Harvard President, I am sorry you and your spouse are sick. Regardless, pay all Harvard workers please.

This shell game regarding subcontracting has been going on for decades, during my years at a not-Harvard university that nonetheless has an absurdly swollen endowment the dining hall workers went on strike because of changes to subcontracting rules that would have made them more vulnerable to this kind of b.s.

Economist @gabriel_zucman Mar 21
What is the point of accumulating a $40 billion endowment if it's to fire your most vulnerable workers as soon as a crisis hit?

@jaredodessky · Mar 20
Harvard is laying off nearly all dining workers. While the univ. has agreed to provide 30 days' pay for the directly hired dining workers who work at the College, they are refusing to provide this pay for the subcontracted dining workers at @Harvard_Law link to petition "Harvard pay all your workers"

posted by spamandkimchi at 10:23 AM on March 24, 2020 [30 favorites]

Trump's staff cuts have undermined Covid-19 containment efforts, watchdog finds (Guardian)

The Trump administration badly undermined the effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak by getting rid of most staff tasked with identifying global health problems in China while repeatedly attempting to slash funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to a new report by an environmental watchdog.

Over the past three years, the Trump administration has drastically reduced a team working in China to identify global health threats like Covid-19, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. The initiative’s 11 CDC staffers have been cut to three people, while 39 workers classed as “local employees” have been reduced to 11 people.

The administration disbanded the national security council’s directorate charged with global health and has sought to go further still, requesting budget cuts from the CDC of up to 20% for each of the past three years, only to be rebuffed by Congress. Trump’s effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act would also have reduced the CDC’s funding by around 8% a year.

The CDC has still undergone an “erosion of budget and staff under Trump” but without Congress’s defiance “thousands more Americans would likely die over the next few months because of even more reduced capacity at the CDC”, according to the report, compiled by the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI).

“If we cannot draw lessons here for our future, then the risks Americans face both from emerging and chronic diseases will become truly incalculable,” the report warns. The report, which draws upon publicly available federal government records, highlights a lengthy list of actions by the Trump administration that has risked turning the spread of the coronavirus into an even greater disaster.

posted by katra at 10:35 AM on March 24, 2020 [16 favorites]

Scenes From an American Pandemic:

Hospital workers, street medics, and people in prison describe navigating the coronavirus and life as they know it right now.
posted by The Whelk at 10:48 AM on March 24, 2020 [5 favorites]

Matt Bruenig on corporate bailouts:

Bailing out corporations in tough circumstances is fine. Bailing out their owners is not. Thus, to understand the proper policy move, you need to actually pierce through the shorthand conflation of “corporations” with the “capitalist class.” The purpose of a proper bailout is to keep a corporation going and producing. It is not to prop up the balance sheets of the capitalist class.

How can you bail out a corporation without also bailing out its owners? It is very easy: have the government provide cash to the corporation in exchange for corporate equity. The issuance of this new equity dilutes out the existing shareholders, ensuring that those shareholders ultimately eat the losses of the pandemic shock.

posted by kingless at 10:53 AM on March 24, 2020 [44 favorites]

How TF are all these people getting tested? Illinois currently won't test anyone who isn't hospitalized. Even when they show up at the ER with pneumonia and fever and struggling for breath, and work in a supposedly "essential" state agency office alongside dozens of coworkers.

(Ask me how I know.)
posted by Not A Thing at 10:54 AM on March 24, 2020 [7 favorites]

It is important that whatever tests we have are allocated to medical workers and the sick. But I do want to know how sportsball players and convicted rapists get to jump to the front of the line. There will need to be an accounting when this is done.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:05 AM on March 24, 2020 [5 favorites]

If we're talking about the same convicted rapist, he had just been transferred from Rikers where there are currently more than 20 known covid cases; given the stakes of an outbreak spreading across a state's entire prison system, it seems like a reasonable precaution to take for states like NY that apparently still have the capacity to test nontrivial numbers of people.

How the non-incarcerated president of Harvard still gets to jump to the head of the line, even now when there is clearly a massive testing shortage and people are being sent home with a stack of prescriptions and a "come back and see us when you're cyanotic," is what I'm specifically curious about.

I mean, if prisons had any legitimate role it would be to house the sort of people who would otherwise become president of Harvard -- but unless he's expecting to be incarcerated imminently, I don't understand what entitles him to this scarce resource.
posted by Not A Thing at 11:22 AM on March 24, 2020 [8 favorites]

Can't help but think that Trump wants to end the Coronavirus restrictions so he can have live rallies in front of thousands of supporters again, instead of a few dozen reporters.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:21 PM on March 24, 2020 [16 favorites]

Trump is saying he wants the country "opened up" by Easter. Lots of people are going to die because the President is a fucking idiot.
posted by zeusianfog at 12:25 PM on March 24, 2020 [8 favorites]

The candidate in 2016:

I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.

Possibly this administration in 2020, following a suggestion from Jonathan Ashbach (link is to right wing watch):

Hold my beer.

(Am i doing this right?)
posted by a person of few words at 12:41 PM on March 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

Party Zero: How a Soirée in Connecticut Became a ‘Super Spreader’

That's some fascinating Desperate Housewives level insanity there. They are willing to have wildfire community spread to protect the reputation of affluent party hosts and guests. This pandemic is exposing an awful lot of awful.
posted by srboisvert at 12:46 PM on March 24, 2020 [14 favorites]

The issuance of this new equity dilutes out the existing shareholders, ensuring that those shareholders ultimately eat the losses of the pandemic shock.

Yep. And it sure as heck beats the value they'd get from their investments if the government didn't step in at all.
posted by avalonian at 12:48 PM on March 24, 2020 [6 favorites]

Boeing Co. Chief Executive David Calhoun suggested he would decline taxpayer aid if lawmakers require the government to take an equity stake in the beleaguered aerospace giant.

CEO: "Just give me the money or I swear I'll pull the trigger on this gun pointed at my own head!"

"I don't have a need for an equity stake" he said. "If they forced it, we would look at all the other options, and we have got plenty."

Sounds like a deal. Go for it -- all those other options are really gonna cost you dearly.
posted by JackFlash at 1:07 PM on March 24, 2020 [26 favorites]

Insurance companies and hospitals will be among those seeking relief. If relief is traded for equity we can nationalize US healthcare with this one weird trick.
posted by sjswitzer at 1:11 PM on March 24, 2020 [47 favorites]

I almost broke a rib laughing. For the sake of our overburdened health system, please refrain from such jokes.
posted by eagles123 at 1:22 PM on March 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

From a containment perspective it certainly makes sense to test people with symptoms who likely had contact with many dozens of people, such as students, who in turn could have had contact with hundreds of more students. Most of those students have now have left the University for locations all over the country and the world. I would say that is why they were tested.

With respect to the paying of sub-contractors, I don't know the full story, as in I don't know if it a decision that the President makes or can change. Certainly on its face, it is not a good look for Harvard.

I won't jump to conclusions, because if for no other reason, I happen to know the President of Harvard, Larry Bacow, and his wife, Adele, and they are kind, honest, thoughtful, and humane. In the 2000s Larry Bacow was President of Tufts University, before I was a professor there. As the first couple of Tufts, the Bacows were a very popular.
posted by haiku warrior at 1:32 PM on March 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

have the government provide cash to the corporation in exchange for corporate equity.

This is an interesting proposal to me because my company had already identified a need to issue about $800 million in new equity. Ours is not an industry in need of nationalization (not that I oppose nationalization in principle, it's just that I think it doesn't make as much sense for rate-regulated utilities) but it would be pretty fun if all of a sudden our largest single shareholder were Uncle Sam.
posted by nickmark at 1:41 PM on March 24, 2020

Not surprisingly, the not-so-rich are sources of super spreading events, too. Money quote:

Borrelli did not seek to blame anyone or any single factor.

"From the very start, people were behaving in a way that fuelled the national problem," Borrelli said.

But he did point to a Champions League match between Italy's Atalanta and Spain's Valencia's football clubs in Milan's San Siro stadium on February 19 as a particularly egregious mistake.

It was attended by 40,000 fans who celebrated the local team's win deep into the night.

"We can now say, with hindsight, that it was potentially a detonator," Berrelli said of the match

There's a good chance that Valencia fans returned to Spain with the virus, as well as Italians spreading it among themselves.
posted by haiku warrior at 1:43 PM on March 24, 2020 [5 favorites]

Doctors hoard unproven COVID-19 meds by writing prescriptions for selves, families
Pharmacists seeing fraudulent activity with unproven drugs endorsed by President Trump.
posted by XMLicious at 1:52 PM on March 24, 2020 [10 favorites]

From whiskey, gin and vodka to … hand sanitizer? Seattle-area distilleries pivot to fight coronavirus
posted by ShooBoo at 1:58 PM on March 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

Jackson Free Press:

JACKSON, Miss.—Gov. Tate Reeves again rejected calls for a statewide lockdown at a press conference outside the governor’s mansion today in downtown Jackson, saying that “no expert had yet recommended” such an enforced quarantine. But he pledged to sign expanded executive orders he believes will help clamp down on the mass gatherings happening at weddings, funerals, Mississippi’s restaurants and beaches in defiance of previous recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and the Mississippi State Department of Health late Friday.

Reeves repeatedly refused to clarify if the executive orders would be formal bans on gatherings, carrying penalty of enforcement, instructing the press to wait for him to sign the orders later in the day. MSDH updated the totals of COVID-19 cases with numbers from last evening at 6 p.m., adding 71 new cases across the state—the most in one day, yet—for a total of 320. That is a 300% rise in cases MSDH has reported since 80 on Friday.

context from previous day:

However, Reeves seems to be erring on the side of keeping people going to work rather than sheltering at home to help flatten the spiking curve of the virus in Mississippi. “We don’t want to make any decisions that would ultimately do more harm than good,” Reeves said, however, in his Facebook address. He was referring to fears that a full shutdown of non-essential businesses would damage the Mississippi economy and leave its workforce at the mercy of debt collectors and landlords.

posted by sebastienbailard at 2:10 PM on March 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

An opinion from Greg Sargent/ The Washington Post: A viral plea to let grandparents sacrifice themselves captures a truth about Trump

We don’t have to choose between unbearably high mass death totals and an economic collapse that dooms the American experiment. The government can send people money in sufficient sums and fortify the welfare state to save them from personal economic calamity, while bailing out small and large businesses with tight conditions that sagely protect taxpayers and working people.

I'm realizing more and more that the conservatives, in the US and elsewhere, who are going on about the economy are indulging in the type of catastrophic thinking that is unhealthy if you are struggling with depression and anxiety. They are not using their rational minds and understanding that while this is terrible and will change many things, it is not the end of the world and government can help us all get through it. After a struggle, we will start rebuilding, and there will be new jobs and a new economy. Or maybe they are understanding on a profound level that their world is ending, not the world.
They can't stop it from happening by committing collective suicide and killing a whole lot of the rest of us on the side, but that comes with catastrophic thinking, doesn't it? Part of the mindset of the death cult is that if "we" can't achieve this goal, life isn't worth living.
posted by mumimor at 2:11 PM on March 24, 2020 [22 favorites]

Bit of good news from WaPo: The coronavirus isn’t mutating quickly, suggesting a vaccine would offer lasting protection

The coronavirus is not mutating significantly as it circulates through the human population, according to scientists who are closely studying the novel pathogen’s genetic code. That relative stability suggests the virus is less likely to become more or less dangerous as it spreads, and represents encouraging news for researchers hoping to create a long-lasting vaccine...The new coronavirus looks pretty much the same everywhere it has appeared, the scientists say, and there is no evidence that some strains are deadlier than others...

There are only about four to 10 genetic differences between the strains that have infected people in the U.S. and the original virus that spread in Wuhan, he said.

“That’s a relatively small number of mutations for having passed through a large number of people,” Thielen said. “At this point the mutation rate of the virus would suggest that the vaccine developed for SARS-CoV-2 would be a single vaccine, rather than a new vaccine every year like the flu vaccine.”
posted by mediareport at 2:15 PM on March 24, 2020 [11 favorites]

Republican Senators get marching orders, do no customization whatsoever.

Note that one is Senator Inside Trading On Death herself.
posted by NoxAeternum at 2:22 PM on March 24, 2020 [4 favorites]

From a containment perspective it certainly makes sense to test people with symptoms who likely had contact with many dozens of people, such as students, who in turn could have had contact with hundreds of more students.

As noted above, this is exactly what is not happening now in many states, except apparently for members of our self-designated "elite." But perhaps Massachusetts is an exception and is taking care to make testing available for every grocery-store worker, every worker in an "essential" large office, and all other workers who are still being required to engage with large numbers of people on a daily basis.
posted by Not A Thing at 2:40 PM on March 24, 2020 [4 favorites]

The distillery-to-hand-sanitizer-maker thing is big here in NC too. Nice to see people getting creative.
posted by freecellwizard at 2:57 PM on March 24, 2020

I'm realizing more and more that the conservatives, in the US and elsewhere, who are going on about the economy are indulging in the type of catastrophic thinking

It's entirely irrational catastrophic thinking for the people who have enough money to influence the levers of power. The bankruptcy code can be very kind to the wealthy. The only threat they are under is having to drive a mass-produced Lamborghini instead of a slightly less mass-produced Bugatti and seeing a couple of functionally meaningless zeros disappearing from their balance sheet. And that only if there were literally no government help financially for anyone beyond what already existed in law.

A very few might have to suffer the indignity of accepting a sinecure from a college buddy, but even now almost nobody is out to take all their shit, just some of what they would have lost without government support. A small price to pay to still be in the best position to earn an easy income.

Of course, they never consider it easy. After all, deciding which management company you should use to deal with all the tenants in their office buildings is a difficult decision and all those parties you attend to recruit investors are hard work, right?
posted by wierdo at 2:58 PM on March 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

The distillery-to-hand-sanitizer-maker thing is big here in NC too. Nice to see people getting creative.

But it's so stupid! As sjswitzer pointed out, ethanol is produced in vast quantities as a fuel additive. It would be SO. VERY. EASY. for a government to requisition the ethanol, emollients (glycerol, aloe vera, etc.) and thickeners to make as much sanitizer as anyone could want. You'd need a bottling plant too, but once again: that is totally a thing that can be done. And then the government could just give it away!

Instead we have all these small producers diverting their own relatively-costly production, trying to source ingredients and containers, and then create new supply chains. This isn't something to applaud; it's horrifying.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:25 PM on March 24, 2020 [31 favorites]

But FWIW, they do have bottling technology which gives them a leg up. I would definitely stop short of calling it stupid: they're pitching in and helping and I do think they should be lauded for that.

But yeah, there's plenty of alcohol for this. The trick is to get it together with the other ingredients, bottle it, and get it where it needs to be at scale.
posted by sjswitzer at 3:33 PM on March 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

A $6 trillion rescue means money doesn't matter anymore.
posted by ryoshu at 3:36 PM on March 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

I suspect that the people best able to do that at scale and in appropriate dispensers are the people that are already making it.

Similarly for N95 masks. It's pretty safe to assume that all those production lines are operating at full capacity (given availability of materials, etc.). We'll probably be set for sanitizer soon. PPE is a different matter entirely because of international just-in-time supply chains.
posted by sjswitzer at 3:36 PM on March 24, 2020

This isn't something to applaud; it's horrifying.

It is both horrifying and life-saving. Same as people who are sewing masks in sewing bees for hospitals. It sucks that it has to happen, is happening, but you can hate the system that made it necessary while still appreciating that some people in the world can do the right thing and applauding that.

trying to source ingredients and containers

We're small scale here, but it's just "show up at the distillery, bring your own bottle, 16 oz per person per day" and they've been making special batches and deliveries for shelters and other places with an urgent need.

I really get the Very Online person instinct to be aggravated that any of this is actually happening, but I really suggest staying focused on moving forward doing as much good as possible, while it's possible.
posted by jessamyn at 3:37 PM on March 24, 2020 [55 favorites]

the house is on fire -- we'll have an inquest later.
but right now, please, get in line and help with the buckets
posted by philip-random at 3:49 PM on March 24, 2020 [14 favorites]

Mask-making projects are popping all over as crafters mobilize against coronavirus - The Boston Globe

...

Within a few hours of posting a request for volunteers on Burlington Patch, a local news site, the trio had more than 700 people signed up. Within 24 hours, more than 3,000 volunteers from around the country and even Canada wanted to help. The incoming volume continued at such a pace that Google shut down the online form. Now they’re organizing via a Facebook group, Masks for Massachusetts.

Surgeon forms Facebook group to sew masks - Odessa American (Texas)

Facing depletion in its stock of surgical masks, a general surgeon with Medical Center Hospital has formed a Facebook group to help increase the supply.

Dr. Faye Armstrong-Papp, who also is chair of the hospital’s department of surgery, said the immediate goal of the group, Masks for Medics Odessa, Texas, is to sew 2,000 masks.

...

posted by sebastienbailard at 4:11 PM on March 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

So it turns out my local hospital system is in fact testing (reusable) 3D printer N95 mask prototypes, working with various partners in the community with access to printers. A drop in the bucket maybe, but a game changer for those who do end up with access to one if even a handful of these make the grade and be pressed into service.
posted by blue suede stockings at 4:24 PM on March 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

A $6 trillion rescue means money doesn't matter anymore.

The yearly size of the U.S. economy is around 22 trillion dollars. Any attempt to replace the lost economic activity resulting from Corona related shutdowns is going to involve sums of money that will make your eyes water. It's worth it though.
posted by eagles123 at 4:25 PM on March 24, 2020 [8 favorites]

I had a surgery planned for next week in Interventional Radiology to inject some chemo into a tumor. They just called and pushed it back a few weeks because resources are needed elsewhere. This is not good.
posted by johnpowell at 4:37 PM on March 24, 2020 [18 favorites]

I really get the Very Online person instinct to be aggravated that [small scale sanitiser production] is actually happening

No, my grievance is that it's necessary, when it's the sort of thing that is easily and efficiently done at scale. Like, the people sewing face masks for hospitals are doing the Lord's work, but the government could offer clothing manufacturers a bounty for producing them, and deliver them to hospitals that need them. Everything is being left to the invisible hand of the free market, but this is clearly a situation in which the normal signalling mechanisms don't work. Manufacturers don't want to interrupt production without a guaranteed market; hospitals don't know whom to contact; and there's no coordination between consumers that would allow them to make a sufficiently large order that a manufacturer could switch production with confidence.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:52 PM on March 24, 2020 [13 favorites]

Amazon workers test positive for covid-19 at six U.S. warehouses (WaPo)

The U.S. coronavirus outbreak has spread to at least six Amazon warehouses, infecting workers racing to deliver massive volumes of packages for consumers leery of leaving their homes to shop. In the last few days, Amazon workers tested positive for covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, in New York City, Shepherdsville, Ky., Jacksonville, Fla., Katy, Texas, Brownstown, Mich., and Oklahoma City, according to Amazon and local media reports. In some cases, Amazon shut down facilities for cleaning, and some co-workers who were in close contact with their infected colleagues have been quarantined.

Just last week, warehouse workers sounded alarms that the company is not doing enough to protect them from the novel coronavirus. That came after workers at Amazon warehouses in Spain and Italy tested positive for the virus. Since then, more than 1,500 workers from around the world have signed a petition that calls on the company to take additional steps to ensure the safety in their workplace.

[...] Last week, four U.S. Senators — Sanders, and three democrats, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, and Robert Menendez — sent Bezos a letter expressing concern that the company isn’t doing enough to protect its warehouse workers from the coronavirus outbreak. “We write today to strongly urge you to prioritize the health, safety, and well-being of your employees who are also our constituents, friends, family, and neighbors,” the senators wrote. The senators noted that Amazon could also put “the entire country at risk” if warehouse conditions aren’t sanitary, since the coronavirus can live for up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to three days on plastic and stainless steel.

posted by katra at 5:02 PM on March 24, 2020 [16 favorites]

Of course, he babbles a lot and health professionals are not going to do this. Are they?

there are some treatment trials in the works for infected people, but it's being done openly and with their consent, and not using experimental drugs. i assume anything the greasy orange shitstain is talking about would not involve consent or safety in any way.

honestly i'm just waiting for some disgusting repub to remember that captive prison populations are what the US traditionally uses for this kind of thing. i mean i'm sure they remembered it already but presumably haven't yet figured out how to maximize their personal profits from it.
posted by poffin boffin at 5:15 PM on March 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

So far I haven't seen much discussion of one of the things Trump babbled about in a press conference yesterday: he said, why spend all this time testing anti-virus medicines in a lab? Why not use sick people as test subjects. Human guinea pigs to test stuff that may be toxic (as chloroquinine is). Of course, he babbles a lot and health professionals are not going to do this. Are they?

There have been ongoing clinical trials of various drugs and treatment strategies to address CORONA since January at least. Sometimes medications also are used "off label" by doctors if patients are likely to die regardless of known and approved medical interventions. The reasoning in those cases is that the potential benefits to those patients outweigh the risks.

Here is a link to clearinghouse of ongoing research on COVID 19 treatments.

I provide the above information in the interest of edification and education only.

In all cases, medical decisions should be made under the supervision of doctors. Many prescription medications have serious and potentially fatal side effects if administered in the wrong dosage or in conjunction with other medications with which adverse interactions exist. Qualified medical medical professionals are best equipped with the knowledge to safely administer prescription medication, as well as with the ability to advise regarding applicable risks and benefits.
posted by eagles123 at 5:16 PM on March 24, 2020 [4 favorites]

i heard that too, CCBC. over in the last check-in thread someone situated to know stated firmly that institutional review boards are still in effect. i think he's just stupid and oblivious to morality or the possibility of professional (or other) ethics. i take for granted that (almost all) doctors will abide their best understanding of their oaths and the precautionary principle. these might be more flexible than a nonprofessional's casual read might suggest.

that said, in his emergency declaration proclamation, president horrorshow delegated to the secretary of HHS authority "to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements of the Medicare, Medicaid, and State Children’s Health Insurance programs and of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule throughout the duration of the public health emergency." not sure what the scope of that delegation, in practice, might be, but it made me take notice.

haven't closely attended subsequent proclamations and orders; have spun my wheels quite a bit trying to figure out how the things he says fit into established frameworks of law, ethics and healthcare (as last night with reference to clinicaltrials.gov), although i know better. i think the number of healthcare professionals who would accede to an order from him they adjudged to be immoral must be vanishingly few.
posted by 20 year lurk at 5:20 PM on March 24, 2020

I was heartened by seeing Fauci contradict the President.
posted by CCBC at 5:27 PM on March 24, 2020 [6 favorites]

...if prisons had any legitimate role it would be to house the sort of people who would otherwise become president of Harvard...

Showing contempt for a person who does not fit a certain socio-economic profile of a moral person—very counterproductive, and since I happen to know the character of the person, completely unjustified.
posted by haiku warrior at 5:50 PM on March 24, 2020 [7 favorites]

Last week, four U.S. Senators — Sanders, and three democrats, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, and Robert Menendez — sent Bezos a letter

I think it was last week ?Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? was saying regarding a different matter: "Look at these people, sending a letter to business executives, when they could just sit down and write a law."
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:12 PM on March 24, 2020 [22 favorites]

Showing contempt for a person who does not fit a certain socio-economic profile of a moral person—very counterproductive

Indeed, it is very important that we all be on equal footing in this crisis, and nobody should be getting special treatment. Glad we're on the same page!
posted by Not A Thing at 6:32 PM on March 24, 2020 [4 favorites]

there are lots of people who are very nice moral kind people of excellent character, people who don't have access to the vast, near incalculable amounts of privilege and personal resources that someone who is the million-dollar-annual-salaried president of a university with a 40 billion dollar endowment has, and they deserve healthcare and prompt testing and care just as much.

the incredibly privileged and wealthy people of the united states of america do not now, nor have they ever at any time in the history of this country, need anyone here to personally defend or carry water for them and their enormous privilege and wealth. it's baffling to me that this constantly happens.
posted by poffin boffin at 7:05 PM on March 24, 2020 [42 favorites]

i think i would defend someone personally known to and valued by me, and known by me to be innocent of specific charges levied for no reason more than their membership in a disfavored class. am doubtful about my capacity to develop certain knowledge of another's moral character, but i think that's beside the point, and the class-based condemnation, with nothing more, is no more epistemologically sound.
posted by 20 year lurk at 7:16 PM on March 24, 2020 [6 favorites]

How to Spot Bad Science about Covid-19. Skepchick offers a fabulous 14-minute video with 5 tips, using that idiotic, widely shared (and now deleted) Medium post from a Republican marketing guy as her example.
posted by mediareport at 7:22 PM on March 24, 2020 [9 favorites]

Regarding that "GOP's long war on government" reference in the post: Trump Administration Is Still Rolling Back Environmental Protections as Nation Wrestles With Coronavirus (Time, March 24, 2020) Asked for comment, EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said the agency is “open and continuing our regulatory work as usual.” Jones said that the public can still have its say on the proposed rule. “As regulations.gov is fully functioning, there is no barrier to the public providing comment,” Jones said.
--
Here is the regulations.gov "Agriculture, Environment, and Public Lands" section, with 117 regulations open for comment. Some state-specific regulations (Vermont, Ohio, California, etc.); this "Simplifying Meal Service and Monitoring Requirements in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs" had its comment period extended through April 22, 2020 (sample of current comments here).

From the Proposed Rule summary: This rulemaking proposes changes to simplify meal pattern and monitoring requirements in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. The proposed changes, including optional flexibilities, are customer-focused and intended to help State and local Program operators overcome operational challenges that limit their ability to manage these Programs efficiently. In the National School Lunch Program, the proposed rule would add flexibility to the existing vegetable subgroups requirement. In the School Breakfast Program, the proposed rule would make it easier for menu planners to offer meats/meat alternates and grains interchangeably (without offering a minimum grains requirement daily), and would allow schools to offer 1/2 cup of fruit in breakfasts served outside the cafeteria to reduce food waste.
=
Less food, fewer foods, removing the limits on trans fats, loosening vegetable requirements (more potatoes and other starchy veg; "Pasta made of vegetable flour(s) may credit as a vegetable, even if the pasta is not served with another recognizable vegetable"), etc., in meals for students, and softening the school-adherence review process -- "USDA is committed to reducing food waste, improving Program efficiency, and ensuring responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars." I prefer a commitment to feeding children well.
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:30 PM on March 24, 2020 [7 favorites]

The poster was implying that anyone who could rise the position of President of Harvard must be someone who should be in prison. I take exception to that characterization.

With respect to should President Bacow and his wife have been tested. (1) They showed symptoms, and (2) they zero or one degree of contact with many people who are now all over world. For goodness sake, of course they should have been tested—they’re potential super spreaders on a global scale. It would irresponsible not to do so.
posted by haiku warrior at 7:32 PM on March 24, 2020 [4 favorites]

But it's so stupid! As sjswitzer pointed out, ethanol is produced in vast quantities as a fuel additive. It would be SO. VERY. EASY. for a government to requisition the ethanol, emollients (glycerol, aloe vera, etc.) and thickeners to make as much sanitizer as anyone could want. You'd need a bottling plant too, but once again: that is totally a thing that can be done. And then the government could just give it away!

Instead we have all these small producers diverting their own relatively-costly production, trying to source ingredients and containers, and then create new supply chains. This isn't something to applaud; it's horrifying.

It's the bottling plant that is key here (a plant that is set up with seals etc that can tolerate alcohol is a bonus). As I mentioned previously Labatt, a very large beer producer in Canada has switched some capacity to making and bottling sanitizer. They have plants that are served by rail yards to bring in whatever raw material they need to make it, they have experienced chemists on staff and maintenance people to make adjustments if needed, and they have in house and contract delivery drivers to deliver the product afterwards as well as large locking docks for customers that would prefer to get it FOB. Why the heck would a government want to roll their own infrastructure on this when Labatts is perfectly set up to create additional sanitizer capacity (and I doubt any impact on their regular business). I honestly wouldn't be surprised at all if hand sanitizer is more lucrative than beer at this moment if only for the advertising bump them making it has garnered.

Or are you thinking that brewers are making the alcohol for the sanitizers? I really doubt, at least in Labatt's case, that is happening. They've phoned up the local ethanol producer and had a dozen rail cars sent their way.

Labatts and Molson's does this pretty regularly with water too when there is a demand for canned water after disasters (which they straight up give away and even deliver for free, don't know if they are charging for sanitizer).
posted by Mitheral at 7:49 PM on March 24, 2020 [11 favorites]

Will Texas or Florida be 'the next Italy'? Red states lag blue in stay-at-home orders (LA Times / MSN, Mar. 23, 2020)

Gavin Newsom was the first governor to order his citizens to stay at home, shutting down California’s economy, the world’s eighth-largest, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next day, Friday, Andrew M. Cuomo, the governor of New York, followed suit.

But not so in Texas and Florida, the nation’s second and third most populous states, where a small-government philosophy — less taxes, fewer regulation and a weaker safety net — has long held sway. About one-fifth of Texas’ 29 million people lacks health insurance, and nearly one-quarter of Florida’s 21 million residents are elderly. But the governors of those states have resisted stay-at-home orders, despite mounting criticism.

[...] Officials in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas, the state’s largest cities, disagree. On Monday, San Antonio issued a stay-at-home order and Austin was expected to follow suit Tuesday. “I’m hopeful the governor will reconsider,” Clay Jenkins, the Dallas County judge, or chief executive, said at a Sunday briefing. There, Jenkins displayed a chart showing the projected spread of the coronavirus far exceeded Texas’ available hospital beds. According to the projection, a statewide stay-at-home order could decrease coronavirus deaths from 430,000 to 5,000. He noted that Dallas has 250,000 uninsured residents, the most of any U.S. city. “Those folks aren’t going to the doctor. If we don’t do something it’s going to be very, very bad here,” he said.

On Sunday, Abbott created a “strike force” of public and private sector officials to get Texas more medical supplies and deployed National Guard troops to assist local test sites. He promised that Texas would soon perform up to 20,000 coronavirus tests a week — but in Dallas County, just a couple of hundred of people had been tested, said Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. “The availability of testing isn’t there,” he said.

Johnson, a former state legislator elected mayor last year, has faced tough decisions since the start of the crisis, when he canceled the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. He and Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, declared emergencies before the governor did, but he said the orders have been difficult to enforce without statewide support. [...] Turner declined to issue a stay-at-home order Monday, citing the need for “economic balance.”

“In some cases, for many people, that can be worse than the virus itself,” he said.

posted by katra at 7:55 PM on March 24, 2020 [5 favorites]

Someone wrote a coronavirus parody of the Bare Naked Ladies' hit 'One Week' and it's perfect. The performance is good and the lyrics are actually full of facts about social distancing and adjusting expectations and such.
posted by hippybear at 7:57 PM on March 24, 2020 [8 favorites]

If we have to delete the same comment from the same person multiple times we're gonna move on to time off. Cut it out.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:59 PM on March 24, 2020 [13 favorites]

Shit just got real folks.

Waffle House closing 365 locations over the coronavirus
posted by johnpowell at 8:38 PM on March 24, 2020 [19 favorites]

Talking Points Memo's Matt Shuham: Here Are The Pundits And Pols Willing To Trade COVID-19 Deaths For Economic Gains
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:42 PM on March 24, 2020 [6 favorites]

Pro-Trump media have ramped up attacks against Dr. Anthony Fauci (Bobby Lewis, Media Matters)

Conservative media are goading Trump into prioritizing the economy over saving lives from coronavirus (Courtney Hagle, Media Matters)
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:47 PM on March 24, 2020 [7 favorites]

To be honest, the Waffle House closing scale really deals with natural disasters, and we've never had anything like this in our culture for a century. But yes, Waffle Houses being closed is important. And the bars are all closed, and my favorite pizza place isn't even doing take-out like they were last week.

But I don't know what the Waffle House policies are about shutting down during a disaster that isn't a hurricane or other natural disaster. I suspect the calculus is different.
posted by hippybear at 9:17 PM on March 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

And I guess calling the coronavirus something other than a "natural disaster" is wrong... it's entirely from nature. But it isn't weather related, and that's mostly what our country has dealt with for 100 years.
posted by hippybear at 9:19 PM on March 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Florida Gov. DeSantis urges New Yorkers to stay away due to coronavirus, derides those ‘bringing the virus’ from hot zone (WaPo)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) spent Tuesday amplifying his order requiring fliers from the New York area to self-isolate for two weeks upon arrival in the Sunshine State, arguing that travelers from coronavirus hot zones would "seed" the illness here. [...] The executive order in Florida, released Monday, specifies travelers from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, which all are contending with large outbreaks of the potentially deadly disease. DeSantis's order applies to people who enter Florida by airplane, but it does not apply to other modes of transportation — such as those who enter the state driving southbound on Interstate 95.

The restriction comes as DeSantis has been criticized for resisting calls for a stay-at-home order, something he said would wreck economies in parts of the state that haven't had a single confirmed coronavirus case.

Previously: Florida college students test positive for coronavirus after going on spring break (NBC News)
posted by katra at 9:27 PM on March 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

Before Trump called for reevaluating lockdowns, they shuttered six of his top-earning clubs and resorts (David A. Fahrenthold, Joshua Partlow and Jonathan O'Connell; WaPo)

In his unprecedented dual role as president and owner of a sprawling business, Trump is facing dual crises caused by the coronavirus. As he is trying to manage the pandemic from the White House, limiting its casualties as well as the economic fallout, his company is also navigating a major threat to the hospitality industry.

That threatens to pull Trump in opposite directions, because the strategies that many scientists believe will help lessen the public emergency — like strict, long-lasting restrictions on movement — could deepen the short-term problems of Trump’s private business, by keeping doors shut and customers away. […]

So far, the Trump Organization has closed hotels in Las Vegas; Doral, Fla.; Ireland; and Turnberry, Scotland — as well as the Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida and a golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Many of the clubs closed because they had to, under local orders. Others closed on their own, following strong guidance or recommendations from local officials.

Those are six of Trump’s top seven revenue-producing clubs and hotels, bringing in about $174 million total per year, according to Trump’s most recent financial disclosures. That works out to $478,000 per day — revenue that is likely to be sharply reduced with the clubs shuttered. The disclosures provide self-reported revenue figures but not profits.

posted by ZeusHumms at 9:35 PM on March 24, 2020 [12 favorites]

The Fox News whipsaw on coronavirus: In another swerve, hosts push Trump to abandon shutdown (WaPo)

Early this week, the cable network’s most prominent figures began urging the president to ditch the restrictions and get people back to work, even if doing so risks the public’s health. [...] The change of rhetoric on Fox began Sunday night when weekend host Steve Hilton said in his opening monologue that working Americans will be “crushed” by the prolonged closure of businesses and the loss of paychecks. “You know that famous phrase, ‘The cure is worse than the disease?’ ” asked Hilton, an adviser to David Cameron when Cameron was prime minister of Britain. [...] A few hours later, Trump echoed the sentiment almost exactly [...]

On Monday morning, Laura Ingraham tweeted: “Doctors provide medical treatment and cures — they should not be the determinative voices in policymaking now or at the end of 15 days. … In one week we need to be heading back to work, school, stores, restaurants and churches with new protocols in place. The risk if we don’t is that we lose far more in terms of death, pain and suffering than this pandemic will bring.” On the same day, Sean Hannity touted a letter from a New York State doctor, whom he didn’t name, claiming to be treating covid-19 patients with a “regimen” of commonplace drugs, with “zero deaths.”

posted by katra at 10:11 PM on March 24, 2020 [5 favorites]

This whole abandoning the shutdown shtick is a little too death-cult for me - also do these Dodos not realize that they and their loved ones are going to be in harms’ way? I mean ... there’s an assumption of ‘won’t happen to me!’ That I don’t understand. Not actually wishing anyone ill, but it might be to all of our benefits if one of these folk catch the virus, spread it around and then wind up in worst-case-scenario. Yeah, I’m looking at Rand Paul.
posted by From Bklyn at 10:27 PM on March 24, 2020 [11 favorites]

Yeah I don’t have much hope save to think that maybe once the death cult actually starts experiencing the death part on a scale they can’t White their way out of, maybe they will choose to opt out? Idk what do cults usually do
posted by lazaruslong at 10:33 PM on March 24, 2020 [10 favorites]

I think they see the socialism coming, and are more afraid of that then getting something "not even as dangerous as the flu". Now they could just tell everyone to fuck off, pay your bills, deal with it, but given the near total shutdowns we are seeing, that isn't going to fly. So, take your chances with massive deaths, but don't send people cash, or forgive debts, etc.
posted by Windopaene at 10:34 PM on March 24, 2020 [5 favorites]

Scramble for medical equipment descends into chaos as U.S. states and hospitals compete for rare supplies (WaPo)

A mad scramble for masks, gowns and ventilators is pitting states against each other and driving up prices. Some hard-hit parts of the country are receiving fresh supplies of N95 masks, but others are still out of stock. Hospitals are requesting donations of masks and gloves from construction companies, nail salons and tattoo parlors, and considering using ventilators designed for large animals because they cannot find the kind made for people.

The market for medical supplies has descended into chaos, according to state officials and health-care leaders. They are begging the federal government to use a wartime law to bring order and ensure the United States has the gear it needs to battle the coronavirus. So far, the Trump administration has declined.

[...] W. Craig Fugate, the FEMA administrator under President Barack Obama, said in a phone interview Sunday that the response should be led by governors but directed and funded by the federal government. That includes a more coordinated process for buying and distributing supplies so that states and the federal government can stop trying to outbid one another, he said.

posted by katra at 10:35 PM on March 24, 2020 [9 favorites]

AP News: Federal officials reach deal on $2 trillion aid package
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:05 PM on March 24, 2020 [5 favorites]

NBC News: White House, Senate reach deal on massive $2 trillion coronavirus spending bill

"Although the full text of the bill is not yet known, lawmakers indicated on Tuesday that the Republican’s initial proposal for direct cash payments would be included.

Under the plan, people making up to $75,000 a year are expected to receive checks of $1,200. Couples making $150,000 will receive $2,400 with an additional $500 per child. The new agreement removed the phase-in provision that excluded lower-income Americans from receiving the full benefit.

The payments would decrease for those making more than $75,000, with an income cap of $99,000 per individual or $198,000 for couples.

The bill is also expected to include roughly $100 billion in assistance for hospitals, $350 billion in assistance to small businesses to help them meet payroll, $500 billion in aid for corporations, such as airline companies and cruise lines, that have been hurt by the coronavirus outbreak.

Unemployment insurance would also be bolstered to increase payments and extend the benefit to those who typically do not qualify such as gig economy workers, furloughed employees and freelancers."
posted by faineant at 11:33 PM on March 24, 2020 [8 favorites]

Do we have a good read on if this is a grant or a loan to taxpayers?
posted by DebetEsse at 11:47 PM on March 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

also do these Dodos not realize that they and their loved ones are going to be in harms’ way?

Broadly, the modern right is founded on a disregard for reality and a contempt for human suffering, at least until members of their in-groups are actively suffering.

And they have no positive model of government that doesn't involve firearms. Certainly not public health or medical matters. They've aggressively adopted a modern troll's willingness to express contempt while denying objective reality, ignoring briefings, words from across the aisle, petitions from activists, or even the mildest centrist news reporting. Basically if Fox News and right-wing twitter trolls ran the government.

So failing as a state is completely acceptable until it hits kith or kin. The right is ok with flashy outpourings of compassion to the right people, but not pragmatic small-scale compassion when it's structural and outside kith and kin.

e.g. Bush 2's Katrina response, Trump's Puerto Rico response.

Framed another way, government services either can not, do not, or should not alleviate suffering. Because that suffering isn't real, and the reporters, activists, and experts are lying about the suffering, (ranging from hungry elementary schoool students to oncoming climate change) and anyway the sufferer deserves it, so America shouldn't tax the rich to pay for government services.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:00 AM on March 25, 2020 [23 favorites]

After that intelligence briefing, Senator Richard Burr didn't move us onto a Pear Harbor era initiative building ventilators and sourcing PPE, while working twitter and the media hard to get the word out that this is a real threat, and not a Democratic hoax to reimpeach Trump or something.

Instead, he called his stockbroker.

So in that case, he was willing to accept information about reality that he didn't really want to hear, but he stayed on-brand when it came to compassion for human suffering.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:30 AM on March 25, 2020 [32 favorites]

Idk what do cults usually do

die, generally
posted by poffin boffin at 12:56 AM on March 25, 2020 [8 favorites]

Yeah, it's not exactly that they don't acknowledge reality, they acknowledge reality selectively.
As someone who grew up with a deeply conservative (and to be honest, not so bright) step-dad, I can recognize a lot of the rhetoric and thinking that these people most likely grew up with and have internalized.
My stepdad is scared now, though. He and his peers have been used to there being adults in the back room, behind the blustering rhetoric. Now (in the UK), he is looking into a dark abyss and understanding the reality of his ideology. Maybe others like him will eventually follow.
posted by mumimor at 1:02 AM on March 25, 2020 [6 favorites]

Burr sold his stock, which is despicable, but the legislators I would really like to see behind bars are the ones who shorted stocks they knew would fall.
posted by jamjam at 1:08 AM on March 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

Hogan, Bowser, Northam blast Trump’s take on virus; four new deaths reported (WaPo)

Health officials in Montgomery County, at a briefing with county lawmakers, also slammed Trump’s remarks. Chief health officer Travis Gayles, who has been praised as a calm voice during the outbreak, described the president’s comments as “recklessly irresponsible, not based upon fact and, quite frankly, disgusting.”

Gayles said that the suburban county of 1 million people would not pull back from strict social distancing measures and that regional health officers are developing their own guidelines on coronavirus. Officials said they are looking to try test kits used in other countries because of a lack of federal support. “We’re not waiting for the feds to step up,” said Gayles. “We’ve known that they’re just not, so we’re not waiting for that to happen.”

posted by katra at 1:43 AM on March 25, 2020 [5 favorites]

$500 billion in aid for corporations, including airline companies and cruise lines

No mention of hotels or golf courses.
posted by benzenedream at 1:55 AM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

Coronavirus beginning to appear in Mideast conflict zones

Racked by years of civil war that has crippled its health care system, Libya has confirmed its first coronavirus case, joining the other countries around the Middle East struggling to stem the rising tide of infections.
Libya’s National Center for Disease Control announced the case on Tuesday, but did not provide further details, according to Reuters. Doctors in the western city of Tripoli said the patient was hospitalized there.
In recent days both war-torn Syria and the Gaza Strip have also confirmed coronavirus cases, raising alarm that further humanitarian crises await these impoverished and often densely-populated communities.

This is bad
posted by mumimor at 2:59 AM on March 25, 2020 [11 favorites]

What I Learned When My Husband Got Sick With The Coronavirus
TW: everything. Don't read this if you are at risk or just prone to anxiety
Do read it if you need to convince people near you that this is serious
posted by mumimor at 3:36 AM on March 25, 2020 [12 favorites]

Prince Charles tests positive for coronavirus
posted by mumimor at 3:46 AM on March 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

Brazil, in what may be its darkest hour, is at the mercy of a deranged lunatic. This is no exaggeration.
In a televised speech during the evening of March 24 2020, as the sound of Panelaço protests reverberated around the Brazil’s cities, its disintegrating President Jair Bolsonaro spoke of the Coronavirus pandemic. He accused State Governors, whom have imposed autonomous measures to contain the disease, of spreading “panic and hysteria”.
He criticised the media as accomplices in this: “They spread a feeling of dread, with the large number of victims in Italy” insisted Bolsonaro, who argued that the country’s characteristics were so different to Brazil that the experience of Coronavirus there was not relevant
posted by adamvasco at 4:08 AM on March 25, 2020 [19 favorites]

The spread of COVID-19 to densely populated areas with little advanced medical care is potentially a true calamity. The reason that fatality rates are “only” around 0.1-1% of the probable true infection rate so far is that there are things like ventilators in the affected countries.

While some of those areas have more favorable demographics (more young people) and have climates (warmer and more humid) that may reduce transmission rates, severe COVID-19 cases from which victims recover in, say China, will much more frequently be fatal.
posted by haiku warrior at 4:40 AM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

haven't found text of the newly-negotiated deal yet. stayed up a little later than i meant to last night hoping for it. here's S.3548 (_not_ the just negotiated one!), that bill gop senators have been whining about having been truly bipartisan and blocked by the speaker of the house somehow since the weekend. would welcome the opportunity to dig the new one.

radio playing music of african musicians dead of coronavirus: manu dlbango (obitfilter on the blue) and someone whose name i didn't catch.
posted by 20 year lurk at 4:45 AM on March 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

(the other musician's name sounded like arliss mbene, but my spelling must be wrong; dj said both mbene(?) and dlbango died in paris)
posted by 20 year lurk at 5:01 AM on March 25, 2020

also: abject apologies for typo in dibango's name above. noticed error as edit closed.
posted by 20 year lurk at 5:07 AM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

Trump Suggests States Need to Bribe Him With Praise to Get Federal Assistance for COVID-19 (Ryan Bort, Rolling Stone) -

“But, you know, it’s a two-way street,” the president said of states desperate for equipment. “They have to treat us well, also.”

[...] But on Tuesday [24 March], the president made clear that there’s one thing he isn’t changing about his approach to the outbreak: blaming his administration’s incompetence on others, particularly New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

During a Fox News town-hall event in the White House Rose Garden, Trump ramped up his attacks on the governor, who has been a vocal critic of the federal government’s sluggish response to the outbreak. In doing so, Trump said the quiet part out loud about how he views his relationship with states. “It’s a two-way street,” he said. “They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.'”

In other words, if governors want the federal government to help them combat the coronavirus, they’re going to need to “be nice” to the president first.

1 July 2019: Trump fumes about Cuomo, New York A.G. over state investigations (Allan Smith, NBC News)

"Cuomo uses his Attorney General as a bludgeoning tool for his own purposes," Trump tweeted. "They sue on everything, always in search of a crime."

President Donald Trump on Monday accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of using the state's attorney general, Letitia James to target his businesses for political purposes, claiming in an afternoon tweet storm that the state sues "for everything" and is "always in search of a crime."

posted by ZeusHumms at 5:40 AM on March 25, 2020 [11 favorites]

There are people setting up GoFundMe's to purchase ventilators.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:41 AM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

Greta Thunberg and her dad are on the mend from a likely bout with Covid-19, in isolation.

And Greta remains Greta. A useful morale boost.
posted by ocschwar at 5:43 AM on March 25, 2020 [11 favorites]

Gov. Cuomo Says Trump is Punishing New York for Being Too Liberal (NBC New York)

New York's governor says he believes President Donald Trump is punishing his home state for being too liberal.

In the past few weeks, New York has come out on the losing end on a series of federal acts.

The Army Corps of Engineers slashed funding for a study of a colossal offshore sea wall that could potentially protect New York City from major hurricanes after Trump tweeted it was "costly, foolish," and would also "look terrible." [...]

Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security barred New Yorkers from enrolling in federal security programs for trusted travelers, a move taken in retaliation for a new state law that let unauthorized immigrants get driver's licenses and barred certain federal agencies from accessing the state's motor vehicle database.

State transportation officials have also complained that federal highway officials are holding up approval of a plan to reduce traffic congestion in New York City by charging new fees to drive in certain pats of Manhattan.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other state Democrats said Wednesday it's all evidence that the Republican president is punishing blue states including New York over their politics.

"I think the presence of their political motivation has been documented over and over again," Cuomo said.

"We are witnessing the weaponization of federal powers to serve a specific political agenda," said state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

posted by ZeusHumms at 5:49 AM on March 25, 2020 [23 favorites]

Gov. Cuomo Says Trump is Punishing New York for Being Too Liberal

On the one hand, good on Cuomo for pushing back against the obvious singling out. On the other, it’s crystal clear that Trump doesn’t care about the ideological underpinnings of the political clash; he’s punishing New York for not voting for him and for resisting his imperial demands.
posted by Etrigan at 5:59 AM on March 25, 2020 [10 favorites]

"Cuomo uses his Attorney General as a bludgeoning tool for his own purposes," Trump tweeted. "They sue on everything, always in search of a crime."

Trumps mirror is just all encompassing now isn't.
posted by Mitheral at 6:03 AM on March 25, 2020 [11 favorites]

They’re going to murder 30k+ New Yorkers for no other reason than they want us to die. I’m saying this so that other “liberals” understand that this is true for them, too. This is where the right wing has been headed for a long time. They don’t see us as Americans, and they don’t see us as people. The abject joy they’ve taken in our suffering the past four years hasn’t been a joke or an aberration, and it’s going to take the deaths of thousands, potentially literally millions of people, to make this crystal clear.

I don’t know how we come back from this, as a nation. I don’t think I’m coming back from it. I’d vote for someone who promised to never send a New York dollar out of state again, and I’d do it enthusiastically. But what I want, right now, in this moment, is much darker. And I’ve about lost patience with the idea that we have to pretend these people — the Republicans — are anything other than they are.
posted by schadenfrau at 6:25 AM on March 25, 2020 [55 favorites]

The central message of Buddhism is not every man for himself - Wanda Gerschwitz
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:26 AM on March 25, 2020 [8 favorites]

sounded like arliss mbene, but my spelling must be wrong

aurlus mabele "the king of congolese soukous" per echoingwalls.com, found via twitter.
posted by 20 year lurk at 6:34 AM on March 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

The way things are going, if Trump really does cause "Jesusland" to stay open while "Canada" hunkers down, state governors will need to implement motor vehicle travel restrictions, and these will escalate to us having internal borders.

And quite frankly, at this point, I'm okay with it. This is not one country any more.
posted by ocschwar at 6:39 AM on March 25, 2020 [14 favorites]

Chuck Schumer made sure businesses controlled by Trump, his family, and top US officials couldn't get money from the government's $2 trillion coronavirus bailout fund

Attaboy, Chuck.
posted by zueod at 6:39 AM on March 25, 2020 [76 favorites]

Met via call with an India employee this morning and talked about the lockdown there. It just hit me that they are locking down the whole country for 3 weeks with only 600 known cases, about 1% of US known cases. I think it's a good call to shut that shit down before it starts to spread in a country of 1.3 billion, many of whom are living in close quarters.

Also, since I know MeFi loves maps and you are probably all looking at the Johns Hopkins map, here's a great India-specific one:

https://www.covid19india.org/
posted by freecellwizard at 6:48 AM on March 25, 2020 [17 favorites]

Oh - be sure to click on the Clusters tab. It actually has per-person info including transmission lines. Gender/age/district but nothing more personally identifying than that.
posted by freecellwizard at 6:51 AM on March 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

Big national retailers plan to stop paying rent to offset coronavirus closures

Hey, y'all, it's a rent strike! Solidarity, comrades! ✊🏻
posted by tonycpsu at 7:02 AM on March 25, 2020 [45 favorites]

Chuck Schumer made sure businesses controlled by Trump, his family, and top US officials couldn't get money from the government's $2 trillion coronavirus bailout fund

Trump still has to sign this, right?
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:34 AM on March 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

My bet is the only senator who won't vote for this is in isolation right now. Not sure if they have enough for 2/3rds in the house though.
posted by cmfletcher at 7:40 AM on March 25, 2020

I think it's a good call to shut that shit down before it starts to spread in a country of 1.3 billion, many of whom are living in close quarters.

Epidemiologically, yes. But at a practical level, how well can this work (or, at what cost?) in a country where so many people depend on daily earnings to buy food that day, don't have indoor toilets, and so on?
posted by Dip Flash at 7:42 AM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

Yeah, it's not exactly that they don't acknowledge reality, they acknowledge reality selectively.

well, now it seems like we're talking about humans in general
posted by philip-random at 7:47 AM on March 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

NBC News: White House, Senate reach deal on massive $2 trillion coronavirus spending bill

Trump still has to sign this, right?

Technically it hasn't actually passed in the Senate yet, in the sense that they haven't formally voted. Then the House must pass the bill, but most of the House members are not in DC right now. It is possible for the House to pass the bill essentially remotely, but it must be by unanimous consent. A single Republican coronavirus denalist, free market extremist, or a Democrat who refuses to bailout the airline industry could scuttle the whole thing until a quorum of ~218 representatives can return to DC to vote. That is the biggest risk to swift enactment, in my opinion.

We can't rule out Trump vetoing the bill in a fit of pique once he realizes that, without bailout funds, his hotels and golf courses are very likely to go bankrupt. If he can be forced to sign the bill anyway, then I could see that being a reason for premature lifting of safety restrictions, at least at the federal level. Or maybe he'll seek a foreign bailout. Very little to stop oligarchs from booking prepaid rooms en masse and then not showing up, for example.

If he does veto the bill, I think an override is almost certain, but it will waste precious time.
posted by jedicus at 7:48 AM on March 25, 2020 [8 favorites]

His resorts are in NJ, CA, and FL, right?

Looks like he is screwed at the state level.
posted by ocschwar at 7:53 AM on March 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

LA Times: Big national retailers plan to stop paying rent to offset coronavirus closures

Mattress Firm, with about 2,400 stores, sent landlords a letter last week saying it would cut rent in exchange for longer leases and offering two options to do so. This week, it sent a more urgent note revoking its earlier offer...

Some landlords have recognized they need to help smaller tenants. Irvine Co. Retail Properties, based in Irvine, is allowing rent to be deferred for 90 days and then paid back with no interest over a year starting in January, according to a document reviewed by Bloomberg. The company confirmed the practice without further comment.

Deferred rent for 90 days with no interest/late fee, to be paid back over a year starting in January, sure sounds great to me right now.

Also, Reporters Without Borders posted a racism-free timeline of the Chinese government's bungled, authoritarian reactions in the early days of the pandemic: If the Chinese press were free, the coronavirus might not be a pandemic.
posted by mediareport at 8:07 AM on March 25, 2020 [12 favorites]

Chuck Schumer made sure businesses controlled by Trump, his family, and top US officials couldn't get money from the government's $2 trillion coronavirus bailout fund

How would you know, Chuck? Trump and his family have never disclosed all of their businesses.
posted by JackFlash at 8:56 AM on March 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

An argument for better words than 'bungle' - Stop saying Trump has ‘bungled’ the coronavirus response. None of this is an accident (Ashton Lattimore, Prism)

As its dictionary definitions suggest, the word “bungle” evokes a sense of accident—a clumsy mistake or stumbling misstep rather than deliberate misconduct. Synonyms drive home the word’s flippant connotation: “mess up,” “bumble,” “flub,” and “goof up.” [...]

Trump is not a helpless and innocent bystander to the coronavirus pandemic, stumbling and bumbling over his own two feet as he tries his level best to help out the American people, and those of us in the news media are not doing our jobs if we portray him that way. He’s the president of the United States, a position that affords him a wealth of material, financial, and political resources to help mitigate both the spread of the virus and the economic toll of preventive measures on vulnerable people. That he has not done so is no accident. [...]

While the use or non-use of a single word like “bungled” may not change the trajectory of the Trump administration’s response to coronavirus, it can and will shape the way Americans understand what’s happening. Words have specific meanings, and it’s from those meanings that words draw their considerable evocative and narrative power. The words we choose can point the way toward justice, or they can absolve wrongdoers of their misconduct. Trump has already expressed his desire not to “take responsibility at all” for the harms wrought by his administration’s failed response to this pandemic. Those of us in the news media must not bungle our way into helping him achieve that goal.

He's not innocent of anything - it would help if the news media chose words carefully to avoid giving that impression.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:58 AM on March 25, 2020 [49 favorites]

Map of closed Waffle House locations
posted by blob at 9:34 AM on March 25, 2020

ZeusHumms, I wish I could favorite your comment a hundred times. I'm so tired of the refrain that Trump is stupid. Yes, of course he is stupid, but he is the president, and he is responsible, just like any other president.
posted by mumimor at 9:39 AM on March 25, 2020 [7 favorites]

"It's Spreading Throughout The Hospital": NYC Healthcare Workers Describe Dire Conditions As Coronavirus Patients Flood Wards
posted by The Whelk at 9:39 AM on March 25, 2020 [8 favorites]

From The Whelk's link:

“For now we are told even if someone’s heart stops, or if they get crazy and pull out their breathing tube, even with seconds to live - you must put on your protective gear fully,” one intensive care nurse at NYU Langone said. “The line right now in the sand is: protect yourself before helping others.”

...“They’re bullying [people] to sign [do not resuscitate, do not intubate] orders,” she said, of older patients in her ward, “and if you walk into a room and find somebody not breathing, you do not call any response whatsoever, you let them go.”

I've got to take a break from reading these reports from hospitals. They're making me very anxious about catching this thing. Which I guess is good, but doesn't feel good at all.
posted by mediareport at 9:48 AM on March 25, 2020 [5 favorites]

Schumer got played by McConnell; this is a terrible bill.
posted by Gadarene at 9:49 AM on March 25, 2020

where'd you find the text, Gadarene?
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:51 AM on March 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

Financial Times is tracking the latest figures; third graph shows the U.S. on track to have the worst case trajectory anywhere so far.
posted by mediareport at 10:01 AM on March 25, 2020 [10 favorites]

If you need more of a reason to be glad Seth Moulton's presidential bid went nowhere, he's co-sponsoring a resolution (with an Indiana Republican) to Blame China.

It gets even better, because his mouthpiece is quoted as saying that by blaming China, the resolution would slap Trump. Somehow.
posted by adamg at 10:16 AM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

How The Pandemic Will End
posted by The Whelk at 10:29 AM on March 25, 2020 [6 favorites]

where'd you find the text, Gadarene?

I'm basing it off of what has been reported about the restrictions on payments to Americans and the general structure of the $500 billion slush fund, not to say the bailout of industries like airlines who have taken their profits and used them for stock buybacks. For that last, I'm hopeful but doubtful that the bill includes sufficient provisions with teeth of the kind proposed by Elizabeth Warren, but we'll see.
posted by Gadarene at 10:38 AM on March 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yes, of course he is stupid, but he is the president, and he is responsible, just like any other president.

it's more than that, though - it's that he's both incredibly fucking stupid and incredibly fucking malicious and there is no more dangerous combination, now or ever. a viciously cruel abject fucking moron gets to decide who lives and who dies.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:39 AM on March 25, 2020 [27 favorites]

Jeesh! Moulton represents my district. While he is absolutely right that Chinese censorship helped the pandemic to take hold, this is pure political theater and opportunism of a dangerous sort. This guy really has been a disappointment since the last election. He has two people running against him this year’s primary. I hope they don’t split the vote.

Unfortunately, I think something like this might pass the House. Those against it will be beaten over the head with their votes by their opponents in November.

I cannot help but think this stunt is intended in part to hurt Pelosi by putting her in a tight spot. You may remember that he opposed her election as speaker after Democrats gained a majority in 2018, but he had no alternate candidate lined up. His position turned out to be very unpopular back here in Massachusetts where overall Pelosi is well liked.
posted by haiku warrior at 11:09 AM on March 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

Ignoring/burying stupid resolutions is what committees are for.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 11:17 AM on March 25, 2020

Moulton announced this afternoon he and his wife are both self quarantining because both have symptoms. But unlike certain asymptomatic senators we could name, neither has gotten a test yet because their doctors said their symptoms are minor so far and a positive result would not change their treatment at all.
posted by adamg at 11:50 AM on March 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

here is the social distancing scoreboard, which is from phone data - the results are somewhat mixed, as you might expect
posted by pyramid termite at 11:53 AM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

and a positive result would not change their treatment at all.

Such a gallingly stupid and selfish argument. You don't take the test to change your course of treatment; you take the test so that the people you've been in contact with can change *their* course.
posted by mediareport at 12:04 PM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

Apologies if I wrote it wrong, but if you read his statement, he said it was his doctor who told him they don't qualify for the test, not that he's trying to be Mr. Macho Man or something.
posted by adamg at 12:08 PM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

It's not up to them. Tests are still being rationed, and if Moulton isn't trying to jump the queue, then I'll give him credit at least for that much.
posted by ocschwar at 12:09 PM on March 25, 2020 [8 favorites]

Thanks for the link to the graph from the Financial Times, mediareport. No evidence of any flattening of the curve. Tells a story mere words cannot.
posted by haiku warrior at 12:26 PM on March 25, 2020

Sorry for the derailing. Of course there's a lack of test kits. I just hate that argument. It should be "You should be tested immediately so we can do contact tracing, but we can't because there aren't enough tests."
posted by mediareport at 12:27 PM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

So far, the Trump Organization has closed hotels in Las Vegas; Doral, Fla.; Ireland; and Turnberry, Scotland — as well as the Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida and a golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Many of the clubs closed because they had to, under local orders. Others closed on their own, following strong guidance or recommendations from local officials.

Trump can throw all the tantrums he wants, but Doral ain't reopening until the mayor of Miami-Dade County says so. Absent the Florida Legislature passing a law there is nobody with the authority to override the county's closure orders.
posted by wierdo at 12:57 PM on March 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

Juice Media nails it with The Shitshow.
posted by haiku warrior at 1:09 PM on March 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

O’Reilly’s events business

It has been a rough few weeks as we’ve seen the COVID-19 virus take a toll on our livelihoods, our families and the world economy. People are losing their lives, and businesses are suffering in the shadow of revenue losses and a volatile stock market. The virus has had a material impact on O’Reilly’s in-person Events division as well. We previously made the painful decision to cancel our Strata California and Strata London events. Today, we’re sharing the news that we’ve made the very difficult decision to cancel all future O’Reilly in-person conferences and close down this portion of our business. Without understanding when this global health emergency may come to an end, we can’t plan for or execute on a business that will be forever changed as a result of this crisis. With large technology vendors moving their events completely on-line, we believe the stage is set for a new normal moving forward when it comes to in-person events. We also know we are poised to accept that challenge, having already delivered a version of our Strata event on-line to over 4600 participants last week. With over 5000 companies and 2.5 million users on our learning platform, we look forward to innovating and bringing together the technology communities and businesses we serve in new and creative ways.

posted by tonycpsu at 1:17 PM on March 25, 2020 [6 favorites]

But wait ...

$2 trillion virus rescue bill hits late snags in Senate (Andrew Taylor and Lisa Mascaro, AP News)

But the drive by leaders to speed the bill through the Senate was slowed as four conservative Republican senators demanded changes, saying the legislation as written “incentivizes layoffs” and should be altered to ensure employees don’t earn more money if they’re laid off than if they’re working.

Complicating the standoff, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, whose campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination has flagged, said he would block the bill unless the conservatives dropped their objections.

Other objections floated in from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has become a prominent Democrat on the national scene as the country battles the pandemic. Cuomo, whose state has seen more deaths from the pandemic than any other, said: “I’m telling you, these numbers don’t work.”

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said the package “goes a long way.” He said it will require strong oversight to ensure the wealthy don’t benefit at the expense of workers and proposed forgiving at least $10,000 of student loan debt as part of the federal response.

McConnell and Schumer hoped passage of the legislation in the Republican-led Senate would come by the end of the day. Stocks posted their first back-to-back gains in weeks as the package took shape over the last two days, but much of Wednesday’s early rally faded as the hitch developed in the Senate. The market is down nearly 27% since setting a record high a month ago.

posted by ZeusHumms at 2:02 PM on March 25, 2020 [5 favorites]

The hold up is shitty little Trump humper Lindsey Graham who thinks the unemployment benefits are too generous. But he's okay with half a trillion dollars for big corporations with no promises they will keep people employed.
posted by JackFlash at 2:09 PM on March 25, 2020 [15 favorites]

David Dayen, The American Prospect: Unsanitized: Bailouts, A Tradition Unlike Any Other

Twelve years ago, banks asked for a bailout after years of irresponsible, highly leveraged lending. The Treasury Department put out a three-page term sheet seeking money from Congress with no strings attached, even eliminating judicial review. Democrats balked, called it a slush fund and worse, then agreed after a few mostly meaningless bits of oversight and some promises to help ordinary people. That $700 billion bailout was window dressing for trillions that came from the Federal Reserve, but it kept Congress quiet, hooking them into the rescue of the system.

Twelve years later, virtually the same course of events is taking place. After just a couple weeks of extreme social distancing measures, the Treasury Department asked for a large bailout, this time of the entire corporate sector. The bill as written initially would have made all bailout activities secret for six months. Democrats balked, called it a slush fund and worse, and then agreed to a few mostly meaningless bits of oversight and some promises to help ordinary people. In fact they’re the same bits of oversight from the 2008 TARP bailout: a five-member oversight panel and an inspector general for the program. [...]

So it’s not a $2 trillion bill, it’s closer to $6 trillion, and $4.3 trillion of it comes in the form of a bazooka aimed at CEOs and shareholders, with almost no conditions attached. At the moment nobody’s seen language, but there’s apparently only a buyback ban for the term of the loan. The money cannon can therefore go to executive compensation or mergers or wholesale purchases of distressed businesses or whatever other financial engineering the accounting department can muster. And once the company returns to health, it can leak out cash to investors (and during the loan too, in dividends). There’s no requirement to keep workers hired; in fact, the (necessary) provision to boost unemployment insurance for four months to 100 percent of median salary (including furloughed workers, gig workers and freelancers) means that these companies can fire with relative impunity. Members of Trump’s family can’t get bailout funds, so, yay.

This is a robbery in progress. And it’s not a bailout for the coronavirus. It’s a bailout for twelve years of corporate irresponsibility that made these companies so fragile that a few weeks of disruption would destroy them. The short-termism and lack of capital reserves funneled record profits into a bathtub of cash for investors. That’s who’s being made whole, financiers and the small slice of the public that owns more than a trivial amount of stocks. In fact they’ve already been made whole; yesterday Wall Street got the word that they’d be saved and stocks and bonds went wild. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is running these bailout programs for the Fed, and could explicitly profit if the Fed buys its funds, which it probably will.

posted by tonycpsu at 2:13 PM on March 25, 2020 [33 favorites]

The hold up is shitty little Trump humper Lindsey Graham who thinks the unemployment benefits are too generous. But he's okay with half a trillion dollars for big corporations with no promises they will keep people employed.

Tim Scott, Rick Scott, and Ben Sasse are in his little group.
posted by ZeusHumms at 2:15 PM on March 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

G-7 fails to agree on statement after U.S. insists on calling coronavirus outbreak ‘Wuhan virus’
posted by mumimor at 2:17 PM on March 25, 2020 [11 favorites]

There's never enough time for planning and preparation but there's always time to be petty and racist.
posted by sjswitzer at 2:22 PM on March 25, 2020 [26 favorites]

G-7 fails to agree on statement after U.S. insists on calling coronavirus outbreak ‘Wuhan virus’

This is... almost unimaginably stupid and petulant. Almost.

I have to imagine the transcript went something like this:

POMPEO:
So about this Wuhan virus.

REST OF THE FUCKING CIVILIZED WORLD:
Can we maybe start by ditching this racist and divisive term you insist on using?

POMPEO:
No. *stomps his foot and goes home*
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 2:44 PM on March 25, 2020 [11 favorites]

3 days ago I mentioned to someone on twitter that "Maybe the initial reports that it mostly just affected the elderly will turn out to have been the anomaly."

That now appears more likely to be true. From Buzzfeed:

The Coronavirus Is Sending Lots Of Younger People To The Hospital - It’s increasingly clear that early data out of China was an anomaly: The coronavirus is severely harming substantial numbers of people under 50, too.

Across the United States, about 38% of coronavirus patients sick enough to be hospitalized were ages 20 to 54, the CDC reported last week. Young people outside the US have also been severely affected. In Spain, about 18% of hospitalized patients are under 50, according to the latest data. And in South Korea, more than half of confirmed cases are under 50, with the ages 20–29 being the largest age group.

The article explores a variety of explanations for why the age breakdown might differ between countries, and also (chillingly) notes that one possible reason for the lower death rate among young people is that old people are being denied ventilators so the young can be saved. Oh, also, the most famous Spring Break dumbass has posted a long, heartfelt apology on Instagram.
posted by mediareport at 2:56 PM on March 25, 2020 [7 favorites]

For anyone who has people in their social circles parroting Trump's "the cure can't be worse than the disease" nonsense:

How the next recession could save lives — Death rates have dropped during past economic downturns, even as many health trends have worsened. Researchers are scrambling to decipher lessons before the next big recession. (via)

Published a year ago, well before COVID-19 was forcing wingnuts to create pithy slogans to defend their ghoulish policies.
posted by tonycpsu at 3:15 PM on March 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

An entire New Jersey nursing home has been evacuated after 24 of 94 patients tested positive. The other 70 are presumed to have the virus as well.

Related, from WaPo: More than 140 nursing homes have reported coronavirus cases. Federal officials won’t say which ones.

On Monday, a news release from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that regulates nursing homes, said 147 nursing homes had a resident with coronavirus, and that figure included only nursing homes, not elder care facilities...

The Post on Monday requested a list of nursing homes with outbreaks from both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...A CDC spokesman, Scott Pauley, told The Post he was “not sure [the list] will be released at this time.”

...In issuing recommended procedures to nursing homes on March 13, CMS did not specifically instruct nursing homes to tell residents, their families or the public about a coronavirus outbreak. According to some experts, they should have.
posted by mediareport at 3:36 PM on March 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

The WA health department’s COVID-19 site includes a breakdown of deaths by age. Of the 123 people who have died of COVID-19 in Washington state,

100% are over 40 years old;
98% are over 50 years old;
93% are over 60 years old;
80% are over 70 years old.

Of course, this is heavily impacted by the fact that our oldest and largest cluster of cases was in a nursing home, and that there have been fatal clusters in several other long-term care facilities. But we’re definitely seeing a pattern of fatalities similar to that in China and elsewhere, and I believe this was true even before our hospitals were overwhelmed with COVID patients.
posted by mbrubeck at 4:09 PM on March 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

13 Deaths in a Day: An ‘Apocalyptic’ Coronavirus Surge at an N.Y.C. Hospital (NYT)

“It’s apocalyptic,” said Dr. Bray, 27, a general medicine resident at the hospital.

Across the city, which has become the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, hospitals are beginning to confront the kind of harrowing surge in cases that has overwhelmed health care systems in China, Italy and other countries. On Wednesday morning, New York City reported 16,788 confirmed cases and 199 deaths.

More than 2,800 coronavirus patients have been hospitalized in the city. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Wednesday offered a glimmer of hope that social-distancing measures were starting to slow the growth in hospitalizations. Still, hospitals are preparing for a major influx.

[...] All of the more than 1,800 intensive care units in the city are expected to be full by Friday, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency briefing obtained by The New York Times. Patients could stay for weeks, limiting space for newly sickened people.

[...] The federal government is sending a 1,000-bed hospital ship to New York, although it is not scheduled to arrive until mid-April. Officials have begun erecting four 250-bed hospitals at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Midtown Manhattan, which could be ready in a week.

posted by katra at 4:11 PM on March 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

Ben Sparks explains (and codes) the so-called SIR Model being used to predict the spread of cornavirus (COVID-19): The Coronavirus Curve - Numberphile.
posted by Pendragon at 4:20 PM on March 25, 2020

The federal government is sending a 1,000-bed hospital ship to New York, although it is not scheduled to arrive until mid-April

If they are talking about the Navy hospital ship, I read that the idea is for it to provide space for non-covid patients
posted by thelonius at 4:26 PM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

from that nyt article: "A refrigerated truck has been stationed outside to hold the bodies of the dead."

it's not just elmhurst. it's all of them. they cut down the fence outside bellvue to park the trucks right in front.
posted by poffin boffin at 4:43 PM on March 25, 2020 [10 favorites]

Deaths from COVID-19 apparently greatly skew toward older persons, while hospitalizations are more evenly distributed across ages. Should the equipment and personnel that are saving these younger patients become overwhelmed, the death rates for those demographics will certainly become nonzero.
posted by haiku warrior at 5:02 PM on March 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

Saw something that said that the Senate bill has at most 1 of the 8 safeguards that Elizabeth Warren had proposed as conditions for the massive corporate bailout.

Sad if true; will look for confirmation.
posted by Gadarene at 5:03 PM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

Morgue space in NYC expanded with 45 cooler trucks

The city is sending a “Mass Fatality Management” plan to medical facilities, laying out technical specifications for the trailers, known as Body Collection Points. The trailers must be cooled to a temperature of 37 degrees, documents for their purchase show.

My friend in NYC tells me that they may have finally found a source for the extra ventilators they need. Meanwhile the orange shitstain still expects Cuomo to grovel if he wants more federal help.

At the end of all this there must be an accounting. There has to be.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 5:18 PM on March 25, 2020 [13 favorites]

US Christian leaders criticise Trump's Easter coronavirus deadline (Guardian)

“It is the height of hypocrisy for Trump to suggest that Easter is a time to defy public health recommendations and ‘reopen’ America,” said pastor and activist the Rev William J Barber II. “Jesus challenged oppression and cared for the poor, while Trump ignored the pandemic of poverty and tragically dismissed intelligence about the coronavirus. We need a resurrection of Jesus’s concern for the most vulnerable, not a capitulation to corporate greed that could cost millions of lives.”

The Rev Al Sharpton said that if Trump was going to use biblical language, the president “needs to know the whole Easter story”. [...] The Rev Laura Everett, a pastor and executive director of Massachusetts Council of Churches, told of her anger with Trump. “Still fuming about Trump co-opting Easter for capitalism,” she tweeted.

[...] Christianity Today published a critical editorial following Trump’s comments in which it warned that even with good hygiene and physical distancing, congregating during a pandemic “mars our witness”. It said: “Rather than looking courageous and faithful, we come off looking callous and even foolish, not unlike the snake handlers who insisted on playing with poison as a proof of true faith.”

In the Catholic church, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles tweeted on Tuesday night, after the president’s announcement, that all its churches would remain closed until “at least” 19 April – a week after Trump’s suggested deadline. In newly updated guidelines, it encouraged priests to continue celebrating mass without a congregation and live-streaming instead.

posted by katra at 5:21 PM on March 25, 2020 [8 favorites]

Meanwhile: Trump’s Spiritual Adviser Paula White Is Using the Coronavirus Crisis to Bankroll Her Church (Mother Jones, March 18, 2020) Though she clarified that donations wouldn’t actually go to help those infected, White used medical imagery to add urgency to her fundraising plea during a pandemic. “Every single day we are a hospital to the sick, not necessarily the physically sick,” she said. “But we are a hospital for those who are soul sick, those who are spiritually sick.” White went on to suggest that contributors offer a $91 donation, citing Psalm 91, or “maybe $9 or whatever God tells you to do.”
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:38 PM on March 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

The Senate bill in its new House bill vehicle, HR 748. 883 page pdf.
posted by jedicus at 5:39 PM on March 25, 2020 [5 favorites]

it's not just elmhurst. it's all of them. they cut down the fence outside bellvue to park the trucks right in front

Fucking fuck that's some disaster movie shit right there.

And just slams home what kind of psychological cost will be borne by the medical professionals on the front line.
posted by soundguy99 at 5:44 PM on March 25, 2020 [7 favorites]

An acquaintance works in health care in NYC. He just texted me a photo of the one new mask he got today. His team had to fight to make sure everyone got a mask.

This is going to traumatize so many doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, just....everyone who has contact with patients. Both the watching patients die and the being utterly unprotected while they try to help.
posted by bilabial at 5:50 PM on March 25, 2020 [8 favorites]

Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook (Politico)

The Trump administration, state officials and even individual hospital workers are now racing against each other to get the necessary masks, gloves and other safety equipment to fight coronavirus — a scramble that hospitals and doctors say has come too late and left them at risk. But according to a previously unrevealed White House playbook, the government should’ve begun a federal-wide effort to procure that personal protective equipment at least two months ago.

[...] The strategies are among hundreds of tactics and key policy decisions laid out in a 69-page National Security Council playbook on fighting pandemics, which POLITICO is detailing for the first time. Other recommendations include that the government move swiftly to fully detect potential outbreaks, secure supplemental funding and consider invoking the Defense Production Act — all steps in which the Trump administration lagged behind the timeline laid out in the playbook.

[...] The playbook also stresses the significant responsibility facing the White House to contain risks of potential pandemics, a stark contrast with the Trump administration’s delays in deploying an all-of-government response and President Donald Trump's recent signals that he might roll back public health recommendations. “The U.S. government will use all powers at its disposal to prevent, slow or mitigate the spread of an emerging infectious disease threat,” according to the playbook’s built-in “assumptions” about fighting future threats. “The American public will look to the U.S. government for action when multi-state or other significant events occur.”

[...] The NSC devised the guide — officially called the Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents, but known colloquially as “the pandemic playbook” — across 2016. The project was driven by career civil servants as well as political appointees, aware that global leaders had initially fumbled their response to the 2014-2015 spread of Ebola and wanting to be sure that the next response to an epidemic was better handled.

posted by katra at 6:12 PM on March 25, 2020 [16 favorites]

They Can Help Fight Coronavirus. Trump Wants to Deport Them. (Stephanie Griffith, Washington Monthly)

Roughly 27,000 DACA recipients are health care practitioners. America can’t afford such a loss.

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:23 PM on March 25, 2020 [16 favorites]

Anybody else get a postcard from the CDC? The entire front side is filled with "PRESIDENT TRUMP'S CORONAVIRUS GUIDELINES FOR AMERICA

The backside has small print stuff listing the usual guidelines about washing your hands, etc.

This is just a blatant piece of Trump campaign material sent at taxpayer expense from the CDC.

You thought I was kidding when I said that you will be getting your $1200 checks in an envelope with a MAGA sticker inside. It's already started.
posted by JackFlash at 7:30 PM on March 25, 2020 [19 favorites]

Some mathowie guy posted an image of the postcard.

Trump campaign has sent a C&D to TV stations airing this Priorities USA ad[youtube]. Ad consists of audio clips of Trump gaslighting the nation played over a graph showing number of USA
Covid-19 cases when he made the statement. IE: nothing but direct Trump quotes and an indication of how many confirmed cases there were when he made the statement. Twitter thread discussing the C&D.
posted by Mitheral at 7:34 PM on March 25, 2020 [13 favorites]

Ugh.. This timeline...

Stay safe everyone
posted by Windopaene at 7:39 PM on March 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's nice that they have finally admitted that it's "President Trump's Coronavirus"
posted by JackFlash at 7:40 PM on March 25, 2020 [15 favorites]

The Senate is (fucking finally) preparing to vote on the stimulus bill. After that it will adjourn until April 20th. McConnell is reserving the possibility of returning for other votes before that, but in general we should expect no further legislative action for a month after this.
posted by jedicus at 7:43 PM on March 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

Everyone should start calling it the Trump Virus.
posted by perhapses at 7:45 PM on March 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

Trump with a $6T blank check and no Congress to constrain him for a month. What could possibly go wrong.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:55 PM on March 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

Just minutes ago the US crashed through the 1000 deaths horizon. By this time tomorrow the US will have moved past Italy and China to have the most confirmed cases on the planet. American exceptionalism at its best.
posted by JackFlash at 7:59 PM on March 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

What is really interesting, in a totally morbid sense, is trying to make sense of the fatality percentages. Some countries, you are all like, that's bullshit, someone's not telling the truth, and others, you are like, OK, they have no population. But, why are some countries able to keep fatalities down, and others not. Given the US systems, we are looking bad. But some countries, who I'm not thinking have better healthcare than the US, aren't seeing the same death rates. We are living in interesting times...

Stay safe everyone.
posted by Windopaene at 8:05 PM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

It's all complicated because it depends on the number tested. Case Fatality Rate is based on the number symptomatic vs deceased, but that still requires sufficient testing.

On the other hand, I just read that Australia has ~2,000 ICU ventilators, and over 2,500 cases. If it sticks to 20% symptomatic have severe symptoms, we'll run out at 10,000 (in about 8 days).
posted by Marticus at 8:11 PM on March 25, 2020

The Sasse amendment has (predictably) failed, and the Senate is now moving on to the bill proper. The House is expected to pick it up tomorrow evening. Why the hold up? Republican obstruction.

Pelosi had originally hoped to bring the bill up via unanimous consent after Senate passage, a voting method that would not force lawmakers to return to Washington. But she said later Wednesday that House leaders were looking at other options, noting that at least some Republicans were on their way to Capitol Hill to object to the legislation when it moves to the House.

posted by jedicus at 8:14 PM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

Votes are still being tallied (95-0 at this point), but the "phase 3" stimulus bill has passed the Senate.
posted by jedicus at 8:40 PM on March 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

That bill does not send enough money where it most needs to go. To people.
posted by Gadarene at 8:56 PM on March 25, 2020 [5 favorites]

So, the Governor of Mississippi has overridden all local directives in regards to C19. Ban if cross-posting your own math from other social media is forbidden ... but, this is what I came up with when the governor of a neighboring state went along with "SHRUG" as a policy :

Just as a note to all the "both parties are the same whateva" people out there:

The Governor of Mississippi just issued an executive order overriding all local stay at home orders in the entire state. Good fucking luck, Mississippi.

Ideology, rhetoric, and bad betting are going to get a lot of people needlessly killed.

The entire state of Mississippi has a population of about 3 million people. It has a total just shy of 10,000 hospital beds. Not ICU beds, TOTAL hospital beds.

Now, let's say that the stuff being blasted out of the moron-o-sphere is correct (It's not), and only 1% of infected require a 14 day hospitalization over the next couple of weeks. That's three times the number of hospital beds available for the entire state. And, even THAT "round cow" accounting assumes the only thing happening for the next month that requires hospitalization is C-19 infections.

The reality of the numbers is that C-19 has maybe a five percent hospitalization rate, which means Mississippi is about to deal with - at best - 150,000 people scrambling to occupy 10,000 beds.

And the even grimmer fact is that that only 50% of US hospitals even have ICU facilities. I don't have the exact breakdown for Mississippi, but the best the "Bar Napkin Department of Research and Numbers and Stuff" could come up with is that (nationally), the number of ICU beds is about 18% of total capacity. That means of those 10,000 beds, about 1,800 are ICU.

Current numbers (as of a week ago, anyway) - from the Dept. of Health and Human Services suggest that of those hospitalized, 40% will require ICU services. That means now Mississippi is dealing with 60,000 people chasing 1,800 ICU beds. (58,000 dead)

All of this assumes the only reason anyone in the entire state goes to the hospital for the next month is C-19. Nevermind the fact that by Trump's "Easter Resurrection," a huge percentage of caregivers will have unknowingly spread the virus (1/3 of carriers show no symptoms) AND/OR else have been removed from the fight by his shameful unwillingness to direct the federal government to use its power to hasten the creation of personal protective equipment (PPE) that will keep the rhetorically vaunted but practically abandoned first responders and health care professionals on the front line bereft of even the most basic health care equipment.

And, yet, they will do it anyway because they swore an oath. As other people, who also swore oaths, dump stocks and encourage you to go back to work to appease a line on a fucking graph.

Please be careful before you board: There is no getting off the ride once in motion.

[coaster-rising.gif]

Math don't give a shit about your rhetoric or your memes, math is coming to kill the people you love. Soon, and with a huge percentage of your neighbors willing to act as willing accomplices... to own the libs, I guess?

Never forget what is about to go down, nor who fiddled while Rome burned. Bad faith trolls and false civility is going to get us killed.

[....]

I mean the Democrats are allowed to suck - and have my entire lifetime - but, let's be clear, there's only one group of people currently in power who are saying that you have to roll the dice with the lives of all of your parents and grandparents to appease a magic number.

posted by absalom at 9:00 PM on March 25, 2020 [17 favorites]

That bill does not send enough money where it most needs to go. To people.

I agree, but Pelosi has previously indicated that there will be a fourth and likely fifth bill. With regard to this one in particular:

Pelosi told House Democrats on a series of conference calls that she is already thinking about the substance of the fourth coronavirus relief package that Congress will have to pass to respond to the crisis, according to sources on the calls.
Pelosi made it clear to members who are disappointed that the pending bill did not include enough of their priorities that they will have a chance to add those provisions in the fourth package, the sources said.

The value of social distancing in the US in terms of lives saved has been estimated at $7.9 trillion. That supremely hard-nosed economic calculus suggests that enormous amounts of additional spending are worth it in order to make additional weeks or months of social distancing bearable. I expect additional bills to be passed as it becomes increasingly obvious that this is just the beginning of the large scale government intervention that will be necessary.
posted by jedicus at 9:08 PM on March 25, 2020 [7 favorites]

By this time tomorrow the US will have moved past Italy and China to have the most confirmed cases on the planet. American exceptionalism at its best.

"From this moment on, it’s going to be America First."
posted by kirkaracha at 9:15 PM on March 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

This next month.... is going to be *raised Spock eyebrow* interesting.
posted by hippybear at 9:17 PM on March 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

When can we let up? Health experts craft strategies to safely relax coronavirus lockdowns (Sharon Begley, STAT News)

Scientists including infectious disease epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, one of the most forceful voices against easing up prematurely on containment and mitigation, conclude in a new paper that in a best-case scenario, “summertime social distancing can be less frequent.” After that, they explain in an analysis published as a preprint on Tuesday, their mathematical model of how people interact and how infections spread suggests that, if the epidemic returns, “aggressive contact tracing and quarantine – impractical now in many places but more practical once case numbers have been reduced and testing scaled up – could alleviate the need for stringent social distancing to maintain control of the epidemic.”

[...] The optimism depends on first controlling the current outbreak, however. In many places, that isn’t even in sight, as many hospitals careen toward collapse and U.S. cases and deaths soar. [...] If policymakers needed any more reasons to prepare for extensive testing and the targeted countermeasures that would allow, it’s this: Covid-19 could well return next fall with a vengeance because of today’s social distancing measures. There will be “a high proportion of susceptible individuals in the population,” Harvard’s Lipsitch and his colleagues explained in their analysis. That could lead “to an intense epidemic … in the late autumn and winter.”

posted by katra at 9:19 PM on March 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

I am not an optimist in most things coronaviral, but by autumn there may be better means of dealing with the respiratory distress syndrome which does not require weeks of ventilators.
posted by benzenedream at 9:25 PM on March 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

Geoff Bennett (NBC News): 'The @nytimes reports that Americans who are eligible for the coronavirus relief cash payments but who *don't already have direct-deposit bank info on file with the IRS "will need to wait up to four months" to get a check, per Democratic aides."
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 9:54 PM on March 25, 2020 [11 favorites]

> So, the Governor of Mississippi has overridden all local directives in regards to C19. Ban if cross-posting your own math from other social media is forbidden ... but, this is what I came up with when the governor of a neighboring state went along with "SHRUG" as a policy :

This is going to go very badly.

https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2020/mar/24/gov-tate-reeves-orders-limited-gatherings-today-ex/

...

One of the immediate consequences of Reeves’ order is the formal declaration that most of Mississippi’s businesses qualify under it as "essential," and thus are exempt from restrictions on public gatherings. As of press time, the Jackson Free Press has received reports from businesses in the Jackson area that have, as of today’s executive order, scuttled plans for work-from-home and ordered their employees back to work on-site.

Also included among essential services in the executive order were religious facilities, just days after the Mississippi State Department of Health told Mississippians to skip churches, weddings and funerals to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

"Religious entities including religious and faith-based facilities, entities and groups, religious gatherings provided that they adhere to the CDC and the Mississippi Department of Health recommendations and guidance to prevent the spread of COVID-19," the order stated.

Skimming, I can't tell if this allows massive church services or if it only allows limited, <10 people church services. I fear it's the former.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:01 PM on March 25, 2020 [4 favorites]

Geoff Bennett (NBC News): 'The @nytimes reports that Americans who are eligible for the coronavirus relief cash payments but who *don't already have direct-deposit bank info on file with the IRS "will need to wait up to four months" to get a check, per Democratic aides."

25% of US households are either unbanked or underbanked (CNBC, Mar. 9, 2019)

Twenty-five percent of U.S. households are unbanked or underbanked, according to a 2017 survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Those are people who either don’t have a bank account, or have an account, but still use financial services outside the banking system like payday loans to make ends meet.

In 2017, 6.5 percent of U.S. households were unbanked, meaning that no one in the household had a checking or savings account. (FDIC, 2017)
posted by katra at 10:13 PM on March 25, 2020 [12 favorites]

The new bill passed by the senate isn't perfect by a long shot, but it has a lot of really good stuff in it. Pelosi and Schumer played it about as well as they could considering a handful of Republicans in the senate were willing to shoot the hostages.

McConnell was ready to jam his terrible bill through the senate on Sunday until Pelosi put a stop to it by declaring she was going to write her own bill and pass it in the House. Since both houses have to pass the same identical bill to become law, this threat stopped McConnell in his tracks. It would have taken weeks to reconcile two different bills and nobody wanted to take that long. This tactic by Pelosi gave Schumer the leverage he needed to rewrite the senate bill, improving it immensely.

The big win was on unemployment insurance, what Schumer is calling "unemployment insurance on steroids." It provides $600 per week on top of the normal unemployment weekly benefit for up to four months. Weekly benefits vary from $235 a week in Mississippi to a maximum of $823 in Massachusetts. So if you combine that with the new $600 benefit, the unemployed can receive from about $830 to $1400 a week. Note that you don't pay FICA taxes on unemployment benefits so that's an extra 7.5% in your pocket. That's real money that people can survive on.

Democrats also fixed this unemployment benefit so that it also applies to freelancers, contractors and gig workers who don't usually have any unemployment benefits. They will get up to $600 per week.

There's $100 billion to help hospitals treating coronavirus patients. Another $50 billion for medical equipment and supplies. An $1 billion for the Indian Health Service.

There's $150 billion for state governments to support their health departments and $8 billion for Indian governments.

And then the one you've probably heard the most about, one-time $1200 checks for each person and each spouse and $500 for each child. Democrats also fixed this so that low income households and households that do not normally file a tax return will receive the checks. There is a phase out at higher incomes.

There's $370 billion in loans for small business with incentives to keep employees on the payroll.

All in all, it was a major improvement on McConnell's original bill. Especially the unemployment benefit that directs money to people who need it most.

The bad part is the $500 billion for loan to large corporations. There are some fig leaves in there for oversight rather than a blind slush fund. We'll just have to wait to see how that goes. And some limitations on executive pay and payouts to shareholders.

Add this to the previous bill written by the Democrats and passed last week that provides for full paid sick pay and full paid family leave for parents who have to care for children because of closed schools.

So it been a couple of pretty good weeks for Democrats who, as Pelosi promised, are directing a lot of money to those who need it most.

(There may be some modifications to the above once the full text of the bill becomes available.)
posted by JackFlash at 10:23 PM on March 25, 2020 [33 favorites]

If You Live With Air Pollution, You're Already More Vulnerable to Covid-19 (Earther.Gizmodo, March 17, 2020) “This crisis isn’t simply a public health issue. It is directly related to social equity and environmental justice,” [former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina] McCarthy wrote. “It is directly related to our fight for clean air, clean water, a healthy environment, and healthy communities. #COVID19 is affecting all of us—our health and our way of life, but low-income communities and communities of color may face added risk.”
[...]
“I expect that there will be much higher rates of infection and death in low-income communities and even more so in low-income communities of color because of all the pre-existing conditions—both medical and social conditions,” Mark Mitchell, an associate professor of climate change, energy, and environmental health equity at George Mason University and chair of the National Medical Association Council on Medical Legislation, told Earther.

These social conditions include higher rates of poverty, inequalities in healthcare, and disparities in access to paid leave. There are also lifestyle practices, such as multi-generational housing where grandparents, their children, and grandchildren may all live under the same roof. This is more common among immigrant families and people of color. So is the regular use of public transit.

--
Coronavirus concerns postpone wildfire season preparations around the country (NY Times, March 25, 2020) Prescribed burns, in which firefighters deliberately set lands ablaze with the goal of reducing brush, grasses and other easily ignitable material that can help fuel large fires, have been postponed in all Forest Service regions because of concerns over the coronavirus.

“This decision to temporarily postpone ignitions will prevent any effects from smoke that might further worsen conditions for those who are at risk in our communities,” Imani Lester, the acting National Press Officer for the United States Forest Service said in an email.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:31 PM on March 25, 2020 [6 favorites]

In 2009 I had swine flu. Ham lung. Bacon fever. The oinks, trotters, snoutitis, the pork snort, Charlotte's revenge. I have more, I had six weeks to think of them, sitting under a warm shower blasting yellow slime out of my nose into the drain.

Do you know one I didn't think of? American flu. It originated in America but I don't think you could look at it under a microscope and see it waving a flag. It probably killed more Americans than anyone else, which is pretty un-American.

If there's anything that we learn from this, it's that we share a planet. This didn't come from the China planet, it came from our planet. Our planet full of us.
posted by adept256 at 10:51 PM on March 25, 2020 [33 favorites]

Science writer Ed Yong in The Atlantic:
How the Pandemic Will End
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:47 AM on March 26, 2020 [6 favorites]

The New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern did a Facebook Live event (unannounced) last night. You can watch it here - although you will probably need a Facebook account. As an example of political leadership in a time of crisis I reckon the video was pitch perfect. As someone commented, it was like being put to bed by Mum and told everything will be OK.
posted by vac2003 at 1:48 AM on March 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

ArsTechnica asks: Is it too much to ask for an actual plan?

But two things make the torrent of coronavirus misinformation distinct. The first one is simple: much of the misinformation starts at the top, where President Donald Trump seems willing to say whatever crosses his mind when he finds himself in front of a microphone.

But the second is trickier: unlike a national disaster or terrorist attack, we have no models for how long the coronavirus pandemic will last or how we will recover from it. There's no "we'll rebuild" mindset that people can use to make sense out of what's going to happen and guide their expectations.

Here's how we might create one.

posted by wierdo at 1:50 AM on March 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

a lot of companies have you apply online these days, which counts - you just go to the website, go through the motions, perhaps take an annoying test and it counts - you do 2 a week

if you're less honest, you can just make stuff up - even under normal circumstances few get checked by the government

(we have a summer layoff at my workplace, which is how i know this - at least that's how it works in michigan)
posted by pyramid termite at 2:32 AM on March 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

It's nice that they have finally admitted that it's "President Trump's Coronavirus"

Covfefe-19.
posted by rochrobbb at 3:48 AM on March 26, 2020 [11 favorites]

In case you think its a red state thing, MAs shithead republican gov is trying to force construction workers to go back to work because development is essential to avoid “economic disruption”. Fortunately most Mayors are fighting back.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:57 AM on March 26, 2020 [9 favorites]

Actually, I think this deserves a FPP, but since it is a paywalled NYTimes article, I'm not going to do it yet: Even Before Coronavirus, America’s Population Was Growing at Slowest Rate Since 1919

WASHINGTON — The American population is growing at its slowest pace since 1919, new government data shows, as a drop in births and an acceleration in deaths put the country closer than ever to an overall decline.

The figures, released by the Census Bureau on Thursday and analyzed by demographers, were for the 12 months that ended in July 2019, long before the coronavirus began to spread in the United States. Experts said that if one of the more dire projections of coronavirus-related deaths holds true, the country could face its first yearly drop in population, particularly if immigration continues to fall.

“If this epidemic is as significant as some think, we could have deaths exceeding births in the nation as a whole, which has never happened in the history of this country,” said Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire, who analyzed the numbers.

Experts point to what they say is a perfect storm, in which the three forces that make up a country’s population growth — births, deaths and immigration — have all gone off-kilter.

As it says in the article, this is also hitting Europe hard. And not mentioned in the article, China and Japan. The sensible way ahead is migration, since on a global level, we are still heading towards very high population levels. But migration has its own challenges. US and other countries based on migration are very good at dealing with the integration of new citizens, compared to Europe. But we all want the countries people are migrating from to succeed as well. And obviously, the Coronavirus has stopped all travel, for any purposes.

Mt mother's nursing home is completely dependent on immigrants to care for the elderly. It would shut down if it wasn't for them. I wonder how this looks in the UK and US, where the current governments are anti-immigrant? But also: the people who are caring for my mum are in some cases refugees from countries where help is needed. This is complicated.
posted by mumimor at 4:47 AM on March 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

Republicans simply cannot admit that their "free market solutions are the only solutions" philosophy doesn't work in this situation, let alone makes things actively worse. They fear that admitting that a govenrmental solution is best undermines their entire pholosophy -- and to be fair, it does. But like Herbert Hoover (who at least was a well-meaning humanitarian) in the Great Depression, their refusal to abandon their ideology even for the public good is going to cause economic ruin and arguably cost lives.
posted by Gelatin at 4:50 AM on March 26, 2020 [21 favorites]

Even Before Coronavirus, America’s Population Was Growing at Slowest Rate Since 1919

More than a few have predicted a baby boom nine months from the start of the quarantine.
posted by Gelatin at 4:50 AM on March 26, 2020

As just noted on a podcast I’m listening to, any such boom would be comprised exclusively of first-born children.
posted by Superplin at 5:25 AM on March 26, 2020 [28 favorites]

i've been seeing that floating around and i only just now got it. this is the levity we need ;-)
posted by affectionateborg at 5:34 AM on March 26, 2020

Mount Sinai to Begin the Transfer of COVID-19 Antibodies into Critically Ill Patients

The Mount Sinai Health System this week plans to initiate a procedure known as plasmapheresis, where the antibodies from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 will be transferred into critically ill patients with the disease, with the expectation that the antibodies will neutralize it.

The process of using antibody-rich plasma from COVID-19 patients to help others was used successfully in China, according to a state-owned organization, which reported that some patients improved within 24 hours, with reduced inflammation and viral loads, and better oxygen levels in the blood...

Dr. Krammer says his preliminary findings also show that humans have no natural immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which would help explain why it spreads so quickly. But once the antibody sets in humans do become protected. He also says that at this early stage in the research, there is no evidence that people can lose their immunity and become re-infected.
posted by mediareport at 5:41 AM on March 26, 2020 [10 favorites]

i don't really understand how the unemployment benefits increase is supposed to work when so many states have a requirement that you must be actively looking for work while receiving unemployment benefits.

North Carolina's governor waived that requirement along with a few others related to unemployment. The huge backlog of new claims, though, is now a major sticking point.
posted by mediareport at 5:44 AM on March 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

NYT: F.A.Q. on Stimulus Checks, Unemployment and the Coronavirus Bill

(nothing there about a four-month wait if you don't have direct deposit on file, and the link from the NBC reporter's tweet doesn't have anything about that either, so if anyone has a cite for that it'd be appreciated)
posted by mediareport at 6:06 AM on March 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

The idea of using plasma from people who have recovered is intriguing. If it it works, it could be a great stop-gap until a vaccine is developed as most infected people recover, provided the procedure is not to resource consuming.

An antibody test for the general population could be would be to identify many potential donors, as likely most infections are going undetected so far, because there are minor or no symptoms. Let’s hope.
posted by haiku warrior at 6:52 AM on March 26, 2020

I don't think there is going to be any measureable baby bump from this, if anything a decline. Sure there might be some unplanned births from people home for long periods with their partners. But I'm betting that is easily offset by people who are aggravated by being cooped up with their partners, people who were planning a pregnancy and now are "no fucking way I risking it at this time", people with fertility problems who can't get assistance and pregnancies that don't make it to term because the mother is effected my the virus. Also if this thing goes crazy in the USA and a million people die that is a lot less parents available to procreate in the first place.
posted by Mitheral at 6:54 AM on March 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

Thanks for your many informative comments mediareport.
posted by haiku warrior at 6:55 AM on March 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

i don't really understand how the unemployment benefits increase is supposed to work when so many states have a requirement that you must be actively looking for work while receiving unemployment benefits.

There is the option for the employer to give a furlough rather than a layoff notice if they have an intent to rehire the person after the lockdown. This means you technically still have a job so can collect unemployment without looking for a new one.

Some states have waived the job seeking requirement entirely temporarily.
posted by JackFlash at 7:04 AM on March 26, 2020 [8 favorites]

A couple of other things in the new bill.

Student loan payments can be suspended until the end of September without penalty or interest.

Mortgage foreclosures can be delayed for up to six months without penalty for federally backed mortgages.

Rent evictions can be delayed for up to four months without penalty for landlords having federally backed mortgages on their property.

Money can't be diverted to Trump's wall.
posted by JackFlash at 7:37 AM on March 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

A couple of other things in the new bill.

Republican often complain about "herp derp this bill is too long," but I'd imagine much of that length has to do with clauses preventing past known Republican shenanigans ("No, Trump may not divert money to the wall," "No, you can't write checks to aid groups that discriminate against LGBTQ people," etc.).
posted by Gelatin at 7:52 AM on March 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

At some point there probably needs to be a separate economics thread. Until then:

The coronavirus fiscal response should be as big as needed—but current forecasts indicate at least $2.1 trillion is needed through 2020 (Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute)

'The expected hit to the economy would mean almost 14 million job losses by summer'

- The stimulus package to deal with the coronavirus economic shock should be as big as economic conditions dictate.
- The package to restore the nation’s economic health should spend at least $2.1 trillion through the end of 2020. This amount could increase even this year, and aid should continue past this year if conditions warrant.
- The fiscal response should continue until we reach full employment.
- The stimulus should be well-targeted and not squandered on unconditional giveaways to business that don’t spur the needed growth.
- The risk of going too small on stimulus is large and scary, while the risk of going too big is almost nonexistent.

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:59 AM on March 26, 2020 [8 favorites]

Despite some good provisions, the CARES Act has glaring flaws and falls short of fully protecting workers during the coronavirus crisis (Josh Bivens and Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute)

Finally, this proposal repeats terrible mistakes of the past by not instituting triggers to enable relief and recovery aid to keep flowing as long as economic conditions warrant. Time-based aid makes no sense, particularly when facing as uncertain an economic shock as the current one. Instead, as long as relief is needed and the economy remains depressed, aid should continue to flow. Optimally, the triggers that would enable this aid to keep flowing would be based on employment and hours of work instead of, or in addition to, unemployment rates. This consideration applies not just to the expanded UI benefits, but also to the direct cash payments to households and the aid to state and local governments. None of this aid should be shut off automatically on an arbitrary date. Instead, it should wind down gradually as economic conditions warrant.

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:01 AM on March 26, 2020 [9 favorites]

Pelosi is already working on a phase four bill.

But first she has to get the current phase three bill from the Senate through the House. The problem is that, although the bill has majority support, most congress members are hunkered down at home instead of in Washington. Pelosi planned to use a maneuver called unanimous consent, but all it takes is one asshole Republican to object. Turns out there is no shortage of asshole Republicans already clamoring for the spotlight saying they will object to unanimous consent.

So she will have to find some other way to pass the bill. She is looking at either a voice vote or proxy vote, but that would also require a rule change.

Trumps says he wants the bill passed so it is time for him to bring down this tweeter hammer on the recalcitrant Repubs. How else is he going to get his re-election checks sent out to the public with his smiling face on the enclosed letter.
posted by JackFlash at 8:09 AM on March 26, 2020 [9 favorites]

Tragic story from here in Pittsburgh: Woman who died of COVID-19 refused to go to hospital, worried about bills, her son says

“She didn’t have insurance. She thought she might not be able to pay the bills,” her son, Ludmil Velev, said Wednesday from his hospital bed at UPMC Presbyterian, where he has been treated for COVID-19 since Monday. “And being a foreigner, she was worried even more.”

.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:37 AM on March 26, 2020 [23 favorites]

The U.S. traditionally leads in times of crisis. Now it’s practicing self-isolation.

BEIRUT — As America's rivals make gestures of support for other nations stricken by the coronavirus, the United States is losing the geopolitical contest prompted by the epidemic while struggling to contain the virus at home, analysts say.
At a time when the world would typically look to the richest and most powerful nation for leadership in a crisis, the United States has instead retreated into its own form of self-isolation, with its president downplaying the severity of the threat and top American officials squabbling among themselves.
Instead, the United States’ rivals, notably China and to a lesser extent Russia, have been stepping up to offer aid to other stricken nations, a role long fulfilled by the United States in crises stretching back to World War II.
Planeloads of Chinese medical equipment, masks and protective gear have been landing in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Iran and Iraq, among others. Jack Ma, China's wealthiest man, donated test kits, masks and protective suits to each of Africa’s 54 countries.

I called one of my sisters today, and I can hear how social media locally are running amok with conspiracy theories and scams. (I've opted out of social media). I know we've discussed this a gazillion times, but real media aren't dealing with this optimally either. There is so much hard work to do when we are through all of this.
posted by mumimor at 10:40 AM on March 26, 2020 [6 favorites]

Global confirmed cases passed 500,000 (510,108) in the last couple of hours.
posted by freecellwizard at 10:52 AM on March 26, 2020

Looks like Trump finally got his wall.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:04 AM on March 26, 2020 [7 favorites]

i don't really understand how the unemployment benefits increase is supposed to work when so many states have a requirement that you must be actively looking for work while receiving unemployment benefits.

That's what the disaster declaration was good for.. temporarily waiving the requirement to be looking for work to receive UI. Florida, among at least a few others that I'm personally aware of, actually waived that requirement on their own before any federal legislation was passed.

Yes, thanks to the block grant model, they had that flexibility in how they administrate their UI already. Of course, that is also why Florida can get away with only paying about $230 a week for only 12 weeks under normal circumstances. The extra $600 a week will be a total game changer for a lot of people in Florida who have been extra fucked because of our tourism-based economy.
posted by wierdo at 11:12 AM on March 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

It's a long process, but having had to help people through the process in a few different states now, it's not hard (when the websites are working, anyway), just unnecessarily long with many questions that simply aren't applicable under the present circumstances.

I find it quite comforting that, for literally the first time in my life, I can collect UI if my boss and his pet rich people run out of money or keel over dead, even if there is some virtual paperwork I have to get through. (I'm quite legitimately classed as an independent contractor, given that I do things when I want to do them and use my own equipment to do it)
posted by wierdo at 11:27 AM on March 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

No 10 accused of putting 'Brexit over breathing' in Covid-19 ventilator row
Johnson is right on your heals, Trump. At being the most incompetent leader.
posted by mumimor at 11:46 AM on March 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

91-Divoc, a visualization of Covid-19 spread by country and by US state (including normalization by population).
posted by kokaku at 12:53 PM on March 26, 2020 [13 favorites]

Given when he was warned, I've been thinking of Trump's response (and BoJo's by extension) in terms of crimes against humanity, if not genocide (if "residents" can be defined as a genus). I feel the implications of living in the US right now are really that dire.
posted by rhizome at 1:09 PM on March 26, 2020 [9 favorites]

U.S. deaths from coronavirus top 1,000, amid incomplete reporting from authorities and anguish from those left behind (WaPo)

As of Thursday afternoon, Americans had died in 42 states and territories and the District, with punishing increases in Louisiana and Michigan. Experts fear the worst is still to come, pointing to a rapid acceleration of cases in communities across the country.

The Washington Post is tracking every known U.S. death, analyzing data from health agencies and gathering details from family and friends of the victims. In the first 1,000 fatalities, some patterns have begun to emerge in the outbreak’s epidemiology and its painful human impact. About 65 percent of people whose ages are known were older than 70 and nearly 40 percent were over 80, demonstrating that risk rises along with age. About 5 percent whose ages are known were in their 40s or younger, but many more in that age group have been sick enough to be hospitalized. Of those victims whose gender is known, nearly 60 percent were men.

[...] Still more deaths are not being counted at all, such as those misdiagnosed with the flu or another illness and those who died but were never tested, highlighting another key gap in mortality information.

[...] “It might take longer for covid-19 to make it into the rural communities, and they might not get as many cases there,” [Nahid Bhadelia, an infectious-diseases physician and medical director of the special pathogens unit at Boston University School of Medicine] said, “but the worrisome thing is, it might not take as many cases to overwhelm the health-care system in these areas.”

posted by katra at 1:24 PM on March 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

100 people died in NY in the last 24h and that feels. uh. not great.
posted by poffin boffin at 2:07 PM on March 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

per JHU tracker the us and italy are running neck and neck and both poised to outpace china in terms of confirmed case count.
posted by 20 year lurk at 2:22 PM on March 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Given when he was warned
Stockpiling Ventilators for Influenza Pandemics (CDC.gov, Volume 23, Number 6 — June 2017)
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:25 PM on March 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

CoronaTracker has USA #1.
posted by phoque at 2:34 PM on March 26, 2020

Johns Hopkins, 6:10pm EDT:

82,404 US
81,782 China
posted by mikelieman at 3:11 PM on March 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

MA governor reports he is still being pre-empted on orders of medical supplies.

I am beginning to hope for New England independence.
posted by ocschwar at 3:14 PM on March 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

Because relaxing air pollution regulations is exactly what we need amid a respiratory disease pandemic in which affected people's lungs are already highly vulnerable

EPA suspends enforcement of environmental laws amid coronavirus

This is exactly what Naomi Klein's disaster capitalism thesis is about
posted by mostly vowels at 3:31 PM on March 26, 2020 [19 favorites]

Because relaxing air pollution regulations is exactly what we need amid a respiratory disease pandemic in which affected people's lungs are already highly vulnerable

This is exactly what Naomi Klein's disaster capitalism thesis is about

Two University of Chicago economists are on it with pauseregulations.com:

Is there some government regulation or rule that is keeping you from helping manage the COVID-19 crisis?

Maybe you’re a frontline healthcare worker, an administrator, or work in manufacturing, and believe you could make medical supplies. Whatever your position or industry, perhaps you have ideas that could help.

We want to hear from you. Please fill out the form below.

They got a NY Times opinion column as well. It's possible that some of these kinds of temporary regulatory suspensions are net beneficial, but it will also be a vehicle for broader deregulatory agendas.
posted by jedicus at 3:51 PM on March 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

Gee, of course some University of Chicago economists are on it.
posted by mostly vowels at 4:00 PM on March 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's well known that industry incumbents benefit from regulation because it creates barriers to entry for upstart competitors. Whether that is preventing anyone from standing up a ventilator, PPE, sanitizer, etc. plant, I don't know, but it's at least plausible that streamlined regulatory processes could help.

Too bad we've got no reason to trust that this isn't just another smash-and-grab. I mean, the U of Chicago researchers are explicitly fishing for "evidence" that supports their foregone conclusion.
posted by sjswitzer at 4:21 PM on March 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

91-Divoc, a visualization of Covid-19 spread by country and by US state (including normalization by population).

This is a really great link. At least it looks like some of the curves are starting to bend. It still sucks, and it's not nearly fast enough, but at least its something.

I'm just trying to find at least one positive right now. It seems like its all bad and depressing news. I hope everyone is safe.
posted by eagles123 at 4:48 PM on March 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

Agree about the 91-DIVOC graphs. The JHU site doesn't seem to be showing the logarithmic scale anymore, so the general bend toward flattening is good to see here. It also shows the US as being middle of the pack when populations is taken into account. Hopefully I'm reading it right ....and hopefully US testing isn't a crazy amount less than the cluster of countries around it.
posted by bonobothegreat at 5:08 PM on March 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

White House officials push back on calls to activate DPA for critical medical supplies (Politico)

During the briefing, Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the task force, also said she was reassured after a conversation with New York leaders this week, saying there were an adequate number of ICU beds and ventilators that haven‘t been used. “There is still significant — over a thousand or two thousand ventilators that have not been utilized yet,” she said.

New York governor rails at Congress for lack of aid in Covid-19 crisis: 'Do your job' (Guardian)

These lifesaving machines that patients with the most severe Covid-19 symptoms rely on have been a stressor for New York, and on Thursday, Cuomo explained why. Not only is there a tremendous dearth – New York hospitals only had 4,000 ventilators in the system at the beginning of the outbreak and will need 30,000 – but Covid-19 patients need ventilators for 11 to 21 days on average, so turnarounds are slow.

To try to manage need, one Manhattan hospital has already started sharing ventilators between two patients who require similar ventilator settings, according to the New York Times.

New Jersey officials planning for possibility of rationing ventilators (Politico)

On Wednesday, Dr. Vijayant Singh, chief hospital executive at Bayonne Medical Center, told POLITICO that CarePoint Health, which operates the Bayonne hospital as well as two others in Hudson County, is close to running out of ventilators.

posted by katra at 5:14 PM on March 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

Someone is not grasping the magnitude of the problem:

“There is still significant — over a thousand or two thousand ventilators that have not been utilized yet,” she said."

"Sure, the leopard was right in front of me, growling and drooling, with his mouth open, his upper jaw almost touching my left cheek while his lower jaw brushed against the right, but how could I possibly have known he was getting ready to eat my face?"
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 5:23 PM on March 26, 2020 [22 favorites]

Supermarket workers starting to test positive in MA, NY.
posted by adamg at 5:45 PM on March 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

If a patient changed needed ventilator settings but was hooked up with a few other people, the end result will be a complete disaster when there's no extra ventilator. So even figuring out how to stretch the supply this way isn't a full solution, it's just a stopgap.

Anyway, helped my partner file for partial unemployment today and wow, a whole $160 a week?! We're saved!
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 5:58 PM on March 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

WaPo:

Nearly 1.5 million N95 respirator masks are sitting in a U.S. government warehouse in Indiana and authorities have not shipped them because they are past their expiration date, despite Centers for Disease Control guidelines that have been issued for their safe use during the coronavirus outbreak, according to five people with knowledge of the stockpile.

Department of Homeland Security officials had a conference call Wednesday to figure out what to do with the masks, which are part of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s emergency supplies. DHS officials decided to offer the respirators to the Transportation Security Administration, whose workforce has been clamoring for protective equipment, according to three of the people who described the plans on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
posted by snofoam at 6:03 PM on March 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

On NYC’s front lines, health workers worry they will be next (AP)

A nurse died from coronavirus after working nonstop for weeks at a hospital where staffers frustrated with dwindling supplies posed in gowns made of trash bags. An emergency room doctor fears he had the virus long before getting too sick to work. Another nurse worries the lone mask she’s issued each day won’t be enough to protect her from an unending tide of hacking, feverish patients. At New York City-area hospitals on the front lines of the biggest coronavirus outbreak in the nation, workers are increasingly concerned about the ravages of the illness in their own ranks, and that the lack of testing and protective gear is making it not a matter of if they get it, but when.

[...] And perhaps most troubling, changes in official guidance that allow health care workers exposed to coronavirus to continue working, as long as they themselves are not showing symptoms. Some health care workers say they’re being told they can keep working even if they’ve tested positive for the disease, known as COVID-19, as long as they’re asymptomatic.

[...] [Barbara Rosen, a registered nurse in New Jersey for more than four decades and a vice president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union,] said her union has also heard from nurses using garbage bags to protect their clothing and receiving expired masks that could have decomposed elastic bands, compromising safety. She called the lack of resources “unheard of in the medical profession. It’s like going into a three-alarm fire with a water pistol.”

posted by katra at 6:10 PM on March 26, 2020 [7 favorites]

After Considering $1 Billion Price Tag for Ventilators, White House Has Second Thoughts

"WASHINGTON — The White House had been preparing to reveal on Wednesday a joint venture between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems that would allow for the production of as many as 80,000 desperately needed ventilators to respond to an escalating pandemic when word suddenly came down that the announcement was off.

"The decision to cancel the announcement, government officials say, came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it needed more time to assess whether the estimated cost was prohibitive. That price tag was more than $1 billion ... .

"Government officials said that the deal might still happen but that they are examining at least a dozen other proposals. And they contend that an initial promise that the joint venture could turn out 20,000 ventilators in short order had shrunk to 7,500, with even that number in doubt. Longtime emergency managers at FEMA are working with military officials to sort through the competing offers and federal procurement rules while under pressure to give President Trump something to announce."
posted by NotLost at 6:43 PM on March 26, 2020 [11 favorites]

91-Divoc, a visualization of Covid-19 spread by country and by US state (including normalization by population).

That IS a great link. What's with Japan? Are they doing something right?
posted by ctmf at 7:06 PM on March 26, 2020

Ventilator Makers Ask U.S. Government To Manage Distribution (NPR, March 25, 2020) Medical device manufacturers are asking the Trump administration to step in and centralize the distribution of ventilators, life-saving devices that are in desperately short supply because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Advanced Medical Technology Association, an industry trade group, said its members would "appreciate the Administration's leadership" in prioritizing which orders from states, local governments and hospitals should be filled first.
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:08 PM on March 26, 2020 [6 favorites]

During the briefing, Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the task force, also said she was reassured after a conversation with New York leaders this week, saying there were an adequate number of ICU beds and ventilators that haven‘t been used. “There is still significant — over a thousand or two thousand ventilators that have not been utilized yet,” she said.

"Exponential function? Once we're out of high school are we ever going to use that in the real world? I mean honestly." /s
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:39 PM on March 26, 2020 [20 favorites]

Ventilator Makers Ask U.S. Government To Manage Distribution

This is perhaps the clearest descriptor of one of the biggest factors contributing to this clusterfuck. Incompetent leadership.

I mean, I've just got some CIO/IT Director experience in my background, but wouldn't action items #1 and #2 be "National inventory of critical equipment" and "quickly survey stakeholder's needs for critical equipment." and then just cross-reference, then ship equipment from spreadsheet A to users on spreadsheet B.

Anyway, that's strategic planning based on writing a 5 minute comment, so the fact that they don't even have an adult in the room who can do the executive functioning now is really, really scaring.

Counterpoint, Andrew Cuomo has been stepping up for NY, so there are pockets of competence. But that's limited w/o national leadership.
posted by mikelieman at 8:00 PM on March 26, 2020 [17 favorites]

Trump says some governors asking for equipment they don’t need (WaPo)

“I think that a lot of things are being said that are more — I don’t think that certain things will materialize and you know a lot of equipment is being asked for that I don’t think they’ll need,” Trump said. Trump said he gets along well with all the governors except Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (whose name he did not seem to know). Both Democrats have publicly called on Trump to get more resources to the states. “We’re really helping the governors,” Trump said. “We had a call today with almost every governor, just about, I’d say, all 50. And it was like a love fest and they were so happy with the job we’re doing.”

Trump pushes to open parts of country as governors in hard-hit states warn more needs to be done to combat pandemic (WaPo)

Behind the scenes, business leaders have lobbied Trump not to invoke the [Defense Production Act] and conservative advisers have warned the president that doing so would draw a backlash and could cut into his argument of running against socialism in the fall, said two administration officials.

[...] Inslee was not the only governor to sound the alarm, according to one person briefed on the call, with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) raising a range of issues as New Orleans and his state brace for turmoil, with the number of cases and deaths there rising.

[...] The personal protective equipment shortage for health-care workers was the biggest concern expressed by governors, who said they believed the country needed a federal response so states are not competing for medical supplies — a running theme of the discussion, according to the people on the call and briefed on it.

posted by katra at 8:02 PM on March 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

Well maybe he'll open literally "parts" of the country. You know, like A/B test, and then it will be undeniable he's an idiot. Not that that's ever stopped him before.
posted by ctmf at 8:07 PM on March 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Quick visualization uses location data to show cell phones present at a single Fort Lauderdale beach during the month of March and where they went across the country afterwards.
posted by mediareport at 8:22 PM on March 26, 2020 [19 favorites]

Creepy and useful both!
posted by mediareport at 8:25 PM on March 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

Exclusive: As coronavirus spreads, U.S. military to withhold some infection data (Reuters)

“What we want to do is give you aggregated numbers. But we’re not going to disaggregate numbers because it could reveal information about where we may be affected at a higher rate than maybe some other places,” [U.S. Defense Secretary Mark] Esper said, without disclosing precisely what information would be withheld or when the plan would be implemented.

[...] There has been a sharp increase in coronavirus cases among troops inside the United States, which officials tell Reuters have overtaken the number of cases among forces overseas in key branches of military. [...] Reuters has reported that thousands of U.S. military personnel are in quarantine or in self-isolation in Europe and the Middle East due to either exposure to someone infected or recent travel to high-risk locations.

[...] A spokesman at the U.S. Africa Command, Air Force Colonel Christopher Karns, said his command would publicly report confirmed cases of infection but was not looking “to advertise” the number of people under quarantine. “If advertised, numbers can be used by adversaries to their advantage,” Karns said in a statement.

posted by katra at 9:15 PM on March 26, 2020 [8 favorites]

Hot spots are developing in the Midwest (NYT)

Deborah L. Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, warned of new hot spots developing in Wayne County, Mich., home to Detroit, and Cook County, Ill., home to Chicago, during the White House briefing on Thursday.

But Dr. Birx tried to be reassuring. She said that 19 states that represent about 40 percent of the U.S. population still have fewer than 200 cases of coronavirus, and of the people with significant symptoms who are being tested nationwide, 86 percent are testing negative.

A ‘negative’ coronavirus test result doesn’t always mean you aren’t infected (WaPo)

When a new test is rapidly created and deployed, its accuracy is often not fully known. The test is developed under controlled lab conditions, but it is used on samples taken, transported and performed by people in the real world — all of which increase the likelihood of errors. [...] “If it’s positive … you absolutely can make a [clinical] decision. If it’s negative, you may be early on in the infection and the viral load may be so low you don’t get it,” Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, said in a Q&A with JAMA. [...] A critical-care blog, EMCrit, estimated that the genetic tests are about 75 percent sensitive and suggests that a single negative swab doesn’t rule out the disease. [...] “A negative result does not rule out COVID-19 and should not be used as the sole basis for treatment or patient management decisions,” according to the [New York state lab] fact sheet for health-care providers.

posted by katra at 9:42 PM on March 26, 2020 [6 favorites]

"We are not allowed to reveal that bases in low-quarantine states are suffering from way higher infections than high-quarantine states... you know, by some totally anonymous directive we also cannot discuss."

Eh, that's funny in a cynical kind of way, but the policy isn't that surprising to me. I work with ship repair, and I can say we have a lot of work, ships are in poor repair generally, things like that. But it's classified information to say the USS ______ has a broken _______ because it reveals military capabilities and limitations. I also wouldn't be able to say things like "no aircraft carriers can go to sea".
posted by ctmf at 9:46 PM on March 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

But Dr. Birx tried to be reassuring. She said that 19 states that represent about 40 percent of the U.S. population still have fewer than 200 cases of coronavirus..

That is a maddeningly unsubstantiated claim that should never have been written by a NYT journalist and certainly should never have made it past their editor. Because there is literally no way of currently knowing how many cases of coronavirus exist in those 19 states since only a tiny fraction of those who might be carrying the virus are being tested. At best the article might claim that there are fewer than 200 confirmed cases of the virus.

The difference is critically important and it's bad journalism, not to mention a danger to public health, to elide the distinction between (1) the number of cases, and (2) the number of detected cases, especially since we have good reason to suspect that the discrepancy between those two figures is huge.
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:58 PM on March 26, 2020 [43 favorites]

Trump skates to where he wanted the puck to be.
posted by ryoshu at 10:47 PM on March 26, 2020 [7 favorites]

Trump teases new coronavirus distancing guidelines based on county risk (Politico)

In a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House on Thursday evening, Dr. Deborah Birx, the administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, brushed aside concerns that county-by-county criteria would be easily permeable.

Birx said that part of the current 15-day push for social distancing was to message the necessity of social distancing to contain the spread while encouraging “highly responsible behavior between counties.” [...] Asked whether, practically, the guidelines could prevent residents from a high-risk county from traveling to a low-risk county and potentially transmitting Covid-19, Birx punted to local officials. “These are dialogues that the federal government has to have with state and local governments, because state and local governments make those decisions,” she replied. [...] “What we‘re trying to do is to utilize a laser-focused approach rather than a generic horizontal approach. And I think in the 21st century we should be able to get to that,” she said, noting later that public health officials in the U.S. had so far been able to “very well define“ different outbreaks and clusters of coronavirus.

Birx continued: “Why am I confident that we can do that? Because we do that in sub-Saharan Africa right now for HIV. That‘s how we‘re stopping the epidemic there. So we‘ve done it. We‘ve done it in resource-limited settings. So I do believe we can transpose that approach here to the United States and be able to have — we have granular data down to a GPS coordinate of a site of a clinic and hospital. We think that same thing can be done in the United States.”

Trump Administration to Issue Guidelines for Classifying U.S. Counties by Coronavirus Risk (WSJ)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said Thursday that the U.S. “can start thinking about getting back to some degree of normality when the country as a whole turns that corner.”

posted by katra at 11:04 PM on March 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

But Dr. Birx tried to be reassuring. She said that 19 states that represent about 40 percent of the U.S. population still have fewer than 200 cases of coronavirus

Okay that is some total bullshit right there. Population of the U.S. was estimated at 330 million (give or take) on 1 July last year. So 40% of that is 132 million, so for these magical 19 states the average population would have to be 6.94 million, almost exactly the size of Massachusetts, which has over 2400 cases at this writing. Hmmm.

So I go to the Johns Hopkins global maps dashboard, click once to highlight the list entry for the U.S. on the top of the list of countries on the left side, then click on the "Admin2" tab at the bottom of the list of countries. Now I see the listing of cases by states (which is where I got the case figures for Massachusetts above). I scroll down to the bottom of this list and count the states with less than 200 confirmed cases. So right now there are 17 (not 19) states with less than 200, and the largest of these is Iowa (3.16 million). If I sum up these 17 states I get a total of 24.46 million population (not 132 million). Throw in Puerto Rico (64 cases) bumps the population count to 27.65 million. Still a little short. So maybe we include the next two states with the lowest confirmed case numbers, Kentucky (247) and Oklahoma (248), since Dr. Birx might have been working with last week's figures or something. That still only bumps the population of these 19 states plus Puerto Rico to 36.1 million, about 11% of total U.S. population. Not 40%. Not by a fucking mile.

And I'm neither an epidemiologist (let alone the alleged 'White House’s coronavirus response coordinator') nor an alleged NYT (The Paper of Record) journalist, just some random bozo with a web browser, a calculator and a bit of time on my hands.
posted by hangashore at 11:13 PM on March 26, 2020 [46 favorites]

Greetings from Day 1 of South Africa's 21 day lockdown. Our economy may have been in trouble before, and it will definitely be worse afterwards, but thankfully our President values the lives of the elderly and immuno-suppressed.
posted by PenDevil at 11:24 PM on March 26, 2020 [10 favorites]

Birx continued: “Why am I confident that we can do that? Because we do that in sub-Saharan Africa right now for HIV. That‘s how we‘re stopping the epidemic there. So we‘ve done it. We‘ve done it in resource-limited settings. So I do believe we can transpose that approach here to the United States and be able to have — we have granular data down to a GPS coordinate of a site of a clinic and hospital. We think that same thing can be done in the United States.”

So, basically, they'll define "low-risk zones" and then find out that Patient 31 was running around 4 days ago infecting everyone at a church service or eat-in restaurant, but that the clinic or hospital hadn't had a chance to pick up on that.

Also, we're still drastically under-testing.

It's like she she owns a lot of refrigerated truck stock or something.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:06 AM on March 27, 2020 [15 favorites]

hopefully US testing isn't a crazy amount less than the cluster of countries around it.

I found some "per million" testing - we're way behind.

Interestingly, you can also choose US CDC Samples tested in the chart - 113.6 (March 14 2020)

COVID-19 data as of 20 March: Total tests performed per million people COVID-19 data as of 20 March: Total tests performed per million people

United Arab Emirates 12,738 (Mar 16, 2020)
South Korea 6,148 (Mar 20, 2020)
Australia 4,473.4 (Mar 20, 2020)
Italy 3,498.7 (Mar 20, 2020)
Germany 2,023.3 (Mar 15, 2020)
Austria 1,777.8 (Mar 20, 2020)
United Kingdom 959.7 (Mar 19, 2020)
Iran 957.1 (Mar 14, 2020)
Taiwan 898.9 (Mar 20,2020)
France 559.1 (Mar 15, 2020)
Finland 537.6 (Mar 19, 2020)
United States 313.6 (Mar 19, 2020)
Vietnam 159 (Mar 20, 2020)
Japan 117.8 (Mar 19, 2020)
South Africa 109.6 (Mar 20, 2020)
Colombia 81.7 (Mar 20, 2020)

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/coronavirus-testing-trump-south-korea-fact-check/index.html

Based on the available data and the population of each country, 1 in 142 South Koreans and 1 in every 786 Americans have been tested for the coronavirus.

SK 1 / 142
US 1 / 786

However some states are testing more than others. This has a sortable chart.
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/26/21193848/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths-tests-by-state

Top Tests per million
New York 5319
Washington 4503
New Mexico 3717

Re-sorting the chart to see various correlations between Confirmed Cases, Testing, and Deaths is a bit scary as the highest number of testing is not correlating with places with highest deaths. There's probably an extraordinary amount of confirmed cases, hospitalizations, and deaths that we don't - and will likely never - know about.
posted by affectionateborg at 2:02 AM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Meanwhile, in Arizona (which is at around 500 confirmed cases/8 deaths) state authorities are telling medical personnel to avoid testing and to reuse PPE due to shortages.
posted by Superplin at 3:21 AM on March 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

'I won't survive': Iranian scientist in US detention says Ice will let Covid-19 kill many

Asgari arrived at ASF on 10 March and has been seeking to voluntarily “self deport” to Iran. Ice has refused to let him fly home or be temporarily released with his family in the US. He alleged:

Detainees have no hand sanitizer, and the facility is not regularly cleaning bathrooms or sleeping areas. Asgari and a few other detainees have devised a schedule to try to clean surfaces themselves with the minimal soap available.
Detainees lack access to masks. For two weeks, ASF also refused to let Asgari wear his own protective mask, which he brought with him to the facility, and it has refused to supply one, despite his history of serious respiratory problems.
Detainees struggle to stay clean, and the facility has an awful stench. Because the facility is supposed to be temporary, there is no laundry available and detainees are stuck with the clothes they were wearing upon arrival, sometimes after long journeys.
There are no physical distancing guidelines at the facility. It appears no procedures or practices have changed in response to Covid-19 since Asgari’s arrival, even as Louisiana state and federal officials have urged people to isolate.

Call your congresspeople.
posted by mumimor at 5:55 AM on March 27, 2020 [13 favorites]

Trump puts coronavirus crisis on hold to call Sean Hannity and complain about the real victim—Trump (Mark Sumner, Daily Kos)
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:08 AM on March 27, 2020 [8 favorites]

Doctors and nurses say more people are dying of COVID-19 than we know.

Systemic underreporting. I mean, you can't hide dead bodies forever, but yeah. The only numbers I trust at the moment are NY's, and even then, I'd add a multiplier to it.
posted by schadenfrau at 6:49 AM on March 27, 2020 [12 favorites]

We have a crystal clear example of how that under reporting will play out, I'm afraid: Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. There will be the 'official' death count that Trump and cronies will point at and minimize. Then there will be the actual number of dead above the normal death rate for the time and place.

How much of that larger number will be undiagnosed but directly covid-19 caused versus secondary effects from an overwhelmed health care system or beyond - that's the really scary part we can't even guess at so far.

For the first part, there have already been some studies in Italy where it appears the total increased death rate was 4x what was initially attributed to coronavirus.
posted by bcd at 7:23 AM on March 27, 2020 [15 favorites]

A nice article on how testing works for this virus. Almost all the testing being done now is via RT-PCR, which detects an active viral infection but is a fairly complicated test and will produce a negative result if you have had the virus and then recovered. We need badly need serological tests which detect circulating antibodies. They won't give a positive result until infection has been well-established but the benefits are noted in this paper describing one of these tests:

First, serological assays allow us to study the immune response(s) to SARS-CoV-2 in dynamic qualitative and quantitative manner. Second, serosurveys are needed to determine the precise rate of infection in an affected area, which is an essential variable to accurately determine the infection fatality rate. Third, serological assays will allow for the identification of individuals who mounted strong antibody responses and who could serve as donors for the generation of convalescent serum therapeutics [explained]. Lastly, serological assays will permit to determine who is immune and who is not. This would be very useful for deploying immune healthcare workers in a strategic manner as to limit the risk of exposure and spread of the virus inadvertently.

Emphasis and link added by me to indicate what I think are the more urgent reasons to deploy serological testing. Back when I worked in a lab I could have set one of these up without much hassle following this guidance from the authors of that paper. Hopefully hospitals have the wherewithal to do this.
posted by exogenous at 7:38 AM on March 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

Coronavirus modelers factor in new public health risk: Accusations their work is a hoax (William Wan and Aaron Blake, WaPo)

But one factor many modelers failed to predict was how politicized their work would become in the era of Trump, and how that in turn could affect their models. [...]

“Knowing when to release the throttle is hard. There’s is no button that says push me now,” said Howard Markel, a historian and physician at University of Michigan, who co-authored [a seminal 2007 paper exploring lifting restrictions too soon] with a top CDC official, Martin Cetron. “But the trick is to be patient, not to jump the gun. Otherwise, all that happens is you get more cases, more deaths and everything you worked so hard for with those restrictions just goes to waste.”

One of the perpetual frustrations of trying to prevent disease rather than curing it is that it’s often difficult for the public to appreciate the disasters you help them avoid.

“The problem is there’s no metric for prevention. How many cases you avoid. How many lives you save,” Markel said. “That’s why it’s so hard to stay the course but so important, too.”

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:49 AM on March 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

There will be the 'official' death count that Trump and cronies will point at and minimize. Then there will be the actual number of dead above the normal death rate for the time and place.

reminds me of Iraq Body Count -- the work still in progress.
posted by philip-random at 8:00 AM on March 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

> I found some "per million" testing - we're way behind.

Those data are from over a week ago. Fortunately, US testing has surged massively since then. As of yesterday, our total testing rate is at least 1640 per million, and increasing rapidly [source]. The total has nearly doubled in just the past four days. This may also be an undercount because data on negative tests results are incomplete.

More than 80% of these tests were done in the ~week since that March 20th report, so our numbers are over 5× higher today. We now have a higher per-capita testing rate than France, Iran, or the UK.

The big problem, still, is that testing is lagging in many states. On the other hand, New York has now done more tests per capita than South Korea!
posted by mbrubeck at 8:12 AM on March 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

Emphasis and link added by me to indicate what I think are the more urgent reasons to deploy serological testing.

This exists, and 10,000 of them are apparently being used in the next week or so in Miami-Dade County to gather statistical information about actual incidence in the community, according to a Miami Herald article. Unfortunately their mobile site sucks, so I can't find the article from yesterday outlining the plan and the expected timeline.

I specifically recall it being a 15 minute pinprick blood test and the 10,000 selected volunteers parts, for whatever that's worth.
posted by wierdo at 9:01 AM on March 27, 2020

Dominic Cummings spotted running away from Downing Street
It isn't nice to laugh at people catching a deadly disease, but it's fair to laugh at this both evil and ridiculous person running away from it all.
posted by mumimor at 9:17 AM on March 27, 2020 [6 favorites]

It's funnier if you imagine the virus as the swarm of bees from the 720° arcade game.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:20 AM on March 27, 2020 [9 favorites]

With the nascar level of ads on that page, they can afford to license "Yakety Sax" for the video.
posted by cmfletcher at 9:28 AM on March 27, 2020 [6 favorites]

The number of deaths in New York jumped to 519. (NYT live blog)

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo on Friday said that 519 people in New York State have died of the coronavirus, a one-day increase of 134 deaths since Thursday morning. And he rebutted comments from President Trump that New York was overstating its need for ventilators and that New York already had thousands in storage.

“We’re gathering them in the stockpile so that when we need them they will be there,” Mr. Cuomo said of the ventilators in storage. “We don’t need them today because we’re not at capacity today.” [...] “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,” Mr. Trump said on Fox News. [...]

Mr. Cuomo said on Friday of the estimate that the state will need 30,000 ventilators, “Look I don’t have a crystal ball. Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. But I don’t operate here on opinion. I operate on facts, and on data and on numbers and on projections.” [...]

Other highlights from Mr. Cuomo’s morning briefing: [...] Mr. Cuomo said the state needed 20 million N-95 masks, 30 million surgical masks, 45 million exam gloves, 20 million gowns and 30,000 ventilators — all astronomical amounts compared to the state’s current stockpile.

Trump says New York overstates the need for ventilators, and de Blasio bristles. (NYT live blog)

“With all due respect to him, he’s not looking at the facts of the astronomical growth of this crisis,” Mr. de Blasio said on “Good Morning America.” [...] As of Thursday morning, nearly 1,300 Covid-19 patients in New York State were in intensive care units, most of them on ventilators, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said. That number had jumped by 45 percent from the day before, and the state has projected that the growth of coronavirus cases will continue to accelerate for several more weeks.

“The only way we can obtain these ventilators is from the federal government,” Mr. Cuomo said earlier in the week. “Period.”

posted by katra at 9:44 AM on March 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

Did a New York Times article inspire Trump's 'back to work' plan?
posted by ishmael at 9:50 AM on March 27, 2020

Every time Trump comes out with an egregious bullshit lie, I keep wondering when someone will finally manage to pin it to him in a visceral way that really sticks. If ever he deserves to be nailed to the wall with a set of facts, it should be these statements about how NY is exaggerating the crisis to make him look bad and how the whole thing is overblown in general. When nature exposes the truth, he's going to incite a wave of anger with this the likes of which he cannot comprehend. Of course, if we do manage a national/global miracle somehow, he will claim personal credit. Verily, truthiness in action.
posted by feloniousmonk at 9:56 AM on March 27, 2020 [6 favorites]

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker today pleaded with people not in Massachusetts to stay away and that if they do come in, to self quarantine for 14 days. Electronic signs will flash the message at major crossings and people coming in via train or plane will be handed fliers asking them to self quarantine immediately, he said in his daily briefing.

Oh, and Baker said, sorry, he doesn't think the state will rise from the dead on Easter. Based on the advice he's getting from doctors and other actual experts, "we're not going to be up and running by Easter, no," he said, catching himself before saying something impolite.
posted by adamg at 10:07 AM on March 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

“My goal in writing this is to prevent people from being sucker punched by what the epidemiologist community knows will happen in a few weeks.”
posted by The Whelk at 10:11 AM on March 27, 2020 [13 favorites]

Fine print in corporate-friendly coronavirus bill passed by Senate could benefit Trump and Kushner (Igor Derysh, Salon)

And the provision Democrats included to block government officials and their families from getting bailout funds might not apply to Kushner, The Times reported. It only applies to individuals who "directly or indirectly" control 20% or more of a company, and since the president's son-in-law typically shares ownership with his parents and siblings, he rarely owns that much of his family's businesses. [...]

The bill also includes a number of other "fine print" measures that were added to the bill after lobbyists flooded the Senate and White House with requests. One $17 billion provision appears specifically targeted at helping Boeing, the embattled aircraft manufacturer Trump vowed to help after the coronavirus pandemic deepened an existing financial crisis caused by deadly technical malfunctions with its planes. [...]

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:19 AM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Teen Who Died of Covid-19 Was Denied Treatment Because He Didn't Have Health Insurance.
posted by ishmael at 10:59 AM on March 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

House passes $2 trillion coronavirus bill as problems for households and businesses continue to mount (Paul Kane, Mike DeBonis and Erica Werner; Washington Post)

The legislation passed in dramatic fashion, approved on an overwhelming voice vote by lawmakers who’d been forced to return to Washington by a GOP colleague who had insisted on a quorum being present. Some lawmakers came from New York and other places where residents are supposed to be sheltering at home.

The procedural move by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) drew bipartisan fury, including from President Trump who derided him over Twitter as a “grandstander” who should be tossed out of the Republican Party.

Massie, who opposes the legislation because it adds to the deficit, insisted over Twitter that he’d “sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution” and was simply upholding that oath. The Constitution specifies that a quorum -- or majority of the House -- should be present for legislative business, but that is rarely enforced.

posted by ZeusHumms at 11:11 AM on March 27, 2020 [6 favorites]

That bill will not be enough. People are going to default on mortgage and rent and credit card payments. People need money and immediate financial relief. People are going to die.
posted by Gadarene at 11:38 AM on March 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

And why the Democrats don't have someone speaking to television cameras every day with a cadre of doctors behind them to rebut and correct Trump's perilous lies is something I will never understand.

They're ceding the pulpit to him and he now has a 60 percent approval rating of how he has handled coronavirus.
posted by Gadarene at 11:39 AM on March 27, 2020 [28 favorites]

We need to move to a "moneyless" society for several months: everybody stay in place for debts incurred, renters, landlords, etc. (Yes, it would be a lot more complicated than that.)

The stock market should be closed. (It was closed at the beginning of World War I for about four months)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:42 AM on March 27, 2020 [7 favorites]

They're ceding the pulpit to him and he now has a 60 percent approval rating of how he has handled coronavirus.

Only because people don't understand exponential growth. Those numbers will likely plummet down to his ~35% approval floor in 14-21 days when the peaks start hitting state after state for a month.
posted by jedicus at 11:43 AM on March 27, 2020 [7 favorites]

That day has come. This is the TN/NC border on the Cherohala Skyway (NC143) in Graham County, NC. Here's the county's (useless, terrible) rationale for the closure.

The governor of MA wants all persons coming in to self-quarantine regardless of how they got here.
posted by ocschwar at 11:59 AM on March 27, 2020

The governor of MA was polite about it, though. The governor of RI, in contrast, has authorized the National Guard and State Police to look for New Yorkers at the state line and at bus and train stations and force them into quarantine.
posted by adamg at 12:04 PM on March 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

EPA Announces Enforcement Discretion Policy for COVID-19 Pandemic. It's one of several state and federal agencies that have announced various levels of "enforcement discretion."

In theory the discretion is limited to civil rather than criminal misconduct, will vary according to seriousness, and deviation from compliance must be documented and due to the pandemic. But I don't trust Andrew Wheeler's EPA to do much more than let it be a blanket excuse to pollute for several months followed by a slow-walked return to enforcement.
posted by jedicus at 12:04 PM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

That bill will not be enough. People are going to default on mortgage and rent and credit card payments. People need money and immediate financial relief. People are going to die.

The CARES Act addresses those issues.

Student loan payments can be suspended until the end of September without penalty or interest.

Mortgage foreclosures can be delayed for up to six months without penalty for federally backed mortgages.

Rent evictions can be delayed for up to four months without penalty for landlords having federally backed mortgages on their property.

Households will be receiving $1200 and an addition $1200 for spouse and $500 for each child.

Unemployment insurance will be boosted by an additional $600 per week, $2400 per month, on top of regular benefits.

Not perfect but the biggest social welfare boost in history.
posted by JackFlash at 12:09 PM on March 27, 2020 [10 favorites]

I don't trust Andrew Wheeler's EPA to do much more than let it be a blanket excuse to pollute for several months followed by a slow-walked return to enforcement.

It's the usual shameful opportunism from the Trump camp, but I take it, like McConnell's desperate push to confirm judges, as a tacit admission that they believe Trump won't be around for a second term.
posted by Gelatin at 12:14 PM on March 27, 2020

delaying evictions and suspending mortgage payments does fuckall for renters who can't pay rent in 5 days and will certainly not be able to pay rent in 4 months! it does nothing! nothing! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
posted by poffin boffin at 12:18 PM on March 27, 2020 [11 favorites]

Households will be receiving $1200 and an addition $1200 for spouse and $500 for each child.

Which households, exactly? All households? Households of people without direct deposit from the IRS? Households of permanent residents? A one-time taxable (!) payment of $1200 even for those who qualify is nothing in the face of what we're dealing with. It's nothing.

Not remotely close to perfect. And to the extent that it slows the momentum for further bills and further demand-side stimulus...well, I won't say it could potentially do more harm than good, but it will do a whoooooole lot less good than it will line the pockets of millionaires.

I agree with AOC. The bill is shameful.
posted by Gadarene at 12:20 PM on March 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

It also does nothing for small businesses who have been forced to close as non-essential. We are expected to keep paying rent and bills when we aren't legally allowed to sell product. We get no unemployment, and this $1200 per person is the only help forthcoming. There are a lot of mom-and-pops who will be going hungry if this lasts months as seems likely.

I understand. People's lives are more valuable than my livelihood. I WANT to close. But I don't know what I'm going to do without any income.
posted by rikschell at 12:23 PM on March 27, 2020 [9 favorites]

I was under the impression that unemployment has been expanded to cover at least some small business owners - self-employed etc - but there aren't many details yet. I run an LLC with one other person and was having difficulty figuring out how to file in my state. Who knows when relief could arrive given that they are probably beyond swamped...
posted by 250knots at 12:30 PM on March 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Umm, it helps my family to the tune of $600 a week supposedly starting in the next couple of weeks, thanks. Maybe "a start" isn't enough for some folks, but I'll take something that will keep the wolves at bay for a few months over the usual kick in the teeth anyway.

Or we can do that whole snatch defeat from the jaws of victory thing yet again.
posted by wierdo at 12:32 PM on March 27, 2020 [8 favorites]

I don't know how this isn't obvious. Millions now cannot work.

The biggest problem right now is the millions who are becoming unemployed. The new unemployment benefits should be providing close to 100% of previous wages for low and middle income workers. There are also benefits extended to contractors, freelancers and gig workers.
posted by JackFlash at 12:32 PM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Rent evictions can be delayed for up to four months without penalty for landlords having federally backed mortgages on their property.

Does anyone know what that last bit means? What percentage of landlords have federally backed mortgages on their property? Is it 10%? 50%? 90%? How can I tell if my landlord is among them?
posted by mediareport at 12:33 PM on March 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

"you can't evict anyone for 4 months" just means that in 4 months, when absolutely no one still has a job, ppl are going to be evicted by the landlords who have not had to pay a single penny towards their mortgages the entire time while still demanding rent
posted by poffin boffin at 12:33 PM on March 27, 2020 [9 favorites]

It's not the best bill, but it's not the last one either. There are several more being put together.

Of course with a bunch of murderclowns running things, who knows. But this is not the end of attempts to get more relief.
posted by emjaybee at 12:35 PM on March 27, 2020 [7 favorites]

Folks, this isn't an "either everything is great or everything is terrible, fight over that binary" kind of situation. It's okay to talk about what you like and dislike in the bill and why and leave room for everybody's feelings; we're not congress and we're not lobbyists. Be kind to each other.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:38 PM on March 27, 2020 [17 favorites]

Mortgage foreclosures can be delayed for up to six months without penalty for federally backed mortgages.

Rent evictions can be delayed for up to four months without penalty for landlords having federally backed mortgages on their property.

I have not read the bill in detail, but ctrl-F on the text yields zero matches for "eviction", and only two incidental matches for "mortgage", and only in the context of recipients of SBA loans being authorized to use loan funds to pay mortgages.

If this is instead a reference to HUD's earlier announcement about "foreclosure and evictions", it should be noted that this used "foreclosure and eviction" only as a term of art for what we would ordinarily call "foreclosure", and had no bearing on rentals.

It would be IMO highly questionable that Congress even has the power to intervene in non-federal rental and mortgage matters, but if they have the power, they don't seem to have exercised it here.
posted by Not A Thing at 12:38 PM on March 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

oh great so the eviction thing is only protection for landlords again themselves? (and regular homeowners, yes, good for them at least.) but absolutely no kind of protection for people who rent. which is the majority of residents in large metro areas like nyc, los angeles, chicago, houston, phoenix.

i don't have the energy to do the math for each individual city but i wager there is no large metro area in the US where the amount of money being grudgingly allotted to individuals - yes, including the unemployment benefits expansion - will cover rent, food, utilities, and health insurance for the majority of the population. and the first thing people tend to sacrifice is health insurance. IN A PANDEMIC.
posted by poffin boffin at 12:52 PM on March 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

I have not read the bill in detail, but ctrl-F on the text yields zero matches for "eviction", and only two incidental matches for "mortgage", and only in the context of recipients of SBA loans being authorized to use loan funds to pay mortgages.

You are reading the original McConnell version of the bill before Schumer made substantial modifications to it. The final version is here.

You want to look at Sec. 4024.
posted by JackFlash at 1:01 PM on March 27, 2020 [12 favorites]

That IS a great link. What's with Japan? Are they doing something right?

Not really. They have done very very little testing. In a month (2/18-3/19), they tested 37,726 people despite having a capacity of 6,000 a day.

We have suspected for a while that they were deliberately under-testing due to Olympics and that seems borne out by the sudden rash of measures this week _after_ the Olympics were postponed.

While Japan did close schools for a couple weeks, they re-opened them and most parks/aquariums/museums/etc also re-opened last week.

Now they appear to finally be trying actual closures/distancing, but this is well over a month after the virus started there and after a long time of little testing. Most people do not appear to be taking it seriously (my wife's family for example has not been, even as we send them increasing reports of how things have been in the US, not to mention Italy before that and China before that).

Much like the US a few weeks ago, I don't think we have any clear picture of what is happening. Now that the Olympics are off the table, I hope the government will be more aggressive, but just like in the US they wasted a lot of time.
posted by thefoxgod at 1:10 PM on March 27, 2020 [6 favorites]

Getting back to links, China has just reversed itself on reopening movie theaters:

Over 600 movie theaters across China were given the green light to reopen their doors over the past week, but Beijing's Film Bureau put out a notice late Friday ordering all theaters to go back into shutdown. No official explanation for the sudden reversal was provided.
posted by mediareport at 1:11 PM on March 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

oh great so the eviction thing is only protection for landlords again themselves? (and regular homeowners, yes, good for them at least.) but absolutely no kind of protection for people who rent.

No. It prevents evictions for renters whose landlords have federally backed loans. I don't know the percentage but it is a lot. Fanny Mae alone issued 1 million mortgages for rental buildings last year. It also covers Freddy Mac, FHA and VA loans. It also covers any rental participating in housing vouchers from HUD, Violence Against Women Act and rural housing vouchers.

So not everyone, but a lot. Particularly the most vulnerable.
posted by JackFlash at 1:11 PM on March 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

Aha! Thanks. Here is the section. Relevant portion:

(b) Moratorium.—During the 120-day period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, the lessor of a covered dwelling may not—

(1) make, or cause to be made, any filing with the court of jurisdiction to initiate a legal action to recover possession of the covered dwelling from the tenant for nonpayment of rent or other fees or charges; or

(2) charge fees, penalties, or other charges to the tenant related to such nonpayment of rent.

Not too shabby, although it's unclear how it would be enforced (doesn't look like it creates a private right of action), and I imagine most tenants would have a tough time finding out whether their landlord has a federally-backed mortgage.
posted by Not A Thing at 1:13 PM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Ochswar suggested upthread that we might soon see internal borders enforced within the US. That day has come. This is the TN/NC border on the Cherohala Skyway (NC143) in Graham County, NC. Here's the county's (useless, terrible) rationale for the closure. posted by workerant at 1:27 PM on March 27 [3 favorites +] [!]

The reality out there is that they have only a couple ambulances and if they don't close this motorcyclists will flock to that stretch of road (wiki) and possibly take up valuable EMS services that the county residents are counting on to be there.

The parks and trails were packed when people first started staying home, this would be too.
posted by achrise at 1:31 PM on March 27, 2020

Regarding rental evictions in the US, Million Acres has what seems to be a pretty good roundup of where things stand in terms of state and local measures.
posted by Not A Thing at 1:37 PM on March 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Trump finally invokes the DPA.
posted by tonycpsu at 1:37 PM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Trump finally invokes the DPA.

Dumb ass. Ventec and GM were already working on doing this voluntarily until Jared stuck his nose in it and blew the whole deal up. So Trump kills the agreement, then turns around and "orders" them to proceed with the previous agreement so he can look "presidential."

And the MAGA hatters are going to eat this shit up.

If it weren't so damn important I'd rather Ventec and GM tell Trump to go fuck himself and go to court for the next six months.
posted by JackFlash at 1:46 PM on March 27, 2020 [15 favorites]

Oh, the idiot-in-chief issued his "order" to GM on twitter to a twitter account that has GM in its name but isn't owned by GM.
posted by JackFlash at 2:46 PM on March 27, 2020 [14 favorites]

A one-time taxable (!) payment of $1200 even for those who qualify is nothing in the face of what we're dealing with.

Not sure where you're getting your information, but the stimulus payments are NOT included in taxable income.
posted by ultraviolet catastrophe at 3:19 PM on March 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

Short thread from Politico reporter Kyle Cheney on Twitter, with screenshots:

JUST IN: Trump signing statement on coronavirus bill says he’ll override a provision requiring the newly created inspector general to report to Congress any time agencies refuse to give him/her requested info.

Signing statement also says Trump will ignore requirements that congressional committees be consulted before reallocating funds.

And the statement also indicates Trump will treat as optional a provision requiring that Congress be consulted about the staffing of the new Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.
posted by mediareport at 3:30 PM on March 27, 2020 [8 favorites]

New York City Is Not Running Out Of Adoptable Pets, Shelter Says

There's been a spike in adoptions, which is um, how do I say it... good news. Good news!

And if you're lonesome and want a little friend you can still go out and get one. Just consider that you'll be going back to work sometime and you'll still have to care for them.
posted by adept256 at 6:39 AM on March 28 [2 favorites +] [!]

I fully and completely support pet adoption! I would myself if I wasn't allergic, and I recommend it every time someone talks about wanting a pet. I also highly discourage anyone not capable of raising a pet due to budget or transient status to not due so. Animals are people too.

However. In all the news about how the virus is affecting humans, one story that I personally think is rather important has been chronically ignored: coronavirus infects dogs (South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong paper of mostly repute, ongoing story).

There is no need to panic, for now, because the two dogs infected and quarantined in Hong Kong were asymptomatic and seemed to play no part in spreading the virus to other humans. I don't know if they spread it to dogs, they were quarantined, I would be very happy if our data points on this stay at 2, so that we never know conclusively. At the same time, given how heavily people rely on their pets in times of isolation, I think it's realistic to expect further cases like this.

It's diarrhea icing on a crap cake in a time like this to tell people their dogs may be in danger or become vectors. But it is a thing that has been found and acted upon in Hong Kong, and we already know this virus can jump species.

Please keep that in mind, keep an eye on your dogs, and if your furry friend has to go away for testing and quarantine if you are confirmed positive, trust that it's for the best.

This also may turn out to be not true, and if someone has evidence to the contrary of what I've been reading in SCMP and a few other HK papers, please do share. What's happening right now is bad enough. This thing infecting our companion species is another level of awful entirely.
posted by saysthis at 3:35 PM on March 27, 2020

I had to look up Presidential Signing Statements, because I couldn't remember if there was any Supreme Court rulings or guidance.

Nope. The American Bar is highly against them, but Congress hasn't successfully legislated them away, and the Supreme Court has been (officially) mum. Sigh...
posted by Anoplura at 3:37 PM on March 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Queensland to hold first BYO election for voters

I'm furious about this. This is just local council elections, they can bloody wait. Everything we've been told tells me this is the worst possible idea to go ahead with this. When the super obvious thing happens which we've all been warned about happens, I want the people responsible to go to prison. Idiots!

I love democracy, being part of this community I've learnt how important democracy is. But I'm not voting today. There's a fine here for not voting but I'll just cop it. I'm caring for someone, a senior citizen with underlying conditions. If he gets it he's fucked. I'm the only person he has contact with. If he dies it'll be my fault. I'm not taking the risk.

Furious!
posted by adept256 at 3:41 PM on March 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

We’re not going back to normal, because normal was the problem.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:52 PM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

And why the Democrats don't have someone speaking to television cameras every day with a cadre of doctors behind them to rebut and correct Trump's perilous lies is something I will never understand.

Bernie is hosting a livestream right now with doctors and nurses on the front lines.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:55 PM on March 27, 2020 [10 favorites]

Signing statement also says Trump will ignore requirements ...

Trump is just going to ignore all of the congressional oversight provisions in the new law because who's to tell him otherwise?

Gee, it was barely a month ago that Republican "moderate" Susan Collins said that she was okay with all this because she "hoped Trump had learned his lesson."

Hope is not a plan, you idiot.
posted by JackFlash at 4:04 PM on March 27, 2020 [12 favorites]

We’re not going back to normal, because normal was the problem.

Some good info in this article, but there's also this:

Countries with intact state institutions that have been able to handle the pandemic – such as China – cannot be easily dismissed as authoritarian; a general understanding has come that these governments and their state institutions are instead efficient.

Really??
posted by Lyme Drop at 4:07 PM on March 27, 2020 [8 favorites]

saysthis: coronavirus infects dogs

And cats: Worms & Germs Blog: "A cat in Belgium, owned by a person with COVID-19, has tested positive for the virus. . . . [It's] not clear whether the cat was sick because of the infection with SARS-CoV-2 or whether it had some other co-incidental problem."

My spouse's habit was to come in the front door, sit down to take off his shoes, scritch the cat as cat looped around his ankles, then head straight for the sink to wash his hands. (I scritched too, but not so often.)

When the info came out about the first COVID-19 positive Hong Kong dog, and I read at the Worms & Germs blog that cats were probably susceptible, we very deliberately started developing a new habit of voice-only greetings to the cat. No scritches until our hands are washed.

(This is the cat [Twitter link] who, 2 nights ago in the middle of the night while I was asleep, was sitting by my head grooming himself and a glob of his spit landed on my right eyelid and lash line. I'd been reading about ocular transmission of COVID-19 that day, so in 2 seconds I went from sound asleep to "WTF is this cold viscous wetness in my fucking eyelashesOMG the cat is grooming himself & just spat on my eye," catapulted gibbering into the bathroom and Clorox wiped & wiped & wiped...)
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 4:17 PM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

One issue our university is running into is how to give exams. It's simple for some programs to avoid them, but with medical students you risk setting them back a year and not being prepared for or not being able to take standardized tests like the boards. Setting students back is very expensive to them.

I suggested a partial solution should be drive-in exams. Students park their cars face to face and access the exam by their laptop or tablets. (They have been doing this now in a classroom setting. There is already a protocol for downloading and locking out any other uses on their devices, and uploading when the exam is done.) The proctors would walk between cars making sure that students are not accessing notes.

The main concept is the car is a self-isolating instrument.

I was wondering if this could be extended to voting. Of course, not for everyone (not for those without cars, for example), but as an additional means of voting, along with mail-in, etc.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:32 PM on March 27, 2020 [6 favorites]

Final-year medical students graduate early to fight Covid-19

Final-year medical students across the UK are joining the frontline of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic after being graduated early by their universities.

The scale of the crisis and the pressure it is heaping on the already overstretched NHS has prompted many medical schools to expedite graduation, in some cases cancelling exams.

That's in the UK. NYU is doing it too:

NYU med school letting students graduate early to fight coronavirus

I don't know what kind of legal liability this puts the universities in. I suppose in an emergency like this no one gives a fuck about that.
posted by adept256 at 5:56 PM on March 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

As Trump signals readiness to break with experts, his online base assails Fauci (WaPo, Mar. 26, 2020)

“The president was right, and frankly Fauci was wrong,” Lou Dobbs said Monday on his show on the Fox Business Network, referring to the use of experimental medicine. Beyond prime-time television, however, the disregard for expert guidance being pushed by some conservative and libertarian voices goes further — aimed not simply at proving Fauci wrong but at painting him as an agent of the “deep state” that Trump has vowed to dismantle. The smear campaign taking root online, and laying the groundwork for Trump to cast aside the experts on his own coronavirus task force, relies centrally on the idea that there is no expertise that rises above partisanship, and that everyone has an agenda.

[...] The attempt to discredit Fauci draws on a resource for which Trump has professed his “love” — WikiLeaks. Among the emails hacked by Russian agents and released by the anti-secrecy organization in 2016 was a message Fauci sent in 2013 to one of Clinton’s top aides, Cheryl Mills. He praised the secretary of state’s “stamina and capability” during her testimony before the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. At the end of last week, the right-wing website Gateway Pundit cited the email, saying it came as “no surprise” because the doctor was also encouraging states to adopt restrictive measures that were “crashing their economies” and playing down hopes for possible coronavirus treatments.

[...] Some of the most prominent conservative influencers, including Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch and Bill Mitchell of “YourVoice America,” have been amplifying the conspiracy theories to their hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. Both figures have been retweeted by the president, Fitton as many as 100 times. Meanwhile, at least two congressional candidates have participated in the smear campaign. Also spreading specious claims about Fauci is a highly active account on Twitter that has been featured by the One America News Network (OANN), a right-wing channel favored by the president that gained a seat in the White House briefing room in 2017.

posted by katra at 5:57 PM on March 27, 2020 [9 favorites]

The medical school where I teach is also looking forward to having early graduations. The fourth year students have finished everything by now: the boards and have their matches. Fourth year (and it probably differs in some schools) is dedicated to elective clinical rotations. Speeding up the graduation by a month or two at the most will do little to affect the doctors that they will be. Think of it as medical students with two months fewer clinical experience.
I'm not sure they are all crazy to head to the front lines. (Some are. For some this is the reason they got into medicine: to help where they are most needed.)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:06 PM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Georgia Covid-19 cases rise as Atlanta mayor warns hospitals are at capacity (Guardian)

The coronavirus crisis in Georgia is spiraling as the mayor of Atlanta has warned that intensive care unit (ICU) beds in the city have reached capacity even though the level of the virus in the state is probably still far from its peak. [...] Unlike other US centers of the crisis such as New York, where large convention facilities are being used to place more beds, ventilators and supplies, that has not been the case in Atlanta.

Keishia Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta, said the situation could see a collapse of the state’s healthcare system sooner, rather than later. [...] For now, the city’s mayor has mandated a city-wide shutdown – a further step than the state’s Republican governor has suggested.

[...] In 2017, a study found Georgia had one of the worst healthcare systems in the country, ranking it 49th for access.

posted by katra at 6:16 PM on March 27, 2020 [8 favorites]

Lyme Drop, I co-sign your really??

All the comparisons between various countries' responses are giving me the hives.

I complained yesterday about how American understandings of Asia reveal so much more about U.S. internal politics and preoccupations than actual events in China, South Korea, etc.

Asian countries are being used as props for pontificating by all sorts of folks, journalists, randos, activists, politicians, all along the political spectrum. I forget which news outlet had labeled the low slope of Japan's covid19 cases with "obedient population" or something like that.

Journalist William Yang and others have been dismayed by the sheer relentlessness of "it must be the Confucian culture" explanations. Um, how about the double-whammy of SARS and MERS as a wake-up call to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, et?
posted by spamandkimchi at 6:34 PM on March 27, 2020 [15 favorites]

What got me yesterday was a random Marxist-Maoist type who opined that any criticism of the Chinese government's handling of the coronavirus is clearly Trumpian propaganda intended to deflect criticism of the administration's inept and criminal actions.

YES "Chinese virus" is hella racist and is totally b.s. scapegoating. Yes, don't get distracted by the blame game.

But Chinese people are not some monolithic mass of either the brainwashed or the supremely self-sacrificing. I keep on going back to this scathing January 27th piece by a Wuhan journalist just excoriating the Chinese Communist Party's decisions in late December and most of January.
posted by spamandkimchi at 6:43 PM on March 27, 2020 [12 favorites]

China’s claim of coronavirus victory in Wuhan brings hope, but experts worry it is premature (WaPo, Mar. 25, 2020)

[...] Wuhan’s near-zero count is being called into question by independent reporting and received with suspicion from experts. It underscores wider issues across China. The country’s overall coronavirus numbers have been met with some skepticism since the first signs of crisis. Separate reports from Chinese, Japanese and Hong Kong media suggest the dearth of new cases in Wuhan may reflect a dip in testing. Public health experts also note that China does not include confirmed asymptomatic cases in its figures — a potential blind spot.

These gaps are particularly worrying because as of Wednesday, tens of millions of residents of Hubei province will be able to move around for the first time in months. Though Wuhan, the provincial capital, will remain in lockdown, some fear another wave of cases could be possible as people start to travel into and around the Chinese heartland.

[...] A March 23 report from Caixin, a Chinese outlet that has done groundbreaking coverage of the crisis, found that the virus may still be spreading in the city. “There are still a few or a dozen asymptomatic people every day,” an unidentified official at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention was quoted by Caixin as saying. “It can’t be determined whether transmission has been completely cut off.”

[...] A Post account of the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan showed how secrecy and censorship fueled the virus’s spread across China and around the world. In January, local officials stopped recording new cases ahead of a Communist Party conclave in Hubei province. China also failed to share critical data with the World Health Organization.

posted by katra at 6:55 PM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

can anyone smarter than me verify that a molecular POC test with this timeline is really a thing?

Scott Gottlieb, MD, Twitter:

8:26 PM · Mar 27, 2020
This is GAME CHANGER. Abbott to market, starting next week, a fast point-of-care #coronavirus test, delivering positive results in 5min and negative results in 13min.

ABBOTT PARK, Ill., March 27, 2020
Abbott Launches Molecular Point-of-Care Test to Detect Novel Coronavirus in as Little as Five Minutes
posted by lazaruslong at 8:25 PM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Oh shit actually Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) has it now, and I trust him. Looks like this is a serious improvement towards a goal of at least 2 million / week.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:57 PM on March 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

(not an expert. probably not smarter than lazaruslong.)

abbott's realtime sars-cov2 assay product page.

Negative results do not preclude SARS-CoV-2 infection and should not be used as the sole basis for patient management decisions. Negative results must be combined with clinical observations, patient history, and epidemiological information.

so, maybe a no on negative result in 13 minutes, except for values of "negative result" that "do not preclude sars-cov-2 infection."

the "realtime" in that product name indicates that it runs on abbott's M2000 realtime system (also see) the complete system appears to comprise the realtime sp, a "meadium throughput" automated sample preparation system offering "including master mix creation and 96-well PCR tray generation" and the realtime rt, an automated amplification system for "amplification and detection of DNA, RNA, or TNA," plus sundry peripherals.

per the world health organization's 2005 "Sources and Prices of Selected Medicines and Diagnostics for People Living with HIV/AIDS" (the first price i could find), the sp runs for $100,000 and the rt for $50,250 (probably adjust for inflation & gouging, and add peripherals). i cite price as it may bear on how many of these systems are out there and which organizations may have them. (over in the now-closed modeling thread when a cepheid test gained similar approval, i found the GeneXpert systems on which they run selling used somewhere like this; i didn't quickly find such information for the realtime system, nor an indication of how many systems there are in "hospitals and reference labs around the world," per press-release posted above by lazaruslong).

the assay's usage is allowed under FDA emergency use approval. it has not been validated similarly to assays we commonly rely upon (but maybe abbott will be well-positioned to collect a good deal of data free of the usual strictures governing such things, in light of the pandemic. it is hopeful development; likely those labtechs operating it will better understand the reliability and utility of its results than i.

it is much faster than the cepheid assay granted emergency use authorization last ~~year~~ weekend.
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:29 PM on March 27, 2020 [9 favorites]

Scott Gottlieb forecasts the next coronavirus outbreaks (Politico)

Gottlieb — whose prescient public warnings about coronavirus in January fell largely on deaf ears — told POLITICO on Thursday that the United States may soon have “the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world in absolute terms and on a per capita basis,” given the total number of cases.

[...] “It’s the best health care system, I think, in the country,” Gottieb said. “But we're going to see it, in about a week, be maxed out.” “This is like nothing anybody's ever seen before who's practicing medicine, who's alive today,” he added.

However, Gottlieb said he agrees with President Donald Trump’s goal of trying to “open” the country back up in the coming weeks. “We can gradually take off some of the most onerous [restrictions] in parts of the country where we’ve broken transmission, where the virus isn’t circulating anymore or circulating at a low level,” Gottlieb said. But he subtly broke with Trump’s goal of ending social-distancing restrictions by Easter on April 12, suggesting that the U.S. outbreak would peak “probably more likely late April, but maybe mid-April if you believe the optimistic scenario.”

“We'll be coming down that curve hopefully in May and into June,” Gottlieb added, suggesting that it could be months before disease spread is truly under control.

The former FDA commissioner has maintained a line to the Trump administration throughout the crisis, offering private advice to senior officials. POLITICO last month reported that the White House considered tapping Gottlieb to be the administration’s “coronavirus czar,” before opting for AIDS expert Deborah Birx in a similar role. Birx on Thursday said that some predictions about the outbreak are overblown, warning against worst-case scenarios that she says aren't reflected by current data.

posted by katra at 10:01 PM on March 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

But Dr. Birx tried to be reassuring. She said that 19 states that represent about 40 percent of the U.S. population still have fewer than 200 cases of coronavirus

This claim sure isn't aging well. It was bullshit when she said it and it is even more bullshit less than two days later.

There are currently only 12 states -- the 12 least populated states -- with less than 200 cases, representing less than 5% of the U.S. population.

Birx is not to be trusted. She sold her soul and her credibility. She is totally in the bag for Trumpy happy talk.
posted by JackFlash at 10:41 PM on March 27, 2020 [21 favorites]

For Dr. Deborah Birx, Urging Calm Has Come With Heavy Criticism (Noah Weiland and Maggie Haberman, NYT)

Practically overnight, Dr. Birx has become a partisan Rorschach test. Conservative commentators have praised her as a truth-teller, pushing back on coronavirus hysteria. Critics of Mr. Trump accused her of squandering the credibility she had developed as a health official in Democratic and Republican administrations.

[...] Dr. Howard Bauchner, the editor in chief of The Journal of the American Medical Association, warned Friday of “a potential tsunami coming” on a video call with hundreds of other physicians about rationing ventilators and critical care.

Dr. Ryan A. Stanton, a board member at the American College of Emergency Physicians, said Dr. Birx sounded like “the builders of the Titanic saying the ship can’t sink.”

[...] Dr. Mahshid Abir, an emergency physician at the University of Michigan and an expert on hospital preparedness, said on Friday that shortages are inevitable. Hospital systems not only in New York but Atlanta, Seattle and New Orleans are already warning that they have or will reach capacity in the coming days. [...] The United States currently has 160,000 to 200,000 ventilators, but as many as one million patients might need to use one of the machines during the outbreak, according to the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

posted by katra at 11:32 PM on March 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Trump seeks to ramp up production of medical equipment after harsh criticism of his slow response (WaPo)

Trump, asked what more he wants from governors in states such as Washington and Michigan who have been publicly critical of the federal response, said he expects appreciation from governors who receive federal help. “Very simple, I want them to be appreciative,” Trump said at a Friday evening news conference. “I don’t want them to say things that aren’t true. I want them to be appreciative. We’ve done a great job.” Trump added that he wanted that appreciation directed at administration officials, like Vice President Pence, as well as federal agencies more than himself.

The president criticized Democratic governors Jay Inslee of Washington and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, whom he called “the woman in Michigan,” and said he had instructed Pence not to call them because they were not sufficiently complimentary of him and his administration. “You know what I say? If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call,” Trump said, allowing that Pence has a different standard of leadership and continues to communicate with Inslee and Whitmer.

Trump sought to avoid blame for the shortage of ventilators, personal protective equipment and other supplies at hospitals. He has repeatedly targeted Inslee and Witmer, as well as New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) in recent days — all three of whom have criticized the federal response. [...] The first GM ventilators would not be finished until the end of April, and it would take until the summer to reach a pace of more than 10,000 a month, with the capability of building 20,000 a month later in the year, according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to discuss the arrangement on the record.

posted by katra at 11:44 PM on March 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Abbott thing.

I was exasperatedly critical of Abbott's real-life results with their TB (tuberculosis) diagnosis machines. The selling point was you put a sample in a proprietary cartridge with lots of extraneous plastic, and it was supposed to magically extract TB DNA - a particulary difficult technical process when working specifically with TB - and analyze it in a proprietary black box.

They are good at getting non-gov and government agencies to accept their claims at face value, but they have a huge "our tech will solve it" mindset like MIT Media Lab's mentality that doesn't consider on-the-ground problems/ differences that need to be solved. Sure it works in a controlled environment, but it's completely inadequate in real world settings.

"5 minute positive, 13 minute negative" - sounds like a huge excuse to not disclose the limits of detection and the specificity and sensitivity of the assay.

There was a recent press article critical of the tests that Russia is using for their numbers - limits of detection thousands, tens of thousands, times worse than the average lod of official tests worldwide.

Like I said before, without a "sample prep" (you lyse the biological sample - break open all cells, including viral capsid - capture as many of the nucleic acids as can be released, wash it, then elute the cleaned up nucleic acids to perform the molecular test on. With a bit of automation, this could be down to 5 minutes a sample - in aggregate - if you're taking about handling hundreds or thousands of samples a day.

Doing an individual sample, this could be a half an hour. Overall turnaround can be a batch of tests every 4 hours or a bit more, when we're talking thousands a day. But there's a lot of delay on top of that because of administrative stuff, like verification and reporting, and taking the time to let everyone know their results.

Without this step, the sensitivity of any test is garbage and will only detect very high viral loads.

But, I guess par for course for 'science by press release.'
posted by porpoise at 12:45 AM on March 28, 2020 [30 favorites]

I want to reinvigorate a twitter profile I’ve left by the way-side for a bit too long. If you’re into Kurdish and Arab issues in NE Syria, who are having a hard time procuring the proper materials to deal with the virus due to a lot of geopolitical issues/Turkey took all their kits from Serekaniye, follow my Twitter that’s entirely built for issues from that region @tdk2019. I predominantly retweet
official sources that I’ve sussed out and made sure that they are legitimate. They are potentially going to have a hard time there, due to the refugee crisis. There are a lot of people in tents who need help and don’t have homes to go back to after the Turkish/jihadist invasion back in October. It’s potentially a cinder block of viral activity, but the Kurdish/Arabic Asayish (police forces) in the region seem to be doing a great job of making sure people are okay. At least from what I can tell. Again, I’m having a hard time getting info from the region, but my sources are solid regardless.
posted by gucci mane at 5:06 AM on March 28, 2020 [8 favorites]

To tag on top of that, I get to post a lot of political stuff that involves their ideas of politics, which is from a social ecological background. I find that a lot of the theories that Murray Bookchin and the Kurds’ ideological leader, Abdullah Öcalan, espouse actually work really well and make a lot of sense when it comes to a pandemic such as this. Our relationships to the environment and our relationships to each other are actually a big deal. Like I said, I don’t have hard evidence about the Kurds and Arabs and other people in N/NE Syria, but I do believe that they may have a good ideological backing for how pandemics work, even though they are especially vulnerable to the pandemic right now.
posted by gucci mane at 5:10 AM on March 28, 2020 [8 favorites]

Sorry to post again, I just want to add that I hope you all will maybe get a glimpse into the life of a small region of the world that is fighting the disease without proper materials, who are people who have fought ISIS and Al Qaeda nonstop and so many governments for their livelihood. It’s so interesting to witness this predicament. And I say that from a privileged point of view but up until 2 weeks ago I was on my way to Syria to join the Kurds, and the virus ended up canceling all my plans unfortunately. I feel very strongly about this, and I think there is a lot to learn here.
posted by gucci mane at 5:13 AM on March 28, 2020 [12 favorites]

Trump takes immediate step to try to curb new inspector general’s autonomy, as battle over stimulus oversight begins (Jeff Stein, WaPo)

Letters from an American - March 27, 2020, (Heather Cox Richardson)

When Trump signed it, he included a “signing statement.” These used to be quite innocuous statements in which a president would thank the people involved in writing the bill, or talk about how important a bill was. President George W. Bush began to use these statements to challenge the content of a bill without being forced to veto the entire thing, saying, for example, that he would not honor certain portions of it. And that’s what happened tonight. Trump issued a signing statement saying he would ignore the law’s provisions for an independent inspector general overseeing the disbursal of funds for corporate bailouts. His argument is that such a provision intrudes on the rights of the executive to block information from Congress. If this holds, it would erase the Democrats’ key victory in the negotiations over the bill.

Trump’s attempt to reject congressional oversight is “not a surprise to anyone,” Pelosi said tonight, and a Democratic aide said they had anticipated such a move and so had put multiple layers of oversight in the bill. But Trump said that federal agencies must be allowed to act without consulting Congress and that he would not treat “spending decisions as dependent on prior consultation with or the approval of” Congress.

It is not the House Democrats, but rather the president, who is playing politics with this massive relief bill that was so painstakingly negotiated. He remains eager to gather power into his own hands.

posted by ZeusHumms at 5:16 AM on March 28, 2020 [12 favorites]

“Don’t call the woman in Michigan” — Trump’s pettiness was on display during Friday’s coronavirus briefing (Aaron Rupar, Vox)

So even in the case of procuring ventilators, Trump’s thinking is transactional. His decision to force GM to make them is in part about his lingering beefs with the company. And where they ultimately end up could end up being a function of which state governor is in Trump’s good graces rather than a reflection of on-the-ground need.

posted by ZeusHumms at 5:20 AM on March 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

Here is a post from Mutlu Civiroglu, who is an analyst and journalist that deals with that region very heavily. This video details the Kurdistan region’s response to the virus, as best that they can. It’s actually very interesting when you get into the ideological background of the Kurds and their struggle and how important a holistic approach to social ecology actually is, and how prescient it is to us now.
posted by gucci mane at 5:41 AM on March 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Gucci Mane, yesterday I donated to Doctors Without Borders, because I am very worried about the situation in Syria and Turkey. I'm afraid it will be a huge catastrophe very soon. Thanks for your updates. I'd be grateful if you keep posting here as well as on twitter, since I am not on Twitter or any other social media (unless you count MeFi as social media)
posted by mumimor at 5:42 AM on March 28, 2020 [5 favorites]

Hi, I will do my best to update! Thank you for your attention! That region is especially precarious and I feel terrible for anyone over there. They’re really struggling there in a lot of different ways (ethnic cleansing and refugee crises predominantly, at this point), so it’s ripe for a viral infection of the population, unfortunately. Heyva Sor/Kurdish Red Crescent is a reputable organization you can donate to in the future! That’s who all the YPG and international communalist ppl talk about donating to, and I’ve given them money in the past. I think they’re maybe the only legit organization there? I can’t tell with that area anymore, hahaha. So many intelligence agencies operating in that field now!
posted by gucci mane at 5:49 AM on March 28, 2020 [8 favorites]

A Supercarrier Sidelined By COVID-19 Could Be The Canary In The Coal Mine For The Navy (Updated) — Tight living conditions make U.S. Navy ships ripe for outbreaks of COVID-19, which could have damning consequences for national security, War Zone, Chris Harmer, March 26, 2020:

Two days ago, three U.S. Navy sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) [*] tested positive for COVID-19. Yesterday an additional five sailors tested positive. This is the first time that the Navy has detected the virus aboard a warship at sea. While aircraft carriers have capable and well-equipped medical departments, complete with operating rooms and intensive care units, ships at sea are an extremely difficult environment in which to quarantine individuals who are infected. Accordingly, Roosevelt has suspended its deployment and is now in port in Guam. The entire ship will be placed in quarantine while its crew, literally all of the personnel aboard, will be tested for COVID-19....

Now Both Aircraft Carriers In The Western Pacific Have COVID-19 Cases, Raising Readiness Concerns — Sailors from a carrier forward deployed to Japan had contracted the virus as confirmed cases grow onboard another flattop in Guam. War Zone, Joseph Trevithick, March 27, 2020:

Two sailors onboard the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan [*], which forward-deployed in Japan and presently pier-side there, have tested positive for the COVID-19 novel coronavirus. This comes just a day after the U.S. Navy announced it had quarantined the entire crew of another aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, on their ship in port in Guam after a number of sailors contracted the virus. The War Zone had already warned that the Roosevelt's predicament could be an ominous sign of what's to come for the Navy. If Reagan is sidelined, as well, the service would have no carriers presently deployed in the Pacific region that can actually operate....

COVID-19 Drives Command Teams Charged With Homeland Defense Into Cheyenne Mountain Bunker — Another US military command and control element is also now isolated in a third, undisclosed location. War Zone, Joseph Trevithick, March 27, 2020

U.S. Northern Command has dispersed essential command and control teams to multiple hardened locations, including the famous Cheyenne Mountain bunker complex in Colorado, as well as another unspecified site, and is keeping them in isolation. The command took these steps to help ensure these personnel can continue to watch around the clock for potential threats to the U.S. homeland as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to expand across the country and around the world, including within the U.S. military.

U.S. Air Force General Terrence O’Shaughnessy, head of Northern Command (NORTHCOM), who also serves as the commanding officer of the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), detailed the changes during a virtual town hall on Facebook on Mar. 24, 2020. Under normal circumstances, the watch teams, which support both NORTHCOM and NORAD missions, would take shifts staffing a central command center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado....

*Together, the USS Theodore Roosevelt (WP) and USS Ronald Reagan (WP) have over 1,100 total crew members and flight wing personnel.
posted by cenoxo at 6:09 AM on March 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

> ...over 1,100 total crew members and flight wing personnel.

Make that "over 11,000 total crew members and flight wing personnel.", sry.
posted by cenoxo at 6:17 AM on March 28, 2020 [5 favorites]

James Felton, Mar 28, 2020

After repeatedly warning people about social distancing he packed people in a vulnerable age group into a small space, signed a coronavirus bill then handed out commemorative pens

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:46 AM on March 28, 2020 [18 favorites]

Exclusive: U.S. Military Activates Its Never-Before-Used Federal Response to Combat Coronavirus Pandemic, Newsweek, William M. Arkin, 3/27/20:

While being hit with coronavirus at rates equivalent to the civilian population, the U.S. military has activated its "defense support of civil authorities" apparatus, establishing liaisons in all 50 states, activating units and command posts, and moving forces to provide medical, transportation, logistics, and communications support in New York and Washington states.

Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson, the command of Army North (ARNORTH), has requested and received approval for the deployment of ground units in response to the now declared national emergency. The moves begin to implement two existing contingency plans—CONPLAN 3400 for "homeland defense" and CONPLAN 3500 for "defense support of civil authorities"—as well as numerous new orders specifically relating to coronavirus. Eighteen states have also moved to appoint "dual-status commanders," specially appointed National Guard officers who serve in both state and federal chains of command. The dual-status commanders will report to Gen. Richardson as well as the governors of each state.

The federal military response, never before activated on a nationwide scale, is a patchwork of complex organizational schemes....

Not a simple plan.
posted by cenoxo at 6:53 AM on March 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

Trump issues order to bring former troops back to active duty to assist in coronavirus response, Washington Post, Dan Lamothe, March 27, 2020

President Trump issued an order Friday night that permits the Pentagon to bring former U.S. troops and members of the National Guard and Reserve back to active duty to augment forces already involved in the U.S. military’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, senior U.S. officials said.

The president said Friday night that the decision will “allow us to mobilize medical, disaster and emergency response personnel to help wage our battle against the virus by activating thousands of experienced service members including retirees.”

The president did not clarify whether anyone will be involuntarily recalled to duty, but said some retirees have “offered to support the nation in this extraordinary time of need.”

“It’s really an incredible thing to see,” Trump said. “It’s beautiful.”...

posted by cenoxo at 7:14 AM on March 28, 2020

Trump re-tweeted a portion of Rachel Maddow's show and thanked her for highlighting the military response. Rachel Maddow tweeted back an excellent response.
posted by Glinn at 8:00 AM on March 28, 2020 [14 favorites]

Zeynep Tufekci says, "I hope this is true!" after New York physician Matt McCarthy, author of the book "Superbugs," tweeted this morning that "CDC guidance on masks expected to change in next 10 days. Americans will be advised to wear masks in everyday life. Current recommendation is for high-risk groups only." She adds, "People should start today, with homemade or surgical masks."

I posted this in the pandemic politics thread, but here it is again: a February South China Morning Post article with video showing how to make what is claimed to be a highly effective homemade mask from paper towels, tissue, tape and rubber bands.

Here's a quick tutorial using handkerchief and hairbands for a mask that's almost certainly better than no mask at all when you have to go out.
posted by mediareport at 8:56 AM on March 28, 2020 [13 favorites]

The FPP Ask for Masks has more about masks, including DIY instructions, so maybe you could post there, too?
posted by katra at 9:03 AM on March 28, 2020 [7 favorites]

The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life (Ed Pilkington and Tom McCarthy, Guardian)

Within a week of its first confirmed case, South Korea’s disease control agency had summoned 20 private companies to the medical equivalent of a war-planning summit and told them to develop a test for the virus at lightning speed. A week after that, the first diagnostic test was approved and went into battle, identifying infected individuals who could then be quarantined to halt the advance of the disease. Some 357,896 tests later, the country has more or less won the coronavirus war. On Friday only 91 new cases were reported in a country of more than 50 million.

The US response tells a different story. [...] “The US response will be studied for generations as a textbook example of a disastrous, failed effort,” Ron Klain, who spearheaded the fight against Ebola in 2014, told a Georgetown university panel recently.

posted by katra at 9:17 AM on March 28, 2020 [7 favorites]

One deleted; folks please limit the length of article excerpts you're posting, aim for no more than a couple paragraphs. Thank you.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:38 AM on March 28, 2020 [8 favorites]

Trump says he's eyeing quarantine of New York, surrounding area (Katy O'Donnell, Politico)

Trump said he plans to speak with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo later Saturday.

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:08 AM on March 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Trump says he's eyeing quarantine of New York, surrounding area

Can't wait until all those Right Wing Militia members break through those highway barricades to defend New York from federal overreach.
posted by PenDevil at 10:58 AM on March 28, 2020 [10 favorites]

Trump says he's eyeing quarantine of New York

“They’re having problems down in Florida. A lot of New Yorkers are going down — we don’t want that,” Trump said, adding that he had just spoken with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Here's the beauty of it. Trump hates New York because they never vote for him. But he needs Florida to win the next election. Here he's able to blame Florida's outbreak not on its incompetent governor, but on those diseased New Yorkers. He's once again using division and factionalism to fire up his base.

It's all about the election.
posted by JackFlash at 11:03 AM on March 28, 2020 [18 favorites]

Ron DeSantis is having a very difficult time threading the needle between his supporters who all believe Trump's hoax message and the reality of the progression of illness across the state. Not surprising that he would latch on to the idea that the problem is people from New York bringing their disease here. In reality, New Yorkers all went home from Spring Break with the virus they acquired here because nobody could bear to believe they'd have to cancel tourism season until the virus was already well established in the community.
posted by wierdo at 11:21 AM on March 28, 2020 [16 favorites]

Of course, Trump is a New Yorker who has officially moved to Florida.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:30 AM on March 28, 2020 [10 favorites]

Trump says he's eyeing quarantine of New York

i don't think he can do that without quarantining vermont, mass, new hampshire, maine and rhode island, too - he'd have to have a crapload of troops to seal off the pennsylvania/new york border - and the conneticut border

from lake champlain to the hudson to the delaware is a natural, doable border - but it means most of new england not just 3 states

that he's just saying new york, new jersey, conneticut or new york area just proves to me he hasn't looked on a damn map and really thought it through

there's no point in locking the damn barn door after the horse is gone anyway
posted by pyramid termite at 11:31 AM on March 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

Trump says he's eyeing quarantine of New York

He’s watched Escape from New York too many times and thinks he’s Snake Plissken, doesn’t he. He forgets he’s actually the ineffectual President who needs to be rescued. I mean the President’s first name in that movie is even Donald, in case the writer’s needed to rub it in more.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 11:31 AM on March 28, 2020 [5 favorites]

Here he's able to blame Florida's outbreak not on its incompetent governor, but on those diseased New Yorkers. He's once again using division and factionalism to fire up his base.

Don't forget the racism, nativism, and anti-semitism.. Because you know who lives in cities? (wink wink, nudge nudge, ear-piercing dogwhistle..) Those people..
posted by Nerd of the North at 11:33 AM on March 28, 2020 [5 favorites]

A bit of video from Rhode Island:

Per Gov Raimondo’s order, Westerly Police & National Guard are knocking on doors of people’s homes in Westerly who have NY license plates in their driveways to let them know they have to quarantine for 14-days.

posted by adamg at 11:35 AM on March 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

DeSantis is also trying to blame NOLA, demanding that travelers from Louisiana self-quarantine for two weeks. He's still trying to pretend that we don't have community spread here in the panhandle.
posted by Vigilant at 11:37 AM on March 28, 2020

there's no point in locking the damn barn door after the horse is gone anyway

assumes there's a rational point to anything Trump does ... beyond somehow/anyhow getting re-elected, because if he's not president anymore, he's on his way to prison one way or another.
posted by philip-random at 11:57 AM on March 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

Trump says he's eyeing quarantine of New York

Nice work. Anyone who had reasons to leave New York sometime in the next six months is now rapidly departing and dispersing throughout the country instead of isolating.

Same as what happened when Trump announced a quarantine on the EU and thousands of people from infected areas flooded into the New York airports. How do you think New York got where it is now?
posted by JackFlash at 12:09 PM on March 28, 2020 [19 favorites]

He said he decided to trade in fundraising to sell medical supplies “because nobody was doing it. Because the president and the vice president were asking people to help.”

In a sane administration the DoJ would be investigating him already. In this administration I can't help but wonder if "personal connections" means that someone in the Trump administration is giving him the strategic stockpile so he can sell it at a massive markup.
posted by sotonohito at 12:31 PM on March 28, 2020 [27 favorites]

Bonus points for a guy with no experience in the logistics of medical supply chains deciding randomly to start selling medical supplies because he thinks no one else is doing it.
posted by sotonohito at 12:38 PM on March 28, 2020 [23 favorites]

With regards to Mike Gula's new business, I don't know how he plans on getting N95 masks that are somehow outside already existing supply chains, but in my opinion one possible scenario is N95 mask "laundering" with Mike Gula acting as the front. State, county, and city governments all over the country are setting up PPE distribution programs run by health officials and asking businesses to donate to these programs their existing stores of N95 masks that these businesses can no longer use due to closures. I suspect that some business owned by Mike Gula's "personal connections" might prefer to sell these masks, but being seen as selling them to their local PPE programs instead of donating them might antagonize public officials and cause ill-will in the communities that they will have to deal with after the crisis is over. They can avoid this by not admitting they have them, make some money by selling them to Mike Gula, who will in turn sell them to desperate PPE distribution programs. Acting as an intermediary who disguises the true origin of something seems right up the alley of a now-former Republican fundraiser.
posted by RichardP at 12:56 PM on March 28, 2020 [33 favorites]

3M CEO: ‘Disappointing’ to see N95 respirator masks at retail stores instead of hospitals (CNBC, March 23, 2020) “It’s disappointing when you see that because we’re trying to redirect everything to health-care workers,” [3M Chairman and CEO Mike] Roman said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” Roman’s comments came one day after 3M said it is sending to New York and Seattle a half-million N95 respirator masks in response to the ongoing shortage of health-care equipment.

Around 350,000 should arrive in New York alone on Monday, Roman said.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:35 PM on March 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

Exclusive: Inside The Military's Top Secret Plans If Coronavirus Cripples the Government, Newsweek, William M. Arkin, 3/18/20:

Even as President Trump says he tested negative for coronavirus, the COVID-19 pandemic raises the fear that huge swaths of the executive branch or even Congress and the Supreme Court could also be disabled, forcing the implementation of "continuity of government" plans that include evacuating Washington and "devolving" leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations.

But Coronavirus is also new territory, where the military itself is vulnerable and the disaster scenarios being contemplated -- including the possibility of widespread domestic violence as a result of food shortages -- are forcing planners to look at what are called "extraordinary circumstances".

Military plans exist if Constitutional successors are disabled. Standby orders issued +3 weeks ago will protect Washington & enforce martial law. Secret plans Octagon, Freejack & Zodiac ensure government continuity, and "devolution" could nullify Constitutional succession. Military commanders could be in charge around America.
posted by cenoxo at 1:36 PM on March 28, 2020 [5 favorites]

^explains why the military was only loosening its grip on 2K ventilators from its 'strategic reserves,' I suppose
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:42 PM on March 28, 2020

Even as President Trump says he tested negative for coronavirus, the COVID-19 pandemic raises the fear that huge swaths of the executive branch or even Congress and the Supreme Court could also be disabled, forcing the implementation of "continuity of government" plans that include evacuating Washington and "devolving" leadership to second-tier officials in remote and quarantined locations.

Elect Ted Lieu speaker of the House, have him appoint Pelosi as interim speaker, and send him to seclusion.

THis. Needs. Doing. FUck continuity. Use the Constitution to force a distinct discontinuity.
posted by ocschwar at 1:53 PM on March 28, 2020 [9 favorites]

Army Asks Retired Soldiers in Health Care Fields to Come Back for COVID-19 Fight (Military.com, March 25, 2020) The Army has a message for its retirees: Uncle Sam wants you to help fight the novel coronavirus. A message sent by Defense Finance and Accounting Services, which processes and dispenses retiree pay, asked troops who had previously served in specific health care specialties to consider "re-joining the team" to address the current pandemic crisis. [...]

The call was addressed to retirees from the following health care-specific military occupational specialties: 60F: Critical Care Officer; 60N: Anesthesiologist; 66F: Nurse Anesthetist; 66S: Critical Care Nurse; 66P: Nurse Practitioner; 66T: ER Nurse; 68V: Respiratory Specialist; 68W: Medic

The message came with a caveat: retired personnel now working in a civilian capacity in a hospital or other medical facility should make that known. Army officials said they did not want to pull personnel from service they were "providing to the Nation" in that role. They added that former soldiers from a different specialty who were interested in supporting Army efforts should also reach out to communicate that interest.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:14 PM on March 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Teen Vogue: Trying to protect our health during a pandemic is more than enough. We shouldn’t also have to worry about surviving capitalism.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:12 PM on March 28, 2020 [20 favorites]

PinkNews.co.uk: Medical fetish store donates entire stock of hospital scrubs to the NHS to help fight coronavirus

... Medical fetish store Medfet said it has found itself being “sought out as a last-resort supplier to our National Health Service”, and has therefore donated its entire stock of disposable scrubs to the NHS.

The online store is “100 per cent dedicated to medical fetish, kink and role play”, and stocks more than 250 medical-grade products.

It wrote on Twitter: “Today we donated our entire stock of disposable scrubs to an NHS hospital. It was just a few sets, because we don’t carry large stocks, but they were desperate, so we sent them free of charge.

“When you see someone from the government saying the NHS is getting what it needs, that is a LIE.

“We have been contacted this week by representatives of NHS procurement all over the country, trying to source basic protective equipment and clothing.”

posted by sebastienbailard at 4:21 PM on March 28, 2020 [15 favorites]

‘It’s no different from New York’: Urban centers nationwide gird for catastrophic virus outbreak (WaPo)

The urgency is motivated in part by uncertainty about federal resources. The city has placed requests to the Strategic National Stockpile, but the amount of personal protective equipment it has received so far “was not even worth putting in our local spreadsheets,” [Allison Arwady, Chicago’s public health commissioner,] said. She was looking elsewhere for assistance, including to local members of international disaster-relief organizations who might be able to supplement medical staff.

[...] Several days ago, the [Louisiana] ordered 12,000 of the lifesaving breathing devices — 5,000 from the Strategic National Stockpile, 7,000 from private vendors. “Today we have received exactly 192,” [Louisiana’s governor, John Bel Edwards,] said Friday, with another 100 supposed to arrive next week.

[...] While the virus seemed set to buffet population centers in Michigan and Illinois, “we don’t know what’s next because of a lack of data,” said Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner. “We have no idea which communities are going to be the next hot spots and how many there are going to be,” she said. “A few months ago we saw the images coming out of China and a couple weeks coming out of Italy. We had time to prepare for this. We saw what happens to other places. This bought us time, but we didn’t use the time.”

posted by katra at 5:17 PM on March 28, 2020 [5 favorites]

Military plans exist if Constitutional successors are disabled. Standby orders issued +3 weeks ago will protect Washington & enforce martial law.

That's nice and all, but a competent administration would have already moved Pence to an isolated location with entrance only permitted after a test/quarantine/test sequence. We have video conferencing: people don't need to meet face-to-face.

Also, they should have done the same with aircraft carriers and submarines and so forth. Did they not read about the Diamond Princess? It's too late now: the best thing they could do would be to dock their infected carriers, evacuate them and place the entire crew into individually-isolated quarantine and then restart. If they have an existing known-good skeleton crew they could speed the process up, but right now they need to assume that everybody is an asymptomatic carrier.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:51 PM on March 28, 2020 [6 favorites]

As COVID-19 spreads across fleet, Navy stops identifying ships with positive cases.
Navy Times, J.D. Simkins, 5 days ago:

As the number of positive coronavirus cases mount in the greater San Diego region, the Navy’s U.S. Pacific Fleet announced it would forego naming ships sailors who test positive are assigned to. Two more positive cases surfaced Friday, followed by five more Saturday, but the service would only specify whether the personnel in question belonged to different commands.

For now, the service indicated it will only be providing the number of positive cases and region in which they arise, the San Diego Union Tribune first reported [ships' names will not be released]. Prior to the change, the Navy was providing the precise commands* of positive cases...

On Friday, the Navy ordered commands across the fleet to take every possible measure to avoid large [personnel] formations.

*The first shipboard sailor to test positive for COVID-19 was on the USS Boxer in San Diego.
posted by cenoxo at 5:53 PM on March 28, 2020 [5 favorites]

Desperate for medical equipment, states encounter a beleaguered national stockpile (WaPo)

[...] Massachusetts, which has had a serious outbreak in Boston, has received 17 percent of the protective gear it requested, according to state leaders. Maine requested a half-million N95 specialized protective masks and received 25,558 — about 5 percent of what it sought. The shipment delivered to Colorado — 49,000 N95 masks, 115,000 surgical masks and other supplies — would be “enough for only one full day of statewide operations,” Rep. Scott R. Tipton (R-Colo.) told the White House in a letter several days ago.

[...] Florida has been an exception in its dealings with the stockpile: The state submitted a request on March 11 for 430,000 surgical masks, 180,000 N95 respirators, 82,000 face shields and 238,000 gloves, among other supplies — and received a shipment with everything three days later, according to figures from the state’s Division of Emergency Management. It received an identical shipment on March 23, according to the division, and is awaiting a third.

[...] Leaders in the District, Maryland and Virginia say their requests for aid from the stockpile have come up short. They have been competing with their counterparts to try to buy gear on the open market.

“The federal government has the keys to the front door,” said Nirav Shah, Maine’s state health officer and director of its own Center for Disease Control and Prevention. [...] Hospital industry executives agree. “There is no [protective gear] to be bought on the private market through vendors,” said Kevin Donovan, president of Lakes Regional HealthCare, which has two hospitals in central New Hampshire. “We order but don’t have any money to pay for it,” because companies manufacturing masks and other emergency gear are demanding cash payments on delivery.

posted by katra at 6:39 PM on March 28, 2020 [11 favorites]

Cuomo and Trump clash over talk of New York 'quarantine' (Guardian)

“It’s a preposterous idea, frankly,” Cuomo told CNN on Saturday evening, hours after the president floated the idea of locking down parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to try to slow the coronavirus spread. [...] “Why you would want to just create total pandemonium on top of a pandemic I have no idea,” Cuomo said.

“It’s totally opposite with what the president would want to do, work with the states, get the economy running and get some sense of stability. You wouldn’t at this point literally fracture the entire nation because it’s not just New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, it’s Louisiana and New Orleans. The numbers will continue to rise and every few days it’s going to be another hotspot.” He added: “It would be chaos and mayhem. If we start walling off areas all across the country it would just be totally bizarre, counterproductive, anti-American, anti-social.”

[...] At his Albany press conference, Cuomo held a “bag valve mask”, effectively a manual ventilator. “This is the alternative if you don’t have the ventilators,” he said. “We are actually buying these. We bought about 3,000. We’ve ordered an additional 4,000 of these bag valve masks. “We’re even talking about training national guard people to learn how to operate this device, which is relatively simple to operate but you need a lot of people to operate this 24-hours-a day for each patient. “If we have to turn to this device on any large-scale basis that is not an acceptable situation. We’re planning for that worst-case scenario.”

posted by katra at 6:54 PM on March 28, 2020 [6 favorites]

‘Off the charts’: Virus hot spots grow in middle America (AP)

“At this time, the trajectory of Detroit is unfortunately even more steep than that of New York,” said Dr. Teena Chopra, the medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at the Detroit Medical Center. “This is off the charts,” she said. Chopra said many patients have ailments like asthma, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. [...] “In Detroit, we are seeing a lot of patients that are presenting to us with severe disease, rather than minor disease,” said Chopra, who worried about a “tsunami” of patients.

[...] The governor of Kansas also issued a stay-at-home order to begin Monday, as the virus takes hold in more rural areas where doctors worry about the lack of ICU beds.

A cluster of three counties in rural Indiana have surging rates of confirmed cases. One of them, Decatur, population 26,000, has 30 cases with one confirmed death and another suspected, said Sean Durbin, the county’s public health emergency preparedness coordinator. Several cases were traced to large gatherings earlier in the month, including a religious retreat and a high school basketball tournament. [...] The county health department has already run out of personal protective equipment, Durbin said. The last supply from the federal stockpile arrived more than a week ago and contained just 77 N95 masks and two dozen face shields.

[...] Blaine County, Idaho, a scenic ski haven for wealthy tourists, now has around 100 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the highest rate per capita outside the New York area.

posted by katra at 8:12 PM on March 28, 2020 [6 favorites]

Trump isn't thinking about the old finance adage, "the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent," essentially saying the market is more random than any person can afford. The virus is going to remain contagious longer than Trump can remain popular. This is something that is literally going to be killing off his base if he doesn't shape up. But sure, blockade the freeways leading into Nebraska, viruses don't drive.

This isn't to say that isolation doesn't work (it definitely does), but it's not going to be a hermetic seal. Trump isn't going to fly in for a photo op? "Typhoid Gary opens new Hill Valley Mall [photo of ribbon cutting]" Trump isn't going to tell some of his people to fly in? Trump is going to take the word on anything from some Cornhusker schmoe? I tell ya, I just don't see it happening.
posted by rhizome at 9:13 PM on March 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

Stipulating that DOPUS45 himself likely had no idea what he actually meant when he said that NYC should be quarantined (and certainly no idea of what the consequences would be), and understanding that the economic shock of a full lockdown could be immense, are we maybe at the point where some more strict restrictions are needed in NYC and the tri-state area?

Obviously having the state and local governments do it is preferable to whatever ham-handed quarantine would be imposed by this administration, but I'm starting to feel like Cuomo might be worried a bit too much about how the financial sector will react and not enough about the unfolding human catastrophe. He gives good speeches and says the right things about wanting more federal support, but there are more steps that he and neighboring governors could take that they seem unwilling to take.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:14 PM on March 28, 2020 [6 favorites]

Police in several cities test positive for coronavirus, stirring fears of spread among first responders (WaPo)

In New York, hundreds of uniformed officers have tested positive for the coronavirus. Infections have also been confirmed in departments in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, Miami Beach, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans and Philadelphia, among others, along with sheriff’s offices across the country.

[...] Officials in New Jersey said Saturday that 700 officers statewide have tested positive for the coronavirus. In New Orleans, a police spokesman said about 5 percent of the force is sick or in quarantine.

[...] More than 550 New York Police Department employees had tested positive for the coronavirus, more than double the number reported just two days earlier, [Dermot F. Shea, the New York police commissioner,] said, and more than 4,100 people from the uniformed part of the department were out sick. Police officials have said many of those testing positive were uniformed officers. [...] Firefighters and paramedics nationwide have also been diagnosed with the coronavirus. The New York City Fire Department said that 235 of its people — including firefighters and civilians — had tested positive as of Saturday.

[...] After the first Tampa officer tested positive this week, Dugan, the police chief, told reporters at a briefing he is worried about the health and safety of his officers and the general public. “My biggest concern is, it’s gotten real,” he said. “And it’s only going to get worse.”

posted by katra at 9:36 PM on March 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

Meanwhile, North Korea fires two missiles as Seoul condemns ‘inappropriate’ timing

They would be the eighth and ninth missiles launched in four rounds of tests this month as North Korean troops conduct ongoing military drills, usually personally overseen by the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

That would be the most missiles ever fired in a single month by North Korea, according to a tally by Shea Cotton, a senior researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

The NK nuclear situation apparently got the same "air-tight containment" treatment COVID-19 did.
posted by XMLicious at 9:43 PM on March 28, 2020 [7 favorites]

All Canadian Cannabis companies were asked if they had capacity to help with testing.

This was very naive, and should have been limited to analytical labs (which many aren't valid recipients of the request) but we have a support lab that does molecular biology stuff - but we can make a case that we aren't appropriate.

There seems to be some level of desperation at certain levels.

Our reply was that we'd love to help, but our RT PCR machines (the majority of validated and "good" tests are based on [quantitative] real-time/ reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction machines) aren't validated for the tests that the BC CDC uses.

We also don't have biocontainment capabilities (not only do test samples maybe containing the virus that is being tested for, but it will also be contaminated with all the other viruses that the patient might have, like CMV or HPV or HIV, etc.) and while we have personnel who taught medical laboratory technicians to qualify for their MLT licenses, we only have one person who holds a valid MLT.

What I can see happening, if the people making the decisions are clear headed, is that MLTs at provincial labs handle samples and set up tests and sends 96-well plates of prepared samples to private labs to run and then send the results back.

This could help the backlog, some.

The health authorities had sent out notices to graduate departments begging for donations of (a specific clinically validated but commercially available and common) DNA extraction kits as they've run out/ running low.

We're using a different model of extraction kit, but the new one/ lot we opened up recently (put together this year) and processed (plant) samples with had some really questionable quality control issues.
posted by porpoise at 10:35 PM on March 28, 2020 [10 favorites]

The coronavirus isn’t mutating quickly, suggesting a vaccine would offer lasting protection (Washington Post, March 24, 2020)

Science of coronavirus — young people not impervious, how rate of infection compares to other diseases (SF Chronicle, March 28, 2020) The mortality rate of COVID-19 is at least 10 times greater than influenza. Overall, 3.4% of reported COVID-19 patients around the world have died, according to the World Health Organization. That changes, however, depending on a person’s age. The death rate among people under age 40 is less than 1% percent. It is 14.8% for people over age 80 and 8% for people age 70 to 79, according to the latest studies. Serious cases appear to be exceedingly rare in infants and young children, but they can spread the virus to others. One infant in Chicago recently died of the disease, and a medical journal said a 10-month-old died of the disease in Wuhan, the Chinese city that saw the first major outbreak of the virus.

Illinois reports first known U.S. death of an infant with the coronavirus. (NYT, March 28, 2020) An infant who tested positive for the coronavirus has died in Chicago, the authorities said on Saturday. It was the first known death of a child younger than a year old with the virus in the United States, although the authorities in some states do not release details about people who die. Newborns and babies have so far seemed to be largely unaffected by the coronavirus, but three new studies suggest that the virus may reach the fetus in utero.
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:06 PM on March 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

[Britain’s] Nuclear submarine crews to be held in quarantine prior to deployment to reduce coronavirus risk – Each four month patrol is likely to be extended by a two-week isolation period for the crew before deployment, The Telegraph, 3/24/2020:

The next patrol of Britain’s nuclear deterrent submarine will be held in quarantine ahead of the deployment, so as to provide a 'clean crew'. In response to the coronavirus pandemic the crew of the next nuclear-armed submarine to leave on patrol will initially be held in isolation for two weeks, the Telegraph understands.

The Royal Navy has had a nuclear submarine at sea somewhere around the world every day since 1969. It is the highest priority task of the armed forces.
...
A typical patrol for each nuclear powered boat, armed with up to 180 nuclear warheads, is around four months. During this time the crew will have very limited communication with family back home.

More about the Royal Navy Submarine Service (WP) and their official Royal Navy website. During the CV Era, four months is a very long time.
posted by cenoxo at 5:46 AM on March 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

The U.S. Military's Behind-the-scenes Moves to Protect Nuclear Readiness Amid Coronavirus, Newsweek, William M. Arkin, 3/23/2020:

The Defense Department shifted many of its domestic bases to "health protection condition" Charlie on Sunday, the latest in a series of moves to protect military forces, families and bases from coronavirus. HPCON Charlie – also known as "substantial threat of sustained community transmission" – is the fourth highest of five levels.

Though Pentagon officials continue to insist that the coronavirus pandemic has had no impact on operational readiness of the armed forces [*], behind the scenes military exercises and deployments are being scaled down and canceled, and plans are being put in place to sustain essential operations. That includes the so-called triad of bombers, land-based missiles and submarines that make up the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Last week, the head of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), Adm. Charles A. "Chas" Richard, said that nuclear readiness was unaffected by coronavirus. The nuclear forces, he said, "remain ready to execute" their war plans despite coronavirus and that the pandemic has had "no impact to our ability" to carry out missions...

*Not true: see War Zone carrier article.
posted by cenoxo at 6:17 AM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

The concluding paragraphs of the preceding Newsweek article:

...Though alerts, exercises, and the shuffling around of warheads continues, a senior officer at U.S. Strategic Command (who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to public speak on the matter) says that everyone is anticipating that there will be significant changes are coming. "There isn't a command headquarters, including STRATCOM," the senior officer says, "where there aren't people with coronavirus symptoms or in self-quarantine."

For now, Kristensen says, "probably the healthiest people in America are those who are coming back from the longest submarine patrols," which currently last as long as 78 days.

They've been underwater since almost the beginning of the year.

Like astronauts returning from a time-warping space mission, those submarine crews are coming back to a totally different world.
posted by cenoxo at 6:37 AM on March 29, 2020 [11 favorites]

Some facilities in the nation's electric grid have gone into sequestration. Workers are camped on site and required to pretend it's a zombie apocalypse. This is because VPNing to a grid control room is not allowed.
posted by ocschwar at 7:57 AM on March 29, 2020 [9 favorites]

This movie poster for the 1959 post-apocalyptic film On The Beach could be a ground level view of the Johns Hopkins Corona Research Center Map.
posted by cenoxo at 8:05 AM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

ocschwar, do you have any sources for that?
posted by cenoxo at 8:08 AM on March 29, 2020

This graphic is pretty good. Can be viewed by state (US only) and predicts when the virus will peak and what equipment will be needed. Of course it doesn't have all the information. Like, in rural areas, will there be enough ICU beds, even though the state itself has enough ICU beds for the population? Still, pretty good.
posted by cooker girl at 8:20 AM on March 29, 2020 [16 favorites]

Just chatter on a grid-ops board. No facilities named, just pseudonymous workers talking about the terms of their sequestration, so I'm not going to out them. I tipped a reporter about it and so a proper story will come out.
posted by ocschwar at 8:57 AM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Grid operators turn control centers into campsites to keep coronavirus at bay (Milan/Frankfurt), Reuters Business News, 3/26/2020. Other industy stories at Utility Dive, including Tracking the impact of coronavirus on the US power sector, updated March 27, 2020, Utility Dive Team.
posted by cenoxo at 9:07 AM on March 29, 2020 [5 favorites]

Barn Door News: Google Bans Infowars Android App Over Coronavirus Claims (WIRED, March 27, 2020) The takedown comes on the heels of a video, posted in the Infowars app last week and viewed by WIRED, in which Jones disputed the need for social distancing, shelter in place, and quarantine efforts meant to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Google confirmed to WIRED that it removed the app on Friday. The app had more than 100,000 downloads according to Google Play's published metrics, and was rated "E10+," meaning safe for all users 10 and older. The Infowars app sold products like supplements and protein powder, broadcast The Alex Jones Show live, and posted videos and articles from Jones and others.
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:18 AM on March 29, 2020 [9 favorites]

Josh Marshall shared an animated graphic showing the increase in cases outside China per country over time, with each country rising on the chart as it surpasses the others. Watch the USA, especially the odd reduction around 2,600 at 50 seconds, and the explosion after 1:05, and then rewatch to keep an eye on South Korea.
posted by mediareport at 9:20 AM on March 29, 2020 [10 favorites]

Grid Operators Utilities Begin to Shelter in Place to Maintain Critical Facilities — The PJM Interconnection has stocked its control rooms with food, cots and toiletries in case they need to go into quarantine, T&D World, 3/27/2020:

For utilities in areas hit hard by coronavirus infection, their emergency plans to shelter in place to maintain critical infrastructure facilities is no longer an abstract plan, but is being put into action on a scale not seen before in most countries.

Technician teams at the New York Independent System Operator headquarters in Rensselaer, New York moved into trailers and are prepared for a working self-quarantine that could last for weeks, according to Bloomberg News. The teams will be kept isolated from the outside as well as one another as they work to manage the flow of electricity across the grid.

The grid operators are working 12-hour shifts in trailers that include a small kitchen, bath and propane heat. The NYISO told Bloomberg this was the grid operator’s first ever sheltering in place, adding that it may be the first U.S. grid operator to do so....

posted by cenoxo at 9:26 AM on March 29, 2020 [11 favorites]

Fauci: Trump Pulled Back From Tri-State Quarantine After ‘Intensive’ WH Talks (Summer Concepcion, TPM)
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:41 AM on March 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

fauci: "[I]t’s such a moving target, that you can so easily be wrong and mislead people.” indeed.
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:59 AM on March 29, 2020 [4 favorites]

Each four month patrol is likely to be extended by a two-week isolation period for the crew before deployment

Navy ships already do this, just not to that extent or for the same reason. It's called "fast cruise" and you basically get everyone on board and then pretend to be at sea. During that time you either do or simulate all the routine and non-routine stuff you can. The purpose is to see if you have everything you need; sometimes the missing thing or broken part or unnoticed unworkable station bill doesn't become apparent until the moment you try to use it. Most boats try to do it for at least 24 hours to test the whole daily routine. You at least want to make it long enough for people to have to go to bed and sleep, because that's when you find out all the berthing problems, and all the sailors find out they forgot their toothbrush.

Now I guess you just do the same thing for two weeks. Although I'm not sure that's much of an advantage. If nobody shows symptoms, then I guess you can be confident nobody will. But if someone does, what, are you going to cancel the deployment? You've already trapped the rest of your crew in close quarters with that person.
posted by ctmf at 10:37 AM on March 29, 2020 [13 favorites]

Thanks for the graphic, cooker girl. It seems to be one of the more rigorous estimates of what might happen in the coming weeks.

I'm curious about why the the uncertainty of projections for some states is much larger than for others. It seems about half the states have a very wide range (e.g., Virginia), and half the states have a much narrower range (e.g., North Carolina), with little in between. I can't see a reason for this other than they used different measures of uncertainty for some states, but my stats skills are quite rusty, so I'd be interested to hear what any resident stats expert has to say.

Overall, my intuition would be to find the projections with greater uncertainty more plausible.
posted by Tsuga at 10:47 AM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

As states crack down on gatherings, some religious exemptions could keep pews full (ABC News)

Despite repeated warnings from health experts about the risk of social interaction amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, governors in at least four states have exempted houses of worship from statewide bans on mass gatherings, and this weekend will offer a first test to see if any congregations forge ahead despite the warnings.

[...] Not everyone believes that imposing constraints on religious gatherings would run afoul of constitutional protections. Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of the nonprofit advocacy group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said the governors are misinterpreting restrictions on impeding religious expression. She says the Constitution actually requires religious and secular institutions be treated the same. "The Constitution not only permits it, but demands it," she said in a statement. "Such restrictions do not violate religious freedom; they ensure religious freedom is not misused in ways that risk people’s lives."

Assemblies of God staff, church attendee among first Springfield-area coronavirus cases (Springfield News-Leader, Mar. 21, 2020)

Sacramento teacher who died of coronavirus was member of church with at least 4 other cases (SacBee, Mar. 17, 2020)

South Korea coronavirus cases surge due to church, hospital outbreaks (Reuters, Feb. 21, 2020)
posted by katra at 10:53 AM on March 29, 2020 [10 favorites]

Counties without coronavirus are mostly rural, poor (AP)

At the same time, counties with zero positive tests for COVID-19 have a higher median age and higher proportion of people older than 60 — the most vulnerable to severe effects of the virus — and far fewer intensive care beds should they fall sick. [...] “They’ll be later to get the infection, they’ll be later to have their epidemics,” said Christine K. Johnson, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Davis. “But I don’t think they’re going to be protected because there’s nowhere in the U.S. that’s isolated.”

[...] State health officials say it is unclear how many people have been tested for coronavirus in each county. Medical experts say uneven testing patterns across the country make it difficult to gauge whether remote areas are really better off.

posted by katra at 11:02 AM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

That graphic discussed above is from the University of Washington IHME. Carl Bergstrom (also a professor at the UW) offered a review/critique of the IHME model on Twitter.

Notably, this model is based on curve-fitting (i.e., assuming the epidemic will follow a certain type of curve, it tries to predict the future parts of the curve based on the present data) rather than simulating or modeling the disease transmission process. Curve-fitting famously produced incredibly bad predictions during the AIDs epidemic.

Bergstrom also casts doubts on the data used as input to the IHME model, saying it’s unlikely that death statistics are accurate. (Many deaths of elderly people with undetected COVID-19 may still be attributed to other causes.)

The IHME model forecasts that US hospitalizations will peak just two weeks from now, so I guess we’ll find out soon enough whether it is right.
posted by mbrubeck at 11:02 AM on March 29, 2020 [14 favorites]

What the graph doesn't show is when the dashed purple line hits the solid purple line, the whole thing takes a sharp break upward. And when the dashed green hits the solid green, all those above the solid line are immediately converted to red.
posted by ctmf at 11:04 AM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

The IHME model forecasts that US hospitalizations will peak just two weeks from now

the graph doesn't show is when the dashed purple line hits the solid purple line, the whole thing takes a sharp break upward.

Yes, that model is nifty but I hope it gets tweaked to be more useful. There's the above two things, whatever flaws Bergstrom points out that an innumerate moron such as self cannot understand well enough to re-state, and there's the fact that the way it conceives regions needs adapting. Looking at it state by state seems arbitrary. Why, for instance, is Mississippi going to have low numbers? Mississippi is right slap up against Louisiana. The two states vacation together and intermingle at bars and casinos and on beaches. (Arkansas same deal--current model has it barely affected, but come on, New Orleans is right down the road.) Infection rates in states are surely going to be affected by what was going on nearby states at the time when everybody was passing it freely to everybody else. And, as my dopey state governor appears to have semi-understood, what was and is going on in states far away from each other but with close social ties.

It would probably be a lot more useful if you could look at macro regions and also by county, especially for larger states with distinctly different regions. In Florida, we have Orlando, of course, and the parks. They closed a while back, but did they close in time? Then south Florida, which the dullard governor (but as my mom keeps pointing out at least he's not Rick Scott) is obsessed with because of New York. Then there's my county's weird situation. We have the major university and a bunch of kids came back from spring break instead of "going home" as they were told to because this is home: they live here off campus in the huge terrifying student condo complexes. At the same time, apparently this county has the highest test rate per capita of the entire state, and we've got pretty strict stay-at-home rules and an involved and responsive county government.
posted by Don Pepino at 11:32 AM on March 29, 2020 [4 favorites]

The New York Review of Books has a running "Pandemic Journal" blog with reports from its writers around the world and across the U.S. The posts are more personal than data-heavy, but there's interesting detail scattered throughout. (NYRB is usually very parsimonious with its freebies, so I'd scroll down or ctrl-F to find a particular item rather than click more links at the site.)
posted by mediareport at 11:37 AM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

ctmf, what are things like in Tacoma?
posted by cenoxo at 11:42 AM on March 29, 2020

Little bit quieter, but not as much as you'd think. We're under a state shelter-in-place order, but I'm between Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Naval Base Kitsap's several sites. Military/DoD are essential, exempt from shelter-in-place. Grocery stores are starting to have stuff again, except for paper goods. We were giving admin leave to high-risk people, meaning they could stay at home with pay, but that's becoming more and more unsustainable and we're going to have to start recalling people to work. I'm teleworking but have to go in sometimes. We decided of me and my 10 colleagues, we're all necessary, but really only two live bodies at work would be sufficient and the rest could telework, so we have a rotation going. I hope that lasts past the crisis, because one of our constant nagging problems is facilities real estate, and teleworking really helps with that.

It's like wartime management - I have THIS much (greatly reduced) work capacity, and I have THIS much critical work that cannot be deferred. Go.
posted by ctmf at 11:54 AM on March 29, 2020 [8 favorites]

Oh, I forgot the most important point about the IHME forecasting model: It assumes that suppression measures in every US state, within the next week or so, will be as effective as the suppression measures in Wuhan, China.

That model should really be treated as a best-case scenario, not a probable scenario.
posted by mbrubeck at 12:14 PM on March 29, 2020 [14 favorites]

Yeah, I have several questions about the IHME model. If they're counting total hospital beds in the state, it's going to be off, because spare needs in Sacramento don't help LA.

Moreover, they're forecasting an eventual death rate of zero, but that's well before we have herd immunity. Are they assuming we stay on lockdown permanently? Because as soon as people start gathering in offices and stadiums again, it's going to start spreading all over.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 12:34 PM on March 29, 2020 [5 favorites]

Thanks for filling out the graphic, I really appreciate it. Keep it coming.
posted by cooker girl at 12:42 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Ok, I found their FAQ.

Our model says that social distancing will likely lead to the end of the first wave of the epidemic by early June. The question of whether there will be a second wave of the epidemic will depend on what we do to avoid reintroducing COVID-19 into the population. By end the of the first wave of the epidemic, an estimated 97% of the population of the United States will still be susceptible to the disease, so avoiding reintroduction of COVID-19 through mass screening, contact tracing, and quarantine will be essential to avoid a second wave.

posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 12:47 PM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

total hospital beds in the state
Yes, yes, that's the main thing I wanted to problematize but I distracted myself with the typing noise or something. Yes, it's going to be an absolute cluster in Florida. People think Florida is Miami-Dade and Orlando, but it's actually a rural state, and they've been closing regional hospitals and schools for years. For years they've been dragging people from miles around into the cities for hospital care. So in states like this with a few big well-served cities and mile upon mile of no-services land, the people in the cities are going to be slammed first by the population density and hog up all the beds. By the time it makes it out to BFE and starts taking people out, where will those people go...?
posted by Don Pepino at 12:54 PM on March 29, 2020 [8 favorites]

Washington Post: Experts converge on plans for easing coronavirus restrictions safely.

The latest proposal, which has not been previously reported, is a 19-page plan with a step-by-step timeline, with clear benchmarks states and regions would need to meet to safely move forward to the next step. The plan was published Sunday by the American Enterprise Institute. Its lead author — Scott Gottlieb, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner in the Trump administration — has been acting as an informal adviser to the White House and has shared the paper with administration officials. His collaborators include Mark McClellan, a former FDA commissioner from the George W. Bush Administration; Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and other leading policy experts and infectious disease specialists.

The proposal itself is worth reading. It’s written in very understandable language and the recommendations are very clear and concrete.
posted by mbrubeck at 1:08 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Bah. As is typical of the American Enterprise Institute, it's very light on detail and includes laughably optimistic numbers. They aren't taking this seriously at all.
posted by Anoplura at 1:17 PM on March 29, 2020 [7 favorites]

The American Enterprise Institute ("Cherish freedom? The power of enterprise? Opportunity for all? It's these core beliefs that drive the scholars and staff at the American Enterprise Institute") on Twitter:

10 minutes ago: Capitalism is why people in today’s advanced economies make $200 a day rather than $2 a day or less as they did back in 1800. It’s why there are even such things as advanced economies. [Links to AEI blog post, "Yeah, market capitalism really is “the greatest thing that ever happened to mankind”]

3 hours ago, re-tweeting the GOP twitter: "Some D.C. Democrats & members of the media remain all consumed with blind partisan rage against President Trump. Meanwhile, poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans are fully behind President Trump."

3 hours ago, re-tweeting the GOP twitter: "It’s up to Pres. Trump’s most fierce & loyal supporters to volunteer & lead the way to victory! We need YOU to become a Trump Team Leader & be a part of the driving force that gets Republicans to the polls in key states across the country. Sign up! [American Flag] [trumpvictory.co/d47 hyperlink]"
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:17 PM on March 29, 2020 [26 favorites]

Guardian Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth on Twitter, with Russian-language cite:

Moscow goes full lockdown. No leaving the house except to the nearest shop or pharmacy, you can take out the trash and walk pets up to 100m from the house. Special pass system to be developed soon. Unemployed to receive 19,500 rubles ($250) per month...

Not clear how this is going to be enforced (police or military on the streets?) but Moscow mayor's statement promises a "smart control system," which probably means cell phone tracking or facial recognition on city cameras (they're installed on most building entrances).
posted by mediareport at 1:27 PM on March 29, 2020 [5 favorites]

I'd wondered if facial-recognition-software concerns were partly behind the US lag in the 'wear face masks' advice (standard, and adopted, elsewhere).
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:39 PM on March 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

As Trump invokes presidential powers to fight the coronavirus, he sows confusion along the way (WaPo, March 28, 2020) For several hours after the president floated the idea [of putting states under quarantine] publicly, the White House did not provide any details or guidance about what such a quarantine would look like and what authorities the president would draw from. Some residents of New York opted to flee the city before an order that might trap them in the coronavirus epicenter.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:55 PM on March 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

From the US-funded Radio Free Asia: Estimates Show Wuhan Death Toll Far Higher Than Official Figure

[Wuhan] residents said they were growing increasingly skeptical that the figure of some 2,500 deaths in the city to date was accurate. Since the start of the week, seven large funeral homes in Wuhan have been handing out the cremated remains of around 500 people to their families every day, suggesting that far more people died than ever made the official statistics...

Social media users have been doing some basic math to figure out [the funeral homes'] daily capacity, while the news website Caixin.com reported that 5,000 urns had been delivered by a supplier to the Hankou Funeral Home in one day alone -- double the official number of deaths. Some social media posts have estimated that all seven funeral homes in Wuhan are handing out 3,500 urns every day in total...Such an estimate would mean that 42,000 urns would be given out during that time...

A resident of Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, said most people there now believe that more than 40,000 people died in the city before and during the lockdown.
posted by mediareport at 3:07 PM on March 29, 2020 [5 favorites]

Come on. Radio Free Asia is a U.S. propaganda organization. I'm not defending China's transparency or numbers but...

"Social media users have been doing some basic math" ... cripes.

"Some social media posts have estimated" ... more cripes.

"A resident of Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, said most people there now believe" ... One resident speaks for the beliefs of 11 million residents.

This is a joke.
posted by JackFlash at 3:14 PM on March 29, 2020 [11 favorites]

I mentioned the source specifically to highlight it, Jack.
posted by mediareport at 4:04 PM on March 29, 2020 [5 favorites]

It's tough to verify much about China from here in the states; most of the media is controlled by the government and critical social media posts are quickly deleted. But the crematorium evidence is bubbling up in a lot of spots. Here's Bloomberg, citing posts and articles in Chinese media that I, unfortunately, am unable to read and confirm: Stacks of Urns in Wuhan Prompt New Questions of Virus’s Toll:

Outside one funeral home, trucks shipped in about 2,500 urns on both Wednesday and Thursday, according to Chinese media outlet Caixin. Another picture published by Caixin showed 3,500 urns stacked on the ground inside. It’s unclear how many of the urns had been filled.

Does anyone here think the 2,535 official Wuhan death toll from the Chinese government is accurate?
posted by mediareport at 4:24 PM on March 29, 2020 [7 favorites]

Capitalism is why people in today’s advanced economies make $200 a day rather than $2 a day or less as they did back in 1800.

"Capitalism in its modern form can be traced to the emergence of agrarian capitalism and mercantilism in the early Renaissance."

$2 in 1800 is the equivalent of about $41.06 in 2020.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:36 PM on March 29, 2020 [8 favorites]

> Notably, this model is based on curve-fitting (i.e., assuming the epidemic will follow a certain type of curve, it tries to predict the future parts of the curve based on the present data) rather than simulating or modeling the disease transmission process. Curve-fitting famously produced incredibly bad predictions during the AIDs epidemic.

some more on model estimation: Simulating an epidemic (history of pandemics)

also btw...
state projections from #CovidActNow above (about, model)
posted by kliuless at 4:56 PM on March 29, 2020

Fauci Predicts 200,000 Toll as Paper Sets Out Path to Reopening, Bloomberg, Ros Krasny & Hailey Waller, March 29, 2020:

U.S. coronavirus deaths could reach 200,000, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said, a stark warning as debate rages about how soon to restart parts of the U.S. economy that have been on shutdown.

Separately, the American Enterprise Institute on Sunday released a “road map to reopening” [PDF] the U.S. in distinct phases, from Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who’s a resident fellow at the think tank.

“Looking at what we’re seeing now, we’re looking at 100,000 to 200,000” deaths, Fauci said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “But I don’t just to think that we need to make a projection when it’s such a moving target, that you could so easily be wrong,” he said....

What we're seeing now is where the target was. What we need to know is where the target will be then.
posted by cenoxo at 5:06 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Similar to the speculation about unattributed deaths in Wuhan, the mayor of Nembro (Italy) and the CEO of an Italian healthcare provider offer evidence that “the real death toll for Covid-19 is at least 4 times the official numbers.”

We looked at the average of the deaths in the municipality of previous years, in the period January - March. Nembro should have had – under normal conditions – about 35 deaths. 158 people were registered dead this year by the municipal offices. That is 123 more than the average. Not 31 more, as it should have been according to the official numbers of the coronavirus epidemic.

They do the same analysis for the municipality of Bergamo, and find the excess deaths there ten times more than the number of officially confirmed COVID-19 deaths. This will probably be a common pattern in many places.
posted by mbrubeck at 5:14 PM on March 29, 2020 [15 favorites]

$2 in 1800 is the equivalent of about $41.06 in 2020.

-Historical wealth: How to compare Croesus and Bezos :P
-What is wealth? "we should use Adam Smith's definition of wealth: '[A person] must be rich or poor according to the quantity of labor which he can command'. This means that the extent of one's wealth ought to be estimated within a historical context: how many thousands hours of labor one can command if he were to use his entire wealth..."
posted by kliuless at 5:14 PM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

Q. What is wealth?
A. If you have to ask, you don't have it.
posted by cenoxo at 5:40 PM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

What we're seeing now is where the target was. What we need to know is where the target will be then.

Ah yes, "when do you expect your next unexpected breakthrough?"
posted by rhizome at 5:44 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Zeynep Tufekci is part of an interesting back and forth thread sparked by Twitter's decision to temporarily suspend Rudy Giuliani's and Charlie Kirk's accounts for violating their new policy about Covid-19 misinformation, which targets people whose tweets contradict CDC or WHO information. While some folks in that thread praise the new policy, Tufekci strongly disagrees, stating that, in addition to Trump administration misinformation, misinfo from both WHO and CDC is a key part of why things have gotten so bad:

@zeynep
Completely disagree. There is so much misinformation from top authorities. Mark my word, this is Iraq War redux. Authorities we normally trust are spreading a lot of misinformation. (Masks are the biggest but not only example).

@sivavaid
I know you keep saying that but I don’t see it. I see mostly consensus from infectious disease doctors and epidemiologists about most things. Dissension at the margins. Many questions unanswered but scientists are ok with expressing the limits of current knowledge.
zeynep tufekci

@zeynep
I have a running list. Masks are the worst. It's so wrong that it will go down in history. So, WHO misinformed us on human-to-human and asymptomatic transmission. That's how we got a pandemic. WHO misinformed us on travel bans. That was insanely wrong, too.

@zeynep
CDC misinformation has helped turn this into a terrible epidemic in NYC, with masks leading the top. It's not a marginal issue. It's perhaps the number one tool in the arsenal. CDC just issued a bullshit advisory targeting only NYC/NJ after Trump quarrel with Coumo.

@zeynep
(Mask misinformation, by the way, is one key reason why nursing homes have outbreaks).
posted by mediareport at 6:16 PM on March 29, 2020 [7 favorites]

Trump says federal guidance urging social distancing will stay in place through April 30 (WaPo, March 29, 2020)
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:17 PM on March 29, 2020 [6 favorites]

Twitter's decision to temporarily suspend Rudy Giuliani's and Charlie Kirk's accounts for violating their new policy about Covid-19 misinformation

@ianbremmer: "Brazil President Bolsonaro posts a photo of him in a crowd in Brasilia...taken down by twitter."
posted by kliuless at 6:54 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Disunited states of America: responses to coronavirus shaped by hyper-partisan politics (Tom McCarthy, Guardian)

But while the virus does not select for party affiliation, contrasting emergency responses at the state and local levels have split dramatically along partisan lines. [...]

The divergence in state responses to coronavirus does not cleanly split along the red-blue line, with Republican governors in states such as Ohio and Maryland among the most proactive in responding to the threat, said University of Southern California professor Manuel Pastor.

“It’s more like the rational states versus the Trump Republican states,” Pastor said. [...]

Citizens judge the viral threat according to their politics, polling indicates. [...]

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:02 PM on March 29, 2020 [7 favorites]

The Contrarian Coronavirus Theory That Informed the Trump Administration

The New Yorker with a savage takedown (in the form of a thoughtful interview) of Richard Epstein, the NYU law professor whose March 16 article downplaying the virus was reported to be widely influential among Trump administration officials but is full of misinformation masquerading as certainty. Be sure to get to the defensive credentialism and Bill Gates citation at the end for bonus hilarity.
posted by mediareport at 7:10 PM on March 29, 2020 [22 favorites]

2020 March 25: Coronavirus: ICE requests 45,000 N95 masks despite dangerous shortage in U.S. hospitals (Tatiana Sanchez, SF Chronicle)
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:13 PM on March 29, 2020 [4 favorites]

Fort Myers, FL: This pro-Trump coastal community in Florida, hit early by virus, sits at emotional nexus of national debate over reopening economy amid health crisis (Cleve R. Wootson Jr., WaPo)
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:20 PM on March 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

Not everyone believes that imposing constraints on religious gatherings would run afoul of constitutional protections
a standard used to be that a religiously-neutral law of general applicability does not violate religious freedom. from employment division v. smith 494 U.S. 872 (1990). cannot recall a case that explicitly overrules this, though the religious rights movement (for a certain religion or some subsets of same) has advanced significantly since that time.
posted by 20 year lurk at 7:32 PM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

Rhode Island backs down, is no longer hunting New Yorkers after complaints from both the governor of New York and the ACLU.
posted by adamg at 7:42 PM on March 29, 2020 [6 favorites]

Rhode Island backs down, is no longer hunting New Yorkers

Welcome to 2020. This is probably not the strangest sentence you will read in the coming while but....
posted by hippybear at 7:45 PM on March 29, 2020 [25 favorites]

Citizens judge the viral threat according to their politics, polling indicates.

I wonder if anyone is counting Republican viral deaths vs. Everyone Else.
posted by valkane at 8:02 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Interview with Amazon worker coordinating Monday's planned walkout.
posted by audi alteram partem at 8:05 PM on March 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

New York City is Opening an Emergency Field Hospital in Central Park (Architectural Digest, Yahoo News)

Early Sunday afternoon, park goers watched as workers set up long white tents in the East Meadow, near 99th Street and 5th Avenue. The emergency field hospital will have a capacity of 68 beds as well as a respiratory unit and and an ICU unit, with doctors and nurses who are trained in infectious diseases deployed on a rotating basis, according to Dr. Elliott Tenpenny, who is in charge of the operation. The field hospital is a joint partnership between New York's Mount Sinai hospital and the North Carolina-based Christian organization, Samaritan's Purse, who also helped build the same field hospital in Northern Italy. This will not be a walk-in facility; instead, Mount Sinai will manage the admission and transfer process. As crews work around the clock, the makeshift hospital is expected to be ready to open on Tuesday.

FDA increases mask decontamination after pushback from Ohio governor (Politico)

"The FDA's decision to severely limit the use of this life-saving technology is nothing short of reckless," Gov. Mike DeWine, whose state is home to the company that makes the technology, said in a statement Sunday morning. DeWine said he appealed directly to President Donald Trump to allow broader adoption of the system, and Ohio's attorney general threatened to sue if FDA didn't act quickly to authorize more extensive use.

Some Megachurches Are Still Packing In Crowds (Bloomberg / MSN)

Congregants of megachurches in Louisiana, Ohio and Florida attended services in defiance of social distancing orders on Sunday morning, even as politicians and doctors took to weekly news shows to warn of coronavirus’s spread in the U.S.

posted by katra at 8:05 PM on March 29, 2020 [10 favorites]

The Contrarian Coronavirus Theory That Informed the Trump Administration

The New Yorker with a savage takedown (in the form of a thoughtful interview) of Richard Epstein, the NYU law professor whose March 16 article downplaying the virus was reported to be widely influential among Trump administration officials but is full of misinformation masquerading as certainty. Be sure to get to the defensive credentialism and Bill Gates citation at the end for bonus hilarity.
posted by mediareport 49 minutes ago

Christ, what an asshole.

After seeing this article floating around Twitter and then posted here, I admit I got a touch of the ole smuggies getting ready to read a devastating take down of a fatally stupid arrogant fuckwad.

But as the interview went on, I have to say I just got sad. Epstein comes across very similar to the techbros out there playing epidemiologist after spending 20 minutes on twitter and 20 in VScode, except Epstein's article seems to have managed to actually influence national policy.

If Epstein survives the pandemic, and if he has any shred of self-reflection (frankly I don't know how to balance the odds on those two), then he will have to grapple with being on the list of Spectacularly, Publicly, Arrogantly, Stupidly, and ultimately Murderously Wrong Assholes.

McSweeny's could take that interview, chop and screw it a bit with all caps, and it would read like the script during the final boss fight with Fuckhead McMansplainer. There's like 5 quotes which will be copy pasted with a timestamp over the coming days / weeks as exhibits in the Ageing Like a Fine Milk evidence locker. It's just awful.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:10 PM on March 29, 2020 [25 favorites]

So if I'm reading that right, Richard Epstein thinks polio just got weak and now no one has to worry about it.
posted by valkane at 8:25 PM on March 29, 2020 [4 favorites]

That's nice and all, but a competent administration would have already moved Pence to an isolated location with entrance only permitted after a test/quarantine/test sequence. We have video conferencing: people don't need to meet face-to-face.

A sane administration wouldn't have put their VP in charge of pandemic response. The VP normally has one job, be there to take over for the president. It's a glaring example of how Trump has burned though anyone trustworthy (to him) and competent.

New York City is Opening an Emergency Field Hospital in Central Park

I would have thought that NY would have all sorts of unused sports arena or convention space that could have been used for this. Is there some advantage to tents in a park?
posted by Mitheral at 8:32 PM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

Christ, what an asshole.

super tired of certain americans invoking all the nothing they did about AIDS "back in the early nineteen-eighties" as a qualification for anything more than presiding over a public health catastrophe.
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:43 PM on March 29, 2020 [9 favorites]

At a first approximation, it is true that pathogens tend to evolve toward lower virulence and the timescale can be as short as the progression of a particular epidemic. This was unquestioned orthodoxy for a long time. Now, it's thought to be more complicated but you can still generalize and say that the most successful pathogens are those which are endemic, and those which are endemic are more often than not less virulent. (And this is why emergent zoonotics are often especially virulent to us while being relatively benign in its usual host.)

In the early stages of an epidemic of a novel pathogen, if anything it's actually pretty adaptive to be more virulent, so he's basically quite wrong in this case.

If there's not an effective vaccine and it's relatively mutable (Bedford Lab says it's been mutating about every fours days, which isn't unusually mutable) and it becomes seasonally recurrent, then it's quite likely that it would evolve toward much lower virulence. For example, the common cold is caused by a family of coronaviruses and is pretty much a model for a pathogen that is very successful because it's both very mutable and very mild.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 8:46 PM on March 29, 2020 [5 favorites]

I would have thought that NY would have all sorts of unused sports arena or convention space that could have been used for this.

Well, they are using the Javits Center
posted by thelonius at 8:47 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

And James Dolan, owner of the New York Knicks, and one of the worst owners in professional sports, has tested positive. Maybe use MSG as a hospital...? Nah, no one is paying for it...
posted by Windopaene at 8:50 PM on March 29, 2020

I would have thought that NY would have all sorts of unused sports arena or convention space that could have been used for this.

The Central Park location is one of many initiatives to increase the amount of hospital beds in New York City. (Buzzfeed)
posted by katra at 8:53 PM on March 29, 2020

Space is less of an issue than medical equipment, PPE supplies, and doctors and nurses. NY is short on all of these and some of them have a very very long lead time to replenish.

...not to mention that the problem may soon solve itself if we run out of first-responders to get people to hospitals - makeshift or otherwise.
posted by Anoplura at 8:54 PM on March 29, 2020

Texas expands quarantine requirement for out-of-state travelers (politico)

"Gov. Greg Abbott directed state troopers to enforce the quarantine order for Louisiana motorists driving into Texas, with authorities slated to collect information from drivers on where they would isolate themselves for 14 days, with the possibility of unannounced visits to verify compliance and levy punishment of a $1,000 fine and six months in jail."

You see, Greg only wants to catch the virus from his neighbors. A good, clean Texas virus. One you can be proud of.
posted by valkane at 8:57 PM on March 29, 2020 [7 favorites]

I spent a good portion of yesterday pretty freaked out to learn that Massachusetts had a shipment of PPE in the Port of NY, that was intercepted by the Feds and will be going God knows where.

It is pretty fucking surreal to know that the president of your country has taken these supplies, and sacrificed the lives of your citizens in order to save citizens in some other state.

ALl I can say is there will be a memorial to this moment in the Boston Common by year's end, if I have to chisel it myself.
posted by ocschwar at 9:00 PM on March 29, 2020 [21 favorites]

Gov. Inslee is "nasty" and that Michigan Govenor woman is well...

Appalling to see this blatant partisanship in the face of a crisis. What an asshole.
posted by Windopaene at 9:03 PM on March 29, 2020 [6 favorites]

The fact that it seems intent upon wiping out the Fox News demographic, and yet, they haven't realized this yet is the one thing that, well, I guess they really are just short-sighted and stupid.
posted by valkane at 9:09 PM on March 29, 2020 [13 favorites]

On the other hand, some conditions can favor virulence—or, rather, under some conditions there's little or no selective pressure against virulence while of course there is still selective pressure to be more infectious.

The classic examples are those cases where there's a third vector highly available to the pathogen, such as mosquitoes with malaria and contaminated water with dysentery.

Of concern is that iatrogenic infections (from health care workers and medical environments) are of this type. Virulence would likely increase in such conditions and, in that case, the course of an epidemic would depend upon the conditions under which the iatrogenic strains would compete with the non-iatrogenic strains. Which is to say, usually there are more (total) susceptible and available hosts outside of hospitals than inside and thus those more virulent iatrogenic strains would be less successful overall.

But, say, if you successfully limit the normal transmission routes through measures such as social distancing but, at the same time, transport and concentrate patients in overburdened hospitals with health care workers rotating through, then a more virulent strain could be quite successful. That is a concern.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:09 PM on March 29, 2020 [4 favorites]

Ivan Fyodorovich: wouldn't the strong pressure to isolate symptomatic carriers (in the absence of universal testing we mostly don't know about asymptomatic carriers) provide strong pressure towards lower virulence? The virus is reportedly transmissible before symptoms are evident, so it apparently doesn't need to cause virulent symptoms in order to spread.
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:15 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Ah, so no sneeze or cough, maybe just a loud laugh?
posted by valkane at 9:20 PM on March 29, 2020

"The virus is reportedly transmissible before symptoms are evident, so it apparently doesn't need to cause virulent symptoms in order to spread."

Right, SARS-CoV-2 is pretty successful in this way and it's an example of being less virulent.

Segregating the symptomatic from the uninfected by putting them in hospitals would, as you say, select for lower virulence across the population as a whole (not, however, necessarily so with regard to those strains which might become endemic in hospitals themselves).

But you also have to account for the health care workers and their interactions outside the hospitals, and patients that are in hospitals for other reasons. And, finally, how well hygiene protocols are adhered to make a big difference, as well as the transportation of patients. This is why I specified "overburdened" hospitals and the health care system as a whole.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:29 PM on March 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

forgive me but in the absence of more context despite knowing usernames, if a member is gonna comment attempting to explain virulence at this moment please cite your expertise and at least one source.

in the context of the article that sparked the discussion, Epstein is working with a very loose (if any) definition of what 'virulence' means (don't think he even uses the word) and just makes claims about variable 'severity' and 'weakness' of the virus with no evidence and expressly against the experts cited during the in-article fact-check who describe his claims as being 100% bullshit.
posted by lazaruslong at 9:29 PM on March 29, 2020 [10 favorites]

i might be extra sensitive to trojan horse expertise right now, to be fair, so again please forgive me if that is a rude request. it's just that it can be hard to tell who is armchair qb'ing from the hip and who isn't, and this isn't a time where i can really abide that ambiguity without discomfort.
posted by lazaruslong at 9:32 PM on March 29, 2020 [7 favorites]

if a member is gonna comment attempting to explain virulence at this moment please cite your expertise and at least one source.

I used to be really good at Pandemic.
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:33 PM on March 29, 2020 [8 favorites]

Can we hear from the Portmaster of Madagascar?
posted by Marticus at 9:35 PM on March 29, 2020 [4 favorites]

Well, I'm the Dockmaster of Fairport, and I can tell you, we're in for some deep shit.
posted by valkane at 9:45 PM on March 29, 2020 [12 favorites]

Inside the start of the great virus airlift, Axios, Jonathan Swan & Joann Muller, 3/29/2020:

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

A plane from Shanghai arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York Sunday morning carrying an extraordinary load: 12 million gloves, 130,000 N95 masks, 1.7 million surgical masks, 50,000 gowns, 130,000 hand sanitizer units, and 36,000 thermometers.

Why it matters: The flight is the start of what might end up being the largest government-led airlift of emergency medical supplies into the United States.
That's according to Rear Adm. John Polowczyk [USN bio], who runs the coronavirus supply chain task force at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He spoke to Axios on Saturday night.
The airlift is the most dramatic part of the Trump administration's frantic attempts to catch up with a nationwide medical equipment crisis.
What's next: Polowczyk told Axios that he's already booked 22 similar flights over the next two weeks. [more details in the article]
....
Go deeper: Fixing America's broken coronavirus supply chain

Logistics, logistics, logistics.
posted by cenoxo at 9:48 PM on March 29, 2020 [8 favorites]

"i might be extra sensitive to trojan horse expertise right now, to be fair, so again please forgive me if that is a rude request."

No, that's okay and absolutely no offense taken.

Evolution of virulency is a big and old topic that's part of even an undergrad education and countless papers and ongoing research. I did a Google Scholar search while writing my comment but there's so many results that it seemed disingenuous to pick one. There's also a number of Wikipedia articles, but I sort of feel that's not and shouldn't be satisfactory for most people.

I'm just an interested layperson who was introduced to this topic by Paul Ewald's (now pretty ancient) Evolution of Infectious Disease.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:55 PM on March 29, 2020 [8 favorites]

from the end of the axios airlift story:

A senior administration added: "When the president activated FEMA, Adm. Polowczyk was immediately installed as the head of the supply chain, working closely with Jared Kushner at the White House."

posted by 20 year lurk at 9:58 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'm so sad that history books will have the name Jared Kushner in them.
posted by valkane at 10:02 PM on March 29, 2020 [27 favorites]

Trump: “If we have between 100,000 and 200,000 [deaths] we’ve all together done a very good job,”

Perspective: that's 2-4X the number of American lives lost in the Vietnam war.

Sounds like a win to me /hamburger
posted by Mitheral at 10:04 PM on March 29, 2020 [7 favorites]

Trump: “If we have between 100,000 and 200,000 [deaths] we’ve all together done a very good job,”

Somebody call Richard Epstein, quick!
posted by valkane at 10:06 PM on March 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

Is there some advantage to tents in a park?

Mitheral, in this instance, the field hospital in Central Park is across from Mt. Sinai Hospital. (Mt. Sinai is working in partnership with the Samaritan's Purse organization, which set up a similar emergency hospital in Milan.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:25 PM on March 29, 2020 [4 favorites]

Trump: “If we have between 100,000 and 200,000 [deaths] we’ve all together done a very good job,”

George W Bush: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
posted by philip-random at 10:39 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Why it matters: The flight is the start of what might end up being the largest government-led airlift of emergency medical supplies into the United States.

So Trump needs China to do his job for him. Once upon a time, the US was the country airlifting help into other countries. What a fuckhead.
posted by rhizome at 10:52 PM on March 29, 2020 [23 favorites]

The Contrarian Coronavirus Theory That Informed the Trump Administration

The New Yorker with a savage takedown (in the form of a thoughtful interview) of Richard Epstein, the NYU law professor whose March 16 article downplaying the virus was reported to be widely influential among Trump administration officials but is full of misinformation masquerading as certainty. Be sure to get to the defensive credentialism and Bill Gates citation at the end for bonus hilarity.
posted by mediareport at 7:10 PM on March 29 [11 favorites +] [!]

That is infuriating, though a good job by Isaac Chotiner, the journalist. I wonder, once we get through all this: the pandemic, the Trump presidency and global warming, if there will finally be an end to men in suits getting away with talking rubbish. It's something that has angered me since I was a teenager, but it's becoming increasingly clear that those men are killing off humanity.
posted by mumimor at 2:20 AM on March 30, 2020 [15 favorites]

As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets – Tracking entire populations to combat the pandemic now could open the doors to more invasive forms of government snooping later., NYT, Natasha Singer & Choe Sang-Hun, 3/24/2020:

PHOTO:In January, South Korea began posting detailed location histories about people who tested positive for the coronavirus, leading to public blaming and shaming. Credit...Woohae Cho for The New York Times

In South Korea, government agencies are harnessing surveillance-camera footage, smartphone location data and credit card purchase records to help trace the recent movements of coronavirus patients and establish virus transmission chains.

In Lombardy, Italy, the authorities are analyzing location data transmitted by citizens’ mobile phones to determine how many people are obeying a government lockdown order and the typical distances they move every day. About 40 percent are moving around “too much,” an official recently said.

In Israel, the country’s internal security agency is poised to start using a cache of mobile phone location data — originally intended for counterterrorism operations — to try to pinpoint citizens who may have been exposed to the virus. ...

Countries...are deploying digital surveillance tools...to exert social control,...turning security agency technologies on their own civilians. How much private data is enough, and should governments retain it after the Coronavirus epidemic is over (or weakens like common flu to be tolerable/controllable)?
posted by cenoxo at 3:43 AM on March 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

More evidence of the possibility of airborne transmission in some circumstances from asymptomatic carriers, from a choir practice in Washington State. (No hugs or physical contact or shared music, but certainly not 6’ of distance either, and some members helped put away folding chairs or grabbed fruit out of a shared container.)

Some megachurches are still meeting.
posted by blue suede stockings at 3:57 AM on March 30, 2020 [4 favorites]

Countries...are deploying digital surveillance tools...to exert social control,...turning security agency technologies on their own civilians. How much private data is enough, and should governments retain it after the Coronavirus epidemic is over (or weakens like common flu to be tolerable/controllable)?

It's worth remembering that the capability to do this has existed for over a decade. If you're subject to the potential for this kind of surveillance, best that you KNOW that you are.

We'll figure out how to break out of this when the quarantine lifts.
posted by ocschwar at 4:09 AM on March 30, 2020

“This one is scarier”: Obama-era officials say current economic crisis is fundamentally different from 2008 (Li Zhou and Ella Nilsen, Vox)

“Everything this time is happening bigger and faster,” said Jason Furman, a former economic adviser to Obama, who played a key role in designing the administration’s response to the financial crisis.[...]

“The problems [between 2008 and now] are fundamentally different,” said Cecilia Rouse, a former member of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and current dean of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. “Right now, we don’t need stimulus. We need the opposite of stimulus. We want the economy to stop, in many ways. Right now, we need liquidity. We need people to be able to pay bills.”

Multiple former Obama administration officials told Vox that thinking big is absolutely warranted. ... The biggest challenge, ultimately, might be getting the money out the door and into the hands of workers fast enough.

Emphasis mine.
posted by ZeusHumms at 5:03 AM on March 30, 2020 [10 favorites]

> Inside the start of the great virus airlift

As the U.S. receives first shipments of Chinese medical equipment, other nations say some is faulty., NYT Live Updates, 3/30/2020:

As the first of 22 shipments of Chinese-made medical equipment arrived in the United States on Sunday, other countries are complaining that China provided faulty protective equipment and inaccurate coronavirus test kits.

Chinese companies have kicked into overdrive to supply masks, respirators, testing kits and other protective gear to tackle the fast-moving global pandemic. With its own outbreak seemingly under control, it has looked to sell or donate gear to improve its image on the global stage.

But some faulty products are showing up in the supply chain, prompting governments in the Netherlands, Turkey and the Philippines to complain.
...
The quality of the gear that was received [in the first planeload landing at Kennedy International Airport], however, is unknown.

posted by cenoxo at 5:08 AM on March 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

More on serological testing...

wierdo wrote: This exists, and 10,000 of them are apparently being used in the next week or so in Miami-Dade County to gather statistical information about actual incidence in the community, according to a Miami Herald article. Unfortunately their mobile site sucks, so I can't find the article

Thanks, found the article here. A good start anyway.

Also, Germany will issue coronavirus antibody certificates to allow quarantined to re-enter society:

German researchers plan to introduce coronavirus ‘immunity certificates’ to facilitate a proper transition into post-lockdown life.... The antibodies will indicate that the test participants have had the virus, have healed and are thereby ready to re-enter society and the workforce.

And another article on serological testing.

When this testing becomes widespread, it's going to be interesting to see how many folks had the virus but never became very sick from it.
posted by exogenous at 5:38 AM on March 30, 2020 [13 favorites]

Newsweek 3/30/2020 > Trump Comments About Hospital Mask Thefts Spark Backlash From Doctors.

Thefts of Coronavirus supplies are occurring, but The Donald (not having an atom of tact in his body) just doesn’t know when to STFU.
posted by cenoxo at 5:52 AM on March 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Germany will issue coronavirus antibody certificates to allow quarantined to re-enter society

In Coronavirus Fight, China Gives Citizens a Color Code, With Red Flags: A new system uses software to dictate quarantines — and appears to send personal data to police, in a troubling precedent for automated social control, NYT; Paul Mozur, Raymond Zhong, Aaron Krolik; 3/1/2020 [links in Chinese]:

... [China] has begun a bold mass experiment in using data to regulate citizens’ lives — by requiring them to use software on their smartphones that dictates whether they should be quarantined or allowed into subways, malls and other public spaces.

But a New York Times analysis of the software’s code found that the system does more than decide in real time whether someone poses a contagion risk. It also appears to share information with the police, setting a template for new forms of automated social control that could persist long after the epidemic subsides.

The Alipay Health Code, as China’s official news media has called the system, was first introduced in the eastern city of Hangzhou — a project by the local government with the help of Ant Financial, a sister company of the e-commerce giant Alibaba.

People in China sign up through Ant’s popular wallet app, Alipay, and are assigned a color code — green, yellow or red — that indicates their health status. The system is already in use in 200 cities and is being rolled out nationwide, Ant says....

posted by cenoxo at 6:24 AM on March 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

Germany will issue coronavirus antibody certificates to allow quarantined to re-enter society

Look, here is the Spiegel article that this story is based on. (German). It’s about an immunology study of 100 000 people they want to do, to see how many people have been in contact with Covid-19. At the very end, an epidemiologist is quoted as suggesting that maybe immune people could get some sort of vaccination cert like document that would allow them to have more freedom. It seems more of an idle thought then a concrete plan.
posted by scorbet at 7:58 AM on March 30, 2020 [11 favorites]

Major Republican fundraiser Mike Gula has abruptly left that business to start selling N95 masks and other essential COVID-19 protective gear. He claims he'll be shipping millions of masks in the next few days and that his supply is from "personal connections".
....
"How do you go from 10-to-20-to-300,000...even though this is different. Something's going on...Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door?" Trump said at a White House press conference on Sunday.

Ugh.

Just. UGGGGGGGHHHHHHH.
posted by yeahlikethat at 8:12 AM on March 30, 2020 [9 favorites]

Thanks for that, scorbet. I imagine one of the issues to be resolved before such a plan could be implemented is knowing how long the immune response remains following infection.
posted by exogenous at 8:30 AM on March 30, 2020

knowing how long the immune response remains following infection.

I think that’s probably one of the things they’re planning to study. There’s a DeutscheWelle article that’s more or less a translation of the Spiegel one, which has some of the details.

I’m just fascinated how this went from a suggestion to apparent future government policy in the Telegraph (particularly the headline) to a policy already in place (according to my Twitter feed this morning. All of the Germans/German residents in the replies were a bit confused by that one and wondering if some other state was doing it.)
posted by scorbet at 8:48 AM on March 30, 2020 [6 favorites]

There's a method to Trump's madness

It ought to matter that, in the midst of a crisis, we have a president who's accusing desperate healthcare workers in a viral hot zone of being grifters trying to steal and sell face masks, all because he can't accept numbers predicting exponential growth of demand for health services that are extremely dangerous to provide. It ought to matter that Trump bullies and insults reporters for quoting his own words back to him. It's an election year. When it suits us, we decide that "character" is an important criterion when we're judging who's fit to serve. But the media isn't treating Trump's character as an important story

Trump parcels out just enough news every day that the takeaway, for people who can't read the news in depth, is A serious man is leading us through a serious crisis.

And where there is coverage of Trump's pathology, it's often inadequate in its portrayal. For instance, this is a good video from The Washington Post (although I'm not sure why Trump's suicide remarks were included). It shows Trump at his worst. [...]

But what's with the headline? "Trump’s Combative Back and Forth with Reporters During His Coronavirus Briefing" -- combative? That's not combative -- it's abusive, petty, and slanderous. It's the conduct of a man who's all ego and no empathy. In these clips, we see someone who believes everyone is on the same degraded moral plane on which he's lived his entire life.

That's an important story. But it's never the lead story.

posted by tonycpsu at 9:02 AM on March 30, 2020 [42 favorites]

Trump: “If we have between 100,000 and 200,000 [deaths] we’ve all together done a very good job,”

Perspective: that's 2-4X the number of American lives lost in the Vietnam war.

It's also the high end of Fauci's prediction from, what, the day before? So Trump the Salesman is taking the high end of a disastrous death toll and painting it as a success. No doubt the conservative media will take hi cue.
posted by Gelatin at 9:32 AM on March 30, 2020 [14 favorites]

He's a sociopath's sociopath: On a day that our coronavirus cases topped 139,000 and at least 2425 people in the United States have died, while our health care workers are on the front lines fighting this deadly disease with inadequate protection and few supplies, Trump tweeted: “Because the “Ratings” of my News Conferences etc. are so high, “Bachelor Finale, Monday Night Football type numbers” according to the [New York Times], the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY. “Trump is reaching too many people, we must stop him.” said one lunatic. See you at 5:00 P.M.!” (Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, March 29, 2020)
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:53 AM on March 30, 2020 [6 favorites]

Man deported from U.S. to Guatemala tests positive (WaPo live blog, Mar. 29, 2020, 11:10 PM EDT)

The case highlights concerns about the United States’ ability to continue large-scale deportations without [...] contributing to the spread of the pandemic. Detainees and guards in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities have tested positive for the virus.

Detainees in US immigration jails living in fear as coronavirus spreads (Guardian, Mar. 29, 2020)

A number of detainees have expressed concern they are not being properly cared for in packed detention centers. Former senior immigration officials and attorneys have called for the release of nonviolent detainees. Judges in New Jersey, New York and California have ordered the release of small numbers, based on health concerns.

[...] Since Covid-19 started spreading through the US, health and immigration experts have expressed concern that Ice is unequipped to deal with the crisis. The US runs the largest immigration detention system in the world and there is a well-documented record of infections ballooning into outbreaks in such facilities. Now, coronavirus has infected some of the agency’s employees and detainees, which experts said was inevitable.

posted by katra at 10:04 AM on March 30, 2020 [7 favorites]

It looks like the IHME model discussed yesterday has been updated. I'm not sure if it's just been rerun with additional data from the past three days or if they tweaked the model itself. The weird dichotomy in uncertainty estimates I noticed yesterday seems not to be as distinct anymore, so they might have fixed that as well. Unless they clarify things I'd assume all of the reasons to be skeptical of it still apply.
posted by Tsuga at 10:10 AM on March 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

Re: the video linked in tonycpsu's comment: Trump's take on "people with mental depression" due to social distancing is unsettling. The tone is very "mental defectives."
posted by Lyme Drop at 10:17 AM on March 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

Andrew Cuomo: "I'm not running for president."

Me: fuuuuuuuuuuuu
posted by schadenfrau at 10:48 AM on March 30, 2020 [5 favorites]

I have an idea for a Kickstarter project:

a reward for the first reporter in the White House press room to ask Trump the following question:

"Now that at least 100,000 people are about to die as a direct result of your incompetence, are you even the slightest bit ashamed of yourself?"

I bet the pledged money would get quickly amount to the level of fuck-you-money and some reporter will go for it.
posted by ocschwar at 11:49 AM on March 30, 2020 [26 favorites]

march 21 "draft landscape of covid-19 candidate vaccines" briefly discussed on march 29 this week in virology, circa 48:45 (listening on youtube; times may vary on microbe.tv podcast host). over my head.
posted by 20 year lurk at 12:03 PM on March 30, 2020

General Electric Workers Launch Protest, Demand to Make Ventilators

On Monday, General Electric factory workers launched two separate protests demanding that the company convert its jet engine factories to make ventilators. Workers protested at GE's Lynn, Massachusetts aviation facility held a silent protest, standing six feet apart. Union members at the company’s Boston headquarters also marched six feet apart, calling on the company to use its factories to help the country close its ventilator shortage amid the coronavirus pandemic.

@anamariecox: I hope solidarity is one of the habits of corona-living that we take with us into wellness
posted by tonycpsu at 12:04 PM on March 30, 2020 [42 favorites]

Just got a text: Hogan's issuing a stay-at-home order for MD, starting tonight.

Welp. Gonna see how much of my jewelrymaking stuff I can pack up and take home from the shop.
posted by nonasuch at 12:06 PM on March 30, 2020 [5 favorites]

India's pandemic lockdown turns into a human tragedy

These informal workers are the backbone of the big city economy, constructing houses, cooking food, serving in eateries, delivering takeaways, cutting hair in salons, making automobiles, plumbing toilets and delivering newspapers, among other things. Escaping poverty in their villages, most of the estimated 100 million of them live in squalid housing in congested urban ghettos and aspire for upward mobility.

Last week's lockdown turned them into refugees overnight. Their workplaces were shut, and most employees and contractors who paid them vanished. [...] The staggering exodus was reminiscent of the flight of refugees during the bloody partition in 1947.

Some appear to have died of COVID-19 before they could reach home.
posted by XMLicious at 12:13 PM on March 30, 2020 [8 favorites]

Just got a text: Hogan's issuing a stay-at-home order for MD, starting tonight.

Northam just issued one for Virginia as well. The full text appears to add language specifically targeting campgrounds, beaches, ANY gathering of over 10 people, and any in-person classes at "institutions of higher learning". No doubt the latter in response to Falwell's genius move to bring students back to Lynchburg.
posted by photo guy at 12:29 PM on March 30, 2020 [4 favorites]

hogan's order.
posted by 20 year lurk at 12:33 PM on March 30, 2020

New York governor begs for help amid `staggering’ death toll (AP)

New York’s governor issued an urgent appeal for medical volunteers Monday amid a “staggering” number of deaths from the coronavirus, saying: “Please come help us in New York, now.” And tens of thousands of retired or sidelined nurses and doctors were already answering the call.

Nurses Die, Doctors Fall Sick and Panic Rises on Virus Front Lines (NYT)

Frontline hospital workers in New York are now required to take their temperature every 12 hours, though many doctors and nurses fear they could contract the disease and spread it to patients before they become symptomatic. They also say it is a challenge to know when to come back to work after being sick. All medical workers who show symptoms, even if they are not tested, must quarantine for at least seven days and must be asymptomatic for three days before coming back to work.

Coronavirus Sweeps Through Detroit, a City That Has Seen Crisis Before (NYT)

“The city itself is underequipped,” said Howard Markel, a professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan. “It’s a perfect storm of poverty and very rudimentary public health conditions.”

posted by katra at 12:44 PM on March 30, 2020 [7 favorites]

Hospitals on soccer fields, in state park cabins and converted convention centers (WaPo)

The U.S. has 924,100 hospital beds, most of which are occupied on a typical day, according to a 2018 survey from the American Hospital Association. But in a severe pandemic situation, such as the one the country faced during the 1918 flu pandemic, experts have estimated that 38 million people would need medical care, resulting in 9.6 million hospitalizations and 2.9 million intensive care stays.

[...] With public health officials estimating millions of Americans — up to a fifth of the population — may need to be hospitalized, states and hospitals are taking creative approaches to housing the ill while containing the contagion.

Larry Hogan and Gretchen Whitmer: What governors need from Washington during this health emergency (WaPo Opinion)

There simply aren’t enough test kits, medical supplies and other lifesaving equipment to meet the scope of this pandemic. While states are doing all we can to secure access to these items, the federal government must take extraordinary steps to deliver what we need. The Trump administration can start by more widely implementing the Defense Production Act to direct companies to produce ventilators and protective gear for medical workers.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) needs to better coordinate the distribution of supplies based on need. Right now, there is no single authority tracking where every spare ventilator is or where there are shortages. The lack of any centralized coordination is creating a counterproductive competition between states and the federal government to secure limited supplies, driving up prices and exacerbating existing shortages.

[...] Medical and first responders, agricultural workers, food processor workers, distribution center warehouse employees, truck drivers, gas station attendants, grocery store employees, teachers who are adapting to distance learning, and so many other dedicated Americans are all holding our nation together in this time of crisis. [...] To support them, Washington must go further.

posted by katra at 1:07 PM on March 30, 2020 [4 favorites]

I don't understand why we're having China fly in with medical supplies when we donated 17.8 TONS of them (along with about $100 million in aid money) to China back on February 7, per the State Dept's own website?

This week the State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials. These donations are a testament to the generosity of the American people.

Today, the United States government is announcing it is prepared to spend up to $100 million in existing funds to assist China and other impacted countries, both directly and through multilateral organizations, to contain and combat the novel coronavirus. This commitment – along with the hundreds of millions generously donated by the American private sector – demonstrates strong U.S. leadership in response to the outbreak.

The United States is and will remain the world’s most generous donor. We encourage the rest of the world to match our commitment. Working together, we can have a profound impact to contain this growing threat. (emphasis mine)

In all seriousness, things like this are not getting enough press attention and it's made me incandescent with rage.

WRT to that IHME graphic, I think it's WAYYYYY off, you guys. It's saying my state - Texas - will have about 4,150 projected total deaths by August 2020. I mean, awesome? That would be .01% of the state's population, which numbered 28.7 million in 2018. We're a GOP-controlled state with no mandatory shelter-in-place orders from Gov. Abbott, and I am NOT at all confident that we're losing such a tiny amount of people to this pandemic. Especially not since this same model's predicting 15,546 total deaths during that same timeframe for New York state -- a state whose total population was 8,623,000 people in 2017.

I mean, do we really think Texas will have less than a third the total deaths as New York state by August? A state with 3.5x the total population, and zero state-mandated shelter-in-place orders?
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 1:54 PM on March 30, 2020 [5 favorites]

New York State has about 20 million people, though your point stands nonetheless.
posted by Rumple at 2:01 PM on March 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

I don't understand why we're having China fly in with medical supplies when we donated 17.8 TONS of them (along with about $100 million in aid money) to China back on February 7

I don't know if this is correct, but as I understand it, this is a "rolling crisis" that hits different areas at different times, and medical supplies are consumable goods. I help cure your plague so you can get back to production, then you do the same for me.

For all the acrimony between the US and China right now, seeing the level of coordination it takes to arrange organizations and sales of medical equipment from where it is made to where it is needed flowing both ways is one of the few things that gives me hope during this crisis. Where I am, China is also donating jets full of medical supplies and test kits.

That doesn't necessarily help you where you are right now, and the shortage of PPE right now in the US is a hole no amount of international donations can fill. But it does give me a little hope that we will get on top of this at some point. Below the storm of political anger and lockdowns, factories are producing and planes are flying.
posted by saysthis at 2:11 PM on March 30, 2020 [12 favorites]

CNN, MSNBC Bosses Ignore Staff Pleas to Cut Trump Coronavirus Pressers (Daily Beast)

Trump’s daily pandemic briefings have devolved into an “open-mic night” full of “misinformation,” cable staffers said, but networks are still broadcasting nearly every moment live.

posted by ZeusHumms at 2:12 PM on March 30, 2020 [24 favorites]

President Trump’s Prime-Time Pandemic (James Poniewozik, NY Times)

Mr. Trump became a prime-time star through TV, a political figure through TV and a president through TV. But he has not, as president, had what he had with NBC’s “The Apprentice”: a regular TV show in which he plays an executive in control.

Now, the coronavirus briefings have given him a new, live and unfiltered daily platform before a captive national audience. True to his résumé, he has conducted them as a kind of reality TV, or rather, create-your-own-reality TV. [...]

In its short life, for all its dead-serious subject matter, the [daily coronavirus briefings] program has developed the structure, rhythm and characters of a weekly reality show.

And for Mr. Trump, the briefings allow him to turn his pandemic response from a serial narrative, in which he’s held accountable for his cumulative action or inaction over time, into an episodic production, in which all that matters is what happened in the latest installment.

posted by ZeusHumms at 2:20 PM on March 30, 2020 [12 favorites]

Coronavirus deaths in Italy, Spain, and the US are increasing more rapidly than they did in China; Financial Times; Steven Bernard, Cale Tilford, John Burn-Murdoch, Keith Fray; 3/30/220 (3 hours ago):

The humanitarian costs of the coronavirus outbreak continue to mount, with more than 765,000 people infected globally. The number of people confirmed to have died having the virus has now surpassed 36,800.

The virus’s proliferation has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, meaning it is spreading rapidly in different parts of the world. More than 190 countries have confirmed cases so far.

The epicentre of the coronavirus is now Europe, with the largest number of confirmed cases in Italy, and death tolls growing more quickly in Italy, Spain, the UK and US than they did in China at the same stage of the outbreak.
...
Dozens of countries now have double-digit deaths from coronavirus — mostly in Europe — and many are tracing the same paths as the current epicentres.

Scroll down to see all graphs.
posted by cenoxo at 2:24 PM on March 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

Hannity must go WaPo opinion piece by Erik Wemple
posted by mumimor at 2:42 PM on March 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

Saysthis, I googled "New York population" and that's the number it displayed. I probably should've been more specific... oops. Regardless, I don't trust the projected numbers on that website. They're too optimistic for a state like Texas, probably by a lot.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 3:18 PM on March 30, 2020

Andrew Cuomo: "I'm not running for president."

Smart move. I loved Mario, and I was always glad that when he lost, he retired and stayed the fuck out of the mess. I'm glad to have someone who can do Executive Function AND gives good briefing.
posted by mikelieman at 3:21 PM on March 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Facebook has just confirmed to Ricardo Senra BBC that they removed a video posted by Bolsonaro to both FB and Instagram.
In the video, the Bolsonazi breaking his quarentine yet again whilest wandering around Brasilia touted hidroxicloroquina as the cure.
posted by adamvasco at 3:46 PM on March 30, 2020 [10 favorites]

As governors beg, Trump promises ventilators to Europe (NYT, March 30, 2020) Citing reports that Ford and GE Healthcare plan would produce 50,000 ventilators in 100 days, Mr. Trump said 10 American companies were quickly increasing ventilator production.

“As we outpace what we need, we’re going to be sending them to Italy, we’re going to be sending them to France, we’re going to be sending them to Spain, where they have tremendous problems, and other countries as we can,” he said. He went on, “We’re going to be sending approximately $100 million worth of things, of surgical and medical and hospital things to Italy.”

[After CNN's Jim Acosta asked after Trump's "repeated mistaken assurances in recent weeks that the virus would be contained and could “go away” as early as April":]

“You look at those individual statements, they are all true statements,” Mr. Trump told the reporter, Jim Acosta. Mr. Trump suggested that he had been trying to reassure Americans. “I could cause panic much better than even you. I would make you look like a minor league player. But I don’t want to do that. I’m very proud. It’s almost a miracle the way it’s all come together,” he added. “And instead of asking a nasty, snarky question like that, you should ask a real question.”

[Trump] then attacked Yamiche Alcindor of PBS’s “News Hour” for [her testing-related question], suggesting she should be congratulating her government.
--
Trying to mind excerpt length, but the whole thing's bizarre; at one point, Michael Lindell (Minnesota-based MyPillow Inc. founder/Mar-a-Lago member, who has called Trump "the greatest president in history") takes the podium, chides America as having “turned its back on God,” and urges Bible-reading during isolation. “God gave us grace on Nov. 8, 2016, to change the course we were on,” he said, adding, “Our president gave us so much hope.”
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:12 PM on March 30, 2020 [11 favorites]

Health care workers falling ill amid lack of protections (AP)

Confronted with a lack of protective equipment, health care workers treating coronavirus patients are reusing masks that are supposed to be used once and then discarded and are even making their own — and more are getting infected. Twelve staffers at Oregon Health and Science University have tested positive for COVID-19, said Danny Jacobs, the president of OHSU — one of the state’s leading hospitals, on Monday. How many more in other facilities in the state might also be infected is unclear.

[...] Irene Hunt, an in-home health care worker from Springfield, Oregon, says she hasn’t had a real protective mask since the pandemic began. In the video conference call organized by a labor union, she showed reporters a blue homemade cloth mask she has been using. She works with the elderly who cannot care for themselves and who are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19. “Home-care providers are front line health care workers and we have no equipment to protect ourselves,” Hunt said.

[...] “We are currently working 12-hour shifts and we are asked to only use one surgical mask per shift,” said Alicia Holihan, a nurse at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend, in Springfield, Oregon. “Last week we were just approved to use cloth mask and that is not acceptable. We need this essential equipment to be able to handle the surge and anticipate all the people that are going to be coming in.”

[...] Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has asked the Trump administration for more protective gear but has been provided with less than half of what is needed. “It is absolutely unacceptable,” Brown told reporters on the call. “We need the federal government to step up.”

posted by katra at 5:48 PM on March 30, 2020 [4 favorites]

Trump accused of using coronavirus briefing as corporate advertising spot (Guardian)

Ever the TV host, Trump opened a cardboard box – marked “Covid-19” with images of the virus – containing a machine made by Abbott that can administer a test in just five minutes. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drugs Administration, said: “We’ve had a substantial addition to testing with the authorisation of point-of-care tests, especially the Abbott point-of-care test, which the president has pulled out of the box.”

Five ways the federal government can help health-care professionals get critical gear (Rep. Elissa Slotkin, WaPo Opinion)

During my 14 years at the CIA and later at the Pentagon, I participated in and led dozens of crisis task forces on topics as varied as confronting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to responding to the Islamic State’s takeover of parts of Iraq and Syria. My experiences have taught me that there are important things the executive branch can do, now, to improve situations across the country:

The first and most urgent task is to cut through the chaos by naming a single federal emergency medical supply czar with the authority to coordinate this herculean task. [...] Second, the administration should centralize FEMA procurement of medical supplies. [...] Next, the administration must consistently use the Defense Production Act to organize the retooling of manufacturers in Michigan and elsewhere. [...] We also need a coordinated approach to transportation and logistics to carry out a strategic plan for supplies. [...] Last, the administration should order a comprehensive review of all Food and Drug Administration restrictions on what gear health-care professionals can use and, whenever safely possible, try to ease them.

[...] Americans rightfully feel ashamed when we see our front-line troops are going into battle without the proper equipment. The tearful medical professionals I have spoken to need hope today that help is coming tomorrow. In this moment of national crisis, we need a leader with an action plan.

posted by katra at 6:06 PM on March 30, 2020 [10 favorites]

Some megachurches are still meeting.

Almost didn't read that link, but then did and then what

The virus, we believe, is politically motivated.

You’re probably going to get infected at some other place, not here.

It's almost like they want to kill everyone.
posted by ctmf at 6:17 PM on March 30, 2020 [16 favorites]

So, I was just looking at the outbreak map of Texas, from the Texas Dept of Health. I live here, northeast of Dallas, and I have family in Austin, San Antonio and Houston, and I usually drive, so I'm familiar with where all the major and even good state roads are. When you look at that map, and follow the big dots, those are all along major highways/well traveled state roads. And it's kinda weird, it goes from San Antonio to Dallas straight up i35, but there isn't a big connection between SA and Houston. The next big path is from Houston to Dallas, and the third from Houston to Galveston. West Texas pathing goes north/south between El Paso and Amarillo. There's clearly zero pathing between El Paso, or anywhere along the borders and the next big cities to the east of them. I'm willing to bet if I could find a similar map for Louisiana, there's a big path between Dallas/Houston and New Orleans. (Those are the two major junctions to catch east bound interstate.) I don't know the road layouts of other states, but I wonder if there's a similar pattern, where the virus seems to spread out from the highways. Which would explain why teeny towns on the highway where everyone stops to pee and get gas, have higher rates of infection than some midsized towns that are not situated near highway stops.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 6:27 PM on March 30, 2020 [4 favorites]

To me, that Texas Outbreak map looks basically identical to the population density map of the state. I don't think road travel is the culprit; I think you're just seeing cases where the people are.
posted by fizzitt at 6:42 PM on March 30, 2020 [8 favorites]

ctmf, Does the 'Cyrus prophecy' help explain evangelical support for Donald Trump? (The Guardian, March 23, 2017); Evangelicals Love Donald Trump for Many Reasons, But One of Them Is Especially Terrifying: End Times (Mother Jones, January 23, 2019)
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:45 PM on March 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

At his daily press conference today, MA Gov. Charlie Baker expressed gratitude that the feds told MA it will be sending the roughly 1,000 ventilators the state asked for and that they should arrive within the next few days. But, he added, he won't really believe it until the devices arrive at a state warehouse, because these days, "you don't have a confirmed order until it actually shows up."
posted by adamg at 6:55 PM on March 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

SecretAgentSockpuppet > I wonder if there's a similar pattern, where the virus seems to spread out from the highways.

Here's one in Ohio: Does coronavirus spread along Ohio’s highways? Not so simple., Rich Exner, Cleveland.com, Updated Mar 27, 2020:

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Take a look at the spread of known coronavirus cases across Ohio and you might get the impression that the interstate highway system is acting as a conduit.

A large section of southern Ohio where there are no interstate highways is largely devoid of confirmed cases. Same goes for a section of far western Ohio. Yet, nearly all counties have been touched along the diagonal path of Interstate 71 from Cleveland to Cincinnati.

Of course, there is more to it than the highway system. And remember, the sample size is still small. Even on wider trends, such as more males being identified with coronavirus than females, Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton has warned that far too little is in known to draw conclusions.

But the way the Ohio map has developed does beg for some discussion....[see points in the article]

Basically, there's many contributing factors, but not enough data has been gathered and studied yet to reach a a firm conclusion.
posted by cenoxo at 6:58 PM on March 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

The virus, we believe, is politically motivated.

You’re probably going to get infected at some other place, not here.

that guy got arrested today (and released after posting bond on $500 bail)
posted by 20 year lurk at 6:59 PM on March 30, 2020 [8 favorites]

Trump to Governors: I’d Like You to Do Us a Favor, Though (Michelle Goldberg, NYT Opinion)

“There are a lot of parallels between the president’s behavior now and during the whole Ukraine scandal,” Representative Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who led Trump’s impeachment prosecution, told me. “Certainly the most apparent is his demand that the governors basically pay fealty to him, praise him, or they’ll suffer consequences.”

posted by katra at 7:03 PM on March 30, 2020 [13 favorites]

Is Trump Our Cyrus? The Old Testament Case for Yes and No — Christians’ eagerness to understand God’s will in real time can cause them to overlook fundamental biblical and divine principles., Christianity Today, Daniel Block, October 29, 2018. After discussing how this peculiar idea of Trump being Cyrus came about, CT concludes with this:

The historical Cyrus was an architect and steward of a well-run, stable government, a leader of great generosity as well as authority, and a champion of religious tolerance and freedom.

If Donald Trump lives up to that precedent and his own promises to protect and support all our health and welfare, he will justify the allegiance of those who believe in a Cyrus prophesy or parallel – and likely win more converts.

If he continues to exercise power with little of Cyrus’ wisdom, generosity, and compassion, it is likely that a core group, whose support was buttressed with Biblical precedent, will lose faith.

My money's on the former. Trump can never trust anyone but himself (and perhaps not even that for long), so sooner or later he'll turn his back on evangelicals, too.

In the meantime, one good litmus test is "You will know them by their fruits": their life, beliefs, character, actions, godliness, deeds, behavior towards others, and the words that come out of their mouth.) Looking at these aspects of The Donald, he can certainly be weighed in the balances and found wanting.

More about the Cyrus delusion in the timely Washington Post article, The Trump administration’s obsession with an ancient Persian emperor, Ishaan Tharoor, October 31, 2019 [Halloween!].
posted by cenoxo at 7:43 PM on March 30, 2020 [5 favorites]

My money's on the ~~former~~ latter, apologies.
posted by cenoxo at 7:58 PM on March 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

Calling visual artists:

At some point, every city hit hard by this pandemic will have a
memorial to it in a prominent public place. No doubt it will pay
respect to the sacrifices made by the medical workers who saved so
many lives at the cost of their own. But that should not be the only
function. "THose who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." And
if we allow calls for national unity and other such nonsense to paper
over the corruption, anti-intellectualism, and malice that brought
this country so low in the year 2020, will, then they will continue to
lurk and will harm the country again. So fuck that noise. We will need
memorials to remind future generations of the good AND the bad.

What's more, since the narcissistic morons who brought this upon us
arre still in charge of the country, it might do us all some good if
they knew that memorials to their actions right now are being designed
and built right the fuck now. If they know that their decisions are
literally being recorded for bronze plaques that will be on display in
prominent places by year's end, that might affect their next
decisions.

So if you're in your studio, and have time and materials on hand, why
not do this? Design a memorial to the coronavirus pandemic. Maybe
something with bronze casts of an n95 mask? Or one of the 3d-printed
masks made for this occasion? Give it explicit references to the
willfull blindness of the White House or the disinformaton coming from
Fox News. And a spot for a big old plaque, contents still amenable to
editing. If I had any artistic skills, I'd start with a big
sarcophagous, topped with an assortment of bronzed n95 masks, and a
big plaque on the side saying "Elections have consequences." What
would you build?
posted by ocschwar at 9:40 PM on March 30, 2020 [11 favorites]

A giant golden statue of Trump, bending over and pulling numbers, dates, and excuses, out of his backside.
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:09 PM on March 30, 2020 [5 favorites]

"To me, that Texas Outbreak map looks basically identical to the population density map of the state".

An exception I noticed is Amarillo and Lubbock. Lubbock is about 25% more populous than Amarillo, but has 600% more cases than Amarillo does.

My best guess for the difference is that Lubbock has a large university and Amarillo does not. I'd assume that's more traveling in general, but also spring break. I'd be interested to know if other big university towns across the US also show this kind of disparity.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:21 PM on March 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

Threat of Losing Election Helped Cause Trump to Extend Social Distancing: Report (Matt Stieb, NY Magazine)

Over the weekend, White House officials reportedly [informed] Trump that his idea to open up American life so that there’d be “packed churches all over our country” on Easter could result in the additional deaths of many thousands of voters — an option that might not look so great come November.

Both public health and politics played a role in Trump’s coronavirus decision (Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Yasmeen Abutaleb; WaPo)

Trump’s abrupt reversal was the result of several days of small group meetings during which he received briefings from public health and economic officials. On Saturday, the president’s likely course of action was still “very fluid,” in the one words of one outside Republican briefed on internal conversations.

By Sunday, however, most officials — including those representing an economic perspective — were trending toward extending the social distancing guidelines.

[...] Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, and Anthony S. Fauci, an infectious-disease expert, repeatedly presented the president with worst-case scenarios to underscore just how cataclysmic the crisis could get.

posted by ZeusHumms at 11:00 PM on March 30, 2020 [7 favorites]

What's the modern-day, US equivalent term to Kremlinology? It seems like it's what pundits have to resort to these days to suss out whatever is going on in the White House.

OTOH, the term might still be relevant when applied to US politics...
posted by Harald74 at 1:30 AM on March 31, 2020 [13 favorites]

Nah they leak it to servile transcribers like Maggie Haberman
posted by Yowser at 3:25 AM on March 31, 2020 [3 favorites]

Threat of Losing Election Helped Cause Trump to Extend Social Distancing: Report

Until convinced otherwise – and you know he hesitated before changing his mind – The Emperor Donald was more worried about losing the election rather than quite literally losing the electorate. That’s understandable: with him, it’s not personal, it’s busine$$.
posted by cenoxo at 3:34 AM on March 31, 2020 [5 favorites]

From that WaPo article [*] Both public health and politics played a role in Trump’s coronavirus decision:

Calling in to “Fox & Friends” Monday morning, the president weighed in on the political implications of the virus when asked a question about the 2020 Democratic field.

“I’ve gotten great marks on what we’ve done with respect to this,” Trump said. “I’ve gotten great marks. And even from almost every Democrat governor, so I’ve gotten great marks also. But we want to always make sure that we have a great president, that we have somebody that’s capable.”

Come November, let’s do exactly that and dethrone the Mad King.

[*Alternate link if you hit the WaPo paywall.]
posted by cenoxo at 4:14 AM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

mf'er tweeted a damn picture of himself fiddling march 10. there is no depiction of him that he won't misconstrue as flattering. suggest studiously avoiding including him in any memorial, except perhaps as some big sucking emptiness, like his leadership in crisis and indeed his very essence have been. here's an idea: seize his golf courses for cemeteries, his other properties for hospitals, shelters for the sick and indigent. strike his name from every edifice.
posted by 20 year lurk at 4:17 AM on March 31, 2020 [14 favorites]

Might as well say it as it is:
Trump says Republicans would ‘never’ be elected again if it was easier to vote

Donald Trump admitted on Monday that making it easier to vote in America would hurt the Republican party.

The president made the comments as he dismissed a Democratic-led push for reforms such as vote-by-mail, same-day registration and early voting as states seek to safely run elections amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Democrats had proposed the measures as part of the coronavirus stimulus. They ultimately were not included in the $2.2tn final package, which included only $400m to states to help them run elections.
“The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox & Friends. “They had things in there about election days and what you do and all sorts of clawbacks. They had things that were just totally crazy and had nothing to do with workers that lost their jobs and companies that we have to save.”

posted by mumimor at 4:32 AM on March 31, 2020 [31 favorites]

Voting possibilities during the CV Era are discussed in this 3/19/20 New York Times opinion piece: How Are We Supposed to Vote During a Pandemic? There are ways to prevent a crisis of public health from becoming a crisis of democracy.

To avoid the risk of turning traditional polling places into Coronavirus hot spots, and to avoid tampering problems with online voting, perhaps the safest and most secure method would be to:

Revolutionize the presidential voting process – The presidential election is far enough away that its voting process can be overhauled.

To that end, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Ron Wyden have introduced a bill that would guarantee every American a secure mail-in paper ballot and help states pay for printing, self-sealing envelopes, ballot tracking and postage. In-person polling sites need to remain open for those unable to vote by mail, so the bill would require all states to hold at least 20 days of early voting to cut down on crowding.

This would give self-quarantined people (and those undergoing CV treatment) the opportunity to vote safely and easily.
posted by cenoxo at 6:13 AM on March 31, 2020 [25 favorites]

So when i last checked Nancy Pelosi opposed remote voting for the members of her own legislative body. Anyone want to propose what the actual path to enacting voting reforms for the electorate might look like, bc i dont think the Klobuchar-Wyden bill is gonna be it.

Pelosi supported (and indeed was the public face for) the Democratic House alternative to the CARES Act, the Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act. It included a sub-bill called the American Coronavirus/COVID–19 Election Safety and Security Act, which would have provided for early voting, free and universal voting by mail, and online voter registration.
posted by jedicus at 7:15 AM on March 31, 2020 [23 favorites]

Pelosi Says She Hasn’t Spoken With Trump Since SOTU: ‘I Don’t Know What I Would Learn’ (TPM)
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:25 AM on March 31, 2020 [9 favorites]

The US had midterm elections in 1918 during the Spanish flu.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:09 AM on March 31, 2020 [3 favorites]

I love Pelosi's polite insults: the recipient won't realize their head is on the floor until they step on it.
posted by cenoxo at 8:50 AM on March 31, 2020 [8 favorites]

The Coronavirus and Conservatism’s War on Science (via)

Trump’s congenital impatience is not the only culprit. Republican governors in several states have downplayed the virus, either refusing to enforce social-distancing measures or even overruling local officials who attempt to do so. A new study finds that the single factor that best explains the speed of state-level reaction is its governor’s partisan identity. “States with Republican governors and Republican electorates delayed each social distancing measure by an average of 2.70 days,” the authors find, “a far larger effect than any other factor, including state income per capita, the percentage of neighboring states with mandates, or even confirmed cases in state.”

Some freedom-loving heroes died, but at least the libs were duly owned.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:51 AM on March 31, 2020 [18 favorites]

The Social-Distancing Culture War Has Begun (McKay Coppins, Atlantic, Mar. 30, 2020)

In recent days, Republican governors in Alabama and Mississippi have resisted calls to enact more forceful mitigation policies. Polling data suggest that Republicans throughout the U.S. are much less concerned about the coronavirus than Democrats are. According to a recent analysis by The New York Times, Trump won 23 of the 25 states where people have reduced personal travel the least.

posted by katra at 9:52 AM on March 31, 2020 [8 favorites]

I was just sent this: Hand sanitizer was invented by a Latina nursing student.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:09 AM on March 31, 2020 [4 favorites]

Natalie Maines Slams Trump’s Coronavirus Response Using His Own Lies (Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone)

In Instagram post, Dixie Chicks singer sets Trump quotes to lyrics of the country trio’s song “Gaslighter”

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:26 AM on March 31, 2020 [10 favorites]

U.S. Prepares for Prolonged Shutdowns as Coronavirus Strains Hospitals (WSJ)

Democratic and Republican governors have also called for more supplies, stressing the severe shortages of equipment that medical professionals on the front lines need to do their jobs. A survey of mayors in 213 cities across 41 states and Puerto Rico earlier this month found that 91.5% of cities didn’t have enough face masks for first responders and medical professionals, and 85% didn’t have enough ventilators.

posted by katra at 10:31 AM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

What happens when a city's hospital closes 'without warning' during a pandemic

The frontline in the battle against coronavirus has shifted a couple of hundred yards down the main road through the Kansas city of Wellington.

Two weeks ago, as the virus crept closer and people in other parts of the state started dying, the owners of the city’s only hospital thought it a good time to close down with just a few hours’ notice on the grounds the facility was losing money.

“We lost our hospital abruptly and without warning,” said Dr Lacie Gregory, a family practitioner in Wellington. “Even as the healthcare providers here in town, we did not hear that it was closing until it was a done deal. We received a text message from the director of nursing saying as of now there’s no hospital. So really, really unfortunate timing.”

I think the hospital owners ought to face criminal charges for this. Reckless endangerment, maybe.
posted by Lexica at 11:01 AM on March 31, 2020 [25 favorites]

Over 120,000 Sign Petition Calling for End to Live Coverage of Trump's Coronavirus Briefings (Chantal Da Silva, Newsweek)

Accusing President Donald Trump of using each briefing as a "live campaign rally," the petition, which has been published on MoveOn.org, asks CNN, ABC, CBS NBC, NPR and Fox News to consider whether it is necessary to livestream the COVID-19 press conferences in full.

posted by ZeusHumms at 11:07 AM on March 31, 2020 [20 favorites]

CNN’s Chris Cuomo has coronavirus but will continue to work [from home] (Washington Post, March 31, 2020) “He is going to be fine. He’s young, in good shape, strong. Not as strong as he thinks. But he will be fine,” Gov. Cuomo said. “But there’s a lesson in this: he’s an essential worker, a member of the press, so he’s been out there. If you go out there, the chances you get infected are high.”

I like the governor's definition of essential worker. Chris Cuomo, 49, experienced "fever, chills and shortness of breath" before testing positive for COVID-19; his program "Cuomo Prime Time" now broadcasts from his basement, where he is self-isolating to avoid transmitting the virus to his immediate family. Two weeks ago, Gov. Cuomo signed the executive order for "Matilda's Law" (named after their mom), "meant to protect people older than 70 and with underlying medical conditions. It requires New Yorkers to limit visiting family, among other directives." Also per the WaPo article, "On Tuesday, the governor called it “a mistake” for his mother to have visited Chris Cuomo’s house two weeks ago."
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:25 AM on March 31, 2020 [1 favorite]

USA Today: Trump says another coronavirus stimulus should include up to $2 trillion for infrastructure.

Truly, it is always infrastructure week.
posted by jedicus at 11:29 AM on March 31, 2020 [18 favorites]

How are we going to able to sell all this new debt to prop up the Trump economy?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:39 AM on March 31, 2020

the owners of the city’s only hospital

...is a phrase that should be spoken only in overly parodic dystopian fiction.
posted by Etrigan at 11:53 AM on March 31, 2020 [21 favorites]

I was just sent this: Hand sanitizer was invented by a Latina nursing student.

...or maybe not.
posted by Anoplura at 11:59 AM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

So, Obama dealt with Ebola (my co-worker is the brother of the Army doc in charge in Africa). Howls of outrage that patients were brought back to USA. Guess what? contained.
So Trump dealt with this virus. Guess what? The failed casino owner thinks 100,000 dead is a success.
posted by baegucb at 12:20 PM on March 31, 2020 [6 favorites]

the owners of the city’s only hospital
...is a phrase that should be spoken only in overly parodic dystopian fiction.

Perhaps John Cleese could use a short gig.
posted by cenoxo at 12:23 PM on March 31, 2020 [1 favorite]

> dances_with_sneetches: "How are we going to able to sell all this new debt to prop up the Trump economy?"

For whatever it's worth, treasury rates are pretty much at historical lows. From my layperson's understanding of this kind of thing, I think this means that the bond markets are practically begging the US Treasury to take their money (i.e.: it's rarely been cheaper for the US govt to borrow money at this time).
posted by mhum at 12:45 PM on March 31, 2020 [8 favorites]

Yes, even now US Treasury bonds are considered just about the safest thing to own if you want to keep as much money as possible with as little risk as possible. (Partly for valid reasons, including the cost of storing actual commodities like gold, partly because people are just people and do things out of habit)

Unless we borrow $22T on the government balance sheet this year (and the Fed is kindly making room with QE), we'll probably be fine in that respect. For the next few months, anyway, it's in nobody's interest who matters to make an attempt at disrupting the status quo of the world financial system.
posted by wierdo at 1:03 PM on March 31, 2020 [5 favorites]

McConnell claims impeachment ‘diverted the attention’ of Trump administration from coronavirus response (WaPo)

Trump repeatedly played down the threat the virus posed toward the United States. When news of the first U.S. case broke in late January, Trump declared, “We have it totally under control. . . . It’s going to be just fine.” At the same time, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) was calling on the federal government to declare the crisis a public health emergency.

Democrats also criticized the Trump administration in early February for not taking the crisis seriously enough, with some warning that medical institutions were in urgent need of additional staff and supplies. Amid the first reports of community transmission in late February, Trump continued to dismiss the risk. “It’s going to disappear,” he said. “One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”

And despite McConnell’s claim that impeachment distracted Trump from addressing the coronavirus, the president did find enough time in January and February to hold a host of “Keep America Great” campaign rallies and fundraisers across the country.

The impeachment trial began Jan. 16, with a team of lawyers defending the president in the Senate. The government agencies involved in dealing with novel coronavirus — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services and others — were not involved in the impeachment.

posted by katra at 1:19 PM on March 31, 2020 [7 favorites]

Hey WaPo, maybe stop repeating the lies of the people who are screwing us over?
posted by kokaku at 1:40 PM on March 31, 2020 [14 favorites]

Hey WaPo, maybe stop repeating the lies of the people who are screwing us over?

You mean, like how they used the entire article to debunk McConnell's baseless claim?
posted by katra at 1:48 PM on March 31, 2020 [17 favorites]

If only it was possible to set up an executive department in charge of responding to pandemics that could have just chugged away doing their thing while the President was distracted by ~~golf~~, ~~campaign rallies~~, impeachment. Maybe as a response to a previous contained potential epidemic.

Also I realize that the GOP has no sense of shame, irony or self but does it seem crazy to anyone else that the defense for incompetence was "I'd been impeached and was distracted by a trial for high crimes and misdemeanors at the time"?
posted by Mitheral at 1:51 PM on March 31, 2020 [11 favorites]

so if mcconnell claims the sun's going to rise in the west tomorrow are they going to waste a whole article on debunking that?
posted by pyramid termite at 1:52 PM on March 31, 2020 [5 favorites]

Feb. 27, 2020 -McConnell Discusses Supplemental Funding to Combat Coronavirus (mcconnell.senate.gov) "‘Here in the United States, we are fortunate not to be facing an immediate crisis. In response to early reports of the outbreak, the Administration began monitoring efforts and enacted common-sense travel restrictions to help blunt and delay the spread of the virus to the United States."

March 11, 2020 - McConnell on Coronavirus: This Should Not Be a Time for Partisan Bickering (mcconnell.senate.gov) "Now, it has been sad but not surprising to see some of President Trump’s Democratic critics here in Washington fall back on the same, old, predictable partisan attacks. Even at a time like this."

March 22, 2020- McConnell: “This is Not a Political Opportunity. It is a National Emergency” (mcconnell.senate.gov) “Americans realize this is no time for selfishness or division, but a time for solidarity and generosity and yes, courage. Americans are rising to the occasion. The Senate must do the same."
--
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:53 PM on March 31, 2020 [1 favorite]

McConnell claims impeachment ‘diverted the attention’ of Trump administration from coronavirus response

Most summaries of "Moscow" Mitch McConnell's radio interview where he made such claims include that the impeachment had ended on February 5th. And I think many of the government officials who had been in place to deal with pandemics were laid off in 2018 and 2019 by Trump.
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:57 PM on March 31, 2020 [4 favorites]

Trump says another coronavirus stimulus should include up to $2 trillion for infrastructure.

No, there's no need for an infrastructure bill when people can't go to work.

The recent three bills passed do a good job of propping up employees, households, healthcare systems and businesses.

What is desperately needed now is $2 trillion in block grants to states so that they can keep public employees from being laid off. States are limited in the amount of deficit spending they can do. So with a sharp drop in tax revenue due to the lockdowns, states and cities are going have to start massive layoffs if they can't get the federal government to do the necessary borrowing for them.
posted by JackFlash at 2:08 PM on March 31, 2020 [13 favorites]

katra, the problem with our media is that most people aren't going to read the article. They're going to skim headlines. The headline propagates a lie. If the article debunks the lie, then the headline should be clear about the lie. Media is constantly using Republican framing even when the articles are disagreeing or pointing out flaws or covering people and groups who are trying to change that framing. Even when people are being critical of 45, they are often using his language which only reinforces his message. This happens in mass media and in social network conversations. In the end, the framing is what people comes away with, not the debunking.
posted by kokaku at 2:09 PM on March 31, 2020 [27 favorites]

McConnell claims impeachment ‘diverted the attention’ of Trump administration from coronavirus response

Well, it is certainly true Trump diverted his attention during the impeachment -- flying to rallies all over the country.

Friday, January 3, 2020 Miami FL
Thursday, January 9, 2020 Toledo
Tuesday, January 14, 2020 Milwaukee
Tuesday, January 28, 2020 Wildwood
Thursday, January 30, 2020 Des Moines
Monday, February 10, 2020 Manchester
Wednesday, February 19, 2020 Phoenix
Thursday, February 20, 2020 Colorado Springs
Friday, February 21, 2020 Las Vegas
Friday, February 28, 2020 North Charleston
Monday, March 2, 2020 Charlotte
posted by JackFlash at 2:16 PM on March 31, 2020 [19 favorites]

The World Is Not Ready for the Next Pandemic (May 4, 2017, Time) recounts the administration's missteps from Jan. 2017 - publication date. The article opens: Across China, the virus that could spark the next pandemic is already circulating. It’s a bird flu called H7N9, and true to its name, it mostly infects poultry. Lately, however, it’s started jumping from chickens to humans more readily–bad news, because the virus is a killer. During a recent spike, 88% of people infected got pneumonia, three-quarters ended up in intensive care with severe respiratory problems, and 41% died.

Forbes, Feb. 19 2017: Bill Gates Warns Of Epidemic That Could Kill Over 30 Million People at the Munich Security Conference: "Whether it occurs by a quirk of nature or at the hand of a terrorist, epidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year. And they say there is a reasonable probability the world will experience such an outbreak in the next 10 to 15 years."

In 2017, Obama officials briefed Trump's team on dealing with a pandemic like the coronavirus. One Cabinet member reportedly fell asleep, and others didn't want to be there. (Business Insider, March 17, 2020), based upon Politico's reporting: Before Trump’s inauguration, a warning: ‘The worst influenza pandemic since 1918’ (March 16, 2020). Same chilly reception, plus: [R]oughly two-thirds of the Trump representatives in that room are no longer serving in the administration. That extraordinary turnover in the months and years that followed is likely one reason his administration has struggled to handle the very real pandemic it faces now, former Obama administration officials said.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:22 PM on March 31, 2020 [26 favorites]

katra, the problem with our media is that most people aren't going to read the article. They're going to skim headlines. The headline propagates a lie.

My general sense is that there are some constraints in news reporting, although I do hear you on the concern about people not RTFA, but I figure a headline would look more like this for an opinion piece: No, impeachment didn’t ‘distract’ Trump from coronavirus (Joshua A. Geltzer, WaPo Opinion)
posted by katra at 2:34 PM on March 31, 2020 [1 favorite]

Wartime Production Law Has Been Used Routinely, but Not With Coronavirus (NYT / MSN reprint)

Invoking the Defense Production Act is hardly a rare occurrence. As recently as last summer, the Department of Defense used it to obtain rare earth metals needed to build lasers, jet engines and armored vehicles. The Defense Department estimates that it has used the law’s powers 300,000 times a year.

Not Winning This Fight (David Leonhardt, NYT Opinion)

China and South Korea have flattened their curves. Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands have begun to flatten their curves.

The United States still has not.

More than half of all confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States have been diagnosed in the past five days. Depending on what data source you use, yesterday was either the worst day for new cases or one of the worst. [...] As you can see in the chart above, the other three countries with the world’s largest number of confirmed cases — Italy, China and Spain — were all making significant progress at a similar point in their outbreaks. But the response in the United States has been slow and uneven.

President Trump spent almost two months denying that the virus was a serious problem and spreading incorrect information about it.

posted by katra at 2:41 PM on March 31, 2020 [9 favorites]

China and South Korea have flattened their curves. Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands have begun to flatten their curves.

Is it possible China's state media is under-reporting or flat out fudging their numbers on coronavirus? I keep reading reputable journalistic sources stating China has the virus under control but with no mention of where this information is coming from.
posted by photoslob at 3:25 PM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Imperial Donald and his retinue repeatedly called the Mueller investigation and subsequent impeachment hoaxes. He didn't yell "HOAX!" just to discredit his enemies or pander to his base. Instead, like a mantra, he chanted it over and over again trying to convince himself that these efforts were indeed hoaxes (which, of course, they weren't).

The only hindrance to his Presidential duties is that he wasted a great deal of time and effort trying to believe his own lies.
posted by cenoxo at 3:33 PM on March 31, 2020 [5 favorites]

For Donald, everything is a hoax. Until it's not.
posted by valkane at 3:41 PM on March 31, 2020 [1 favorite]

Governors plead for medical equipment from federal stockpile plagued by shortages and confusion (WaPo)

As states across the country have pleaded for critical medical equipment from a key national stockpile, Florida has promptly received 100 percent of its first two requests — with President Trump and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis both touting their close relationship.

States including Oklahoma and Kentucky have received more of some equipment than they requested, while others such as Illinois, Massachusetts and Maine have secured only a fraction of their requests. It’s a disparity that has caused frustration and confusion in governors’ offices across the country, with some officials questioning whether politics is playing a role in the response.

Governors are making increasingly frantic requests to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for material. State and congressional leaders are flooding FEMA with letters and calls seeking clarity about how it is allocating suddenly in-demand resources such as masks, ventilators and medical gowns. [...] There’s no direct evidence that Republican states are receiving more favorable treatment overall, and some GOP-led states such as Georgia have had trouble filling their requests. But Trump has contributed to the sense that politics could be a factor by publicly attacking Democratic governors who criticize his handling of the public health crisis.

posted by katra at 3:52 PM on March 31, 2020 [3 favorites]

Guardian: Fact check: Ventilators, again

Asked about reports that governors are caught in bidding wars for the life-saving machines, Trump said: “that shouldn’t be happening.” All they need to do is ask, he said.

Guardian: Fact check: More on ventilators

Trump warned that the “surge is coming and it’s coming pretty strong” and so the federal government is “holding back” 10,000 ventilators. The actual number of ventilators in the Strategic National Stockpile is around 16,600, according to reports last week. This total is barely enough for what New York requires, let alone the rest of the US. A greater problem, perhaps, is the lack of a strong ramp-up in ventilator production for patients in the US.

Guardian: Fact check: 10,000 ventilators

Trump once again touted US stockpile of 10,000 ventilators, which he said the government is “holding back” strategically. In fact, there are 16,600, according to the Center for Public Integrity. But even that won’t be enough to meet the demand.

But experts say that the government’s secretive stockpile of medicines, vaccines, protective clothing and equipment, stashed in a dozen warehouses across the country, isn’t enough to meet the demand for medical equipment needed to treat coronavirus patients. State governors, including Andrew Cuomo of New York, have asked for tens of thousands of ventilators.

In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, public health experts wrote: “The national strategic reserve of ventilators is small and far from sufficient for the projected gap. No matter which estimate we use, there are not enough ventilators for patients with Covid-19 in the upcoming months.”

posted by katra at 4:01 PM on March 31, 2020 [7 favorites]

Governors Fight Back Against Coronavirus Chaos: ‘It’s Like Being on eBay With 50 Other States’ (NYT)

A chorus of governors from across the political spectrum is publicly challenging the Trump administration’s assertion that the United States is well-stocked and well-prepared to test people for the coronavirus and care for the sickest patients. In New York State — the center of the nation’s outbreak, with at least 1,550 deaths — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Tuesday that the country’s patchwork approach to the pandemic had made it harder to get desperately needed ventilators.

“You now literally will have a company call you up and say, ‘Well, California just outbid you,’” Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said in his daily news briefing. “It’s like being on eBay with 50 other states, bidding on a ventilator.”

[...] In recent weeks, the president has launched broadsides against Democratic governors who accused him and his administration of failing to adequately supply states with needed medical equipment, while claiming that the federal government has “done a job the likes of which nobody’s seen” in delivering needed supplies quickly.

But governors across the country, from South Dakota to New York, have for weeks pleaded with the administration to produce supplies they say have not arrived. During a teleconference with several governors earlier in March, Mr. Trump heard from several governors who said they were still waiting for masks and ventilators, despite repeated claims from White House coronavirus task force officials that the equipment was on the way.

posted by katra at 4:14 PM on March 31, 2020 [10 favorites]

This may be a derail, and if so please delete away, but I find it fascinating how many professional investors and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are onboard with misinformation suggesting that the media is exaggerating the danger of the virus, that treatment X is the answer because my doctor buddy told me, that there'll be a vaccine next week because capitalism, or that the real problem is pessimism.

It's almost like they're grifters.
posted by Lyme Drop at 4:37 PM on March 31, 2020 [15 favorites]

Guardian: “I don’t think I would’ve acted any differently. I don’t think I would’ve acted any faster,” Trump said when asked if the impeachment distracted him from the coronavirus crisis.

Senate leader Mitch McConnell, has blamed the impeachment trial for distracting from the crisis. “I think it diverted the attention of the government because everything every day was all about impeachment,” McConnell said in an interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”

posted by katra at 4:44 PM on March 31, 2020 [11 favorites]

but I find it fascinating how many professional investors and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are onboard with misinformation suggesting that the media is exaggerating the danger of the virus,

within my network, it was immediately evident that those with vested interests were the first to question the "the official story". In other words, it was the guy who was promoting live music events who found evidence that limiting gatherings over X number wasn't going to accomplish anything, it was the guy who'd just opened a new retail storefront who had "inside info" that the closing down of all un-essential retail wasn't going to accomplish anything.

This was a couple of weeks ago. Both have since been pretty quiet.
posted by philip-random at 4:53 PM on March 31, 2020 [12 favorites]

Number of deaths in a Trump mitigation "win" creeps up to 240,000. No mitigation now 2.2 million.

It's almost like they're grifters.

Some of that with a hefty dose of engineer's disease.
posted by Mitheral at 5:03 PM on March 31, 2020 [4 favorites]

In the coronavirus, Trump has found his only equal foe; and I quote from Alien:

Ash: I admire its purity. A survivor. Unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.
posted by valkane at 5:21 PM on March 31, 2020 [3 favorites]

As a counterpoint, I work in a live events industry and I have not seen any minimization of this from any of my professional contacts.
posted by bq at 5:26 PM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

Elizabeth Warren to feds: why did you seize supplies from Massachusetts?

There will. be a monument to this moment on the Boston Common.

The answer to Senator Warren's question will be on the plaque.
posted by ocschwar at 5:55 PM on March 31, 2020 [11 favorites]

Turkmenistan Has Banned Use Of The Word 'Coronavirus' (npr)
posted by Lyme Drop at 6:04 PM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]

Washington Post: NYC hospitals are allowing doctors to refrain from resuscitating Covid patients.

Trump owns this.
posted by ocschwar at 6:14 PM on March 31, 2020 [6 favorites]

In case you need to counter some revisionist history:

May 10, 2018, WaPo, Top White House Official in charge of pandemic response exits abruptly.

The top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic has left the administration, and the global health security team he oversaw has been disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton.
The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer’s departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack.
Ziemer’s last day was Tuesday, the same day a new Ebola outbreak was declared in Congo. He is not being replaced.
Pandemic preparedness and global health security are issues that require government-wide responses, experts say, as well as the leadership of a high-ranking official within the White House who is assigned only this role....

This week, the administration released a list of $15 billion in spending cuts it wants Congress to approve....The White House proposal “is threatening to claw back funding whose precise purpose is to help the United States be able to respond quickly in the event of a crisis,” said Carolyn Reynolds, a vice president at PATH, a global health technology nonprofit.
Collectively, warns Jeremy Konyndyk, who led foreign disaster assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development during the Obama administration, “What this all adds up to is a potentially really concerning rollback of progress on U.S. health security preparedness.”
“It seems to actively unlearn the lessons we learned through very hard experience over the last 15 years,” said Konyndyk, now a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development. “These moves make us materially less safe. It’s inexplicable.”

posted by Sublimity at 6:27 PM on March 31, 2020 [25 favorites]

It is a little strange to have a crisis like this that is so heavily focused on developed countries right now. What happens when this rampages through India or Indonesia? Or what is actually going on in the developing world right now that is under the radar as far as news coverage?
posted by snofoam at 6:30 PM on March 31, 2020 [5 favorites]

The pandemic is about to devastate the developing world (Brian Klaas, WaPo Opinion)

In the coming months, the coronavirus death tolls will be horrific. Yet, astonishing as it may seem to all of us living in lockdown, we are the lucky ones. In rich countries, it is likely that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, will die in the coming months. But if past pandemics are any guide, those numbers are likely to be a small fraction of the body count in the poorest parts of the globe. Every public health problem that we face will be far worse in the developing world.

[...] Those consequences will be magnified because developing countries simply don’t have the government capacity to mitigate the downsides of keeping people apart. In many parts of the world, strict enforcement of isolation guidelines could lead to widespread starvation. [...] Next, there’s the struggle to adapt to public health measures in economies and cultures that simply aren’t built for it. Sure, some developing countries have sectors that can be transferred online. But the street vendors and markets that line the streets of slums and densely packed cities in Africa, India and Southeast Asia can’t replace their business with Zoom or Skype. Factories in Bangladesh that cram workers into poorly ventilated spaces can’t observe social distancing.

Developing Nations Need $2.5 Trillion Coronavirus Package: U.N (Reuters / NYT, Mar. 30, 2020)
posted by katra at 7:02 PM on March 31, 2020 [6 favorites]

Johns Hopkins University CSSE, 3/31/2020, 7:08:08 PM: 857,957 total confirmed cases worldwide / 42,139 total deaths / 178,091 total recovered; 180 countries.

Activity by Country: US, 188,547 confirmed cases / Italy, 105,792 / Spain, 95,923 / China, 82,290 / Germany, 71,808

Saving its empty hotel rooms for hospital overflow, Las Vegas opens a homeless shelter in a parking lot. (NYT, March 31, 2020) Its casinos are deserted and thousands of hotel rooms are empty. But when Las Vegas, gripped by the coronavirus, needed space for a temporary homeless shelter, officials chose a location that does not have walls, or even a roof: an outdoor parking lot. Volunteers laid out 24,000 square feet of carpet for the homeless to use as sleeping mats, which have been spaced six feet apart to abide by social distancing protocols, said David Riggleman, a spokesman for the City of Las Vegas. The shelter has portable toilets and washing stations.
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:25 PM on March 31, 2020 [4 favorites]

Why the new effort to blame coronavirus fumbles on the impeachment trial falls so far short (Philip Bump, WaPo Analysis)

The trial ended on Feb. 5 with the Senate’s vote to acquit. That same day, there was a tense meeting in the White House according to a report from The Washington Post. “[A] shouting match broke out in the White House Situation Room between Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and an Office of Management and Budget official, according to three people aware of the outburst,” Amy Goldstein, Lena H. Sun and Beth Reinhard reported. “Azar had asked OMB that morning for $2 billion to buy respirator masks and other supplies for a depleted federal stockpile of emergency medical equipment. ... The $2 billion request from HHS was cut to $500 million when the White House eventually sent Congress a supplemental budget request weeks later.”

[...] Former vice president Joe Biden criticized Trump as being the “worst possible leader to deal with coronavirus outbreak” in a Jan. 27 op-ed piece in USA Today. Former Obama administration Ebola response coordinator Ronald Klain wrote a piece for the Atlantic on Jan. 30 warning Trump that the virus was coming — and worrying that Trump wasn’t ready for it.

[...] Arguing that the impeachment trial was distraction from fighting the virus ignores a few other points. First, that the trial didn’t effect the administration offices which should have been pressing forward on preparing any response and ensuring that material was in place should the virus spread across the country. Second, Trump and his advisers actually held a meeting in the middle of the trial focused on the virus. Trump tweeted about it. [...] Somehow, despite what was going on in the Capitol, Trump and his team managed to focus on the threat posed by the coronavirus. Despite that, they failed to scale up production of a working test for the virus and declined to push manufacturers to scale up production of ventilators — decisions that would later prove to be significantly missed opportunities.

posted by katra at 7:26 PM on March 31, 2020 [8 favorites]

@LeBearGirdle

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November,
all the rest have thirty-one
Except March which has 8000
posted by adept256 at 7:30 PM on March 31, 2020 [19 favorites]

What happens when a city's hospital closes 'without warning' during a pandemic

About half the hospitals in Australia are private, but public hospitals tend to be larger and account for nearly two thirds of hospital beds. I believe almost all critical patients are treated in public hospitals, and our government is presently vacillating between closing private hospitals and commandeering them to treat COVID-19 patients.

The present crisis underscores the importance of a strong public hospital system. It doesn't matter how good private hospitals are: health systems that rely on them are incorporating the hospitals' commercial risk on top of all the other threats to public health. A strong public hospital system doesn't just lower prices: it helps maintain indispensable health services and increases resilience in the medical system generally.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:59 PM on March 31, 2020 [9 favorites]

Why are journalists skipping Trump’s daily coronavirus briefing? Not enough news to risk their health. (Paul Farhi, WaPo)

[...] Reporters are keeping their distance because they are concerned about the health risks at a time when many consider the president’s evening news conferences to have become increasingly less newsworthy.

The decision by such outlets as The Washington Post, New York Times and CNBC to stay away may be fundamentally changing the character of the briefings. With veteran White House reporters on the sidelines, the president has primarily engaged with TV journalists [...].

A couple of correspondents were suspected of having contracted COVID-19. One has so far tested negative.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:14 PM on March 31, 2020 [6 favorites]

Hey, for what it's worth, even in the fake universe where the impeachment distracted from the COVID-19 response, Trump is still at fault for the actions that necessitated the impeachment. If he'd only been the fourth-worst president in US history, maybe we'd have avoided this crisis!
posted by Riki tiki at 8:31 PM on March 31, 2020 [9 favorites]

Trump says impeachment 'probably' distracted him from fighting coronavirus (USA Today, March 31, 2020) President Donald Trump had a hard time deciding Tuesday whether impeachment distracted him from fighting the coronavirus – but he eventually claimed it "probably" did.

"Well, I don't like to think it did – I think I handled it very well," Trump said at news conference with the White House coronavirus task force. "But I guess it probably did ... I mean, I got impeached." He added that, "I certainly devoted a little time to thinking about it." Trump echoed the claims of supporters who blamed the administration's slow response to the coronavirus outbreak on the president's impeachment case.

Then there's this helpful hyperlink, plopped in the middle of the page: Coronavirus response: Barack Obama takes veiled swipe at Donald Trump's handling of coronavirus pandemic" [Spoiler: he didn't.] Then McConnell's money quote during that radio interview gets to reach more people (as USA Today claims the greatest readership of any daily in the country).

Eventually, the article closes with a quote from Joshua Geltzer, a former national security aide during the Obama administration: "Mitch McConnell just blamed Trump’s COVID-19 failures on impeachment," tweeted Geltzer, a visiting law professor at Georgetown University. "That’s wrong – dead wrong. In fact, the opposite is true: impeachment warned McConnell & other Americans about exactly how Trump would screw this up."

This "new effort to blame coronavirus fumbles on the impeachment trial" is not falling short; as always, it depends on the outlet.
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:34 PM on March 31, 2020 [6 favorites]

Yeah well, McConnell's amateur attempt at smoke and mirrors just creates a new problem: Is this the Trump Failure Plague or the Republican Failure Plague? With what's going on in Congress and with many Republican Governors following Trump's lead, it seems to be trending towards the latter.
posted by Anoplura at 8:56 PM on March 31, 2020 [3 favorites]

Might be better to maybe not do the "divide the country" sort of exercise during this time? Bad choices have been made by various parties, but ultimately this isn't a political event.
posted by hippybear at 9:05 PM on March 31, 2020

> Might be better to maybe not do the "divide the country" sort of exercise during this time? Bad choices have been made by various parties, but ultimately this isn't a political event.

What on earth are you talking about with this passive voice "mistakes were made" nonsense? As cited above, arty identification is the greatest predictor of mishandling the virus at the state level, and at the federal level, POTUS continually minimized the threat and is now trying to ret-con himself in as a "wartime president" who's bravely combating a "plague". You may not care about partisan politics right now, but partisan politics cares about you, and it's deciding whether your state takes the threat seriously or not.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:10 PM on March 31, 2020 [36 favorites]

Of course, hippybear. That would be the ideal. But, per the last line of this FPP, Trump's "trying to rewrite the history of his response to Coronavirus, but reality shows a laser-like focus on getting reelected amid a galling display of inaction."
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:12 PM on March 31, 2020 [4 favorites]

Its casinos are deserted and thousands of hotel rooms are empty. But when Las Vegas, gripped by the coronavirus, needed space for a temporary homeless shelter, officials chose a location that does not have walls, or even a roof: an outdoor parking lot. Volunteers laid out 24,000 square feet of carpet for the homeless to use as sleeping mats, which have been spaced six feet apart to abide by social distancing protocols, said David Riggleman, a spokesman for the City of Las Vegas. The shelter has portable toilets and washing stations.

This is so infuriating. Even if you buy into the story about wanting to reserve hotel rooms for temporary hospital beds the city couldn't commandeer a parking garage so the people would at least have shade? Or Las Vegas has at least one arena that could have been used, the Golden Knights play in it. And I can't imagine there are too many places in the US with more convention space sitting unused during the crisis than in Las Vegas. That parking lot is going to be intolerable in a couple months well into the night.
posted by Mitheral at 9:47 PM on March 31, 2020 [17 favorites]

Timeline: Trump’s efforts to downplay the coronavirus threat (Aaron Blake, WaPo Analysis, Mar. 31, 2020)
This post from last week has been updated.

President Trump gambled very early and very often on the idea that the coronavirus outbreak wouldn’t turn out to be nearly as severe as some health officials warned it could get. The thrust of Trump’s statements about the virus has been almost relentlessly optimistic, which is a marked contrast to those of some health officials who prefer that people be overly prepared rather than underestimate the threat. Trump has frequently suggested that the United States is winning the battle against the virus, and he has regularly promoted the idea that it could suddenly disappear.

Both public health and politics played a role in Trump’s coronavirus decision (WaPo, Mar. 30, 2020 / MSN reprint)

An undercurrent of political calculation has coursed through much of Trump’s decision-making on the coronavirus. Despite taking some early modest steps, the president initially spent weeks downplaying the threat of the virus, in large part because he was worried about the effect on the economy. He has also clashed with Democratic governors, especially when he has felt they are being insufficiently appreciative of the federal government’s relief efforts. And he first settled on an Easter timeline — which he has since extended to the end of April — in part because of an eagerness to reopen the economy sooner rather than later.

posted by katra at 9:58 PM on March 31, 2020 [5 favorites]

this isn't a political event

It ought not to be, in a sane world. But in our world, there's ample evidence that it is being made political. By pretending otherwise we are not protecting the principle; we do nothing but make ourselves the losers in a battle that exists despite our best intentions.
posted by Riki tiki at 10:21 PM on March 31, 2020 [13 favorites]

@RepMaxineWaters

Trump, stop congratulating yourself! You’re a failure & you've mishandled this #COVID19 disaster! You're not knowledgeable & you don’t know more than experts & generals. Your ignorance & incompetence are appalling & you continue to demonstrate that every time you open your mouth!

It's his strategy to start doing victory laps before the race is over, so people get the impression that he's won. It's infuriating that it works.

Report: Fox News is worried about legal action after misleading viewers about coronavirus (mediamatters)

Gabriel Sherman: 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 and The New York Times reported days ago that the Murdoch family was privately taking the coronavirus seriously. The Murdochs, of course, own Fox News. So, they were taken personal steps to protect themselves while anchors like Trish Regan and Sean Hannity were telling viewers that it's a hoax and putting themselves in potentially mortal danger. So 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.

Your propaganda has probably spread the virus and killed people, and that's a problem because it exposes you to legal liability.
posted by adept256 at 10:28 PM on March 31, 2020 [25 favorites]

The discovery phase would be fucking glorious.
posted by ocschwar at 10:38 PM on March 31, 2020 [20 favorites]

It's infuriating that it works.

So, not to beat the drum with an impact hammer or anything, but of course it works.

...the average american is a total fucking moron, who is being led by the nose by a bigger moron. I could, literally (not figuratively) announce that Jesus wanted tomorrow to be painted pink, and a huuuuuge chunk of the US would immediately proceed to paint everything pink, so long as I made sure the demands were made by old white men waving prayer cloths and specially-blessed silver colloids.

The Left proceeds with the electorate that they would like to exist. The Right proceeds with the electorate they know exists, and you cannot convert Right to Left on account of racism.

So: yay! We're fucked, because old racist white folks are toooooo racist to give up even the slightest advantage! Gird your goddamn loins, because more people are going to die than died in the Vietnam War, except that even more of them will be White.
posted by aramaic at 10:41 PM on March 31, 2020 [11 favorites]

Might be better to maybe not do the "divide the country" sort of exercise during this time? Bad choices have been made by various parties, but ultimately this isn't a political event.

Trump confiscated my state's medical supplies to benefit other states.

the lives of Massachusetts doctors and nurses are being sacrificed to save lives elsewhere.

The country is divided. The avalanche has begun and it is too late for the snowflakes to hold another vote.
posted by ocschwar at 10:42 PM on March 31, 2020 [27 favorites]

Report: Fox News is worried about legal action after misleading viewers about coronavirus (mediamatters)
This is interesting. Wouldn't that mean that they could sue Trump as well?
The only thing those people respect is money. Let's get their money.
posted by mumimor at 12:58 AM on April 1, 2020 [10 favorites]

Science magazine: Should pets be tested for coronavirus?

It mentions the 3 known cases linked here previously (1 cat and 2 dogs who tested positive), notes that at least 2 companies have pet-specific tests ready to go, and discusses a few reasons why there's been no call from authorities for wider testing of pets, including this:

if pets could readily catch COVID-19, we would be seeing tons of cases by now, says Shelley Rankin, a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. “Yet nobody is reporting a spike” in respiratory infections in cats and dogs.

There's also a mention that the nursing home in Kirkland, WA "was also home to a number of residents’ cats."
posted by mediareport at 4:22 AM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

Trump Refuses to Reopen Federal Health Insurance Exchanges During the Coronavirus Pandemic (Elliot Hannon, Slate)

Trump rejects Obamacare special enrollment period amid pandemic (Susannah Luthi, Politico)

President Donald Trump and administration officials recently said they were considering relaunching HealthCare.gov, the federal enrollment site, and insurers said they privately received assurances from health officials overseeing the law's marketplace. However, a White House official on Tuesday evening told POLITICO the administration will not reopen the site for a special enrollment period, and that the administration is "exploring other options."

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:32 AM on April 1, 2020 [7 favorites]

Yeah, but then it comes out like this in the next press junket:

"Mr. President, you've said that impeachment 'probably' distracted you from the coronavirus. You also claimed, repeatedly, that the impeachment was a hoax. So we can safely assume that you are distracted by hoaxes? At least, 'probably'?"
posted by pseudophile at 6:35 AM on April 1, 2020 [7 favorites]

"Sailors Do Not Need To Die": Captain Of COVID-19 Plagued Carrier Pleads To Bring Crew Ashore (Updated) – The bulk of the crew presently remains on the supercarrier, where the virus has been spreading like wildfire and shows no signs of stopping, The War Zone, Joseph Trevithick, 3/31/2020:

The captain of the U.S. Navy's Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, which is in port in Guam and experiencing a major outbreak of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, has sent an unprecedented letter [PDF copy (worth reading)] to the service's headquarters. In it, the officer implores his superiors to allow him to move the bulk of his crew to facilities ashore to stem the spread of the virus to "prevent tragic outcomes."

The San Francisco Chronicle was first to report [alternate link] on the letter from U.S. Navy Captain Brett Crozier, which it obtained and that it says a senior officer on the carrier confirmed as authentic, on Mar. 31, 2020. The Theodore Roosevelt had been operating in the Western Pacific, but sailed to Guam after three sailors tested positive for COVID-19 and arrived there on Mar. 26. The Chronicle has reported that between 150a nd 200 members of the carrier's crew have now contracted the virus. The War Zone had already warned last week that the situation developing on board the carrier could be a canary in the coal mine type event for the Navy.

"We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die," Crozier wrote. "If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset – our Sailors."... "Decisive action is required now in order to comply with CDC and [Navy] guidance and prevent tragic outcomes."

The ship (quarantined in Guam) can’t comply with personal spacing: "Due to a warship’s inherent limitations of space, we are not doing this," Crozier explained. "The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating."
posted by cenoxo at 6:36 AM on April 1, 2020 [13 favorites]

Why Some States Are Resisting Social Distancing Measures (Paris Martineau, Wired)

"Governors of a half-dozen states [Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and South Dakota] worry about the economic fallout of forcing businesses to close and say there's no clear guidance from Washington."

The inconsistency among and within states “is a pretty direct reflection of the absence of clear federal guidance,” says Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development and a member of a World Health Organization committee on health emergencies. “The president had more or less told the states to just go figure it out on their own. And we were hearing from the mayors' and the governors' offices that we were talking to, that they felt they were sort of flying blind.”

The Center for Global Development, with outside experts, created a comprehensive guide to help local officials develop effective strategies to combat the outbreak in the absence of federal guidance. Konyndyk says that he and his coauthors have been surprised at the outpouring of demand from local officials in the US and abroad since the guide was released in late March.

Konyndyk calls it “pretty concerning” that local officials must “depend on this kind of a spontaneously organized effort for guidance.” More than 200 people attended a webinar for local officials Konyndyk hosted Tuesday with Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan. At the event, Durkan emphasized the challenges faced by Washington officials in developing a consistent, coordinated statewide response while wrangling the state’s many mayors and local officials.

“If you don't have that consistent approach, then you basically have a lowest-common-denominator approach, and whoever is making the weakest decisions puts everyone else at risk,” said Konyndyk. “You can see that with Florida.”

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:13 AM on April 1, 2020 [9 favorites]

There's also a mention that the nursing home in Kirkland, WA "was also home to a number of residents’ cats."

A nursing home having cats isn't unusual, at least around here. They've been found to be a health benefit. And generally make residents happier.
posted by Mitheral at 7:18 AM on April 1, 2020 [5 favorites]

• Still cruising: 6,000 Carnival passengers are at sea amid coronavirus pandemic, USA Today, David Oliver, Morgan Hines, Chris Woodyard; 4/1/2020.

• Coast Guard Directs Cruise Ships To Remain At Sea ‘Indefinitely’, TPM, Freida Frisaro & Adriana Gomez Licon; 4/1/2020

The U.S. Coast Guard has directed all cruise ships to remain at sea where they may be sequestered “indefinitely” during the coronavirus pandemic and be prepared to send any severely ill passengers to the countries where the vessels are registered. For most of the South Florida’s cruise ships, that means the Bahamas, where people are still recovering from last year’s hurricanes.

The rules, which apply to any vessel carrying more than 50 people, were issued in a March 29 safety bulletin signed by Coast Guard Rear Admiral E.C. Jones, whose district includes Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Puerto Rico.

More than two dozen cruise ships are either lined up at Port Miami and Port Everglades or waiting offshore, the Miami Herald reported. Most have only crew aboard, but several still carry passengers and are steaming toward South Florida ports. Carnival notified the SEC Tuesday that it has more than 6,000 passengers still at sea.

Federal, state and local officials have been negotiating over whether two Holland America cruise ships that had been stranded off the coast of Panama with sick and dead passengers would be allowed to dock at Port Everglades this week. More than 300 American citizens are on the two ships....

posted by cenoxo at 7:25 AM on April 1, 2020 [6 favorites]

The U.S. Coast Guard has directed all cruise ships to remain at sea where they may be sequestered “indefinitely” during the coronavirus pandemic and be prepared to send any severely ill passengers to the countries where the vessels are registered.

Live by the flag of convenience, literally die by the flag of convenience.
posted by jedicus at 7:31 AM on April 1, 2020 [27 favorites]

I'd like to make very clear that I am deeply ashamed of my neighbors, their government, my local government, and the state government. When people are in distress, you figure something out, you don't just leave people sailing around aimlessly. At the very least, we can let them come into port where they have better communication with the outside world, better access to supplies, and ready access to medical attention, even if keeping them cooped up on the ship for two weeks proves necessary.

In case strict humanitarian concerns aren't enough: We believe that we benefit from these fucking cruise lines, so let's not strand the people who keep them in business, eh?
posted by wierdo at 7:33 AM on April 1, 2020 [15 favorites]

In South Africa we went into hard national lockdown on the 26th March when we had around 800 confirmed cases and it seems to be paying off.

We were expecting to be at 4 000 confirmed cases but are only at 1 353, although this might be due to people who are only mildly sick not going to hospitals to get tested due to lockdown and also that we limit testing to people who are only showing some symptoms. During lockdown we are performing about 2 500 tests/day.

The government plans to hire 10 000 community health workers to monitor and trace any outbreaks once lockdown is over on April 17th and the national government has said they want to increase testing capacity 30 000 tests/day by then, which I'm not sure is possible with our already strained public healthcare system.
posted by PenDevil at 7:38 AM on April 1, 2020 [10 favorites]

At least 13 veterans living at the state-run Holyoke Soldiers Home in Holyoke, MA died last week - with six of them confirmed Covid-19 cases so far. The governor dismissed the home's director, sent in a special medical team and the National Guard. The mayor (who is running for Congress against Richard Neal) says there was a coverup. And now, the Chelsea Soldiers Home, at the other end of the state is also reporting an outbreak.
posted by adamg at 7:46 AM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

. . . . . . . . . . . .
(I recognize there are many more)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:53 AM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

One deleted; sorry, again, let's try to keep article excerpts to 2 paragraphs or less, thanks.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 7:57 AM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

"Governors of a half-dozen states [Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and South Dakota] worry about the economic fallout of forcing businesses to close and say there's no clear guidance from Washington."

Here in SC, there must have been some threshold of cases or reported deaths, because we got the order to close nonessential businesses yesterday, right around the time we ticked over 1000 confirmed cases. Apparently it crashed our emergency alert system, as the order went out over phones yesterday. The order is still tepid; there's no real stay-at-home order, just the suggestion. I'm torn between being so angry that the governor waited weeks to do something (and that during that time he was talking about how this was a crisis of "personal responsibility"), and being relieved that at long last, he's finally doing something. Some number of lives will be saved, at least. A smaller number than we could have saved.
posted by mittens at 7:58 AM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

“I wrote for @outline about how the rationing of health care we're seeing is hardly new, and how #coronavirus has only exposed what has long been true: there is no U.S. health care system.“
posted by The Whelk at 8:00 AM on April 1, 2020 [18 favorites]

A president unfit for a pandemic (Boston Globe Editorial Board)

Much of the suffering and death coming was preventable. The president has blood on his hands.

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:05 AM on April 1, 2020 [19 favorites]

[Historian] Michael Beschloss says President Donald Trump is “in a category of his own” among America’s commanders in chief. Vox, Alex Ward, 12/31/2018:

...He said that every single one of America’s wartime presidents abused his power. “If you are worried about a president with authoritarian tendencies grabbing too much power, you look at a president in wartime,” Beschloss told me. “People will accept a lot of violations of their civil liberties in wartime.”

...no president in American history scares him more than Donald Trump does. “He’s in a category of his own,” Beschloss told me during our interview, because Trump has shown no willingness to learn from history and little empathy — two key ingredients that make great wartime presidents who don’t eradicate most democratic norms...

Full interview in the article.
posted by cenoxo at 8:07 AM on April 1, 2020 [7 favorites]

Much of the suffering and death coming was preventable.

Much of the suffering and death we've already had was preventable, but Trump was too busy worrying about his re-election.

Trump's delay was much more than the kind of garden-variety incompetence that led to 9/11. Trump downplayed the threat by choice because he didn't want to endanger his re-election bid.
posted by Gelatin at 8:07 AM on April 1, 2020 [12 favorites]

Mike Francesa Breaks With Trump: ‘They’re Bringing People Out of the Hospital in Queens in Body Bags, Five Minutes from Where He Grew Up’ (Mediaite)

Mike Francesa is a leading sports-talk radio host in New York City.

“How can you have a scoreboard that says 2,000 people have died and tell us it’s OK if another 198,000 die, that’s a good job? How is that a good job in our country! It’s a good job if nobody else dies. Not if another 198,000 people die. So now 200,000 people are disposable?”

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:08 AM on April 1, 2020 [23 favorites]

(To clarify, the Boston Globe editorial makes that point; it's a scorching indictment of the president's unfitness for office, marred only by the fact that informed people already knew about that for the past four years.)
posted by Gelatin at 8:12 AM on April 1, 2020 [6 favorites]

Recruits Who Carried COVID-19 to Boot Camp Had Passed Temp Checks, Screenings, Military.com, Gina Harkins 4/1/2020:

Military leaders are racing to implement new policies to prevent the spread of coronavirus at boot camp, on ships and other hard-hit areas after several asymptomatic people have tested positive.

A pair of Marine recruits in South Carolina who got coronavirus screenings before boot camp and showed no symptoms for the illness started training only to later test positive for COVID-19, said Capt. Bryan McDonnell, a spokesman at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island....

Even the best military services in the world can't form ranks against an invisible, implacable enemy.
posted by cenoxo at 8:52 AM on April 1, 2020 [7 favorites]

Social distancing guidelines will likely be in place beyond April, surgeon general says (Politico)

Regardless of the next iteration of the federal government's recommendations, Adams repeatedly refused to answer whether the 17 states that have yet to impose stay-at-home orders should do so. "We live in a nation that has a system of federalism, and the governors get to make the decisions," he said. "But we're going to give them the best possible guidelines we can, and that's to stay at home and to social distance."

Despite the surgeon general's reluctance to weigh in on state-level affairs, several governors in recent weeks have called for greater federal intervention to help thwart the disease's rapid rate of transmission. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, which is quickly becoming a Covid-19 hot spot, said at a news conference on Tuesday that he would consider requiring residents to remain in their homes if the administration formally endorsed such an directive.

posted by katra at 9:07 AM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

With Coronavirus Already On 97 American Military Bases, the Armed Forces Struggle With Their Many Missions, Newsweek, William M. Arkin, 3/31/20:

...The military is loath to admit that it is curtailing any war-related activities in response to the global pandemic. But according to official statistics labeled "sensitive" and not publicly released, coronavirus cases have been reported at 97 domestic military bases in 37 states, service members in uniform making up over half of the total of just over 1,000 uniformed, civilian, contractor, and family members who have tested positive. And quietly all across the armed services, moves are being made to reduce the number of troops overseas, to curtail exercises and activities, to hold up future deployments, and even to rethink some of the now two-decades-old routines of perpetual war.

Nothing big has been decided, and some military and government organizations are doubling down to bring attention to Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns that right now seem the most effective way to wage a geopolitical fight against America....

...without firing a single shot.
posted by cenoxo at 9:16 AM on April 1, 2020 [6 favorites]

...The military is loath to admit that it is curtailing any war-related activities in response to the global pandemic. But

old news (March-15) worth a re-post:

ISIS tells terrorists to steer clear of coronavirus-stricken Europe

somebody was paying attention.
posted by philip-random at 9:47 AM on April 1, 2020 [6 favorites]

WRT the Newsweek author cited above: William M. Arkin (WP bio).
posted by cenoxo at 9:55 AM on April 1, 2020

Has anyone figured out what became of the medical supplies Trump stole from Massachusetts?
posted by thedward at 10:00 AM on April 1, 2020 [7 favorites]

How Donald Trump Plans on Spinning 200,000 Coronavirus Deaths as a Win (David Corn, Mother Jones)

Now that Trump could no longer pitch himself as the beautiful-economy president, he recast himself as the great lifesaver of America. And he initiated a cynical and loathsome expectations game. If the coronavirus might kill 2.2. million, then what a hero he would be if it only claims the lives of 200,000 Americans. Should this come to pass, Trump will claim that 2 million Americans owe him their lives.

Trump the coronavirus savior—that’s his new role. At this particular briefing, he claimed that some advisers—no names, of course—had urged him to ride out the crisis and do nothing: “Just ride it. Ride it like a cowboy. Ride that sucker right through.” And Trump proudly took credit for not following the dumbest advice imaginable. In fact, Trump portrayed his (eventual) unwillingness to do nothing as a courageous act that will prevent the death of 2.2 million. He repeated this line at the Tuesday press briefing, repeating the nutty notion that “a lot of people were saying just ride it out.” He added, “Think what would happen if we didn’t do anything.” Imagine a firefighter boasting of not standing by and watching a building burn to the ground.

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:19 AM on April 1, 2020 [8 favorites]

There won't be only 200,000 deaths.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:57 AM on April 1, 2020 [9 favorites]

How Donald Trump Plans on Spinning 200,000 Coronavirus Deaths as a Win (David Corn, Mother Jones)

...and as remarked here two days ago.
posted by Gelatin at 11:00 AM on April 1, 2020

Imagine a firefighter boasting of not standing by and watching a building burn to the ground

I'm imagining somebody dressed as a firefighter standing by and watching a building burn to the ground while boasting that the truck behind him has the best ladders. As it happens, he's the same guy who pocketed the proceeds of selling off the other two trucks and broke the pumps on this one.
posted by flabdablet at 11:01 AM on April 1, 2020 [16 favorites]

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issues statewide stay-at-home order (Mary Ellen Klas, Tampa Bay Times)

Finally.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:05 AM on April 1, 2020 [11 favorites]

How Donald Trump Plans on Spinning 200,000 Coronavirus Deaths as a Win (David Corn, Mother Jones)

....If one wanted to be really petty, one might note that the best way to respond to this would be to point out that there were only 4,000 deaths to Swine Flu under Obama's watch.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:12 AM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

WaPo: The list of those who won’t get a $1,200 stimulus check is growing — and includes some surprising groups

The CARES Act has a lot of very intentional, very Republican holes:

No payments for dependent children over 16, even though many are losing part time or work-study jobs). Immigrant families are especially screwed: "In order for anyone in the family to receive a payment, each person in the household is supposed to have a valid Social Security number."

People who do not normally file a tax return but are eligible for a payment will have to file a special tax return to receive a payment. This includes people on Social Security and disability (which is particularly galling because the government already sends them money!). It also includes people with incomes below the filing threshold. So a lot of senior citizens, people with disabilities, and low-income citizens will have to somehow figure out that a) this requirement exists b) what special form they have to file and c) manage to file it during a time of social distancing and social services stretched beyond the breaking point.
posted by jedicus at 11:20 AM on April 1, 2020 [22 favorites]

I have this Hollywood image in mind of soldiers living in barracks where everyone in the unit sleeps in a big room with bunk beds. How realistic is that (on land, I imagine that's pretty much the norm on ships) and about what percentage of base housing is of that sort? If it is wide spread it would seem to be ideal conditions to spread an illness.
posted by Mitheral at 11:34 AM on April 1, 2020

No payments for dependent children over 16, even though many are losing part time or work-study jobs)

Yes, this one was a surprise for us, with our daughter in her final semester at college. At least she'll be paid for her work-study job through the end of the semester, and will get a rebate for her room and board (neither thanks to Washington, of course).
posted by adamg at 11:43 AM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

The JHU-CRC Map now shows the United States over 200,000 confirmed cases, with the World over 900,000 (and climbing steadily towards 1,000,000).

You can enlarge the Map's orange line graph by moving your mouse over the upper right corner of the graph window, then click the zoom icon that appears. Hover over dots on the line to display the number of cases and date at that point.
posted by cenoxo at 11:58 AM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

The JHU-CRC dashboard shows confirmed cases by Country/Region/Sovereignty; Province/State/Dependency; and County; click the "Admin" tabs beneath the left-hand total-confirmed cases column.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:11 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Re: legal action against Fox News for misleading the public:

The discovery phase would be fucking glorious.

Greg Doucette, the lawyer who first exposed the University of North Carolina's payment to racist neo-Confederates for the Silent Sam statue, and recently successfully defended Maya Little against bogus charges stemming from an anti-Klan protest, posted a Twitter thread arguing there's zero chance any lawsuit against Fox News would ever get to the discovery phase:

There's no duty of care any given media personality owes to any particular individual, and you'd need to prove a breach of that (nonexistent) duty to adequately plead a cause of action...

We wouldn't be dealing with a defamation claim here. Presumably it would be something like negligence / wrongful death (based on negligence) / etc. Impossible to prove duty of care or causation, 2 of the required elements to a negligence case...

Even if First Amendment protections would be scaled back, I still think a case gets 12(b)(6)'d on failure to prove a media outlet owes a duty of care to viewers, and gets 12(b)(6)'d again on contributory negligence grounds for relying on Faux News for medical advice

That last part sounds like a joke but I'm pretty sure he means it.
posted by mediareport at 12:12 PM on April 1, 2020 [10 favorites]

I use the JHU map as my meter for when I think it's time to relax a bit. The global and US confirmed case curves show no signs of flattening yet, which of course is part spread and part more testing. Once I see the daily new cases for a 3-day period be smaller than the prior 3 days, I'll start thinking about the possibly of stay-at-home orders ending soon, etc. Right now when I hear officials claim random dates for restarting school, events, etc. I look at those curves and think "not according to this!". 900,000 is scary. We'll be seeing the big "1 million cases" stories by Friday at the latest.
posted by freecellwizard at 12:21 PM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

Coronavirus latest: Nearly 80% of US intensive-care cases have underlying conditions (Nature, April 1, 2020) The finding comes from the 31 March Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It found that of about 7,000 people with COVID-19 for whom information about chronic conditions had been reported, just over a third had an underlying condition. People with such conditions made up 71% of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 and nearly 80% of those who required intensive care.
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:24 PM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

Coronavirus latest: Nearly 80% of US intensive-care cases have underlying conditions (Nature, April 1, 2020)

Yes, but just look around here at Metafilter: how many of us have diabetes or prediabetes? Or astma? Or hypertension? I could go on, but the main issue is it doesn't really say a lot. The one person I know for sure has the Covid-19 is a 50-something very healthy man, and while he isn't hospitalized, he has been very ill for three weeks. The people I know who have pre-existing conditions will most certainly die if they catch the infection, regardless of wether they are 30 or 80.
posted by mumimor at 1:04 PM on April 1, 2020 [7 favorites]

Coronavirus latest: Nearly 80% of US intensive-care cases have underlying conditions

Also, as the number of infections is just taking off, of course the first people to die are going to be very old or have underlying conditions. Others may be sick for longer before they succumb. It will be educational to see how early reports match up with the data we have once we can see the full picture months from now.
posted by snofoam at 1:16 PM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

Bill Gates: Here’s how to make up for lost time on covid-19 (Bill Gates, WaPo OpEd)

It's a good recipe, though unlikely to happen.
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:35 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

(Australian government) Stimulus payments to households to support growth

While I woke up 750$ richer, it's a very bittersweet feeling. I like money, but I'd pay one hundred times that to go back to normal.
posted by adept256 at 1:46 PM on April 1, 2020 [5 favorites]

To me, the CDC report was more a tribute to how broken the US healthcare system is -- well before being taxed to this extent.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:46 PM on April 1, 2020

From "Bill Gates: Here’s how to make up for lost time on covid-19"

We can start now by building the facilities where these vaccines will be made. Because many of the top candidates are made using unique equipment, we’ll have to build facilities for each of them, knowing that some won’t get used. Private companies can’t take that kind of risk, but the federal government can.

I would go one step further: once each candidate has passed Phase I safety trials, we should begin mass manufacture and distribution staging of every candidate so that the moment efficacy data is available the vaccines can be immediately delivered en masse to hospitals, clinics, and health departments .
posted by jedicus at 1:46 PM on April 1, 2020 [11 favorites]

USA Today, TODAY (April 1, 2020): Home Depot said it has halted all sales of N95 masks at its stores and website and "redirected" them to be donated to hospitals, health care workers and first responders treating patients during the coronavirus pandemic. The company said Wednesday that it had issued the "stop-sale" order to all its stores and website for N95 masks, a tight-fitting respirator that offers more protection than standard facemasks.

Home Depot spokesperson Sara Gorman said in an email that the company "stopped replenishing stores when we ran out starting a couple weeks ago." Home Depot said Wednesday in a statement that it is also "donating millions of dollars in personal protective equipment (PPE) and other products and prioritizing fulfillment to hospitals, healthcare providers and first responders."
--
Home Depot is also requesting that employees check their temperatures with a company-provided thermometer before reporting to work.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:00 PM on April 1, 2020 [11 favorites]

No payments for dependent children over 16, even though many are losing part time or work-study jobs).

This limitation is borrowed from the Child Tax Credit, which is also limited to under age 17. It would have been better if they had simply used the more general definition of child dependent which is under age 19 or under age 24 and a student. However, taxpayers already receive a tax credit of $500 for these dependents 17 and over.

Rules vary by state, but working students who are laid off might be eligible for unemployment insurance including the $600 per week enhancement to normal benefits.

People who do not normally file a tax return but are eligible for a payment will have to file a special tax return to receive a payment. This includes people on Social Security and disability (which is particularly galling because the government already sends them money!).

Not all. There is a special alternative written into the law that allows the IRS to use either a 2018 tax return or a SSA-1099 which social security recipients get even if they do not file a tax return. So people on social security do not need to file a special tax return, although filing even a zero tax return for 2019, like today, may speed up their rebate.

However, people not on social security and who did not file a return in 2018 will need to file a special tax return. It is likely to be a simple form identifying members of your family by SSN and indicating you owe no tax.
posted by JackFlash at 2:08 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

If they stopped restocking shelves a few weeks ago then halting sales is a symbolic gesture because there wasn't a single N95 mask on the shelves anyways.

Group of pastors and Anti-LGBT activists are challenging a Texas law restricting in person group religious events:That restriction on in-person worship services has sparked a lawsuit, filed by three Texas pastors and Steven Hotze, a medical doctor and anti-LGBT Republican activist whose political action committee was labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. These four men ask the Texas Supreme Court to strike down Hidalgo’s order, claiming, among other things, that it violates the “religious liberty” of pastors who wish to gather their parishioners together during a pandemic.
Article lays out why the petition is unlikely to succeed because of established law and a lack of republican/democratic partisanship but also that the Texas Supreme court is 100% republican so *shrug* who knows.
posted by Mitheral at 2:19 PM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

As the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak continues, the Internal Revenue Service is taking multiple steps to protect our employees, America's taxpayers and our partners. Although we are curtailing some operations [Forbes link] during this period, the IRS is continuing with mission-critical functions to support the nation, and that includes accepting tax returns and sending refunds. (IRS.gov newsroom, April 1, 2020) Tax Day is now July 15; though: "The July 15, 2020 extension only applies to federal income tax returns and tax payments otherwise due April 15, 2020, not state tax payments or deposits or payments of any other type of federal tax" & "more than 1 million people who haven't filed tax returns for Tax Year 2016 and are owed a refund still face an April 15, 2020, deadline to file their return. This deadline hasn't been extended. Current law requires the 2016 return to be filed by April 15, 2020."

Taxpayers Paid Millions to Design a Low-Cost Ventilator for a Pandemic. Instead, the Company Is Selling Versions of It Overseas (ProPublica, March 30, 2020) As coronavirus sweeps the globe, there is not a single Trilogy Evo Universal ventilator — developed with government funds — in the U.S. stockpile. Meanwhile, Royal Philips N.V. has sold higher-priced versions to clients around the world.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:24 PM on April 1, 2020 [5 favorites]

Group of pastors and Anti-LGBT activists are challenging a Texas law restricting in person group religious events:

I would honestly say "Fine, lock yourselves in there and stay together and see how long you survive, assholes," except they of course have kids who don't deserve to get sick and/or become orphans. And of course when they get back from Germ Theory Don't Apply to Me Church, they'll become roaming disease vectors.
posted by emjaybee at 2:28 PM on April 1, 2020 [13 favorites]

If they all moved into the church and sheltered in place like everyone else, that could actually work.
posted by lostburner at 3:04 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

Impromptu LOCK-IN!
posted by HyperBlue at 3:19 PM on April 1, 2020 [2 favorites]

Wait, Home Depot was selling masks this whole time? Grrr
posted by rhizome at 3:38 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yeah; as Mitheral notes, the masks haven't been in stock for a couple of weeks. Last week, though: [3M CEO Mike] Roman said he was "disappointed" that the masks were selling in some stores over the weekend, alluding to Target. Target (TGT) said a select number of stores in the Seattle area were selling the N95 masks "in error." (CNN, March 24, 2020)
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:59 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Pentagon Orders Bases to Stop Reporting Coronavirus Numbers as Cases Surge, Stars and Stripes, Corey Dickstein, 3/31/2020:

The Defense Department ordered commanders at installations worldwide to stop announcing new coronavirus cases among personnel. The Pentagon said Monday more than 1,000 U.S. military-linked people had been sickened by the virus.

The order issued by Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday is meant to protect operational security at the Defense Department's global installations, Jonathan Hoffman, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said in a statement Monday. He said Defense Department leaders worried adversaries could exploit such information, especially if the data showed the outbreak impacted U.S. nuclear forces or other critical units....

Barn < Horse.
posted by cenoxo at 4:42 PM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

A Ventilator Stockpile, With One Hitch: Thousands Do Not Work (NYT)

Ventilators are sensitive machinery that Mr. Trump described on Sunday as so complex they were like “building a car.” But, experts say, like a car, they cannot be stored for lengthy periods without maintenance. So few are surprised that as the nation’s hospitals scramble to pull together every usable ventilator they can find, some have come out of storage with depleted batteries, missing oxygen hoses and other issues.

[...] At the same time, states are trying to grab whatever else they can, converting anesthesia machines for use as ventilators and sometimes fashioning new valves on 3-D printers so that multiple patients can share the same machine. That has never been tested on a broad scale, and it carries some risks. To manage the scarcity of ventilators in the stockpile, FEMA has begun sending a questionnaire to states seeking ventilators, asking about available resources and whether hospitals have tried converting anesthesia machines. A FEMA official said state leaders could submit requests for ventilators at any time but should not expect their delivery unless patients were at risk of dying within 72 hours without the devices.

posted by katra at 4:43 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Protective gear in national stockpile is nearly depleted, DHS officials say (WaPo)

“The stockpile was designed to respond to handful of cities. It was never built or designed to fight a 50-state pandemic,” said a DHS official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the stockpile. “This is not only a U.S. government problem. The supply chain for PPE worldwide has broken down, and there is a lot of price-gouging happening.”

[...] Several reports in recent days have documented a Wild West-style online marketplace for bulk medical supplies dominated by intermediaries and hoarders who are selling N95 respirator masks and other gear at huge markups. Forbes reported that U.S. vendors have sold 280 million masks — mostly into the export market — and that U.S. states and local governments were outbid in the frenzy. There are few signs the Trump administration is making efforts to stop the export shipments or seize the supplies for use in U.S. hospitals, despite statements from Attorney General William P. Barr last week that U.S. wholesalers hoarding masks and other supplies would get “a knock on your door.”

posted by katra at 4:55 PM on April 1, 2020 [7 favorites]

Companies price gouging federal buyers should just be nationalized. Won't solve the supply problem but will sure put an end to that sort of pricing.
posted by Mitheral at 4:57 PM on April 1, 2020 [18 favorites]

I know it's youtube, but these JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association) videos are great ways to get information about the pandemic from leading experts. This latest video contains an interview with an expert on public health and pandemics from Yale. The interview is particularly interesting to me because it puts COVID in the context of past epidemics (sounds like a notch above the 1957 flu pandemic). Towards the end, the professor also talks about the potential impact of a likely second wave in the fall on the US election.
posted by eagles123 at 5:04 PM on April 1, 2020 [5 favorites]

[Previously] - Top Navy Official Provides Update on Aircraft Carrier COVID-19 Cases: Terri Moon Cronk , Dept. Of Defense News, 4/1/2020:

Numerous sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, and the Navy continues to support its subordinate commanders to protect sailors and Marines so they can protect the homeland and maintain their readiness to the best of their ability, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas B. Modly said.

In a telephone briefing for Pentagon reporters today, the acting secretary said the Roosevelt has had 93 positive tests, with 86 of those service members exhibiting symptoms and seven having no symptoms. So far, 593 have tested negative. Nearly 1,300 crew members have been tested so far, and some of the results have not come back yet...

[More details in the article]

Apparently, Captain Brett Crozier's letter (PDF copy) came through loud and clear: the Navy has accelerated testing; is deep-cleaning the entire ship; and is "providing the commanding officer what he has requested".
posted by cenoxo at 5:07 PM on April 1, 2020 [6 favorites]

[Chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Vice President] Pence urges churches not to worship in groups larger than 10 people (USA Today, April 1, 2020) "We really believe this is a time when people should avoid gatherings of more than 10 people," Pence told ABC's "Nightline" in an interview scheduled to air Wednesday evening. "And, and so, we continue to urge churches around America to heed to that."

Pence also said that he, his wife, Karen, and President Donald Trump have "been enjoying worship services online," according to ABC. His admonition came on the same day he said on CNN that Italy "may be the most comparable area to the United States" in terms of coronavirus mortality rates and cases.
--
[Bolding & aggravation mine.] Hey, does a 'group of 10 congregants' have any religious significance for a "born-again, evangelical Catholic" / evangelical Christian? (I ask because it brought to mind the min yan, in Judaism, and I wondered if there's a related or similar requirement for any practices in evangelical Christianity.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:22 PM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

PBS NewsHour: Taiwan’s aggressive efforts are paying off in fight against COVID-19 (7 ¼ min. video, follows some Taiwanese citizens returning from overseas and details the country's public health measures against COVID-19)
posted by XMLicious at 5:33 PM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

why would 10 be any safer? all it takes is 1 person to infect the others unless those 10 people are also maintaining safe distances and sanitary precautions
posted by kokaku at 5:34 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

He thinks the US is going to have a 10% death rate? Heckuva job, Pency.
posted by mollweide at 5:39 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

There is no notion of a quorum in Christianity. They just believe that they are above the virus.
posted by njohnson23 at 5:39 PM on April 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

I can't vouch for their credibility*, but Learn Religions > Biblical Numerology
> Learn the meaning of numbers in the Bible has this:

TEN
• The number ten relates to human governments and law
And he [Boaz] took ten men of the elders of the city [as judges] and said, "Sit down here." So they sat down.
(Ruth 4:2, ESV)
• The Ten Commandments were the Tablets of the Law
(Exodus 20:1-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-21).
• Ten tribes made up the northern kingdom [of Israel]
(1 Kings 11:31-35).

*Considering that numerology ranks right up there with astrology.
posted by cenoxo at 5:44 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

I Spent A Day In The Coronavirus-Driven Feeding Frenzy Of N95 Mask Sellers And Buyers And This Is What I Learned
posted by adamvasco at 5:44 PM on April 1, 2020 [5 favorites]

More evidence indicates healthy people can spread virus (AP)

A study by researchers in Singapore became the latest to estimate that somewhere around 10% of new infections may be sparked by people who carry the virus but have not yet suffered its flu-like symptoms.

In response to that study and others, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed how it defined the risk of infection for Americans. The agency’s new guidance targeted people who have no symptoms but were exposed to others with known or suspected infections. It essentially says that anyone may be a carrier, whether that person has symptoms or not. The findings complicate efforts to gain control of the pandemic and reinforce the importance of social distancing and other measures designed to stop the spread, experts said.

posted by katra at 5:47 PM on April 1, 2020 [5 favorites]

There is a special alternative written into the law that allows the IRS to use either a 2018 tax return or a SSA-1099 which social security recipients get even if they do not file a tax return. So people on social security do not need to file a special tax return

That was not the government's original position. From a WaPo story posted within the past hour: Social Security recipients who don’t usually file tax returns will automatically get $1,200 payments, Treasury says in reversal:

The announcement is a reversal from earlier in the week when the Internal Revenue Service said everyone would need to file some sort of tax return in order to qualify for the payments. Democrats and some Republicans criticized the IRS for requiring so many extra hurdles for this vulnerable population to get aid when the government already has their information on file.

posted by jedicus at 5:55 PM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

^"where two or more gather in my name, i am there among them." -- sars-ncov2 20:20.

seriously though, it's from the book of matthew 18:20.
posted by 20 year lurk at 6:26 PM on April 1, 2020 [7 favorites]

Navy Could Still Punish Captain Behind Letter Begging To Get Sailors Off COVID-19 Plagued Carrier - The Navy says whoever leaked the letter, even if it was the author himself, could face disciplinary action for violating good order and discipline., The War Zone, Joseph Trevithick, 4/1/2020.

Not to mention the security aspect: any enemy of the United States now knows that a biological weapon (carried inside unsuspecting crew members) could take an aircraft carrier out of service in fairly short order.
posted by cenoxo at 6:33 PM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

Not to mention the security aspect: any enemy of the United States now knows that a biological weapon (carried inside unsuspecting crew members) could take an aircraft carrier out of service in fairly short order.

Yeah, the thing keeping foreign powers from using biological weapons was the uncertain efficacy.
posted by Etrigan at 7:01 PM on April 1, 2020 [14 favorites]

Don't let them read The Stand!
posted by eagles123 at 7:21 PM on April 1, 2020 [6 favorites]

why would 10 be any safer? all it takes is 1 person to infect the others unless those 10 people are also maintaining safe distances and sanitary precautions

Because public health isn't about keeping any single individual alive. Smaller groups mean fewer people exposed and a lower chance of actual transmission assuming the people don't crowd each other, which means that it is much harder to start a community-wide outbreak than when there are a thousand or more people (any of whom may be infected) who could potentially catch and further spread the disease. Also, if a substantial fraction of a larger group ends up needing medical care roughly simultaneously, that's a fucking disaster. Ten people all coming in was Tuesday three weeks ago; it makes little difference to the overall progression of the pandemic.

There are also considerations surrounding compliance. By allowing things that help people feel less confined but have a limited risk to the greater public health situation, the chance of people following the rules that are most important to slowing the rate of transmission is increased and probably also can be maintained longer.

The megachurches throwing open their doors every Sunday even in areas with known community transmission are a menace and are getting people killed. They need to be shut down the same way the fire marshal would if they insisted on packing more people into the building than fire code allows. They are putting the entire community at risk. Small groups mainly put their participants and immediate contacts at risk, assuming a reasonable level of compliance among the wider population.
posted by wierdo at 7:23 PM on April 1, 2020 [11 favorites]

the supposed ventilators that moron musk loudly announced he would be donating to save the world turned out to be a bunch of 5 year old cpap machines
posted by poffin boffin at 7:24 PM on April 1, 2020 [13 favorites]

You go to your doctor and he tells you this:

I have your test results, it's a very beautiful test, one of the best I've ever seen, and I've seen all of them. No-one's seen more tests than me. It's a test for chinese flu, some people call it the flu, some people call it a virus, no-one knows what it really is.

Usually 'positive' is a good thing. With this thing positive is not good. No-one knew about that. Who would have guessed? Positive is bad. It's not good. It's very very not good.

This will go away very soon. Like a miracle it will disappear. We will have a vaccine in two weeks. It's a chinese hoax. It's Nancy Pelosi's fault. You should go back to work tomorrow. If 100000 people die I've done a great job.

Then your call your lawyer, because that is criminal malpractice.
posted by adept256 at 7:28 PM on April 1, 2020 [12 favorites]

With regard to the Navy, that letter to me seemed like the kind of thing that would end a military career, regardless of the outcome.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:29 PM on April 1, 2020 [8 favorites]

Yeah, fuck Pence six ways to Sunday but there's no secret meaning needed to "keep it to ten people", it's just a lot less than "go to church like normal" and if people will fucking stick to that it'll save lives even if it's not as good as "just fucking stay home".
posted by cortex at 7:37 PM on April 1, 2020 [6 favorites]

That was not the government's original position. From a WaPo story posted within the past hour: Social Security recipients who don’t usually file tax returns will automatically get $1,200 payments, Treasury says in reversal:

It's only been a few days since the new law was passed. There is an explicit section in the law that says that a SSA-1099 can be substituted for 2018 or 2019 return. Democrats specifically added this section because of their experience with the 2008 rebate checks which many seniors missed out on. I assume someone at the IRS didn't read the law carefully and jumped the gun. A few senators wrote a letter to the Treasury secretary and the IRS commissioner telling them to read the damn law, knuckleheads.

Public Law 116-136, § 2201: "Rather than a 2018 or 2019 tax return, the IRS can base stimulus payments on a Form SSA-1099, the Social Security Benefit Statement, or a Form RRB-1099, which is the equivalent of the Social Security statement for Railroad Employees."
posted by JackFlash at 7:38 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yeah, that's what jedicus was making clear. There's been significant developments in this story in the last few hours. Even after the IRS was contacted by several lawmakers, they had reiterated the guidance of filing a return. The law says what it says, but it looked like the IRS was going to be truculent. That WaPo story was news to me, and good news as I'm in that group of recipients who don't file because my income is too low. I've been following this closely.

At this point, I'm relieved that the IRS says they're going to go by existence of the SSA-1099, but I'll believe it when I see it. I'd planned on filing a quick return online, but I think I won't unless I have to.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 8:02 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

ZeusHumms > With regard to the Navy, that letter to me seemed like the kind of thing that would end a military career, regardless of the outcome.

True: his crew will thank him, but airing dirty laundry in public never impresses those who wear stars.

However, national/county/city Departments of Health; school district superintendents; corporate CEOs, sports team owners, etc. should read Captain Crozier's letter (esp. Section 3&ff) as a warning of conducive environments to avoid, and measures that don't work.
posted by cenoxo at 8:14 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

‘Shameless’: CNN and MSNBC Cut Off Briefing, Rip Trump for Touting Anti-Drug Trafficking Effort During Coronavirus Update (Mediaite)

At different points of Wednesday’s White House press briefing on coronavirus, CNN and MSNBC not only cut away from the briefing but criticized President Donald Trump for today’s big focus on U.S. efforts against drug trafficking.

It's like he felt like a new character would keep increasing ratings of his reality show.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:19 PM on April 1, 2020 [12 favorites]

Companies price gouging federal buyers should just be nationalized.

Harry S. Truman made his name by holding hearings into war profiteering. If I were an ambitious Congressperson, I'd start making plans.
posted by MrBadExample at 8:27 PM on April 1, 2020 [17 favorites]

Don’t fall for Trump’s effort to recast himself as the benevolent leader of a unified country (Dan Froomkin, Press Watch/Salon)

[...] instead of leading, Trump focuses on making it look like he’s leading. His daily camera-hogging press conferences are full of lies and almost entirely devoid of substance, but they do create the imagery of someone in charge in a time of crisis

Don't get too excited about Trump's "somber" tone — he'll be back to normal soon (Amanda Marcotte, Salon)

Mainstream press gushes over Trump's temporarily adult tone, but we all know he'll backslide soon enough

Political journalists are still headlining Trump’s nonsense and trying to explain his decision-making. Stop! (Dan Froomkin, Press Watch/Salon)

But what concerns me ... is the way corporate media political journalists are still, as a whole, working under assumptions that apply to normal presidents, but not to Trump.

For example, too many elite reporters still act as if his decision-making can be rationally explained.

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:37 PM on April 1, 2020 [12 favorites]

Trump’s Breakdown (John F. Harris, Politico)

"Old traits — bluster, defiance, implacable self-promotion — that once worked well now threaten to sink a presidency."

If there is any common trait of successful presidents, it is what [columnist Walter] Lippmann called “resiliency”—the capacity for personal growth, for recalibration, and for principled improvisation in the face of new circumstances.

If there is any common trait of failed presidents, it is incapacity for growth—a reliance on old habits and thinking even when events demand the opposite.

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:38 PM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

Thanks, folks, for your 'no religious significance' view re: group of ten. In the same piece, Pence says he, his wife, and the fool on the hill have been keeping up with their own practices online (y'know, safely) -- Pence, as the coronavirus-response point person, & bearing considerable religious-person bona fides to a certain audience, could've recommended doing the same for the time being.
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:42 PM on April 1, 2020

44 Texas Students Have Coronavirus After Spring Break Trip (NYT)

Two weeks ago, amid the coronavirus pandemic, about 70 students from the University of Texas at Austin partied in Mexico on spring break. The students, all in their 20s, flew on a chartered plane to Cabo San Lucas, and some returned on separate commercial flights to Texas. Now, 44 of them have tested positive for the virus and are self-isolating.

[...] The Austin outbreak is the latest to result from a group of college students who ignored social-distancing guidelines, went on traditional spring break trips and have now tested positive for the coronavirus. Many of them appeared to be under the mistaken impression that young people are not as likely to get the coronavirus as older people are. Students at the University of Tampa, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other colleges have tested positive after returning from spring break trips to Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and elsewhere. [...] “The incident is a very strong reminder of the importance of taking seriously the warnings of public health authorities on the risks of Covid-19,” said J.B. Bird, director of media relations at [U.T. Austin] university.

posted by katra at 8:47 PM on April 1, 2020 [9 favorites]

"In 2017 the military identified a novel influenza disease as "the most likely and significant threat" which it anticipated would lead to a shortage of ventilators, face masks and hospital beds, per Pentagon document leaked to me. "

They knew. (The Nation)
posted by The Whelk at 8:48 PM on April 1, 2020 [17 favorites]

Let’s Not Get Carried Away: Trump Is Still Screwing Up Most of His Job, and He’s Still a Hollow Monstrosity (Ben Mathis-Lilley, Slate)
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:56 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

There's no duty of care any given media personality owes to any particular individual

Ah, but does the president of the United States owe a duty of care to citizens?
posted by ctmf at 8:56 PM on April 1, 2020 [4 favorites]

“The incident is a very strong reminder of the importance of taking seriously the warnings of public health authorities on the risks of Covid-19,” said J.B. Bird, director of media relations at [U.T. Austin] university.

Timeline: Trump’s efforts to downplay the coronavirus threat (WaPo)

March 4: “Some people will have this at a very light level and won’t even go to a doctor or hospital, and they’ll get better. There are many people like that.” [...] March 9: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” [...] March 10: “And it hit the world. And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” [...] March 14: [...] retweeted supporter Candace Owens, who cited “good news” on the coronavirus, including that “Italy is hit hard, experts say, because they have the oldest population in Europe (average age of those that have died is 81).”

posted by katra at 8:59 PM on April 1, 2020 [9 favorites]

on latest This Week in Virology (episode 596; they're coming a bit more frequently than weekly these days), circa 31:36, alan dove recounts the story of letters sent to lupus patients with prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine sulfate, by health insurance company kaiser permanente, informing them their "prescriptions will not be renewed because we need it for treating covid-19. thank you for your sacrifice" -- dove's account of twitter tip, not the letter itself. buzzfeed had the story march 25 with a screenshot of what purports to be the a passage of the letter, as well as a response from one of that company's mouthpieces. it does, indeed, say "Thank you for the sacrifice you will be making for the sake of those that are critically ill; your sacrifice may actually save lives."

relatedly, FDA granted emergency use authorization march 28 for "oral formulations of chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate for the treatment of 2019 coronavirus disease" when "administered by a healthcare provider pursuant to a valid prescription of a licensed practitioner" to hospitalized adult/adolescent patients "for whom a clinical trial is not available, or participation is not feasible," and subject to certain other conditions, "until the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of the emergency use ... is terminated ... or revoked."

the twiv virologists discuss this EUA, and evaluate results reported from from some trials of the compound in china and france earlier in the same episode.
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:19 PM on April 1, 2020 [6 favorites]

Politico:
Behind the scenes, Kushner takes charge of coronavirus response

Trump’s son-in-law sets up shop at FEMA as his portfolio balloons to include manufacturing, supplies and long-term planning.

Distraught. Distraught is how I am feeling right now. But the end of the article is a nice bracket to the reports back in 2016 that helped inflict this mess upon us:

In addition, the use of so many private sector work-arounds means much of the government’s response to coronavirus is being conducted on unsecured personal cell phones and emails. Officials involved with Kushner’s team bristled at questions about the appropriateness of using personal emails, saying the scrutiny could scare away high-powered executives, analysts and other fixers trying to help the response.

posted by Joe in Australia at 10:24 PM on April 1, 2020 [11 favorites]

Kushner is Dunning-Kruger personified. He is such a dumb fuck that he thinks he should be leading the response to a pandemic, and is qualified because he knows how to use email, unlike his dotard father-in-law -- which qualifies him as a whiz kid in this administration. Maybe he can ask his buddy MBS for some tips on efficient corpse disposal.
posted by benzenedream at 12:43 AM on April 2, 2020 [22 favorites]

> Timeline: Trump’s efforts to downplay the coronavirus threat (WaPo)

Reading those Trump quotes consecutively (in a monotone) sounds like someone in shock, self-hugging and rocking back and forth, telling themselves repeatedly that everything is going to be ok, it’s gonna be ok, okay? just you wait and see...
posted by cenoxo at 1:54 AM on April 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

So my earlier comment about the reduced growth rate in South Africa might have been a bit optimistic because our Minister of Health is pretty blunt that we are in a "calm before the devastating storm" and that he expects the upcoming winter season to still be pretty brutal.
posted by PenDevil at 2:35 AM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

“The Campaign Panicked”: Inside Trump’s Decision to Back Off of His Easter Coronavirus Miracle – An impulsive promise (“His view was: I need to show people there’s a light at the end of the tunnel”) led to Fauci pushback. Poll numbers—and a friend in a coma—pushed Trump to reverse course., Vanity Fair, Gabriel Sherman, 4/1/2020:

The national debate set off by Donald Trump’s announcement that he wanted churches packed on Easter was, like so many Trump crises, a self-inflicted one. In the days after Trump tweeted that “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” his medical advisers, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, implored Trump not to relax the government’s social distancing guidelines. Trump dug in. “His view was: I need to show people that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” a former West Wing official told me. Under pressure, members of the coronavirus task force discussed privately how parts of the country might be opened in April, but cautioned Trump not to get locked into a specific timetable given the deteriorating conditions in New York hospitals and ominous upticks in cases in New Orleans, Detroit, and elsewhere. “They discussed it internally, but they never intended Trump to announce it,” a Republican working with the task force told me.

Trump’s impulsive decision—and its messy aftermath—consumed the West Wing during the critical week that governors were pleading with the White House to deliver medical supplies before hospital systems began to collapse. “It was totally crazy,” the Republican told me. Dr. Fauci, Senator Lindsey Graham, and others raced to convince Trump that an Easter opening would be a cataclysmic error that could cost millions of lives. “This is a very, very stressful situation for everybody, including me,” Fauci told me in a phone interview on Monday. By last weekend Fauci’s arguments broke through: Trump agreed to extend the social distancing guidelines until the end of April....

Jared Kushner (“the central West Wing player”) may be stepping in where others fear to go. Quoting from the VF article: ““This was a total mess,” Kushner told people when he got involved last month. “I know how to make this government run now,” he said, according to a source.”
posted by cenoxo at 3:00 AM on April 2, 2020 [4 favorites]

Anthony Fauci’s security is stepped up as doctor and face of U.S. coronavirus response receives threats, Washington Post, 4/2/2020.
[Alternate link]
posted by cenoxo at 3:35 AM on April 2, 2020 [4 favorites]

A few nights ago I re-watched the Frank Grimes episode of the Simpsons for the first time in a while, and let me tell you...when Trump skates through this and gets hailed by tens of millions of Americans for "reducing" the number of deaths from the absolute worst-case scenario of what it could have been to even one less than that, it's going to be some peak Home Simpson shit. No wonder why so many people hated that episode so much.

GRIMES
Are you kidding? Does this whole plant have some disease where it can't see that he's an idiot? Look here. (points to a graph on the bulletin board) Accidents have doubled every year since he became safety inspector, and, and meltdowns have tripled. Has he been fired? No. Has he been disciplined? No, no.

LENNY
Eh, everybody makes mistakes. That's why they put erasers on pencils.

CARL
Yeah, Homer's okay. Give him a break.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:39 AM on April 2, 2020 [17 favorites]

This Pandemic Is Not Your Vacation

The virus, some people have taken to saying, “does not discriminate.” But that’s not quite true. It is putting our class and racial hierarchies in harsh relief — systems that favor the rich and the globally mobile while declaring the work of so many of the working class “essential.” Wealth is the vector. And the economically precarious will suffer because of it — whether they’re cleaning the offices of the infected in New York or checking groceries in Blaine County, Idaho.

“People think in their hearts that they’re doing the right thing,” Ashleigh Weeden, one of the rural studies scholars, said, “that they’re going to be isolated in these places and far apart — and that they might be bringing some economic development on top of it. I don’t think they’re malicious. I just think it’s a bit clueless.”

posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:02 AM on April 2, 2020 [11 favorites]

Train Engineer Deliberately Derails Locomotive Towards USNS Mercy, gCaptain, Mike Schuler, 4/1/2020:

A train engineer at the Port of Los Angeles is facing federal felony charges for allegedly running a train locomotive at full speed off the end tracks towards the docked hospital ship USNS Mercy, which he suspects is involved in a government conspiracy.

A criminal complaint filed Wednesday afternoon charges the engineer, Eduardo Moreno, 44, with one count of train wrecking following his arrest after the incident Tuesday afternoon. According to the complaint, Moreno admitted in two separate interviews with law enforcement authorities that he intentionally derailed and crashed the train near the Mercy, which is in port assisting with federal COVID-19 relief.

Moreno ran the train off the end of tracks, and crashed through a series of barriers before coming to rest about 250 yards from the Mercy, according to the Justice Department. No one was injured and the Mercy was not harmed or damaged in the incident.

posted by cenoxo at 4:36 AM on April 2, 2020 [7 favorites]

For a nice (but probably temporary) bit of truthiness schadenfreude, the White House Correspondents Association has voted to remove OAN (One America News, the channel even further right-wing than Fox, the ones who've been lobbing toady softball questions at Trump in the press briefings) from the seat rotation in the press room, because their "reporters" refuse to follow social distancing guidelines.

From Alternet via Salon.com
posted by soundguy99 at 5:18 AM on April 2, 2020 [16 favorites]

Brief cross-post — beloved songwriter Adam Schlesinger, of Fountains of Wayne and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and That Thing You Do!, has died age 52 of coronavirus.

As far as I know this is the first time we have lost a well-known person who was relatively young and in good health. He won’t be the last.
posted by saturday_morning at 5:35 AM on April 2, 2020 [9 favorites]

and ellis marsalis, jr.
posted by 20 year lurk at 5:42 AM on April 2, 2020 [8 favorites]

It's been a bad week for jazz musicians, as trumpeter Wallace Roney, age 59, and guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, 94, both have died, too.

Roney reportedly had coronavirus symptoms, while Pizzarelli had been in poor health for a while.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 5:50 AM on April 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

More about One America News Network (OANN), rhymes with Onan (who pulled out too soon).
posted by cenoxo at 5:56 AM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's sad to think they won't have a New Orleans jazz funeral.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:11 AM on April 2, 2020 [15 favorites]

A record 6.6 million seek US jobless aid as layoffs mount (Christopher Rugaber, AP)

More than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week — doubling a record high set just one week earlier — a sign that layoffs are accelerating in the midst of the coronavirus.

The stunning report Thursday from the Labor Department showed that job cuts are mounting against the backdrop of economies in the United States and abroad that have almost certainly sunk into a severe recession as businesses close across the world.

Applications for unemployment benefits generally reflect the pace of layoffs. Combined with last week’s report that 3.3 million people sought unemployment aid two weeks ago, the U.S. economy has now suffered nearly 10 million layoffs in just the past several weeks — far exceeding the figure for any corresponding period on record.

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:42 AM on April 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

Jeff Jackson, my Democratic state-level senator has been regularly sending informative email updates; he wrote yesterday that NC citizens should start seeing their federal relief money in about two weeks:

Regarding the federal unemployment benefit that just passed, it will be administered by the state. We’re still waiting on implementation guidance from the federal Department of Labor, at which point benefits will be paid in about two weeks.
posted by mediareport at 7:11 AM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

1 April: Pelosi should ‘stand down’ on passing another rescue bill in House, McConnell says (Robert Costa, WaPo)

One week after the Senate unanimously passed a $2 trillion emergency relief bill aimed at limiting the financial trauma from the coronavirus pandemic, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he would move slowly on considering any follow-up legislation and would ignore the latest efforts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to jump-start talks.

McConnell’s sweeping dismissal of Pelosi’s urgent call for action underscored the uncertainty and fierce political warfare in Congress as the coronavirus outbreak shuts down much of the nation and throttles the economy, with little consensus on what should follow the biggest rescue package in U.S. history and lingering tensions from those negotiations between McConnell and Pelosi.

Not a great thing to say in light of today's unemployment announcement.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:18 AM on April 2, 2020 [9 favorites]

New unemployment claims surge to record-high 6.6 million (Matthew Yglesias, Vox)

Policymakers currently seem to be assuming that the economy is kind of like a light switch that they’ll be able to turn back on when the virus is under control. But that’s not really an idea the world has a lot of practical experience with, and it’s far from obvious that it will work in practice.

All we really know is that the country is currently experiencing an unprecedented economic downturn and nobody can say when it will end. Staving off a prolonged spell of mass unemployment is going to require wartime-style mobilization efforts involving both enormous levels of government spending and a fully cooperative central bank.

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:06 AM on April 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

The French brotherhood burying the dead – rich or poor - since 1188 The Confrérie des Charitables de Saint-Éloi has carried on its duties through war and plague
posted by adamvasco at 8:07 AM on April 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

Experts tell White House coronavirus can spread through talking or even just breathing (CNN)

A prestigious scientific panel told the White House Wednesday night that research shows coronavirus can be spread not just by sneezes or coughs, but also just by talking, or possibly even just breathing. "While the current [coronavirus] specific research is limited, the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing," according to the letter, written by Dr. Harvey Fineberg, chairman of a committee with the National Academy of Sciences. Fineberg told CNN that he will wear start wearing a mask when he goes to the grocery store. "I'm not going to wear a surgical mask, because clinicians need those," said Fineberg, former dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. "But I have a nice western-style bandana I might wear. Or I have a balaclava. I have some pretty nice options."

[...] Fineberg, chair of the NAS' Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, said his letter was sent Wednesday evening in response to a query from Kelvin Droegemeier with the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House. "This letter responds to your question concerning the possibility that [coronavirus] could be spread by conversation, in addition to sneeze/cough-induced droplets," the letter states. "Currently available research supports the possibility that [coronavirus] could be spread via bioaerosols generated directly by patients' exhalation," it continues.

posted by katra at 8:34 AM on April 2, 2020 [12 favorites]

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R, who resisted strict coronavirus measures, says he just learned it transmitted asymptomatically.

Kemp said he was “finding out that this virus is now transmitting before people see signs.”

“Those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad, but we didn’t know that until the last 24 hours,” he said. He added that the state’s top doctor told him that “this is a game-changer.”

It may have been a game-changer, but it was a game-changer weeks or even months ago. That’s when health officials started emphasizing that asymptomatic people are transmitting the coronavirus. The idea that Kemp didn’t know this is striking. But he’s merely the latest top politician to indicate that he’s unfamiliar with the science even as he’s making life-or-death decisions for his constituents.

Anthony S. Fauci, a lead member of the White House coronavirus task force, was talking about asymptomatic transmission more than two months ago.

posted by Sublimity at 8:50 AM on April 2, 2020 [30 favorites]

In Echo Of Trump, GA House Speaker Despairs That Coronavirus Vote-By-Mail Measures Would Help Dems (Kate Riga, TPM)

Georgia House Speaker David Ralston (R) said the quiet part out loud Wednesday, bashing the secretary of state’s move to mail out absentee ballot applications to the state’s registered voters because the higher voter participation “will be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia.”

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:52 AM on April 2, 2020 [23 favorites]

"This letter responds to your question concerning the possibility that [coronavirus] could be spread by conversation, in addition to sneeze/cough-induced droplets," the letter states. "Currently available research supports the possibility that [coronavirus] could be spread via bioaerosols generated directly by patients' exhalation," it continues.

Jared's going to have to find us a helluva lot more masks.
posted by cenoxo at 9:19 AM on April 2, 2020

Also in Georgia: state senator Bruce Thompson tested positive, was hospitalized on March 19, and, upon release, said he'd be self-quarantining at home; Thompson then traveled to his St. George Island, Florida, vacation house, which is in a gated community. (St. George Island is part of Franklin County, where there were no confirmed cases of coronavirus.)

After stationing a deputy in front of his vacation home to keep him and anyone else from leaving the property, Franklin County Sheriff A.J. Smith says Senator Bruce Thompson [R] called him to let him know that he was going back to Georgia. (WTXL.com, April 1, 2020)
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:33 AM on April 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

So like... honest question... do these worst-case scenario projections take into account behaviour like that?
posted by saturday_morning at 9:39 AM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

Well, now we all know that Bruce Thompson is an incredible shitgibbon. But I guess that little (R) next to his name was a kinda dead giveaway.
posted by valkane at 9:40 AM on April 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

Pelosi announces new select committee to oversee coronavirus response

The House Speaker says the panel would be modeled on the World War II committee led by then-Sen. Harry Truman. It will be chaired by Rep. Clyburn (D-S.C.).

monty_burns_excellent.gif
posted by saturday_morning at 9:44 AM on April 2, 2020 [10 favorites]

Democrats to delay Milwaukee nominating convention until August in response to coronavirus (Michael Scherer and Annie Linskey, WaPo)

Democrats will delay their presidential nominating convention until the week of Aug. 17 to increase the likelihood that the party can still hold an in-person gathering in Milwaukee amid the coronavirus pandemic, Democrats announced Thursday.

The decision to reschedule from July puts the Democratic gathering one week before the Republican convention in Charlotte starting Aug. 24, which both President Trump and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel have pledged recently will go forward.

Trump said last week that there was “no way” his convention would be canceled, and McDaniel said that planning for a “full seated” convention was moving “full steam ahead.” But Democrats have taken a far more cautious approach, in part because their convention was originally scheduled six weeks earlier in the summer to accommodate the Summer Olympics, which have since been canceled.

posted by ZeusHumms at 9:50 AM on April 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Why wouldn't the Dems schedule it for after so they can rebut every lie that is going to come out of the GOP convention?
posted by kokaku at 9:56 AM on April 2, 2020 [11 favorites]

Guardian: "The Guardian’s graphics team has produced this visualisation of the rate of increases in officially confirmed coronavirus infections in several countries around the world. Of course, with wildly differing testing regimes in different countries, and accusations that China is hiding the true extent of its outbreak, such comparisons ought to be viewed in context.

Fresh cases of Covid-19 continue to rise rapidly in the US while Spain and Italy have started to see fewer fresh cases each day

posted by katra at 9:57 AM on April 2, 2020 [4 favorites]

The Christian Right Becomes A Suicide Cult
The US is now officially the global ground zero of the Coronavirus outbreak, with approximately 50,000 new cases and 1,000 deaths recorded daily – numbers that are growing exponentially each day.
Trump is the symptom, not the cause. Or, better put, he is the head of a political organisation, the Republican Party, which gets its energy from arguably the most intellectually and morally stunted voting bloc in America
Pick any pivotal moment in history and the Christian Right will have been on the wrong side of it, from the abolition of slavery to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Iraq War to gender equality and social justice.
The outbreak of the deadliest virus pandemic in a century, however, has revealed it to be more than an obstacle to social progress. It has demonstrated it to be a suicide cult.
posted by adamvasco at 10:02 AM on April 2, 2020 [28 favorites]

50,000 new cases and 1,000 deaths recorded daily – numbers that are growing exponentially each day.

These are a contradiction of terms.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:06 AM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

literally exponentially. fixed.
posted by 20 year lurk at 10:11 AM on April 2, 2020

The Christian Right Becomes A Suicide Cult
Man, it's hard to not just want them do it. I have taken a deep breath and prayed for them to get educated. I am an atheist, so praying does nothing for me, but I hope it helps them.
posted by mumimor at 10:22 AM on April 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

Why wouldn't the Dems schedule it for after so they can rebut every lie that is going to come out of the GOP convention?

It can be played both ways, because the one that goes first can set the stage.
posted by rhizome at 10:28 AM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

Re: The 79-year-old Fauci's stepped-up security detail; from that WaPo link: "The concerns include threats as well as unwelcome communications from fervent admirers, according to people with knowledge of deliberations inside the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice."

Recently, entrepreneurs began selling cupcakes, doughnuts, and socks adorned with Fauci's likeness; plus People are now selling: graphic t-shirts, with slogans like "I Heart Dr. Fauci"; Dr. Anthony Fauci fan club buttons; and even Fauci prayer candles. (CNN, March 31, 2020). "As someone living with HIV, I greatly admire and appreciate all the work he has done to further research in that field," Scott Christopher, who sells Dr. Anthony Fauci Prayer Candles on his Etsy shop, told CNN. "During the pandemic, he has been a voice of reason and comfort," Christopher said. "And I think that's what I and so many others have responded to."
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:29 AM on April 2, 2020

Why wouldn't the Dems schedule it for after so they can rebut every lie that is going to come out of the GOP convention?

The home team bats second.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 10:32 AM on April 2, 2020

The Christian Right Becomes A Suicide Cult

they were always the ones who supported building up our nuclear arsenal - they've always been a suicide cult
posted by pyramid termite at 10:39 AM on April 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

Man, it's hard to not just want them do it. I have taken a deep breath and prayed for them to get educated. I am an atheist, so praying does nothing for me, but I hope it helps them.

Problem is they are a actually a murder-suicide cult and won't be happy unless they can bring the non-believers with them.

Trump said last week that there was “no way” his convention would be canceled, and McDaniel said that planning for a “full seated” convention was moving “full steam ahead.” But Democrats have taken a far more cautious approach

You know it is possible, depending on how things shake out, that the Democrats hold a WFH convention, the Republicans all get together including many of whom are running for office, and then those Republican candidates die in the weeks before the election.

What happens if a candidate dies after ballots are printed but before the election takes place?
posted by Mitheral at 11:02 AM on April 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

What happens if a candidate dies after ballots are printed but before the election takes place?

It’s happened.
posted by saturday_morning at 11:05 AM on April 2, 2020 [4 favorites]

Over half of the cases in Korea were traced to a single church, so this is deadly serious.

In South Africa, the estimate at least 50 of the 76 cases in one our provinces were due to a single mega-church gathering attended by five infected international travellers.
posted by PenDevil at 11:09 AM on April 2, 2020 [10 favorites]

British American Tobacco working on plant-based coronavirus vaccine

The London-listed company used the announcement to trumpet the positive aspects of its tobacco empire, saying that “new, fast-growing tobacco plant technology” put it ahead of others trying to develop a vaccine.

I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt, this is the cynical PR stunt. Capitalism at it's most evil. If you want to save millions of lives, you know what to do. Otherwise fuck off.
posted by adept256 at 11:58 AM on April 2, 2020 [8 favorites]

The Worldometers tracker places the cases above 1,000,000 for the first time.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:08 PM on April 2, 2020

Johns Hopkins is at 998k. Yikes.
posted by freecellwizard at 12:26 PM on April 2, 2020

How Trump’s impeachment trial foreshadowed his handling of the coronavirus crisis (Aaron Rupar, Vox)

[Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan's] point was that while Trump using his public office to try and force the Ukrainian government may not seem like an obvious abuse of power to some Americans, it clearly would in a hypothetical situation where he dealt with their elected officials in the same manner.
Pamela Karlan: “What would you think if, when your governor asked the federal government for the disaster assistance that Congress has provided, the President responded, ‘I would like you to do us a favor.’ I’ll... send the disaster relief once you brand my opponent a criminal.”
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) December 4, 2019

I guess we don't have to work hard to imagine the results anymore.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:47 PM on April 2, 2020 [19 favorites]

MA Gov. Baker's daily press briefing today was a lesson in federal/state relations in these times: Last month, the state had lined up an order of 3 million N95 masks (ordered through BJ's) and they were about to be shipped from the port of NY to Massachusetts when the feds seized them all. Baker began calling pretty much everybody he knew with an international connection (even people at local museums) for help. He found a factory in Shenzen, China that could sell the state 1.7 million N95 masks, but he didn't want to risk having the feds seize them again, so he called Jonathan Kraft (whose father, Robert, owns the Patriots - and happens to specialize in international trade) and they came up with a plan to run a "private humanitarian mission" to China - in which the Krafts would send the Patriots team jet over to pick up all the masks - to keep the feds from finding out what was up. With a lot of help from the Chinese ambassador to the UN (Baker kept praising him) and even the governor of Alaska (who arranged for the plane to stop there so the crew could refuel and rest), 1.2 million of the masks (all that would fit in the jet) are scheduled to land in Boston tonight. Some will be going to New York City and some to Rhode Island, because we're not some grubby federal government here.
posted by adamg at 12:54 PM on April 2, 2020 [68 favorites]

May as well title that article How Trump's Life foreshowed his handling of....
posted by kokaku at 1:12 PM on April 2, 2020 [4 favorites]

Limiting church services to ten people doesn't make any practical sense. How would they decide which ten? Draw lots? Just the deacons or the budget committee? The only sensible thing is to tell people to stay home and forbid live services. (Ten makes sense, perhaps, as a defining line for when violations occur and penalties are imposed. Maybe this was the intent and the message got muddled?)

My church interpreted that to mean "the people + the minister who can show up and record/broadcast the sermon." Our church is tiny but even a tiny service needs 4-5 people to happen; you can't have any members attending. We had 5 people in a room (minister, children's minister, pianist, me working camera, other AV person working sound) and that was very stripped-down. We broadcast it on FB Live and recorded it to put to Youtube later.

We all stood at least 6 feet apart, many of us further. Even so, it felt vaguely unsafe, so we may switch to just the minister, broadcasting from her home, next week.
posted by emjaybee at 1:13 PM on April 2, 2020 [10 favorites]

Holy, shit, the Patriots plane is still in the air, over Canadian airspace.

One of my friends is an X-ray tech in a Boston ER. The next two hours will decide whether she lives past this pandemic, or whether my eldest child's playmate will be orphaned. I'm watching history being made here.
posted by ocschwar at 1:18 PM on April 2, 2020 [7 favorites]

India confronts its first coronavirus ‘super-spreader’ — a Muslim missionary group with more than 400 members infected (WaPo)

Some Indian Muslims worry that the infections linked to the missionary group will intensify anti-Muslim rhetoric. The cases can be used as “a convenient excuse for some to vilify Muslims everywhere,” wrote Omar Abdullah, a senior politician in Kashmir.

India coronavirus cases rise amid fears true figure much higher (Guardian)

Doubt has been cast over India’s claim that it has no community transmission of coronavirus after the country reported its biggest daily rise in number of cases so far, connected to a religious gathering held in Delhi two weeks ago. India reported a record increase of 386 cases in the past 24 hours, pushing the total number to 1,637, according to the country’s health ministry. The death toll is now 38. [...] Yet for a densely populated country of 1.3 billion people, the number of cases is still relatively low compared with Europe and the US, and believed to be linked to both low levels of testing and poor access to an already overstretched healthcare system with people not reporting their symptoms.

posted by katra at 1:19 PM on April 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Holy, shit, the Patriots plane is still in the air, over Canadian airspace.

You can track the Patriots mask plane.

Once on the ground, the masks will go (by National Guard trucks it looks like) from Logan to a state warehouse, where they will first be inventoried even as a panel of medical experts will determine where they go. According to the state HHS secretary, institutions already treating a high number of Covid-19 patients will get first priority, but places that currently have less than a five-day supply on hand will get points as well.
posted by adamg at 1:28 PM on April 2, 2020 [8 favorites]

The National Guard is really acting as the state militia. This isn't the Federal Government seizing the masks, this is Mass. Militia transporting supplies during an emergency.
posted by jclarkin at 1:57 PM on April 2, 2020 [14 favorites]

We've got enough stress to go around without jumping into civil war speculation, please cut that out.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:59 PM on April 2, 2020 [11 favorites]

Also, the 300,000 masks that are going to New York City tomorrow? Robert Kraft paid for those himself.
posted by adamg at 2:01 PM on April 2, 2020 [11 favorites]

John Hopkins CRC Map is now at 1,002,159 confirmed cases worldwide, with the United States at 236,339. Still climbing...
posted by cenoxo at 2:23 PM on April 2, 2020

One detail that was pointed out to me: the Patriots plane cleared customs in Alaska, which means it is now flying a domestic flight. No customs issues any more.

And that Baker only spoke about this after the plane took off from Anchorage. And that he was in touch with the Alaska governor.

That means the CBP in Logan airport has no legal reason to look at the plane, and the officers on the ground live in Boston and have an interest in only going by the book when the book sides with them and their neighbors.

What a fucking day. I cannot concentrate on anything but this.
posted by ocschwar at 2:32 PM on April 2, 2020 [14 favorites]

European Countries Are Throwing Out ‘Rubbish’ Chinese-Made Masks and Coronavirus Tests (Vice, March 30, 2020) The Dutch government is discarding over a million masks that don't fit properly or have defective filters. [...] “Due to shortages, we can find ourselves in a situation where only protective equipment is available that does not meet the highest standards,” the [Dutch health] ministry said. “This is an issue in all countries.” [...] In Belgium, Leuven University Hospital refused a shipment of 3,000 Chinese-made masks over the weekend because of concerns over their quality.

In Spain, which has the world’s second highest official coronavirus death toll after Italy, the government said Thursday it had withdrawn 8,000 rapid testing kits delivered to authorities in Madrid, and sent back another 50,000 to the manufacturer, due to concerns about their accuracy. Officials found the tests they reviewed were only about 30% accurate. The Chinese embassy in Madrid said that the manufacturer of the tests, Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology, had not been officially licenced by Chinese authorities to sell medical products. Turkey’s Health Minister also said Friday that rapid testing kits samples it had received from a Chinese company did not meet the country's accuracy standards.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:41 PM on April 2, 2020 [7 favorites]

We all stood at least 6 feet apart, many of us further. Even so, it felt vaguely unsafe, so we may switch to just the minister, broadcasting from her home, next week.

I think that is very prudent. I've noticed many anecdotal reports of high rates of infection in non-social religious settings, like that choir where three quarters of the singers contracted the virus, and the funeral where seventeen members of the same family were infected. And there seem to be high rates of infection in religious communities characterised by regular communal prayer services, even ones that typically meet in smallish congregations.

I'm not a virologist or anything, but I see a pattern here. The virus can't be spread that easily in casual interactions or the entire world would have contracted it already. I suspect the virus is very efficiently spread between people singing or chanting; that there's something about their breathing (deeper? more forceful?) that moves it into their lower respiratory tract or something about the act of singing that expels the virus in droplets or whatever. Like I say, I don't pretend to any special expertise here, but it can't hurt to be especially careful about social distancing in these situations.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:59 PM on April 2, 2020 [11 favorites]

I know "the writers..." jokes went out of style a long time ago, but Trump BFF Robert Kraft stepping up to be the hero who delivers masks to MA to compensate for the feds' ineptitude is one that wouldn't ever make it to a table read.
posted by tonycpsu at 3:58 PM on April 2, 2020 [8 favorites]

Navy Sacks Carrier Captain, Pulls Another Carrier Off Station Over COVID-19 Concerns (Updated) — The Navy says the officer misrepresented the facts and should have taken better precautions to ensure the detailed letter did not leak to the press. The War Zone, Joseph Trevithick, 4/2/2020:

The U.S. Navy has relieved Captain Brett Crozier, the commanding officer of the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, which is presently in Guam amid a major outbreak of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus among its crew. Crozier wrote a damning letter to his superiors over the response to the outbreak, pleading to get the bulk of the sailors off the ship to avoid "tragic outcomes." The Acting Secretary of the Navy says the officer did not take adequate precautions to prevent the letter, which it also says included overly detailed information about his ship's readiness, from leaking to the press.

Reuters was first to report that Crozier was in danger of losing his job over the letter, suggesting that the Navy believed that the captain had leaked the letter. The Navy has now said this was not the case. Acting Secretary of Defense Thomas Modly told reporters later in the day that the officer had sent his missive through unclassified channels and between 20 and 30 different individuals had received a copy. The Pentagon had announced earlier this week that it would be releasing less granular information about COVID-19 cases across the U.S. military due to operational security concerns....

posted by cenoxo at 4:26 PM on April 2, 2020 [10 favorites]

There was some mention up there about dogs testing positive in Hong Kong. That has been debunked by Australian public broadcaster ABC:

Ibuprofen, furry friends and a COVID-19 vaccine. Coronavirus misinformation, debunked

A number of fact checks — by our IFCN colleagues at USA Today, Africa Check, PolitiFact and Full Fact, among others — found that while at least one dog did test "weak positive" for coronavirus in Hong Kong, there were questions over the validity of the test and no evidence pets could transmit the virus to humans.

There was also a rumor that the WHO has recommended dogs be released from quarantine as they found they can't carry the virus. This was just a vehicle for the groanable dad-joke 'WHO let the dogs out'.
posted by adept256 at 4:34 PM on April 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

As always, I appreciate Damon Young's take on it: Trump-Supporting Piece of Shit Robert Kraft Does the Least He Can Do:
I do know that this sort of billionaire philanthropy is the equivalent of a Mafia don delivering turkeys from a van on Thanksgiving. He is savvy and shrewd, so he knew that the bump in public opinion he’d receive from this act would swallow his support of the person most responsible for the mask shortage.
posted by TwoStride at 4:46 PM on April 2, 2020 [20 favorites]

Bust: How France Is Helping Survivors Of Domestic Violence During The Pandemic

France has followed the lead of Spain, doubling down on the role of pharmacies and covertly transforming them into secure outlets women can rely on to disclose their need for help. There, women are able to ask for help by using a discreet code, simply asking for “mask 19.” Within this alert system, pharmacists are instantly tipped off to the fact that the woman standing before them requires police involvement due to circumstances at home.

And from earlier in the article:

... countries around the world are seeing a significant spike in reports of domestic abuse. Paris in particular has seen an uptake of 36% since the country issued its lockdown mandate in mid-March. To offer relief to those in need, the French government has announced that it would be paying for up to 20,000 nights of hotel accommodations for women seeking an escape from their violent partners.
posted by mediareport at 5:34 PM on April 2, 2020 [16 favorites]

Ricard Epstein, the libertarian asshole who the New Yorker eviscerated, decides to go a second round with Vox. Jane Coaston of Vox points out that Epstein is not an economist, not a statistician, not a doctor and not an infectious disease expert. He's a lawyer.

To which Epstein says "I'm not a lawyer. I'm a law professor." Oooh. Sick burn!

He justifies his downgrading of the coronavirus by saying:
"It’s also a matter of progressive politics, which, as you know, I regard as an extremely dangerous form of political ideology because these people are much more inclined to big government, much more inclined to see things as always being out of the ordinary, always reading small changes as though they’re about to become exponential ones."

No, Jane Coaston was right the first time. He's not a scientist. He's just a lawyer, trained to first assume the desired conclusion and then use any absurd means possible to argue for its correctness.
posted by JackFlash at 7:08 PM on April 2, 2020 [16 favorites]

Tell Rick we've already bypassed his (corrected) 5,000 deaths and there's no end in sight.
posted by valkane at 7:17 PM on April 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

he wrote yesterday that NC citizens should start seeing their federal relief money in about two weeks:

Oh no. It seems like he's saying that, but what he actually said was about two weeks AFTER he gets something from the federal Department of Labor. Which presumably takes non-zero time under the best conditions.
posted by ctmf at 7:17 PM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

He's just a lawyer, trained to first assume the desired conclusion and then use any absurd means possible to argue for its correctness.

There is a difference between lawyers and law professors. Lawyers are held to rules of professional conduct and rules of procedure. So before you assume a desired conclusion and then use any absurd means possible to argue for its correctness, maybe some research is in order.
posted by katra at 7:23 PM on April 2, 2020 [12 favorites]

Second-Highest Ever: March Gun Sales Spiked as Virus Fears Grew, New York Times, Keith Collins & David Yaffe-Bellany, 4/1/2020:

Americans bought about two million guns in March, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data. It was the second-busiest month ever for gun sales, trailing only January 2013, just after President Barack Obama’s re-election and the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. With some people fearful that the pandemic could lead to civil unrest, gun sales have been skyrocketing...
...
The run on firearms has raised public health concerns and prompted local officials to debate whether gun stores should be temporarily closed. Advocates for stricter safety measures argue that the surge in purchases could pose a safety threat if buyers aren’t trained properly, new guns aren’t stored safely and background checks aren’t completed.

But after lobbying from the firearm industry, the Trump administration said this week that the stores qualified as essential businesses and should stay open during the lockdown alongside pharmacies, gas stations and grocery stores.

Honey, would you pick up a six ~~pack~~ shooter on your way home?
posted by cenoxo at 7:38 PM on April 2, 2020 [4 favorites]

katra i feel you but i mean, he is also a lawyer in the sense that he like, graduated from law school. also the richard epstein's of the world do not need anyone defending them.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:48 PM on April 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Tell Rick we've already bypassed his (corrected) 5,000 deaths and there's no end in sight.

yep, we're already there. like i said before, there's like 5 quotes (from epstein) which will be copy pasted with a timestamp over the coming days / weeks as exhibits in the Ageing Like a Fine Milk evidence locker. fuck that guy forever.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:50 PM on April 2, 2020 [8 favorites]

Officials found the tests they reviewed were only about 30% accurate. The Chinese embassy in Madrid said that the manufacturer of the tests, Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology, had not been officially licenced by Chinese authorities to sell medical products.

Lots. LOTS of crappy/ shady biotech companies out there. I quit a job from one, once.

But 30% accuracy? Sounds about right for the "rapid" class of test. That accuracy was almost certainly tested on validated standards, so "real life" performance is going to be even worse.

Until there are very good recombinant antibody lines against Covid-19, "rapid" tests (based on nucleotide sequence) are going to be crap.

We do DNA/ RNA sample preps at work, yesterday we tried to reorder some reagents (the primary bit of a non-reuseable silica spin/ suction column - when you run the sample lysate through the column, nucleic acids sticks to it. You wash it a couple/ few times, dry, then elute the nucleic acids out - that gets concentration standardized to some small extent, then is probed with a real-time quantitative PCR reaction with fairly high fidelity polymerase, and a melt curve analysis run on the PCR products in the end to verify that the reaction was a true positive - the great thing with RT PCR is that you can determine generally how much virus there is in the sample) and were told they were backordered until mid-June.

We inquired again today, and they've been pushed back to mid-July.
posted by porpoise at 8:04 PM on April 2, 2020 [15 favorites]

katra i feel you but i mean, he is also a lawyer in the sense that he like, graduated from law school. also the richard epstein's of the world do not need anyone defending them.

I am not defending Epstein, I'm defending the legal profession. From my view, it is absurd to conflate his failures with the actual work of being a lawyer, and there is no need to slander the profession by suggesting that he is a lawyer, especially when he is making it clear that he is not.

Graduating from law school does not make anyone a lawyer - you have to pass a bar exam, a character and fitness review, take an oath to uphold the Constitution, and then become subject to discipline by a bar authority and the court. It is very different than simply being a law professor, including because there is real accountability built into the legal profession.

If you want to hate on lawyers, I can't stop you, but I am trying to offer some facts for your consideration, because it really seems unfairly derogatory to lawyers to suggest that Epstein is "just a lawyer" when he absolutely is not.
posted by katra at 8:20 PM on April 2, 2020 [24 favorites]

okay. just saying perhaps your ire could be more appropriately directed at the Extremely Adjacent to the Legal Profession preeminent legal scholar Epstein et al rather than defending all lawyers in this particular space, in which many of your fellow mefites including me are a bit sensitive to rousing defenses of the legal profession that is the default resume for all politicians who are currently trying to murder us and which undergird the power of capital to exploit labor, what with rent and mortgages and whatnot. blah blah blah i know.

it's a tough time all around. epstein sucks, not all lawyers are evil. let's drop the derail.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:26 PM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

I don't think it's fair to suggest that I'm engaging in a rousing defense of politicians trying to murder us and then tell me to shut up / drop the derail. I had just added a brief comment with additional information to challenge a comment that I thought was unfair and wrong, and then you suggested that I was defending Epstein, so I responded to clarify that. I am going to drop this, but I also don't appreciate having what I say twisted into the worst possible interpretation, especially given how much I post about lawyers who work hard to defend your and all of our rights.
posted by katra at 8:37 PM on April 2, 2020 [21 favorites]

Enough on the Epstein thing please.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:44 PM on April 2, 2020 [7 favorites]

But after lobbying from the firearm industry, the Trump administration said this week that the stores qualified as essential businesses and should stay open during the lockdown alongside pharmacies, gas stations and grocery stores.

Essential? We get along fine without it but whatever. I'd like to point out a silver lining, we can expect a pause in mass shootings as opportunities to target crowds vanish.
posted by adept256 at 9:10 PM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

Speaking of essential businesses:

After panicked crowds swarm Denver liquor stores and dispensaries, mayor reverses order to close both

It only took three hours for the city of Denver to change course on listing liquor stores and recreational dispensaries as “non-essential”

That lasted three hours. You can't expect people who've just been fired to sit at home for months and be bombarded with the grimmest news in generations to do so without booze and weed. That's just inhumane. I asked the fellow at my local if he were considering closing, and he said he'd close when soldiers come and weld the doors shut. Made me proud to be an Aussie.
posted by adept256 at 9:21 PM on April 2, 2020 [16 favorites]

fda grants emergency use authorization for first "qualitative test for the detection of IgM and IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2" in serum, plasma and whole blood, the Cellex qSARS-CoV-2 IgG/IgM RapidTest, April 1, subject to conditions.

as yet there is no information on the company's (us) webpage about the test or the authorization, although making "available on your website(s) the Fact Sheet for Healthcare Providers and the Fact Sheet for Patients" is among the conditions. as i understand, to the degree it provides reliable results, such a test is a critical development for broad screening of persons who may have had covid-19 insofar as it may detect evidence of an immune response to the virus, rather than the instant presence of fragments of the virus' rna in a swabbed sample as with the pcr test to which we've been limited until now.

separately, i can think of a few places a vulnerable crowd might disastrously be found, adept256.
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:28 PM on April 2, 2020

Look, liquor is an essential supply. If you are trying to preserve capacity in your health system, and public order, the last thing you need is involuntarily detoxing alcoholics having seizures or robbing booze supplies.

In NZ the local experience with full lockdown thus far (alcohol available) is that the EDs are quiet. People drinking at home, in a solitary way, don't seem to get into the same kinds of alcohol-fuelled bullshit they do when there are crowds, bars and parties.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:38 PM on April 2, 2020 [20 favorites]

In NZ the local experience with full lockdown thus far (alcohol available) is that the EDs are quiet.

In South Africa we've banned both liquor and cigarette sales, which led to everyone who could (including yours truly) stocking up on a few six packs before lockdown. Those who couldn't, especially those who are in the poorer areas, are probably turning to the now doubt thriving black market.
posted by PenDevil at 11:09 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Not to mention the security aspect: any enemy of the United States now knows that a biological weapon (carried inside unsuspecting crew members) could take an aircraft carrier out of service in fairly short order.

Considering that the US military already ran a wargame where they demonstrated that a carrier group could be overwhelmed by an inexpensive small fleet of civilian boats and repurposed drones this seems like a ridiculous concern.

So it is probably true.
posted by srboisvert at 12:56 AM on April 3, 2020

Essential? We get along fine without it but whatever. I'd like to point out a silver lining, we can expect a pause in mass shootings as opportunities to target crowds vanish.

Only if you exclude the murder of families. I expect the number of mass murders to go up but to change to being almost exclusively domestic (and as an apartment dweller to possibly to eventually include some neighbor murder. Possibly including the person living above me training by slamming an exercise ball into the wall/floor)
posted by srboisvert at 1:04 AM on April 3, 2020 [12 favorites]

Considering that the US military already ran a wargame...

Yes, but with over 1 million CV cases worldwide (and nearly 1/4 million cases in the US), it’s no longer a simulated war game, it’s a deadly business. When huge, incredibly expensive war machines like aircraft carriers – used by the United States to project military power around the planet – can be stopped by a few people (or missiles) carrying Coronavirus, other militaries (and terrorists) will take notice and consider how to cheaply weaponize it to their advantage.

David doesn’t have to hit Goliath with a stone any longer, he just has to breathe on him.
posted by cenoxo at 3:34 AM on April 3, 2020

Jared Kushner Is Going to Get Us All Killed (NYT oped Michelle Goldberg)

Kushner told her that whatever he did, he “believed he could do it better than anybody else, and he had supreme confidence in his own abilities and his own judgment even when he didn’t know what he was talking about.” It’s hard to overstate the extent to which this confidence is unearned.

I know Trump said Ivanka was his type, I didn't know it was mutual.

This confidence is born of ignorance. As knowledge grows, you become more aware of how much you don't know. Kushner doesn't know anything, so he's confident that he knows everything?

He wasn't elected, he's only there for nepotism, he can't even pass a background check. His lack of qualifications for this job are multi-faceted. This isn't even a Dunning-Kruger thing, that's a lack of self-awareness. Other people are blind to his overblown ego, as if it's catching. He truly is Trump's son.
posted by adept256 at 4:02 AM on April 3, 2020 [27 favorites]

Experts and Trump’s advisers doubt White House’s 240,000 coronavirus deaths estimate, WaPo; William Wan, Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker, Joel Achenbach; 4/2/2020:

Leading disease forecasters, whose research the White House used to conclude 100,000 to 240,000 people will die nationwide from the coronavirus, were mystified when they saw the administration’s projection this week. The experts said they don’t challenge the numbers’ validity but that they don’t know how the White House arrived at them.

White House officials have refused to explain how they generated the figure — a death toll bigger than the United States suffered in the Vietnam War or the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They have not provided the underlying data so others can assess its reliability or provided long-term strategies to lower that death count....

[Details in the article]

The grim death-toll projections the White House offered Monday have already been revised upward, WaPo, Philip Bump, 4/2/2020: “Late Wednesday night [4/2/2020], the IHME released revised estimates, based on new data.”
posted by cenoxo at 4:23 AM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

Trump attacks Schumer for impeachment in letter about coronavirus crisis (Orion Rummler, Axios)

Trump tangles with Schumer all day over coronavirus response (Marianne Levine, Politico)

President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer clashed all day Thursday in media appearances, tweets and dueling letters over the federal government’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

The tension reached a climax when Trump sent a letter to the New York Democrat, defending his administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But letter also got personal, as the president accused the Democratic leader of getting caught up in the "impeachment hoax" and being "missing in action, except when it comes to the 'press."

Tweet: Senator Schumer's tweet & letter to President Trump

Official: Letter from President Donald J. Trump to Senator Charles E. Schumer
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:38 AM on April 3, 2020 [4 favorites]

Cry HAVOC! and let the political infighting begin. Quit wasting time.
posted by cenoxo at 4:48 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'm a fan of Schumer, and I'm a fan of illustrating how easily the powerful man who nevertheless needs so much help is easily distracted, but I feel like we don't need constant reminders of it right now.
posted by emelenjr at 5:06 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

When huge, incredibly expensive war machines like aircraft carriers – used by the United States to project military power around the planet – can be stopped by a few people (or missiles) carrying Coronavirus, other militaries (and terrorists) will take notice and consider how to cheaply weaponize it to their advantage.

I guess the sarcasm didn’t come through last time, so I’ll be more serious. There is no government, agency, syndicate, or organization on the entirety of the planet Earth that read Captain Crozier’s letter and thought “Aha! This is how I shall defeat the United States of America’s trillion-dollar war machine!”

That is because biological warfare is expensive and/or dangerous. You don’t just find someone with coronavirus and toss them on board an aircraft carrier with a catapult. Weaponizing a virus — especially one found in the wild — will likely end up killing more of your people than your enemy’s, and it will require billions of dollars of technology and decades of effort to establish a viable program.

This was not an OPSEC decision. It was political retaliation against someone who was willing to say that the emperor was naked.
posted by Etrigan at 5:08 AM on April 3, 2020 [44 favorites]

Actually employing a weapon of mass destruction against the US military also runs other risks such as a little light genocide.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 6:02 AM on April 3, 2020 [7 favorites]

The OPSEC problem is that it made known that the USS Teddy Roosevelt is unable to conduct force projection at the moment. It's a real problem.

Who's also a real problem is that the USS Teddy Roosevelt is unable to conduct force projection at the moment.
posted by ocschwar at 6:23 AM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

In South Africa we've banned both liquor and cigarette sales

THEY'VE OUTLAWED BREAKFAST???????
posted by soundguy99 at 6:28 AM on April 3, 2020 [72 favorites]

The USS Ronald Reagan is also quarantined, and with the information clampdown, who knows what other ships?

A well-deserved tribute: COVID-19 Plagued Aircraft Carrier Crew Give Sacked Captain A Thunderous Hero's Farewell – The circumstances surrounding Captain Crozier's removal from command remain murky, but his beleaguered crew appears to still ardently support him, War Zone, 4/3/2020.

The Russians have their own problems: Entire Crew Of A Russian Nuclear Submarine Is In Quarantine After COVID-19 Exposure – Personnel from a second sub and a floating workshop are also in quarantine, underscoring the dangers the virus poses to naval forces worldwide. War Zone, 3/30/2020.
posted by cenoxo at 6:49 AM on April 3, 2020 [7 favorites]

The OPSEC problem is that it made known that the USS Teddy Roosevelt is unable to conduct force projection at the moment. It's a real problem.

No entity that operates on a level that needs to be concerned with the forces projected by the Roosevelt was unaware of its issues before the letter went public. OPSEC is a convenient excuse for getting rid of someone who dared to admit that the response at Pentagon and higher levels is fucked up.
posted by Etrigan at 6:57 AM on April 3, 2020 [19 favorites]

The C.I.A. has been warning the White House since at least early February that China has vastly understated its coronavirus infections and that its count could not be relied upon as the United States compiles predictive models to fight the virus, according to current and former intelligence officials.
posted by photoslob at 7:12 AM on April 3, 2020 [10 favorites]

Jared Kushner makes coronavirus briefing appearance, draws backlash for 'our stockpile' comment (USAToday)

"When asked about data showing states' need for equipment, Kushner said, "The notion of the federal stockpile is that it's supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use."

Critics pounced on Kushner's comments.

"We are the UNITED STATES of America. The federal stockpile is reserved for all Americans living in our states, not just federal employees. Get it?" Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., replied.

"Does anyone know any federal Americans? Where do they live? How many are there? Are they nice? Why do they need some much protective gear and ventilators," quipped Joe Lockhart, former press secretary for President Bill Clinton."
posted by valkane at 7:14 AM on April 3, 2020 [16 favorites]

Not to continue the Epstein derail, but we should never forget or forgive that Republicans have been failing in their response to the epidemic because of their politics and ideology.

Epstein said it himself: "It’s also a matter of progressive politics, which, as you know, I regard as an extremely dangerous form of political ideology because these people are much more inclined to big government, much more inclined to see things as always being out of the ordinary, always reading small changes as though they’re about to become exponential ones."

Trump downplayed the threat because he was counting on the economy to be his lifeline to re-election, and he's taken over the briefings to get free campaign coverage from TV. Republicans in Congress wanted to limit aid to workers because that's what they do. Someone in Georgia said he opposes giving everyone absentee ballots because Republicans would lose with high turnout. Republican governors have been slower to order quarantine measures.

It's absolutely appropriate and necessary to point out that Republican ideology is an inseparable part of their fatal inability to respond to this crisis in the same way Hoover couldn't handle the Great Depression.
posted by Gelatin at 7:28 AM on April 3, 2020 [38 favorites]

Guardian: Fauci: 'I don't understand why' every state has not issued stay-home order

About 90% of Americans are under stay-at-home orders as states try to mitigate the spread of coronavirus by enforcing social distancing guidelines. However, a handful of governors are still resisting issuing statewide orders, and Donald Trump has been hesitant to issue a federal order to enforce the guidelines.

Last night on CNN, Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, said he was baffled as to why every state does not have an order in effect. “I don’t understand why that’s not happening,” Fauci told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, saying the governors who have not issued statewide orders “really should” reconsider. [...] But the official made clear he was not explicitly calling for a federal order. “You know, the tension between federally mandated versus states’ rights to do what they want is something I don’t want to get into,” he said. “But if you look at what’s going on in this country, I just don’t understand why we’re not doing that.”

posted by katra at 7:34 AM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

Fauci says that all states should have stay-at-home orders (The Hill, Apr. 2, 2020)

Trump said at a White House briefing Wednesday that he does not plan to issue a nationwide order because each state is uniquely affected by the virus. [...] Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Wednesday that the White House coronavirus guidelines should be interpreted as a national stay-at-home order. “My advice to America would be that these guidelines are a national stay-at-home order,” he said on NBC's "Today."

posted by katra at 7:37 AM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

A Detroit bus driver who posted a furious Facebook rant on March 21st about a passenger who coughed multiple times without covering her mouth died Wednesday from the coronavirus, highlighting the ongoing safety concerns of the city's transportation workers. Bus drivers' one-day work stoppage on March 17 resulted in the elimination of fares, along with new rules that keep the first row of seats empty and require passengers to enter and exit from the rear of the bus. The president of the local transit workers union announced he has also tested positive, and some bus drivers are calling for a complete shut down, while others note that many healthcare workers rely on buses to get to work.
posted by mediareport at 7:47 AM on April 3, 2020 [17 favorites]

by what constitutional or statutory authority might the president issue a mandatory stay at home order?
(not that such considerations have constrained him or his agencies/boosters in the past)
genuine question.

would it take an executive order?
would such and effort decimate his support among the states-rights right?
posted by 20 year lurk at 7:49 AM on April 3, 2020

National Emergency Powers (CRS, Mar. 23, 2020)

[at 2] The President is authorized by Congress to take some special or extraordinary action, ostensibly to meet the problems of governing effectively in times of exigency.

posted by katra at 7:56 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

> by what constitutional or statutory authority might the president issue a mandatory stay at home order?
(not that such considerations have constrained him or his agencies/boosters in the past)
genuine question.

US Emergency Legal Responses to Novel Coronavirus

The federal Public Health Services Act authorizes the CDC to detain, medically examine, and quarantine persons traveling into the US or between states suspected of carrying specific communicable diseases. [...]

Under the rule, CDC agents can initially apprehend persons suspected or known to be infected with specified communicable diseases for up to 72 hours. Medical testing, consensual treatment, modes of communication, and other accommodations must be offered at the government’s expense (unless health insurers are obligated to pay).

Following initial apprehension, the CDC can quarantine suspected cases or isolate infected persons pursuant to due process protections, including access to independent medical experts, legal counsel, and outside witnesses. CDC agents must also determine whether less-restrictive alternatives to separation and confinement are available. [...]

> would such and effort decimate his support among the states-rights right?

Not if the libs are sufficiently owned, no. Federalism is not a consistently applied doctrine, as the "states-rights right" are perfectly happy to have federal laws overrule less restrictive laws on abortion, and more restrictive laws on firearms. Ron DeSantis proved this recently with his petty overruling of local government efforts to adhere to more strict social distancing.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:58 AM on April 3, 2020 [13 favorites]

"persons traveling into the US or between states," though, are different from persons within states but maybe not staying at home, no?
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:03 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Federal Executive Emergency Authorities to Address COVID-19 (Masha Simonova, Nathaniel Sobel, Lawfare)

To date, Trump has exercised some, but certainly not all, of his potential statutory emergency authority under the National Emergencies Act, the Stafford Act, and the Public Health Service Act. What other powers remain untapped? Below, we review the four statutes that form the backbone of the executive’s emergency powers during a health crisis.

[...] In addition, unrelated to the executive’s authority under Section 319, the HHS secretary holds a range of powers that may be invoked in a time of crisis without a formal declaration of emergency. For example, as Robert Chesney explored in depth for Lawfare, the Public Health Service Act and certain regulations provide for federal mandatory quarantine authority regardless of the secretary’s emergency declaration. And 42 U.S.C. § 264 allows the surgeon general, who reports to HHS leadership, to “make and enforce such regulations as in his judgment are necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the States or possessions, or from one State or possession into any other State or possession.” This provision is implemented under 42 C.F.R. Part 70.2, which gives the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the authority to “take such measures to prevent such spread of the diseases as he/she deems reasonably necessary” when the director makes the determination that measures taken by state or local official are “insufficient to prevent the spread of ... communicable diseases.” As Chesney recently suggested, Section 264 could plausibly be the authority for a federally imposed regional quarantine, though the president has since backed away from his sudden proposal to quarantine the states of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.

posted by katra at 8:04 AM on April 3, 2020 [6 favorites]

thanks tonycpsu & katra.
sec. 264 remains explicitly focused on international and intrastate movement.
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:23 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

correction: interstate. not intrastate.
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:29 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Jared Kushner's coronavirus overreach puts more American lives on the line (Lloyd Green, Guardian OpEd)
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:32 AM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

Yet the commerce clause is phrased in the same way and has been used for ages to implement sweeping federal law affecting all states.
posted by sjswitzer at 8:52 AM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

White House officials have refused to explain how they generated the figure — a death toll bigger than the United States suffered in the Vietnam War or the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Considering the projection is respectively 1 and 2 orders of magnitude more than those events, and worse case would be 2 and 3, I wish these sorts of stories would make that clear rather than just "bigger".

But letter also got personal, as the president accused the Democratic leader of getting caught up in the "impeachment hoax"

God damn it, it's not a hoax. You were impeached MF!
posted by Mitheral at 8:54 AM on April 3, 2020 [5 favorites]

Actually employing a weapon of mass destruction against the US military also runs other risks such as a little light genocide.

Provided the U.S. government, its intelligence agencies, and military know without a doubt exactly who (if anyone) deployed it. Shooting back from the hip can kill a lot of the wrong people and provoke its own round of retaliation.
posted by cenoxo at 9:12 AM on April 3, 2020

correction: interstate. not intrastate.

As virus takes hold, resistance to stay-at-home orders remains widespread — exposing political and social rifts (WaPo)

In some cases, the resistance has led to rising political tensions, with often Democratic mayors imposing orders of their own that they acknowledge have limited effect when surrounding jurisdictions do not act. [...] Lyda Krewson, the mayor of St. Louis, said her city’s stay-at-home order was undermined by the absence of a blanket policy, warning, “We have a fluid society, frankly.” [...] The pleas have not been from politicians alone. Joining Krewson and others in appealing to the Missouri governor was the state’s medical association, which sent a letter to Parson saying a statewide order was the “only way to curb the exponential spread of covid-19 in Missouri.”

[...] Current and former emergency management officials said the delay would cost lives. “Part of the problem is just reluctance to wrap your head around the fact that the numbers could get that bad that fast,” said W. Craig Fugate, a former FEMA administrator. He singled out the South, saying, “It’s almost a different approach, waiting to know it’s bad. I’m afraid that by the time they have reports of cases, it’s already too late.” A federal official involved in emergency management in a group of states across the Southeast echoed that assessment. “We needed to be where we are now three weeks ago,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the response effort. “It’s like Hurricane Katrina is hitting all 50 states at the same time.”

posted by katra at 9:16 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Google has published mobility statistics for countries and regions (e.g. states and counties). The results are published as PDFs so it's a little difficult to do comparisons. I put my own comparison together of the top-line results for the US versus other countries with high levels of cases per 1M population. The US isn't locking down nearly as much.

              Category  US  Spain  Italy  Germany  France
0  Retail & Recreation -47    -94    -94      -77     -88
1   Grocery & Pharmacy -22    -76    -85      -51     -72
2                Parks -19    -89    -90      -49     -82
3     Transit Stations -51    -88    -87      -68     -87
4           Workplaces -38    -64    -63      -39     -56
5          Residential +12    +22    +24      +11     +18

posted by jedicus at 9:37 AM on April 3, 2020 [6 favorites]

Is it strange in those stats that Residential doesn't have a larger positive change given the large negative changes to other areas?
posted by kokaku at 9:44 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

That probably captures the people who are going to someone else's house. Grim numbers...
posted by feloniousmonk at 9:46 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Also the number aren't unitary. The -51 in transit for example is probably entirely also captured in the other numbers as very few people take transit for the hell of it.
posted by Mitheral at 9:52 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Residential change will be lower because people already spend about half of their time at home.
posted by sjswitzer at 9:53 AM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

The numbers are unlikely to include children for a number of reasons. Lots more children are at home but not reflected in those numbers.
posted by sjswitzer at 9:56 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

the spikes and volatility in parks in the three states i glanced at are stunning.
posted by 20 year lurk at 10:08 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

I suspect at the state and county level the parks numbers will reflect weekends and weather more than anything.
posted by jedicus at 10:11 AM on April 3, 2020

In my county, parks are +115% which is indeed stunning, but jibes with what I'm seeing in the local mom groups, where everyone is talking about going to the local state park. Our town parks are still seeing pickup basketball games, which blows my mind.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:12 AM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

St. Louis county (Missouri) has announced that it is closing all county parks for the duration, beginning today. People were overcrowding. I do worry that we might see an even worse situation as people crowd onto sidewalks in scenic areas, but maybe lack of parking will prevent that.

It does run into a class situation where people living in subdivisions with private parks will still have access to the outdoors, but I don't know what can be done about that outside of a strict "no going outdoors except in the immediate vicinity of your house" rule the way some other countries have. I don't know if the US authorities are prepared to go that far, at least not yet.
posted by jedicus at 10:18 AM on April 3, 2020

Strategic National Stockpile description altered online after Kushner's remarks (Politico)

The official government webpage for the Strategic National Stockpile was altered Friday to seemingly reflect a controversial description of the emergency repository that White House adviser Jared Kushner offered at a news conference Thursday evening.

According to a brief online summary on the Department of Health and Human Services website, the stockpile's role "is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well."

But hours earlier, the text characterized the stockpile as the "nation's largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out."

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:21 AM on April 3, 2020 [16 favorites]

"Does anyone know any federal Americans? Where do they live? How many are there? Are they nice? Why do they need some much protective gear and ventilators," quipped Joe Lockhart, former press secretary for President Bill Clinton."

Not that I agree with Kushner's decisions regarding management of federal stockpiles of emergency equipment but I expect the "quip" above went over like a lead balloon in places such as Puerto Rico, D.C., and the many other places where people live who are American citizens but not represented by a state. It excludes literally millions of Americans for the sake of a joke and it's pretty appalling that it was uttered by a communications professional who represented a former Democratic president.

Do better, Democrats, there are many ways to make the point you're trying to make that don't exclude the only-partially-enfranchised.
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:23 AM on April 3, 2020 [13 favorites]

The park thing is a little weird because we had a bit of back and forth conflicting advice here in California. In the very early days when reality first started setting in but people had yet to fully appreciate the scope of things, the advice was to take the opportunity to go explore the great outdoors, with a little caveat at the end about maintaining distancing between parties, etc. It didn't take long to go from that to the state padlocking parking lots at all state parks with various cities and counties doing the same.
posted by feloniousmonk at 10:24 AM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

95% of BC is Crown land. It would be impossible to prevent people from venturing into the wilderness unless you hired every single person in the province to barricade a road. Parks of various stripes are closed to various degrees but anyone can drive up a logging road and roam around.

I've done it myself. Yesterday I ventured up a service road no one had travelled in days (obvious by the unbroken ice on the potholes) after I dropped my spouse off at her healthcare job. Spent a few hours freezing and taking pictures and came back home.

I'd obey a don't venture off your property order but it would be pretty hard to enforce generally.
posted by Mitheral at 10:48 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

From Mission Local: COVID-19: San Francisco omits the health data you’d most want to know

The Bay Area region has won praise for its proactive steps to shelter-in-place and take seriously the world-altering potential of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six counties jointly issued sweeping health orders days and weeks before other municipalities and states. Thousands of lives may have been saved by this forward-thinking action.

But with the data San Francisco publicly discloses, no one can truly know if these measures are working. Are we winning the war? Are we flattening the curve? It’s impossible to say with the numbers on hand; San Francisco omits the data you’d most want to know.

Solano, Sonoma, and Santa Clara counties are reporting far more information than San Francisco does.
posted by Lexica at 10:50 AM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

US accused of 'modern piracy' after diversion of masks meant for Europe (Guardian)

The US has been accused of “modern piracy” after reportedly diverting a shipment of masks intended for the German police, and outbidding other countries in the increasingly fraught global market for protective equipment. About 200,000 N95 masks made by the manufacturer GM were diverted to the US as they were being transferred between planes in Thailand, according to the Berlin authorities who had ordered the masks for the police force.

[...] Valérie Pécresse, the influential president of the Île-de-France region, which includes Paris, described the race to get masks as a “treasure hunt”. “I found a stock of masks that was available and Americans – I’m not talking about the American government – but Americans, outbid us,” Pécresse said. [...] Her comments follow allegations from two other French regional heads of unidentified American buyers outbidding on mask shipments, including one case when a consignment was reportedly “on the tarmac” to be flown to France. [...] The French media have started calling the rush for equipment “mask wars”.

posted by katra at 11:13 AM on April 3, 2020 [6 favorites]

Sanders' Priorities for the Next Coronavirus Relief Package
posted by The Whelk at 11:25 AM on April 3, 2020 [7 favorites]

I assume “federal Americans” refers to the Trump and Kushner families.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:49 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

@ddale8: After Jared Kushner’s comment about how the Strategic National Stockpile is not supposed to be for states, lots of people pointed to the fact that its own website says it is.

The language on the website has now been changed.

My screenshot from last night vs. one from today: (before, after)
posted by tonycpsu at 11:58 AM on April 3, 2020 [16 favorites]

What’s Going On With Donald Trump and 3M? (Kevin Drum, Mother Jones)

President Trump mysteriously invoked the Defense Procurement Act against 3M on Thursday:
We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks. “P Act” all the way. Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing – will have a big price to pay!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2020
The White House didn’t explain this, and it’s a little unnerving to see Trump using the DPA in such a gleefully punitive way. It’s supposed to be a technocratic tool for coordinating production, not a way for a president to score political points on Twitter.

posted by ZeusHumms at 11:59 AM on April 3, 2020 [15 favorites]

President Trump mysteriously invoked the Defense Procurement Act against 3M on Thursday

US accused of 'modern piracy' after diversion of masks meant for Europe

Think these two might be related.
posted by PenDevil at 12:10 PM on April 3, 2020 [5 favorites]

Is It Possible to Overstate Trump’s Depravity? (Nancy LeTourneau, Washington Monthly)

It is infuriating to watch political reporters get sucked into the nonsense delivered by this president over and over again. But David Roberts recently described why that happens.
Ask someone who’s been in an abusive relationship with a malignant narcissist. One reason they’re able to maintain appearances/jobs/etc. is that they are relatively rare & unusual & the normal people around them simply can’t absorb that they are what they are…They try again and again, thinking there must be normal human intentions & emotions in there somewhere. It’s just remarkable how far someone w/out shame or conscience can get by exploiting this cognitive/emotional blindspot.

posted by ZeusHumms at 12:11 PM on April 3, 2020 [32 favorites]

if only his entire history hadn't been telling us exactly who he is
it's almost certain there's a grift being run on supplies here - maybe some intrepid reporter and some courageous whistleblower will bring it to light
posted by kokaku at 12:19 PM on April 3, 2020 [4 favorites]

3M faces pressure from Trump order to stop exporting N95 masks to Canada

As became plain when he initiated an"easy to win" trade war The Cheeto has no idea how international trade works. I can't help but wonder if the masks require material from Canada. This is such a transparent response to the bad press resulting from the masks sent to China earlier in the year.
posted by Mitheral at 12:36 PM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

“P Act” all the way.

Yeah he's been a big fan ever since that night in Moscow.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 12:48 PM on April 3, 2020 [12 favorites]

WaPo: Federal government spent millions to ramp up mask readiness, but that isn’t helping now

In September 2018, the Trump administration received detailed plans for a new machine designed to churn out millions of protective respirator masks at high speed during a pandemic.

The plans, submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by the medical manufacturer O&M Halyard, were the culmination of a venture unveiled almost three years earlier by the Obama administration.

But HHS did not proceed with making the machine.

This would have been able to produce 1.5 million masks per day, almost single-handedly solving the mask availability problem.
posted by jedicus at 12:55 PM on April 3, 2020 [29 favorites]

Interview with 3M's Mike Roman here, in which he says that although the company exports masks to Canada and LatAm, 3M is a net importer of N95s into the US, via its overseas factories, "and we’ve been telling the administration [that] for days and days"
[Youtube queued to where Mike starts talking]

We cut to Syndrome for comment.
posted by Mitheral at 12:56 PM on April 3, 2020 [12 favorites]

> The plans, submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by the medical manufacturer O&M Halyard, were the culmination of a venture unveiled almost three years earlier by the Obama administration.

I think I see the problem. Some deep-stater at HHS should have accidentally said it was an idea from the GWB administration.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:57 PM on April 3, 2020 [8 favorites]

Hard to say whether Racism or "Why pay for something we aren't using, We'll just hire them when we need them" thinking.

I'm going with both.
posted by Mitheral at 12:59 PM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Some good news: Massachusetts is about to start a contact tracing program for positive cases. I'm not sure how they decided that it's a good use of effort, but the governor has the Harvard School of Public Health on his side, so I trust them on this call.
posted by ocschwar at 1:07 PM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Americans are underestimating how long coronavirus disruptions will last, health experts say (Helen Branswell, Stat News)

“The administration has consistently shown a desire to underplay the severity of whatever is coming. And they’re constantly adjusting that — as it becomes harder to deny the reality will be worse than what they’ve conditioned people for,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development.

Konyndyk said he and other experts he’s discussed the matter with believe an “intensive period of social distancing and a national semi-voluntary lockdown” will last for months.

posted by ZeusHumms at 1:38 PM on April 3, 2020 [8 favorites]

If you feel like being filled with a cleansing rage, check out this NYT article about companies suing to be deemed essential, such as "a company that says it is the country’s oldest manufacturer of orchestra-quality bells and chimes."
posted by zeusianfog at 1:57 PM on April 3, 2020 [6 favorites]

“ But the sorry episode is more than an example of Reno being dangerously wrong. After all, that’s no surprise. His pandemic polemics also exemplify the way right-wing intellectuals, and Reno especially, have operated during Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency.”
posted by The Whelk at 2:15 PM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

AL.com: Alabama’s governor went on Twitter for a coronavirus Q&A. It was a disaster.

tl;dr: Our accidental governor gives a series of infuriating non-answers to demands for Medicaid expansion and a statewide lockdown.

I kind of wish her philandering predecessor Robert Bentley were still in office -- at least he had a medical background. Anyway, she finally ordered a statewide shelter-in-place order for tomorrow, but who knows how much damage has been done in the meantime.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:16 PM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Some good news: Massachusetts is about to start a contact tracing program for positive cases. More here, at nbcboston.com.

In the midst of all this misery, MA seems to have lucked out with its governor. (His successful efforts to secure protective masks, after a shipment of 3 million N95 masks was seized by Feds, are detailed in this post upthread.) Gov. Baker was previously, variously: the Undersecretary of Health and Human Services for the state of Massachusetts, the Secretary of Health and Human Services for the state of Massachusetts, CEO of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates (a physicians' group), president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (a nonprofit health benefits org, and the parent company of HVMA). Baker also sat of the board of trustees for a medical center.

[on preview] While not having an extensive medical education, I think having some familiarity with health care systems and being a sensible person in general helped Baker evaluate this administration's poor advice correctly, and then take additional protective measures to better serve his constituents. (Baker ran as a socially liberal, fiscally conservative Republican, so he's actually more of a Democrat than someone like Joe Manchin; mentioning because the many Republican governors terribly slow on the uptake are getting much-deserved vitriol, and Baker shouldn't be lumped in with them. He should, of course, re-consider his party affiliation.)

Also interesting: Machine That Can Sterilize 80K Masks a Day Coming to Boston Area (nbcboston.com, April 3, 2020)
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:23 PM on April 3, 2020 [5 favorites]

You know what I'm really looking forward to? The Tokyo Olympics. A big party with everyone in the world invited. It's gonna be a rager, and we'll find out who can run the fastest too. The best thing about it will be we'll be confident enough that everyone involved, from wherever they're from, is vaccinated and safe.

There's no point unless everyone's in the clear. You may have secured your country, but it can come roaring back. This is why, after we've looked after ourselves, we'll have to make a truly international effort to go to the places that just can't handle it on their own. America first BS will have to be set aside. No more fuck you, got mine attitude. Strong countries will have to help the weak.

If we can do that, I'll see you in Tokyo, and we'll fucking party.
posted by adept256 at 3:02 PM on April 3, 2020 [8 favorites]

It occurs to me that Kushner’s comment about the Strategic National Stockpile stems from a strictly transactional view of life. Why should somebody get something for nothing? "I would like you to do us a favour though."
posted by sjswitzer at 3:02 PM on April 3, 2020 [12 favorites]

Also interesting: Machine That Can Sterilize 80K Masks a Day Coming to Boston Area (nbcboston.com, April 3, 2020)

This machine was developed by a Columbus, Ohio non-profit called Battelle. It was apparently a project kinda set aside until recently.

Here's a cleveland.com article on how it works.
posted by soundguy99 at 3:12 PM on April 3, 2020 [9 favorites]

Kushner’s comment about the Strategic National Stockpile stems from a strictly transactional view of life

I'd argue it's more insidious than that. "Transactional" implies that you do something for him, he'll do something for you. But Kushner didn't create the stockpile, he just happens to control it right now. You do something for him, and he'll allow the thing that would've happened anyway without his interference.

It's buying the rights to an established life-saving drug and tripling the price. It's "nice place you've got here, it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it". It's all the worst tendencies of vulture capitalism and organized crime, and he's playing with the lives of everyday people.

He's an idiot, for sure. He's also a monster.
posted by Riki tiki at 3:31 PM on April 3, 2020 [40 favorites]

I know it's kicking people while they're down, but a lot of people in the Harvard community will have a lot of free time on their hands in the next few weeks, and they need to devote some of it to whether they should take steps so nobody like Kushner buys his way in and buys his way out the way Kushner did.
posted by ocschwar at 3:38 PM on April 3, 2020

"You know, I’m automatically attracted to vulnerable people — I just start f-ing with them. It’s like a magnet. Just kick. I don’t even wait. And when you’re the POTUS, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the nuts. You can do anything."
posted by sjswitzer at 3:42 PM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

Trump actually denies there’s a ‘massive recession’ as 10 million or more people lose jobs (Cody Fenwick, Alternet)
posted by ZeusHumms at 3:43 PM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

This is a zombie at the head of a family of monsters.
posted by Mrs Potato at 3:49 PM on April 3, 2020 [4 favorites]

It occurs to me that Kushner’s comment about the Strategic National Stockpile stems from a strictly transactional view of life. Why should somebody get something for nothing?

December 4, House hearing on impeachment:

Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan testifies "What would you think if ... your governor asked for a meeting with the president to discuss getting disaster aid that Congress has provided for? What would you think if that president said, “I would like you to do us a favor?"

It's not like there was no warning for exactly what is happening now.
posted by JackFlash at 3:51 PM on April 3, 2020 [34 favorites]

New face mask guidance comes after battle between White House and CDC (Washington Post, April 3, 2020) President Trump announced new guidance Friday that people in the U.S. wear face coverings in public to slow the spread of the coronavirus, a reversal of the administration’s earlier recommendations. But Trump immediately said he himself would not choose to do it, even though “it may be good” advice, reflecting the sharp debate in recent days between the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:19 PM on April 3, 2020 [5 favorites]

Jared Kushner Is Going to Get Us All Killed (NYT oped Michelle Goldberg)

[Putting] Jared Kushner [in Charge] is ~~Going to Get Us All Killed~~ Utter Madness

New York Times literally rewrites its headline.

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984
posted by JackFlash at 4:22 PM on April 3, 2020 [10 favorites]

Supreme Court cancels April arguments, unclear how it will finish term (WaPo, April 3, 2020) The Supreme Court on Friday officially canceled its scheduled oral arguments for April because of health threats caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and left in doubt how the justices will finish their term. The court already had postponed March arguments, which means about 20 cases — including the battle over President Trump’s attempts to shield his financial records from congressional committees and a Manhattan prosecutor — are left in limbo. The court’s April session usually is its last each term.
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:23 PM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

Desperate for insight, Trump's team turns to the past to try and save his presidency (Gabby Orr, Politico)

One aide studied the Spanish flu while another reviewed FDR’s inaugural address, searching for inspiration to tackle today’s crisis.

A cynic would say that this was just a search through American history to find the right metaphor that minimizes the number of deceased from COVID-19, and protects Trump's legacy (Daily Kos).
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:31 PM on April 3, 2020 [4 favorites]

If those of who can work remotely can do it, why can't the Supreme Court?
posted by kokaku at 4:39 PM on April 3, 2020 [9 favorites]

U.S. warns Americans to leave Japan amid "significant increase" in COVID-19 cases [Ramy Inocencio, CBS News, 4/3/2020]

"If U.S. citizens wish to return to the United States, they should make arrangements to do so now," the embassy said in a notice posted to its website, "unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period."

posted by MrVisible at 5:28 PM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Russian ventilators sent to U.S. made by firm under U.S. sanctions: Russia newspaper
posted by adamvasco at 6:40 PM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

One aide studied the Spanish flu while another reviewed FDR’s inaugural address, searching for inspiration to tackle today’s crisis.

Oh yes! Oh yes, yes, yes! That's the entertainment I need in quarantine. Trump trying to do a FDR style speech.
posted by rdr at 6:47 PM on April 3, 2020 [8 favorites]

How much you wanna bet that the Russian ventilators run on 220v 50 Hz electricity?
posted by njohnson23 at 6:48 PM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

Facing coronavirus pandemic, Trump suspends immigration laws and showcases vision for locked-down border (WaPo, April 3, 2020) President Trump has used emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic to implement the kind of strict enforcement regime at the U.S. southern border he has long wanted, suspending laws that protect minors and asylum seekers so that the U.S. government can immediately deport them or turn them away. [...] Citing the threat of “mass, uncontrolled cross-border movement,” the president has shelved safeguards intended to protect trafficking victims and persecuted groups, implementing an expulsion order that sends migrants of all ages back to Mexico in an average of 96 minutes. [...]

Citing the emergency declaration from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Homeland Security officials have bypassed court-ordered due process protections for minors, asylum seekers and others as they return border-crossers to Mexico as quickly as possible. The migrants taken into custody now are tallied as “encounters” rather than “apprehensions,” and they are “expelled” from the country rather than formally deported. [...] On Thursday, CBP did not refer any children to shelters overseen by the Department of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, the first time in recent memory that has occurred, according to ORR.
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:51 PM on April 3, 2020 [6 favorites]

Trump trying to do a FDR style speech.

maybe he can call them liarlied chats
posted by pyramid termite at 6:51 PM on April 3, 2020 [11 favorites]

Inside the coronavirus testing failure: Alarm and dismay among the scientists who sought to help (WaPo / reprint)

On a Jan. 15 conference call, a leading scientist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assured local and state public health officials from across the nation that there would soon be a test to detect a mysterious virus spreading from China. Stephen Lindstrom told them the threat was remote and they may not need the test his team was developing “unless the scope gets much larger than we anticipate,” according to an email summarizing the call. [...] Three weeks later, early on Feb. 8, one of the first CDC test kits arrived in a Federal Express package at a public health laboratory on the east side of Manhattan. For hours, lab technicians struggled to verify that the test worked. Each time, it fell short, producing untrustworthy results. That night, they called their lab director, Jennifer Rakeman, an assistant commissioner in the New York City health department, to tell her it had failed. “Oh, s---,” she replied. “What are we going to do now?”

In the 21 days that followed, as Trump administration officials continued to rely on the flawed CDC test, many lab scientists eager to aid the faltering effort grew increasingly alarmed and exasperated by the federal government’s actions, according to previously unreported email messages and other documents reviewed by The Washington Post, as well as exclusive interviews with scientists and officials involved.

posted by katra at 7:01 PM on April 3, 2020 [10 favorites]

Trump says he will fire intelligence watchdog at center of Ukraine allegations that led to impeachment

President Trump notified Congress Friday evening that he intends in 30 days to fire the inspector general of the intelligence community, the official who alerted lawmakers to a whistleblower complaint last September that was at the center of allegations that led to the president’s impeachment.
The bombshell move to remove Michael Atkinson comes as the administration is struggling to cope with a coronavirus pandemic that has killed thousands of Americans.
The whistleblower complaint centered on Trump’s efforts last summer to pressure the Ukrainian government to undertake investigations of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter, moves that would undermine a likely rival to Trump in his reelection bid.
Trump informed lawmakers in a letter late Friday night that he was removing Atkinson. “It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general,’’ he wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. “That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general.”

posted by mumimor at 8:33 PM on April 3, 2020 [11 favorites]

Not just firing the intelligence IG, but a one-two punch with this one:

Late breaking Friday news: Trump taps White House attorney to be inspector general over $2T coronavirus package

Barney Frank: "[A] blatant conflict of interest... The job of White House counsel is to represent the president. It's contemptuous."

posted by bcd at 8:45 PM on April 3, 2020 [12 favorites]

Oh, and the other shoe about the Atkinson firing? Sure, they gave the required 30 days notice, but placed him on administrative leave immediately. Makes you wonder what other sort of malfeasances he was currently investigating.
posted by bcd at 8:52 PM on April 3, 2020 [11 favorites]

Pandemics And The U.S. Military: Lessons From 1918; Michael Shurkin, Senior Political Scientist; Rand Corporation; April 1, 2020:

“We are not at war. 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.” – Capt. Brett Crozier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, March 30, 2020

The novel coronavirus will hit the U.S. military and its allies hard, as already there have been outbreaks at the Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island and on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. How hard will depend on a number of variables — some having to do with the virus itself (how and to what extent it mutates, whether it comes back in subsequent waves, etc.) and others having to do with what measures militaries take to protect themselves. But it would be foolhardy to underestimate the damage COVID-19 could do.

Fortunately, we have a historical example that could offer some clues on how the virus might affect the military, the kinds of policies that might exacerbate or mitigate the pandemic’s impact, and the policy choices that at some point today’s military leaders may face. ... I am speaking, of course, of the 1918 influenza epidemic ... started at Camp Funston, Kansas in March 1918 and quickly spread from there. U.S. Army camps were major hotspots. An average of 25 percent of the soldiers there were sick during the autumn wave of the pandemic, although in many camps the rates were at 50 percent or above. The pandemic swept through the camps—as it did the rest of the world–in three distinct waves...

More details in the article, including the thousands of hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S., French, British, and German armies; the risks of crowded troop ships; overwhelmed hospitals; and the lessons for today’s military.

History echoes once again.
posted by cenoxo at 8:54 PM on April 3, 2020 [6 favorites]

America’s Largest Military Bases Around the World, John Harrington, 24/7 Wall St., March 13, 2020:

The United States has by far the strongest military in the world. To maintain its global presence, the United States operates more than 500 military bases on foreign sites across every continent except for Antarctica. These facilities are used for training and troop deployments, for maintaining and testing weapons systems, for research and education, and for aircraft testing. Given the space these exercises often require, the physical size of these installations can be considerable.

24/7 Wall St. has compiled a list of America’s 50 largest military bases overseas. The facilities are listed in order of physical size, according to data from the Department of Defense’s Base Structure Report — Fiscal Year 2018 Baseline [PDF]. The report provides characteristics of bases overseas as of Sept. 30, 2017, including base size by acreage, and the cost of replacing the base in terms of today’s construction costs and standards....

It’s not just military personnel that go overseas, but also their dependents.
posted by cenoxo at 9:34 PM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

Trump today in press conference: "The original tests, the one we inherited. They were broken. They were obsolete. They were not good tests. And that's what we were stuck with."

Yep, Obama, messed up the CDC tests. It's breathtaking, the lies. And the press says ...... nothing.
posted by JackFlash at 9:48 PM on April 3, 2020 [17 favorites]

Trump to Fire Intelligence Watchdog Who Had Key Role in Ukraine Complaint (NYT)

Mr. Trump also nominated a senior Customs and Border Protection policy official, Jason Abend, to be the Department of Defense inspector general. That position is vacant and is held on an acting basis by Glenn Fine, the deputy inspector general at the Pentagon and a longtime Justice Department inspector general with a reputation for independence.

Earlier this week, a group of fellow inspectors general named Mr. Fine to be the chairman of the new Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, with control of an $80 million budget to police how the government carries out the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. If Mr. Abend is confirmed, Mr. Fine would lose his acting role and could no longer lead the committee.

posted by katra at 9:52 PM on April 3, 2020 [8 favorites]

Guardian: Fact check: Is the previous administration to blame?

Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed the “previous administration” for his government’s lack of preparation for the coronavirus crisis. “Speak to the people from the previous administration. The shelves were empty,” he said when asked why the US failed to stockpile enough medical supplies to meet current needs.

But Trump, who has been president since 2017, ignored early warnings that a pandemic was coming, including from his own HHS secretary. Three months before the first cases of coronavirus began spreading through China, the Trump administration ended a $200m early warning program designed to alert it to potential pandemics.

posted by katra at 10:00 PM on April 3, 2020 [18 favorites]

An Unhealthy Military Is Struggling to Fight COVID-19 – Even as it’s called upon to aid the coronavirus response across the country, the military is struggling to contain the disease among its own personnel, The Atlantic, Kathy Gilsinan, 4/3/2020:

...The U.S. armed forces and their supporting industries, with people wedged into shared barracks or in 96-person ship berths sleeping inches away from one another, are especially vulnerable to the spread of the virus. The military is also the world’s largest employer, with more than 3 million on the Defense Department payroll alone—not even counting legions of contractors that assist the entire enterprise.

The virus now threatens to be deadlier to U.S. citizens than any of America’s recent armed conflicts, and take many multiples the number of lives lost in the 9/11 attacks. And the institution that seeks to protect the United States from threats cannot stop the single biggest one the U.S. has faced in a generation. Meanwhile, even as the military is called upon to help with the domestic response, the nature of the virus strikes right at the core of its culture and ethos. The whole point of a military is to mass together to destroy an enemy. That’s exactly the wrong thing to do when confronting a transmissible virus....

Always fighting the last war, but never catching up.
posted by cenoxo at 10:01 PM on April 3, 2020 [4 favorites]

RE: the idiocy of the 3m export ban:

[Canada, BC] Nanaimo’s Harmac mill works to fill doubled pulp order for medical masks and gowns
[...]
Production is heating up at Harmac Pacific to produce a special paper pulp used in the manufacture of disposable surgical masks, gowns and other medical products.
[...]
Sampson said the Harmac mill is the world’s only producer of the particular grade of paper pulp used in the manufacture of surgical masks and gowns
[...]
“K10S is the pulp that we’re producing for these medical supplies. We’re the only one that produces it,”

Hope the Canadians don't retaliate with medical supply export ban. Which we won't. Too much like shooting the hostage despite the provocation.
posted by Mitheral at 10:26 PM on April 3, 2020 [7 favorites]

'I'm not going to do it': Trump rejects his own administration's advice on masks (Guardian)

At the daily White House coronavirus task force briefing, Trump was pressed to explain his unwillingness to lead by example and offered a characteristically unconventional reply. “I just don’t want to wear one myself. They say ‘recommendation’, they recommend it. I’m feeling good,” – a remark that ignored evidence that many virus carriers do not show symptoms.

Tensions Persist Between Trump and Medical Advisers Over the Coronavirus (NYT)

Mr. Trump’s decision to take a back seat to the states by leaving it to them to decide whether to shut down public life and insisting they take the lead in addressing shortages amounts to a remarkable deference by a president who typically makes himself the center of the action. It also contrasts with his own self-description as a wartime president leading a great battle against an invisible enemy.

posted by katra at 10:40 PM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

As Trump faces heat on coronavirus response, Republicans try to elevate China’s role in domestic political debate (WaPo)

Democrats have scoffed at the GOP’s case that China’s lack of transparency somehow absolves the administration of its missteps, which include a failure to ensure states had access to virus testing kits and other crucial supplies. They note that Trump in January and February publicly touted Xi’s suggestion that the virus would peter out as the weather warmed.

[...] The Washington Post reported that U.S. intelligence agencies had warned in January and February of the threat of a pandemic in classified reports, even as Trump minimized the threat in public. “Trump’s new argument that the failure to prepare for the pandemic is not his fault because he got played the [fool] by China seems like a message that was not well-thought out,” Dan Pfeiffer, a former Obama White House aide, wrote on Twitter.

posted by katra at 11:05 PM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

I took jedicus's table of data skimmed from Google's mobility study pdfs, added Sweden and put it in an open Google spreadsheet. Feel free to format or add data.
posted by St. Oops at 1:13 AM on April 4, 2020

How science finally caught up with Trump's playbook – with millions of lives at stake By Ed Pilkington, The Guardian
An overview of the Trump administration's mismanagement of the crisis. I didn't find much new in there, but it is well-written, and damning.

For Naomi Oreskes, a history of science professor at Harvard, the unfolding calamity is the fulfilment of her worst fears.

“When we first heard about coronavirus, I and several of my colleagues worried that Trump would not attend to scientific advice. This is a man who has exhibited a reckless disregard for scientific evidence over climate change; if he could do that, there was always the question of whether he would take seriously any science.”

Oreskes sees Covid-19 as Trump’s ultimate challenge. Would he put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans first, or would he dig into the tried-and-tested Republican playbook of showing hostility to science and expertise, reining in government intervention and prioritizing the money markets?

posted by mumimor at 1:46 AM on April 4, 2020 [6 favorites]

CBS's David Begnaud

This is so important for everyone to understand. This explains why Governors say: I'm not getting the supplies I need - yet @POTUS says we are sending tons of supplies: It's going from the federal govt to commercial distributors who then deliver to the highest bidder: states!

...

Basically, this is not going directly to the states. It's going to the middleman and then the state has to be the highest bidder in order to get what the middleman has in its inventory. And if there's leftovers, then the next state in line gets it.

https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1245841458323771393

B. Justice @zefirotorna :

FEMA is paying to airlift supplies from China that then are handed over to the distributors who are making a large profit. The supplies are sent from Shanghai to JFK in New York City. Get the FEMA contracts. #TrumpSwamp

...

The project is called Project Airbridge. It’s a public-private-partnership where the public pays for the airlift and then gets shafted by the private distributors who are in it just for the profit. Jared Kushner came up with this.
(nytimes link)

posted by sebastienbailard at 2:11 AM on April 4, 2020 [45 favorites]

• 'I'm not going to do it': Trump rejects his own administration's advice on masks (Guardian)
• Tensions Persist Between Trump and Medical Advisers Over the Coronavirus (NYT)

The Imperial Donald wants adulation, cheers, and flag-waving, not responsibility. That is assigned to others: if they fuck up, they get the blame, not him. If they succeed, he steps in front of them to take the credit.

He is not a leader, and needs to get out of the way of those who are.
posted by cenoxo at 2:24 AM on April 4, 2020 [4 favorites]

Trump is 'decapitating' intelligence leadership amid crisis, senior Democrat says (Guardian)

“It’s unconscionable,” Schiff, chair of the House intelligence committee, told MSNBC. “And of course it sends a message throughout the federal government and in particular to other inspectors general that if they do their job as this professional did and Michael Atkinson was a complete professional, they too may be fired by a vindictive president.” [...] “He’s settling scores,” Schiff said of Trump. “We’re in the middle of this pandemic and thousands of people are dying and he is retaliating against people who are on his enemies list and doing it in the dead of night.”

In her own statement on Saturday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Atkinson’s firing “a brazen act against a patriotic public servant who has honorably performed his duty”. “This latest act of reprisal against the intelligence community threatens to have a chilling effect against all willing to speak truth to power,” Pelosi said. “The president must immediately cease his attacks on those who sacrifice to keep America safe, particularly during this time of national emergency.”

posted by katra at 9:29 AM on April 4, 2020 [10 favorites]

Trump getting rid of the Intelligence IG is probably also a pre-emptive move against whistleblowers coming forward with evidence of Trump ignoring intelligence briefings about how bad they expect the Coronavirus to hit the US while Trump and the rest of the GOP/Fox News tried to downplay it.
posted by PenDevil at 10:39 AM on April 4, 2020 [8 favorites]

Virus hot spots in South poised for disproportionate suffering (Politico)

“There is no city anywhere in the world that can withstand the outbreak that would occur if there isn’t rigorous social distancing,” said Tom Frieden, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director. With the same kind of equipment and staffing shortages plaguing big cities on the east and west coasts, local officials are left begging residents to stay indoors.

[...] President Donald Trump last month suggested that red, primarily rural areas where he enjoys some of his strongest support have largely avoided the pandemic because they’ve had better local leadership than states on both coasts that were slammed early and hard by the virus. Trump opined these red states should be allowed to return to work sooner than the rest of the country. But public health experts say they're most worried about those very areas. Arkansas, South Carolina and Texas do not have statewide stay-at-home orders. Florida and Mississippi enacted one only this week. That puts those states in the virus’ crosshairs, said Nirav Shah, a senior scholar at Stanford University’s Clinical Excellence Research Center.

In the American South, a Perfect Storm Is Gathering (Margaret Renkl, NYT Opinion)

Kentucky, which not only elected a Democratic governor but also expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, is an outlier in the South. Most Southern states, like Tennessee, did not expand Medicaid, and in those states a perfect storm has gathered force. What does it mean to live though a pandemic in a place with a high number of uninsured citizens, where many counties don’t have a single hospital, and where the governor delayed requiring folks to stay home? Across the South, we are about to find out.

[...] Viruses are not partisan. Science itself is not partisan. Nevertheless, Covid-19 has become a partisan issue here in the South because our governors have followed the lead of both the president, who spent crucial early weeks denying the severity of the crisis, and Fox News, which downplayed concerns about the pandemic as Democratic hysteria. That’s why every governor who has issued a deeply belated shelter-in-place order is a Republican.

posted by katra at 10:42 AM on April 4, 2020 [10 favorites]

So, in the South, it seems the disease is going to hit the Black and Latino communities harder than the wealthier white people. How would any Republican worry about that?
posted by mumimor at 10:56 AM on April 4, 2020 [7 favorites]

How Trump surprised his own team by ruling out Obamacare (Politico)
Insurers were prepared to extend coverage, HHS officials were largely on board, but the White House refused to reopen enrollment.

The president personally opposed reopening the Obamacare marketplaces when presented with the option, one person familiar with the decision said – prompting the creation of a new initiative that federal officials are now rushing to construct. “You have a perfectly good answer in front of you, and instead you’re going to make another one up,” said one Republican close to the administration. “It’s purely ideological.”

[...] “It’s a bad decision optics-wise,” one administration official said in the immediate aftermath. “It politicizes people’s access to health services during a serious national health emergency.” [...] Several states with control over their own health exchanges had already flung their doors open in the last month, in an acknowledgment of the deepening crisis that’s already killed thousands and threatens to persist well into the summer. [...] If Trump had chosen instead to reopen the HealthCare.gov website – as 11 largely blue states that control their own markets have already done – people without insurance could buy more comprehensive policies that not only would cover coronavirus but any follow-up treatment, mental-health care, and future check-ups.

posted by katra at 11:17 AM on April 4, 2020 [9 favorites]

Reality is partisan.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:17 AM on April 4, 2020 [5 favorites]

"How the Road Runner surprised Wile E. Coyote by running fast and stopping at the edge of a cliff."
posted by tonycpsu at 11:23 AM on April 4, 2020 [1 favorite]

Which states have done the least to contain coronavirus? (Guardian)

Here are five states who have taken the least action: Alabama [...] Arkansas [...] Mississippi [...] Oklahoma [...] Missouri [...] Missouri saw a 600% rise in coronavirus cases over seven days at the end of March – the largest increase in the country, according to Johns Hopkins University. [...] On Thursday, a column in the Kansas City Star summed up the governor’s lackadaisical response. It was headlined: “Missouri’s Mike Parson in contention for governor who’s done the least to contain Covid-19.”

posted by katra at 11:24 AM on April 4, 2020 [4 favorites]

According to the IMHE model, Alabama is on track to have the highest number of deaths of capita, and be in the to five states with total deaths.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:29 AM on April 4, 2020 [2 favorites]

WaPo: The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged
posted by tonycpsu at 11:55 AM on April 4, 2020 [4 favorites]

The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged

What do they mean was? This is all still happening.
posted by NotLost at 12:04 PM on April 4, 2020 [11 favorites]

It's usually best to click through to the article to see if your question about the headline is addressed. If you do, you'll see that the article is focused on the period before it became too late to contain the virus in the US, while it was raging in China and elsewhere.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:12 PM on April 4, 2020 [10 favorites]

Reuters: Exclusive: Pressed by Trump, U.S. pushed unproven coronavirus treatment guidance

In mid-March, President Donald Trump personally pressed federal health officials to make malaria drugs available to treat the novel coronavirus, though they had been untested for COVID-19, two sources told Reuters
...
Shortly afterward, the federal government published highly unusual guidance informing doctors they had the option to prescribe the drugs, with key dosing information based on unattributed anecdotes rather than peer-reviewed science.

posted by jedicus at 12:29 PM on April 4, 2020 [7 favorites]

UPMC and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists announced a potential vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. When tested in mice, the vaccine, delivered through a fingertip-sized patch, produces antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 at quantities thought to be sufficient for neutralizing the virus. The paper appeared in EBioMedicine, which is published by The Lancet, and is the first study to be published after critique from fellow scientists at outside institutions that describes a candidate vaccine for COVID-19. The researchers were able to act quickly because they had already laid the groundwork during earlier coronavirus epidemics. (The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, April 2, 2020)

Longer article at Refinery29.com (April 3, 2020), has: According to Louis Falo, a professor and chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh who co-authored the paper in EBioMedicine, they would like to start clinical trials in about a month, “give or take. Maybe two months. We just started the process.”
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:46 PM on April 4, 2020 [6 favorites]

https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2020/4/3/21207488/coronavirus-illinois-medical-supplies-wild-west

In a state where the government usually operates on the basis of buy now, pay later (often much, much later), the emergency of the coronavirus pandemic has required a decidedly different approach.

About two weeks ago, Illinois officials tracked down a supply of 1.5 million potentially life-saving N95 respirator masks in China through a middleman in the Chicago area and negotiated a deal to buy them.

One day before they were expecting to complete the purchase, they got a call in the morning from the supplier informing them he had to get a check to the bank by 2 p.m. that day, or the deal was off. Other bidders had surfaced.

Realizing there was no way the supplier could get to Springfield and back by the deadline, Illinois assistant comptroller Ellen Andres jumped in her car and raced north on I-55 with a check for $3,469,600.

From the other end, Jeffrey Polen, president of The Moving Concierge in Lemont, drove south. Polen isn’t in the medical supply business, but he “knows a guy,” an old friend who specializes in working with China’s factories.

...

There’s a separate team working just on ventilators, said Deputy Governor Christian Mitchell, who is overseeing the procurement efforts for Pritzker.

...

via @NaderDIssa, also at the Chicago Sun Times
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:56 PM on April 4, 2020 [14 favorites]

And this is how you become a struggling failed state, allow corruption so bad the dictator's buddies (or anyone who can bribe him with big enough kickbacks) get to screw over and extort everyone else with impunity, nay, with government assistance. Nothing matters but money.

That's what "I want them to be nice to me" means. Green light for corruption. Red light for responsible government.
posted by ctmf at 3:50 PM on April 4, 2020 [36 favorites]

A guy walked into a Stop & Shop supermarket south of Boston today and began spitting on the produce. Other shoppers tackled him and kept him on the ground until police arrived. He was arrested and told he was no longer welcome at the store. The Quincy Patriot Ledger has more, including video of the guy being sat on and featuring one of Stop & Shop's annoying robots just whirling around and beeping in frustration because the confrontation meant it couldn't continue its search for fallen lettuce leaves.
posted by adamg at 4:13 PM on April 4, 2020 [11 favorites]

As became plain when he initiated an"easy to win" trade war The Cheeto has no idea how international trade works. I can't help but wonder if the masks require material from Canada. This is such a transparent response to the bad press resulting from the masks sent to China earlier in the year.

I don't know about mask material specifically but if you ever want isotopes for your cancer treatment you probably shouldn't start a trade war with Canada during a pandemic because we one of the only sources in the entire world.

And that isn't as easy to spin up production of as fabric masks are.
posted by srboisvert at 4:14 PM on April 4, 2020 [7 favorites]

Some mask material definitely comes from Canadian suppliers.
posted by sardonyx at 5:43 PM on April 4, 2020 [1 favorite]

Some mask material definitely comes from Canadian suppliers.

and having lived some in the path of the rank smells that come from that mill, let me just say that I guess I'm glad I was wrong and they didn't permanently shut down Harmac after all.
posted by philip-random at 6:06 PM on April 4, 2020 [1 favorite]

President Trump veers from predicting “a lot of death’ to revisiting Easter services. (NYT)

Veering from grim warnings to baseless assurances in a single news conference, President Trump on Saturday predicted a surging death toll in what may be “the toughest week” of the coronavirus pandemic before also dispensing unproven medical advice. He suggested again that Americans might be able to congregate for Easter Sunday services.

Trump tells Americans to take unproven malaria drug to prevent Covid-19 (Guardian)

Donald Trump has directly urged Americans worried about Covid-19 to take a little-studied anti-malaria drug for the disease, despite potentially serious side effects and a lack of data on safety and efficacy in treatment of the pandemic virus. [...] “What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose?” Trump said from the White House podium. “Take it.” He also said he “may take it” himself, though he would “have to ask my doctors about that”.

The president’s own public health advisers, who stood with him in the briefing room on Saturday, have warned against taking hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19. On 24 March, for example, Dr Anthony Fauci, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease director, answered a reporter’s question about whether the drug was considered a treatment for Covid-19. “The answer is no,” Fauci said, “and the evidence that you’re talking about … is anecdotal evidence.”

'A searing time for whistleblowers': Ousted intel watchdog wrote letter to Schumer (Politico)

In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dated March 18 and obtained by POLITICO, Atkinson took a thinly veiled swipe at those who had failed to defend the intelligence official who first reported concerns about Trump’s conversation with the president of Ukraine last summer. “As you know, the past six months have been a searing time for whistleblowers and for those who work to protect them from reprisal or threat of reprisal for reporting alleged wrongdoing,” Atkinson wrote.

posted by katra at 6:07 PM on April 4, 2020 [6 favorites]

> Earlier this week, a group of fellow inspectors general named Mr. Fine to be the chairman of the new Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, with control of an $80 million budget to police how the government carries out the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. If Mr. Abend is confirmed, Mr. Fine would lose his acting role and could no longer lead the committee.

Trump is trying to undermine the government’s independent watchdogs — again (Joe Davidson, WaPo Perspective)

In January, Glenn A. Fine, the acting Defense Department inspector general, who now also chairs a separate panel of pandemic spending watchdogs, told Congress about the Pentagon’s refusal to cooperate with his whistleblower investigations.

He complained about “a small but disturbing trend” by Pentagon officials “not taking disciplinary action in substantiated cases, without adequate or persuasive explanations” in cases of retaliation by supervisors against staff whistleblowers. “This is troubling. . . . Failure to take action also sends a message to agency managers that reprisal will be tolerated, and to potential whistleblowers that the system will not protect them.”

posted by katra at 6:42 PM on April 4, 2020 [8 favorites]

The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged

What do they mean was? This is all still happening.

It's a typical long perspective piece. Take a longish slice of time (past 70 days), move some distance from the topic, and try to make sense of it all, with deeper context and implications.

“This has been a real blow to the sense that America was competent,” said Gregory F. Treverton, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, the government’s senior-most provider of intelligence analysis. He stepped down from the NIC in January 2017 and now teaches at the University of Southern California. “That was part of our global role. Traditional friends and allies looked to us because they thought we could be competently called upon to work with them in a crisis. This has been the opposite of that.”

This article, which retraces the failures over the first 70 days of the coronavirus crisis, is based on 47 interviews with administration officials, public health experts, intelligence officers and others involved in fighting the pandemic. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information and decisions.

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:21 PM on April 4, 2020 [11 favorites]

“What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose?” Trump said from the White House podium.

iirc, this was also his 2016 pitch to black voters. So.....how's that working out?
posted by thelonius at 8:22 PM on April 4, 2020 [10 favorites]

From Naked Capitalism, posted 3/31/2020 by Yves Smith (Yves here. Let us hope the race to get a Covid-19 vaccine out does not give anti-vaxxers new talking points.):

Developing a Vaccine for Covid-19. What To Expect?
Ignacio Moreno Echanove, an epidemiologist [DTBio]:
...
This won’t be comprehensive but an overall view with a critic eye on the existing possibilities with Covid-19 vaccines and their development timelines. I wonder how much matters who wins the race if there is a winner that takes it all. For instance, if the winner is the fastest but not the safest or simply the best. I also wonder as Dr. Shibo Jiang does in Nature (1, links below) if the run to deploy vaccines against Covid-19 might result in big mistakes. Jiang gives an idea of requirements to be fulfilled (direct quote from the article):
In my view, standard protocols are essential for safeguarding health. Before allowing use of a COVID-19 vaccine in humans, regulators should evaluate safety with a range of virus strains and in more than one animal model. They should also demand strong preclinical evidence that the experimental vaccines prevent infection, even though that will probably mean waiting weeks or even months for the models to become available.
He goes on to mention STANDARD GUIDELINES that should be respected and adds that many problems were found when SARS 1.0 vaccines were tried in ferrets, mice and monkeys. Developing a vaccine is not a straightforward procedure. His conclusion is: beware of hype about Covid-19 and proceed with due caution.
....
[Discussion of candidate vaccines follows in the article, with referenced links at the end.]

First of all, do no harm, and festina lente: this will take a while.
posted by cenoxo at 10:21 PM on April 4, 2020 [5 favorites]

> I would go one step further: once each candidate has passed Phase I safety trials, we should begin mass manufacture and distribution staging of every candidate so that the moment efficacy data is available the vaccines can be immediately delivered en masse to hospitals, clinics, and health departments.

Bill Gates is funding new factories for 7 potential coronavirus vaccines: "...before we know which is best & safest; we can test the vaccines in parallel, and then throw away all but the factory for the best vaccine. May save many months."
posted by kliuless at 10:52 PM on April 4, 2020 [19 favorites]

Lol, Bill Gates engaging in some private economic planning. At least someone is doing it.
posted by eagles123 at 10:54 PM on April 4, 2020 [5 favorites]

Lol, Bill Gates

extreme times make for unlikely allies. Up here in Canada, one of the unlikely "heroes" of the moment is proving to be Doug Ford, Premier of the province of Ontario, older brother of this sad and dangerous guy. Like very many, I suspect, I just assumed he was another ugly fool. And maybe he was. But then I guess something happened ...

The story here isn't just how many people could die. It's how many lives could be saved.
posted by philip-random at 11:15 PM on April 4, 2020 [8 favorites]

BBC News video: Coronavirus: Russia uses facial recognition to tackle Covid-19, 4/4/2020:

As Russian cities go into lockdown to try to contain coronavirus, Moscow is using the latest technology to keep track of residents. City officials are using a giant network of tens of thousands of cameras - installed with facial recognition software - which they plan to couple with digital passes on people’s mobile phones. It’s prompted concern about whether such widespread surveillance will ever be rolled back.

Sarah Rainsford explains how the system works in her own Moscow neighbourhood.

"Apart from essential work, Muscovites are now only allowed out of the house to go to the supermarket or the chemist. And soon we'll have to register online and get a code on our mobile phones, even to do that."
posted by cenoxo at 11:19 PM on April 4, 2020 [4 favorites]

Re: Bill Gates, his recent interview with Trevor Noah is worth a view. The bit where he talks about the factories mentioned up thread is around the 18 min mark.

I contracted and worked for MS back when, and despite his flaws I'm happy to see him bring his attention to this. Things will get done, and in a thoroughly thought through science based manner.
posted by calamari kid at 12:09 AM on April 5, 2020 [13 favorites]

The toilet paper shortage is more complicated than you think, Vox, Terry Nguyenterry, 4/3/2020. Suppliers aren’t sure when toilet paper will be readily available again:

There was a time before the coronavirus pandemic when toilet paper was plentiful. Not anymore. Empty or sparsely stocked grocery store shelves are the new normal, and shoppers are left wondering: Where did all the toilet paper go? And when will it be widely available again?

Toilet paper has become the definitive pandemic product that Americans thought to stock up on; not only is it a basic necessity, it’s relatively cheap to buy in bulk and will certainly be used at a later date. For the average customer, it’s much easier to assume that the lack of 4-packs at stores lies with some neighborhood panic-buyer who got their hands on multiple TP rolls before everyone else. Yet, the ongoing shortage isn’t entirely the result of hoarding....

More about TP at WP: a good crisis takes away so many things that we took for granted.
posted by cenoxo at 12:35 AM on April 5, 2020 [6 favorites]

So, sometimes they believe in science:
US far right seeks ways to exploit coronavirus and cause social collapse
posted by mumimor at 4:47 AM on April 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

Post-pandemic, would be a great time to promote use of Lotas or Bidet Showers in those parts of the world that have been panic buying toilet paper. Each roll of TP takes about 140 litres of water to produce and requires an extra 6 litres per flush to get rid of - Americans use about 80 rolls per person per year. It is a bulky but low value product - making it a pain to transport - more especially when also trying to feed people.

There is a long running culture war between bidet advocates and toilet paper users about which method is better. But who cares: it is the former group who are going to be much happier, much cleaner and much less likely to have to deal with sewage system problems - when supply chains get stressed.
posted by rongorongo at 4:48 AM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

Coronavirus: British serviceperson is Falkland Islands' first case of COVID-19 – A health team on Mount Pleasant base - home to some 1,300 military personnel - is tracing all those the patient had contact with, Sky News, Deborah Haynes, 4/4/2020:

The Falklands government said the patient was transferred from a UK military base on the territory to the only civilian hospital on Tuesday with "a range of COVID-19 symptoms". The patient, who is not on a ventilator, is said to be in a stable condition.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that a member of "British Forces South Atlantic Islands personnel" had tested positive for the illness....

More about The Falkland Islands (map) and RAF Mount Pleasant.

You can hide from Coronavirus, but there’s nowhere to run.
posted by cenoxo at 5:24 AM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

The toilet paper shortage is more complicated than you think

Came here to post the April 2 Will Oremus piece at Medium cited in the Vox article; it's very clear:

What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About the Toilet Paper Shortage

The basic point is that toilet paper demand has been steady and highly predictable for a long time, with factories already running full-time and split between the commercial and consumer markets, each with widely different requirements for manufacture and packaging. With almost no one pooping at school or the office anymore household pooping is way up, and retooling the factories for, what, a month? three months? is probably not cost effective long-term. A similar situation is happening with bananas, which are smaller and shipped individually instead of in bunches to schools and other institutions.

If there’s any good news, it’s that we can stop blaming these shortages on the alleged idiocy of our fellow consumers. “I’m absolutely convinced that very little was triggered by hoarding,” Luke said. Even a modest, reasonable amount of stocking up by millions of people in preparation for stay-at-home orders would have been enough to deplete many store shelves.
posted by mediareport at 5:30 AM on April 5, 2020 [13 favorites]

Quick add from an essential business (pharma manufacturing): just heard one of the gun-nut production people say, "my buddy at [the bullet company] says he's still working. How the fuck is that that essential?"

When even the gun nuts are saying, hey, bullet manufacturing isn't essential, maybe it's getting through to people?
posted by notsnot at 5:34 AM on April 5, 2020 [6 favorites]

Smith & Wesson is deemed an "essential" business in Massachusetts, which has some of the toughest gun-control laws in the country.
posted by adamg at 7:23 AM on April 5, 2020

Thanks for the links to the articles about the TP supply chain issues, with the difficulty in repurposing commercial TP to household consumers. From the first:

There are also instances of toilet paper selling out online but still being available in stores, which poses a problem for older or immunocompromised consumers who aren’t able to physically enter a store.

This is what I have seen over the last few weeks -- TP is widely available in stores here (though not fully stocked with every brand/type), but has been mostly showing as not available for online ordering. The online supply options seem to be slowly coming back, though much of what I see advertised on Amazon right now looks like repurposed commercial product.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:37 AM on April 5, 2020

The Gates whitewashing is annoying. There was a quote going around from Gates saying "spending a billion dollars when trillions in economic losses is no decision at all" or sth like that which puts Gates back on my shit list. You fuck, spending a billion dollars TO SAVE MILLIONS OF LIVES is the justification, not the economy.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:01 AM on April 5, 2020 [9 favorites]

the president keeps touting hydroxychloroquine, going so far as to say, during yesterday's two ~~minutes~~ hours hate, that, notwithstanding his two reported negative pcr tests (he's also touting the fast abbott test, the promotional material for which notes that negative results aren't negative results but must be informed by clinician's evaluation, and using it to scan each oil company exec who visits him) he may start taking it himself, although he won't wear a mask.

i had missed gov. cuomo's march 27 executive order -- which, in pertinent part, reads:

No pharmacist shall dispense hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine except when written: as prescribed for an FDA-approved indication; for an indication supported by one or more citations included or approved for inclusion in the compendia specified in 42 U.S.C. 1396r–8(g)(1)(B)(i); for patients in inpatient settings and acute settings; for residents in a subacute part of a skilled nursing facility; or as part of an study approved by an Institutional Review Board. Any person authorized to prescribe such medications shall denote on the prescription the condition for which the prescription has been issued.

--until it was discussed on TWiV 598 (circa 22:06), where NY doctor daniel griffin described it as ordering that "there shall be no pharmacist filling prescriptions for plaquanil/hydroxychloroquine for covid-19 indication in the outpatient setting." the group had earlier described several ongoing trials of the compound in NY.

there is also much discussion of masks and the recent mask guidance throughout the episode. also susceptibility of dogs/cats circa 36:23.
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:23 AM on April 5, 2020 [6 favorites]

the president keeps touting hydroxychloroquine, going so far as to say,[...] he may start taking it himself, although he won't wear a mask.

Him taking it and getting ill from it might be the best thing to stop the hysteria he started.
posted by Mitheral at 9:49 AM on April 5, 2020 [18 favorites]

> The Gates whitewashing is annoying. There was a quote going around from Gates saying "spending a billion dollars when trillions in economic losses is no decision at all" or sth like that which puts Gates back on my shit list. You fuck, spending a billion dollars TO SAVE MILLIONS OF LIVES is the justification, not the economy.

I'm not usually the "defend the billionaires" guy around here, but Gates has been using his billions to save lives for long enough that I don't think we need to drag him when he notes that there are also economic benefits to fighting this disease. With the complete absence of coordination at the federal level, he needs to sway the public into taking the threat seriously, and one way to do that is to note that in addition to saving lives, fighting COVID-19 will also reduce economic misery, which itself leads to higher suicide rates and millions of years of life expectancy lost.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:50 AM on April 5, 2020 [32 favorites]

Official Counts Understate the U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll (Sarah Kliff and Julie Bosman, NY Times)

[...] hospital officials, doctors, public health experts and medical examiners say that official counts have failed to capture the true number of Americans dying in this pandemic, as a result of inconsistent protocols, limited resources and a patchwork of decision-making from one state or county to the next. [...]

The federal government does not expect to produce a final tally of coronavirus deaths until 2021, when it publishes an annual compilation of the country’s leading causes of death. The data could come as early as January or as late as November of next year, based on the release date of recent years’ reports.

I imagine a lot of deaths at the beginning of the year due to COVID-19 were reported as being due to pneumonia.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:29 AM on April 5, 2020 [8 favorites]

Lol, Bill Gates engaging in some private economic planning. At least someone is doing it.

This approach is the Manhattan Project approach: try everything, go with the first thing that turns out to work. And that means Gates joins the list of people acting like a head of state instead of their official role, along with 5 US state governors so far.
posted by ocschwar at 11:43 AM on April 5, 2020 [22 favorites]

Him taking it and getting ill from it might be the best thing to stop the hysteria he started.

You knows he's awaiting the chance to declare it The Trump Cure, like any good snake oil salesman. Unlike a real snake oil salesmen, he might just be dumb enough to believe that his Very Special Genius makes him smarter than all the medical establishment haters and lead him to self dose.
posted by benzenedream at 12:39 PM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

Anytime Dr. Fauci is interviewed, he's got to waste time debunking that hydroxychloroquine-as-cure delusion. (Meanwhile, "U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Sunday said there had been “some accounts, some stories” about hydroxychloroquine “helping” and the drug has been available for years.") And now India's banned all hydroxychloroquine exports.

I am also less screamy at Gates than at the average billionaire because he's been trying to get pandemic risk on the national radar for years (example - April 2015 TEDTalk, "The next outbreak? We're not ready.")

In February, there was a disinformation post going around Facebook, about Black people's possible immunity to coronavirus; in reality, Early Data Shows African Americans Have Contracted and Died of Coronavirus at an Alarming Rate (ProPublica, April 3, 2020) Black people are being infected and dying at higher rates. Here’s what Milwaukee is doing about it — and why governments need to start releasing data on the race of COVID-19 patients.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:55 PM on April 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

From the BBC: Coronavirus: PM admitted to hospital over virus symptoms
The PM being Boris Johnson
posted by mumimor at 1:58 PM on April 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

First positive story I've read all day
posted by Ahmad Khani at 2:18 PM on April 5, 2020 [8 favorites]

stay classy, Metafilter ...

though I guess this means he's not exactly having his Churchill moment
posted by philip-random at 2:24 PM on April 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

Look. The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin may well prove to be an effective therapy for severe covid. I sure hope it is! A couple of preliminary studies were promising — enough that it is possible, even probable, that we will have headlines in the next weeks to months with these results.

We need to be ready for this outcome, because you better believe Trump will be. It’s an easy layup for him. Every headline will make it sound like Trump was right and all those egghead experts were wrong.

The thing is, these drugs are toxic. In addition to other less immediately fatal side effects, each of these drugs independently greatly increases your risk of deadly heart arrhythmias, and in combination the risk is especially high. That’s why the studies evaluating this therapeutic regimen are for hospitalized or critically ill patients.

Giving multiple QTC prolonging medications willy-nilly, without careful specialist follow-up, at a time when it’s difficult for most people to see their own doctors anyway, to people with mild symptoms, or especially as a preventative, *will kill people*. Not just the guy in Arizona who poisoned himself on pool cleaner. (If we use this widely in the hospitalized population, *it will also kill people*. The only question is whether it’s fewer people than would’ve died of the infection in the first place.)

So if randomized controlled trials do show some efficacy in severe disease, be ready to ensure that the goalposts are not moved, and that people remember that Trump did not promote it for patients on death’s door, he promoted it for *everyone*, and as a result (in addition to all the other reasons) he has blood on his hands.

In a sane world he would be impeached again for practising medicine without a license.
posted by saturday_morning at 2:25 PM on April 5, 2020 [35 favorites]

Giuliani, a familiar voice in Trump’s ear, promotes experimental coronavirus treatments (Rosalind S. Helderman, Josh Dawsey and Jon Swaine, Washington Post)

Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was in the center of the impeachment storm earlier this year as an unpaid private attorney for President Trump, has cast himself in a new role: as personal science adviser to a president eager to find ways to short circuit the coronavirus epidemic. [...]

The former New York mayor is part of a chorus of prominent pro-Trump voices who at first downplayed the severity of the virus and then embraced possible cures — worrying health experts who fear such comments undermine efforts to slow the virus’s spread and downplay the risks of the unproven treatments. [...]

“He’s been out of the news and out of the limelight since the end of the impeachment drama,” said Andrew Kirtzman, a Giuliani biographer who is currently writing his second book about the former New York mayor. “What you’re seeing is an effort to regain relevance.”

Among other things, Giuliani's been talking up the anti-malarial cocktail that Trump has been talking about again.
posted by ZeusHumms at 2:45 PM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

“What you’re seeing is an effort to regain relevance.”

Yes, though I would also have accepted “exactly what my two-year-old is doing whenever I need to talk on the phone”.
posted by saturday_morning at 2:51 PM on April 5, 2020 [11 favorites]

U.S. ‘wasted’ months before preparing for virus pandemic (Michael Biesecker, Associated Press)

A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.

posted by ZeusHumms at 2:55 PM on April 5, 2020 [9 favorites]

Coronavirus death toll: Americans are almost certainly dying of covid-19 but being left out of the official count (WaPo, April 5, 2020). Additional details/context, after NYT link above:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts only deaths in which the presence of the coronavirus is confirmed in a laboratory test. “We know that it is an underestimation,” agency spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said. [...] Around the globe, public officials are questioning whether the number of deaths officially attributed to the virus are deceptively low. In northern Italy, the town of Nembro recorded 31 deaths from the virus from January to March. But Mayor Claudio Cancelli recently said the total number of deceased in that time period — 158 — was four times higher than the average for that time of year. [...]

[Marc-Alain] Widdowson, the former CDC scientist, was part of a team that estimated global deaths from the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic. The World Health Organization recorded only 18,631 people with laboratory-confirmed diagnoses dying of that disease. But the pandemic probably caused 15 times as many deaths, the CDC team concluded in 2012. A 2013 study by government and academic researchers suggested that lab-confirmed H1N1 deaths in the United States represented only 1 in 7 fatalities attributable to the disease.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:03 PM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

Look. The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin may well prove to be an effective therapy for severe covid.

Republican Strategist Denounces the Party's Response to COVID-19 | Amanpour and Company
posted by mumimor at 3:05 PM on April 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

In a sane world he would be impeached again for practising medicine without a license.

I wonder, though -

The former New York mayor is part of a chorus of prominent pro-Trump voices who at first downplayed the severity of the virus and then embraced possible cures — worrying health experts who fear such comments undermine efforts to slow the virus’s spread and downplay the risks of the unproven treatments. [...]

Maybe trying to impeach Trump for practicing medicine without a license would take too long - but has anyone considered arresting Rudy for doing so?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:17 PM on April 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

The worst president. Ever. (WaPo)

In the days and weeks after Azar alerted him about the virus, Trump spoke at eight rallies and golfed six times as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

I wonder if his golfing suffered from being distracted by impeachment?
posted by adept256 at 3:58 PM on April 5, 2020 [15 favorites]

Another Thing to Fear Out There: Coronavirus Scammers (NYT)

Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities are reporting an explosion of such scams as fraudsters move to capitalize on public panic over the fast-moving pandemic and the flood of federal money making its way to most Americans to help address the economic fallout.

“We are seeing fraud across the board, everything from low-tech to very sophisticated schemes,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The pandemic has affected so many people in so many different ways, he said, that “it just allows the fraudsters to have their buffet, as it were, to prey upon vulnerable people.”

Fauci: no evidence anti-malaria drug Trump pushes works against virus (Guardian)
posted by katra at 5:24 PM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

Isn't Trump pushing hydroxychloroquine a classic misdirection move on his part? Everyone who is talking about how he's not a doctor is talking less about how incompetent he is. Whether it works or not is irrelevant right now to him, might not be definitively known for months, and in the long run, might be the least of his political problems.

Also, why do all the people on the podium grab the lectern with bare hands? I suppose they are all tested daily or something.
posted by Rumple at 5:41 PM on April 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

Just heard on the news that Trump has ordered a shitload of that malarial drug and they are going to actively send it out to be used. Pence in his role said that they are sending it to Detroit to be dispensed to the Covid patients there. So, given the combination of not working combined with high toxicity, are we seeing government sponsored genocide against the people of Detroit?
posted by njohnson23 at 6:06 PM on April 5, 2020 [25 favorites]

Trump Congratulates Businesses for Helping Fight Coronavirus. But His Own Company Has Been Absent. (Peter Elkind, ProPublica)

We checked in on the Trump Organization’s properties and couldn’t find any sign they were joining the effort to fight the coronavirus, even as the president urges other companies to do so.

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:17 PM on April 5, 2020 [6 favorites]

> Also, why do all the people on the podium grab the lectern with bare hands?

In the Old Testament, grabbing the horns of the altar (the sacrificial altar in the Tabernacle of Moses) was a symbol of fugitives seeking asylum, refuge, or sanctuary from Mosaic law. This seems like an entirely appropriate gesture during Trump's daily status meetings.
posted by cenoxo at 8:41 PM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

Why the Trump Administration Won’t Be Able to Make the Stimulus Work (Joshua Zeitz, Politico) - "As the New Deal shows us, it takes expertise, professionalism and skill to execute massive government programs—qualities the White House lacks."
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:46 PM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

shades of the tuskeegee syphilis experiment, unit 731, and mengele's work too, so soon after two french doctors suggested testing this in africa.

Under the Nuremberg Code of Ethics,

"The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment."

The humanitarian importance of the problem is, well, not evenly distributed. There are large populations, including in parts of Africa, who lack access to enough physical space, good plumbing, and the other necessities to protect themselves against the virus, and so the danger they are in vastly overshadows the risks that come from participating in a vaccine study. These doctors put their feet in their mouths by saying what they said so crassly.
posted by ocschwar at 8:47 PM on April 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

I think about the favelas in Brazil, and the devastation this could wreck. Also, how the numbers from these areas will never be reported in an adequate fashion. The same can be applied to any number of overcrowded, poverty-ridden parts of the world...
posted by Windopaene at 8:53 PM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

he can dump half the world's medicine in detroit, he's still not getting any votes there
posted by pyramid termite at 9:19 PM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

The Navy captain who was removed from command of a coronavirus stricken aircraft carrier tests positive., New York Times (Coronavirus Live Updates), 4/5/2020:

Capt. Brett E. Crozier, the Navy captain who was removed from command of the coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, has tested positive for Covid-19, according to two Naval Academy classmates of Captain Crozier’s who are close to him and his family. A Navy spokesman declined to comment on Captain Crozier’s Covid status.

The commander began exhibiting symptoms before he was removed from the warship on Thursday, two of his classmates said.
...
The captain was being quarantined in “distinguished visitors quarters” on Naval Base Guam, according to two of his classmates. It is unclear when he was first tested for Covid-19 or when he received his results.

History echoes again: Theodore Roosevelt captain followed in footsteps of ship’s namesake by writing a bombshell letter, Navy Times, Claire Barrett, 4/3/2020. This was The Round Robin Letter (1898), written by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and allegedly leaked to the press by him (the full text of this letter is in the preceding Navy Times article).
posted by cenoxo at 9:40 PM on April 5, 2020 [16 favorites]

Ignoring Expert Opinion, Trump Again Promotes Use of Hydroxychloroquine (NYT)

Mr. Trump’s recommendation of hydroxychloroquine, for the second day in a row at a White House briefing, was a striking example of his brazen willingness to distort and outright defy expert opinion and scientific evidence when it does not suit his agenda.

[...] while many hospitals have chosen to use hydroxychloroquine in a desperate attempt to treat dying patients who have few other options, others have noted that it carries serious risks. In particular, the drug can cause a heart arrhythmia that can lead to cardiac arrest. Dr. Megan L. Ranney, an emergency physician at Brown University in Rhode Island, said in an interview on Sunday night that she had never seen an elected official advertise a miracle cure the way Mr. Trump has. “There are side effects to hydroxychloroquine,” Dr. Ranney said. “It causes psychiatric symptoms, cardiac problems and a host of other bad side effects.”

[...] Since patients with heart troubles and other underlying conditions are more likely to be severely affected by the coronavirus, they may also be at higher risk of dangerous side effects from hydroxychloroquine, said Dr. Kenneth B. Klein, a consultant who works for drug companies to design and evaluate their clinical trials. “What have we got to lose?” Dr. Klein said, echoing Mr. Trump’s remarks. “We’ve got patients to lose from dangerous side effects.” Mr. Trump did mention the potential risks to patients with heart troubles, but Dr. Klein said that even people with normal hearts are at risk for developing a fatal arrhythmia. And he said other medications could interact with hydroxychloroquine and cause serious medical complications.

posted by katra at 9:46 PM on April 5, 2020 [7 favorites]

Windowpaene > I think about the favelas in Brazil, and the devastation this could wreck. Also, how the numbers from these areas will never be reported in an adequate fashion. The same can be applied to any number of overcrowded, poverty-ridden parts of the world...

From Habitat for Humanity Great Britain, The World's Largest Slums: Dharavi, Kibera, Khayelitsha & Neza [& Orangi Town]:

...Today, by the most conservative estimates, about 900 million people live in slums. But most experts agree that including different types of informal settlements, the number goes up to 1.6 billion – which represents 1/4 of the world’s urban population.

By 2030, it’s estimated that it 1 in 4 people on the planet will live in a slum or other informal settlement. Let’s take a tour of the world’s biggest slums:

• Khayelitsha in Cape Town (South Africa): 400,000
• Kibera in Nairobi (Kenya): 700,000
• Dharavi in Mumbai (India): 1,000,000
• Neza (Mexico): 1,200,000
• Orangi Town in Karachi (Pakistan): 2,400,000

Video link: Inside the World's Biggest Slums. Due to population growth and the migration trend from rural areas to cities, these slums are clearly here to stay.
posted by cenoxo at 10:25 PM on April 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

The Recession Bread Lines Are Forming in Mar-a-Lago’s Shadow (Bloomberg, April 4, 2020) Though it’s just a four-minute drive across the lagoon from Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s private club, and ten minutes from the Palm Beach outposts of Chanel and Louis Vuitton, Howley’s diner has become an emblem of America’s stark new economic reality. With more than 10 million people across the nation suddenly unemployed, bread lines are forming in the shadows of privileged enclaves like this one in Florida.[...]

Even before the current crisis, three in five children in Palm Beach County’s public schools were eligible for federally-funded free or subsidized lunches, a measure of poverty. “When I tell people there’s hunger in Palm Beach County people think I’m kidding,” said Karen Erren, executive director of the Palm Beach County Food Bank. “But in south Florida our poverty level is always significant.”

One Reason Caregivers Are Wearing Trash Bags: A U.S. Firm Had to Recall 9 Million Surgical Gowns (ProPublica.org, April 3, 2020) Cardinal Health withdrew the gowns just before the pandemic because a Chinese supplier failed to sterilize them properly. The recall has created what a hospital association official called a “ripple effect.”

‘We could get wiped out’: American Indians have the highest rates of diseases that make covid-19 more lethal (WaPo, April 4, 2020) The coronavirus is ravaging the United States, but experts say more than 5 million people who identify as American Indian and Alaskan Native are especially vulnerable.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:27 PM on April 5, 2020 [9 favorites]

'They're leaving us to die': Ecuadorians' plead for help as virus blazes deadly trail (Guardian)

“They said the pandemic wouldn’t be so bad in Latin America because we’re used to illness, because it’s hot, because our population’s young,” added [El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele], who has ordered some of the region’s fastest and strictest anti-Covid measures. “But just look at what is happening in Ecuador.”

Bodies lie in the streets of Guayaquil, Ecuador, emerging epicenter of the coronavirus in Latin America (WaPo)

Ecuador’s largest city, a commercial center of nearly 3 million, is emerging as the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Latin America. In local news accounts, videos shared on social media and telephone interviews, officials, aid workers and others in the poverty-stricken metropolis are reporting fly-covered bodies on sidewalks and corpses left inside homes for days.

[...] The outbreak has struck faster than Guayaquil can cope. Hospitals were quickly overwhelmed. Mortuary workers couldn’t, or wouldn’t, collect the bodies — some dead from the virus, some apparently from other causes — from homes. With daytime temperatures topping 90 degrees in a city where many live with no air conditioning, some grieving families saw little option but to carry days-old corpses outside. The city’s struggle echoes those of other hard-hit spots around the globe where corpse control has become a grim daily struggle.

posted by katra at 10:39 PM on April 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

Ignoring Expert Opinion, Trump Again Promotes Use of Hydroxychloroquine

I'm beginning to think that he's not a real doctor.
posted by adept256 at 10:46 PM on April 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV. (Mental Floss)
posted by cenoxo at 10:53 PM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

cenexo, yep.

Not a student of world slums, just a few recent posts, given their current Trump-like dictator, made me go to Brazil. It will likely be unspeakable carnage. How many ventilators and ICU beds in Pakistan will be available for the poorest of the poor? It feels like when Fukishima was happening, and we could all see it was going to happen, and was going to be bad. And then, it was...
posted by Windopaene at 11:05 PM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

METAFILTER: Ignoring Expert Opinion, Trump
posted by philip-random at 11:08 PM on April 5, 2020

Re: POC coronavirus risk, pre-existing conditions worsening effects of COVID-19, hydroxychloroquine heading to Detroit ("Vice President Mike Pence told a news briefing Sunday hydroxychloroquine will be used in a 3,000-person study at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit to test the effectiveness of the anti-malarial drug in treating novel coronavirus patients" -- Axios, April 5, 2020), and so on:

Researchers have warned that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and chloroquine (CQ), two similar drugs repeatedly touted by President Trump to be promising treatments for COVID-19, may be deadly when combined with a common diabetes drug. (Forbes, April 5, 2020) The new study was published yesterday online on scientific pre-print server BioRxiv and shows that 30-40% of mice treated with a combination of HCQ or CQ and diabetes drug metformin, died. Treatment with the same dose of either drug alone had no effect on the survival of the mice.

The work for this study was completed prior to the coronavirus outbreak: "We observed that the combination of CQ or HCQ and metformin, which were used in our studies as potential anti-cancer drugs, killed 30-40% of mice. While our observations in mice may not translate to toxicity in humans, the reports that CQ or HCQ has anti-COVID-19 activity, the use of CQ resulting in toxicity and at least one death, and the recent Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for CQ and HCQ by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prompted our report." (bioRvix.org, posted April 4, 2020)
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:02 AM on April 6, 2020 [12 favorites]

A hospital in Göteborg (Gothenburg) has stopped using chloroquine because patients have had severe side effects. (Link to Swedish newspaper, in Swedish)
The article says that a hospital in Stockholm is still using the drug.
I google-translated a snippet:

At Sahlgrenska, patients currently receive classic IVA treatment with oxygen, but no antiviral drugs.

- We might have made another assessment if covid-19 was a disease with very high mortality rates, for example 80 per cent dead, but now we can manage most as intensive care anyway, says Magnus Gisslén.

He is self-critical that he let himself be drawn into the chloroquine-confusion.

- In retrospect, I can regret that we did it. We were a bit naive and thought the side effect profile was much nicer. I have changed my mind and hope that the rest of the country does too.

posted by mumimor at 3:27 AM on April 6, 2020 [5 favorites]

Mr. Trump’s recommendation of hydroxychloroquine, for the second day in a row at a White House briefing, was a striking example of his brazen willingness to distort and outright defy expert opinion and scientific evidence when it does not suit his agenda.

Just saw a clip where Trump says (roughly) "We bought 20 million doses, we've gathered them from all over, so when we know they work, we wanna give them out..." So, using common sense to translate the super-secret sneaky unspoken motivation behind Trump's words, he's saying "I'm going to make a lot of money off this (or Jared will, or someone else who will then owe me) so I want to get it in people's minds that this is something to ask for, something to want."

Because he's too craven to do it for any other reason...
posted by From Bklyn at 3:49 AM on April 6, 2020 [10 favorites]

Can you post a source for that Trump video clip, From Bklyn?
posted by cenoxo at 3:57 AM on April 6, 2020

"29 million doses" circa 50:20 (question at 49:40). from two minutes hate, yesterday.
posted by 20 year lurk at 4:07 AM on April 6, 2020 [5 favorites]

A tiger at the Bronx Zoo tests positive for the coronavirus, and other big cats there appear ill., New York Times, 4/6/2020:

A tiger at the Bronx zoo has Covid-19, in what is believed to be a case of what one official called “human-to-cat transmission.” “This is the first instance of a tiger being infected with Covid-19,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which noted that although only one tiger had been tested, the virus appeared to have infected other animals as well.

“Several lions and tigers at the zoo showed symptoms of respiratory illness,” according to a statement by the Agriculture Department. Public health officials say they believe that the large cats caught the virus from a zoo employee. The tiger appeared visibly sick by March 27.

In a statement [USDA link], the Agriculture Department suggested that those infected with the virus should, “out of an abundance of caution,” avoid contact with their pets and other animals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that it is “aware of a very small number of pets outside the United States reported to be infected” but that it does not have evidence that pets can spread the coronavirus.

More details from the World Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo: A Tiger at Bronx Zoo Tests Positive for COVID-19; The Tiger and the Zoo’s Other Cats Are Doing Well at This Time; Bronx, New York; 4/5/2020.
posted by cenoxo at 4:58 AM on April 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

This is not the Tiger King crossover I requested.
posted by box at 5:04 AM on April 6, 2020 [9 favorites]

Previously – The curious case of the cat with corona, The Brussels Times, 3/28/2020.
posted by cenoxo at 5:13 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Trump blocks Fauci from answering question about drug Trump is touting (Allyson Chiu and Meagan Flynn, Washington Post)

The unexpected interruption was an extraordinary moment even in this season of brash behavior exhibited by the president during his daily briefings. While Trump has been at odds with Fauci in the past, repeatedly clouding his administration’s public health messaging, the president has never shut down his top medical expert so abruptly and publicly before, intervening to keep him from answering. In other contexts, the president routinely calls on Fauci for medical questions.

posted by ZeusHumms at 5:19 AM on April 6, 2020 [15 favorites]

What do we know about COVID-19 virus and companion animals? (WHO)

The current spread of COVID-19 is a result of human to human transmission. To date, there is no evidence that companion animals have spread the disease. Therefore, there is no justification in taking measures against companion animals which may compromise their welfare

Can COVID-19 spread to pets? Can pets spread it? (politifact)

Highly unlikely. There is no evidence to support that pets such as cats and dogs can get COVID-19 from humans, or that animals can transmit the virus, according to animal scientists and the World Health Organization.

Yes, dog tested positive for new coronavirus – but no evidence pets can spread Covid-19 (Africa Check)

The Hong Kong dog did test positive for the new coronavirus, but there’s no evidence that pets can spread it to people. That’s according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, and the World Health Organization.

Fact check: Pets will not catch and spread the coronavirus to their owners (USA Today)

So far, two dogs have tested positive for the virus, both in Hong Kong. According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, the canines became infected following "close exposure" to owners sick with the disease. But the organization reports there is no evidence yet that dogs have shown any clinical signs of the virus, or that they have played a role in its spread. Further studies are underway.

There’s still no evidence that you can catch the new coronavirus from your pet (fullfact)

There is no evidence that humans can catch Covid-19 from their pets, and there’s dispute within the scientific community on whether pets can really have a case of the disease

If you have pets in the household (www.gov.uk Public Health England)

At present, there is no evidence that companion animals/pets such as dogs and cats can be infected with coronavirus.

Due to a shortage of testing kits their usage is being prioritised for those most in need like tigers.
posted by adept256 at 5:31 AM on April 6, 2020 [5 favorites]

WTF is going on with Sweden? No closures. No lockdowns. This rash decision to try chloroquine.

Anyone in Sweden able to explain? This is beyond bizarre.
posted by ocschwar at 5:34 AM on April 6, 2020 [6 favorites]

Susceptibility of ferrets, cats, dogs, and different domestic animals to SARS-coronavirus-2, Hualan Chen et al. preprint. not yet peer reviewed.

We found that SARS-CoV-2 replicates poorly in dogs, pigs, chickens, and ducks, but efficiently in ferrets and cats. We found that the virus transmits in cats via respiratory droplets.

as discussed on TWiV 598, who note animal-to-human and human-to-animal transmission was not assessed.
posted by 20 year lurk at 5:40 AM on April 6, 2020 [6 favorites]

There is no evidence to support that pets such as cats and dogs can get COVID-19 from humans

...except for the Belgium cat; four tigers and two lions at the Bronx Zoo; and ferrets as noted above. Clearly this needs to be investigated further.
posted by cenoxo at 5:46 AM on April 6, 2020 [5 favorites]

Correction: the ferrets apparently didn’t get cv from human transmission, apologies.
posted by cenoxo at 5:54 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

those animals in the study i posted were "inoculated intranasally" not via transmission from humans. the study did not assess human to animal or animal to human transmission.
posted by 20 year lurk at 5:54 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

I find it suspicious that Trump knows exactly how many doses of HCQ they have and how much it cost, but he has no idea about how many respirators or masks there are. Who is telling him this stuff?
posted by adept256 at 6:06 AM on April 6, 2020 [19 favorites]

Novartis CEO says Malaria drug is biggest hope against coronavirus - SonntagsZeitung, Reuters India, 3/29/2020:

ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan said his Sandoz generics unit’s malaria, lupus and arthritis drug hydroxychloroquine is the company’s biggest hope against the coronavirus, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday.

Novartis has pledged to donate 130 million doses and is supporting clinical trials needed before the medicine, which U.S. President Donald Trump also has been promoting, can be approved for use against the coronavirus.

posted by cenoxo at 6:38 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Well if Novartis says it
posted by saturday_morning at 6:45 AM on April 6, 2020

That sounds familiar:

Healthcare giant Novartis says it signed a $1.2 million contract with Michael Cohen's consulting firm, took one meeting, and realised he couldn't help them (TIME)

Maybe Novartis finally found the man to get Trump's ear.

I've also read that hydroxychloroquine is out of patent and anyone can make it. Novartis has no special rights to be sole producer.
posted by adept256 at 6:46 AM on April 6, 2020 [10 favorites]

That TIME article is from May 9, 2018.

Did Cohen at least get a finder’s fee? You know, a little something to spend at the prison commissary: Judge rejects Michael Cohen's plea for early prison release amid coronavirus, The Hill, John Kruzel, 03/24/2020.

Follow the money.
posted by cenoxo at 7:07 AM on April 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

Novartis has no special rights to be sole producer.

If they make a manufacturing deal with the Trump administration, perhaps they’ll get exclusive USA rights. Who knows?

Novartis Trends As Trump Accused Of Pushing Unproven Use Of Hydroxychloroquine Made By Pharmaceutical Company, Newsweek, Brendan Cole, 4/6/2020.
posted by cenoxo at 7:33 AM on April 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

I've also read that hydroxychloroquine is out of patent and anyone can make it. Novartis has no special rights to be sole producer.

Still have to have approval for your generic version plus an approved factory to make it in. Neither of those are easy to spin up under current conditions. I don't know how much competition Novartis has from other generic makers.
posted by jedicus at 7:40 AM on April 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

The odds of there just being one vaccine at the end of this are very small, given the massive resources being thrown at a cure, and the amount of publicly available information we have acquired and will acquire about the virus. And there is no guarantee that the first will be any one of a number of entities now at work.

There are and will be a lot of places claiming things some of which maybe useful or not for a long time. Never have I seen so many PR releases just reprinted without question, and I thought I was saturated there.

I am guessing that Trump and Co do not care to hear any of this and will lock on anything that appears and wave it around like a weapon.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 7:44 AM on April 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

Maybe it's my paranoia kicking up, but I keep thinking that this chloroquine thing is several levels of scam. If it turns out to have any medical benefit for covid-19, Trump gets to preen about his prescience, and who knows what kickbacks might have been arranged from suppliers. But if it doesn't pan out at all, he can still claim that it did, but the evil deep state elite murica-haters kept it from the Real Americans (tm) after it cured all those city Democrats.

Just seems to me that the Q folks and many others that love him so much would prefer to believe something like that rather than accept that they were wrong about him and thousands died as one result of their support.
posted by Vigilant at 7:59 AM on April 6, 2020 [8 favorites]

I think importantly, *he* doesn’t have to make those specific insane claims because he knows others will make them for him.
posted by saturday_morning at 8:31 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's not your paranoia, anything associated with Trump is a scam.
posted by benzenedream at 8:33 AM on April 6, 2020 [22 favorites]

I think he's just looking for anything to help get him out of the mess he's created. And if there's grift potential, then that's just icing on his cake.
posted by sundrop at 8:38 AM on April 6, 2020 [5 favorites]

ocschwar > WTF is going on with Sweden? No closures. No lockdowns. This rash decision to try chloroquine. Anyone in Sweden able to explain? This is beyond bizarre.

MeFite Bella Donna lives in Stockholm, and has boots-on-the ground comments about Sweden here and here (in the MetaTalk > Corona Virus Check-in Thread no. 3).
posted by cenoxo at 8:39 AM on April 6, 2020 [10 favorites]

It's not your paranoia, anything associated with Trump is a scam.

more or less, but no, not really. A proper disinformation program must include a certain amount of actually accurate info. It's more about disseminating confusion than lies.
posted by philip-random at 8:50 AM on April 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

Here's Trump preventing Dr. Fauci from answering a question about chloroquine (it may well be the segment linked above). What I'm thinking upon seeing that is that he is fundamentally wrong about there being no risk to using the drug. What doctors are saying is that there are fatal side-effects. As in, you may survive if you spend a week more in a ventilator, and then you have to spend a year in rehabilitation, but if you are given chloroquine, you can die from a heart attack caused by that drug while you are in the ventilator, unable to influence your own fate.

And yes, it seems more and more like Trump is in some way profiting from this.
posted by mumimor at 8:52 AM on April 6, 2020 [14 favorites]

jedicus > Still have to have approval for your generic version plus an approved factory to make it in. Neither of those are easy to spin up under current conditions. I don't know how much competition Novartis has from other generic makers.

It seems to be a done deal. From today's Newsweek article:

...Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to allow the use of hydroxychloroquine and another anti-malaria drug, chloroquine, for those infected by COVID-19."...

That 3/30/2020 Newsweek story states:

Under the EUA, health care providers and patients must be given fact sheets outlining the known risks and drug interactions of the medications.

The HSS said it accepted 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate from an arm of the pharmaceutical company Novartis, and one million of chloroquine phosphate from Bayer Pharmaceuticals to be used for treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients or in clinical trials.
...
"These and other companies may donate additional doses, and companies have ramped up production to provide additional supplies of the medication to the commercial market," the HHS said. "Given the importance of understanding the efficacy of these medications for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and ASPR's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), are working together to plan clinical trials."

The Strategic National Stockpile will ship the drugs to states, according to the statement.

Signed, sealed, and to be delivered.
posted by cenoxo at 9:28 AM on April 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

Larry Bacow, president of Harvard, discusses what suffering from coronavirus was like for him ("I felt like I was 120 years old almost overnight"), says he received a test not because he's president of Harvard, but because of a combination of his symptoms and the fact he has an autoimmune disorder (that knocked him out for a month when he first began suffering from it in 2004) - and details how Harvard began planning for coronavirus in January.
posted by adamg at 9:28 AM on April 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

This is probably why The Donald shushed Dr. Fauci. Deal's done: What have you got to lose?, and on to the next deal.
posted by cenoxo at 9:36 AM on April 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

I find it suspicious that Trump knows exactly how many doses of HCQ they have and how much it cost, but he has no idea about how many respirators or masks there are. Who is telling him this stuff?

Trump knows this number the way he knows the population of Seoul is 38 million or that Puerto Rico got 91 billion in aid. IE: not at all.

Also I wouldn't be surprised to see the number growing to eventually billions of doses; his pattern is to grow these sorts of numbers because his ego won't allow him to not be the biggest cock of the walk even if the only other cock there is him.
posted by Mitheral at 9:38 AM on April 6, 2020 [8 favorites]

Due to a shortage of testing kits their usage is being prioritised for those most in need like tigers.

Talking Points Memo:

Calle said the test was different from the one used for people and was carried out by a veterinary school laboratory, not one that handles human samples.

“There is no competition for testing between these two very different situations,” he said.

posted by sjswitzer at 10:07 AM on April 6, 2020 [5 favorites]

Trump is going to claim victory for whatever outcome. It's not that his dials go up to 11, his dials don't go below 11.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:17 AM on April 6, 2020 [6 favorites]

There's a high signal to noise ratio in this March 31/20 interview of Dr. Michael Osterholm of CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy), by podcast host Dr. Peter Attia. Attia helpfully includes a summary of topics and at what minute they happen.

Skip it if your anxiety is high today...

I appreciated Osterholm pointing out (minute 27-ish) probable supply chain shortages for drugs (eg 85% of the generic antibiotics Americans use come mostly from China and Lombardy, Italy; patients lying in the ICU for weeks are likely to need antibiotics for nosocomial infections).

They also commented about how the average R0 (R-nought, the unit for how many other people one infected person infects) of between 2 and 3 can be misleading: a super-spreader can infect far more, and that "is a property of the host, not the virus." This comment is helping me reach some low-information people about asymptomatic spread, and how the lack of widespread testing in the US means protecting others depends on us thinking, "Am I the asymptomatic infected super-spreader here?" and being disciplined about our behavior.

Uh, I'm using super-spreader here because that's what they used, but scholar Richard McKay has observed that that term is stigmatising and blamey (like "Patient Zero"), so...duly noted. Not sure what alternatives would be. R10+ers?
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 10:44 AM on April 6, 2020 [7 favorites]

Not sure what alternatives would be. R10+ers?

I don't know if it can be made to address the spreader/superspreader Rn thing, but the plain-English analogy I like is, "it's like a swimming pool with a peeing section."
posted by rhizome at 10:48 AM on April 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

Interesting and informative interview of a pulmonologist who is recovering from COVID-19.
posted by ShooBoo at 10:50 AM on April 6, 2020 [8 favorites]

Cybercoitus interruptus, I've also seen "Silent Spreaders" used widely to describe the up to 86% of cases that go undocumented because they're asymptomatic (or, at least, pre-symptomatic at the time of viral transmission).
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 10:51 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

A thousand years ago (so, like three weeks-ish?), Trump's original tweet storms and press statements touted hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine and azithromycin (Zithromax/Z-Pack); are we stockpiling the latter, too?

Oh, he's still recommending it: Trump doubles down on unproven drugs to treat and prevent coronavirus (CNN, April 6, 2020): For people without heart problems, Trump recommended combining hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin, a common antibiotic. He said azithromycin "will kill certain things that you don't want living within your body." [Use of Antibiotics During Pregnancy and Risk of Miscarriage, 2017 study, CMAJ.ca. Still not a doctor.] While certain drugs are out of patent, sometimes all formulations of the drug aren't available as generic, or specific formulations are manufactured by one or two companies. So now I'm curious about that, too, given Trump's proclivities; which pharma companies make hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as injections and/or intravenous infusions?

At ClinicalTrials.gov - 338 Studies found for: COVID-19; also searched for SARS-CoV-2, 2019-nCoV, and 2019 novel coronavirus
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:51 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

So Donald Trump is essentially the Jude Law character in "Contagion"?
posted by mazola at 10:55 AM on April 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

So Donald Trump is essentially the Jude Law character in "Contagion"?

I think he thinks he is that maverick character in every disaster movie, the blue collar white guy who comes up with a solution that has escaped all the experts. We should be glad he isn't trying to blow it up like Bruce Willis, I guess.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 11:30 AM on April 6, 2020 [6 favorites]

@HannahLebovits: "watching the federal government deal with COVID-19 is like watching the Ministry of Magic deal with Voldemort’s return,” and damn if that isn’t the best take I’ve heard this month
posted by Mitheral at 11:34 AM on April 6, 2020 [10 favorites]

What I don't understand is.... like, he thinks physicians are just going to start prescribing this, on his say-so?
posted by Sublimity at 11:46 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

he thinks physicians are just going to start prescribing this, on his say-so?

Reports are that enough physicians are prescribing and hoarding for themselves that lupus and other patients who need the drug often cannot get it. So, yeah, some of them will.
posted by sjswitzer at 11:53 AM on April 6, 2020 [9 favorites]

> he thinks physicians are just going to start prescribing this, on his say-so?

Many of them have probably been dying to do it before his say-so. You'd be surprised at the number of hardcore wingnut and MAGAhat doctors out there.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:53 AM on April 6, 2020 [11 favorites]

Jon Santiago is an emergency-room doctor at Boston Medical Center (also a state representative). Yesterday, he reported on the shift he'd just gotten off and the phenomenon of seeing patients arriving in bad shape after they'd earlier been discharged to home quarantine in seemingly stable condition - as well as the growing concern over just who gets put on a ventilator.
posted by adamg at 12:00 PM on April 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

My sister is watching Sky News and says Boris Johnson is in the ICU now. I'm not surprised.
posted by mumimor at 12:18 PM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

I hope he will get well soon, for his fiancé and the baby.
posted by mumimor at 12:18 PM on April 6, 2020 [5 favorites]

Coronavirus: Prime Minister Boris Johnson moved to intensive care after condition worsens
posted by mumimor at 12:19 PM on April 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

Boris Johnson moved to intensive care after condition worsens

Maybe Trump can sell him some hydroxychloroquine.
posted by valkane at 12:25 PM on April 6, 2020 [5 favorites]

Is he on a ventilator?
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:30 PM on April 6, 2020

Coronavirus: Prime Minister Boris Johnson moved to intensive care after condition worsens

I have this hope, probably all in vain but still I am hoping, that once senior politicians and their families start getting ill that maybe it will force some stronger and better governmental responses. Wealth and power insulates, but not totally.
posted by Dip Flash at 12:46 PM on April 6, 2020 [6 favorites]

I doubt between privacy concerns or creating panic they won't be specific on his condition for a while. Hard to believe sometimes - but he is the leader of a major world/nuclear power (with approx 120 warheads), regardless of what many may think of him. Given "only the Prime Minister can authorise the launch of nuclear weapons, which ensures that political control is maintained at all times" there likely would be protocols about what can be released especially if his condition is now life-threatening/he is incapacitated and critical roles, like launch authority amongest others, need to be transferred.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 12:47 PM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

@Stonekettle:The Acting Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly -- whose sum total qualification for his job was that he was once a junior helicopter pilot who became an investment banker and Trump campaign donor -- visited the USS Theodore Roosevelt this morning and chasitized the crew.
@stonekettle selects out some "highlights" and they are bonkers. Modly calls Crozier (who remember rose to command a frickin aircraft carrier through decades of "work, experience, education") stupid or naive; claims he [Modly] is the victim in the firing; does a little campaigning for Trump against Biden; tells the crew they shouldn't expect anything from leadership but fairness; and tells the crew they shouldn't be angry -- that anger is a betrayal of the money spent on them and the ship.

Honestly I'm a mite surprised he made it off the ship.

And why the fuck was he traveling to Micronesia (the USS Roosevelt is in Guam at the moment) to deliver a speech over intercom in a ship known to be a global pandemic hotspot? He can't use a phone?

You can listen to the audio of his speech here.
posted by Mitheral at 12:50 PM on April 6, 2020 [30 favorites]

Is he on a ventilator?

It's said that Boris Johnson was moved to ICU just in case a ventilator was needed.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:50 PM on April 6, 2020

Is he on a ventilator?

Apparently not, but reports from elsewhere have consistently shown that in the serious cases the decline is rapid after 10 days of symptoms and ICU admission for patients like Boris (male, middle-aged and unhealthy) leads to increasingly worsening odds of survival.
posted by fullerine at 12:52 PM on April 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

The strange lead-up to Boris Johnson's admission to hospital (The Guardian)

This seems very relevant in this Truthiness thread. It's normal for states to be very hesitant to let out information about the health conditions of their heads of state. I'm not ready to judge. But it does seem typical of Boris Johnson that this is handled as if one can just imagine one's way out of it...
posted by mumimor at 12:53 PM on April 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

I listened to the USS Theodore Roosevelt audio earlier. Christ, what an asshole. At one point he talks about how we might not be at war, but how an autocratic regime trying to suppress information is what led to the virus. I have no idea how he said this without bursting into flames from the irony and cognitive dissonance.

He also said that he's had horrible things said about him and his family, and in the next breath, that this isn't about him.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:55 PM on April 6, 2020 [14 favorites]

tells the crew they shouldn't be angry -- that anger is a betrayal of the money spent on them and the ship

Was that before or after the parade he made them march on the flight deck?
posted by flabdablet at 1:10 PM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

there likely would be protocols about what can be released especially if his condition is now life-threatening/he is incapacitated and critical roles, like launch authority amongest others, need to be transferred.

Wouldn't this role transfer take place as soon as he's in the ICU if not before?
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:13 PM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Sometimes it turns out that you are part of the herd too, no matter how rich and powerful you are. One hopes a few of the other genocidaires take notice, but I doubt they will.
posted by tavella at 1:16 PM on April 6, 2020 [7 favorites]

Reports I’ve seen suggest that Boris is on a CPAP machine, not a ventilator. Yet.
posted by pharm at 1:31 PM on April 6, 2020

Wouldn't this role transfer take place as soon as he's in the ICU if not before?

You'd think so right? But given he was saying he was still working from hospital when he first went there and it was just a precautionary measure and he was still in charge...who knows. They probably did certain things in advance given Dominic Raab was deputized. Hoping its not a classic omnishambles .
posted by inflatablekiwi at 1:35 PM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

You can listen to the audio of his speech here.

He flew half way around the world to a virus-stricken ship to chastise a captain who was already relieved of command and made to disembark.

It's a pity Larry Linville passed away. Having Major Burns read out this speech would be perfect.
posted by ocschwar at 1:45 PM on April 6, 2020 [22 favorites]

He flew half way around the world to a virus-stricken ship to chastise a captain who was already relieved of command and made to disembark.

As always during these times, there is an audience of one
posted by mumimor at 1:48 PM on April 6, 2020 [33 favorites]

Acting SECNAV Modley: If [relieved Captain Crozier] didn't think that the information was going to get out into the public in this information age that we live in, then he was A) too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this.

Anonymous crew member @ 2:00 mark: WHAT THE FUCK?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:06 PM on April 6, 2020 [28 favorites]

Recording this and leaking it is the perfect comeuppance.
posted by ocschwar at 2:13 PM on April 6, 2020 [11 favorites]

[MODS - I realize this is a long quote, but I hope you'll let this one pass. It's worth it.]

...Reuters was first to report that Modly had flown out to Guam to visit the carrier and make the speech, in which Modly reportedly suggested Crozier's actions had been "stupid." Vice Adm. Bill Merz, the commanding officer of the U.S. 7th Fleet, a top Navy headquarters in Japan that oversees operations in the Western Pacific, also visited the ship.

The Navy's top civilian official said that the captain may have been either "too naive or too stupid" to run the ship because of his decision to send the letter in an unclassified format to a large number of recipients, which made it easier to leak to the press, according to the transcript now circulating online.
...
"If he didn't think, in my opinion, that this information wasn't going to get out into the public, in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either too naive or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this," Modly said, according to the transcript, that a member of Theodore Roosevelt's crew reportedly made from a recording of the speech, which was carried over the ship's intercom system. "The alternative is that he did this on purpose. And that's a serious violation of the UCMJ [Uniform Code of Military Justice], which you are all familiar with."
...
The Acting Secretary of the Navy also slammed the media and chastised the crew for its display of support for Crozier as he left the ship after being relieved.

"It was betrayal [what Crozier did]. And I can tell you one other thing: because he did that he put it in the public's forum and it's now become a big controversy in Washington. D.C. and across the country. About a martyr CO [commanding officer] who wasn't getting the help he needed therefore had to go through the Chain of Command, a chain of command which includes the media," Modly said according to the transcript. "The media has an agenda and the agenda that they have depends on which side of the political aisle they sit and I'm sorry that's the way the country is now but it's the truth and so they use it to divide us and use it to embarrass the Navy. They use it to embarrass you."

"So think about that when you cheer the man off the ship who exposed you to that," Modly added...

Read the rest in the article, including the alleged transcript of Modly's speech.

This is no way to get the support of the United States Navy. One might even say this is how you get a mutiny.
posted by cenoxo at 2:15 PM on April 6, 2020 [19 favorites]

US blocks millions of N95 face masks headed for Canada US officials stop shipment at 3M factory after Trump invoked Defense Production Act to stop exports to Canada and beyond (The Guardian, April 6, 2020) At a press conference on Monday, Ontario premier Doug Ford said the 500,000 masks had been cleared for release, but nearly three million masks were intercepted by US officials at 3M’s South Dakota Facility.

Speaking at his daily press briefing on Monday, Justin Trudeau said his government wouldn’t implement retaliatory measures, instead relying on diplomacy to end the impasse. “There are very productive conversations ongoing and we expect those shipments to be delivered,” said the prime minister.
--
Again, it'd be nice to know for certain where all these seized masks are ending up.
--
‘Nothing Works’: Hospitals Race To Train More Docs To Operate Ventilators (TPM, April 6, 2020) A fixture in intensive care units, a ventilator requires near-perpetual management. Pulmonologists work with respiratory therapists and nurses to diagnose, intubate, drug, and manage patients hooked up to the devices. New York has roughly 7,500 licensed mechanical ventilator operators. But in the city, in other hotspots, there are not enough of these trained professionals to go around. The country as a whole faces a shortage with a limited supply of personnel and ballooning patient totals.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:19 PM on April 6, 2020 [9 favorites]

Someone should ask Modly about the strawberries.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:29 PM on April 6, 2020 [14 favorites]

Loyalty in the Trump cult is to one's superiors. They don't understand loyalty to your crew, to those beneath you. It looks like betrayal to them.
posted by adept256 at 2:33 PM on April 6, 2020 [18 favorites]

Navy Secretary Slams Captain Of COVID-19 Stricken Carrier, Media In Surprise Visit To Ship (Updated) - The Navy's top civilian also chastised the crew for its display of support for Captain Crozier as he left the ship after he was fired., The War Zone, Joseph Trevithick; 4/6/2020:
It's infuriating in so many ways, but one of those ways is that it so amateurish. It's not a government official speaking, it's a failed used-car dealing at a bar after hours. And it's unfortunately any number of middle aged white men who have failed upwards that I've had to deal with for the last many years.
I was very fascinated by the article posted by ZeusHumms way up there, about governance: Why the Trump Administration Won’t Be Able to Make the Stimulus Work. The title is a bit misleading because it's mostly about FDR's administration. If I ever get my actual work done, I'd like to gather material for a post about good governance, but if someone else were to do it I'd be very grateful. I feel that all over the world, we need to reinvent the art of creating nations that work and protect their citizens.
posted by mumimor at 2:35 PM on April 6, 2020 [9 favorites]

cenoxo: “This is no way to get the support of the United States Navy. One might even say this is how you get a mutiny.”

It is extremely alarming to me that the Trump crime family would openly court mutiny like this.

P.S. The acting Secretary of the Navy doesn't know the difference between "authoritative" and "authoritarian."

“Modly Tells Carrier Roosevelt Crew Former CO Could Have Broken Military Law,” Sam LaGrone, USNI News, 06 April 2020.
posted by ob1quixote at 2:41 PM on April 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

You can’t use ventilators without sedatives. Now the US is running out of those, too. (Lois Parshley, Vox)

But to save a Covid-19 patient’s life with a ventilator, you also need an ample supply of medications, both to be able to use the machine and to prevent agonizing pain. Experts say there’s a worrisome shortage of those, too — one that’s only expected to grow worse.

“The minute you talk about ventilators you need to talk about medications,” says Esther Choo, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. Choo says hospitals are already running out of medications like fentanyl, versed, propofol, and even neuromuscular blockades, what she calls “everyday bread and butter medications,” the drugs needed to induce and maintain sedation while on a ventilator. “Ventilators can’t really be used without these medications.” [...]

“You can imagine if I tried to shove a plastic tube down your throat, it’s a very human reflex not to let someone do that,” Choo says. “So we place people in deep sedation.” After the tube is placed in the trachea, patients have to stay sedated — in the case of some Covid-19 patients, that can last for several weeks. Without the right medications, “that experience can be agonizing,” Choo says.

posted by ZeusHumms at 2:43 PM on April 6, 2020 [13 favorites]

Loyalty in the Trump cult is to one's superiors. They don't understand loyalty to your crew, to those beneath you. It looks like betrayal to them.

Yep: Kiss up/kick down is all they know.

The speech the Acting Secretary of the Navy gave is wrong in all kinds of ways. It is exactly the speech the smarmy rear-echelon-mf'er who values corporate profits and politics over the lives of the women and men in the military gives right before the Steven Segal/Bruce Willis/Chuck Norris/Gary Sinise character kicks him off the flight deck into the waiting mouth of a great white shark in the movies.

Yet the usual suspects -- most of whom thought it was a huge act of disrespect for Obama to salute a Marine while holding a coffee cup -- will have absolutely nothing to say about this.
posted by lord_wolf at 2:44 PM on April 6, 2020 [27 favorites]

mumimor, you might like Health experts call for Roosevelt-style programs to kill virus, revive economy (TheHill, April 6, 2020), & Green Jobs Are the Answer to the Coronavirus Recession (The New Republic, March 18, 2020); there was also a recent multi-point "rebuilding in a world with seasonal/cyclical SARS-CoV-2" list in a news outlet, advocating for a kind of new WPA employing people with antibodies to the virus, but I can't find it now.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:53 PM on April 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

US trade adviser pits himself against Fauci over unproven coronavirus drug Peter Navarro said he was qualified to debate use of hydroxychloroquine because he has a PhD – in economics (The Guardian, April 6, 2020) Peter Navarro, the US trade adviser overseeing the implementation of the Defense Production Act amid the coronavirus crisis, has acknowledged reports of a heated exchange with Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious diseases expert, about the wisdom of using an anti-malarial drug to fight Covid-19. Speaking to CNN on Monday, Navarro acknowledged the disagreement and said he told Fauci in response to his concerns about the anecdotal nature of evidence regarding hydroxychloroquine: “I would have two words for you: ‘second opinion’.” [...]

“Doctors disagree about things all the time,” he said. “My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that I’m a social scientist. I have a PhD, and I understand how to read statistical studies.” Navarro told CNN that at Saturday’s meeting “there was unanimous agreement that [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] would immediately begin surging hydroxy into the hot zones to be dispensed only between a doctor and a patient decision not the federal government”.

Trump is killing his own supporters' – even White House insiders know it (Opinion, The Guardian, April 6, 2020) In the words of one administration insider, to the Guardian: “The Trump organism is simply collapsing. He’s killing his own supporters.” Members of the national guard, emergency workers, rank-and-file Americans: all are exposed. Yet Trump appears incapable of emoting anything that comes close to heart-felt concern. Or just providing straight answers. Trump is telling NFL owners he wants the season to start on time. He is disregarding Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advice on wearing facemasks in public. And he is touting untested coronavirus cures live on national TV.

On Thursday, Trump forced the removal of Captain Brett Crozier from his command of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, for having the temerity to plead his sailors’ case as more than 100 of them tested positive for coronavirus. If you can leave your soldiers to suffer then no American is truly safe, no matter what Jeanine Pirro may say. Crozier left the ship to the cheers of the crew – then reportedly tested positive himself.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:10 PM on April 6, 2020 [17 favorites]

US coronavirus deaths rise as New York City braces for park burial possibility (The Guardian, April 6, 2020) In New York City, the chair of the city council’s health committee warned the morgues were almost full.

“Soon we’ll start ‘temporary interment’,” the councilman, Mark Levine, tweeted. “This likely will be done by using a NYC park for burials (yes you read that right). Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line. It will be done in a dignified, orderly – and temporary – manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take.”

It is.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:14 PM on April 6, 2020 [20 favorites]

That is insane
posted by mumimor at 3:18 PM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

They should bury them on Trump Golf courses.
posted by valkane at 3:26 PM on April 6, 2020 [55 favorites]

no matter what Jeanine Pirro may say

She's been doing her show from home, where the box wine is.
posted by adept256 at 4:13 PM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Reports I’ve seen suggest that Boris is on a CPAP machine, not a ventilator. Yet.

Earlier today I was all set to make a snarky post on Facebook to the effect that since Trump said Boris Johnson would be fine, that meant he was probably doomed. Fortunately I saw the latest news about him going to the ICU before I made a heartless comment. Based on the training I have had in this over the past few weeks, putting someone on CPAP is not a good plan at all. First of all, CPAP generates a lot of aerosolized particles and droplets that put anyone caring for the patient at risk. Second, if a patient needs non-invasive ventilation, they are really on the brink and could deteriorate very quickly, requiring intubation in minutes. Normally this isn't a problem; however this blog post explains what should happen: There is no emergency in a pandemic. And intubating a COVID-19 patient is not a trivial matter; this is the process they used in Wuhan, which is similar to our training. By comparison, without the protective equipment, I routinely take patients from wide awake to unconscious and intubated in about 5 minutes in the OR. Of course I am sure that there will be a lot of pressure on the people caring for Mr. Johnson (or other VIPs) to disregard safety protocols. This happens all the time, usually increasing risk to the patient (and that's why I refuse to treat VIPs differently; everyone gets the best I can do) but in this case increasing risk to the caregivers, possibly rendering them unable to care for other patients.
posted by TedW at 4:27 PM on April 6, 2020 [50 favorites]

Thanks for your very informative (and scary) comment, TedW
posted by mumimor at 4:48 PM on April 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

Couple comment deleted. There's a thread about the Navy Captain Crozier situation so please take comments on that over there, thanks.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 5:35 PM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Trump blew it, not the WHO, Fauci or the Jews Dana Milbank/WaPo

One of my few pleasures during the current misery is the Zoom religious service, a weekly chance in my home to greet the Sabbath and to pray for healing.
But some are so sick as to be beyond the reach of prayer — and it has nothing to do with a virus.
Rabbi Jeremy Kridel, whose flock in the capital includes several members of my family, was leading a recent Shabbat service for Humanistic Jews. About 10 minutes into the service, one man unmuted himself and started shouting “Jewish scum” and “Heil Hitler.” Before he could be blocked from the call, he lifted up his shirt to reveal a large swastika tattooed on his chest.

I have to admit that when I read this, I find it difficult not to despair.
posted by mumimor at 5:45 PM on April 6, 2020 [11 favorites]

US blocks millions of N95 face masks headed for Canada US officials stop shipment at 3M factory after Trump invoked Defense Production Act to stop exports to Canada and beyond (The Guardian, April 6, 2020) At a press conference on Monday, Ontario premier Doug Ford said the 500,000 masks had been cleared for release, but nearly three million masks were intercepted by US officials at 3M’s South Dakota Facility.

Canadian border agents have retaliated by... organizing a hero's welcome to the many Windsor area health care workers returning home to Canada after a long day's work caring for the sick in Detroit.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 6:12 PM on April 6, 2020 [8 favorites]

Grift Grift Grift.
Trump’s Former Lawyer Michael Cohen Had Million-Dollar Contract With Hydroxychloroquine Maker
posted by adamvasco at 7:08 PM on April 6, 2020 [6 favorites]

Twitter thread summarizing just where all that seized PPE may be going.
posted by ocschwar at 7:20 PM on April 6, 2020 [14 favorites]

TLDR: malice and greed, not incompetence.
posted by ocschwar at 7:21 PM on April 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

And here it is, "If hydroxychloroquine becomes an accepted treatment, several pharmaceutical companies stand to profit, including shareholders and senior executives with connections to the president. Mr. Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine."
posted by Rumple at 7:40 PM on April 6, 2020 [25 favorites]

Trump says the federal coronavirus effort has been “incredible.” His own government disagrees. (Aaron Rupar, Vox)

A report released Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general (PDF) details the “severe shortages” of testing supplies and medical gear experienced by hospitals, and alludes to the disorganized nature of the federal response.

The government report stands in contrast to the rhetoric coming from the government’s top elected official. President Donald Trump wants you to believe that officials who have criticized his administration’s coronavirus response are part of a plot to take him down, and despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, he insists federal agencies have done “an unbelievable,” “incredible” job procuring supplies for states.

Now, however, even his own government is acknowledging those talking points are at odds with the reality experienced by health care providers at hospitals that are struggling to contain the coronavirus outbreak while keeping workers safe.

At today's press conference: “You’re a third-rate reporter”: Trump lashes out in response to questions about damning IG report (Aaron Rupar, Vox)
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:10 PM on April 6, 2020 [8 favorites]

I look forward to the day when one of these belittled and berated reporters finally tells this not-even-third-rate grifter "Fuck YOU!"
I can at least dream, can't I?
posted by Fuzzypumper at 9:31 PM on April 6, 2020 [11 favorites]

My blood pressure skyrocketed when I read the things Trump said. And now I feel like weeping. I just can't get my head around how such a manifestly horrible, noxious human being as Trump gets away with flaunting it. A reporter losing their temper wouldn't be sufficient; I keep waiting for an angry god to smite him where he stands.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:57 PM on April 6, 2020 [33 favorites]

I'm kinda worried about Japan now. They were initially held up as a success in stopping the spread but the numbers they are putting out now look like the usual exponential like growth pattern - 2 000 to 4 000 cases in 7 days.
posted by PenDevil at 11:30 PM on April 6, 2020 [7 favorites]

Trump: I have asked US pharma CEOs to offer Johnson experimental Covid-19 treatments
You knew it was coming.
posted by mumimor at 12:03 AM on April 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

It's so mind boggling that everyone who comes into contact with him, even the press, are so gutless.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:12 AM on April 7, 2020 [12 favorites]

How long until the virus roars through those camps in the desert? The sanitary conditions are abominable enough. And then when that happens, the healing hand of Trump will spare nothing to save them, no matter how dangerous. They're not really Americans anyway.

And that's how you get medical experiments in concentration camps.
posted by adept256 at 12:16 AM on April 7, 2020 [6 favorites]

WaPo: What an infectious disease specialist learned about the virus — from getting it

It's so mind boggling that everyone who comes into contact with him, even the press, are so gutless.
I don't know, it seems really hard to do anything. I remember thinking that I really, really understood Nancy Pelosi when she tore up his SOTU speech, but at the same time it was an ineffectual gesture that wouldn't change anyone's mind. Trump's whole schtick is that he has broken the entire system, he is acting like your standard racist uncle would, and his people love him for it.
posted by mumimor at 12:23 AM on April 7, 2020 [8 favorites]

A reporter losing their temper wouldn't be sufficient; I keep waiting for an angry god to smite him where he stands.

I think the press corps needs a new game. "Who can ask a question that will make Trump immediately end the press conference and storm off?" New winner each day, and the prize is oh, I guess they get their drinks bought for them that night. Extra points if you're the first person asking a question.
posted by mikelieman at 12:23 AM on April 7, 2020 [17 favorites]

Remember when Pence left a football game, when the players knelt on one knee during the national anthem to ~~disrespect the american military~~ protest racial police violence?

Just before your question, as a mark of respect, take a knee for the 10000+ already dead, and play that old tune on your phone.

I'm just dreamin'
posted by adept256 at 12:33 AM on April 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

How long until the virus roars through those camps in the desert? The sanitary conditions are abominable enough.

And remember that Anne Frank wasn't directly killed by the Nazis; she died when a typhus and typhoid fever outbreak ran rampant thru the unsanitary packed camp of malnourished prisoners. Good thing we're never doing that again.
posted by Mitheral at 1:29 AM on April 7, 2020 [21 favorites]

I've been distracted, I know we all have been. I was thinking about the shortage of toilet paper. It has something to do with the ratio of production for commercial use and private home use. Schools, cinemas, food courts, paul ryan, all need to purchase this in bulk in a lower quality to deal with the volume they expect. The manufacturers would be loath to adjust this ratio if this only temporary. Then I remembered, John Bolton hasn't published his fucking book yet.

It's been pushed back to may 17, and I hope it's published in a comfortable quilted 2-ply. Let's not forget about what's really important, accountability for the criminals responsible for *waves hands* ALL OF THIS.
posted by adept256 at 3:20 AM on April 7, 2020 [5 favorites]

Way way way upthread someone asked about Sweden. I've found the Guardian to have the best reporting about what's going on here, but here are some other relevant links.

Swedish Radio's English-language news page.

The Public Health Agency's collected data (for most browsers).

It's very frustrating to see the efforts being made in other countries to flatten the curve and compare to what's going on here. Yesterday was the first day of Spring Break, and I took a leisurely bike ride with my daughter (12). It was also sunny and far warmer than any other day this year, and we were both shocked at the hordes of kids milling about is social groups, playing soccer, eating ice cream. Nobody wearing a mask. We saw, no joke, probably a thousand kids here in Stockholm enjoying the spring weather on our 15 km ride. Social distancing as a concept just hasn't hit home at all. And most of these kids are probably going off to their grandparents' for the coming long Easter weekend. The mobility data published by Google tells the same story.

The culture in Sweden is very much to yield to the advice of experts, and that surely is what's happening here. But the experts are giving us very mixed messages, because they're asking us to make our own judgement calls about what's safe, rather than imposing restrictions. Folks make a big deal about the authorities not being political appointees, and not needing to score political points by their recommendations, but that seems to be an incredibly cynical way of interpreting other country's caution. Also, the government has limited power to impose quarantine, though that may be changing soon.

All in all, it's a very worrisome situation.
posted by St. Oops at 7:20 AM on April 7, 2020 [13 favorites]

Dialysis machine shortages lay bare wider threat from Covid-19

I couldn't get to the article from a direct link, but searching on [dialysis machines news] worked.

"Analysis at the weekend by the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre found that of 690 UK patients admitted to critical care with confirmed Covid-19, 25 per cent needed advanced cardiovascular support, 18.5 per cent required renal support and 4.5 per cent received neurological support. "

There's also information about how they're still learning how treat COVID 19 patients-- there's a lot they're unsure of.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 7:32 AM on April 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

Trump was warned in January of Covid-19's devastating impact, memos reveal (Guardian)

The memos were written by Trump’s economic adviser, Peter Navarro, and circulated via the national security council widely around the White House and federal agencies.

They show that even within the Trump administration alarm bells were ringing loudly by late January, at a time when the president was consistently downplaying the threat of Covid-19. [...]

The memos, first reported by the New York Times and Axios, were written by Navarro on 29 January and 23 February. The first memo, composed on the day Trump set up a White House coronavirus taskforce, gave a worst-case scenario of the virus killing more than half a million Americans. [...]

The second memo went even further, predicting that a Covid-19 pandemic, left unchecked, could kill 1.2 million Americans and infect as many as 100 million.

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:39 AM on April 7, 2020 [12 favorites]

the same navarro who ^knows better about evidence of efficacy than the epidemiologist.
posted by 20 year lurk at 7:48 AM on April 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

The same Navarro who wrote the book "Death by China" back in 2011. Recall that the reason Navarro was hired is that right after the election Trump asked Jared to find him a China expert and Jared spend 15 minutes on Amazon looking for China books.
posted by JackFlash at 8:05 AM on April 7, 2020 [11 favorites]

Trump removes independent watchdog for coronavirus funds, upending oversight panel (Kyle Cheney and Connor O'Brien, Politico)

A panel of inspectors general had named Glenn Fine — the acting Pentagon watchdog — to lead the group charged with monitoring the coronavirus relief effort. But Trump on Monday removed Fine from his post, instead naming the EPA inspector general [Sean O’Donnell] to serve as the temporary Pentagon watchdog in addition to his other responsibilities.

That decision, which began circulating on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning, effectively removed Fine from his role overseeing the coronavirus relief effort, since the new law permits only current inspectors general to fill the position.

“Mr. Fine is no longer on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee," Dwrena Allen, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon inspector general’s office, confirmed. She added that Fine will return to his Senate-confirmed post as principal deputy inspector general of the Pentagon.

This is part of a larger pattern of Trump putting his own people into the inspector general roles.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:02 AM on April 7, 2020 [17 favorites]

Stephanie Grisham out as White House press secretary after eight months during which she held no regular news briefings

Given POTUS' impulsivity and limited mental capacity, I'm expecting Thomas Modly to be named press secretary, Brett Crozier to be put in charge of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, and Stephanie Grisham to become captain of the USS Roosevelt.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:19 AM on April 7, 2020 [12 favorites]

Meanwhile in actual medical news, promising results in the first published case series on transfusion of convalescent plasma (giving antibody-containing blood from COVID survivors to currently ill patients). Randomized controlled studies are still needed of course, but this modality is already quite well studied for other types of infections and is IMHO way more likely to save lives than Donald’s Oil.
posted by saturday_morning at 10:32 AM on April 7, 2020 [10 favorites]

> I keep waiting for an angry god to smite him where he stands.

I keep waiting for him to tweet “NO COMEUPPANCE!!!”
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:58 AM on April 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

> tonycpsu:"Given POTUS' impulsivity and limited mental capacity, I'm expecting Thomas Modly to be named press secretary"

As it happens, the new press secretary is Kayleigh McEnany, someone who was on Fox News on Feb. 25 to say that “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here..and isn't it refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama."

So... yeah.
posted by mhum at 11:07 AM on April 7, 2020 [25 favorites]

Never mind, mhum has it.
posted by JackFlash at 11:10 AM on April 7, 2020

Trump Fired a Government Watchdog for Doing His Job. Congress Isn’t Stopping Him. (Dan Friedman, Mother Jones) - "Republicans like Chuck Grassley used to stand up for inspectors general."

Senate Democrats have more forcefully denounced the firing [than Senate Republicans], but so far they have not detailed plans to use legislative tools—such as holding up funding or nominations to press Trump to rescind his action—as whistleblower advocates have urged.

posted by ZeusHumms at 11:21 AM on April 7, 2020 [8 favorites]

Ooooh.... the Dems pulling out the stern scolding. That'll show 'em.
posted by kokaku at 11:25 AM on April 7, 2020 [9 favorites]

Matt Rogers (@Politidope) nailing the Press Sec announcement:

I wonder if Kayleigh attached this tweet to her resume.

@kayleighmcenany
Aug 29, 2012
How I Met Your Brother -- Never mind, forgot he's still in that hut in Kenya. #ObamaTVShows
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 12:01 PM on April 7, 2020 [10 favorites]

The longer this administration lasts the stupider the staff gets. Which I guess kinda reflects well on the human race.
posted by valkane at 12:03 PM on April 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

this modality is already quite well studied for other types of infections and is IMHO way more likely to save lives than Donald’s Oil.

I'm all for it, I just think it's interesting that in the ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny department, we're at the "moving blood around" stage of medical solutions. :)
posted by rhizome at 12:06 PM on April 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

Welp. Appears Modly has resigned. If the past is any guidance, the new SecNav will be someone worse. Any guesses?
posted by bcd at 12:16 PM on April 7, 2020 [8 favorites]

James Woods is always in the running.
posted by rhizome at 12:18 PM on April 7, 2020 [17 favorites]

Don’t feel like ‘getting things done’? It’s okay not to be productive during a pandemic. From The Washington Post
posted by mumimor at 1:15 PM on April 7, 2020 [6 favorites]

Many small businesses are being shut out of a new loan program by major banks (Li Zhou, Vox)

The Paycheck Protection Program (Vox), a new effort intended to help small businesses combat the economic fallout (Vox) from the coronavirus, is working through technical snafus (Politico), confusion about available lenders (WSJ), and questions about the costs its loans will cover — all of which have made the application process more challenging.

Since it launched on Friday, the program — which includes $349 billion in funding for forgivable loans to small businesses and nonprofits — has seen a deluge of interest: According to White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow (Politico), 178,000 loan applications were being processed as of Tuesday morning. And that figure doesn’t include the small businesses that are still searching for lenders to accept their applications after many larger banks, including Bank of America and Chase, limited their pool to existing customers.

A good idea, implemented by the Trump Administration.
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:28 PM on April 7, 2020 [7 favorites]

I can't get past all of Washington Post's popups to read that article, but here are some similar media pieces that I found really helpful:

It's ok to feel overwhelmed. Here's what to do next. TED Talk with Elizabeth Gilbert
It's ok if you suck at working from home right now. Lifehacker article
It's ok to not be productive right now. Hello Giggles blog post
posted by iamkimiam at 1:46 PM on April 7, 2020 [11 favorites]

Black Men Kicked Out of Walmart for Wearing Masks During Pandemic

Video of March 18th incident at link. Should be noted it wasn't rent-a-cops but an actual uniformed officer who was enforcing store policy. And while it might have been a policy violation in this case there are plenty of jurisdictions where wearing a mask in public is illegal in various ways. Including Canada where wearing a mask while committing an indictable offence (approximately a felony) is subject to a penalty of 10 years incarceration.
posted by Mitheral at 1:51 PM on April 7, 2020 [10 favorites]

Yeah, it turns out that if you own a small business but don't have any employees, there's a bunch of programs you don't qualify for, which is a bummer for me personally. I'm hoping Maryland gets set up to take unemployment applications from people in my position soon.

(btw has anyone proposed any sort of 'Mefi Mall, but for Mefites whose businesses had to switch to online-only' thing?)
posted by nonasuch at 1:53 PM on April 7, 2020 [6 favorites]

Yeah, it turns out that if you own a small business but don't have any employees, there's a bunch of programs you don't qualify for

Apologies if i missed this discussed earlier, but an NPR story this morning was discussing the racialized impacts of the virus and response and noted that while 13% of the country is Black, only 4% of businesses are owned by Black folks (heavily concentrated in the precarious/dangerous sectors of health/personal aides and retail/food). Of the 2.6M Black-owned businesses in the US 2.5M have no employees besides the proprietor.

Marketplace link
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 2:04 PM on April 7, 2020 [11 favorites]

Yeah, it turns out that if you own a small business but don't have any employees, there's a bunch of programs you don't qualify for, which is a bummer for me personally.

Are you a sole proprietor filing a Schedule C? Then you should qualify for most of the same programs as other small businesses. You do have an employee -- yourself.

In particular you should be eligible for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and/or a Payroll Protection Plan loan (PPP). For qualified expenses, which includes your own payroll, the loan is forgivable. It will pay 100% of your normal net earnings on your Schedule C.

An alternative is unemployment insurance, but the difficulty for applying varies by state and may not pay all of your lost income.
posted by JackFlash at 2:22 PM on April 7, 2020 [8 favorites]

I'm a black man in America. Entering a shop with a face mask might get me killed
posted by mumimor at 2:39 PM on April 7, 2020 [21 favorites]

It’s okay not to be productive during a pandemic.

if you're looking for tips, SLACKER may well be helpful.
posted by philip-random at 3:28 PM on April 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

JFC, I'm watching the PBS NewsHour which has a long feature talking to two EMTs in Rockland County NY, talking about the huge increase in call outs, 100% for suspected corona virus including one to the house of a friend's father...and at the end, one of the EMTs admitted he, personally, did not have health insurance. Not a benefit with the job, not affordable on the exchanges with his salary.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:46 PM on April 7, 2020 [30 favorites]

Trump says he will defund the World Health Organization.

To my ear this sounds like a spur-of-the-moment comment that will be walked back very quickly. But it’s also an insane comment, and I hope a few other nations denounce him trying to endanger the health of the rest of the world.
posted by lazugod at 3:52 PM on April 7, 2020 [19 favorites]

can we please be at the part where the crowd acknowledges that the emperor has no clothes
posted by Lyme Drop at 3:55 PM on April 7, 2020 [20 favorites]

We're at that part, it just takes longer than in movies and some people still think the emperor is a person.
posted by avalonian at 3:58 PM on April 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

While the emperor may wear no clothes, the Queen was kind enough to wear a green screen during her uplifting speech. The internet does it's job.
posted by adept256 at 4:35 PM on April 7, 2020 [10 favorites]

Another Break From The Past: Government Will Help Churches Pay Pastor Salaries (Tom Gjelten, NPR)

A key part of the $2 trillion economic relief legislation enacted last month includes about $350 billion for the Small Business Administration to extend loans to small businesses facing financial difficulties as a result of the coronavirus shutdown orders. Churches and other faith-based organizations, classified as "businesses," qualify for aid under the program, even if they have an exclusively religious orientation.

"Faith-based organizations are eligible to receive SBA loans regardless of whether they provide secular social services," the SBA said in a statement. "No otherwise eligible organization will be disqualified from receiving a loan because of the religious nature, religious identity, or religious speech of the organization."

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:52 PM on April 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

So we're going to actually fund the Church of Satan?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:57 PM on April 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

So we're going to actually fund the Church of Satan?

I'm thinking more of funding mosques and synagogues to pay for the salaries of imams and rabbis, and so help me God if I hear of just one case where there's a mosque denied funding I am going to lose it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:02 PM on April 7, 2020 [17 favorites]

To protect Trump, White House among first to use rapid coronavirus tests sought by communities (MSN) - (David Nakamura and Josh Dawsey, WaPo)

As communities across the country desperately seek access to emerging rapid-turnaround covid-19 tests, one place already using them is the White House, where guests visiting President Trump and Vice President Pence have been required to undergo the exams since last week.

White House visitors said they have been administered the test developed by Abbott Laboratories at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the complex across the street from the West Wing where Pence has an office and the staff of the National Security Council is based. [...]

Abbott, which is producing 50,000 tests per day, began shipping supplies to the White House last week, though a spokesman for the company declined to say how many of the kits were sent. [...] An Abbott spokesman said the test can deliver a positive result within five minutes and a negative result in 13 minutes.

[...] experts emphasized that no virus test is 100 percent reliable. Abbott’s covid-19 tests were approved by the Food and Drug Administration under an emergency authorization and company officials have not publicly disclosed their accuracy rates, which are still begin assessed as more people undergo the tests.

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:04 PM on April 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

> As communities across the country desperately seek access to emerging rapid-turnaround covid-19 tests, one place already using them is the White House, where guests visiting President Trump and Vice President Pence have been required to undergo the exams since last week.

If only it was so fast and easy to protect us against them (sigh).
posted by cenoxo at 7:11 PM on April 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

March 27, 2020 press release and product page about the Abbott ID NOW platform. (For relative scale, click the PHOTOS link in upper left corner.):

Test to run on Abbott's point-of-care ID NOW platform - a portable instrument that can be deployed where testing is needed most
ID NOW has the largest molecular point-of-care installed base in the U.S. and is available in a wide range of healthcare settings
Abbott will be making ID NOW COVID-19 tests available next week and expects to ramp up manufacturing to deliver 50,000 tests per day
This is the company's second test to receive Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA for COVID-19 detection; combined, Abbott expects to produce about 5 million tests per month

May they exceed all their production/performance estimates.
posted by cenoxo at 7:41 PM on April 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Would still like to know Abbott's accuracy rates. Test doesn't help if it indicates a bunch of false negatives.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:44 PM on April 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

from march 28, above, the Abbott RealTime SARS-CoV-2 assay product page:

...Positive results are indicative of the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA; clinical correlation with patient history and other diagnostic information is necessary to determine patient infection status. Positive results do not rule out bacterial infection or co-infection with other viruses. Laboratories within the United States and its territories are required to report all positive results to the appropriate public health authorities.

Negative results do not preclude SARS-CoV-2 infection and should not be used as the sole basis for patient management decisions. Negative results must be combined with clinical observations, patient history, and epidemiological information.

emphasis mine.
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:01 PM on April 7, 2020 [5 favorites]

oh there's more: "Negative results ... should not be the sole basis of a patient treatment/management or public health decision. Follow up testing should be performed according to the current CDC recommendations." that product page notes that it is to be administered by prescription only, although i do not immediately find that requirement among the conditions of the emergency use authorization (note: not "approval").

one tends to doubt that those oil company execs and other captains of industry -- allegedly administered the test when they visit the orange horror -- are beneficiaries of bona fide prescriptions, are informed of the value of the negative result, or that whoever administers it in the oval office antechamber is situated to conduct thorough clinical observations or consider patient history.
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:16 PM on April 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

Coronavirus is Testing the World. How Do We Test for Coronavirus? Judy Savitskaya & Jorge Conde, Andreessen Horowitz, 4/2/2020

The need to understand and track the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, has highlighted the importance of diagnostic testing. Widespread diagnostic testing is needed not only to identify who is sick right now, but also who is at risk, and critically, who is immune due to previous exposure. Discussion of diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2 is omnipresent, and as you have likely gleaned from the news, not all tests are equally effective or rapid and there are huge issues around availability.

But what kinds of tests are needed, and what do these tests actually test for?
...
One of the most important trade offs made when designing or selecting diagnostic tests is between the rate of false positives (telling someone they are sick when they’re not) and false negatives (telling someone they are healthy when they’re not). Obviously, neither is good, but which false result is more or less damaging depends largely on the context. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, false negatives are far more dangerous than false positives due to the highly contagious nature of the virus.
...

More details in the article.
posted by cenoxo at 8:35 PM on April 7, 2020 [6 favorites]

id now covid-19 package insert & quick reference guide, including some specificity/sensitivity information. obviously, not the kind that would be called for to obtain approval, though such data may be developed if usage/results are reported back to abbott and fda per the requirements of the eua.

slim odds the white house is keeping such records and will make them available to fda inspection.
slim odds this misministration's fda would seek such inspection.
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:52 PM on April 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

How the Coronavirus Bailout Repeats 2008’s Mistakes: Huge Corporate Payoffs With Little Accountability (Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica)

As the government rushes to aid the economy, how that’s done, who benefits and who is left behind matter. So far, the signs are ominous.

The “bailout is going to repeat a lot of mistakes of the 2008 interventions,” said Amanda Fischer, the policy director for the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a left-leaning economic think tank. After those rescue efforts, “Corporate America’s profits bounced back quickly, but most working people have not seen their conditions improve.” [...]

The design of the rescue package has left those who watched and studied 2008 deeply frustrated. “I do not have a good explanation of how we continue to fumble this. I was thinking when this started, ‘At least we have 2008 to guide us to not make the same mistakes,’” said a Hill staffer familiar with the CARES Act. “This will paper over bank balance-sheet problems, help tech valuations and boost leveraged loans. In three months, I think the stock market will look good. But the vast majority of workers will be worse off. The law will amplify inequality and the power of large corporations over labor and the workforce, and they won’t be able to recover for a generation.”

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:09 PM on April 7, 2020 [13 favorites]

Hospitals say feds are seizing masks and other coronavirus supplies without a word
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:15 AM on April 8, 2020 [12 favorites]

Hospitals say feds are seizing masks and other coronavirus supplies without a word

But why? What is the plan in all of this?
posted by mumimor at 3:14 AM on April 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

A few updates on masks - since advice an practice in their deployment seems to be varying rapidly:

Dr John Campbell talks about a study by Lydia Bourouibia on how far droplets and aerosol particles can be spread by breathing, coughing and sneezing. With respect to Covid-19, this looks like strong evidence for masking up in many public places.

Jeremy Howard talks about the #masksforall campaign that was kicked off by Czech blogger Petr Ludwig. Ludwig's campaign to get his compatriots to make and wear masks, was responsible for a 3 day transition for a state where most czechs were not wearing masks to one where they are (and, as per new legislation, must - in shops). The #masksforall link above contains a number of suggestions on how to make masks quickly from existing materials in the home.
posted by rongorongo at 3:56 AM on April 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

From the article about the federal government siezing masks:

“Everyone says you are supposed to be on your own,” Jose Camacho said, noting Trump’s repeated admonition that states and local health systems cannot rely on Washington for supplies [Camacho is head of the Texas Association of Community Health Centers]. “Then to have this happen, you just sit there wondering what else you can do. You can’t fight the federal government.”

The Founding Fathers and the French Revolutionaries would like to point out that, uh, yes you can fight your government.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:05 AM on April 8, 2020 [15 favorites]

US allies express dismay over US handling of global medical supply chain – Other countries complain the US is outbidding them, as a German official accuses its ally of “modern piracy.”, Vox, Anya van Wagtendonkanyavw; 4/4/2020.

...
But increasingly, the US is being warned that restrictive policies could lead to widespread consequences.

In a statement Friday, 3M warned the Trump administration’s use of the DPA to limit exports could both snarl the US supply chain and create humanitarian disasters in countries that could not otherwise readily access equipment.

And earlier on Friday, Trudeau warned about trade interruptions during a global emergency. “It would be a mistake to create blockages or reduce the amount of back-and-forth trade of essential goods and services, including medical goods, across our border,” he said.
...

America First.
posted by cenoxo at 4:50 AM on April 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

How to build a hospital in nine days: emergency architecture in a pandemic
posted by mumimor at 5:12 AM on April 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Coronavirus: German military asked to secure transport of face masks after US initially accused of ‘piracy’ • Request for troop support came after a delivery of 200,000 face masks destined for the German capital was diverted en route from China. • German officials initially laid blame on US, one calling diversion of shipment ‘an act of modern piracy’, South China Morning Post, Erik Kirschbaum, 4/6/2020:

...Another senior Berlin city government official, Interior Minister Andreas Geisel, had criticised the United States on Friday, saying that 200,000 FFP2 masks made by American firm 3M in China had been “confiscated” at Bangkok’s airport with “wild west methods”. He said the diversion was “an act of modern piracy. This is no way to treat transatlantic partners”.

The comments were later retracted and city officials said they were investigating the disappearance of the face masks. Similar criticism came from France where officials have accused unidentified Americans of paying higher prices to secure masks in China that had already been headed to France.

“We’ve made an official request to the Bundeswehr for assistance,” Kalayci, the Berlin health minister, told the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper amid the uncertainty about the fate of the missing face masks. “I’ve made an urgent appeal to the defence minister for the Bundeswehr to take over the transport and fly the protective medical materials to Berlin.”...

During the coronavirus crisis, the Bundeswehr has been on occasion involved in helping transport medical supplies across Germany in an emergency situation but has not yet been involved in any overseas transport mission. In general, the Bundeswehr transport mission flights do not carry any weapons.
posted by cenoxo at 5:16 AM on April 8, 2020 [6 favorites]

German minister’s suicide linked to coronavirus crisis • Thomas Schaefer, the finance minister of Germany’s Hesse state, found dead near a railway track • ‘His main fear was whether he could manage to meet the public’s enormous expectations’:

A rising star in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party committed suicide apparently because he had become distraught over the economic turbulence and financial distress that the coronavirus crisis is causing for Germany, the governor of Hesse state Volker Bouffier said on Sunday.

Bouffier said that Thomas Schaefer [WP bio], the Hesse state’s finance minister since 2010 and long seen as his successor as governor, had killed himself because he was in despair about the financial crisis resulting from the coronavirus pandemic even though Schaefer had worked hard to organise stimulus support measures for businesses in the state, which also includes Germany’s financial capital of Frankfurt and the country’s largest airport....

.
posted by cenoxo at 5:30 AM on April 8, 2020 [7 favorites]

(Preceding article from South China Morning Post, Erik Kirschbaum, 3/30/2020.)
posted by cenoxo at 5:38 AM on April 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

Coronavirus: 68 per cent of cases confirmed in China in past eight days had no symptoms • Of the 885 infections reported between March 31 and April 7, 601 people showed no visible signs, National Health Commission says • But scientists say data set is too small to draw any conclusions about how Covid-19 spreads, South China Morning Post, Kinling Lo, 4/8/2020:

...While the ratio might appear high, the small data set meant it was too early to make any conclusions, according to Leo Poon Lit-man, head of the public health laboratory sciences division at the University of Hong Kong.

“We don’t know what these figures mean without having the same data [on asymptomatic patients] for the past three months,” he said. “But what we do know, is that these asymptomatic patients could be pre-symptomatic and infectious despite not displaying symptoms. “Therefore the virus is still being transmitted inside the country … and these patients should be treated in isolation and put under close observation.”...

Keeping an eye out for or the second wave.
posted by cenoxo at 5:55 AM on April 8, 2020 [5 favorites]

Keeping an eye out for or the second wave.

And the second wave of the 1918 flu was a doozy, folks.
posted by pseudophile at 6:35 AM on April 8, 2020 [10 favorites]

mumimor pretty sure the objective is manifold, but two big short term "wins" from the Trump POV would be A) red meat for the base in the form of abusing evil Californians, and B) more supplies for Trump cronies to sell at inflated prices.

That last is how Kushner engineered the so called distribution from the emergency stockpile. Give it for free to cronies who then sell it to states after a brutal bidding war.

If they can then steal the gear from Democrats to sell again thenthey get more money and more praise from their voters who hate Democrats.
posted by sotonohito at 7:04 AM on April 8, 2020 [10 favorites]

TPM: Trump Claims Hospitals Are In ‘Great Shape’ With Ventilators Because Hannity Said So

TPM: Dr. Birx Warns Of ‘Very Acute’ Second COVID-19 Wave If People Stop Social Distancing
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:05 AM on April 8, 2020 [7 favorites]

The ‚second wave‘ of the Spanish Flu was the next season - That means (if it follows) next fall/winter is going to suuuuuuuck.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:23 AM on April 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

What the 1918 flu pandemic can teach us about COVID-19, in four charts — One of the biggest pandemics in recent history shows the importance of social distancing., Popular Science, Sara Chodosh, 3/18/2020:

The 1918 influenza pandemic was just long enough ago that it has slipped out of the collective consciousness. But as the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, spreads, more and more experts are turning to last century’s flu for clues on how to deal with a public health crisis of such massive proportions.

In some ways, an early 20th century event doesn’t provide a great analogue to how a modern disease might evolve. 100 years ago we didn’t have widespread air travel, nor did we have antibiotics, which can’t treat a virus but can help with the infections that often accompany respiratory diseases (and cause many of the deaths in a viral outbreak). 100 years ago, we didn’t even know what viruses were.

But one aspect of pandemics remains even a century later: non-pharmaceutical interventions...non-medical precautions that governments and other organizations put in place to prevent the spread of an illness...social distancing measures. Closing schools and museums would be one....Implementing quarantines is another. And by looking at how the 1918 influenza progressed in various cities, we can see how the interventions they each took impacted the spread of the virus....

It's not time to ease up on isolation, social distancing and stay-at-home policies, it's time to double down.

Here's what can happen if we don't: twin peaks in Denver and Saint Louis in late 1918, with the second peak sharper, taller, and more deadly than the first. Don't start cheering and backslapping when the numbers go down, be ready to take another major hit.
posted by cenoxo at 7:52 AM on April 8, 2020 [11 favorites]

• United States population in 1918: 103,208,000
• United States population in 2020: 329,491,580 and counting: more potential coronavirus hosts.
posted by cenoxo at 8:10 AM on April 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's not time to ease up on isolation, social distancing and stay-at-home policies, it's time to double down.

That's true right up until it isn't. We aren't there yet (at all!), but a combination of effective, validated treatments and adequate ventilators and other equipment may make future resurgences much less of a problem. That's where the analogy to 1918 breaks down. There was no effective treatment for that disease or even its symptoms, whereas there's a very real likelihood that at least one of the experimental treatments for COVID-19 will prove safe and effective.

If all of those approaches fail and we have no choice but to wait for a vaccine, then yes, we could be stuck in the status quo for another 17 months. But I think it's more likely that we'll eventually move to a combination of testing, treatment, antibody testing for immunity (assuming that re-infection is either impossible or very unlikely), and reasonable social distancing measures (e.g. no mass gatherings, limits on density in public places).
posted by jedicus at 8:14 AM on April 8, 2020 [4 favorites]

My best friend from HS is CEO of a hospital. Told me last night he expects his hospital to lose 2.5 million dollars over this. It's a small regional Midwest hospital, not big at all. 2.5 million is a lot. They're not for-profit.

Lack of elective surgery, fewer people coming in with other things due to fear, staff still needs to get paid, supplies cost through the roof... it's wrecking them and we're not even doing badly with COVID yet... too badly anyway.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 8:23 AM on April 8, 2020 [7 favorites]

Coronavirus Was Slow to Spread to Rural America. Not Anymore, New York Times; Jack Healy, Sabrina Tavernise, Robert Gebeloff, Weiyi Cai; April 8, 2020.
posted by cenoxo at 8:25 AM on April 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

In 1918, America was approximately 50/50 urban / rural. Today it is 80 / 20.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:41 AM on April 8, 2020 [6 favorites]

A state task force of doctors and medical ethicists yesterday released Crisis Standards of Care guidelines for Massachusetts hospitals should things get so bad that they're getting more patients than they know what to do with: Basically, sacrifice the old and infirm for the young and otherwise healthy, with the goal of maximizing "total life years saved," by triaging ventilators and other treatments, through a color-coded ranking scale tilted towards the young without preexisting conditions, pregnant women nearing term, healthcare workers and police (because they are involved in "maintaining societal order") over old people with existing conditions. In the event of a tie, give the ventilator to the younger person. It's a pretty clearly written and incredibly grim document (it includes a discussion of when to pull somebody off a ventilator and give it to somebody else).
posted by adamg at 8:57 AM on April 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

police (because they are involved in "maintaining societal order")

"To protect and serve"...right up until they steal your ventilator to save their own life. And how much "maintaining societal order" is a police officer going to do while on a ventilator for two weeks and then convalescing for weeks to months after that, depending on the amount of long term damage to their lungs? What absolute nonsense.
posted by jedicus at 9:03 AM on April 8, 2020 [13 favorites]

Right now the Massachusetts State Police are the reason we even have masks in this state.
posted by ocschwar at 9:42 AM on April 8, 2020

Basically, sacrifice the old and infirm for the young and otherwise healthy, with the goal of maximizing "total life years saved," by triaging ventilators and other treatments, through a color-coded ranking scale tilted towards the young without preexisting conditions, pregnant women nearing term, healthcare workers and police (because they are involved in "maintaining societal order") over old people with existing conditions. In the event of a tie, give the ventilator to the younger person.

It wouldn't be that much harder to accurately summarize the document. There are two goals; maximizing total lives saved, and maximizing total life years saved. Adult patients are given points; patients with the least points have the highest priority. Patients get from 1-4 points based on their SOFA score, a standard score that measures the performance of the major critical life-supporting systems in the body used in ICUs. So half the points are based on something you skipped over entirely -- the likelihood of someone to survive the treatment.

Patients get 0, 2 or 4 points based on their comorbidities; 4 points for a comorbidity that is likely to cause death within a year, and 2 for "Major comorbid conditions with substantial impact on long-term survival". There's no list exactly and I'm no doctor, but given the strong language, I'd take it as things more like diseases of the major organs and less like workaday hypertension or obesity.

Pregnant patients with a viable fetus get a two point reduction. There is vague language around prioritizing "individuals who play a critical role in the chain of treating patients and maintaining societal order", with no firm point guidance. The only reference to age is as a tiebreaker, and it's by age groups, not by years of age.

It's less "sacrifice the old and infirm" and more "in a crisis, let's not let a healthy person die by using those resources saving the life of someone who also has an aggressive terminal brain cancer."
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 10:04 AM on April 8, 2020 [21 favorites]

cenoxo: Here's what can happen if we don't: twin peaks in Denver and Saint Louis in late 1918, with the second peak sharper, taller, and more deadly than the first.

That's really striking. Lifting the social distancing for just one or two weeks (it appears, odd x-axis) led to those massive second waves. (It's not an obvious figure, look at breaks in the solid bars under the line graph for each city and then see when the second wave happens (or doesn't).
posted by Rumple at 10:13 AM on April 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

Given what we know about health conditions among many minorites and the way they are often treated by health care systems, any chart that doesn't factor in a lot of bias is going to end up being very problematic.

Also, how do you balance the life of an elder who might be among the last fluent speakers of a language, over a younger person who may not hold information that a group is trying to hold onto? I understand the need for principles here, but it doesn't mean they won't hit some communities harder than others.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 10:22 AM on April 8, 2020 [14 favorites]

Right now the Massachusetts State Police are the reason we even have masks in this state.

Don't you mean the National Guard? The MSP doesn't do shit aside from falsifying overtime.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:25 AM on April 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

Last year for work, I did some research into health disparities in NYC connected to our city's highways. Most of them are from the Robert Moses area and cut through minority neighborhoods. As a result those areas have far higher levels of various health issues like asthma, lung diseases, and cancers. One in four kids in Harlem has asthma. Now these already-existing disparities are going to cause even more death, over half a century after the freeways went in.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:27 AM on April 8, 2020 [12 favorites]

...sacrifice the old and infirm for the young and otherwise healthy, with the goal of maximizing "total life years saved," by triaging ventilators and other treatments, through a color-coded ranking scale tilted towards the young without preexisting conditions, pregnant women nearing term, healthcare workers and police (because they are involved in "maintaining societal order") over old people with existing conditions. In the event of a tie, give the ventilator to the younger person...

If triaging deteriorates to a life or death decision that favors the young and otherwise healthy, then offer the old, sick, and untreatable a reasonable alternative.
posted by cenoxo at 10:40 AM on April 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sources [ABC]

"Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event," a source says.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 11:15 AM on April 8, 2020 [6 favorites]

Report warned White House of a 'catastrophic' outbreak in China weeks before anyone else knew (Marc Sumner, Daily Kos)

If true, this would paint a very different picture of the outbreak, creating a situation in which Chinese officials were engaged in covering up the outbreak and altering the numbers much earlier than had been previously known. It would also seem to contradict early reports from a group of whistleblowing doctors who were locked up for reporting initial cases of COVID-19 in late December. This group included Dr. Li Wenliang, who later died from the disease and has been regarded as a hero for bringing the world’s attention to the coronavirus outbreak.

The report would also contradict not just the World Health Organization’s models and estimates for the timeline of coronavirus, but numerous scientific papers that have traced back initial cases and set the first human to human transmission of the disease around December 1. The idea that the novel coronavirus was circulating widely in Hubei province as early as November would not just completely rewrite the early history of the disease, and not just a complete revision of the pandemic’s growth and spread, it would absolutely mandate an overhaul of everything from transmission rate to fatality … all of which makes the intelligence reports very, very difficult to accept at face value.

Hmmm.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:20 AM on April 8, 2020 [5 favorites]

Starting to think that Republicans are illiterate, given that they can't read or understand reports.
posted by kokaku at 11:26 AM on April 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

I hate this age
posted by mumimor at 11:42 AM on April 8, 2020 [4 favorites]

I hate this age
I should qualify this.
China is a totalitarian regime and no-one trusts what they are saying about this. No-one should.
The US is a flailing democracy and no-one trusts what their government is saying, No-one should.
My own country has not had intelligence independently of the US since the 50's and that already should have been changed during GWB but it wasn't. I'm thinking the same goes for most other countries in the "Western" alliances (including Japan, Australia, NZ, the Phillipines, South Africa and many other nations that are not technically in the West). Who could have their own intelligence? Maybe France? Maybe Germany after the Iraq war. Maybe. Who can we trust???
posted by mumimor at 12:01 PM on April 8, 2020 [11 favorites]

So these governments are all doing something similar: hiding safety from the people. It's power vs the people, not power to the people, and won't be power to the people for a long time if this holds. Perhaps it's just about CV19, a "take it and like it," raw exercise of power beyond the haranguing we see Trump express every ding dong day. There is a way in which basically all of us are guinea pigs, enduring a global human experiment in varying response models as they can be utilized for political power. I do not think Trump, Xi, Berlusconi, etc. give a shit about how many people die, just how it affects their own lives and careers.

This is why I the rhetoric of mythical bounding boxes: crimes against humanity, genocide, murder, human experimentation, 25th Amendment, the guillotine. This lockdown may go on indefinitely and treatments and cures are the gateways out, and it will come as no surprise if they are rationed with strategy (Florida first). Legal punishments (to the degree that they can be mobilized against soverign immunity claims) may be the only tools we have.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the power structures of the large and/or oppressive countries will react more quickly than to require mass graves to keep images off the news, but as I've been saying the last few days, "they can't lie about coffins." I hope.
posted by rhizome at 12:39 PM on April 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

Most NYC Covid-19 Cases Came From Europe, Genome Researchers Say. The findings suggest that even after the Trump administration imposed travel restrictions from China, the virus continued to infiltrate the most populous U.S. city via daily flights from Europe.
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 1:34 PM on April 8, 2020 [10 favorites]

Kushner Squeezes Tenants While Lining Up for Bailout Money(American Prospect)
Despite eviction bans in New York, the real-estate firm owned by the president’s son-in-law is telling tenants to pay up.

While Kushner Companies treats its tenants in ungenerous fashion, pressuring them to pay up in a moment of extreme economic duress, the firm is also primed to enjoy the generosity of the federal government’s multitrillion-dollar bailout package. Despite provisions in the bill that prevent members of the Trump family from recouping bailout money directly, hotel owners, including those employing up to 500 people per location, will be eligible for low-interest small-business loans that could eventually be forgiven.
--
So while the hospitality and commercial real-estate components of the Kushner business empire feel the squeeze, the company is in turn squeezing its New York renters as best it can. The priorities of Jared Kushner and his family’s real-estate empire are clear: wring every dollar out of their tenants, before cashing in on the bailout plan that Jared himself helped draw up.

*sigh*

'Oh, that must be our new landlord, Mr Stingely' (youtube)
posted by adept256 at 2:04 PM on April 8, 2020 [5 favorites]

The Covid-19 cases came from Europe because Trump announced March 11th with two days time that European travel would be banned. As pointed out in the linked story, the panic to return to the United States might not have happened if "Trump had not said the wrong thing during a national address—the ban does not apply to Americans or permanent residents of the US."

This crammed the airports with people returning from an area which had a higher rate of infections, a lot of those flights having changed over in New York City. In my opinion this is what seeded the NYC spike in cases in late March.

March 11th: 48 cases NYC.
March 27th: 23,112 cases. (had to use two different sites to get these numbers.)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:11 PM on April 8, 2020 [21 favorites]

This crammed the airports with people returning from an area which had a higher rate of infections, a lot of those flights having changed in New York City. In my opinion this is what seeded the NYC spike in cases in late March.

PHOTOS: Long lines greet passengers at O’Hare during travel ban

I remember seeing those photos on March 15 (beware the ides of march!) and thinking how dangerous it was. It rendered the travel ban utterly pointless, even counter-productive. I hope all the people in those photographs are doing okay.
posted by adept256 at 2:18 PM on April 8, 2020 [14 favorites]

Yep, and people were saying "hey...isn't that, y'know...bad?" And that wasn't even the only airport!
posted by rhizome at 2:20 PM on April 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

As noted by JackFlash on March 28 (feels like months ago).

"Trump says he's eyeing quarantine of New York"

"Nice work. Anyone who had reasons to leave New York sometime in the next six months is now rapidly departing and dispersing throughout the country instead of isolating.

"Same as what happened when Trump announced a quarantine on the EU and thousands of people from infected areas flooded into the New York airports. How do you think New York got where it is now?"
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 2:45 PM on April 8, 2020 [7 favorites]

jackflash, jackanapes. It's a conspiracy.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:46 PM on April 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Here's an animation tracking the cellphones from a single Ft. Lauderdale beach during Spring Break.
posted by rhizome at 4:03 PM on April 8, 2020 [4 favorites]

Also, how do you balance the life of an elder who might be among the last fluent speakers of a language, over a younger person who may not hold information that a group is trying to hold onto?

You don't. Ever. Doctors may have to balance which patient will get the most benefit from aggressive treatment during a crisis that requires triage, but they are expressly forbidden from judging which patient is most worthy of that benefit.
posted by ocschwar at 5:52 PM on April 8, 2020 [14 favorites]

Yep, and people were saying "hey...isn't that, y'know...bad?" And that wasn't even the only airport!

In NYC, Boston and Chicago, a lot of the Covid cases are clustered in working class neighborhoods near the airport. I wonder what kind of worker might be living in those neighborhoods.
posted by ocschwar at 6:51 PM on April 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

The idea that the novel coronavirus was circulating widely in Hubei province as early as November would not just completely rewrite the early history of the disease, and not just a complete revision of the pandemic’s growth and spread, it would absolutely mandate an overhaul of everything from transmission rate to fatality … all of which makes the intelligence reports very, very difficult to accept at face value.

Hello old friend, I hadn't seen you since your memo about Iraq acquiring yellowcake.
posted by wierdo at 7:05 PM on April 8, 2020 [7 favorites]

Oy.

A Company Promised Cheap Ventilators to the [US] Government, Never Delivered and Is Now Charging Quadruple the Price for New Ones • Royal Philips N.V. agreed in September to sell 10,000 ventilators to the U.S. for $3,280 each. • It did not deliver. • But the Dutch company just announced a new deal with the government. • This time, it’s charging roughly $15,000 each. (Patricia Callahan and Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica)

“This kind of profiteering — paying four times the negotiated price — is not only irresponsible to taxpayers but is particularly offensive when so many people are out of work,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who served as the HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response during the Obama administration. “And besides, most of these ventilators will come too late to make a difference in this pandemic. We’ll then ’replenish’ the stockpile at a ridiculously high price.”

“What else,” she asked, “won’t we be able to buy as a result?” [...]

[The original deal with Philips] "... was a strategy to reduce health care costs,” Lurie said. “This feels like a conspiracy to keep them high.”

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:22 PM on April 8, 2020 [8 favorites]

Trump's attack on inspectors general signals 'late-stage corruption' of an authoritarian regime (Kerry Eleveld, Daily Kos)

Trump's effort to terrorize and replace inspectors general across the federal government is "a late-stage move in an authoritarian coup against the rule of law," wrote Walter Shaub, the former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, in a lengthy Twitter thread (ThreadReaderApp) on Tuesday. Shaub, who finally resigned his post during Trump’s tenure, detailed the death spiral of a functional government, from presidential profiteering to suspect policy choices to the firing of top officials at investigatory agencies like the FBI and Justice Department.

[...] Given the chance, Trump will squeeze the U.S. republic dry, just like Russian President Vladimir Putin has bilked billions from his own country.

What stands between that dismal destiny and a functional democracy is now the American people and November 2020. Get ready, folks: We need every damn one of you.

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:37 PM on April 8, 2020 [18 favorites]

i had a rant going. it was about twice as long as the full text of the new guidance when i lost heart and deleted it.

much is being made in the press -- and at two minutes hate -- about the CDC's Interim Guidance for Implementing Safety Practices for Critical Infrastructure Workers Who May Have Had Exposure to a Person with Suspected or Confirmed COVID-19, issued today, as an indication that "we're" making progress to "open up" the country again. but, in keeping with the practice of that organization during this pandemic, it doesn't say or do much. some suggestions, mostly of things that have already been suggested. some compulsory temperature taking. a stern recommendation for routine cleaning, and an encouraging albeit weak and late recommendation that employers compile information on persons who had contact in the prior two days with an asymptomatic employee who has had a potential contact with a confirmed covid-19 patient who, while working facemasked, has become symptomatic during the day. i guess there has been a wave of mostly unreported absenteeism and unsanitary bathrooms in critical infrastructure all this time?

feh.
posted by 20 year lurk at 7:39 PM on April 8, 2020 [3 favorites]

Trump is going to fuck our shit up over this, fam, especially if his prospects for reelection dim as much as we all hope. I and many others said he was going to burn the place down on his way out and there has been nothing since 2016 to dissuade me from that assumption/prediction. I don't think it'll quite reach the "first presidency to end in a car chase" award, but I'm preparing myself to feel like it might.
posted by rhizome at 9:12 PM on April 8, 2020 [16 favorites]

If it ends in a car chase and the person in the car being chased is Trump I would count that as one of the most hopeful outcomes.
posted by benzenedream at 9:16 PM on April 8, 2020 [12 favorites]

it will end with Trump on the run, one way or another. It will probably be a TV show.
posted by philip-random at 9:45 PM on April 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

If he loses, I would not be one bit surprised to see him flee to Moscow.
posted by tavella at 10:37 PM on April 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

With Humans in Hiding, Animals Take Back the World — During lockdowns around the globe, species of all kinds have emerged in areas previously crowded by humans., Bloomberg; Laura Millan Lombrana & Eric Roston; ‎April‎ ‎8‎, ‎2020‎:

It took just a few days of lockdown for baby rabbits to dare to cross once-bustling roads in Christchurch, New Zealand, and less than a week for a puma to descend from the Andes Mountains into Santiago, one of South America’s busiest capitals. In Barcelona, wild boar, a familiar sight for citizens on the city’s outskirts, have made their way into Diagonal Avenue, an eight-lane thoroughfare.

It’s surprising and strange, yes, but also meaningful. Research suggests that ecosystems can rebound with speed once human intervention subsides. A review published last week determined that damaged ecosystems and wildlife can be rebuilt if the right conditions are achieved. Marine ecosystems in particular can substantially recover by 2050, according to the study, led by Carlos Duarte at the Red Sea Research Center in Saudi Arabia.

Of course, a deadly pandemic that brings about a sudden economic collapse is no way to sustainably restore threatened ecosystems. Yet it’s a clear reminder of how quickly the wild world responds when humans take a step back...

[Photo gallery in the article.]

Gaia finds a way to fill empty places with life: Pale Blue Dot, she's all we've got.
posted by cenoxo at 10:39 PM on April 8, 2020 [10 favorites]

Coronavirus: Trump says Covid-19 must be 'quickly forgotten' when pandemic ends

So, we must forget this major catastrophe as soon as possible. Also we must never forget Hillary's emails and Hunter Biden.
posted by adept256 at 11:38 PM on April 8, 2020 [17 favorites]

With Humans in Hiding, Animals Take Back the World
Scottish Twitter had fun with this notion, a few days ago.
posted by rongorongo at 2:30 AM on April 9, 2020 [7 favorites]

“They actually want me to STOP!” he claimed. “They used to complain that I am not doing enough of them, now they complain that I ‘shouldn’t be allowed to do them.’”

Oh, he’s “doing“ enough of us all right: that’s what we want to stop. The Poor Donald is still a laughingstock.
posted by cenoxo at 4:58 AM on April 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

Donald Trump 'lost $1bn in a month' from coronavirus lockdown – Stock market crash strips billionaire status from 267 of world’s richest people in the annual list, The Guardian, Rupert Neate (Wealth correspondent), 4/7/2020:

Donald Trump lost an estimated $1bn of his paper fortune in the past month as the coronavirus lockdown forced the closure of offices, shopping centres, hotels and golf courses he owns.

The US president’s fortune has fallen from an estimated $3.1bn (£2.5bn) on 1 March to $2.1bn on 18 March (at the height of stock market panic caused by the coronavirus pandemic) according to Forbes magazine’s annual billionaires list.

The Covid-19 induced collapse in global stock markets led to 267 of the world’s richest people losing their billionaire status, in the magazine’s 34th annual wealth ranking. There are now 2,095 dollar billionaires in the world – and a record 1,062 of them have lost money compared with last year....

Guess they’ll have to get in line, then.
posted by cenoxo at 5:21 AM on April 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

Why the Wealthy Fear Pandemics
Its a NYTimes opinion piece by Walter Scheidel
Mr. Scheidel is a professor of classics and history at Stanford University.
posted by mumimor at 5:39 AM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

2020 Time Capsule #8: ‘Light at the End of the Tunnel’, The Atlantic, James Fallows, 3/25/2020:

In the second of his two extended live-TV performances yesterday [3/24/2020] —a White House coronavirus update, following a Fox News “virtual town hall”—Donald Trump said that prospects in the effort to control the virus were improving. As you can see starting at time 2:30 of this C-Span video, he said:
I’m very proud to be your president, I can tell you that. There’s tremendous hope as we look forward and see light at the end of the tunnel.
Most of today’s living Americans were born in 1980 or afterward. (The median age in the U.S. is now just over 38.) Most of them would not instantly recognize the phrase “light at the end of the tunnel,”

But Donald Trump was born in 1946, and he would know this phrase. During his teenaged years and his early 20s, when hundreds of thousands of his contemporaries were being drafted for service in Vietnam, and when more than 50,000 of them were killed, those words were among the most infamous parts of the American lexicon...

A gaffe a mile wide, yet he steps right in it.
posted by cenoxo at 5:49 AM on April 9, 2020 [6 favorites]

Literally a dad joke (my dad): There's a light at the end of the tunnel. A train's coming.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:02 AM on April 9, 2020 [8 favorites]

interesting. the phrase struck me, not because of vietnam, but due to its evocation of descriptions of near death experiences and, presumably, some proportion of those that do result in death.
posted by 20 year lurk at 6:06 AM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

death cult all the way down
posted by kokaku at 6:09 AM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

> If it ends in a car chase and the person in the car being chased is Trump I would count that as one of the most hopeful outcomes.

People here in Toronto joked a lot about the Rob Ford saga ending in a car chase, too. The whole thing was just a cosmic dry run for Trump.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:30 AM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Donald Trump was born in 1946, and he would know this phrase

Assumes many, many, many, facts not in residence (in his brain).
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 6:54 AM on April 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, bringing the pandemic total to over 17 million - Economists say the U.S. unemployment rate is now 13 percent, the worst since the Great Depression. (Heather Long and Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post)

Florida started handing out paper unemployment applications this week because the state’s jobless claims website kept failing. In New York, laid off workers are having to call hundreds of times to complete their applications. The Washington Post spoke with over [a] dozen workers across the country. The majority have not received money yet.

As unemployment checks are slow to arrive, people are turning to whatever aid they can find. Modern day “bread lines” have started appearing in cities like Orlando (Daily Mail), San Diego (NBC News), Pittsburgh (WTAE) and Cleveland (Guardian) where thousands lined up for free food. The slow release of funds in the United States is a marked contrast from Denmark where the government is paying workers 75 percent of their salaries during the pandemic, and Canada, which vowed to get money to workers in 10 days or less.

“There were already hurdles to accessing unemployment benefits before the pandemic hit. Many states had done everything they could to reduce access to benefits. Well, now we are seeing the result,” said Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project.

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:56 AM on April 9, 2020 [12 favorites]

Florida started handing out paper unemployment applications this week because the state’s jobless claims website kept failing.

New Jersey needs volunteers who know COBOL, a 60-year-old programming language

New Jersey needs COBOL programmers because many of the state’s systems use older mainframes, and those systems are now seeing record demand for services as the coronavirus outbreak disrupts the economy.

For example, an unprecedented 362,000 people have applied for unemployment in New Jersey as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, and the state’s IT department is working to have the 40-year-old mainframes that power that service up and running, New Jersey’s commissioner of labor Rob Asaro-Angelo said on Saturday.

“Literally, we have systems that are 40 years-plus old, and there’ll be lots of postmortems. And one of them on our list will be how did we get here where we literally needed COBOL programmers?” Murphy asked on Saturday.

Hmmm, how did it get to the point where the welfare system is running on 40yo hardware? I guess it's a mystery!
posted by adept256 at 7:32 AM on April 9, 2020 [22 favorites]

Americans Are Paying the Price for Trump's Failures (David Frum, The Atlantic)

Not a lot of new information, but gathers a bunch of threads, and winds up to a pretty good conclusion:

Trump has taken millions in payments from the Treasury. He has taken millions in payments from U.S. businesses and foreign governments. He has taken millions in payments from the Republican Party and his own inaugural committee. He has taken so much that does not belong to him, that was unethical and even illegal for him to take. But responsibility? No, he will not take that.

Yet responsibility falls upon Trump, whether he takes it or not. No matter how much he deflects and insults and snivels and whines, this American catastrophe is on his hands and on his head.

posted by box at 7:42 AM on April 9, 2020 [11 favorites]

...and for the Republican Party's Failures
they could have removed him from power, they could have placed controls and oversight, they could have enforced the emoluments clause - i'll say it every time someone tries to pin things solely on Trump because they're all complicit and he doesn't exist without their explicit support or their tacit looking the other way
posted by kokaku at 7:50 AM on April 9, 2020 [32 favorites]

Canada, which vowed to get money to workers in 10 days or less.

Direct deposits rolled out yesterday. $2000 to everyone who lost work because of Covid.

New Jersey needs volunteers who know COBOL, a 60-year-old programming language

Why the hell is a state government asking for volunteers? Why aren't they just paying these people?
posted by Mitheral at 8:34 AM on April 9, 2020 [16 favorites]

Do not replace any of those old system's code. They work, just keep training people on those so they can be maintained. All big legacy systems overall project end in failure and massive cost-overruns, everybody underestimates the amount of legacy knowledge stored in those things. Old software that has been used that long, is a good thing, not a bad thing.

Do change the hardware for VMs/emulators though (or cross compile if you can emulate the underlying OS), your phone is massively more powerful than those mainframes, no reason to maintain that particular hardware.
posted by WaterAndPixels at 8:36 AM on April 9, 2020 [16 favorites]

Ivanka Trump taking up guitar, studying Greek mythology while caring for kids during pandemic

Question for the parents of mefi, when you're working at home with your three children, do you have time to slip in a few guitar lessons?
posted by adept256 at 8:39 AM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Coronavirus: tens of thousands say goodbye to Wuhan as city ends 11 weeks of lockdown, South China Morning Post, Catherine Wong & Echo Xie, 4/8/2020. • An estimated 55,000 people left by rail alone on Wednesday, while 100 commercial flights took off for the first time since January 23 • Wuhan residents are keen to get their lives back on track, but some are fearful of the ‘silent carriers’ who could start a second wave of infections:

Towns and cities across China were preparing for the return of thousands of residents on Wednesday after people locked down for weeks in Wuhan, the city at the epicentre of the initial coronavirus outbreak, were finally allowed to leave.

An estimated 55,000 people left the city by train alone on the first day the railways reopened, heading to all parts of the country, from Shanghai to Beijing, Shenzhen to Chengdu, according to the local railway authority. More than 100 commercial flights also took off from the city, the first departures since runways, like the roads and railways, were closed down on January 23.
...
Authorities in Beijing said they would limit the number of returnees from Wuhan to about 1,000 per day ... all be tested for the coronavirus on arrival. ... in the southern province of Guangdong ... only those who produce a negative test result will be allowed back in. ... those who do pass the entry test are asked when not at work to remain in their homes as much as possible for a couple of weeks after their return.

posted by cenoxo at 8:45 AM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

> The culture in Sweden is very much to yield to the advice of experts, and that surely is what's happening here. But the experts are giving us very mixed messages, because they're asking us to make our own judgement calls about what's safe, rather than imposing restrictions. Folks make a big deal about the authorities not being political appointees, and not needing to score political points by their recommendations, but that seems to be an incredibly cynical way of interpreting other country's caution. Also, the government has limited power to impose quarantine, though that may be changing soon.

All in all, it's a very worrisome situation.

Sweden’s government has tried a risky coronavirus strategy. It could backfire.

“The reason given by Swedish authorities is about resilience,” Peter Lindgren, the managing director of the Swedish Institute for Health Economics, told me. “We may have to do this for a long time, and if you put all the heavy stuff in place at once, it will be quite difficult to maintain that. By having some measures in place and trying to be a bit more proportional, it’s possible to actually keep this under control.”

Sweden’s neighbors have taken a more aggressive approach during the Covid-19 outbreak. Denmark and Norway, for example, quickly closed their borders along with schools and industry to maximize social distancing.

But Swedish officials, and particularly chief state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, argue theirs is the right way forward. “Locking people up at home won’t work in the longer term. Sooner or later people are going to go out anyway,” Tegnell told reporters recently. He’s also repeatedly said it would be good for the Swedish population to gain immunity to the disease, though he’s flatly denied purposefully seeking “herd immunity.”

Whatever the true goal, Sweden’s strategy appears to be troubled. [...]

Still, many Swedes see no need to panic. “I think our government is doing the right thing,” Margareta Eriksson, a retired 67-year-old in Stockholm, told the Washington Post this week.

That sense of security comes partly from widespread trust in the Public Health Agency. It’s a mostly independent organization that takes the lead during major public health crises like disease outbreaks and is heavily protected from political interference.

No government minister actually oversees the agency, which gives Tegnell, the government’s chief epidemiologist and response coordinator, a lot of room to make decisions as he sees fit.

Should probably read, "...taking up guitar, studying Greek mythology while team of nannies caring for kids during pandemic".
posted by sundrop at 8:46 AM on April 9, 2020 [9 favorites]

CDC quietly deletes hydroxychloroquine guidance as study hyped by Trump comes into question • The publisher of a French study cited by Trump put out a statement announcing it did not meet "expected standards" • (Igor Derysh, Salon)
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:50 AM on April 9, 2020 [13 favorites]

NIH clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine, a potential therapy for COVID-19, begins
posted by armacy at 8:56 AM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yeah I flatly do not believe they can't run the code on an emulator on a bloody $60 Raspberry Pi. 40 year old computer hardware is less powerful than a modern wristwatch.

And, speaking as a programmer, any halfway competent programmer can learn to deal with COBOL in a couple of weeks at the most and can do simple stuff after just an hour or so. It isn't some secret art its just a pain in the ass. Source: I can program in COBOL. It really isn't that hard.

They need paid professionals and asking for volunteers is just greedy.
posted by sotonohito at 9:04 AM on April 9, 2020 [9 favorites]

posted by adept256, re NJ needing COBOL coders: Hmmm, how did it get to the point where the welfare system is running on 40yo hardware? I guess it's a mystery!

As someone who spent a big part of my career working on mainframes and supercomputers, I can tell you that vast, vast, vast parts of the infrastructure of the US are running on COBOL and other really old code. It's a spaghetti monster of poorly documented, badly named, hack togethers. Seriously, you'd be astonished at how much of the online backend is code almost old enough to be a walmart greeter.

(And for the record, experienced COBOL coders with big project experience get paid a lot of money. A lot. As they should.)
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 9:11 AM on April 9, 2020 [9 favorites]

Let's be real here, they're probably asking for volunteers out of desperation because some arcane BS law put in place by guess who restricts them from spending any money without super strict approvals and has probably also kept their staffing and pay scales as minimal as possible in general. They probably don't have the budget even if they had the ability. These agencies, you should just assume they live in the bath tub these days.
posted by feloniousmonk at 9:22 AM on April 9, 2020 [8 favorites]

I actually admire the endurance of many legacy systems. That's an impressive uptime. I'm supposing that the longevity of this particular system has more to do with politics than immortal engineering. It is failing.
posted by adept256 at 9:23 AM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Pence's office blocks public health officials from appearing on CNN (Oliver Darcy, CNN)

CNN often only broadcasts President Donald Trump's question and answer session, which sometimes includes the health care officials, live on-air.

After Trump leaves the podium, CNN frequently cuts out of the White House briefing to discuss and fact-check what the President had said. A CNN executive said that the network usually returns to such programming because of the extensive length of the full briefing that includes Pence, which can run in excess of two hours.

CNN did, however, air the vice president's portion of the briefing Wednesday night.

Regardless, Pence's office has declined to make the nation's top health care officials available to CNN for the last seven days.

posted by ZeusHumms at 9:49 AM on April 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

Part of the reason those legacy systems are still in place is because there's been so much burn-in, so much testing, so many weird edge cases accounted for, (most of which weren't documented) that re-implementing in a better technology stack is a massive project that's almost guaranteed to miss things and be more unstable at the start. For the project to be worth the money, organizations are looking at: a) meeting the current level of functionality, and b) if the new replacement offers enough over the current solution to justify the cost.

Then they do some analysis, and even meeting requirement a is a huge undertaking. So they punt, and the problem gets worse.

Can they emulate COBOL on modern hardware? Sure. Until some weird quirk crops up where the emulator works as it should, but the original hardware was buggy, and some undocumented hack-around from 20 years ago crashes the emulator because the software is expecting the (wrong) original.
posted by mrgoat at 9:58 AM on April 9, 2020 [14 favorites]

Somebody tell Rick Epstein we're at 14,831.
posted by valkane at 10:18 AM on April 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

I guess it's a little bit of a derail, but mrgoat made some really important points about the way legacy systems have evolved (imperfectly, as noted by SecretAgentSockpuppet) how we're talking about extremely complex systems that have been adapted over time to changing regulatory/programmatic requirements. It's not a simple task to replace them, and I'm always a little concerned when I read airy statements about "they should rewrite it in a modern language". There's a lot more to these systems than just the code. I've had to deal with legacy systems that write data into obscure B-tree files and whatnot (not cool but fixable in almost any language) as well include hard-coded logic for a single special case that applies to one (small) business partner (uncool and perhaps not fixable regardless of the language used).
posted by wintermind at 10:20 AM on April 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

Yeah I flatly do not believe they can't run the code on an emulator on a bloody $60 Raspberry Pi. 40 year old computer hardware is less powerful than a modern wristwatch.

While it's true that old mainframes are very, very, very slow by current standards, they're also equipped with a host of specialized features to enable fault-free, uninterrupted service over very long periods of time, and come supported by highly skilled engineers to make sure that your code keeps running across different versions of hardware and operating systems. For decades, if need be -- quod erat demonstrandum.

And, speaking as a programmer, any halfway competent programmer can learn to deal with COBOL in a couple of weeks at the most and can do simple stuff after just an hour or so. It isn't some secret art its just a pain in the ass. Source: I can program in COBOL. It really isn't that hard.

Understanding the workings of any significant software system is a lot more involved than just learning the syntax of the language and some basic I/O primitives. To say that it should only take a couple of weeks to comprehend the numerous interdependent processes running within one of the world's oldest and most arcane computing environments is frankly absurd.
posted by dmh at 10:30 AM on April 9, 2020 [36 favorites]

Yeah I flatly do not believe they can't run the code on an emulator on a bloody $60 Raspberry Pi. 40 year old computer hardware is less powerful than a modern wristwatch.

You can be absolutely certain they are running that code on modern hardware. There are upgrade paths going back to the System/360 and there would be no way to keep one of the old computers running since they need regular maintenance including replacement parts.

It's probable that they need the old code modified to meet new requirements due to new eligibility conditions, new benefit schedules and new record-keeping needs.
posted by sjswitzer at 10:43 AM on April 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

Yep. You only need to look at the Pheonix pay system disaster In Canada to see what happens when a government fails at replacing a working 40-year-old legacy system.
posted by fimbulvetr at 10:55 AM on April 9, 2020 [6 favorites]

As a dumb American, I'm having trouble understanding the idea of a public health agency that has this much independence from the elected government. The closest thing I can think of in our system is the Federal Reserve chair, but this seems like even more independence. Is this just a case of the cabinet ministers deferring to the experts and choosing not to exert influence they could use? Putting technocrats in charge is a perfectly sound thing to do when they're doing the job well, but Sweden's officials seem to be out on an island as compared to experts in other countries.

I have thought a lot about this, and I'm beginning to think I understand what is happening. Actually, when the Danish government decided to shut down, there was a lot of talk about it being a political decision and not a medical one. The doctors washed their hands in the face of the given economic disaster. The politicians here basically overruled the Danish equivalent of Tegnell.

And remember, in the beginning, it was the same in the UK, and I think it still is in the Netherlands?

For the last 20-ish years, there has been a huge focus on evidence-based policies in healthcare. I think the idea comes from the US, though obviously that is a whole different situation. But maybe the motivation is the same?
Evidence-based health policies seems really good and logical when you hear it as a lay person. Of course medicine has to be evidence-based, are you a crazy person? No one thinks that there might be a difference between medicine as a science and practice and healthcare as a policy. And that's why it works, not necessarily always for better healthcare, but mostly for protecting the healthcare system against stupid politicians. Stupid politician wants to save some millions by having parents pay for vaccines? Nope, evidence shows that then the poorest will cop out and we won't have herd immunity. Millions of dollars have been spent on finding evidence for stuff that professionals already know work, but politicians want to defund, within most corners of healthcare (sadly not within psychiatry, though). I can see why it has become the ruling paradigm, in most cases it's a good way of handling the politics of healthcare.
Sometimes it fails, though (I mentioned psychiatry). First time I really understood this was when a colleague had a concussion and became chronically ill, about 15 years ago. In my view because she didn't follow protocol. She told me she followed her doctors orders to the minute. Then it happened to another colleague a few years later. When she sent me a mail two days after her fall, I called her and said she should not work, or watch television or do anything, and she said her doctor had said she could work a few hours a day. She also became chronically ill. To me, that was insane. I did dangerous sports when I was young, and I have had concussions. Back then, the protocol was at least a week in a dark room, no reading, no TV, no loud sounds. So with the thing with the two colleagues, I called my doctor and asked WTF is going on? And he said, there is no evidence for the old way of doing things, so we can't say that anymore (while healthcare is almost unlimited, sick leave has to be paid for by the municipality after some time). So I asked, Why is there no evidence? And he said because there is no research. If there is no research, there is no evidence, and then there is no evidence-based medicine or policy (you can't put people on sick leave for a week or more). The concussion thing has been resolved, I think. But it was a shocking discovery for me.
There is next to no research into the corona-virus and COVID-19, because it is new, so if you have a very rigid way of interpreting the basic rules of evidence-based health-care policies, you can't do anything before there is evidence.

Now you may ask, how can anyone be this rigid? It makes no sense? Well, if the regime of evidence-based medicine and healthcare policy has been at the core of your whole education and professional life, that is what medicine and healthcare is. If you are a doctor who has chosen to enter the political dimension of healthcare, your job is normally to defend evidence-based medicine against politicians who follow rumors and tabloids and snake-oil salesmen, and for instance want to sell untested medicine to scared and helpless people. I'm not defending anyone, but I can see how that type of person is not at all ready for something like the corona virus pandemic.
posted by mumimor at 11:13 AM on April 9, 2020 [16 favorites]

Isn't it also a challenge that Sweden doesn't have a legal base to take stronger action? Finland used the Emergency Act in order to keep us locked down in our province.
posted by Mrs Potato at 11:39 AM on April 9, 2020

South Africa's three week lockdown, set to end on the 17th April, has now been extended for two more weeks.
posted by PenDevil at 11:40 AM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Isn't it also a challenge that Sweden doesn't have a legal base to take stronger action? Finland used the Emergency Act in order to keep us locked down in our province.

I don't know. Denmark made new laws (with a sundown clause). The country couldn't have been locked down within the normal system.
posted by mumimor at 11:49 AM on April 9, 2020

Isn't it also a challenge that Sweden doesn't have a legal base to take stronger action? Finland used the Emergency Act in order to keep us locked down in our province.

The law limits what policies can be made, grants extensive power to the health agency and says basically that it is up to individuals to limit infection rates, and this pretty much mirrors what we're seeing in Sweden now.

Thanks for your input, mumimor, it was informative and thought-provoking.
posted by St. Oops at 12:01 PM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

I heard the Swedish Prime Minister on the radio today say that they were looking at the possibility of fining restaurants that were found violating the social distance recommendations. Not policy or restrictions mind you, but recommendations by an agency. This is not the first time I've butted up against a policy vacuum leaving non-politically-appointed agencies basically with legislative powers.

Having interacted with similar expert groups, I fear that group-think from a fairly homogenous group with limited perspectives and experiences may be driving this decision-making.

What's even more worrisome is that should Sweden prove fortunate and scrape by with similar negative effects of this crisis to other countries that acted more pro-actively, that will provide fuel to the worst policy ideas the next time there's a crisis. I skimmed some horrible article in the National Review, for example, praising Sweden's approach as being more business-friendly.
posted by St. Oops at 12:12 PM on April 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

mumimor, thanks for the discussion of evidence-based medicine. What it sounds like to me (as a lawyer) is a question of who has the burden of producing evidence--i.e. who loses if there is no evidence. When the burden is on the defunder, a practice can continue until and unless there is evidence showing that the practice is ineffective or harmful. When the burden is on the care provider (for example, to justify a procedure to an insurer), they don't get to do it (or to keep doing it, once an "evidence-based medicine" policy is put in place) unless they can produce evidence of its effectiveness.
posted by mabelstreet at 12:21 PM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Ivanka Trump taking up guitar, studying Greek mythology while caring for kids during pandemic

I presume people on Twitter have already beaten me to all of the good "May I recommend the myth of Narcissus?" and "Just wait until she finds out about hubris!" jokes?
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:53 PM on April 9, 2020 [12 favorites]

You can be absolutely certain they are running that code on modern hardware.

"Modern" meaning in the last few decades, at least. But not PC hardware, most likely. Probably a modern mainframe.

My father spent 40 years programming COBOL on mainframes, and retired only a few years ago (they still want him back in his late 70s!). This was transaction processing for one of the major US banks, and its all COBOL on modern mainframes.

any halfway competent programmer can learn to deal with COBOL in a couple of weeks at the most

If you're a programmer, you know learning a language is the easy part. Figuring out how an undocumented multi-decade pile of code works, and figuring out the tooling and systems built around it, is the hard part.

It's also why "grab random COBOL programmers" won't really work. The reason contractors like my father made decent (not like top tech company money, but not bad) money is they had decades of experience in a particular system that happened to use COBOL as the language, not because they knew COBOL.
posted by thefoxgod at 12:59 PM on April 9, 2020 [20 favorites]

(So all the "your phone is more powerful than mainframes" is ignoring that they still make mainframes, you know. They are more powerful than your phone, lol. The difference between them and a PC or phone is system architecture / chipsets / etc.)
posted by thefoxgod at 1:02 PM on April 9, 2020 [6 favorites]

What thefoxgod said. The hard part is taking a giant pile of spaghetti code where all the authors are dead or retired, there's no documentation, and variables are called things like x1, x2, x3 instead of "totalUserCount". The skills to untangle all that or refactor it are pretty different from the skills it takes to write best-practices clean code from scratch.

My first job was maintaining a 16-bit Visual Basic forms app with like 50 forms and no comments. I spent about a month reading through it and drawing a huge flow diagram that looked like a messy 4x6 ft. circuit board before I dared to edit the first line of code. Huge pain in the butt, especially when it turns out that the "this is dumb" parts are actually super important for some obscure reason.
posted by freecellwizard at 1:24 PM on April 9, 2020 [13 favorites]

Trump says he only gave Colorado 1% of the ventilators it needs after GOP senator asked for them (Igor Derysh, Salon)

President Donald Trump was accused of political favoritism in the administration's coronavirus response after only sending a fraction of the ventilators sought by Colorado's Democratic governor "at the request" of the state's Republican senator.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, has been pleading for the federal government to provide his state with 10,000 ventilators since last month. [...]

Not only did the federal government not respond to the request, but Polis also told CNN just days later the federal government seized an order of 500 ventilators bought by the state.

[...] Trump announced Wednesday that his administration would be "immediately sending 100 Ventilators to Colorado at the request of Senator [Cory] Gardner," a vulnerable Republican up for re-election.

posted by ZeusHumms at 1:32 PM on April 9, 2020 [6 favorites]

Comments that maybe used to be correct, 10 years and 15 edits ago, are even more fun.

Seriously though, the idea that they are asking for volunteers to help with this mess, on a crisis timeline, is proof that the person putting out that request hasn't got a clue about the actual system. The only 'volunteers' that would be helpful are recently departed/retired programmers familiar with that codebase. Even the most skilled outsider, paid or not, isn't going to be able to fix much on the "needs to be done yesterday" schedule. The ramp up for a big legacy system is at least weeks.
posted by bcd at 1:35 PM on April 9, 2020 [6 favorites]

can we impeach Trump again? this blatantly political handling of necessary medical equipment, combined with the confiscation of materials with unclear reasons or results is surely a violation of the principles of the Constitution if not the letter of it - where is the Democratic leadership's response to this? where is the Republican shame in this?
posted by kokaku at 1:40 PM on April 9, 2020 [29 favorites]

Talking Points Memo starting to document where the PPE is going.

Two politically motivated shipments that they know of so far.
Impeach again.
And again. And again. I honestly want New England to secede now. I don't want to share a flag with anyone who's okay with this.
posted by ocschwar at 1:45 PM on April 9, 2020 [32 favorites]

Huge pain in the butt, especially when it turns out that the "this is dumb" parts are actually super important for some obscure reason

I have heard possibly unreliable tales of high speed printers being hooked up directly to high speed shredders because business requirements meant that those printouts were no longer required and space to keep them secure was no longer available, but the job that generates the printouts also does something completely vital to the databases and there's nobody left alive who can remember what or how or why.

I don't find it completely implausible that installing and operating high speed shredders might cost less than buying the programmer years required to pay down the decades of compounded technical debt in some of the systems I know to be still in use.
posted by flabdablet at 2:28 PM on April 9, 2020 [3 favorites]

At White House coronavirus briefings, rescue efforts are extensive but often aspirational (alt link: SF Gate) - Isaac Stanley-Becker and Nick Miroff, The Washington Post:

These pronouncements and pledges [made at the briefings] have turned out, again and again, to be a description of the administration's aspirational response to the pandemic, not the one doctors, nurses and stricken families are reporting from the front.

That is where emergency responders and hospitals are dangerously low on protective gear, and where widespread, rapid testing for the virus in retail parking lots is not, in fact, a reality. Where millions of small-business owners are struggling to get federal assistance they need to stave off collapse and where millions of people are newly unemployed and fearing ruin. [...]

While all crisis leaders have to chart a delicate course between comforting the nation and providing reliable information to its citizens, the president and his top political aides have repeatedly used the nationally televised briefings to describe efforts and actions that have not panned out. [...]

All the while, [Trump] has demanded that governors "appreciate" his work, as his reelection campaign splices their words of praise into advertising spots.

posted by ZeusHumms at 2:30 PM on April 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

"tales of high speed printers being hooked up directly to high speed shredders because business requirements meant that those printouts were no longer required and space to keep them secure was no longer available"

Not happening. That's not how mainframes work. A simple JCL adjustment on IBM mainframes can just dump the output to oblivion, never touching paper. That does not require any programming changes (technically JCL is a language though).

In my state, the mainframe is about 3-5 years old? And it has had no problem with increased UI stuff. Biggest hassles are with virtual webservers and network capacity. And we have been massively increasing capacity on the fly in that area.

Please stop harping on news reports that are inaccurate. There are no pieces of 40 year old mainframe hardware in use that I've heard about lately. And nothing on the hardware side has crashed in the past 20 years that I know of where I work. Yes, some of the software is old, but so is Windows. I think I first used windows around 1987?
posted by baegucb at 3:07 PM on April 9, 2020 [9 favorites]

Yeah, I think a lot of people (especially younger programmers) hear "mainframe" and think 1970s. Mainframes never went away, but they do live in a different world than most programmers today do. Their usage is definitely lower and a smaller number of companies are filling that niche compared to a wider ecosystem decades ago.

But new mainframes are still released, the operating systems they run on are still updated and patched, the frameworks built on top of that are updated, etc. Just like those of us working on 10+ year old codebases on "modern" datacenter tech, there are people who are maintaining the gradual updating / fixing of these mainframe-based systems. The mainframe systems also have a lot of stuff they didn't 40-50 years ago, like virtualization support.

COBOL is more of an implementation detail --- not my language of choice, but there are worse choices.
posted by thefoxgod at 3:40 PM on April 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

Yeah, the last mainframe I worked on (twenty years ago) was amazingly durable with redundant capacity everywhere. Like, every memory chip had extra blocks ready to go in case something went wrong in-use, each memory card had extra chips in case one or more went bad, and each array had a spare memory card in case a whole card went bad.

Meanwhile, the damn thing actually had lighted pathways inside it, so if you had to pull a card there was literally a little LED trail showing you the way to the part you needed to pull.

It was amazing. And expensive.
posted by aramaic at 3:55 PM on April 9, 2020 [8 favorites]

And I didn't think this thread would end up as a discussion of COBOL.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:55 PM on April 9, 2020 [16 favorites]

Trump says he only gave Colorado 1% of the ventilators it needs after GOP senator asked for them

Start doing press conferences with short eulogies and pictures of every single person who has died because they didn't get a ventilator (assuming you get permission from the family). In Canada after the Iranians shot down the plane, evening news did a moment of silence while profiling all the civilians that died. I have no idea why in the US it's only ok to broadcast eulogies of soldiers in military conflicts. These are actual people getting murdered over partisan tug of war bullshit.
posted by benzenedream at 3:57 PM on April 9, 2020 [15 favorites]

>>Can they emulate COBOL on modern hardware?

>You can be absolutely certain they are running that code on modern hardware. There are upgrade paths going back to the System/360 and there would be no way to keep one of the old computers running since they need regular maintenance including replacement parts.

That's the thing about mainframes. You just run your old code on new hardware.

IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS

The COBOL compiler enhances the latest z/Architecture to maximize hardware utilization, reduce CPU usage, and improve performance of critical applications.

This is timely, since I was just reading about the Navy Tactical Data System ( I'm sure there's a 'previously' discussing the article ) First-Hand:No Damned Computer is Going to Tell Me What to DO - The Story of the Naval Tactical Data System, NTDS which goes into the development of digital computers, and discusses the NTDS unit computer binary compatibility from the UNIVAC CP-642, UNIVAC 1206, and AN USQ-20 machines.
posted by mikelieman at 4:02 PM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Hello friends, please make a thread for COBOL, it is worth its own thread.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 4:09 PM on April 9, 2020 [13 favorites]

short eulogies and pictures of every single person who has died because they didn't get a ventilator

Has anyone actually died because of lack of a ventilator in the US yet?
posted by chaz at 4:20 PM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

New Jersey COBOL thread.
posted by adept256 at 4:36 PM on April 9, 2020 [7 favorites]

In New Jersey and New York, yes.
posted by ocschwar at 4:41 PM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Something going down in California? Blue states striking back for Republican fuckery such as what happened in Wisconsin this past week? One can only hope:

Gavin Newsom declares California Nation State

California this week declared its independence from the federal government’s feeble efforts to fight Covid-19 — and perhaps from a bit more. The consequences for the fight against the pandemic are almost certainly positive. The implications for the brewing civil war between Trumpism and America’s budding 21st-century majority, embodied by California’s multiracial liberal electorate, are less clear.
posted by eagles123 at 5:29 PM on April 9, 2020 [15 favorites]

oschwar, thanks for the TPM link on trump supply heists.

The thing I worry about is whether anyone is able to find and collect the evidence on this stuff. From a lot of the articles I've seen, folks aren't clear about who, exactly, is intercepting the shipments. I really hope there are some journalists with contacts in whatever companies are handling the shipping, so that this shit can get documented now. This is outrageous conduct, but Trump's policy will be deny deny deny, and we will need witnesses and documentation for whatever prosecution or (god forbid) second-year impeachment proceedings we'll need to do later.
posted by mabelstreet at 5:31 PM on April 9, 2020 [8 favorites]

The MA shipment was in the Port of NY, so it was probably seized by Customs. And yeah, the shippers will definitely want to share what why know pretty damned soon.
posted by ocschwar at 6:12 PM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

I could never work up any enthusiasm for Gavin Newsom before, but he has really risen to the occasion. He will come out of this looking like a genius and, much to my surprise, a leader.
posted by sjswitzer at 6:14 PM on April 9, 2020 [10 favorites]

How A Border Wall Fundraiser Jumped Head-First Into The International Medical Supply Game (Matt Shuham, TPM)

The market has been been upended by a bottomless pit of coronavirus-related demand, and entrepreneurs like Kolfage have jumped to fill the void, even if they’re not totally sure of what’s real, and what’s not.

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:05 PM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Obligatory Onion Kelly Cartoon Regarding Our Patriotic PPE Resellers
posted by benzenedream at 7:19 PM on April 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

Trump administration pushing to reopen much of the U.S. next month - Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey, Jose Del Real, William Wan; Washington Post (alt: MSN):

The Trump administration is pushing to reopen much of the country next month, raising concerns among health experts and economists of a possible covid-19 resurgence if Americans return to their normal lives before the virus is truly stamped out. [...]

In phone calls with outside advisers, Trump has even floated trying to reopen much of the country before the end of this month, when the current federal recommendations to avoid social gatherings and work from home expire, the people said. Trump regularly looks at unemployment and stock market numbers, complaining that they are hurting his presidency and reelection prospects, the people said.

Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions.

Trump preparing to announce second task force focused on economic recovery (Kaitlan Collins, Kevin Liptak, Jim Acosta and Vivian Salama, CNN)

But in recent days, inside and outside advisers have appealed to Trump to formally create a separate task force in order to streamline the process so it can focus primarily on reopening the economy. This task force would likely include senior staff from the Treasury Department, the National Economic Council, the Labor Department and the Department of Commerce.

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:20 PM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Possible task force member: Cut salaries, taxes to reopen U.S. economy says [Republican economist Art] Laffer, conservative fave (Ann Saphir, Jeff Mason; Reuters)
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:24 PM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

Regarding Laffer: that's the dumbest fucking thing I've ever read.
posted by notsnot at 7:34 PM on April 9, 2020 [9 favorites]

Republican economist Art Laffer, an architect of the Reagan era tax cuts that paved the way for historic budget deficits in the United States

That always looks good on a resume.
posted by valkane at 7:38 PM on April 9, 2020 [8 favorites]

Even the most skilled outsider, paid or not, isn't going to be able to fix much on the "needs to be done yesterday" schedule. The ramp up for a big legacy system is at least weeks.

Second-best time to start is today.
posted by ctmf at 7:45 PM on April 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

What we really need right now is for Joe Biden to fucking step up. If he really thinks he deserves the top job, he needs to be out there fighting for more air time and telling his story.

To many of us, it seems like a good idea to just let Trump fail his way out of office. But not only are the stakes too high for that right now, we can't guarantee in this era of Fox News, OAN and Facebook that he won't be able to spin this into a genuine win.

I think Biden should get Trump to agree to a joint COVID-19 press conference. Pitch it as bringing the nation together in a time of crisis. 2 men, sharing a podium.

Then we just need to get the press to ask the right questions. A little bit of research from this Winter's campaign stops should help us figure out his trigger words. We get Biden pumped up on that Tough-Guy-Grampa energy that led him to recently challenge constituents to push-up contests and fist fights - while standing next to Trump - who will inevitably be acting like an insufferable asshole - and maybe Orange Man ends up with a snapped neck...

As someone once said, "What've you got to lose?".
posted by Anoplura at 8:00 PM on April 9, 2020 [12 favorites]

The Trump administration is pushing to reopen much of the country next month ...Trump regularly looks at unemployment and stock market numbers, complaining that they are hurting his presidency and reelection prospects, the people said.

Not just that, it's hurting his personal profits. Six of his most important golf clubs and hotels are shut down, including his favorite Mar-a-Lago.

It's always about the grift.
posted by JackFlash at 8:05 PM on April 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

It's also putting a crimp in the cash flow of the real estate holdings of several other Trump Crime Family members. All those loans that needed guaranteeing by money launderers are still out standing. And evicting the current tenants when they don't pay their rent isn't going to immediately turn into paying tenants.
posted by Mitheral at 8:14 PM on April 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

To many of us, it seems like a good idea to just let Trump fail his way out of office.

A plan with a track record of total failure from 2016-present.
posted by StarkRoads at 8:42 PM on April 9, 2020 [25 favorites]

@npfandos
The coronavirus pandemic is ravaging the United States Postal Service.

Mail vol down 30% this week, compared to same time last year. Could be down 50% by end of June
@GerryConnolly (D-VA)I spoke with the Postmaster General again today. She could not have been more clear:

The Postal Service will collapse without urgent intervention, and it will happen soon.

We’ve pleaded with the White House to help.
@realDonaldTrump personally directed his staff not to do so.

IDK, considering the D/R urban/rural split, the amount of last mile deliveries for Amazon by USPS and the apparent effectiveness of direct mail fundraising this seems like an incredible own goal by the GOP. And if you actually care about the economy recovering by the election laying off 600,000 unionized employees a couple months before might give you pause.

A lack of mail service is also going to have an impact on mail in ballots but I bet a lot more Democrats living in areas that will still be served by private companies than Republicans.

The Post office has the highest approval rating of any US government agency (I've heard numbers like 90%). Trying to privatize it is a big Koch goal but wow, I certainly wouldn't like it to happen on my watch if I was trying to get re-elected.

Also apparently 1 million vets get regular medication deliveries by USPS.
posted by Mitheral at 8:44 PM on April 9, 2020 [15 favorites]

The Trump administration is pushing to reopen much of the country next month,

About 50 state governors aren't going to let that happen.
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:49 PM on April 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

I wish I could launch Art Laffer into the sun. He's not alone though. I perused the Fox News website, and the top two headlines were (1) attacking the recent enhanced unemployment in the stimulus as an incentive for people to quit their jobs and (2) suggesting the Coronavirus is not as bad as the experts claim.

Those are going to be the arguments going forward: We overreacted to the Coronavirus and additional stimulus is going to be harmful because it will cause people to not work, be inefficient, and drive up the deficit.

And that is how it starts: That is how we inflict unnecessary pain on people much as we inflicted unnecessary pain after the 2008 financial crisis through too small stimulus and too soon austerity in the form of the sequester. Only this time the damage to the economic, social, political, and physical health of this country threatens to be even more severe.
posted by eagles123 at 8:50 PM on April 9, 2020 [14 favorites]

There's no reason for the Post Office to die except people who expect it to pay for itself with revenue. That's nice, but not necessary. It's a government service. Some government services cost money.
posted by ctmf at 9:03 PM on April 9, 2020 [26 favorites]

The Post office has the highest approval rating of any US government agency (I've heard numbers like 90%). Trying to privatize it is a big Koch goal but wow, I certainly wouldn't like it to happen on my watch if I was trying to get re-elected.

I'm not quite old enough to have heard it when it was on the radio, but my older cousins passed down their 8-track of Richard M Nixon's Greatest Hits, and it included such bangers as The USPS Should Be Chronically Underfunded And Fail So We Can Destroy Public Employee Unions aka the Postal Reorganization Act and AMTRAK Will Consolidate Passenger Rail In the USA Just As A Hot Dog Consolidates Farm Animals aka the Rail Passenger Service Act (better know for its chorus "We Like Cars!").

It's interesting to note that this bullshit was passed with Democratic majorities in both House and Senate. ...Of course these were late-'60s Democrats, so who knows. Also, that same Congress passed most of the initial EPA legislation, created HUD and OSHA, and the DEA*.

*sorry, couldn't end on a happy note.
posted by Anoplura at 9:09 PM on April 9, 2020 [10 favorites]

Could there be any value (symbollically or practically) to people buying stamps right now to give an influx of money?
posted by DebetEsse at 9:14 PM on April 9, 2020

Postmaster General was asking for 25 billion in immediate funds to weather the crisis and additional 74 billion to get on a sound footing long term.

If you can convince The Fed to crank $50 billion worth of postage off on their mail room machine that would be pretty effective.
posted by Mitheral at 9:20 PM on April 9, 2020

The government can point a firehose of money ("money") at any venture they deem worthy of saving. Where they point it tells you everything you need to know.
posted by sjswitzer at 9:22 PM on April 9, 2020 [27 favorites]

Could there be any value (symbollically or practically) to people buying stamps right now to give an influx of money?

The USPS provides a very valuable service, and is a much-better-than-average employer (...though not perfect) so I definitely don't want to see it go away.

I'll also say that they do a great job as a commercial shipping solution, and their customer service - when things go wrong, or packages get lost - is as good or better than their private competitors.

...but its organization and funding is fundamentally broken, and there are so many bad incentives (keeping junk mail artificially cheap to compete with junk email!!) that I think that it is time to hit the Pause button and rethink what we expect from our Postal Service, and how we should be paying for it.

Buying bulk stamps either as a symbol of solidarity or an attempt to help out feels to me like buying bulk corn syrup or GMO soybeans in order to help out small family farms. Better to turn the make gains in the House, turn the Senate and engage, engage, engage, locally.
posted by Anoplura at 9:30 PM on April 9, 2020 [4 favorites]

Also, I hope I'm not being naive in saying that I don't think the USPS is in existential danger due to the pandemic. I don't think even Mitch McConnell is willing to add that to his agenda at this time, so I propose that we start a new thread if anyone wants to discuss this further.
posted by Anoplura at 9:33 PM on April 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

"Based on a number of briefings and warnings this week about a critical fall-off in mail across the country, it has become clear that the Postal Service will not survive the summer without immediate help from Congress and the White House," Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

There is a bill currently sitting on The Turtles desk to remove the required pension pre-funding that is currently one of the things kneecapping the USPS so it is definitely on Mitch's agenda to block funding for the USPS already.

Also the USPS does about 30% of all Amazon's deliveries in the US, and El Presidente Cheeto Grande has made it known that anything that hurts Jeff Bezos is good.
posted by PenDevil at 1:52 AM on April 10, 2020 [4 favorites]

'A disastrous situation': mountains of food wasted as coronavirus scrambles supply chain

Billions of dollars worth of food is going to waste as growers and producers from California to Florida are facing a massive surplus of highly perishable items.

As US food banks handle record demand and grocery stores struggle to keep shelves stocked, farmers are dumping fresh milk and plowing vegetables back into the dirt as the shutdown of the food service industry has scrambled the supply chain. Roughly half the food grown in the US was previously destined for restaurants, schools, stadiums, theme parks and cruise ships.

The impact could be up to $1.32bn from March to May in farm losses alone, according to a National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition report.

Agriculture officials insist that the supply itself is not in question, but matching that supply with demand and getting it to where it’s needed most is a new and urgent problem.

Yet another example of something planners should have started working on in January, both on the federal and state levels. But government has been drowned in that bathtub long ago.
posted by mumimor at 5:55 AM on April 10, 2020 [12 favorites]

[UPDATE] Trump admin. reverses plan, will fund COVID-19 testing (Kate Cox, Ars Technica)

Federal funding for community testing sites was scheduled to end on Friday April 10.

Late [Thursday] the administration reversed course on its controversial plan to pull federal funding from drive-through community based COVID-19 testing centers in several states.

Instead, the states can choose whether to continue to receive federal funding and support, or take over operations themselves, federal officials said.

After news about the potential closure of many of the 41 community-based testing centers circulated yesterday, a bipartisan group of Members of Congress wrote to Alex Azar, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, asking the agency to continue funding the program.

"The federal government is not abandoning any of the community-based test sites. I want that to be loud and clear," said assistant secretary for health Adm. Brett Giroir, according to NPR.

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:13 AM on April 10, 2020 [5 favorites]

Trump administration pushing to reopen much of the U.S. next month

whether or not the president has/had the authority to order "closure" of the country, he did not (even try to) exercise it. he closed the border to some traffic from china and later to some traffic from much of europe and then the uk. that's all he has closed.

as sebastienbailard noted above, those closures in place have been accomplished by state and local government editcs, and, to some lesser extent, by businesses themselves (i note as a person who has been working at home for longer than the relevant jurisdiction(s) have ordered social distancing) or the public making their own judgments in the leadership vacuum.

the president has no power to "reopen" the country beyond his torrent of self-contradictions and nonsense (which, admittedly, is not entirely impotent).

CDC has not shown itself to great advantage through this period, but it is almost unthinkable that it would not extend its guidance against social gatherings beyond april 30. isn't it?

anyway, my governor doesn't seem to be a sociopath or idiot. here's hoping yours also isn't.
posted by 20 year lurk at 6:21 AM on April 10, 2020 [12 favorites]

Mine is, but I trust my mayor to be sensible as long as he can be. Here's hoping that neither my governor nor my President reach down from on high to try to force him to do the unthinkable... Again.
posted by sciatrix at 7:05 AM on April 10, 2020 [4 favorites]

PenDevil > Also the USPS does about 30% of all Amazon's deliveries in the US, and El Presidente Cheeto Grande has made it known that anything that hurts Jeff Bezos is good.

El Presidente isn't the only one:

How to Save the Postal Service — For starters, nationalize Amazon and the rest of the essential infrastructure of the digital age.; The Nation, Mike Davis, 4/6/2020:

...Amazon’s business volume and earnings, of course, are growing at an almost incalculable speed, but there’s a bigger story: The current crisis is almost certainly an extinction event for tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of small businesses and franchises. This will hugely expand Amazon’s domination over retail distribution, especially as home delivery permanently increases its scope. Amazon is becoming the largest monopoly in world history.

Today’s progressive Democrats should be at least as bold as Wilson, Roosevelt, and Harry Truman and draft a new excess profits tax bill in the House, with Amazon particularly in mind. Here’s a revenue stream that could not only save the Postal Service but rebuild it after years of budget cuts and unfair competition with FedEx and UPS.

Socialists, of course, need to go much further and recognize that Amazon has become an essential infrastructure, along with privately owned power and communications systems. Some progressives like Elizabeth Warren urge trust-busting and forceful regulation. But the Debsian solution is this: Nationalize the infrastructure of the digital age—including Amazon and private delivery services—and operate it as a series of democratically administered public utilities.

posted by cenoxo at 7:47 AM on April 10, 2020 [12 favorites]

As another perspective to my comment above about Sweden's policy, there is this in The Guardian: Faith in coronavirus modelling is no substitute for sound political judgment, by David McCoy.
David McCoy is a professor of Global Public Health and director of the Centre for Public Health at Queen Mary University of London.

posted by mumimor at 8:05 AM on April 10, 2020 [3 favorites]

New England Journal of Medicine editorial from last week: Ten Weeks to Crush the Curve. The author is Harvey V Fineberg, a towering figure in academic medicine and policy.
posted by Sublimity at 8:14 AM on April 10, 2020 [3 favorites]

Inmates rioting at Kansas prison, officials say

The corrections department has reported 14 staff and 12 inmates have confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Lansing prison.

The article also says It’s unclear what started the riot, Bowman said.

The inmates have managed to get some video out though, at 40 seconds in one inmate flatly states 'we got no healthcare for the corona virus'.
posted by adept256 at 8:34 AM on April 10, 2020 [7 favorites]

Someone in the comments to that Guardian opinion posted this: Why It’s So Freaking Hard To Make A Good COVID-19 Model
By Maggie Koerth, Laura Bronner and Jasmine Mithani/fivethirtyeight
posted by mumimor at 9:13 AM on April 10, 2020 [2 favorites]

There will be a dip in the reported cases and deaths for Easter weekend. Previous Sundays have dipped, I assume because of weekend slow-downs in the gathering and assembly of information process. The numbers seem to jump back on Tuesdays. United States numbers.

Saturday March 28, new cases: 19,452 New deaths: 525
Sunday March 29, new cases: 19,913. New deaths: 323
Monday March 30, new cases: 20,732. New deaths: 558
Tuesday March 31, new cases: 24,914. New deaths: 914

Saturday April 4, new cases: 34,196. New deaths: 1330
Sunday April 5, new cases: 25,316. New deaths: 1165.
Monday April 6, new cases: 31,210. New deaths: 1258.
Tuesday April 7, new cases: 33,460. New deaths: 1971.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:14 AM on April 10, 2020 [6 favorites]

the president has no power to "reopen" the country beyond his torrent of self-contradictions and nonsense (which, admittedly, is not entirely impotent)."

If Trump gets on his Bully Pulpit every day for a week and says "the risk is over (and was overblown in the first place)" go about your business" social distancing will be over in practice. At least until another 100K+ people die. Defying local stay at home orders will become a rolling coal level of lib owning.
posted by Mitheral at 9:33 AM on April 10, 2020 [18 favorites]

There will be a dip in the reported cases and deaths for Easter weekend...

Given the holiday, let's hope no one takes it as a miracle from heaven and proclaims victory.
posted by cenoxo at 10:41 AM on April 10, 2020

If Trump gets on his Bully Pulpit every day for a week and says "the risk is over (and was overblown in the first place)" go about your business" social distancing will be over in practice. At least until another 100K+ people die.

Ah yes, the old, "there is no need, Christine; it's just not worth living like this. Not worth living like this" strategy.
posted by rhizome at 10:59 AM on April 10, 2020

re: "Trump administration pushing to reopen much of the U.S. next month" (mefi link)

Trump's new troll: He won't "reopen" the economy — he just wants someone to blame (Amanda Marcotte, Slate)

... there's no way around a deeply cynical theory of what's happening here: Trump and his allies are exploiting access journalism, which speaks to the reader's desire to feel like they have insider knowledge, to spread a dishonest narrative. That narrative is that Trump wants to "reopen" the economy and save everyone's jobs, even though that's impossible. And the goal is that when the economy continues to tank, Trump can paint himself as a victim of nefarious forces who thwarted him from making America great again.

Trump wouldn't actually benefit from "reopening" the economy, after all, and on some level he may understand that. It wouldn't work the way he implies it would, and it would probably lead to even more economic devastation to go along with the public health catastrophe. But he certainly might benefit from sowing a narrative about how his heroic efforts to save us all were crushed by the oppressive forces of the "deep state."

This narrative about the "deep state" and "political correctness" is Donald Trump's last-ditch re-election strategy. Perversely, his false dichotomy between saving lives and saving the economy works better if it remains hypothetical, which is to say, if the economy isn't "reopened." That way, Trump can spin fantasies of how great things would have been if we had just listened to him, and claim that conditions only got worse because the snowflake liberals got their way. If he actually could "reopen" the economy, the widespread devastation would speak for itself. He benefits far more from leaving that as a fantasy than from making it a reality.

There is an interesting subtheme: conservative commentators provoking outrage from liberals to make them the enemy and distract from substantive conversation.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:46 PM on April 10, 2020 [9 favorites]

...which will be a good time for Republicans to cry Dolchstoßlegende!.
posted by cenoxo at 12:58 PM on April 10, 2020 [5 favorites]

John Hergt @natureofthings7
US population 331,002,651 World population 7,577,130,400. US #COVIDー19 cases 468,895 World #COVIDー19 cases 1,614,861 The US has 4.2 % of world’s population but more than 25% of the worlds #coronavirus cases. The facts speak for themselves, something went terribly wrong.
3:34 AM · Apr 10, 2020·Twitter for iPad
posted by Ahmad Khani at 12:59 PM on April 10, 2020 [17 favorites]

Yet another example of something planners should have started working on in January, both on the federal and state levels. But government has been drowned in that bathtub long ago.

More accurately, it is something the government would have done as recently as four years ago. Even the GWBs of the world appreciate some of the things governments do, even if they are loathe to admit it to the base.

As far as gubanatorial connection to reality goes, I just saw a headline from The Hill saying that Ron DeSantis is considering reopening schools in Florida because "children don't seem to be affected by the coronavirus." He "doesn't know" of a single child having died from it in the state, never mind that at least one infant has, and that's just from memory without consulting the numbers.

Of course, even if he were correct, it would still be a stupid idea given that children don't staff the schools.
posted by wierdo at 1:18 PM on April 10, 2020 [4 favorites]

And children spread the disease.
posted by njohnson23 at 2:10 PM on April 10, 2020 [5 favorites]

And few if any children have died because the schools have been closed.
posted by Reverend John at 2:30 PM on April 10, 2020

And few if any children have died because the schools have been closed.

You gotta give Trump credit for the most dramatic reduction in school mass shootings in history.
posted by JackFlash at 2:44 PM on April 10, 2020 [17 favorites]

The hue and cry about the danger of reopening schools would likely come just as much from parents of the children, who will no doubt be cast as Democrats. That is, I don't think the schools will reopen -- at least not successfully -- and the reaction that keeps them closed will be weaponized for Republican political purposes.
posted by rhizome at 2:49 PM on April 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

The US has 4.2 % of world’s population but more than 25% of the worlds #coronavirus cases.

The number of cases in South America and other places is vastly under-reported. In places like Ecuador, there have been reports of bodies in the streets, but officially they only have a few hundred cases.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 2:59 PM on April 10, 2020 [10 favorites]

3 European countries are about to lift their lockdowns — Is it too soon?

I'll be keeping an eye on the case and fatality rates for Austria, The Czech Republic, and Denmark in the coming weeks.
posted by tonycpsu at 3:11 PM on April 10, 2020 [3 favorites]

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the power structures of the large and/or oppressive countries will react more quickly than to require mass graves to keep images off the news,

The BBC has drone footage of mass graves in New York up right now. It is Hart Island, which serves as a burial site for those with no next-of-kin or those who cannot afford a funeral, but the numbers being buried have gone up by an order of magnitude.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:12 PM on April 10, 2020 [4 favorites]

ricochet: I just came her to post that.

More on (break your) Hart Island:

The island's first public use was as a training ground for the United States Colored Troops in 1864. Since then, Hart Island has been the location of a Union Civil War prison camp, a psychiatric institution, a tuberculosis sanatorium, a potter's field with mass burials, a homeless shelter, a boys' reformatory, a jail, and a drug rehabilitation center. Several other structures, such as an amusement park, were planned for Hart Island but not built. During the Cold War, Nike defense missiles were stationed on Hart Island. The island was intermittently used as a prison and a homeless shelter until 1967, and the last inhabited structures were abandoned in 1977. The island now serves as the city's potter's field, run by the New York City Department of Correction until 2019, when the New York City Council voted to transfer jurisdiction to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

The remains of more than one million people are buried on Hart Island, though since the first decade of the 21st century, there are fewer than 1,500 burials a year. Burials on Hart Island include individuals who were not claimed by their families or did not have private funerals; the homeless and the indigent; and mass burials of disease victims.
...
Burials are conducted by inmates at the Rikers Island jail.

All of that on an island of 131 acres.
posted by sjswitzer at 4:27 PM on April 10, 2020 [4 favorites]

From ricochet_biscuit's BBC link: "Normally, about 25 bodies a week are interred on the island, according to the Associated Press news agency. But burial operations have increased from one day a week to five days a week, with around 24 burials each day, said Department of Correction spokesman Jason Kersten. Prisoners from Rikers Island, the city's main jail complex, usually do the job, but the rising workload has recently been taken over by contractors."
Same link:
"On Thursday, another glimmer of hope was heralded as official projections for the nationwide death toll were lowered. Dr Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House's coronavirus task force, told NBC News' Today show the final number of Americans who would die from Covid-19 in the outbreak "looks more like 60,000". The 60,000 projection would match the upper estimate for total flu deaths in the US between October 2019 to March 2020, according to government data."

Countdown to 'no deadlier than the flu, as predicted' re-start re-spin in ten, nine...
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 4:42 PM on April 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

Peter Navarro: what Trump's Covid-19 tsar lacks in expertise, he makes up.
posted by adamvasco at 4:45 PM on April 10, 2020 [5 favorites]

> Ivanka Trump taking up guitar, studying Greek mythology while caring for kids during pandemic

Can someone please send Ivanka more guitar tabs and Greek epics to read, for fuck's sake? (via)

What we're hearing: The economic task force will include people from the private sector as well as top administration officials, some of whom also serve on the coronavirus task force — though the two will be separate. [...]

Ivanka Trump, who has turned her attention to the administration's small business efforts, will also be part of the group, per a White House official.

posted by tonycpsu at 4:51 PM on April 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

Aw, hell, New York may bury unclaimed coronavirus victims on Hart Island, but mayor says 'no mass burials' CNN article gives a figure of 25 burials a day.

Mayor DiBlasio tweeted earlier today, The heartbreaking numbers of deaths we're seeing means we are sadly losing more people without family or friends to bury them privately. Those are the people who will be buried on Hart Island, with every measure of respect and dignity New York City can provide.

Who all is dying unclaimed at that rate, the homeless or elderly people in care facilities or prisoners or another population? Are these dead without family or friends to bury them privately, or are the family and friends not able to be found, or is the cost involved with burial (see the hazmat suits worn by the contractors at the BBC link) prohibitive?
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 4:51 PM on April 10, 2020

Talking Points Memo has some very eye-opening data from the FDNY, "FDNY Sees Huge Uptick In DOA Ambulance Cases As COVID Ravages City":

The data show that starting on March 16, the fire department began to experience a huge surge in so-called “cardiac calls,” which fire officials see as a sign of the “stark” change due to the pandemic.

“A year ago – same time frame – we were seeing an average of 54-74 cardiac arrest calls per day, with 22-32 deaths,” the Fire Department said in a statement. “Now, in this pandemic, we are seeing more than 300 cardiac arrest calls each day, with well over 200 people dying each day.”

There are charts in the article illustrating this phenomenon and they are bleak.
posted by mhum at 4:59 PM on April 10, 2020 [10 favorites]

I suspect that with funeral homes overwhelmed and families knocked on their back heels by everything that is going, there are people whose bodies are going unclaimed because their families cannot claim them in time for the new deadline, and so they are buried on Hart Island. In which case one way to deal with it, and there is plenty of space on the island for it, is a wall that can hold plaques for their names.
posted by ocschwar at 5:40 PM on April 10, 2020

WRT sudden cardiac arrests in COVID-19 patients, note the following nurse's description (in my March 25, 2020 comment):

COVID-19 has been in my area long enough that we're getting an idea of how it plays out, curious what others are seeing. The most surprising thing has been the duration of acute illness, I sort of figured it would be like other respiratory viruses just more severe, but with acute symptoms lasting up to 7 days or so.

We've seen timelines similar to what China was reporting; about 10 days from symptom onset to needing ICU care, then critically ill for weeks, the shortest recovery we've seen is 3 weeks of aggressive life support. Time from symptoms onset to death has ranged from 2 to 8 weeks in China. So it's not just the number of patients that will require vents and other equipment, it's the length of time they will need them for.

The first week or so on the vent is similar to a bad influenza; lots of vent support, maybe proning, maybe flolan, not typically requiring inotropes or vasopressors, then they seem to have turned the corner and are out of the woods.

Then they crump, big time. From nothing to max pressors and inotropes and an EF that drops from normal to 10-15% in as little as 12 hours. Sudden onset renal and liver failure, with impressively severe liver failure in such a short amount of time.

Deaths appear more cardiogenic than respiratory, lethal rhythms have varied the full gamut; VT, VF, PEA, and asystole.....

So the FDNY might be seeing sudden, fatal heart attacks in some individuals before they're hospitalized, officially diagnosed with COVID-19, and counted?
posted by cenoxo at 7:20 PM on April 10, 2020 [6 favorites]

Mysterious Heart Damage Hitting COVID-19 Patients, WebMD, Markian Hawryluk, 4/6/2020 (Kaiser News):

While the focus of the COVID-19 pandemic has been on respiratory problems and securing enough ventilators, doctors on the front lines are grappling with a new medical mystery. In addition to lung damage, many COVID-19 patients are also developing heart problems — and dying of cardiac arrest.

As more data comes in from China and Italy, as well as Washington state and New York, more cardiac experts are coming to believe the COVID-19 virus can infect the heart muscle. An initial study found cardiac damage in as many as 1 in 5 patients, leading to heart failure and death even among those who show no signs of respiratory distress.

That could change the way doctors and hospitals need to think about patients, particularly in the early stages of illness. It also could open up a second front in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, with a need for new precautions in people with preexisting heart problems, new demands for equipment and, ultimately, new treatment plans for damaged hearts among those who survive....

posted by cenoxo at 7:37 PM on April 10, 2020 [5 favorites]

The White House Pushed FEMA To Give its Biggest Coronavirus Contract to a Company That Never Had to Bid (J. David McSwane and Yeganeh Torbati; ProPublica)

The Trump administration has rushed through more than $760 million in contracts outside the usual bidding process during its haphazard coronavirus response. It’s highly unusual for the White House to step into FEMA’s supply bidding process. [...]

Typically, the White House has little involvement in procurement decisions, which are handled by individual agencies. But Kushner has taken a direct hand in coordinating emergency supplies, and Navarro was recently put in charge of the administration’s effort to corral American manufacturers in producing the products health care workers need most.

Ethics experts have criticized the White House’s effort as lacking transparency and opening the federal government to further influence from companies.

“Now we know we’ve got orders coming in through the White House, and there’s no way anybody can be assured that the government is obtaining the goods and services that best meet its needs,” said Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at the nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Because it’s being done at the White House, we don’t know whether or not any of these individuals have financial interests that can be enhanced by directing this.”

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:47 PM on April 10, 2020 [7 favorites]

The first diagnosed case in Manhattan was announced on March 1 (Coronavirus in N.Y.: Manhattan Woman Is First Confirmed Case in State). In the last week of February, the patient had returned to the city from Iran. Nine other people were tested in the month of February, and tested negative, but maybe this was with a bad batch of tests? SARS-CoV-2 could have been circulating in NYC a few weeks earlier than detected, given the many international travelers, resulting in the cardiac arrest spike the FDNY saw starting in mid-March.
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 7:51 PM on April 10, 2020

"Look, only 30,000 people died! The fake news said it was going to be a million!" is what I'm expecting to hear.
posted by Windopaene at 8:06 PM on April 10, 2020 [8 favorites]

Saw this on Reddit

Captain Trump of the RMS Titanic:

There isn't any iceberg.
There was an iceberg but it's in a totally different ocean.
The iceberg is in this ocean but it will melt very soon.
There is an iceberg but we didn't hit the iceberg.
We hit the iceberg, but the damage will be repaired very shortly.
The iceberg is a Chinese iceberg.
We are taking on water but every passenger who wants a lifeboat can get a lifeboat, and they are beautiful lifeboats. Look, passengers need to ask nicely for the lifeboats if they want them.
We don't have any lifeboats, we're not lifeboat distributors.
Passengers should have planned for icebergs and brought their own lifeboats.
I really don't think we need that many lifeboats.
We have lifeboats and they're supposed to be our lifeboats, not the passengers' lifeboats.
The lifeboats were left on shore by the last captain of this ship.
Nobody could have foreseen the iceberg.
posted by adept256 at 9:46 PM on April 10, 2020 [48 favorites]

The economic task force

I was thinking about this while working in the kitchen for dinner. Why the hell would you need any task forces when you can simply call a Cabinet meeting, and make any decisions that need making then and there?

Of course, Trump's goal isn't to actually get busy helping people, but rather only present the appearance of being busy hence he gets to announce task forces and appear to not be a failure as Chief Executive.
posted by mikelieman at 10:23 PM on April 10, 2020 [2 favorites]

Prepare for the ultimate gaslighting.

that was excellent. thank you ^odinsdream. thank you julio vincent gambuto. will share and try to keep in mind.
posted by 20 year lurk at 10:25 PM on April 10, 2020 [4 favorites]

A plan to defeat coronavirus finally emerges, but it’s not from the White House:Ramp up testing to identify people who are infected. Find everyone they interact with by deploying contact tracing on a scale America has never attempted before. And focus restrictions more narrowly on the infected and their contacts so the rest of society doesn’t have to stay in permanent lockdown.
posted by NotLost at 12:15 AM on April 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

"And focus restrictions more narrowly on the infected and their contacts so the rest of society doesn’t have to stay in permanent lockdown."

You know this won't work because you have too many "don't tread on me" selfish, contrarian idiots; they hate every kind of authority and they have guns.
posted by sukeban at 1:25 AM on April 11, 2020 [5 favorites]

There’s some interesting U.S. Navy news in the Captain Crozier - USS Theodore Roosevelt thread:

More CV-positive crew members have been found on the TR and other ships.
Due to supply shortages, Navy/Marine personnel are improvising/sewing their own masks.
Ships will will have a two week quarantine period before deploying.
A lack of test kits means that only crew with visible symptoms will be tested before boarding ship.
If necessary, ships will be ready to ‘fight sick’ with infected crew members aboard.

More details and articles in the thread.
posted by cenoxo at 3:20 AM on April 11, 2020 [4 favorites]

The JHU-CRC Map shows the United States over 500,000 confirmed cases, with world cases over 1.7 million.
posted by cenoxo at 3:45 AM on April 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

Coronavirus: 40 suspected cases aboard French navy ship
posted by mumimor at 3:49 AM on April 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

Why Americans Are So Resistant to Masks, Slate, Richard Thompson Ford, 4/10/2020:

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed itself and encouraged Americans to wear masks to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. This week, some mayors have taken things further by mandating mask-wearing in public. As COVID-19 has upended every aspect of American life, masks are fast becoming the faces we show a world where every stranger might be carrying a potential threat. Our doctors are real-life masked superheroes who risk illness and death in their courageous efforts to treat the sick. For the rest of us, a mask, which seemed like overkill a few days ago, now looks like just the right amount. Yet some are still reluctant to wear a mask: Donald Trump, for instance, refused to set a positive example for the nation, insisting, “I am choosing not to do it.” Others have and will follow the president’s lead. Why does this simple precaution inspire such resistance?
...

All is Vanity (1892): can’t look old or sick, dontcha know?
posted by cenoxo at 4:12 AM on April 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

Here in the Netherlands, we're still not being adviced to wear masks, so pretty much no one wears them in public. When I entered a train compartiment wearing a scarf over my nose and mouth, a woman fled from me and sat elsewhere... she probably thought I meant to signal that I was infected.

I've made several and worn them in public when I was shopping in Germany, I see more people wearing them there, so I feel safe joining them.
posted by Too-Ticky at 5:20 AM on April 11, 2020 [4 favorites]

White House Seeks To Lower Farmworker Pay To Help Agriculture Industry. Remember that "The nation's roughly 2.5 million agricultural laborers have been officially declared "essential workers"". I know nothing makes me feel essential more than a cut in pay.

The pay cut is being branded as "Wage Relief" which is a perfect Orwellin term if I've ever heard one. The proposed pay cut to workers comes after direct payments to farmers of at least 16 billion dollars.
posted by Mitheral at 5:34 AM on April 11, 2020 [17 favorites]

I see more people wearing them there, so I feel safe joining them.

The first time I went grocery shopping while masked, I drew stares and kept thinking "Be the change you wish to see..." Now it's the opposite: I'm a little afraid of what my eyes and eyebrows are saying to people who aren't masked.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:36 AM on April 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

I've made several and worn them in public when I was shopping in Germany, I see more people wearing them there, so I feel safe joining them.
posted by Too-Ticky

I carried mine today but was feeling shy. Then at checkout these two giggling idiots refused to step away from me and I am now sure that if I go back again it will be masked and gloved - they had 50 disposable gloves - the kind you get with hair colour kits - for a euro and I saw older ladies use them to handle the veg.
posted by Mrs Potato at 5:43 AM on April 11, 2020

Since mid-March when lockdown started in Spain I've only gotten out of the house to buy groceries, but lately it seems 80% of the people at the supermarket are wearing masks (real or homemade) or scarves. I'm using a thick cotton mask I had around. Masks aren't compulsory yet because there's no supply, but recommended.
posted by sukeban at 5:45 AM on April 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

Potato and I have been prototyping simple designs from an old bedsheet for covering his full beard. I'll put them up somewhere if we get a good working prototype done. He hates having to wash his beard after every trip out of the house.
posted by Mrs Potato at 5:50 AM on April 11, 2020 [4 favorites]

Why is South Korea beating coronavirus? Its citizens hold the state to account.
The widely lauded policy of testing, tracing and treating has its roots in Koreans’ expectation of high-quality public services.
Meanwhile here in Rio de Janeiro where life for many is about to get very dire and the state can't cope at the best of times, Samba schools are sewing scrubs and home made masks have become a cottage industry. As anyone in this city can walk down the street wearing anything or nearly nothing, nobody cares what you wear. Local favela Dona Marta has it's very own Ghostbuster on a voluntary mission to sanitize the hillside maze.
posted by adamvasco at 6:29 AM on April 11, 2020 [7 favorites]

NASA Air Quality - Observations from Space > Reductions in Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Presumably Associated with Reductions in Fossil Fuel Use has a sliding before/after image showing reduced NO2 levels over the Northeast United States (presumably the result of lower fossil fuel consumption during lockdowns and shelter-in-place measures).
posted by cenoxo at 6:34 AM on April 11, 2020 [4 favorites]

Ever since I lived in Tokyo I've found it really weird, backward, and frankly kind of rude and inconsiderate, that Americans who are ill don't wear a mask to at least make a gesture in the direction of not spreading it to everyone else.

I'm hoping one of the things that comes out of COVID (along with not letting people crowd you in lines, more hand washing, and ending forever the foolish and dangerous practice of shaking hands) is Americans being willing to wear a mask if they're sick. Stop spreading your germs!
posted by sotonohito at 6:54 AM on April 11, 2020 [8 favorites]

South Korea Says Recovered Coronavirus Patients Test Positive Again — Health officials say the virus may have ‘reactivated’ in patients., U.S. News & World Report, Alexa Lardieri, 4/10/2020.
posted by cenoxo at 6:57 AM on April 11, 2020 [6 favorites]

Aggressive testing, contact tracing, cooked meals: How the Indian state of Kerala flattened its coronavirus curve

Methods like this could be useful in less developed areas in the "West", too.
posted by mumimor at 7:41 AM on April 11, 2020 [4 favorites]

The United States has just passed Italy for the number one spot in the official death toll. (18,860 to 18,849) (You have to press United States under the total counts to get the most recent figures for deaths.)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:32 AM on April 11, 2020 [3 favorites]

Methods like this could be useful in less developed areas in the "West", too.

Partners in Health, the non-profit that is in charge of hiring for and running the Massachusetts contact-tracing system, is known for its work in the Third World.
posted by adamg at 9:56 AM on April 11, 2020 [4 favorites]

Twitter thread (threadreader) from @Craig_A_Spencer, Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and NY ER doctor on whats happening in NY ERs.
posted by Mitheral at 10:03 AM on April 11, 2020 [8 favorites]

New Trump attack ad appears to suggest Washington state’s former Asian American governor is a Chinese official

The evens...
The article goes on to explain that an American person is American. I guess they have to do that, but on the other hand, it is also playing into Trump's plan. I wish I knew how to deal with this the best way.
posted by mumimor at 11:30 AM on April 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

It's sunday morning. We're about to see the biggest violation of social distancing so far. This could be a turning point.

For the love of god, Jesus wants you to stay home.
posted by adept256 at 11:46 AM on April 11, 2020 [2 favorites]

A Twitter thread from Eric Lipton/NYT: "As part of our reporting, The NYT obtained hundreds of emails among a group of the top pandemic experts in the US--doctors at HHS, DHS, State, VA, as well as former gov drs--as they watched the pandemic unfold in the United States. Here are some of their observations." (NYT article: He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus.)
posted by MonkeyToes at 12:14 PM on April 11, 2020 [10 favorites]

That NYT article is a fascinating and detailed view into how the experts who make up the so-called deep state were thwarted by clueless political yes-men in Trump's orbit. We already knew some of the broad strokes from pieces like this one, but the email dump and the NYT's original reporting add a lot of context, and paint a much more damning picture of hacks like Pence, Mnuchin, and Pompeo.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:38 PM on April 11, 2020 [7 favorites]

A few comments deleted. I think that was an attempt to drily criticize the Washington Post for participating in Trump's racist othering of the former WA gov; but it's too easy for that kind of attempt to read as ironic racism, which isn't ok here. So, suggest a rewind and just make the point straightforwardly instead.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 1:49 PM on April 11, 2020 [4 favorites]

Holy fuck: Doctor at Texas care home "experiments" with hydroxychloroquine by administering it to dementia patients.

Concern is mounting after a doctor at a Texas nursing home started giving the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to dozens of elderly patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and tracking the outcomes in what he's calling an "observational study."

[...]

He acknowledged that some families were not aware their relatives were put on the drug, saying that "for the most part," he consulted with each nursing home resident prior to giving them on the tablets.

Most patients? Concern is mounting?! Arrest that motherfucker.

Armstrong said he is tracking the nursing home patients' health changes daily and plans to put his findings in "some kind of report" that he hopes will add to the research on the malarial drug in relation to COVID-19.

Well if it's going in to some sort of report then that is alright. /hamburger

No surprise though that the facility where this "experiment" is happening recorded 14 care violation in its most recent state inspection including:

The facility did not properly care for residents needing special services, including: injections, colostomy, ureterostomy, ileostomy, tracheostomy care, tracheal suctioning, respiratory care, foot care and prostheses.
The facility did not store, cook and give out food in a safe and clean way.
The facility was not designed, built, equipped or well-kept to protect the health and safety of residents, workers and the public.

posted by Mitheral at 2:57 PM on April 11, 2020 [32 favorites]

Real scientific studies involving humans, even studies that involve no medicine at all but merely asking questions, require ethics boards, disclosure forms for the test subjects, a written policy outlining measures being taken to protect any personal information (God help you if you get into stuff covered by HIPAA), details of the experiment and what it hopes to accomplish. Real medical experimentation requires even more.

Dr. Robin Armstrong is violating every principle of ethical science and medicine with his actions, and should have his license to practice medicine revoked in addition to whatever other criminal charges seem appropriate.
posted by sotonohito at 3:03 PM on April 11, 2020 [21 favorites]

informed consent and if they couldn't consent because of dementia, family consent.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:18 PM on April 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

> Dr. Robin Armstrong is violating every principle of ethical science and medicine with his actions, and should have his license to practice medicine revoked in addition to whatever other criminal charges seem appropriate.

On the other hand, he's totally owning the libs, so MAGA!
posted by tonycpsu at 3:27 PM on April 11, 2020 [6 favorites]

Without proper experimental design, the tests are unlikely to show anything useful and very likely to reaffirm a priori assumptions. (That is surely the intent.) So besides being shockingly unethical and dangerous, the tests can only produce bad information that will set back the public dialog.
posted by sjswitzer at 3:31 PM on April 11, 2020 [6 favorites]

I'm so tired of the pissing match between Cuomo and de Blasio. Cuomo acts like he's totally nailed New York's response to the crisis, as if there weren't volumes of evidence showing that he biffed it. But because de Blasio has been even worse, he gets to puff his chest and make a big show of the fact that he's in charge now.

He's not even wrong on the merits. Closing schools doesn't make sense if it's done in the five boroughs and not elsewhere. But he could also... just let de Blasio close the schools, and also use his power to close the schools outside of the city. Instead, he's got to make it look like de Blasio did something wrong by saying the schools should be closed for the rest of the year.

So glad that the Cuomo for President nonsense is over.
posted by tonycpsu at 4:20 PM on April 11, 2020 [9 favorites]

South Korea Says Recovered Coronavirus Patients Test Positive Again

Just got my first one of these among my employees. Had it, met the recovery criteria, felt fine, came back to work with medical's blessing, felt bad again, went to get tested, positive again.
posted by ctmf at 5:55 PM on April 11, 2020 [13 favorites]

Milford (MA) Daily News: Fire chief: Milford PPEs taken by feds amid coronavirus crisis

Fire Chief William Touhey Jr. said the town ordered 30,000 gowns, which help protect first responders from contracting the novel coronavirus. Touhey was later told the federal government had stepped in and taken them instead.

posted by adamg at 5:59 PM on April 11, 2020 [6 favorites]

ctmf - Will you and your other employees have to get tested, go under quarantine, etc.?
posted by cenoxo at 6:09 PM on April 11, 2020

Oh, no, I'm so sorry! That wasn't 'ironic racism' on my part. My comment was about the Post's phrasing in that headline, the "former Asian American governor" part. Locke _is_ the former governor of Washington. He's not a former Asian American: he hasn't ceased to be of Chinese descent, and he hasn't renounced his American citizenship. A brief grammar dig was the goal.

I sincerely apologize that my comment came across as racist.
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 6:12 PM on April 11, 2020 [9 favorites]

Dr. Armstrong is no regular physician. He is a Republican National Committee member and GOP activist in Houston.
posted by adamvasco at 6:31 PM on April 11, 2020 [14 favorites]

Will you and your other employees have to get tested, go under quarantine, etc.?

Some will, we're gathering information on who did what where and wearing what PPE. Our general guidance is, hand washing, very frequent surface cleaning, distancing, and masks even at work are the methods, and they keep risk small. We will probably put people in self-quarantine (with pay) if there were instances of that not happening, like if someone had a face to face conversation within 6 ft while not wearing a mask or something. So far maybe one or two who can't positively remember, so as a precaution, we will. People are being really good about doing their best to follow or exceed the guidelines, without taking advantage, so we are able to accommodate edge cases with benefit of the doubt and excess caution. Unfortunately, I can't send everyone home indefinitely, though.
posted by ctmf at 7:32 PM on April 11, 2020 [4 favorites]

So, in all these cases where the feds are pirating away the PPE from everyone without a Kuchner authorized letters of marque, have the localities already paid for the order?

Example, if I order a book from City Lights, and pay for it before it's shipped, and someone were to steal that book from the delivery driver, then I am a victim of theft, but if I order a book COD, and the book is intercepted, I do not owe for the book, but whomever has the book, theoretically does...but how would the vendor know who to bill?

In other words; who is paying for all this piracy?
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 8:02 PM on April 11, 2020 [13 favorites]

Americans are paying. Straight into trump's cronies' pockets. It's appalling.
posted by Windopaene at 8:58 PM on April 11, 2020 [7 favorites]

NASA Air Quality - Observations from Space > Reductions in Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Presumably Associated with Reductions in Fossil Fuel Use...

Guardian article about the degree to which the lockdown has improved air quality to unprecedented levels (with the irony that the citizens of many of these places are forbidden from enjoying the air quality by going outside).

At some stage, I guess researchers will try to calculate an overall Covid-19 death rate which is offset by the reduction in deaths caused by air pollution. The WHO calculates that 7 million people die each year from air pollution - so dramatically reducing it for a few months could have a significant impact.
posted by rongorongo at 1:28 AM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

'm hoping one of the things that comes out of COVID (along with not letting people crowd you in lines, more hand washing, and ending forever the foolish and dangerous practice of shaking hands) is Americans being willing to wear a mask if they're sick. Stop spreading your germs!

Physical contact will come back. We're social animals and that's part of it. We've lost something very special if we can't shake hands.

I do look forward to the inevitable clip of Trump sticking out his hand out of force of habit and being denied, just left hanging.

One of my predictions has come true. They've disabled those buttons at pedestrian crossings.

A little trivia for you, that's an Australian pedestrian crossing, they make a bit of a dubstep beeping noise. Billie Eilish recorded that sound while she was here and you can hear it in the chorus of her grammy winning song Bad Guy.
posted by adept256 at 1:56 AM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

A quick report from Australia while I'm here. We're doing relatively well. We've lost 59 souls and have a total of 6313 cases. Only 7 new cases overnight. Our healthcare system is robust, the hospitals are well stocked.

We have our share of morons, like every country, but in general everyone's doing their duty. The government has given a $750 payment to everyone on welfare. They are subsidising wages up to $1500 per fortnite. You'll lose $1300 dollars of that on the spot in fines if you're caught screwing around outdoors for no good reason.

I live in an area of Brisbane notorious for it's nightclubs. We usually get 50000 visitors every weekend, and especially on the Easter long weekend it's a riot. It's so quiet out there now, there's no one there.

The most people I've seen for weeks was at the queue for the supermarket, they're only allowing a few people in at a time now. You can't buy pasta or pasta sauce, but there is so much other food. There's no shortage of food, but apparently an excess of people who only know how to cook spag-bog. Toilet paper is gone, I suppose giant assholes need them the most.

It'd be a good time to be a lighthouse keeper or doing antarctic research, but I'm pretty happy where I am. Australia's doing OK.
posted by adept256 at 3:05 AM on April 12, 2020 [14 favorites]

Every US state is now under a disaster declaration, The Guardian, 4/11/2020:

Wyoming has become the 50th, and final, US state to be under a disaster declaration following approval by Donald Trump on Saturday. That means for for the first time in history every US state is under a disaster declaration. The US Virgin islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico are also under disaster declarations, which allow federal funds to be used by state and local governments during the pandemic.

“Though Wyoming has not reached the dire situations of some states, this declaration will help us to prepare and mobilize resources when we need them,” said Wyoming’s governor, Mark Gordon, in a statement after requesting the declaration earlier this week.

We’re all in the same (life)boat now, watching the ship of state as she takes on more water.
posted by cenoxo at 3:42 AM on April 12, 2020 [7 favorites]

...and its Captain, rudderless and wandering the bridge, wonders what he should do: Trump administration has many task forces — but still no plan for beating covid-19, Washington Post; Ashley Parker, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Josh Dawsey; 4/11/2020.
posted by cenoxo at 4:12 AM on April 12, 2020 [5 favorites]

OTOH, Photos: Polluted cities see clean air and water amid coronavirus shutdown – Metropolises in India, China and the United States see better air quality and clearer water; The Mercury News, Gieson Cacho, 4/11/2020:

With many cities shutdown, one of the positive side effects of the shelter-in-place orders around the world has been the reports of cleaner air and water.

In Los Angeles, the air quality, which is usually some of the worst in the nation, has turned into one of the cleanest compared to other major cities, according to IQAir. Even more impressive is the fact that the city has enjoyed its longest stretch of “good” air quality since 1995.

Elsewhere in New Delhi, India, residents saw blue skies, which has become a rarity. According to an NPR report, the lockdown has led to less air pollution and cleaner water. That has resulted in an Air Quality Index at 45 during late March. Around the same time last year, the index was at 160. Other cities that have seen cleaner include Beijing, Paris, and Phoenix.

Take a deep breath.
posted by cenoxo at 4:48 AM on April 12, 2020 [4 favorites]

UK could have Europe's worst coronavirus death rate, says adviser
posted by mumimor at 5:49 AM on April 12, 2020

He Could've Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump's Failure on the Virus (NYT, six people on the byline)
posted by box at 6:02 AM on April 12, 2020 [5 favorites]

UK could have Europe's worst coronavirus death rate, says adviser
This does not address an obvious follow-up question which is "why". This twitter thread by Lainey Doyle does. More specifically, she looks at why the UK and Ireland - both countries with comparable numbers of hospital beds per capita - should have such differing per capita death rates (14.8 deaths per 100,000 versus 6.5 in Ireland). The answer appears to be that Ireland locked down earlier in its outbreak.

Acting in a timely manner to prevent an exponentially growing risk can have a much bigger pay-off than might intuitively seem the case - every day or hour wasted matters enormously. Poorer, less equipped countries that act rapidly may well do better than richer ones with complacent governments. The UK failed to draw lessons from those countries that had earlier outbreaks. The couple of jumbo jet loads of dead people we are reporting per day, are a sad testament to that fact.
posted by rongorongo at 6:51 AM on April 12, 2020 [13 favorites]

Thinking about the situations in the UK and US, it's hard to imagine it could have worked out differently. Both countries have leaderships that are not just bad, but are ideologically committed to disrupting and smashing government, except for military and, in the US, police.

From this article, posted by cenoxo: Trump administration has many task forces — but still no plan for beating covid-19:

With his skeptical — some might even say conspiratorial — view of China’s ruling Communist Party, Mr. Pottinger initially suspected that President Xi Jinping’s government was keeping a dark secret: that the virus may have originated in one of the laboratories in Wuhan studying deadly pathogens. In his view, it might have even been a deadly accident unleashed on an unsuspecting Chinese population.

During meetings and telephone calls, Mr. Pottinger asked intelligence agencies — including officers at the C.I.A. working on Asia and on weapons of mass destruction — to search for evidence that might bolster his theory.

That is insane, and that there is a high ranking person in the Trump administration who thinks that way, and wastes time pursuing that angle is deeply unsettling. But that whole article proves my point above, non of these people know how to handle a crisis and that is in part because they don't want to know. But a majority of Americans knew that, and still...
posted by mumimor at 7:17 AM on April 12, 2020 [8 favorites]

At some stage, I guess researchers will try to calculate an overall Covid-19 death rate which is offset by the reduction in deaths caused by air pollution.

And the reduction in fatal car crashes.
posted by mbrubeck at 7:35 AM on April 12, 2020 [7 favorites]

Regarding air quality in Los Angeles, it's important to note that it rained most of last week, and that the air here is always remarkably clear following a heavy rain.
posted by Horselover Fat at 7:46 AM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

‘It’s disgusting’: Cars belonging to doctors, nurses found with slashed tires outside hospital

That's not isolated, I've seen a few stories like this. I don't know. All I can say is wood chipper.

FTA: "Makes no sense at all, it's disgusting. I don't know who, what, why, what the logic is, what they were thinking."

The only sense I can see in it, is "Medical providers can't go home if we slash their tires, so they'll just keep working." which is a really facile way to look at things. I provide support for med staff who are in covid clinics all the way up to the labs that run the tests and the chairs of their department.

We are all stressed and exhausted to begin with (and my work is way less than what they have to do). The last thing one would want in this scenario is for a medical provider to end their shift and start the very necessary need of down time to get to their car and not be able to go home.

All you end up with is a tired doctor, nurse, etc. who now can't get home and now has another stressor on their lives which will certainly cause them lack of sleep and thus they can't give their best level of care.

so...

yeah...

don't slash tires. (I had many more colorful phrases for that, but now is not the time.)
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 8:02 AM on April 12, 2020

"The ‘Red Dawn’ Emails: 8 Key Exchanges on the Faltering Response to the Coronavirus"

In which the NYTimes has just released a series of emails that have come into their possession: As the coronavirus emerged and headed toward the United States, an extraordinary conversation was hatched among an elite group of infectious disease doctors and medical experts in the federal government and academic institutions around the nation.

NYT link

MSN article (non-paywall/register link)

Seth Abramson Twitter thread (contains direct quotes of the emails)
posted by soundguy99 at 8:40 AM on April 12, 2020 [12 favorites]

The only sense I can see in it, is "Medical providers can't go home if we slash their tires, so they'll just keep working." which is a really facile way to look at things. I provide support for med staff who are in covid clinics all the way up to the labs that run the tests and the chairs of their department.

Man arrested for Allegedly Slashing Tires on 22 Cars Parked Outside of a New York Hospital

In a press release circulated Friday, New York State Police said it had arrested Daniel R. Hall, 29, for the incident. The police said Hall also allegedly had a small amount of PCP on him. Hall’s attorney could not be immediately located for comment.
posted by Comrade_robot at 8:41 AM on April 12, 2020 [3 favorites]

From the msn red dawn article:

But before they could discuss it with the president, who was returning from India, another official went public with a warning, sending the stock market down sharply and angering Mr. Trump.

That got his attention, finally. They shouldn't have tried to make him care about body counts. They should have told him how much money could get hurt. Y'know, the real victim.
posted by adept256 at 9:12 AM on April 12, 2020 [8 favorites]

Anecdotes are not “anecdata,” but I work in a notoriously conservative field in a very conservative area, and I would like to share that not only am I (who is a raging Democratic Socialist) but many of my coworkers and other people adjacent have been very pleased with Governor Cooper’s (NC) decisions to shut the state down early. North Carolina, with its 10.5 million residents, is not in as perilous a situation as it could be, for which I am grateful. I have family and classmates throughout the state, working a variety of essential jobs (I’m in an MPA program with one of the state universities) and while people are stressed, we know that we are all very fortunate. Politics in North Carolina have always been rather strange, but North Carolinians seem to be putting aside some of their ideological differences to keep one another safe.
posted by sara is disenchanted at 9:44 AM on April 12, 2020 [9 favorites]

April 11, 2020: Report: Trump Privately Asks Why Government Can’t Just Let COVID ‘Wash Over’ The Country (Cristina Cabrera, TPM)

President Donald Trump reportedly has been privately suggesting an eyebrow-raising solution to the COVID-19 outbreak consuming the nation: Let it keep doing that.

April 11, 2020: Trump administration has many task forces — but still no plan for beating covid-19 (Ashley Parker, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Josh Dawsey; Washington Post)

During one task force meeting in the Situation Room last month, Trump turned to Fauci and challenged him.

[...] Trump wanted to understand why talk of “herd immunity” — allowing the coronavirus to sweep a nation largely unchecked, with the belief that those who survived would then be immune — was such a bad idea.

“Why don’t we let this wash over the country?” Trump asked, according to two people familiar with his comments, a question other administration officials say he has raised repeatedly in the Oval Office. [...]

“Mr. President, many people would die,” Fauci said.

The president said he understood but since then has repeatedly made clear he wants to reopen things soon [...]

posted by ZeusHumms at 1:45 PM on April 12, 2020 [5 favorites]

Coronavirus puts Arctic climate change research on ice
posted by XMLicious at 2:49 PM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

Donald Trump: "For the first time in history there is a fully signed Presidential Disaster Declaration for all 50 States. We are winning, and will win, the war on the Invisible Enemy!"

There's nothing that says winning like having a Presidential Disaster Declaration in all 50 states simultaneously for the first time in history.

"Fully signed"? Like with first name and last name? How much farther can they lower the bar for achievement.
posted by JackFlash at 3:07 PM on April 12, 2020 [20 favorites]

Among Eric Lipton's (@EricLiptionNYT) tweets of "Red Dawn" emails, there are a few from Carter Mecher that mention"Mann Gulch" (these emails can also be found in the NYT's email PDF dump).

Sent: Thursday February 20, 2020 7:15 AM [image] — "Remember the story about Mann Gulch?"
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2020 5:00 AM — "We are now well past the equivalent 5:45 moment at Mann Gulch. You can't outrun it."
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2020 12:38 AM — "There is no value to these travel restrictions. A waste of time and energy. The lesson from Mann Gulch was to drop those things that are not essential. That lesson was not heeded."

These are references to the The Mann Gulch fire (WP):

...a wildfire reported on August 5, 1949, in a gulch located along the upper Missouri River in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness (then known as the Gates of the Mountains Wild Area), Helena National Forest, in the U.S. state of Montana. A team of 15 smokejumpers parachuted into the area on the afternoon of August 5, 1949, to fight the fire, rendezvousing with a former smokejumper who was employed as a fire guard at the nearby campground.

As the team approached the fire to begin fighting it, unexpected high winds caused the fire to suddenly expand, cutting off the men's route and forcing them back uphill. During the next few minutes, a "blow-up" of the fire covered 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) in ten minutes, claiming the lives of 13 firefighters, including 12 of the smokejumpers. Only three of the smokejumpers survived...

One controversy of this fire was the emergency action taken by fire crew foreman Wagner "Wag" Dodge that saved his life:

...the fire was moving extremely fast up the 76% north slope (37.23 degree slope) of Mann Gulch and Dodge realized [even after discarding their heavy tools and gear] they would not be able to make the ridge line in front of the fire. With the fire less than a hundred yards behind, he took a match out and set fire to the grass just before them ... to create an escape fire to lie in so that the main fire would burn around him and his crew.

Still hoping to outrun the main fire, two crew members with Dodge ran uphill past him, but were later caught and killed by it. Dodge kept his head, laid face down in the hot embers of his escape fire, and survived when the main fire passed around him.This deadly wildfire was the basis of Norman Maclean's 1992 non-fiction book, Young Men and Fire.
posted by cenoxo at 3:18 PM on April 12, 2020 [18 favorites]

she looks at why the UK and Ireland - both countries with comparable numbers of hospital beds per capita - should have such differing per capita death rates (14.8 deaths per 100,000 versus 6.5 in Ireland)

As an added note, the UK number announced is based on deaths in hospitals only (see this Guardian article, for example, whereas the Irish number includes all Covid-19 deaths. Up to April 10th, 28% of the Irish deaths were outside hospitals (tweet from a journalist at the Irish HSE press conference). I don't know if the UK number is directly comparable, but they are underreporting compared to most other countries.

The main argument people seem to be using against the analysis in the tweet thread is that the population density in the UK is higher than in Ireland, which is true, but on the other hand, the Irish health service was at least up to now generally regarded as pretty rubbish compared to the NHS - to the point where a British doctor claimed that there wasn't one a couple of weeks ago.
posted by scorbet at 3:26 PM on April 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

Oh, and with the number of reported deaths of Covid-19 (in hospital) in the UK reaching 10,000, take a guess what the tabloids decide to focus on instead(tweet showing the front pages of Monday's Sun and Express.)
posted by scorbet at 3:38 PM on April 12, 2020

Australia has apparently done very well with its response to the virus. Our daily increase in cases was around 20%, but now it's well under 1%. It can't be a long term solution but our social isolation has nearly stopped new infections. If they can be halted altogether then I suspect management will consist of quarantines for visitors to Australia and rapid testing and tracing for the inevitable outbreaks that will still occur.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:51 PM on April 12, 2020 [5 favorites]

Dr. Carter Mecher, Senior Adviser for the Office of Public Health, Department of Veterans Affairs (mentioned in the 4/11/2020 New York Times article, He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus) appears in the C-Span video, Biological and Chemical Threat Preparedness, Emergency Response, Hudson Institute (Washington, DC), April 1, 2015:

Panelists talked about biological and chemical threat preparedness, response, and recovery. They spoke about lessons learned from the Oklahoma City bombing, natural disasters, and the recent Ebola cases in the U.S. They recommended integration of federal and local governments during an emergency response, and stressed the importance of making nurses aware of hospital emergency plans. “Response and Recovery” was the fourth meeting of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.

Note the video links (with text transcripts) to all of Dr. Mecher's remarks, answers, and comments in the scrolling panel on the left side of the page.

This is one more example of on-the-record, past professional advice that dispels any notions by The Imperial Donald that no one foresaw something like the Coronavirus pandemic. They most certainly did (even during Obama's administration), but Trump ignored such warnings on his watch and lost weeks of time (and thousands of lives) by not responding immediately to the crisis.
posted by cenoxo at 5:41 PM on April 12, 2020 [8 favorites]

As wonderful as it might have been (due to CV-reduced human activity), Dolphins in the Venice canals? Nope, that didn't happen, Mashable, Alex Perry; 3/21/2020.
posted by cenoxo at 5:52 PM on April 12, 2020

‘It feels like a war zone’: As more of them die, grocery workers increasingly fear showing up at work.

At least 41 grocery workers have died of the coronavirus and thousands more have tested positive in recent weeks.

These workers should at least get protections such as sick leave, hazard pay, masks and disinfectant. Some stores are doing better than others. The number of customers should be limited, and they should be encouraged to maintain distance.
posted by NotLost at 7:24 PM on April 12, 2020 [7 favorites]

ABC and CBS Sunday shows ignore bombshell NY Times report on Trump’s early failure to take coronavirus seriously (Zachary Pleat, Media Matters, 4/12/2020)

The New York Times on April 11 reported that various officials in President Donald Trump’s administration sounded the alarm on the novel coronavirus in January, but the president “was slow to absorb the scale of the risk and to act accordingly.” While medical experts appeared on Fox News Sunday and State of the Union to discuss the story -- with Dr. Anthony Fauci acknowledging that lives could have been saved had Trump acted sooner -- and Meet the Press discussed it as well, This Week and Face the Nation failed to cover the Times report at all.

The Times’ report went on to list several intelligence reports, memos, and direct warnings to Trump that went unheeded for crucial weeks, and listed numerous failures and delays in the actions the administration did finally decide to carry out. (There was so much reporting that the Times published a follow-up piece summarizing all of it.)

See also:
* Five Takeaways on What Trump Knew as the Virus Spread (Michael D. Shear, NYTimes, 4/11/2020)
* "Red Dawn" articles and documents above.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:37 PM on April 12, 2020 [13 favorites]

Note the pork plant is in South Dakota, where restaurants and bars are still open and there is no shelter in place order from the Republican governor. Good thing the virus will stay in the plant and the workers never went out for lunch. Expect to see South Dakota have a few thousand cases a day in 5-6 days.
posted by benzenedream at 11:24 PM on April 12, 2020 [10 favorites]

We should all send ABC and CBS much hate mail.
posted by Windopaene at 11:34 PM on April 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

US's global reputation hits rock-bottom over Trump's coronavirus response

To a watching world, the absence of a fair, affordable US healthcare system, the cut-throat contest between American states for scarce medical supplies, the disproportionate death toll among ethnic minorities, chaotic social distancing rules, and a lack of centralised coordination are reminiscent of a poor, developing country, not the most powerful, influential nation on earth.

That’s a title the US appears on course to lose – a fall from grace that may prove irreversible. The domestic debacle unleashed by the pandemic, and global perceptions of American selfishness and incompetence, could change everything. According to Walt, Trump has presided over “a failure of character unparalleled in US history”.

Do Americans realise how far their country’s moral as well as financial stock has fallen? Perhaps at this time of extreme stress, it seems not to matter. But it will matter later on – for them and for the future international balance of power.

posted by mumimor at 1:09 AM on April 13, 2020 [21 favorites]

More South Dakota winning: Gov. Noem declares day of prayer for Wednesday

PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Saying South Dakota is at a critical time in the fight against COVID-19, Governor Kristi Noem announced she’s declaring Wednesday a day of prayer.

Noem says the new executive order issued on Monday gives specific orders for people older than 65-years of age who live in Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties as well as those with chronic health conditions to stay home for the next three weeks.

Noem said a majority of South Dakota’s COVID-19 cases are in Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties. She said people in those groups need to take the situation very seriously.

When asked about enforcing her executive orders, Noem said action will be taken when or if it is needed.

When asked about extending those orders beyond those two areas, Noem said there may come a time for that, but she said officials are worried about the two counties right now.

Thoughts and prayers, folks!
posted by benzenedream at 1:10 AM on April 13, 2020 [9 favorites]

mumimor, the poor developing countries of the world object to being compared to the chaos of the USA, sorry. They moved aggressively and fast to lockdown given they are wholly aware of their poor and underdeveloped infrastructure and systems.
posted by Mrs Potato at 4:01 AM on April 13, 2020 [10 favorites]

China and the Coronavirus: A Timeline, Kevin Drum, Mother Jones

A few days ago I got curious about the notion that China has been a bad actor in the coronavirus saga. Like most of us, I was paying only vague attention back in December and January, so I had to go back and refresh my memory about who did what. Then I put together the timeline below.

posted by 20 year lurk at 4:41 AM on April 13, 2020 [12 favorites]

We should all send ABC and CBS much hate mail

or we could turn them off and never turn them on again. or both.
posted by 20 year lurk at 4:55 AM on April 13, 2020 [3 favorites]

waiting for an intrepid reporter to ask 45 if he's still making America great
posted by kokaku at 5:06 AM on April 13, 2020 [5 favorites]

This thread has sort of turned into the COVID thread and it is also overgrown. Can anyone make a new one, if it's OK with the mods? Personally, I feel I'm better with little cute posts, and I definitely propose that a new thread has SGN on it for light relief (I'm not crying at all, I have an allergy, always had).
posted by mumimor at 6:12 AM on April 13, 2020 [2 favorites]

Can anyone make a new one, if it's OK with the mods?

[Pick a unifying idea, write a post around it, and go. I wanted a thread specifically on the Trump administration responses to the coronavirus pandemic, so I made this post. If it helps, the MeFi Wiki is a good place to workshop large posts, though it's not necessary.]
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:48 AM on April 13, 2020 [6 favorites]

Either China has been wildly successful in putting a lid on the virus, or else they are continuing to cover up what happened and what is happening. Look at the chart for the daily new cases (second graph down), virtually zero since the beginning of March.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:56 AM on April 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

A Month After Emergency Declaration, Trump's Promises Largely Unfulfilled (NPR Morning Edition)

NPR's Investigations Team dug into each of the claims made from the podium [on March 13]. And rather than a sweeping national campaign of screening, drive-through sample collection and lab testing, it found a smattering of small pilot projects and aborted efforts. [...]

The remarks in the Rose Garden highlighted the Trump administration's strategic approach: a preference for public-private partnerships. But as the White House defined what those private companies were going to do, in many cases it promised more than they could pull off.

"What became clear in the days and weeks or even in some cases the hours following that event was that they had significantly over-promised what the private sector was ready to do," said Jeremy Konyndyk, senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development.

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:48 AM on April 13, 2020 [12 favorites]

The damning indictments are coming fast and furious now.
posted by Mrs Potato at 9:17 AM on April 13, 2020 [2 favorites]

No one trusts what The Emperor Donald says or attempts to do. His primary goal is to tear things down, clear disloyal people away (i.e., everyone else), and build himself up until only He is the center of attention.

It's not just that The Emperor has no clothes, but when everything else that matters is at risk, all we're left with is an empty, poorly tailored suit.
posted by cenoxo at 9:56 AM on April 13, 2020 [2 favorites]

A Month After Emergency Declaration, Trump's Promises Largely Unfulfilled (NPR Morning Edition)

Too wordy, and misleading. I'll put on my editor hat and fix it:

~~A Month After Emergency Declaration,~~ Trump's Promises Largely Unfulfilled (NPR Morning Edition)

There.
posted by Gelatin at 10:11 AM on April 13, 2020 [5 favorites]

Team Trump threatened to kill pandemic relief bill if it included help for the U.S. Postal Service ("Hunter", Daily Kos)

The rank malevolence of the Trump administration continues. The Washington Post reports that lawmakers fully intended to provide emergency funding to the U.S. Postal Service in pandemic stimulus measures, but the Trump White House made it clear Trump would not sign it. Why?

As with most things in the Trump administration, the logic behind such a bizarre move is somewhat of a mystery. The short answer, though, is that hard-right Republicans and their advisers have steadily sought to kill off and/or privatize one of the government's oldest, most visible and most popular services, and Trump's personal animosity towards Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, expressed in (yes, this is the sort of nonsense that our lives now revolve around) hostility towards the Postal Service for cheaply delivering Amazon packages, means those arsonists haven't needed to try very hard to manipulate Dear Leader into their line of thinking.

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:11 AM on April 13, 2020 [12 favorites]

After Early Success, Singapore Battles New Wave Of Coronavirus Infections

With Singapore being cited so much as the template for others to follow in terms of quick action and aggressive contact tracing, this is pretty alarming. The last thing we want to do is think that a technology solution is going to save us from a second wave if we decide to open things up prematurely.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:30 AM on April 13, 2020 [4 favorites]

Being anti-USPS has been a right wing shibboleth for a long time. Trump's novelty is the anti-Amazon thing, which alone is an impeachable issue, really.....ha. Why do they hate USPS? Because it's a paradigm case of government performing an essential service? Because it has unionized workers and pensions? Because it employs a lot of African-Americans?
posted by thelonius at 10:42 AM on April 13, 2020 [14 favorites]

It's like whack-a-mole on a sub-microscopic scale.
posted by cenoxo at 10:42 AM on April 13, 2020

Kill off the USPS shortly before a federal election, in which one side openly fears vote-by-mail, hmmm, I wonder what the reason could be?
posted by aramaic at 10:54 AM on April 13, 2020 [16 favorites]

lawmakers fully intended to provide emergency funding to the U.S. Postal Service in pandemic stimulus measures, but the Trump White House made it clear Trump would not sign it.

Call his fucking bluff. He's a rank coward and will not stick his head up alone, and he'd have to if he throws away Congressional funding over something that everybody likes.

Make him veto it, while everybody's watching. He won't.
posted by rhizome at 11:05 AM on April 13, 2020 [15 favorites]

Call his fucking bluff... Make him veto it, while everybody's watching. He won't.

The problem is that any bill would have to pass the Senate first, and "Moscow Mitch" won't even let them vote on anything unless he knows in advance that Trump will sign it.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 11:09 AM on April 13, 2020 [7 favorites]

Mleh. Good point, I forgot about that. Mitch has to have a weakness...somewhere.
posted by rhizome at 11:14 AM on April 13, 2020 [2 favorites]

Democrats could always point out that McConnell, Senate Republicans, and Trump all are complicit in refusing to provide additional funds for USPS, but I'm guessing that would be harder to message than blaming Trump alone (though not impossible). Still, I think they should give it a try, and not just fold.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 11:29 AM on April 13, 2020 [7 favorites]

Mleh. Good point, I forgot about that. Mitch has to have a weakness...somewhere.

Looks to me like he has a soft underbelly, *shrug*
posted by dis_integration at 12:07 PM on April 13, 2020

Step one for the House majority would be to actually put forth its own bill jam-packed with necessary and popular things and dare the Senate to oppose it, rather than squandering first-mover advantage like they did last time and letting McConnell dictate the baseline terms.

It takes two to tango, and the Democrats need to start leading. The Senate can't pass a bill unilaterally any more than the House can.

(Sadly and predictably, the latest missive from Pelosi and Schumer suggests that they are not prioritizing the USPS or basically any kind of proactive move. They are conditioned not to try.)
posted by Gadarene at 12:38 PM on April 13, 2020 [13 favorites]

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that for the first time the nine justices will hear cases argued by teleconference rather than in the courtroom due to the coronavirus pandemic including a closely watched dispute over whether President Donald Trump’s tax and financial records should be disclosed.
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 12:41 PM on April 13, 2020 [6 favorites]

@BresPolitico: The House isn’t coming back until at least May 4, barring some emergency, per ⁦@LeaderHoyer⁩

@brookejarvis: barring a what now
posted by tonycpsu at 2:35 PM on April 13, 2020 [27 favorites]

FiveThirtyEight has a nice comic-style illustrated explainer for why they've yet to wade into COVID-19 forecasts.
posted by Anoplura at 2:54 PM on April 13, 2020 [7 favorites]

The extra frustrating part is that per Pelosi they've been trying to negotiate a fourth recovery bill but gotten nothing back from the GOP, so Hoyer could easily have framed that as "Due to Republicans' refusal to even entertain the idea of relief for Americans suffering from both the worst economic downturn in decades and a life-threatening pandemic, we will not be asking our members to get on airplanes and risk infecting themselves or those around them just to come back to Washington and participate in a theatrical standoff." It would be completely accurate! And yet.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 3:03 PM on April 13, 2020 [5 favorites]

Seven states in the Northeast today announced plans to try to coordinate how to come out of the coronavirus nightmare based on public-health concerns rather than the whims of the president's daughter and son-in-law. The group consists of six states with Democratic governors and Massachusetts (which was not included in the original press statements).
posted by adamg at 3:11 PM on April 13, 2020 [4 favorites]

California, Oregon, and Washington Work Together on Plan to Lift Coronavirus Restrictions (LA Times) Governors Gavin Newsom, Kate Brown, and Jay Inslee all belong to the Democratic party.
posted by box at 3:26 PM on April 13, 2020 [4 favorites]

Using some extremely napkin-y math, it appears that a little less than a third of the population of the US is covered by one or the other of these pacts.

Other adjacent states with Democratic governors: Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois (and, wait for it, Kentucky, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and North Carolina); New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas). Nevada and Montana are adjacent or very close to adjacent (the top of Idaho is so skinny), but I don't guess it would be good politics for the governors of either of those states to join up with California.
posted by box at 3:41 PM on April 13, 2020

The west coast and east coast coalitions control access to a lot of the nations ports and shipping.
posted by Botanizer at 3:41 PM on April 13, 2020 [4 favorites]

'Any Way You Cut it, This is Going to be Bad:' VA Official Sounded Early COVID-19 Warning, Military.com, Patricia Kime, 4/13/2020:

Dr. Carter Mecher, the VA's senior adviser to the Office of Public Health, warned as early as Jan. 28 that the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "were behind the curve," in responding to the novel coronavirus and swift action was needed to stop it ...

"You guys made fun of me, screaming to close the schools. Now I'm screaming, close the colleges and universities," wrote Mecher to the group, nicknamed "Red Dawn" for the 1984 movie... Red Dawn was hosted by Dr. Duane Caneva, chief medical officer at the Department of Homeland Security.

Upon analyzing early data from China, Mecher said it appeared that the virus looked as transmissible as the flu, but with a greater ability to replicate and a case fatality rate comparable to the worst flu season. "This is really unbelievable ... any way you cut it, this is going to be bad," Mecher wrote.
...
From Jan. 28 through the middle of March, the email chain grew from a handful of physicians and researchers with the Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Defense, VA, academia and the private sector to a group that included dozens others in the federal government. It eventually included Surgeon General of the United States Jerome Adams and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

...The group studied the disease spread on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, quarantined in Yokohama, Japan, on Feb. 3. discussed the potential for an overwhelmed hospital system in the U.S., and started calling for social distancing on Feb. 9. "[It's] over 10 to 30 times more deadly than seasonal flu," Lee wrote following an analysis of cases in Hubei. "Moreover, this is only a lower bound[ary] because the government basically shut down and isolated the entire infected zone."

By mid-February, Mecher was asking about the strategy for primary care and hospital response, including isolating people at home and encouraging virtual medical appointments and telework. He also inquired about nursing home spread and the lag time of testing .

They knew, and they discussed things with many others in the government who also knew. Apparently, the only higher-up who didn't know — or didn't care enough to know — was The Donald. Who knows?

Do you mind if I play through?
posted by cenoxo at 4:08 PM on April 13, 2020 [6 favorites]

Hope the plan included how to keep the rest of the country who won't do their part from spoiling it. Compassionately, of course, it's not most people's fault, but it takes everyone's cooperation or right back where we started.
posted by ctmf at 4:10 PM on April 13, 2020

Column: King Trump decrees that he will decide when states reopen, sowing confusion — which is the point (Rex Huppke, Chicago Tribune)

I reached out to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office Monday to gauge the state’s reaction to President Trump’s decree that reopening things “is the decision of the President.”

This is the response: “Weeks ago when the President was still calling this virus a hoax, Governors across the country were taking steps to protect their residents. Gov. Pritzker has been clear that science will guide his decisions on how best to move forward and he agrees with the experts that we must be able to test expansively, closely trace the virus, and offer treatment before we can slowly return to normal.”

Classic lefty thinking. The governor is willing to sit back and let “science” violate the clear presidential powers outlined in Trump’s Consti-tweetion. Disgraceful.

Just remember, Gov. Pritzker and all other governors out there: If Trump says America is open for business and the economy doesn’t immediately improve, the blame will fall on each of you.

Much like it fell on each of you back when Trump wanted “the governors running things.”

posted by ZeusHumms at 4:39 PM on April 13, 2020 [8 favorites]

This is pretty fascinating. Rather than simply be hobbled by the small state bias in the electoral college, senate, etc, this emergency and the extreme lack of good federal leadership has prompted the progressive states to take control of their own destiny to some degree. They have people, money, resources, so why not? It will be interesting to see how far this goes.
posted by snofoam at 5:24 PM on April 13, 2020 [5 favorites]

Timeline of the Coronavirus Pandemic and U.S. Response from Just Security.

"What follows is a comprehensive timeline of major U.S. policy events related to the novel coronavirus pandemic. We’ve focused on the U.S. government’s preparation for a pandemic, tracking warning signals of COVID-19, and public and internal responses when the outbreak hit inside the United States."
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:28 PM on April 13, 2020 [6 favorites]

Trump administration attendees include: Steven Mnuchin, Rep. Mike Pompeo, Wilbur Ross, Betsy DeVos, Dr. Ben Carson, Elaine Chao, Stephen Miller, Marc Short, Reince Priebus (resigned), Rex Tillerson (fired), Gen. James Mattis (fired), Rep. Ryan Zinke (resigned), Sen. Jeff Sessions (resigned), Sen. Dan Coats (fired), Andrew Puzder (not confirmed), Dr. Tom Price (resigned), Gov. Rick Perry (resigned), Dr. David Shulkin (fired), Gen. John Kelly (resigned), Rep. Mick Mulvaney, Linda McMahon (resigned), Sean Spicer (fired), Joe Hagin (resigned), Joshua Pitcock (resigned), Tom Bossert (fired), KT McFarland (resigned), Gen. Michael Flynn (awaiting criminal sentencing), Gary Cohn (resigned), Katie Walsh (resigned), and Rick Dearborn (resigned).

All the best people.
posted by cenoxo at 5:35 PM on April 13, 2020 [7 favorites]

MSNBC Cuts Away After Trump Uses [April 13] Pandemic Presser To Air Taxpayer Funded Propaganda Film (John Amato, Crooks And Liars)

In a blatant dictator-like move, Trump aired a federal government-produced video that used taxpayer money to broadcast a full-on propaganda video during today's supposed coronavirus briefing to prop up his presidency.

It was clips of politicians that were suffering under the strain of combating the virus.

Remember, Trump and his Fox News minions have been attacking almost every governor who defied Trump and demanded they suck up to him or else they would be refused federal resources to combat the deadly virus.

MSNBC aired some of it and then after realizing what it was cut away from it and host Ari Melber said they would return to the briefing when it became an actual COVID-19 briefing.

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:45 PM on April 13, 2020 [18 favorites]

‘You know you’re a fake!’: Trump’s temper flares when a reporter nails his key coronavirus failure (Cody Fenwick, Alternet)

CBS reporter Paula Reid drilled down Monday on one of President Donald Trump’s key failures in the response to the coronavirus pandemic, and it clearly touched a nerve.

The moment came during the evening’s White House press briefing after Trump played a propaganda-style video touting his supposed efforts to prepare for the virus, including his over-hyped restrictions on travel from China.

But Reid noted there was a crucial gap in the video. It [showed he had done nothing] during the month of February to prepare for the virus, after the travel restrictions but before there were detections of widespread outbreaks in the United States. The administration could have been building up capacity to treat and detect the disease, or perhaps manufacturing enough personal protective equipment for health care workers who are now in desperate need. But little progress was made, and essentially an entire month was wasted.

“What did you do with the time you bought?” she asked. “The entire month of February?”

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:50 PM on April 13, 2020 [17 favorites]

"That is the biggest meltdown of a president of the United States that I've ever seen in my career," CNN's Jim Acosta said...
posted by HyperBlue at 6:53 PM on April 13, 2020 [10 favorites]

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to give news orgs like MSNBC any kudos for this sort of decision. Like, fool them once, shame on the Whitehouse. Fool them several dozen times in a row, and I’ve gotta start asking whether the press is dangerously stupid or simply not on the right side of this mess.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 6:53 PM on April 13, 2020 [7 favorites]

"The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit Monday against an NBC affiliate in rural Wisconsin, arguing that the president had been defamed by a political attack ad about his response to the coronavirus pandemic."

Exponential Threat was produced by Priorities USA, a Super PAC "founded in 2011 to educate and engage Americans to speak out and stand strong against the outdated views of the far right that threaten our democracy and undermine the middle class".
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 6:55 PM on April 13, 2020 [3 favorites]

4/13/2020: Trump’s latest coronavirus press briefing featured one of his most memorable meltdowns yet (Aaron Rupar, Vox) • “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total.”

But conveying truthful information is not the point of these briefings. Instead, Trump’s objective is to reframe problems as the result of unfair media coverage and feed red meat to his base by sparring with reporters.

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:59 PM on April 13, 2020 [2 favorites]

‘You know you’re a fake!’: Trump’s temper flares when a reporter nails his key coronavirus failure

boy, he was really working his invisible concertina wasnt he
posted by entropicamericana at 7:06 PM on April 13, 2020 [4 favorites]

Well, we didn't get anywhere with Impeachment, and Article 25 seems unlikely - even now. I was looking through legal and treatment resources to see what is required to place someone in Washington D.C. in involuntary psychiatric hold, and it seems like it would require the cooperation of a doctor or two, as well as a few members of the Secret Service. Unlikely, but not completely off the table...
posted by Anoplura at 7:07 PM on April 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

The networks should stop attending these. No vital information is being released, except for the fact that the US president is barking mad.
posted by jrochest at 7:08 PM on April 13, 2020 [9 favorites]

Ok but CNN's chyron team had a truly epic day.
posted by emjaybee at 7:10 PM on April 13, 2020 [21 favorites]

Yes, they did. They're finally getting into DGAF territory.
posted by jrochest at 7:13 PM on April 13, 2020 [3 favorites]

President Donald Trump has no intention of firing Fauci, White House says

We've seen how this works before. Fauci probably has less than a mooch before he's fired.
posted by adept256 at 7:34 PM on April 13, 2020 [9 favorites]

The networks should stop attending these.

You can't really. The public needs to know what he's like. Over and over again. Hiding him from sight makes it easy to think it's just rumor and exaggeration. Just like he likes.

Plus, he'd probably be happy never to be asked questions outside of carefully scripted puff spots on his favorite networks.
posted by ctmf at 7:38 PM on April 13, 2020 [4 favorites]

Dueling Chyrons: CNN, Fox News Report From Alternate Universes During Trump’s Bizarre Coronavirus Briefing (Reed Richardson, Mediaite)

Hilarious.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:45 PM on April 13, 2020 [9 favorites]

The key challenge of Our Time (for those of you who are in the US) is how to destroy Fox News without creating a backlash of psycho edgelords shooting up schoolkids (because, as we all know, murdering children is sort of a core Republican skillset).

...like, literally the most important thing you could be doing if you're not medical staff is to be figuring out how to destroy Fox.
posted by aramaic at 8:23 PM on April 13, 2020 [7 favorites]

So relieved that we're all on the same page: "The CIA has privately advised its workforce that taking an anti-malarial drug touted by President Trump and some of his supporters as a promising treatment for the novel coronavirus has potentially dangerous side effects, including sudden death. The warning, featured on a website for CIA employees with questions related to the spread of covid-19, came in late March after public discussion — and promotion by the president — that hydroxychloroquine, administered in concert with the antibiotic azithromycin, might prove effective against the disease."

Late March, and six days ago, "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed from its website highly unusual guidance informing doctors on how to prescribe hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, drugs recommended by President Donald Trump to treat the coronavirus."
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 8:25 PM on April 13, 2020 [12 favorites]

..an anti-malarial drug touted by President Trump and some of his supporters as a promising treatment for the novel coronavirus has potentially dangerous side effects, including sudden death.

YMMV, but "sudden death" as a side effect is always a red flag for me.

Do we know if The Donald and family are taking hydroxychloroquine and/or chloroquine now?
posted by cenoxo at 8:43 PM on April 13, 2020 [3 favorites]

"The meltdowns will continue until morale improves... or Trump hotels can re-open"
posted by Windopaene at 8:44 PM on April 13, 2020 [5 favorites]

Fauci probably has less than a mooch before he's fired.

Those urging Trump to fire Fauci overestimate the president’s ability to do so. “He can’t just fire him. He’s a career employee,” said Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that focuses on improving efficiency of the federal government. Civil service protections were created precisely to protect government employees from political retaliation.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 8:53 PM on April 13, 2020 [7 favorites]

I find it highly suspicious that Trump can pronounce the word 'hydroxychloroquine'. He called Nepal and Bhutan 'nipple' and 'button', during his last trip to India. That he can wrap his tongue around this uncommon six-syllable word really makes me wonder.
posted by adept256 at 8:55 PM on April 13, 2020 [12 favorites]

That requires enforcement.
posted by ctmf at 8:55 PM on April 13, 2020 [4 favorites]

I took this screenshot of the news bulletin tonight. It's an image of a Spanish policeman stopping a car, and rollerblading to the window to give the driver a face mask. So rad.
posted by adept256 at 1:53 AM on April 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

When the coughing stops and the sense of helplessness begins
From WaPo, a diary from the intensive care ward. It's heartbreaking
posted by mumimor at 3:24 AM on April 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

Do we know if The Donald and family are taking hydroxychloroquine and/or chloroquine now?
posted by cenoxo 7 hours ago [+] [!]

Despite experience, I am still an optimist.

and, I find it highly suspicious that Trump can pronounce the word 'hydroxychloroquine' well, he has a lot of money riding on it so, you know, he made sure to learn it good. (Was it the NYTimes? Article to this effect?)
posted by From Bklyn at 4:11 AM on April 14, 2020

‘You know you’re a fake!’: Trump’s temper flares when a reporter nails his key coronavirus failure

While watching the reporters reaction shot to this, I was wondering why she didn't reply to the effect, "Mr. President, your ad-hominem attacks are very unprofessional and serve no legitimate government purpose. Please stay focused on the issue at hand."
posted by mikelieman at 4:37 AM on April 14, 2020 [5 favorites]

Historian Tim Snyder at Salon:

One of the problems with American discourse is that we just assume everybody is a friendly democratic parliamentarian pluralist until proven otherwise. And then even when it's proven otherwise we don't have any vocabulary for it. He's a "dictator." He's an "authoritarian." He's "Hitler." We just toss these words around.

The pushback that you are talking about is 95 percent bad. Americans do not want to think that there is an alternative to what we have. Therefore, as soon as you say "fascism" or whatever it might be, then the American response is to say "no" because we lack the categories that allow us to think outside of the box that we are no longer in.

posted by mumimor at 5:40 AM on April 14, 2020 [26 favorites]

I was wondering why she didn't reply to the effect, "Mr. President, your ad-hominem attacks are very unprofessional and serve no legitimate government purpose. Please stay focused on the issue at hand."

Snyder:

Mr. Trump is primarily a television personality. As such, he is judged by that standard. This means that a scandal does not call forth a response; it calls forth the desire for a bigger scandal. It just whets the appetite for a bigger scandal because a television serial has to work on that logic. It's almost as though he has to produce these outrageous things because what else would he be doing?

posted by flabdablet at 6:25 AM on April 14, 2020 [7 favorites]

From the Washington Post: Cuomo warns of ‘constitutional crisis’ if Trump tries to force states to reopen prematurely.

I had a related thought even before I read this article. That is, I am concerned about followers of Trump clashing with state or local governments that are keeping things closed. This could lead to one or more Bundy-type situations.
posted by NotLost at 6:40 AM on April 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

mikelieman: " I was wondering why she didn't reply to the effect, "Mr. President, your ad-hominem attacks are very unprofessional and serve no legitimate government purpose. Please stay focused on the issue at hand.""

I get that, but it's not a reporter's job to keep political figures on task. It's a reporter's job to document and contextualize.
posted by adamrice at 8:12 AM on April 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

Trump says his ‘authority is total.’ Constitutional experts have ‘no idea’ where he got that., WaPo, Meagan Flynn & Allyson Chiu, 4/14/2020:

...On Twitter, Steve Vladeck, another professor at the University of Texas School of Law, rebutted Trump’s “authority is total” remark. “Nope,” Vladeck wrote. “That would be the literal definition of a *totalitarian* government.”
Trump: “When somebody is president of the United States, the authority is total.”

Nope.

That would be the literal definition of a *totalitarian* government—which our traditions, our Constitution, and our values all rightly and decisively reject.
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) April 13, 2020

posted by cenoxo at 8:12 AM on April 14, 2020 [6 favorites]

Really? No idea? Because I have several, starting with the names John Roberts and Mitch McConnell and also including "only one Republican vote to convict."
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:22 AM on April 14, 2020 [17 favorites]

Vietnam Expedites Shipment of Medical Suits to US

Vietnam has shipped nearly half a million protective suits to the United States, marking a quick turnaround in bilateral talks to deal with the significant U.S. shortage in medical equipment, and resulting in a tweet of thanks from the U.S. president.

History is weird. Imagine in 50 years, Iran donating antivenom to America for the war with the tarantulas.
posted by adept256 at 8:50 AM on April 14, 2020 [13 favorites]

Trump says his ‘authority is total.’ Constitutional experts have ‘no idea’ where he got that.

Experts in any field frequently have trouble coming to grips with total lack of interest in it from people who wield more power than they do.
posted by flabdablet at 9:05 AM on April 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

he has a lot of money riding on it so, you know, he made sure to learn it good. (Was it the NYTimes? Article to this effect?)

That bit of the New York Times reporting was quite overblown. The Trump Organization has a small amount of money in a mutual fund that has 3% of its holdings in Sanofi (one of the world’s largest pharma companies), which makes hydroxychloroquine among many other products. Trump's total “financial interest” in Sanofi is around $500 to $1500. And it’s in a diversified mutual fund, which is where we require lawmakers to put their investments in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

(There are lots of legit concerns in that NYT article, but this is not one of them, and honestly it’s such a non-story that they shouldn’t even have included it.)
posted by mbrubeck at 9:15 AM on April 14, 2020 [7 favorites]

Also, I really think people are being waaaaaaay too quick to laugh off the idea that Trump could lift the stay-at-home orders. The Commerce Clause is expansive and it's pretty damn obvious that these lockdowns are affecting interstate commerce. You'd have to find something that fits in the federal emergency statutes but the idea that SCOTUS could wedge that square peg into a round statutory hole, after the Wisconsin election order, gerrymandering, and four votes for the absolute nonsense that was Wilbur Ross's justification for the citizenship question, is far from insane.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:23 AM on April 14, 2020 [7 favorites]

Constitutional experts have ‘no idea’ where he got that

And that right there is the problem. They think that he gives a shit what they think.

From the GWB admin...
The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.

Unless the GOP-controlled Senate is willing to make a move or the Dems are willing to step-up and make more noise to at least get people to pay attention to what's going on, the president is going to keep being who he has always been and keep getting away with it (as he has his entire life).

As to the president and hydroxychloroquine, I'll eat my hiking boots if he doesn't have shell companies and indirect channels through family making sure he's getting a cut.
posted by kokaku at 9:23 AM on April 14, 2020 [15 favorites]

From the way things are going with the Western States Compact and so on, if Trump tried to order California to re-open, he might actually get to live out his Andrew Jackson fantasy, except in typical fashion he'll be on the side of the Supreme Court.
posted by feloniousmonk at 9:29 AM on April 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

The good (?) news is that just as Trump is itching to raise the lockdown, the Republican states where it's been business as usual will have massive blooms in infections/deaths because guess what, living 40 miles apart doesn't matter if you all go to the same church and steakhouse every Sunday. (Or work at the same pork processing plant)
posted by benzenedream at 9:45 AM on April 14, 2020 [6 favorites]

Since Trump said "fuck you" to the states regarding federal help in the crisis, I have faith that the states organizing themselves could be a successful, "fuck me? fuck you!" move. Everything Trump has announced in the past month and a half has been either a corporate giveaway or stepping on and adding to the cruelty visited upon regular people. We aren't talking about lack of healthcare anymore, either. Millions of tests are still MIA, and yes, as benzenedream points out, we still have Trump racing against time that science can beat the next wave of deaths, which by my estimate is going to occur over at least half of the country (non-quarantine states plus those who have only closed in the last week)? No wonder Trump is trying to assume total power, he's going to need it in order to stay in office past November.
posted by rhizome at 9:54 AM on April 14, 2020

Fauci: ‘We’re not there yet’ on key steps to reopen economy (Lauran Neergaard and Julie Pace, AP)

Fauci said his public role is important but conceded that the duration of those briefings — Monday’s ran for nearly two-and-a-half hours — was “really draining” and that doesn’t even count preparation and waiting for it to start.

“If I had been able to just make a few comments and then go to work, that would have really been much better,” he said. “It isn’t the idea of being there and answering questions, which I really think is important for the American public. It’s the amount of time.”

I wonder if someone will bring up meeting length with Trump.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:04 AM on April 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

benzenedream, i'm guessing a lot of the the people working in that pork processing plant are not the same people voting Republican
posted by kokaku at 10:07 AM on April 14, 2020 [5 favorites]

There is a lot of stuff Trump can do to force the hand of governors. Trump and Kushner control the flow of PPE and medical equipment. As Kushner said, it all belongs to him. Trump controls the flow of Medicaid funds, food stamp funds, unemployment insurance funds, education funds, transportation funds, agriculture funds.

Is this legal? Who's to stop him. Certainly not the "moderate" Republicans.
posted by JackFlash at 10:08 AM on April 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

Good points, JackFlash. One thing I think is fundamentally different about this situation--state compacts and the states choosing their own levels of stay at home orders--in comparison to the neverending parade of terrible things that trump has done throughout his presidency is that, this time, he doesn't hold all the cards. When he does something shitty on immigration, when he engages in quid pro quos, conspiracies, and cover-ups, when he does essentially anything at the federal level, there's fuck-all we can do about it, because who's gonna stop him? But in this instance, he doesn't have direct control over the states, and so the question for Trump is, how's he gonna stop them? He's accustomed to governing by tweet, which apparently works just fine for his control over the federal government, given that the executive branch races to justify and implement each tweet. It's not that simple for things that fall squarely within the states' powers. I think that's part of what's angering him so much about what the states are doing.
posted by mabelstreet at 10:30 AM on April 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

The United Nations goes missing — The coronavirus pandemic should have been a moment for global action. Instead, the U.N. is riven with dissension and self-doubt, and countries are going their own way., Politico, Nahal Toosi & Ryan Heath, 04/08/2020:

It took more than three months, a death toll above 87,000 and cases in more than 180 countries, repeated pleas from smaller nations, and a growing sense of shame among senior diplomats — but the United Nations Security Council is finally going to meet to discuss the coronavirus. That is, in a private session unlikely to yield any serious action.

If anything, Thursday’s meeting [4/9/2020] — to be held via video conference — is likely to further expose the growing irrelevance of the United Nations as a venue for countries to hash out disputes and cooperate on common crises. Overall, global coordination of the pandemic response has been minimal. But when leading countries have announced their willingness to do “whatever it takes” to fight the virus, they’ve turned to ad hoc forums like the Group of 20, rather than the more comprehensive body of the United Nations.

Unlike nearly six years ago, when the Security Council declared Ebola a threat to world peace and security, a disease that doesn’t respect borders is no longer enough to push feuding world powers — the United States, China and Russia — to use the U.N. stage to coordinate a political response. China, which held the Security Council presidency in March, when the illness was declared a pandemic and began to overwhelm some European and American health systems, did not call a meeting on it. The U.S., increasingly guided by President Donald Trump’s America First views, has not stepped up at the U.N., feeding the sense that the world body is hobbled, if not utterly paralyzed by the very kind of crisis it was meant to address....

The virus has further damaged the U.N.’s functioning by making face-to-face diplomacy nearly impossible, rendering its 39-story headquarters along the East River a ghost town amid a nasty outbreak of the virus in New York.
posted by cenoxo at 11:03 AM on April 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

This could lead to one or more Bundy-type situations.

I'm more worried that someone might decide to liberate those shipments of medical supplies right back from the Trump crime family. By force. It would even be the right thing to do.

But that would escalate quickly.
posted by ctmf at 11:16 AM on April 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

There is a lot of stuff Trump can do to force the hand of governors. Trump and Kushner control the flow of PPE and medical equipment.

I tuned in to Bill deBlasio's presser this morning (not my usual routine) and felt unusually proud to be an (adopted) new yorker. Local light manufacturing of PPE is in progress, with as an example, 30k gowns a week production hoping to be 100k/week by next week and 250k a week within a month.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 11:35 AM on April 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

State Department cables warned of safety issues at Wuhan lab studying bat coronaviruses
This is a WaPo opinion piece by Josh Rogan, not actual reporting.
posted by mumimor at 12:07 PM on April 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

Organized Crime In The Time Of Corona, Forbes, Richard Behar, 3/27/2020:

...If transnational organized crime had its own stock market, it would have taken a serious beating this month like the world’s legitimate stock exchanges have suffered. Sealed borders are not exactly helpful for smuggling-supply chains of any type of contraband. Nor are locked-down streets of much value to drug dealers. In Bosnia, where vehicle theft is a massive problem, thieves are complaining that it’s harder to steal cars without being detected when streets are quiet and devoid of people—according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime [GI-TOC]. In China, where I traveled two decades ago to document its role as the world’s capital of counterfeiting, GI-TOC reports that Chinese factories on lockdown are leaving criminal enterprises without alternative sources of supply.

But before you shed any tears for the earth’s mobsters, their stock market is climbing again, as new opportunities are emerging, thanks to the pandemic—opportunities that may even be long-term. Think of mafia groups as viruses themselves, always aggressively adapting and morphing to infect societies for power and profit.

Yesterday [3/26/2020], GI-TOC, a renowned Geneva-based network of more than 500 organized crime experts, released a valuable report titled “Crime and Contagion: The impact of a pandemic on organized crime” [PDF download]. The paper provides various examples from around the world of how organized crime (OC in law enforcement parlance) is coping and ultimately exploiting the COVID-19 nightmare....

[More details in the article.]

Nice pandemic you've got here: it'd be a real shame if something happened to it.
posted by cenoxo at 12:31 PM on April 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

Donald Trump: "Tell the Democrat Governors that “Mutiny On The Bounty” was one of my all time favorite movies. A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain. Too easy!"

Trump is saying out load that he can withhold medical supplies from states, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance and anything else he likes under his "total authority." The beatings will continue until until everyone bends the knee before him.
posted by JackFlash at 1:15 PM on April 14, 2020 [14 favorites]

Did he watch that movie to the end?
posted by valkane at 1:24 PM on April 14, 2020 [35 favorites]

UK Office of National Statistics: The number of deaths recorded in England and Wales for the week ending April 3rd was 16,387. In that week in an average year, the number is 10,305, so this is an increase of more than 6000 deaths, or about 59% above normal. That’s more than double the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths reported by the UK in that week.

Similarly, Josh Katz and Margot Sanger-Katz at the NYT found that deaths in New York City through April 4 were 5,330 more than expected. The count of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in NYC for the same period was only 3,350.

New York will begin including presumed cases in its COVID-19 fatality statistics.
posted by mbrubeck at 1:32 PM on April 14, 2020 [7 favorites]

I would be interested in seeing the number of traffic deaths over the same period. I'm guessing COVID-19 deaths are double what is reported with some other forms of mortality dropping.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 1:40 PM on April 14, 2020 [7 favorites]

Trump is saying out load that he can withhold medical supplies from states, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance and anything else he likes under his "total authority."

I think he thinks this is what he's saying. But I'm wondering if "A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain" isn't some weird subconscious signal that "I'm in over my head and need someone to bail me out and Congress isn't doing it, help".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:53 PM on April 14, 2020 [6 favorites]

let's make him walk the plank and see if he can jump the shark
posted by pyramid termite at 3:35 PM on April 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

I would like to hereby announce that I am officially authorizing the governors to file his Orange Bloviatingness's authorization where it belongs.
posted by bcd at 4:44 PM on April 14, 2020

Excerpt from: "Dear Colleague: We Must Insist and Act on the Truth in the Coronavirus Crisis", Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, 14 April 2020:

In order to move forward, we must first understand the truth of what has put us in this position:

The truth is that Donald Trump dismantled the infrastructure handed to him which was meant to plan for and overcome a pandemic, resulting in unnecessary deaths and economic disaster.
The truth is that in January Donald Trump was warned about this pandemic, ignored those warnings, took insufficient action and caused unnecessary death and disaster.
The truth is that Donald Trump told his most loyal followers that the pandemic was a hoax and that it would magically disappear, thus endangering lives and paving the way for economic disaster.
The truth is that we did not have proper testing available in March despite Trump repeatedly claiming that we did; and even now, we do not have adequate tests, masks, PPE, and necessary equipment, which creates unnecessary death and suffering.
The truth is because of an incompetent reaction to this health crisis, the strong economy handed to Donald Trump is now a disaster, causing the suffering of countless Americans and endangering lives.
The truth is a weak person, a poor leader, takes no responsibility. A weak person blames others.
The truth is, from this moment on, Americans must ignore lies and start to listen to scientists and other respected professionals in order to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

posted by ZeusHumms at 5:41 PM on April 14, 2020 [38 favorites]

Did he watch that movie to the end?

Perhaps The Donald watched it all too well. In the end, the mutineers chose poorly.

Fletcher Christian and the HMS Bounty mutineers with him were ~~lost~~ self-marooned in a tropical Paradise (or perhaps Hell as it turned out) and never returned home. The mutineers who stayed in Tahiti were later captured and returned (barely with their lives) to England: several were convicted and hung.

Captain William Bligh — an excellent navigator who saved the lives of the loyalist crew with him in a small open boat — returned to England and was acquitted of any responsibility for the loss of the Bounty. Although his reputation was damaged, he served capably on other ships, reached the rank of Vice Admiral, and became Governor of New South Wales.
posted by cenoxo at 5:42 PM on April 14, 2020 [6 favorites]

Nancy Pelosi would have made a hell of a President.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 5:53 PM on April 14, 2020 [8 favorites]

by both the hopkins case tracker and ncov2019.live (which differ slightly), one in three confirmed cases of covid-19 to date is within the united states.
posted by 20 year lurk at 6:02 PM on April 14, 2020

At over 600,000 confirmed cases (over 400,000 more than runner-up Spain) and counting, it looks like it's the American Virus now.
posted by cenoxo at 6:14 PM on April 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

Trump halts US funding to WHO, says none of this is his fault — Trump says his travel ban saved lives while WHO "covered up" COVID-19 pandemic., Ars Technica, Jon Brodkin, 4/14/2020:

..."Today, I am instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus," Trump said at a press conference today.

The US gives the WHO $400 million to $500 million per year and "has a duty to insist upon full accountability," Trump said. Trump said his administration will talk "with other countries and global health partners" about what to do with the US funding that would normally go to the WHO. The US provides about 15 percent of the WHO's budget. "Administration officials signaled the [funding] suspension would be for 60 days," according to Bloomberg, which noted that the US has "contributed $893 million to the WHO's operations during its current two-year funding cycle."

While "Congressional Democrats say Mr. Trump can't cut WHO funding on his own," the "White House budget office has concluded the president has several options to withhold money from the WHO without congressional approval," such as by "order[ing] agencies to reroute the money to other related purposes," The Wall Street Journal reported....

Search for the guilty, punishment of the innocent.
posted by cenoxo at 6:31 PM on April 14, 2020 [6 favorites]

it looks like it's the American Virus now.

Please, the Trump virus.
posted by adept256 at 6:35 PM on April 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

Democrats must absolutely insist on language in Phase 4 bill that unambiguously directs that the WHO be fully funded. And in the meantime, if Bezos or Bloomberg wants to throw mud in Trump's face, they could do so quite cheaply by offering to make up for any shortfall in WHO's budget.
posted by jedicus at 6:37 PM on April 14, 2020 [5 favorites]

it looks like it's the American Virus now.

didn't it start at Mar-a-Lago? I'm pretty sure it came out of something in one of the breakfast buffets. Maybe just call it the Mar-a-Lago virus.
posted by philip-random at 6:40 PM on April 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

Please, the Trump Virus.

True, but the Trump Virus has been around since November 9, 2016. It's old news.
posted by cenoxo at 6:41 PM on April 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

People are trying to sew a parachute after they've fallen off a cliff, and the person responsible for the lack of parachutes is cutting their resources in an effort to blame someone else.

Also, what cover up? He's trying to tell a story that no-one knew about this. It was on TV! FOR MONTHS!
posted by adept256 at 6:41 PM on April 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'm thinking we have to be in an official recession in the US. I know, the unemployment in is moving toward depression numbers, but the definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.
The first quarter through the end of March will have its figures released on April 27. Through the end of March the U.S. was not yet that hard hit, but enough that the figures will be negative. A lot of the brunt will be in the second quarter. Kiplinger predicts a 30% drop before rebounding to only a 4% loss for 2020.

When a recession is determined to be underway, it marks back to the time it started: the first quarter.

So, to some extent, I think the numbers are bullshit. We don't know about second bounces from the virus or if things will open in the fall. The reason that I state them is that Trump will be going into election in a recession: probably. The third quarter preliminary figures will be out on October 27th and could be a jump back from doom, the way Hoover took the Dow Jones from 390 down to 25 and then back up to 50.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:48 PM on April 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

Please, the Trump virus.

Somebody call up Justinian; it looks like he’s off the hook.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:53 PM on April 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

At over 600,000 confirmed cases (over 400,000 more than runner-up Spain) and counting, it looks like it's the American Virus now.

Normalized for population, Spain is "winning" at 3663 cases/million. The US is only half that. Spain also has the highest normalized death rate, though Belgium (?!) may soon please them. And of course the actual rate in countries like Ecuador may never be known.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:57 PM on April 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

And of course the actual rate in countries like Ecuador may never be known.

Chile Counts Those Who Died of Coronavirus as Recovered Because They're 'No Longer Contagious,' Health Minister Says (newsweek)

"We have 898 patients who are no longer contagious, who are not a source of contagion for others and we include them as recovered. These are the people who have completed 14 days of diagnosis or who unfortunately have passed away," Mañalich announced at a press conference.
posted by adept256 at 7:09 PM on April 14, 2020 [8 favorites]

didn't it start at Mar-a-Lago?

SARS-a-Lago-NCoV2
posted by 20 year lurk at 7:12 PM on April 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

The truth is, from this moment on, Americans must ignore lies and start to listen to scientists and other respected professionals in order to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

Sorry if this is noise, but I saw Neil DeGrasse Tyson on Colbert a couple weeks ago. Colbert asked him about coronavirus, and he said he's not a disease expert. He viewed this pandemic as an experiment: are we going to listen to the scientists and experts or not? It's not going well is it...
posted by Billy Rubin at 7:29 PM on April 14, 2020 [5 favorites]

Trump's name will be added to stimulus checks - CNN, Jim Acosta and Caroline Kelly, 4/14/2020

The Washington Post was first to report on the news Tuesday.

Two senior officials told the Post that the decision would probably set back the delivery date on the first set of paper checks -- potentially slowing a process that could already take up to 20 weeks. But the Treasury Department denied the claim, with a department spokesperson assuring the Post that the first batch of checks was still slated to go out next week.

"Economic Impact Payment checks are scheduled to go out on time and exactly as planned -- there is absolutely no delay whatsoever," the Treasury spokesperson told the paper.

The transactional sociopath wants to be loved for his charity.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:31 PM on April 14, 2020 [7 favorites]

The results for the Wisconsin election are in. Jill Karofsky, the democrat nominee for the state supreme court has won by more than 160000 votes, or 10.5%.

This was the election which the republicans sued to block absentee voting, a decision upheld by the supreme court. Ironically, the court voted remotely on this decision due to corona virus restrictions. The people of Wisconsin weren't granted that luxury enjoyed by the justices themselves, and were forced into onerous queues at a limited number of polling stations, at the risk of their health.

The republican's cynical strategy to exploit this crisis, knowing that low voter turn out is to their advantage (???), has backfired on them.

I'd like to thank the people of Wisconsin for their refusal to give in to this obvious voter suppression. You should never have been put in that position. The most predictable outcome of that election was that it will spread the virus, I wish you good health.
posted by adept256 at 8:36 PM on April 14, 2020 [60 favorites]

Trump says his "authority is total" — while he blames everyone else for his failures - Salon, Amanda Marcotte, April 14 2020 • 'In Trump's evil, incoherent theory of government, he has all the power — but none of the responsibility'

Donald Trump is melting down. Well, more than usual, anyway. Berating America in a tone that evokes Eric Cartman of "South Park," Trump lashed out on Monday at anyone who would dare question his A-THOR-ATE-I. Monday's propaganda session disguised as a "coronavirus briefing" was wilder than usual, with Trump going well beyond his already megalomaniacal daily rants, subjecting the viewers at home and the beleaguered White House reporters to a mendacious propaganda video that attempted to spin his wild failures into some story of great success. And throughout this meltdown, Trump was asserting his godlike powers in the same tone used to lecture trophy wives about how they need to show a little more gratitude to the man whose ill-gotten gains keep them flush with golden toilets. [...]

When CNN's Kaitlan Collins challenged him by pointing out, correctly, that the president's authority is not absolute, he snapped at her, "Enough!"

posted by ZeusHumms at 8:40 PM on April 14, 2020 [5 favorites]

Krugman: Republicans Don’t Want to Save Jobs
Billions for oil, nothing for nurses and teachers.

However, while the Trump administration refuses to aid hard-pressed institutions that employ around 25 million Americans, it has gone all-out to help the oil industry.

Trump’s possible success in brokering a deal to cut global oil production — I say “possible” because oil prices haven’t moved much, which suggests that markets aren’t impressed — made headlines Monday. But I haven’t seen much commentary about just how strange it is for a U.S. president to be playing that role.

First, since when is it the president’s job to organize international cartels?

Second, why are higher oil prices in the U.S. national interest? We’re not a major oil exporter — in fact, we import more oil than we export. And if Trump’s cartel were actually successful in raising oil prices back to what they were before the current price war, U.S. consumers would pay a heavy price, on the order of $200 billion a year.

So why is propping up oil prices a priority? Trump says that it’s about jobs. But U.S. oil and gas extraction employs only around 150,000 workers. That’s less than 1 percent of the number of jobs America has lost in the past three weeks. It’s only around 0.1 percent of total U.S. employment. It’s a rounding error compared with the jobs at risk in hospitals and local government, which Trump is refusing to help.

So what makes oil worthy of aid when hospitals aren’t?

posted by mumimor at 8:57 PM on April 14, 2020 [20 favorites]

Trump's name will be added to stimulus checks

Trump regards all of the government's money as his own to hand out as gifts that he bestows on those he likes. Just as he did with the Ukraine funding. It's his money. Just like the PPE. It's his to grant.

His name won't be on the signature because he is not officially authorized to sign Treasury checks. Instead, as usual for Treasury checks, it will be signed by an officer of the Treasury Bureau of Fiscal Service, which is currently Vona Robinson.

On the bottom left where you usually write a memo, it will say "Economic Impact Payment from Donald Trump."

Treasury has to reprogram the computers that print out the checks. Mnuchin has already said that it may take up to 20 weeks to print and mail checks. This is just another delay so that Trump can get the Treasury to mail out campaign literature for him at taxpayer expense.
posted by JackFlash at 9:17 PM on April 14, 2020 [25 favorites]

So what makes oil worthy of aid when hospitals aren’t?

I'm sure Krugman knows the answer, but isn't saying as a tactic in rhetoric, judging that it will be more convincing to people to draw the conclusion themselves than to read someone else's assertion.

But sometimes I feel the need to state the obvious, and this is one of those times.

Higher oil prices will hurt the US, but they are absolutely crucial for Russian prosperity — and Putin's popularity.
posted by jamjam at 9:23 PM on April 14, 2020 [11 favorites]

On the bottom left where you usually write a memo, it will say "Economic Impact Payment from Donald Trump."

I'm Canadian and this makes me fucking livid.

Now I'm going to have to go drink strong Quebecois beer and listen to loud music.
posted by philip-random at 9:25 PM on April 14, 2020 [20 favorites]

In unprecedented move, Treasury orders Trump’s name printed on stimulus checks

CDC, FEMA have created a plan to reopen America (plus CDC draft)

The fight against the coronavirus won’t be over when the U.S. reopens. Here’s how the nation must prepare itself.
posted by NotLost at 12:49 AM on April 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

jamjam, Krugman did write it out

The Editorial Board of the NYTimes has written this very long and very unusual piece: The America We Need

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare once again the incomplete nature of the American project — the great distance between the realities of life and death in the United States and the values enunciated in its founding documents.
Over the past half century, the fabric of American democracy has been stretched thin. The nation has countenanced debilitating decay in its public institutions and a concentration of economic power not seen since the 1920s. While many Americans live without financial security or opportunity, a relative handful of families holds much of the nation’s wealth. Over the past decade, the wealth of the top 1 percent of households has surpassed the combined wealth of the bottom 80 percent.

The present crisis has revealed the United States as a nation in which professional basketball players could be rapidly tested for the coronavirus but health care workers were turned away; in which the affluent could retreat to the safety of second homes, relying on workers who can’t take paid sick leave to deliver food; in which children in lower-income households struggle to connect to the digital classrooms where their school lessons are now supposed to be delivered.

I don't know if it's part of their coronavirus free access.
As is says in the quote, the pandemic and Trump's response to it "has laid bare" something. I know we all have seen this for a while, like for decades. But for a whole lot of privileged, liberal people it has been entirely possible to ignore the reality of the people making their food, taking care of their kids and their parents, the people making the Subway run, cleaning the streets and their houses. They have been fine with their centrist and neoliberal positions because in their personal lives there were no consequences. Even if they were wrong about everything, because you can't really understand the world if you can't see 90% of it.
I'm not really an optimist. This can go in all directions. The Republicans won't let go of power without a big fight (not necessarily armed). But The NYTimes Editorial Board are not a bunch of Socialist hippies, and they are seeing things differently now.
posted by mumimor at 1:21 AM on April 15, 2020 [8 favorites]

Normalized for population, Spain is "winning" at 3663 cases/million. The US is only half that

No one, no country, will win at this, the United States least of all. But we do like scoreboards, don’t we? At least we’re not as bad off as those other unlucky people elsewhere.
posted by cenoxo at 2:50 AM on April 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

I'd like to give a shout out to the essential workers. From health care professionals on the front lines, to supermarket and fast food teens toiling for minimum wage. Government workers, truckers, our military and police, the wrestlers, delivery drivers, even clergy streaming their messages of hope.

What's that? Oh you didn't hear?

Florida deems WWE pro-wrestling 'essential business' amid coronavirus pandemic

How? It's in the article:

According to a memo from DeSantis’ office on April 9, essential workers in Florida included "employees at a professional sports (league) and media production with a national audience -- including athletes, entertainers, production team, executive team, media team and any others necessary to facilitate including services supporting such production -- only if the location is closed to the general public."

The memo is dated the same day that McMahon's pro-Trump super PAC announced a $26.6 million investment in broadcast TV ad buys set to run in the fall in the battleground states of North Carolina and Florida.

happy birthday to me
posted by adept256 at 4:55 AM on April 15, 2020 [3 favorites]

treasury's ronda kent tells banks they can seize customers' economic stimulus payments to pay down outstanding debts. david dayen, prospect, with audio of treasury "webinar" with bankers.
posted by 20 year lurk at 5:39 AM on April 15, 2020 [12 favorites]

Treasury orders Trump’s name printed on stimulus checks

This is being done under the orders of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. You may recall that Mnuchin was also treasurer and finance chairman of Trump's campaign in 2016. He is just continuing the job but using your taxpayer money now. It all belongs to Trump.
posted by JackFlash at 7:31 AM on April 15, 2020 [6 favorites]

On the bottom left where you usually write a memo, it will say "Economic Impact Payment from Donald Trump."

Wait ... this isn't a legally binding anything. Anyone could cross it out or otherwise modify the memo text, right?
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:46 AM on April 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

Is there a reason that memo text is not an illegal contribution to trump's election campaign? The payment isn't from trump.
posted by mrgoat at 7:57 AM on April 15, 2020 [13 favorites]

Wait ... this isn't a legally binding anything. Anyone could cross it out or otherwise modify the memo text, right?

Of course. But the point is that people have to look at it when they receive their checks. It's advertising, is what it is, it's not some magic spell or something that activates when you cash it.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:03 AM on April 15, 2020 [6 favorites]

Anyone could cross it out or otherwise modify the memo text, right?

I expect my social media feed to be filled soon enough with cashed check images sporting red ink "FUCK" over the crossed out EIPf text.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 8:03 AM on April 15, 2020 [5 favorites]

Sure, and the Justice Department will get right on thet.
posted by Green With You at 8:04 AM on April 15, 2020 [3 favorites]

Trump wants to declare country open by May 1 — but the reality will be much slower

Trump’s advisers are trying to shield the president from political accountability should his move to reopen the economy prove premature and result in lost lives, and so they are trying to mobilize business executives, economists and other prominent figures to buy into the eventual White House plan, so that if it does not work, the blame can be shared broadly, according to two former administration officials familiar with the efforts.
posted by NotLost at 8:38 AM on April 15, 2020 [6 favorites]

At least we’re not as bad off as those other unlucky people elsewhere.

in terms of adjusted numbers, USA has more than double the death and infection rate of Canada. The UK meanwhile (also adjusted numbers) has more than double the death rate of USA against fewer reported infections. Something very "off" there, which tells me we still can't really trust statistics. We can log data (We Must Log Data), but it's way to early to draw the kind of conclusions you can really act on.

These are the only three countries I've really been paying attention to for reasons of familiarity.
posted by philip-random at 8:44 AM on April 15, 2020 [6 favorites]

Welp, we got our stimulus payments today, direct deposit right into the checking account. So some payments are happening right now, this week.
posted by LooseFilter at 8:47 AM on April 15, 2020 [5 favorites]

I wish we (the media, the politicians, the discussions around it all) could stop buying into his language of "the country is closed and it should be opened". It is open right now (whatever the hell that means). We are going about our lives with whatever degree of stability and sanity we can manage right now. Oversimplifications like open/closed only feed the right-wing narrative of simplicity-through-totalitarianism, rather than the truer story of simultaneous complexities and perspectives.
posted by kokaku at 8:52 AM on April 15, 2020 [41 favorites]

> treasury's ronda kent tells banks they can seize customers' economic stimulus payments to pay down outstanding debts. david dayen, prospect, with audio of treasury "webinar" with bankers.

More from Dayen: Mnuchin Knew Two Weeks Ago That Financial Predators Could Grab Emergency Coronavirus Checks

“On a call with Secretary Mnuchin on April 1, Senator Brown raised the garnishment issue to Secretary Mnuchin, who at the time was not aware of the issue,” according to a statement from Senator Brown’s office. Mnuchin negotiated the CARES Act directly, and it passed a week before Brown confronted him over the garnishment issue. So Mnuchin claimed in this phone call that, a week after crafting the legislation, he was unaware of how CARES Act payments, intended to provide food, medicine, and basic necessities to millions of Americans in an emergency, could instead pass into the hands of creditors.

Senator Brown’s office added: “Treasury has the power to fix this and they should.”

Sherrod Brown isn't this stupid. The most charitable read on this is that Congress was under immense pressure to get something out, and failed to apply basic due diligence to look for easily-exploitable loopholes. A slightly less charitable interpretation is that it falls into the "feature, not a bug" category, whereby the banks getting more money was necessary to bring along some of Brown's more centrist and conservative colleagues. But there is no way Brown actually expects the administration to "fix this" when doing so means taking money away from banks that Congress is giving them, regardless of whether doing so was an error of commission or omission.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:31 AM on April 15, 2020 [9 favorites]

stop buying into his language of "the country is closed and it should be opened"

Well sure, someone should ask him, what do you mean by "open"? Like, force people to leave their houses for unnecessary trips? Force businesses to start operating with no customers? I mean, as far as I know in the US there aren't that many cases of cops stopping people on the streets.

But he's not really a details guy, is he.
posted by ctmf at 11:25 AM on April 15, 2020 [6 favorites]

Open means people are free to attend his ~~rallies~~ ego strokes.

I'm Canadian and this makes me fucking livid.

Flashbacks to when that jack off Harper was slapping his name on everything.
posted by Mitheral at 11:30 AM on April 15, 2020 [5 favorites]

This is an interesting article about how widespread testing of predominantly asymptomatic residents and staff in a nursing home in Baltimore turned up an enormous number of cases:

With 170 total cases at FutureCare Lochearn, the cluster appears to be the second-largest in the country tied to nursing homes, behind only the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where 194 people have contracted the coronavirus, according to data collected by The New York Times. It is the eighth-largest coronavirus cluster in the country, behind only outbreaks on an aircraft carrier, in jails and prisons and at a pork processing plant, according to the data.

This is the first time I've heard of this sort of "surveillance" testing taking place. I hope this situation is a sign to come of more widespread testing capacity, and I also hope it opens people's eyes to both the prevalence of asymptomatic individuals who have nevertheless contracted COVID-19 and the need to continue responsible social distancing practices.
posted by cheapskatebay at 2:07 PM on April 15, 2020 [5 favorites]

Last week, Boston did something similar at the Pine Street Inn, the city's largest homeless shelter for men. They found what one doctor called a "stunning" number of asymptomatic cases (fortunately, Boston and local healthcare and homeless organizations had already been setting up a large number of beds for both homeless people with positive tests and those who want to self quarantine from the street - we're not marking off spaces in parking lots).
posted by adamg at 3:38 PM on April 15, 2020 [5 favorites]

Florida deems WWE pro-wrestling 'essential business' amid coronavirus pandemic

But despite that, WWE will be reducing headcount (both employees and talent) to make their $500m cash pile last longer. So basically, a cash grab for WWE and Republicans.
posted by bonje at 3:44 PM on April 15, 2020 [3 favorites]

WaPo: Trump threatens to adjourn Congress to get his nominees through

Wait, the President can adjourn Congress?

He spent several minutes of his daily coronavirus briefing Wednesday blaming Senate Democrats for blocking his nominations, even though most of the vacancies in the federal government are because Trump hasn’t selected anyone to fill them. [...]

Trump cited a never-exercised power the Constitution grants the president to adjourn Congress if leaders of the House and Senate can’t agree on whether to adjourn. The Senate often recesses but stays open in a “pro forma” session, which thwarts Trump’s ability to make recess appointments that bypass the regular confirmation process.

Oh. So this is another one of those "unprecedented" maneuvers that will be considered totally normal from five minutes after Trump does it until five minutes before the next Democratic president tries it.

Cool.
posted by tonycpsu at 4:10 PM on April 15, 2020 [22 favorites]

After an anonymous tip, 17 bodies were found at a nursing home in New Jersey
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:44 PM on April 15, 2020 [4 favorites]

Oh FFS. Since HHS had the gall to whisper the truth a bit, they're being fixed:

Caputo, whose title will be assistant secretary of HHS for public affairs, said in a text message, “I am honored to serve the President to the best of my abilities in this time of crisis and, in so doing, the American people.”

Caputo is an intense Trump loyalist whose recent book “The Ukraine Hoax,” alleged a conspiracy behind Trump’s impeachment.

You know, Roger Stone's buddy/co-conspirator.
posted by bcd at 6:16 PM on April 15, 2020 [13 favorites]

But despite that, WWE will be reducing headcount (both employees and talent) to make their $500m cash pile last longer.

And it gets more evil. The names so far are pretty much all people that WWE threw money at within the last year or two to keep them from signing with the new competing promotion (AEW) or to cripple other smaller promotions (IMPACT, ROH). And letting people go right now — when the pandemic has cancelled virtually all other professional wrestling in the world — means they just won’t be able to work.
posted by Etrigan at 7:04 PM on April 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

Linda McMahon's Trump Ties Under Scrutiny As WWE Deemed Essential
posted by benzenedream at 7:27 PM on April 15, 2020

The Senate often recesses but stays open in a “pro forma” session, which thwarts Trump’s ability to make recess appointments that bypass the regular confirmation process.

The one and only thing I will credit McConnell with is that, although he horribly abused pro forma sessions to prevent Obama from making recess appointments, he has maintained the practice during the Trump administration. Senate Republicans might rubber stamp just about anyone Trump (or the Federalist Society) cares to name, but McConnell is at least insisting on holding the stamp. If Trump attempts to adjourn Congress, then McConnell might (might) fight him on it.
posted by jedicus at 8:09 PM on April 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

The fact that Trump is propping up professional wrestling during this cataclysmic event is only proof positive that scripted reality TV is the downfall of all humanity. Bread and circuses.
posted by valkane at 8:26 PM on April 15, 2020 [8 favorites]

If the McMahon's business was puppeteers, puppetting would be declared essential. This is 100% payback for the millions of dollars shoveled Trumps way and nothing to do with what the business is.
posted by Mitheral at 8:30 PM on April 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

But they are in the same puppeting business. That's why they know each other. And that's why 40% of the US (Duck Dynasty) audience follow them.
posted by valkane at 8:45 PM on April 15, 2020

Stay classy, suburban Michigan.
posted by Anoplura at 9:35 PM on April 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

'Operation Gridlock': Convoy in Michigan's capital protests stay-at-home orders

During her public coronavirus briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Whitmer said she was "disappointed" to see people congregating and not wearing masks at the demonstration.

"I saw someone handing out candy to little kids barehanded," she said. "We know that this rally endangered people. This kind of activity will put more people at risk, and, sadly, it could prolong the amount of time we have to live in this posture."

Protesters rally against Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders, clog downtown Lansing

Bartolo said he’s keeping his social distance and trying to stay six feet away from people, but noticed others were not holding themselves to the same standard.

“They’re all shaking hands, they’re all hugging each other, like, this is how coronavirus spreads,” Bartolo said.

Who the hell thought of this?

National Guard aids Sparrow Hospital Wednesday as ‘traffic jam’ protest planned against Whitmer

On Wednesday, roads near Sparrow Hospital may be blocked by cars of conservative activists coming to the Capitol for an event called “Operation Gridlock.” The event is organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and the DeVos-funded Michigan Freedom Fund is listed as a host.

Betsy DeVos? This is how she spends her money? Blocking traffic into a hospital. Ok

They can no longer call themselves pro-life. If money is your only god and you will sacrifice millions to protect it, that makes you a death cult.
posted by adept256 at 9:43 PM on April 15, 2020 [25 favorites]

Did anyone see the part where the CARES Act has more direct tax cuts for the rich? It creates a further $170 billion deficit over 10 years (and $90 billion just in 2020) mostly for ~~millionaires~~ people who make over a million a year.

Tax change in coronavirus package overwhelmingly benefits millionaires, congressional body finds, WaPo, April 14

Business tax provisions in coronavirus relief law spark controversy, The Hill, April 14

Fuck it all. The US is a collapsing state. Fuck Trump. Fuck decades' worth of politicians that rode this train to this place.
posted by sylvanshine at 9:44 PM on April 15, 2020 [23 favorites]

That's the most heated thing I ever wrote here. I'm not meaning to be a doomsayer but all this evidence that almost all the money is going to the richest, it's just unbelievable. The rich have all the money that is needed to right the ship and it's sitting in Panama accounts instead because of decades worth of tax cuts. I don't even see any evidence that the US public, writ large, sitting at their social media accounts, are putting *any* pressure on private rich individuals, and their corporations, to donate substantial parts of their wealth to organizations and governments that will fix this. That's how strong the "status quo for the rich" is in the US and why nothing will change until it's over.
posted by sylvanshine at 10:11 PM on April 15, 2020 [14 favorites]

It’s not going to be fixed, because it cannot be fixed within the confines of the system.

...but hey, thank you for the extra money. I’ll be worth an additional five million when I die due to all this, sad to hear your child is sick, hopefully things will work out without much additional expense.
posted by aramaic at 10:33 PM on April 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

That's the most heated thing I ever wrote here.

They are blockading a hospital. Fire freely.
posted by adept256 at 11:10 PM on April 15, 2020 [11 favorites]

Yeah, drive a tank over these fuckers cars, and let them try to collect insurance on that. Not like I would expect the NG to do that, but...

It would be funny.

What a bunch of douchebags. These are the people we are fighting against. Ugh.
posted by Windopaene at 11:18 PM on April 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

Just Boeing's Manuals For New Air Force One Jets Cost A Whopping $84 Million — Nothing is cheap in aviation and especially when it comes to flying the President, but an F-35's worth of manuals is amazing to comprehend., The War Zone, Tyler Rogoway, 4/15/2020:

Everything military aviation is really expensive. That's also an unfortunate fact. Everything military aviation related to flying the President is absolutely absurdly expensive. Another inconvenient fact. Yet it's hard to swallow the price tag on the contract Boeing was just awarded by the Air Force for manuals for two new VC-25B Air Force One jets it is currently converting from orphaned 747-8i airframes. That price tag? A cool $84,000,000.
...
It is hard to really get one's head around the fiscal scale of the Air Force One recapitalization program. the program's total price tag, including things like new hangars and other ancillary items, comes in at $5.3B. The aircraft themselves will cost $4.7B, making them the most expensive planes ever made. This runs counter to the claims by President Trump that he personally slashed the cost of the jets. You can read more about this cost breakdown here....

Nothing is too good for the Emperor Donald.
posted by cenoxo at 12:39 AM on April 16, 2020 [6 favorites]

That's worthy of discussion, perhaps elsewhere.
posted by adept256 at 12:53 AM on April 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

No derail intended, just a point of comparison to the ongoing shortages of masks and other medical supplies.
posted by cenoxo at 12:59 AM on April 16, 2020

Profit over people, cost over care: America's broken healthcare exposed by virus
posted by mumimor at 1:51 AM on April 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

Australia on course to eliminate COVID-19, modelling shows

I feel bad posting this because I know Australia has been very, very lucky. Our leaders made some really bad mistakes (e.g., releasing cruise ship passengers without quarantine) but they were relatively swift in imposing general social isolation. Also, I know that we only had the ability to impose this isolation because of our affluence. Please don't take this as a claim that we have been more virtuous, just as evidence for the fact that social isolation works.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:27 AM on April 16, 2020 [11 favorites]

Well, if nothing else, we can take a bit of comfort in knowing that karma and its attendant schadenfreude has a fairly reliable two-week delivery period these days.

Too bad the good people staffing the health care systems in Michigan are unlikely to, say, screen admissions in late April based on participation in "Operation Gridlock".
posted by Sublimity at 4:52 AM on April 16, 2020 [4 favorites]

I will go a step further and say that our politics has not been divided on this. While there is much to scorn Scott Morrison for, I have very few quarrels with his performance here. If it were Tony Abbot? Maybe we'd see the ego, pettiness, tantrums, pre-mature victory laps and rank idiocy we see elsewhere. Instead we have someone competently following the advice of experts, which is something I expect of all Australians during this crisis.

I also expect Australians to not forget his absenteeism during the bushfire crisis which was just months ago. Remember that, and set it aside while we deal with the crisis right now. If Scott were calling it a hoax, blaming his political opponents, telling us we can get back to work on monday, that would be divisive. Since that's not happening, the only division we need right now is about six feet of personal space in public.
posted by adept256 at 4:53 AM on April 16, 2020 [6 favorites]

Australia on course to eliminate COVID-19, modelling shows.

I'd be careful about the word eliminating. The new cases/day metric for South Korea has been dropping for twice as long, but they still haven't eliminated it completely.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:18 AM on April 16, 2020 [4 favorites]

I'd be careful about the word eliminating.

That's fair enough. I think there are three ways we could see a resurgence:
1) It may turn out that people's infections can recur, and that they can infect other people;
2) There may be an asymptomatic or otherwise untreated group the health authorities don't know about;
3) New carriers enter when passenger transport starts up again.

The first possibility is the one that really scares me. If it's the case then we'll need ... I don't know, quarantine camps? Multi-leveled restrictions on people, depending on their risk groups? It will certainly be a lot more intrusive than what we have now.

I don't think the second possibility is a huge concern, as long as we wait a couple of weeks after the last symptomatic carrier is isolated. That would be time for several generations of infections, and at least some of those should show up and alert us to continuing transmission.

The third possibility is almost inevitable, sadly. The new normal may be compulsory tests and quarantine for all international travellers. Australia relies on tourism for a big part of its budget, that would be very tough for us.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:40 AM on April 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Business Insider: Invite a llama or goat to your next corporate Zoom meeting or video call for under $100
posted by saysthis at 7:08 AM on April 16, 2020 [5 favorites]

If it can be eliminated, it won't be until a vaccine is available. There's a piece today in The Guardian by Dr. William Hanage (professor of the evolution and epidemiology of infectious disease at Harvard):

I am going to be unusually optimistic here, and assume that everyone who has Covid-19 becomes fully immune (not a given), and that the virus is towards the less transmissible end of the range of estimates currently available. If this is the case, you would need half your population to have been infected to achieve a level of population immunity that would stop the epidemic continuing to grow and overwhelming healthcare systems.

The bulk of his argument is that this is not going away, anywhere, anytime soon and the cost of going back to business as usual before a vaccine is available will necessarily mean multiples of the number of infections and deaths than we've already seen.

There is now a lot of data indicating that the number of cases of actual infection is several times the number which have been reported. Many or most of these are either asymptomatic or mild enough not to be recognized as covid-19. Sadly, there's an additional group of unrecognized cases that are faralities not recorded (or yet recognized) as being caused by covid-19.

Some people wrongly conclude from this that the lockdowns are pointless. That's absolutely not true. Even when you account for all these other cases, the majority of the population is still uninfected and vulnerable. There is every reason to believe that going back to business as usual before a vaccine is available will produce another spike of illnesses and deaths at least as large as we've already seen. More likely, several times as large. And there may be multiple peaks as it spreads through scattered populations.

People are being absurdly optimistic or delusional about this. Even if one were to accept the heartless right-wing logic of economics over lives, it's the case that many, many more lost lives will also have a dramatic economic cost.

The only way out of this is a vaccine or a (very unlikely) especially effective treatment. All the efforts so far have been temporary suppression—in many cases effective suppressions—and the underlying epidemiological fundamentals are unchanged: it's a novel virus against which the population has no natural immunity, it's moderately contagious, there is no vaccine and no effective treatment, and it is now globally and widely distributed. Right now, all we have are firebreaks—they're only slowing it down, not stopping it.

On preview:

2) There may be an asymptomatic or otherwise untreated group the health authorities don't know about...

This isn't a possibility, it's a certainty, even in countries like Australia.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 7:16 AM on April 16, 2020 [17 favorites]

Yep, the asymptomatic carriers are going to be a reservoir essentially forever and the disease will keep cropping up and hammering down the susceptible until that magical herd immunity situation kicks in years from now.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:23 AM on April 16, 2020 [4 favorites]

Australia to detect coronavirus spread by testing raw sewage

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian researchers said on Thursday they expect to roll out wide testing of raw sewage for the presence of coronavirus within weeks to help pinpoint communities at risk, after a successful regional pilot.

The trial in Queensland by national science agency CSIRO and the University of Queensland will be used to develop a surveillance system researchers said will help officials when they start to wind back restrictions on public movement.

The new project utilises an existing system under which crime agencies monitor wastewater, covering about 57% of the population, to detect the presence of illicit drugs in Australian cities.

In the Queensland trial, scientists were able to detect a gene fragment of the novel coronavirus in untreated sewage from two wastewater treatment plants.

We've been doing this for a while to detect meth, enough to screen half the population by locality. So the system's already in place and with a little re-engineering we have a really useful tool ready to go.
posted by adept256 at 7:26 AM on April 16, 2020 [10 favorites]

That's what six years of development on a joke product can do in the right hands.
posted by flabdablet at 7:38 AM on April 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

The US Federal plan right now is

1) blame China
2) blackmail WHO into being a scapegoat
3) blame New York
4) let Jared make some spare cash
posted by benzenedream at 7:49 AM on April 16, 2020 [13 favorites]

Vox: Kentucky just made it harder to vote during a pandemic — Wisconsin-style tactics come to Kentucky.

Kentucky’s heavily Republican legislature voted Tuesday to require voters to show a government-issued photo ID, overriding Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto in the process.

Meanwhile, if a Kentucky voter heads to the state’s webpage hoping to learn how to obtain such an ID, they will encounter a message telling them ID-issuing offices are closed.

The Root: Kentucky Republicans Override Gov. Andy Beshear's Veto of New Voter ID Laws

The Kentucky chapter of the ACLU said it was considering legal action “to make sure every eligible voter can still cast a ballot under this oppressive measure.”

“This new law is fundamentally incompatible with the ongoing pandemic,” Corey Shapiro, legal director of the ACLU of Kentucky, said in a statement. “This law will make voting more difficult, and potentially dangerous, for any Kentuckian who does not feel safe leaving their home during this pandemic – even for those who currently have a valid photo ID.”

Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s the point.

posted by tonycpsu at 8:21 AM on April 16, 2020 [17 favorites]

And to verify your photo ID you won't be allowed to wear a face mask while voting, thus eliminating the sane electorate to ensure a republican victory.
posted by adept256 at 8:31 AM on April 16, 2020 [7 favorites]

The asymptomatic cases out there in the Australian community will eventually recover and (we hope) no longer be infectious. I don't expect there's a sort of reversed Balmis Expedition dedicated to keeping the virus alive. If our R0 really is .5 then the local transmission of the disease will die out, and a few weeks without symptomatic cases will be good evidence that it has happened.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:39 AM on April 16, 2020

What else is Ivanka there for other than to cut side grifts and help coach daddy to pronounce bigly best words (and other dummy drills)?

Bravely volunteering to help determine whether ignoring social distancing and stay at home orders she is promoting is a good idea?
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:48 AM on April 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

We don't know whether asymptomatic carriers will continue to be asymptomatic carriers or whether they will be significant in the spread of the disease. I'm not being a Pollyanna here, just saying, we don't know.
The first SARS virus essentially died out in humans without a vaccine. The cat is out of the bag to a much much greater degree in this case, but I suspect, barring unchecked re-introduction from outside areas, some places will be able to be virtually virus free in x months or xx months quite possibly up to the time of a vaccine.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:06 AM on April 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Trump: Restrictions at Canada-U.S. border could soon be eased

Trudeau: Da Fuq you talking about?

"Canada-U.S. border likely to remain closed for weeks, PM says in imposing tougher quarantine rules"

posted by Mitheral at 9:33 AM on April 16, 2020 [11 favorites]

There's been some talk at work about whether an essential worker contracting the virus at work would count as an on-the-job injury for compensation purposes.
posted by ctmf at 9:47 AM on April 16, 2020 [8 favorites]

Restrictions at Canada-U.S. border could soon be eased

and Mexico will pay for it.
posted by flabdablet at 9:58 AM on April 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'm sure Mexico is grateful for the wall keeping out Americans with their high rate of infection.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:09 AM on April 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

There's been some talk at work about whether an essential worker contracting the virus at work would count as an on-the-job injury for compensation purposes.

IANACorporateL (or lawyer of any type) but i would think whether this claim had legs or not would depend pretty heavily on being able to prove the essential worker was infected on the job. . . which while it is clearly the greatest likelihood, thats a different level than what would be required to make this case.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 10:23 AM on April 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Just a note: R₀ ("r naught") is the basic reproductive number—the number of people each infected person is expected to infect, on average, absent any other factors (such as social distancing). The R₀ of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is currently widely thought to be between 2 and 2.5—for example, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee in their most recent statement (today, 2019-04-16) estimates it as 2.53.

The R_eff rate, in contrast, is the effective rate under a given set of particular circumstances. In Australia as a whole, R_eff is thought to currently be held to less than 1.

Both reproductive rates can only be determined using an estimated infection rate in a population, and this is extremely sensitive to testing variables. At present, Australia has an exceptionally high detection rate of approximately 92% of cases ... but this is with regard to symptomatic cases. This doesn't account for asymptomatic cases, about which a consensus is forming that these are at least twice the number of symptomatic cases ... with some studies indicating as many as a multiple of four or more.

The true R₀ and R_eff rates cannot be known without testing samples of the entire population.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:25 AM on April 16, 2020 [7 favorites]

Workers compensation may not such a great deal. What you get is payment for medical care, which you might get from your health insurance anyway and about 60% wage replacement, which might be less than you get with enhanced unemployment insurance.

In exchange for workers compensation you give up all claims of liability against your employer for causing your injury.
posted by JackFlash at 11:10 AM on April 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

There's been some talk at work about whether an essential worker contracting the virus at work would count as an on-the-job injury for compensation purposes.

A week or two ago I was compiling coronavirus resources for people in NY and NJ, and was a little surprised to see that New Jersey's official government "here's all the types of coronavirus relief you can apply for" document explicitly mentioned worker's comp. New York's coronavirus resource stuff definitely doesn't mention it.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:52 AM on April 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

A Tweet of a video clip in which Dr. Oz argues that reopening schools is "a very appetizing opportunity" with a mortality cost of "only" 2-3%
posted by nubs at 12:14 PM on April 16, 2020 [11 favorites]

Then the question is who Oz thinks the opportunity would be appetizing for, since it obviously isn't the dead kids.
posted by Gelatin at 12:19 PM on April 16, 2020 [6 favorites]

"A Tweet of a video clip in which Dr. Oz argues that reopening schools is 'a very appetizing opportunity' with a mortality cost of 'only' 2-3%"

Apparently, Dr. Oz is a ghoul.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 12:26 PM on April 16, 2020 [9 favorites]

"Dr. Oz is a proponent of alternative medicine, and has been criticized by physicians, government officials, and publications, including Popular Science and The New Yorker, for endorsing unproven products and non-scientific advice. The British Medical Journal published a study that found more than half of the recommendations on medical talk series like The Dr. Oz Show had either no evidence or contradicted medical research. Donald Trump's appointment of Oz to the Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition was criticized as an example of choosing "pundits over experts."
posted by valkane at 12:36 PM on April 16, 2020 [14 favorites]

The true R0 and Reff rates cannot be known without testing samples of the entire population.

Quite so. But it ought to be possible to get some idea of R_eff by comparing the recovery rate with the rate of presentation for new symptomatic cases, making only the plausible assumption that aggregate R numbers for total cases, symptomatic and otherwise, aren't changing much over time.

If people are recovering faster than new infections are presenting, which appears to have been the case in Australia for the last week and a bit, then that suggests to me that we are in fact currently achieving an R_eff across both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases of substantially less than 1. If asymptomatic cases were in fact growing undetected, I'd expect that to be reflected in an increased rate of conversion to symptomatic cases, and that doesn't seem to be happening here.

If the downward trend of our active case count remains fairly stable, that should let us generate a pretty good estimate of R_eff and that should, in turn, tell us how effective our ongoing social distancing countermeasures actually are.

And that ought to be valuable information for policymakers everywhere. If it is feasible to get R_eff well below 1 that way, it ought to be possible to make reasonable forecasts of how long it's likely to take this bastard thing to die out as SARS and MERS did before it.

Not that I expect the whining orange shitnozzle to be capable of understanding any such projection, or appreciating the clear analogy between a high R_eff and a ruinous payday loan interest rate. The absence of anything analogous to a get-out-of-jail-free bankruptcy option would be utterly foreign to his way of thinking.
posted by flabdablet at 1:16 PM on April 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

"A Tweet of a video clip in which Dr. Oz argues that reopening schools is 'a very appetizing opportunity' with a mortality cost of 'only' 2-3%"

Apparently this was meant to mean 2-3% above current mortality rates, not 2-3% in full. Still playing the game of trading lives for money, however, and thus still a ghoul.
posted by schoolgirl report at 1:57 PM on April 16, 2020 [4 favorites]

Let's see if Dr. Oz is willing to go to schools and give all the teachers and students a hug.

Guessing, not likely.

Christ, what a ghoul.
posted by Windopaene at 6:25 PM on April 16, 2020

Hmm, that wouldn't be safe for the teachers and students.

He should just go and let them spit on him.
posted by Tabitha Someday at 6:39 PM on April 16, 2020 [4 favorites]

I put up something about undercounting cases and deaths on my blog.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:47 PM on April 16, 2020 [8 favorites]

So I did some quick calculations on Dr. Oz's 2% to 3% mortality increase. According to this there were 5,571 deaths of children aged 5 to 15 years in 2017. Not all children are in school. Children that died aged 16 - 18 that were in school, who were probably much more likely to engage in risky behavior than younger children wouldn't be counted in that number. If you take a 2% increase in 5,000 deaths that's a extra 100 children dying early.

I get that society has to make choices. I get that society has always made a choice to let people die, sometimes in pursuit of someone's economic gain. Sometimes we let people die because we don't give a shit if people, especially certain classes of people, die. What I don't like is framing that choice as a small percentage increase in mortality rather than saying something like; "If we open the schools, one or two hundred kids will probably die early, according to my model."
posted by rdr at 7:18 PM on April 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

A WaPo story, via Jesse Lehrich:

FEMA gave a $55,000,000 no-bid contract to a bankrupt company with no employees for N95 masks – which they don't make or have – at 7x the cost others charge.

For bonus points, the defunct company appears to have been one of those companies who, like BlackWater/Xe/whatever-they-are-now, learned to call their offering 'training and support' rather than 'mercenaries'. Literally, war profiteering, Covid edition.
posted by bcd at 7:32 PM on April 16, 2020 [28 favorites]

Dr. Oz doesn't think. He markets.
posted by valkane at 7:59 PM on April 16, 2020 [7 favorites]

Part of the problem is this: How many parents or relatives will get infected from the kids?

And also, are we assuming there are no adults staffing these schools? Just some sort of Lord of the Flies arrangement, perhaps, whoever has the conch is principal for the day?
posted by bcd at 8:25 PM on April 16, 2020 [5 favorites]

buddy reviewing diary shared this bit of ... mortal/temporal perspective with me a few moments ago: on march 31 (just two weeks ago) total US deaths went over 3,400 -- deemed significant in relation to the 9/11/2001 mortality milestone -- whereas there were 3500 US deaths today alone.

the media, he added, does not remark on it but follows president horrorshow's lead, talking only about "reopening."
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:28 PM on April 16, 2020 [15 favorites]

Sorry. I was being mean to our awesome teachers. But you can bet he's unlikely to be hanging out in the schools, making him a part of the potential 2-3%
posted by Windopaene at 8:30 PM on April 16, 2020

Arizona Dispensary Firm Gives Away Free Weed to Patients Having Hard Times

“It got real in a matter of minutes,” says Mike Cuthriell, Grow Science’s co-owner.

Cuthriell and his partner, Matt Blum, received more than 400 replies in all. They pored over every email and responded to each one individually. They read stories about people losing work, and illnesses suffered by patients and their families. The ones that hit hardest were stories in which families’ entire incomes were wiped out, Blum says.
...
“I live for this shit,” Blum says. “I’d give it all away if I could.”

Now if only the three wise men, Jack, Jim and Johnny, would open their hearts and barrels.

I love this. Don't ever become big pharma.
posted by adept256 at 1:00 AM on April 17, 2020 [8 favorites]

China's Wuhan raises coronavirus death toll by 50% citing early lapses, Reuters;
Yawen Chen, Brenda Goh; 4/16/2020:

The Chinese city of Wuhan raised its death toll from the novel coronavirus by 50% on Friday, bringing its total to 3,869, amid doubts about the accuracy of China’s data on the disease as global cases mount.

The central city where the virus first appeared in humans late last year added another 1,290 fatalities to the 2,579 previously counted as of Thursday, reflecting incorrect reporting, delays and omissions, according to a local government taskforce in charge of controlling the coronavirus. Reflecting the additional deaths in Wuhan, China revised up its national death toll later on Friday to 4,632.
...
Suspicion that China has not been transparent about the outbreak has risen in recent days, with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressing scepticism about its previously declared death toll of about 3,000. “Do you really believe those numbers in this vast country called China, and that they have a certain number of cases and a certain number of deaths; does anybody really believe that?” he said.
...
Some experts, however, believe fatality numbers in many other countries fail to show the real toll because some people have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, without being tested or going to hospital, so are not included in coronavirus tallies.

Physician, heal thyself. This no time for mudslinging, it’s time for international cooperation.
posted by cenoxo at 2:04 AM on April 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

Coronavirus outbreak may have started in September, say British scientists: • Study narrows origin to a period between September and December, after virus mutated to a form that was harmful to humans • It is more likely to have come from southern China than Wuhan, but further analysis of bats and other potential host animals is needed, geneticist says., South China Morning Post, Stephen Chen, Beijing; April 17, 2020:

The first outbreak of the coronavirus could have happened further south than the central Chinese city of Wuhan as early as September, according to a team of scientists led by the University of Cambridge.

Researchers investigating the virus’ origin analysed a large number of strains from around the world and calculated that the initial outbreak occurred in a window between September 13 and December 7. “The virus may have mutated into its final ‘human-efficient’ form months ago, but stayed inside a bat or other animal or even human for several months without infecting other individuals,” University of Cambridge geneticist Peter Forster said on Thursday.

“Then, it started infecting and spreading among humans between September 13 and December 7, generating the network we present in [the journal] Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” [PNAS article and PDF file]. “What we reconstruct in the network is the first significant spread among humans,” Forster said.

More details in the article.
posted by cenoxo at 2:39 AM on April 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

Bat virus? Bioweapon? What the science says about Covid-19 origins: • Speculation about the emergence of the new coronavirus is spreading almost as quickly as the pandemic • Scientists believe some pathways are more probable than others, South China Morning Post, Simone McCarthy & Stephen Chen, Beijing; 4/11/2020.
posted by cenoxo at 2:54 AM on April 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

The rightwing groups behind wave of protests against Covid-19 restrictions
While protesters in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and other states claim to speak for ordinary citizens, many are also supported by street-fighting rightwing groups like the Proud Boys, conservative armed militia groups, religious fundamentalists, anti-vaccination groups and other elements of the radical right.
posted by adamvasco at 4:13 AM on April 17, 2020 [12 favorites]

I know a little bit about this because I live in Brisbane, near a suburb called Hendra. It's a half hour stroll from here, five minutes in a car. A place which lends it's name to the Hendra virus. Hendra is adjacent to the Doomben racecourse and has pasture and stables for race horses.

Like most Brisbane suburbs there are mango trees all over. They're so loved by the fruit bats, at nightfall you see their dark shapes swarm the sky, leaving their roosts by the thousands during the mango season. So they were going to these mango trees in Hendra, pooing on the pasture where the horses were, the horses ate the grass, and the people caring for the horses got the virus.

And that's what happened. Bats -> horses -> humans. We don't have a bioweapons laboratory. This was just nature acting... naturally. If they say it came from bats, I believe them, because it happened here.

Conspiracy theories are always too complicated compared to the truth. Those buildings fell over because they were hit by planes. It's that simple. It's occam's razor. It came from bats, and we have the genetics so we can prove it.

And also, to these assholes with their imaginings, can you wait until after the funeral? Hendra virus is not like corona, 60% of people that have had it have died. If we didn't stop it and it spread and killed 60% of everyone I know, the last thing I would want to hear is someone's stupid fucking theories about bioweapons labs hidden in a barn which is just a fucking barn.
posted by adept256 at 4:19 AM on April 17, 2020 [20 favorites]

Boris Johnson and coronavirus: the inside story of his illness
A lack of candour at a time of national crisis? It wouldn’t be the first time ...
posted by mumimor at 6:16 AM on April 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

An Army of Virus Tracers Takes Shape in Massachusetts — Asian countries have invested heavily in digital contact tracing, which uses technology to warn people when they have been exposed to the coronavirus. Massachusetts is using an old-fashioned means: people., New York Times, Ellen Barry, 4/17/2020:

BOSTON — Alexandra Cross, a newly minted state public health worker, dialed a stranger’s telephone number on Monday, her heart racing. It was Ms. Cross’s first day as part of Massachusetts’s fleet of contact tracers, responsible for tracking down people who have been exposed to the coronavirus, as soon as possible, and warning them. On her screen was the name of a woman from Lowell.

“One person who has recently been diagnosed has been in contact with you,” the script told her to say. “Do you have a few minutes to discuss what that exposure might mean for you?” Forty-five minutes later, Ms. Cross hung up the phone. They had giggled and commiserated. Her file was crammed with information. She was taking her first steps up a Mount Everest of cases.

Massachusetts is the first state to invest in an ambitious contact-tracing program, budgeting $44 million to hire 1,000 people like Ms. Cross. The program represents a bet on the part of Gov. Charlie Baker that the state will be able to identify pockets of infection as they emerge, and prevent infected people from spreading the virus further...

You can’t beat motivated boots on the ground.
posted by cenoxo at 6:17 AM on April 17, 2020 [7 favorites]

The Economist now has a page tracking mortality from all causes in multiple countries and regions, and comparing the excess mortality to the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths. (You might need to register for a free account to view this page.)
posted by mbrubeck at 6:50 AM on April 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

> The rightwing groups behind wave of protests against Covid-19 restrictions

Mark America’s Grave Anew
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:53 AM on April 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

The rightwing groups behind wave of protests against Covid-19 restrictions
Rural areas think they’re the coronavirus exception. They’re not. Megan McArdle , WaPo
posted by mumimor at 7:53 AM on April 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

While protesters in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and other states claim to speak for ordinary citizens, many are also supported by street-fighting rightwing groups like the Proud Boys, conservative armed militia groups, religious fundamentalists, anti-vaccination groups and other elements of the radical right.

And supported by Donald Trump. He's the one behind this. As he bragged, he's Captain Bligh and has ways to hurt governors he doesn't like.
posted by JackFlash at 8:17 AM on April 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

The COVID-19 Disorder Tracker (CDT) provides special coverage of the pandemic’s impact on political violence and protest around the world, monitoring changes in demonstration activity, state repression, mob attacks, overall rates of armed conflict.
posted by adamvasco at 8:28 AM on April 17, 2020 [7 favorites]

If they say it came from bats, I believe them, because it happened here.

Fruit bats are also the origin vectors for several other hemorrhagic fevers, including Nipah (closely related to your Hendra virus), Marburg, and Ebola. (My ex-roommate from college has actually gone on to work on Nipah down in Galveston, because she is weirdly fascinated with the nastiest possible pathogens.) For probably-unrelated reasons, insectivorous bats are a deeply significant vector for rabies. And the 2004 SARS outbreak was traced to horseshoe bats a few years ago.

Bats are probably the most dangerous taxa on Earth from an infectious disease standpoint. I happen to like them very much, but I would also be looking very closely at bats over this one.
posted by sciatrix at 8:55 AM on April 17, 2020 [10 favorites]

From the Guardian news feed:

The US president, Donald Trump, has sent a series of incendiary tweets calling on states currently under stay-at-home orders to be liberated.

"LIBERATE MINNESOTA" and so on.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:01 AM on April 17, 2020 [4 favorites]

Over the last hour:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
LIBERATE MINNESOTA!
8:21 AM · Apr 17, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
11.9K Retweets 49.4K Likes

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
LIBERATE MICHIGAN!
8:22 AM · Apr 17, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
12.7K Retweets 51K Likes

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!
8:25 AM · Apr 17, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
13.4K Retweets 49K Likes

I can't even
posted by Ahmad Khani at 9:08 AM on April 17, 2020 [13 favorites]

The US president, Donald Trump, has sent a series of incendiary tweets calling on states currently under stay-at-home orders to be liberated.

And of course he only called for states with Democratic governors to be "liberated". There are Republican-controlled states (e.g. Ohio, West Virginia, Alaska) with comprehensive lockdown orders stricter than Minnesota, Michigan, and Virginia.
posted by jedicus at 9:10 AM on April 17, 2020 [10 favorites]

liberate?
posted by kokaku at 9:11 AM on April 17, 2020

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!
8:25 AM · Apr 17, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
13.4K Retweets 49K Likes

Here’s a state that’s quietly reversing the tea party’s damage

In recent weeks, Virginia Democrats passed into law a voting-rights bill that repealed a GOP voter ID law — one similar to the many voting restrictions passed by legislatures taken over by Republicans in the tea party wave.
That voting-rights measure also expanded early voting and established automatic voter registration. These measures will make voting easier, which undoes what Republicans had engineered in a very fundamental way, since making voting harder was their aim.
Democrats also passed into law a new measure limiting handgun purchases to one per month. That undid a previous measure signed by Republican former governor Robert F. McDonnell.

posted by mumimor at 9:13 AM on April 17, 2020 [15 favorites]

liberate?

I believe that right-wing fueled protests have happened or will happen soon in the tweeted-at states.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:13 AM on April 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

The Donald is campaign sloganeering. Let's hope no one takes him literally and shows up at those state capitols with guns.
posted by cenoxo at 9:13 AM on April 17, 2020

Of course they will, that's literally the whole point.
posted by aramaic at 9:15 AM on April 17, 2020 [26 favorites]

Remember this is the guy who barely a week ago claimed he had "total authority" to deal with the pandemic. Then, of course, he backed down, so he's calling on his supporters to subvert -- in the language of insurrection -- measures designed to mitigate Trump's own incompetence at handling the pandemic.

As a bonus, he makes his own behavior into another phony "controversy," cueing his supporters to rally behind him at the reaction of decent people an loyal Americans.
posted by Gelatin at 9:17 AM on April 17, 2020 [6 favorites]

ZeusHumms, i understood the connection - i was honestly trying to come up with something more to add that wasn't in the vein of burn it all down (because that's not going to help anyone) yet was so breathtaken, i couldn't

we have a sitting president encouraging armed revolt in states governed by the opposition party over entirely reasonable measures taken to manage a pandemic

everytime i imagine that the GOP might have even a fraction of an ounce of shame left, they respond NOPE! they love stochastic terrorism
posted by kokaku at 9:17 AM on April 17, 2020 [16 favorites]

The "best" (read: holy shit how is everything this terrible) part is that this is just him freestyling off a Fox News segment about a group literally called Liberate Minnesota that's protesting against the state's stay-at-home order.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:21 AM on April 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

He is actually, with real words, inciting a civil war, right now. .... . . . .
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:32 AM on April 17, 2020 [17 favorites]

Inciting violence seems like a distraction from remembering and pointing out his administration's failures to deal appropriately with COVID-19.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:35 AM on April 17, 2020 [8 favorites]

The Donald is campaign sloganeering. Let's hope no one takes him literally and shows up at those state capitols with guns.

have you been in a coma for the last 12 years?
posted by entropicamericana at 9:40 AM on April 17, 2020 [5 favorites]

I thought we weren't doing "this seems like a distraction" anymore.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:48 AM on April 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

My apologies: inciting violence is a key Trump strategy to distract and divide.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:53 AM on April 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

The US president, Donald Trump, has sent a series of incendiary tweets calling on states currently under stay-at-home orders to be liberated.

A shift, maybe, from I will win against the Corona to I'm the won that liberated us from the Corona and its nasty effects?
posted by Snowishberlin at 10:04 AM on April 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Those tweets genuinely frighten me. Like, more than I already have been.

It's possibly exacerbated by the fact that this morning I read cstross's deeply pessimistic blog post from yesterday.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:15 AM on April 17, 2020 [11 favorites]

The Donald is campaign sloganeering. Let's hope no one takes him literally and shows up at those state capitols with guns.

They already were before Trump's tweets.
posted by mostly vowels at 10:20 AM on April 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

> My apologies: inciting violence is a key Trump strategy to distract and divide.

I didn't mean it as an attack or to single you out in any way... I guess I've just given up on the haruspicy of trying to determine intent from the big wet president's actions. It doesn't matter what he's trying to do, because it's not like someone living in one of these states has an option to just ignore the fact that he's calling for armed revolution where they live.

The most recent unconscionable thing he's done displaces some of the attention on the second most recent unconscionable thing, so I'm not saying you're wrong, but I just don't think even an educated guess as to his intent helps with the sensory overload or sense of dread that his presidency has inspired. It's kind of like "this is not normal". I get the reason we kept telling ourselves that, but it kind of is now, in the sense of the word "normal" that matters to most people.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:24 AM on April 17, 2020 [5 favorites]

I honestly didn't expect to see this level of panicked flailing until later in the summer, when I was figuring something would happen to really drive home that this isn't ending quickly and suddenly like it started. It's very concerning, to be honest. There is a percentage of people who are basically just waiting for permission and LIBERATE VIRGINIA to defend your 2nd amendment rights is about as permissive as you can get. It feels like the phase of conflict where both sides realize they need to be armed because even I, who once quit a squirrel hunting trip as a child because I realized I would have to actually kill a squirrel, am starting to think about it.
posted by feloniousmonk at 10:33 AM on April 17, 2020 [7 favorites]

A shift, maybe, from I will win against the Corona to I'm the won that liberated us

In yesterday's remarks, he lapsed into the past tense a few times. He's going to insist it's over when it's not remotely close to being over.

A few years ago, I would've said that it'll be tough to make that narrative stick when thousands of people are hospitalized, many states are still sheltering in place, there aren't enough tests or equipment, etc., etc., but now... now I'm going to read Charles Stross's deeply pessimistic blog post.
posted by box at 10:34 AM on April 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

Fox News Defends Its COVID Lies, Saying First Amendment Protects “False” Speech

A group called WASHLITE is suing Fox for (in my terms) being full of shit over the corona virus. Now you can read their motion to dismiss the case.

Plaintiff WASHLITE seeks a judicial gag order against Fox News for airing supposedly "deceptive" commentary about the Coronavirus outbreak and our nation's response to it. But the only deception here is in the Complaint. Fox's opinion hosts have never described the Coronavirus as a "hoax" or "conspiracy," but instead used those terms to comment on efforts to exploit the pandemic for political points. Regardless, the claims are frivolous because the statements at issue are core political speech on matters of public concern. The First Amendment does not permit censoring this type of speech based on the theory that it is "false" or "outrageous." Nor does the law of the State of Washington. The Complaint therefore should be dismissed as a matter of law.

Notice they don't argue that they're not full of shit, but that lying is allowed. They're probably right, they know exactly what they're doing, they know well where the line is. But still, if that's your only source of information you're not going to understand how dangerous this thing is, and that is dangerous.
posted by adept256 at 10:53 AM on April 17, 2020 [8 favorites]

In yesterday's remarks, he lapsed into the past tense a few times. He's going to insist it's over when it's not remotely close to being over.

Yeah, I've been wondering about this too, and if it might be part of the Republican's endgame. No pun intended. They've shown successfully thus far that they can convince—with the help of Fox News and other related outlets—a wide subset of the population to believe something that is demonstrably false.

What Coronavirus? What pandemic? Oh, you mean those few weeks back in March and April? Trump solved it and even gave everyone $1200!!!

I'm quite possibly overly cynical and jaded. Here's hoping the rest of the media can retain the nation's attention.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 10:55 AM on April 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

No, there is no single, unified "nation" any longer. Hasn't been for quite some time.

It's like The City & The City except, you know, fact-based reality and authority-endorsed reality sharing the same streets.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:32 AM on April 17, 2020 [7 favorites]

It's like The City & The City

Breach!
posted by mabelstreet at 11:34 AM on April 17, 2020 [6 favorites]

That won't work; the head of Breach is now a Trump appointee.
posted by flabdablet at 11:38 AM on April 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

have you been in a coma for the last 12 years?

I've been reading, commenting, and posting at Metafilter for over 14 years. I can't guarantee my state of awareness before becoming a member, but since then I don't think I've been comatose for the last 12.

Rabble-rousing by Donald Trump (however idiotic, outrageous, or provocative) doesn't equal armed insurrection against state governments. No state would allow it.
posted by cenoxo at 11:52 AM on April 17, 2020

Rabble-rousing by Donald Trump (however idiotic, outrageous, or provocative) doesn't equal armed insurrection against state governments. No state would allow it.

Have you seen the photos from MI? If that isn't what armed insurrection looks like I don't know what does.

This is dress rehearsal for what happens if Biden wins in November.
posted by photoslob at 12:01 PM on April 17, 2020 [8 favorites]

bundy
posted by lazaruslong at 12:02 PM on April 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

The online troll farms are also churning hard on the subject of violence/civil war. I follow Mayor Garcetti on facebook and for a 3 or so week period, there was a shocking absence of the usual instant troll responses that plague every politician. He has done a really good job with his relatively limited power in general and specifically in the case of a pandemic and people were looking for that and supported it. That ended recently and now within moments of his daily updates, there are multiple responses asking questions about wild shit like why the military hasn't deposed him as a tyrant in defense of the constitution yet. I see similar things in the case of other CA politicians. In some ways this isn't unusual, but this sort of direct action language reads as a significant escalation in rhetoric to me. For obvious reasons, widespread political violence in the US is probably Putin's wildest dream best case outcome and it seems like now that such a thing is more likely than ever before during his reign, they're pushing hard. Honestly, it also seems like this is true of a big part of the current GOP as well.
posted by feloniousmonk at 12:14 PM on April 17, 2020 [10 favorites]

Have you seen the photos from MI?

Oh dear god. I had not, but I'm not a part of your conversation. But I searched. Guns and worse.

NBC

The Independent (look for the backwards swastika one and weep)

I just... oh my god.
posted by Snowishberlin at 12:16 PM on April 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Y’know, maybe #Calexit had some points.
posted by BeginAgain at 12:17 PM on April 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

Rabble-rousing by Donald Trump (however idiotic, outrageous, or provocative) doesn't equal armed insurrection against state governments. No state would allow it.

okay
posted by entropicamericana at 12:18 PM on April 17, 2020 [4 favorites]

those jerkoffs have been demonstrating armed in state capitals for more than a decade.
posted by 20 year lurk at 12:31 PM on April 17, 2020 [5 favorites]

Y’know, maybe #Calexit had some points.

You mean to abandon the millions of people of color and disenfranchised voters in the Midwest and South to the kinds of white terrorists showing up at the Michigan state capital with guns? Thanks for the solidarity.
posted by mostly vowels at 12:37 PM on April 17, 2020 [20 favorites]

...the immediate danger they pose is the present and downstream transmission of the virus and their resulting burden on health and other public resources.
posted by 20 year lurk at 12:39 PM on April 17, 2020 [5 favorites]

Have you seen the photos from MI?
Oh dear god. I had not, but I'm not a part of your conversation. But I searched. Guns and worse.

Don't worry. Very find people on both sides, I've been told.
posted by JackFlash at 1:09 PM on April 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

"Man, we've gotta open the gates."
"We've been through this, Phil. The Mongols are still outside."
"But I've gotta harvest my turnips"
"MONGOLS"
"Ugh. But we've been in here or WEEKS."
"That's how sieges work, Phil."

Be ready for the second part to start anytime now:

"But the Mongols have barely killed anyone in days."
"That's because of the walls, Phil."
"Are you sure? Maybe the Mongols aren't that dangerous."
"..."
"I'm just saying, how bad could it be. They can't kill ALL of us"
"That is literally the thing they do."
"But my turnips..."

I swear for the next year I'll be channelling Jayne with Mongols! instead of Butcher's Knife.
posted by Mitheral at 1:49 PM on April 17, 2020 [14 favorites]

I’m a 46 year-old Canadian who hasn’t traveled to the U.S. since Trump’s election, and now I don’t know that I ever will again because America scares the shit out of me and it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:17 PM on April 17, 2020 [18 favorites]

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo roasts Trump over coronavirus response in fiery press conference: 'If he's sitting watching TV, he should go to work'.
posted by Pendragon at 2:43 PM on April 17, 2020 [9 favorites]

I recommend watching the rest of that briefing... Cuomo level-headedly eviscerates Trump, it's fucking glorious.
posted by Pendragon at 2:46 PM on April 17, 2020 [6 favorites]

I was wondering... but even the Amish and Mennonites in PA get it and are cooperating with testing.

The question, still, is how accurate the tests are and their actual penetrance into populations.

Wonder what the Jehovas Witnesess response to testing and potential serum-transfer of antibodies is?

They're against transfusions and in BC, they've been swatted down on that in the past, for life-saving reasons.
posted by porpoise at 3:13 AM on April 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Plague of Jared Kushner
Jared Kushner has gotten yet another nepotistic gig leading the Trump administration’s coronavirus “shadow task force.” The problem is, he doesn’t know anything about COVID-19, just like he doesn’t know anything about immigration reform or Middle East peace.
posted by adamvasco at 6:22 AM on April 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

How Donald Trump Could Reward Governors Who Open Their Economies Early—Or Punish Those Who Don't, Newsweek, Andrew Feinberg, 4/17/20:

Although the Trump administration placed responsibility for lifting social distancing measures and restarting the U.S. economy on the shoulders of the nation's governors, he still has tools to persuade them to move at the pace he wants them to, experts said.

The big one? Money.

The president's control of federal funds is the "major knife" he could use to entice or intimidate governors into lifting quarantine measures early, said Paul Rosenzweig, a former deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Additional federal assistance could fatten cash-strapped state budgets strained further by battling the coronavirus outbreak as a kind of reward for getting the economy rolling again, Rosenzweig, now a senior fellow at the R Street Institute, said.

But money, he added, is only one way to "skin the cat." Trump could also offer—or withhold—federal assistance like personnel, equipment, or access to federal expertise to states that don't move fast enough for his liking. "You can mix and match them any way you want"....

Quid pro quo: I'd like you to do me a favor first.
posted by cenoxo at 6:45 AM on April 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

so the choice is kill people via lack of resources or kill people via pandemic - ah the grand social experiment made possible by the wisdom of the founders to enable each state to choose their path
posted by kokaku at 7:26 AM on April 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

Understanding Hungary’s Authoritarian Response to the Pandemic, Lawfare, Laura Livingston, 4/14/2020:

...While some forbearance of civil liberties is reasonable in the face of a grave threat, the pandemic has already served as an opportunity for would-be authoritarians to consolidate the power they have long coveted.

Hungary’s response to the pandemic is especially alarming. On March 30, the Hungarian parliament voted to allow Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to rule by decree indefinitely, giving him dictatorial powers for at least the foreseeable future. Orbán can suspend existing laws or enact new ones—all with de facto parliamentary approval and without a known end date.

The law also criminalizes spreading false or distorted facts that interfere with the public safety or are “suitable for alarming or agitating” the public, crimes punishable by several years in prison. Concerningly, this language is vague enough to cover anyone who challenges the government’s preferred narratives and handling of the coronavirus. With lower courts already suspended and the path to the Constitutional Court unclear, it’s difficult to envision the legislation being challenged. As legal sociologist Kim Lane Scheppele writes in the Hungarian Spectrum, Orbán’s “emergency gives him everything he ever dreamed of: The absolute freedom to do what he wants.”...

Trump’s Dream Is to Become America’s Viktor Orbán, New York Intelligencer, Jonathan Chait, 12/26/2019.
posted by cenoxo at 8:07 AM on April 18, 2020 [10 favorites]

Jared Kushner has gotten yet another nepotistic gig leading the Trump administration’s coronavirus “shadow task force.” The problem is, he doesn’t know anything about COVID-19, just like he doesn’t know anything about immigration reform or Middle East peace.

Nikki Haley said that "Jared is such a hidden genius that no one understands." I'm not sure whether that says more about Jared's intelligence or Nikki Haley's.
posted by JackFlash at 8:11 AM on April 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

Jared's role is political security officer. His qualifying qualification is trustworthiness to the dear leader.
posted by Mitheral at 8:29 AM on April 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

What I don’t get is… What’s the end game? He convinces states to reopen early. The economy recovers slightly. There’s still six months till the election. In the meantime, a second wave erupts, nobody wants to leave their houses to staff the ostensibly open economy, and everything is clearly traceable back to opening up too early. If this was September I would understand better.
posted by saturday_morning at 8:32 AM on April 18, 2020 [8 favorites]

What I don’t get is… What’s the end game? He convinces states to reopen early. The economy recovers slightly. There’s still six months till the election. In the meantime, a second wave erupts, nobody wants to leave their houses to staff the ostensibly open economy, and everything is clearly traceable back to opening up too early. If this was September I would understand better.

Republicans don't believe in science. So they don't think that far, they just do and pray.
posted by mumimor at 8:34 AM on April 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

the president does not pray. he preys.
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:35 AM on April 18, 2020 [12 favorites]

> What I don’t get is… What’s the end game?

that_mayor_from_jaws.jpg
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:36 AM on April 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

What I don’t get is… What’s the end game?

Every "legit" business he has, and a lot of the graft he has running, rely on people visiting his properties. He has no vision beyond "cash flow, now".
posted by maxwelton at 8:36 AM on April 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

The economy recovers slightly. There’s still six months till the election. In the meantime, a second wave erupts,

from my angle, it's a look in at just how desperate things are in the White House -- you don't get re-elected* in the midst of recession etc. So, rather like Hitler (sorry Godwin) mobilizing children to combat positions as the Allies pushed closer and closer to home toward the end of WW2, it's all fight at this point, who cares about the future? There won't be a future worth considering if there's no Trump in charge.

* because if he doesn't get re-elected, he is going to end up in prison ... or on the lam.
posted by philip-random at 8:42 AM on April 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

What’s the end game?

He doesn't expect anyone to be stupid enough to open up prematurely. Especially not those states that need to be LIBERATED. He wants to be able to blame the governors for the economy tanking when they do the sensible thing and maintain the lockdown. He will also blame them for the spike in deaths if they open early.

In this narrative the democratic governors are both sissy-pants and cruel dictators.
posted by adept256 at 9:03 AM on April 18, 2020 [35 favorites]

My father had an interesting observation today, concerning the stimulus checks - what are the odds that some of the people who receive paper checks might actually save them as souvenirs instead of cashing them?

And a follow-up thought I just had now upon typing that - what's the likelihood that that's what was behind the treasury allowing Trump to sign them, because they thought it might take several of those checks out of circulation and they wouldn't have to cash them ever?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:12 AM on April 18, 2020

Meanwhile, Texas governor Greg Abbott plans to reopen on May 1 (Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, who hasn't issued a stay-at-home order, aims for May 4), and conservatives plan 'Liberate' protests in Maryland, Utah, Texas, California, Arizona, Washington and Colorado.
posted by box at 9:14 AM on April 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

The White House praised hotels for housing doctors. Cities say Trump’s hotels aren’t participating. - Washington Post; David A. Fahrenthold and Joshua Partlow; April 18, 2020

It is possible that Trump’s company is abstaining from these programs because it is concerned about violating the Constitution’s emoluments clauses, which prohibit presidents from taking payments directly from states.

But Trump has argued in legal filings that the clauses are meant to ban bribes, not business transactions. And his companies have previously charged state governments: in 2017, for instance, then-Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) spent $22,000 in state money at Trump’s D.C. hotel. Also, Trump’s company could get around the clauses by giving away rooms free — as some other hotels have done.

These are difficult times for the Trump Organization, which operates 24 hotels and clubs around the world. Now, 18 of those properties are shut down — by choice, or by government order. The shuttered properties once produced hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue per day, according to Trump’s financial disclosures. Now, some have already been closed for weeks.

So far, Trump’s properties have laid off or furloughed more than 2,500 employees, according to government filing and people familiar with their operations. The largest furloughs were at Doral, Trump’s biggest U.S. moneymaker.

posted by ZeusHumms at 9:14 AM on April 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

Why is the speed limit 55mph? If it were 5mph, almost no-one would die in a traffic accident. If it were 100mph, a lot of work would get done a lot faster, but deaths would skyrocket. Someone had to do the grim calculus, trading off between productivity and mortality, and the decision was made at 55mph.

If we all froze in place for two weeks, it would be over in two weeks. But everything would stop working. Or we could go to 100mph and millions die. Obviously, we need to find our 55.

Obviously 55 is not allowing it to tear through the population unchecked, which is what the maga crowd seem to want.
posted by adept256 at 9:16 AM on April 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

RE: Trump Crime Family cash flow. Keep in mind that it appears many people are bribing Trump via rack rate bookings at his properties that they don't show up for and don't cancel. It's likely that the shutdown of Doral etc is not only affecting his bottom line it is also blocking a significant risk free path to bribe the President.
posted by Mitheral at 9:25 AM on April 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

It is possible that Trump’s company is abstaining from these programs because it is concerned about violating the Constitution’s emoluments clauses, which prohibit presidents from taking payments directly from states.

Possibly, but emoluments haven't bothered The Poor Donald thus far. It may simply be that a hospital room in a 'recently disinfected' postwar luxury hotel won't have quite the same cachet as a room that remained untouched for the duration.
posted by cenoxo at 9:37 AM on April 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

What’s the end game?

From their point of view, end games are a tomorrow problem. The closed country is their today problem, not coronavirus.

The actual coronavirus itself was never the today problem before either. The problem was the experts' projections that were dominating the conversation, which forced the administration to make a show of taking action--however little they actually did (and littler still, accomplished). For them, everything has been the fault of scientists and the media since the beginning.
posted by Pryde at 9:38 AM on April 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

I just wanted to say that I am very inspired by California Governor Gavin Newsom's leadership. He has put together a coalition to help California emerge successfully from the recession. The coalition includes a very impressive group of Democratic and Republican leaders, business leaders and health care experts, and adjacent states. I think the momentum he is building now will pay off really well in financial and government sectors. He is sure to get additional participation from other states. Effective governing will be difficult for this incompetent, nepotistic president to counter. I am super stoked that California is able to assist in leading the way out of this fiasco. No state left behind. Hopefully, the recent vote in Wisconsin is the harbinger of the Blue Tsunami. Fingers crossed.
posted by effluvia at 9:58 AM on April 18, 2020 [12 favorites]

what are the odds that some of the people who receive paper checks might actually save them as souvenirs instead of cashing them?

A cheque with Donald's name on it that doesn't bounce is a rarity.
posted by adept256 at 10:31 AM on April 18, 2020 [6 favorites]

what are the odds that some of the people who receive paper checks might actually save them as souvenirs instead of cashing them?

Don't most banks have mobile deposit now? Then you can do both. So relieved I had direct deposit.
posted by kimdog at 10:46 AM on April 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

Given the the toilet paper shortage, I have a proposal for a high-roller (heh) prestige branding opportunity.

Trump brand toilet paper, 1200$ per sheet.
posted by adept256 at 10:58 AM on April 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

Two-Thirds of the World’s Passengers Jets Are Grounded Amid COVID-19 Pandemic. Here's What That Means., TIME; Anurag Kotoky, David Stringer, Ragini Saxena / Bloomberg; 4/17/2020:

...More than 16,000 passenger jets are grounded worldwide, according to industry researcher Cirium, as the coronavirus obliterates travel and puts unprecedented strain on airline finances. Finding the right space and conditions for 62% of the world’s planes and keeping them airworthy have suddenly become priorities for 2020.

Aircraft can’t simply be dusted back into action. They need plenty of work and attention while in storage, from maintenance of hydraulics and flight-control systems to protection against insects and wildlife — nesting birds can be a problem. Then there’s humidity, which can corrode parts and damage interiors. Even when parked on runways, planes are often loaded with fuel to keep them from rocking in the wind and to ensure tanks stay lubricated.

“Nobody thought this magnitude of preservation would need to be done,” said Anand Bhaskar, chief executive officer of New Delhi-based Air Works, a plane repair and maintenance company. “Parking space is a problem. These are logistics nightmares which we’re trying to work around.”...

COVID-19: Grounded Airplanes Photography, Sam Chui Aviation & Travel, 3/26/2020.
posted by cenoxo at 11:30 AM on April 18, 2020 [8 favorites]

Pilot maintenance is a problem too. They have to do a certain number of takeoffs and landings to maintain their license currency, and need check rides and skills tests at longer periodicity - but people are already missing theirs. Even if you could maintain all those planes ready to go, getting flying again is going to require some sort of deviation from the rules to bootstrap all those pilots back to certification.
posted by ctmf at 11:41 AM on April 18, 2020 [8 favorites]

I wonder if, when thinking that Trump wants to re-open too early in order for his (and his pals') personal cash flow from shuttered businesses to resume, we aren't following the money far enough. The amount of money that flowed into the coffers of Trump's class from the stimulus bill was enormous. The longer the disease is a major problem, the more such bills will have to be passed. In thinking that Trump and his cronies and/or handlers are idiots for not realizing or caring that re-opening will extend the plague, we may be giving them too much credit. Maybe that's exactly what they want to happen, to keep the gusher of taxpayer money flooding upward.
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 2:11 PM on April 18, 2020 [10 favorites]

Will the Coronavirus Spare the World’s Most Remote Places?, The New Yorker, Caroline Lester, 4/17/2020:

...As of this writing, there are two hundred and ninety-one confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Alaska, one of the lowest case counts in the country. The majority of these cases are in Anchorage and Fairbanks. Unalaska, along with most other more remote parts of the state, has been spared so far. On a local radio show, the city manager, mayor, and fire chief were asked whether they thought it would be possible to avoid an outbreak on the island. After a five-second pause, Erin Reinders, the city manager, said, “Nobody wants to answer that question. I am a very positive person, but the likelihood of any one of us stopping a virus from coming here is very challenging.”....

Living in a remote place may keep you safe longer from coronavirus, but if it finds you, the further you are from healthcare that could save you. You can hide, but then where will you go?
posted by cenoxo at 3:54 PM on April 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

OMG, I know I shouldn't do it, but I've been hate-watching the Coronavirus Task Force Briefings every day for the past week, and they are uniformly awful. Frequently I have had to check to make sure I have not mistakenly clicked on the link for the previous day's briefing, because The Hateful One says the SAME STUFF EVERY DAY -- repeating the same lies, airing the same grievances, hurling the same abuse. So yeah, they're always terrible, but today's was even worse. It was basically an hour-long unhinged rant, with a brief break in the middle for the hapless Dr Birx. I don't know how anyone could watch this behavior and not conclude that it's the product of a disordered mind -- either intoxicated or afflicted by illness. It's easy enough to find a link if you want to -- I can't say that I recommend watching it because i found it so deeply disturbing, but in a way I think that people SHOULD watch, just to see what exactly we're dealing with. It's truly very scary. Honest to god, my heart is pounding -- it's that frightening. If I drank I would definitely be having a drink right now.
posted by littlecatfeet at 5:07 PM on April 18, 2020 [16 favorites]

Guardian: Donald Trump is talking about national resources for tackling the coronavirus. Here are a couple of fact checks.

Daniel Dale (@ddale8) Trump on testing: "I inherited broken junk."

There was no inherited test for the novel coronavirus. April 18, 2020

Coronavirus Testing Needs to Triple Before the U.S. Can Reopen, Experts Say (NYT, Keith Collins, Apr. 17, 2020)

A shortage of test kits and technical flaws in the United States significantly delayed more widespread testing of the virus, letting it spread undetected for weeks. With more than 695,000 cases as of Friday, the country has the highest number of known cases in the world.

What we know about delays in coronavirus testing (WaPo, Apr. 18, 2020)

Lack of widespread testing in the early weeks of the outbreak means the official U.S. death toll is an underestimation. The CDC count includes only deaths in which the presence of the coronavirus is confirmed in a laboratory test.

posted by katra at 5:18 PM on April 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

When Baystate Health, which runs four hospitals in and around Springfield, MA, found an out-of-state distributor with masks and respirators, it had them hidden in two food-service trucks that were to take different routes to MA, in the hopes of avoiding the feds. But just as they were about to wire payment, two FBI agents showed up at the warehouse, alerted to the shipment. Fortunately, Baystate had some congressmen on speed dial and they convinced the FBI and DHS that the shipment was too small for them to worry about.
posted by adamg at 5:44 PM on April 18, 2020 [20 favorites]

Trump’s plans to reopen the country face major obstacles (Politico, Apr. 18, 2020)

“What we’re trying to understand is what does it take to shift from full social distancing,” to a less severe but still significant distancing that will have to be maintained for some time, said Christopher Murray, who directs the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and whose influential models have been cited at White House briefings. “It’s like buying insurance,” he said. “You really need to avoid silly risks like large gatherings.”

Trump breaks with his own guidelines to back conservative anti-quarantine protesters (Politico, Apr. 17, 2020)

Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington had an even stronger reaction, issuing a lengthy statement condemning Trump’s rhetoric. His tweets “encourage illegal and dangerous acts” and put “millions of people in danger” of contracting the coronavirus, the governor said.

Protesters decry stay-at-home orders in Maryland, Texas and Ohio capitals (Guardian, Apr. 18, 2020)

Hundreds of people stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the Texas Capitol on Saturday, chanting “Fire Fauci!” as part of a protest organized by the conspiracy theory site InfoWars. [...] In Columbus, Ohio, hundreds of protesters gathered, some chanting “We are not sheep”. [...] In Texas, where the anti-shutdown protest was organized by conspiracy theorists, the rhetoric was more extreme, with an organizer referring to the “coronavirus hoax,” and the “narratives” of the “Deep State”. Alex Jones, the InfoWars founder, stood at the center of a packed crowd of hundreds of people on Saturday afternoon and bellowed into a bullhorn, praising attendees for resisting tyranny. Few of the Texas protesters were wearing masks.

posted by katra at 5:44 PM on April 18, 2020 [6 favorites]

The worse thing about the press conferences is that Trump requires these important people like Birx and Fauci to stand around as stage props while he rambles on and on for a couple of hours a day. Given travel to and from the White House these people are spending at least a third to half of their days doing nothing of value. Nothing is getting done because Trump needs these people on constant standby to stroke his ego in front of the press.

A lot of people are familiar with the experience that the amount of useful work done is inversely proportional to the amount of useless management meetings per day.
posted by JackFlash at 5:45 PM on April 18, 2020 [19 favorites]

I must thank my Trump toady of a Governor for reopening Florida's beaches. I was getting tired of the slowed spread of disease anyway. I'd also like to thank the people in the media who captioned photos of the completely predictable crowding as "socially distanced people enjoying the beach."

Unfortunately, since the consequences won't be seen for two weeks, I suspect there will be more stupid decisions coming between now and then. Good thing Trump has let us have supplies so our hospitals have a chance.
posted by wierdo at 5:56 PM on April 18, 2020 [6 favorites]

And here is a Miami Herald article covering the #FloridaMorons and one mayor's complete denial of the reality of what he unleashed. (And our county mayor's apparent determination to follow suit despite our county making up over a third of all COVID-19 cases in Florida)
posted by wierdo at 6:51 PM on April 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

Studying Fascist Propaganda by Day, Watching Trump’s Coronavirus Updates by Night, New Yorker, Andrew Marantz, 4/17/2020:

PHOTO: Responding to the coronavirus, Donald Trump is “acting the way strongmen always act in a time of crisis,” the philosophy professor Jason Stanley says.

In 2018, Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor at Yale, published “How Fascism Works.” Although it was a slim volume, it ranged broadly, citing experimental psychology, legal theory, and neo-Nazi blogs; although it was by an academic philosopher, it was a popular book that prioritized current events over syllogisms. Viktor Orbán is mentioned more times in the book than Hannah Arendt. Donald Trump shows up dozens of times, and he is portrayed not as a distractible bozo but as a concerted aspiring strongman. “Fascist politics can dehumanize minority groups even when an explicitly fascist state does not arise,” Stanley writes.

Elsewhere, in a chapter called “Sodom and Gomorrah,” he argues that Trump’s habit of extolling the heartland while decrying urban squalor “makes sense in the context of a more general fascist politics, in which cities are seen as centers of disease and pestilence.” Stanley couldn’t have known that many American cities were, in fact, about to become centers of disease, but he could have predicted that Trump would use such a development to his rhetorical advantage. “Some people would like to see New York quarantined because it’s a hot spot,” Trump said, late last month. “Heavily infected.”...

...“Ever since my book came out, I’ve been fighting with critics who go, ‘You’re overreacting, you’re exaggerating, it’s irresponsible to call this fascism or that fascism,’ ” Stanley said. “I’ll point to a step Trump has taken—he’s using ICE to round up children, he’s surrounding himself with loyalists and generals, he’s using the apparatus of government to dig up dirt on a political rival—and the response is always ‘Sure, that’s bad, but it’s not a big enough step to justify the F-word.’ I’m starting to feel like the it’s-not-a-big-enough-step people won’t be happy until they’re in concentration camps.”...

As cases climb and deaths increase, will the coronoavirus pandemic be Trump's Reichstag fire?
posted by cenoxo at 8:16 PM on April 18, 2020 [14 favorites]

Virus-fueled conspiracy theories take aim at hospitals (AP, Apr. 17, 2020)

Hospitals aren’t the only targets of the far-right fringe during the pandemic. The coronavirus has breathed fresh life into old conspiracy theories and inspired a mishmash of new ones, with a cast of villains that includes Bill Gates, 5G wireless technology, the United Nations and President Donald Trump’s political foes. New York is also the setting for one of the wildest virus-related conspiracy theories circulating on social media — that the pandemic is masking a military operation to rescue thousands of deformed “mole children” from the clutches of sex traffickers in underground tunnels beneath medical tents recently erected in Central Park.

Many of the social media accounts driving that baseless story and the #FilmYourHospital campaign belong to followers of “QAnon,” a far-right, apocalyptic conspiracy theory that believes Trump is waging a secret campaign against “deep state” enemies and Satan-worshiping Democrats who prey on children.

posted by katra at 8:45 PM on April 18, 2020 [9 favorites]

"Mole children"? Holy fuck, what is happening? How do we stop this nonsense?

Jesus wept
posted by Windopaene at 8:54 PM on April 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

Excuse me, change that to madness...
posted by Windopaene at 9:07 PM on April 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

A lot of people are familiar with the experience that the amount of useful work done is inversely proportional to the amount of useless management meetings per day.

FWIW, I would begin my day at 6am, so I had a good 3 hours to get work done before meetings started.
posted by mikelieman at 9:20 PM on April 18, 2020

Putin’s Long War Against American Science (William J. Broad, NYT, Apr. 14, 2020 / MSN reprint)

As the pandemic has swept the globe, it has been accompanied by a dangerous surge of false information — an “infodemic,” according to the World Health Organization. Analysts say that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has played a principal role in the spread of false information as part of his wider effort to discredit the West and destroy his enemies from within.

[...] An investigation by The New York Times — involving scores of interviews as well as a review of scholarly papers, news reports, and Russian documents, tweets and TV shows — found that Mr. Putin has spread misinformation on issues of personal health for more than a decade. His agents have repeatedly planted and spread the idea that viral epidemics — including flu outbreaks, Ebola and now the coronavirus — were sown by American scientists. The disinformers have also sought to undermine faith in the safety of vaccines, a triumph of public health that Mr. Putin himself promotes at home. [...] “It’s all about seeding lack of trust in government institutions,” Peter Pomerantsev, author of “Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible,” a 2014 book on Kremlin disinformation, said in an interview.

posted by katra at 10:20 PM on April 18, 2020 [12 favorites]

Putin’s Long War Against American Science

It's interesting, in a terrible way, that the Russian information war on the US is based on a simple analysis of the real weaknesses of the USA. The healthcare "system" is a real weakness, racism is a real weakness, inequality is a real weakness. Russia has some of the same problems, but that doesn't matter, it's not about the actual truth or being right.

The same with Brexit: the austerity regime after 2008 was a policy mistake in EU, (though the truth is that the Tories took it far beyond EU intentions in the UK).

It's time Western governments relearn what they knew during the Cold War: we have to have a solid society to counter the disinformation war.
posted by mumimor at 2:38 AM on April 19, 2020 [17 favorites]

I just got a campaign email from Ted Cruz in which he:

1) Praised Trump
2) Said he wanted to "reopen" the economy and was very non-specific on what that might mean.
3) Said he "urged" the administration to increase PPE production. Did not say "Trump" in that one. Apparently it's Trump when he wants to praise, but "the Administration" when he's urging? I'm a bit confused there.
4) Said we needed to weaken FDA protections to get stuff to market faster
5) Blamed China
6) Praised Trump
7) Blamed China
8) Called for oil industry bailouts
9) Praised Trump
10) Blamed China

and finally

11) Wanted America to become independent of China for medical supplies by becoming dependent on Israel for medical supplies.

And yes, all those repetitions of praising Trump and blaming China were separate bullet points in the email in the order listed.

So basically FUD, nothing specific about anything important, and lots of talking up "reopening" the economy in vague terms.
posted by sotonohito at 5:43 AM on April 19, 2020 [10 favorites]

There's a facebook group called Reopen Minnesota

It's time to OPEN OUR STATE and STOP Gov Walz' 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... See More

There's also a facebook group call Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine.

It's time to OPEN UP PENNSYLVANIA and STOP Gov Wolf's 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... See More

Now if you follow their links, reopenmd.com redirects to minnesotagunrights.org, and reopenpa.com redirects to pennsylvaniafirearmsassociation.org. All of these domain names were registered on the same day, in Florida. We've checked, and there is a reopenVA.com, same registration. There is one for every single state.

This is ASTROTURFING. If you wondered what that looks like this is it. By who? I dunno, DeVos? This is organised, it's not from the ground up. Not every single state spontaneously decided to LIBERATE, this is a national campaign.

Thank you to this reddit sleuth for figuring this out, there are more details in their post.
posted by adept256 at 6:38 AM on April 19, 2020 [39 favorites]

NRA?
posted by saturday_morning at 6:40 AM on April 19, 2020

Remember when India was under colonial rule and Westerners devalued Indian life? Well, we don't have to imagine any more; we're about to live through a horrific repeat:
Trump-Backed Drug to Be Tested on Thousands in Mumbai Slums.
posted by adamvasco at 6:46 AM on April 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

The other side of the bot/fox REOPEN campaign - Obama, Bill Gates, WHO, and anyone else who can credibly fault Trump for not being prepared is part of the Conspiracy To Shut America Down. Why were they all so interested in pandemics before one happened, HMMMM?

So basically now having a brain and foresight, instead of turning you into a valued Ally who might have something useful to contribute about pandemic response, means you were in on "creating" the virus.
posted by benzenedream at 8:07 AM on April 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

Protests against US stay-at-home orders gain support from rightwing figures (Guardian, Apr. 16, 2020)

Demonstrations against coronavirus measures are spreading across the US, with people holding rallies in North Carolina, Utah, Kentucky and Ohio in recent days. A protest is planned in Virginia on Thursday, while a Texas rally, pushed by a host on the rightwing conspiracy theory website Infowars, is set to target the state capitol in Austin on Saturday. Despite health officials stressing the importance of stay-at-home measures, prominent figures on the right, including Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and rightwing website the Gateway Pundit have begun to champion the conservative effort.

‘You Have to Disobey’: Protesters Gather to Defy Stay-at-Home Orders (NYT, Apr. 16, 2020, Updated Apr. 17, 2020)

Many of the rallies across the country reached people through conservative Facebook pages and personalities who promoted the events. Suzzanne Monk, a political activist in Washington, D.C., who advocates for Mr. Trump, said she had created the ReOpen America page on Facebook, and a corresponding political action committee [...] One of the first substantial protests, in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday, was organized through similar Facebook groups. It was also given a boost by prominent local conservatives like Melissa Ackison, a Republican candidate for State Senate and a supporter of Mr. Trump, who said she promoted the event on her social media accounts, on talk radio and through her campaign’s email list.

[...] Owen Shroyer, a host of a show on Infowars, the far-right website founded by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, is organizing a rally in Austin, Texas, on Saturday. He told his audience this week that he had no fears of either getting arrested or of getting infected with the coronavirus, the spread of which he claimed was a scheme by the Chinese Communist Party and the “Deep State” to destroy the economy and undermine the Trump presidency.

posted by katra at 8:29 AM on April 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

I can't think of another time when people were so clearly protesting for the "right" to participate in OPERATION FOOT-BULLET. I mean I guess this happens most times there is a quarantine, at least on a minor level. And I suppose people without healthcare who are against M4A are in this boat and other voting against your interests happens too but still *mind blown*.
posted by Mitheral at 9:05 AM on April 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

Except that it wasn't really a thing except for some minor grumbling until some ~~rich assholes~~Russian Toadies working to ensure Putin is allowed to sideline the US decided they needed to stir up some shit and Trump tweeted in support.

Remember, there is documentary evidence that the right wing gun nut organizations that are behind these protests are funded by and take the advice of Russian oligarchs who have managed to remain in Putin's good graces.
posted by wierdo at 9:20 AM on April 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

‘Very, Very Scary’: Officials Dumbfounded as Florida Beaches Reopen, 3 Days After Death Spike (Daily Beast)

Despite the mayor’s warnings, hundreds of people flocked to the beaches in Duval County Friday, some engaging group sports like volleyball or spikeball. [...] “When a person doesn’t believe in science, they do dumb things,” Lake Worth Beach City Commissioner Omari Hardy tweeted. “When a person in power doesn't believe in science, they do dumb things that hurt the public. This move is so dumb that I had to make sure it wasn’t fake news. You guys, it isn’t fake news.”

Governors say much more testing is needed. (NYT)

The governors challenged remarks by Vice President Mike Pence during a briefing on Friday where he said that “we have a sufficient amount of testing to meet the requirements of Phase One reopening if state governors choose to do that.”

Mr. Northam called the assertion “delusional,” saying that Virginia lacks swabs needed to conduct the tests. In Michigan, Ms. Whitmer said, the state could handle “double or triple” the number of tests “if we had the swabs or reagents.” Mr. Hogan said that it was “absolutely false” to claim that governors were not acting aggressively enough to pursue as much testing as possible.

US governors feel heat to reopen from protesters, president (AP)

Public health officials said the ability to test enough people and trace contacts of the infected is crucial before easing restrictions, and that infections could surge anew unless people continue to take precautions.

posted by katra at 9:32 AM on April 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

This is ASTROTURFING.

Sure is. And there's nothing being outraged can do about it. A majority of Americans are credulous sheep, more interested in having their emotions and existing beliefs validated than knowing the truth and making hard decisions. There's nothing in the short term we can do about that either.

So the question turns to - given those things, what's the plan? Mass country-scale cooperative social distancing is off the table. Focus on the next best thing. Start telling people how they, personally, can care for themselves and others, given that they are going to have to go to work. They are going to encounter people who don't want to do a damn thing. They are going to endure ridicule. Wish it weren't so, but it is, and the plan needs to account for that.
posted by ctmf at 9:32 AM on April 19, 2020 [3 favorites]

Poll: Nearly three-quarters of Americans say worst is still to come from coronavirus (Politico, Apr. 16, 2020)

A Pew Research Center survey finds that the majority of Americans don’t see an end in sight for the pandemic, with 73 percent of those polled saying that when it comes to the problems facing the U.S., the worst still hasn’t happened. The poll also found that the public is overwhelmingly cautious when it comes to reopening the economy and limiting restrictions on public activity: 66 percent of respondents are concerned that state governments will lift public restrictions too quickly, while 32 percent are worried it won’t happen quickly enough.

Trump's Job Rating Slides; U.S. Satisfaction Tumbles (Gallup, Apr. 16, 2020)

These data are from an April 1-14 Gallup poll. The six-point decline in the president's approval rating is the sharpest drop Gallup has recorded for the Trump presidency so far, largely because Trump's ratings have been highly stable and have yet to reach the historical average for presidents (back to 1945) of 53%. [...] Congress may be enjoying a rally of its own, and one that may be persisting.

posted by katra at 9:39 AM on April 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

Oh and the Trump crime family is going to siphon money off of anything we do and be a competing mob. Another fact to be taken as given.
posted by ctmf at 9:40 AM on April 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

Personally, I've been watching the COVID infection rate in Russia (started out slow, but they're catching up) and wondering when that would start to impact the troll farm operations? I know it's all online work, obviously, but I assume it's centralized physically for security reasons.
Will our online environment become less toxic in a similar way to our physical environment benefiting from less pollution?
posted by ButteryMales at 9:41 AM on April 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

shooting yourself in the foot while stepping on your dick

the demonstrations are gaining steam
but are just a bunch of hot air
massing uncritically as the bodycount peaks
the mouthbreathers have a bad case of the vapors
we'll see how they shout in two weeks
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:55 AM on April 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Why the 2020 Election Will Be A Mess Part II: Beyond Russian Disinformation (Alex Finley, Asha Rangappa and John Sipher, Just Security, March 9, 2020)

Russian intelligence has a history of building relationships with many far-right groups, in order to exploit their anger and drive violence. As Michael Carpenter wrote in The Atlantic, Russian President Vladimir Putin exploited fight clubs, motorcycle clubs, neo-Nazi soccer hooligans, anywhere and everywhere you find angry white men ready to fight. Carpenter wrote, “These groups serve as the perfect unwitting agents to accomplish Moscow’s twin goals of destabilizing Western societies and co-opting Western business and political elites.”

[...] While no data has been released publicly about ties between Russian intelligence and extremist groups in the United States, we should not underestimate the possibility that such ties exist and that these groups could be used to further polarize society and to scare off protesters, demonstrators, and eventually voters. We know Russian intelligence has aimed to infiltrate conservative groups in the United States, including the National Rifle Association (NRA) and evangelical groups.

[...] The American public needs to be aware of the tactics our enemies are likely to utilize as we barrel toward November. The more we understand their actions and our vulnerabilities, the better we can control how we consume and share information and how we react to those trying to bring out the worst in us.

posted by katra at 9:56 AM on April 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

It seems like the real question is how we get the media to treat these fringe groups (and they are fringe: even most gun owners don't agree with them) like the Moonies rather than the representatives of any significant fraction of the public.

Historically, the media has aired the views of these organizations because they were considered to be, and legitimately were, speaking for a large swath of the public. That has been increasingly less true since the early 2000s and at this point they are representative of nobody. Both we and the media have failed to internalize this new reality.
posted by wierdo at 10:04 AM on April 19, 2020 [10 favorites]

While no data has been released publicly about ties between Russian intelligence and extremist groups in the United States, we should not underestimate the possibility that such ties exist

The Mueller report was jammed full of hardcore evidence of this. I know it's been 9000 years since it came out, but I remember that being in it.
posted by adept256 at 10:10 AM on April 19, 2020 [19 favorites]

It seems like the real question is how we get the media to treat these fringe groups (and they are fringe: even most gun owners don't agree with them) like the Moonies rather than the representatives of any significant fraction of the public.

The Washington Post has this headline today: Small protests erupt Saturday over some state actions to combat coronavirus
posted by mumimor at 10:13 AM on April 19, 2020 [10 favorites]

Trump’s ‘Opening Our Country Council’ Runs Into Its Own Opening Problems (NYT, Apr. 15, 2020)

Mr. Trump opened the call by saying that “testing is under control” in the country. But after each executive was given a minute or two to provide his or her overview of what was needed to reopen the economy, there was a wide consensus that more testing was needed before the economy could reopen, according to two people who participated on the call.

Trump’s attempt to enlist businesses in reopening push gets off to rocky start (WaPo, Apr. 15, 2020)

On one of the morning calls, the point most emphasized by the chief executives was the need for massive testing, which they said would be necessary to create the psychological circumstances for the nation to feel comfortable returning to offices, restaurants and recreation, according to a person familiar with the call.

Trump’s call with Wall Street didn’t go as planned (Politico, Apr. 15, 2020)

WALL STREET TO TRUMP: KEEP IT SHUT — The White House held a call this morning with top Wall Street titans and other senior bankers and financiers to talk about how to reopen the economy, part of a barrage of phone confabs between President Donald Trump and executives from industries including hospitality, health care, technology, construction, sports and many more. [...] the preferred approach is take the big hits now, get the virus in check, and restore people’s sense of safety while providing them with as much financial support as possible. Only then can the economy truly start to crawl back toward anything resembling normal.

Powerful GOP allies propel Trump effort to reopen economy (AP, Apr. 15, 2020)

“We have to learn to live with this,” said Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks, which is holding weekly virtual town halls with members of Congress, igniting an activist base of thousands of supporters across the nation to back up the effort. [...] These Republicans warn that the public health emphasis has failed to take into account the broader societal toll of a prolonged shutdown and potential for a Great Depression. The government cannot keep throwing around money to prop up the economy, they say. Toomey worries that diseases of despair, including substance abuse, will deepen with unemployment and rising poverty, and supply chain disruptions could lead to civil unrest.

posted by katra at 10:32 AM on April 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

These Republicans warn that the public health emphasis has failed to take into account the broader societal toll of a prolonged shutdown and potential for a Great Depression. The government cannot keep throwing around money to prop up the economy, they say.

Well, it could be over in two weeks if you'd be a leader and get behind it instead of sabotaging it.
posted by ctmf at 10:48 AM on April 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Virus models predict possible outcomes. We can fight to stop the worst ones. (William Hanage and Helen Jenkins, WaPo Perspective, Apr. 14, 2020, Updated Apr. 17, 2020)

The model that’s now getting the most attention in the United States — both from the news media and from the White House — is a very different sort of beast. With an interactive website and daily updated figures for individual states that estimate the time to the peak strain on health-care systems, the work by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington has made an enormous impact. The IHME model makes drastically different estimates of the total burden of disease and death from the pandemic than the IC model does. [...] The IHME model is not actually a model of infectious disease because it doesn’t include transmission among people. It just assumes that new infections build up and then fade away. Nor does it model the process of physical distancing that is assumed to make them fade away. It’s an extreme example of a simplifying assumption. [...]

The IHME model then works by taking the epidemic curves of previous outbreaks, in the form of numbers of deaths, and fitting those curves to the reported status of the pandemic in different states. But it also makes some odd assumptions. A caveat atop the website says clearly: “COVID-19 projections assuming full social distancing through May 2020.” Yet we are nowhere near “full social distancing.” In fact, an analysis of cellphone data has revealed that in some parts of the United States, people appear to be behaving as though we were not in the midst of the biggest public health crisis of our lifetimes.

Poll: Majority fear coronavirus restrictions will be lifted too soon (Politico)

According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday, 58 percent of registered voters expressed concern about a loosening of restrictions, compared with 32 percent who worried that the restrictions would stay in place for too long. Three percent said they were concerned about both scenarios.

posted by katra at 11:01 AM on April 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

It's interesting, in a terrible way, that the Russian information war on the US is based on a simple analysis of the real weaknesses of the USA. The healthcare "system" is a real weakness, racism is a real weakness, inequality is a real weakness. Russia has some of the same problems, but that doesn't matter, it's not about the actual truth or being right.

It's more than that. Paraphrasing Timothy Snyder, it's a way to maintain power for an authoritarian. It is hard for Putin to retain power longterm when people see alternatives of a better life elsewhere. It's impossible for Putin to provide that better life for Russia's people, it's much easier to encourage division and destruction elsewhere so the message becomes "See? It's the same everywhere" and encourage the status quo.
posted by mazola at 11:03 AM on April 19, 2020 [13 favorites]

It's impossible for Putin to provide that better life for Russia's people, it's much easier to encourage division and destruction elsewhere so the message becomes "See? It's the same everywhere" and encourage the status quo.

Putin’s Bleak Covid-19 Admission: ‘We Don’t Have Much to Brag About’ (Anton Troianovski, NYT, Apr. 13, 2020 / MSN reprint)

So confident was the Kremlin that it dispatched planeloads of aid to Italy, Serbia and even Kennedy Airport in New York, signaling that Russia had stockpiled so many masks and ventilators that it was able to share some of them with less fortunate countries.

But it has become clear in recent days that Russia is unlikely to escape a severe hit by the pandemic, presenting an existential test to the country’s teetering health system and a new challenge to the aura of rising confidence and competence projected by Mr. Putin’s Kremlin.

posted by katra at 11:34 AM on April 19, 2020 [4 favorites]

The psychology that led Americans to think the US wouldn't be affected is even more the case for Russia. Also, Bolsanaro in Brazil.

Apparently, there's something about epidemics that trigger people's xenophobia and to lead them to see the afflicted as responsible for their fate, unlike themselves. "We" don't deserve this, people think—and, regardless, it's "out there" and not "in here". When disease comes, as it will, then people look for neighbors to villify.

I've had an enormously difficult time processing the racism that we've seen. Not that I have a hard time believing people are racist, but that anyone would connect ethnicity to a virus. Subsequently, I've come to think that there's something inherent in the human psyche triggered by disease and contagion that shoves reason right out the window. Something ugly.

I'm not immune—I find myself far angrier at these stupid protesters than I ought to be. It's reasonable and warranted to be angry with them, as they are endangering others. But my reaction is stronger than that: it's as if a part of me is looking for a villain toward which I can direct all my fear and anger, and there they are, made to order, right from central casting.

Again, I'm not saying they're not wrong or that I or anyone else ought not be angry with them. It's just that I sense something excessive in myself—and if I'm finding it easy to villify and hate and rage, it's likely also true for many other people.

This is similar to the Russia thing because we're all sort of being hoisted by our own petards. Our fear leads us to draw lines between us that don't mean anything to the virus.

Across many levels, from continental to national to regional, from the beginning of this to the present people have proclaimed the ways in which they are different, that they don't face the same risks as other groups...only to find too late that they were wrong. And it keeps happening, no one seems to be learning from these mistakes.

There's also a kind of global exceptionalism in historical terms, too. This is relatively mild as pandemics go, but the world was mostly totally unprepared for it and, when it came, almost no one has been able to accept the possibility that we're living through a profound and traumatic change and that things aren't going to go back to the way they were by July. This is normal human psychology, I guess, but it's very disappointing when this sort of thinking drives public policy.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 1:25 PM on April 19, 2020 [13 favorites]

A thought on the ginned-up protests. From the photos I've seen, it would appear that all the idiots at all those protests together are still a smaller group than the number of people dying every day from this pandemic. I feel like that should be the headline, every last time.
posted by bcd at 1:56 PM on April 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

San Francisco plague of 1900–1904

Widespread racism towards Chinese immigrants was socially accepted during the initial time of the Chinatown plague in the early 1900s. Standard social rights and privileges were oftentimes denied to the Chinese people, as shown in the way American landlords would refuse to maintain their own property when renting to Chinese immigrants.[54] The living conditions in the Chinatown community reflected the social norms and racial inequalities during that time for Chinese immigrants. Housing for the majority of Chinatown Chinese immigrants were not fit nor adequate for human living, but with scarce housing options and American landlords unwilling to provide equal and fair housing, Chinese immigrants were left little option other than to live with such housing disparities.[54] Discrimination against Chinese Americans culminated in two acts, the quarantine of San Francisco's Chinatown, and the permanent extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.[55] The extended quarantine of Chinatown was motivated more by racist images of Chinese Americans as carriers of disease than by actual evidence of the presence of Bubonic plague[56]

They forced the Chinese into slums, and when the unsanitary conditions caused a plague, they blamed them. This has happened many times in American history. Yellow peril stuff. It's nothing new. Blaming the 'other' is universal throughout history.

We're back to blaming the Chinese again. It's a well worn song for a reason.
posted by adept256 at 1:57 PM on April 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

EU offers 'heartfelt apology' to Italy over coronavirus response (Guardian, Apr. 16, 2020)

As the World Health Organization warned that the continent remained firmly “in the eye of the storm”, the president of the European commission said on Thursday that truth was needed to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic – including political honesty. “Too many were not there on time when Italy needed a helping hand at the very beginning,” Ursula von der Leyen told the European parliament. “And yes, for that it is right that Europe as a whole offers a heartfelt apology.”

Early in the crisis, both France and Germany imposed export bans on vital medical equipment, while no EU country initially responded to Italy’s call for aid via the bloc’s emergency mechanism. While healthcare policy and provision is the responsibility of member states, the EU is meant to support cooperation between them. [...] Von der Leyen’s direct apology went further than a previous statement in which she she chided member states for their “only-for-me response”.

posted by katra at 2:03 PM on April 19, 2020 [7 favorites]

Millions of U.S. citizens won’t get help from stimulus checks because their spouses or parents are unauthorized immigrants — U.S. citizens and authorized immigrants in mixed-status families are left out of federal aid because of restrictions against unauthorized immigrants., Dallas Morning News, Dianne Solis & María Méndez, 4/16/2020:

Christina Segundo is angry. She’s a U.S. citizen, raising four children in Fort Worth with her husband. Friends around her are receiving $1,200 or more under the government’s colossal stimulus effort.

But Segundo gets nothing. She and her immigrant husband file taxes jointly and he uses a federal ITIN, an individual taxpayer identification number. Such couples have been surgically excluded from help.

Millions of U.S.citizens will get no federal stimulus assistance under the $2 trillion pandemic aid package because there are also unauthorized immigrants in their families: The CARES Act excludes unauthorized immigrants and most U.S. citizens or legal immigrant spouses who file taxes jointly with unauthorized immigrants or immigrants without a Social Security number....

Immigration rules + families + stimulation funds = exclusions. Details in the article.
posted by cenoxo at 4:47 PM on April 19, 2020 [9 favorites]

Americans at World Health Organization transmitted real-time information about coronavirus to Trump administration (Karen DeYoung, Lena H. Sun and Emily Rauhala; Washington Post; April 19, 2020

More than a dozen U.S. researchers, physicians and public health experts, many of them from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were working full time at the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization as the novel coronavirus emerged late last year and transmitted real-time information about its discovery and spread in China to the Trump administration, according to U.S. and international officials.

A number of CDC staff members are regularly detailed to work at the WHO in Geneva as part of a rotation that has operated for years. Senior Trump-appointed health officials also consulted regularly at the highest levels with the WHO as the crisis unfolded, the officials said.

The presence of so many U.S. officials undercuts President Trump’s assertion that the WHO’s failure to communicate the extent of the threat, born of a desire to protect China, is largely responsible for the rapid spread of the virus in the United States.

posted by ZeusHumms at 5:03 PM on April 19, 2020 [11 favorites]

We're back to blaming the Chinese again.

and what if the chinese government, not people, were responsible to some degree for mishandling this situation?

i'm not sure why it's alright to keep pointing the finger at the russian government for interfering with our politics, but it's not alright to wonder if the chinese government has bungled this, along with a lot of other people

i don't think we can just dismiss this possibility out of hand
posted by pyramid termite at 5:05 PM on April 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Chinese Government absolutely needs to be scrutinized, and the story of their handling of this must be told.

It seems clear they made horrendous mistakes and then attempted to cover them up for as long as possible.

But that doesn't absolve other mistakes, up and down the line. And it doesn't explain why the US is harder hit than so many other countries.

Obviously Don Trump will try to muddy the waters but we can't allow him to do that.
posted by chaz at 5:09 PM on April 19, 2020 [15 favorites]

I think it's probable that the Chinese government underreported their numbers, and it's likely that they continue to do so. But our govenment so drastically failed to prepare that even if those lowball numbers had been true, we would not have been able to cope. And, of course, we're even less able to cope with the much worse reality.
posted by nonasuch at 5:10 PM on April 19, 2020 [11 favorites]

i do agree with both of you - i'm not willing to give anyone a free pass here, there's a lot of blame to be passed around
posted by pyramid termite at 5:11 PM on April 19, 2020

and what if the chinese government, not people, were responsible to some degree for mishandling this situation?

As a half-Japanese American who grew up during the “Mr. Roboto” years, I think it is impossible to overstate how terrifying it is when people blame “the Chinese” for something. I absolutely don’t trust the government of China (or Russia or Iran or Brazil or big parts of the US government), but blaming the Chinese is not appropriate in any way. They’re just people.
posted by snofoam at 5:22 PM on April 19, 2020 [17 favorites]

Protesters challenge stay-at-home orders in Washington State. (NYT)

The Washington State Patrol estimated that 2,500 people attended the gathering. Few attendees wore masks, and many gathered tightly around speakers against the guidance of public health officials who recommend a six-foot distance to limit the spread of the virus. Gov. Jay Inslee said that while these have been difficult and frustrating times, he said now was not the time to stop progress in combating the virus. “I support free speech, but crowd counts or speeches won’t determine our course,” Mr. Inslee said. “This isn’t about politics. It can only be about doing what is best for the health of all Washingtonians.”

Also Sunday, two health care workers blocked the cars of protesters in Denver who had converged on the State Capitol to challenge stay-at-home orders, according to the photojournalist Alyson McClaran, who posted images of the exchange on social media. The workers wore scrubs and N95 masks.

Pro-gun activists using Facebook groups to push anti-quarantine protests (WaPo)

A trio of far-right, pro-gun provocateurs is behind some of the largest Facebook groups calling for anti-quarantine protests around the country, offering the latest illustration that some seemingly organic demonstrations are being engineered by a network of conservative activists. [...] The online activity helps cement the impression that opposition to the restrictions is more widespread than polling suggests. Nearly 70 percent of Republicans said they supported a national stay-at-home order, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll. Ninety-five percent of Democrats backed such a measure in the survey.

posted by katra at 5:39 PM on April 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

The White House Has Erected A Blockade Stopping States and Hospitals From Getting Coronavirus PPE (NY Magazine)

"Yesterday, a letter published by the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted the extraordinary measures that had to be taken to secure the delivery into Massachusetts of equipment that had been bought and paid for. The NEJM, which featured the letter in its COVID-19 Notes series, is far from a platform of partisan alarm or hysteria — it is among the most sober and high-minded professional journals in the country. It’s worth reading the correspondence, written by an executive running a small health system, at some length:

"Before we could send the funds by wire transfer, two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived, showed their badges, and started questioning me. No, this shipment was not headed for resale or the black market. The agents checked my credentials, and I tried to convince them that the shipment of PPE was bound for hospitals. After receiving my assurances and hearing about our health system’s urgent needs, the agents let the boxes of equipment be released and loaded into the trucks. But I was soon shocked to learn that the Department of Homeland Security was still considering redirecting our PPE. Only some quick calls leading to intervention by our congressional representative prevented its seizure. I remained nervous and worried on the long drive back, feelings that did not abate until midnight, when I received the call that the PPE shipment was secured at our warehouse."

Link to full letter at NEJM.
posted by faineant at 6:00 PM on April 19, 2020 [25 favorites]

Millions of Americans are prevented from getting much-need relief, and meanwhile Shake Shack, Potbelly, and Ruth's Chris qualify for $10 million each in "small business" loans.

Fuck the CARES Act. This country makes me so sad.
posted by Gadarene at 7:36 PM on April 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

Before we could send the funds by wire transfer, two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived, showed their badges, and started questioning me. […] I was soon shocked to learn that the Department of Homeland Security was still considering redirecting our PPE. Only some quick calls leading to intervention by our congressional representative prevented its seizure.

This is the sort of thing that you only expect to happen in what used to be called Third World countries, and failed states, all the way down to the hospital calling powerful friends for protection against the police.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:40 PM on April 19, 2020 [24 favorites]

Harvard University will receive nearly $9 million in aid from the federal government through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the Department of Education announced last week.

tweet

Even in times of direst collective need, the system is fundamentally about funneling money to those who already have more of it then they could ever possibly spend.

It's disgusting.
posted by Gadarene at 8:01 PM on April 19, 2020 [17 favorites]

sort of thing that you only expect to happen in what used to be called Third World countries

They're not very good students of that though, or else they'd be all for the lockdown, enforced by cops who will overlook it for a twenty. That kind of thing is coming when each subsequent level down starts doing what their boss's example is.
posted by ctmf at 8:07 PM on April 19, 2020 [2 favorites]

Caught in a superpower struggle: the inside story of the WHO's response to coronavirus (Guardian)

Again and again, the events of January reflected the difficulties Tedros and his organisation faced in negotiating a path between two hostile superpowers, and the egos of their leaders, without any independent powers to enforce compliance and information sharing.

However, what mistakes that may have been made in charting that course have little to do with the lethal fiasco that unfolded in the US in the two months after the WHO raised an international alarm.

posted by katra at 9:19 PM on April 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

Trump plays misleading clips of 'support' from Cuomo at coronavirus briefing (David Smith, Guardian, 4/19/2020)

Donald Trump has been accused of using another White House coronavirus task force briefing [Sunday April 19] to broadcast a “campaign ad” in which New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, one of his most trenchant critics, appeared to shower him with praise. [...]

Trump’s publicity stunt also drew direct criticism. Walter Shaub, director of the Office of Government Ethics, tweeted: “Beyond being another taxpayer-funded campaign ad, this video clip also makes Trump look exceedingly weak. The video casts Cuomo as Trump’s boss giving him a performance appraisal. (If only!).”

The president also sought to downplay the national testing shortage, despite governors’ complaints that they lack sufficient capacity to safely reopen their economies. And he became visibly angry when questioned why he had still been holding campaign rallies in February rather than warning Americans about the virus.

posted by ZeusHumms at 9:43 PM on April 19, 2020 [5 favorites]

Even in times of direst collective need, the system is fundamentally about funneling money to those who already have more of it then they could ever possibly spend.

It's funny how they all manage to lose their copies of Ayn Rand in times like this.
posted by adept256 at 11:59 PM on April 19, 2020 [10 favorites]

Charles Blow, NYTimes: Stop Airing Trump’s Briefings!
The media is allowing disinformation to appear as news.

We are in the middle of a pandemic, but we are also in the middle of a presidential campaign, and I shudder to think how much “earned media” the media is simply shoveling Trump’s way by airing these briefings, which can last up to two hours a day.

Let me be clear: Under no circumstance should these briefings be carried live. Doing so is a mistake bordering on journalistic malpractice. Everything a president does or says should be documented but airing all of it, unfiltered, is lazy and irresponsible.

As the veteran anchor Ted Koppel told The New York Times last month, “Training a camera on a live event, and just letting it play out, is technology, not journalism; journalism requires editing and context.” He continued, “The question, clearly, is whether his status as president of the United States obliges us to broadcast his every briefing live.” His answer was “no.”

posted by mumimor at 6:14 AM on April 20, 2020 [23 favorites]

Facebook & Carnegie Mellon University COVID-19 Symptom Map
(I accidentally posted this over on talk)
posted by mumimor at 6:42 AM on April 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

WaPo: Shake Shake will return its $10 million “small business” loan.
posted by mbrubeck at 7:58 AM on April 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

So...this Paycheck Protection Program
Ruth's Hospitality Group...was able to secure a $20 million loan. How did a company with ...$86 million cash reserves benefit from this fund while thousands of real small businesses received nothing?" And it laid off most of its employees.
posted by adamvasco at 7:58 AM on April 20, 2020 [7 favorites]

Trump: "I watched the protest, and they were all six-feet apart. I mean it was a very orderly group of people. And but ... you know, some have gone too far, some governors have gone too far. Some of the things that have happened are maybe not so appropriate."

He's back to "very fine people on both sides," his standard go to. He's such whiny little coward. Always trying to play it down the middle because its all about his seeking approval.
posted by JackFlash at 8:03 AM on April 20, 2020 [8 favorites]

Congress and Mnuchin (who is apparently the one actually running the show, since Trump is too much of a coward to talk to Pelosi) are near a deal on another "$300 billion for the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, $50 billion for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan [program], $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing."

I really, really hope they get election guarantees in one of these bills soon. Democrats are losing leverage, and it's eventually going to be too late for the states to spin up the infrastructure for getting vastly more mail-in ballots printed.
posted by jedicus at 8:20 AM on April 20, 2020 [5 favorites]

Ruth's Hospitality Group...was able to secure a $20 million loan. How did a company with ...$86 million cash reserves benefit from this fund while thousands of real small businesses received nothing?" And it laid off most of its employees.

Short answer is that big business interests have the money for attorneys who will help them maximize their ability to take financial advantage of the laws that their lobbyists probably had a hand in drafting (in this instance, an exemption in the "small business" eligibility for entities in the food service industry with fewer than 500 employees in a single location, which encompasses basically all entities in the food service industry).

"regular" people, by contrast--the ones who need this relief the most--don't have high-powered attorneys or lobbyists representing their interests, and must rely on elected representatives to speak for them and assist them, both in securing the right to maximum relief in the first instance and actually being able to obtain it before the money runs out

Which is why the Democratic leadership's dereliction of duty on things like the CARES Act (and refusing to reconvene, and continuing to work with Mnuchin in good faith) is so maddening, because the people who are being devastated by the economy right now have no one else to speak for them with their hands anywhere near the levers of power

We need bold strokes if we don't want 75 percent of independent businesses to shutter permanently (not to mention people not getting necessary medical care or rent relief or food). It won't happen by itself, because the system is geared to help the people who have the resources to command that help to begin with. The Democrats need to step up and provide an active and aggressive voice for the people who don't have lobbyists looking out for them. Yes, the Republicans will resist. No, that's not a good reason to abandon the fight. The absolute best way to preserve our economy and public health is to provide all Americans with income relief for the next few months so they can shelter in place without worrying about bills or the viability of their businesses. Someone needs to be fighting to make it happen.

And if Joe Biden was worth a good goddamn, he'd be stepping up on this issue also.
posted by Gadarene at 8:24 AM on April 20, 2020 [17 favorites]

Charles Blow, NYTimes: Stop Airing Trump’s Briefings!

Trump Is Over -- if you want it
posted by philip-random at 8:38 AM on April 20, 2020 [10 favorites]

Short answer is that big business interests have the money for attorneys who will help them maximize their ability to take financial advantage of the laws that their lobbyists probably had a hand in drafting

Another short answer is that, like with the protective medical gear being given to supply companies that prioritize selling it to clients they already have existing relationships with regardless of need, the banks getting the PPP money are first sending it to companies they already do business with, regardless of need.
posted by mediareport at 8:43 AM on April 20, 2020 [4 favorites]

Marcy Wheeler: On Trump’s COVID Rallies: Lying and Bullying Are Different Things

But the debate about the COVID rallies are not just about Trump’s bullying.

On the contrary, they’re about his lies. In his column, Smith suggests that Trump’s COVID rallies only “occasionally” derail the public health response. [...]

Trump has encouraged people to take untested medicine, he has refused to model the rules on social distancing his own CDC recommends, to say nothing of wearing a mask in public. He has at times interrupted his medical experts and ad-libbed responses to serious questions with no basis in fact, much less science. He has suggested, over and over and over, that tests are not a crucial part of this response when every single expert says they are. He has used the briefings to celebrate corporations — like Tyson Foods — that haven’t provided their employees adequate protection. He has accused medical professionals of stealing supplies.

Trump’s derailments of the public health response are in no way an “occasional” thing. They happen daily.

posted by tonycpsu at 8:46 AM on April 20, 2020 [16 favorites]

Ruth Hospitality Group former CEO ran for Congress and Senate as a Republican in 2011. I believe they were one of the main advertisers on Rush Limbaugh's show for the early 2000s. Always Be Grifting.
posted by benzenedream at 9:11 AM on April 20, 2020 [6 favorites]

It looks like congress is reaching an agreement for another round of aid. It has good stuff in it -- more money for the small business payroll protection program, more money for hospitals and what Republicans are calling a "concession to Democrats", money for testing. Yep, money for testing is a concession to Democrats.

What it doesn't include is the most important urgency, grants to states who are struggling because of a crash in tax revenues due to the lockdowns. This means terminating government programs and laying off state and local workers.

The reason for the refusal to fund states comes directly from the White House. They are refusing because Trump believes he can force states to re-open if he cuts off their money supply. It's all about Trump's re-election.

Once again Democrats are in a hostage situation negotiating with a psychopath who has no hesitation about shooting the hostages. I would hope Pelosi and Schumer would fight harder for funds to states, but I don't think it's going to happen. Small businesses and their employees are really hurting right now and the stakes are high if no deal happens quickly. Half a loaf, again.
posted by JackFlash at 9:43 AM on April 20, 2020 [12 favorites]

Fauci responds to protests: Economic recovery is ‘not going to happen’ until virus is under control (WaPo live blog)

Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-diseases expert, said Monday in response to protests of various states’ stay-at-home orders that reopening the economy too early would backfire. “The message is that clearly this is something that is hurting, from the standpoint of economics and the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “But unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going to happen.”

The anti-quarantine protests, some of the largest of which have been organized by far-right activists, have created the impression that opposition to stay-at-home orders is more common than polling suggests.

Fauci warns Covid-19 cases could surge if stay-home orders lifted too quickly (Guardian)

“If you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re gonna set yourself back,” Fauci said. “So as painful as it is to go by the careful guidelines of gradually phasing into a re-opening, it’s going to backfire. That’s the problem.”

Trump, Head of Government, Leans Into Antigovernment Message (Maggie Haberman, NYT)

Whether his latest theme will be effective for him is an open question: In an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday, just 36 percent of voters said they generally trusted what Mr. Trump says about the coronavirus.

posted by katra at 9:46 AM on April 20, 2020 [5 favorites]

just 36 percent of voters said they generally trusted what Mr. Trump says about the coronavirus.

which strikes me as being probably pretty accurate. He is probably lying roughly 64-percent of the time. I know that many think he's lying all the time. But that's not what dis-information agents do. They mix things up, as much truth as possible to throw shade on the lies. But Trump being as incompetent at this as he is at everything else can't help but completely overload on the lying side.
posted by philip-random at 9:57 AM on April 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

have created the impression that opposition to stay-at-home orders is more common than polling suggests

have they?
in whom have they created that impression?
upon the basis of what information have they created that impression?
how, without polling, do we, for the presumptuous, complacent values of we the washington post routinely deploys, know about that impression and its prevalence?
is it not the responsibility of the washington post and like organizations to report on facts?
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:58 AM on April 20, 2020 [6 favorites]

WHO head warns worst of virus is still ahead (Politico)

“Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us,” he said. “Let’s prevent this tragedy. It’s a virus that many people still don’t understand.”

Singapore Seemed to Have Coronavirus Under Control, Until Cases Doubled (NYT)

[...] over the past few days, Singapore’s coronavirus caseload has more than doubled, with more than 8,000 cases confirmed as of Monday, the highest in Southeast Asia. Most of the new infections are within crowded dormitories where migrant laborers live, unnoticed by many of the country’s richer residents and, it turns out, the government itself.

The spread of the coronavirus in this tidy city-state suggests that it might be difficult for the United States, Europe and the rest of the world to return to the way they were anytime soon, even when viral curves appear to have flattened. [...] “The reality is that Americans and Europeans will face the same issues, too,” said Teo Yik Ying, the dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore. “My economist friends may not like this, but if trade and economic activity are resumed and people start moving without adequate measures, there will be subsequent waves of infection.”

Trump revs up for a state-by-state fight over coronavirus shutdowns (Politico)

Small protests over the weekend in Texas, North Carolina, Michigan and New Hampshire only highlighted the frustration of some Americans about the shuttering of huge swaths of the economy. Trump aides and advisers are closely monitoring those protests because they think the demonstrations give momentum to the president’s argument to reopen the economy as soon as possible — not to mention a potential source of energy heading into the fall election.

posted by katra at 10:14 AM on April 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

I just had to put this in from today's Danish press conference: sex is good, sex is healthy.
posted by mumimor at 10:29 AM on April 20, 2020 [10 favorites]

JacFlash, the Payroll Protection Program is fundamentally structurally flawed in a way that prevents the people who deserve relief from getting it, as the many links in the Disaster Capitalism thread make clear. Democrats should be attempting to fix those issues, not authorizing more money into a program that's not doing what it needs to do.

If your bucket has a hole in it, the solution is not to add more water: it's to fix the damn hole.

And if they have to deal with people who want to leave the hole in place, then it's their job to raise their fucking voices so that everyone understands the problem we face and which party is responsible for perpetuating it. Not just negotiate in good faith with people who have continually proven themselves untrustworthy and faithless -- including literally the very last time they negotiated on this exact issue!
posted by Gadarene at 10:48 AM on April 20, 2020 [10 favorites]

> Not just negotiate in good faith with people who have continually proven themselves untrustworthy and faithless -- including literally the very last time they negotiated on this exact issue!

Lucy isn't even holding a football anymore, but it appears Charlie Brown is still going to flail at it.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:52 AM on April 20, 2020 [5 favorites]

I'd like to see the infection rates per test, to correct for (intentional) undertesting.

which strikes me as being probably pretty accurate. He is probably lying roughly 64-percent of the time. I know that many think he's lying all the time. But that's not what dis-information agents do. They mix things up, as much truth as possible to throw shade on the lies.

Then 30% of the time he's handing out his opinions, which leaves 6% of the time to read, in monotone, statements written by someone else, and simple facts like "Afghanistan is a place that exists."
posted by rhizome at 11:13 AM on April 20, 2020 [6 favorites]

at a certain point it becomes hard to deny the Democrats are acting as co-conspirators
posted by kokaku at 11:14 AM on April 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

at a certain point it becomes hard to deny the Democrats are acting as co-conspirators

up here in Canada where the stakes just aren't as high (one tenth as many people etc), the federal govt made it clear up front. We're going to make mistakes with these bailouts. It won't be pretty in some regards. But the economy needs cash flow now, not in three months. It helps, of course, having the various political parties not at war with each other.
posted by philip-random at 11:17 AM on April 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

at a certain point it becomes hard to deny the Democrats are acting as co-conspirators

I follow a guy named Will Stancil on Twitter (highly recommended), and his view is that the Democratic leadership (Pelosi, Schumer, Hoyer, Clyburn) is driven more than anything by a mentality, forged in the 70s and 80s, in which the thing to be avoided most is to be seen by the public as liberal activists playing politics, so they will always default to the path of least resistance against aggression or obstruction by Republicans.

Doesn't hurt that they're all wealthy and have no real sense of what it's like to struggle paycheck to paycheck.
posted by Gadarene at 11:24 AM on April 20, 2020 [7 favorites]

Will Stancil:

The other thing that is utterly outrageous about this is that Democrats keep giving Trump hundreds of billions of dollars, which he promptly sends to red states, which means Democratic constituents are getting left out in the cold

It’s a massive redistribution of wealth towards red states, being conducted with the imprimatur of Democratic leaders, because preventing it would require them to raise their voices

The sclerotic Dem leadership can only conceive of politics in a single frame: “Go left, lose election.” Because of that, they’ve been suckered into continually rubber-stamping the transfer of incomprehensible amounts of political and financial power to Trump and Republican states

They're so obsessed with avoiding the political fallout from looking radical, it never seems to have occurred to them that shoveling resources and authority and near-complete immunity to the law over to Donald Trump could have negative political consequences in its own right.

Brian Beutler is also someone who articulates this viewpoint very well. The federal government is literally seizing PPEs bound for states. Has the Democratic leadership said anything about that, let alone taken any steps to educate the public that it's happening or try to apply pressure to stop it?
posted by Gadarene at 11:35 AM on April 20, 2020 [10 favorites]

Cash-rich Democrats tighten grip on House majority (Politico, Apr. 19, 2020)

Recruitment flops and lackluster fundraising have weakened Republicans’ chances in over a dozen competitive House districts, leaving them with an increasingly narrow path back to power.

Democrats’ momentum puts Senate majority in play (Politico, Apr. 20, 2020)

Republicans are still more likely than not to maintain control, but Democrats strengthened their hand with a slate of challengers raising massive sums of money in races that represent the heart of the battle for the majority, putting control of the Senate within reach.

Republicans should worry about the Senate (Jennifer Rubin, WaPo Opinion, Apr. 17, 2020)

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), whose pusillanimity has become comic (e.g., she finds President Trump’s conduct during the pandemic “very uneven”), now has an approval rating of 37 percent with a disapproval rating of 52 percent. (Compare that to the 60-percent approval for Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.) Meanwhile, “Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Sara Gideon raised $7.1 million during the first quarter of 2020, surpassing Republican Sen. Susan Collins after the incumbent had already set a record for the most fundraising during a Maine campaign.” Gideon has raised a total of $14.8 million; Collins, $13.2 million (although Collins has a million more in cash on hand.)

Dear Colleague: We Must Insist and Act on the Truth in the Coronavirus Crisis (Nancy Pelosi, Apr. 14, 2020)

The truth is that we did not have proper testing available in March despite Trump repeatedly claiming that we did; and even now, we do not have adequate tests, masks, PPE, and necessary equipment, which creates unnecessary death and suffering.

[...] if we are not working from the truth, more lives will be lost, economic hardship and suffering will be extended unnecessarily and our children will not be safe, happy and learning. Our future will be healthy and prosperous if we no longer tolerate lies and deceit.

posted by katra at 11:45 AM on April 20, 2020 [11 favorites]

For CARES, the Dem leadership rightly held it up for a week to get everything that was actually good in it. But Trump & co. kept saying that the Dems were holding up the legislation for a week "playing politics" and, as we all know, there a very few of us who are actually paying attention.

I share the frustration with the Dem leadership's perennial fecklessness; but in this particular circumstance I think that what someone wrote above is true: the GOP doesn't actually care even a tiny bit about workers losing their jobs and people not being able to pay their rent or that there are enough tests available—the GOP is perfectly happy to shoot the hostage. This puts anyone with any decency and a sense of urgency into a horrible negotiating position.

I personally think that they're doing about as well as could be expected. Trying to play hardball with the GOP in this situation would be a huge mistake. They can hold out longer than we can without paying a political price for it and so, if Dem leadership attempted it, in the end they'd be forced to settle for less than they can get now, because their bargaining position worsens over time relative to the GOP's.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:48 AM on April 20, 2020 [8 favorites]

> Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), whose pusillanimity has become comic

George Will's going to need his style guide back after Rubin is done with it.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:50 AM on April 20, 2020 [4 favorites]

Ivan, I disagree. I think the Democrats have a tremendous amount of leverage here. Trump does not want the economy to get worse. More than that, he doesn't want to be blamed for the economy getting worse.

The Democrats just need to be vocal about the ways in which the Republicans focus on giveaways to the wealthy is hurting ordinary people. They need to put forth positive policies to help those people, rather than defaulting and allowing the Republicans to create the baseline expectations in draft legislation. They need to say something.

You think the Republicans wouldn't be scratching and clawing and blaming Obama every inch of the way if the situations were reversed? The stakes are incredibly high. If you don't fight back because you're worried that Trump will shoot the hostage, you will wake up in a world where we're all the hostages.

It's not too late to prevent that. But the leaders need to start fucking leading.
posted by Gadarene at 11:59 AM on April 20, 2020 [5 favorites]

The PPP, as written into law isn't the problem, the problem is that the major banks and Secretary Mnuchin are playing games that are arguably illegal and certainly outside Congress' intent for the program.

The PPP as written into law is also the problem, especially but not only to the extent that it allows Mnuchin and major banks to play those games. What's happening is outside Congress's intent? Great. Fix the problem through legislation, then, rather than just giving Mnuchin and the banks hundreds of billions of additional dollars to play games with.
posted by Gadarene at 12:02 PM on April 20, 2020 [5 favorites]

sex is good, sex is healthy
whether you are poor or wealthy
if you're in a COVID zone
you may want to have sex alone
posted by freecellwizard at 12:05 PM on April 20, 2020 [12 favorites]

Or, if a legislative fix is difficult because it will be hard for the Democrats to amend the structure of the PPP now that it's been passed, then they need to find other ways to stop Mnuchin and the banks from playing those games.

Like appearing on every media outlet possible to talk about how, thanks to the Republicans, small businesses are going under in order to line the pockets of the wealthy and it is unconscionably predatory in the time of a pandemic.

Say something. Do something. Don't just shrug and give them more money.
posted by Gadarene at 12:05 PM on April 20, 2020 [6 favorites]

Banks are inclined to serve their biggest customers first. It costs them just as much effort to do a $10 million loan as a $100,000 loan. The most practical answer at this point is to just keep the firehose spraying until eventually everyone get wet.

That's not to say that there could have been better programs, but that is beside the point now.

(Remember all of those arguments about means testing and how it slows down the flow of benefits?)
posted by JackFlash at 12:09 PM on April 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

"Ivan, I disagree. I think the Democrats have a tremendous amount of leverage here."

Partly, I guess I would agree if the news reporting was different than it is—that is, if they actually reported that the GOP doesn't want to do anything to help regular people. Then they'd face political pressure and our side would have the political advantage, as you say. But the media doesn't so that's just not the case. I don't think it's a failure of Dem messaging, I think it's an endemic problem with the media.

But, that's only part of what's going on. The other, more important part, is urgency. There's not time to really negotiate, stuff needs to be done yesterday. But the other side doesn't see it that way. This is like an argument between EMTs while someone's dying, except that one of the EMTs doesn't think there's that much urgency and, anyway, they don't care if the person dies.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 12:13 PM on April 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

That's not to say that there could have been better programs, but that is beside the point now.

It's only beside the point if people are fundamentally satisfied with the current state of events. Otherwise they can fight to change it.

Right now, for example, the USPS is on the verge of collapse, which will cost thousands of jobs. We have a dire need for vote by mail infrastructure for November. We are having trouble getting monetary relief to those who need it most because the banks are prioritizing their biggest customers.

Sounds like a damn good time for a concerted push for saving the Postal Service and implementing a postal banking system at the same time. Many problems addressed at once. Are Democratic leaders even raising this as a possibility?

Things that are contrary to the interests of lobbyists don't just happen on their own. They need to be fought for. And this is the moment to fight.

Fatalism is not the answer.
posted by Gadarene at 12:18 PM on April 20, 2020 [5 favorites]

My last post for a bit, because I don't want to take up too much thread bandwidth:

Ivan, I agree that there is an endemic problem with the media. There is also a failure of Democratic messaging. Shake Shack was shamed into returning its PPP loan. Public pressure can work. Public opinion can become better informed.

And you know what? Urgency should be part of that message. Instead we see Pelosi adjourning the House for weeks and Hoyer saying that it's not necessary to reconvene quickly unless there's an emergency (!!!).

They're not even gesturing in the direction of urgency when the most important thing in the world is to impress upon everyone exactly how urgent this is.
posted by Gadarene at 12:23 PM on April 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

> (Remember all of those arguments about means testing and how it slows down the flow of benefits?)

Or maybe fixed cash payments to individuals and loans that scale in proportion to the size of the business are different things, and should therefore be handled differently.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:40 PM on April 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

Ocasio-Cortez Will Oppose ‘Insulting’ Coronavirus Response Package

“It is insulting to think that we can pass such a small amount of money in the context of not knowing when Congress is even going to reconvene … pat ourselves on the back, and then leave town again,” Ocasio-Cortez said. She represents the area of Queens and the Bronx that has thus far been the district most impacted by coronavirus infections in the entire country.

“I understand that we keep being told that this is going to be happening in the House bill, when the Democrat-led bill is going to be bigger,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “But in my district, and in New York City and in our community, we have had more deaths that 9/11. Multiple times of 9/11 have happened in the time since Congress has recessed. So I’m not here with the luxury of time.”

Other members on the call were more noncommittal, though Jayapal did say that “we have real concerns about giving away leverage now without getting the priorities we need,” and added the next couple days would be important to influence the direction of the legislation.

posted by tonycpsu at 1:25 PM on April 20, 2020 [6 favorites]

Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp (R), has announced that salons, gyms, and bowling alleys can reopen this week, with restaurants and movie theaters to follow in a week. Religious services can also resume.

Right now, hospitals in the Atlanta area are just able to keep up with cases. So, I guess we go full-on Northern Italy in about 5-6 weeks.
posted by Fritzle at 1:44 PM on April 20, 2020 [4 favorites]

Gov. Bill Lee won't extend Tennessee stay-at-home order past April 30; many businesses to reopen next week (Tennessean)

His announcement came as governors in Georgia and South Carolina on Monday afternoon also announced they were repealing closure orders on some businesses in the state. Lee on Saturday took part in a call with governors from those states, along with the Republican governors of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.

Lee said this office has not yet determined what types of businesses will be targeted to reopen first next week. [...] As for what type of action Lee plans to take if there is a new surge in coronavirus cases once the state resumes its normal activity, the governor said the state will work with local health departments "to make adjustments needed in that region."

Facebook shuts down anti-quarantine protests at states' request (Politico)

Facebook is blocking anti-quarantine protesters from using the site to organize in-person gatherings in states that require residents to stay in their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Republicans attack Facebook as network shuts down anti-lockdown protests (Politico)

"We reached out to state officials to understand the scope of their orders, not about removing specific protests on Facebook," a company spokesperson said. "We remove the posts when gatherings do not follow the health parameters established by the government and are therefore unlawful." The statement followed confusion over whether states had instructed Facebook to remove the protests from its platform.

posted by katra at 2:24 PM on April 20, 2020 [7 favorites]

The PPP as written into law is also the problem, especially but not only to the extent that it allows Mnuchin and major banks to play those games. What's happening is outside Congress's intent? Great. Fix the problem through legislation, then, rather than just giving Mnuchin and the banks hundreds of billions of additional dollars to play games with.

When they are already ignoring the text of the law in favor of what Mnuchin and Trump wish it said, rewriting it does nothing useful. It merely wastes time that many small businesses don't have.

Thankfully, the states aren't entirely powerless here, so it may be possible to impose legal consequences even if whoever wins the Presidency in November prefers to ignore the malfeasance and fraud.
posted by wierdo at 2:27 PM on April 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

Millions of Essential Workers Are Being Left Out of COVID-19 Workplace Safety Protections, Thanks to OSHA

Rivas is far from alone. Nearly 4,000 workers from across the country have gone to the federal agency that polices worker health and safety with concerns that their employers haven’t done enough to protect them from the coronavirus as of April 3, according to records obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Some 27% of the complaints to OSHA came from the health care industry, from workers on the front lines of providing COVID-19 care. Another 72% came from other types of employees, with large quantities from manufacturing and retail workers, with the remainder listed as unknown.

Even as OSHA has been inundated with COVID-19-related complaints, the agency has issued a series of guidelines that roll back safety standards and virtually eliminate non-health care workers from government protection.

posted by Craven Yeti Superstar at 2:36 PM on April 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

The hang up on the deal now seems to be the $25 billion for widespread testing. It turns out that Trump doesn't want the federal government to be responsible for it because then Trump can be blamed for any failure of the program. Trump is really running scared and refusing to do his job. He thought being president was all just parades and fake reality show dramatic moments where he could say "you're fired" and everyone would applaud.

"I'm not responsible. I'm not responsible."
posted by JackFlash at 2:45 PM on April 20, 2020 [8 favorites]

Maybe the Democrats can compromise and leave the $25 billion out of the bill. Seems only fair.
posted by Gadarene at 2:52 PM on April 20, 2020

Because, and let me be clear: if the bill ends up including that $25 billion, it will almost certainly be framed as a negotiating "victory" for Democrats.

And a more on-the-nose indictment of the Democratic leadership's failure to step up at a time of crisis can hardly be imagined.
posted by Gadarene at 2:54 PM on April 20, 2020

> rhizome: "I'd like to see the infection rates per test, to correct for (intentional) undertesting."

I believe this is called the "test-positivity rate", in which case this article from the Atlantic has some interesting/concerning observations. Basically, the US's test-postivity rate is around 20% (very high compared to other countries) even as the volume of testing has increased.
posted by mhum at 3:07 PM on April 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

Because, and let me be clear: if the bill ends up including that $25 billion, it will almost certainly be framed as a negotiating "victory" for Democrats.

...because the White House is literally fighting against including it! Making it something the Democrats have to negotiate to keep! I too would like it if basic public health measures in a pandemic-relief bill weren't turned into political footballs, but it turns out the GOP is not only indifferent but actively hostile to public health. Their preferred policy outcome is more deaths. Outside of Congress, Brian Kemp is reopening face-to-face service businesses while cases in his state are still on the rise, the DeVos family is funding anti-social distancing protests, the EPA is actively working to increase the amount of pollution being put into the air while people try to survive a respiratory disease, and the White House is stealing PPE from states. What makes you think they're not trying to maximize deaths via legislation too?
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 3:14 PM on April 20, 2020 [4 favorites]

If the White House was opposed to allowing Democrats to vote on the coronavirus relief bill full stop, it would not be a Democratic negotiating victory to persuade Trump to let them vote on the bill in exchange for substantive concessions elsewhere.

$25 billion for widespread testing isn't even enough! The fact that it's even a bargaining chip means that the Democrats have not done their job. It means they put themselves in a weak position to even let it be on the table.

I don't know the proper term for this, but I remember reading about how a good strategy when submitting a proposed budget to a superior or an oversight committee or whatever is to include at least one pricey item that you don't really need and that is in there solely so the other side, when looking for something to cut as they inevitably will, will cut that thing and not something else that is genuinely important to you. This is a consequence of the Democratic leadership being afraid to ask for large-scale, sweeping things: the small-scale, obvious, necessary things are the ones that get put on the table instead, when the other side is looking for something to use as bargaining leverage. It is stupid and avoidable and entirely a product of the mindset I mentioned earlier.

And regardless, at the very very least the leadership ought to be shouting at the top of their lungs about everything you say in your post, that the GOP is actively pursuing policy outcomes that will make people sick and die. Yet they're not even doing that. They haven't even tried to reconvene Congress. They are nowhere on the national stage, because they're behind virtual closed doors with Mnuchin convincing themselves that they're coming out a winner if the bill includes the barest gesture towards medical necessities.

It shouldn't be able to be used as a bargaining chip by the other side to begin with.
posted by Gadarene at 3:43 PM on April 20, 2020 [8 favorites]

Over 43,000 US millionaires to get ‘stimulus’ averaging $1.6 million each, committee finds

More than 43,000 millionaires in the United States won’t be getting coronavirus stimulus checks like the rest of Americans, but instead they’ll be receiving other funds averaging about $1.6 million each, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, KRON reports.

The congressional committee analysis, released by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), revealed that roughly 43,000 individual tax filers who make at least $1 million a year will reap savings of $70.3 billion.

That amounts to about $1.6 million each, the committee found.

posted by Ahmad Khani at 4:00 PM on April 20, 2020 [7 favorites]

Another thing that all the people who have lost their jobs would probably find compelling as a general party theme
posted by Gadarene at 4:01 PM on April 20, 2020 [5 favorites]

This is like an argument between EMTs while someone's dying, except that one of the EMTs doesn't think there's that much urgency and, anyway, they don't care if the person dies.

It's worse than not caring, it's taking advantage of the other party caring. It's why the old advice when buying a house or car is to not fall in love with it; always be ready to walk away. Once you're desperate to make a deal happen, you're going to get fleeced by the person who could take it or leave it. Republicans are masters at pretending they could take it or leave it to get concessions and advantages. And some/most of them aren't pretending, just callously opportunistic of the dem's desperation.
posted by ctmf at 4:02 PM on April 20, 2020 [6 favorites]

‘Political game’? Governors push back on Trump virus charge (AP)

A chorus of governors from both parties pushed back hard Monday after President Donald Trump accused Democrats of playing “a very dangerous political game” by insisting there is a shortage of tests for the coronavirus. The governors countered that the White House must do more to help states do the testing that’s needed before they can ease up on stay-at-home orders.

Trump’s unspoken factor on reopening the economy: Politics (Politico, Apr. 18, 2020)

In a matter of weeks, Trump lost his central pitch for reelection — a strong economy and record stock market. And Democrats began hammering his handling of the coronavirus, including a failure to publicly acknowledge the seriousness of the outbreak and quickly distribute tests and medical supplies to states.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warns Trump may put US in 'further danger' during coronavirus crisis (Apr. 19, 2020)

"If he continues to predicate the actions that we take on a false premise, then we're in further danger," Pelosi said during a wide-ranging interview on "This Week" with ABC News' Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. [...] "His earlier delay and denial caused deaths," Pelosi said. "So it's very important that we walk the line that is close to evidence, data, science as we go forward, and not a whimsy, magic, hoax of allegations and placing blame instead of taking responsibility."

posted by katra at 4:26 PM on April 20, 2020 [6 favorites]

How we reopen, Vihart's youtube channel, but not a mathematician bloviating about something they think they must also be an expert on. This is an actual collaborative plan.
Harvard site may have crashed though
posted by ctmf at 4:36 PM on April 20, 2020 [7 favorites]

Trump and the astroturf protests: An ugly, cynical new strategy to divide America • Salon, Heather Digby Parton, 4/20/2020 • "Stoking divisions and driving a new explosion in the pandemic: Republicans think they can win through sheer chaos"

All of this seems odd, considering that common sense and all legitimate scientific advice says that prematurely letting our guard down will likely lead to a resurgence of the epidemic, which means shutting down the economy all over again, with even worse consequences. But there's a method to their madness. As chaotic and dysfunctional as they are at governing, Trump and the Republicans are united on their electoral strategy. They've decided that opening up the economy as soon as possible is their ticket to re-election. [...]

With doctors and nurses and first responders literally dying trying to save people every day, and all of us just trying to get through this nightmare, Republicans have cynically unleashed the same vicious ugliness we saw during the "Obamacare" debates a decade ago. Dividing the country at a time like this is one of the worst things the Republican Party has ever done. How do these people sleep at night?

See the Politico article linked above from 4/18/2020 for more.
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:38 PM on April 20, 2020 [6 favorites]

Don't fall for Trump's false dichotomy: It's not a choice between human lives and the economy (Amanda Marcotte, Salon)

But Trump, while a stupid man in most ways, understands one thing keenly, which is that the mainstream media loves a conflict, especially one that causes delicious-sounding ethical debates, such as an existential choice between saving human lives and saving the American economy. So they are far too willing to adopt Trump's framework, even though the actual evidence shows there's really no conflict at all. [...]

[Both] the press and Democrats must stop rolling over for Trump's propaganda push. A healthy economy requires a healthy public. There's no way to return to "normal" if millions are sick and people are too afraid to use public transportation, go to stores and restaurants, or travel. [...]

The only way to fight back is to make it clear to voters that jobs won't come back — and literally can't come back — without containing the virus. There is no "normal" life when millions are sick. Donald Trump is simply lying, as usual, when he says otherwise.

posted by ZeusHumms at 4:56 PM on April 20, 2020 [15 favorites]

The Vi Heart video is really great! I'm so impressed to see a clear plan. I'm curious who these conservatives are so she south the plan though, because it seems very social. But I think we could do it.
posted by rebent at 4:56 PM on April 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

Millions of U.S. citizens won’t get help from stimulus checks because their spouses or parents are unauthorized immigrants

This is misleading -- it applies to any spouse without an SSN. I have filed joint taxes with my at-the-time-non-SSN-having wife, for example, both when she was non-resident and when she was in the US legally.

It's much broader than just undocumented immigrants.
posted by thefoxgod at 7:03 PM on April 20, 2020 [4 favorites]

I love vi hart.

Good news! No new cases of coronavirus in Queensland for first time in 42 days.

It's not party time yet, far from it, but we're getting there.
posted by adept256 at 8:38 PM on April 20, 2020 [5 favorites]

"What do you do if you are a governor, and the president of the United States is a liar and keeps claiming that he’s given enough testing kits to states for the coronavirus? Well, you can go on national TV and say that the president is lying, which some governors have. Or, if you are the governor of Maryland, you can say to hell with all this waiting bullshit and get on the phone and secure test kits yourself, and that’s exactly what Gov. Larry Hogan did. With the help of his wife, first lady Yumi Hogan, a Korean immigrant who speaks fluent Korean, Hogan was able to secure a deal with LabGenomics that procured some 500,000 test kits for $9 million."

Maryland secures 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea; Hogan’s initiative sparks criticism from Trump has more on Mrs. Hogan's role in the negotiations.

On Saturday, the Hogans and the Maryland National Guard met the delivery at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. Gov. Hogan on Twitter, today: "I’m grateful to President Trump for sending us a list of federal labs and generously offering Maryland use of them for #COVID19 testing. Accessing these federal labs will be critical for utilizing the 500,000 tests we have acquired from South Korea."
posted by furtive_jackanapes at 11:26 PM on April 20, 2020 [22 favorites]

Slate: Death Penalty States Won’t Turn Over Scarce COVID-19 Drugs

When I read the headline I thought "Hydroxochloroquine, LOL" , but actually it's sedatives and muscle relaxants that are used to intubate people.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:33 AM on April 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

As chaotic and dysfunctional as they are at governing, Trump and the Republicans are united on their electoral strategy. They've decided that opening up the economy as soon as possible is their ticket to re-election.

I'm not wishing they all die, but it surely seems like they are all wishing to die.

How can this work? Seriously? The rural parts of the red states have the most vulnerable populations and the least hospital coverage. If they reopen now, every family will have lost someone by November, how can that be an election strategy? And how do they imagine the economy will return to strength if everyone is sick?
posted by mumimor at 2:43 AM on April 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

As chaotic and dysfunctional as they are at governing, Trump and the Republicans are united on their electoral strategy. They've decided that opening up the economy as soon as possible is their ticket to re-election.

Sort of. Actually "opening the economy" is the worst thing that could happen to them. What is critical to them is having a fight over reopening the economy. Trump is a reality TV president and it's the conflict that drives his ratings.
posted by rdr at 2:53 AM on April 21, 2020 [21 favorites]

Polis also told CNN just days later the federal government seized an order of 500 ventilators bought by the state.

Trumpists don't like it when you describe it as Trump "nationalising American health resources".
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:06 AM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

How does coronavirus kill? Clinicians trace a ferocious rampage through the body, from brain to toes; Science; Meredith Wadman, Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, Jocelyn Kaiser, Catherine Matacic; 4/17/ 2020:

On rounds in a 20-bed intensive care unit one recent day, physician Joshua Denson assessed two patients with seizures, many with respiratory failure and others whose kidneys were on a dangerous downhill slide. Days earlier, his rounds had been interrupted as his team tried, and failed, to resuscitate a young woman whose heart had stopped. All shared one thing, says Denson, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the Tulane University School of Medicine. “They are all COVID positive.”

As the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 surges past 2.2 million globally and deaths surpass 150,000, clinicians and pathologists are struggling to understand the damage wrought by the coronavirus as it tears through the body. They are realizing that although the lungs are ground zero, its reach can extend to many organs including the heart and blood vessels, kidneys, gut, and brain.

“[The disease] can attack almost anything in the body with devastating consequences,” says cardiologist Harlan Krumholz of Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital, who is leading multiple efforts to gather clinical data on COVID-19. “Its ferocity is breathtaking and humbling.”
...
What follows is a snapshot of the fast-evolving understanding of how the virus attacks cells around the body, especially in the roughly 5% of patients who become critically ill [PDF]....

Despite the more than 1000 papers now spilling into journals and onto preprint servers every week, a clear picture is elusive, as the virus acts like no pathogen humanity has ever seen.

Know thine enemy.
posted by cenoxo at 3:13 AM on April 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Sort of. Actually "opening the economy" is the worst thing that could happen to them. What is critical to them is having a fight over reopening the economy. Trump is a reality TV president and it's the conflict that drives his ratings.
Ah! That makes sense
posted by mumimor at 3:15 AM on April 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Interactive maps, graphs, and tables at Tracking The Pandemic: How Quickly Is The Coronavirus Spreading State By State?; NPR; Elena Renken, Daniel Wood; 4/20/2020 (this page is updated regularly).
posted by cenoxo at 3:38 AM on April 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

And now that he's blocked immigration to America by the Invisible Enemy, we should firewall his random conflict mining and regime changing efforts by plugging our fingers in our ears going la la la - they thrive on attention. Don't feed the troll. Dudes, how often do we have to tell you n00bs that.
posted by Mrs Potato at 3:39 AM on April 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Actually "opening the economy" is the worst thing that could happen to them. What is critical to them is having a fight over reopening the economy.

The problem with that setup is that there’s always some idiot who doesn’t get that it’s all a put-on and actually takes the swing that you think you’re just jawing about.
posted by Etrigan at 4:13 AM on April 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Since this thread will close sometime today, I've started a new one devoted to pandemic links here.
posted by mediareport at 5:10 AM on April 21, 2020 [17 favorites]

Trumpists don't like it when you describe it as Trump "nationalising American health resources".

Nor do the rest of us, I imagine, since he's actually participating in federal seizures of American health resources away from state governments intended to be used to support people, as opposed to... hoarding it for god knows what reason. I don't believe anyone is quite sure what he's doing with the federally seized supplies. Redistributing to his crony governors, possibly.
posted by sciatrix at 5:44 AM on April 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

I don't believe anyone is quite sure what he's doing with the federally seized supplies. Redistributing to his crony governors, possibly.

As it is Trump, I would guess that he's making a buck off it. It's what he does. The consolation prize is that Trump ruins everything, and hopefully he'll remain true to type and fuck this up, too.
posted by From Bklyn at 6:23 AM on April 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Don't feed the troll. Dudes, how often do we have to tell you n00bs that.

"Don't feed the troll" has never worked as a containment or mitigation strategy, so perhaps you should stop telling people that. Ignoring trolls doesn't make them go away - actively dealing with them is needed.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:23 AM on April 21, 2020 [8 favorites]

Trumpists don't like it when you describe it as Trump "nationalising American health resources".

Nor do the rest of us, I imagine

The proximate cause was another Australian (*) going off about how there were fewer deaths per capita in the USA than in countries with nationalised health systems. It was a particularly stupid argument because the USA's epidemic is not even over. I didn't feel like getting into an actual rebuttal, so that was the response I gave him.

(*) I mean seriously dude, the USA has more COVID-19 deaths per day than Australia has had in toto, even adjusted for population.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:28 AM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Is anyone working on another thread about the political aspects and ramifications of the pandemic? I've found this one very useful.
posted by Gadarene at 7:45 AM on April 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

per Lobstermitten's mod note, there are two new FPPs: Trump's failures on the virus, and virus updates that aren't Trump-centric
posted by katra at 8:59 AM on April 21, 2020 [8 favorites]

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